Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I stand before the people's House today to bear witness to the dehumanizing, destabilizing, and deadly immigration policies of the Trump administration.

Pierre Damas Bel should be alive today. Instead, his family, friends, and community are mourning the tragic death of a young man who had his whole life ahead of him.

Pierre was an honor student, captain of his high school soccer team, and a lieutenant in the ROTC program. He wanted to serve the United States, but after losing his temporary protected status and being held in an ICE ankle monitor, his family says he experienced deep humiliation, fear, and despair. Children started picking on him at school for wearing an ICE monitor because they had lost their temporary protected status.

Pierre's death did not begin with that monitor. It began with a campaign to demonize Haitians, from the racist lies that our neighbors were eating people's pets in Ohio to unjustly--and against the congressional intent of TPS--ending protection for roughly 350,000 Haitians who have lived and worked lawfully in this country.

I have opposed these policies, Mr. Speaker, from the start because this is not an immigration that puts America first. It is cruelty. Mr. Speaker, we mourn the loss of young Pierre.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that I may hereafter be considered to be the first sponsor of H.R. 4586, H.R. 1114, and H. Res. 179, all originally introduced by Representative Cherfius-McCormick of Florida, for the purpose of adding cosponsors and requesting reprintings pursuant to clause 7 of rule XII.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include any extraneous materials in the Record.

Mr. Speaker, I am grateful for the time, and I thank my colleagues for their presence today.

At this time, Mr. Speaker, I rise at this moment and in this Chamber to give a voice to the tens of millions of Americans who do not believe that diversity, equity, and inclusion is an offense to the spirit of America.

Nor are they under the impression that intentionally including the talent and abilities of qualified Americans who have been historically and systematically locked out of the promises of America is anything other than the right thing to do.

In fact, there are millions of Americans who understand that it is impossible to remunerate 300 years of oppression with only 62 years of inclusion. However, that is why we are here, and that is why we find ourselves here today, making sure that this voice is given airtime.

Regrettably, Mr. Speaker, it is also where we begin because we will let the word go forth from this time and in this place: If the Government of the United States had simply honored the 14th and 15th Amendments ratified in 1868 and in 1870 respectively, there would be no need for diversity, equity, and inclusion today because we would have fulfilled our promise and our obligation. There would be no need for affirmative action had we simply gone forward and honored the 14th and 15th Amendments.

There would be no need for civil rights legislation had we honored the 14th and 15th Amendments. To state the matter with even greater clarity, if the government of this country had honored its own laws, then this country would have never needed a civil rights movement.

That is because we would have fulfilled that obligation in our 14th and 15th Amendments. Unfortunately, it was not honored, and here we are. We will continue this fight to make sure that America fulfills its promise and its destiny.

Mr. Speaker, I am honored to be joined by my colleague and good friend, the Honorable Congressman Cleo Fields, who hails from the great State of Louisiana. Congressman Cleo Fields is the co-chair and founder of the DEI Caucus.

Congressman Fields has led an incredible career in public service my entire adult life, over the last 35 years and counting. All the while, he was championing voting rights issues on behalf of his constituents in the face of relentless opposition.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from the great State of Louisiana (Mr. Fields).

Mr. Speaker, I thank my dear friend, Congressman Cleo Fields, representing the Sixth District of the great State of Louisiana, who has a remarkable story. He expanded democracy, not only asking for the opportunity but for equity and inclusion for the voice of all members of Louisiana to be included in what will go down as one of the most shameful acts in American history, the decision of Louisiana v. Callais, where they stripped the voting representation of African Americans in the great State of Louisiana.

I thank Congressman Cleo Fields for his magnanimous service to this great country, for continuing to expand democracy, and for having made America better.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Tonko), a leader on clean energy, environmental justice, and environmental policy, who has represented the capital region since 2009. He is a person we hold in high esteem, a voice that is fearless and confronts injustice.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Tonko so much for his clear voice and analysis. I thank him for the update as we confront the resurgence of the confederacy. We need the abolitionist's voice.

We have gone from the veiled attempts of the segregationists now to the overt racism carefully wrapped up and disguised and repackaged saying that DEI, the program that expanded opportunity, is exclusionary. No.

Mr. Speaker, we have had a long history of racism, segregation, and discrimination. Now that we have put some ointment on and had some healing, now this is being called the cause of division. It is not, and we continue to stand. We will fight until America is right.

Mr. Speaker, it is my privilege and honor to introduce a colleague of mine from the great State of Illinois, Congresswoman Robin Kelly, who has been here, who has championed fearless amounts of deals to make sure that the Nation is made stronger. She is a national voice on gun violence, also a doctor of medical sciences and public health, who represents the great Second District of the State of Illinois.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms. Kelly).

Mr. Speaker, I thank the Honorable Congresswoman from the great State of Illinois for her remarks. It has been truly an honor to serve with her, to admire her from afar, and to work with her up close. I thank her for her work and her commitment to justice for us all.

Mr. Speaker, I am honored to be joined by the Honorable Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib of the great State of Michigan. She is a true advocate and freedom fighter for those that

have been marginalized, a determined advocate for Detroit's working poor and working families, and one of the first Muslim women to serve in the United States House of Representatives. It is an honor to be her colleague.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Michigan (Ms. Tlaib).

Mr. Speaker, it would have been my privilege and pleasure to introduce the Congressman from the great State of Maryland, an outstanding advocate for justice for all, a modern day abolitionist, a man who has been committed to equal opportunity and equal justice for all, the incomparable, the Honorable Congressman Jamie Raskin from the great State of Maryland, but he is not here yet.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from New Mexico (Ms. Stansbury), an outstanding woman from the great State of New Mexico. The Honorable Congresswoman is a modern day abolitionist from the great State of New Mexico, Ms. Stansbury, my colleague.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Congresswoman Stansbury for her remarks. It has been a true honor to serve with her and to continue to serve with her.

Mr. Speaker, I now take the privilege to introduce the Honorable Congresswoman Adelita Grijalva, the first Latino to represent her State in the United States Congress--carrying forward a legacy of her father, her family, as she molds and shapes her own. She came in here not as a freshman, but as a leader, carrying forward the fighting legacy, and I am honored that her father worked with my father. She has been working for families and environmental justice.

I now yield to the gentlewoman from Arizona (Mrs. Grijalva).

Mr. Speaker, it is my honor to yield the floor to the Honorable Congressman from the great State of Maryland, a modern-day abolitionist, a man who has risen to the height of this hour to combat the spirit of the Confederacy that also lived in this Chamber that has found a resurgence; a man who is fearless, who is keenly articulate and persuasively analytical and instinctively intelligent, who leads this Democratic voice on justice, the Honorable Jamie Raskin.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the Honorable Congressman Jamie Raskin. We would like to see fewer DUI Secretaries and more DEI candidates, persons who are simply looking for equal opportunity to be included in serving our Nation.

Mr. Speaker, it is my honor and my privilege to introduce the Honorable Congressman from the great State of Texas, a career prosecutor, a fighter for justice, a champion for the least of these, those who have been left behind, the Honorable Congressman Menefee from the great State of Texas.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Menefee).

I thank Congressman Menefee for his time, his talent, and his contribution to this country.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to tell you that the history of the United States has been replete with so many examples of the resilience of minorities having to overcome hostilities.

We do not find in the pages of American history over and over again that the government of this country has continually been complicit in the systematic disenfranchisement, specifically of African-American citizens and Native Americans by denying, as a matter of both law and custom, the legal privileges of both law and custom and the protections enumerated in the Constitution of the United States.

Whereas the problem of racism, sexism, homophobia, bigotry, anti- Semitism, anti-Islamophobia continues to be prevalent in the cultural, political, and economic life of this country. And as the cofounder of this DEI Caucus, I must rise to declare that with respect to the issue of equal access, equal opportunity, and equal protection under the law that the government of the United States, as it is currently configured, cannot be trusted unless we have explicit laws and codify these programs to ensure a greater America.

Nor should the economic and democratic future of over 13 million African Americans be left to the meandering and whimsical generosity of people who recently came to terms with the idea that all of us are created equal. The country is not there yet.

We have been moving toward a more perfect Union, and this administration amongst all administrations has been the most hostile towards inclusivity. To echo the words of Congressman Jamie Raskin, we have had more DUI hires in this administration's Cabinet than we have had DEI hires of those that have been qualified.

When we think of what happened to General CQ Brown being replaced by Mr. Pete Hegseth, who was then denied the opportunity to stand guard over the inauguration of President Joe Biden because of his ties to white nationalist organizations. That is something that we cannot look past.

I would tell you, Mr. Speaker, we are moving toward a more perfect Union. This administration seems to be an echo, a revision of the book ``1984,'' an Orwellian vision. Everything this administration says is the exact opposite. It says they are moving towards meritocracy, but they have hired some of the most incompetent people.

Look at our Nation. This country says they want to stand up for farmers. This administration, Mr. Speaker, I tell you, has been the most antifarming administration this Nation has seen. It has attacked the immigrant community that the farmers have relied on. It has entered a war that has been unnecessary and that has made the cost of fuel and fertilizer rise.

This administration has attacked the open markets so that the Chinese Government could not afford to purchase our soy and our corn because they could buy it cheaper from Argentina and from Brazil, although Brazil is further away from China than California. Why? It is because they have been hand-tied.

When we look at how do we make Canada, one of our oldest and longest and greatest political allies become a trade war partner. How have they simply enriched all the members of the administration?

If the President would make deals as good for the American people as he has

made for himself personally, America would be doing better, and the country would be more affordable for the least of thee.

We have heard my colleagues, and I have discussed, the problems we have had with the dismantling of diversity, equity, and inclusion and civil rights protections across our government and across many aspects of our society. We will continue to stand up to defend these relentless attacks.

Finally, it should be clear to all of us that the executive actions and the bureaucratic assault on this government's commitment to diversity is not a passing phase. It will have long, enduring consequences. And it should be obvious to all of us who believe in the possibility of a diverse and a more composite nation that prosperity is in our realm if we uphold the ideals of our values.

Mr. Speaker, even as our companies, universities, and public institutions are incentivized to walk away from the commitment to inclusion, I challenge every institution to remember that history is recording your action. Have the courage and the character to stand up now for what you believe in.

The stars shine brightest in the dark, and I would tell the CEOs: History will record your action and your inaction. I challenge every institution to prove that their devotion to diversity need not come from the force of law, but rather from the natural consequences of their understanding of the things that make for peace.

We can only hope that the illegality of discrimination will one day fall from the body politic of this Nation like scales falling from our eyes. But until that day arrives, we must continue to stand up for what is right. We must continue to stand up for what is just. We must continue to stand up for what is equitable.

And what is the promise to every American in the Constitution? It is independence in the United States.

Mr. Speaker, I want to tell my colleagues and my friends: Do not cower in the face of this administration. History is recording us, and it will ask: Where did you stand? What did you do for justice?

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Burdeens Chicago, a family-owned small business deeply rooted in the Pilsen and Heart of Chicago neighborhoods, and to commend its owners, brothers Gerardo and Rolando Alvarez, for their remarkable journey of entrepreneurship, resilience, and community stewardship.

For decades, Burdeens Chicago has stood as a trusted neighborhood institution, serving generations of Chicagoans and reflecting the cultural pride, economic vitality, and enduring spirit of the communities it calls home. Gerardo and Rolando Alvarez, born and raised in these neighborhoods, first came to Burdeens not as owners, but as young employees in the 1990s, balancing work with their high schooI and college studies while learning the fundamentals of retail, customer service, and civic responsibility.

After pursuing professional careers, the brothers returned during a pivotal period in the retail industry, lending their leadership and vision to help modernize operations, expand the store's online presence, and adapt to changing consumer habits--while preserving the character and integrity that made Burdeens a neighborhood staple.

Through strategic foresight, Gerardo and Rolando guided a bold evolution of the business, transitioning from a traditional sneaker retailer into a nationally recognized destination for fitted hats and headwear.

This transformation positioned Burdeens Chicago at the center of a growing cultural movement that blends sports history, design, and regional identity, drawing customers from across the Nation and around the world.

During the unprecedented challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Alvarez brothers assumed responsibility for day-to-day operations, ensuring the survival of the business and preserving a longstanding neighborhood presence during a time of economic uncertainty. Following this period of stewardship, ownership of Burdeens Chicago was formally transferred to the brothers, completing a full-circle journey from youth employees to business owners.

In January 2025, Burdeens Chicago reached another significant milestone with the opening of its second location along Little Village's iconic 26th Street corridor. This expansion not only reflects the continued success of the business but also celebrates and embraces the vibrant Mexican American culture of the community it serves.

Supported by community partners and local investment initiatives, this growth underscores the power of neighborhood-based entrepreneurship to strengthen local economies and create opportunity.

Today, Burdeens Chicago stands as a testament to generational entrepreneurship, cultural pride, and community-centered growth. Through their continued support of local youth, artists, and neighborhood organizations, Gerardo and Rolando Alvarez have demonstrated that small businesses are not merely commercial enterprises, but essential anchors of strong, connected communities.

Mr. Speaker, I commend Burdeens Chicago and commend Gerardo and Rolando Alvarez for their leadership, vision, and unwavering commitment to Chicago's neighborhoods, and affirm that their work embodies the enduring promise of hard work, heritage, and opportunity that defines the American small business tradition.

Mr. Speaker, there are some people who build companies, and there are others who build confidence. George E. Johnson did both.

He understood something this Nation too often refused to see--that Black people did not need permission to be beautiful, brilliant, or prosperous. We simply needed the opportunity to define ourselves.

Through Afro Sheen, he did more than create a successful business. He challenged a culture that had spent centuries teaching Black men and women to doubt the beauty that they saw in the mirror.

Every bottle that left his factory carried more than a product. It carried a declaration that Black enterprise could flourish and that Black excellence could employ thousands, inspire generations, and transform neighborhoods. His success was not measured merely in dollars, but in dignity. He proved that ownership is more than economics. It is self-determination.

George Johnson, a beloved family friend, invested not only in hair care, but in human care. He invested in communities, education, churches, and young dreamers who needed someone to believe that greatness could look like them.

He understood that wealth finds its highest purpose when it creates opportunities for others. His legacy reminds us that freedom is incomplete if it cannot produce opportunity. It reminds us that equality is unfinished if it cannot nurture enterprise, and justice remains unfinished if the gifts of a people are ignored.

Today, we honor not simply a businessman but a visionary who helped America become more fully itself by insisting that Black genius belonged not on the margins of its history but at its very center core.

Mr. Speaker, may we remember George E. Johnson not only for what he sold but for what he restored: confidence, possibility, and pride.

May his life continue to remind every child who dares to dream that the greatest investment one can ever make is in the limitless potential of one's own people.

To a beloved friend and an outstanding American, I love you, and I honor you, the honorable George E. Johnson.

Mr. Speaker, my reflections on the Nation's 250th anniversary:

Happy birthday, America.

Mr. Speaker, 250 years ago, a remarkable experiment was launched upon this continent. It announced to the world that liberty was a universal birthright, that governments derived their authority from the consent of the governed, and that human dignity deserved political expression. It was a dream of uncommon brilliance.

Yet on that very same day, another story marched beside it--a nightmare of uncommon cruelty. Freedom and slavery entered history together in an unholy matrimony.

The Declaration proclaimed equality while hundreds of thousands remained in chains. The promise was magnificent. The practice was monstrous. The vision soared toward Heaven while the reality remained anchored in human bondage.

This is not merely the paradox of America's founding. It is the permanent tension within the American story.

Our Republic has always contained both contradiction and conviction, hypocrisy and hope, exclusion and expansion, injustice and aspiration.

Yet history teaches us something very profound. The greatness of America has never been that it was born perfect. Its greatness has rested upon its capacity to become better. Every generation has been asked a single question: Will you enlarge the promise, or will you shrink it?

That question confronts us today, for what a nation chooses to remember becomes its operating system. What it chooses to forget becomes its character. Memory is not nostalgia. Memory is infrastructure. It determines how a people think, how they govern, how they educate their children, and how they understand their obligations to one another.

When a nation tells the whole truth about itself, it becomes stronger. When

it edits its past for comfort, it weakens its future. History is not an accusation. History is instructional. History is not about assigning perpetual guilt. History is about cultivating perpetual wisdom. That is why institutions devoted to preserving our collective memory matter so profoundly.

The National Museum of African American History and Culture is not merely a building of bronze and stone. It is one of America's greatest classrooms. It reminds us that the story of African Americans is not a chapter added to America's history. It is one of the central texts from which American history is written. African Americans in history make American history whole.

The labor of enslaved people helped build this Nation's wealth. They built this building. The courage of abolitionists challenged its conscience. The sacrifices of Black soldiers defended its flag. The determination of teachers, entrepreneurs, artists, scientists, clergy, laborers, and ordinary citizens expanded the meaning of democracy itself. To diminish those stories is not simply to diminish African Americans. It is to diminish America itself.

Throughout our history, there have been recurring efforts to narrow the Nation's memory. Certain voices have always argued that some stories are too uncomfortable, some documents too inconvenient, and some truths too disruptive.

That pattern is not new. It appeared after Reconstruction. It appeared during the long struggle against segregation. It also has appeared whenever honest history threatened comfortable myths.

When debates arise over museums, classrooms, archives, monuments, historical interpretations, and books that are being banned in schools, we should recognize them as part of a much longer American conversation about who belongs within the Nation's narrative.

The stakes extend far beyond any single institution. They concern whether future generations inherit a history expansive enough to include all who helped build this Republic. The answer should never be fewer stories. The answer should always be fuller stories to tell the whole truth, for memory is not a scarce resource. Truth is not diminished by inclusion.

Indeed, the opposite is true. Every time America has widened its understanding of itself, it has become more faithful to its founding ideals.

Consider the long procession of those who enlarged the American promise: those who challenged slavery, those who defended the Union, those who fought for women's right to vote, those who demanded women's suffrage, those who organized workers, those who secured civil rights, those who expanded voting rights, those who insisted that democracy belongs to every citizen rather than a privileged few.

Each generation inherited an imperfect Nation. Each generation left behind a better one. That is the true American tradition: not perfection but progress, not complacency but correction, not silence but an honest conversation, not fear but an abiding faith.

At 250 years, America does not celebrate because every promise has been fulfilled. America celebrates because generation after generation refused to surrender those promises. The American story has always advanced because citizens possessed enough patriotism to criticize injustice and enough hope to repair it.

Love of country has never required blindness. It has required courage. It has required the truth to confront those things that are uncomfortable, the courage to confess, the courage to correct, and the courage to continue.

Mr. Speaker, a happy 250th anniversary to our country. May God bless the United States.

Mr. Speaker, we gather today with grateful hearts to honor a remarkable woman whose life was not measured merely by the years she lived but by the lives she lifted.

Mrs. Khadijah Muhammad Farrakhan reminds us that history is often shaped not only by those who stand behind the microphone, but also those who stand faithfully beside it. She was a devoted mother who nurtured character before success, a gracious teacher whose lessons were written as much by example as by instruction, and a faithful servant whose deepest desire was to honor Almighty God through a life of discipline, dignity, and love.

She walked beside her husband of 72 years, the Honorable Louis Farrakhan, not simply as a spouse, but as a trusted companion, counselor, and partner in purpose. She leaves us a testimony that greatness is not found in prominence alone but in perseverance, not in position but in purpose, not in acclaim but in unwavering faithfulness.

We honor her memory by living the virtues she embodied: faith that never faltered, love that never failed, service that never ceased, and hope that never surrendered.

Well-done, good and faithful servant.

May God grant her eternal peace, comfort her and her beloved family, and continue to let the light of her life shine through generations yet to come.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the University of Chicago for winning the 2026 NCAA Division III Men's Tennis National Championship.

The top-ranked UChicago Maroons, led by Head Coach Matt Brisotti, defeated Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 4-3 in a thrilling back-and-forth battle at the Champions Tennis Club in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Christian Liew and Ajer Sher gave UChicago early momentum. Michael Choi rallied from a 5-2 deficit to win. Senior Emil Grantcharov helped clinch the national title for the University of Chicago Maroons.

Even more amazing, this is UChicago's third championship title in 5 years.

Mr. Speaker, I congratulate these student-athletes and coaching staff for this exceptional accomplishment and historic achievement.

Mr. Speaker, we pause today to honor the life of Spencer Leek, Jr., a son of Chicago, a steward of a sacred family legacy, and a servant of countless families in their moments of deepest sorrow.

The story of the Leek family is, in many ways, the story of Black perseverance in America. In 1933, Reverend

Andrew Leek established a funeral home so that Black families, denied dignity in life by segregation, could at least be afforded dignity in death.

Spencer Leek, Jr., carried that mission forward with devotion, compassion, and grace. From answering phones at age 12 to becoming a licensed funeral director and vice president of Leek and Sons, he understood that his work was not merely a business, but it was a ministry. He comforted the grieving, uplifted the forgotten, and ensured that every family, regardless of means, was treated with respect and humanity.

For generations, Leek and Sons has stood as a trusted institution in Chicago and across this Nation in Chicago and America's Black communities. Spencer Leek, Jr., strengthened that institution by remaining deeply devoted to family, community, and service. He helped shepherd home-going celebrations for civil rights leaders, public servants, artists, and everyday citizens, whose lives mattered equally in his eyes.

His legacy reminds us that history is not only made by those who stand before huge crowds, but also by those who quietly serve others with fidelity and love.

Mr. Speaker, we honor Spencer Leek, Jr., by continuing his commitment to dignity, compassion, and community.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material into the Record.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleagues for their presence.

Mr. Speaker, I ask the question: Which side of history are you standing on? Now, some of you are here because you want to be here. Some of you are here simply because you walked past this floor to get somewhere else.

Either way, God has a plan, and that plan today is that you are going to hear the truth because this is a Special Order hour, and the order I have been given not by the Speaker of this House but by God, who made us all equal in his eyes, through this Republic, has never fully agreed and understood by all Members of this body that we have the right to stand in this well on the floor of the people's House and ask every Member of this body a question that cannot be avoided. It cannot be postponed, and it cannot be answered with procedural language or partisan talking points.

The question is this: On the eve of America's 250th birthday, which side of history are you standing for?

Now, I want you to notice something. In a few weeks, this Nation is going to celebrate. There are going to be parades. There are going to be speeches. They are going to have fireworks that light up the skies from sea to shining sea. Politicians on both sides of this aisle are going to stand at podiums and invoke the Founding Fathers and speak about liberty and justice and the greatest democracy the world has ever seen.

I want to ask you, gently, at first: What democracy are you talking about because I know my history, and I was born in this country, and I have read the documents.

The democracy that we are celebrating this summer, the democracy of 1776, did not include me or my ancestors, did not include my grandmother or my great-grandparents, did not include my great-great- grandmother who was somebody's property under the law of this land. It did not include the millions and millions of women and children who built this country's wealth with their bodies and their blood and their genius and were given in return not citizenship but chains.

In 1776, it was not a democracy. In 1787, it was not a democracy. They counted us as three-fifths of a human being to give slaveholders more power in this very Congress.

In 1865, it was not a democracy. We got the 13th Amendment and got the Black codes in the same season. In 1868, it was not a democracy. The 14th Amendment was ratified while African Americans and elected officials were being murdered across the South.

In 1870, it was not a democracy. The 15th Amendment was passed, and within 10 years, the Supreme Court had gutted its enforcement, and the Redeemers had taken back the South at the point of a rifle.

In 1920, our country was not a democracy. Women got the right to vote, but most Black women in the South could not exercise it. America did not overcome.

By any honest definition, it was not a democracy in this country until August 6, 1965, the day that President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act, the day that this Nation finally, after 189 years of claiming to believe in democracy, extended a meaningful, enforceable, protected right to vote to all of its citizens regardless of race, 189 years in the making.

Let that sink into your spirit: 189 years of fireworks, 189 years of founding myths. ``We the people,'' it was said, and not one day of actual democracy for the people who look like me.

I am 60 years of age. I was born in 1966. In 1965, the Voting Rights Act was passed. I am the first generation of Americans ever born with equal rights under the law of this land. My generation is the first in 250 years. We are the first, 60 years of age.

If that doesn't disturb you, if that doesn't shake something in your soul, if you can hear that and feel nothing, then I want to suggest respectfully that something has gone wrong, something has gone morally numb.

Now, the Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision in Louisiana v. Callais, has gutted section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, has taken the spine out of the only serious legal protection that Blacks, Mexicans, women, and others have had since 1965. It has done, with legal language and constitutional reasoning, what the White Citizens' Council and the Ku Klux Klan used to do with economic pressure and shotguns. They have changed the method. They have not changed the mission.

Mr. Speaker, it is now my privilege and pleasure to yield to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Garcia), one of the leading outstanding voices for human rights and democracy in the United States of America and my colleague and friend.

Mr. Speaker, I am honored to be joined by the first Mexican American to serve in the United States House of Representatives from the entire Midwest. He has fought for the rights and well-being of his constituents and all Americans for decades. I am honored to yield to the gentleman, the first person of Mexican-American ancestry to serve in the House of Representatives from the State of Illinois, the Honorable Congressman Mr. Chuy Garcia.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Chuy Garcia for his remarks. I must say it is a pleasure and the privilege of a lifetime to serve in Congress with a childhood hero and friend of mine, my colleague, Congressman Chuy Garcia.

I would like to also note for the Record, Congressman Garcia was the chair of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus when President Barack Obama was a former State senator from the State of Illinois. Congressman Garcia has always affiliated himself with the working class. He has never forgotten his roots. I thank him for his service and his kind words and his steadfastness.

Mr. Speaker, it is my privilege and indeed my pleasure to introduce, to share with my colleague Congressman Takano.

This is indeed LGBTQ month, Pride Month. Congressman Takano is the first person of the LGBTQ community and of color to openly serve in the House of Representatives. Congressman Garcia was the first Mexican American.

Mr. Takano is the first person of Japanese ancestry to serve in the United States House of Representatives. Many people of our community have just gotten to this great body that has contributed so much, but he is also the son and great-grandson of immigrants that were detained in U.S. concentration camps of Japanese ancestry. He bears the history and the lineage and the legacy of that tormented history, and he proudly serves. He has contributed so much for so many.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. Takano), and I thank him for his service.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Takano. I thank him for honoring his family's history and legacy. I am thankful for his service. I thank him for his voice during this critical hour when America's democracy is being challenged.

Mr. Speaker, it is now my honor and my privilege to share this podium with an outstanding young man of Indian ancestry and of the Hindu faith. He is the first person of Asian and Hindu faith to grace this esteemed body under this dome, on this floor, and in this well.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the honorable gentleman from the great State of California (Mr. Khanna).

Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Ro Khanna for his leadership and lending his voice. He is another first in the House of Representatives whom I am proud to call a Democrat, and I am proud to call a great American who is standing on the right side of history.

Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to introduce the next speaker who is the first in her family to graduate from college and went on to become a critical care physician and steadfast public servant. She answered the call to public service. She understands the urgent need to help ensure and help provide care for all Americans.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the honorable gentlewoman from Oregon (Ms. Dexter).

Mr. Speaker, I am so appreciative of the Congresswoman Dexter's words and her leadership.

Mr. Speaker, I am honored to introduce our next speaker whose district was effectively disenfranchised last year during the longest delay in inducting a Member to the House of Representatives. She is also the first Latina ever elected to Congress in the entire history in the State of Arizona.

She is a woman who comes from a proud, progressive, and staunchly American legacy in the ancestry of her father, Raul Grijalva, who stood with us, who led us, and who taught us. He stood by his values. He has instilled those, and he poured those into his outstanding daughter who is now, I am proud to say, the Congresswoman from the great State of Arizona.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Arizona (Mrs. Grijalva).

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time, and I thank the honorable and great Congresswoman Grijalva for her remarks.

Mr. Speaker, the arch-segregationists have changed their method. They have not changed their mission. The mission has always been the same: control who votes, control who counts, control who can challenge the powerful, control the map, control the district, control the outcome, and control the future.

Crack the Black community across three districts, pack it into one so overwhelmingly it elects one Congressman where it should elect two. Dilute the vote until it is so thin it cannot quench the thirst for justice. Then stand before the cameras and say: We believe in color blindness. We believe in equal protection. I don't see race. I don't see color. We believe every vote counts the same.

A lie dressed up in the Constitution is still a lie.

Let me make the history plain to my colleagues who might have missed it or who might have arrived late to this speech or to this subject.

After the Civil War, the 15th Amendment was passed in 1870. It said the right to vote cannot be denied on account of race. Within a decade, follow me closely, the Supreme Court in Cruikshank, gone; the poll tax, gone; the literacy test, gone; the Grandfather Clause, gone; the White primary, gone. Gone meaning gone from the grasp of Black citizens. Gone meaning the right existed on paper and nowhere else.

It took Jimmie Lee Jackson being shot by a State trooper in February 1965; it took John Lewis and Hosea Williams and 600 people walking across the Edmund Pettus Bridge on a Sunday morning in Selma, Alabama-- walking peacefully, walking prayerfully, walking legally toward a courthouse to register to vote--and getting beaten with clubs, trampled by horses, gassed in the open air on American soil--broadcast on American television for the world to see--that is what it cost to get the Voting Rights Act passed.

This was paid for in blood. It was not a speech, not a court brief, not a strongly worded letter, but blood on the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

Mrs. Viola Liuzzo, a White mother from Detroit, shot dead in her car, called a Negro lover on the Alabama highway because she came to help register people to vote. She believed in America. Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner, two Jews and a Black man, buried in the Mississippi River. The four little girls--Addie Mae, Cynthia, Carole, and Denise--blown apart in their church on a Sunday morning in Birmingham. They all died so that America could vote and finally become a full democracy. They paid in full.

The question today is whether this Congress intends to honor their payment or to squander it.

I will talk to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, not at them but to them, because I believe we have something in common. Beneath the party, the discipline, and ideological positioning, there is a human being who understands that what is happening in this country now is fundamentally wrong.

I will ask them directly: What side of history do they want to be recorded on when they stood up at their town hall and talked about freedom? Were they telling the truth?

When they invoked the Founding Fathers and the Constitution, were they telling the truth? What side of history will they be on when they put their hand on their heart and they put their hand on the Bible and swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States, were they telling the truth?

What side of history do they want to be recorded on? Because the Constitution includes the 14th Amendment. The Constitution includes the 15th Amendment. The Constitution includes the mandate that Congress shall have the power to enforce these amendments by

appropriate legislation. That legislation is the Voting Rights Act. To let it die, to stand here and do nothing while it is dismantled from across the street, is not constitutional conservatism. It is constitutional abandonment.

Let me say something about this word that keeps being propped up: ``color blindness.'' They say the Constitution requires color blindness. They say that we must treat all citizens the same regardless of race. They say the Equal Protection Clause demands it, and I want to say yes, I agree. I have always agreed. Every sensible person agrees, but here is what they are leaving out.

Color blindness applied to the remedy while the disease is still active is not justice. It is called ``malpractice.''

You cannot break a man's legs for 200 years and then hand him a pair of crutches and say now we treat you equally before the law, no special treatment. The legs are still broken. Our democracy is still in its infancy. The crutches are the remedy and the remedy is not the problem. It is the solution.

That is why we need the Voting Rights Act and section 2 for protection.

Notice how the legislator in Tennessee right after this law was passed inaccurately went to the gravesite, went to the balcony of the Lorraine Motel where Reverend Martin Luther King was assassinated and attacked that one district, that African-American district.

When Louisiana drew two majority Black congressional districts to have equal representation, it was not creating racial inequality. The racial inequality was already there. This was the cure, written into 200 years of American history in slavery, a century of Jim Crow, separate but equal unequal laws, decades of deliberate under funding and exclusion and redlining and deliberate disenfranchisement.

The district was the answer to the inequality, not the cause of it. To call the remedy unconstitutional while the disease runs free, that is not law, Mr. Speaker. That is protection of power by people who benefit from this power and this disaster of a decision.

I will recognize my colleagues who have spoken up, but the silence is deafening. For 250 years, as we celebrate our great country, a country, indeed, in progress of equal justice for all, where just 60 years ago was the starting line of democracy, 60 years ago was my birth and my timeline, and already the forces of regression and those great- grandchildren and grandchildren of the segregationists are now tearing down the guardrails that got us to a more pluralistic America.

The question has not been completed, and it is not complicated. The question is not subtle. The question is not one reasonable people can be on different sides of.

You are either for voting rights or you are against them. You are either for democracy or you are against it. You are either standing on the side of Selma, or you are standing on the side of the men who swung the clubs on the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

There is no middle ground. There is no procedural abstention. History does not grade on a curve.

Choose your side, colleagues. History will be watching. The future is listening. The people are watching. History will not forget.

Mr. Speaker, may I inquire how much time is remaining.

Mr. Speaker, as we discuss the dismantling of voting rights and how many of my colleagues and I will continue to stand up to defend our most sacred right, I am proud to be joined by my colleagues who have stood up for the right side of history.

Mr. Speaker, I want to say something about what I have heard and what I have not heard from the other side. My colleagues on the other side have had a great deal to say about constitutional principles, but I have not heard a plan to protect the votes for all Americans. I have not heard them say how these congressional maps will be fair for all people. I have heard a great deal about legal frameworks, but I have not heard a single proposal to replace the protection that Callais has taken away.

I have heard about process and procedure through the proper channels, but I have not heard anyone on the other side of the aisle stand up and say in plain language that Black voters deserve full and equal representation and that this Congress will make sure that they get it. Why not? It should not be a complicated sentence.

Let me talk about the history for a moment because one of the things I have heard today is the suggestion that we are living in the past. That is not true. We are relitigating things that have already been solved. It is time to move forward. We want to go forward to make America better and to keep America strong.

Unfortunately, there is an eerie silence. There is a duplicity and a complacency, and trying to rest upon the laurels. There is something to be said by God himself about trying to turn a blind eye toward injustice. It should haunt your conscience.

Your children are watching. The future will be taking note. History shall record us all. What side of history will you stand on? Will you say anything to stand up for justice?

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time, and I thank you for your consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today during Asian American History Month to honor the enduring constitutional victory of the United

States v. Wong Kim Ark, a case born not in marble hallways but on the docks of San Francisco where a young Chinese-American man born on American soil was told that the country of his birth would not claim him.

Wong Kim Ark stood at the crossroads of exclusion and equality. His parents could not become citizens because of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, yet he carried within him his very birth the promise of the 14th Amendment passed in 1868 that all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to its jurisdiction are citizens.

The Supreme Court affirmed that promise in 1898, declaring that citizenship could not be denied by race, ancestry, or the prejudice of the hour. This case matters not only to Asian-American history but to American history.

The 14th Amendment was written from the ashes of Dred Scott to make clear that no government could again trade a cast of people born here but belonging nowhere.

Wong Kim Ark reminds us that citizenship is not a favor. It is not a privilege reserved for the powerful. It is a constitutional birthright, and when America honors that truth, America honors its highest self.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in honor of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, in the spirit of Frederick Douglass, whose vision of freedom was never narrow and never timid.

It was in 1869, as anti-Chinese hatred was rising in America, Frederick Douglass delivered his great speech, ``Our Composite National.'' He stood against the spirit that would produce the Chinese Exclusion Act and declared: ``A liberal and brotherly welcome to all who are likely to come to the United States is the only wise policy which this Nation can adopt.''

Douglass knew that America's strength was in inclusion, not exclusion. He said: ``I want a home here not only for the Negro, the mulatto, and the Latin races, but I want the Asiatic to find a home here in the United States.''

That was moral courage. That was historical clarity. And that is the truth we must carry today.

Asian Americans have helped build this country, defended this country, and have enriched this great country. Yet, they have faced exclusion, violence, suspicion, and injustice.

This month, we do more than celebrate. We remember. We recommit. We reject anti-Asian hate and xenophobia.

As Douglass said: ``A smile or a tear has no nationality.''

Let us build this composite nation he envisioned: just, inclusive, and free.

Mr. Chair, I rise today not merely to speak about a piece of legislation, but to speak about a moral covenant, one that binds this Nation to those who till its soil; who rise before dawn and labor until dusk; and who ask not for charity but for fairness; not for sympathy, but for justice.

The farm bill in its truest sense is not simply about crops and commodities. It is about the people. It is about the dignity of work, and it is about whether America will honor the hands that feed her.

I come today to lift my voice in support of my amendments number 98 and 206, but also to lift a greater truth: that public policy, if it is to be righteous, must be rooted in both economic wisdom and moral clarity.

My first amendment directs the Secretary of Agriculture to report to the Congress on the increased costs that American farmers are facing due to rising costs of diesel and fertilizer prices. These costs are a direct result of President Trump's unilateral action to embroil the United States in a protracted war with Iran.

We cannot, Mr. Chair, turn a blind eye to the burdens facing our farmers. When diesel prices rise, it is not an abstraction. If there is a tractor that sits still when fertilizer costs soar, it is not theory. It is a field left barren.

When global conflict disrupts the fragile balance between the supply and demand between our trade and our partners, it is not distance. It is deeply personal to the farmer whose livelihood hangs in the balance.

A nation that depends upon its farmers must not ignore its cries. We must not pass legislation in the darkness of night when the lights are turned off and when we can use the truth of the light to let the American people see what is being proposed. To demand a full accounting of these rising costs is not a partisan act. It is an act of responsibility. We must hear the cries of the farmers for their food, for their fuel, and for their fertilizer. It is the least that we can do for those who give us our daily bread.

There is a deeper issue before us. It is one that touches the very soul of this legislation. My second amendment increases civil rights accountability for employees and officials of the United States Department of Agriculture.

Before I proceed, I must pause and pay tribute to a man of great conscience and steadfast courage, my friend and our friend and colleague, Chairman David Scott. Congressman Scott stood as a bridge between policy and principle. He understood that agriculture is not merely an economic enterprise, but that it is a human enterprise. He worked tirelessly in these Halls to ensure that the laws governing our land will reflect the highest ideals of justice and equality.

Today, we labor to strengthen civil rights protections within this farm bill because we know that the history of the United States Department of Agriculture has not always been a story of fairness.

Mr. Chair, I thank Ranking Member Craig for the additional time.

For too long, there were farmers--Black farmers, Brown farmers, and women farmers--who knocked on the doors of opportunity and were turned away not because of the content of their character but because of the color of their skin.

We say today with clarity and conviction: No more. No more shall discrimination hide behind bureaucracy. No more shall injustice wear the mask of procedure. No more shall farmers be made to feel like a stranger on their own land.

Accountability is not about punishment. It is progress. It is the foundation upon which trust is built. If this government is to ask its citizens to believe it, then it must prove itself worthy of that belief.

My amendment is not radical. It is a righteous piece of legislation. It affirms that those entrusted with public service must also be held to public standards, Mr. Chair, and that justice delayed shall not become justice denied.

Mr. Chair, the farm bill is not just a legislative document. It is a moral document. It speaks to who we are as a nation. It declares what we value, and it reveals whether we are willing to match our words with our deeds.

We will stand with the farmers struggling under rising costs. We will stand with the farmers seeking justice at the hands of this government.

Mr. Chair, I thank the gentlewoman for gracing me with more time.

We will stand for fairness, for accountability, and for the dignity of work. We will not remain silent in the face of inequity and inequality.

I submit to you today, Mr. Chair, that the time for silence has passed. Let us build a farm bill that feeds not only the body, but feeds the soul of America.

Mr. Speaker, today I rise to honor an American giant and second lieutenant, the Honorable Jackie Robinson.

On this Jackie Robinson Day, we remember that when he stepped onto Ebbets Field on April 15, 1947, he broke not only the color barrier, he broke racial segregation in the hierarchy of sports.

He forced this Nation to confront its conscience. His courage, discipline, and unshakeable dignity changed baseball forever. More importantly, it changed America for the better.

That is why it is disgusting when the Pentagon, under our current leadership, removed mention of Jackie Robinson's military service. Mr. Speaker, you cannot honor American history by erasing the very people who made it: Mr. O'Malley, the owner and Jackie Robinson, the player.

Jackie Robinson's legacy is not a DEI to be thrown away. It is patriotism. It is service to the country, and it is sacrifice. It is the truth.

Mr. Jackie Robinson was court-martialed for refusing to sit in the back of a segregated bus. You cannot understand American history, Mr. Speaker, without understanding the whole truth.

Jackie Robinson proved: Diversity is not a weakness in this country but is one of our greatest strengths.

Equity dismantles barriers allowing excellence to rise.

Inclusion expands opportunity, so we as a country become stronger.

Mr. Speaker, as we tell the full story of America, not a sanitized story, not an edited story, but the full story, we give the next generation the courage to keep pushing forward, to keep breaking barriers, and to speak the truth.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today not merely to remember a man, but to summon a truth--one that this Nation has long struggled to face, and longer still to accept. We gather in the shadow and the light of Jackie Robinson, a man who did not simply step onto a baseball field, but stepped into the raging storm of America's conscience.

On April 15th, 1947, when he walked onto Ebbets Field, he carried more than a glove and a bat. He carried the weight of a people who had been told, for generations, to wait--to be patient--to accept less. And yet, he did not wait. He did not bow. He did not break. In his silence, there was thunder. In his restraint, there was revolution.

Jackie Robinson did not just change baseball. He exposed the lie at the heart of this country--that freedom could be partial, that dignity could be selective, that citizenship could be rationed. And in doing so, he forced America to see itself, perhaps for the first time, as it truly was.

And so it is a grave and troubling thing--though not, I must confess, a surprising one--that there are those even now who would dare to diminish his legacy. To erase his service. To tidy up history into something more palatable, more convenient, more false. There is nothing new in this impulse. America has always had talent for forgetting the very people who made it possible.

But you cannot honor this country by amputating its memory. You cannot claim patriotism while discarding truth. Jackie Robinson's life was not an accessory to history--it was a reckoning with it.

He proved something that this Nation has resisted understanding: that what we call diversity is not a threat, but a revelation; that what we call equity is not charity, but justice; that what we call inclusion is not concession, but the expansion of the American promise itself.

For the story of America, if it is to mean anything at all, must be told in full. Not the softened story, not the convenient story, but the whole, difficult, luminous truth.

Because only in that truth can we find the courage to continue--to insist that the barriers before us are not permanent, that the limits imposed upon us are not final.

Today, we honor Jackie Robinson not only as a ballplayer, but as a witness--as a man who testified, with his life, to the possibility of a more honest Nation. A more just one.

And if we are worthy of that testimony, we will remember this: that America is not measured by how well it protects the powerful, but by how fiercely it defends the dignity of all who step forward--against the odds, against the noise, against history itself--to claim their place at the plate.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today during Women's History Month with both reverence and sorrow to honor the life and legacy of Bettye Jean Mason Odom, a trailblazer whose recent passing marks the loss of a visionary leader and beloved pillar of the Chicago community.

In 1978, after studying in Paris, France, Mrs. Odom returned home with an idea: the concept of total skin care for the African-American community. She founded Bettye O, Incorporated, which has since become Chicago's premier and most imitated day spa. For more than four decades, her Hyde Park institution provided world-class wellness services, skin care, and affirmed the beauty and dignity of people of color through her groundbreaking Skins of Colour products.

Mrs. Odom's life is a remarkable tapestry of service and achievement. A graduate of Fisk University and Meharry Medical College, she served our Nation as a First Lieutenant in the United States Army Nurse Corps.

She is also an accomplished actress, model, television host, author, entrepreneur, and educator inspiring generations of young people through her lectures on confidence, purpose, and professional ambition.

Even into her later years, Mrs. Odom's light never dimmed. We celebrate her extraordinary life. We mourn her passing and give thanks for the profound and lasting impacts of Mrs. Bettye Odom.

Mrs. Odom is survived by her daughter, Lori Odom.

Mr. Speaker, may her memory continue to inspire all of us.