Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, I have been listening to my Republican colleagues, waiting for the moment when they are going to fight for the American people, the constituents they have that are not Elon Musk. So far, the silence is deafening.

If they are not cheering it on, they are standing aside silently as cancer research labs are shut down, as the veterans administration is targeted, as the healthcare for millions of Americans is threatened, and eggs--oh, those eggs--have hit an all-time high of $8 a dozen. This silence is a betrayal of all Americans, of their very voters.

Let's just take a closer look at one example. Now, they are letting Elon Musk dismantle the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Most people haven't heard of the CFPB, but Americans know the corporate greed that they have gone after on their behalf for more than a decade: the predatory loan sharks and the abusive debt collectors. When Republicans are silent, they are siding with the scam artists.

Let me give you one example. Before the CFPB stepped in, a marine stationed in Texas who needs a loan to repair his truck would be charged the average payday interest rate in Texas. Do you know what that is? That is 664 percent. If he took out a $2,000 loan, he would pay $1,100 in interest.

I do hope my Republican colleagues remember the days when they supported the rule of law. When the CFPB enforces the law that limits interest rates for U.S. servicemembers, they reduced that interest on that loan to $60.

Altogether, the CFPB put $360 million back into the pockets of our servicemembers and veterans. That is what they do. They save Americans money. They went after bogus overdraft fees. That is $5 billion back in the pockets of working families every year, over $200 per family. They banned outrageous late fees on credit cards. That is $10 billion every year going back to consumers.

What is the problem with this agency? Apparently, Republicans in Congress would rather have that money go into the pockets of CEOs and spend that money cutting billionaires' taxes instead of fighting fraud and corporate abuse.

The American people did not vote for more scams and more corporate greed. They didn't vote to have our servicemembers go into more debt. They voted for people to fight for them, for lower costs, and for their part in the American Dream.

Let's wake up, GOP. Stand up for the American people.

Mr. Speaker, Republicans have one goal today, and that is a march toward a national abortion ban. They want it so desperately that now through this bill they are treating doctors like criminals, demonizing heartbroken women, and accusing mothers of killing their newborn healthy infants.

I will mention what happened to me. It is a story that can be told by so many women in this country. I learned during a routine sonogram that the doctors could no longer pick up a heartbeat. I was devastated by this news. My doctor said that I would need abortion care to prevent infection.

I asked for more time so I could go home and somehow hope that this could all be reversed. When the time came and I needed to have this procedure to protect my own health and be the mother I wanted to be for my children, I asked one more time to please check that that heartbeat was there before they did this procedure.

These are horrible, painful situations that women, families, and expectant parents find themselves in. When politics are introduced into these moments of grief, they have real consequences for people. When Republicans continue to threaten doctors with prison, what have they achieved? They have gutted reproductive healthcare in this country.

OB/GYNs are fleeing States with abortion bans and leaving the field all together. Today, one-third of all counties in our country have no obstetric care. There are no doctors to help women deliver babies safely. For example, under Georgia's abortion ban, currently half of the counties don't have a single obstetrician.

Mr. Speaker, if Republicans truly care about the lives of women and children, they will vote ``no'' on this bill.

Mr. Speaker, every single parent worries about their kids' safety. Every parent wants their daughters to be treated fairly including on the sports field.

That conversation is being had among parents, schools, experts, and sports authorities across the country, as it should be. This bill hijacks those conversations. It hijacks the real concerns that parents have raised. It exploits those concerns to place all of our daughters in danger.

This bill doesn't protect a girl's rights. It eliminates them. It requires her to answer an adult's humiliating questions. It will accelerate our national crisis of sexual assault on young women and girls. It puts a target on the back of every girl, every young woman who chooses to play sports,

from T-ball to competitive collegiate athletes.

Whatever the problem is we are trying to solve, the genital inspection of little girls is the wrong answer. I urge my colleagues to reject this bill and say ``no'' on empowering predators.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Elizabeth Browne for her dedicated service to the health and wellbeing of her neighbors in and around Waltham, Massachusetts.

Ms. Browne has been a pillar of our community. She began working with Charles River Community Health in 2003 and has spent the past fifteen years serving as its Executive Director and CEO.

For over two decades, she has devoted her time, talents, and energy to the staff and patients of Charles River Community Health.

Founded in 1974, Charles River Community Health is a vital resource to the people of Allston-Brighton, Waltham, and surrounding areas. They are focused on delivering comprehensive, integrated, and equitable primary health care for a diverse group of individuals and families.

Under her leadership, Charles River Community Health expanded its physical space, grew its dedicated staff, and strengthened its capacity to deliver high-quality service to more patients--ensuring continuity of care at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ms. Browne has dedicated her life to community-based care and has worked diligently to increase access and improve health outcomes for families in Waltham and across the Commonwealth.

Mr. Speaker, I am grateful to Liz for her career of service to the Commonwealth and wish her the best in her next chapter.

Mr. Speaker, here we are once again. My Republican colleagues have decided to end the 118th Congress the same way they started it; not with a serious budget but with partisan chaos.

Let's look at the last 2 years. First, the GOP manufactured a debt ceiling crisis and took our economy hostage. Despite that, we came together as Democrats and negotiated in good faith. We struck a bipartisan deal, and we signed it into law, but the Republicans tore it up. They have ignored it ever since.

They have driven us to the edge of a government shutdown four times, all to take money out of the pockets of hardworking families and stuff the pockets of billionaires.

It is the same plan every single time: manufacture a crisis then make working people pay the price, cut their healthcare, delay their retirement, lay off the teachers.

Well, this week, they have decided to run this same play for a fifth time. They have brought another extreme partisan bill to the floor.

Speaker Johnson said yesterday: `` . . . it's the right thing to do.'' The right thing to do?

Today is 9/11, the 23rd commemoration of the horrors that were befallen upon us on that day, and I, too, was at the ceremony honoring those heroes that we lost in Afghanistan.

So coming up $12 billion short for our veterans' healthcare and endangering their disability checks, that is the right thing to do?

Compromising our national security, cutting Social Security's ability to meet the needs of our seniors, and even defunding election security?

That is the right thing to do?

Come on. They know this is the wrong thing to do.

So why are we doing it?

Why this reckless 6-month CR?

It is for one reason: Donald Trump's Project 2025.

The GOP wants to delay this fight past the election into next year all in the hopes that they have a better chance at enacting Trump's extreme agenda.

What is that agenda?

Ending Social Security and Medicare as we know them, auctioning off the VA to for-profit corporations, cutting our school budgets in half, eliminating the Department of Education, eliminating Head Start, raising the cost of childcare, imposing a national sales tax, rationing healthcare for working families, and enacting a nationwide abortion ban.

The Republicans have shown us their plans for a second Trump term. They have told us it will be even worse than his first. We should believe them.

The American people reject this extremism, and so should the GOP. Let's pass a bipartisan funding agreement that fulfills our duty to our country, to our veterans, to our seniors, and to our children.

Mr. Speaker, on behalf of a grateful House of Representatives, I rise to offer thanks to one of the most skilled staffers that I--and I know many of us agree--have ever worked with.

After nearly three decades of service to the people's House, this is Keith Stern's last week on Capitol Hill. Anyone who has had the pleasure of working with Keith has not only witnessed a commanding knowledge of rules and parliamentary procedure but a commitment to using that knowledge to help all of us serve the American people.

He has helped the House fulfill its critical mission at every stage of his remarkable career. As an eager intern fresh out of Allegheny College, as an L.A., as a Rules associate, as a chief of staff, as a floor director, and now as my senior adviser, he has brought to every job a reverence for this institution and for its duty to the American people.

No matter what storm may have been raging--the horrors of 9/11, a global financial meltdown, an unprecedented pandemic, and on January 6, when we saw Keith muster calm, steadfast courage as he maintained order in this Chamber and ensured our safety--throughout it all, Keith's service to us and our country has never wavered. His resolve has only strengthened.

Over the years, he has become a friend, a confidant, and an adviser to our entire Caucus. He has earned the profound respect of our colleagues across the aisle because whatever your politics are, true talent is undeniable--on the floor and on the basketball court.

This institution is stronger, our country is better off, and our future more promising because of what Keith has brought to bear. I will always be grateful for his wise counsel that has guided me and so many of us.

While Keith may never come to respect the Boston Celtics, he has always respected the work that we do here in the people's House. He is a model for anyone who enters this building looking to make a difference.

Keith, you will be missed. I thank you for your work, your grace, your humor, and your friendship.

To your family--Cara, Sandy, and Colleen, and your dad and Judy, who are here with us--please know how grateful we are for your service, as well.

We look forward to all the success ahead, and know this: You will always have a home here in the House.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi), our Speaker Emerita.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern), my fellow Bay Stater and ranking member of the Rules Committee.

Mr. Speaker, I have a motion at the desk.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, I have a motion at the desk.

Mr. Speaker, we have already taken up way too much of the House's time, of the American people's time. Let's get back

to doing the work that they sent us here to do.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time, and move the previous question on the motion.

The previous question was ordered.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding.

This month marks 2 years since extreme MAGA Republicans dismantled Roe v. Wade, subjecting American women to reproductive oppression not seen for half a century. For the other side of the aisle, it is still not enough.

In Texas, Republican Members unleashed bounty hunters on pregnant women. In Ohio, my Republican colleagues prosecuted a woman for having a miscarriage. In Alabama, the majority shut down fertility treatments. Today, in the United States Capitol, Republicans have chosen their next target: Our veterans.

Today, Republicans are telling 2 million women veterans that, if they need an abortion to save their life, the VA should turn them away. That MAGA ideology matters more than our veterans' health, their freedom, even their survival.

There was a time in this Chamber when we would unite behind our country's flag and the patriots who serve under it, but in this version of the Republican Party, extremism has displaced patriotism. The majority is so consumed by fanaticism that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle would hijack our VA budget and threaten the very women who defended their freedom to speak in this Chamber.

My colleagues should be ashamed to play a part in this attack on our Nation's heroes. What a craven abandonment of oath and country.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding.

John Gardner said: ``History never looks like history when you are living through it.''

There is no doubt that today's votes in the House of Representatives will reverberate through history and will be felt for generations to come.

We have learned that when figures like Vladimir Putin emerge, we will not find peace through appeasement.

As caretakers of the world's most powerful republic, we cannot look away when the world looks to us to lead the defense of democracy. We cannot look away because tyranny is not just emanating from Moscow.

The same extremism that has fueled the Russian attack on the Ukrainian people has found countenance here in the people's House. In voting ``yes'' today, we can rebuke all those who choose to side with the enemies of freedom.

As we combat tyrants, we can also not turn away from the innocent victims of war and famine, the suffering people of Gaza, Sudan, Haiti, Chad, and Armenia. The humanitarian aid in this package is vital to relieving their pain, saving their lives, and securing their children's future.

As we witness so much destruction and starvation, as we attempt to comprehend the intertwined horrors of the October 7 attack on Israel and the devastating toll on innocent civilians in Gaza, I cannot see a path to peace that does not provide security and sovereignty to both Israelis and Palestinians, a peace rooted in justice and our common humanity. It is my hope that the votes we take today are a start.

We are not simply living through history. We are shaping it. We have the opportunity today to shape a future that is more just and more equitable.

The bills before us today are not perfect. They consider very complex and painful issues, but they are a critical step forward, and I urge my colleagues to join me in taking it.

Madam Speaker, last month, I joined my colleague Jared Moskowitz on a tour of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

The school is frozen in time. It is just as it was 6 years ago today when a gunman stole the lives of 17 people. There was a box of chocolates left in a classroom on a stack of textbooks, a stuffed animal with a Valentine's Day balloon sitting on a chair, writing assignments left unfinished, whiteboards covered in lesson plans.

It was so ordinary, so hauntingly familiar. It is what you would see today if you walked into any high school on Valentine's Day.

And then there was the horror--the broken glass, the bullet holes, the blood stains, the outlines left by children's murdered bodies, two of them right next to the teacher's desk where their classmates and teacher were hiding inches away.

Three dads joined us that day. One by one, each of them led us to a spot where his child had been shot to death. One told us of how his daughter had run for safety in a stairwell, how she had missed safety by a split second, and how a single bullet ended her life before it had even begun. Her blood and the blood of her classmates mark the floors of that hallway, and they mark the soul of a country that could have saved them but chose not to.

The collective failures to prevent this tragedy permeates every corner of that building and every corner of this building: the failure of the good guys with guns to respond quickly and without hesitation; the sheriff's failure to act on a warning of a school shooter in the making; the FBI's failure to investigate a tip about an angry, unstable teenager who wanted to kill people; and Congress' failure to keep an AR-15 rifle out of his hands.

The men and women in this building could have prevented him from acquiring a weapon designed to kill and kill fast, but no. Nothing. There were no red flag laws, no universal background checks, no crackdown on high-capacity magazines, no assault weapons ban, no safe storage requirements. All of it was rejected by those, Madam Speaker, who perversely define freedom as unfettered access to weapons of war.

Madam Speaker, there was no freedom for the students and staff gunned down that day. There is no freedom in violence, in terror, and death. There is no freedom in being forced to wonder if your child will come home from school. Will they live to see graduation? And there is no freedom from the grief of those parents whose worst fears had been realized.

Along one of those hallways there is a quote painted on the wall: ``Never live in the past but always learn from it.''

Madam Speaker, that building is just as it was 6 years ago, and so is this country. Our gun laws are frozen in the past as if nothing has happened. In refusing to act, Republicans not only ignore the past, they condemn the children to future violent death.

Madam Speaker, let us honor our past by changing our future. Let us honor the murdered by honoring the right of the living to be free from fear.

Madam Speaker, we all agree that something needs to be done to fix our broken immigration system, but when it comes to doing the work, finding the solutions, House Democrats have come to the table, President Biden has come to the table, and the Senate has come to the table. Then there is the House GOP.

The MAGA extremists hold up our national security priorities, our commitment to our allies, and to our own readiness, supposedly to strike a deal on immigration. The President says let's get it done and then he did.

Instead of pursuing a bipartisan compromise, instead of strengthening the security of our border, advancing humane solutions, and doing their jobs, they are now impeaching the Secretary of Homeland Security without a single allegation of any impeachable crime, not one. Impeaching a cabinet member without any evidence of high crimes or misdemeanors, that is the breach of public trust here.

The plan is to impeach the Secretary. Then what? Will the majority invest in Border Patrol? No. Their dream budget fires 2,000 Border Patrol agents. Just yesterday, Speaker Johnson ridiculed the men and women of Border Patrol for supporting the Senate bill saying it is probably because it would give them a fair wage. This majority's contempt for working people, even those whose mission is to carry out border security, has no bounds.

This extreme MAGA majority has repeatedly rejected funding for technology that is needed to stop the flow of fentanyl.

Here we are. The extreme MAGA majority, what are they going to do about the border? Only this sham impeachment.

They have told us what the future holds. As one Member across the aisle put it, they oppose action on immigration, because it would boost Biden against Trump. That is all they care about. That is what this sham is about, choosing extremism over country, stunts over solutions, and politics over people. That is a breach of trust we all must reject.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize an outstanding citizen of Waltham, Massaclrusetts--a devoted husband, father, grandfather; a dedicated serviceman; and distinguished World War II Navy Veteran, Mr. Edward R. Desmond. Mr. Desmond was honored by the History Department at Marshfield High School on January 25, 2023.

Edward Desmond, known to most as Eddie, served as a Petty Officer 2nd Class on USS LCS (L) (3) 128 and served at the Battle of Okinawa. In his service he was regarded highly by peers as a good cook and earned the Navy's Combat Action Ribbon for his time under fire in the Battle of Okinawa.

Edward also received the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, World War II Victory Medal and was involved in the Liberation of the Philippines. During his time in the Navy he spent time away from family in service to his country in some of the longest and hardest battles in the history of naval warfare. Perhaps even more notable than the long list of accolades and awards is Edward's 40-year career devoted as a Central Office Technician for the New England Bell Telephone Company.

Mr. Desmond has accomplished so much in his life, but none of it would have been possible without the support of family. Mr. and Mrs. Desmond raised five children. They are the proud grandparents of six grandchildren.

It is a great honor to represent Edward Desmond and his lifetime commitment to advancing our Nation's understanding of World War II, what happened, and what can be done to avoid another war.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Oregon for yielding time and for all her incredible work.

Madam Speaker, I have to hand it to the majority. With this bill, the MAGA majority has reached new heights or lows, as you want to define it, that are new and creative. They have named this bill, the Pregnant Students' Rights Act and didn't bother to include any rights or resources. Not a single new resource or protection for pregnant students.

This bill does nothing to support student parents. It is another vehicle for promoting anti-abortion propaganda and deceiving Americans about their healthcare options. All of this from the same majority that eliminated funding for childcare on college campuses--funding that helps students have their children in childcare so they can go to class. It was defunded by the majority. It was zeroed out.

They pull that one day, and then the next day they want students to believe they care about them? Give me a break.

One in five undergrads are parents.

Has anyone on the other side of the aisle talked to those parents about what they need? If they did, they would find out those students need the same thing as any parent: reproductive freedom, access to childcare, access to maternity care, access to contraception, and access to abortion care.

Madam Speaker, let's fund childcare, not propaganda. Let's restore the reproductive freedom of every single American. That is how you help students, by empowering them, not playing a cynical game with their lives.

Mr. Speaker, the MAGA majority is putting forward an impeachment inquiry even as their own leaders admit there is no evidence of wrongdoing.

They have already reviewed tens of thousands of documents, interviewed dozens of witnesses, and nothing.

Why?

This has never been about the truth. This is about avenging Donald Trump. This is about undermining our democracy and influencing the 2024 election.

President Ford once said, ``Truth is the glue that holds government together.''

Mr. Speaker, it is truth that allows this Chamber to function. Abandoning truth in favor of political gamesmanship creates nothing but chaos. That dysfunction isn't a byproduct of the majority's behavior, it is the point.

They don't want the government to function. They have sought nothing in service of the American people, nothing to lower costs, nothing to create good-paying jobs, to grow the middle class, to make everyday people feel more secure.

What has the majority delivered?

The kind of extremism that chooses rich tax cheats over working people, that obstructs the ballot box and hikes the cost of healthcare, that protects guns over kids, that bans abortion and criminalizes doctors, that rewards polluters and corporate greed and tells everyday Americans, you foot the bill.

This sham impeachment is below the dignity of the people's House. It is an affront to the people who sent us here to work for them. What a disgrace.

Mr. Speaker, I have a motion at the desk.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

As we speak here today, conflicts are raging around the globe, and the American people have told us exactly what they want us to do. Democracy is under siege. Putin is salivating at the prospect that Republicans might abandon Ukraine. Seventy thousand childcare centers are on the verge of shutting down because the GOP let vital funding expire. We don't even have a budget, despite the fact that we voted for those top-line numbers back in June.

This ridiculous censure is how the Republicans are spending the time of this Chamber and the time of the American people. The MAGA majority should be embarrassed if they are still capable of shame. Republicans filed this censure the same day they decided to shield the identities of January 6 rioters.

I do have to hand it to the majority. They have managed to both push an extreme agenda and be a do-nothing majority. They have done nothing to make families freer, safer, or more confident in their future. Instead, they have voted against lowering the cost of insulin, affordable housing, and gun safety. They have done nothing to promote freedom, but they do not miss an opportunity to vote for abortion bans, book bans, and tax cheats.

Just last week, the majority's leadership said no to holding George Santos accountable after a motion to expel was made by the Republican chairman of the Ethics Committee, but today they bring this to the floor? A censure isn't a substitute for a policy agenda. It isn't filler when you have nothing to offer the American people.

Mr. Speaker, I urge a ``no'' vote on this sham resolution.