Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, I was unavoidably detained in my Congressional District on Monday, February 25, 2019 due to complications with my flight from Oklahoma City to Washington, D.C. Had I been present, I would have voted the following way on votes that day: ``yea'' on Roll Call No. 88 and ``yea'' on Roll Call No. 89

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to highlight the visionary and unwavering leadership of civil rights icon and notable Oklahoman Ms. Clara Luper.

Six months ago, I got to witness history as Oklahoma City commemorated the 60th anniversary of the sit-ins she organized. I rise today because, even as a fifth-generation Oklahoman, I realized how little I knew.

Clara Luper and her students sparked a movement, the sit-ins that led into our Nation's civil rights movement. They deserve to be a household name.

Clara Luper made her mark in a time when people of color couldn't even walk into the front door of Oklahoma City businesses. They were relegated to hidden back rooms.

But she had a vision for equality, a heart for service, and a commitment to justice. She, in her words, ``believed in a sun when it didn't shine and the rain when it didn't fall.'' She knew that Oklahoma and this country could be a place where everyone is treated with respect, dignity, and humanity.

Even as a history teacher at Dunjee High School in Spencer, Oklahoma, Ms. Luper instilled those principles in her students. Her steadfast commitment to ending racism and systemic discrimination inspired her to organize America's first sit-in.

In August 1958, she and 14 of her NAACP Youth Council students walked up to a lunch counter they knew would refuse them, and they ordered a hamburger and a Coke. They were denied, but they did not waver. They knew what was on the line because, in Ms. Luper's words, ``within that hamburger was the whole essence of democracy.''

At their own personal peril, they returned each day with more people until they broke the barrier. It was never easy. The protesters were verbally and physically assaulted, and Ms. Luper received death threats.

Because of Ms. Luper and her students' fearlessness and determination, the Katz Drug Stores integrated their lunch counters, not just in Oklahoma City but also in Missouri, Kansas, and Iowa.

When the 1958 sit-in happened in Oklahoma City, a group of college students in North Carolina were inspired by what had taken place in Oklahoma City, and they took note. In 1961, those students launched the Greensboro, North Carolina, sit-in at the Woolworth lunch counter, which fueled momentum within the civil rights movement.

It didn't end there. For years, Ms. Luper and others continued their fight. The sacrifices continued, too.

Authorities arrested Ms. Luper 26 times during her fight for freedom. Clara Luper empowered young people to imagine a future brighter than their present and taught them how to make that future a reality.

She changed lives and planted seeds of ethical leadership into those who were lucky enough to be mentored by her. Each of her former students talks about the pivotal role Ms. Luper played in instilling confidence, character, and dignity in them.

Generations reap the benefit of her sacrifice and efforts to integrate not only businesses in Oklahoma City but educational spaces.

Ms. Luper integrated the history department at the University of Oklahoma, becoming the first Black graduate of that master's program. Her contributions are reflected across our

own State, in a namesake scholarship program at Oklahoma City University, a corridor on the northeast side of Oklahoma City, a classroom at the University of Central Oklahoma, by the designation of the Oklahoma City Public Schools District building as The Clara Luper Center, and naming the African American studies department at the University of Oklahoma after her.

As a lifelong Oklahoman and representative of the Fifth Congressional District, and as an American, I recognize how we are beneficiaries of Clara Luper's efforts to create a more just and equitable place to live. I cannot and will not take that history and impact for granted.

Although we have come so far because of her sacrifices and the sacrifices of other heroes during the civil rights era, there is so much work to be done. Even with the number of accolades given to her, the best way we can honor Ms. Luper is to uphold her legacy through commitment to justice and equality in the policies that we propose.

She knew that democracy is not a spectator sport. It is our duty as a Congress and as Americans to make good on the constitutional promise of establishing justice and ensuring domestic tranquility, so we must continue to work for an inclusive, equitable place for everyone to live and feel safe, as well as to build an economy where every American has the opportunity to thrive.

Thank you to the sit-inners, and thank you to Clara Luper for your resilience and for giving us the torch to carry.

Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

H.R. 8 is a critical piece of legislation that I am proud to support. Congress needs to act to cut down on our Nation's widespread gun violence. We must close loopholes that give buyers and sellers a way around background checks. There is no reason vendors at gun shows or online should be exempt from the safety measures other merchants must obey. We should also vet sales between two people.

That is not to say that there should be no exceptions. My amendment carves out protections for people who face risk of domestic violence, dating partner violence, sexual assault, stalking, and domestic abuse.

The underlying bill, H.R. 8, already creates an exception to the background check requirement when there is a temporary weapon transfer, if the transferee is at imminent risk of death or great bodily harm. Our amendment is meant to make it crystal clear and explicit that this exception applies when the transferees are protecting themselves from an abuser. It does not expand the underlying exception; it offers one critical example of where it might apply.

When I talked to Oklahomans across my district last year, they confided in me their concerns about gun violence. I promised to work towards policies that would protect them.

We need to protect our Second Amendment right, but there is no credible reason why we as a state and nation can't acknowledge there are steps we can take to save lives and find a path forward to do so.

H.R. 8 does just that. It increases safety without limiting our Second Amendment rights by implementing commonsense policy.

But when we take these commonsense steps, we need to acknowledge our power to create unintended consequences, and to prevent them.

That is why I am offering this amendment. In addition to my commitment to gun safety, I have talked about my devotion to helping protect women and families.

Between 1998 and 2017, the Oklahoma Domestic Violence Fatality Review Board found nearly 1,700 people were killed in our State because of domestic violence. In 2017 alone, 91 Oklahomans were murdered.

The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey found that nearly two in five Oklahoma women will face some form of domestic abuse or sexual violence during their lifetimes.

Oklahoma is consistently ranked in the top five States for women killed by men in one-on-one homicides.

Oklahoma domestic violence programs serve an average of 18,000 people annually, according to the YWCA.

Oklahoma is not an exception. These problems persist. One in four women and one in nine men experience intimate partner physical violence; these people deserve to be protected.

For us, that means many things, including strengthening and reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act and investing in support services and family justice centers. But it also means we need to empower people to protect themselves.

That is why Congress should pass laws to strengthen background checks and create exceptions for those who truly need them.

Mr. Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, I yield such time as she

may consume to the gentlewoman from Kansas (Ms. Davids).

Mr. Chairman, I yield 15 seconds to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Nadler).

Mr. Chairman, I would like to simply close by reiterating the importance of H.R. 8 and my support for it in this amendment, and clarifying and protecting individuals who are at risk from domestic violence, stalking, and sexual assault.

Mr. Chair, I would like to thank Congresswoman Stephanie Murphy, who cosponsored this amendment, as well as Congresswoman Davids and Congressman Nadler for their remarks.

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

Madam Speaker, I rise today to address the devastating impacts this shutdown is having on families throughout Oklahoma's Fifth District.

Over the Martin Luther King, Jr., holiday weekend, I went back to my district and visited with impacted Federal workers. The stories of the impacts were heartbreaking.

One of the things that stuck with me was speaking with a woman named Tammy, who reminded me that it is not just the government that is shuttered right now, but that families' lives are also being shattered. That is, too often, the forgotten part of this conversation. We should never use Federal employees, contractors, or their families as pawns in a political disagreement.

So, while we are analyzing the current negative effects of this shutdown, we also need to look at the long-lasting effects on families, on our communities, and on the economy.

Simply put, we will be suffering the negative consequences of this shutdown for years to come, and the stories I have heard from Oklahoma families are the reasons I will continue to work to reopen the government.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman- designate Price for recognizing me so that I can express my support for this legislation and discuss my grave concern about how the government shutdown is affecting my congressional district and the Nation.

Simply put, this shutdown is an issue of national security and safety. Many of the approximately 16,000 Federal Government employees and contractors who live in my district are adversely affected by the government's closure.

Specifically, the FAA's Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center is one of the 10 largest employers in Oklahoma, with more than 5,000 employees and contractors, and up to 2,000 students who attend the air traffic controller and aviation training school.

The Monroney Center is not only important to Oklahoma City, but it is a critical piece of our Nation's infrastructure, which supports more than 45,000 air traffic control centers worldwide.

Today, more than 1,000 employees have been furloughed and another 600 are working without pay. Additionally, all of the air traffic controller and aviation students have been sent home.

To put this in context, the Monroney Center is the only one of its kind in the entire United States, but today the doors are shuttered and all training has ceased. The longer the shutdown continues, the longer it will take for training to resume.

To make matters worse, the Monroney Center still hasn't recovered from the 2013 sequester, and currently the FAA is at a 30-year air traffic controller staffing low.

Yesterday, I met with an air traffic controller from Oklahoma who expressed his concerns about the immense stress and strain for controllers that the choked-off pipeline is causing. This is both an economic and domestic national security issue, and I am very concerned that the government shutdown may affect the safety and security of our Nation's air travelers.

My constituents sent me to Washington to work hard on their behalf, and I am proud to have voted for several measures to reopen the government since I was sworn in last week.

It is time to get the government back on track. It is time we use common sense, roll up our sleeves, and do the job that we were sent here to do.

There is a time and a place to debate border security, which is a complex problem that I firmly believe must be addressed.

Mr. Speaker, however, we should never risk the air safety and security of this country. The health and future of the Nation's aeronautical infrastructure should not be a pawn in a political game.

Mr. Speaker, I support this legislation to fund the Department of Transportation, and I urge my colleagues to join me.