Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, today, I am so proud to honor Isaac Samuelson, a young leader from Long Island and a member of Boy Scout Troop 613 based in West Hempstead.

Isaac spearheaded a project to preserve over 20 years' worth of religious texts, prayer books, and educational materials that had just been stashed away somewhere in his synagogue.

He, along with his family, friends, and Troop 613 members, spent hours organizing materials, ensuring that important religious materials could be preserved and used by future generations.

Isaac exemplifies the values of Boy Scouts and civic responsibility. He is a role model not just for young people in our community but for all of us.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Isaac for his leadership in our community. I am so proud to be his Representative.

Mr. Speaker, across our country, women of color continue to experience devastating maternal healthcare inequities. As a proud mother of four children, I know firsthand how critical access to quality healthcare is for expectant mothers. However, far too many women in this country still do not have access to the vital maternal resources they need to survive and lead to good outcomes for them and for their babies.

Today, Black women are three times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause than other women. They are also twice as likely to lose an infant to premature death. These disparities have not improved for more than 30 years, and that is unacceptable.

That is why I am proud to join the Black Maternal Health Caucus to work toward reducing maternal mortality and building healthier communities for Black women and their infants.

Mr. Speaker, I have the privilege of representing thousands of 9/11 first responders and survivors who live in New York's Fourth Congressional District.

For years, they have fought to get access to the healthcare that they desperately need and unquestionably deserve. They have traveled to Washington countless times, even those that are sick and dying, to urge Congress to pass a permanent funding fix for the World Trade Center Health Program.

These heroes who saw us through one of the darkest days in our Nation's history have spent two decades begging Congress to act. No one in the 9/11 community should ever have to worry about accessing the healthcare that they require.

I was outraged to see this funding excluded from the yearlong spending bill that was just passed earlier this month. Our first responders and survivors can't wait for action.

I am proud to help lead the 9/11 Responder and Survivor Health Funding Correction Act, alongside a bipartisan group of my colleagues, to right this wrong.

Mr. Speaker, our Nation promised to never forget, but every delay in funding tells the 9/11 community something different. It is time to act.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today with great pride to congratulate the Baldwin High School girls' basketball team on winning the New York State AA State Championship.

On behalf of New York's Fourth Congressional District, I take this opportunity to commend and celebrate these young athletes for their dedication, for their teamwork, for their perseverance, and, quite frankly, their dominance on the basketball court.

This year's championship marks Baldwin's third State title in school history, a testament to the strong foundation built by the players, the coaches, and the administrators, both past and present.

We congratulate the Lady Bruins on their remarkable victory. I know they will continue to make Nassau County proud.

Mr. Speaker, Hazel Dukes was a lifelong champion for families and children in New York and across the country. Through her decades of civil rights activism, including as president of the NAACP, Dr. Dukes fought tirelessly to build a more perfect Union.

Dr. Dukes broke barriers as the first Black American to work for the Nassau County District Attorney's Office, where she stood up for Long Island communities that had been long ignored or underserved.

As we mourn her tremendous loss, we take comfort in the fact that Dr. Dukes' legacy will continue to live on in those that she mentored and the countless Americans who have been impacted by her life's work. May she rest in peace.

Mr. Speaker, had I been present, I would have voted YEA on Roll Call No. 40.

Mr. Speaker, in the 2 years since the Dobbs decision, we have seen nothing short of an all-out assault on our reproductive rights and our reproductive freedoms, including a steady march to pass a national abortion ban coupled with efforts to roll back access to contraception and IVF.

It is truly shocking that in 2025, we have to defend Americans' access to birth control and ability to decide when they start a family, but the attacks on reproductive freedom keep coming. Four out of five people in this country oppose these attempts to restrict our autonomy and our freedom, and we must fight back. That means making sure that the right to access to contraception is codified into law.

I am proud to cosponsor H.R. 999, the Right to Contraception Act. I will continue to fight to defend women's and families' freedom to make their own personal healthcare decisions. This should not be partisan. Preserving our freedom is American.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today as a proud cosponsor of H.R. 27, the HALT Fentanyl Act.

The epidemic of illicit fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances has ravaged countless communities across our country. Families throughout my district have experienced unimaginable pain and suffering from losing their loved ones to this deadly drug.

Just 1 year ago, a family in my district dropped off their precious child to college and went back a week later to pick up their child's body because of fentanyl.

We must get fentanyl off of our streets and away from our kids. The crisis has killed Americans of every age, every background, and every walk of life.

A single ounce of fentanyl can have a devastating effect upon a community. It is time we take on the cartels and hold traffickers accountable.

The DEA, the Fraternal Order of Police, and countless other law enforcement groups have said the HALT Fentanyl Act will save lives and improve public safety.

It shouldn't take more overdose deaths, more grieving families, and more criminals skirting prosecution to take action. It is time.

Mr. Speaker, enough is enough. I am proud to support this bipartisan bill today, and I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to join me in that.

I also urge my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to find ways that we can work together to make better bills.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today on behalf of everyone on Long Island to welcome Romi, Emily, and Doron home after more than 470 days in Hamas captivity. We will not rest until every hostage comes home. I thank the previous administration and President Trump for working together to get this deal across the finish line.

We will never forget October 7, the single deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust. Hamas terrorists brutally murdered 1,200 Israelis, including Omer Neutra of Long Island.

The terrorist attacks of October 7 must never happen again. We must always stand with our ally, Israel.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to this bill. Since the disastrous Dobbs decision, we have seen nothing short of an all-out assault on women's reproductive rights and freedoms.

Make no mistake: This bill has nothing to do with its fallacious title. Infanticide is already a crime. Instead, this bill is aimed at deterring physicians from providing reproductive healthcare that many times is lifesaving. I know this firsthand because when I was supposed to be thrilled by a 20-week sonogram, I got the devastating news that my daughter had no heartbeat. I needed to have an emergency abortion procedure to ensure that I could live to raise my two children already at home.

It is unthinkable that this law and laws like it are trying to strip my daughters of the same access to this healthcare. Americans want Congress to lower costs, secure our border, and create jobs; not interfere with heartbreaking family medical decisions. America's women deserve better. Our daughters deserve better.

Madam Speaker, it is an honor to speak on the House floor today representing New York's Fourth Congressional District, and I am ready to get to work to deliver solutions for the issues that matter most to Long Island.

We need to address the cost-of-living crisis, secure our border, and give hardworking Long Islanders a middle-class tax cut by reinstating the full SALT tax deduction.

These issues aren't political. The American people are counting on all of us to put our differences aside and work together to put money back in people's pockets and get things done.

Madam Speaker, my constituents have been clear. They want problems solved and not political extremism on either side.

I am honored to be their Congresswoman, and I look forward to working with anyone from any party who is serious about working productively to address the pressing issues that our working families face.