Floor Statements

Madam Chair, I have an amendment at the desk.

Madam Chair, I rise today in support of my amendment, amendment No. 36. This

amendment highlights the importance of the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Pathways to Removing Obstacles to Housing, otherwise known as the PRO Housing grant program and land-use reform policies, which were shortsightedly omitted entirely from this partisan bill that we are reconsidering tonight, H.R. 4820.

This grant program, funded for the first time in fiscal year 2023, is based on broadly supported bipartisan bills, including my Housing Supply and Affordability Act and the Yes in My Backyard Act.

The program incentivizes reform of local land-use policies that hinder the expansion of an affordable housing supply.

Our Nation is facing an affordable housing crisis. We have a shortage of as many as 7 million affordable homes.

This drastic underproduction hurts American families. It hurts communities, businesses, and costs the economy about $2 trillion per year in lower productivity and wages.

The lack of affordable housing also increases the strain on the labor market with about 9.6 million job openings in the U.S.

From food service to cybersecurity, employers in nearly every industry are struggling to find and retain workers. The bottom line is to take a job, you need to be able to afford to live near that job.

I hear about this problem in almost every meeting that I attend up and down my State. It is a problem that impacts people in Delaware, from our beaches to the cities to the rural communities, and I know it is impacting Americans across this country.

I urge my colleagues to think about the human impact of the lack of affordable housing; extreme stress, homelessness, increased workforce shortages, and poorer health outcomes. It is clear that housing is foundational to our well-being.

Strict land-use policies create artificial restrictions that drive up costs and delay production. In many cases, they are horrific vestiges from the past, where discriminatory redlining broke up communities and prevented all Americans from having access to the American Dream.

Unfortunately, the bill that we are voting on today will squander another opportunity to right those wrongs of the past.

We know the bill in its current form has no chance of becoming law. The lack of meaningful housing reform and support, like the PRO Housing program and land reform policies, are examples of the many fatal flaws with this bill.

The adoption of my amendment will at least signal to the Senate and our appropriations leaders that we need to include the PRO Housing program and land use policy reforms in a final appropriations bill.

Madam Chair, I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on my amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Chair, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Kilmer), a member of the Committee on Appropriations.

Madam Chair, I yield the balance of my time to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Quigley), the distinguished ranking member of the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Subcommittee.

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

Madam Chair, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend, the leader, for organizing this Special Order hour and especially for his steadfast leadership of the Regional Leadership Council.

What I love about Steny is that his whole focus on this is about implementation, but it is also about informing people about all the things that have been done to support the American people.

I thank Mr. Hoyer and Leader Hakeem Jeffries for creating and organizing our group, and I am honored to represent my colleagues of Region 9, which includes the States of New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, the District of Columbia, and my home State of Delaware.

Our region, like the entire Regional Leadership Council, has been focused on the implementation of the historic legislation passed in the 117th Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris when Democrats put people over politics and delivered transformational change.

Leaders like Representative Jennifer McClellan in Virginia's Fourth Congressional District have delivered results for her constituents, funding to reconnect Richmond's historic Jackson Ward neighborhood that was split in half during the construction of the interstate highway system. This funding was delivered through the bipartisan infrastructure law and is reconnecting communities.

Chairman Bobby Scott was able to secure over $400 million for the city of Norfolk in Virginia's Third Congressional District to help create more climate-resilient infrastructure in the face of increased flooding.

Representatives Kweisi Mfume, John Sarbanes, and Dutch Ruppersberger also celebrated the launch of a new workforce hub in Baltimore that came as a direct result of the Chips and Science Act. The hub will help train workers to step into good-paying jobs and build the region's skilled workforce all while catalyzing investments in clean energy.

These stories are just some of the stories all around Region 9, including in Delaware. After decades of effort, with families waiting and struggling when nobody believed them, our veterans in this country started a movement for better healthcare. We, under Democratic leadership, not only believed them but fought for them and were able to turn that into action with the passage of the PACT Act.

Before you here is the result of a resource fair that we did in Delaware. My office did a constituent resource fair where we had hundreds of Delawareans come out to learn about resources from dozens of Federal, State, and nonprofit agencies. On the spot, 30 veterans were able to sign up and be screened for the PACT Act. Those were benefits that now those families will be able to have.

I am going to tell a story that is personal and goes back over 20 years of a small town in Delaware called Ellendale, a rural community reliant on well water. Residents of Ellendale had been forced to bathe, cook with, and drink dirty water. They had fought for decades to secure a local connection to clean and reliable drinking water.

Here they are holding the water in their hands.

With the passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the historic investments made through the Inflation Reduction Act, small, rural towns like Ellendale will finally be able to open their taps and know that clean, drinkable water will be flowing from them, meaning that they will be healthier and able to thrive. I am so proud of the work that we have been able to do.

Lastly, I would just say this: All of our work has expanded drinking water across this country. Drinking Water State Revolving Funds have gotten $14 billion, provided over $500 million directly to small and disadvantaged communities and over $500 million to remediate lead contamination. Included was a provision that I authored for the first- of-its-kind, low-income water bill assistance program.

I will end with this: We came out of a pandemic as a country. Don't forget where we came from. The 117th Congress, with President Joe Biden, passed historic legislation that will provide for the American people clean drinking water, clean air, access to the internet, cheaper healthcare, newer roads and bridges, and more jobs.

The bottom line is, we put politics to the side, and we supported the people. We didn't just do it with words. We did it with action. We delivered for Delaware, and we delivered for the American people.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to celebrate the centennial anniversary of the Selbyville Volunteer Fire Company. Just over 100 years ago, a group of young men saw a need in their community, decided to act, and established this company. Now, a century later, it has grown into what it is today--a critical part of the Selbyville community with a legacy of exceptional service.

In addition to this occasion being a chance for fellowship and comradery between those in uniform, it is also an opportunity for the rest of us, whom the members of the Company serve, to pause and express our gratitude for their selfless and dangerous work.

To these firefighters: we in Delaware know the risk each of them takes when they put on their uniforms and go to work each day. And to take on these risks is as remarkable as it is inspiring. Our state would not enjoy the same peace of mind without people like them answering the call and volunteering their time to protect our communities.

In Delaware, we are incredibly proud to have so many wonderful volunteer firefighters

up and down our state. I am proud to be their Congresswoman, and especially as a member of the Congressional Fire Services Caucus, I am proud to be their champion in the House of Representatives.

Again, Mr. Speaker, I would like to extend my congratulations to everyone at the Selbyville Volunteer Fire Company for this historic accomplishment and thank them for their selfless service. Here's to the next hundred years.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to celebrate the centennial anniversary of

the Selbyville Volunteer Fire Company. Just over 100 years ago, a group of young men saw a need in their community, decided to act, and established this company. Now, a century later, it has grown into what it is today--a critical part of the Selbyville community with a legacy of exceptional service.

In addition to this occasion being a chance for fellowship and comradery between those in uniform, it is also an opportunity for the rest of us, whom the members of the Company serve, to pause and express our gratitude for their selfless and dangerous work.

We in Delaware know the risk each of these firefighters takes when they put on their uniforms and go to work each day. And to take on these risks is as remarkable as it is inspiring. Our state would not enjoy the same peace of mind without people like them answering the call and volunteering their time to protect our communities.

In Delaware, we are incredibly proud to have so many wonderful volunteer firefighters up and down our state. I am proud to be their Congresswoman, and especially as a member of the Congressional Fire Services Caucus, I am proud to be their champion in the House of Representatives.

Again, to everyone at the Selbyville Volunteer Fire Company, congratulations on this historic accomplishment and I thank them for their selfless service. Here's to the next hundred years.

Mr. Speaker, today I rise to address my vote for H. Res. 311.

This resolution will encourage the State of Israel to continue its diplomatic efforts within the Middle East and North African (MENA) region and beyond. In recent years, Israel has succeeded in establishing diplomatic relations with several nations around it. I continue to be supportive of the efforts by the State of Israel to work toward normalization of relations with its neighbors and improve the stability of the region. The resolution also describes several aspects of U.S.-Israel policy, which I continue to support, including the 10- year Memorandum of Understanding and maintenance of our bilateral relationship. It is for these reasons that I voted in favor of this resolution.

However, I am disappointed that the resolution did not include an explicit affirmation of a two-state solution nor the eventual goal of peace with the Palestinians. A similar bipartisan resolution marking the 70th anniversary of the founding of Israel included these affirmations. These statements are long-standing aspects of U.S. policy, including the Biden Administration's current policy, and are core principles for a successful peace process.

I will continue to support a two-state solution and the peace process needed to achieve that goal.

Madam Chair, I thank Ranking Member Pallone for yielding me time.

Madam Chair, today, I rise to talk about a public health emergency impacting every corner of our Nation: fentanyl.

As Congress debates the best approach to combating synthetic opioids, what we can all agree on is that every single one of us is impacted. I urge my colleagues to keep our focus on comprehensive and sustainable solutions.

In 2021, in my small State of Delaware, we lost over 500 family members, friends, coworkers, and neighbors to overdoses. Of the more than 500 Delawareans lost to overdose, 80 percent involved fentanyl. Those numbers, unfortunately, are poised to get worse.

As the former deputy secretary of health and social services in Delaware, my career has made me look at these challenges through a lens of public health. That is why I was proud to join my colleagues Representative Annie Kuster and Don Bacon in introducing the STOP Fentanyl Overdoses Act.

Our bipartisan bill takes a comprehensive public health approach to reducing fentanyl overdoses by expanding testing, improving data collection and analysis, and expanding treatment for opioid use disorder.

Our approach is supported by a broad and diverse coalition, including the Drug Policy Alliance, American Psychological Association Services, and Partnership to End Addiction.

As we continue to work to combat the fentanyl crisis, an issue that I know we all care deeply about, I hope we will keep a comprehensive public health approach top of mind.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to commemorate the life and legacy of a giant of our community--Mr. Maurice Pritchett. Mr. Pritchett, surrounded by his family, was called home to his Creator on April 21st, at the age of 80. The 80 years that Mr. Pritchett spent on Earth were a testament to an inherent optimism--an exercise in making his community, and in turn this world, a better place.

Raised on the East Side of our beloved Wilmington, a young Maurice Pritchett would excel in the classroom and on the basketball court. He would go on to attend the historic Howard High School and earn Wilmington All-City Honors. His academic and athletic prowess would take him from Wilmington to Dover--earning a full scholarship and attending what was then known as Delaware State College. His career with the Hornets would earn him induction into the Delaware State Basketball Hall of Fame and the Delaware Afro-American Sports Hall of Fame.

And while his success on the court was evident, the true gift of his time at Delaware State University was the fostering of his true passion and what would go on to become his life's work--public education. He first taught in Cecil County, Maryland--eventually finding his way back to the school he had attended as a young boy, Bancroft Elementary. Starting as a community school coordinator, he rose to become vice principal and then principal. He served the students and families at The Bancroft School for over thirty years and in the 1994-95 school year, was honored as the National Distinguished Principal for Delaware.

Mr. Pritchett also devoted a great deal of his time helping students outside of the classroom, coaching the Delaware high school All-Stars and helping prepare our young people for the next phase of their life

All of those accomplishments and accolades may provide some context for the skill, intellect, and work ethic of Maurice Pritchett--but they fail to paint the full picture of who he was and what he meant to our community. We're all so grateful to his wonderful wife, Juanita, and his loving children and grandchildren for sharing Mr. Pritchett with us for so many years.

An old Greek proverb reads, ``A society grows great when men plant trees in whose shade they shall never sit.'' Maurice Pritchett spent his life planting trees of wisdom, hope, and love in our community. We were blessed that so many of them blossomed while he was still with us--and thanks to the work in his life, his legacy will be those yet to bloom--and the shade we'll all enjoy in his name.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to include in the Record a poem by Mr. William Claire, a distinguished poet, essayist, and author who made Lewes, Delaware his home. This poem speaks to the First State's captivating beauty and reminds us to treasure and protect our coastlines. It is my sincere hope that all who read Mr. Claire's poem are similarly inspired to reflect on the magnificence of the natural world.

It's elemental, dear Senor Neruda,

like your ode to glories

of bird watching; ``sailors of the air,''

or, if near here, por ejemplo

horseshoe crab-eggs

at spawning time,

God's manna for valiant red knots

flying nonstop from the southern tip

of Patagonia in your Tierra del Fuego

enroute to a frigid Arctic

surviving and doubling their weight

at paradise here on earth . . .

Ruddy turnstones nibbling now

at ocean's edge; the pulse and throb

of The Great Dune Overlook

where we bring visitors

from a land-locked midwest

with a diminishing August

daylight mist off the Atlantic

knowing we are all stage-struck

passers-by on specks of land

windblown here whether

we do or do not witness this Dune

sand hill built by the aeolian process . . .

Our treasured land safe

from a decaying half-life of time

and tempests, nurturing now

exotic plants and animals

where once lonely sentries

in Ghost Towers kept watch

by day & unearthly nights,

targeting by triangulation

German submarines prowling

our shores; programmed

by madmen with desperate dreams

until their surrender here

restored natural harmonies:

say now with reverence . . .

piping plovers, shifting sands,

wind, water, air, sanderlings

majestic now from our

mini-Mt. Olympus-like view

and utopian spur of land.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to call attention to National Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month. While those with developmental disabilities in Delaware and around the country should be seen and heard throughout the year, we need to take this month to learn and become more aware of the issues facing these Americans.

As of last year, 186,592 Delawareans were living with a disability and, of those living with a disability, it is estimated that 1.8 percent, or 3,359 Delawareans, are living with a developmental disability. While major strides have been made in making facilities, services, and opportunities accessible, Americans with disabilities-- especially those with developmental disabilities--are still marginalized.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the career of Anthony DePrima, who is retiring from his position as Energize Delaware's Executive Director on March 17th.

Tony moved to the First State in the 1990's to work for the city government of Dover, the capital of my home state of Delaware. He rose from planning director to city manager, and always kept a special focus on green energy. Tony has been instrumental in bringing renewable energy and environmentally friendly energy production to our state.

Energize Delaware knew that Tony was the perfect choice as their first Executive Director when they brought him on board in 2011. Since then, he has overseen the nonprofit's expansion into several sectors and has had a constant passion for helping all Delawareans live more energy efficient lives. Tony was recently recognized for his work by the Delaware Business Times as Medium Nonprofit CEO of the Year in 2022.

Along with his work with Energize Delaware, Tony is the vice president of the Capital School District Board of Education, the board treasurer of NeighborGood Partners, the board treasurer of Kent County Conservancy, the past president of the Dover Library Foundation, and a member of the Capital City Rotary in Dover. Among it all, he found the time to earn a Ph.D. in Urban Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Delaware in 2018.

Tony DePrima's commitment to serving his community and the state of Delaware is nothing short of admirable. I am proud to salute him for his work and wish him all the best in retirement.

Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk, amendment No. 71.

Mr. Chair, I rise to offer an amendment that ensures that, under the rule of construction, nothing in this legislation may be understood to repudiate the fact that greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced significantly in order to meet our global agreement under the Paris Agreement.

Specifically, greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced by half from 2005 levels by 2030, and net-zero greenhouse gas emissions must be achieved by 2050 to meet this commitment.

We need legislative action that brings us closer to achieving our emissions goals, not further from it. In Delaware, as the State with the lowest mean elevation in the country, we feel the impacts of climate change every single day.

From our environmental justice communities in Wilmington, where when it rains, it floods; to our farmers, who must adjust to rising temperatures and deal with saltwater intrusion; to our coastal communities, where a sea level rise is an imminent threat to our homes, our economy, and our natural resources, we in Delaware are living among the escalating effects of climate change.

I know Delawareans are not alone in this. Wildfires and drought continue to ravage our Western States, and hurricanes are becoming more frequent and stronger across the Gulf Coast and East Coast.

All of us are feeling the impacts of climate change, which is why we must all work together to satisfy our commitment under the Paris Agreement to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. We need legislation that doesn't force us backward but, instead, propels us forward to a cleaner, safer, and more sustainable planet.

Mr. Chair, I urge the support of all of my colleagues on this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Chair, I demand a recorded vote.

Offered By: Ms. Blunt Rochester

Amendment No. 71: At the end, add the following:

Madam Speaker, today I rise to welcome home the distinguished Delawarean Bryan Stevenson and to

celebrate his impressive career fighting for fairness and equity in the criminal justice system.

Mr. Stevenson was born in the town of Milton, a rural community in southern Delaware. It was in the First State and at the Prospect African Methodist Episcopal Church where Mr. Stevenson started to nurture his belief in redemption that ``each person in our society is more than the worst thing they've ever done.'' Raised by a strong Sussex County family, Mr. Stevenson began to show the leadership and passion for public service that would propel him in life. At Cape Henlopen High School, he excelled academically and served as the student body president. He won several public speaking contests, demonstrating rhetorical prowess that would soon lead him to argue landmark cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. Mr. Stevenson would go on to earn a J.D. and M.P.P. from Harvard University and the position of Professor of Law at the New York University School of Law.

In 1989, Mr. Stevenson founded the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), a non-profit based in Montgomery, Alabama, that provides legal representation to wrongly convicted prisoners, especially Alabama prisoners on death row. One of EJI's first clients was Walter McMillian, a Black man convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of a young white woman. Due to Mr. Stevenson's systematic dismantling of the prosecution's case, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals ruled that Mr. McMillian's conviction was unconstitutional. The State of Alabama finally dropped charges after mounting evidence proved Mr. McMillian's innocence. On March 3, 1993, Mr. McMillian was released from death row and walked out of a courtroom a free man. At the time, Mr. McMillian was one of the first to be exonerated from death row since the end of the civil rights movement. Since Mr. McMillian was exonerated, Mr. Stevenson and EJI prevented more than 130 people from receiving the death penalty.

Mr. Stevenson personally argued several cases before the Supreme Court and won major landmark decisions reshaping American jurisprudence. In the 2012 case, Miller v Alabama, Mr. Stevenson successfully argued that the imposition of a mandatory life-sentence- without-parole for a juvenile violates the 8th Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. In the 2019 case, Madison v. Alabama, Mr. Stevenson successfully secured a ruling that would protect prisoners who suffer from dementia from execution. These cases before the Supreme Court demonstrate Mr. Stevenson's commitment to equity in the criminal justice system and prove that Mr. Stevenson is one of America's best public interest attorneys.

Yet the good works of Mr. Stevenson were not confined to his successes in the courtroom. In 2018, Mr. Stevenson and EJI opened two new museums in Montgomery to chronicle the legacy of slavery and racial segregation. The Legacy Museum chronicled the post-slavery evolution of racial violence in sharecropping, Jim Crow, and mass incarceration. The National Memorial for Peace and Justice records the names of 4,400 victims of lynchings from 1877 through 1950. Through EJI, he launched major efforts to address the legacy of slavery in America. EJI has published several studies on racial violence and inequities in the law and state constitutions, including the highly influential Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror. He also brought public attention to the racial injustices of the U.S. legal system as the author of the bestselling 2015 memoir Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption and adapted into the 2019 film, Just Mercy. Both the memoir and film received significant awards and nominations, including NAACP Image Awards, the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction, and the nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role at the 2020 Screen Actors Guild Awards.

On October 8, 2022, I will have the privilege to join the Town of Milton and the Milton Community Foundation to honor the selfless dedication of Mr. Stevenson. Our country is so blessed to have him as a steward of justice. As he has so eloquently said--we all have a responsibility to create a just society. How fortunate we are to have Bryan Stevenson as our leader of that movement.

Madam Speaker, I rise today with a heavy heart to honor and commemorate the life of former Wilmington City Councilwoman Rysheema Dixon. We lost Councilwoman Dixon unexpectedly and far too soon on September 16, 2022. During her 35 years of life, she demonstrated exceptional leadership, entrepreneurship, and dedication to public service. The people of Delaware, myself included, will profoundly miss Councilwoman Dixon and her inimitable spirit.

Councilwoman Dixon was born in Philadelphia and moved to Wilmington, Delaware, at the age of 15. After graduating from the University of Delaware in 2009 with a bachelor's degree in Sociology, she began her career by serving two terms with Public Allies Delaware. Public Allies, an AmeriCorps program at the University of Delaware's Center for Community Research and Service, recruits and trains emerging leaders with a passion for social justice and impact. In 2013, Councilwoman Dixon furthered her education, earning her master's degree from the University of Delaware. She would later return to her alma mater as an educator, to share the knowledge she had gained with the next generation of students, serving as a professor of social entrepreneurship.

Councilwoman Dixon was a true public servant. As the first Black woman and youngest candidate to win an at-large Wilmington City Council seat, she was an exceptional and tireless advocate for her community. During her time in office, she established a legacy of inclusion, creative policymaking, and fearlessness. Notably, Councilwoman Dixon served as Chair of the Community Development & Urban Planning Committee, Chair of the Health, Aging, & Disabilities Committee, and Vice Chair of the Public Safety Committee. Among her significant legislative accomplishments was the launch of Wilmington's first disparity study which would help ensure Wilmington City government used its purchasing power fairly and equitably. She also sponsored legislation promoting sex education, consent, and reproductive health.

In addition to her years of direct public service, I must also mention Councilwoman Dixon's entrepreneurial prowess and talents in business. In 2011, she founded RD Innovative Planning, now called RD Innovative Solutions. The organization aims to educate and support individuals advocating for more equitable access to affordable services and resources. With issues spanning from health care to nutrition, education, youth development, and beyond, RD Innovative Solutions offers support and advice. Councilwoman Dixon remained the Chief Executive Officer until her untimely passing.

Councilwoman Dixon also served as Executive Director of Delaware Pathways to Apprenticeship which helps individuals from low-income communities attain apprenticeships and sets them up for future success. The program serves particularly vulnerable groups including formerly incarcerated people, those on public assistance, and Delawareans living in public housing. This year, Councilwoman Dixon launched a Global Social Entrepreneurship program in Liberia to reach young people across the world.

I know I am in the company of so many Delawareans in my grief at Councilwoman Dixon's passing. She was a singular force in the First State and in our world, and we will never forget her kindness, tenacity, compassion, and service. I extend my deepest condolences to Councilwoman Dixon's parents and loved ones. Councilwoman Rysheema Dixon made a true difference in Delaware and beyond, and I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to know her. She will be missed and remembered forever.

Madam Speaker, today, I rise in support of the Inflation Reduction Act.

Oh, what a day in America. From lowering prescription drug prices for seniors, to closing tax loopholes on the wealthiest corporations, to making the largest investment in clean energy in history to tackle the climate crisis, the Inflation Reduction Act will help improve the lives of every single American. It will do it all while paying down the deficit.

I am particularly proud that the bill includes my climate smart ports provisions with my colleague, Ms. Barragan, which invests in ports across the Nation, like the Port of Wilmington, allowing them to upgrade their facilities, lower their carbon footprint, and create more good-paying union jobs.

Madam Speaker, in a session of Congress that has already seen remarkable landmark legislation passed, the Inflation Reduction Act is the capstone of our efforts to deliver. With this bill, we continue to put people over politics.