Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in memory of Muhlaysia Booker, a courageous 23-year-old Black transgender woman in Dallas who was found fatally shot this weekend.

Muhlaysia's name has been in the news a lot. Recently, she suffered a brutal beating by a group of men who screamed transphobic slurs at her as they assaulted her. The attack was captured on video, and it made you sick to your stomach to see the level of transgender hate that is so strong and prevalent in this country.

Muhlaysia's death is devastating for the Black transgender community in Dallas, but it is also part of a much larger trend that shows the violence, discrimination, and fear that the transgender and LGBTQ communities face on a daily basis.

Deaths in the trans community are underreported, and the adversity they face is on clear display.

The unemployment rate for the Black transgender community is 20 percent, close to four times the national average; 38 percent have lived in poverty, and 42 percent have experienced homelessness.

Even with all the odds stacked against them, Black transgender women like Muhlaysia choose to live their life in truth. They show courage, strength, and great personal sacrifice in the fight for equality.

Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues in the Senate to join the House by passing the Equality Act. We must do everything in our power to stop the discrimination and violence in our neighborhoods.

Our brothers and sisters are dying out there. We need the inaction to stop.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor Robert Martinez, 14th President of the International Association of Machinist and Aerospace Workers.

Robert Martinez is a fighter for the working man. His current role as President of the IAM is just one of many titles he has carried over 36 years of fighting for union workers and working families.

After serving his country in the Navy, he began his IAM career as a member of Local 776A in Fort Worth, TX and was hired as an Aircraft Assembler at Lockheed Martin.

At the IAM, Robert has actively recruited and made a point to reach new generations of workers, all the while protecting its nearly 600,000 active and retired members. Throughout his career, Bob has held positions at the local level and worked his way up to become the General Vice President of the office of Southern Territory, where he oversaw training and education for 14 southern states.

He also served as General Vice President of IAM Headquarters where he was responsible for the William H. Winpisinger Education and Technology Center, and IAM's Government Employees and Aerospace sectors.

Robert has been a vocal activist for labor rights in the Latino community. In 2018, he received the Cesar Chavez Award for his distinguished work on behalf of the Latino working women and men.

He currently services as the Vice President on the Executive Board of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement.

I honor and recognize Robert Martinez's 36 years of service to union workers.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate Christene Moss for 29 years of dedicated service to our community as a trustee on the Fort Worth Independent School District Board of Education.

Christene has dedicated her time on the board to improving children's literacy by working with parents and teachers to close the achievement gap and pushing to create a facility for homeless students.

Christene, who is from Lake Como, Texas, now living in Carver Heights in the Stop Six community, spearheaded projects for the board of education, including creating the Fort Worth ISD's first community forum and working to reinstate music and art programs into the school curriculum.

In 2013, she also made history becoming the board's first Black president. For years, Christene has been an active member of the Texas Caucus of Black School Board Members where she served as president and helped to mentor the next generation of Black leaders.

Her passion for the community will be enshrined in our neighborhood through the children's library, and elementary school named in her honor.

We will miss Christene's service on the board, but we are very grateful for her decades of service and the legacy that she has left behind for students in Fort Worth.

We wish her the very best as she moves on to the next chapter in her life.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to offer my greatest congratulations to Michael Ortiz Ayala and Esperanza Padilla Ayala for their 70th wedding anniversary.

On this special anniversary, I'm delighted to know Michael and Esperanza are surrounded by their loving family including their three children: Carlos, Dolores and Teresa; and their nine grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. They join this lovely couple in celebrating the love and partnership they have shared for nearly three quarters of a century. The love shared between these two continues to inspire their friends and all their loved ones in Fort Worth.

I'm delighted to wish them many more years together.

Mr. Speaker, last week the city of Fort Worth said good- bye to its last surviving member of the World War II Tuskegee Airmen, Robert T. McDaniel.

Born in Fort Worth, Mr. McDaniel was a proud graduate of Fort Worth ISD, where he excelled as a student. In 1940, he finished as class president and valedictorian at the venerable I.M. Terrell High School.

At a time when the military was still segregated and Black men were not welcomed in the service, Mr. McDaniel became a member of the first class of African American bombardiers in the U.S. Army Air Corps. He was part of a group of skilled Black airmen who flew combat aircraft in World War II.

After serving his country, Mr. McDaniel returned to Fort Worth to teach at I.M. Terrell and later became a principal and a counselor. In this role, he worked to inspire a generation of leaders in Fort Worth's Black community that is countless.

As many of his friends will tell you, Mr. McDaniel never boasted about his military service, and only a few people knew about his service to the Nation as a Tuskegee Airman.

I know that we are going to miss Mr. McDaniel.

I also wanted to touch on the fact that I will never forget when his wife, Hester, died. They were married for 55 years, and they were an institution in the Black community in Fort Worth. Everybody knew them. They were just a lovely couple. He was so sad when she passed away. They were always at each other's side.

While we will miss Mr. McDaniel, we know that he is happy to be reunited with his wife, Hester McDaniel.

My deepest condolences go out to his family and his friends as we reflect on the trails that he blazed and his deep commitment to our country.

Madam Speaker, I rise today proud of the passage of H.R. 1--the 'For the People Act.' H.R. 1 not only restores faith back into our elections; it's a promise that House Democrats will deliver to the American public.

Despite what Mitch McConnell says, H.R. 1 is not a ``power grab.'' It's a plan to restore public confidence back into our electoral system. It says, in our democracy, everyone's voice and vote must count. So again--let's recap all the good H.R. 1 will do: it will increase access to the ballot box, end gerrymandering, create automatic voter registration; limit the power of restrictive voter ID laws, and make critical investments in election infrastructure and technology.

We all know Republicans have intentionally rigged our system of free and fair elections in their favor. Republican governors and state legislatures across the country have suppressed voting among: communities of color; poor people; seniors; and people with disabilities, using targeted, racist voting laws.

The right to vote, our most basic democratic right, is under siege. But today, with the passage of H.R. 1, we say enough is enough. We're putting an end to the Republican culture of voter intimidation. We are giving power back to the people.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life of my dear friend, Dionne Phillips Bagsby.

Dionne was a very strong leader in the Fort Worth community. She served as a role model to so many people, including myself, and she really was driven by her work to desegregate the Fort Worth schools when she first came to Fort Worth. That really spurred her to run for the county commissioner's seat in precinct one in 1988.

When she ran, she became the first woman and the first African American to become a Tarrant County commissioner. She did a tremendous job for Tarrant County and the city of Fort Worth.

Throughout her 16-year tenure, Dionne fought to improve public education and increase access to health resources for women and children. Her former precinct administrator, who is now the county commissioner, Roy Charles Brooks, said it best when he said that Dionne was not a politician, she was a public servant.

In 2005, I was proud to be a part of the Texas Legislature and honor her for a lifetime of service.

Again, she was a mentor and mentored so many young women throughout Fort Worth who sought to replicate her success. She helped them aspire to careers that would challenge the norm. She always encouraged those young women to never give up. Dionne broke barriers for the African American community, for women, for the disadvantaged, for the disabled, and for so many others, including myself.

Mr. Speaker, I will tell you and will be honest with you, if you ever met Dionne, you will know that she was very much into straight talk. She did not mince words, and she always cut right to the chase. But I will also tell you, as I mentioned before, that Dionne was a tremendous mentor.

When I was elected to the State Legislature in 2004, Dionne was the first person to call me up, and we went and had lunch. When I got married later, she called my wife and me up, and we went and had lunch with her. When I came to Congress and was elected in 2012, she was one of the first people to call me up, and she; Lorraine Miller, who was a former Clerk of the House here; my wife; and I all went and had dinner. She was more than happy to dispense good advice that was very, very helpful to me.

Mr. Speaker, Dionne was also very instrumental in bringing a lot of firsts to Fort Worth. I mentioned her work with the schools, her being the first Black and first woman on the county commissioners court. But her legacy still lives today through The Links. She was one of the legacy members of The Links in Fort Worth. The Greater Fort Worth Area Negro Business and Professional Women's Club, she got a national charter for that venerable organization and had the first meeting in her living room in southeast Fort Worth.

Mr. Speaker, if you ever went to any of Dionne's receptions while she was still in office between that 1988 and 2005 time period, you will know that one of the things that she liked to do was give shout-outs. She gave shout-outs to everybody from people in her family to the person who was her trainer.

I am going to give a shout-out to some of her family members and special friends today--and everybody back home, please forgive me if I have left out anyone--her daughter, Dionne Anne Jones; her son, Jimmy Bagsby; her husband who preceded her in death who was also on the Fort Worth City Council, Jim Bagsby; her grandchildren, Kirbe, Josiah, Kelli, and Elijah; and her brother, Paul Phillips.

She had so many friends whom she would like to give shout-outs to, including one who preceded her in death, Dr. Erma Johnson Hadley, her dear friend; Norma Roby; Bob Sanders; Jesse Gaines; again, Lorraine Miller; Gwendolyn Morrison; Viney Chandler; and, again, County Commissioner Roy Charles Brooks, who was also someone Dionne mentored and who was her precinct administrator before he became county commissioner. He also was a very, very dear friend.

We lost a giant in Fort Worth by losing Dionne. She will be missed because she was a friend to so many and always had so many colorful, wonderful, and humorous things to say. But I can tell you that our city is better off and our county is better off because Dionne Bagsby moved to Fort Worth with her husband and helped make it a better place for everybody.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of Federal workers across the country.

Right now, in Dallas, Texas, the American Federation of Government Employees local chapter, or AFGE, is organizing a rally to hold the President accountable for this shutdown.

Today, the President is finally making his first official visit to the Texas-Mexico border. He will be visiting McAllen, a town that I have visited on numerous occasions and have many friends, and I adore and love the town.

In 2018, McAllen saw their lowest crime rate in 30 years. And let's be clear: Democrats care about border security. We care about stopping crime. But we won't roll over because the President is getting frustrated that the majority of Americans don't want his wall, plain and simple.

The President and Senate Republicans are choosing political self- interest over our families. The members of the Dallas chapter of AFGE are real people who are facing two real burdens as a direct result of this shutdown. They are struggling to pay for rent and groceries.

The gut punch is that the President is far more concerned with his base in 2020 than securing the well-being of over 800,000 families.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life of a Black icon in the Fort Worth community, Reby Cary.

Reby lived a monumental life, and as the former Fort Worth Star- Telegram columnist Bobby Ray Sanders expressed: ``He was an activist from the heart, and he was not afraid.''

He was among the first African Americans to graduate from the U.S. Coast Guard radioman school in New Jersey and the first African American to be elected to the Fort Worth Independent School District. He shared many of the successes of Black pioneers in the community, many of whom didn't receive the accolades they deserved in what was then a segregated society.

After serving multiple tours in World War II, Mr. Cary came back to Tarrant County, where he started teaching history at Dunbar High School when it was a new high school.

He later became the first Black instructor at Tarrant County Junior College. He went on to serve three terms in the Texas House of Representatives, continuing to serve his Carver Heights community and all of Fort Worth.

Mr. Cary was a proud member of The New Rising Star Missionary Baptist Church in Fort Worth. He credited God for the many blessings that came his way and his mother for keeping him on what he called ``the straight and narrow.''

He wanted to tell Black Fort Worth's story, and he wanted to ensure that the history of the African American community was documented and remembered for generations to come. He became a Black historian and authored 20 books about the history of African Americans in north Texas.

My condolences go out to his family and friends. His presence will be missed but never forgotten.

I also want to let all of his friends know in Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, his church, and all of the organizations that he volunteered for in Fort Worth just how important that legacy was for him.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 4254, the Women in Aerospace Education Act. I want to thank Mr. Knight and Ms. Esty for introducing this very important piece of legislation.

Women continue to be underrepresented in the aerospace sector. For example, a 2016 analysis revealed that over the past 15 years, women have made up, on average, just 15 percent of NASA's planetary mission science teams.

While there has been increasing interest in supporting women's advancement in all STEM fields, particularly on the Science, Space, and Technology Committee, the low representation of women on NASA's planetary science mission teams has remained largely unchanged. I am heartened by recent efforts at NASA to tackle the issue of diversity on its planetary science mission teams.

The 2016 New Frontiers 4 call for proposals included new language highlighting the benefits of diverse and inclusive mission teams. I was pleased to see that one of the finalists for this competition, the Dragonfly mission to Saturn's moon Titan, is led by a woman.

Additionally, one of the two missions selected in 2017 for NASA's Discovery Program, the Psyche mission to a metallic asteroid, is also led by a woman. The principal investigator of the Psyche mission, Dr. Lindy Elkins-Tanton, is now the second woman to lead a competitive planetary science mission for NASA.

Yesterday's successful landing of NASA's InSight spacecraft on the surface of Mars offers another reason to feel optimistic. The team of scientists and engineers that made the groundbreaking landing possible included 135 women, or about 25 percent of the team. To build on this progress, H.R. 4254 addresses the challenges in recruiting and retaining talented women in aerospace by directing NASA to promote internship and fellowship opportunities to women. The bill also directs NSF to include research experiences at National Laboratories and NASA centers in the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program.

Research has shown that the best teams are those in which good ideas are heard. Gender diversity on NASA's planetary science missions and in the aerospace sector more broadly will lead to more diverse questions and approaches to solutions. To get the best science, we need more women in aerospace, and H.R. 4254 will help to get us there.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my fellow Members to support H.R. 4254, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to support S. 1768 to reauthorize the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program.

I want to thank Senators Feinstein and Murkowski for developing this good legislation. I also would like to thank my colleagues, Representatives Rohrabacher and Jayapal, for introducing a House companion, and the chairs and ranking members of the authorizing committees for working to arrive at the consensus legislation we are considering today.

The years 1964 and 1994 mark two of the worst earthquakes in U.S. history. Hundreds of people lost their lives, and thousands sustained injuries in these earthquakes that hit Alaska and the Northridge neighborhood of Los Angeles.

Economic losses were in the billions of dollars resulting from earthquakes and tsunamis. While our Nation has been in the path of many disastrous natural events lately, we have been spared from a big earthquake for many years. But we should not become complacent, because another big earthquake will happen, and the human and economic toll will be felt far beyond the immediate disaster zone.

S. 1768 makes Federal investments in research and preparedness activities that will help mitigate earthquake risks for Americans from coast to coast. Specifically, S. 1768 reauthorizes funding for the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Geological Survey, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to continue to carry out research and other activities under the NEHRP program.

Under NEHRP, NSF and USGS carry out fundamental research in the earth sciences. Both agencies have extensive networks of instrumentation that record seismic activity and advance our understanding of the onset, propagation, and intensity of earthquakes. Such research helps advance our early-warning capability and helps communities make informed decisions for earthquake preparation.

NIST is the lead agency for NEHRP and also carries out applied research that provides the scientific basis for earthquake resilient building codes and design guidelines. This bill aims to help communities survive a catastrophic event and continue with critical operations, such as emergency services, utilities, and communication networks.

FEMA provides earthquake training and awareness to States and territories and assists communities in creating seismic mitigation plans in the event of a high-impact earthquake. These activities are invaluable in preparing communities for an earthquake and its aftermath.

The last NEHRP reauthorization was nearly 15 years ago, and the authorizing law needs several updates to ensure it is keeping pace with the state of the science on earthquakes and translating that science into saving lives and property.

The bill before us today includes those much-needed updates and, importantly, provides NEHRP agencies with the needed authority to continue these investments with greater budgetary certainty for the next 5 years.

I appreciate my colleagues working on this bill in a bipartisan fashion in the House and Senate, and I urge support for this bill.

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

Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, my colleagues, Representatives Kind, Davis, H. Johnson, Wasserman Schultz, and I, as co-chairs and members of the Congressional Caucus on Youth Sports, would like to honor Triangle Volleyball Club of Morrisville, North Carolina for being the winner of the 2018 S.T.R.I.V.E. (Sports Teach Respect, Initiative, Values and Excellence) Organization of the Year Award.

Each year, the National Council of Youth Sports (NCYS) recognizes five finalist organizations that strongly meet the ``kids first'' approach, evidenced by their implementation of best practices and policies that protect kids and promote safety. The award, sponsored by AIG, is presented to the organization that the voters feel most exhibits heartfelt passion and shows a committed spirit to helping kids succeed in sports, while maintaining a commitment to safety procedures. This year, Triangle Volleyball Club was selected from four other excellent finalists: Baltimore SquashWise of Baltimore, Maryland; O'Fallon Little Panthers of O'Fallon, Illinois; Police Athletic League of Buffalo, New York; and Snider Youth Hockey of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Comprised of the who's who in the youth sports industry, NCYS was founded in 1979, and its membership represents more than 200 organizations and corporations serving over 60 million registered participants in organized youth sports programs. NCYS is the largest known organization in America representing the youth sports industry, and its members include organizations such as Little League Baseball, American Youth Soccer Organization, Jewish Community Centers Association of North America, YMCA of America, Pop Warner, and Special Olympics North America.

Triangle Volleyball Club is being recognized for how it places the health and safety of their athletes as their top priority while also competing at the very highest level of girls' junior club volleyball. Furthermore, Triangle Volleyball Club deserves this distinction for its commitment to educate the whole person through excellence in the sport of volleyball and the inclusion of service projects working with the disabled (veterans and young people) through sitting volleyball and leadership in adaptive sitting volleyball development and outreach.

Triangle Volleyball Club is just one example of many great youth sports organizations in this country, and we likewise commend all those that work and volunteer to allow the youth this Nation to gain the benefits of youth sports participation and helping to prepare our next generation of leaders.

We commend Triangle Volleyball Club for this wonderful achievement, and the great work they are doing.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Robert Martinez, 14th President of the International Association of Machinist and Aerospace Workers.

Robert Martinez is a fighter for the working man. His current role as President of the IAM is just one of many titles he has carried over 36 years of fighting for union workers.

After serving his country in the Navy, he began his IAM career as a member of Local 776A in Fort Worth, TX after being hired as an Aircraft Assembler at Lockheed Martin.

At the IAM, Mr. Martinez has actively recruited and made a point to reach new generations of workers while protecting its nearly 600,000 active and retired members. Throughout his career, Bob has held positions at the local level and worked his way up to become the General Vice President of the office of Southern Territory, where he oversaw training and education for 14 southern states.

He also served as General Vice President of IAM Headquarters where he was responsible for the William H. Winpisinger Education and Technology Center, and IAM's Government Employees and Aerospace sectors.

Bob has been a vocal activist for labor rights in the Latino community.

He recently received the Cesar Chavez Award for his distinguished work on behalf of Latino working women and men. He currently serves as the Vice President on the Executive Board of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement.

I honor Robert Martinez for his 36 years of service to union workers.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to bring attention to Botham Jean.

Botham Jean was from the island of St. Lucia. He moved to Dallas, went to college, and got a good job. As soon as he moved to Dallas, he joined a church because he was a Christian and very much into the Word of Jesus Christ.

On a Friday night a few weeks ago, he was in his apartment doing the right thing at 10 o'clock at night, probably trying to relax and unwind from the workday, and a Dallas police officer mistakenly came into his house and shot and killed him.

My prayers are with Botham's family and friends.

Officer Amber Guyger, who killed Botham, has been charged with manslaughter, even though she aimed, pulled, and fired the trigger. The last five people in Dallas County who have been charged with manslaughter have been charged with that charge because of drunk driving. She was charged with manslaughter even though she aimed, again, and pulled the trigger.

The Dallas Police Department fired Guyger on Monday amid overwhelming outrage in the community. I think it was the right decision, but it was long overdue.

I want to be clear. I respect law enforcement in this country and their sacrifices. But also, if we look at the facts of this case, the facts show us that Officer Guyger shot an unarmed Black man in his own apartment, and she was able to go back to her apartment that night. She had days before police finally arrested her, and she was given the benefit of the doubt, something that was not given to Botham Jean.

I firmly believe that if Officer Guyger had walked into that apartment and seen a White man or a White woman, she would not have pulled that trigger. I firmly believe that. That is the root of the problem. What I can say with certainty is that I am tired of waiting for a time when it is safe to be a Black man in America.

I have a 12-year-old son. Other Congressional Black Caucus members have kids and grandkids, sons and grandsons. Other people around the country have sons, grandsons, and nephews whom they love and want to be safe every day.

America is at the brink of a prolonged watershed moment between the African-American community and police officers in this country. We need action. We need to collectively break the dam. As a Nation, we need to fix the culture of police brutality and gun violence against communities of color that have lined the fabric of this country for over a century.

Our criminal justice system is rooted in a systemic failure to prosecute the

unjustified shooting of Black men and boys.

I am deeply troubled that the Texas Rangers took so long to issue an arrest warrant for Amber Guyger. I am angry that people are actually calling Botham's character into account because he had a very small amount of marijuana in his apartment: 0.3 ounces.

We will never know what was in Amber Guyger's apartment because, again, it was 36 hours before a warrant was issued for her arrest. Police didn't go and search her apartment. She had days to clear out her apartment, if there was anything in there, but we will never know because it took them so long to issue an arrest warrant after she walked into someone's apartment that was not her own and, again, aimed, fired, and pulled the trigger.

I am heartbroken that this man was killed in his own apartment, a place where all of us should feel safe. But what gets me most upset is that nothing has changed. This is a story that we have heard on repeat, and the dial will keep spinning until we put an end to it.

We all know the names, and there have been too many to share, but I just wanted to remind you of a few.

In South Carolina, Levar Jones was stopped at a gas station. He was instructed by police officers to get his license. He had his hands up. As he was reaching for his license, the police shot him, after being instructed to get his license and insurance out of the car.

In Florida, Charles Kinsey was shot while taking care of an autistic patient. Go back and look at the YouTube videos of these. You don't have to take my word. He is sitting on the curb, taking care of this autistic patient, hands up in the air, and police shoot him.

Antwon Rose from east Pittsburgh was 17 years old. He was unarmed, with his hands up, and shot by a policeman.

Go and look at the videos. Their lives have all been cut short. Males in the Black community have been unjustly killed in our country at a staggering rate. We need law enforcement to be transparent in the line of duty and we need to work diligently to remove biases for those ranks. I hope that is something we can do together. Don't think it can't be your rights next. Don't think they won't tread on you.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life and legacy of Zebedee ``Zeb'' Strong.

Zeb was from Kilgore, Texas, and was raised on a cattle farm down in the oilfields there. But when he came to Arlington and settled in that city, he left a strong legacy.

He worked at his alma mater, which was the University of Texas at Arlington, known as UTA, for 25 years. As director of multicultural services and recruitment, he really embodied the spirit of the UTA campus. He served as an adviser for over 40 student organizations and mentored so many students.

Zeb was someone whom I first met when I was a congressional staffer back in the 1990s, and he was someone who really helped me out a lot as I was beginning my career in that field.

He was also dedicated and committed to volunteer work at Big Brothers & Big Sisters, and he was also one of the individuals who was really the driving force behind starting an African American studies program at UTA.

He was also one of the founders of the Arlington African American Chamber of Commerce and the Arlington chapter of the NAACP.

My prayers and condolences go out to his four children and his wife, Sheri, who lost Zeb unexpectedly.

But I want the family and friends of Zeb Strong to know that he was such a uniting force. If you walked around the campus of UTA at any moment, anyone, from any background, would come up to Zeb and they would feel like Zeb was their best friend because that was just the type of gentleman that he was.

My prayers, again, go out to the family