Maxwell Frost

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life of SEIU-FPSU President Alphonso Mayfield, a beloved labor leader and tireless champion across the State of Florida and across the South.

Alphonso was a young, Black labor leader from the South who understood the struggles of working-class families and dedicated his life to advancing economic and social justice.

For more than 25 years with the SEIU, including serving as president since 2010, he fought tirelessly for union members, securing important victories and inspiring countless workers to stand together in solidarity. He understood that the true power of our communities rests in the hands of working people united with a common purpose.

Alphonso led with love and an unwavering commitment that rests in the hands of working people.

As we mourn his loss, we must also honor his legacy by continuing the work that he dedicated his life to.

My deep condolences to his family and all touched by his leadership.

May his memory continue to be a blessing, and may his vision continue to guide us forward.

Mr. Speaker, I strongly oppose the Protecting Privacy in Purchases Act.

Sponsors claim this bill prevents the privacy of gun owners, but in reality, it protects mass shooters, terrorists, gun traffickers, and the profits of the firearms industry.

Financial institutions have already been using merchant codes to detect crimes like money laundering and human trafficking. They should be allowed to use that same responsible monitoring to help prevent gun violence.

I know personally why this matters. The Pulse nightclub shooter opened up six new credit cards in 8 months. He racked up more than $26,000 in credit card charges on guns and ammunition in the days before his killing spree in the middle of my district in my home of Orlando, Florida.

Our system failed to turn those warning signs into an alert for police. He murdered 49 angels in my community and wounded another 49.

Instead of helping to prevent the next tragedy, this bill makes it easier for those warning signs to be missed yet again. It strips law enforcement of an essential tool to stop violence before it happens, making every community in our Nation less safe.

For this reason, at the appropriate time, I will offer a motion to recommit this bill back to committee. If the House rules permitted, I would have offered an important amendment to make clear that nothing in this bill should prevent law enforcement from using merchant category codes to assist in investigating and preventing acts of terrorism.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to insert the text of this amendment into the Record immediately prior to the vote on the motion to recommit.

Mr. Speaker, I hope my colleagues will join me in voting for the motion to recommit.

Mr. Speaker, I think it is important to say because we hear over and over from our colleagues about the Constitution: If using merchant category codes violated the Fourth Amendment, where is your bill on amending this for every purchase at a pharmacy, liquor store, or casino?

This is a standard accounting tool that is used by banks. This argument, unless you are going to follow it up with legislation to essentially make it illegal to track and have the same codes, which is just a four-digit number, for pharmacies, casinos, liquor, and other things as well, the argument falls flat. Law enforcement needs to go through a legal process to access the financial records here.

Mr. Speaker, it is not a good argument. We are talking about something that doesn't track what you are buying. It doesn't track the guns you are buying. It won't tell them that, but it is just a general tool to help us stop some of the worst of the worst mass shootings.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, 10 years ago today, in my home district, in Orlando, a man walked into Pulse nightclub, opened fire, and killed 49 innocent angels.

The pain from that day still hasn't subsided in our community. I still feel the same despair, anger, and fear that I felt that day, the day this tragedy happened.

I remember getting the call. I wasn't home at the time. I knew the area very well because, in high school, I got an internship to be a techie at a music venue in downtown Orlando, so I knew a lot of the people who worked at a lot of the clubs.

I was in Fort Myers, working my first campaign, when I got the call that this had happened. I was actually about to perform with the local symphony there for the first time, but I got in my car and drove back home.

At the time, Pulse was the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history. Since then, there have been over 4,500 more shootings across this Nation. It is 10 years later, and absolutely nothing has changed. It is still too easy to acquire a gun.

Congress has failed to pass commonsense laws, like universal background checks, or to pass an assault weapons ban. If you are outraged by hearing this, you should be. I am outraged that I have spent about the last 15 years of my life fighting for gun violence prevention, and we are still in the same place.

I don't want to live in a country or in an America where people can walk into schools, grocery stores, churches, concerts, nightclubs, and immediately look for the nearest exit.

I will always remember the first time I had an elementary school come visit me here from my district when I first got into Congress, my first year. I was really excited. I stayed up really late, practicing what questions I would ask them to inspire them to learn more about government.

One of the questions I asked was: If you were a Congressperson, what law would you pass? I was excited to hear ice cream for dinner, no homework, and soda in the water fountain.

I picked this little girl. I think she was 7 or 8 years old. She told me: I would ban assault weapons so I don't get shot in school.

Today, I hold the victims of Pulse and their loved ones in my heart. Pulse was more than just a nightclub. It was a place of joy, community, and belonging for Orlando's LGBTQ+ community. On that night, as people gathered for Latin night, the attack also devastated Orlando's Latino community, as well.

We will continue the fight because I do believe that the best way to honor their lives is to honor their lives with action.

I remember when I first got involved in this, I always had this sticker on my driver's license that a lot of young people put on their license at this point. It said that if I die due to gun violence, politicize my death to make sure it doesn't happen to anyone else ever again.

So, after every shooting, I will always speak out because true justice is more than words. It is ensuring that we do not live in a country where the leading cause of death for a child is a bullet, because that is the reality of the United States of America in 2026.

We honor their lives. We don't just remember how they died, but how they lived. We remember the fact that it was a preventable death and that this body has done nothing to ensure it never happens again. There is a lot more work to do.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my community in Orlando to continue to speak out and to keep fighting and remembering, and we will do the same.