Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition to this resolution because the American people know that the biggest threat to our modern democratic society and free market economy is not some socialist bogeyman, it is Republican leaders in this Chamber, people who want to call every federally funded program that Americans depend on socialism just to scare people and position themselves to cut and gut the benefits that people count on.

Go back and look at the decades' worth of transcripts and see what Republicans call socialism to scare people--Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act. They even call free public school education socialism to scare people.

This vote is a sham. We have heard about Cuba a ton. My mother came here from Cuba in the late 1960s with my grandmother and my aunt. I won't let their story be used to gut the benefits that our people have earned and deserve. This vote has nothing to do with socialism and everything to do with gutting the programs that millions of Americans have paid into and have earned.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today because while we wasted our time on ridiculous resolutions, there are real and present attacks on freedom and democracy happening in my home State of Florida at the hands of our Governor, Ron DeSantis.

This week, our Governor launched a full-scale, fascist attack on a small and very important institution of higher learning, the New College of Florida.

In his quest to stoke culture war after culture war, Governor DeSantis stacked the board of trustees with ultraconservative lapdogs, who immediately fired the New College president and are now vowing a hostile takeover that will cause harm to the thousands of young, queer, and people of color who formerly considered New College a safe haven.

I know this school, and I love this school.

Governor DeSantis is waging a war on education.

We have to be clear: This isn't freedom. The people of Florida and the students of Florida will not let this happen without a fight.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today because our Nation continues to have blood on its hands. This week, we, once again, bore witness to the senseless murder of dozens of innocent people where States like California experienced three mass shootings in just 44 hours.

How many more sisters, brothers, siblings, parents, grandparents, and loved ones have to be senselessly shot and killed?

That doesn't sound like freedom to me. Our people deserve the freedom to live without the fear of gun violence, the freedom to go to the grocery store, to school, and to live life for God's sakes.

When will we stop valuing guns more than human life?

Can anyone in this Chamber look a parent in the eyes who just lost a child due to gun violence and tell them that their child isn't worth meaningful action?

Because I won't.

Yet, here we are today, another shooting, another day, and another community devastated due to senseless gun violence.

Madam Speaker, we heard the word ``shameful'' a lot during this debate, but what is really shameful is the fact that my Democratic colleagues and I are willing to both say we condemn all violence and also put it on paper.

With my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, all we hear is talk. They are not willing to condemn all violence in this resolution.

It is a one-sided resolution meant to fan the flames of anti-abortion and anti-freedom sentiment in this country.

See, my district in central Florida sees these sentiments in action as our Governor has passed an abortion ban and looks to go even further.

As someone whose birth mother made the brave and difficult decision to put me up for adoption, I recognize that that decision was deeply personal and can often mark one of the most vulnerable points in a person's life. No one should take advantage of that, and the Federal Government should actually protect it.

I will continue to fight for civil rights, personal freedom, and bodily autonomy of women and childbearing adults in this country, and I hope the rest of this Chamber will join me in voting ``no.''