Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize renowned psychologist, scholar, research scientist, author, and professor, Dr. Edmund Wyatt Gordon of Pomona, New York. Professor Gordon, who turns 102 on June 13, 2023, is one of our nation's preeminent thinkers on improving the academic outcomes for children from marginalized and disenfranchised backgrounds. His decades of scholarship, leadership, and mentorship demonstrate his commitment to eliminating race-based discrimination and ensuring the political, educational, social, and economic equality of all Americans.

Dr. Gordon was born in 1921 in the segregated town of Goldsboro, North Carolina. Education was a core value in the Gordon family; his parents, an elementary school teacher and a Jamaican-born doctor, encouraged him to focus on school. After graduating high school, he studied at Howard University, where he earned bachelor's degrees in Zoology and in Social Ethics in Divinity. He then received a master's degree in Social Psychology from American University and a Doctor of Education in Child Development and Guidance from Teachers College at Columbia University, where he developed a friendship with W.E.B. Du Bois.

Through his years of education, Dr. Gordon became an expert in child development and devoted his career to uncovering and remedying the issues and challenges faced by non-white students in American schools. He was one of the first scholars to observe the ``achievement gap,'' or the disparity in measurable academic performance among students from different socioeconomic and racial backgrounds. He was one of the first to argue for the importance of understanding students' unique perspectives and contexts to provide the best educational support possible, preemptively advocating for affirmative development in academic ability and supplementary education to improve the academic outcomes for diverse learners.

Professor Gordon has been widely recognized as one of the leading Black psychologists of his time. His work has shaped our current understanding of child psychology and education. He has authored 18 books, published more than 200 articles, and mentored countless professionals of color who today occupy leadership positions at top universities and social policy institutions.

Dr. Gordon's scholarship has been highly impactful on social policy to improve the educational outcomes for students of color. His early research was cited in the landmark case, Brown v. Board of Education, to prove to the Supreme Court that school segregation harmed children. President Lyndon B. Johnson commissioned Dr. Gordon to design the Head Start program, which provided childhood education and services to under-resourced families. Professor Gordon worked to ensure that Head Start also addressed societal factors that impeded the educational development of low-income and historically

marginalized students. Under his leadership, Head Start became one of our most successful and effective programs to address poverty and combat systemic racial injustice.

Professor Gordon has held appointments at several of our nation's leading universities, including the City University of New York, Columbia, Harvard, Howard, Stanford, Yale, and Yeshiva Universities. He served as the founding director of Teachers College at Columbia's Institute for Urban and Minority Education, which was recently renamed in Dr. Gordon's honor to recognize his impactful scholarship and service.

As a long-time member and former president of the Spring Valley NAACP, Dr. Gordon has demonstrated a lifelong commitment to eliminating race-based discrimination, including in his, and my, home community. In 2000, Professor Gordon and his wife, Dr. Susan Gitt Gordon, founded the CEJJES Institute and Library in Pomona, New York. The Institute, which sits on route NY-45 in Rockland County, is dedicated to improving the educational and social conditions of marginalized communities, especially the Black community, through providing resources for supplementary education, including community-based activities and learning experiences for students and their families.

Dr. Gordon has been widely applauded for his contributions as a preeminent scholar in African American Studies and child development. He has been elected as a fellow to several prestigious organizations, including the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The Educational Testing Service established the Edmund W. Gordon Chair for Evaluation and Research in his honor. He has also received countless awards recognizing his service from organizations and publications including the American Educational Research Association, Diverse: Issues in Higher Education magazine, and the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, as well as honorary degrees from Bank Street, Brown, Howard, Mount Holyoke, Columbia, Yale, and Yeshiva Universities. These accolades recognize Dr. Gordon's lasting contributions to developments in supplementary and compensatory education, child development, and school desegregation.

As someone who has known and admired Dr. Gordon since I was a young boy, I can personally attest to his contributions to our Rockland County community, and to my own trajectory to the United States Congress.

Madam Speaker, I ask my colleagues in the House of Representatives to join me in recognizing the accomplishments and legacy of Dr. Gordon. A trailblazer, he has been a lifelong advocate for the Black community and an early champion of psychological and innovative techniques to improve the academic outcomes for historically marginalized communities. Professor Edmund Wyatt Gordon's seven decades of selfless contributions through scholarship, research, teaching, and mentorship are unparalleled and will continue to advance equity in education.

Mr. Speaker, today, I cast one of the proudest votes I will ever cast in this body. I was a ``yea'' on the Respect for Marriage Act.

When I was elected to this body, I became one of the first two openly gay Black Members ever to serve in Congress. Growing up closeted, I never imagined that Congress would pass a bill like this, or I would be in a position to introduce it with Representative Nadler.

I was too young to remember Congress passing the Defense of Marriage Act, but I know exactly where I was when the Supreme Court struck it down in the United States v. Windsor. I had just graduated law school, and I was studying for the bar exam. At the time, because of moderates like Justice Kennedy, I still had faith that the Supreme Court was committed to protecting my basic civil rights as a gay American.

That was a different Supreme Court than the one we have today. The far-right supermajority on the Supreme Court is on a rampage against fundamental rights. As members of the LGBTQ+ community prepare to face the worst assault on our rights in a decade, Congress must do whatever it takes to protect our humanity.

This bill is a great first step. It ensures that the Federal Government will not discriminate against same-sex and interracial couples who have been legally married. But Congress must also pass other legislation to ensure marriage equality as the law of the land.

Mr. Speaker, I would conclude by simply saying that I am very grateful to this Congress and to be in this place.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for his leadership.

This bill really should be uncontroversial. But, unfortunately, our Nation's largest tech companies don't want any changes to the status quo. They are content with little to no antitrust enforcement. They are content with their own Gilded Age.

I regret, deeply regret, that some of my colleagues have agreed to do their bidding. It is consumers and small business owners who are paying the price in an economy that increasingly only works for large corporations and for the ultra-wealthy.

Our antitrust enforcement system is beyond outdated. The last time Congress updated the merger filing fees was in 2001, long before companies like Amazon, Facebook, and Apple began their anticompetitive and monopolistic frenzy of acquisitions.

This bill updates those filing fees and ensures that our antitrust agencies have the resources they need to effectively combat the growing concentration and monopolization of our economy in the hands of the largest corporations.

I urge my colleagues to stand up to Big Tech and our largest corporations and to vote for this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of my bill, H.R. 6267, to designate the post office located at 15 Chestnut Street in Suffern, New York, as the Sergeant Gerald T. ``Jerry'' Donnellan Post Office.

I am humbled to honor the late Sergeant Jerry Donnellan, whose memory brings great pride to all of us in New York's 17th Congressional District.

Mr. Donnellan was a Valley Cottage native and a three-time Purple Heart recipient who served in Vietnam as a U.S. Army sergeant. During an ambush, he was wounded and lost his lower right leg to a grenade. He underwent countless surgeries and extensive physical therapy before returning home to Rockland County in 1970.

Against all odds, Mr. Donnellan persevered. He learned to walk again alongside his newborn son. He even pursued his passion for theater and built a successful career as a stage manager for nearly two decades, including for Frank Sinatra.

But he never lost his love for public service. In 1986, when he learned of high rates of servicemember and veteran suicides, Mr. Donnellan was moved. He became a veterans counselor at Rockland County's Veterans Agency Office.

In 1992, he was appointed Rockland County's commissioner of veterans affairs. During his tenure, Sergeant Donnellan created local Chapter 333 of the Vietnam Veterans of America and started a veterans' health clinic. He helped create Camp Shanks Museum in the town of Orangetown and established the Rockland County Buffalo Soldiers Award to recognize the contributions of Black veterans.

He helped to start the Memorial Day watchfires in 1987, the year I was born, and established the Rockland County Public Service Medal to honor those who served in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Sergeant Donnellan never relented in his advocacy for our veterans and their families. He embodied selflessness as a soldier and civilian, treating every veteran and every person with the respect and dignity they deserve.

Today, we honor Sergeant Donnellan's life and his legacy. His commitment to serving our country and our fellow Americans should inspire us all.

Mr. Speaker, I am so proud to be standing here today in this Chamber as we make history for the American people.

Democrats fought so hard for so long to get to this moment. Even when faced with what many described as insurmountable odds, we kept at it. We never gave up. We never relented in our advocacy. We said we wanted to get back to the negotiating table and that we wanted to start with climate.

Now, we will make the biggest climate investment this Nation has ever seen, while creating millions of good-paying jobs. The stakes of the climate crisis could not be higher, especially for low-income communities and communities of color around the country, who are always the hardest hit.

This legislation is also for my grandmother, Alice Jones, who worked well past the age of retirement just to pay for the high cost of prescription drugs and medical procedures not fully covered by Medicare, as we know. Today, we will also lower prescription drug prices for our seniors.

This is why I ran for Congress. This is government working for the people. This is Democrats delivering on our promises.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today because the far-right 6-3 majority on the Supreme Court is on a rampage against basic freedoms currently enjoyed by the American people.

In his concurring opinion in Dobbs, Justice Clarence Thomas gave us a heads-up that the Court is next coming for the ability of same-sex couples to get married.

I am one of only nine openly gay members of this body. For me, this is personal. I still remember where I was on June 24, 2011, the day the New York State legislature passed marriage equality.

I was living with my friends in New York City, but I was still closeted, and I was so afraid, still, that someone might find out the truth about my being gay.

So, instead, I closed the door to my room and cried tears of joy by my lonesome. Finally, my home State of New York had recognized me as a full human being, affirmed all of those scary, yet beautiful feelings that I had bottled up inside for decades; wondering, hoping one day that the world would change.

Four years later, the Supreme Court's decision in Obergefell sent this same message to millions of LGBTQ+ Americans. I remember being struck then by the words of Justice Kennedy who authored the opinion.

``It would misunderstand these men and women to say they disrespect the idea of marriage. Their plea is that they do respect it, respect it so deeply that they seek to find its fulfillment for themselves. Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization's oldest institutions. They ask only for equal dignity in the eyes of the law.''

Well, since Obergefell, nearly 300,000 same-sex couples have been married. Imagine telling the next generation of Americans--my generation--that we no longer have the right to marry who we love. Congress can't allow that to happen.

I am proud to introduce along with my colleagues, including Representative Nadler, the Respect for Marriage Act, which would codify the right to marriage equality under Federal law, but we have to do more than that. We have to expand the Supreme Court of the United States to protect fundamental rights once and for all.

Mr. Speaker, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of my amendment, amendment No. 2, which prohibits the Department of Defense from awarding contracts to companies engaged in illegal anti-union activity.

Every worker in this country deserves a living wage, a safe workplace, and the opportunity to join a union if they so choose. We know that some companies spend millions of dollars illegally fighting employee unionization efforts and get rewarded with government contracts.

Companies that engage in unfair labor practices--including threats, bribery, coercion, spying, and punishing workers for their attempts at unionization--are not barred from receiving these lucrative government deals.

This amendment would change that. It bars the Department of Defense from awarding any of their more than $400 billion in annual contracts to companies engaged in these illegal activities.

President Biden promised to ``be the most pro-union President leading the most pro-union administration in American history.'' I hope that we can make this goal a reality.

Mr. Speaker, I encourage all of my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on amendment No. 2, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I would just note that unfair labor practice violations will only disqualify an employer from DOD contracts if an employer refuses to settle a violation or remains out of compliance with the terms of that settlement. When an employer settles a violation with the NLRB and remains in compliance with the terms of their settlement, they will regain eligibility for DOD contracts.

Respectfully, my colleague's concern on the other side of the aisle is misplaced. There is also a broader issue at hand.

Why are we being asked to sacrifice the rights of working people to support defense capabilities?

These are not mutually exclusive priorities.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Norcross).

Mr. Speaker, how much time do I have remaining?

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

The freedom to join a union is essential--essential to the dignity of workers to secure living wages and good benefits and building an economy that works for everyone, not just the wealthy and the well- connected.

Current law recognizes how essential this freedom is and how the deck is too often stacked against workers. This is the very reason the National Labor Relations Act exists and why unfair labor practices are illegal.

When employers are rewarded for suppressing worker rights, we undermine the very purpose of having labor laws at all.

I think we should be very clear about what is going on here.

The Democrats are fighting for middle-class jobs with good pay and benefits and an economy where one job is enough, where 40 hours of work is enough to live with dignity.

Republicans are not interested in protecting workers. They are interested in protecting the corporations that exploit workers for profit and corporations whose bottom line depends on keeping wages low and suppressing worker power. My Republican colleagues want to protect the government contracts of companies that violate labor law.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to protect the rights of working people by voting ``yes'' on amendment No. 2, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I rise because we find ourselves on a path that we have traveled before, a path that the American people were promised they would never have to meet again after Columbine, after Sandy Hook, after Parkland, and now after Uvalde.

For two decades--two decades--Republicans bought by the NRA have blocked every attempt to pass legislation that would stop children from being massacred in their classrooms. Why? Because nothing is easier than buying an AR-15 in this country except buying a Republican Member of Congress.

Today, Democrats in the House will pass the Protecting Our Kids Act, and we need the Senate to abolish the filibuster to do the same.

Madam Speaker, it is absurd, absurd that in the year 2022 I have to speak to defend every human's right to make their own healthcare decisions, but because six far-right Supreme Court Justices are set to impose their unpopular views on everyone in this country, I stand here to urge my colleagues to do everything we can to protect the right to abortion, including expanding the Supreme Court.

Madam Speaker, I stand here for people in my family and folks in my community who could soon have their rights stripped away, people who, if they aren't able to get the abortion they need, will be trapped in a cycle of poverty, folks who will no longer be able to work their job or get the education that they fought so hard to get.

For me, this is personal because it is people like my single mother who worked multiple jobs just to provide for our family, Black and brown folks, and the poorest people in our society who will suffer most from the extreme decision to overturn Roe v. Wade--50 years of settled precedent out of the window because Republicans on the Supreme Court want to interfere in people's healthcare decisions.

Yes, the Senate must follow our lead here in the House and pass legislation that will secure the right to an abortion, but let's not fool ourselves into thinking that the 6-3 far-right Court, which is preparing to overturn a 50-year-old Supreme Court precedent, and which has spent the last decade dismantling the Voting Rights Act, is all of a sudden going to start respecting the will of Congress.

That is why we have to pass the Judiciary Act of 2021 to add four seats to the Supreme Court to restore balance and finally respect the will of the American people, who overwhelmingly support Roe v. Wade.

Madam Speaker, I want to now read an abortion story from a resident in Westchester County, New York, Lisa Hofflich, into the Record.

Lisa writes: ``For almost 30 years, I could count on one hand the people who knew I had an abortion. One was my boyfriend, and two were the nurse and the doctor who performed the procedure. Until now. I am finally sharing a story I never thought I would tell, one that I have kept personal and private because of the fear of judgment and stigma I thought I would receive from the outside world.

``I was barely 20 years old and a college junior dreaming of becoming a television journalist. My boyfriend and I had been dating for only a few months. Like many women, my cycle was irregular, and so by the time I realized I was pregnant, I was 8 weeks along. I was terrified that my very strict parents would force me to quit school, move back home, and have the baby. I couldn't do that. I was a baby myself. It took me 2 weeks to save up the $500 in cash and finally get an appointment with a doctor to perform the abortion.

``I will never forget that day, the fear and the guilt I was made to feel. After learning that I was 10 weeks pregnant, the nurse shook her head and asked, `Why did you wait so long?' Those words pierced me then and still haunt me to this day.

``My heart breaks for all the women and girls who still suffer in silence from the shame imposed on them.

``I eventually married that boyfriend, and we now have five beautiful children. But I know if I had not gone through with that abortion, these children and the wonderful life my husband and I built for ourselves would not exist. I made the right choice, and I have no regrets. I made the right choice because it was my choice to make.

``As our fundamental rights over bodily autonomy come under siege, we can't afford to be silent any longer. I am sharing my story to bring abortion out of the shadows and into everyday dialogue so that we can ensure they remain safe, legal, and accessible for every person.''

Madam Speaker, March 23 marks 1 year since the tragic passing of my constituent, Jared Lloyd, whose memory I wish to honor today.

Mr. Lloyd was a volunteer firefighter with the Spring Valley Volunteer Fire Department in the village of Spring Valley, New York, where I grew up. On March 23 of last year, Jared Lloyd died a hero. He sacrificed his life to rescue residents of Evergreen Court Home for Adults from a horrific fire.

Jared's colleagues have said that he saved as many as 30 lives that day. I know that I speak on behalf of the people of Rockland County when I say that I cannot express how incredibly proud I am of him for his bravery and his selflessness, and how sad I am over his loss.

Jared Lloyd was 35 years old. He was a son, a companion, and a loving father of two wonderful children, Logan and Darius. Jared was a schoolmate of mine. He was a graduate of Spring Valley High School. He had so much life left to live. He will never be forgotten. Today, he is remembered in the House of Representatives for his heroic actions.

Mr. Speaker, March 23 marks 1 year since the tragic passing of my constituent, Jared Lloyd, whose memory I wish to honor today.

Mr. Lloyd was a volunteer firefighter with the Hillcrest Fire Department in the village of Spring Valley, New York, where I grew up. On March 23 of last year, Jared Lloyd died a hero. He sacrificed his life to rescue residents of Evergreen Court Home for Adults from a horrific fire.

Jared's colleagues have said that he saved as many as 30 lives that day. I know that I speak on behalf of the people of Rockland County when I say that I cannot express how incredibly proud I am of him for his bravery and his selflessness, and how sad I am over his loss.

Jared Lloyd was 35 years old. He was a son, a companion, and a loving father of two wonderful children, Logan and Darius. Jared was a schoolmate of mine. He was a graduate of Spring Valley High School. He had so much life left to live. He will never be forgotten. Today, he is remembered in the House of Representatives for his heroic actions.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my friend and colleague, Congressman Allred, for his leadership in the fight to protect the fundamental right to vote and to save our ailing democracy. It has been an honor working with him, with Congresswoman Terri Sewell, and with Congressman John Sarbanes over the past year on the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act.

As you just heard, we are living through the worst assault on the right to vote since the Jim Crow era. And yesterday, on the Senate floor, white nationalists used the Jim Crow filibuster to block voting rights legislation.

But they did not win the contest for the soul of our Nation. I rise to affirm that we the people aren't giving up that easily. We never give up.

We the people didn't give up when, after we finally ended the scourge of slavery in this Nation, white nationalists fought back, violently unraveling Reconstruction, throwing duly elected

Black people out of office, and barring Black voters from the voting booth for generations. We responded by organizing.

Progress came in fits. It took us nearly a century, but progress came.

It came in the courtroom where Thurgood Marshall helped to end a century of legalized segregation.

It came on the streets, where the March on Washington and the Montgomery bus boycott produced meaningful social change.

Of course, it came in Congress where, after considerable pressure from the civil rights movement, this Chamber and the Senate passed the Voting Rights Act into law, and they overcame a filibuster to do it. Imagine that.

Mr. Speaker, like you, I was hoping against all hope that today's story would end the same way, with a majority of Senators doing the right thing.

To those of you watching at home, to the millions of you who put it all on the line to save our democracy, to see the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act become law, I feel your pain right now. But I do not despair. As Sherrilyn Ifill, the director-counsel of the NAACP's Legal Defense Fund, said recently: No story in the history of our quest for racial justice has ever ended with the words: ``And then they gave up.''

Our story, the story of building a true, multiracial democracy in the 21st century, is no exception. The fact is, progress is not always linear. It is messy. There are false starts. There are setbacks, like what happened last night. But the weight of history and the force of reason are on our side.

I grew up in the Baptist Church. To quote from the book of Jeremiah: Like a fire shut up in my bones, I know that goodness will prevail.

As the elders used to say: Trouble don't last always. Weeping may endureth for a night, but joy--joy--cometh in the morning.

Look at how far we have come already. Just a few years ago, democracy reform was a pipe dream embraced by only the most committed activists. But thanks to an overwhelming groundswell of energy, of movement building, of organizing, the Freedom To Vote: John R. Lewis Act passed the House, and it came just two votes short of passing the Senate.

We are not going anywhere. We are more energized than ever to see this through. We must pick up Senate seats this fall to make the filibuster an impossibility.

This is the fight of our lives, for our climate, for healthcare, our jobs, our dignity under the law, our future. We have no choice but to keep going.

I am reminded of the words of Dr. King in his 1966 speech in Kingstree, South Carolina:

``Let us march on ballot boxes, for this is the way we are going to straighten up . . . the Nation.

``Let us march on ballot boxes until somehow we will be able to develop that day when men will have food and material necessities for their bodies, freedom and dignity for their spirits, education and culture for their minds.

``Let us march on ballot boxes so that men and women will no longer walk the streets in search of jobs that do not exist.

``Let us march on ballot boxes until the empty stomachs . . . are filled.

``Let us march on ballot boxes until the idle industries of Appalachia are revitalized.

``Let us march on ballot boxes until `brotherhood' is more than a meaningless word at the end of a prayer but the first order of business on every legislative agenda.

``Let us march on ballot boxes.''

Dr. King's words are as true today as they were nearly 60 years ago. But while our work must include the ballot box, we know that it also must go beyond it. We must envision the world as we want it, and we must do everything in our power to bring about that world.

Hold your elected officials accountable. Educate your friends, your family, your neighbors. Change their hearts and minds.

Mr. Speaker, unlike John Lewis and his generation, we are not called to risk our lives. We are merely called to exercise the rights that they helped to win: our votes and our voices.

Like those before us, let us march on.

Remembering Lani Guinier

Mr. Speaker, as we grieve the demise of democracy legislation in the Senate last night, I rise in grief and in gratitude to honor my beloved teacher, the legendary Lani Guinier, who passed away earlier this month.

Lani Guinier's life defies summary. She began her career in the civil rights division at the Department of Justice. She led voting rights advocacy at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, often driving alone at night through hostile places, like from Selma to Mobile, Alabama, to win 31 of the 32 cases she argued. Due to her intellect and her sterling record of accomplishment, she was nominated to lead the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice. She would go on to become the first woman of color tenured at Harvard Law School.

But like many great civil rights leaders, Lani Guinier did not define herself by the power she held or the acclaim she received. She defined herself by the power she unleashed within her clients, her students, and the American people. Lani Guinier found her voice by helping others find theirs.

I am blessed that she helped me find my voice. So the day after the Senate tried to silence the voices of the American people, it feels fitting to honor her by speaking from the floor of the people's House.

I first met Professor Guinier when I was in college. I was taking a writing course, and with her characteristic generosity, she agreed to let me interview her. At the time, I wanted to be a civil rights lawyer like my friend, Colin Allred. That warm evening, the Sun still glowing in the sky, she illuminated a different path forward for me. She revealed to me that civil rights advocacy was about so much more than litigation, as important as that is. It was also about leveraging the power of impacted communities to transform entire institutions. Without meaning to, she helped persuade me to become a legislator.

When I arrived at law school, Professor Guinier taught me more than I could ever have expected, not just everything I know about voting rights law, but also how to become the person I hoped to be.

As the first woman of color to be tenured at Harvard Law School, Professor Guinier showed us that being a first is not a privilege but a responsibility--a lesson that is not lost on me as one of the first openly gay Black Members of Congress.

Her scholarship sought to show that every voice belonged in our constitutional conversation. Not just John Marshall, but Thurgood Marshall. Not just lawyers like Constance Baker Motley, but activists like Fannie Lou Hamer. Not just the people whose names make the history books, but the seemingly ordinary people living lives of extraordinary service.

While most law professors obsess over jurisprudence--what judges do, say, and think--Professor Guinier opened our eyes to demosprudence, the law that emerges from and enhances the power of the people. She knew that justice is not the work of Justices alone.

At heart, Professor Guinier was a democratic idealist, a prophetic voice who called us to reconstruct our democratic institutions and reimagine our democratic identities. She cautioned us that winner-take- all elections risk converting political competition into mutually assured destruction, intensifying conflict and underrepresenting those already underrepresented.

She helped Congress reinvigorate section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, work the Supreme Court subverted last year in Brnovich v. DNC, and which I was proud to help restore by introducing the Inclusive Elections Act, which we passed in the House but, unfortunately, the Senate rejected last night through the filibuster.

After the Court demolished the Voting Rights Act's foundation in Shelby v. Holder in 2013, she urged Congress to not only repair the damage--as we did in the House, but as was blocked last night by the Jim Crow filibuster--but she also encouraged us to guarantee an affirmative right to vote. I have been honored to answer that call by introducing the Right to Vote Act, which also passed the House last week as part of the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act.

Beyond prescribing specific reforms and remedies, Professor Guinier urged

us to see that democracy was not a zero-sum war over the power to dominate but, rather, a delicate project of sharing power with one another as equals. ``Living in a democracy,'' she said, ``is not something we inherit. It is not something we inhabit, and it is not something that we consume. It is something we actively build together.''

Just as the Senate refused to heed the will of the people last night, the powerful did not always heed Professor Guinier. But she knew the power of dissent. Whether dissenters speak from the bench, from the lectern like this one, or from the streets, what seems like their weakness is really their strength. The powerful coerce us to do their bidding, but dissenters call us forward to freely do what is right.

I am heartbroken by Professor Guinier's passing. I miss her.

But Professor Guinier, even now, shows me that accepting myself as I am can help me to center the people I serve. She inspires me to protect and perfect our multiracial democracy. I once asked her how to advance that mission in today's times. She said, ``I think that is the question for your generation.'' With our democracy on the line, may we, the people, lift every voice to answer.

Madam Speaker, my colleagues across the aisle have asked why we are voting today to protect our democracy.

The answer is as clear to me as it is unimaginable to them: for the people. This one is for the people who made today possible, for the young people who cast their first votes in 2020 and for the seniors who cast their first votes in 1966 after the passage of the original Voting Rights Act.

It is for the people who, like John Lewis, put their lives on the line on Bloody Sunday and for the people who risked their lives to overcome racist voter suppression at the height of this pandemic.

It is for people like my mentor and professor, the late Lani Guinier, mother of the 1982 amendments to the Voting Rights Act.

It is for the people who don't have a vote but who do have a voice.

Voting rights are preservative of all other rights. But time is running out. We can still have a democracy, Madam Speaker, but only if we pass this legislation.

Madam Speaker, due to personal reasons, I was unable to record my vote.

Had I been present, I would have voted YEA on Roll Call No. 386.

Madam Speaker, I am so proud to have played a leading role in securing high-quality, affordable childcare for every family in America in the Build Back Better Act.

This policy is personal for me. Growing up, I was raised by a single mom who had to work multiple jobs just to make ends meet. She got help raising me from my grandparents. My grandmother cleaned homes, and when daycare was too expensive, she had to take me to work with her.

Madam Speaker, no family in America, no child in America, should have to accompany their guardian to work because childcare is too expensive, certainly not in the richest nation in the history of the world. That is why we are investing nearly $400 billion in childcare and early learning programs to ensure that we solve this affordability crisis.

The childcare provisions will transform our childcare system and help bring unemployed parents back into the workforce without them being financially burdened.

For these reasons and so many more, I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on this historic legislation.