Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous material into the Record. Mr. Speaker, as the chair of the Congressional Mamas' Caucus, I…
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous material into the Record.
Mr. Speaker, as the chair of the Congressional Mamas' Caucus, I would like to take a moment and truly celebrate Mother's Day and recognize the contributions of mothers across our country.
We must continue to center mamas in the policies we develop and champion here in the United States Congress. As the mother of two incredible boys, I stand here today as an advocate for the needs of all mothers. Mothers should not be struggling like they are today, and we can act.
As the founder of the Congressional Mamas' Caucus, I want to ensure that mothers have a seat at the table every day in our policies and legislative work. I always say to folks, we can't keep enacting laws that impact mothers, that are about mothers, but not with mothers.
From the incredible mothers in Michigan's 12th District Strong to mothers in other movements for justice, I want to tell you, I love you deeply. You are literally anchors within our communities and neighborhoods. Many of you are community mothers. Your voices deserve to be heard in this House, the people's House.
Mothers, as we all know, embody strength. They nurture. They come into spaces with unconditional love. Today, we honor and celebrate mothers for their tireless dedication and unwavering commitment to their families.
Mr. Speaker, motherhood is a journey filled with joy but also challenges and sacrifices. It is a universal experience that transcends race, religion, and socioeconomic status, yet many mothers continue to face great, great disparities.
Mothers are often the primary caregivers, so this Mother's Day, I ask all my colleagues, please, don't just say ``Happy Mother's Day,'' show your love with action, action that uplifts moms.
The challenges they face can be overcome with actions here in Congress. From the daily struggles of balancing work and family responsibilities to the barriers that negatively impact our marginalized communities, mothers often bear the brunt of inequity and injustice.
One of the most pressing issues that I see continued over and over, no matter which townhalls, whether I am having it in the city of Detroit or in suburban communities, mothers and families today are facing high levels of poverty and really, truly struggling every single day with the economics of their family around healthcare and so much more.
Millions of children, Mr. Speaker, in the United States live in poverty, lacking access to basic necessities like food, shelter, and healthcare. In Michigan, close to 20 percent of children under the age of 18 live in poverty. In the richest country in the world, that is unacceptable.
Working families in our country should not worry about where their next meal should come from. If we have the money for endless wars, this body can find the resources to end child poverty.
Ending child poverty is a policy choice, and in Congress we can start by expanding programs like the child tax credit. I introduced the End Child Poverty Act, which would cut poverty by over 60 percent. This bill would implement a universal child benefit program. This bill would lift millions of people out of poverty by providing about $428 per child per month to every family in America so that nobody is left behind.
Universal school meals are critical in ensuring that no child goes hungry. Of course, we all know and have been taught by the incredible Shirley Chisholm, the first African American to serve in Congress, that children cannot learn when they are hungry, so let's feed them. Access to meals is essential for every child's development. By investing in universal school meals, we can ensure that every child has access to the resources they need to thrive at school. This is how we support mothers.
I am proud to cosponsor the Universal School Meals Program, which many of my colleagues are championing here, to provide free meals to every child in America.
Again, many of the programs I want to talk about tonight will continue.
Now I want to yield to one of my colleagues who I consider an incredible community mother and partner in this fight to, again, uplift mothers. She has championed so much work around reproductive health and been at the center of movement work, from the movement for Black lives, movement around Black maternal health, and so much more. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Massachusetts, Ayanna Pressley.
Mr. Speaker, as a mother myself, I know that there are circumstances out of our control that require families, especially the mothers, to take time off from work, especially new mothers. Whether it is your sick child, a parent, or a personal illness yourself, taking unpaid leave is not a reality for millions of our American families, our mothers.
Too many mothers are forced to choose between taking care of their families or keeping their jobs. We need paid leave for all by providing mothers with the time off they need to care for themselves and their families. No one, Mr. Speaker, not a single person should have to fear losing the income they need to keep a roof over their families' heads in exchange for literally just being able to take care of their child.
The Healthy Families Act would guarantee employees the right to earn paid sick days each year--again, earn it.
Now, I don't want us to forget a big crisis that we have, and I think the pandemic exposed this crisis. We have a childcare crisis in our country.
Affordable childcare is also incredibly essential for working mothers and the well-being of our children. Access to quality, affordable childcare allows mothers to continue to pursue their careers while knowing that their child is safe and taken care of.
By investing in affordable childcare, we can support working mothers and help them achieve economic justice and be able to thrive, not just survive.
I am proud to support as, again, the cofounder of the Congressional Mamas' Caucus to be pushing for the Childcare for Working Families Act to be sure families can afford the childcare they need and expand access to high-quality options and help ensure that childcare workers are paid living wages.
I yield to the gentlewoman from Illinois (Mrs. Ramirez), a wonderful colleague from Illinois who is not only championing tenants' rights, which is the center to many mothers, but also is a proud child of immigrants. I will tell you just how incredibly connected she is to her community on the ground and brings a lot of that lived experiences here in the Chamber that has been really missing for a long time.
Mr. Speaker, as you heard from my colleague, again, incredible lived experience is so needed because mothers come from all different backgrounds, all in different income classes.
Again, we could be doing more as Mother's Day comes up, not just saying happy Mother's Day but uplifting policies that uplift all mothers.
In the Congressional Mamas' Caucus, we have been centering our work on Black maternal health. The crisis is real, it is here, and I know many of my residents continue to tell me: We don't want just task forces and commissions and to be studied.
We know that there is a crisis. We know that Black women are three times more likely to die from pregnancy complications.
We know it is not because Black women are less capable of bearing children or giving birth but because our healthcare system has consistently neglected and mistreated them. We must address the racial health disparity in our healthcare system and face that fact.
I am also incredibly proud to be a cosponsor of the Black Maternal Momnibus Act, a comprehensive bill, Mr. Speaker, that would ensure Black mothers are safe and supported in their decisions and journeys to have children.
Every person should have the right to make decisions about their own body, including whether and when and how to have children.
There is a clear attack on women's rights as we know across our Nation. Rather than prohibit safe and legal contraception, we need to provide support for women and families that lack the means to access such treatment.
The relentless attacks on reproductive freedom are making it more difficult for mothers to access the care they need.
Today, I say to my colleagues that it is time to do better for our mothers. This Mother's Day, let's celebrate the incredible strength and resilience of our mothers everywhere and thank them by continuing to fight for policies that will change their lives for the better.
I can't leave this House floor without talking about the fact that I grew up in the most beautiful Blackest city in the country.
When you grow up in Detroit, Mr. Speaker, you don't have one mother. There are all the Black mothers and the neighborhood mothers so that even when my mom's eyes were not on us, all the other mothers on the block had eyes on us.
I take this moment and acknowledge these community mothers throughout my district, and I know I am going to leave some out, and I love them all. There are particular ones that really, really, really have touched me and shaped the person that I am today.
From Mother Christina Guzman to Mother Monet Davis to Mother Angie Webb, Linda Campbell, Mother Dr. Leonard who is fighting, fighting for the right to breathe clean air, Mother Braxton who is embedded in the community.
These are mothers that after they take care of their family, they are trying to take care of the neighborhoods they live in.
I thank again Mother Nan Berry, Mother Laveta Browne, who is my former high school teacher who continues to check on me and make sure that I am okay and literally is always in the background saying that we have to do better as a country.
Again, as we come together, we honor and celebrate every single mother every day, and we can do it every single day, not wait until Mother's Day to say Happy Mother's Day but do it with action.
I would be remiss in not speaking about my mother. My Yama was born and raised in Palestine in the occupied territories in the West Bank, a little village, Mr. Speaker, Beit Ur al-Foka.
It is an olive farm that she grew up on, picking olives and harvesting in October, a family that literally struggled every single day, but they lived off their land.
My mother came to the United States after marrying my father with only an eighth-grade education. She was pregnant with me, 3 months.
She came to the city of Detroit, and she raised 14 children, and I am the eldest. When people call me mama bear, it is really real.
My mom, to this day, after we all left, now she is an empty nester, and I kid you not. I have people come up to me. Can you tell your mother to stop sending food because she cooks for the whole block, even folks that are, like, I am fine. I have children that take care of me.
She sees a person that is limping or maybe had an accident, one of her neighbors, she will bring them food, all kinds of Middle Eastern food, all kinds of food. You have to take it. If you don't take it, she gets very angry. She takes care of her block.
I think people don't realize just the incredible compassion that my mother has, was really filled with living again in Palestine with the most compassionate woman I have ever met, my grandmother.
These mothers--sorry, Mr. Speaker. I just lost my grandmother. These mothers deserve us to do more here, and the Congressional Mamas' Caucus centers this.
We can't keep talking about how we love our mothers, but they are struggling from food insecurity to housing.
When I am at a town hall, I do not ever want a mother to tell me she is struggling to feed her children. It should be easier for them.
Again, if they are doing everything they are supposed to do, why can't we help them? I feel very compelled that we need to move with the same urgency that many of my colleagues do when it is corporations.
When it seems to be the defense budget, it seems like we find the money. When it is somebody that literally comes to my office and says: Rashida, I found out I have MS. How am I supposed to take care of my family? I have MS. A young girl came to my office at 31 years old telling me she is on dialysis, spending 3 to 4 hours in treatment.
These mothers deserve us to do more in this Congress. We deserve to do it in action. We have to do more.
This is incredible to sit there and tell you all that these mothers come to us, and they are not even asking. They are saying: Tell us what we need to do, but it is hard out there. It is hard. I am working, but if my child gets sick, I am out. I can't make up those hours.
Again, our families right now are struggling with sick care in our country, not healthcare. Literally, people are making money off of the fact that folks continue to be sick.
I am asking our Congress this Mother's Day as the Congressional Mamas' Caucus member and many of us in this Chamber; we know that we love our mothers, but we can do more.
We can do more through policy and through action to really protect and to uplift them, to make sure that they are not only surviving in our country, but they are thriving. Because I will tell you, if we take care of our mothers, I know the children will be taken care of. Our neighborhoods and communities will be taken care of.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.