Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, I am a proud child of immigrants.

Both of my parents immigrated from Palestine. My dad's journey actually was from Palestine as a young boy, and he grew up, his teenage years, in Nicaragua. From Nicaragua, at 19 years old, he came to the United States.

My father, with a fourth grade education, couldn't ever experience human dignity anywhere except until he came here and worked for Ford Motor Company and became part of the United Auto Workers, the UAW. That is when he felt, for the first time, human dignity in the workplace.

My father, in the 1970s, used to be in Detroit, on the corners. If you came up to him before he got to Ford, he would pull up his arm and say, ``Which watch you want?'' Because he hustled. That is how he provided for his family.

My mother only went up to eighth grade because she was trying to provide for her family, which is a farming family in Palestine. When she came to this country, pregnant with me, never could they have imagined their daughter ever becoming a United States Congress Member and coming here with that lived experience and understanding the importance of bringing truly loving and caring farm immigrant neighbors.

The human impact on doing nothing in regard to immigration is real. I grew up in Southwest Detroit--20 different ethnicities. I want you all to know what that feels like, right?

I mean, this is a majority Black city with a little bit of beautiful Brown spice here and there. I mean, it was just incredible to grow up in such a diverse community, where I felt like it made me a better mother, a better advocate, a better American because, at that moment, I appreciated things that my immigrant neighbors had seen through their lens and my Black neighbors through their experience in this country as they were fighting against racism, and continue to do so, and discrimination.

It is so incredibly important, as we think about this, not to allow others to fear our immigrant neighbors, to allow our country and policies to blame them for everything wrong in our country, when we all know they helped build it.

I also want to take a moment because I think it is incredibly important to know that I grew up in a border community. Right there in Detroit, on the other side, you can see Canada. What does that mean? Because people focus on the southern border. What that means is Border Patrol and immigration enforcement is right there in our community.

Why this is important is because I want you all to know, as they are supposed to be patrolling that border, making sure that illegal drugs and substances don't come in, that is not what they did. This very, very broken Customs and Border Patrol system and structure in place is so racialized that they turned on this beautiful Southwest Detroit community. They turned on my Latino neighbors. They turned on my Muslim brothers and sisters, many of them just trying to experience and live in this border community.

A 9-year-old ACLU investigation of Customs and Border Patrol operations in Michigan revealed just how incredibly racist the agency is. The report revealed that, even though CBP's mandated mission is to police the border, only 1.3 percent of their cases in Michigan involved attempted entries from Canada that were illegal. Ninety-six percent of those arrested by CBP in Michigan were recorded by agents of being nonwhite.

Now, I want to explain this to you all. My block club president, this beautiful Cuban, Black, mixed person, he is an incredible advocate. He works in the auto industry. He is out there with this guy from Germany coming in on a visitor visa. He is in this car, and he is showing them the border, the riverfront, just the walkway, and just showing: Hey, that is Canada. This is my community. This is where I live.

He is driving around and, of course, CBP stops him. He goes to the guy who is here on a visitor visa: Hey, I know you are from Germany. Don't worry. Just have your immigrant documents ready and everything.

But guess what? They didn't ask the guy from Germany for any of his documents. They asked the U.S.-born citizen, Brown neighbor of mine for those immigration documents.

Not only that, one of my neighbors running around in her own local park, in her own local park, was asked: Where are your papers?

People are now being asked to carry their documents with them, and this never happened for a very long time, up until about 15 or 20 years ago. To my good colleague from New Mexico, you should know this. This is a community that has never seen these kinds of ICE and immigration operations at schools, which is illegal. It is against our own Federal policies. They were doing them near churches. I mean, literally, near churches, against their own Federal policy. So it is really incredibly important to understand just how broken those systems are.

We can continue to talk about the contributions and the benefits of immigrants and our immigrant neighbors, but I don't want to make it out so--of course, it is an economic benefit. Many of my colleagues don't even realize that most of the food on the table, most the things that are done, are from immigrant hands touching it, most of it.

You look around. Everybody knows. Everybody knows who is building our country. Everybody knows that the agricultural community and industry relies on our immigrant neighbors. Everyone knows that. But they don't want to do that. They want somebody else to blame. Instead, my colleagues want to focus on making a pathway to citizenship, one much more humane. They are focused on blaming them for any economic downfall.

Guess what? Poverty is increasing, not because of our immigrants, but because we haven't been able to focus and put people before profits. We would rather do tax breaks for billionaires instead of actually taking care of our neighbors. We try to go ahead and blame our Brown and Black communities for everything going wrong in their own neighborhoods. That is just not how it works.

I am here because I also wanted to talk about Jakelin, if I may. Jakelin's story was really eye-opening to me as to what is really going on at the border. She was a 7-year-old who died shortly after arriving in the United States in 2018.

Jakelin turned 7 years old on her 2,000-mile journey north through Mexico. She was given her first new pair of shoes for this journey. Her and her father went north in search of a better life and to try to make money to send home to Jakelin's mom and her two siblings. Her family is from a tiny village in Guatemala, and they lived on approximately $7 per day. She was one of two children to die in CBP custody that month alone.

I say this because, where is the morality when it comes to these beautiful children that are coming with their parents? Where is the morality and understanding that people are coming here for this better opportunity and we have no pathway? This broken immigration system is hurting all of us. We need to wake up and understand that.

My beautiful neighbors in southwest Detroit always have my back. They are the ones when they got up in the morning who knew where my kids were, what was going on in the community. They were and still are just an integral part of my neighborhood and my community. When I look around, all I see is beauty, people that just want to live and thrive in our country.

I can show all kinds of economic benefit, but it is not enough, because a lot of people want to blame my immigrant neighbors for everything wrong. And everything wrong is not because of that; it is because you keep putting corporations before our people, period. That is it. You look at the budget, you see how much we are spending on defense versus how do we address infrastructure issues? How do we address the broken education and inequity in our education system?

I have a school district right now where the majority of fountains have garbage bags over them because they have no clean water coming through in our schools. Our kids don't have clean drinking water in schools. That is not because of all of these things that they keep talking about, about broken immigration. No.

If you look at what President Reagan did, President Bush and President Clinton, if you look at what they did, they created some sort of pathway. It wasn't perfect. But this constant vilification

needs to stop. It needs to stop, because that is the lazy approach. That is the lazy approach of legislating in this country.

Come on. I grew up here. You know what Detroit and this beautiful Black city taught me? You always have the backs of the people you represent. You focus on helping them get through everyday issues. You focus on what is broken inside, not looking far away and saying it is all their fault. Some of them are not even here, and they are blaming everybody else. Accept the fact that we haven't had the courage to stand up and say the economic divide in our country is real, that our folks are paying the high cost of auto insurance, folks are paying a high cost in a number of issues regarding their homes, regarding the education system and so many other systems.

I am passionate about this because not only am I a child of immigrant parents, but I was my mother's translator until I was 12 years old. I still remember, Madam Speaker, that I went into Sears and I was translating for my mother and this cashier just looked at her and looks at me and looks at her and looks at me--and I am 12 years old--and she goes: ``She needs to learn English.''

I look and smile. Of course, the southwest Detroit girl came out of me. My head did bob a little bit, and I said: ``Excuse me, but I am not translating what you are saying to my mother. I am translating what my mother wants to say to you. Why? Because even with her heavy accent, you are dehumanizing her. You are othering her. You are making it like she is less than, even though she tries.''

As she beautifully speaks the English language, I feel like, my God, like, if anything, people should appreciate it more.

So I say this because this lived experience of my mother, as a naturalized American citizen, who is so proud of having human dignity here, this freedom of raising her daughter who is now a United States Congresswoman, should be celebrating it and should be honoring it. Instead, I know what is happening to her in the streets. People are yelling at her to take off her hijab, vilifying her. That is what we are doing to our immigrant neighbors, the same ones who pick fruit and put it on our tables, who open and revive neighborhoods that have never seen life since they came to our communities.

I am tired of it. I am tired of folks using fear-mongering rhetoric to create hate towards my immigrant neighbors.

They are here because our country offers something that others don't. We should understand that. We should create a humane and fair and just immigration system, not one that hurts them and allows children to die, that targets women in detention centers, and separates our families. It is simply wrong.

The most American thing I could do up here is push back and say: Enough. We are a Nation of immigrants. All of us. I am tired of the hate and the racism.

I thank the Congressional Progressive Caucus for always speaking that truth to power.

Madam Speaker, I still remember how I felt when I learned that one of the worst PFAS sites in the entire country was discovered right in my backyard in my district at the Marathon petroleum refinery. Shock, horror, and a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach just happened instantly.

I called Congresswoman Dingell, because that site borders our districts. And it is a community that continues to struggle with air quality and clean water. That ZIP Code, where Marathon Oil Refinery is now, that is the most polluted ZIP Code in all of the State of Michigan. So we wonder why the forever chemical was found right there and how it is impacting people's public health.

We are finding in Michigan, as folks know, where we lead in the country in

PFAS testing, if you start looking for these toxic forever chemicals, you are going to find them.

Madam Speaker, we have an urgent crisis in front of us that requires swift and decisive action. So it is great news that the House is now considering passing PFAS Action Act of 2021 today.

The bill will require EPA to take urgent PFAS action by requiring site cleanups, identifying health risks, and developing a drinking water standard to keep our community safe. We cannot wait another day to start taking strong action to protect our residents from forever chemicals.

As a Member of Congress, I was shocked--I think many of my residents were shocked--that we weren't protected from PFAS in the Clean Air Act. Today, we, at least, get closer to changing that. Again, our residents deserve to live without being poisoned.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize the culmination of hard work and dedication by Aya Islim and her family that has resulted in the grand opening of Aya's Sweets, a shop and bakery in the Dearborn Heights community in Michigan's 13th Congressional District.

Small businesses are the life blood of our economy, contributing to local economies and fostering a sense of community. But, what truly makes the grand opening of Aya's Sweets shine is that it is the realization of a dream. Aya, at the age of sixteen, and with the support of her family, has committed so much of herself into seeing this business succeed.

Mostly self-taught, Aya began baking at the age of nine by watching cooking videos and shows. She has never shied away from a challenge. As she honed her skills, she earned a reputation for her beautiful and tasty creations, and has taken the step of opening her own bakery.

Please join me in recognizing and celebrating Aya and the lslim Family on the occasion of the grand opening of Aya's Sweets. We wish them many years of success in service to our neighbors in Michigan's #13th District Strong.

Mr. Speaker, during my time in Congress, I have made it my mission to put into policy what we all should know to be true: That safe, clean water is a human right; that water is life.

This bill includes critical water provisions that will provide clean, affordable drinking water. Over 60 schools in one of my cities alone has garbage bags over their drinking fountains. So we must invest in lead pipe and school drinking fountain replacement so that no child has to drink poisoned water. This bill gets us closer to that.

We invest in water debt relief and low-income assistance so that nobody has to suffer the indignity of having their water shut off and having to rely on bottled water or collecting rainwater.

A couple in my district, Mr. Speaker, had to melt snow just to flush their toilets.

Millions of Americans have experienced inhumane water shutoffs, but this bill declares that nobody, especially our poor neighbors, should live without water in our country. We will stop water shutoffs.

And my amendment helps families to make it clear that everyone receiving assistance must be reconnected and stays connected. Again, we are getting closer to the root causes of shutoffs because in this bill we include reporting and data collection that is so critically important to understand why water is becoming unaffordable and inaccessible.

Again, it is important at all levels of government that we continue to work together in truly making water a human right.

Madam Speaker, we know it is expensive to be poor in our country; that we live in a country with a system that continues to put profit before our people, and it must stop.

In my home State of Michigan, communities that are more than a quarter Black and Latino have 50 percent more payday lenders than anywhere else in the State. These lenders target our communities, the most financially vulnerable communities. Payday lenders in Michigan are 62 percent more common in low-income Census tracts compared to statewide average.

That is what folks mean when they say that we need to abolish structural racism in our country.

You cannot justify loans of 100 percent APR or higher as providing access to credit when they trap borrowers in destructive cycles of debt and ruin their credit. World Business Lenders offered loans of upwards of 268 percent of APR, despite the fact that its rent-a-bank partner was regulated by the OCC. They found a way around the rules, and that is unacceptable.

OCC's rules leave States like our State of Michigan no ability to enforce their own State rate caps, giving predatory lenders free rein to exploit our neighbors with outrageous APRs.

Repealing the true lender rule is the first step toward protecting borrowers from predatory lenders, and I am proud to support it.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize the 8th Annual Occupy the Corner/Detroit event, an initiative hosted by Detroit City Councilwoman Mary Sheffield in Detroit for its continuous efforts and dedication to provide hope and resources to our communities within Detroit.

For eight years, Occupy the Corner Detroit has been an essential event and program to combat neighborhood crime and violence while promoting critical resources such as expungement program information, utility assistance, housing assistance and so much more. This annual event uplifts our residents and neighbors in 13th District strong and provides hope for economic opportunity for those that have been left behind or underserved.

Occupy the Corner Detroit is more than just an event. It truly signifies the importance of

community and the resilience of Detroiters. Occupy the Corner Detroit provides a space of residents to convene and feel empowered to address day to day challenges. I am truly proud to work in partnership with Council President Pro Tem Sheffield in serving the 13th Congressional District.

Please join me in recognizing the hard work of Occupy the Corner Detroit on behalf of the communities of Detroit, Wayne County, and Michigan's 13th Congressional District and congratulate this initiative on eight years of service to the community.

Madam Speaker, I thank our wonderful colleague, Congresswoman Jackson Lee, for this amazing, incredible effort, and for me to be here, and to actually witness this is an honor.

The passage of the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act is long overdue recognition for generations of pain and suffering of our Black communities.

This comes at an important time, Madam Speaker. Across the country, we are seeing efforts to eliminate the teaching of our country's history, like the injustices of slavery, from being taught in our own schools.

This national holiday will serve as a powerful reminder that we cannot run from our past. That we must educate future generations of all of our history no matter how many want to delete it or to whitewash it.

It is important to note, Madam Speaker, that this is just a minor step, far from really truly addressing the ills of our country. We must go further.

Colleagues, we must go further. We must pass the For the People Act, to H.R. 40, which is the Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act. We must do more. We need to transform the lives of our Black neighbors in a bold and meaningful way, and it will truly save lives. It will truly address why we need to take a moment and address this in a way that becomes a national holiday.

We must, again, take action to actually deliver for our Black neighbors.

Mr. Speaker, this bill is critically important to our families across the country.

I am proud that this bill includes a provision that I have introduced the past two sessions of Congress, the Consumer Protection for Medical Debt Collection Act.

Nearly 20 percent of adults have one or more medical debt collections listed on their credit reports. That means one in five of our neighbors across the country may be denied housing, transportation, or other necessities because of a sudden health crisis or visit to the emergency room. That hits particularly hard in communities like mine, where residents already face so many challenges with access to credit.

Treating medical debt the same as other debt is just not right. It leads to irreparable harm to residents who simply just needed health and medical care.

Medical debt is the leading cause of personal bankruptcy in our country, and the pandemic has only made the medical debt crisis worse; 2.5 million people saw medical debt enter collections since the pandemic began, totaling $2.2 billion in medical debt.

H.R. 2547 will provide protections and safeguards to our neighbors who, through no fault of their own, got sick and could not afford medical care due to the broken healthcare system.

This bill would prevent the collection of medical debt for 2 years from the date of medical billing and prohibits credit agencies from reporting all medical collections for a year.

Medical bills and reimbursements are often vague and confusing, so this gives our neighbors time to figure out what they actually do owe.

Finally, this bill would ban medical debt from a medically necessary procedure from ever appearing on your credit report.

No one chooses to get sick. Undergoing a medically necessary procedure should never haunt someone financially. It has no place on our credit reports.

I thank Chairwoman Waters for her leadership on this vital legislation, and I urge my colleagues to support it.

Mr. Speaker, I believe I am actually the second, but I am the only Palestinian-American Member of Congress now, and my mere existence has disrupted the status quo. This is so personal for me. I am a reminder to colleagues that Palestinians do, indeed, exist, that we are human, that we are allowed to dream. We are mothers, daughters, granddaughters, we are justice seekers and are unapologetic about our fight against oppressions of all forms.

Colleagues, Palestinians aren't going anywhere, no matter how much money you send to Israel's apartheid government.

If we are to make good on our promises to support equal human rights for all, it is our duty to end the apartheid system that, for decades, has subjected Palestinians to inhumane treatment and racism.

Reducing Palestinians to live in utter fear and terror of losing a child, being indefinitely detained or killed because of who they are, and the unequal rights and protections they have, under Israeli law, it must end.

One of Israel's most prominent human rights organizations, B'Tselem, has declared Israel an apartheid state. Human Rights Watch recently recognized it, too. This is what Palestinians living under Israel's oppression have been telling us for decades.

I have been told by some of my colleagues who dispute the truth about segregation, racism, and violence in Israel toward Palestinians that I need to know the history.

What they mean, unintentionally or not, is that Palestinians do not have the right to tell the truth about what happened to them during the founding of Israel. They, in effect, erase the truth about the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Israel that some refer to as the Nakba, or catastrophe.

As Palestinians talk about our history, know that many of my Black neighbors and indigenous communities may not know what we mean by Nakba, but they do understand what it means to be killed, expelled from your homeland, made homeless, and stripped of your human rights.

My ancestors and current family in Palestine deserve the world to hear their history without obstruction. They have a right to be able to explain to the world that they are still suffering, still being dispossessed, still being killed as the world watches and does nothing.

As Peter Beinart, an American of Jewish faith, writes: ``When you tell a people to forget its past, you are not proposing peace. You are proposing extinction.''

The Palestinian story is that of being made a refugee on the lands you called home.

We cannot have an honest conversation about U.S. military support for the Israeli Government today without acknowledging that, for Palestinians, the catastrophe of displacement and dehumanization in their homeland has been ongoing since 1948.

To read the statements from President Biden, Secretary Blinken, General Austin, and leaders of both parties, you would hardly know Palestinians existed at all.

There has been no recognition of the attack on Palestinian families being ripped from their homes in East Jerusalem right now or home demolitions; no mention of children being detained or murdered; no recognition of a sustained campaign of harassment and terror by Israeli police against worshipers kneeling down and praying and celebrating their holiest days in one of their holiest places; no mention of Al- Aqsa being surrounded by violence, tear gas, and smoke while people pray.

Can my colleagues imagine if it was their place of worship filled with tear gas? Could you pray as stun grenades were tossed into your holiest place?

Above all, there has been absolutely no recognition of Palestinian humanity. If our own State Department can't even bring itself to acknowledge that the killing of Palestinian children is wrong, well, I will say it for the millions of Americans who stand with me against the killing of innocent children no matter their ethnicity or faith.

I weep for all the lives lost under the unbearable status quo, every single one, no matter their faith or their background. We all deserve freedom, liberty, peace, and justice, and it should never be denied because of our faith or ethnic background.

No child, Palestinian or Israeli or whoever they are, should ever have to worry that death will rain from the sky.

How many of my colleagues are willing to say the same, to stand for Palestinian human rights as they do for Israelis?

There is a crushing dehumanization to how we talk about this terrible violence.

The New York Post reported the Palestinian death toll as Israeli casualties.

ABC says that Israelis are ``killed'' while Palestinians simply ``die,'' as if by magic, as if they were never human to begin with.

Help me understand the math. How many Palestinians have to die for their lives to matter?

Life under apartheid strips Palestinians of their human dignity.

How would you feel if you had to go through dehumanizing checkpoints two blocks from your own home to go to the doctor or travel across your own land? How would you feel if you had to do it while pregnant, in the scorching heat, as soldiers with guns controlled your freedom?

How would you feel if you lived in Gaza, where your power and water might be out for days or weeks at a time, where you were cut off from the outside world by an inhumane military blockade?

Meanwhile, Palestinians' rights to nonviolent resistance have been curtailed and even criminalized.

Our party leaders have spoken forcefully against BDS, calling its proponents anti-Semitic, despite the same tactics being critical to ending South African apartheid mere decades ago.

What we are telling Palestinians fighting apartheid is the same thing being told to my Black neighbors and Americans throughout America who are fighting against police brutality here: There is no form of acceptable resistance to state violence.

As long as the message from Washington is that our military's support for Israel is unconditional, Netanyahu's extremist, rightwing government will continue to expand settlements, continue to demolish homes, and continue to make the prospects for peace impossible.

Mr. Speaker, 330 of my own colleagues, Democrats and Republicans, 75 percent of the body here, signed a letter pledging that Israel shall never be made to comply with basic human rights laws that other countries that receive our military aid must observe.

When I see the images and videos of destruction and death in Palestine, all I hear are the children screaming from pure fear and terror.

I want to read something a mother named Eman in Gaza wrote 2 days ago. She said: ``Tonight, I put the kids to sleep in our bedroom. So that when we die, we die together and no one would live to mourn the loss of one another.''

That statement broke me a little more because my country's policies and funding will deny this mother's right to see her children live without fear and to grow old without painful trauma and violence.

We must condition aid to Israel on compliance with international human rights and an end to apartheid. We must, with no hesitation, demand that our country recognize that the unconditional support of Israel has enabled the erasure of Palestinian life and the denial of the rights of millions of refugees, and it emboldens the apartheid policies that Human Rights Watch has detailed so thoroughly in their recent report.

I stand before you not only as a Congresswoman for the beautiful 13 District Strong but also as a proud daughter of Palestinian immigrants and the

granddaughter of a loving Palestinian grandmother living in the occupied Palestine.

You take that and combine it with the fact that I was raised in one of the most beautiful, Blackest cities in America, a city where movements for civil rights and social justice are birthed, the city of Detroit.

So, I can't stand here silent when injustice exists and where the truth is obscured. If there is one thing Detroit instilled in this Palestinian girl from Southwest, it is you always speak truth to power even if your voice shakes.

The freedom of Palestinians is connected to the fight against oppression all over the world.

Lastly, to my Sity in Palestine, `` `aqaf huna bsbbik.'' I stand here because of you.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in recognition of Caribbean American Heritage Month and celebrate the work of Caribbean-American descendants and culture across the 13th Congressional District.

National Caribbean American Heritage Month began in 1999 with outreach to President Bill Clinton asking for the recognition of August as National Caribbean American Heritage Month. This resulted in the first White House Caribbean American Community Briefing being held at the Clinton White House in 1999. In June 2000, the Institute of Caribbean Studies (ICS) took leadership of the project, organizing numerous events in Washington, D.C. In 2001, ICS, in collaboration with TransAfrica Forum and the Caribbean Staff Association of the World Bank, continued to organize events during June, promoting recognition of June as National Caribbean American Heritage Month, bringing even more interest in National Caribbean American Heritage Month.

The effort gained even more traction in 2004 when an Official Campaign for June as National Caribbean American Heritage Month was launched upon the tabling of a Bill in the US Congress by Congresswoman Barbara Lee, with language provided by ICS Founder and President, Dr. Claire Nelson. ICS worked with the Office of Congresswoman Barbara Lee to galvanize support for the Bill from organizations across the country and organized events on Capitol Hill in recognition of June in 2004. The Bill was reintroduced and passed the House in June 2005, and the Senate in February 2006. A Proclamation making the Resolution official was signed by President George Bush on June 5, 2006.

Please join me in recognizing National Caribbean American Heritage Month and the contributions of Caribbean Americans in our country and in the 13th Congressional District.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize the outstanding contributions of award-winning journalist Vickie Thomas, a proud daughter of Michigan's 13th Congressional District.

Ms. Thomas was raised in Highland, Park Michigan and first became interested in journalism as a student at Detroit Henry Ford High School. She went on to graduate with honors, earning her degree in broadcast journalism from Wayne State University. Ms. Thomas is best known in southeast Michigan as the voice of WWJ NewsRadio, where she reported on local news and events.

Ms. Thomas' work has garnered local and national accolades. She has earned awards from the Detroit Press Foundation, the Michigan Association of Broadcasters, the Associated Press, and the National Association of Black Journalists. Ms. Thomas is a recipient of the national ``Gabriel Award'' from UNDA-USA for the WWJ Black History Month Series ``The African-American Church: The Heart and Soul of Metro Detroit's Black Community.'' She is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists.

Please join me in paying tribute to Vickie Thomas's numerous achievements and hard work in bringing news and stories of local interest to the people of southeast Michigan.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize the students at Hope of Detroit Academy for their outstanding achievement in STEM and being recognized as a Samsung Solve for Tomorrow competition semifinalist.

Under the guidance of their teacher Ms. Allie Langwald, students Abrahan Salas, Yaritza Campos, and ltzel Martinez worked diligently to find innovative solutions to address issues in their community in Southwest Detroit. I had the opportunity to meet with them earlier this year and was impressed with their dedication to addressing environmental issues, like illegal dumping and abandoned buildings open to trespass.

Their hard work culminated in the creation of the Green Warrior app which utilizes technology to help residents quickly and easily report illegal dumping sites in need of clean up and dangerous buildings. In partnership with the City of Detroit and other community-based organizations, their app will ensure that neighborhood streets and parks are cleaned up and dangerous building boarded up so the community can enjoy the use of public spaces.

Please join me in recognizing the hard work of Hope of Detroit on behalf of the communities of Detroit, Wayne County, and Michigan's 13th Congressional District and congratulate them on this well-deserved honor.

Mr. Speaker, had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on rollcall No. 132.

Madam Speaker, I rise in support of my bill, the Improving FHA Support for Small-Dollar Mortgages Act.

Housing is one of the most vital ways families have a shot at financial stability and freedom. However, affordable homeownership opportunities are being denied to my residents because of the lack of financing available for home purchases under $70,000.

In fact, small-dollar mortgage loan applications in 2017 were denied by lenders at double the rate of denial for large mortgage loans. This is largely because the banks have decided that small-dollar mortgages are riskier because they rely on bogus credit score thresholds and the loans don't give them enough profit.

This impacts majority Black and Brown communities, as well as low- income communities that are unbanked and underbanked.

Madam Speaker, in my district alone, 68,000--or nearly 50 percent--of our owner-occupied homes are valued under $70,000. Think about that for a second. Almost half of the homes in my district stand little chance of getting financing from a bank.

My bill directs the Department of Housing to report on barriers to making small-dollar mortgage insurance available for mortgages under $70,000. It also requires HUD to report on policies, practices, and actions that will be taken to remove such barriers, to making available mortgage insurance for mortgages of $70,000 or less.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to please vote in support of my bill to ensure that every family has access to homeownership.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize and celebrate Ms. Luneata Hite, a long-time resident of Detroit in Michigan's 13th Congressional District as she celebrates her 105th birthday. Truly an amazing milestone to reach in life.

Born in New York in 1916, Ms. Hite spent part of her childhood in Texas before settling in Detroit, Michigan. She went on to attend The University of Michigan and pursued a career in social work. Ms. Hite takes pride in one of her most interesting and powerful work pursuits-- helping to investigate restaurants accused of discriminating against African American patrons. This work should inspire us all in this Chamber as we continue to rid society of all forms of discrimination. In 1941 Ms. Hite married Sherman Johnson and was a devoted wife. Together they nurtured and raised three children in their home in Detroit.

Ms. Luneata Hite is cherished by her family, friends, and neighbors. Please join me in wishing her a very happy birthday, surrounded by love and light