Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 370) to amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to make technical corrections to the requirement that the Secretary of Homeland Security submit quadrennial homeland security reviews, and for other purposes.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on this measure.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 370, the Quadrennial Homeland Security Review Technical Corrections Act.

Since 2007, the Department of Homeland Security has been required to produce a quadrennial review of the sprawling Federal department to help chart its course for the future. To date, DHS has issued two Quadrennial Homeland Security Reviews, or QHSRs. The third review, which was due by December 31, 2017, was never released by the Trump administration.

Congress mandated that DHS, like the Defense Department, undertake a bottom-up review every 4 years in recognition of the fact that it has a vital, complex, and ever-expanding set of missions that need to be assessed in regular intervals to help DHS stay ahead of the constantly evolving threats facing our country.

With the deadline for the fourth QHSR fast approaching, the gentlewoman from New Jersey (Mrs. Watson Coleman) reintroduced this bill to ensure that deficiencies that the Government Accountability Office identified in prior reviews are fully addressed.

In 2016, GAO issued a report that identified several weaknesses in how the Department developed the first two QHSRs. GAO, for example, expressed concerns about the degree to which the Department retained documentation to explain its findings and emphasized that documentation of the review process is essential to ensuring the repeatability of the review process.

Importantly, H.R. 370 requires that DHS retain and, when requested, provide to Congress certain documentation related to each QHSR.

It also addresses weaknesses that GAO identified with respect to consultation with Homeland Security stakeholders and directs robust consultation with State and local governments, academic institutions, and other stakeholders.

Finally, H.R. 370 requires DHS to undertake and document a risk analysis to inform its policy positions, a critical feature that was lacking in prior reviews.

Madam Speaker, I urge the passage of H.R. 370, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, DHS is a sprawling $50 billion Federal agency with a diverse array of mission sets. As such, it is critical that, every 4 years, DHS carry out a rigorous bottom-up, risk- informed review of the entire department that reflects robust engagement with Homeland Security partners to produce a QHSR that can drive the department's strategic vision for years to come.

Enactment of H.R. 370 will help ensure that happens and that, in the years ahead, DHS better aligns its budgets and programs with its ever- expanding missions.

An identical version of this measure passed the House last Congress by a vote of 415-0.

Madam Speaker, I urge the passage of H.R. 370 and I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 367) to amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to establish an acquisition professional career program, and for other purposes.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on this measure.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I rise in support of H.R. 367, the Homeland Security Acquisition Professional Career Program Act.

H.R. 367 authorizes the Department of Homeland Security's Acquisition Professional Career Program which, since 2008, has been credited with helping DHS onboard over 300 new hires into its acquisition workforce.

At DHS, acquisition professionals, such as contract specialists, are responsible for spending billions of dollars each year on the goods and services needed for the department to carry out its missions. They acquire everything from disaster relief supplies for FEMA to Coast Guard cutters and software designed to protect Federal Government networks from cyber threats.

Unfortunately, when it comes to hiring and retaining acquisitions professionals, DHS has experienced chronic staffing shortages that, in the view of the Government Accountability Office, create a persistent challenge for DHS that can negatively affect the ability of DHS to acquire vital capabilities on time and on budget.

H.R. 367 seeks to address this challenge by codifying DHS' rigorous development program in which participants are provided with acquisition training, mentorship, department-wide rotations, and other career development opportunities.

Enactment of this measure will help DHS maintain a pipeline for its acquisition workforce to directly support the department's frontline officers and provide them with the tools that they need.

A prior version of this bill passed the House by a voice vote last September on a bipartisan basis.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to once again support this legislation. I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I want to thank my colleague from Nevada for her leadership on this bill.

Americans look to DHS to respond after a disaster, prevent terrorism, and protect cyberspace. Within DHS, its leaders at every level of the organization look to the acquisition workforce to ensure that the department has the tools needed to get the job done.

Since 2008, DHS' Acquisition Professional Career Program has created a vital pipeline for the department to hire acquisitions professionals who develop their knowledge and skills in house at DHS.

Enactment of H.R. 367 would ensure that DHS is able to continue to run this successful program which the department has come to rely on to help address chronic staffing shortages within its acquisition workforce.

Again, I want to thank and commend the gentlewoman, Congresswoman Titus from Nevada, who is presently presiding over the House, for her leadership on H.R. 367.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 367. I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 408) to amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to establish a mentor-protege program, and for other purposes.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on this measure.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I rise today in strong support of H.R. 408, the Department of Homeland Security Mentor-Protege Program Act of 2021.

Since the earliest days of the Department of Homeland Security, it has operated a mentor-protege program to encourage large businesses to help small businesses build their capacity to compete for government contracts.

However, this important program was never codified in law. H.R. 408 not only authorizes the existing program but improves it.

Small businesses, including woman-, veteran-, and minority-owned firms, are the backbone of our economy, but far too often complex Federal contracting requirements shut them out of the Federal marketplace.

Building and sustaining a reliable pool of small business vendors is critical to ensuring that DHS' ever-evolving contracting needs are met and America's security is enhanced.

H.R. 408 seeks to build and sustain this pool by incentivizing large businesses to provide technical, managerial, and financial assistance and subcontracting opportunities to small businesses.

The bill requires participating businesses to commit to a mentor- protege relationship for 3 years to help establish long-term relationships between large and small contractors.

Additionally, to ensure that Congress can monitor the effectiveness of the program in an ongoing way, it requires DHS to annually report on program participation and the benefits conferred upon small businesses.

Enactment of H.R. 408 will ensure the continued and lasting success of the mentor-protege program, a vital small business development program.

It should also be noted that this bill passed the House unanimously during the 116th Congress.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to once again support this legislation. I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, formally authorizing the Department of Homeland Security's mentor-protege program will ensure the continued success of this important small business program.

John Crosby, the famous conductor, once said, ``A mentor is a brain to pick, an ear to listen, and a push in the right direction.''

DHS is to be commended for recognizing that there are small businesses with novel technologies that want to help keep America secure, but may lack experience in the Federal marketplace and need a mentor to give them a push in the right direction.

I thank the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. McEachin) for introducing this bill to help grow partnerships between small businesses and DHS.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 408. I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 397) to amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to establish chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear intelligence and information sharing functions of the Office of Intelligence and Analysis of the Department of Homeland Security and to require dissemination of information analyzed by the Department to entities with responsibilities relating to homeland security, and for other purposes, as amended.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on this measure.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I rise in support of H.R. 397, the Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Intelligence and Information Sharing Act of 2021.

This past year, we have witnessed a global pandemic dominate nearly every aspect of American life and claim the lives of over half a million people. As it tore through our communities, it also brought into stark focus hard truths about inequities in our healthcare system, the reliability of our PPE pipeline, the need for better information sharing between the Federal Government and State, local, and private- sector partners.

The legislation before us seeks to promote timely sharing of intelligence about chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear threats, or CBRN threats. It does so by specifically directing the Department of Homeland Security to analyze CBRN-related terrorist threats and share threat information with Federal, State, and local partners.

In the event of an attack of this nature, situational awareness at all levels of government is key. Better situational awareness is also important to help New York City and other DHS grant recipients more efficiently target their grant dollars to address threats.

Earlier versions of this bill overwhelmingly passed in the House in the last three Congresses, and I urge my colleagues to support the measure once again.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, effective prevention and response to terrorism and naturally occurring threats start with information-sharing.

At a time when threats are changing at such a rapid pace, H.R. 397 will help to facilitate information-sharing to better safeguard the homeland from bad actors.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 397, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 396) to amend the Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007 to clarify certain allowable uses of funds for public transportation security assistance grants and establish periods of performance for such grants, and for other purposes.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative

days to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on this measure.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 396, the Transit Security Grant Program Flexibility Act.

This legislation, as introduced by my colleague from New York (Mr. Garbarino), seeks to make commonsense adjustments to a DHS grant program that helps keep my constituents safe.

H.R. 396 requires technical changes to the Transit Security Grant Program to allow grant funding to be used for backfill staffing when associated with security training and give transit authorities more time to expend grant funds on security improvements for public transportation systems or infrastructure.

Our transit systems are absolutely vital to daily travel and commerce. According to U.S. Census figures, 56 percent of all New Yorkers rely on public transportation. In New York City, over 5 million people depend on our trains and subways on a normal workday.

Under the TSGP, New York City's Metropolitan Transit Authority received about $20 million in fiscal year 2020 to protect riders from acts of terrorism and other targeted violence.

H.R. 396 is informed by feedback from grantees about challenges with the program over the years, and it is intended to ensure that the Transit Security Grant Program remains current, and that funding reaches maximum impact.

Enactment of this bill will help improve a key DHS grant program and better secure our Nation's transportation infrastructure.

Madam Speaker, I urge my House colleagues to support this legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, New York City has the largest public transit system in the country, and New York City has the greatest vulnerability to terrorism.

I thank my colleague, Congressman Garbarino, for his leadership in advocating for transportation systems across the country.

H.R. 396 is a measure that this country needs. I believe all of us in this body can agree that securing America's transit systems is critical to homeland security, and so too must we invest to make and keep it safe.

Enactment of H.R. 396 would bolster the security of what, in the view of my constituents, is about as critical as critical infrastructure gets and protect these systems and their riders against terrorist attacks and targeted violence.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 396, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, Robert Leder, as his name would suggest, was a natural leader, loved by the thousands of students whose lives he lifted.

I, for one, would not be here were it not for Robert Leder, who set me on a trajectory that led from public housing in the Bronx to the House of Representatives in Washington, D.C. My story is a mere footnote in the much larger legacy of public service that Robert Leder left behind after his passing in 2018.

Mr. Leder entered public education in the 1960s as a Spanish teacher. In the late 1970s, he rose to become the principal of Herbert H. Lehman High School in the Bronx, a position he held for nearly three decades, making him, at the time, the longest-serving educator in America's largest city. As principal, he knew the name of every student. He held everyone around him to the highest standards, but he held himself to the highest standard of all.

We, the alumni of Lehman High School, will always love you, Mr. Leder. We will never forget you.

I will not always be a Member of Congress, but I will always be the grateful student of the greatest educator I have ever known, Robert Leder. May he rest in peace.

Madam Speaker, Israel embodies the resilience, the ingenuity, the can-do comeback spirit of humanity at its best.

One need not be Israeli to be inspired by the survival and success of Israel, which has persisted in the face of improbable odds. One need not be Jewish to be inspired by a Jewish state whose rebirth and resilience and resourcefulness is one of the greatest success stories the world has ever seen.

A tiny nation the size of New Jersey has emerged, in the span of a few decades, as a global power and a global innovator, as a start-up nation and as a water superpower.

The story of Israel's renaissance takes on special meaning in our present moment, at a time when our own country is reeling from the cataclysm of COVID-19. Israel reminds us that it is possible to overcome. It is possible to emerge stronger than ever. And it is possible, in the words of President Joe Biden, to ``build back better.''

Madam Speaker, Israel has endured for more than seven decades. And by the grace of God, may it endure for many more.

Madam Speaker, a law is only as strong as the power to enforce it. For far too long, the NLRB has been too powerless to enforce the National Labor Relations Act. For too long, workers have been left to largely fend for themselves in the face of retaliation and intimidation and arbitration.

The PRO Act would breathe new life into the National Labor Relations Act. It would empower the NLRB to impose civil penalties on and empower workers to seek punitive damages against retaliatory employers. Most importantly, the PRO Act would preempt the Orwellian right-to-work laws so that union organizing is given the freedom

to flourish everywhere in the United States.

The PRO Act requires an employer to disclose every time it seeks the services of a professional union-buster.

I am proud to introduce an amendment that requires DOL to make these disclosures available through an app. App-based notification would empower essential workers to be vigilant in defending their essential right to organize.

Madam Speaker, as a person of color who has seen in my own life the dehumanizing effect of stop-and-frisk policing in New York City, I know firsthand that the Achilles' heel of American policing is the absence of accountability.

We, as a country, have a choice. We can either choose police accountability or choose qualified immunity, but we cannot choose both.

The purpose of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act is not to second-guess officers who act in good faith. The objective is to hold liable officers who repeatedly abuse their power and who rarely, if ever, face consequences for their repeat abuses.

If you are a good officer, you have nothing to fear. But if you are a bad officer, you have accountability to fear, and fear accountability, you should.

As a child of the Bronx who grew up in the projects, I was often too scared to come out of the closet, too blinded by fear to see clearly my own value, my own equality. My younger self could have never imagined standing on the floor of the House as a Member of Congress, voting for legislation that, if enacted, would make me equal in the eyes of the law.

As the first LGBTQ Afro-Latino Member of Congress, I feel palpably the weight of history on my shoulders. On behalf of my community, I am here to claim what discrimination denies: equal protection under the law.

Indeed, we are here to uphold the abiding truth of the American experiment, that we are all created equal and that none of us should be evicted, fired, or denied accommodations and services simply because of who we are and because of whom we love.

We are equal by nature, and we ought to be equal by law. The logic of equality is as simple as that.

Yesterday, a Member of Congress said that the Equality Act was ``disgusting, evil, immoral.'' I wish to set the record straight.

What is truly immoral and disgusting and evil is discrimination. It always has been, and it always will be. Discrimination denies us our deepest humanity. The profound degradation it causes has no place in a society that pledges liberty and justice for all.

So I hope that my colleagues, all of them, will find the moral courage to uphold what the Declaration of Independence promises and what the Equality Act delivers: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all of us, without exception, without discrimination.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Teresa for those kind words.

I have the honor of representing New York 15, the South Bronx, which is often said to be the poorest congressional district in America. The unemployment rate in the South Bronx can be as high as 25 percent compared to 5 percent in the Upper East Side, so we are living through a tale of two cities.

But COVID-19 has shown the South Bronx to be the essential congressional district. It is the home of essential workers who put their lives at risk during the peak of the pandemic so that the rest of us could safely shelter in place. We owe it to those workers to give them a fighting chance at a decent and dignified life.

Our society will be judged by how we treat the most essential among us. There is a gap between the value of what our essential workers do and how poorly we treat them and how poorly we pay them. Bridging that essential gap is one of the great moral imperatives of our time.

Raising the minimum wage is long overdue. The minimum wage in America has been lagging behind inflation. It has been lagging behind the productivity of the American workforce. It has been lagging behind the historic average.

We have gone more than a decade, the longest we have ever gone, without raising the minimum wage by even a cent. By every metric, whether it is inflation or productivity or the historic average or the length of time that we have gone without raising the minimum wage, it is time to finally lift the minimum wage for the most essential workers among us.

The statistics are clear that raising the minimum wage would lift 900,000 Americans out of poverty. It would raise incomes for 17,000 Americans.

For me, the minimum wage is exactly that. It is the minimum of what we should do for our most essential workers. If we fail to raise the minimum wage, then shame on us. Shame on us for failing to do right by the essential workers who did right by all of us in our moment of greatest need.

Mr. Speaker, she is exactly right. The promise of America is that if you work hard and play by the rules, then you should have access to a decent, dignified life. Too many of our essential workers are paid starvation wages.

You have people who are doing everything right. They are working their heart out for the country and for their families, and they are struggling to survive because the cost of living in America, especially in cities like New York, is spiraling out of control.

So the promise of America is broken as long as we continue to pay our most essential workers poverty wages. It is no longer defensible.

Mr. Speaker, we cannot simply honor our essential workers with hollow words. We, as a country, have to put our money where our mouth is and do right by them.

Madam Speaker, it is an honor to rise to celebrate the 50th anniversary of an institution like no other, the Congressional Black Caucus.

I am honored to be in the presence of fierce and formidable public servants like the CBC chair, Joyce Beatty, and today's anchor, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee.

Madam Speaker, I thank her for those inspiring words. I thank her for reminding us of the long and rich history of the CBC, a history that continues to inspire us all.

Madam Speaker, I am also honored to be here in the presence of my brother, Mondaire Jones. You know, in the history of the United States Congress there have only been about 163 Black Members of Congress, and none of them were openly LGBTQ until the election of Mondaire Jones and myself. So I am proud to join my brother in making history in the 117th Congress.

You know, before I was Congressman Ritchie Torres, before I was Councilman Ritchie Torres, I am and will always be the son of the most powerful woman I know, Debra Bosolet, my mother. And the most important lesson that my mother taught me is never forget where you come from. Never forget where your roots lie. And my roots are in the Bronx. Even when I leave the Bronx for Washington, D.C., the Bronx never leaves me.

I was born, bred, and battle-tested in the boogie down Bronx. And I have the high honor of representing New York's 15, the south Bronx, which for too long has been ground zero for racially concentrated poverty. The unemployment rate in the south Bronx could be as high as 25 percent, comparable to the joblessness of the Great Depression.

More than half the residents in the Bronx pay more than half their income toward their rent, and that is before you factor in the cost of prescription drugs and utilities, and food, and all the bare necessities of life. And even though the south Bronx has long been known to be the poorest congressional district in America, COVID-19 has shown the south Bronx to be the essential congressional district.

It is the home of essential workers who put their lives at risk during the peak of the pandemic so that most of us could safely shelter in place. And our mission, as the CBC, should be to give those essential workers, who are overwhelmingly women of color, a fighting chance at a decent and dignified life.

You know, I never thought as a poor kid of color from the Bronx that I would embark on a journey that would take me from public housing in the Bronx to the people's House in Washington, D.C. And I never thought that as a Congress Member I would live through an insurrection against the U.S. Capitol.

Now, on January 6, we were reminded that there are two competing realities that define America. There is the reality of multiracial democracy. America is slowly emerging as a multiracial, multiethnic, LGBTQ-inclusive democracy. Seventy percent of the Democratic Caucus consists of people of color, women, and members of the LGBTQ Caucus.

But then there is the reality of white supremacy, which reared its ugly head on January 6. And, for me, the scene on the U.S. Capitol was not simply an attack on a physical structure, it was an attack on the very idea of America as a multiracial democracy. And it is that vision of America that, we, as the CBC, are charged with defending.

And despite the overwhelming shock and despair that I felt on January 6, Madam Speaker, I have hope. The inauguration was reason for hope. The image of Kamala Harris, a Black woman in the Vice-Presidency, being sworn in by Sonia Sotomayor of the United States Supreme Court, is a powerful encapsulation of how far we have come, of how much we have achieved. And that moment reminds us that the future of our country does not belong to white supremacy. The future of our country belongs to multiracial democracy.

And the Congressional Black Caucus will continue to be at the forefront of making America the more perfect multiracial union that it ought to be. In the words of the CBC chair: Our Power, Our Message.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman, as always, for the inspiration of words.

Our colleague, Congressman Jones, spoke earlier of Brown v. Board of Education. Brown v. Board of Education was the first legal case I ever read. In high school, I participated in a form of legal debate known as moot court, which taught me how to think, read, write, and speak critically and artfully. I will never forget after reading Brown v. Board of Education how inspired I felt, those words in the field of education: Separate but equal is inherently unequal.

Those words inspired me to see myself--as a young Black man--as a public servant and maybe one day as a Member of the United States Congress.

But I have to be honest. If you had said to me 1 year ago that I would become a Member of Congress during an infectious disease outbreak, that I would witness an insurrection against the U.S. Capitol during the electoral college vote count, and that I would then vote to impeach an outgoing President who had been impeached once before, I would have said that sounds a lot like a movie.

So this has been the most draining and disorienting beginning for any freshman class in the modern history of the United States Congress, but I am nevertheless honored to be here.

January 6 is a reminder that the mission of the CBC takes on a renewed urgency. The Congress Member and I sit on the Homeland Security Committee, and one of our highest priorities is going to be counterterrorism. During one of our recent hearings, I made the observation that America has a pattern of willful blindness toward white supremacist extremism as a form of domestic terror.

Even though the statistics have been clear that white supremacist extremism has been the dominant driver of violence in the United States for decades, the U.S. Government did not designate a white supremacist group as a

terrorist organization until 2020. 2020. Never mind the massacre against African Americans, against Latinos, and against members of the LGBTQ community. It took the Federal Government until 2020 to finally recognize white supremacy as a form of domestic terrorism.

I am often asked: Whom do you admire in history?

The gentlewoman brought up the Underground Railroad, and I am a great admirer of Harriet Tubman, who, as the architect of the Underground Railroad, is America's Moses. She was a genuine liberator of an enslaved people.

I also have deep admiration for Ida B. Wells, who was alone as a journalist in standing up to the campaign of domestic terrorism and lynchings against African Americans. And we have to draw from the legacy of Ida B. Wells and renew our commitment to fighting domestic terrorism in our own time.

Madam Speaker, I look forward to joining the gentlewoman in that fight and learning from her.

Madam Speaker, I want to pay tribute to my classmate, Congress Member Nikema Williams, who, as the chair of the Georgia Democratic Party, was instrumental in winning the Senate for the Democratic Party.

Thanks to the leadership of on-the-ground organizers like Congress Member Williams, a Democratic Senate, a Democratic House, a Democratic President means we have the makings of an FDR moment. We have a historic opportunity to govern as boldly in the 21st century as FDR did in the 20th century.

Systemic racism in America traces back 400 years, and it is incredible to think that in the 400-year history of our country, we are as close as we have ever been to confronting the root causes of systemic racism.

That is the burden that we bear as the Congressional Black Caucus, but it is not only a burden. It is a blessing. Public service in an FDR moment is a blessing.

It is said the first historian, Herodotus, said that he wrote the first historical book so that the deeds of brave people cannot be forgotten. That is the same reason the CBC exists, so that the deeds of Black heroes like Harriet Tubman and Ida B. Wells, like John Lewis, like Barack Obama and Kamala Harris, are never forgotten, that the contributions of Black America should remain front and center in the life of our country.

It has been an honor to be with you, Congress Member Jackson Lee. I cannot tell you how honored I feel to be a member of the CBC.

You know, I grew up poor most of my life. I was raised by a single mother who had to raise three children on minimum wage, which in the 1990s was $4.25 an hour. I grew up in public housing, in conditions of mold and mildew, leaks and lead, without consistent heat and hot water in the winter. I never could have imagined myself as a member of the greatest institution in the United States Congress, the Congressional Black Caucus. It is an honor to be here with you in this caucus at this moment.

Madam Speaker, the dangerous mob that Donald Trump unleashed on the United States Capitol represents a violent assault on the separation of powers and on the peaceful transfer of power that we have long taken for granted.

The impeachment of Donald Trump is not politics but law, not passion but reason, not vengeance but justice. And we, as the people's Representatives, must rise to the challenge of defending democracy in the face of its gravest threat, and we will.