Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise for the 35th time today to call on the Trump administration to restore lifesaving food aid for malnourished children.

As a reminder, back in January, Elon Musk and Donald Trump halted shipments of lifesaving food aid to children

around the world who need it to survive.

This is Plumpy'Nut, a peanut paste that is made specifically to treat children who are starving to death. When children are starving, their organs shut down. Even if food is provided to them, they cannot process traditional food. They need this. This is their only chance at life.

Mr. Speaker, 2 years ago, Congress appropriated, on a bipartisan basis with Democrats and Republicans, over $1 billion to get lifesaving food aid and other aid to children around the world.

This was produced in American factories with supplies that came from American farmers. The money was already approved. The money was already spent.

Thousands of boxes of this lifesaving food aid is now sitting in warehouses, including in my district in Rhode Island, because Donald Trump and Elon Musk stopped the program. It is already paid for. It is already produced. There are children starving around the world waiting for this lifesaving aid, and it is sitting in warehouses while children starve.

Congress came back and appropriated more funding for fiscal year `25, $200 million plus. The Trump administration sat on that funding, as well. Why? Interestingly, the administration for the last 8 months has insisted that they intend to restart this program. They have said, yes, it is coming back. They started saying that within the first few weeks. Elon Musk tweeted about it. Marco Rubio swore under oath that they were going to restart this program, but it has been 9 months. Where is the urgency?

Finally, a few weeks ago, Edesia Nutrition, the organization in my district that produces this food aid, received new orders from the State Department after 9 months. That is welcomed news, but the days and weeks are continuing to tick by, and they still have not been told where to ship this food aid to.

There is a lesson here. It is very easy for any idiot, any billionaire, who has never worked in government to go in and destroy a program, but then it is hard to rebuild it afterwards. In the meantime, children are starving to death, needlessly.

My message to the administration, once again, is to act with purpose, to act with urgency, to follow your own word, and to honor your commitment. The administration has said they were going to restart this program. They have awarded new contracts. Literally, all they have to do is hit a button and restart the shipments. That is all they have to do.

It has been 9 months. These kids cannot wait a day longer. Let's restart the aid, disburse the funds, ship the food, and save the children. I will speak on this floor every day until you do.

Honoring the Life and Legacy of Judge Frank Caprio

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life and legacy of a true Rhode Island original and hero, Judge Frank Caprio.

Born to Italian immigrants in 1936, Frank was raised in the proud neighborhood of Federal Hill in Providence, Rhode Island. His family, like so many in Rhode Island and across the country, valued hard work and service.

Frank served on the Providence City Council and had a distinguished legal career before being appointed to the Providence Municipal Court as a judge in 1985, a career on the bench that would span nearly four decades.

During this time, Judge Caprio became renowned for his sense of compassion and fairness in the courtroom, which eventually made him an international television star and a beloved example of compassionate leadership across the world.

I will tell you, I still have friends and family from all over the country, people I meet when they hear I am from Rhode Island, they ask about that judge.

In 2000, Judge Caprio launched his show ``Caught in Providence'' on WLNE-TV in Rhode Island so that Rhode Islanders could see how the nicest judge in the world works up close and personal.

In 2018, the show gained national syndication reaching audiences across the entire United States and the world. Judge Caprio's show was nominated for four Emmys, and clips from ``Caught in Providence,'' showcasing his humanity, garnered billions of views on social media.

Through his work on the bench, Judge Caprio has inspired countless people to treat others with kindness and empathy. My thoughts are with his family, his loving wife, his five children, his grandchildren, and everyone whose life has been touched by his work.

Mr. Speaker, I rise for the 34th time to call on the Trump administration to restore lifesaving food aid for malnourished children.

As a reminder, in January, the Trump administration stopped funding for emergency food aid that had been appropriated by Congress. Since then, despite saying all the right things, that the funding is going to be restored, that the shipments are going to start again, they continue to drag their feet.

Edesia Nutrition, in my district, manufactures some of that food aid designed to help starving children get back to health. After 8 months, thousands of boxes are still sitting in a warehouse in Rhode Island instead of getting to kids who are starving to death.

Now, the administration finally awarded a contract a few weeks ago, after 8 months of delays, but the company has still not been told where to ship to.

Where is the urgency? Children are dying. Step after step, the administration has dragged its feet in restarting the program that they cut off back in January.

I will keep speaking out every day until the administration honors its word. Ship the product. Save lives.

Mr. Speaker, I rise for the 34th time to call on the Trump administration to restore food aid for children around the world suffering from malnutrition. We have been doing this for months.

We have been doing this for months because after decades of United States leadership in providing aid to children around the world suffering from malnutrition, the Trump administration has stopped funding this lifesaving program.

In my district in North Kingstown, Rhode Island, there is a warehouse with 90,000 boxes of Plumpy'Nut, lifesaving food aid that is designed to save the lives of starving children whose organs are shutting down and can no longer process conventional food.

This food aid has already been manufactured and has already been paid for but is sitting in a warehouse in Rhode Island because some bureaucrat in the Trump administration refuses to sign the piece of paper to restart the shipments.

Why? What possible good can come from allowing children to starve needlessly around the world while American factories and American farmers do not get paid?

The crazy thing is that for months the administration has been insisting that they are going to restart this program. Secretary Rubio, under oath in the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said that this program was going to be restarted.

Elon Musk, when he was still in the administration before he had his big break up with Donald Trump, even tweeted the name of the factory in my district and said that they were going to get their funding.

Time and time again when we have inquired with the administration, they say: Yes, any day now we are going to restart it. It has been 6 months. Every day that they delay is another day that children unnecessarily starve to death.

We need the administration to honor its word. We are not asking them to change their policy. We are asking them to execute on their stated policy.

I will continue to speak out on this floor every day until they honor their commitment to restart funding for emergency food aid around the world.

Helping Small Businesses Thrive and Survive

Mr. Speaker, when I was back in my district in Rhode Island, I took the opportunity to catch up with a number of leaders in the restaurant and hospitality industry around my State, and they told me to a person that business is down this summer compared to last summer.

Why? Well, there are a few reasons.

Number one, the tariffs that Donald Trump has put in place are a tax on small businesses and on the middle class. Why are we putting a 10, 15, or 20 percent tariff on food that we can't even grow in the United States?

Mr. Speaker, 99 percent of the coffee that we drink comes from other countries because we can't grow it here. We are taxing ourselves 10, 15, or 20 percent to import pineapples, bananas, and foods that we do not make or grow in the United States. That hurts restaurants and other small businesses in my district and the entire country. It hurts consumers as well.

On top of that, this is summer tourism season in Rhode Island, and we typically get a lot of tourists from Canada and Europe who come to Rhode Island for our beaches, our food, and our hospitality. Wouldn't you know it, international travel into Rhode Island and the entire Northeast is down because, it turns out, when you threaten to invade other countries, when you enact tariffs on other countries with no clear strategy, and when you bad-mouth our allies, they don't want to come visit here anymore.

We have a hospitality industry in Rhode Island--hotels, restaurants, and other small businesses--that is facing crushing costs from tariffs and less business from international travel. In addition, by the way, their domestic customers, American customers, also have less discretionary income because of the increased cost of food. Besides that, for some reason, we are also taxing imports of energy from Canada, so people's electric and heating bills were higher this year.

Supporting small business used to be a bipartisan cause in Washington, D.C., one of the few things that both parties could join together and come together on, but for some reason, over the last 6 months, it seems that Washington, D.C., is intent on doing everything that it can to make it harder for small businesses in this country to operate.

Let's reset. Let's prioritize tax relief for small businesses and the middle class instead of the rich. Let's eliminate these tariffs on products that we don't even produce in the United States because we don't have the climate for it. Let's help small businesses thrive and survive this summer.

Madam Speaker, I rise for the 32nd time to call on the Trump administration to restore lifesaving food aid for malnourished children.

Last week, it was reported that the Trump administration is incinerating 500 tons of emergency food aid because it expired while sitting in a warehouse. This is food that had already been paid for, had already been produced, and was just waiting to be shipped to starving people who needed it to survive. Instead, it is being incinerated.

In my district in Rhode Island, 87,000 boxes of lifesaving nutrition are sitting in Edesia Nutrition's warehouse. It is already paid for, already produced, and waiting to be shipped. This is food aid that is designed to treat starving children whose organs have shut down to the point where they cannot process normal food.

Madam Speaker, what are we doing here? This is food that is already paid for, already produced, and sitting in warehouses while kids starve.

I am going to stand on this floor every day until the administration honors its word and restores lifesaving food aid.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today for the 31st time to call on the Trump administration to restore lifesaving food aid for malnourished children.

Over the weekend, I had a chance to visit the Edesia Nutrition factory in North Kingstown, Rhode Island, one of two factories in the United States that manufactures this ready-to-use therapeutic food. This is used to treat starving children whose organs have failed and are no longer able to process traditional food to get them back to health.

For years, the United States saved millions of lives with this product, sourced entirely from U.S. farmers and factories, until the Trump administration froze funding.

The time has come for that funding to be restored, as the administration promised they would do, but have not delivered on.

For the 31st time, my message is simple: If you say you will do it, do it. I will keep speaking out every day until the administration honors its word.

Restore the funding.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today for the 30th time to call on the Trump administration to restore lifesaving food aid for starving children.

When children are starving, their organs shut down. At a certain point, they are not able to eat traditional food anymore. Ready-to-use therapeutic food is the only chance they have to survive and to get back to health.

Right now in Rhode Island, there are 87,000 boxes of ready-to-use therapeutic foods, already bought and paid for, but sitting in a warehouse because the Trump administration has frozen this aid.

It is time for the administration to honor the will of Congress, to honor its own commitment, and to do the right thing and get this food to the kids around the world who need it. I will keep speaking out every day until they do.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today for the 28th time to call on the Trump administration to restore lifesaving food aid for malnourished children.

This program began 70 years ago, an idea from a Kansas farmer, and it was launched by President Eisenhower. They called it Food for Peace, and it sent American-grown grain to hungry people around the world. It has enjoyed bipartisan support from Democrat and Republican Presidents for 70 years.

This Republican Congress passed a funding bill to continue to fund the program, but the Trump administration continues to hold up funding. Every day they do, children are starving and American farmers are not getting paid.

The crazy part is that the administration has said over and over that they intend to relaunch the program, but it has been 6 months. What are they waiting for?

They should do what they say they are going to do, stop delaying, and stop gaslighting. They should just do it. Every day counts.

I will continue to speak on this floor until they do.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today for the 28th time to call on the Trump administration to restore lifesaving food aid for malnourished children. I see some of my friends and colleagues are here who perhaps haven't heard this before. I will set aside my prepared remarks.

This is Plumpy'Nut. It is a peanut paste that is used to treat children with malnutrition whose organs are no longer able to process food because they are starving.

Prior to January, the United States of America saved the lives of millions of children by shipping this peanut paste that is manufactured here in the United States to children around the world. That program was halted when funding for USAID was stopped by the Trump administration.

However, the Trump administration has said repeatedly that they intend to restore funding for this program. Marco Rubio said it. Elon Musk said it when he was still running DOGE. They have still yet to do it.

There are thousands of boxes of this product sitting in warehouses in Georgia and in Rhode Island. All that we need is for someone in the administration to sign a piece of paper to get the shipments going again. Every day that we do not is a day that children are starving.

We are not asking the administration to change their policy. We are just asking them to deliver on their stated policy. We are asking them to restore the shipments and to save lives.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today for the 27th time to call on the Trump administration to restore funding for lifesaving food aid for malnourished children.

According to data compiled by Boston University, more than 70,000 children--children--have died this year because the Trump administration has frozen food aid that had been delivered by this country for years prior. This is the real-time human cost of inaction.

Again, the Trump administration has said that they are going to restore this aid. They have been saying it for months. Marco Rubio said it. Elon Musk said it when he was still at the administration. They haven't done it.

A month ago, they said that they were going to issue an RFP now and get this aid moving again. The RFP was issued. Nonprofit organizations, including Edesia Nutrition, have responded to it. The administration has been sitting on it for a month.

What are they waiting for? Every day that they fail to act is a day that children die. They need to keep their word. Restore this aid.

Mr. Speaker, when we say that the Republican Party has turned into a cult, this is what we mean. Our Republican colleagues are pushing a bill that would throw their constituents under the bus, a bill that flies in the face of everything they claim to stand for, all because Donald Trump wants a bill-signing photo op by the Fourth of July.

My Republican colleagues know that this bill will cost 17 million Americans their health insurance. They know that nursing homes in their own districts will have to close down. They know that, under this bill, $5 trillion of debt is being added that will be paid for by my children, your children, and their children for generations to come so that today's billionaires can get a tax break.

They know that this bill is unpopular. Many of their vulnerable Members will lose reelection over it, but the cult leader has decided. He wants his photo op on July Fourth, and our Kool-Aid-drinking colleagues are going along with it.

They know this is wrong. They still have a chance to do right by their constituents and their convictions.

Vote ``no'' on this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to amend the rule to make in order the amendment at the desk that protects against any cuts to Medicaid and SNAP.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today for the 26th time to call on the Trump administration to honor its word and restore funding for lifesaving food aid around the world.

Mr. Speaker, the words from the Trump administration have been pretty good on this. Elon Musk said that funding for emergency food aid will be restored. Marco Rubio has repeatedly said he was going to do it. They even got FOX News to write a glowing online article about their plans to restore funding.

Yet, it has been 6 months since they cut this funding off. It has been 6 months, and every day that they wait is another day that children die of starvation unnecessarily.

Every day, there are children whose organs are shutting down, who are unable to eat conventional food, and who can only have their lives saved by ready-to-use therapeutic food manufactured in the United States.

Every day, the clock is ticking. The administration needs to do what it said it is going to do: restore funding for this aid. I will continue to stand on this floor every day until they do.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today for the 25th time to demand that the Trump administration restore funding for lifesaving food aid for malnourished children.

This is Plumpy'Nut. It is a fortified peanut paste that has saved millions of lives by getting safe nutrition to children in hard-to- reach places around the world. Until recently, this was being shipped by USAID to war-torn and famine-torn areas all over the world, saving lives under Democratic and Republican administrations, until the Trump administration dismantled USAID. As a result, children are starving around the world.

Here in the United States, the production lines that create this product are virtually shut down. Edesia Nutrition in my district in Rhode Island and Mana Nutrition in Georgia get all of their ingredients from U.S. farmers. This is all produced in the United States. When it is shipped around the world, it is shipped in boxes that say: ``From the American People.''

This is not just about saving lives, though this does save lives. It is also about strengthening America's standing in the world. When we pull back and stop providing food aid for starving kids around the world, our adversaries, particularly China, are happy to step into the void. They are doing so already.

Next week, we will celebrate the Fourth of July, a day when we reflect with pride on the Nation that we have always been and the values that we stand for. This year, let's reflect on those values of charity and leadership, those values that have, under Democratic and Republican administrations, guided our foreign policy.

Here is the thing: The Trump administration, while cutting off funding for ready-to-use therapeutic food, has also been insisting that it is just temporary and that the funding is going to come back. Elon Musk even put out a tweet where he named the factory in my district and said they are going to get their funding back. Marco Rubio repeatedly, including in front of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said that funding for emergency food aid would be restored. They leaked a story to FOX News about how they were restoring food aid.

The money hasn't come yet, and this is still sitting in warehouses in Rhode Island instead of being shipped to the children who need it. It has been 6 months. What is taking so long?

What we need is for the Trump administration to not change its policy but to honor its word. They say that they are going to do this, so do it already.

I will continue to stand on the House floor every single day until they do. Restore the funding now.

Go After Criminals, Not Innocent People

Mr. Speaker, Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said that they would focus on deporting violent criminals and gang members, but that is not what they are doing.

I sit on the Committee on Homeland Security. Let me tell you the data and facts from the administration themselves.

More than 70 percent of the people detained or deported so far under the Trump administration have never been convicted of any crime. That is 200,000 people detained and deported who were not convicted of any crime.

They are deporting mothers and grandmothers, children with cancer, and employees of American companies, people just trying to make a living. They are not only deporting people who came here illegally. They are going after legal green card holders and asylum-seekers, locking them up with no due process. Students who had the gall to write an op-ed expressing their opinion on a political issue are being locked up for deportation.

It is all to meet the artificial quota of 3,000 per day set by Stephen Miller. He doesn't care whether the people he is deporting are criminals or not, clearly.

They deported a 4-year-old American citizen child with cancer whose parents had no criminal record, and we still don't know why.

We still haven't gotten answers about Andry Hernandez Romero, a gay makeup artist with no criminal record who legally sought asylum and who never even entered the country but was deported to a prison in El Salvador, a country that he is not even from.

This week, a landscaper, Narciso Barranco, with no criminal record was beaten in the streets by masked agents. His three sons are all United States marines.

This has to stop. The Trump administration needs to do what they said they were going to do: Go after criminals, not innocent people.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today for the 24th time to demand that the Trump administration restore funding for lifesaving food aid for malnourished children.

This is Plumpy'Nut. It is used to treat malnutrition. Until this Trump administration began, we were shipping Plumpy'Nut around the world, saving millions of lives a year. Starvation is still the leading cause of death for children globally.

Before he became Secretary of State, Trump's own Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, understood the value of food aid. He once said: ``We don't have to give foreign aid. We do so because it furthers our national interest.''

He is right. This is not just charity. This is about strengthening our alliances, bringing stability to fragile regions, and saving lives.

Secretary Rubio needs to do the right thing: Restore this aid immediately.

This is sitting in warehouses in Rhode Island, here in the United States. It should be getting to kids who need it, and I will continue to speak out until it does.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today for the 23rd time to ask the Trump administration to honor its word and restore funding for lifesaving food aid for malnourished children. This is not a Democratic or Republican issue.

President Ronald Reagan expanded the Food for Peace program, calling it a way to share America's bounty with the world's most vulnerable.

President George W. Bush launched the largest global health initiative in history, PEPFAR, and strengthened food assistance, as well.

President Obama increased funding for ready-to-use therapeutic food for combating child hunger globally.

Why? Because all the of these Presidents, Democrats and Republicans, understood that feeding the world's hungry is not just a moral responsibility, but also an imperative for our own national security. If we don't do it, our adversaries will.

Now, since the Trump administration cut off this funding 5 months ago, factories are idle, shipments are not being made, and kids are going hungry. The Trump administration has said they will restore this funding, but it has been 5 months. They have not done it yet. They need to honor their word and restore funding.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today for the 22nd time to call on the Trump administration to restore funding for lifesaving food aid for malnourished children.

Today, I remind this Chamber that this is not just a moral issue. It is a national security issue. Lieutenant General John Bednarek said: ``Anytime that we, the United States, depart an area that we used to be in, either with USAID . . . or other soft power initiatives, some foes, whether it is China, Russia, or North Korea'' fills the gap.

The general is right. Food aid helps stabilize fragile regions. It keeps our adversaries from gaining ground and good will.

Plumpy'Nut, a product manufactured in my district in Rhode Island, is a lifesaving source of nutrition for starving children around the world. The Trump administration needs to honor its word and restore the funding for this and other lifesaving food aid before more lives are lost and before our adversaries gain more ground.