Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the life and legacy of David DePetrillo, a tireless champion for Rhode Island.

For over three decades as our State's tourism director, David made it his mission to showcase the best of Rhode Island, including our historic landmarks, small businesses, and stunning coastlines.

To him, this work wasn't just a job. It was his way of life. He helped people across the country and the world see what Rhode Islanders have always known, that there is no place like the Ocean State.

Under his leadership, tourism became a major economic driver, creating thousands of jobs and boosting local businesses. He is perhaps best remembered for the iconic ``Biggest Little State in the Union'' campaign, which cemented Rhode Island's place on the map.

David's vision lives on in the bustling streets of Providence and the welcoming small businesses of South County.

My heart goes out to his wife, Jean, all of his brothers and sisters, and all who were lucky enough to know and love him.

May his legacy endure, and may he rest in peace.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and House Republicans stealing trillions of dollars from the middle class to fund massive tax cuts for billionaires. Instead of focusing on the cost of living or making America safer, Republicans are planning a massive giveaway to the rich, with working people picking up the tab.

They want $2 trillion in tax cuts for people making more than $500,000 a year by extending Trump's 2017 tax plan. That is $2 trillion for people making more than $500,000 a year.

How are they going to pay for it?

By cutting Medicaid.

That is healthcare for 77 million Americans, 80,000 Rhode Islanders, including seniors, children, and people with disabilities.

Nursing homes and community health centers all across this country will shut down.

It is not just healthcare. This bill takes money from education, farmers, and small businesses, all for billionaire tax cuts. These Republicans are not fighting for the middle class. They are fighting for Donald and Elon's rich friends at Mar-a-Lago, and the middle class is paying for it.

I urge my colleagues to vote ``no.''

Madam Speaker, I rise today to celebrate the legacy of a Rhode Island institution, Joe Marzilli's Old Canteen.

For nearly 75 years, the Old Canteen wasn't just any old restaurant. It was a gathering place where families came together, friendships were formed, and traditions were passed down over some of the best Italian food in the country.

Located in the historic Federal Hill neighborhood in Providence, the Old Canteen and its iconic neon sign became a symbol of Rhode Island's proud Italian community.

At the heart of it all was the Marzilli family, led by Joe and then his son Sal, who can now enjoy a well-earned retirement. Like so many entrepreneurs across Rhode Island, Madam Speaker, the Marzillis showed us that when you pour your heart into your work, you can build something incredible.

The Old Canteen may have closed its doors, but its legacy will never fade.

To the Marzilli family and to all the wait staff, chefs, and regulars who made the Old Canteen such a special place, I thank you for an incredible 75 years.

Mr. Speaker, had I been present, I would have voted YEA on Roll Call No. 36.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend, Mr. Ivey, for yielding, and I rise today as a proud vice chair of the Congressional Labor Caucus to stand with the hardworking men and women who keep our government running.

Federal workers show up every day to serve their neighbors and our country. These are the workers who make sure that Social Security checks go out to your parents and grandparents. These are the men and women who deliver our mail, no matter the weather, and the doctors and nurses at the VA who provide care to our Nation's bravest.

When Donald Trump and Elon Musk attack these public servants, it means fewer law enforcement officers working to keep us safe, slower disaster response for families hit by severe storms, and longer wait times for Social Security and Medicare.

Attacking these workers is exactly what Donald Trump and his co- president, Elon Musk, have set out to do. They are attacking air traffic controllers, postal workers, food inspectors, and people who keep us safe. Why? To find money to pay for tax cuts for billionaires.

That is right. Their goal here is to line the pockets of the wealthy off of the backs of working people and the services that all Americans rely on. These attacks on Federal workers are an attack on all working people across this country.

I want to tell the Federal workers in Rhode Island and across the United States that House Democrats stand with you. We see your dedication. We know the positive impact that you deliver every day. The best resistance is to keep showing up and to keep doing what you do best. This country runs because of you.

Here in Congress, we are going to fight to oppose Donald Trump and Elon Musk's baseless and cruel attacks against those who have devoted their lives to service.

Mr. Speaker, this week, Prospect Medical Holdings, which owns Our Lady of Fatima Hospital in North Providence and Roger Williams Medical Center in Providence, filed for bankruptcy, threatening to undermine Rhode Island's already-stressed healthcare system.

Unfortunately, this is a day that many of us feared would come because, for years, Leonard Green & Partners, the private equity firm that owned Prospect Medical, and executives of the company engaged in outrageous profiteering, buying up hospitals and extracting hundreds of millions of dollars of management fees and dividends, money that should have been spent on patient care.

In the decade that private equity firm Leonard Green owned Prospect Medical, they extracted over half a billion dollars from the hospitals they owned. Their partner, Prospect CEO Sam Lee, personally made more than $100 million, buying luxury properties for himself at the same time that he shut down emergency rooms. Shameful.

When I was State treasurer in 2020, I sent a letter to Leonard Green, expressing my frustration at their unethical practices and the impact they were having on healthcare in Rhode Island. In response, they put out a statement insisting that all was well and that the operations at Fatima and Roger Williams were doing just fine.

Now, 4 years later, wouldn't you know it, Prospect is declaring bankruptcy, threatening the health and safety of thousands of Rhode Islanders who rely on Fatima and Roger Williams and the livelihoods of the hundreds of healthcare workers who work in those hospitals.

The executives at Leonard Green and Prospect, who sucked all the money out of those hospitals, are long gone, counting their millions. It is greed, plain and simple.

I commend Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and Attorney General Peter Neronha, who have been sounding the alarm about Prospect for years. I am committed to working with State officials and my colleagues in the Rhode Island congressional delegation to clean up the mess that Leonard Green left behind and to do our best to save Fatima and Roger Williams and stabilize our State's healthcare system.

Mark my words, we will not stop there. The time has come for Congress to take a hard look at the consequences of private equity ownership of hospitals. Rhode Islanders and the American people are counting on us for action, and they are going to get it.

Honoring Officers for Serving on

January 6

Mr. Speaker, 4 years ago last week, a violent mob attacked our Nation's Capitol, assaulted police officers, and threatened to kill elected officials, all with the goal of blocking the results of the Presidential election and denying the will of the American people. They did it because the losing candidate in that election, President Donald Trump, incited them by falsely claiming he won.

On that dark day, hundreds of Capitol and Metropolitan Police officers bravely did their duty, putting their lives in harm's way to protect this building, the people in it, and our very democracy.

Over 140 police officers suffered injuries, including broken bones, concussions, and PTSD. They were attacked with baseball bats, axes, and chemicals, among other deadly weapons. In the weeks that followed, five officers died from their injuries.

The officers who served that day are all heroes who fought for our country and deserve our thanks and praise. Congress passed, and President Biden signed, a law to honor the Capitol Police officers who defended our country during the January 6 riots with a plaque here in the Capitol Building that they fought to defend.

Shamefully, Republicans in Congress continue to refuse to hang that plaque. Every day that my Republican colleagues delay is an insult to the brave officers who served on January 6 and who continue to protect us day in and day out.

Mr. Speaker, I say to my Republican colleagues: No more delays, no more disrespect. Hang the plaque now.

Every pivotal event in American history has heroes and cowards. January 6 is no different. History will always remember the heroic officers who risked their lives to defend our country and will also remember the cowards who refused to honor them.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the service of Rhode Island Adjutant General Chris Callahan, who is retiring at the end of this year after four decades of service to our State and country.

General Callahan joined the Army National Guard in 1984 and quickly ascended up the ranks. He served as headquarters commander for the First Battalion, 126th Aviation Regiment, brigade commander for the 56th Troop Command, and commander of the Task Force Dragonwing Aviation Battalion in Iraq.

In 2015, he was named the 44th Adjutant General of Rhode Island and commanding general of the Rhode Island National Guard.

Under his leadership, the Rhode Island National Guard deployed more than 3,000 soldiers and airmen on missions across the globe, ran point on Rhode Island's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, providing mass testing and administering hundreds of thousands of vaccinations. He also activated thousands of soldiers and airmen to respond to blizzards and hurricanes, establish warming shelters, and fight wildfires in Rhode Island, among many other missions.

General Callahan's exemplary service to our country was made possible by the support of his wife, Donna; and his children, Devin, Grace, and Katie.

Together, they kept Rhode Island National Guard's promise to be: Always ready, always there.

I thank Chris Callahan for his service to our country and our State.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life and legacy of Suzanne Murray, a humanitarian and philanthropist who made it her life's work to advocate for women's education.

Born in Providence, Sue was an accomplished student who attended Henry Barnard School, the Lincoln School, and Radcliffe College, where she discovered a passion for education and found the love of her life, Terry Murray.

The Murrays settled in Warwick and later Narragansett, raising five children.

Sue devoted her time giving back to her alma maters, serving as chair of the board of the Lincoln School and as a trustee at Radcliffe, among many other leadership positions.

In 2003, Lincoln named its middle school the Murray Middle School in her honor.

In 1997, Sue and Terry cofounded the Murray Family Charitable Foundation to support education, healthcare, and the arts in southern New England. She assisted in the founding of Sophia Academy, a middle school in Providence for girls. Her work to expand access to education, particularly for young women, has made a difference in countless lives across Rhode Island and beyond.

I join Sue's family and loved ones in celebrating her remarkable life.

Mr. Speaker, Kurt Vonnegut, Toni Morrison, and Stephen King are just a few of the authors whose books have been banned from Florida public school libraries because of the censorship laws passed by extreme Republican politicians.

President Eisenhower once warned: ``Don't join the book burners.'' ``Don't be afraid to go in your library and read every book.''

According to the Florida Department of Education, more than 700 books were banned from libraries in public school districts last year after Governor Ron DeSantis signed Florida's extreme book ban law.

There is nothing Americans hate more than politicians who want to take away their freedoms.

Yet Republican politicians want to take away the freedom of women to get an abortion. They want to take away the freedom of gay and lesbian Americans to marry their partners. Now, they want to take away freedom at the library.

Banning books is not just an attack on personal freedom. It is an attack on American values that we all believe in. People of all ages ought to be able to access the world of knowledge that comes from reading, including from those books that some may find controversial. Reading controversial books is part of how we challenge ourselves and each other to grow and strive and to create.

Book banners will claim that their goal is to protect people, but what they really want is to control people. That is not America.

``Having the freedom to read and the freedom to choose [what to read] is one of the best gifts my parents ever gave me,'' said children's author Judy Blume, another author whose name appears on the book ban list.

We must reclaim the freedom to read from the extreme politicians trying to turn back the clock for our kids, our country, and our future.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize November as National Family Caregivers Month and to honor the important work of the more than 48 million American family caregivers across our country.

Every day, Americans provide physical and emotional support for their older parents, spouses, siblings, grandparents, and other loved ones so that they can live independently in their homes. These caregivers help with everything, including meals, bathing, medical care, transportation, often balancing their jobs and their family responsibilities at the same time.

In Congress, we must do our part to make caregivers' lives easier. That is why I introduced the Alleviating Barriers to Caregivers Act, a bicameral, bipartisan bill that will reduce paperwork and red tape and make it easier for caregivers to navigate the resources and benefits that they are entitled to.

Family caregivers work around the clock to make a difference in the lives of their loved ones, and it is time that our country make a difference in theirs.

Madam Speaker, for 40 years an unfair law has cut the Social Security benefits of millions of police officers, firefighters, first responders, public school teachers, and other government employees, even though they pay just as much into the Social Security system as other Americans.

These people, our friends and neighbors who keep us safe and teach our children, should not be penalized for pursuing years in public service.

That is why I proudly voted this week for the Social Security Fairness Act, to end the GOP and WEP rules that have unfairly reduced the earned Social Security benefits of public servants.

This is a matter of basic fairness. All Americans deserve to retire with dignity but especially those who serve our communities in education, law enforcement, public safety, and other service roles.

It is time to right this wrong. Now that the House has passed this bill, I urge the Senate to take it up immediately and to restore full Social Security benefits for the millions of Americans who have been treated so unfairly.

Madam Speaker, it is no wonder that Donald Trump doesn't want people to know that Project 2025 is his plan. It is cruel, unpopular, and out of touch with the needs of the American people.

Among other things, Project 2025 will hand a future Trump administration nearly unlimited power, which they will use to eliminate health coverage for people with preexisting conditions.

Do you remember what it used to be like when people would go to the doctor, only to be denied healthcare because they had asthma or diabetes or cancer? There were no caps on out-of-pocket costs, so a trip to the hospital meant that a family could lose everything.

Donald Trump's Project 2025 plan calls for ending the Affordable Care Act and taking us back to the dark days when even people who had health insurance would be denied care simply because they had been sick or injured in the past. Even the $35 a month cap on insulin would end under Donald Trump's Project 2025 plan.

It is dangerous, it is cruel, it throws the health and safety of millions of Americans into jeopardy, and we cannot let Donald Trump and congressional Republicans take us back to those dark days.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from North Carolina for yielding.

I rise in opposition to H.R. 5339, a misguided bill that will hurt the retirement savings of millions of hardworking Americans.

The evidence is clear. Companies that adopt thoughtful policies to manage their environmental risks, their social risks, and have sound corporate governance policies outperform those that don't.

As a former State treasurer and an investor in the private sector, I can tell you that companies that take steps to mitigate their environmental footprint to do right by their customers, to do right by their employees, and to promote corporate diversity tend to outperform their peers. Any investor who knows what they are doing would be foolish to ignore those factors.

Even if you disagree with me, even if you don't think that those factors matter in company performance, you ought to believe that in a free market, investors should have the right to consider whatever factors they believe are relevant to performance without Congress getting in the way.

Why is the Republican majority, which claims to be the party of small government, so obsessed with walking away from free markets and taking away Americans' freedoms?

This is yet another example of this trend.

House Republicans want to tell you what books you can and can't get from the library, who you are and aren't allowed to marry, what reproductive healthcare decisions women have the right to make, and now they want to try to make it illegal for investors to even think about a company's environmental or social performance when doing their jobs.

The people who are going to get hurt are the American workers whose retirement savings will take a hit if this bill takes effect.

By the way, no one is asking for this bill. There are no constituents back home who are saying, you know, the biggest problem in our country today is ESG investing.

How about my Republican colleagues do their job, focus on keeping the government funded and open, and not take away the freedom of investors to do their jobs the way they see fit?

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life and legacy of J. Michael Downey, a giant in the labor movement who worked tirelessly to improve the lives of working Rhode Islanders.

Mike grew up in a union household. His father was the president of Local 28, the plumbers union, and executive director of the allied building trades.

He followed in his father's footsteps and worked as a plumber at the University of Rhode Island for over 27 years before becoming the chief plumbing investigator at the State Department of Labor and Training.

Mike worked a good job and wanted all workers in Rhode Island to have what he had, a fair and liveable wage, good benefits, and the opportunity to build a middle-class life.

That is what he fought for as president of ASFCME council 94, the State's largest public-sector employees union, and as president of Local 528, which represents workers at the University of Rhode Island.

Mike championed policies to protect members' wages and added several more locals under his leadership. Mike's work speaks for itself. He was re-elected as president five times.

Mike was also active in his own community, serving as the co-chair of Serve Rhode Island and as a council member for the town of Charlestown.

He will be remembered as a humble leader who dedicated his life and service to others. May his memory be a blessing.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the remarkable career of George Nee, a good friend, father, grandfather, and tireless advocate for working Rhode Islanders, who is retiring as the president of the Rhode Island AFL-CIO after four decades of service.

George has dedicated his life to improving the lives of working people and their families. At just 21 years old, he left college to work for the farm workers' union, helping to organize Boston's grape boycott in the late 1960s and the lettuce boycott of 1971.

He worked closely with renowned labor leader Cesar Chavez and saw firsthand how these boycotts improved the lives of workers. George then created an independent union of clerical workers, healthcare workers, and jewelry workers in 1976 that grew to more than 1,500 members.

In 1983, he joined the Rhode Island AFL-CIO, working his way up from staff representative to president in 2009, leading more than 80,000 union members across our State as the quintessential happy warrior on behalf of working people in Rhode Island.

In addition to the hundreds of fights for fair contracts, better wages, and better benefits, George boldly led the Rhode Island AFL-CIO in support of marriage equality and stood for commonsense gun safety laws.

It is a real honor to recognize my friend, George, and to congratulate him on his impactful and tremendous career.