Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, last week I rose to highlight and discuss the major reasons why Americans are so appreciative that Bill Clinton served as the 42nd President of the United States, especially for his healing words and actions during the time of the tragic and horrific April 1995 Oklahoma City bombing at the Edmund R. Murrah Federal Building that killed 168 persons, including 19 children, and wounded more than 800 others.

I added that we Democrats thank President Clinton for all that, but for so much more, a subject I wish to elaborate on today.

Bill Clinton was the unparalleled visionary Democratic political leader of the latter half of the 20th Century.

In the presidential election preceding his, the Democratic candidate was beaten in the Electoral College 426-112, losing 40 states, and trailing in the popular vote by 7.8 percentage points and 7 million votes.

In the presidential election before that, 1984, the Democratic candidate lost 49 of 50 states, lost the Electoral College 525-13, and lost the popular vote by 18.2 percentage points and 16.8 million votes.

The 1992 electoral map and political outlook were bleak for the Governor of the `small southern state of Arkansas' but he would not be deterred and would not be outworked and did not waver in his conviction that his progressive policies promising shared prosperity and his inclusive vision in which the United States ``did not have a person to waste'' would attract majority support.

The happy result of the 1992 presidential election is that the Democratic candidate, Bill Clinton, won the Electoral College 370-168, won 30 states, won every region of the country except the Deep South, won the popular vote by 5.6 percentage points 5.8 million votes, carrying several states that had not voted Democratic or voted Democratic only once since 1964, including California, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Washington, Oregon, Montana, Georgia, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Kentucky.

President Clinton repeated the feat in 1996, becoming the first Democratic President to win reelection since Franklin Roosevelt in 1944, carrying 31 states and the District of Columbia, prevailing in the Electoral College 379-159, and winning the popular vote by 8.2 million votes and 8.51 percentage points, and became the first Democrat to carry the states of Florida and Arizona since 1976 and 1948, respectively.

And he carried the suburban vote, which for the first time in history comprised the largest percentage of the electorate, gave us a master class in how a candidate for national office should speak and appeal to moms and dads with financial anxieties, growing kids about whose educational and economic futures they are concerned, and worried for their safety of their communities and the health security of their aging parents.

A legendary political campaigner second to none ever, Bill Clinton shattered what used to be called the `GOP Electoral Lock' and built the famed `Blue Wall,' which every Democratic candidate since has relied upon for victory and that has made the Democratic candidate the popular vote winner in seven out of the last eight presidential elections.

Not only that, because of President Clinton's extraordinary success in managing the affairs of our nation, Republican charges now ring hollow when they shout that Democrats ``are soft on crime,'' ``unwilling to defend the country,'' ``favor welfare recipients over hard working Americans,'' relegating them to invent new bogeymen like ``Radical Islamic Terrorism'' and ``Caravans of Illegal Aliens'' and ``Chinese Communists'' at our doorstep, invoke ``family values,'' ``guns, God, or gays,'' or some other culture war shibboleth, or to spout nonsensical conspiracy theories like the Big Lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen and rife with fraud.

Truth be told, Madam Speaker, the real problem with our friends in the Republican Party is that they have never adapted to the Age of Clinton, in which politics and governance is about meeting people where they live and giving them the tools and opportunities they need to make the most of their own lives, and treating all persons fairly and with respect, and above all, not rationing justice.

This is why they have been unable to command majority or plurality support in all but one of the last eight national elections.

Madam Speaker, Alexis DeTocqueville came to visit America 190 years ago to study the maiden case of democracy in action and here is what he wrote about political parties; it remains surprisingly relevant and prescient:

``[S]mall parties are generally without political faith. As

they are not elevated and sustained by lofty purposes, the

selfishness of their character is openly displayed in all

their actions. They glow with a factious zeal; their language

is violent, but their progress is timid and uncertain. The

means they employ are as disreputable as the aim sought.''

What distinguishes the Democratic Party from the Republican Party is the former's abiding faith in the capacity of human beings to improve their social, economic, and political conditions.

On the other hand, at the core of the Republican philosophy lies a darker, more pessimistic view of this ``scope of human perfectibility''; instead of looking to the future with courage and optimism, the conservative spirit looks to a nostalgic past with a pessimistic attitude toward a dreaded future.

Madam Speaker, because of the remarkable leadership and success role- modeled by the President William Jefferson Clinton, Democrats in Congress and across the nation know

who they are, what they believe, and what is important to fight to achieve or preserve; maybe one day our friends across the aisle will be so lucky.

I thank President Clinton for all he did as the Nation's 42nd President and captain of the ship of state to make our Nation the most prosperous on earth and at peace in the world.

Madam Speaker, I rise to give thanks and pay tribute to William Jefferson Clinton, the 42nd President of the United States, who turned 75 last Thursday, August 19, 2021. It is still hard to believe that the rebellious Baby Boomer Generation, of which I am a member and which in its youth was the hope and promise of the nation's future, is now just young at heart, but in Bill Clinton it produced one of the nation's greatest presidents.

As President, Bill Clinton, the ``Man From Hope,'' always put our people first and led our Nation to unrivaled heights of shared prosperity for all, unmatched progress in becoming `one Nation unified,' and brought peace to Ireland, freedom to the people of Kosovo, rescued the economy of Mexico from destruction, and led America to the leadership position in the emerging globalized economy of the 21st Century. Madam Speaker, if anyone wants to know the true meaning of ``American Exceptionalism'' all they have to do is examine the years 1993 through 2001 when President Bill Clinton commanded the ship of state.

Under President Clinton, the United States enjoyed the longest economic expansion in American history. The President's strategy of fiscal discipline, opening foreign markets, and investments in the American people helped create the conditions for a record 115 months of economic expansion and our economy grew at an average of 4 percent per year during the years of his presidency. More than 22 million jobs were created in less than eight years--the most ever under a single administration, and more than were created in the previous twelve years. We enjoyed the highest homeownership in American history because the strong Clinton economy and fiscal discipline kept interest rates low, making it possible for more families to buy homes, and the homeownership rate increased from 64.2 percent in 1992 to 67.7 percent, the highest rate ever. We had the lowest unemployment in 30 years. Unemployment dropped from more than 7 percent in 1993 to just 4.0 percent in November 2000. Unemployment for African Americans and Hispanics fell to the lowest rates on record, and the rate for women was the lowest in more than 40 years.

Between 1993 and 2001, reading and math scores increased for 4th, 8th, and 12th graders, and math SAT scores reached a 30-year high, 49 states put in place standards in core subjects, and federal investment in education and training doubled. During the Clinton Administration financial aid for students was nearly doubled by increasing Pell Grants to the largest award ever, expanding Federal Work-Study to allow 1 million students to work their way through college, and by creating new tax credits and scholarships, such as Lifetime Learning tax credits and the HOPE scholarship. At the same time, taxpayers saved $18 billion due to the decline in student loan defaults, increased collections and savings from the direct student loan program.

President Clinton and Vice President Gore's commitment to education technology, including the E-Rate and a 3,000 percent increase in educational technology funding, increased the percentage of schools connected to the Internet from 35 percent in 1994 to 95 percent in 1999. Because of President Clinton's comprehensive anti-crime strategy of smart prevention, more police, as well as commonsense gun safety laws, the overall crime rate declined for 8 consecutive years, the longest continuous drop on record, and was at the lowest level since 1973. As part of the 1994 Crime Bill, President Clinton enacted a new initiative to fund 100,000 community police officers in more than 11,000 law enforcement agencies.

Since the President signed the Brady bill in 1993, stopping more than 600,000 felons, fugitives, and other prohibited persons from buying guns, gun crime declined 40 percent during his years in office.

President Clinton signed into law the Family and Medical Leave Act in 1993, which enabled more than 20 million Americans to take leave to care for a newborn child or sick family member without fear of losing their job. President Clinton pledged to end welfare as we know it and signed landmark bipartisan welfare reform legislation in 1996. As a result of the booming economy and welcoming job market, welfare caseloads were cut in half, to the lowest level since 1968, millions of parents joined the workforce, and ``welfare is no longer a political issue to be exploited by demagogues, as people on welfare today were five times more likely to b working in 2000 than in 1992. After falling by nearly $2,000 between 1988 and 1992, the median income for families rose by $6,338, after adjusting for inflation during the Clinton years. In that same time, African-American family income increased even more, rising by nearly $7,000 since 1993.

After years of stagnant income growth among average and lower income families, all income brackets experienced double-digit growth since 1993, with the bottom quintile enjoying the largest income growth at 16.3 percent. Because Congress passed President Clinton's Economic Plan in 1993, the poverty rate declined from 15.1 percent to 11.8 percent-- the largest six-year drop in poverty in nearly 30 years. In 2000, there were seven million fewer people in poverty than when President Clinton took office in 1993. The child poverty rate declined more than 25 percent, the poverty rates for single mothers, African Americans, and the elderly had dropped to their lowest levels on record, and Hispanic poverty dropped to its lowest level since 1979. In his 1995 State of the Union Address, President Clinton challenged Americans to join together in a national campaign against teen pregnancy, which resulted in the birth rate for teens aged 15-19 declining every year of the Clinton Presidency, from 60.7 per 1,000 teens in 1992 to a record low of 49.6 in 1999.

Because the Clinton Administration expanded efforts to provide mothers and newborn children with healthcare, a record high 82 percent of all mothers were receiving prenatal care by the time he left office and the infant mortality rate dropped from 8.5 deaths per 1,000 in 1992 to 7.2 deaths per 1,000 in 1998, the lowest rate ever recorded.

The accomplishments of President Clinton were just as impressive in the field of national security and foreign affairs. President Clinton understood from the beginning of his presidency that the most pervasive force in our world is globalization and he understood that while globalization is inexorable, its benefits must be harnessed to advance our objectives of democracy, shared prosperity and peace.

Under the visionary leadership of President Clinton, America exercised its influence by building with its democratic partners an international system of strong alliances and institutions attuned to the challenges of a globalized world, by ensuring this system is genuinely open to all who adhere to clearly defined standards, and by being ready to stand up for those standards when they are threatened. After the absence of such leadership the last four years, is it not wonderful that the Administration of President Biden also understands that the power of America's example carries more influence than examples of America's power. But let us get back to the story of spectacular leadership and spectacular results.

The Clinton-Gore Administration led the international effort to dismantle more than 1,700 nuclear warheads, 300 launchers and 425 land and submarine-based missiles from the former Soviet Union.

President Clinton led the revitalization, adaptation, and expansion of NATO from a static Cold War alliance to a magnet for new democracies, with new partners, members and missions; adapted its command structure; admitted Hungary; Poland and the Czech Republic; and created the Partnership for Peace. President Clinton led NATO in its first military engagement and stopped the killing in Bosnia, brokered the peace in the Dayton Accords, leading to a sustained civil society complete with active opposition parties an non-governmental organizations and national and local elections taking place throughout the country.

As Commander in Chief, President Clinton took military action in Kosovo to stop genocide, ethnic cleansing, and regional instability, forcing the withdrawal of Serb forces, disbanding the Kosovo Liberation Army, and deploying an international presence in Kosovo--with a 47,000 strong NATO-led force providing security for the province, resulting in the safe and unconditional return of over 900,000 refugees. Under President Clinton, nuclear weapons and their delivery vehicles were permanently eliminated from Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan and the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty was signed; in addition, the indefinite extension of the Non-Proliferation Treaty and ratification of the Chemical Weapons Convention was achieved.

Under President Clinton, the perpetrators of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and CIA killings were brought to justice and the planned terrorist attacks against Millennium celebrations were foiled. President Clinton developed a national counter-terrorism strategy, led by a national coordinator, and the Nation's first national strategy to protect critical infrastructure, and increased funding on critical infrastructure Protection by over 40 percent since 1998. An admirer of Nelson Mandela, a student of his teachings, and a true friend of Africa and the Caribbean, President Clinton was the second American President to visit sub-Sahara Africa, following President Jimmy Carter's visit to Lagos, Nigeria in 1978.

As President, Bill Clinton launched and won approval for the African Growth and Opportunity Act to support increased trade and investment between the United States and Africa, strengthen African economies and democratic governments, increase partnerships to counter terrorism, crime, environmental degradation and disease, and for the Caribbean Basin Initiative enhancement legislation to promote economic prosperity in Central America and the Caribbean.

Madam Speaker, between 1998 and 2000, the national debt was reduced by $363 billion--the largest three-year debt pay-down in American history and we were on track to pay off the entire debt by 2009 until the fiscal mismanagement of the succeeding administration. President Clinton converted the largest budget deficit in American history to the largest surplus in history; the deficit was $290 billion in 1993 and was expected to grow to $455 billion by 1998 but instead, thanks to the leadership of President Clinton, the United States had a surplus of $237 billion.

In the area of the great outdoors and the environment, it should be noted that President Clinton protected more land in the lower 48 states than any other president, protecting 5 new national parks, designating 11 new national monuments, and expanding two others and proposing protections for 60 million acres of roadless areas in America's national forests.

During the Clinton years, federal government spending as a share of the economy had decreased from 22.2 percent in 1992 to a projected 18.5 percent in 2000, the lowest since 1966. On a related note, Americans enjoyed the lowest federal income tax burden in 35 years under President Clinton, who enacted targeted tax cuts such as the Earned Income Tax Credit expansion, $500 child tax credit, and the HOPE Scholarship and Lifetime Learning Tax Credits.

As a candidate, President Clinton pledged that he would have a government ``that looks like the American people,'' and he made true on that commitment and then some. President Clinton appointed more African Americans, women and Hispanics to the Cabinet than any other President in history; he appointed the first female Attorney General, the first female Secretary of State and the first Asian-American cabinet secretary ever.

Under his Administration, the outright ban on gays serving in the military was ended and the military's policy of ``Don't Ask, Don't Tell'' worked so well in allowing LGBTQ service personnel to demonstrate their talents and skills that the policy would later be found to be unnecessary and discarded altogether.

Madam Speaker, I have laid out the major reasons why Americans are so appreciative that Bill Clinton served as the 42nd President of the United States, especially for his healing words and actions during the time of the tragic and horrific April 1995 Oklahoma City bombing at the Alfred R. Murrah Federal Building that killed 168 persons, including 19 children, and wounded more than 800 others. And as he pledged to the Nation he would, the terrorists who perpetrated this heinous act were brought to justice and punished in accordance with the law.

We Democrats thank President Clinton for all that but for much more. Bill Clinton was the unparalleled visionary Democratic political leader of the latter half of the 20th Century. In the presidential election preceding his, the Democratic candidate was beaten in the Electoral College 426-112, losing 40 states, and trailing in the popular vote by 7.8 percentage points and 7 million votes. In the presidential election before that, 1984, the Democratic candidate lost 49 of 50 states, lost the Electoral College 525-13, and lost the popular vote by 18.2 percentage points and 16.8 million votes. The electoral map and political outlook were bleak for the Governor of the ``small southern state of Arkansas'' but he would not be deterred and would not be outworked and did not waver in his conviction that his progressive policies promising shared prosperity and his inclusive vision in which the United States ``did not have a person to waste'' would attract majority support.

Madam Speaker, because of the remarkable leadership and success role- modeled by

President William Jefferson Clinton, Democrats in Congress and across the Nation know who they are, what they believe, and what is important to fight to achieve or preserve; maybe one day our friends across the aisle will be so lucky.

Happy Birthday, President Clinton, and thank you for all you did as the Nation's 42nd President and captain of the ship of state to make our Nation the most prosperous on earth and at peace in the world.

Madam Speaker, I rise in remembrance of one of the true giants of American history and politics, Lyndon Baines Johnson, the 36th President of the United States, who was born 113 years ago today, August 27. It might be fair to say that I have quoted the wise words of President Abraham Lincoln on this floor perhaps more than any other Member and my appreciation and profound gratitude for leadership of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who led our country out of the Great Depression and into an economic and military superpower, to victory in World War II, and whose New Deal transformed the way Americans live and work for the better, is unsurpassed.

But next to these two greatest of all American presidents, in my view shared by millions, stands Lyndon Baines Johnson, the visionary and architect of the Great Society, which centered federal policy on the growth and human development of the individual, providing educational and economic opportunity to all persons of all races, genders, and creeds living in every rural and urban community in every region of the nation. As I will discuss, the acclaimed Pulitzer Prize winner and preeminent historian and biographer, Robert Caro, is exactly right when he wrote that with the single exception of Abraham Lincoln, Lyndon Johnson was the greatest champion of the poor and underprivileged in the history of the Republic and was the President ``who wrote mercy and justice into the statute books by which America was governed.''

That is why earlier this year I introduced H.R. 115, legislation awarding the Congressional Gold Medal to President Lyndon Baines Johnson, whose vision and leadership secured passage of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965, the Social Security Amendments Act (Medicare) of 1965, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Higher Education Act of 1965, the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965, to name just a handful of the more than 180 laws that have done so much to shape American society in the 21st Century. The awarding of the Congressional Gold Medal is long overdue recognition of the remarkable record of achievement in the field of domestic affairs of the person most responsible for several of the nation's landmark laws that mark their 56th anniversary this year.

Madam Speaker, as a Member of Congress from the Tenth Congressional District of Texas, as Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate, Vice President and President of the United States, Lyndon Baines Johnson's domestic accomplishments in the fields of civil rights, education, and economic opportunity rank among the greatest achievements of the past century. As President, Lyndon Johnson proposed, championed, led to passage, and signed into law on August 6, 1965 the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which swept away barriers impeding millions of Americans from meaningful participation in American political life. On July 30, 1965, President Johnson signed into law the Social Security Amendments Act of 1965, which we today know as Medicare, which has transformed the delivery of health care in the United States and which, along with Social Security, reduced the rate of poverty among the elderly from 28.5 percent in 1966 to 9.1 percent in 2012.

On July 2, 1964 President Johnson secured passage and signed into law the most sweeping civil rights legislation since Reconstruction, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination in employment, education, and public accommodations based on race, color, religion, or national origin.

On November 8, 1965, President Johnson signed into law the Higher Education Act, which provided need-based financial aid to students in the form of scholarships, work-study grants, and loans, and thus for the first time made higher education more accessible to populations of persons who were previously unable to attend college because of economic circumstances.

On October 3, 1965, President Johnson signed into law the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965, which transformed the nation's immigration system by abolishing the racially based quota system that had defined American immigration policy for the previous four decades and replaced it with a policy whose central purpose was family reunification, with a preference for immigrants with specific skillsets.

Madam Speaker, Lyndon Baines Johnson began his working life as a teacher and debate coach in the poor Hispanic community in the South Texas town of Cotulla, where poverty was so bad that he recalled seeing ``Mexican children going through a garbage pile, shaking the coffee grounds from the grapefruit rinds and sucking the rinds for the juice that was left, a sight he never forgot, and which fueled his passion and commitment to ending poverty in America. This teacher who became president served his country in numerous, distinguished ways, including as Lt. Commander in the U.S. Navy during World War II, as a Member of both houses of Congress, as Vice President of the United States, and as the 36th President of the United States. Lyndon Baines Johnson was born on August 27, 1908, in Stonewall, Texas.

In 1927, he enrolled in Southwest Texas State Teachers College at San Marcos, Texas (Texas State University-San Marcos) and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in August 1930. After graduation he taught at Pearsall High School in Pearsall, Texas, and taught public speaking at Sam Houston High School in Houston, Texas, where in the spring of 1931, his debate team won the district championship. In a special election in 1937, Johnson won the U.S. House of Representatives seat representing the 10th Congressional District of Texas, defeating nine other candidates, and would be re-elected to a full term in the 76th Congress and to each succeeding Congress until 1948.

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Johnson became the first Member of Congress to volunteer for active duty in the armed forces (U.S. Navy), reporting for active duty on December 9, 1941. Johnson received the Silver Star from General

Douglas MacArthur for gallantry in action during an aerial combat mission over hostile positions in New Guinea on June 9, 1942. President Roosevelt ordered all Members of Congress in the armed forces to return to their offices, and Johnson was released from active duty on July 16, 1942. In 1948, after a campaign in which he traveled by `newfangled' helicopter all over the state, Johnson won the primary by 87 votes and earning the nickname `Landslide Lyndon' and went on to victory in the general election, where he served until inaugurated Vice-President of the United States on January 20, 1961.

As a member of the Senate, Lyndon Johnson is acknowledged by historians, scholars, and students of politics as the greatest Majority Leader in the history of that chamber. Lyndon Johnson became the 36th President of the United States on November 22, 1963, after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. During his administration, education was one of the many areas where President Johnson blazed new ground, proposing numerous education initiatives which became landmark education bills he signed into law. In 1963, President Johnson signed the Higher Education Facilities Act (P.L. 88-204) which authorized a five-year program of federal grants and loans for construction or improvement of public and private higher education academic facilities. This legislation was the largest education program enacted by Congress since the National Defense Education Act of 1958, and itwas the first broad education bill enacted in the post-World War II period that was not tied to national defense.

In 1964, Johnson signed the Library Services Act (P.L. 88-269) to make high quality public libraries more accessible to both urban and rural residents. The funds made available under this Act were used to construct as well as operate libraries, and to extend this program to cities as well as rural areas. Later that year, President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act (P.L. 88-352), which included Title VI among its landmark provisions authorizing federal authorities to sue for the desegregation of schools and to withhold federal funds from education institutions that practiced segregation. In 1965, in the presence of his first teacher, Mrs. Kathryn Deadrich Loney, President Johnson signed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (P.L. 89-10) at the former Junction Elementary School in Stonewall, Texas, where he first attended school. This legislation was the first general aid-to- education program ever adopted by Congress, and it provided programs to help educate disadvantaged children in urban and rural areas.

Later that year, he also signed the Higher Education Act (P.L. 89- 329), which was the first program approved by the U.S. Congress for scholarships to undergraduate students. In 1965, President Johnson launched Project Head Start, as an eight-week summer program, to help break the cycle of poverty by providing pre-school children from low- income families with a comprehensive program to meet their emotional, social, health, nutritional, and psychological needs. Recruiting children from ages three to school-entry age, Head Start was enthusiastically received by education and child development specialists, community leaders, and parents across the nation. Currently, Head Start continues to serve children and their families each year in urban and rural areas in all 50 States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Territories, as well as many migrant children. In 1966, President Johnson signed the International Education Act (P.L. 89-698), which promoted international studies at U.S. colleges and universities.

In 1968, he signed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act Amendments of 1967 (P.L. 90-247), establishing bilingual education programs for non-English speaking children, and providing more funds for special education for disabled children. Later that year, he also signed the Handicapped Children's Early Education Assistance Act (P.L. 90-538), which authorized experimental programs for disabled children of preschool age. In 1965, President Johnson achieved passage of the greatest legislative achievement for the cause of civil rights and equality of opportunity, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which outlawed discrimination in voting, thus allowing millions of southern black Americans to vote for the very first time. In other actions on the civil rights front, President Johnson nominated civil rights attorney Thurgood Marshall to the positions of Solicitor General and later Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, making him the first African American to serve in either capacity.

Madam Speaker, I include in the Record a document entitled the ``The Legislative Legacy of President Lyndon Baines Johnson: 1963-1968,'' to remind all Members and the Nation what can be accomplished under the leadership of one who had a servant's heart, an iron will, and as the famed biographer Robert Caro memorably characterized it, ``a natural genius for politics.'' I invite all Members to join me in sponsoring H.R. 115, legislation awarding the Congressional Gold Medal and recognizing the extraordinary domestic achievements of President Lyndon Baines Johnson, the 36th President of the United States.

The Legislative Legacy of President Lyndon Baines Johnson: 1963-1968

1963

College Facilities

Clean Air

Vocational Education

Indian Vocational Training

Manpower Training

1964

Inter-American Development Bank

Kennedy Cultural Center

Tax Reduction

Farm Program

Pesticide Controls

International Development Association

Civil Rights Act of 1964

Water Resources Research

War on Poverty

Criminal Justice

Truth-in-Securities

Food Stamps

Housing Act

Wilderness Areas

Nurse Training

Library Services

1965

Medicare

Medicaid

Elementary and Secondary Education

Higher Education

Bilingual Education

Department of Housing and Urban Development

Housing Act

Voting Rights

Immigration Reform Law

Older Americans

Heart, Cancer, Stroke Program

Law Enforcement Assistance

Drug Controls

Mental Health Facilities

Health Professions

Medical Libraries

Vocational Rehabilitation

Anti-Poverty Program

Arts and Humanities Foundation

Aid to Appalachia

Highway Beauty

Clean Air

Water Pollution Control

High Speed Transit

Manpower Training

Child Health

Community Health Services

Water Resources Council

Water Desalting

Juvenile Delinquency Control

Arms Control

Affirmative Action

1966

Child Nutrition

Department of Transportation

Truth in Packaging

Model Cities

Rent Supplements

Teachers Corps

Asian Development Bank

Clean Rivers

Food for Freedom

Child Safety

Narcotics Rehabilitation

Traffic Safety

Highway Safety

Mine Safety

International Education

Bail Reform

Auto Safety

Tire Safety

New GI Bill

Minimum Wage Increase

Urban Mass Transit

Civil Procedure Reform

Fish-Wildlife Preservation

Water for Peace

Anti-Inflation Program

Scientific Knowledge Exchange

Protection for Savings

Freedom of Information

Hirshhorn Museum

1967

Education Professions

Education Act

Air Pollution Control

Partnership for Health

Social Security Increases

Age Discrimination

Wholesome Meat

Flammable Fabrics

Urban Research

Public Broadcasting

Outer Space Treaty

Modern D.C. Government

Federal Judicial Center

Deaf-Blind Center

College Work Study

Summer Youth Programs

Food Stamps

Urban Fellowships

Safety at Sea Treaty

Narcotics Treaty

Anti-Racketeering

Product Safety Commission

Inter-American Bank

1968

Fair Housing

Indian Bill of Rights

Safe Streets

Wholesome Poultry

Commodity Exchange Rules

School Breakfasts

Truth-in-Lending

Aircraft Noise Abatement

New Narcotics Bureau

Gas Pipeline Safety

Fire Safety

Sea Grant Colleges

Tax Surcharge Housing Act

International Monetary Reform

Fair Federal Juries

Juvenile Delinquency Prevention

Guaranteed Student Loans

Health Manpower

Gun Controls

Aid-to-Handicapped Children

Heart, Cancer and Stroke Programs

Hazardous Radiation Protection

Scenic Rivers

Scenic Trails

National Water Commission

Vocational Education

Dangerous Drug Control

Military Justice Code

Tax Surcharge

Madam Speaker, I am very proud to be able to stand here today remembering the Constitution and saying to my good friends that this floor belongs to the American people. This floor is a floor, as John

Lewis has often challenged us, that calls upon us to be courageous.

I am also here to say to you that I have no doubt that the United States military, with the will of the American people, will ensure that all Americans come out of Afghanistan and our allies. But at the same time, I am grateful for the idea of a build back America act that will have Texas get universal pre-K childcare, tuition-free community college. And then, of course, the invest act that will see us get $537 million for bridges, $100 million for broadband, $3.3 billion for public transit so that our climate can improve.

I know that the Texas delegation, State representatives who sacrificed and came to this Nation's Capital to cry out for justice, Texas Democratic representatives who are here in this place now, that H.R. 4 is going to save the day, not partisan, but it is going to make us a democratic Republic. And we need to pass H.R. 4 because John Lewis said: Do you have any courage?

Madam Speaker, as a senior member of the Judiciary Committee and an original cosponsor, I rise today in strong support of the Rule governing debate of Senate Amendment to H.R. 3684, Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act; S. Con. Res. 14, Budget Resolution For Build Back Better Plan; and H.R. 4, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.

Madam Speaker, as a senior member of the Committees on the Judiciary, on Homeland Security, and on the Budget, I rise in strong support of the Rule governing debate of Senate Amendment to H.R. 3684, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which represents the most significant long-term investment in the United States' infrastructure and competitiveness in nearly a century.

This legislation will make life better for Americans across the country, create a generation of good-paying union jobs, grow our economy, invest in communities that have too often been left behind, and better position the United States to compete globally and win in the 21st century.

The United States is the wealthiest country in the world, yet after decades of underinvestment, the country's roads, bridges, and water systems are crumbling, and our electric grid is vulnerable to catastrophic outages.

Too many families lack access to affordable, high-speed internet, clean drinking water, and public transportation, and too often, past infrastructure investments have disproportionately and negatively impacted low-income neighborhoods and communities of color.

Investing in our infrastructure--and investing in communities across the country--can create millions of good-paying jobs in underserved areas and lay the groundwork for not only a full economic recovery from the pandemic, but also usher in a new era of American innovation and prosperity.

The historic Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act invests $550 billion in new federal investment to make an array of transformational investments in our country's infrastructure including:

$121 billion to repair and rebuild our roads and bridges with a focus on climate change mitigation, resilience, equity, and safety for all users, including cyclists and pedestrians.

$89.9 billion to modernize America's public transit, by increasing routes, reducing the transit maintenance backlog, and providing more frequent service, resulting in better options for riders, improved environmental outcomes, and increased access to jobs and essential destinations.

$66 billion to modernize and expand passenger and freight rail networks across the country, to position our railways to play a central role in our transportation and economic future.

$15 billion in zero emission and clean buses and ferries and to build the first-ever national network of electric vehicle chargers in the United States, in order to address the adoption of electric vehicles and support domestic manufacturing jobs.

$42 billion to modernize our airports, ports, and waterways;

$50 billion to weatherize our infrastructure and insulate it against the threats of droughts, floods, and wildfires.

$55 billion to drinking water infrastructure, including eliminating the Nation's lead service lines and pipes, thereby delivering clean drinking water to up to ten million American families and more than 400,000 schools and child care facilities that currently do not have it, including in Tribal nations and disadvantaged communities.

$65 billion to upgrade our power infrastructure to facilitate the expansion of renewable energy.

$21 billion in environmental remediation, making it the largest investment in addressing the legacy pollution that harms the public health of communities and neighborhoods in American history.

$65 billion to connect every American to reliable high-speed internet, building on the billions of dollars for broadband deployment in the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.

Across this country, far too many communities are struggling with crumbling roads and structurally unsound bridges, outrageous congestion, lead-coated pipes and no broadband access.

The Senate Amendment to H.R. 3684 addresses economic disparities in our economy and the consequences of decades of disinvestment in America's infrastructure that have fallen most heavily on communities of color.

Through critical investments, the legislation increases access to good-paying jobs, affordable high-speed internet, reliable public transit, clean drinking water and other resources to ensure communities of color get a fair shot at the American dream.

These critical investments are first steps in advancing equity and racial justice throughout our economy.

Additional investments are needed in our nation's caregiving infrastructure, housing supply, regional development, and workforce development programs to ensure that communities of color and other underserved communities can access economic opportunity and justice.

This bill will address these challenges, and will also deliver much- needed investment to my home state of Texas, making life better for millions of Texas residents.

Specifically, under the bill, Texas is expected to receive:

$26.9 billion for federal-aid highway apportioned programs and $537 million for bridge replacement and repairs with a focus on climate change mitigation, resilience, equity, and safety for all users, including cyclists and pedestrians;

$3.3 billion over five years to improve public transportation options across the state through healthy, sustainable transportation options for millions of Americans;

$408 million over five years to support the expansion of an EV charging network in the state; and

Texas will also have the opportunity to apply for the $2.5 billion in grant funding dedicated to EV charging in the bill;

A minimum allocation of $100 million to help provide broadband coverage across the state, including providing access to at least 1,058,000 Texans who currently lack it.

In addition, 8,381,000 or 29% of people in Texas will be eligible for the Affordability Connectivity Benefit, which will help low-income families afford internet access.

Madam Speaker, in sum, I encourage all members to support the Rule governing debate of Senate Amendment to H.R. 3684 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, so that we can invest in strengthening our infrastructure and competitiveness, and do so in a way that creates the good-paying union jobs of the future, addresses long-standing racial and economic injustice, and helps to fight the climate crisis.

Madam Speaker, as a senior member of the Committees on the Judiciary, on Homeland Security, and on the Budget, I rise in strong support of the Rule governing debate of S. Con. Res. 14, which reorders budgetary priorities to provide $3.5 trillion investments to build back better and provides reconciliation instructions to 13 House and 12 Senate committees to support visionary and transformative investments in the health, well-being, and financial security of America's workers and families.

It is often said that the federal budget is an expression of the nation's values and the budget resolution before us is a clear declaration of congressional Democrats' commitment to ensuring that our government, our economy, and our systems work For The People.

Madam Speaker, these long-overdue investments in America's future will be felt in every corner of the country and across every sector of American life, building on the success of the American Rescue Plan, accommodating historic infrastructure investments in the legislative pipeline, and addressing long-standing deficits in our communities by ending an era of chronic underinvestment so we can emerge from our current crises a stronger, more equitable nation.

Should our friends across the aisle join us in this endeavor, it would send a powerful signal to the American people if our colleagues across the aisle would join us in this effort because nothing would better show them that their elected representatives can set partisanship aside and put America first.

And that bipartisan achievement would portend success for similar initiatives in the area of strengthening the infrastructure of democracy in which every American has a vital interest, national and homeland security, and criminal justice and immigration reform.

I would urge my Republican colleagues to heed the words of Republican Governor Jim Justice of West Virginia who said colorfully several months ago, ``At this point in time in this nation, we need to go big. We need to quit counting the egg-sucking legs on the

cows and count the cows and just move. And move forward and move right now.''

The same sentiment was expressed more eloquently by Abraham Lincoln in 1862 when he memorably wrote:

``The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.''

Madam Speaker, the bipartisan action we took in February 2021 when we passed the American Rescue Plan was a giant step in the right direction, but it was a targeted response to the immediate and urgent public health and economic crises; it was not a long-term solution to many of the pressing challenges facing our nation that have built up over decades of disinvestment in our nation and its people in every region and sector of the country.

We simply can no longer afford the costs of neglect and inaction; the time to act is now.

The Build Back Better Plan makes the transformative investments that we need to continue growing our economy, lower costs for working families, and position the United States as a global leader in innovation and the jobs of the future.

This $3.5 trillion gross investment will build on the successes of the American Rescue Plan and set our nation on a path of fiscal responsibility and broadly shared prosperity for generations to come.

The Build Back Better Plan will provide resources to improve our education, health, and child care systems, invest in clean energy and sustainability, address the housing crisis, and more; all while setting America up to compete and win in the decades ahead.

The Build Back Better Plan is paid for by ensuring that the wealthy and big corporations are paying their fair share and Americans making less than $400,000 a year will not see their taxes increase by a penny.

Let me repeat that: No American making less than $400,000 a year will not see their taxes increase by a penny.

In sum, Madam Speaker, the investments made by the Build Back Better Plan will expand opportunity for all and build an economy powered by shared prosperity and inclusive growth.

Madam Speaker, while I am proud to strongly support this Rule and underlying bill, I would be remiss if I did not express my disappointment at the Rules Committee's decision to not include my amendments to this bill.

Jackson Lee Amendments #6, #7, and #8 are easy to understand and vitally important--they simply protect state legislators who, in keeping with their sacred oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States, refuse to perform unconstitutional acts under the guise of legislative process.

Specifically:

Jackson Lee Amendment #6 allows for federal judicial review of any warrants issued for the arrest of a state legislator where said state legislator refuses to engage in the state legislative process due to a reasonably held belief that doing so would infringe on the right to vote.

Jackson Lee Amendment #7 inserts a Sense of the Congress stating that a state's power to arrest a duly elected representative of a constituency for refusal to engage in a state's legislative process should be subject to federal judicial review where such elected representative's refusal is premised upon a reasonable belief that participation would result in the suppression of voting rights or other violations of the Constitution of the United States of America.

Jackson Lee Amendment #8 privileges against arrest any member of a state legislature for any reason except treason or murder while the legislature of that state is debating or voting on legislation relating to redistricting or election practices or legislation relating to the right to vote in federal, state, or municipal elections.

These amendments would have critically strengthened H.R. 4 because state legislatures across the country are utilizing every weapon in their arsenal to curtail voting rights; and no one should fear arrest due to fighting for the Constitutional rights of their constituents.

This includes my home state of Texas, where earlier this month officers of the Texas House of Representatives delivered civil arrest warrants, signed by the Texas state Speaker of the House, for more than 50 absent Democrats in an attempt force a vote on the naked attempt at voter suppression known as Texas S.B. 7.

This is the latest Republican attack on these brave state legislators, which began on May 30, where after a night of impassioned debate and procedural objections, these Democratic lawmakers in Texas took action to block passage of this massive overhaul of the state's election laws.

Since the arrest warrants were issued, it is my understanding that mass intimidation of the Texas House Democrats has occurred.

State officials came to their homes with the purpose of dragging them back to eviscerate the voting rights of thousands of Texans.

These elected Texas Representatives have had to hide away from their friends, their families, and their loved ones, all to ensure that Texans retain their most sacred of rights.

They are risking their freedom to ensure every Texan has full access to their constitutional right to vote.

Texas Republicans seek to pass voting regulation laws focused on diverse, urban areas, by setting rules for the distribution of polling places in only the handful of counties with a population of at least 1 million--most of which are either under Democratic control or won by Democrats in recent national and statewide elections.

Standing between all of this and the voting rights of thousands of Texans are those brave state legislators who currently have a warrant out for their arrest.

No elected representative in this great nation should fear that he or she will be locked away for simply standing up for justice and ensuring that America's citizens have the right to vote.

For this reason, I believe that H.R. 4 would have been greatly strengthened by the inclusion of my amendments in the Rule.

I strongly encourage all Members of Congress to support this Rule and the underlying bill, because it is the responsibility and sacred duty of all members of Congress who revere democracy to preserve, protect, and expand the precious right to vote of all Americans by passing H.R. 4, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.

Madam Speaker, I am here today to remind the nation that the need to pass this legislation is urgent because the right to vote--that ``powerful instrument that can break down the walls of injustice''-- faces grave threats.

The threat stems from the decision issued in June 2013 by the Supreme Court in Shelby County v Holder, 570 U.S. 193 (2013), which invalidated Section 4(b) of the VRA, and paralyzed the application of the VRA's Section 5 preclearance requirements.

Not to be content with the monument to disgrace that is the Shelby County decision, the activist right-wing conservative majority on the Roberts Court, on July 1, 2021, issued its evil twin, the decision in

Madam Speaker, I include in the Record an article with breaking news: The Texas Speaker of the House signs arrest warrants for absent Democrats in bid to end chamber's weekslong stalemate to fight against suppression and oppression in S.B. 7.

[From the Texas Tribune, Aug. 10, 2021]

Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan Signs Arrest Warrants for Absent

Democrats in Bid To End Chamber's Weekslong Stalemate

(By Cassandra Pollock and Patrick Svitek)

House Speaker Dade Phelan signed arrest warrants Tuesday

evening for Democrats who broke quorum to block a

controversial GOP elections bill. The warrants will be

delivered to the House Sergeant-at-Arms Wednesday. Credit:

Jordan Vonderhaar for The Texas Tribune. Sign up for The

Brief, our daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on

the most essential Texas news.

Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan on Tuesday evening signed

civil arrest warrants for 52 House Democrats still missing

from the state Capitol as he aimed to regain the quorum

needed for the chamber to begin moving legislation during the

second special session.

The move was confirmed by Phelan spokesperson Enrique

Marquez, who said the warrants ``will be delivered to the

House Sergeant-at-Arms tomorrow morning for service.''

The warrants were first reported by The Dallas Morning

News. Democrats who may be arrested would not face criminal

charges or fines and could only be brought to the House

chamber. Dozens of minority party members fled to Washington,

D.C., during the first special session to block a GOP voting

restrictions bill.

The 52 warrants represent all but 15 Democrats in the lower

chamber. There were at least 11 present Tuesday. There were

no additional new Democrats on the floor Tuesday after four

returned a day earlier--and drew the wrath of some Democratic

colleagues still in Washington, and prompted a renewed push

inside the party to hold the line.

Earlier Tuesday, the House voted overwhelmingly to

authorize law enforcement to track down lawmakers absent from

the chamber.

That 80-12 vote came hours after the Texas Supreme Court

ordered that those missing Democrats could soon be detained

by state authorities. The order by the all-GOP court came at

the request of Gov. Greg Abbott and Phelan, both of whom had

asked the court Monday to overturn a ruling from a state

district judge that blocked those leaders from ordering the

arrest of the quorum-breaking Democrats.

In a statement after the warrants were signed Tuesday

evening, state Rep. Chris Turner of Grand Prairie, who chairs

the House Democratic Caucus, said it is ``fully within our

rights as legislators to break quorum to protect our

constituents'' and reiterated Democrats' commitment ``to

fighting with everything we have against Republicans' attacks

on our freedom to vote.''

Since the Legislature gaveled in Saturday for its second

special session ordered by Abbott, the House has been unable

to make a quorum as dozens of Democrats have remained absent

from the chamber.

When the House was unable to meet its 100-member threshold

to conduct business Monday, members adopted a procedural move

known as a ``call of the House'' in an effort to secure a

quorum. That move locks doors to the chamber and prevents

members on the floor from leaving unless they have permission

in writing from the speaker.

That vote earlier Tuesday marks the second time in recent

weeks that the chamber has voted to send law enforcement

after Democrats still missing from the House.

During the first special session in July, and after more

than 50 House Democrats flew to D.C., members present

authorized state authorities to track down their colleagues--

but the move carried little weight since Texas law

enforcement lacks jurisdiction outside the state.

By the time that first 30-day stretch ended last week,

Phelan had signed only one civil arrest warrant, for Rep.

Philip Cortez, a San Antonio Democrat. But that move came too

late since Cortez, who had briefly returned to Austin, had

already gone back to the nation's capital.

Intraparty pressure has been mounting on House Democrats

since the second special session started. After at least four

of them returned to the floor Monday, bringing the chamber

within five members of a quorum, some of their Democratic

colleagues who were still in Washington unleashed on them.

Rep. Ana-Maria Ramos of Richardson tweeted at the returning

Democrats that they ``all threw us under the bus today.''

Pressure ramped up Tuesday morning, when a coalition of

Democratic-aligned groups released a statement urging House

Democrats to hold firm and continue breaking quorum. The 21

groups included Planned Parenthood Texas Votes, the state's

Sierra Club chapter, the Texas Organizing Project, Progress

Texas, the Communications Workers of America and several

groups that advocate for Latino Texans.

``To every pro-democracy Texas lawmaker: the only way to

preserve our right to vote and the best way to fight is to

stay off the House floor,'' the coalition's statement said.

The group also released a four-page memo arguing that far

more was at stake in the second special session than just the

elections bill, citing a ``host of radical conservative

priorities'' throughout the agenda. The memo was particularly

emphatic about a new proposal for the second special

session--dropping the quorum threshold to a simple majority--

calling it an ``ominous allusion to reducing or eliminating

minority rights in the Legislature, breaking centuries of

Texas bipartisanship.''

Meanwhile, a number of House Democrats have returned to

Texas but have not come to the House floor to help provide

quorum.

One of them is state Rep. Evelina ``Lina'' Ortega, who says

she is home in El Paso but not showing up on the House floor

until there is already a quorum or a majority of the

Democratic caucus decides to be there.

``I pretty much feel that it's a shame that the governor

and Republicans . . . are really using the dirtiest tactic

available to them,'' Ortega told the Tribune on Tuesday

evening after the House's vote to send law enforcement after

the absentee Democrats. ``To me it's all about a power grab.

I'm glad to stay away and continue to fight them.''

As for whether she is concerned about arrest, Ortega said

she believes it would be a ``big mistake'' by Republicans.

``We'll see what happens,'' she said.

This is John Lewis, and he says: ``We will stand up for what is right, for what is fair, and what is just,'' and we will ensure that we have courage, the kind of courage that is ``raw courage.''

Today, I ask my Republican colleagues to reject the big lie, to reject the insurrection, and to reject the idea that there is not voter suppression.

I stand with H.R. 4, a bill that is the continuation of the reauthorization that I have done over the years as a member of the Judiciary Committee. I thank Chairman Nadler, Chairman Cohen, Terri Sewell, all those who are part of this great effort, and our whip.

But the real important point is that we give the vote back to the American people, to the disabled, to young people, to senior citizens, and we reject that unfortunate statement. The State of Texas attorney general, the secretary of state, never found any fraud in the election, in particular in 2020.

I am very glad that this will particularly have the look-back. It will protect us against such dilution and diminution.

This is a bill that has to pass, and the Senate has to pass it. Give the vote back to the American people. Have raw courage.

Madam Speaker, as a senior member of the Judiciary Committee and an original cosponsor, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 4, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which corrects the damage done in recent years to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and commits the national government to protecting the right of all Americans to vote free from discrimination and without injustices that previously prevented them from exercising this most fundamental right of citizenship.

I thank my colleague, Congresswoman Terri Sewell of Alabama for introducing this

legislation, to Speaker Pelosi, Chairman Nadler, and the Democratic leadership, and to the many colleagues and countless number of ordinary Americans who never stopped agitating and working to protect the precious right to vote.

Madam Speaker, in response to the Supreme Court's invitation in Shelby County v. Holder, 570 U.S. 193 (2013), H.R. 4 provides a new coverage formula based on ``current conditions'' and creates a new coverage formula that hinges on a finding of repeated voting rights violations in the preceding 25 years.

It is significant that this 25-year period is measured on a rolling basis to keep up with ``current conditions,'' so only states and political subdivisions that have a recent record of racial discrimination in voting are covered.

States and political subdivisions that qualify for preclearance will be covered for a period of 10 years, but if they have a clean record during that time period, they can be extracted from coverage.

H.R. 4 also establishes ``practice-based preclearance,'' which would focus administrative or judicial review narrowly on suspect practices that are most likely to be tainted by discriminatory intent or to have discriminatory effects, as demonstrated by a broad historical record.

Under the bill, this process of reviewing changes in voting is limited to a set of specific practices, including such things as:

1. Changes to the methods of elections (to or from at-large elections) in areas that are racially, ethnically, or linguistically diverse.

2. Redistricting in areas that are racially, ethnically, or linguistically diverse.

3. Reducing, consolidating, or relocating polling in areas that are racially, ethnically, or linguistically diverse; and

4. Changes in documentation or requirements to vote or to register.

Madam Speaker, while I am proud to strongly support this bill, I would be remiss if I did not express my disappointment at the decision to not include my amendments to this bill.

Jackson Lee Amendments #6, #7, and #8 are easy to understand and vitally important--they simply protect state legislators who, in keeping with their sacred oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States, refuse to perform unconstitutional acts under the guise of legislative process.

Specifically:

Jackson Lee Amendment #6 allows for federal judicial review of any warrants issued for the arrest of a state legislator where said state legislator refuses to engage in the state legislative process due to a reasonably held belief that doing so would infringe on the right to vote.

Jackson Lee Amendment #7 inserts a Sense of the Congress stating that a state's power to arrest a duly elected representative of a constituency for refusal to engage in a state's legislative process should be subject to federal judicial review where such elected representative's refusal is premised upon a reasonable belief that participation would result in the suppression of voting rights or other violations of the Constitution of the United States of America.

Jackson Lee Amendment #8 privileges against arrest any member of a state legislature for any reason except treason or murder while the legislature of that state is debating or voting on legislation relating to redistricting or election practices or legislation relating to the right to vote in federal, state, or municipal elections.

These amendments would have critically strengthened H.R. 4 because state legislatures across the country are utilizing every weapon in their arsenal to curtail voting rights; and no one should fear arrest due to fighting for the Constitutional rights of their constituents.

This includes my home state of Texas, where earlier this month officers of the Texas House of Representatives delivered civil arrest warrants, signed by the Texas state Speaker of the House, for more than 50 absent Democrats in an attempt force a vote on the naked attempt at voter suppression known as Texas S.B. 7.

This is the latest Republican attack on these brave state legislators, which began on May 30, where after a night of impassioned debate and procedural objections, these Democratic lawmakers in Texas took action to block passage of this massive overhaul of the state's election laws.

With little more than an hour before the voting deadline, these Democrats staged a walkout, depriving their Republican colleagues of the 100-member quorum needed to pass the measure.

And when Governor Abbot called a special session in Texas for the purpose of passing horrific voter suppression legislation, those brave Texas Democrats rose to the challenge again and broke quorum.

Under the threat of arrest, those heroes fighting for voting rights have escaped to Washington, D.C.

Since the arrest warrants were issued, it is my understanding that mass intimidation of the Texas House Democrats has occurred.

State officials came to their homes with the purpose of dragging them back to eviscerate the voting rights of thousands of Texas.

These elected Texas Representatives have had to hide away from their friends, their families, and their loved ones, all to ensure that Texans retain their most sacred of rights.

They are risking their freedom to ensure every Texan has full access to their constitutional right to vote.

Although the Republicans have tried to spin this in many different ways, let's be clear--Texas Democrats are taking a righteous stand for our democracy.

Breaking quorum isn't an easy choice--legislators must leave family, friends, constituents, and their important work for days or weeks.

But by making this choice, these Texas Democrats are fighting for all of us, because voting is not a partisan issue.

Access to the ballot is a sacred cornerstone of our democracy, and we must protect it at all costs.

Last month marked one year since we lost a champion for voting rights, and the namesake of H.R. 4, Congressman John Lewis.

In his final words, he reminded us that, ``the vote is the most powerful nonviolent change agent [we] have in a democratic society,'' and that ``Though I may not be here with you, I urge you to answer the highest calling of your heart and stand up for what you truly believe.''

We may no longer have John Lewis with us, but in his absence, the Texas Democrats are following his example, and stirring up good trouble, necessary trouble, for our right to vote.

They have followed the truth in his words and have sacrificed much to follow the highest calling of their hearts.

Texas Republicans seek to pass voting regulation laws focused on diverse, urban areas, by setting rules for the distribution of polling places in only the handful of counties with a population of at least 1 million--most of which are either under Democratic control or won by Democrats in recent national and statewide elections.

These bills would limit extended early voting hours, prohibits drive- thru voting and makes it illegal for local election officials to proactively send applications to vote by mail to voters, even if they qualify.

These bills are at the forefront of Texas Republicans' crusade to further restrict voting in Texas, which saw the highest turnout in decades in 2020, with Democrats continuing to drive up their vote counts in the state's urban centers and diversifying suburban communities.

Standing between all of this and the voting rights of thousands of Texans are those brave state legislators who currently have a warrant out for their arrest.

No elected representative in this great nation should fear that he or she will be locked away for simply standing up for justice and ensuring that America's citizens have the right to vote.

For this reason, I believe that H.R. 4 would have been greatly strengthened by the inclusion of my amendments in the Rule.

Madam Speaker, I strongly encourage all Members of Congress to support this bill, because it is the responsibility and sacred duty of all members of Congress who revere democracy to preserve, protect, and expand the precious right to vote of all Americans by passing H.R. 4, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.

It is useful, Madam Speaker, to recount how we arrived at this day. Madam Speaker, fifty-six years ago, in Selma, Alabama, hundreds of heroic souls risked their lives for freedom and to secure the right to vote for all Americans by their participation in marches for voting rights on ``Bloody Sunday,'' ``Turnaround Tuesday,'' or the final, completed march from Selma to Montgomery.

Those ``foot soldiers'' of Selma, brave and determined men and women, boys and girls, persons of all races and creeds, loved their country so much that they were willing to risk their lives to make it better, to bring it even closer to its founding ideals.

The foot soldiers marched because they believed that all persons have dignity and the right to equal treatment under the law, and in the making of the laws, which is the fundamental essence of the right to vote.

On that day, Sunday, March 7, 1965, more than 600 civil rights demonstrators, including our beloved colleague, Congressman John Lewis of Georgia for whom this important legislation is named, were brutally attacked by state and local police at the Edmund Pettus Bridge as they marched from Selma to Montgomery in support of the right to vote.

``Bloody Sunday'' was a defining moment in American history because it crystallized for the nation the necessity of enacting a strong and effective federal law to protect the right to vote of every American.

No one who witnessed the violence and brutally suffered by the foot soldiers for justice who gathered at the Edmund Pettus Bridge will never forget it; the images are deeply seared in the American memory and experience.

On August 6, 1965, in the Rotunda of the Capitol President Johnson addressed the nation before signing the Voting Rights Act:

The vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by

man for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible

walls which imprison men because they are different from

other men.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was critical to preventing brazen voter discrimination violations that historically left millions of African Americans disenfranchised.

In 1940, for example, there were less than 30,000 African Americans registered to vote in Texas and only about 3 percent of African Americans living in the South were registered to vote.

Poll taxes, literacy tests, and threats of violence were the major causes of these racially discriminatory results.

After passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965, which prohibited these discriminatory practices, registration and electoral participation steadily increased to the point that by 2012, more than 1.2 million African Americans living in Texas were registered to vote.

In 1964, the year before the Voting Rights Act became law, there were approximately 300 African-Americans in public office, including just three in Congress.

Few, if any, African Americans held elective office anywhere in the South.

Because of the Voting Rights Act, in 2007 there were more than 9,100 black elected officials, including 46 members of Congress, the largest number ever.

Madam Speaker, the Voting Rights Act opened the political process for many of the approximately 6,000 Hispanic public officials that have been elected and appointed nationwide, including more than 275 at the state or federal level, 32 of whom serve in Congress.

Native Americans, Asians and others who have historically encountered harsh barriers to full political participation also have benefited greatly.

The crown jewel of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 is Section 5, which requires that states and localities with a chronic record of discrimination in voting practices secure federal approval before making any changes to voting processes.

The preclearance requirement of Section 5 protects minority voting rights where voter discrimination has historically been the worst.

Between 1982 and 2006, Section 5 stopped more than 1,000 discriminatory voting changes in their tracks, including 107 discriminatory changes right here in Texas.

Passed in 1965 with the extraordinary leadership of President Lyndon Johnson, the greatest legislative genius of our lifetime, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was bringing dramatic change in many states across the South.

But in 1972, change was not coming fast enough or in many places in Texas.

In fact, Texas, which had never elected a woman to Congress or an African American to the Texas State Senate, was not covered by Section 5 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act and the language minorities living in South Texas were not protected at all.

But thanks to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Barbara Jordan was elected to Congress, giving meaning to the promise of the Voting Rights Act that all citizens would at long last have the right to cast a vote for person of their community, from their community, for their community.

Madam Speaker, it is a source of eternal pride to all of us in Houston that in pursuit of extending the full measure of citizenship to all Americans, in 1975 Congresswoman Barbara Jordan, who also represented this historic 18th Congressional District of Texas, introduced, and the Congress adopted, what are now Sections 4(f)(3) and 4(f)(4) of the Voting Rights Act, which extended the protections of Section 4(a) and Section 5 to language minorities.

We must remain ever vigilant and oppose all schemes that will abridge or dilute the precious right to vote.

Madam Speaker, I am here today to remind the nation that the need to pass this legislation is urgent because the right to vote--that ``powerful instrument that can break down the walls of injustice''-- faces grave threats.

The threats stem from the decision issued in June 2013 by the Supreme Court in Shelby County v. Holder, 570 U.S. 193 (2013), which invalidated Section 4(b) of the VRA, and paralyzed the application of the VRA's Section 5 preclearance requirements.

Not to be content with the monument to disgrace that is the Shelby County decision, the activist right-wing conservative majority on the Roberts Court, on July 1, 2021, issued its evil twin, the decision in

Madam Speaker, I rise today to thank the Capitol Police and all of those who really created a miracle in the midst of a potential bomb threat just about a week ago here in the United States Capitol again, and to thank them for their astuteness and to recognize that, in spite of all of our commentary from our friends on the other side about the border, that the most serious threat here in the United States is domestic terrorism, and there evidenced an individual, whatever his condition was, wanting to bomb the Capitol.

I thank them for their honest and serious work and again credit them for their leadership.

Finally, let me say that as we move toward the Voting Rights Act, H.R. 4, it is crucial because Texas Democratic representatives will be here over the next 2 days, the same people who had a civil arrest and were stalked in their own State because they refused to go to a session that was nothing but denying rights to vote to Texans--minorities, ethnic minorities, language minorities, denying them the right to vote. H.R. 4 is crucial.

I thank them for their bravery and their service.

Let's get on with passing H.R. 4.

Madam Speaker, I rise to commemorate the 86th anniversary of the passage of the landmark Social Security Act of 1935, the most famous of the New Deal measures and perhaps the most beneficial and consequential government program in American history.

On August 14, 1935, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed into law the Social Security Act of 1935 and made good on the Democratic Party's commitment to provide income security to Americans in their old age.

Social Security has transformed what it means to grow old in this country.

For 86 years, Social Security has represented a bedrock promise to the American people: that a lifetime of work will be rewarded with the peace of mind, certainty, and sense of security of a stable retirement.

As we celebrate the 86th anniversary of the Social Security Act of 1935, we should reflect also on the real-life transformative impact America's most successful program continues to have on millions of Americans each year.

Social Security has been a stable and secure source of income for millions of seniors and families, many of whom desperately need it, over these last more than seven decades.

In the 18th Congressional District of Texas, Social Security is the primary economic lifeline for more than 91,000 seniors and disabled persons. Social Security's economic impact also goes well beyond the seniors and families receiving benefits.

It also benefits state economies and local businesses all across the country.

In the 18th Congressional District of Texas, Social Security recipients inject more than $97 million into the local economy annually; nationwide, this figure is $775 billion.

When more than 58 million Americans use the purchasing power of those benefits, they are supporting businesses with dollars they would not have without Social Security.

Madam Speaker, far too often overlooked is the seismic impact that Social Security has had in shaping our national economy and the structure of life chances for hundreds of millions of Americans through the years.

Before Social Security, children were wholly responsible for the care and support of aging parents, which meant they were tethered to the towns, villages, communities, and rural areas where they grew up and their parents resided.

Madam Speaker, before passage of the Social Security Act, it was very rare for children to leave their hometown to attend college in a city far away and after graduating move to another place far away to start a career, take a job, or begin a business.

The Social Security Act of 1935 changed that, not only by providing financial support to aging parents but by providing their children the opportunity to chase their dreams, realize their full potential, and use their skills and talents to make America better by providing the peace of mind that their beloved parents would not be financially destitute in their golden years.

Those children would go on to invent new industries creating millions of good jobs, discover life-saving vaccines, design and build systems that won the Cold War and put a man on the Moon and brought him back to Earth, and vastly broadened the frontiers of knowledge.

This is also the legacy of Social Security, the visionary social program of FDR's New Deal that helped make America the world's leading superpower.

It is shameful that there are congressional Republicans who continue to promote various plans to privatize or partially privatize Social Security--plans that would rob seniors of the economic security they count on.

Over the last 86 years, House Democrats have protected and strengthened Social Security; and now and in the future, House Democrats will always act to preserve Social Security and safeguard the rights of our nation's seniors and will extend similar protection to America's children by making permanent the Child Tax Credit, what in future years will come to be known as ``Social Security for Children.''

And as we look to the future, we can celebrate that what was put in place in 1935 with the Social Security Act of 1935 has given us the foundation for a secure and prosperous future for all Americans.

Madam Speaker, as a senior member of this body and the Committee on the Judiciary, as a witness to some of the revolutionary social and political changes in American life and society, and as a legislator dedicated to advancing public policies that improve the quality of life for all Americans and that make equality of opportunity and equal justice for all not just a virtue but a fact of American life, I rise to pay tribute to an unsung hero of the American Experiment, Jesse Frank Berry, who died at his home in Rockville, Maryland on Monday, August 9, 2021, at the age of 88.

In these tumultuous days of crisis and challenge, Members of Congress know well, perhaps better than most, how blessed our nation is to have such exceptional men and women who will go on to become leaders in their local communities, states, and the nation in the areas of business, education, law, government, philanthropy, the arts and culture, and the military.

We know this because we see them and benefit from their contributions every day as they serve the American people in our offices doing amazing work as congressional staff members.

What produces such persons and inspires them to want to do what they do and to do it so well?

Madam Speaker, as Occam's razor posits, the answer is pretty simple and straightforward; they come from all over the nation, and they are produced and nurtured and inspired by their first role-models and heroes: their mothers and fathers.

The life of Jesse Frank Berry, the father of my Chief Counsel, illustrates this perfectly, and I want to share briefly with all Members

his accomplishments and experiences that provided so much pride and motivation to his four children, five. grandchildren, three great- grandchildren, his siblings, surviving relatives, friends and loved ones, and the thousands of persons he never met.

Jesse Frank Berry was born on September 13, 1932, in Asheville, North Carolina, the first of the five children of Thomas and Eva Berry, descendants of South Carolina slaves and sharecroppers who survived daily indignities and injustices and nightly reigns of terror and violence.

Jesse Berry's family was part of the historic ``Great Migration'' that saw millions of black Americans migrate from the de jure segregated rural South in search of greater economic opportunity and freedom in the urban North.

The family of Jesse Berry, parents and siblings Dorothy, Doris, Thomas Leon, and Elmira, settled in on the east side of Cleveland, Ohio, in what is today the 11th Congressional District of Ohio, the district that sent Louis Stokes to the House of Representatives as Ohio's first African American congressman.

While Jesse Berry's father provided for the family working as mechanic and handyman and his mother provided a loving home, Jesse took advantage of the opportunity to attend school beyond the elementary grades and excelled in mathematics, mechanical design, and drafting as a student at East Tech High School, the alma mater of another and more famous Jesse, the legendary Olympic champion Jesse Owens, who did as much as anyone to discredit on the world stage Adolf Hitler's false creed of white supremacy and his big lie that Aryans were the master race.

After graduating from high school, Jesse Berry worked at a local factory in Cleveland for several years before being called to serve his country during the Korean War, where he served in the Signal Corps of the U.S. Army.

In December 1953, Jesse Berry married Bonnie Agnew and to this union was born four children, sons Jeffrey Thomas, Gregory Alan, Michael Leonard, and daughter Bonnie Eileen, all of whom would later go on to graduate from college and lead productive and constructive lives as lawyers, professors and teachers, serviceman, health counselors, and entertainment industry entrepreneurs.

In 1959, Jesse Berry and his wife Bonnie led what would soon be another great migration, heading west to California where Jesse had been accepted into the prestigious electrical engineering program at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, which he was able to finance with the G.I. Bill benefits he earned for his active duty service in the U.S. Army.

He would later earn a master's degree in electronic engineering from California State University at Long Beach.

After graduating from USC in 1962, Jesse Berry began his career as an electronic engineer, designing submarine sonar systems that were vital in securing America's victory in the Cold War, working for several of the country's leading aerospace companies and defense contractors, including Hughes Aircraft, North American Rockwell, General Dynamics, and Honeywell.

But while America was engaged in the Cold War on the international stage, domestically the demand of the Civil Rights Movement for a new social order of equal justice and opportunity for all was raging.

As Bob Dylan put it so memorably in his immortal ``The Times They are a-Changin'':

The line it is drawn

The curse it is cast

The slow one now

Will later be fast

As the present now

Will later be past

The order is rapidly fadin'

And the first one now

Will later be last

For the times they are a-changin'

Patriotic but ordinary Americans of goodwill, who deeply loved their country but harboring a passion for justice answered the call.

And in that number was Jesse Berry, the electronic engineer and sonar systems expert, who was active in the local Urban League and civil rights groups.

Because of his exceptional organizing and logistical skills, Jesse Berry was elected to serve as President of the NAACP for the Orange County, California chapter, where he spearheaded voting registration drives, educational symposia, awareness events, and consulted with civil rights leaders from across the state and around the country.

In April 1968, violence and destruction swept many areas of the nation following the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in Memphis, Tennessee, but the city of Santa Ana in Orange County, California, was left unscathed.

That is due in no small measure to the wise counsel and guidance the heartbroken and anguished black residents of the city received from their respected leader, Jesse Berry, who organized a memorial service at the local municipal stadium attended by thousands who comported themselves with dignity out of respect and acceptance of Dr. King's philosophy of nonviolence.

The following year Jesse Berry would make history becoming the first African American to win elective office in Orange County, California, securing a seat on the Santa Ana Board of Education.

Throughout his life, Jesse Berry was the person that friends, neighbors, relatives, and persons who only knew him by reputation, went to for wisdom, advice, guidance, encouragement, or assistance.

But despite the pressing demands on his time and for his attention, Jesse Berry always remembered he was a dad to four children, stressing the importance of a good education and instilling in them a love of learning, showing them how to solve story problems and helping them with their homework, teaching them to swim, and to play baseball and not to be judgmental but to treat all persons with respect and dignity.

One of the things that was most dear to Jesse Berry was his love of nature and history; on cross-country trips back to visit relatives, he would often take detours and make side trips so his children could visit and experience the places and events that shape so much of their lives and instill in them a sense of wonder, awe, and appreciation.

So it was not at all unusual for Jesse Berry to regard Gettysburg, Valley Forge, Yosemite's Half Dome or Yellowstone's Ol' Faithful, the Badlands of South Dakota, the Grand Canyon, Death Valley, the Petrified Forest, New Mexico's Carlsbad Caverns, Gettysburg, the Missouri Courthouse where the case of Dred Scott was decided, and United States Capitol as on the way from Los Angeles to Cleveland.

And Jesse Berry delighted in photographing these events to chronicle the adventure and relive the good times with his friends and neighbors as they watched the slideshow on his projection screen that he was the first to own.

Madam Speaker, the life of Jesse Frank Berry reflects so much the experiences of the ancestors of millions of persons of color in our great nation.

Jesse Berry lived through 16 presidents, 5 wars, the Great Depression and the Great Recession of 2008, the era of Jim Crow and the Great Society, the transcendent presidencies of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, the first black president, and the election of Kamala Harris, the first woman and person of color elected Vice-President of the United States.

Jesse Berry knew the anger and resentment that comes naturally to one whose family has been refused accommodations at motel or service in a restaurant because of their race.

Jesse Berry knew the pride of wearing the uniform of his country even though at the time he was denied many of the rights he was willing to risk his life to defend.

He knew the sacrifice it took to become the first in his family to graduate from college and the satisfaction that comes with the realization of a longheld goal.

Jesse Berry never lost faith in his country; instead, he worked to do his part to help it live up to the true meaning of its creed that all persons are created equal, and he passed that conviction and determination on to his children and everyone he touched during his remarkable nearly nine decade sojourn--on earth.

Madam Speaker, like so many others stretching all the way back to Saul, Jesse Berry ran the great race, he finished the course, he kept the faith, and he has now gone on to his great reward.

We can all find solace in the words of the philosopher Sophocles who said: One must wait until the evening to know how splendid the day has been.

To Jesse's widow, Mazel Pernell, his siblings, children, relatives, neighbors, friends, and loves ones, but especially to his beloved grandchildren Samantha, Shyeita, Michael, Connor, and Jesse, and his great-grandchildren Alexis, Desmond, and Sydney, I hope it is a comfort to you that so many persons share your grief and are mourning the loss of a truly consequential life well lived.

I ask the House to observe a moment of silence in memory of Jesse Frank Berry, who spent his life in service to his Lord, his family, his friends, communities, and to the nation.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to one of the nation's greatest presidents, Barack Obama, who turns 60 years old. It is fitting and proper that we take a moment to recount and appreciate the extraordinary accomplishments of President Barack Obama, the 44th president and one of the singular figures in American history. Madam Speaker, I remember that cold morning of January 20, 2009, one of the coldest days on record in Washington, D.C. But it was nothing compared to the chill wind blowing through the American economy and body politic.

The nation was facing economic challenges unseen since the Great Depression: Americans were losing their jobs at a frightening rate of 800,000 per month; the national unemployment rate had risen to 7.8 percent and would continue to climb until reaching its peak of 10.0 percent in October 2009. For African Americans, the numbers were much grimmer, a jobless rate of 13.5 percent in January 2009 which would grow to 16.5 percent by the end of the year. And on top of this, tens of thousands of American families each month were losing their health insurance and their homes to foreclosure.

The United States was still bogged down in the quagmire that was the Iraq War and young people by the thousands were being forced to defer or drop out of college because of lack of financial aid. And the average price of gas exceeded $4 per gallon. It was against this backdrop that I watched from the inaugural platform as Barack Obama, surrounded by his radiant and beautiful wife, Michelle, and their two adorable daughters, rose to take the oath of office. After being sworn in as the nation's 44th President of the United States, President Obama reassured an anxious but hopeful nation, saying:

``Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this America: They will be met.''

Watching Barack Obama address the nation that day, spectators in attendance and viewers across the country and around the world understood they were witnessing a historic president, the first African American ever to hold the nation's highest office.

But more than being a historic president, Barack Obama's actions and leadership over the ensuing eight years would demonstrate his would be a consequential presidency that changed America for the better. His first and most pressing task was to rescue an economy on the brink of collapse. Working with the Democratic-controlled Congress, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was passed, which created 3.7 million jobs and saved the jobs of millions of teachers, firefighters, police officers, and social service providers. The Recovery Act also cut taxes for working families, extended unemployment insurance, and expanded the Earned Income and Child tax credits, which disproportionately benefit African American families. The verdict is in on the economic plan put in place by President Obama and the Democratic Congress and it is undeniable.

The Recovery Act ended the Great Recession, transformed the economy from one hemorrhaging jobs to one that created over 16 million new jobs over a record 71 consecutive months. The national unemployment rate dipped under 5 percent for the first time since President Clinton left office, the deficit was cut by 71 percent, and the Dow Jones stock market index set 118 record closing highs and stood at 19,732 on January 20, 2017, a three-fold over its nadir of 6,547 at the depths of the Great Recession. And, as an added benefit, the average price of gasoline fell from more than $4.11 per gallon to $1.80, the lowest price since before the tragedy of September 11.

The Obama years also effected policy changes in the areas of criminal justice reform, health and education, national security, and foreign affairs. A partial listing of these achievements is substantial, impressive, and varied. President Obama signed the Fair Sentencing Act in August 2010, which reduces the disparity in the amounts of powder cocaine and crack cocaine required for the imposition of mandatory minimum sentences and eliminates the mandatory minimum sentence for simple possession of crack cocaine. In July 2015, President Obama became the first president ever to tour a federal prison when he visited the El Reno Federal Correctional Institution outside of Oklahoma City. President Obama launched the Smart on Crime initiative through which the Department of Justice modified its charging policies certain federal low-level drug-related offenses, improved diversion and re-entry policies, and strengthened protections for the most vulnerable.

President Obama established Smart on Juvenile Justice grant program to expand the use of effective community-based alternatives to youth detention and launched the Second Chance Pell Pilot Program for Incarcerated Individuals to test new models to allow incarcerated Americans to receive Pell Grants and pursue the postsecondary education with the goal of helping them get jobs, support their families, and turn their lives around.

President Obama directed the Office of Personnel Management to act where it can to ``ban the box'' by modifying its rules to delay inquiries into criminal history until later in the hiring process and called on Congress. to enact legislation ''banning the box'' on job applications in the private sector. President Obama increased the use of body-worn cameras through $20 million in grants to state and local law enforcement. President Obama issued an Executive Order to increase the capacity of VA mental-health programs by hiring 1,600 more mental- health professionals and expanding the capacity of the Veterans Crisis Line. President Obama provided nearly $60 billion in benefit payments under the Post-9/11 G.I. Bill to over 1.5 million individuals and relaxed the evidence requirements for veterans seeking disability pay for post-traumatic stress disorder with the Department of Veterans Affairs.

President Obama acted to reduce gun violence by issuing executive orders requiring background checks for people trying to buy some of the most dangerous weapons and other items through a trust or corporation and an overhaul of the background check system to make it more efficient and effective. President Obama signed into law the Affordable Care Act passed by the Democratic Congress which has provided access to quality, affordable health insurance to nearly 20 million previously uninsured Americans.

President Obama launched the ``My Brother's Keeper'' Initiative in 2014 to address persistent opportunity gaps faced by boys and young men of color and ensure that all young people can reach their full potential. In October 2009, Congress passed, and President Obama signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, historic legislation extending coverage of federal hate-crime law to include attacks based on the victim's race, religion, nationality, or actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity.

President Obama established the new Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy for young undocumented people who came to the U.S. as children in an effort to better focus enforcement resources. President Obama expanded opportunity for America's children by strengthening Head Start. President Obama made college more affordable by increasing Pell grants, keeping interest rates on student loans low, and helping students manageably repay their loans. President Obama signed the Healthy, Hunger Free Kids Act, which made historic investments: in improved child nutrition and health for the 31 million children who rely on school meals and updated science-based school meal standards to increase fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean protein and low-fat dairy, while reducing fats and sodium.

In December 2010, the Congress passed, and President Obama signed the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010 into law, allowing gay men and women to serve openly and with integrity in the U.S. military. President Obama also made history by appointing two women to the U.S. Supreme Court, including the first Hispanic American to serve on the Court. President Obama appointed the first African American man and woman to serve as Attorney General and the first woman to Chair the Federal Reserve Board. In the area of foreign affairs and national security, President Obama ended the Iraq War, assembled and led an international coalition to impose sanctions so crippling on Iran that it was forced to

the negotiating table that yielded the Iran Nuclear Agreement that prevents Iran from ever attaining a nuclear weapon. And of course, as the world knows, because of President Obama's leadership, General Motors is alive, and Osama Bin Laden is dead.

President Barack Obama represented our country with grace, integrity, honor, and distinction. He provided consolation, hope, and healing in the face of unspeakable tragedies such as the massacre of innocent children at Sandy Hook, worshippers at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, spectators at the Boston Marathon, and mass shootings in Aurora, Colorado and Tucson, Arizona. He expressed and symbolized our joy and pride in the progress made over the last half century--and the distance we still have to travel--when he marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge and addressed the multitude from the spot on the steps where Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. shared his dream for America's future.

It is clear beyond doubt that President Obama kept the promise he made to the nation seven years ago on that cold day in January when he said:

``Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real . . . . But know this America: They will be met.''

They were more than just met; under his leadership they were overcome with amazing grace. And because of President Barack Obama, when he left office the United States was stronger, more prosperous, and better positioned than ever to win the future. As a presidential candidate in 2008, then Senator Obama promised the America people ``change you can believe in.''

In office, President Obama made good on that promise, delivering positive change that the American people can see and feel. And that is what makes his one of the most consequential presidencies in American history. I wish President Obama a happy birthday, and thank him for all he did in leading our country to a new era of greatness

Madam Speaker, I rise today not just to commemorate the landmark achievement of 56 years ago but to inform our colleagues and the nation of the need to redouble and rededicate our efforts to the work that remains to be done to protect the right of all Americans to vote free from discrimination and the injustices that prevent them from exercising this most fundamental right of citizenship.

On August 6, 1965, in the rotunda of the Capitol and in the presence of such luminaries as the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rev. Ralph Abernathy of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference; Roy Wilkins of the NAACP; Whitney Young of the National Urban League; James Foreman of the Congress of Racial Equality; A. Philip Randolph of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters; John Lewis of the Student Non- Violent Coordinating Committee; Senators Robert Kennedy, Hubert Humphrey, and Everett Dirksen; President Johnson addressed the nation before signing the Voting Rights Act:

``The vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison men because they are different from other men.''

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was critical to preventing brazen voter discrimination violations that historically left millions of African Americans disenfranchised. In 1940, for example, there were less than 30,000 African Americans registered to vote in Texas and only about 3 percent of African Americans living in the south were registered to vote. Poll taxes, literacy tests, and threats of violence were the major causes of these racially discriminatory results. After passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965, which prohibited these discriminatory practices, registration and electoral participation steadily increased to the point that by 2012, more than 1.2 million African Americans living in Texas were registered to vote.

In 1964, the year before the Voting Rights Act became law, there were approximately 300 African Americans in public office, including just three in Congress. Few, if any, African Americans held elective office anywhere in the south. Because of the Voting Rights Act, today there are more than 9,100 black elected officials, including 46 members of Congress, the largest number ever. Because of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson on this day 53 years ago, I stand before you as the first African American woman Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigations.

Madam Speaker, the Voting Rights Act opened the political process for many of the approximately 6,000 Hispanic public officials that have been elected and appointed nationwide, including more than 275 at the state or federal level, 32 of whom serve in Congress. Native Americans, Asians, and others who have historically encountered harsh barriers to full political participation also have benefited greatly. The crown jewel of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 is Section 5, which requires that states and localities with a chronic record of discrimination in voting practices secure federal approval before making any changes to voting processes. Section 5 protects minority voting rights where voter discrimination has historically been the worst.

Since 1982, Section 5 has stopped more than 1,000 discriminatory voting changes in their tracks, including 107 discriminatory changes right here in Texas. And it is a source of eternal pride to all of us in Houston that in pursuit of extending the full measure of citizenship to all Americans, in 1975 Congresswoman Barbara Jordan, who also represented this historic 18th Congressional District of Texas, introduced, and the Congress adopted, what are now Sections 4(f)(3) and 4(f)(4) of the Voting Rights Act, which extended the protections of Section 4(a) and Section 5 to language minorities. During the floor debate on the 1975 reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act, Congresswoman Jordan explained why this reform was needed:

``There are Mexican-American people in the State of Texas who have been denied the right to vote; who have been impeded in their efforts to register and vote; who have not had encouragement from those election officials because they are brown people.

``So, the state of Texas, if we approve this measure, would be brought within the coverage of this Act for the first time.''

When it comes to extending and protecting the precious right to vote, the Lone Star State, the home state of Lyndon Johnson and Barbara Jordan, can be the leading state in the Union, one that sets the example for the nation. But to realize that future, we must turn from and not return to the dark days of the past. We must remain ever vigilant and oppose all schemes that will abridge or dilute the precious right to vote. Madam Speaker, I am here today to remind the nation that the right to vote, that ``powerful instrument that can break down the walls of injustice,'' is facing grave threats.

The threat stems from the decision issued in June 2013 by the Supreme Court in Shelby County v. Holder, 570 U.S. 193 (2013), which invalidated Section 4(b) of the VRA, and paralyzed the application of the VRA's Section 5 preclearance requirements. According to the Supreme Court majority, the reason for striking down Section 4(b) was that ``times change.'' Now, the Court was right; times have changed. But what the Court did not fully appreciate is that the positive changes it cited are due almost entirely to the existence and vigorous enforcement of the Voting Rights Act. And that is why the Voting Rights Act is still needed. Let me put it this way: in the same way that the vaccine invented by Dr. Jonas Salk in 1953 eradicated the crippling effects but did not eliminate the cause of polio, the Voting Rights Act succeeded in stymieing the practices that resulted in the wholesale disenfranchisement of African Americans and language minorities but did eliminate them entirely.

The Voting Rights Act is needed as much today to prevent another epidemic of voting disenfranchisement as Dr. Salk's vaccine is still needed to prevent another polio epidemic. However, officials in some states, notably Texas and North Carolina, seemed to regard the Shelby decision as a green light and

rushed to implement election laws, policies, and practices that could never pass muster under the Section 5 preclearance regime. My constituents remember very well the Voter ID law passed in Texas in 2011, which required every registered voter to present a valid government-issued photo ID on the day of polling in order to vote. The Justice Department blocked the law in March of 2012, and it was Section 5 that prohibited it from going into effect. At least it did until the Shelby decision, because on the very same day that Shelby was decided officials in Texas announced they would immediately implement the Photo ID law, and other election laws, policies, and practices that could never pass muster under the Section 5 preclearance regime.

The Texas Photo ID law was challenged in federal court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld the decision of U.S. District Court Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos that Texas' strict voter identification law discriminated against Blacks and Hispanics and violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. Madam Speaker, protecting voting rights and combating voter suppression schemes are two of the critical challenges facing our great democracy. Without safeguards to ensure that all citizens have equal access to the polls, more injustices are likely to occur and the voices of millions silenced. Those of us who cherish the right to vote justifiably are skeptical of Voter ID laws because we understand how these laws, like poll taxes and literacy tests, can be used to impede or negate the ability of seniors, racial and language minorities, and young people to cast their votes. Consider the demographic groups who lack a government issued ID:

African Americans: 25 percent;

Asian Americans: 20 percent;

Hispanic Americans: 19 percent;

young people, aged 18 through 24: 18 percent;

persons with incomes less than $35,000: 15 percent;

And there are other ways abridging or suppressing the right to vote, including:

Curtailing or eliminating early voting;

ending same-day registration;

not counting provisional ballots cast in the wrong precinct on Election Day will not count;

eliminating adolescent pre-registration;

shortening poll hours.

Lessening the standards governing voter challenges thus allowing self-proclaimed ``ballot security vigilantes'' like the King Street Patriots to cause trouble at the polls.

Madam Speaker, on this day, the 56th anniversary of the landmark Voting Rights Act signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson on August 6, 1965, I call upon the leadership of Congress in both chambers to bring to a vote legislation intended to protect the right to vote of all Americans.

Specifically, I call for the passage of H.R. 4, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, of which I am an original co-sponsor, which repairs the damage done to the Voting Rights Act by the Supreme Court's Shelby decision. This legislation provides even greater federal oversight of jurisdictions which have a history of voter suppression and protects vulnerable communities from discriminatory voting practices. Madam Speaker, before concluding there is one other point I would like to stress.

In his address to the nation before signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965, President Johnson said:

``Presidents and Congresses, laws and lawsuits can open the doors to the polling places and open the doors to the wondrous rewards which await the wise use of the ballot.

``But only the individual Negro, and all others who have been denied the right to vote, can really walk through those doors, and can use that right, and can transform the vote into an instrument of justice and fulfilment.''

In other words, political power, and the justice, opportunity, inclusion, and fulfillment it provides, comes not from the right to vote but in the exercise of that right. And that means it is the civic obligation of every citizen to both register and vote in every election, state and local as well as federal. Because if we can register and vote, but fail to do so, we are guilty of voluntary voter suppression, the most effective method of disenfranchisement ever devised. And in recent years, Americans have not been doing a very good job of exercising our civic responsibility to register, vote, and make their voices heard.

Madam Speaker, for millions of Americans, the right to vote protected by the Voting Rights Act of 1965 is sacred treasure, earned by the sweat and toil and tears and blood of ordinary Americans who showed the world it was possible to accomplish extraordinary things. So on this 56th anniversary of that landmark law, let us rededicate ourselves to honoring those who won for us this precious right by remaining vigilant and fighting against both the efforts of others to abridge or suppress the right to vote and our own apathy in exercising this sacred right

Madam Speaker, I rise to commemorate the 56th Anniversary of the passage of Medicaid and Medicare, two of the most beneficial and consequential government programs ever launched.

On July 30, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed Medicare and Medicaid into law as part of the Social Security Act and in the process made good on the commitments made by Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and John Kennedy to provide health security to Americans in their old age.

Medicare is a promise kept to those who have contributed a lifetime to our nation could enjoy their golden years with peace of mind and the security of reliable, affordable, and high quality healthcare.

Likewise, Medicaid created a crucial partnership between the government and the people to provide a basic health care safety net for the most vulnerable Americans: children of adults with low incomes, persons with disabilities, and the poor.

Madam Speaker, 56 years later, the legacy of these programs have I proven how effective and critical government action can be to the life and wellbeing of our nation's most vulnerable.

In 1965, almost half of all Americans aged 65 and older had no health coverage, living in fear that the colossal healthcare costs would drive them and their families into poverty.

Today, because of Medicare, over 98 percent of seniors have health insurance, which has led to a five-year increase in life expectancy for those over 65.

Today, 55 million Americans rely on Medicare for health care, ranging from preventive services, hospital visits, lab tests, to critical medical supplies, and prescription drugs.

It is difficult for some to imagine what 1965 was really like, when today affordable, accessible and available health insurance is a reality for so many people living with disabilities.

Before Medicaid was enacted children from poor families, pregnant I women, and low-income working Americans were not able to afford even the most basic medical care they needed to remain healthy and productive.

When the legislation was first passed, many claimed that Medicaid would not live up to its promise; but today, because of expansion of Medicaid through passage of the Affordable Care Act the program provides comprehensive coverage for over 70 million children, pregnant women, low-income adults, and people living with disabilities.

Madam Speaker, it cannot be seriously disputed that Medicare and Medicaid have changed our country and made it better.

In my home state of Texas and in communities across the country, both programs have significantly changed the lives and improved health outcomes of many Americans over the past century and represent the best of American values.

Unfortunately, Texas has the highest percentage of uninsured in the nation, and Texas'

refusal to participate in the Medicaid expansion created by the Affordable Care act puts the poor residents in my state in Jeopardy.

So the 56th anniversary of Medicaid is bittersweet for Texans because while we celebrate a program that has saved lives, helped people live longer, expanded care to marginalized communities, and reduced disparities in access to healthcare, thousands of low income Texans still do not have the peace of mind that comes with access to affordable, quality health care enjoyed by low-income residents of states that have expanded their Medicaid program with funds made possible by the Affordable Care Act.

In the 18th Congressional District of Texas there are 195,400 persons with Medicaid and 74,704 with medical care provided by Medicare.

Madam Speaker, my constituents favor the Affordable Care Act because they understand the insecurity and feeling of helplessness of being uninsured or underinsured.

Like Medicare and Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act, or ``Obamacare,'' was vehemently opposed and derided by its adversaries, who said it was too costly, would not work, was unnecessary, or would change the character of America for the worse.

Like the critics of Social Security, Medicare, and the G.I. Bill, all of whom are silent now, they are wrong.

The Affordable Care Act has been an unqualified success.

This historic legislation has extended affordable health coverage to tens of millions of Americans and has helped to bring peace of mind to many of those for whom relief seemed far out of reach.

The Affordable Care Act was driven by a simple premise: that citizens of the most prosperous nation on earth should not be forced to choose between their health and their financial security.

Since the passage of the ACA in 2010, the number of uninsured , Americans has fallen by nearly one-third, or roughly 16 million people.

These Americans come from all walks of life.

They are women, who can no longer be denied coverage or be forced to pay exorbitant amounts for coverage simply because of their sex.

They are nine million seniors and persons with disabilities, who have saved an average of $1,600 on expensive and lifesaving prescription medication.

And they are this country's most at risk citizens; people who are working hard and struggling make ends meet while living in near- poverty, and who have been covered by Medicaid expansion in 32 states and the District of Columbia.

These benefits have been felt across the country, especially in my home state of Texas:

1. 10. 7 million individuals with pre-existing conditions such as asthma, cancer, or diabetes--including up to 1,632,000 children--no longer have to worry about being denied coverage or charged higher prices because of their health status or history;

2. 4.9 million uninsured Texans have new health insurance options through Medicaid or private health plans in the ACA Marketplace; and

3. 5.2 million persons on private insurance have gained coverage for at least one free preventive health care service such as a mammogram, birth control, or an immunization in 2011 and 2012.

In addition to the tangible healthcare benefits for millions of families, the ACA has had powerful effects on the financial state of our nation.

Since the passage of the Affordable Care Act, we have extended the solvency of the Medicare Trust fund by more than a decade and helped save taxpayers $116 billion through new Medicare efficiencies.

The Department of Health and Human Services has estimated that hospitals saved more than $5.7 billion in costs that would have normally gone unpaid by patients without insurance.

Contrary to the claims of the ACA's critics, private insurance companies have leaped at the opportunity to compete for business among the newly insured, and the healthcare industry has boomed.

Through all of these successes, however, House Republicans remained obsessed with destroying this law, and unraveling the security it provides to millions of Americans.

Medicare and Medicaid also continue to drive innovation and set the standard for coverage, quality, and innovation in American healthcare.

Madam Speaker, Medicare and Medicaid continue to play crucial roles in providing equitable and affordable healthcare, leading innovation in payment and delivery reform, carrying out outreach to the most vulnerable communities, and reshaping the delivery of care for the future.

Because of these programs, more Americans have access to affordable, equitable health care today than at any point in our history.

And I am committed to making sure that number will continue to grow.

On this 56th anniversary of Medicare and Medicaid, we should remember that a healthy America is a prosperous America.

And as we look ahead to the next half century, we can celebrate that what was put in place in 1965 has given us the foundation for a healthy and prosperous future for all Americans.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Indiana for his reminding us of the World Civility Day and its importance. I rise today in the spirit of civility, facts, and bringing people together.

First of all, we are all saddened by the surge of crime across America, and we are working with our communities, those who intervene, and those who are responding to the issues of depredation and danger that permeates many of our communities and many of our young people.

I believe it is important to ensure that the excessive amount of guns that are trafficked illegally are taken off the street. Soon in my community we will hold a gun buyback with the Houston Police Department because they are working with the community.

So I think it is important to state the fact that the Obama administration, President Joe Biden, and Vice President Kamala Harris are strong advocates and have invested much to ensure that crime goes down. We know that it is a mixture of the toxicity of the COVID-19 pandemic, poverty, and, of course, those who are inclined to do the crime.

With that in mind, it is very important to factually make the point that there is nothing in the Biden administration's agenda or its funding packages or those of Democrats that deal with the defunding of police. We are reimagining and working with our communities collectively. As we say: Police community relations will improve and continue to improve, one, the finding of those who perpetrate the crime for them to be brought to justice fairly because crime does not look to the color of one's skin. It is without discrimination and hits all of America.

So I am very proud to have been an original cosponsor and lead on the Victims of Crime Act that was signed by the President last week that ensured that our communities will now have a victims fund that our States will be able to deal with.

I encourage my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to go home and interact with the victims of crime. Show them that you care and work with your communities so that they are compensated in the full.

Let me also indicate that it is appropriate for us to move on H.R. 40. An enormity of Members of Congress have sponsored the commission to study slavery and develop reparation proposals. In civility, this would give us an opportunity to have a first federal conversation on race for a full discussion and analysis of the economy, political, psychological, scientific, and sociological effects of slavery in the United States.

The legislation makes no judgment on how to respond to the slavery of African Americans that began its sinful roots 401 years ago, but it points us to developing a response and a repair to deal with what is a continuing stigma of institutional racism. Mr. Speaker, you cannot ignore the disparities that exist in the community, and we cannot ignore the opportunity to have that discussion.

I am very grateful for the wide variety of individuals from the East, the West, the North, and the South of varying political perspectives who have supported this, the religious organizations that have supported this, the social justice organizations, or just plain people who raise their voices--57 percent in a recent poll.

So let us look forward to repairing, being a repair, the repairers. We know that our beloved pastor and leader who has provided us with the words that he is the repairer of the breach, and we thank him for that. And we thank all those who are willing to have a civil discussion to ensure that we can end the surge of crime and the scourge of crime and as well be able to discuss race in a manner of civility in a way that we can come together and repair it.

I know that it is the intent of those who cosponsored the bill and all of the vast supporters across America. It is certainly my intent as the lead cosponsor after the Honorable John Conyers, and I know it is the intent of the Congressional Black Caucus and all those who raise their voices for a civil discussion on the question of race. I think America is that good and better than that to be able to say that we can have that civil discussion. As has been said in our meetings of the Congressional Black Caucus: our power and our message.

Madam Speaker, I rise in support of this En Bloc Amendment to H.R. 4373, the State and Foreign Operations Appropriations Act for FY2022, which incorporates Jackson Lee Amendments Nos. 15, 16, and 17.

I thank the Rules Committee for making these amendments in order and State and Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee Chair DeLauro for including them in this En Bloc Amendment.

Jackson Lee Amendments No. 15 and No. 16 have been approved several times by the relevant subcommittee, made in order by the Rules Committee, and adopted by the full House; Jackson Lee Amendment No. 17, while being offered for the first time, makes a very important contribution to the health and safety of the global community.

Jackson Lee Amendment No. 16 will designate $1,000,000 to combat the trafficking of endangered species.

The amendment makes a good bill better by providing a $1 million focus to combat the transportation of the remains of endangered species, to confront the transport of the remains of killed endangered species.

The brutal killing of Cecil the lion after being lured off a protected preserve was an indication that we needed to do more to protect endangered species at risk of being killed.

At that time, I introduced and sought the support of my colleagues as original cosponsors of my legislation, Cecil the Lion Endangered and Threatened Species Act of 2015.

This bill sought to strengthen partner countries' capacity in , countering wildlife trafficking and designating major wildlife countries for protection.

The Jackson Lee Amendment No. 16 is again offered in the same spirit: to prohibit the taking and transportation of any endangered and threatened species as a trophy to the United States.

Currently, the Endangered Species Act does not protect most wildlife animals killed. At this point, we can choose to make wise decisions that will sustain the global population, or we can ignore the warning signs.

Jackson Lee Amendment No. 16 is one that the House has strongly supported in the past because it would bring greater awareness and protection to these beautiful and vital populations that are too often taken for granted, by allowing this amendment to address the senseless trafficking in trophy killings of all endangered and threatened species.

Jackson Lee Amendment No. 15 provides funds to be allocated for Global Health Programs to the fight against the practice of Female Genital Mutilation.

I have been a dedicated champion against this practice for a long while, working closely with former Congressman Joe Crowley of New York to introduce legislation targeted at supporting the elimination of this ludicrous practice of mutilating young women.

Female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) comprises all procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons.

This practice is rooted in gender inequality and is often linked to other elements of gender-based violence and discrimination, such as child marriage and recognized internationally as a violation of the human rights of women and girls.

Unfortunately, this means an estimated 200 million girls and women alive today have been victims of FGM/C, with girls 14 and younger representing 44 million of those who have been cut.

For example, consider that around the world, at least five girls are mutilated/cut every hour and more than 3 million girls are estimated to be at risk of FGM/C, annually.

The impacts of FGM/C on the physical health of women and girls can include bleeding, infection, obstetric fistula, complications during childbirth and death.

Other significant barriers to combatting the practice of FGM/C include the high concentration in specific regions associated with several cultural traditions, that is not tied to any one religion.

According to UNICEF, FGM/C is reported to occur in all parts of the world, but is most prevalent in parts of Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.

Due to the commonality of this practice many migrants to the U.S. bring the practice of FGM/C with them, increasing the importance of combatting FGM/C abroad.

Jackson Lee Amendment No. 15 prioritizes funding for foreign assistance to combat Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C), an internationally recognized violation of the human rights of girls and women comes to an end.

Finally, I thank the Rules Committee for making in order, and Chairwoman Lee for including in this En Bloc Amendment, Jackson Lee Amendment No. 17, which increases and decreases the Global Health Programs fund by $1,000,000 to emphasize the national commitment for USAID to provide unused vaccines that would otherwise be destroyed to countries in need around the world.

Increasing the availability to those countries in need of superfluous but life-saving vaccines is what a great nation does; not only is it the right thing to do, but it also builds goodwill and rebuilds important global relations that were ruptured by the previous Administration.

With the spread of Covid-19 variants on the rise, Jackson Lee Amendment No. 17 will help our neighbors in this hemisphere, and our friends and allies around the world cope with this ongoing global public health crisis.

I urge all members to vote for the En Bloc Amendment and the underlying legislation, H.R. 4373, the State and Foreign Operations Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2022.

Madam Speaker, I rise in support of this En Bloc Amendment to H.R. 4373, the State and Foreign Operations Appropriations Act for FY2022, which incorporates Jackson Lee Amendments Nos. 15, 16, and 17.

I thank the Rules Committee for making these amendments in order and State and Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee Chair DeLauro for including them in this En Bloc Amendment.

Jackson Lee Amendments No. 15 and No. 16 have been approved several times by the relevant subcommittee, made in order by the Rules Committee, and adopted by the full House; Jackson Lee Amendment #17, while being offered for the first time, makes a very important contribution to the health and safety of the global community.

Jackson Lee Amendment No. 16 will designate $1,000,000 to combat the trafficking of endangered species.

The amendment makes a good bill better by providing a $1 million focus to combat the transportation of the remains of endangered species, to confront the transport of the remains of killed endangered species.

The brutal killing of Cecil the lion after being lured off a protected preserve was an indication that we needed to do more to protect endangered species at risk of being killed.

At that time, I introduced and sought the support of my colleagues as original cosponsors of my legislation, Cecil the Lion Endangered and Threatened Species Act of 2015.

This bill sought to strengthen partner countries' capacity in countering wildlife trafficking and designating major wildlife countries for protection.

The Jackson Lee Amendment No. 16 is again offered in the same spirit: to prohibit the taking and transportation of any endangered and threatened species as a trophy to the United States.

Currently, the Endangered Species Act does not protect most wildlife animals killed. At this point, we can choose to make wise decisions that will sustain the global population, or we can ignore the warning signs.

Jackson Lee Amendment No. 16 is one that the House has strongly supported in the past because it would bring greater awareness and protection to these beautiful and vital populations that are too often taken for granted, by allowing this amendment to address the senseless trafficking in trophy killings of all endangered and threatened species.

Jackson Lee Amendment No. 15 provides funds to be allocate funds provided for Global Health Programs to the fight against the practice of Female Genital Mutilation.

I have been a dedicated champion against this practice for a long while, working closely with former Congressman Joe Crowley of New York to introduce legislation targeted at supporting the elimination of this ludicrous practice of mutilating young women.

Female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) comprises all procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons.

This practice is rooted in gender inequality and is often linked to other elements of gender-based violence and discrimination, such as child marriage and recognized internationally as a violation of the human rights of women and girls.

Unfortunately, this means an estimated 200 million girls and women alive today have been victims of FGM/C, with girls 14 and younger representing 44 million of those who have been cut.

For example, consider that around the world, at least five girls are mutilated/cut every hour and more than 3 million girls are estimated to be at risk of FGM/C, annually.

The impacts of FGM/C on the physical health of women and girls can include bleeding, infection, obstetric fistula, complications during childbirth and death.

Other significant barriers to combatting the practice of FGM/C include the high concentration in specific regions associated with several cultural traditions, that is not tied to any one religion.

According to UNICEF, FGM/C is reported to occur in all parts of the world, but is most prevalent in parts of Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.

Due to the commonality of this practice many migrants to the U.S. bring the practice of FGM/C with them, increasing the importance of combatting FGM/C abroad.

Jackson Lee Amendment #15 prioritizes funding for foreign assistance to combat Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C), an internationally recognized violation of the human rights of girls and women comes to an end.

Finally, I thank the Rules Committee for making in order, and Chairwoman Lee for including in this En Bloc Amendment, Jackson Lee Amendment No. 17, which increases and decreases the Global Health Programs fund by $1,000,000 to emphasize the national commitment for USAID provide unused vaccines that would otherwise be destroyed to countries in need around the world.

Increasing the availability to those countries in need of superfluous but life-saving vaccines is what a great nation does; not only is the right thing to do, but it also builds goodwill and rebuilds important global relations that were ruptured by the previous Administration.

With the spread of Covid-19 variants on the rise, Jackson Lee Amendment No. 17 will help our neighbors in this hemisphere, and our friends and allies around the world cope with this ongoing global public health crisis.

I urge all members to vote for the En Bloc Amendment and the underlying legislation, H.R. 4373, the State and Foreign Operations Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2022.

Mr. Speaker, COVID cases in America are rising. They are rising in almost 25 States. Texas happens to be one of the States with the largest number of COVID cases.

The United States has over 31 million cases and, of course, over 600,000 who have died.

Hospitals today in certain areas are full, and the plague or the impact, tragically, on those who are unvaccinated. But the story goes on.

As we begin to enter school, children under 12 cannot be vaccinated, even though research is going on.

Here is my plea: To those in the 18th Congressional District, in Houston, Texas, in Harris County, in Texas, and in the Nation, the unvaccinated should get vaccinated. The surge is creating a rise in the pandemic again.

If we are to get back to normal, find someone that you agree with that comforts you--your faith leader, your best friend--and talk about the importance of getting vaccinated.

People are dying. Children will become infected and/or carriers when they go back to school. Everyone in school should be vaccinated. Yes, in the schools today, going back, you must be masked. You should wear a mask, and wear a mask inside, even if you are vaccinated. We are trying to save lives.

Get vaccinated. It will save lives.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Connecticut. As I would want her to know, I am ecstatic about the great leadership of her chairwomanship as well as all the Cardinals who have worked, and I thank my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, many of whom really know that this is a very, very fine response to the needs of the American people.

Might I just say to the chair of the Appropriations Committee, just very quickly, that I was here for the Hyde amendment. I was on the Judiciary Committee. I think my colleagues need to understand that for all the years of the Hyde committee, women who were poor, who were Medicaid recipients, many of them might have died in childbirth and might have had other important emergency health issues because they were subjected to decisions that they did not make for themselves. In that instance, we have discriminated against women just because of their poverty.

Again, abortion is that of the woman, her faith, and her family. I believe this eliminating of the Hyde amendment is finally saying to all women in America that we respect you and your bodies.

I am very grateful for the support of an amendment that recognizes the crisis of diabetes and the need for research professionals and patients participating in clinical trials. Diversity in medical trials is essential to ensuring that cures, especially vaccines and therapies, work for the greatest number of persons. So my amendment decreases and increases the amount for $10 million to emphasize and get more emphasis to develop that diversity pool in research professionals and patients participating in trials.

Diabetes impacts all social, economic, and ethnic backgrounds, particularly African Americans. I meet many people in my constituency who have had an amputation because they were not able to receive medical care.

Finally, I have an amendment that increases and decreases funds $10 million with the intent of supporting individuals who might not finish college because of the impact of COVID. COVID is now resurging but the delta variant is surging. People are being hospitalized, the unvaccinated.

I make a national plea for people to be vaccinated.

As well it is impacting young people. That means that we need to focus on young people getting vaccinated. They are in college. We don't know, if they are not vaccinated, how it will impact their education and their future life.

So this is to provide the targeting programs to reach out to young people to tell them: One, get vaccinated. But to give them a bridge so that their education will not be interrupted, that they will never go back again, and that they will not suffer economically.

Madam Speaker, I appreciate my amendments being brought to the floor. I thank the leadership and as well I thank leadership for all the community projects that are helping the impoverished in my district.

Madam Speaker, I rise in support of En Bloc Amendment No. 2 to Rules Committee Print 117-12, which incorporates Jackson Lee Amendments Nos. 25 and 26.

I thank the Rules Committee for making these amendments in order and Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee Chair DeLauro for including them in this En Bloc Amendment.

Division A--Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and

Education, and Related Agencies

Jackson Lee Amendment #25, increases and decreases funds by $10,000,000 increase in funding to support greater diversity in the pool of diabetes research professionals and patients participating in clinical trials.

Diversity in medical trials is essential to ensuring that cures, especially vaccines, and therapies, work for the greatest number of persons impacted by an illness.

34.2 million people, or 10.5 percent of the U.S. population, have diabetes. An estimated 26.8 million people--or 10.2 percent of the population--have been diagnosed with diabetes.

Approximately 7.3 million people have diabetes but have not yet been diagnosed (2018).

Diabetes impacts all social, economic, and ethnic backgrounds, particularly African Americans.

Type 1 diabetes accounts for about 5.2 percent of all diagnosed cases of diabetes, affecting approximately 1.6 million people.

Jackson Lee Amendment #26 increases and decreases funds by $10,000,000 with the intent of supporting programs that provide outreach and support services targeting program participants at greatest risk of not completing a college degree due to COVID-19 education disruption.

I urge all Members to vote En Bloc Amendment #2.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to ask support for en bloc No. 3 and these important amendments. Let me emphasize my first amendment, really, with a great deal of gratitude, because this is so very important.

Human trafficking is a scourge on this Nation, and it has no boundaries; it is both domestic and international, but one of the things that is needed is for those who are trafficked, when they are found, to be able to cooperate with law enforcement. Many of those women are nondocumented immigrant women.

My amendment says none of the funds made available by this act for domestic food programs, Food and Nutrition Service, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program may be used in contravention of section 107(b) of Division A of the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000.

The effect of this amendment will be to make clear that nothing in this bill restricts the authority of the Secretary of Agriculture or any Federal agency head from providing assistance and benefits to victims of trafficking under current law so that they can engage with law enforcement and get the scourge, the person who trafficked, because they take advantage of these immigrants, and they cannot survive if they don't have subsistence. Many times they are denied it, because we have not made it clear to the States they are allowed to have it.

This amendment is going to save lives. I thank my colleagues for providing this particular amendment, and as well it is clear that it is needed, because it provides victims of trafficking access to information about their eligibility to receive SNAP benefits. It does not constitute the type of SNAP recruitment activity or advertising of the SNAP program prohibited by the bill, but more importantly, it helps those who are victims.

Trafficking in humans, and especially domestic child trafficking, has no place in civilized society. It is the most lucrative business, better than drugs, and that is why it is--over and over again.

Having held the first field hearing on human trafficking, I can tell you this is an important amendment. I ask my colleagues to support the Jackson Lee amendment and en bloc No. 3.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of En Bloc Amendment No. 3 to Rules Committee Print 117-12, which incorporates Jackson Lee Amendment No. 68.

I thank the Rules Committee for making these amendments in order and Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee Chair Bishop for including it in this En Bloc Amendment.

Jackson Lee Amendment #68 is simple and straightforward, but it makes an important contribution to the bill and to a goal that every Member of this body shares--and that is ending the scourge of human trafficking.

My amendment provides that:

None of the funds made available by this Act for ``Domestic Food Programs--Food and Nutrition Service--Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program'' may be used in contravention of section 107(b) of Division A of the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000 (22 U.S.C. 7105(b)).

The effect of this amendment will be to make clear that nothing in this bill restricts the authority of the Secretary of Agriculture or any federal agency head from providing assistance and benefits to victims of trafficking under current law as authorized by 22 U.S.C. Sec. 7105(b) of the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000 (114 Stat. 1464, Pub. Law 106-386).

In particular, Jackson Lee Amendment #68 is necessary to make clear that providing victims of trafficking access to information about their eligibility to receive SNAP benefits does not constitute the type of SNAP recruitment activities or ``advertising'' of the SNAP program prohibited by the bill and by Section 4018 of the Agriculture Act of 2014 (Public Law No: 113-079).

Trafficking in humans, and especially domestic child trafficking, has no place in a civilized society. Those who engage in this illicit trade should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. This House made that clear again last month when it passed H.R. 3530, the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act, which contained my Sense of the Congress amendment added during the Judiciary Committee markup.

That means we need to ensure that state and local law enforcement agencies have the tools, resources, and training necessary to identify, apprehend, and prosecute criminals who ruthless traffic in children and young persons.

And one of the most effective resources in bringing criminals to justice is the cooperation and assistance of their victims.

Perpetrators of crime know that they are more likely to evade detection and punishment when their victims refuse to assist or cooperate with law enforcement. That is why they make it a point to instill fear in their victims--for their own safety or that of family and loved ones.

I urge all Members to vote En Bloc Amendment #3.

Mr. Speaker, let me mention the amendments that I have in en bloc No. 6. I will focus on a few of them.

I have Nos. 157, 216, 220, 219, 218, 217, amendments that I think will make the legislation better but also help the American people and, certainly, focus on issues that are impacting my district. But these are universal matters that should be addressed.

My amendment increases and decreases funding for the Environmental Programs and Management by $5 million to highlight the need to support culturally competent Federal, State, and local public health and environmental protection efforts to address cancer clusters impacting overburdened communities in the Gulf Coast region. That includes Fifth Ward and Kashmere Gardens, among others, in the northeast part of Houston which have suffered because of creosote contamination, Superfunds, railroads that have contaminated the soil. They have seen the seismic increase of cancer among families. It is going through generations. I have met these families, and they have had mothers, fathers, children, grandchildren have cancer and die of cancer. This is an important legislative amendment for me.

Amendment No. 216, very quickly, deals with the reckless utilization of Federal dollars by the Texas Department of Transportation. We have, by our community, filed 106 complaints against them. This amendment indicates that you cannot put in place a transportation project that has not been determined to meet the statutory and fiduciary obligations of the National Historic Preservation Act. It pertains to I-45.

In addition, we provide funding or focus on motorcycle, urban bicycle, and pedestrian safety. That is a challenge in the State of Texas, and we have had a lot of injuries because of the lack of sensitivity to that question.

In addition, we have a housing amendment and other amendments that are very important to this legislation in my district.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of En Bloc Amendment No. 6 to Rules Committee Print 117-12, which incorporates Jackson Lee Amendments Nos. 157, and 216-220.

I thank the Rules Committee for making these amendments in order and Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee Chair Price for including them in this En Bloc Amendment.

Division E--Interior and the Environment

Jackson Lee Amendment #157 increases and decreases funding for Environmental Programs and Management by $5 million to highlight the need to support culturally competent federal, state, and local public health and environmental protection efforts to address cancer clusters impacting overburdened communities in the gulf coast region.

Division G--Transportation, Housing and Urban Development

Jackson Lee Amendment #216 prohibits the Department of Transportation from using funds for Section 106 Transportation construction projects in urban areas that have not been determined to meet the statutory and fiduciary obligations of the National Historic Preservation Act.

Jackson Lee Amendment #220 increases and decreases the National Infrastructure Investments account by $1,000,000 to emphasize support for urban bicycle and pedestrian safety programs.

Jackson Lee Amendment #219 increases and decreases by $1 million the Federal Rail Administration Safety and Operation's account to emphasize the need to provide dedicated funding to address community engagement on safety issues related railroad crossings in urban areas.

Jackson Lee Amendment #218 provides $1,000,000 in assistance to address challenges faced by communities impacted by persistent poverty and are not included in decision making when major highway construction threatens their homes, businesses, and culturally significant structures.

Jackson Lee Amendment #217 increases by $1,000,000 the Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity to address the fairness in the use of Community Development Block Grant Disaster funding to repair or replace single family homes damaged during Hurricane Harvey to ensure that multigenerational homes can house the family at documented pre-disaster capacity.

I urge all Members to vote En Bloc Amendment #6 and yield back my time.