Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 1565, the ``Senior Security Act,'' which will help stop financial predators from scamming seniors out of their savings by creating a federal Senior Investor Taskforce within the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to strengthen protections and safeguards for senior investors.

This legislation will establish the Senior Investor Taskforce at the SEC, which will be charged with identifying problems senior investors encounter, including financial exploitation and cognitive decline, as well as identifying regulatory changes that could help senior investors.

The established Senior Investor Taskforce will be required to:

Identify challenges that senior investors encounter, including problems associated with financial exploitation and cognitive decline;

Identify areas in which senior investors would benefit from changes at the Commission or the rules of self-regulatory organizations;

Coordinate, as appropriate, with other offices within the Commission and other taskforces that may be established within the Commission, self-regulatory organizations, and the Elder Justice Coordinating Council;

Consult, as appropriate, with state securities and law enforcement authorities, state insurance regulators, and other federal agencies; and

Submit a biennial report to Congress.

Every day, and far too often, vulnerable seniors in Texas and across the country fall victim to financial scammers.

Seniors have worked their entire lives with the promise of a safe and secure retirement, but unfortunately criminals are taking advantage of uncertainty surrounding the pandemic and working overtime to target them.

No senior should ever have to worry that picking up the phone could mean being scammed out of thousands of dollars, but unfortunately, for too many members of our communities, that is exactly what is happening.

Retirement accounts are not the only damage these scams target--they damage the independence and trust of a vulnerable community.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen instances of fraud rise in unprecedented numbers, as scammers attempt to take advantage of senior citizens and deprive them of their hard-earned savings.

Bad actors preying on older Americans is, unfortunately, nothing new, but in the midst of a global pandemic impacting Americans' lives and livelihoods, cracking down on those scams must be a priority.

One such scam was thwarted by Houston police and the Harris County District Attorney, who made an arrest in February in an international cyber-scam that bilked unsuspecting, mostly elderly victims out of more than $1 million.

According to a report from the Senate Special Committee on Aging released last Congress, older Americans lose approximately $3 billion each year to financial scams and abuse.

Although 1 in 20 seniors in the U.S. is a target of fraud schemes, the National Adult Protective Services Association has found that only 1 in 44 seniors report-that they are victims of a fraud scheme.

Fraudulent IRS impersonation and tech support calls are among the common and costly scams, and according to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, more than 2.5 million Americans have been targeted by scammers impersonating IRS officials.

Since 2013, more than 15,800 taxpayers have lost at least $80 million from this type of scam alone.

Furthermore, Microsoft estimates that more than 3 million Americans are victims of technical support scams, where scammers pretend to be with a reputable tech company and persuade seniors to provide personal and bank information.

Although we do know a few statistics, the lack of good, recent data on senior financial exploitation is a problem that H.R. 1565 would significantly aid in resolving.

For this reason, I urge all members to join me in voting to pass H.R. 1565, the Fraud and Scam Reduction Act, which is critical to protecting seniors' hard-earned savings and stopping fraudulent schemes before it is too late.

Madam Speaker, as senior member of the Committees on the Judiciary, on Homeland Security, and on the Budget, I rise in strong support of H.R. 1195, the ``Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Service Workers Act,'' which would establish within one year an Occupational Safety and Health Administration (``OSHA'') interim workplace standard requiring health care and social service providers to implement workplace violence prevention plans, and which would establish a permanent OSHA standard within 42 months.

Currently, there is no OSHA standard that requires employers to implement violence prevention plans that would help reduce workplace violence injuries among health care and social service workers.

The lack of an enforceable standard means that OSHA, the federal agency created to protect workers' safety, has few meaningful tools to protect health care workers from the threat of workplace violence.

The Government Accountability Office has estimated, conservatively, that it takes OSHA at least 7 years to issue a standard.

Seven years; Our healthcare workers have worked too hard and sacrificed too much for them to wait a minimum of seven more years before measures are in place to secure their basic physical safety.

H.R. 1195 would provide health and social service workers the protection they deserve by:

Compelling OSHA to issue an interim final standard in one year and a final standard within 42 months requiring employers within the health care and social service sectors to develop and implement a workplace violence prevention plan.

Identifying risks, specify solutions, and require training, reporting, and incident investigations. It would also provide protections from retaliation for reporting violent incidents.

Protecting health care and social service workers in the public sector in the 24 states not covered by OSHA protections.

Our nation's caregivers--including nurses, social workers, and many others who dedicate their lives to caring for those in need--suffer workplace violence injuries at far higher rates than any other profession.

While the previous administration relegated the OSHA standard protecting healthcare and social workers to the back burner, making no progress for 4 years, we will not do the same.

Study after study has confirmed that healthcare workers are not adequately protected in the workplace.

In 2014, OSHA reported that there are nearly as many serious violent injuries in healthcare as there are in all other industries combined.

In 2018, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that the rate of violence against health care workers increased more than 60 percent between 2011 and 2018.

Just last year, the BLS reported that health care and social service workers were nearly five times as likely to suffer a serious workplace violence injury than workers in other sectors.

And this problem has been exacerbated by the influx of patients and stressors during the COVID-19 pandemic--according to National Nurses United, 20 percent of registered nurses across the U.S. reported increased workplace violence due to the pandemic.

This is not a new problem; this is an old problem that has found fertile ground to grow during the COVID-19 pandemic due to an influx of patients and increasing demands on our healthcare workers.

In my home state of Texas, over 50 percent of nurses in Texas have reported being subject to workplace violence during the course of their career.

A 2016 study by the Texas State Health Services found that in any given year:

6 percent of Texas nurses experience sexual harassment;

12 percent of Texas nurses experience physical violence;

Nearly half of all Texas nurses experience verbal abuse.

The injuries healthcare workers take from workplace violence are not only physical; victims of workplace violence often suffer mental trauma that they will carry with them for the rest of their lives.

One example is Bridgette Jenkins, a nurse for 20 years in Houston and professor at Houston Baptist University's School of Nursing, who will not work in a psychiatric ward because 19 years ago a psychiatric patient hit her so hard that half her face became swollen and doctors encouraged her to get an x-ray to ensure her jaw wasn't broken.

Another is Norma Broadhurst, who testified before the Texas House of Representatives that she experienced a ``traumatic amputation'' of her right ring finger due to an intoxicated spring break patient biting off her finger.

Workplace violence against healthcare workers is so ubiquitous that more than a third of Texas nurses surveyed who did not report a recent violent incident said they did so because it was ``an accepted/expected part of the job'' or because they did ``not expect anything to change.''

One stark example of this is Kimberly Curtin, a nurse for nearly 28 years in Houston, who was punched in the side of the head by a patient as a young nurse.

Her colleague who witnessed the attack said to her, ``Welcome to

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 189, the John Lewis NIMHD Research Endowment Revitalization Act of 2021, which expands eligibility for research endowments available through the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) to include former centers of excellence at health professional schools and biomedical and behavioral research institutions

that meet criteria related to the inclusion of underrepresented minority individuals in programs and activities.

NIMHD leads scientific research to improve minority health and eliminate health disparities by researching and evaluating all minority health and health disparities research at NIH.

The NIMHD's Centers of Excellence (COE)'s program fosters collaborative research in minority health and health disparities, and awards grants to institutions that have a specific unifying focus on addressing minority health and health disparities.

NIMHD Centers of Excellence program grants are awarded in order to:

Support innovative multi- and trans-disciplinary research to promote minority health and reduce health disparities;

Strengthen exemplary research training and education activities support the development of well-trained researchers from minority and health disparity populations;

Increase the number of individuals from minority and other health disparity populations participating in research activities; and

Provide support for engaging minority and other health disparity communities in effective and sustainable activities aimed at improving the health of their communities.

Racial health inequalities in the U.S. is the cumulative result of both past and present discrimination throughout U.S. culture, and the NIMHD centers of racial excellence program grants are essential to addressing these inequalities.

African Americans are not only more susceptible to disease and illness, they are also more likely to die from them.

This past year, as COVID-19 has ravaged African Americans and communities of color, we have seen firsthand the fruits of these inequalities.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), African Americans face increased risks if they are stricken with COVID- 19, including asthma, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and pulmonary illness.

African American lives are placed at greater risk because of a health care system that denies access to the poor and work conditions that have long neglected conditions that leave them with a higher incidence of diseases that for far too long have gone under diagnosed and untreated.

There are many reasons for this but they include the refusal of several states to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act; the resistance of small business employers to provide health care to workers until required by their state government to do so, and too little access to medical doctors who are trained to provide care to this COVID-19 at-risk population.

Since 2003, I have been working on major legislation to address the problem with several of my colleagues including Representatives Elijah E. Cummings, Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), Delegate Donna Christensen, Chair of the CBC Health Braintrust, U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy, and the leadership of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, and the Native American Caucus.

Together we produced, the ``Healthcare Equality and Accountability Act of 2003,'' a truly comprehensive bill designed to address the disparities that face our communities.

During my time in office, I have fully and eagerly supported all legislation that has given increased attention to HIV/AIDS, including the Ryan White CARE Act, which is currently slated to receive about $2.2 billion in funding for FY2007.

I have supported legislation to reauthorize funding for community health centers (H.R. 5573, Health Centers Renewal Act of 2006), including the Montrose and Fourth Ward clinics in my home city of Houston, as well as supported legislation to provide more nurses for the poor urban communities in which many of these centers are located (H.R. 1285, Nursing Relief Act for Disadvantaged Areas).

I have also supported and introduced legislation aimed to better educate our children (H.R. 2553, Responsible Education About Life Act in 2006) and eliminate health disparities (H.R. 3561, Healthcare Equality and Accountability Act and the Good Medicine Cultural Competency Act in 2003, H.R. 90).

Mr. Speaker, we need strong collaborations and research based upon asking the right questions in specific areas, and the COEs are poised to emphasize scientific inquiry that will promote health equity.

Government has an obligation to seek the best for our nation's people, especially our nation's children.

I urge all members to join me in voting to pass H.R. 189, the John Lewis NIMHD Research Endowment Revitalization Act of 2021, because improved public health benefits all Americans, no matter who they are or where they are from.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 1762, the ``Protecting Indian Tribes from Scams Act,'' which requires the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), after consultation with Indian tribes, to report on unfair or deceptive practices that target tribes or tribal members.

The FTC must submit the report to Congress and make it publicly available.

The FTC is directed to update its website to include information for consumers and businesses on identifying and avoiding unfair or deceptive practices that target tribes or tribal members.

Scammers are targeting Native people.

Scammers may say extra money is waiting for a small price upfront or that a testing kit or treatment for the coronavirus is available for a fee.

Other scams attempt to benefit from the $1,200 Economic Impact Payment coming to most U.S. citizens; and more are expected to target stimulus checks authorized under the America Rescue Plan.

At least one tribal leader has warned tribal citizens of an email scam related to the coronavirus.

In an April 14 Facebook post, Ojibwe Chief Executive Melanie Benjamin wrote that an email purporting to be her had tribal citizens to purchase gift cards to help a citizen who tested positive for the coronavirus.

Benjamin asks those that may have received the scam email from a Gmail account to contact tribal police.

This bill will help protect our diverse Native American communities from scammers by providing valuable information that will help identify fraudsters and arm people with tools to protect themselves.

Our friends in the Native American communities across the nation have faced tremendous challenges during COVID-19 and they need our help to keep their nation's physically and financial safe during COVID.

I ask my colleagues to join me in supporting this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 446, the ``Protecting Seniors from Emergency Scams Act,'' which requires the Federal Trade Commission to report on, and increase awareness regarding, scams targeting older adults.

The FTC must: report on the number and type of scams that target older adults and provide policy recommendations to prevent such scams; revise the commission's web portal with current information about such scams, including contact information for law enforcement and protective services agencies; and coordinate with media outlets and law enforcement to disseminate such information.

Our seniors should not be victims of scams during coronavirus pandemic.

This bipartisan legislation will help protect seniors from fraud during this public health crisis and prevent emergency-related scams in the future.

Every year scam artists target senior citizens resulting in financial losses between $2 billion and $12 billion, and now during the COVID-19 pandemic, these scammers are using fear and uncertainty to take advantage of our vulnerable populations.

Our seniors have borne the brunt of this pandemic in high infection rates and deaths.

Now many seniors are being targeted by scammers who prey on their COVID-19 fears.

We must pass this bill and work to educate our seniors and those who care for them to look out for scams.

There is a moral obligation to stop these con artists by empowering seniors with facts and information while aggressively targeting criminals with all the resources available through the Federal Trade Commission.

Throughout the pandemic, uncertainty has led to many Houstonians falling victim to scam callers especially vulnerable populations like seniors.

Houston police and the Harris County District Attorney have made an arrest in an international cyber-scam that bilked unsuspecting, mostly elderly victims out of more than $1 million.

One victim of the scam, Asuncion Peppers, 74, a retired medical technician knows that first hand; She was bilked out of her life savings.

Hackers contacted Ms. Peppers on Facebook, pretending to be one of her Facebook friends.

She was told she was eligible for a government grant of almost one million dollars and all she had to do was send a check to pay taxes.

Investigators believes the scammers were operating from Nigeria, defrauding senior citizens in the U.S. and around the world.

Before Peppers realized she was being conned, she sent checks totaling $87,000 hard-earned money.

She said that she worked three jobs to build her life savings.

In her case the person who received the funds was 65-year-old Joe Reyes, who washed the funds through several local banks.

Reyes was receiving funds from scams and then converting them into Bitcoin to send back to the scammers.

Peppers and her husband are just two of 38 victims bilked out of more than $1.3 million before the fraud was discovered.

Reyes is now charged with money laundering and other charges that could send him to prison for years.

Our seniors need our help to be physically and financial safe during

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 1460, the ``Nicholas and Zachary Burt Memorial Carbon Monoxide Poisoning Prevention Act of 2021'', named after two young Minnesotan brothers who died of carbon monoxide poisoning, which directs the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to award grants to states and tribal organizations to install carbon monoxide alarms in the homes of lowincome families and older adults and facilities that commonly serve children or older adults.

The Nicholas and Zachary Burt Memorial Carbon Monoxide Poisoning Prevention Act would also authorize the CPSC to establish a federal grant program to fund education and installation of CO detectors by state, local and tribal governments.

With better, commonsense safeguards in place, we can address the danger of accidental death by carbon monoxide poisoning, which represents a real danger for individuals and families.

According to the Center for Disease Control, at least 430 people in the U.S. die each year from carbon monoxide poisoning and approximately 50,000 people are forced to seek medical attention for accidental CO poisoning.

Carbon monoxide poisoning is an unimaginable way to die--it prevents blood from being able to buy into oxygen; causing suffocation while still being able to breathe.

Mr. Speaker, the devastating and unprecedented winter storm in Texas finally gave this important issue the national attention it deserves; but it came at the cost of the lives and health of Texans.

The plunging temperatures and persistent power outages this past / February found residents in my district searching for warmth increasingly from dangerous sources.

In one dark week in February, fire departments in Harris County alone responded to over 475 carbon monoxide calls.

During this week, like millions of Texans, Etenesh Mersha lost power during the storm.

In order to provide warmth for herself, her husband, and their two children, she turned on her car in an attached garage, leading to carbon monoxide poisoning for herself and her family.

Etenesh left the car running, and by the time help arrived, she and her daughter, Rakeb, died; Her husband and 8-year-old son were rushed to the hospital and survived.

A mother and daughter died while trying to stay warm because regulators in Texas had decided to forgo federal and state regulation.

At least 300 other cases of carbon monoxide poisoning, were reported in Harris County, making it a disaster within a disaster.

Although carbon monoxide is not visible, there are concrete ways we can protect against this unseen threat, including for those who are most vulnerable, like children and the elderly.

This legislation bolsters states' efforts to reduce the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning and help prevent these tragedies in Texas and across the nation.

Mr. Speaker, the CPSC must take action to better educate and inform families about the risks associated with improper methods to heat and power homes and work with the media to share this critical information.

I urge all members to join me in voting to pass H.R. 1460, the Nicholas and Zachary Burt Memorial Carbon Monoxide Poisoning Prevention Act of 2021, because the tragic deaths in Texas has shown that this danger must be addressed.

Madam Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 1502--the ``Microloan Improvement Act of 2021,'' revises the microloan program managed by the Small Business Administration (SBA) to provide certain financial assistance to small businesses through designated intermediaries.

Specifically, the bill authorizes an intermediary to offer a line of credit to a small business, and it increases the average amount for loans from an intermediary to participating small businesses that makes the intermediary eligible for a reduced interest rate on SBA loans.

The bill also places limits on the repayment term for a microloan, and it prohibits the SBA from imposing any additional limitation on the term for repayment of a microloan.

Further, the SBA must:

reserve 15 percent of new loan funds that are made available for disbursement as microloans to designated underutilized states and make the remaining 85 percent available for any state;

establish a process for an intermediary to provide the major credit reporting agencies with information about a borrower that is relevant to credit reporting, and

include information regarding equitable distribution of loan funds in its annual report.

The SBA Microloan program approves up to $50,000 to small businesses to provide businesses with working capital, or to purchase inventory, supplies, and equipment.

Loans for $50,000 may not seem like a lot to a small business, but the micro small businesses that fill our neighborhoods would benefit from having access to these funds.

A micro enterprise employs nine people or fewer, and this is the most common kind of private-sector business in the United States.

Small business statistics show that while this might be the most common kind of enterprise, its share of employees is very small, providing only 10.5 percent of all private-sector jobs.

The fortunes of micro businesses during COVID-19 has been fraught with risks.

We know that:

82 percent of businesses that fail do so because of cash flow problems;

Small businesses employ 59 million people in the U.S.A;

50 percent of all small businesses are operated from home;

84 percent of small business owners indicate that they're feeling optimistic about the future of their companies;

64 percent of small business owners begin with only $10,000 in capital;

Approximately a quarter of small businesses begin with no financing whatsoever;

Only 40 percent of small businesses are profitable; and

Only 64 percent of small businesses have their own website.

Thousands of minority-owned small businesses were shown to be at the end of the line in applying to the government's Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).

According to an Associated Press analysis of the low-interest government loans, minority owners struggled more than white owners to find banks that would accept their applications; or otherwise were disadvantaged by the terms of the program.

Data from the Paycheck Protection Program released December 1 and analyzed by the Associated Press show that many minority owners desperate for a relief loan did not receive one until the PPP's last few weeks, while many more white business owners were able to get loans earlier in the program.

The program, which began April 3 and ended August 8 and handed out 5.2 million loans worth $525 billion, helped many businesses stay on their feet during a period when government measures to control the coronavirus forced many to shut down or operate at a diminished capacity.

The PPP program struggled to meet its promise of aiding communities that historically have not gotten the help they needed.

The PPP program was especially difficult to access for micro businesses.

A micro business employs nine people or fewer, and this is the most common kind of private-sector business in the U.S. Small business statistics show that while this might be the most common kind of enterprise, its share of employees is very small, providing only 10.5 percent of all private-sector jobs.

As the economy continues to recover, we should not forget that not all businesses will recover at the same rate, just as all workers are not heading back into the workforce with the same opportunities to find or resume employment.

I ask my colleagues to join me in supporting this bill that will provide much needed financial support to our mom and pop businesses.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 1215, the Fraud and Scam Reduction Act, which will create the Senior Scams Prevention Advisory Group and the Senior Fraud Advisory Office to improve the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) prevention and response efforts against senior fraud and scams through enhanced coordination with key industries, consumer advocacy groups, appropriate law enforcement agencies, and consumers.

Every day, and far too often, vulnerable seniors in Texas and across the country fall victim to financial scammers.

Seniors have worked their entire lives with the promise of a safe and secure retirement, but unfortunately criminals are taking advantage of uncertainty surrounding the pandemic and working overtime to target them.

Retirement accounts are not the only damage these scams harm--they damage the independence and trust of a vulnerable community.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen instances of fraud rise in unprecedented numbers, as scammers attempt to take advantage of senior citizens and deprive them of their hard-earned savings.

Bad actors preying on older Americans is, unfortunately, nothing new. But in the midst of a global pandemic impacting Americans' lives and livelihoods, cracking down on those scams must be a priority.

One such scam was thwarted by Houston police and the Harris County District Attorney, who made an arrest in February in an international cyber-scam that bilked unsuspecting, mostly elderly victims out of more than $1 million.

This bill is aimed at cracking down on these scams by bringing public and private stakeholders together, so that we might give our seniors the resources they need to tackle these predatory schemes.

Although 1 in 20 seniors in the U.S. is a target of fraud schemes, the National Adult Protective Services Association has found that only 1 in 44 seniors report that they are victims of a fraud scheme.

The Senior Fraud Advisory Office will address these low reportingrates by directing the FTC to educate seniors, families, and caregivers of the process for contacting law enforcement after being targeted in a fraud scheme.

It will also direct the FTC to help improve the nation's fraud response efforts by reforming FTC's complaint system as well as enhancing fraud surveillance through better coordination with law enforcement agencies.

The Senior Scams Prevention Advisory Group will bring together relevant government agencies, consumer advocates, and industry representatives to collect and develop model educational materials for retailers, financial institutions, and wire transfer companies to use in preventing scams on seniors.

The FTC will coordinate efforts to educate the public and even the employees of key industries who often find themselves on the front lines of anti-scamming activities, helping prevent fraud before it happens.

Mr. Speaker, we need to strengthen federal prevention efforts and ensure leaders in the public and private sectors are collaborating on effective safeguards.

I urge all members to join me in voting to pass H.R. 1215, the Fraud and Scam Reduction Act, which is critical to protecting seniors' hard- earned savings and stopping fraudulent schemes before it's too late.

Madam Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 1490, the ``504 Modernization and Small Manufacturer Enhancement Act,'' which modifies the Small Business Administration (SBA) 504 Loan Program an opportunity to modernize and expand.

The SBA 504 Loan Program allows small businesses to access SBA financing through a certified development company (CDC) for expansion or modernization.

Specifically, the bill adds policy goals, at least one of which a CDC must demonstrate to be eligible for assistance.

These include: enhancing the ability of a small business to reduce costs by using energy efficient products and generating renewable energy, and aiding the revitalization of any area for which a disaster has been declared or determined. The bill also authorizes a CDC to take specified actions to facilitate the closing of a 504 loan, such as correcting borrower or lender information on loan documents or reallocating up to 10 percent of the cost of a project.

The birth of modern manufacturing can be traced to the early 1780s, when American inventor Oliver Evans began experimenting with the first automated flour mill.

He developed the concept of continuous process milling, which relied on five so-called bulk material handling devices.

His machines and processes soon caught on across the country because they reduced manpower by 25 percent while increasing output--the era of automation had begun.

Today, small manufacturers are making new products that provide the best opportunities to ignite startups or help existing manufactures find new markets.

This bill increases the maximum loan amount from $5.5 million to $6.5 million, reduces the amount that they must contribute to project costs, increases job retention requirements, and revises collateral requirements and debt refinancing considerations.

Further, each SBA district office must partner with a resource partner to provide certain training for small manufacturers.

One of President Biden's first acts after becoming President was to sign an Executive Order to support manufacturers, businesses, and workers to ensure that our future is made in all of America by all of America's workers.

President Biden's Executive Order ensures that when the federal government spends taxpayer dollars, they are spent on American made goods by American workers and with American-made component parts.

This Executive Order fulfills President Biden's promise to make Buy American real and close loopholes that allow companies to offshore production and jobs while still qualifying for domestic preferences.

This bill is making it possible for President Biden's executive action to be fulfilled.

We need to support small manufacturers to produce what we need right here in the United States.

The COVID-19 pandemic was a lesson we should not forget, when the nation did not have enough personal protective equipment in the form of masks, gloves or face shields to protect health care workers or citizens from COVID-19.

It was essential that our nation never again be so ill prepared to weather a crisis like COVID-19.

Manufacturing creates good jobs for low and highly skilled workers across the nation.

In 2018, manufacturers in the United States accounted for 11.39 percent of the total output in the economy, employing 8.51 percent of the workforce.

Total output from manufacturing was $2,334.60 billion in 2018.

In addition, there were an average of 12.8 million manufacturing employees in the United States in 2018, with an average annual compensation of $84,832.13 in 2017.

We can make sure that Made in America means made in the thousands of towns and communities across the nation where people live, and work today.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Virginia and thank him for his leadership--also, the Speaker and the ranking member.

According to the National Women's Law Center, based on today's wage gap, a woman who works full-time year-round would typically lose $406,280 over her 40-year career. This means a woman making the median national salary for women would have to work almost 9 years longer than her male counterpart.

Mr. Speaker, 58 years after the enactment of the Equal Pay Act, full- time working women still earn 82 cents on average for every dollar a man earns, amounting to a yearly gap of almost $20,000. They, too, raise children. They, too, have overhead.

In this pandemic year, we have found that 2 million women have lost their jobs. We know that Hispanic women earn 55 cents, Native-American women 60 cents, and African-American women, on average, only 63 cents.

It is time now to put this paycheck fairness bill on the desk of the President of the United States. It modernizes and strengthens the Equal Pay Act, which is what the Lilly Ledbetter Act was, and brings the country one step closer to ensuring that women can receive equal pay for equal work.

Mr. Speaker, I ask for support of this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, as an original cosponsor, a senior member of the Committees on the Judiciary, on Homeland Security, on the Budget, and a member of the Democratic Working Women's Task Force, I rise in strong support of H.R. 7, the landmark Paycheck Fairness Act, which strengthens and closes loopholes in the 1963 Equal Pay Act, including providing effective remedies for workers who are not being paid equal pay for equal work.

I thank my colleague, the Chair of the Committee on Appropriations, Congresswoman DeLauro, for introducing the Paycheck Fairness Act in every Congress since 1997, which enabled me join her as an original cosponsor all during those years as we fought shoulder to shoulder for women's equality and empowerment.

Mr. Speaker, in January 2009, the Democratic-led 111th Congress sent to the President's desk the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, the first bill signed into law by President Obama, which restored the critical rights of workers to challenge unfair pay in court.

Now, a Democratic-led House will push for enactment of another critical fair pay bill--the Paycheck Fairness Act that strengthens current law.

When House has been controlled by a Democratic majority, the Paycheck Fairness Act has passed several times--including in the 110th Congress, the 111th Congress, and the 116th Congress, when it passed by a bipartisan vote of 242 to 187 on March 27, 2019, before dying in then- Senate Majority Leader McConnell's legislative graveyard.

This is the year to finish the job and send this critical legislation all the to President Biden's desk for signature.

Mr. Speaker, as every woman Member of Congress knows, as our mother, sisters, daughters, and sorors in the workplace know all too well, the impact of the wage gap grows throughout a woman's career.

According to the National Women's Law Center, based on today's wage gap, a woman who worked full-time, year-round would typically lose $406,280 over a 40-year career.

This means a woman making the median national salary for women would have to work almost nine years longer than her male counterpart to make up this lifetime wage gap.

Mr. Speaker, 58 years after the enactment of the Equal Pay Act, full- time working women still earn just 82 cents, on average, for every dollar a man earns, amounting to a yearly gap of $10,157 between full- time working men and women.

The wage gap is also even larger for women of color.

Hispanic women on average earn only 55 cents for every dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic men.

Native American women on average earn only 60 cents for every dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic men.

African American women on average earn only 63 cents for every dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic men.

The National Partnership for Women and Families has calculated that $10,157 for a median family in America means more than 9 additional months of rent or 13 additional months of childcare.

Indeed, if women were paid the same as men, the poverty rate for all working women would be cut in half and the poverty rate for working single mothers would be cut by nearly half.

Because of loopholes in the law and weak sanctions for violations, the Equal Pay Act of 1963 has not provided the tools to truly combat unequal pay.

The Paycheck Fairness Act modernizes and strengthens the Equal Pay Act and brings the country one step closer to ensuring that women receive equal pay for equal work in the following ways:

1. Requires employers to prove that pay disparities exist for legitimate, job-related reasons and puts the burden on employers to show the disparity is not sex-based, but job-related and necessary;

2. Bans retaliation against workers who voluntarily discuss or disclose their wages;

3. Ensures women receive the same robust remedies for sex-based pay discrimination available to those subjected to discrimination based on race and national origin;

4. Removes obstacles in the Equal Pay Act to facilitate a wronged worker's participation in class action lawsuits that challenge systemic pay discrimination;

5. Makes improvements in the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's (EEOC's) and the Department of Labor's tools for enforcing the Equal Pay Act;

6. Provides assistance to all businesses to help them with their equal pay practices, recognizes excellence in pay practices by businesses, and empowers women and girls by creating a negotiation skills training program; and

7. Prohibits employers from seeking salary history in determining future pay, so that pay discrimination does not follow women from job to job.

Finally, equal pay is not simply a women's issue, but a family issue.

Two-thirds of mothers are either the sole breadwinner or a co- breadwinner in the household, so their earnings are vital to their families.

When women bring home less money each day, it means they have less for the everyday needs of their families--groceries, rent, childcare, and doctors' visits.

The Paycheck Fairness Act is strongly endorsed by a coalition of more than 200 organizations, including AAUW, National Women's Law Center, National Partnership for Women and Families, National Organization for Women, National Committee on Pay Equity, MomsRising, UltraViolet, Center for Law and Social Policy, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, NAACP, League of Women Voters, U.S. Women's Chamber of Commerce, AFL-CIO, SEIU, United Steelworkers, AFSCME, American Federation of Teachers, National Education Association, International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, American Psychological Association, Anti-Defamation League, and many more.

I urge all members to join me in voting to pass H.R. 7, the Paycheck Fairness Act of 2021, to ensure effective remedies for workers who are not being paid equal pay for equal work.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to show exuberance and excitement and congratulations to the young men at the University of Houston who entered into the Final Four for the first time in 37 years.

Congratulations to Coach Sampson and these very fine young men, who had not only the ability and skill on the basketball court, but character and determination and hard work. We are so proud of them in the city of Houston, and certainly of the University of Houston. We congratulate them for standing up, marching onto that court, and dunking that ball.

Congratulations to the University of Houston basketball team entering the Final Four at the NCAA. We are excited about their success, and we congratulate them over and over and over again. Congratulations to the Cougars, University of Houston basketball team.

Madam Speaker, I thank the chairman very much for yielding, and I rise in support of the Senate amendment to H.R. 1868, an act to prevent direct across-the-board spending cuts, which would include protecting Medicare.

Madam Speaker, one of the happiest days of my life as a Member of the United States Congress--and I have passed many legislative initiatives--is the passing of the American Rescue Act. Just in the time that I was in the district in the work recess, I was able to see the smiles of so many--such as our Federally qualified health clinics getting almost 50 million to provide vaccinations to well-deserved communities--smiling faces about the American Rescue Act.

And so the reason why this is an important initiative is because it retains language included by Congress in the CARES Act and subsequent legislation to address the COVID-19 pandemic.

Medicare plans and providers are receiving payment rates at approximately 2 percent higher than what they otherwise could have received during this time. The pause in the operability of the sequestration was slated to expire on March 31, 2021, but H.R. 1868 extended the suspension to December 30, 2021. We do not want any cuts from Medicare, and Democrats will not have any cuts in Medicare.

The Senate amendment to that legislation reduced that time to the end of the fiscal year 2021--September 30--but I know that even though it has been reduced to that, we will extend it because we will not have any cuts. I believe the American Rescue Plan was desperately needed-- $20 billion in vaccinations; contact tracing and testing; billions of dollars for our schools and our teachers; dollars that would help ensure that our unemployment is extended, and the $1,400. Vaccines in the arms; money in people's pocket.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Kentucky for yielding.

Madam Speaker, the American Rescue Plan will bring $16.7 billion to the State of Texas. The lion's share of $3.3 billion will come directly to the city of Houston and Harris County.

I thank the gentleman from Kentucky for allowing me to offer a motion to instruct that indicated that we would not stop direct funding from going to our local jurisdictions, which we fought. And every time I see my mayor and local officials, they are smiling for that direct funding--$1.4 billion to smaller jurisdictions like Jacinto City and the Houston Independent School District getting millions of dollars.

Madam Speaker, this particular amendment is important because Democrats don't cut Medicare. We are standing here today to make sure that nothing happens to our seniors and Medicare.

Madam Speaker, I support this legislation.

Madam Speaker, as a senior member of the Committees on the Judiciary, on Homeland Security, on the Budget, and as the Member of Congress for a congressional district that has experienced the worst of the COVID-19 as a public health emergency and economic catastrophe, I rise in support of Senate Amendment to H.R. 1868.

I do so because this legislation retains language included by Congress in the CARES Act and subsequent legislation to address the COVID-19 pandemic, Medicare plans and providers are receiving payment rates that are approximately 2 percent higher than what they otherwise would have received during this time.

This pause in the operability of sequestration was slated to expire on March 31, 2021, but H.R. 1868 extended the suspension through December 31, 2021; the Senate Amendment to that legislation reduced that time to the end of fiscal year 2021, or September 30, 2021.

It is very disappointing that the provision in H.R. 1868 passed by House excluding the budgetary effects of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, from the scorecards established by the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go (PAYGO) Act of 2010 and preventing across-the-board cuts to numerous direct spending programs were not included in the amendment passed by the Senate.

But as a member of the Budget Committee, I will be working tirelessly with Chairman Yarmuth and my colleagues to ensure that Congress designates as an emergency or otherwise excludes from the PAYGO scorecard the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 to avert sequestration.

Madam Speaker, Congress has never permitted sequestration to affect the Medicare trust fund and it certainly will not allow it now, just when help is arriving under the American Rescue Plan Act to put shots in arms, money in pockets, kids in school, and workers back on the job.

It is worthwhile to explain why the American Rescue Plan Act is the most transformative legislation in more than a half century and easily justifies exclusion from sequestration.

H.R. 1319, the American Rescue Plan Act, is a landmark, life-saving legislation that will provide urgently-needed resources to defeat the virus, put vaccines in people's arms, money into families' pockets, children safely back into classrooms, and people back to work.

With tens of millions of Americans infected, more than half a million lives lost, over 18 million Americans unemployed and millions more hungry and food and housing insecure, thanks to the work of congressional Democrats in the House and Senate and the Biden administration, at long last the people of the United States and my home state of Texas can be assured that ``Help Is On The Way.''

In simple terms this life-saving and life-enhancing legislation puts vaccines in arms, puts money in people's pockets, puts children safely back in school, and it will put workers back in jobs.

1. Put Vaccines in Arms: The plan will mount a national vaccination program that includes setting up community vaccination sites nationwide and addressing disparities facing communities of color. It will also take complementary measures to combat the virus, including scaling up testing and tracing, addressing shortages of personal protective equipment and other critical supplies, investing in high-quality treatments, and addressing health care disparities.

2. Put Money in People's Pockets: The plan finishes the job on the President's promise to provide $2,000 in direct assistance to households across America with checks of $1,400 per person, following the $600 down payment enacted in December. The plan will also provide direct housing assistance, nutrition assistance for 40 million Americans, expand access to safe and reliable child care and affordable health care, extend unemployment insurance so that 18 million American workers can pay their bills and support 27 million children with an expanded Child Tax Credit and more than 17 million low-wage workers through an improved Earned Income Tax Credit.

3. Put Children Safely Back in School: The plan delivers $170 billion for education and $45 billion for childcare providers. This includes a $130 billion investment in K-12 school re-opening and making up for lost time in the classroom, with funds that can be used for such things as reducing class sizes, modifying spaces so that students and teachers can socially distance, improving ventilation, implementing more mitigation measures, providing personal protective equipment and providing summer school or other support for students that help make up lost learning time this year. The plan also provides more than $40 billion for higher education.

Here is what the American Rescue Plan Act means for the State of Texas, Houston, and Harris County.

An estimated $16.7 billion will come to the State of Texas.

The lion's share of $3.3 billion will come directly to the City of Houston, and Harris County will receive a similar share of $5.667 billion, thanks to a provision in the law I helped secure that created the Coronavirus Local Fiscal Recovery Fund and appropriated $45.57 billion.

$1.4 billion in direct payments is allocated to smaller jurisdiction like Jacinto City.

Houston Independent School District can expect to receive close to $100 million ($993,198 million to be more precise).

The law specifically allows this funding to be used:

1. To respond to the pandemic or its negative economic impacts, including assistance to households, small businesses, and nonprofits, or aid to impacted industries such as tourism, travel, and hospitality;

2. For premium pay to eligible workers performing essential work (as determined by each

recipient government) during the pandemic, providing up to $13 per hour above regular wages;

3. For the provision of government services to the extent of the reduction in revenue due to the pandemic (relative to revenues collected in the most recent full fiscal year); and

4. To make necessary investments in water, sewer, or broadband infrastructure.

In addition to these funds, Texas will receive $100 million out of the newly created $10 billion Coronavirus Capital Projects Fund for ``critical capital projects directly enabling work, education, and health monitoring, including remote options, in response to the public health emergency with respect to the Coronavirus Disease.

Now all that is well and good but let me tell you what the American Rescue Plan Act means for a hard-working and hard-pressed single mother of two children making a modest income:

Madam Speaker, I rise in sad remembrance of the 50th anniversary of the Bengali Hindu Genocide, and celebrate and honor the lives of the more than two million Bengali Hindu persons who were systematically killed by the Pakistani Army when it launched an offensive into East Pakistan, present-day Bangladesh, thus beginning the 10-month reign of terror known as ``Operation Searchlight.''

Over that time, approximately 2 to 3 million people were killed, over 200,000 women were raped in organized rape camps, and over 10 million people were displaced, most finding refuge in India.

I offer my prayers and condolences to the victims and their families who still feel the very real effects of this heinous crime against humanity.

March 25th officially marks the beginning of the genocide in Bangladesh.

The brutality unleashed by the Pakistani army and the targeting of Bengali Hindus simply because of their religion must be strongly condemned as religious freedom is one of the most sacred of human rights.

It has been 50 years since the genocide in Bangladesh, and the survivors and their descendants are still fighting for recognition; they are still fighting for an apology from Pakistan, as the Prime Minister of Bangladesh formerly asked her Pakistani counterpart as recently as January of 2021; and they are still fighting for justice and for closure.

On March 28, 1971, Archer K. Blood, U.S. Consul General stationed in Dhaka, East Pakistan, present-day Bangladesh, during the genocide, sent a cable back to Foggy Bottom with the subject reading ``Selective Genocide.''

In his cable, the Consul General informs his superiors at the State Department that ``Here in Dacca we are mute and horrified witnesses to a reign of terror by the Pak military,'' and that the full horror of its atrocities ``will come to light sooner or later.''

That is why I rise; to remember and acknowledge that history so that victims and survivors of the Bengali Hindu Genocide know that the people of the United States stand in solidarity with them.

Mr. Speaker, I thank our distinguished chairman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, whenever you hear the words of Speaker Pelosi, you know that the gentlewoman is leading us on the fight to protect our seniors. I am glad to cosponsor this legislation to be a strong supporter of being on the front seat of protecting our seniors.

Whenever you hear us being demagogued from those on the other side using demagoguery, you can be assured that when they pass a tax bill, it was not having seniors as their priority. But when you hear the word ``Medicare,'' you know that Democrats are standing strong to make sure that not one dime is taken away from our seniors with Medicare.

My open letter to my seniors in my district--open message to my seniors is: We will die on the vine to protect your Medicare. That is what we are doing today on the floor of the House. Not one dime will come out of your Medicare.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to support H.R. 1868, which excludes the budgetary effects of the American Rescue Plan of 2021 from scorecards established by the Pay-As-You-Go, or PAYGO Act of 2010, preventing across-the-board cuts to numerous direct-spending programs. That is what we are doing here today. We are taking our seniors seriously.

I say to seniors: Have no fear with all of this demagoguery because we are going to make sure that not one dime comes out of your pocket.

In addition, I say to seniors: You are going to be living in cities like Houston, where it says that Houston's share of the stimulus package is $615 million.

That is going to help keep the city services going, the fire, the police, and trash pickup going. We know that seniors call my office and these issues are important to them.

Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record a Houston Chronicle article dated March 10, 2021, showing that the city of Houston will receive $615 million.

[From the Houston Chronicle, Mar. 10, 2021]

Houston's Share of Stimulus Bill Expected To Top $600M, Help Avoid Cuts

to City Services, Officials Say

(By Jasper Scherer)

Houston and Harris County are expected to receive more than

$1.5 billion through the stimulus bill approved by Congress

Wednesday, providing a massive cash injection that city

officials say will help close a budget shortfall widened by

the pandemic for the second year in a row.

The measure provides local governments with their most

generous round of COVID-related funding yet, and it comes

with fewer spending restrictions than last year's aid.

Houston will receive an estimated $615 million, putting the

city at more than $1 billion in direct federal relief during

the pandemic, while Harris County is projected to receive

$914 million--more than double its allotment from the first

round of local aid last March.

``I'm hopeful and optimistic that we will be able to use

this money to, essentially, bail

the city out of a very dire financial situation,'' said City

Controller Chris Brown, who monitors the spending of

Houston's more than $5 billion city budget.

Many local governments, including Houston, have seen their

sales tax revenues plummet as the pandemic slowed consumer

spending on dining, tourism and other leisure activity. And

while rising appraisal values mean the city is projected to

take in more money from property taxes this year than last,

officials say the pandemic's true toll on property tax

revenue may not be felt until early 2022, when homeowners

make payments for this year's not-yet-certified tax rolls.

Much to the relief of local officials, the latest round of

federal aid allows cities and counties to spend the funds to

replace revenue lost due to the pandemic. Trump

administration rules barred local governments from using the

first round of local COVID relief to plug budget holes,

stipulating it could only cover expenses tied directly to the

pandemic, though Mayor Sylvester Turner's administration

still was able to use the funds to avoid furloughing city

employees.

Marvin Odum, the former Shell executive appointed by the

mayor to oversee the city's COVID recovery, said Wednesday he

is ``very optimistic the funds will be able to be used to

mitigate the city's budget shortfalls resulting from COVID-

19.'' Still, he noted that beyond the broad language in the

bill, federal officials have yet to release specific rules

for how local governments can spend the funds.

``I'll just caution that clarity on the guidelines for

these programs tends to come over time. It's not always

available immediately,'' Odum said.

Republican lawmakers bitterly opposed the local aid,

including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who accused

Democrats of sending ``wheelbarrows of cash to state and

local bureaucrats to bail out mismanagement from before the

pandemic.'' Meanwhile, local officials across the country

have warned they would have to enact deep cuts to city

services, such as fire, police and trash collection, without

federal aid to offset their revenue losses.

``Every mayor, every county judge, every local official

that I visited with since before December, they all need

help,'' said U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia, D-Houston, a former

Houston controller and county commissioner. ``Every city in

America will get dollars to help with their revenue

shortfalls. And that's huge, because they can keep the

firefighters working, they can keep police departments open,

they can get the garbage picked up.''

Even before the pandemic, Houston officials in recent years

have scrambled to close major city budget gaps, often dipping

into reserves to balance spending and revenue. The city's

public safety costs, which make up more than half of spending

on core services, have steadily increased as the budget

remains capped by a limit on how much property tax revenue

the city can take in each year.

``It's going to solve, in the short term, some of these

problems, but the real challenge is, you cannot solve a

structural problem with one-time financing sources,'' Brown

said. ``You actually have to do the hard work to cut

recurring expenses. And that's the only way you can narrow

that budget gap over time.''

Local governments will receive half their federal aid

within 60 days of Friday, when President Joe Eiden will sign

the bill into law, according to White House press secretary

Jen Psaki. They will receive the second half of the funds at

least a year later.

That means Houston will receive more than $300 million to

offset its revenue losses next fiscal year, along with any

potential shortfall before the current fiscal year ends June

30. Odum said the city finance department is projecting a

budget gap of between $160 and $200 million next year, while

Brown--whose office generates its own estimates separate from

Turner's administration--said he expects the shortfall to be

even higher.

Brown noted that while finance department projections

assume the city will see a less-than-1 percent reduction in

sales tax revenue this year, the actual decrease has been 7

percent.

``The (Turner) administration, I don't think, has properly

evaluated the reductions in sales and property tax,'' Brown

said. ``There's a $40 million variance between us and (the)

finance (department) in sales tax alone.''

Brown estimated city officials will have to lay off about a

dozen city employees for every $1 million trimmed from the

budget, meaning Houston could have been looking at more than

2,000 layoffs without any federal aid.

Instead, Houston's relief will far exceed its budget

deficit. The city also is expected to devote a chunk of the

aid to direct COVID relief, such as testing and vaccinations.

Turner's administration exhausted the previous round of aid,

totaling $405 million, in December. Those funds covered

contact tracing efforts, city workers whose jobs were

consumed by COVID, and relief to renters and small

businesses, among other areas.

Turner, who proposes the annual budget to city council each

year, did not respond to questions Wednesday about how he

intends to spend the new round of relief aid.

Mr. Speaker, let me also indicate that seniors' healthcare will be in a good place with this particular program. Their grandchildren will be able to go back to school with almost $1 billion to the Houston Independent School District.

Seniors' stimulus checks are not going to be ignored. They are going to be able to get stimulus checks directly into their accounts. Their grandchildren, their children will get $3,600 for a 5-year-old.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, they will get $3,000 for children above 9 years old. There will be enhanced unemployment for the young people in their lives who have been unemployed. And then, of course, that local restaurant will be able--and I fought for this--to be open again with $28 billion.

The issue of public assistance or local government assistance was something I was allowed to offer a motion to instruct on. It was something that I thought we could not abandon. We will not abandon seniors. We will not let them touch one dime of Medicare, as our friends on the other side have.

Vote for this legislation because we are seniors first.

Mr. Speaker, as a senior member of the Committees on the Judiciary, on Homeland Security, on the Budget, and as the Member of Congress for a congressional district that has experience the worst of the COVID-19 as a public health emergency and economic catastrophe, I rise in strong support of H.R. 1868, which excludes the budgetary effects of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, from the scorecards established by the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go (PAYGO) Act of 2010, preventing across-the- board cuts to numerous direct spending programs.

The legislation also excludes the budgetary effects of this Act from the Senate PAYGO scorecards.

This legislation is necessary to ensure that that Medicare and other programs are protected from PAYGO sequestration.

The Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act requires across-the-board cuts, known as ``sequestration,'' to a defined set of programs if certain legislation affecting mandatory spending or revenues increases net deficits.

Although legislation that Congress designates as an emergency or otherwise excludes from the PAYGO scorecard does not trigger sequestration, this action is necessary because restrictions on the content of reconciliation bills prevented the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 from including a provision to avert sequestration.

The bill before also extends a separate Medicare sequester relief provision, first enacted in the CARES Act, that expires March 31,

Mr. Speaker, Congress has never permitted sequestration to affect the Medicare trust fund and it certainly will not allow it now, just when help is arriving under the American Rescue Plan Act to put shots in arms, money in pockets, kids in school, and workers back on the job.

It is worthwhile to explain why the American Rescue Plan Act is the most transformative legislation in more than a half century and easily justifies exclusion from sequestration.

H.R. 1319, the American Rescue Plan Act, is a landmark, life-saving legislation that will provide urgently-needed resources to defeat the virus, put vaccines in people's arms, money into families' pockets, children safely back into classrooms, and people back to work.

With tens of millions of Americans infected, more than half a million lives lost, over 18 million Americans unemployed and millions more hungry and food and housing insecure, thanks to the work of congressional Democrats in the House and Senate and the Biden Administration, at long last the people of the United States and my home state of Texas can be assured that `Help Is On The Way.'

In simple terms this life-saving and life-enhancing legislation puts vaccines in arms, puts money in people's pockets, puts children safely back in school, and it will put workers back in jobs.

1. Put Vaccines in Arms: The plan will mount a national vaccination program that includes setting up community vaccination sites nationwide and addressing disparities facing communities of color. It will also take complementary measures to combat the virus, including scaling up testing and tracing, addressing shortages of personal protective equipment and other critical supplies, investing in high-quality treatments, and addressing health care disparities.

2. Put Money in People's Pockets: The plan finishes the job on the President's promise to provide $2,000 in direct assistance to households across America with checks of $1,400

per person, following the $600 down payment enacted in December. The plan will also provide direct housing assistance, nutrition assistance for 40 million Americans, expand access to safe and reliable child care and affordable health care, extend unemployment insurance so that 18 million American workers can pay their bills and support 27 million children with an expanded Child Tax Credit and more than 17 million low-wage workers through an improved Earned Income Tax Credit.

3. Put Children Safely Back in School: The plan delivers $170 billion for education and $45 billion for childcare providers. This includes a $130 billion investment in K-12 school re-opening and making up for lost time in the classroom, with funds that can be used for such things as reducing class sizes, modifying spaces so that students and teachers can socially distance, improving ventilation, implementing more mitigation measures, providing personal protective equipment and providing summer school or other support for students that help make up lost learning time this year. The plan also provides more than $40 billion for higher education.

Here is what the American Rescue Plan Act means for the State of Texas, Houston, and Harris County.

An estimated $16.7 billion will come to the State of Texas.

The lion's share of $3.3 billion will come directly to the City of Houston, and Harris County will receive a similar share of $5.667 billion, thanks to a provision in the law I helped secure that created the Coronavirus Local Fiscal Recovery Fund and appropriated $45.57 billion.

$1.4 billion in direct payments is allocated to smaller jurisdiction like Jacinto City.

Houston Independent School District can expect to receive close to $100 million ($993,198 million to be more precise).

The law specifically allows this funding to be used:

1. To respond to the pandemic or its negative economic impacts, including assistance to households, small businesses, and nonprofits, or aid to impacted industries such as tourism, travel, and hospitality;

2. For premium pay to eligible workers performing essential work (as determined by each recipient government) during the pandemic, providing up to $13 per hour above regular wages;

3. For the provision of government services to the extent of the reduction in revenue due to the pandemic (relative to revenues collected in the most recent full fiscal year); and

4. To make necessary investments in water, sewer, or broadband infrastructure.

In addition to these funds, Texas will receive $100 million out of the newly created $10 billion Coronavirus Capital Projects Fund for ``critical capital projects directly enabling work, education, and health monitoring, including remote options, in response to the public health emergency with respect to the Coronavirus Disease.

Now all that is well and good but let me tell you what the American Rescue Plan Act means for a hard-working and hard-pressed single mother of two children making a modest income:

Madam Speaker, I take this brief moment to salute Latrice Powell. We are humbled by her service. I wear on my jacket Lady Freedom. I would argue that Latrice Powell is our Sojourner Truth because she is a pioneer and has made an enormous difference in this House, that is the people's House. She truly is a representative of the people. With that in mind, I thank her so very much for all that she has done.

Madam Speaker, I must take this separate moment again, as she knows, to honor those who died in Atlanta, to honor them for the vile way in which they lost their lives; to say that those women, Asian-American women, really were the victims of hate crimes. Why? Because women gender can be a hate crime.

Madam Speaker, and I would only say to my colleague--a friend of mine, yes, from Texas--in the midst of pain, to talk about a rope and an oak tree as a tradition of Texas, lynching, is absurd, unacceptable, and I denounce.

I apologize for any hurt that was given to the Asian-American community, and I ask my colleague to apologize.

Madam Speaker, I ask us to join together against hate crimes.