Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Virginia for her leadership on this issue.

Mr. Speaker, Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress have broken the economy, and everyday people are paying the price.

Trump and his family, with their tax cuts, stock trades, and new military contracts got rich, while working-class people got the bill.

Earlier this month, in northeast Ohio, our county division of Senior and Adult Services held a return-to-work fair for people over 60. Why? Because older Americans and seniors can no longer afford the rising costs of gas, groceries, and housing.

You see, a lot of people that thought they had enough to retire are realizing Donald Trump had other plans for their golden years.

As one of the women told our local newspaper, the Cleveland Plain Dealer: There is no way around it. We won't make it.

Paying the bills is especially hard when you have also lost your healthcare coverage or your SNAP nutrition assistance.

In Ohio, 259,000 people have lost their healthcare coverage in the last year--259,000. These numbers are staggering, but they are not just numbers, no. These are real people. Now, they are just one illness away from financial ruin, all because the Trump administration and Republican majorities in Congress have enacted the largest cuts to Medicaid in history, along with letting the Affordable Care Act tax credits expire.

Remember last year, the other side of the aisle raised, rushed, and sprinted--sprinted to pass tax cuts for the rich. But when it came to tax credits to help working people afford healthcare, they did nothing, nothing at all.

You see, it is not just healthcare. In Ohio, we are now up to 110,000 people who have lost their nutrition assistance. Nearly every day of the week, we have Trump's Secretary of Agriculture going on TV to brag about this, talking about it like it is a good thing. Spare me. In fact, why don't they come to Cleveland, Ohio, and tell someone who is trying to survive on $7 a day in SNAP benefits that these cuts are a good thing. Tell seniors, who are now having to go to job fairs, that they are living in a golden age. It is insulting.

Meanwhile, we have a confused, corrupt, cruel, and chaotic President roaming around the White House, a President in denial and out of touch.

Here is the bottom line: Americans got poorer last month. Last month, according to official data, inflation was higher than wage growth. That has been true for a lot of people, but it is official now, and that is for the people that actually have jobs, because in Trump's economy, Black unemployment is now 6 percent, twice the rate as White unemployment.

According to the Urban League, because of the job loss and the cuts, Black America is already in a recession.

Did anyone really expect anything different from Trump and a MAGA Republican Congress? Because I know I didn't.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today on behalf of all of my constituents in Cleveland and northeast Ohio to say that enough is enough is enough. We have to turn this car around before Trump drives us further into a ditch. It is time to cancel the cuts and the illegal wars, stop the corruption, kill the kickbacks and the insider trading, and give the American people their country back.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize and congratulate the Council of International Programs on seven decades of service and excellence. Founded in Cleveland in 1956 and still headquartered in Ohio's 11th Congressional District today, the Council of International Programs has spent 70 years building bridges abroad through professional exchanges and cultural connections. By welcoming emerging leaders from around the world and connecting them with communities across Northeast Ohio, the organization has strengthened global partnerships, showcased the best of Northeast Ohio, and served as a template for cultural exchange initiatives across America.

On behalf of the people of Ohio's 11th Congressional District, I am proud to recognize the Council of International Programs for its outsized impact and congratulate its leadership, staff, volunteers, and alumni on this remarkable milestone.

Mr. Speaker, as often the case with the current occupant of the White House, it all started with a lie.

Nearly 2 years ago, JD Vance got up off his couch and tweeted a racist smear that Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, were eating cats and dogs. Days later, Donald Trump shamelessly repeated it at a Presidential debate.

They knew it was a lie. They knew those families were here legally. They knew they were working, raising children, paying taxes, and helping rebuild a community.

None of that mattered because the point was never to tell the truth. The point was to make Americans fear Haitians, to turn them into scapegoats, to convince the country that Black immigrants were the source of their problems.

JD Vance admitted that he was willing to ``create stories'' to advance his political agenda.

We all saw what happened next: Springfield was terrorized. Schools were closed. Bomb threats poured in. White supremacists descended on the city.

So families lived in fear because two of the most powerful politicians in America decided that a racist smear was politically useful. They never apologized. Instead, they spent 2 years putting that lie to work and turning it into government policy. Now, that campaign of fear is the official policy of our government.

Last week, the Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to terminate the Temporary Protected Status, also known as TPS, for hundreds of thousands of Haitians, not because Haiti is safe, not because the facts have changed, but because this administration wants more people for ICE to deport.

Haiti remains consumed by political collapse and humanitarian disaster. The conditions that justified TPS still exist.

These are people who care for our seniors, build our community, and pay billions in taxes. They followed the rules. They trusted the American promise. Now, they are being told that a racist political narrative matters more than the law they followed to a T.

This is not who we are, America. The House has already passed the bill extending TPS because the facts demand it and because decency requires it.

Now, the Senate must pass it before the mass deportation tears lives and communities apart, all because of a racist, reckless, bigoted, blatant, dishonest, and disgusting campaign lie.

Big Ugly Law Anniversary

Mr. Speaker, while families are struggling to keep up with rising prices for food, housing, gas, and utilities, this President is focused on something else entirely different--himself.

He is spending taxpayer dollars on a lavish White House ballroom. He is tearing up the reflecting pool for another vanity project. He is putting his name and image on anything he can.

While Americans are tightening their belts, Donald Trump is building monuments to himself.

One year later, Republicans are still celebrating what they call the President's signature legislative achievement.

That law ripped healthcare away from millions of Americans, cut food assistance for families and children, made it harder to afford college--all to hand out massive tax breaks to the wealthiest people in America.

It was a transfer of wealth from working people to wealthy people.

Mr. Speaker, 17 million Americans have lost healthcare. More than 4 million Americans, including 800,000 children, have already lost access to basic food assistance.

Meanwhile, the wealthiest 0.1 percent received tax cuts worth nearly a quarter million dollars just last year.

I will ask the simple question: How has Trump's big, ugly law helped the American people? As far as I can tell, it is just welfare for the wealthy and well-connected.

Meanwhile, we have gotten higher prices, higher inflation, slower job growth, and an economy that works even better for those already on top.

Republicans called it the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. I call it a big, ugly law, because there is nothing beautiful about taking healthcare and food away from families to pay for tax cuts for billionaires.

Happy anniversary to Trump's signature achievement. One year later, the verdict is in: Working families paid the price, and the wealthiest Americans cashed the check.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to rise to recognize Juneteenth, a defining moment in our Nation's history.

On June 19, 1865, Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, carrying news of liberation. More than 2 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, enslaved Black Americans gathered to finally learn that they were free.

Juneteenth teaches us that freedom delayed is not freedom denied. For

Black Americans, unfortunately, freedom has never simply been granted. No, our freedom has been fought for in courtrooms and classrooms, in churches and on picket lines. It has been demanded, defended, marched for, and sacrificed for generation after generation.

That struggle did not end on Juneteenth. It continued through the iron grip of Jim Crow and segregation. It continued across that bridge in Selma and through the streets of Birmingham, where children faced firehoses and police dogs while in pursuit of their rights. It continued at the ballot box through the long fight to secure not just the right to vote but the right to have that vote count equally and the right to claim a full and equal voice in American democracy.

The story of freedom in America is inseparable from the story of Black political power. The ability to vote, the ability to be heard, and the ability to elect leaders who understand our communities, those rights were not gifts. They were victories won through sacrifice. Today, those victories are under attack.

As we celebrate Juneteenth and America's 250th anniversary, we must ask a simple question: What does freedom mean if Black Americans are again denied a meaningful voice in this government?

That question is known well in Ohio's 11th Congressional District because of the leadership of one of my predecessors, the late Louis Stokes. Before he became the first Black Member of Congress from Ohio and a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus, Stokes was fighting against efforts to dilute Black representation in northeast Ohio.

Louis Stokes understood something that remains true today: You do not have to stop someone from voting to take away their power. You can accomplish the same thing by drawing lines differently.

Lou Stokes spent his life proving that freedom requires representation and that democracy requires vigilance. The battles that he fought and that so many fought before him were not supposed to be fought again. The ground that was won through marches and blood, court cases and passed laws, and sacrifice and courage was supposed to be secure.

Yet, here we are. Ideological extremists on the Supreme Court have again shattered the very protections that generations of Americans fought to secure. The same Voting Rights Act that Lou Stokes helped to defend, the same law that transformed Black political participation in America, the same law that helped ensure communities could not simply be carved up, divided, and silenced, that same law has been ripped to shreds by a Trump-dominated Supreme Court.

Every generation inherits the responsibility to protect what previous generations sacrificed to achieve, and now it is our turn. We cannot retreat. We cannot surrender the gains that were purchased at such a high cost. We must defend the equal representation with the same determination that won it in the first place.

Mr. Speaker, I will not watch our rights be taken away--not without a fight. Juneteenth isn't just a celebration. It is a promise, a promise to protect and preserve the freedom we were first denied, especially at a time like this.

Recognizing Laila Edwards

Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize the pride of northeast Ohio, Olympic gold medalist Laila Edwards of Cleveland Heights.

Earlier this year, Laila helped lead Team USA to their first gold medal win in women's hockey, playing in all seven games and contributing two goals and six assists. Her performance inspired fans across our Nation, but back home in northeast Ohio, we couldn't be more proud to call Laila one of our own.

From learning to skate at the Cleveland Heights Community Center to becoming the first Black woman to represent our country in Olympic hockey, Laila has broken barriers and demonstrated determination without ever forgetting where she came from.

This weekend, Cleveland Heights will host a parade in her honor, and I couldn't think of a better way to celebrate her, as children can now look at the ice and see new possibilities.

I thank Laila Edwards for representing our country with excellence, lifting up our community with pride, and inspiring the next generations. I congratulate Laila on her Olympic Gold Medal, and I congratulate the Cleveland Heights community for raising such a remarkable champion.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative McClellan for leading tonight's Special Order hour.

Mr. Speaker, I am honored to stand with my CBC colleagues in this fight as we stand up for the people we represent.

Mr. Speaker, for decades, the far right has sold this country a lie, a lie that racism ended in 1965, a lie that discrimination is ancient history. For years, that rhetoric lived in chat rooms in the ugliest corners of American life. Well, today it lives in the highest courts in the land, cloaked in robes.

This conservative Supreme Court has taken a wrecking ball to the Voting Rights Act, one of the greatest achievements of the civil rights movement. Now, after the Louisiana v. Callais ruling, there is barely any of the law left.

Before this ruling, Black voters in the South had at least some defense against intentional political extinction. Now that is gone. Mr. Speaker, what happens next tells you everything you need to know. The ink was barely dry before Republican States rushed to redraw maps and move election dates--Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana, South Carolina, State after State after State.

Let's be honest about what this is. This is a coordinated effort to engineer electorates so that Trump has all the White majority districts he needs, and the tragedy, the disgrace is that this rush to redraw proves exactly why the Voting Rights Act was needed in the first place.

If they are successful, some of the States with the largest Black populations in the country will be represented by all-White delegations and majority White districts.

We cannot and will not take this sitting down. We will organize, mobilize, and use our voices. We will fight this in Congress. We don't have a voting rights majority in this body right now, but we soon will, and we will restore the Voting Rights Act.

Finally, Mr. Speaker, we must confront the center of this crisis: an unacceptable Supreme Court.

The Voting Rights Act was not some historical footnote. It was the law of the land for decades. It was one of the crowning achievements of American democracy, and this Court has systematically hollowed it out.

No institution in this country is above scrutiny, and no court should have the power to erase protections won through blood, sacrifice, and struggle without the American people demanding reform. Our constitutional system was never designed to crown nine people as permanent and untouchable rulers of our democracy.

Mr. Speaker, our brothers and sisters are being silenced across the South, but this Congress will make sure that those voices are heard loudly, clearly, and unapologetically.

Mr. Chair, the farm bill is one of the most important pieces of legislation that Congress works on. It touches every corner of this country every day.

Let me be direct about what this bill does and does not do. It does not address the crisis actually happening in farm country right now.

Farm bankruptcies are up 50 percent nationally and nearly 75 percent in the Midwest. Input costs keep rising, driven by reckless tariffs and the reckless war in Iran.

Farmers are being squeezed from every direction, and this bill offers them next to nothing: no farm aid; no solution to rein in fertilizer or diesel prices; no protections against USDA reorganizations or funding freezes; no attempt to end the tariffs destroying export markets or restore the trade relationships farmers depend on; and false promises again and again on year-round E15.

Where is the relief?

Where is the urgency?

There is a five-alarm fire in farm country, and Republicans are pulling out a garden hose.

Working families aren't doing any better. Gas, goods, and grocery costs are rising, and this bill does nothing to bring them down. Instead, this farm bill ratifies the largest cuts to food assistance in American history.

Republicans used the big, ugly law to slash $187 billion from SNAP and handed that money straight to the wealthiest Americans. In doing so, they torched the bipartisan coalition that has kept the farm bill together for generations, and now they want Democrats to come in and lock in those very same cuts with a bipartisan farm bill, while they continue to threaten the SNAP program with more partisan cuts. Give me a break.

Mr. Chair, let me tell you what those SNAP cuts look like on the ground. In my district, 11,000 people have lost food assistance, and that is before the next round of cuts kick in. Nationally, 4 million Americans have already been kicked off SNAP entirely, 4 million people gone, and this farm bill will cement those cuts and that cruelty into law.

Republican and Democratic Governors alike are warning they cannot pick up the new cost share coming down the pike. That means more cuts, more hunger, and more harm.

We need a real farm bill, one negotiated in good faith, one that can actually pass the Senate, and one that confronts the real factors driving the crisis in farm country and the affordability crisis at the kitchen table.

Mr. Chair, this partisan bill is not it, and I urge my colleagues to oppose it.

Mr. Chair, I rise in opposition to this amendment.

Mr. Chair, the Columbia Basin Project is a federally authorized project managed by the Bureau of Reclamation, part of the Department of the Interior.

At its heart, is the Grand Coulee Dam, which has the primary purpose of

supplying water for irrigation and producing power. There are secondary benefits, such as aiding flood control and providing recreation opportunities.

The Western Waters Regional Conservation Area, by contrast, is designated by the Department of Agriculture as a critical conservation area whose primary purpose is to address insufficient water and habitat.

I am concerned, therefore, that this amendment may divert funds meant for drought relief toward areas that have a dam supplying them water.

If the gentleman sincerely believes that there are farmers in need of USDA assistance, then I would be happy to work with him when NRCS completes its review of CCAs every 5 years.

Mr. Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Chair, as I expressed in my earlier remarks, I continue to oppose this amendment, and I urge all Members to oppose this amendment.

Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Chair, I rise in opposition to this amendment.

Mr. Chair, wildfires are a significant threat to rural communities, and I support efforts to bring down the cost of forest treatments that would help protect these communities.

This amendment, though, just uses those rural communities as a prop in order to disguise the fact that it would expand the renewable food standards definition to every single tree across our public lands. It is not limited to the wildland-urban interface where thinning would have the most impact. There are no limits on this, not for protected wilderness, beloved recreation areas, or old growth. It does not matter if the tree is cut down as part of a responsible forest restoration project or a clear-cut.

This proposal is reckless and would endanger our public lands.

Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to oppose, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Chair, I urge all Members to oppose this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Chair, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. Chair, I rise as the designee of Ms. Brownley, and I have an amendment at the desk.

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

The NRCS currently includes composting facilities as a conservation practice standard, but assistance under this standard is limited to the construction of a structure to facilitate composting.

This amendment proposes specifically to designate composting as a practice standard that is not tied to a structure but simply on activities to produce composts from organic waste.

The amendment also requires review of a current composting facility practice standard and has provisions to address greenhouse gas emissions.

This proposal would allow farms that use composts to more fully participate in and benefit from conservation programs, regardless of whether they build a structure. This could also reduce food waste, and I support the amendment.

Mr. Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Chair, I am prepared to close.

I urge all Members to support, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, the convicted felon in the White House is not an honest man, but when he rebranded the Department of Defense as the Department of War, for once, for once, he told the truth because war is what we have. War is what he wants, and war is what he is asking the American people to pay for.

President Trump's budget requests $1.5 trillion in taxpayer money for the Department of War--$1.5 trillion, a $440 billion increase. Who pays the extra $440 billion? Not the billionaires who just got tax cuts, not Elon, not the Trump family, not White House insiders cashing in on trades ahead of market-moving announcements, no. Trump's war machine will be paid for by working people, just like his tax cuts for billionaires were paid for by working people.

In the last year, Trump has made the largest cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act in history and the largest cut to food assistance in history, all to make the richest Americans richer and the biggest corporations bigger.

This time, it is not tax cuts but war he wants.

What ATM is the President tapping again to pay for it?

It is the working men and women of this country.

How does the President propose paying for more war?

I am glad you asked, Mr. Speaker. It is with cuts to heating assistance, with cuts to housing, with cuts to education and job training, and even cuts to programs that provide food for women, infants, and children, all to pay for wars that the American people don't want.

What is the agenda?

It is to cut healthcare to fund war, cut food to fund war, cut housing and heating programs to fund war, and cut maternal health to fund war. He wants to cut more, take more, and sacrifice more.

And for what?

It is for war. Wars the American people do not want. That is not just grossly irresponsible, it is gross and immoral.

Mr. Speaker, I don't know who is winning Trump's war with Iran, but I

can tell you who is losing the war: Everyday people in America. It is hardworking people seeing prices rise even more, people trying to afford healthcare, to buy a home, and to make ends meet. Working people can't afford Trump's reckless wars, and they can't afford this horrendous budget.

We owe it to them to reject this abomination.

Madam Speaker, I am very proud to see this legislation on the floor today, and I appreciate the support of both the ranking member and chair of the Oversight Committee.

This bill is about recognition, recognition that is a long time coming, recognition not just for one individual but an entire unit, and recognition for a group of Black women who have gone into history as the Six Triple Eight, the first and only all-Black Women's Army Corps unit to serve overseas in World War II.

Tech Sergeant Alma Gladys Minter of Cleveland, Ohio, was one of those women. My bill would rename the Collinwood neighborhood Post Office in Cleveland in her honor.

In 1945, Sergeant Minter and more than 800 women were deployed to clear a backlog of 17 million pieces of mail for American troops in Europe. That is right, 17 million pieces of mail. The Army thought it would take 6 months to deliver. They finished the job in under 90 days. Therefore, it is hard to think of anything more fitting than naming a post office after Tech Sergeant Minter. When no one else could, she delivered the mail, and she did it ahead of schedule.

Sergeant Minter's work kept servicemembers connected to home and lifted morale at a critical moment in the war, but when the Six Triple Eight came home, they didn't receive the recognition they deserved. Sadly, Sergeant Minter and so many of her colleagues passed away before that could be rectified, but it is never too late to do the right thing. Renaming the post office after Sergeant Minter is a way to say thank you, to keep the story of the Six Triple Eight alive, and to right past wrongs.

This legislation is supported by 13 members of the Ohio delegation, Republicans and Democrats, and passed the Oversight Committee unanimously.

Over the past year, my office has been honored to get to know the Minter family and to help amplify her story. Naming the post office in honor of Tech Sergeant Minter is a way to ensure her legacy and the legacy of Six Triple Eight lives on in the hearts of the community she called home.

Mr. Speaker, more and more I am troubled by a simple question: Will Donald Trump be the last President ever elected by a free and fair election?

That certainly seems to be the plan.

In 2024, Donald Trump said: Get out and vote, just this time. You won't have to do it again.

In 2023, he said that he would be a dictator on day one.

In 2021, after he lost, he tried to overturn the election, which led to people attacking this Chamber where we stand right now.

When Donald Trump talks about elections, he does not hide what he wants. He keeps talking about taking over elections, and his number one legislative priority is the SAVE Act. The only one thing that this bill is designed to save is Donald Trump's political future.

This bill would create a paperwork nightmare for millions of Americans. The SAVE Act requires documents that millions of citizens do not have in order to vote.

That is right. Even the new REAL ID drivers' licenses we all had to get don't meet the standard. Even military IDs wouldn't count. You will need a passport, which costs you about $160 and takes weeks to receive, or your birth certificate.

Mr. Speaker, did you know that half of the country does not have a passport, and millions more don't have access to their birth certificate?

Then there are married women who might have changed the name on their documents, and so now they don't match because they changed their name.

The SAVE Act also ends online and by-mail voter registration. Good luck registering to vote if you have a job, have a family, or live far from your county seat or board of elections.

Add it all up, and millions of American citizens will lose their right to vote.

This bill is designed to give the Stephen Millers of the world every opportunity they can to find or kick people off voting rolls.

If Congress passes the SAVE Act, it will be the first time since Jim Crow that our legislature has acted to make our democracy smaller, not larger.

Mr. Speaker, Donald Trump is many things, but a mystery he is not, nor is what he is trying to do.

Funding Choices

Mr. Speaker, we have seen this movie before. In 2003, it was tax cuts for the wealthy and a war we were told would be quick and necessary. Trillions of dollars later, the American people were left holding the bill, and here we go again.

Did you know demand for private jets is booming after President Trump gave tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans last year? Now, the President wants $200 billion more to fund an unauthorized and unacceptable war in Iran, a war that is already jacking up costs from the gas pump to the grocery store. That is $200 billion, $200 billion.

Again, let's talk choices. Let's talk priorities.

We were told there is no money for healthcare, so Republicans gutted Medicaid and refused to extend Affordable Care Act tax credits.

We were told there was no money to help people to put food on their table, so Republicans passed their big, ugly law cutting $186 billion from nutrition programs.

We were told there was no money for education, so they cut student loan programs, and at the same time they delivered more tax breaks at the top while everyone else falls further behind.

For war, for the wealthy, suddenly there is always money. There are billions for conflict. There are billions for ICE. There are billions for billionaires. We were told there was no money to help families afford groceries, to educate our kids, or to lower healthcare costs.

These are the choices being made: higher costs for you, bigger checks for war, and more tax breaks at the top.

I ask my colleagues on the other side of the aisle: This isn't really about priorities or scarcity, is it? It is about actually your priorities, and right now the priorities are upside down.

Mr. Speaker, I rise during Black History Month to honor an extraordinary constituent, Mr. James R. Willis, a marine, an attorney, and a true Cleveland legend.

In 1944, Mr. Willis joined the Montford Point Marines, one of nearly 20,000 Black men who volunteered to serve immediately after President Roosevelt integrated the military.

Despite facing racism and segregation, he served his country honorably, and in 2011, the Montford Point Marines were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in recognition of their service.

After the war, Mr. Willis built a legal career that has left a lasting mark. For more than 70 years, Mr. Willis has practiced criminal law, becoming a legendary courtroom advocate, a national leader, and a mentor across generations.

He argued four cases before the Supreme Court on protections against unlawful search and seizure, helping to strengthen the rights of all Americans.

Even today, at the age of 100, he continues his lifework. On behalf of a grateful district, I thank Mr. Willis for a lifetime of courage, service, and dedication to justice.

Mr. Speaker, in Springfield, Ohio, families are preparing for the worst kind of ICE storm, a storm fueled by hate and racism, years in the making.

In 2024, Donald Trump and J.D. Vance, peddled hateful lies about Haitians in Springfield. Vance even admitted they weren't true. He said: ``If I have to create stories . . . that is what I am going to do.''

Well, those stories dehumanized Haitians who were here legally working and rebuilding a city. Now the Trump administration is turning those lies into policy.

Tomorrow, they plan to revoke TPS, despite Haiti's collapse. Legal status today, illegal status tomorrow. This is the Project 2025 playbook for a morally corrupt mass deportation machine.

For those of us with Black skin, the demonization of Haitian people is something that we see, we hear, and we feel deeply.

This country must do better, and this President must extend TPS status and call off the ICE surge now.

Mr. Speaker, I wish everyone a happy Black History Month.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative McClellan for the recognition and the Congressional Black Caucus for organizing this Special Order hour to recognize Black History Month.

Mr. Speaker, Black History Month will always matter, but it is especially important during a time when our ancestors' contributions to this country are being erased and denied. Yet, Black History Month has never been just about the past. It is about the present and the future.

So I must ask: What has Trump done for Black Americans besides put a target on our backs? What has Trump done besides moving the goalpost for success? This White House has erased our history, undermined our opportunities, and taken direct steps to make Black families poorer than those Black families were a year ago.

In this speech, I won't focus on the reckless rhetoric we have heard from the President, because his actions speak even louder than his words--actions such as executive orders, actions such as budget cuts, and actions such as the passage of bad bills like Trump's big, ugly law.

It begs the question: What can Black Americans expect from this White House because under this Trump administration, millions of Black Americans are unable to afford healthcare. Millions of Black families are going hungry because of cuts to nutrition benefits. Opportunities for wealth building, be it homeownership to entrepreneurship, have been cut off. Black and Brown neighborhoods are terrorized by lawless ICE agents, all while our rights--our right to vote, our right to assemble, our right to go to school and work free from discrimination are being trampled on brazenly and blatantly with no apologies or regrets.

Trump took those resources and protections away under the guise that the plight that Black Americans face no longer exists, claiming that the playing field has been fully and completely leveled and our opportunities across

the board for Americans--Black, White, men and women--are now equal. There is no more discrimination. There are no more disparities. There are no inequities to address.

As a Black woman, dare I say he is wrong because what this administration does not understand is that we have been here before, and we persevered. Where discrimination created pitfalls, we worked alongside our neighbors to close the gap, and we kept fighting for justice.

We didn't just hold the line. We pushed back and created civil rights protections that made sure the law favored the people and not the powerful.

Mr. Speaker, that is Black history. So despite the cuts, the chaos, the cruelty, and the corruption of this administration, like every past challenge, this too, we shall overcome because Americans everywhere are aware of the harm that this administration is causing. We know that our freedoms are shackled and chained to the rights of others. An attack on the freedoms of one American is an attack on all of us.

So we will not be deterred from this fight for our rights. We will not go quietly into the night. We will stand our ground. We will make our voices heard, and Black Americans will emerge from these dark days stronger than before, just as we always have.

Mr. Speaker, we have a President who is corrupt, criminal, and craven to the core, a President who has declared war on American cities and flooded the streets with untrained, unqualified, and unidentified agents.

When agents show up in unmarked vehicles wearing masks without warrants, without body cams, targeting people based on their race or the sound of their voice, and detaining people without cause, that is not law enforcement. That is lawlessness.

The result is a tragedy. Renee Good is dead.

In the days since, there has been no remorse and no accountability from the White House. Instead, the President doubled down with more agents and more confrontation. It is violence they want to happen, with no apologies and no shame; far from it. In fact, they want more.

This is not normal, and it is not right. We must stand united against this illegal and immoral agenda. History is watching.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend, Congresswoman Hayes, for hosting this Special Order Hour and for her leadership on this critical issue.

Mr. Speaker, 50 years ago Congress passed the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA, because America rejected exclusion and finally recognized a simple truth: Every child,

regardless of ability, deserves to learn, grow, and succeed.

Yet, today, that promise is under attack. Disabled students are more vulnerable than ever, facing threats to their funding, their services, and the Federal protections that make equal education possible.

At the same time, this administration is laying off the very civil servants whose job it is to protect those children and enforce the law. When you cut special education funding, cut the Department of Education, and cut the staff, no one can speak out for the children who need these programs the most--children like my nephew RJ, who was born premature and has dealt with developmental delays all his life. His condition requires special care and attention. He didn't choose to be disabled or to have additional needs, but he is made in God's image, and he deserves every opportunity to reach his full potential.

Because of programs established by IDEA, children like RJ can access the same educational assistance and support that other students enjoy. I think that is a good thing. I think that is what should make America America, but this White House disagrees.

The Trump administration believes that the rights and opportunities available to students like RJ can and should be limited. They have spun abandoning programs as efficiency and told us that they are cutting waste and saving you money.

What it really is and what it really costs is paid for by underserved students and their families, because without the protections and funding provided by IDEA, more students are left behind. Without federally supported services that help with early detection, children are less able to navigate a world that wasn't built for them.

IDEA doesn't provide special treatment. It provides children with fair and inclusive treatment, and it doesn't waste Federal resources. It breaks through the barriers that children with disabilities face and levels the playing field.

Today, that lifeline for children with disabilities is under threat. In my own State, nearly one in five students have disabilities. That is more than a quarter million children in Ohio who rely on IDEA programs to get the education they need and deserve.

I have one question today: How exactly does gutting special education programs and staffing make America great? It doesn't. We should be strengthening IDEA, not weakening it. We should be protecting civil rights, not gutting them. We should be recommitting our promise to every child, not pulling out the rug.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend, a true champion in the education space, for the leadership she has demonstrated on this critical and, yes, personal issue to me.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 5457, the Strengthening Agency Management and Oversight of Software Assets Act.

The SAMOSA Act is a straightforward, good-government bill that has strong bipartisan support from members of the Oversight Committee. I reintroduced this legislation earlier this year with Congresswoman Mace, the chair of the Oversight Committee's Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Government Innovation; Congressman Pat Fallon; and Congresswoman April McClain Delaney as co- leads. I thank them for their support.

I will also take a moment to recognize the late Congressman Connolly, who worked tirelessly on this legislation and who had introduced the SAMOSA Act prior to his passing.

This is legislation that will improve the acquisition process for Federal agencies, help the government better manage software needs, and ultimately save taxpayer dollars.

Agencies across the Federal Government spend around $33 billion in taxpayer money on software every year, but right now, many agencies don't actually have a list of what they own, what they are fully using, or whether they are buying the same thing twice.

That doesn't make any sense, and this bill solves the problem.

This bill streamlines how agencies track, manage, and report their software assets by requiring complete assessments on the software paid for, used, or deployed at each agency.

It also requires agencies to submit these assessments to the Office of Management and Budget, the General Services Administration, and Congress so that Congress and these agencies can oversee spending and contracting software practices.

By requiring agencies to do these assessments and review software assets, this bill can improve planning for software management, automate processes, train staff, and improve our cybersecurity.

Here is a key point: Industry experts estimate the bill could save up to $750 million each year in taxpayer funding. This is real government efficiency, and it is from legislation that has gone through committee with support and input from both sides of the aisle.

As the legislative year comes to a close, let's pass the SAMOSA Act and lower costs for taxpayers.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill.