Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this bill, the National Commission to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol.

I want to thank Chairman Thompson and Ranking Member Katko for bringing this bill to the floor.

On January 6, we witnessed one of the darkest moments in our Nation's history when a violent mob attacked the U.S. Capitol. These individuals desecrated the Halls of Congress, attacked law enforcement, and attempted to stop the democratic process. The clearest way for us to uphold our oath to defend the Constitution and protect this institution, our democracy, from those who directly attempted to thwart its operations, is through an independent, evenly-divided, bipartisan commission. We need to understand not just what were the breakdowns in security and the failures of our intelligence, but why. What are those issues which caused fellow Americans to believe they needed to overthrow their government?

Those who believe the former President had no culpability should not be afraid of a commission that derives its power from both sides equally.

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

Mr. Speaker, today, the House is holding a hearing on the insular cases, doctrines which hold the territories in a perpetual state of colonialism.

Earlier this year, I served as a House impeachment manager in the second trial of President Donald Trump. My presence on the floor of the U.S. Senate carried a great deal of meaning for me. It also said a lot about America.

Although I was making the case, I was unable to actually cast a vote in the House. My constituents in the Virgin Islands, U.S. citizens, remain unable to vote for President, lack any voice in the Senate, and have only a limited vote in the House.

The second-class treatment of the territories is not just unfair; it is un-American. More than 3.5 million Americans are denied the right to vote simply because of where they live, whether it is Puerto Rico; Guam; Northern Mariana Islands; American Samoa; or my home, the Virgin Islands of the United States. This number of people is equivalent to the population of the five smallest States combined, and each of the territories send more men and women to the military per capita than any State.

More than 98 percent of the territorial residents are racial or ethnic minorities like me, a fact that cannot be a mere coincidence in our continuing disenfranchisement, which extends well past the century mark.

Our Nation's Founders never intended our country to work this way. Alexander Hamilton, as a young man, arrived in New York after spending his formative years in my home on St. Croix. He and others risked their lives to reject colonialism. They wanted no part of it. They understood that governments derive their just powers from the consent of those governed.

America has, from its inception, included U.S. territories. The original understanding was that the Constitution provided a promise of full political participation to each resident of a territory through eventual statehood. Until that happened, the Constitution was understood to fully protect their rights.

That promise was broken after the United States began acquiring island territories in 1898. During that time, in a series of decisions known collectively as the insular cases, the Supreme Court invented an unprecedented new category of unincorporated territories whose residents were not on a path to statehood. Which territories the Court determined were unincorporated turned largely on the Justices at the time's view of the people who lived there--people they labeled in those court opinions as half-civilized, savages, alien races, ignorant, and lawless--people like Alexander Hamilton; Camille Pissarro, the founder of Impressionism; Edward Wilmot Blyden, the founder of Pan-Africanism; and me--lawless, savage.

While other racist Supreme Court decisions from that same era by those same Justices--such as Plessy v. Ferguson--have long been overturned, the insular cases remain. The last three administrations-- Bush, Obama, Trump--have all upheld and fought for these same cases. Indeed, our own House Parliamentarian uses the insular cases to deny the people who live in the territories and their representatives full voting rights on this floor.

The ramifications go well beyond just voting. We do pay billions in Federal taxes, yet residents of the U.S. territories are denied and limited access to Federal programs and support. Otherwise, eligible citizens in the territories are denied SSI, leaving our most vulnerable seniors and disabled to fend for themselves. Federal programs like Medicaid, SNAP, child tax credit, and the earned income tax credit are capped or denied altogether.

The Supreme Court will soon tackle questions of Federal discrimination against citizens in the territories in United States v. Vaello-Madero, a case where the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit ruled unconstitutional the arbitrary denial of SSI benefits in Puerto Rico.

The Justice Department should not continue defending this case. The House should not continue to defend and utilize the insular cases to deny people living in the territories basic rights.

Making sure that 3.5 million U.S. citizens can vote is not a partisan issue. Of my four other colleagues in the territories, two are Democrats and two are Republicans. We are not a monolithic people.

Our country has been given a collective opportunity to ask what America is and who we are as a people. These questions extend to America's responsibilities to citizens living in the territories.

Please reject the insular cases.

Mr. Speaker, on April 9, La Soufriere volcano on the Caribbean Island of St. Vincent began a series of explosive eruptions. The volcano has erupted several times since that date.

The eruptions have blanketed the island nation with clouds of volcanic ash and hot gas and are so large that they have reached the neighboring island of Barbados, 110 miles away. The eruption has resulted in the evacuation of tens of thousands of people.

Electric outages, destroyed crops and forests, wildlife killed, and water shortages are some of the immediate issues. The 16,000 evacuated residents present dire health issues as people are moved to congregant areas in a community that has had very little vaccination to date.

This natural disaster, along with other struggles brought on by COVID, will cause St. Vincent and the Grenadines to struggle for the next few years. It presents an opportunity for American action with humanitarian disaster relief, support for COVID vaccinations, and future technical assistance.

I am asking this body to use its influence and legislative actions to support St. Vincent, to keep out China and its influence, along with Venezuela, in support of our brothers and sisters.

Mr. Speaker, during times of crisis and upheaval, societies have a unique opportunity to reimagine themselves, to fix wrongs, and to make themselves better than they were previously. The pandemic of 1917 created the Roaring Twenties. The aftermath of the Civil War brought railroads, canals, and bridges to connect us. The Great Depression gave us the New Deal.

After the devastation of the COVID pandemic and the truth reveal of our systemic problems of racism, economic inequality, wealth and healthcare disparities, we must use this time and this opportunity to not only forge forward, but to correct wrongs. While the American Rescue Plan is changing the course of the pandemic and delivering relief for working families, this is not the time to build back the way things were. This is a moment to reimagine and rebuild a new economy.

The American jobs plan is an investment in America that will create millions of good jobs, rebuild our country's infrastructure, and position this United States to outcompete China and other nations. The American jobs plan will invest in America in a way that we have not invested since we built the interstate highways and won the space race.

The United States of America is the wealthiest country in the world, yet we rank 13th when it comes to overall quality of our infrastructure. Public domestic investment as a share of the economy has fallen more than 40 percent since the 1960s. After decades of disinvestment, our roads, bridges, and water systems are crumbling. Our electric grid is vulnerable to catastrophic outages. Too many lack access to affordable high-speed internet and to quality housing.

The past year has led to job losses and threatened economic security, eroding more than 30 years of progress in women's labor force participation. It has unmasked the fragility of our caregivers' infrastructure. It has never been more important for us to invest in strengthening our infrastructure and our competitiveness, and in creating good paying union jobs of the future.

This must include a 21st century infrastructure--deployment of broadband and closing the digital divide in this country--creating the modern bridge that will unite and create more economic and opportunity equity in our country.

Unlike past major investments, President Biden's plan also prioritizes addressing longstanding and persistent racial injustice. The plan targets 40 percent of the benefit of climate and clean infrastructure investments to disadvantaged communities. The investment of $100 billion in broadband internet will be the component that will make America a leader, an innovator, once again.

Broadband internet is the new electricity. It is necessary for Americans to do their jobs; to create jobs; to participate equally in school learning, healthcare, and to stay connected. It is estimated, however, that 10 percent--over 30 million Americans--live in areas where there is inadequate or no broadband infrastructure. Americans living in rural areas, on Tribal lands, and in the territories particularly lack adequate access. Even in our urban areas, many have stark differences in access to internet and to jobs.

President Biden's American jobs plan is visionary and exactly what people across this country have been asking from our Nation's leaders for years, even decades. Representing the Virgin Islands, I am especially excited about his focus on building infrastructure that is resilient to our changing climate, electrifying our highway system, investing heavily in transit and other cleaner mobility options, and working to eliminate the digital divide.

In announcing his plan, the President has taken our voices--the voices in Congress--and has put those words into action. The American jobs plan will not only make bold transformational investment in our Nation's transportation infrastructure, it will do so with an emphasis on creating good paying jobs, supporting American manufacturing, and investing in rural and urban communities alike.

Earlier this year, the New Democrat Coalition unveiled our agenda for the first 100 days of the 117th Congress. The New Dems share the Biden- Harris administration's vision to build back better, and we will work together to move our country forward.

We must rebuild our communities and our economy better than before with the American jobs plan. Now is the time to think boldly with a once-in-a-century investment to create millions of good-paying jobs.

Mr. Speaker, this week, House Democrats are building on the progress made under the Biden-Harris administration to reverse the Trump damage and reform our failing system by passing two historic and important bills:

H.R. 6, the American Dream and Promise Act to protect Dreamers, TPS, and DED recipients; and the Farm Workforce Modernization Act to uphold the dignity of workers who feed America.

Americans want solutions on immigration. Voters overwhelmingly support a path to citizenship, reforms to our legal immigration system, smart management of our borders. Just like with the American Rescue Plan, there is strong bipartisan support for immigration reform across the country, just not within this body.

For too long, we have kept our arms closed to people who, under similar circumstances 100 years ago, 30 years ago, would have been given a path to citizenship. But now the doors are closed.

Mr. Speaker, 55,000 Haitians came to this country after the earthquakes.

They are in limbo. Congress must act, and these two overwhelmingly popular, commonsense bills would ensure that immigrants who make America more American can continue to strengthen, enrich, and contribute to our country.

Madam Speaker, I thank Chairman Nadler for his tireless work and the work of so many women of this Caucus, including Speaker Pelosi, to bring this bill to fruition and to bring this bill to the floor.

We know, and we all believe, that violence against women and the support necessary to impede that from happening is necessary and should be reauthorized.

I rise today in strong support of the en bloc amendment. The Nadler amendment en bloc is the culmination of a yearslong effort to authorize explicit Federal legal action against the nonconsensual disclosure and public transmission of intimate visual imagery, following the lead of dozens of the States.

Nobody, under any circumstances, should have private intimate imagery shared on the internet without their consent. The pain that is caused by perpetrators who knowingly share sexually explicit or nude images of someone without their consent has ruined lives and, in many instances, the lives of their family as well. It is weaponized to humiliate, harass, intimidate, and even exploit people who are primarily women.

I am proud to support this amendment that will give prosecutors and victims important tools to bring perpetrators to justice and further deter

offenders from committing such a terrible and egregious violation of privacy. Please approve this amendment and let us pass this bill.

Mr. Speaker, this month is not only Women's History Month, but it is also Virgin Islands History Month, and what better way to celebrate it than today for me to salute Virgin Islands' native and basketball upcoming star, Aliyah Boston, who had another dominant performance in South Carolina's 67-62 win over Georgia in the SEC tournament final.

Boston put up 27 points and 10 rebounds for her 15th double-double of the year, and was named the tournament MVP as South Carolina captured its sixth championship in the last 7 years.

``Aliyah was huge,'' said Coach Dawn Staley after the game. ``She has to be that dominant in order for us to win these kind of basketball games.''

Aliyah, you are huge. You are dominant. And what better way to recognize Women's History Month and Virgin Islands History Month by a Virgin Islander and a woman making history.

Mr. Speaker, I hope my colleague from Wisconsin will not leave at this time, as he has talked about Black Lives Matter.

How dare you--how dare you say that Black Lives Matter, Black people, do not understand old-fashioned families. Despite some of the issues, some of the things that you have put forward that I have heard out of your mouth in the Committee on Oversight and Reform, in your own district, we have been able to keep our families alive for over 400 years in the assault on our families to not have Black lives or not even have Black families. How dare you say that we are not interested in families in the Black community. That is outrageous. That should be stricken down.

Mr. Speaker, I was going to talk about the American Rescue Plan. We know that this is going to provide relief to not only Black lives, Black Americans, but all Americans, that we are interested in children and in their welfare.

Forty-nine days ago President Biden took office and promised the American people that help is on the way. Today we take our final step forward on delivering on that promise. Millions of Americans will be supportive who have been economically crippled by a year-long pandemic. Most of this money goes directly to the American people. And, we have one of the most generous expansions of tax relief to working people in modern history in this plan. The child tax credit provisions on their own is a policy revolution in the making. More than 93 percent of our children-- 69 million children--would receive benefits under

this rescue plan. Minority farmers will finally get the relief from indebtedness they deserve.

This version of the bill sent back from the Senate is not perfect. It is the result of compromise. Nonetheless, we have before us one of the most significant pieces of legislation to benefit working Americans in our recent history.

Mr. Speaker, the COVID pandemic and economic crisis are destroying the lives and livelihoods of tens of millions of Americans across the country. And our most vulnerable communities are bearing the brunt.

Thankfully, help is on the way. The American Rescue Plan will save lives and livelihoods by putting vaccines in arms, putting children safely back in school, putting money in people's pockets, and finally putting people back in jobs.

I am proud to note the inclusion of provisions in this bill for the Virgin Islands and other territories that we all in this House have been fighting for. This plan creates equality in the child tax credit, the earned income tax credit, including an advancement of the child tax credit in 2021.

The child tax credit provision in the bill will be transformational in the lives of hundreds and millions of children, lifting them out of poverty. This is generational change. This will reduce poverty and improve the economic standing of Americans throughout our country. We are grateful for this bill.

Madam Speaker, the time for bold and decisive action is now. This American Rescue Plan Act will crush the virus, return children safely to school, support vaccinations, put dollars in families' pockets, and put people back to work. The plan will mount a national vaccination program that sets up community vaccination sites nationwide.

In the Virgin Islands, the loss of cruise ships, along with air travel tourists, have cut the heart of our economy, causing loss of jobs, closure of businesses, and lost revenues for government operations.

Additionally, we have yet to understand the long-term impact the pandemic will have on our children. In the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, our children are already overwhelmed and severely compromised due to facilities and the school year loss that they had from the 2017 hurricanes.

Lastly, I am proud to note provisions in this bill for the U.S. territories that I have been fighting for. This plan creates equality in the child tax credit and earned income tax credit.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to please support this bill.

And for my colleagues on the other side who have to give divisive platitudes and nonsupport, you are welcome.

Mr. Speaker, today, I rise in support of the requested waiver of the Secretary of Defense nominee, retired four-star General Lloyd S. Austin, III.

President Biden recognizes the need to have the most qualified individuals in his Cabinet to right the ship from day one. The issues of instability of our Department of Defense, morale, and a desire to engage more vigorously with the world require that a nominee be one who has the type of career that General Austin does.

General Austin's distinguished career and experience as a commander of the U.S. Central Command and Vice Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army have prepared him to be ideal for the task at hand.

We agree that the separation of Active Duty military and civilian is important. Moreover, I have full confidence, however, that the Secretary-designate shares these values, in that he came to the House, reaching out to this body in a way that shows reverence for the continued promotion and defense of civilian control of the military.

Lastly, having an African-American Secretary of Defense is highly important at this time, as the military must address the growing evidence of sympathy towards dangerous conspiracies and White supremacist causes amongst servicemembers--evidence made exponentially troubling due to the fact that a large percentage of servicemembers are people of color.

General Lloyd Austin is the right person for the job at the time at hand, and Congress must allow him to get through and get the job done.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote for the waiver for General Austin.

Madam Speaker, as we begin the 117th Congress, I am truly grateful to the Democratic Caucus for bringing the six representatives of the territories of the United States and the District of Columbia--duly elected by 4 million Americans, collectively--to where we are today.

That was done in the 116th Congress when the rules package strengthened our democratic representation by returning floor voting rights to Delegates and the Resident Commissioners in the Committee of the Whole. The principle that every American deserves to be represented by a vote on the floor of this House is important, and we have somewhat of a voice now.

Moving forward, I think it is high time that we continue to expand that. The Constitution gives the fate, the rights, of all the territories solely to this body, to the Congress. That being said, it is important that we respect those votes, and I believe that our system for remote voting should apply with respect to votes cast in the Committee of the Whole in the same manner as it applies with respect to votes cast on the floor.

That being said, I commend the further strides we are making in this rules package. As a former prosecutor and counsel on the House Ethics Committee, I applaud the tightening of the whistleblower laws.

As a former counsel on the House Ethics Committee, I am pleased with the tightening of the whistleblower laws, and I commend the creation of the Select Committee on Economic Disparity and Fairness in Growth to recommend policies to address economic disparities and make the economy work for everyone. I expect this to be a positive development, and I urge my colleagues to adopt this package.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Nevada (Mr. Horsford) for yielding and thank him for the work he is doing on this issue and so many issues that affect American families.

Sometimes here in Congress we can be distracted by issues that come up on a daily basis, but the gentleman from Nevada has kept his mind focused on the things that everyday Americans are concerned with, that is, proper wages, livable homes, good education, affordable housing. I am appreciative that we have kept our eyes on the prize, kept our eyes focused on the policy and the things that move the needle on this.

I was so happy to hear just a few moments ago from the gentleman from Philadelphia, Mr. Evans, because, although he talks quite a bit about Philadelphia, there is one area he talks about quite a bit, and that is sustaining the Black middle class, sustaining Black homeownership.

This minimum wage bill, Raise the Wage Act of 2019, supports those kind of initiatives. It gradually raises, as we have said, the Federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 over several years, over the next 6 years, to lift millions of workers out of poverty, even those who are working, who are still the working-class poor, stimulate local economies, and restore the value of the minimum wage. It gives 40 million Americans a raise.

As we heard from the gentlewoman from Michigan (Mrs. Lawrence), my colleague and good friend, it helps women and workers of color.

Today, more than 40 percent of Black workers and one-third of Hispanic workers will get a raise under this bill. Women make up nearly two-thirds of all minimum wage workers.

In areas like the Virgin Islands, where many of the homes and percentages of homes are run by single-person households, those being predominantly Black women, this is very important that women are two- thirds of the minimum wage workers. For them to be lifted out raises families.

One thing that I think this touches on and is part of that hasn't really been expressed as yet is wealth disparity.

The wealth, the measure of an individual's or a family's financial net worth, provides all sorts of opportunities for American families. Wealth makes it easier for people to seamlessly transition between jobs, move to new neighborhoods, and respond to emergency situations.

Unfortunately, wealth in this country is unequally distributed by race,

particularly between White and Black households. African American families have a fraction of the wealth of White families, leaving them more economically insecure and with far fewer opportunities for economic mobility.

Even after considering positive factors such as increased education levels, African Americans still have less wealth than Whites. Less wealth translates into fewer opportunities and is compounded by lower income levels and fewer chances to build wealth or pass accumulated wealth down to future generations.

This also is very symptomatic and has a well-documented history of mortgage market discrimination. It means that Blacks are significantly less likely to be homeowners than Whites, which means they have less access to savings and tax benefits that come with owning a home.

Persistent labor market discrimination and segregation also force Blacks into fewer and less advantageous employment opportunities than their White counterparts. Even when they have homeownership, they have less access and ability to be able to use that homeownership.

In the Virgin Islands, surprisingly, almost 60 percent of families of Black people own their home, but they are unable, and the banks are unwilling, to allow them to leverage that wealth for education, for second mortgages, to start businesses. The scrutiny is high.

When we are talking about wages, in the Virgin Islands, we make 75 percent of what is the national average. The average for a Virgin Islands family is $37,254; whereas, the estimated national average is $50,221. And 13.5 percent of U.S. Virgin Islanders have family income levels below $10,000 a year--for a family. That is horrendous.

This bill, however, and passage of this bill would mean lots of wealth and lots of opportunities for Black families, African Americans, the working poor, White poor families, Hispanic families.

African Americans own approximately one-tenth of the wealth of White Americans. In 2016, the median wealth for nonretired Black households 25 years old and older was less than one-tenth that of similarly situated White households. Those are White households, making the same and having the same access as Black families, which are making one- tenth that of similarly situated White households.

The Black-White wealth gap has still not recovered from the Great Recession. In 2007, immediately after the Great Recession, the median wealth of Blacks was nearly 14 percent of Whites. Although Black wealth increased at a faster rate than White wealth in 2016, Blacks still owned less than 10 percent of White's wealth at the median.

Black households have fewer and are in greater need of personal savings than their White counterparts. For a variety of reasons, Blacks are more likely to experience negative income shocks but are less likely to have access to emergency savings. As a consequence, Blacks are more likely to fall behind on their bills and go into debt during times of emergency.

The systematic challenges in narrowing the wealth gap for African Americans with Whites persists. The wealth gap persists regardless of a household's education, marital status, age, or income.

This is something that we are fighting for. We are grateful for this legislation that is going to make a difference in African American lives.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for bringing this important matter to the floor for us to discuss here this evening, and it is my plea for my colleagues to pass this legislation, for it to go to the Senate so that it can make a tremendous difference in so many Americans' lives. Raising the income level of the less fortunate assists all Americans in raising the tide of Americans' ability to excel.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for that discussion about what is happening in Nevada and raising the minimum wage, what that is going to do in the gentleman's State. Kudos to the Governor to take that bold leap.

There is concern about what happens with small businesses, and I know that the chairman of the Committee on Education and Labor has been thinking about that as well, that this bill does take this into account, that there are small businesses that this may be difficult for.

But we have to understand what the entire objective is of this bill. I know that there are amendments by other good Democrats to look at the Government Accountability Office to determine employment impacts.

That is much more helpful than what was done with the tax bill that the Republicans passed. They aren't trying to see what the impact has been of their legislation. They didn't ask for a lookback to see is this, in fact, stimulating the economy, because the objective was not to stimulate the economy.

The objective was to give the 1 percent--those corporate CEOs and others--additional money. It was not to

put money into the economy. Because, if it was, then we would be looking at it right now: What is the impact on America?

That was not put into that tax bill. But the Democrats are willing to do that. The Democrats want to make sure that this legislation is doing what it is meant to do; that is, to be for the people, for the larger American people, by supporting that.

When I was talking earlier about the wealth gap and income, income and employment are obstacles to the wealth gap. The income gap has actually worsened over time.

According to a 2016 Economic Policy Institute report, the income gap between Blacks and Whites has grown since the 1970s, not lessened. In 1979, for example, Black men earned 22 percent less than White men. In 2015, Black men earned 31 percent less.

The report's authors note that, in 1979, Black women's wages reached near parity with White women's wages, but that by 2015 the gap had risen to 19 percent.

We are not getting better. The equality gap is not narrowing. We need to face the statistics. And Democrats are willing to do something about that.

The report also found that the gap persists across women's educational levels and worsens for those with higher levels of educational attainment.

The gap at a higher level of education for White women and Black women with similar education is worse than it is for those lower.

In 1980, college-educated Black women with more work experience actually earned slightly higher wages than college-educated White women with the same experience. By 2014, however, the gap had widened to 10 percent in White women's favor. That is a reversal.

Similarly, while the gap between college-educated Black and White men in 1980 was slightly less than 10 percent, it rose to 20 percent by 2014.

In 2017, researchers from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco similarly concluded that the Black-White earning gap is growing, and that the growth can largely be attributable to so-called immeasurable factors.

What are some of those factors? Those factors that play a role in the Black-White income and employment gap include employment discrimination, weak enforcement of antidiscrimination laws, and racial differences in unobserved skill levels, as opposed to measurable factors such as educational attainment or work experience.

I am grateful that we have this time this evening to talk about this, to let the American people see the truth--not a tweet, not what is happening on the news on a regular basis, but the things that everyday Americans care about: wages; minimum wage; having quality of life; and, as my colleague from Nevada said, the ability to have one job to sustain your family, not having to juggle two and three jobs, leaving your children at home and not being able to be an important and positive force in your children's lives because you have to work.

We are concerned as well about what is happening to our young children who don't have that supervision in the evening.

Those are some of the issues where we have concern in Black communities, not because parents aren't working and they are not there for their children because they are shiftless, they are lazy, et cetera, the things that you hear. It is because parents have two jobs. They are trying to hold it together.

Single households, even those households that have both parents working, they have to have two jobs to make ends meet.

This is a means to get people to be able not only to get out of poverty but to support their families, to support their communities, to create wealth, to have homeownership, which allows access to so many other things such as education and so many things that are, in fact, the American Dream.

Every day, every week, and definitely every month, they are trying to juggle which bill they are going to pay, and which bill they are not going to pay. Are they going to be able to keep the lights on? Are they going to be able to pay the rent?

In the Virgin Islands, public school students wear uniforms. Are they going to be able to scrounge up money at the end of the summer to be able to provide clothing for their children to be able to go to school?

Those are the things that people are concerned with working minimum wage jobs, and working them hard; and then maybe at night having a nighttime job somewhere else; and making sure that maybe one of the older children is watching the younger ones; making sure that they are asleep while they are away at that job; and praying that nothing happens while they are there, not because they are negligent parents, but that they care enough to be trying to put food on the table.

Those are the stories that I am sure you hear in your district; that I know I hear in the Virgin Islands; and that I am sure all of our colleagues, if they are willing to listen to the people that are on the ground, the people that have put them here in Congress, are facing every day.

Madam Speaker, yesterday the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in the lawsuit where Republicans sued to not only strike down protections for people with preexisting conditions, but eliminate every last protection and benefit provided by the Affordable Care Act.

House Democrats have used our vote to send a strong message against this lawsuit, and yesterday, the House general counsel argued in support of people with preexisting conditions and the healthcare of all Americans.

While our Republican colleagues attempt to undermine people with preexisting conditions, House Democrats will do everything in our power to protect the healthcare of the American people.

If the administration's position is supported by the Fifth Circuit, it will destroy the protection for more than 130 million people with preexisting conditions, Medicaid expansion coverage for 15 million Americans, significant savings that our elders receive and seniors receive due to ACA's closing of the doughnut hole in Medicare drug coverage, bans on discriminatory insurance practices that force women to pay more for coverage, and young adults' ability to remain on their parents' insurance until age 26.

Madam Speaker, Democrats will continue to deliver on our For the People agenda and American healthcare.

Madam Speaker, as Americans begin many of the pastimes of summer that are quintessentially American--baseball, backyard barbeques, family road trips--Caribbean Americans spend the month of June reflecting on their contributions and melded cultures in the United States.

Congress adopted H. Con. Res. 71 which established the Caribbean American Heritage month, sponsored by Congresswoman Barbara Lee and signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2006. ``Whereas people of Caribbean heritage are found in every State of the Union . . .'' is the first line of the U.S. House of Representatives' resolution to establish a Caribbean American Heritage month. While the Act establishing Caribbean American Heritage month emphasized the present influence of Caribbean Americans, American history would not be complete without the integration and support of Caribbean people. From America's founding to the present, Caribbean people have supported and assisted in the creation of a collective American identify--the articulation of the nation's rightful place in the world, its traditions, its language and cultural style.

Despite being ostracized and alienated by many of his contemporaries for his Caribbean

roots--but for Alexander Hamilton's contribution to our military, creation of our banking system and assistance in drafting the Constitution--our country would not be as strong today as it is. From American Revolution Haitian gens de couleur libre (free men of color) fighting troops, slave revolt leader Denmark Vessey to Colin Powell's shock and awe doctrine, the Caribbean emphasis on revolutionary and righteous principles enforced through martial force.

The Caribbean is a melting pot of different races, cultures, ethnicities, and languages; it is the southern reflection of the American experience. Caribbean Americans like all who come to this country desire to make themselves and this country better.