Summer L. Lee

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of the Lebanon War Powers Resolution introduced by my friend Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib.

The United States is actively participating in Israel's illegal invasion and bombing of Lebanon and its mass displacement of the Lebanese people. This participation was not authorized by Congress, and it supports strikes that are illegal under U.S. and international law. This resolution is urgently needed to stop using our tax dollars to fund Israeli war crimes.

There has been confusion about what support looks like, so I would like to be specific about what the United States' support looks like here. In southern Lebanon, homes are being leveled with U.S.-supplied bulldozers. Israel is engaging in chemical warfare with U.S.-supplied white phosphorus. The U.S. is providing targeting intelligence for Israeli strikes. There are even credible reports that President Trump personally green-lit specific Israeli military operations in Lebanon.

These examples demonstrate the depth of U.S. involvement and the urgency for Congress to act. This is exactly the kind of military involvement that Congress intended the War Powers Resolution to cover.

I urge my colleagues to consider that by supplying Israel with weapons and logistical support, we are giving Netanyahu the means to continue bombing and displacing thousands and thousands of people. Trump can yell at Netanyahu all he wants, but we can't have it both ways. We can't supply weapons and then be surprised when they get used. We can't supply diplomatic cover for previous violations and then be surprised when Netanyahu threatens to do it again.

The American people overwhelmingly oppose Trump's cruel, wasteful, and illegal war in Iran. If Trump is serious about ending this war, then we must prevent Israeli escalation in Lebanon. Ending our participation in that escalation is a necessary place to start.

As recently as this week's floor votes, Republicans are still out here inventing reasons why we can't help families here in America get food, support students trying to afford college, or fund childcare for working parents here. Meanwhile, they are trying to give $1.5 trillion to the Pentagon, some of which will fund the kinds of U.S. weapons and systems for Israel that are being used to undermine a peace deal with Iran.

My constituents have been clear about this. I suspect many of all of ours have been, as well. They want lower gas prices, better schools, reliable healthcare, dignified work, and affordable homes. They do not want the U.S. and their taxpayer dollars to be complicit in morally abhorrent, wasteful, and counterproductive foreign invasions.

Today, we have an opportunity to weigh in directly and say whether we want to end U.S. participation in an invasion. I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on this important resolution.

Mr. Speaker, on May 12, 2026, Oversight Committee Democrats convened the first-ever hearing to solicit testimony from survivors of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell's crimes. The hearing, ``Survivors Fight for Justice: Exposing Epstein's Crimes in Palm Beach and Across the World,'' marked a critical step forward in the fight for justice and accountability.

On behalf of all the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell's crimes, I rise to include in the Record the testimony offered by Ms. Dani Bensky:

Hello, my name is Dani Bensky, I was abused by Jeffrey

Epstein in 2004-05. That was 8 years after the FBI was first

alerted.

Although my abuse is nowhere near ``easy'' to discuss and I

live with diagnosed PTSD from that experience, my story is

one of the safest to tell. The key abuser who caused me

physical harm is dead. It's imperative to understand that the

stories that you are hearing today are a tiny fraction of the

whole. I am one of more than 1,200 girls and women, and each

story is unique. I don't face the same level of threats of

defamation lawsuits and serious risks to my health and

physical safety as some of my survivor sisters do. The main

perpetrator in my story is no longer in a position of power.

While there are co-conspirators who need to be held

accountable for the parts they played in the operation of my

abuse, I was trafficked only to Epstein, which was

unfortunately not the case for so many others.

I'm here to tell you my story, which happens to fall in the

middle of the 30 years of the Epstein timeline. I was groomed

prior to meeting Jeffrey Epstein. I grew up in the dance

world. Perfectionism and body image issues ran rampant in a

world built on hierarchy and at times, secrecy. Older

teachers, artistic directors, and company members had unique

access to young dancers. I was accustomed to private lessons

with a ballet mistress that I was not allowed to tell anyone

about. The secrecy was because she hand selected dancers to

develop. I would go to her apartment, strip off my sweatpants

to my leotard and tights and have my body be criticized,

critiqued, and manipulated, not so different from what I

initially experienced with Jeffrey.

I was trafficked to Jeffrey. It happened in broad daylight

on Manhattan's Upper East Side. I had two recruiters, one was

a late teen, the other was only 15 years old and just trying

to escape her own abuse and make it for herself. There was a

process of systematic manipulation. Jeffrey weaponized my

aspirations and dreams by speaking the language of dance,

making false promises, and continuing to prey on my body

image issues. My mom had been diagnosed with a brain tumor. I

had seen the name ``Epstein'' listed on a donor wall and

believed that his wealth and power had come from the medical

profession. I brought him her scans. I was hoping to

understand her diagnosis. He told me that he could help

ensure the best doctors and care, or he could have it taken

away. He held my mother's brain scans over me, giving me an

ultimatum: either recruit more girls or do more for him. I

didn't recruit anyone and instead endured the abuse. In May

of 2005 my mother had a successful operation at Mount Sinai

to remove the tumor. Jeffrey was not in charge of her care,

nor did he provide financial support for her surgery. Once my

mother was rehabilitated, and I knew she would live, I

finally extricated myself from Jeffrey Epstein and his web.

The Epstein case demonstrates that institutional systems

have failed survivors time and time again. I was first

subpoenaed in 2008 for an interview. I was truly terrified

entering the FBI. I was just 20 years old and without a

victim's rights advocate or a lawyer; I didn't know I was

entitled to those protections. No one told me I was safe, and

many parts of the interview felt like an interrogation.

Jeffrey had already threatened my friend, and he had told me

that I would be charged with prostitution if I ever

interacted with law enforcement. That thought was pervasive,

it sat deep in me, haunting me. Shame cloaked in fear

prevented me from speaking out. To say that I feared for my

safety is an understatement. He made it clear that he held

the cards.

If authorities had listened to Maria Farmer in 1996, when

she first reported Jeffrey to the FBI, hundreds of girls,

including myself, might have had a completely different life

trajectory. Yet, time and time again, these systems have

failed survivors.

The systemic failures of survivors extend beyond the

victims of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislane Maxwell, as

documented by the passage of the Epstein Files Transparency

Act. Survivors from across the nation contacted their

congressional leaders and fueled this fight. Survivors,

advocates, and constituents across the country wanted to see

change. Yet, despite the Act's passage, a moment in which

survivors hoped and believed that we might see some

reckoning, we were met with yet another harsh disappointment.

Prior to the Transparency Act passing, we met with lawmakers

on both sides of the aisle where we made two things

abundantly clear. 1. We are not political, we are human. 2.

Protections for survivors are imperative, no redactions for

perpetrators. Out of an abundance of caution, my lawyer then

teamed up with another law firm representing survivors, and

together they submitted 350 victims' names to the DOJ as

names that needed to be redacted prior to the deadline on

December 19th.

In that first round of documents, I saw my name in two

places. Then in the January dump, there were more and the

redactions were far worse. Seeing my information exposed in

those documents triggers intense PTSD. There's a feeling that

shoots through my body like a hot flash on a bullet and a

nausea that lives in the deepest parts of my being. With

every exposure survivors are revictimized. I am just one of

hundreds of the survivors exposed. These files displayed my

name, phone number, old address, where I worked at the time,

where I was studying, and other identifying information.

What's important to understand is that these documents

weren't somehow just overlooked and not redacted at all, on

one document my nickname is redacted, while Danielle Hannah

Bensky is left completely unredacted.

A few weeks ago, a legal analyst reached out to share that

yet again, my name appeared in a 3rd batch of only 20

documents. After my lawyer continued to contact the DOJ on

multiple occasions for protection my name and information

remained attached. These documents hold disturbing, yet

incomplete accounts of my abuse, and they were viewable not

only by the entire world, but also by my child, my students,

my students' parents, my friends, my employers, my

colleagues, and my family. I'm public, however in my FBI 302,

a Jane Doe who has never wanted to be revealed was exposed.

She is someone I have tried to protect. This outing of

survivor names does real irrevocable damage.

The passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act was meant

to be a moment when survivors could regain their power and

finally obtain the truth, transparency, and justice they

deserve. It was a time for our institutions, created to

protect the American people, to, for once, side with

survivors. As survivors we have said time and time again this

is not political. This requires coming together and not

prioritizing political showmanship.

I recently had the opportunity to return to Jeffrey's

mansion on the Upper East Side. Normally, when you're a

child, everything feels massive, and when you revisit those

same places as an adult, they seem smaller. That was

certainly not the case here. Jeffrey's mansion on the Upper

East Side of Manhattan still felt immense, the doors towering

and the architecture looming, designed in a way to make you

feel small. This reflects something deeper. Our entrenched

systemic failures have allowed powerful people like Jeffrey

to make others feel small. When institutions prioritize

protecting the powerful and their enablers over protecting

victims, individuals like Jeffrey become normalized.

If we continue down this path, the question isn't whether

the abuse will happen again, but who? Who is the next Jeffrey

Epstein? What will be the next mansion used to exploit

privilege and enable the abuse of young girls? I'm always

asked ``what does accountability look like?'' Getting

perpetrators out of positions of power, seeing arrests be

made, and a complete culture shift to not only believe our

most vulnerable populations, but protect them.

This moment is critical. It is time to reform our system to

protect our survivors, not perpetrators, and to ensure the

truth can come to light.

Mr. Speaker, we have a childcare crisis in this country. In my home State of Pennsylvania, infant and toddler care costs on average $14,000 per year. That is almost one-half of the average annual salary of the childcare workers in my district.

Childcare, if folks can even find it, is pushing families into poverty as they are forced to make impossible choices between paying the rent or paying for care, between staying employed or staying home.

Republicans are doing everything in their power to undermine investments in childcare, including with this bill, which will allow employers to exclude childcare benefits from overtime pay.

Employees working overtime are the ones who need childcare the most and the bill undermines workers' ability to pay for that care.

For this reason, at the appropriate time I will offer a motion to recommit this bill back to committee. If the House rules permitted, I would have offered the motion with an important amendment to this bill.

My amendment would replace the text of this bill with the Child Care for Working Families Act.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to insert into the Record the text of this amendment immediately prior to the motion to recommit.

Mr. Speaker, my legislation with Ranking Member Bobby Scott would make sure families actually have access to childcare slots, that no family spends more than 7 percent of their income on childcare, and that all early childhood educators make a livable wage.

If Republicans actually care about children and families, then I encourage them to pass the Child Care for Working Families Act. I hope my colleagues will join me in voting for the motion to recommit.

Mr. Speaker, I have a motion to recommit at the desk.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.