Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to celebrate an artist, an advocate, and a creator of community pride, Jesse Rodriguez, better known as Magnolia Grown.

Last month, Jesse achieved something special for our community. His sculpture, ``Dale Shine,'' which you see behind me, was chosen to go to The Cheech, the finest private collection of Chicano art in the world, to become a part of their permanent collection.

This is a first for Houston. It is a first for Texas.

Jesse's work draws from deep cultural roots established while growing up in my district in Magnolia Park. His art is the art of our community, of growing up poor while living in full color, of a shared history ``de nuestra gente'' ``of the people.''

Jesse has become a community advocate in the East End portion of our district. He founded Magnolia Park Arts and Community to inspire the next generation to use art for action and to never forget where they came from.

He puts people over politics. He puts arts over darkness. We are so proud of him and everything that he has done, and I congratulate Jesse.

Mr. Speaker, we are witnessing the barbaric consequences of the draconian laws that extreme MAGA Republicans are imposing on the State of Texas.

Over 26,000 women have become pregnant after being raped since Texas outlawed abortion with no exceptions. Let me repeat that: 26,000 women. This could be your daughter, sister, cousin, niece, or mother.

Experiencing sexual assault is one of the hardest things that a woman can heal from.

Greg Abbott and Texas Republicans have made it a mission to trap women, destroy their plans and goals, and ultimately chain them to their trauma for the rest of their lives.

No woman should be shamed for what they have been through.

I will continue to fight for reproductive rights and make sure that no woman should be afraid to make the decisions that are right for her. I will always fight for people over politics.

Mr. Chairman, I rise today to urge my colleagues to defeat the previous question and to support the American Dream and Promise Act.

If extreme MAGA Republicans want a real bipartisan solution for our broken immigration system, the type of bill that the President has said he wants to sign, then they should sign up and support my American Dream and Promise Act.

Today, our country is home to millions of Dreamers. They were brought to the United States as children and grew up here. In their heart, in their mind, and in their soul, they are Americans except on paper. This is their country. This is their home.

If Congress does nothing, we will lose our neighbors, our family members, and our friends. We will lose fellow Americans.

With the American Dream and Promise Act, House Democrats have a plan with bipartisan support to finally create a pathway for citizenship for Dreamers and immigrant families.

Make no mistake: This is not a partisan issue. Over 70 percent of Americans favor a law providing permanent legal status to Dreamers.

This is a real solution with support. The American Dream and Promise Act will have a life-changing effect on every single district in this country.

Take it from me. I was born and raised in south Texas. I recognize the importance of securing our border to protect the integrity of our Nation.

This set of bills does not do that. These bills spread racist tropes about immigrants. It is wasting valuable time and energy that should be going toward writing laws that would lead to real generational change.

With my bill, the American Dream and Promise Act, we can create that generational change. Americans support Dreamers, and Dreamers support America. I am opposed to these bills, and I urge my colleagues to defeat the previous question.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize the hardworking school board members in my district in recognition of School Board Member Appreciation Month.

I am incredibly grateful for the extremely devoted school board members across Aldine ISD, Galena Park ISD, Channelview ISD, Sheldon ISD, Pasadena ISD, and Humble ISD.

These folks were elected by their communities to do some of the most important work a public servant can do. They are fostering the next generation of leaders by ensuring that our public schools are places where students can learn, explore, dream, and thrive.

I know that keeping our schools running smoothly comes with plenty of late nights and a lot of behind-the-scenes work. I know this firsthand because many of my family members have served or are serving on school boards.

Thanks to their work, our public schools continue to be the foundation of the great American Dream.

We must support our public schools. I thank them for their service, and we wish them Godspeed this year.

Mr. Speaker, due to severe weather in D.C., my flight was rerouted and I was unable to vote during the Quorum Call on January 9, 2024. Had I been able to vote, I would have voted: PRESENT on Roll Call No. 1.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life and legacy of Jose Luis Lopez.

Jose was born on August 25. 1940, in Michoacan, Mexico, and moved to Houston in 1965. After working as a butcher in some of the finest hotels, he went into business for himself on Patton Street in 1977, opening the institution that would define the next 46 years of his life. He called it Gerardo's Drive-In--named after his newborn son.

Jose was an award-winning cook, whose tacos de barbacoa were celebrated as the ``best barbacoa in Houston,'' according to the Houston Chronicle. Eater said it was one of the ``20 Most Iconic Dishes in Houston'' and Texas Monthly put it in the ``top ten tacos'' in the whole state, awarding a perfect score in their quest to find the ``120 Tacos to Eat Before You Die.'' When Speaker Pelosi visited our district in 2018, there was no question on where to eat.

Jose's journey began with a simple dream of opening a taqueria, yet he built a place for family, a space of community, and a taste of home.

In a way, it is poetic that Jose will be laid to rest on a Wednesday. You see, even in his golden years, Thursday was always a working day, preparing the cabezas for the weekend tradition that brought the Northside so much joy. The sign out front said the rest:

``Gerardo's, Barbacoa, Vie-Sab-Dom.'' (Gerardo's, Barbacoa, Fri-Sat- Sun.)

Jose lived the American dream, and he lived it to the fullest. He joins his late wife, Maria de Jesus Lopez, as they look down at all they built. Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in honoring the life and legacy of Jose Luis Lopez.

Mr. Speaker, due to a serious illness that required medical attention, I missed several votes last week. Had I been able to vote, I would have voted: NAY on rollcall No. 692; NAY on rollcall No. 693; YEA on rollcall No. 694; YEA on rollcall No. 695; YEA on rollcall No. 696; PRESENT on rollcall No. 697; YEA on rollcall No. 698; NAY on rollcall No. 699; YEA on rollcall No. 700; NAY on rollcall No. 701; YEA on rollcall No. 702; NAY on rollcall No. 703; NAY on rollcall No. 705; and NAY on rollcall No. 706.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to congratulate Galena Park Independent School District's very own North Shore High School football team for their fifth time in a row going to the Texas State Championship.

Located in my district, North Shore Senior High School is home to a group of outstanding athletes and students both academically and athletically. Through their hard work and perseverance, our local stars will now play against Duncanville High School.

I am truly proud of all their accomplishments both on and off the field. They embody the Texas spirit of excellence and courage.

I urge the Mustangs to stay focused and stay strong, because all of Texas 29 is rooting for them this Saturday.

Go Mustangs.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to express my opposition to S.J. Res. 32. [the Provision on Congressional Disapproval of The Rule Submitted By The Bureau Of Consumer Financial Protection Relating To ``Small Business Lending Under The Equal Credit Opportunity Act.

Mr. Speaker, the beginning of so many great American stories is built around starting a small business in your family name, becoming a foundation in your local community--making it in America.

Small businesses are major drivers of wealth creation in our overall economy. They account for two-thirds of net new jobs and nearly half of our U.S. economic activity.

For many of them, that dream stalls with going to a bank and getting a small business loan. For many Americans, the sound of their name, the color of their skin, the language that they speak or who they love can doom that dream if a bank says that they are at risk.

This isn't hypothetical. I, too, was born and raised in south Texas, I can tell you that when I go home and I see some businesses that have closed, I ask my family whether it was due to the pandemic, or no demand for the

cost of services that they had. I am told that they just had trouble with finances, and they couldn't get a loan.

In some small rural areas, like where I grew up, there aren't credit unions everywhere like there are in the city of Houston where I live now.

Even in the city of Houston, many small businesses during the pandemic couldn't secure a PPP loan in round one. We [as Congress] had to go in and do a carve-out to literally force the banks to provide loans to small businesses.

I am glad that one of my colleagues was openhearted and gave people a lot of loans. I just hope that that included loans to minority small businesses.

Mr. Speaker, this is real. It is not hypothetical. We know that minority-owned small businesses were less likely to receive a loan during the pandemic compared to White firms. Regrettably, Mr. Speaker, racism and discrimination flourish in the darkness. We need to shine a light and allow the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to make lending more transparent.

Mr. Speaker, a transparent market will be a competitive market.

With transparency in lending, banks are driven to compete and offer better terms.

With this resolution, extreme MAGA Republicans are protecting the secret discriminatory practices of big banks and lenders. Repealing this rule would harm all those who stand to benefit from much-needed transparency.

Make no mistake, extreme MAGA Republicans continue to put the interests of the big bank CEOs and corporate lobbyists ahead of their constituents. It is they who, time and time again, put profits over people. House Democrats will continue protecting everyday consumers and small business owners, while holding corporations accountable.

We will always put people over corporate profits. We will always put light over darkness.

For additional information on an April 19, 2022 Report from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau titled ``Data Spotlight: Challenges in Rural Banking Access.'' Please see (https:// files.consumerfinance.gov/f/documents/cfpb data-spotlight challenges- in-rural-banking 2022-04.pdf).

I include in the Record an April 4, 2021 New York Times article by Stacy Cowley titled ``Minority Entrepreneurs Struggled to Get Small- Business Relief Loans.'' (https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/04/business/ ppp-loans-minority-businesses.html).

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote against this resolution.

[From the New York Times, April 4, 2021]

Minority Entrepreneurs Struggled To Get Small-Business Relief Loans

(By Stacy Cowley)

A year after the Paycheck Protection Program started,

studies show how its design hurt Black- and other minority-

owned businesses.

Southern Bancorp is a lender serving the Arkansas and

Mississippi Delta, where poverty rates are among the highest

in America and decades of redlining shaped neighborhoods with

little generational wealth.

When the Paycheck Protection Program for small businesses

started last April, so many of Southern Bancorp's customers

didn't qualify for the relief money that the Arkansas bank's

chief executive, Darrin Williams, turned to donors to raise

money for $1,000 grants so it wouldn't have to turn

applicants away empty-handed.

The bank made 128 such grants, giving more than 100 of them

to businesses run by women or minority owners. One let a nail

salon owner buy plexiglass so she could reopen. Another

allowed a small cafe to buy safety gear for its staff. A day

care used the money for the new sanitizing equipment it

needed.

``So many companies will never come back, and

disproportionately more of those that will be lost are Black

and brown businesses,'' Mr. Williams said.

Congress created the Paycheck Protection Program in March

2020 as an emergency stopgap for what lawmakers expected to

be a few months of sharp economic disruption. But as the

pandemic raged on, the program--which made its first loans

one year ago this past week--has turned into the largest

small-business support program in American history, sending

$734 billion in forgivable loans to struggling companies.

The program helped nearly seven million businesses retain

workers. But it has also been plagued by complex, changing

rules at every stage of its existence. And one year in, it

has become clear that the program's hasty rollout and design

hurt some of the most vulnerable businesses.

A New York Times analysis of data from several sources--

including the Small Business Administration, which is

managing the loan program--and interviews with dozens of

small businesses and bankers show that Black- and other

minority-owned businesses were disproportionately underserved

by the relief effort, often because they lacked the

connections to get access to the aid or were rejected because

of the program's rules.

Rollout was speedy

After Congress created the program in last year's CARES

Act, President Donald J. Trump's administration--especially

his Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin--put a priority on

getting money to needy businesses fast. Just seven days after

the law was signed, the earliest applicants received their

checks.

But the haste meant the rules were mostly written on the

fly. Reaching harder-to-serve businesses was an afterthought.

Lenders and advocacy groups warned that the relief effort had

structural challenges that were likely to inadvertently but

disproportionately harm women and minority business owners.

Reaching the most vulnerable businesses required

determination, they said, and the program gave lenders no

incentives to put in that effort.

The government relied on banks to make the loans, creating

an obstacle for borrowers who didn't have established banking

relationships. Some banks favored their larger and wealthier

clients, which pushed ordinary customers to the back of the

queue. ``Mystery shopper'' studies found that Black

applicants were consistently treated worse than white

counterparts.

The program also largely locked out sole proprietors and

independent contractors--two of the most popular structures

for minority-owned businesses. Those companies weren't

eligible to apply for the program's first week. When they got

access, a rule barring loans to unprofitable solo

businesses--a restriction that didn't apply to larger

companies--prevented many from getting help. Most nonbank

lenders, including those that specialize in underserved

communities, were shut out for weeks while they waited for

the Small Business Administration to approve them.

``The focus at the outset was on speed, and it came at the

expense of equity,'' said Ashley Harrington, the federal

advocacy director at the Center for Responsible Lending.

In the program's final weeks--it is scheduled to stop

taking applications on May 31--President Biden's

administration has tried to alter its trajectory with rule

changes intended to funnel more money toward women- and

minority-led businesses, especially those with only a handful

of employees.

Mr. Biden took a swipe at his predecessor's track record

last week as he signed a bill extending the program's

deadline. ``Many small businesses, as you know, particularly

Hispanic as well as African-American small businesses, are

just out of business because they got bypassed the first time

around,'' the president said.

But Mr. Biden's revisions--which, most prominently,

expanded lending to independent contractors and others who

work for themselves--have run into their own obstacles,

including the speed with which they were rushed through.

Lenders, caught off guard, struggled to carry them out, with

little time left before the deadline.

``The rules are complicated and constantly changing, and

that alone creates an access barrier,'' Randell Leach, the

chief executive of Beneficial State Bank in Oakland, Calif.

Black and minority businesses suffer

Because lenders are not required to collect demographic

details on their borrowers, data on the Paycheck Protection

Program's racial breakdown has been scarce, but economists

have consistently found signs of gaps.

An analysis by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York noted

that some counties with large numbers of Black-owned

businesses--most notably the Bronx, Queens and Wayne County,

Mich., which includes Detroit--had strikingly low

concentrations of the relief loans. Majority-white ZIP codes

in several metropolitan areas had higher loan coverage than

ZIP codes with heavily minority populations, according to a

San Francisco Fed analysis released last month.

And data from the Small Business Administration shows the

relief effort's tilt. The vast majority of lenders did not

report demographic data on the 3.6 million loans they made

this year, but of the 996,000 that included information on

the borrower's race, 71 percent of the dollars went to white-

owned businesses.

Pilar Guzman Zavala founded Half Moon Empanadas, a small

chain of restaurants, in Florida 12 years ago. She employed

100 people before the pandemic and had established bank

accounts and years of detailed business records. But Ms.

Zavala's application stalled at the first two lenders she

tried, forcing her to spend a month hunting before she

finally found a local bank that would process her loan.

She's grateful for the aid, which helped her hold on to 50

workers, but found the process infuriating.

``The financial system doesn't get to truly small business,

Hispanic businesses, women-owned businesses. It just

doesn't,'' she said.

Of the 1,300 Paycheck Protection Program loans that

Southern Bancorp made last year, many went to customers who

had been turned away by larger banks, Mr. Williams said.

In a recent Federal Reserve survey, nearly 80 percent of

small-business owners who are Black or of Asian descent said

their companies were in weak financial shape, compared with

54 percent of white business owners. And Black owners face

unique challenges. While owners from all other demographics

told the Fed that their main problem at the moment was low

customer demand, Black respondents cited a different top

challenge: access to credit.

When Jenell Ross, who runs an auto dealership in Ohio,

sought a Paycheck Protection Program loan, her longtime bank

told

her to look elsewhere--a message that large banks like Bank

of America, Citi, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo delivered to

many of their customers in the program's frenzied early days.

Days later, she obtained a loan from Huntington Bank, a

regional lender, but the experience stung.

``Historically, access to capital has been the leading

concern of women- and minority-owned businesses to survive,

and during this pandemic it has been no different,'' Ms.

Ross, who is Black, told a House committee last year.

Community groups step in

Community lenders and aid organizations took a shoe-leather

approach to filling the gaps.

Last year, the American Business Immigration Coalition, an

advocacy group, worked with local nonprofits to create a

``community navigator'' program that sent outreach workers to

Black, minority and rural businesses in Florida, Illinois,

South Carolina and Texas. They plowed through roadblocks,

Whac-a-Mole-style.

Language barriers were common. Many business owners had

never sought a bank loan before. Several didn't have an email

address and needed help creating one. Some hadn't filed

taxes; the coalition hired two accountants to help people

sort out their financials.

``Our folks literally went door to door and walked people

through the process,'' said Rebecca Shi, the group's

executive director. ``It's time-consuming.''

The group's work netted $8 million in Paycheck Protection

Program loans for 219 businesses. For those companies, the

help made a profound difference.

TruFund Financial, a New York lender that focuses on

historically disadvantaged communities, spent two hours of

staff time, on average, on each of the 490 loans it made last

year--far more than larger lenders put in. Dozens of its

applications took 10 hours or more to complete, said James H.

Bason, TruFund's chief executive.

Many of TruFund's customers walked in the door after being

turned away by large banks, where ``not being able to speak

to anybody at the bank, sitting around waiting to hear, and

then not hearing anything for weeks--all of that created a

lot of anxiety for our small-business borrowers,'' Mr. Bason

said.

Shaundell Newsome, a Las Vegas business owner and a co-

chair of Small Business for America's Future, an advocacy

group, said improving outcomes for Black business owners

would require deliberate, sustained changes throughout the

banking industry.

``The solution is intentionality,'' he said. ``What I mean

by that is making sure bankers, regulators and policymakers

stay intentional on building Black businesses and helping us

get access to capital.''

That's a message Mr. Newsome passed on to Treasury

Secretary Janet L. Yellen in a recent meeting. Ms. Yellen has

pledged to increase support for minority-focused lenders and

make other changes to alter a financial system that, in her

words, still produces outcomes unacceptably similar to those

of the days when Jim Crow laws were in effect.

Economic crises like the one now gripping the country ``hit

people of color harder and longer'' and intensify economic

inequality, Ms. Yellen said at that meeting. ``I am worried

the current crisis will do this again. In fact, I know it

will, unless we act.''

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 5119, the Protect Small Business and Prevent Illicit Financial Activity Act sponsored by the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Nunn) along with the gentlewoman from Ohio (Mrs. Beatty).

In 2021, Congress enacted the Corporate Transparency Act, or CTA, establishing America's national Beneficial Ownership Registry. This registry will start collecting information from applicable businesses and their beneficial owners on January 1, 2024, and will crack down on the anonymous shell companies used by terrorists, drug cartels, and other financial criminals.

The collection of information on beneficial owners of certain corporations, limited liability companies, and other entities registered in the United States will help protect our financial system from illicit use by making it even more difficult for bad actors to disguise their financial activities through entities with complex ownership structures.

This bill would offer reporting businesses additional time to file their CTA information, pushing back a handful of deadlines in the September 2022 final rule on this issue. Additional time, especially for small, newly formed businesses, would improve the accuracy of the registry and streamline our law enforcement efforts.

I am pleased to support this bill that will assist with the development of America's sorely needed Beneficial Ownership Registry.

Mr. Speaker, at least 30 countries already have some kind of central beneficial ownership registry to improve transparency. It is about time we start our own program, but we need to do it the right way and give small businesses ample time to file their information accurately.

In closing, Mr. Speaker, the bill will improve the implementation of a registry that will provide much-needed transparency into business ownership and ultimately help to deter bad actors from abusing our financial system. Providing our Nation's small businesses with sufficient time to comply with the CTA will help FinCEN to develop an effective and meaningful registry.

I, again, thank Representative Nunn and Mrs. Beatty for championing this important issue. I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of my bill, H.R. 5524, the Foreign Affiliates Sharing Pilot Program Extension Act. In January 2021, Congress successfully overrode Trump's veto to pass the National Defense Authorization Act, also known as NDAA, which is our Nation's annual Defense bill. This included the enactment of the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020, the first significant change to America's anti- money laundering and financial-based terrorism policy since 9/11.

Our bipartisan goal in passing the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020 was to improve the deterrence and detection of financial crime by promoting innovation, regulatory reform, and industry engagement.

In doing so, the U.S. anti-money laundering and financial counterterrorism efforts would be strengthened, modernized, and streamlined. One provision of the act established the Foreign Affiliates Sharing Pilot Program, which would permit U.S.-regulated financial institutions to share selected Bank Secrecy Act information with foreign branches and affiliates to help detect and deter illicit finance.

Currently, the sharing of these suspicious activity reports information with foreign branches of U.S. institution is not permitted because they are not subject to our Nation's Bank Secrecy Act regulations.

By allowing financial institutions to share information with foreign affiliates, the pilot program would improve multinational compliance and detection while still ensuring that safeguards are in place to protect the confidentiality of such reports.

My bill moves the expiration date from January 1, 2024, to 3 years after the pilot begins. This is a necessary extension to give the agency sufficient time to implement the pilot program.

The rulemaking to design the pilot was noticed back in January 2022, but Treasury has not yet issued a final rule to launch the program, so obviously an extension is needed.

The new timeframe proposed here will enable the Department to complete its rulemaking process and finally implement the vital national security program as Congress originally intended.

Again, I would stress the importance of passing this bill to give the Treasury sufficient time to implement this very bipartisan pilot program to bolster our ability to combat money laundering and protect our national security.

The pilot program would provide institutions with a pathway to better manage the risk of financial crimes. The bill received a unanimous vote at the committee markup.

Now, more than ever, Americans should feel confident that the proceeds of their transactions are not being siphoned off and stowed away in the coffers of criminals. I thank my colleagues on the committee for supporting this bill, and I urge all Members to support it.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, I was serving as Ranking Member in the House Financial Services Committee on November 29 when votes were called on the House Floor. The Chairman did not recess the committee in time for me to make the first vote of the series, therefore I missed recording my vote on Roll Call No. 678.

Had I been able to vote, I would have voted NAY on Roll Call No. 678.

Madam Speaker, I had the honor of hosting our Vice President Kamala Harris in my district as part of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus On the Road series just this week.

Together with our Caucus chair, Nanette Barragan, we delved into critical issues, such as reproductive rights, mental health, gun violence, small businesses, and the challenges ahead impacting Latinos in Texas and across America.

This visit also provided a platform to discuss the remarkable programs achieved under the leadership of the Biden-Harris administration, emphasizing the positive impact on our Latino community.

As we reflect on the progress achieved, we are reminded that there is yet still so much work to do, and that every issue is a Latino issue.

Our commitment to advancing the well-being of the Latino community remains steadfast, and we are determined to tackle the challenges ahead, putting people over politics. As I always say, ``si se puede,'' ``yes, we can.''

Madam Speaker, the beginning of so many great American stories is built around starting a small business in your family name, becoming a foundation in your local community--making it in America.

Small businesses are major drivers of wealth creation in our overall economy. They account for two-thirds of net new jobs and nearly half of our U.S. economic activity.

For many of them, that dream starts with going to a bank and getting a small business loan. For many Americans, the sound of their name, the color of their skin, the language that they speak or who they love can doom that dream if a bank says that they are at risk.

This isn't hypothetical. I, too, was born and raised in south Texas. I can tell you that when I go home and I see some businesses that have closed, I ask my family whether it was due to the pandemic, or no demand for the cost of services that they had. I am told that they just had trouble with finances and they couldn't get a loan.

In some small rural areas, because I did grow up in rural south Texas, there aren't credit unions everywhere like there are in the city of Houston where I live now. In the city of Houston, many small businesses during the pandemic in round one couldn't even get a PPP loan. We had to go in and do a carve-out to literally force the banks to provide loans to small businesses.

I am glad that one of my colleagues was openhearted and gave people a lot of loans. I just hope that that included some to minority small businesses.

Madam Speaker, this is real. It is not hypothetical. We know that minority-owned small businesses were less likely to receive a loan during the pandemic compared to White firms.

Regrettably, Madam Speaker, racism and discrimination flourish in the darkness. We need to shine a light and allow the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to make lending more transparent.

Madam Speaker, a transparent market will be a competitive market. With transparency in lending, banks are driven to compete and offer better terms.

With this resolution, extreme MAGA Republicans are protecting the secret discriminatory practice of banks and lenders. Repealing this rule would harm all those who stand to benefit.

We want to put profits over people. We want to put light over darkness.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote against this resolution.

Mr. Chairman, I rise today in strong opposition to this bill.

If MAGA Republicans want a real, bipartisan solution for our broken immigration system, they should sign up and support my American Dream and Promise Act.

Today, our country is home to millions of Dreamers. These are people who were brought to the United States as children and grew up here. In their heart, in their mind, and in their soul they are Americans except on paper.

This is their country. This is their home. If Congress does nothing, we will lose our neighbors, our family members, and friends. We will lose fellow Americans.

With the American Dream and Promise Act, House Democrats have a plan--with bipartisan support--to finally create a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers and immigrant families.

Make no mistake, this is not a partisan issue. Over 70 percent of Americans favor a law providing permanent legal status to Dreamers. This is a real solution. The American Dream and Promise Act will have a life-changing effect on every single district in this country.

Take it from me, I was born and raised in south Texas. I recognize the importance of securing our border to protect the integrity of our Nation.

Extreme MAGA Republicans have introduced a pitiful excuse to spread anti-immigrant rhetoric. Their bill fails to protect this country. It will not make us safer.

Their bill weaponizes the Federal Government against those who have the least. It mocks what this country stands for.

The gentlewoman from New York should look out into the New York Harbor to the statue that embodies the American promise: ``Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.''

In America, we welcome those fleeing harm. We welcome those who believe in the American Dream. Americans support Dreamers and Dreamers support America. I am opposed to this bill.