Providing for Consideration of H.R. John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of Providing for Consideration of Senate Amendment to H.R. Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act; and Providing for Adoption of S. Con. Res. Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year and for Other Purposes

Floor Speech

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Ms. DeLAURO. Madam Speaker, this rule allows us to move forward on rebuilding our Nation's crumbling infrastructure, restoring the power of the Voting Rights Act, and an historic budget resolution that advances our priorities by making critical investments to expand our Nation's social safety net to continue to build back better.

For far too long, the deck has been stacked for the wealthy and the well-connected, while middle-class hardworking families and the vulnerable have been left behind.

After decades of disinvestment, we have an opportunity today to make history, to deliver on a promise we made to the American people: to build a stronger, fairer future for our kids; a once-in-a-lifetime moment, creating more jobs, cutting middle-class taxes, while simply asking the biggest corporations and the top 1 percent to pay their fair share of taxes.

What are the transformative issues in this bill: expanding to improve the child tax credit already acclaimed to cut child poverty and hunger with only one payment; guaranteeing affordable high-quality childcare; tackling the long-term healthcare crisis; access to long-term services and supports for aging loved ones and those with disabilities; universal pre-K; 2 years of tuition-free community college; maximizing the Pell grant award; launching the first-of-its-kind paid family and medical leave benefits; historic investments ranking alongside the New Deal and the Great Society, standing the test of time and strengthening our society.

President Roosevelt didn't just rebuild America. He created Social Security, and when it came to infrastructure and human needs, he did both. So to meet today's moment, we must and we can do both. We have that opportunity not to throw money at a problem but to build the architecture for the future.

Today, we must advance this rule and the budget resolution, demonstrating our commitment to our values, making a difference in the lives of so many Americans. This is a moral imperative. And to paraphrase President Franklin Roosevelt: This is our rendezvous with destiny, a watershed moment. Don't let the moment pass. It will not come back again. Let's seize it with action, with hope and unity of purpose for a better, stronger America.

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