Dte Rate Increase
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Ms. TLAIB. Mr. Speaker, here we go again. DTE wants another rate hike, 11 percent this time. Our families can't afford more power outages in Michigan that wipe out groceries, spoil medicine, and leave our neighbors without critical medical devices, all because DTE would rather pad the pockets of their shareholders and executives than invest in reliability for our families.
We know that DTE charges some of the highest rates, Mr. Speaker, in the Nation, while they have some of the most unreliable service and they perform hundreds of thousands of utility shutoffs per year.
The company made $1.4 billion last year alone. Their CEO made $12.5 million last year. Investor-owned utilities like DTE will always put profits over the people they are supposed to serve. These are companies that don't see providing us power as essential to our daily lives. We are just another account number to them.
Now DTE is seeking another massive $574 million rate hike. It is important to note, Mr. Speaker, that it was just a few months ago that the Michigan Public Service Commission approved a $217 million rate hike back in January. The Michigan Public Service Commission must do the right thing and reject this outrageous, unreasonable rate increase.
Access to utilities is not a privilege; it is a fundamental human right. Every single family should have access to electricity, heat, and water. We need public power to all. We need utilities that serve people, not shareholders. We need to take the profit motive out of the services we all need to live and thrive on. President Trump's First 100 Days
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Ms. TLAIB. Mr. Speaker, it is hard to believe that it has only been 13 weeks.
President Trump's first 100 days in office have eroded constitutional rights, illegally and lawlessly dismantled Federal agencies, and consolidated power into the hands of the billionaire class. I like to describe it not as shameful, lawless, and reckless, which it is all those things, but it is also the cruelty of how it is being done.
The President has relied on executive orders to push through illegal and divisive policies that circumvent this Congress. He has empowered an unelected billionaire like Elon Musk to fire Federal workers without cause and dismantle the programs our families depend on. That is probably why they are losing in court. We are winning in 93 percent of these courts because, again, much of what he is doing is illegal.
President Trump has attempted to override the Constitution through executive order to end birthright citizenship, deport American citizens without due process, including a 4-year-old with cancer, and he has openly defied Supreme Court orders.
This is a constitutional crisis; that is a fact. We don't need to be cutting services and critical programs for our families. We need to make them work better for our families. Instead of gutting healthcare and Medicaid and food assistance in our public school system, Congress should make the ultrarich pay more taxes and make these programs work better for the people.
Mr. Speaker, 60 percent of working families are living paycheck to paycheck. Working families are worried about paying their rent, covering the costs of groceries, and what they are going to do if they get sick. No one plans to get sick, Mr. Speaker.
Trump's proposed tax plan only benefits the richest Americans. It is a true fact; look at it. Even powerful corporations are going to see a big tax break. He plans on giving $7 trillion, not millions or billions, in tax cuts to billionaires while making working families pay for them by cutting $880 billion from Medicaid and $230 billion from food assistance.
Mr. Speaker, don't get me going about the environmental protections. They have rolled those back, too. Our children deserve clean water, and they deserve to breathe clean air. They are showing, again, a reckless disregard for our planet and our public health.
Yet in the face of this harmful and oppressive agenda, we have seen power in the resistance not only through litigation but in the streets. Americans have mobilized in unprecedented numbers from protests to townhalls across our Nation. Our communities are organizing, Mr. Speaker, not only to fight back against these harmful policies but to build a better and more inclusive future.
Now is not the time to give in to cynicism. We must stay engaged and speak truth to power and come together in solidarity to fight for a country that our communities truly deserve that is for the people and by the people, not the powerful.
I always remind my residents, Mr. Speaker, that we didn't get the Civil Rights Act or transformative change in our country or the right to organize unions because of what folks do here in this Chamber. It is because the streets demanded it. That is how we got the Civil Rights Act and the right to organize labor unions in our country. Again, continue to rise up and continue to resist this fascist government.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source