Thanking Officer Robert Scisco

Floor Speech

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Ms. McBRIDE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Officer Robert Scisco, a school resource officer at Rehoboth Elementary, who has been named Delaware Mentor of the Month.

For the last 3 years, Officer Scisco has mentored Yanziel Rodriguez, a rising fourth grader, meeting weekly to talk, play checkers, and build a bond grounded in trust and encouragement. Before every move, Officer Scisco reminds Yanziel to stop, take a moment, and think, advice for a game of checkers and for life.

This is what public service looks like: presence, patience, and purpose.

Officer Scisco is helping build a culture of safety and connection in our schools, one relationship at a time. I thank him and the Cape Henlopen School District. Honoring North Shores Beach Patrol

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Ms. McBRIDE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the extraordinary heroism of the North Shores Beach Patrol lifeguards who, while off duty, sprang into action to save a swimmer in distress off the coast of Delaware.

On the evening of July 3, lifeguards received an alert of a distressed swimmer and immediately texted one another, racing back to the beach. Luke McDermott and five others searched beyond their patrol zone and swam over 300 yards in dangerous, choppy water to rescue a woman who had been adrift for 2 hours without a life jacket.

Their swift response, courage, and deep sense of duty saved a life, and Delaware is indebted to them. Devastating Food Assistance Cuts

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Ms. McBRIDE. Mr. Speaker, last week, I stood alongside Senators Coons and Blunt Rochester at the Food Bank of Delaware, joined by advocates, providers, and families, to speak out against the devastating food assistance cuts in the Republican budget. The most powerful voice that day was my constituent, Elizabeth Morales.

Elizabeth is a biochemist, a widow, and a mom from Newark. After an unexpected layoff in 2023, SNAP gave her just enough support to keep food on the table for her daughter while she got back on her feet. It wasn't a handout. It was a lifeline. Now, that lifeline is being ripped away from families like Elizabeth's.

Under this budget, Delaware will lose tens of millions of dollars in SNAP support, putting more than 37,000 families at risk. These cuts don't just stop at the grocery store. They reach into our classrooms.

Up until this budget, kids were automatically enrolled in school meal programs through SNAP, but this budget breaks that link, creating a mountain of paperwork for families and schools and putting thousands of students at risk of going hungry.

We know that a hungry child cannot learn. Nutrition fuels focus, growth, and lifelong success. These cuts don't just take away meals; they take away potential. As Elizabeth put it: This is theft, plain and simple.

It is cruelty disguised as policy. It punishes families not for failing to work, but for living through a hard season. I will not stop fighting until we restore this funding so that no one in Delaware goes hungry.

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