Better is Possible

Floor Speech

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Ms. KAMLAGER-DOVE. Mr. Speaker, I thank my illustrious colleague of the great State of New Jersey for being the lead for tonight's Congressional Black Caucus Special Order hour to talk about the government, money, funding, keeping this government open, and about why we come here every single day of each week and why some of us are fighting for the American people while others of us are fighting for Donald Trump.

This is a great time to share that Republicans don't care about you-- you, all of you. Trump doesn't care about you, none of you. They don't care about your safety. They don't care about your freedom. They don't care about your voice. They don't care about your vote. They don't care about your pocketbook.

Why does the Congresswoman from California say this? Because I have receipts, and I am going to share them.

Earlier this year, Republicans voted on a $4.5 trillion tax cut for the richest of the rich. In order to pay for that, they passed a honking series of cuts to all the services that you need to help you survive and thrive.

What kinds of services? It is things like shutting down or threatening to shut down Social Security offices in high-rent districts, which would include all of Los Angeles. They are cutting funding to SNAP, which helps young mothers who are looking for baby formula for their babies and folks who need help buying food so that maybe their children's bellies aren't empty when they are going to school. Services by farmers who actually produce goods that are sold into this agricultural program would be cut.

They are cutting funding to the Small Business Administration. Most people in my district are interested in their hustle, their small business that they are trying to get off the ground. I thought that was why the SBA was developed, designed, and created: to help start businesses. Now, we have a President who wants to cut that, maybe because he wants all the money.

We have a President, supported by the Republican Party, who is sending in the National Guard and militarizing soldiers against citizens in those cities and States. They are right here at Union Station in Washington, D.C. The taxpayers are footing a million dollars a day for these National Guard members to pick up trash. They are doing the job that sanitation workers would be doing in the District of Columbia.

We are talking about $770 billion for Medicare. I talk to young people in my district, Mr. Speaker. They say: ``I am not on Medicare.'' I say: ``That is right. Maybe you are not, but your grandmother is, your elderly aunt is, and the doctor you see is able to see you because of the reimbursement they are getting from a Medicare patient.''

With these cuts, we are hearing from community clinics. We are hearing from hospitals. We are hearing from doctors and other healthcare providers. They are trying to see if they are able to stay open to help you when you get sick, but that has been cut.

In the last administration, President Biden said that he was going to forgive student loans. This President says: Oh, no. Everybody pays except me. Everybody pays but me.

Not only are we doing away with that forgiveness, but we are actually capping the amount of money that you can get in student loans and in grants to maybe go to medical school because Lord knows we need more doctors, especially in rural communities, willing to help Americans as they search for healthcare.

One place, though, that didn't get cut is ICE and Homeland Security because this is an administration that wants his own personal militia to go after folks who ask for the truth. These cuts also mean and include cuts to Federal jobs. California is a State with the second largest number of Federal workers. These are workers who have been answering the phones when you call, checking on your application when you submit it, and getting back to you about your benefits. Those folks are being terminated, but this is the President who is all about workers first, which is why I had to drive down to the city to the Department of Labor and see the President's face on the big, old banner.

Why are we spending money on these banners but cutting money to farmers? Because dismantling USAID and cutting USAID is more than just what is happening in other countries. You are actually also cutting contracts to American farmers who produce goods and products that we then sell to other countries. This is all about hurting all of us.

They are cutting funding to the National Institutes of Health. They are cutting cancer research.

In my State of California, we were on the cusp of clinical trials because a cure had been found for breast cancer. We were on the cusp of clinical trials for a cure for prostate cancer. All of that has now stopped because of cuts to the National Institutes of Health.

That is what we are talking about. The party in power has a responsibility to make sure that those basic services--because nothing I talked about was not basic--are not cut.

I am trying to find out why we have a President who is chair of both the World Cup and the Olympics. These are events that will be happening in my district and in my State. The World Cup festivities will be happening in cities across this State. How can you have cities that are preparing for the World Cup and the Olympics when they are being attacked by the Federal Government and when we are not providing them the support that they need to get ready?

Here we are on the verge of the third set of receipts, a funding shutdown, which is imminent and can be stopped by the party in power, the Republicans.

The Republicans have to make a decision. Are they going to prioritize the American people, or are they going to prioritize the President of the United States?

I don't know about you, but the Congresswoman from New Jersey talked about hosting townhalls in her district. I did, too. I didn't meet a constituent who said they wanted the Rose Garden paved at the White House. I haven't met a constituent who said they want to see more gold candelabras in the White House. I have met constituents who said: What is going to happen to my health insurance? When is ICE going to get out of the kindergartens in Los Angeles?

I hope we don't have a government shutdown, but that would require Republicans to make some decisions about who they are going to support. On top of that, which people like to forget, the last thing we did before the beginning of August was that Republicans voted on a rescissions package, which was essentially giving the President back money that Congress had already voted to appropriate to go to the American people.

Some Republicans said let's do this once a month. That is not an exercise. It is like going on a diet once a month. Let's cut more money out of the hands of the American people. It is not funny.

I know people think that Congress is drama and theater, but it is not theater when you talk to a constituent who says, ``Thank God you called the agency on my behalf so I could get my benefits back.'' It is not theater when you have a constituent who is older and is going to get evicted, and they say, ``Thank God you called HUD to make sure that my grandmother doesn't get evicted from her house.''

I thought that was what the government was supposed to do. How come no one answers my calls? How come this President doesn't care about me?

This is not theater. We have farmers in trouble. We have young children who are hungry. We have elders who are concerned if they are going to be able to go to the doctor when they get sick. We have young people who don't even know if it is worth going to college because they don't know if they will find a job. We have partners and friends who have opened up businesses in our cities across this country who are afraid to show up to their jobs because they don't know if they will be snatched and deported, even though they are legally allowed to be here.

What is going on? We read these headlines. It does not sound like anything that should be happening in the United States of America.

It is one thing to talk about policy, but it is another thing to cut the benefits of a veteran who put their life on the line to protect us.

It is one thing to debate policy. It is another thing to vote to shut down a hospital.

It is one thing to talk about foreign policy and where we should be and what we should be doing. It is another thing to cut jobs, folks who are building things that keep us safe.

I had a gentleman come into my office a week ago. He is not even from my State. He has a business in Mississippi, and they make the thermostats that we put into refrigerators. They have investments in another country. They have American people, American workers working in Mississippi and in that country, and you know the money they make comes here.

He said: I am going to have to fire all those people and shutdown because of these cuts on top of these tariffs.

Now, that man didn't vote for me. That man probably didn't even vote for my candidate, but he came in my office and said: Can you help? What is going on? What is going on?

My answer was: You have got some people up in here that ain't got no courage. They don't have no courage. I don't owe you nothing, you are not from my State. However, you are trying to create jobs to help American people, give young people an idea about how they can start their own business and be an entrepreneur and come up with a product they can patent that is good for business, that allows them to earn some money, save some money, start a family. All that is in jeopardy because of these cuts, because of these rescissions, and because of this potential government shutdown.

I don't know about you, but when I am in trouble, I don't call somebody and say, hey, are you a Republican or a Democrat? I just call and say: Can you help me?

My dad has got health issues right now. I was on the phone. I wasn't saying: Hey, who did you vote for? I said: Hey, can you help my dad?

That is what Americans across this country are asking, like, are you, the people in power, the people with the gavel, are you going to help me?

Make me drop my notes.

I want the party in power to say: Yeah, I am going to help you. I am going to prioritize you. I am just not going to prioritize you in March of 2026 before my name is on the ballot, I am going to prioritize you right now because American companies, American students, American innovators, American researchers, American veterans, American farmers, American students deserve all of us fighting for them and not for one person who is only looking to hang more banners up and put up more gold candelabras at 1600 Pennsylvania.

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