Promoting Responsible Oversight to Eliminate Communist Teachings for Our Kids Act

Floor Speech

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Mrs. McBATH. Mr. Speaker, I thank the ranking member of the Committee on Education and Workforce for yielding time.

Mr. Speaker, I have to say, today, we are here considering a bill that is named the PROTECT Our Kids Act. I am going to speak and shift this conversation a little bit in the direction I think we really need to go.

This bill, the PROTECT Our Kids Act, does absolutely nothing to protect our kids. Just 5 days after three children and a 21-year-old were shot and killed in a mass shooting at a birthday party in Stockton, California, is a level of tone-deafness that I don't think I have seen during my 7 years here in Washington.

There are four families burying their children this week. There are four families burying their kids just like I had to when my son, Jordan, was murdered simply for playing loud music in his car.

Mr. Speaker, 8-year-old Journey Rose, 8-year-old Maya Lupian, and 14- year-old Amari Peterson will never get the experience that they deserve or the promise that this country offers. They will never get that chance--all because they went to a birthday party--and this Congress refuses to do anything about it time and time again. I don't know how many times I have to stand here on this floor to debate and talk about the number of children and people who are dying in this country.

We call this bill the PROTECT Our Kids Act? It does absolutely nothing. My Republican colleagues are deflecting over and over again against the real crimes against our children. Today, they want to bring to this floor a bill that will do absolutely nothing to protect our children.

The real way to protect kids is to keep them safe from unnecessary gun violence. That is what we should be doing at this time, but my Republican colleagues refuse to say anything about protecting children from unnecessary gun violence.

Over and over again, I cannot say how many times--I meet families every single day. I get alerts from my staff every single day of every mass murder and every tragedy in this country. It is overwhelming.

Excuse me, but if we are going to sit here and talk about protecting our kids, if my colleagues are really willing to do that, then they should bring up gun violence prevention legislation. They should bring up policy that really does the very thing that they are pretending to do through this bill: Protect our children.

There is no greater threat to our kids in school, at church, at their birthday parties, or at any other private or public space across this country than gun violence.

We took a very important step with the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. We did really good work, not just for Democratic children but for Republican children, as well, but we must do more to keep our children safe.

Shootings are the leading cause of death for children and teenagers in this country. Yes, my Republican colleagues have children and families who are dying by gun violence every single day, just like us here in the Democratic Party. We would never know that from this bill or when we are listening to our Republican colleagues.

For people like me, for people who have buried their son or their loved one, their daughter, their big sister, or their little brother before their time, we really know what is at stake. We cannot continue to play this game over and over again, fooling the American people by telling them that we are protecting their interests, protecting their families, and protecting their children with pieces of legislation like this that do absolutely nothing to protect our children.

Mr. Speaker, we know this cannot wait. I am just so sick and tired of the tone deafness. Every time we come to the floor, my Republican colleagues want to put forward a piece of legislation that fools the American people into believing that we are really working on their interests and on their behalf, when it really does not do that at all.

We know that the longer we do nothing, the more likely it is for someone else to have their family torn apart like I have or for someone else to attend a wake or a funeral instead of a wedding or a graduation ceremony. It doesn't have to be this way.

Mr. Speaker, I just--if we want to say it this way--celebrated the 12th anniversary of my son's murder. If my colleagues want to talk about protecting our kids, let's really do that and not this facade.

Mr. Speaker, unlike Columbine, Newtown, Las Vegas, Uvalde, Lewiston, and Stockton, your home does not have to be next.

Trust me, my colleagues. Every single one of us in this body has people dying every single day in our constituencies. We should use this time to really protect our kids and not just act like we are protecting them, while this Republican Congress does nothing about these tragedies at all.

Mr. Speaker, I encourage all of my colleagues to oppose this bill.

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