Disapproving the Action of the District of Columbia Council in Approving the D.C. Income and Franchise Tax Conformity and Revision Temporary Amendment Act of 2025

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, I am strongly opposed to H.J. Res. 142, which would repeal provisions of a law enacted by the District of Columbia because D.C. deserves the right to govern itself.

The Supreme Court has held that Congress can delegate full legislative authority to D.C. for local matters, but Republicans in Congress choose not to do so.

Last year, President Trump and congressional Republicans passed the one, big, betrayal bill, a deeply unpopular law that is the single largest transfer of wealth and resources from the working class and the working poor to the ultrawealthy billionaires and corporations in our Nation's history. The law ripped healthcare coverage away from millions of Americans to give tax breaks and tax giveaways to billionaires and megacorporations.

Not only that, but for States across the country, it has caused a revenue shortfall that has thrown State budgets into chaos, threatening services like healthcare, childcare, schools, eldercare, and emergency response. To protect against this, numerous States have passed laws to decouple their tax code from the tax provisions in the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act. This includes States like Maine, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Colorado, and Alabama. This also includes the District of Columbia.

To avoid a more than $600 million budget loss over the next 4 years from the big, betrayal bill tax changes, the D.C. Council enacted a decoupling law. As part of this law, D.C. increased the child tax credit and earned income tax credit benefits to put more money in the pockets of working families struggling to afford the basic necessities in their life.

H.J. Res. 142 would overturn this law and rip away the money that parents and low-earning families could use to stay afloat in this disastrous Trump economy. Today is just another day in Congress where instead of being on the floor debating legislation on healthcare, instead of debating legislation on bringing down the cost of groceries, instead of debating legislation on making sure we can make this country more affordable for working people, congressional Republicans want to use this time to attack working families in the District of Columbia.

Overturning this law will create chaos for D.C. families and businesses at the start of tax filing season. The gentleman brought up businesses, but D.C. began accepting and processing tax returns on January 27. Families are already beginning to file their taxes and claim the newly expanded EITC.

This resolution would force D.C. to suspend this year's tax filing season, which is already underway, for several months. Changing their tax code now would create additional hurdles and confusion for families and, yes, for local businesses, as well, especially families that are already counting on receiving that larger earned income tax credit to deal with the failure of congressional Republicans and Donald Trump to bring this economy to a place that works for working people.

The D.C. business community even sent a letter to Congress urging opposition to this disapproval resolution because it would create chaos and financial instability. This group includes the Federal City Council, the D.C. Chamber of Commerce, the D.C. Association of Realtors, the D.C. Hospital Association, and the Hotel Association of Washington, D.C. They are all opposed to this resolution.

The big betrayal act is so deeply unpopular that half of the public believes it will hurt them and their families, including two-thirds of Medicaid enrollees. Instead of accepting this reality, congressional Republicans are disregarding home rule and forcing it down the throats of D.C. because they can.

I find it also very interesting and kind of cool that today I get to debate with a colleague from the other side of the aisle where we are both the youngest Members of the United States Congress. We may be the youngest, but his ideas are very old.

Undermining democracy in D.C. isn't new. It is just wrong. The people who live in the Capital of the world's greatest democracy deserve that democracy themselves.

Mr. Speaker, I think it is very interesting, as we sit here, I keep hearing my colleagues bring up the ``working families tax cut bill.'' They keep bringing it up, and I am asking the staff here, I don't remember voting on the working families tax cut bill. We have looked it up, and we can't find it. This body has not voted on the working families tax cut bill this Congress. We did vote on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, and I asked myself, why do they keep changing the name of their legislation?

Mr. Speaker, they don't want to say the name of their legislation. The reason why is simple. We know that Donald Trump came here to the Hill after this bill was passed, and because it was so deeply unpopular with the American people, he said that we have to rebrand, have to change the name.

It goes to show how unpopular and how bad this bill is. They even called it the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. It has the word ``beautiful'' in it.

The bill is so bad for working people that 64 percent of adults-- Democrats, Republicans, Independents, and people who don't care about politics--hate it so much that the bill that they put the word ``beautiful'' in, they can't say the name anymore because it is so damn toxic because it takes most of the resources from working people and gives it to the billionaires and megacorporations. Now, months later, they still want to tout the bill, but they won't dare call it the name.

It just goes to show that this administration is obsessed with helping the well-to-do and well-connected and not working people.

Anytime we hear in this debate this working families tax cut bill, we never voted on such a bill. The name of it was the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

These are the most resources in the history of this country that are going from working people to the ultrawealthy, billionaires, and corporations.

Say it three times: One Big Beautiful Bill Act, One Big Beautiful Bill Act, One Big Beautiful Bill Act. That is the bill that we voted on. Mr. Speaker, 64 percent of Americans are against it.

Norton).

Mr. Speaker, I am glad to hear the gentlewoman say loud and proud, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act is a bill that 64 percent of Americans don't like and believe gives more resources to the rich, the well- connected, the wealthy, the billionaires, and the corporations than them. So say it out loud, and I am glad to hear that after I pointed out this fake name that my Republican colleagues keep bringing out.

As we are talking about the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, my colleagues continue to bring up the fact that they worked hard to write and pass it. They worked hard to pass the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. They said that they ``had numerous congressional debates,'' but D.C. didn't get a vote on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

They bring up that they have put this resolution forward. They are running from their offices over here to the House floor to debate on this resolution to overturn a local law passed by members of the D.C. Council who were elected by the people who live here. They claim to care about the taxpayers of D.C., but I guess they don't care enough to give them the real representation that they deserve: a vote in the United States Congress.

That alone shows us what this is all about. They don't care about the taxpayers of D.C. They have no problem taxing them without representation. They care about using D.C., the people who live and work here year round, as a pawn and as a political punching bag so that they can go home and say that maybe they actually did something.

If they truly cared about the taxpayers of D.C., they would put this resolution aside and pass H.R. 51, free D.C., and make sure that we have D.C. statehood. That is making sure that you care about the taxpayers of D.C.

Mr. Speaker, there it is again from one of the highest-ranking people of the Republican Party on the other side: working families tax cut bill. No bill exists. We haven't voted on a bill called the working families tax cut bill. We voted on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

Mr. Speaker, even one of the gentlemen who was most instrumental in passing this bill that they are here blatantly lying about and saying that it helps working people when it really helps the richest, wealthy people in this country, he won't even call it by the name because most adults in this country know the truth. They know that it is the largest transfer of wealth from them to the billionaires, the corporations, and people like Donald Trump and his friends.

Mr. Speaker, there is something that Ranking Member Garcia brought up that I think is really important. This is the tenth piece of legislation this Congress that the Republicans have brought forth focused on the District of Columbia, focused on D.C.

If we polled every Republican district, polled my colleagues' districts on the other side of the aisle, polled everyone who spoke, polled everyone's district in the United States Congress, except for Eleanor Holmes Norton's district, polled every single one of them, I promise you that trying to overturn the laws that the D.C. Council has voted for will not appear in the top 10 issues that their constituents are dealing with.

Actually, I will go a little further. I don't think it would appear in the top 100 issues that their constituents are facing.

Instead of bringing forth 10 bills to undo democracy for the people of D.C., we could have done 10 other things. Instead of bringing forth a bill on D.C., we could have done something on housing. Rent is skyrocketing. People can't afford to live in a home because of the rising costs of rent.

Number two, instead of bringing the second bill on D.C., we could have done something about utility prices. The power of heat, the power of A/C, the power of power is up 6.7 percent. Donald Trump said that he would cut utilities in half. That hasn't happened. They have gone up.

When the third bill to do something on D.C. came to the floor, we could have done something about healthcare. We have a broken healthcare system in this country. While health insurance companies are making skyrocketing profits, we are paying more. More Americans are dying because they are not rich and because they don't have money.

When the fourth bill on D.C. came to Congress, we could have done a bill to lower grocery prices for Americans. Donald Trump ran saying that he would do something about it. Donald Trump said that when he was elected as the President of the United States, he would lower grocery prices on day one--on day one. Grocery prices are up.

When the fifth bill came to the House floor on overturning a D.C. city law, we could have done something on corruption or something on Congress. We could have banned Members of Congress from buying and trading stock. We could have done something to put some guardrails on the Presidency so that no President can make money off of being the President of the United States. We know that being the President is one of the most lucrative things that Donald Trump has done. We could have handled the corruption in the Supreme Court.

When the sixth bill came to the House floor on the D.C. laws, we could have done something on campaign finance reform. We could have ended Citizens United or done something about the fact that corporations and billionaires can flood our elections with unlimited amounts of dark money, essentially trying to change the outcome and to elect pawns and puppets to help them do what they want.

When the seventh bill came to the House floor on Washington, D.C., we could have done something to maybe rein in ICE, this agency that is going around and terrorizing our neighbors. I mean, maybe--maybe, just maybe--Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti would be alive right now if maybe on the seventh D.C. bill, we did something about this.

On the eighth D.C. bill, we could have done something to help small businesses by passing legislation because we do too much to help the big corporations and nothing to help small businesses and entrepreneurs.

On the ninth one, on the ninth bill that Republicans brought to the floor this Congress, maybe we could have done something on reversing the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that they passed, and we could have taxed the billionaires.

The gentleman was saying we are the tax party. I want to tax the billionaires more. I want to make sure they are paying their fair share. Hell, if a teacher, a nurse, someone who works at a grocery store is paying their fair share, how come billionaires aren't?

On the 10th one, which is this time, maybe we could have done something about the tax that the Republican Party and Donald Trump have put on working families, which are the Trump tariff taxes, which are part of the reason why costs are skyrocketing across this country from housing to groceries.

There were 10 bills to undo the democracy of people who live here in D.C., 10 issues and 10 solutions we could have worked on to help working families.

Mr. Speaker, in closing, I encourage all of my colleagues in Congress to oppose this joint resolution.

Voting ``no'' means that we refuse to support this congressional Republican effort to end the child tax credit in Washington, D.C.

Voting ``no'' means that we oppose the fact that Republicans are using important time in Congress that should be spent on making life better, safer, and more affordable for American people instead of attacking the residents of Washington, D.C., with higher prices and lower budgets for D.C.'s schools, childcare, first responders, healthcare, and other services.

Voting ``no'' means supporting D.C. home rule and defending D.C. against bullies in Congress.

The so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act is an attack on the working people of this Nation and across this entire Nation. It cuts healthcare and food assistance from working families to give massive tax breaks for billionaires and megacorporations.

Republicans in this Chamber need to work on accepting the unpopular and damaging nature of the law that they passed. It sounds like they are almost there because they have even gone so far as to rename the bill called the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that they passed that 64 percent of Americans believe are bad for them.

Mr. Speaker, I encourage all of my colleagues to vote ``no,'' and I yield back the balance of my time.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. FROST. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

The yeas and nays were ordered.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source