Providing for Consideration of H.R. Protecting Domestic Mining Act of Providing for Consideration of H.R. Northeast Lobsterman Protection Act of Providing for Consideration of H. Res. Providing for the Condemnation and Denouncement of Socialism in All its Forms, and for Other Purposes; and H.R. Protect Economic and Academic Freedom Act of and Relating to Consideration of Motions to Suspend the Rules

Floor Speech

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Ms. STANSBURY. Mr. Speaker, welcome back.

It has been a wild ride this Congress.

After 5 weeks of being out for the August district work period, a war is raging in the Middle East; the economy is in shambles; working people of this country cannot afford food, housing, and healthcare; the President is raiding the Venezuelan oil reserves and lining his own pockets; and what are we doing on the House floor after 5 weeks of break?

We are hearing bills to basically gut environmental protections, including protections for one of the most endangered species on planet Earth. Just a few years ago before my mother passed away, I had the extraordinary opportunity to visit the Cape Cod National Seashore, and on that day, which was an unusually warm day, we went down to the beach, and there were literally hundreds of right whales right off the shore. Today there are 380 right whales still in existence on planet Earth. Only 70 are considered able to breed.

What is before us today is a decision about whether or not to let one of God's great creatures continue to exist on planet Earth.

With all of the things that are happening in this world and in this country, this body under this Republican majority is choosing to advance a bill on the first day we come back in the middle of global turmoil and economic chaos to decide whether or not a species that has existed on this planet longer than the United States has even been an idea should be able to continue.

It is disgraceful. The American people did not send us here to gut environmental laws. The American people sent us here to save our democracy, to defend our institutions, and to ensure that they can get a fair shake.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to oppose this bill, and I will vote it down on the floor today.

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