Congressional Black Caucus' Hour of Power

Floor Speech

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Mr. HORSFORD. Thank you. I would like to thank you, Mr. Speaker, and my good friend from the State of New York. One of the great pleasures of being a Member of this body is getting to know colleagues from across the State. We have a dynamic freshman class--five Members who are freshmen in the Congressional Black Caucus. It has been my honor to co-anchor this hour of the Special Order for the Congressional Black Caucus with my esteemed colleague, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Jeffries).

I would like to commend him for his tremendous leadership on a breadth of issues that have come before this Congress. Even recently in his role as a member of the Judiciary Committee, some legislation that we will be considering just this week is going to happen because this Member has worked across the aisle to bring people together to try to seek common ground. It is what we need more of, Mr. Speaker. One of the things that we are doing here tonight is reflecting after a year in this 113th Congress.

I am a new Member. I have been here now, like I said, for just over a year after being elected. My constituents back home in Nevada ask me often, so what is it like to be a Member of Congress? You know, do you feel good about what it is you are able to accomplish? It is an honor, it is a great honor, to serve the people of Nevada's Fourth Congressional District here in the people's House, the House of Representatives. It is a great honor, and I am proud to be a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, which has colleagues who are some of the most committed proponents of progressive social and progressive economic justice legislation that comes before this Congress.

As honorable as this position is, as proud of a moment that it is for me personally, when I hear the statistics that were read by our chairwoman, Chair Fudge, that less than 50 bills that have been passed by Congress have become law, that is rather frustrating, and it is frustrating to the American people.

Prior to coming to Congress I served in the State legislature in Nevada. We only meet every other year for 4 months. Do you know, Mr. Speaker, in 4 months--in 120 days--we considered and passed approximately 1,000 bills. Think about that. One State can consider and approve approximately 1,000 bills in 120 days every other year, but 435 Members in the House of Representatives in more than a year have been able to accomplish less than 50 bills becoming law.

That is why the American public is so frustrated. So while I reflect on this year, there are areas that I am proud of in accomplishments that we have made. Unfortunately, there are bills that have been proposed that have not moved and legislation that is still pending in this body.

My hope is that, as we reflect on this first year in the 113th Congress, that it will challenge us as Members to come prepared in 2014 to get the people's job done. There are a number of key bills that we need to focus on. As my colleague has talked about, we have fought to ensure our justice system is more fair and protects all citizens equally under the law. We have fought to increase access to affordable health care, something that is desperately needed for millions upon millions of Americans. Our leaders have worked to fight to preserve and to protect important social safety nets like SNAP benefits and Medicare and Medicaid because we have made it our mission to protect America's most vulnerable citizens.

We have time and time again called for the sequester to be ended. I just met with constituents in my district in Nevada who said, please don't allow a government shutdown to happen again in January, don't allow these cuts under the sequester; the second round of cuts would be even more harmful, let alone the first round to take hold.

Despite these areas, there is work to be done. One of the issues that I have been particularly involved with, as a member of this Congressional Black Caucus, has been immigration reform, the need for comprehensive immigration reform.

I am proud to have served as one of the cochairs, along with my colleague, Mr. Jeffries, and Representative Clarke, also from New York, as cochairs of the Congressional Black Caucus' Immigration Reform Task Force. We have worked tirelessly with other House Democrats to craft a bipartisan commonsense bill, H.R. 15, which aims to begin fixing our broken immigration system.

It would grow our economy, we know, by 5 percent in just two decades, reduce our deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars, create thousands of jobs, and, most importantly, Mr. Speaker, it would bring millions of people out of the shadows and into society, including thousands of DREAMers, by creating a pathway to citizenship, all while shoring up our border security.

As a member of the Homeland Security Committee, I know my colleague, Mr. Jeffries, on the Judiciary Committee, we have worked time and time again on legislation to bring forward proposals on comprehensive immigration reform. We are asking our colleagues on the other side to join with us to make these things possible, to not just talk about it, to not be proud or pleased with just 50 bills being passed by one of the least productive Congresses in the history, but to actually accomplish things that the American public expects us to accomplish.

Another top priority that I would like to talk about this evening, Mr. Speaker, that we have been working on with my colleagues in the Congressional Black Caucus is preventing racial profiling practices in our law enforcement that have been hurting individuals across the country.

Our citizens deserve to live free from fear, especially among those whose jobs are to serve and to protect. That is why I introduced the Universal RESPECT Act, a bill that would help prevent racial profiling practices from occurring.

The Universal RESPECT Act will establish an interagency review of Federal efforts to eliminate racial profiling in the United States by amending the Homeland Security Act to require that recipients of Federal law enforcement grants and training facilities do not engage in racial profiling.

Simply put, Mr. Speaker, the Universal RESPECT Act will end the practice of rewarding law enforcement programs that do not respect basic civil rights and civil liberties. We need to make sure we stay vigilant in our fight for justice in this country, and that has been a constant theme in the Congressional Black Caucus's legislative agenda, whether it is on the budget, as our colleague, Mr. Scott just talked about, or a plethora of bills that have been brought forward by individual members, and is central to the FY14 budget that has been worked on by the Congressional Black Caucus which reduces the budget and creates millions of jobs in a fair and balanced way.

Let me just close by talking about one final area, Mr. Speaker, that we as Members of this body need to stay focused on, and that is jobs and growing the economy. In my home State of Nevada, we still have a stubbornly high unemployment rate above the national average. Despite improvements in certain sectors, there are far too many Nevadans who are still looking for work, many who have been out of work a year, year and a half, going on 2 years. And I know as part of the budget debate that will occur between now and January 15 will be a discussion about extending unemployment benefits, which is incredibly important to American families who have been struggling during this sustained recession.

So I would challenge my colleagues on the other side, allow us to bring forward the number of jobs legislation and bills that would help build our infrastructure back up in this country. Allow us to bring these bills to a vote in this Chamber so that we can get our country moving again, we can get the middle class economy moving, we can help middle class families who are trying to provide for themselves and their families with good, sustainable, family-sustainable jobs, not low-wage jobs that put people in the same position to depend on assistance programs by the Federal Government. That is not what the American public wants. They want a family-sustaining job that allows them to provide for themselves and their family. That is what we are arguing for. It is what the Congressional Black Caucus represents each and every week when we come to this Special Order hour and why these issues are incredibly important.

So as we reflect back on this year, this year of missed opportunities, as my colleague from New York just said, it is in fact missed opportunities because we could have done so much more in this body. There are 435 Members, dedicated staff, people who love our country and want to see it progress, but it is time for us to put the partisanship, the ideological views aside and to allow us to put our country first. That is what I am here for, Mr. Speaker. I know it is what my colleagues are here for, and I look forward to working with anyone from either side of the aisle from either Chamber who wants to work with the President to move our country forward, and I appreciate this Special Order time.

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