[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 13 (Tuesday, January 24, 2017)]
[House]
[Pages H668-H669]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1730
            WOMEN'S MARCH MESSAGE OF RESPECT AND RESISTANCE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2017, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Soto) is recognized 
for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Mr. SOTO. Mr. Speaker, I rise today wearing this pink scarf in 
solidarity with so many millions of Americans who rose up this past 
Saturday, whether it be in D.C., on the West Coast, East Coast, so many 
cities in the Midwest, as well as those around the world.
  It is interesting. My wife and I awoke to chanting of thousands of 
people. It almost felt like the protest was in our living room. And 
when we got out on the balcony, we saw thousands of people who were 
wearing pink hats and carrying signs and so boisterous with hope.
  Amanda and I decided we would go down to join them. When we got to 
the street, it was an amazing scene, with the Capitol ahead of us, and 
so many folks just gathered together--like-minded--with a message of 
respect and of resistance. As we tried to get towards the stage as we 
got to The Mall and about a mile away, we couldn't even get past a wall 
of bodies of so many people who were there to cheer on the message of 
so many great speakers.
  But we found our way through, eventually, and made it onto the stage. 
And what I can tell you was just sheerly unimaginable: 17 blocks of 
Americans, of all States, of all creeds, of all colors, of all 
backgrounds, who were there with a message.
  We had some wonderful speakers that day. We had folks from labor. We 
had folks from criminal justice reform groups. We had folks who were 
fighting for reproductive rights. We had many celebrities there, of 
course, and we also had folks who cared about everything from our 
economy to agriculture, to equality, to anything you could imagine, so 
many values that we fought for over the last 8 years.
  There is a sense that there is going to be common ground among many 
of these issues as we go forward.
  American jobs, obviously, everybody in this Chamber wants to make 
sure that we protect Americans and make sure that we have employment 
for everyone.
  We are also going to fight for common infrastructure among all of the 
50 States, and that is something that we saw in the Senate the other 
day that was presented.
  We may also have some common ground on tax reform, particularly if it 
means bringing back from overseas a lot of corporate money that 
certainly would be important to go through the same process as profits 
derived here.
  But there is certainly, as we saw at the speech of so many people, 
there will be areas of resistance.
  We care about workers' rights. We care about making sure that we have 
a Department of Labor that will stand on the side of working American 
families.
  We care about having an inclusive economy, one that will respect a 
higher minimum wage; one that will fight for more high-tech, higher 
paying jobs; one that will fight for our manufacturing base; one that 
will be based upon tax cuts for the middle class, tax cuts for folks 
who are working, everyday Americans, as opposed to trickle-down 
economics and tax cuts for the wealthy.
  It was also about health care and about saving ACA or, at the very 
least, replacing it with something that is still going to make sure 
that we don't have 18 million Americans, according to the CBO, losing 
their health insurance.
  It is about making sure that we have a Medicare system that is not 
going to be block-rented out to the States as a creative way to cut 
Medicaid for our seniors and for our poor.
  It is also about protecting Medicare for our seniors who paid into it 
through their whole lives and making sure it is not privatized, as well 
as Social Security, making sure that not only those who are receiving 
it today, but up to those who are millennials and beyond, will be able 
to receive that benefit. We all paid into it, and we all expect it to 
be there.
  But it was also about equality. Many of our LGBT community are 
worried: Are these executive orders in place that are protecting 
equality in our Federal workforce going to be continued? Is this 
advance, this progression, this success in the Supreme Court and in so 
many other areas of society to have equality for the LGBT community 
going to be continued onward? There is a big doubt about that.
  It is also about women's reproductive rights. We saw so many, 
including Planned Parenthood and so many other groups, who fought not 
only to protect health care, but to protect women's choice, stand up 
and say that they don't want to revert back, that they don't want our 
society to revert back on equal rights for women.
  And we saw that today with the reinstatement of the gag rule across 
the Nation and the world, to encourage nations to prohibit reproductive 
rights, prohibit the ability to have birth control, prohibit the right 
to be able to exercise the right to choose.
  So many of my fellow Hispanics are worried about immigration. A 
simple executive order can assure that our DREAMers go from law-abiding 
students and members of our military and those who are applying in part 
of this program to being undocumented and being potentially even hunted 
down by their government. It is about long-term comprehensive 
immigration policy and reform.
  So many from my district, whether it be those who are also Hispanic 
or those who are from the Caribbean in my district, they care deeply 
about this. So does our agriculture community, so does our tourism 
community, so does business in general. These are going to be things 
that people are going to stand up for, and they certainly stood up for 
them during the march, along with women's rights, along with equality 
in general.
  Then there is the concern about climate change and how there was a 
push forward over the last 8 years and there will be an attempt to 
backtrack.
  I don't have to tell everybody, from the way the weather has been 
working over the last 10 to 15 to 20 years, that this is going to be 
one of the greatest challenges of our time--and for our kids and for 
our grandchildren. We do have to do it the right way, but we stood up 
to make sure that everybody knows we cannot go back.

[[Page H669]]

  In addition, Dodd-Frank and financial reform, so critical to 
preventing another Great Recession. Many of us remember in 2008, in 
October, when President George W. Bush got on TV and told everyone that 
we were in for a Great Recession and one that President Obama described 
as the greatest recession since the Great Depression. There will be an 
attempt to chip back on those reforms and an attempt to try to get away 
from the lessons we learned to try to prevent another global meltdown.
  And of course criminal justice was critical. So many of our youth, so 
many Hispanics, so many African Americans, so many people who find 
themselves in greater proportion than other Americans in jail from a 
system that sometimes discriminates against them.
  All of these folks stood up, millions of Americans stood up, and, 
yes, we had hats and, yes, we had pink scarfs and, yes, we spoke about 
the progress that we made in the fight. But in one word, this was about 
respect. It was about respect for all women across the Nation, all 
minorities across the Nation, regardless of ethnicity and religion, all 
Americans, all of our Americans with disabilities, all of our working 
class folks who are fighting every day to try to make a good living.
  The message is clear. The message is clear from the millions of 
Americans who marched on Saturday that we will be watching, that we 
will speak up when we see things we disagree with, and when we have to, 
we will resist.
  Those who marched on Saturday, we welcome you to the resistance, and 
we thank you for your support. It is going to be a long 2 years.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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