[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 99 (Thursday, June 14, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H5188-H5195]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1700
                         POOR PEOPLE'S CAMPAIGN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2017, the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Raskin) is recognized 
for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.


                             General Leave

  Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may 
have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and 
include any extraneous material that they would bring on the subject of 
this Special Order.


 =========================== NOTE =========================== 

  
  June 14, 2018, on page H5188, the following appeared: The 
SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2017, the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. RASKIN) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader. 
Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members 
may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their 
remarks and include any extraneous material that they would bring 
on the subject of this Special Order.
  
  The online version has been corrected to read: The SPEAKER pro 
tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3, 2017, 
the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. RASKIN) is recognized for 60 
minutes as the designee of the minority leader. GENERAL LEAVE Mr. 
RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may 
have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their 
remarks and include any extraneous material that they would bring 
on the subject of this Special Order.


 ========================= END NOTE ========================= 

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Maryland?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I am delighted to take this hour with 
several of my distinguished colleagues to talk about a matter of moral, 
social, political, and economic urgency to the American people, which 
is the vast group of Americans who are living in poverty today.
  We are observing the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King's 
Poor People's March on Washington, the Poor People's Campaign, which he 
was organizing and starting work on shortly before his assassination. 
The Poor People's March on Washington took place even after the death 
of Dr. King.
  Today, there is a new Poor People's Campaign, a national call for 
moral revival that has been working for the last 2 years, reaching out 
to communities across the country, working in more than 35 States 
across America in order to put in the very forefront of the public 
consciousness the fact that tens of millions of our fellow citizens 
simply don't have enough money to meet the basic needs of life.
  The Poor People's Campaign has met with tens of thousands of 
Americans and witnessed the courage and strength of a lot of poor 
people across the country, and they have gathered testimony from 
hundreds of individual Americans. A number of the testimonials will be 
read this evening by Members of Congress in this Special Order.
  The testimony we are going to read powerfully reinforces the 
empirical assessment conducted by the Poor People's Campaign and the 
Institute for Policy Studies about the effect of systemic poverty, 
racism, ecological devastation, and militarism in the country. ``The 
Souls of Poor Folk'' report reveals how the evils of these interrelated 
problems are persistent, pervasive, and perpetuated by a distorted 
moral narrative that must be challenged today.
  We believe that, when Americans across the country see the faces and 
the facts that are represented in this testimony and by this report, 
America will be moved deeply to change things. When confronted with the 
undeniable truth of the indignity and the cruelty of poor circumstances 
that so many of our fellow Americans are living under, we believe that 
millions more Americans will join the ranks of those who are determined 
to see an end to poverty in our lifetime.
  I am joined by a number of my colleagues this evening who will come 
up

[[Page H5189]]

and read some of the testimonials as well as give thoughts of their 
own. I will be interspersing some commentary of my own as I bring up my 
colleagues. I am beginning first with my colleague Gwen Moore from 
Wisconsin.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Wisconsin (Ms. Moore), 
who is a great leader for the people of Wisconsin and a terrific 
spokesperson for poor people across the country.
  Ms. MOORE. Mr. Speaker, as you mentioned, the Poor People's Campaign 
was a national call for a moral revival.
  What we are doing here now: We are reengaging the Poor People's 
Campaign for the nonviolent economic reform movement that the Reverend 
Dr. Martin Luther King was organizing when he was assassinated in 1968.
  This resurgence is being called the most extensive wave of nonviolent 
direct action in our Nation's history. What this resurgence recognizes 
is that Dr. King was right, that the trifecta of racism, poverty, and 
militarism are interconnected. Today they are trapping more than 140 
million Americans in poverty and low wealth, and many of them are 
children and veterans.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to talk to you about one of Dr. King's 
triple evils, militarism. I want to talk about it because we have a 
total volunteer Army now. We don't have the draft. So the young people 
who are being recruited into our military today are young people, often 
from low-income households, who are seeking an opportunity, and they 
are being seduced into the military with promises of technical 
training, bonuses, and college.
  I would like to share with you a letter from one of those people, Mr. 
Brock McIntosh of Illinois. He says:

       This way of injecting the poisonous drugs of hate into 
     veins of people, normally humane, cannot be reconciled with 
     wisdom, justice, and love.
       I would like to tell you all about the precise moment I 
     realized that there was poison in me. I am the child of a 
     nurse and a factory worker in the heartland of Illinois, the 
     family of blue collar and service workers.
       At the height of the Iraq war, military recruiters at my 
     high school attracted me with signup bonuses and college 
     assistance that some saw as their ticket out. For me, I hoped 
     it was my ticket up, providing opportunities that I once felt 
     were out of reach.
       Two years later, when I was 20 years old, I was standing 
     over the body of a 16-year-old Afghan boy. A roadside bomb he 
     was building prematurely detonated. He was covered in 
     shrapnel and burns and now lay sedated after having one of 
     his hands amputated by our medics. His other hand had the 
     callused roughness of a farmer or a shepherd.
       As he lay there with a peaceful expression, I studied the 
     details of his face and caught myself rooting for him: ``If 
     this boy knew me,'' I thought, ``he wouldn't want to kill 
     me.'' And here I am, I am supposed to want to kill him, and I 
     feel bad that I wanted him to live.
       Now, that is the poisoned mind. That is the militarized 
     mind. And all the opportunities afforded me by the military 
     can't repay the cost of war on my soul.
       It is poor folks who carry the burden of war for the elites 
     who send them. A working-class boy from Illinois, sent 
     halfway around the world to kill a young farmer--how did we 
     get here? How did this crazy war economy come to be?
       First, there is the demand. A society that feels 
     perpetually threatened perpetually prepares for war, even in 
     the time of peace. To do this requires a military industrial 
     complex, a vast war economy whose charters, profits, stocks, 
     and jobs depend on permanent militarization and whose fortune 
     prospers most in times of war.
       Secondly, there is the supply. A Nation that wants to 
     attract volunteers to its military and care for veterans 
     provides opportunities that will lure recruits who are 
     predominantly working-class folks with limited opportunities.
       We need a Poor People's Campaign to amplify the voices like 
     this, of regular folks, above the lobby of a militarized 
     industry, a poisoned economy, to demand jobs in industries 
     other than war-making, to demand opportunities for working-
     class folks that don't require killing other working-class 
     folks.
       We need a Poor People's Campaign to demand justice for 
     people of color, killed by militarized police forces, a 
     poisoned law enforcement.
       We need a Poor People's Campaign to transform a militarized 
     politic, a poisoned Congress, and a poisoned White House that 
     proves their toughness with chest beating and unites their 
     base with war drumming.
       War always has a way of distracting our attention and 
     perverting our priorities. We need a Poor People's Campaign 
     to organize for racial, economic, and ecological justice, to 
     force these issues to the front and rectify our Nation's 
     agenda.

  Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I thank Ms. Moore for that powerful 
testimony.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Washington (Ms. 
Jayapal), my colleague.
  Ms. JAYAPAL. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his leadership in 
the Progressive Caucus and thank all my colleagues for the deep 
devotion that they have shown over the years to addressing racism, 
poverty, and inequality.
  It is my honor to help bring a light, shine a light, on the stories 
of men and women around the country who are fighting to make ends meet. 
These are our neighbors, our brothers, our children, our parents, our 
friends, and they are struggling.
  Here is an incredible statistic: Across the United States today, 67 
percent of all Americans do not even have $1,000 in their savings 
accounts. That means they can't take care of a leak in the roof; they 
can't take care of a sick child; and if they don't get paid sick days, 
they don't get to take care of an aging parent. They are focused merely 
on surviving and not on thriving. That is outrageous for a country of 
our wealth.
  It is time for us to lift up the American people who are the bedrock, 
the national bedrock, of our country: the teacher who spends more time 
with our children than any other but hasn't yet been compensated for 
that; the domestic workers and the caregivers who take care of our 
elderly, our homes, and our lives with their grace, strength, 
compassion, and efficiency; the laborers who build the foundations of 
the homes and the workplaces that we stand on, live and work in; the 
women in every single industry who have faced disrespect, unequal pay, 
but are the glue that hold our society and our families together; the 
farmworkers who pick the food we eat; the nurses who listen to our 
hearts and bring us back to wellness; the sanitation workers; the parks 
people; the oceanographers; the scientists; the servers; the artists; 
the advocates who shine a light on the most vulnerable, the poorest, 
among us.
  These are the people who have come together as the Poor People's 
Campaign under the incredible leadership, the visionary leadership, of 
Reverend William Barber, and with a huge coalition of organizations to 
fight against racism, poverty, inequality, militarism, and ecological 
devastation that continue to plague our country still today.
  Mr. Speaker, I am proud to join Representative Raskin and others as 
we tell their stories today. I am proud to stand with these courageous 
soldiers for peace and for justice as we fight for equity, and I thank 
them for leading with love, with generosity, and with abundance.
  One of those people is Reverend Sarah Monroe from my home State of 
Washington. I wanted to start by reading her testimony:

       I wanted to start by speaking to the context I am in. I am 
     speaking as a Christian theologian. I am speaking as a person 
     working in one of the least religious parts of the country. 
     And I am also speaking, more specifically, as a pastor and an 
     Episcopal priest in Grays Harbor County. This is a rural 
     community on the Pacific coastline of Washington State.
       I also grew up in this county. We face a postindustrial 
     economy. Timber was our main industry, and today it is gone. 
     We live in a context where 46 percent of our people are on 
     public assistance and one out of 25 people are homeless. We 
     are a majority White community just south of the Quinault 
     Indian Nation, who were and continue to be victims of 
     genocide.
       We have very little legal industry to employ our people, 
     which means that our people turn to a black-market economy 
     that most often sells and trades drugs, sex, just about 
     everything else, and also brings our young people into 
     extensive gang involvement.
       So many of our most struggling people, both White and 
     Native, are very young. They are millennials. They are 
     teenagers who have never had a steady income, many of whom 
     have been incarcerated as young as 8.
       So, in this context, morally, we face a lot of issues, and 
     three of those I want to talk about right now.
       First, we as an organization are committed to lifting up 
     the leadership and the agency of poor and struggling people. 
     e:

                              {time}  1715

       We believe that God takes the side of the poor. And we 
     believe that Jesus built the poor people's movement. We 
     believe in raising up young leaders from the streets, from 
     the jails, from the homeless encampments, from the trailer 
     parks in Grays Harbor County. And we believe that they are 
     the only

[[Page H5190]]

     moral voices that can save us and that can lead us to 
     liberation.
       We believe that the outcasts and the sex workers and the 
     drug addicted will find their own healing and will bring that 
     healing to us all. We believe that no poor people's movement 
     or campaign can be built without this fundamental commitment.
       As one example of that, we had a group over this past 
     Easter of young men in jail, and they organized their own 
     Bible study. They fasted and prayed. And they came to us and 
     said, from Isaiah 58, which they were reading and studying, 
     that they were called to be the Restorers of the Streets with 
     Dwellings.
       Second, in this county, as in so many other places across 
     this country, we face the moral issue of State violence. What 
     I mean by this is that poor people in this country are 
     systematically disenfranchised at every turn. That means that 
     the county has money for militarized police equipment, but 
     not for housing. The county and the cities in this county 
     have resources for consultants to build the tourist industry, 
     but not for providing a path out of poverty for young people.
       But what I also mean is that our people across lines of 
     race face extensive police brutality. Death, beatings, 
     shakedowns, and the use--and really the extensive use--of a 
     bench warrant system that ensures that if you are young and 
     you are poor, you are likely to have a warrant that allows 
     you to be stopped or chased at any time.
       Most of our young people go from the juvenile system to an 
     early felony for drug possession or property crime and spend 
     most of their lives in and out of jail and prison where they 
     also experience extensive and institutionalized violence. 
     State power now, as in the time of Jesus, is used to 
     violently repress people and to deprive them of their rights.
       But last, we are theologically committed to hope. And for 
     us, hope is not a feeling, because we face powers that are 
     larger than us at every turn, and we know that we face 
     impossible odds. We face a staggering amount of personal and 
     communal trauma. We openly stand against the narrative of 
     White supremacy that has often been fed to our people, and we 
     believe in the power of the Gospel.
       We believe in the power of the moral voice of the people 
     waking up and claiming their own dignity, even when they are 
     taught to deny it at every turn. Claiming their own power 
     when they are taught that they are powerless. We believe that 
     we are a resurrection people. Even when Jesus was murdered by 
     empire, and I said this in a sermon a couple of years ago for 
     Easter, that he rose again, and, in rising, God gave the 
     finger to every power in this world that seeks to oppress the 
     poor and keep us down.

  I thank the reverend from our community for that testimony and that 
story. We have other stories, but I want to make sure other Members 
have a chance to tell theirs as well.
  Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I thank Ms. Jayapal for her eloquent 
statement and thank her for her leadership here in Congress.
  One of the shocking findings of the Poor People's Campaign is that 
there are nearly 140 million Americans, more than 43 percent of people 
in our country who are either legally poor, living below the poverty 
line, or low income in the United States, which is the world's richest 
Nation, and we are at the richest moment in our history today.
  And yet, we still have 140 million people who simply don't have 
enough money to meet the basic expenses of existence. This should not 
be a matter of partisan politics. It should be a matter of concern to 
everybody on both sides of the aisle and across the political spectrum.
  Here is President Dwight Eisenhower speaking in April of 1953. On 
April 16, 1953, he said:

       Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every 
     rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from 
     those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are 
     not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. 
     It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its 
     scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern 
     bomber, President Eisenhower said, is this: a modern brick 
     school in more than 30 cities, 2 electric power plants, 2 
     hospitals, a half million bushels of wheat, 8,000 new homes.

  And he said:

       This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense, this 
     cloud of threatening war that is paid for by the treasure of 
     our people.

  So we are appealing to people across the political spectrum at this 
time of roaring stock market and trumpeted claims of great wealth and 
bounty in the society to look at the costs of social and economic 
inequality; that is, what it is like looking, not from the top down, 
but from the bottom up at the situation with wealth in America.
  I am delighted now to yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. 
Khanna), my distinguished colleague, who has been a great champion of 
putting the question of poverty and economic inequality at the 
forefront of our discussions here.
  Mr. KHANNA. Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Raskin for his 
leadership in putting focus on the Poor People's Campaign and his 
advocacy for so many issues of economic justice and racial justice.
  I want to join my colleagues in recognizing the extraordinary moment 
in this country that the Poor People's Campaign has had under Reverend 
Barber's leadership. There was a panel that Senator Warren had a few 
days ago where Reverend Barber was there and ordinary individuals were 
testifying about their experiences, the people we should be hearing in 
Congress.
  I want to share two quotes, and then share some testimony.
  One is what Reverend Barber said, which, in my view, makes him one of 
the great civil rights leaders in this country. He said:

       I would rather join with you and die trying to change the 
     moral direction of this Nation than to live and die and it be 
     written on my epitaph: ``Lived in the time when moral dissent 
     was necessary. And he, and they, said nothing.''

  That requires such courage, and it is so believable.
  When Dr. Barber was with a number of others at the hearing, they had 
this chant that before the Poor People's Campaign will fail, they will 
go to jail. And that sense of civil disobedience for a moral cause is 
part of the great tradition of our Nation and what has brought change.
  I want to thank Reverend Barber for being such a moral leader and 
everyone who is risking arrest, risking their life for justice.
  Now, I am honored to read the testimony of Paul Boden, who is the 
Western Regional Advocacy Project lead in my home State of California. 
He writes:

       My name is Paul Boden, and I am with the Western Regional 
     Advocacy Project lead. We are based out of California, 
     Colorado, and Oregon with core member groups doing local 
     organizing around poverty and homelessness issues in 10 
     communities. I am testifying today about the advent of 
     contemporary homelessness in the early 1980s and the 
     connection to neoliberal economics and how that has played 
     out over the past 35 years.
       In doing this research, we found that with 2 less attack 
     submarines, 29 less fighter jets, and 2 less combat ships, we 
     would more than triple all of the funding that is currently 
     dedicated to public housing capital investments, public 
     housing maintenance, and all of the Federal homeless 
     programs. Clearly, these spending priorities have nothing to 
     do with security or the need for an investment in our 
     military complex.
       As part of the consequence of the advent of homelessness 
     that this kind of approach to governance created, we've 
     spoken to 1,600 homeless communities, and 82 percent of them 
     have reported that they are getting arrested, harassed, and 
     ticketed. And we know the fines-and-fee-games that local 
     governments play. 77 percent of these people are getting that 
     same kind of policing activity for sitting or laying down on 
     a sidewalk. 75 percent for loitering. Sleeping, standing, and 
     sitting are criminal offenses when you are the population 
     that is being targeted by local government for removal from 
     those communities. And this is happening, unfortunately, in 
     communities across the United States.
       My research also brought out very clearly and undeniably 
     that these are the same policing programs, these are the same 
     laws, the same racist and classist policing programs that 
     were used with the Anti-Okie laws, with the Sundown towns, 
     with the Japanese-American Exclusion Act, with the ugly laws, 
     and with the Jim Crow laws. The darker your skin color, the 
     greater your disability, the poorer you are, you are way more 
     likely to be a target of these policing programs, and that is 
     the way it has been playing out for years.
       We have written legislation and gotten it introduced in 
     California, Oregon, and Colorado. We had introduced it 8 
     times. We got crushed 8 times. But we are going to keep 
     bringing it back until the final answer is yes. Our law, our 
     legislation would make it illegal for local government to 
     criminalize life-sustaining activities and activities that we 
     all commit: eating, sleeping, sitting, standing still. We all 
     do that. To criminalize doing it is to purposely and 
     maliciously create legislation specifically aimed at 
     enforcement only applying to some people. That is us, all of 
     us.

  Paul Boden's words are ones I hope this entire country will hear. And 
as we are listening to the voices of so many people marching in our 
streets in Washington, I hope we will take some inspiration from their 
courage, their courage far exceeding any of ours in this body, and be 
inspired to do the

[[Page H5191]]

right thing and fight for economic justice and the policies that they 
recommend that would help alleviate poverty and help the working poor 
and poor people across this Nation.
  Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Khanna so much for his very 
moving statement that he made.
  I yield now to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee), my 
colleague, who has been a terrific champion for economic equity and 
social justice in our country. I am delighted to yield to her now.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Congressman Raskin for 
his leadership, consistent leadership, on these issues. And certainly, 
I think, the recognition of the fact that the poor of this Nation, both 
in the biblical sense of our faith or the document of your faith, the 
poor have always been acknowledged, and, in a certain sense, in the 
Christian Bible honored.
  And it is a sad state of affairs for us to come to this point in the 
Nation to realize that our poor are suffering at large numbers and that 
there is no relief.
  I know that Dr. King, some 50 years ago, as he was planning the Poor 
People's march--and many of us realized that he was not able to fulfill 
it for he was shot by an assassin's bullet on April 4, 1968. But the 
valiant people went forward with his dream of eliminating poverty. And 
I am reminded of his words: Injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere.
  And so I speak today of the sprinkling, the harsh sprinkling of 
poverty and injustices in this Nation today, and I make it a very 
special message to the leader of the free world, who has every power to 
collaborate with this important body, to make commitments to end the 
very conditions that Dr. King, some 50 years ago, sought to come to 
Washington that was ultimately proceeded with by leaders of the 
Southern Christian Leadership Conference and poor people from around 
the Nation.

                              {time}  1730

  They might not have succeeded specifically, but they did bring to the 
Nation's eyes and hearts the violence of poverty among Native 
Americans, Latinos, African Americans, poor, and Caucasians in places 
beyond the South. And, interestingly enough, that poverty continues.
  I speak, in particular, of certain elements that show our lack of 
concern and where we must get steady and back on track. First, what all 
of us have been speaking about over the last couple of days and weeks 
is the untoward and the impossible thought of taking children away from 
parents who are fleeing poverty, violence, and desperation to come.
  We know that, in my home State of Texas, a migrant was separated from 
his family and committed suicide while in Federal detention. Injustice 
anywhere is injustice everywhere. And a mother, while breastfeeding her 
young child, while both were in Federal detention, had her child ripped 
away from her arms. That must stop. That is a poverty of mind, a 
poverty of heart and spirit.
  I want to thank Reverend Barber, who will be headed to Washington on 
June 23 with the massive, largest expression of those who still, 
unfortunately, live in the shadows, not of their own making. When I say 
that, they are not in the shadows, they are there, but seeming there in 
the shadows with respect to the policies of this administration, the 
terrible Robin Hood tax bill that has created nothing but a balloon of 
wealth to the top 1 percent, so much so that the wages of Americans 
have not gone up. When you travel throughout the country and in my 
district, most people don't know, working Americans have no idea that 
any tax bill was passed that was supposed to impact them because it has 
not impacted them, and the only thing that is happening is a flush of 
corporate profits.
  Now, it would seem that one is criticizing that success. We are 
criticizing the unequalness of what happens to working families who 
work every day and have not had a wage increase.
  Then out of that comes the implosion of the Affordable Care Act, 
brick by brick being taken away. I know of people who have told me that 
their loved one was put in a wheelchair and pointed toward the door: 
Get out. And the Affordable Care Act provided that there were no caps 
on one's insurance until you got better in the hospital. But because of 
the atmosphere, and the climate, and the constant attack on the 
Affordable Care Act, hospitals are feeling the burden and are sending 
people out the door who are not well.
  Even more frightening for people are those who have preexisting 
conditions, one of the glaring parts of the Affordable Care Act, one 
where people were waving the flag. They were excited, if they had a 
preexisting condition, which, before the Affordable Care Act, it could 
have been acne or it could have been pregnancy. But now, that coverage 
and protection for our loved ones who may have preexisting conditions, 
loved ones who could function with healthcare and not be relegated to 
be homebound because they were so sick they could not work.
  This is a terrible approach to how you run a country.
  In these last two points, I want to make it clear how important it is 
to recognize that poverty still is. And not only Dr. King, but we 
recognize that Robert Francis Kennedy, also struck down by an 
assassin's bullet, worked in his campaign for President in 1968 to 
bring to the attention of Americans the fact that it is so important to 
realize poverty exists in the worst way in the mountains and valleys, 
and urban centers, and that Americans should stand up against poverty.
  Poverty impacts the criminal justice system. In 1968, African 
Americans were about five to four times as likely as Whites to be 
imprisoned, or jailed. Compared to today, they are six to four times as 
likely as Whites to be incarcerated, which is troubling, given the 
population difference.
  As Judge Learned Hand observed, ``If we are to keep our democracy, 
there must be one commandment: Thou shalt not ration justice.''
  It is important that, as we match meaningful prison reform, we must 
match it with meaningful sentencing reduction. We must stop the tide of 
poverty by ending mass incarceration. And we must, in fact, recognize 
that we must fight against recidivism, open the doors of opportunity 
for ex-felons as they come out, and make sure that we are reducing 
those mandatory minimums that have kept people in jail 15, 20, 25, or 
30 years away from their family so that their children grow up without 
them.
  We must recognize that poverty attacks at a very young age. It moves 
people toward the juvenile justice system, and it only causes them to 
believe this is the only thing that they can engage in. I have 
introduced legislation to give hope to the juvenile justice system: no 
more solitary confinement; alternative placement; and if they are able, 
as they rehabilitate, we ban the box on saying that they have been in 
the juvenile system.
  I want to stop homelessness. That is what Dr. King knew had to end to 
end that aspect of poverty, and to, of course, end it among our 
veterans.
  I want to end the idea of $23 billion out of SNAP's program.
  And, of course, I want to recognize that when we have these 
devastating storms, the amount of homelessness goes up. It is so very 
important to recognize the devastation of Hurricane Harvey, that there 
are those who are still unhoused, and to make a commitment after every 
disaster that we make those communities whole: volcanos, tornadoes, 
fires, and floods.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for allowing us to be here 
tonight. And I want to conclude by showing this Robin Hood tax bill, 
stealing from the poor. This year, the administration, President Trump, 
proposed to slash housing benefits by $11 billion because we had to pay 
for the tax cut. Weeks after that tax cut was passed, President Trump 
proposed to pay for the bill by slashing housing benefits and other 
supports for low-income people who struggle to make ends meet. And here 
we stand with the $1.5 trillion deficit.
  So, what is our message? That we must never give up in this fight. We 
must stand in the tradition of Dr. King. We must be reminded of those 
who are coming to Washington in the coming days. We must say to have 
mercy on them. And, of course, as Reverend Barber would always seek, 
that they be blessed, blessed with mercy and success, as they stand 
against poverty and stand for the ending and elimination of poverty

[[Page H5192]]

  Mr. Speaker, I thank the Congressional Progressive Caucus for 
anchoring this important Special Order.
  In the spirit of the 50th Anniversary of the Poor People's Campaign, 
we are here today to bring the nation's attention to the issues that 
affect them: immigration, health care, paid sick leave, criminal 
justice, homelessness, and environmental justice.
  We must act without delay regarding the ``zero-tolerance'' policy 
that separates families apprehended on the southern border by U.S. 
Border Patrol.
  As the member of the House Committees on Homeland Security and former 
Ranking Member of the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Maritime and 
Border Security, I cannot think of a situation more devastating than 
having the government forcibly separate a parent from her child to a 
place unknown, for a fate uncertain, absent any form of communication.
  Every day, hundreds of persons, ranging from infants and toddlers to 
adolescents and adults, flee violence, oppression, and economic 
desperation from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, seeking safe 
harbor in the United States.
  They are not criminals or terrorists, they are refugees seeking 
asylum.
  The level of callousness displayed by this administration towards 
those seeking refuge within our borders is shocking.
  Every day that passes seemingly reveals another horrific tale of a 
migrant interacting with Trump's border patrol forces and then being 
worse for the wear because of it.
  We know of the immigrant who was deported to Mexico, a country he 
left when he was three years old, only to be murdered by gang violence 
just three weeks after his forced return.
  We know of the young mother, separated from her children at the 
border, left to wonder about their fate, safety, future, and whether 
she would ever see them again.
  In my home state of Texas, a migrant who was separated from his 
family, committed suicide while in federal detention.
  A mother who, while breastfeeding her young child when both were in 
federal detention, had her child ripped away from her arms.
  This cannot be how we make America great again, this is how we make 
America hateful again.
  This week brought news that the Trump administration is seeking to 
build a tent city at Fort Bliss for the purpose of housing children 
separated from their parents.
  This is unconscionable, outrageous and it must stop.
  I have written to the Secretary of the Department of Homeland 
Security calling for an immediate end to this policy.
  America is the envy of the world, in large part because of our 
welcoming and generous nature.
  For over 100 years, those seeking a better life have been drawn to 
this land by the words on the Statue of Liberty: ``Give me your tired, 
your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched 
refuse of your teeming shore.''
  The current president fails this obligation, but he is who he is.
  We must be who we are: a loving, embracing people, eager to share the 
bounty of this country to all who seek it.
  The President and GOP have promised for years now to create a plan to 
improve health insurance for everybody.
  But that promise has not been kept.
  The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has significantly improved the 
availability, affordability, and quality of health care for tens of 
millions of Americans, including millions who previously had no health 
insurance at all.
  Americans are rightly frightened by Republican attempts to repeal the 
ACA without having in place a superior new plan that maintains 
comparable coverages and comparable consumer choices and protections.
  It is beyond dispute that the ``Pay More For Less'' plan proposed by 
House Republicans a few months ago fails this test miserably.
  The Republican ``Pay More For Less Act'' is a massive tax cut for the 
wealthy, paid for on the backs of America's most vulnerable, the poor 
and working class households.
  This ``Robin Hood in reverse'' bill is unprecedented and breathtaking 
in its audacity--no bill has ever tried to give so much to the rich 
while taking so much from the poor and working class.
  This Republican scheme gives gigantic tax cuts to the rich, and pays 
for it by taking insurance away from 24 million people and raising 
costs for the poor and middle class.
  It is despicable and shameful that those elected to serve their 
people would rather see their pockets full than their constituents 
healthy and well.
  Fifty years or so ago the American Labor Movement was little more 
than a group of dreamers, and look at it now.
  From coast to coast, in factories, stores, warehouse and business 
establishments of all kinds, industrial democracy is at work.
  From ending sweatshop conditions, unlivable wages, and 70-hour 
workweeks, we have come a long way from our practices over 100 years 
ago.
  However, we still have work to be done.
  Currently in America, there are no federal legal requirements for 
paid sick leave.
  For companies subject to the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), the 
Act does require unpaid sick leave and are only eligible to take FMLA 
after they have worked for their employer for at least 12 months, 
worked for at least 1,250 hours over the previous 12 months, and work 
at a location where at least 50 employees are employed by the employer 
within 75 miles.
  According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, state and local 
government workers were more likely than workers in private industry to 
have access to paid sick leave but less likely to have access to paid 
vacations and holidays.
  As with workers in private industry, state and local government 
workers in the lower wage categories were less likely to have access to 
paid sick leave than workers in higher wage categories.
  Workers in lower wage categories were less likely to have access to 
paid sick leave than more highly paid workers.
  For private-industry workers with an average wage in the lowest 10 
percent, 27 percent had access to paid sick leave; among workers with 
an average wage in the highest 10 percent, 87 percent had access to 
paid sick leave.
  This is an atrocity.
  We must allow for all of our constituents to be able to work within a 
healthy environment.
  In 1968, African Americans were about 5.4 times as likely as whites 
to be in prison or jail; compared to today, African Americans are 6.4 
times as likely as whites to be incarcerated, which is especially 
troubling given that whites are also much more likely to be 
incarcerated now than they were in 1968.
  It is clear the inequalities and disparities that ignited hundreds of 
American cities in the 1960s still exist and have not been eliminated 
over the last half-century.
  As Judge Learned Hand observed, ``If we are to keep our democracy, 
there must be one commandment: thou shalt not ration justice.''
  Reforming the criminal justice system so that it is fairer and 
delivers equal justice to all persons is one of the great moral 
imperatives of our time.
  For reform to be truly meaningful, we must look at every stage at 
which our citizens interact with the system--from policing in our 
communities and the first encounter with law enforcement, to the 
charging and manner of attaining a conviction, from the sentence 
imposed to reentry and collateral consequences.
  The need for meaningful prison reform cannot be overstated because 
being the world's leader in incarceration is neither morally nor 
fiscally sustainable for the United States, or the federal government, 
the nation's largest jailer.
  For individuals who have paid their debt, the reentry process is 
paved with tremendous, and often insurmountable, obstacles resulting in 
recidivism rates as high as 75 percent in some areas.
  More must be done to ensure that the emphasis on incarceration is 
matched with an equal emphasis on successful reentry so that the 
approximately 630,000 individuals who reenter society each year are 
prepared to be successful in civilian life.
  This is why I have also strongly supported and cosponsored 
legislation that will allow those with a criminal conviction to have a 
fair chance to compete for jobs with federal agencies and contractors.
  I have also been working for many years to stop the over-
criminalization of our young people.
  Today, more and more young children are being arrested, incarcerated, 
and detained in lengthy out-of-home placements.
  Harsh and lengthy penalties handed down to young offenders increase 
their risk of becoming physically abused, emotionally traumatized, and 
reduce their chance of being successfully reintegrated back into their 
communities.
  I have introduced and supported legislation to help reform how youth 
and juveniles are treated to reduce contact and recidivism within the 
juvenile and criminal justice system; to help protect them from a 
system that turns them into life-long offenders.
  Just as we need to minimize the conviction of innocent people, we 
must address the unnecessary loss of life that can result from police 
and civilian interactions.
  Effective law enforcement requires the confidence of the community 
that the law will be enforced impartially and equally.
  That confidence has been eroded substantially in recent years by 
numerous instances of excessive use of lethal forces.
  There is no higher priority than improving the peacefulness of these 
interactions and rebuilding the trust between law enforcement and the 
communities they serve and protect.
  Currently, over half a million people in the United States on any 
given night are experiencing homelessness.

[[Page H5193]]

  Now that Congress has lifted the low spending caps required by law 
for defense and domestic programs, lawmakers should ensure the highest 
level of funding possible for affordable housing.
  When U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)'s 
resources are cut, families may lose access to stable housing, putting 
them at increased risk of homelessness.
  This year, President Trump proposed to slash housing benefits by $11 
billion compared to current levels.
  Weeks after passing a massive tax bill that grows our deficit by $1.5 
trillion, the President proposed to pay for the tax bill by slashing 
support for low income people who struggle to make ends meet.
  HUD and The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) affordable 
housing programs have lifted millions of families out of poverty.
  Without this investment, many of these families would be homeless, 
living in substandard or overcrowded conditions, or struggling to meet 
other basic needs.
  As well, homelessness among the American veteran population is on the 
rise in the United States and we must be proactive in giving back to 
those who have given so much to us.
  Today, in our country, there are approximately 107,000 veterans (male 
and female) who are homeless on any given night.
  And perhaps twice as many (200,000) experience homelessness at some 
point during the course of a year.
  We have an obligation to provide our veterans the assistance needed 
to avoid homelessness, which includes adequately funding for programs 
such as Veterans Administration Supportive Housing (VASH) that provide 
case-management services, adequate housing facilities, mental health 
support, and address other areas that contribute to veteran 
homelessness.
  We must commit ourselves to the hard but necessary work of ending 
veteran homelessness in America because providing a home for veterans 
to come home to every night is the very least we can do.
  As one of the original members of the House Committee on Homeland 
Security, I am well aware of the range of threats that our nation has 
faced.
  However, I believe that the threats posed by climate change have been 
ignored to our nation's detriment.
  Climate change is the challenge of our lifetime and for far too many 
years we have heard the warnings from prominent scientists regarding 
the danger to people if nothing is done to reverse the amounts of Green 
House gases released into the atmosphere.
  All of you will recall the devastation that Hurricane Harvey wreaked 
on the Houston community last fall.
  Neither Houston nor any other city in the nation had ever experienced 
flooding of the magnitude caused by Harvey.
  In addition to the immense costs of recovery and reconstruction, the 
cost of human lives is always immeasurable.
  If we do not collectively and concretely address the looming threat 
of climate change, we must prepare for many more devastating natural 
disasters that destroy lives and livelihoods.
  In 2015, the Pentagon published a report that found climate change to 
be a security risk, because it degrades living conditions, human 
security and the ability of governments to meet the basic needs of 
their populations.
  Communities within the United States and countries around the world 
that already are fragile and have limited resources are significantly 
more vulnerable to disruption and far less likely to respond 
effectively and be resilient to new challenges caused by climate 
change.
  The poor and marginalized who live in areas that already prone to the 
consequences of severe weather because the land was cheaper or unwanted 
by developers will suffer the early consequence of climate change, but 
the damage will not stop there it will be felt by all.
  As many of you well know, Greenhouse Gases such as carbon dioxide 
(CO2) absorb heat (infrared radiation) emitted from Earth's 
surface.
  Increases in these concentrations of these gases in Earth's 
atmosphere are causing our planet to warm by trapping more of this 
heat.
  Warmer temperatures have caused the Arctic Ice sheets to melt at an 
unprecedented rate.
  This winter we have seen extreme temperature swings in some parts of 
the country, while in others they have seen no winter at all.
  We are at a point where we can no longer wait for action only from 
Washington D.C., we must begin to take action in our own cities, 
counties and states to prepare for the challenges we will face if the 
rise in temperatures is not abated.
  It will continue my efforts in Washington to make sure that we have 
flood study of the greater Houston area to determine the implications 
of flooding and development in our area.
  I urge my colleagues in Congress, and all Americans, to look at what 
unites us rather than what divides us.
  We are linked by our compassion, and bound by the fundamental edict 
of the American Dream that says we will strive to provide our children 
with a better life than we had.
  We can, and we must, find the common ground necessary to make this 
dream a reality for Americans of every race and creed, nationality and 
religion, gender and sexual orientation; indeed for every American 
wherever he or she may live in this great land regardless of what he or 
she looks like or who they may love.
  We can do it; after all, we are Americans.
  Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Jackson Lee for her 
eloquent words.
  There is a distinction between misfortune and injustice. I know this 
because I am somebody who is a cancer survivor. If you wake up one day 
and a doctor tells you that you are suffering from stage III colon 
cancer, and you have not one but two jobs that you love, and 
constituents that you love, and work that you are engaged with, and a 
great family, and you are told that you have this terrible diagnosis, 
it can happen to anybody, and that is a misfortune in life. It happens 
to people in every State, in every city, and in every country all over 
the world every day.
  But, if you get a diagnosis like that and you can't get healthcare 
because you are too poor, or because you lost your job, or because, as 
it used to be, you loved the wrong person, that is not just a 
misfortune in life, that is an injustice because we can do something 
about that. We know how to organize society in such a way that 
everybody gets healthcare, that everybody gets the attention they need 
in the event of a catastrophic diagnosis like that.
  Life is hard enough with all of the sicknesses, the illnesses, the 
misfortunes, and the accidents that we don't need to compound the 
misfortunes of life with governmentally imposed injustice on people. 
The role of government has to be to liberate people from injustice and 
to alleviate the misfortunes of life.
  But now we have, here in Washington, a whole new public philosophy, 
which is government is a moneymaking operation for the President, and 
the President's friends, and the President's business associates, and 
the people who surround him. That is the new royalist vision of 
government that we have in America. It is a betrayal of the original 
conception, which is that government would be an instrument of the 
common good of advancing the public interest of everybody in the 
country, not just the people who happen to use their wealth and their 
power to get into public office.
  Now, if you are poor in America today, you have a lot of problems. 
You have problems with healthcare. We know that health crises remain 
the single dominant cause of personal bankruptcy, not business 
bankruptcy, the kind that the President of the United States filed for 
five different times. Business bankruptcy is not caused by a sickness 
or an illness. Donald Trump was perfectly covered in healthcare while 
his businesses went bankrupt and he got covered. But we have millions 
of Americans who have been forced into bankruptcy because someone got 
sick and we didn't have a national health insurance policy to take care 
of them and they didn't have the private health insurance that they 
needed.
  As Congresswoman Jayapal told us, two-thirds of Americans don't have 
$1,000 to deal with a personal crisis, whether it is a healthcare 
crisis or something else. They don't have $1,000 to deal with it. And 
we know that for a serious kind of diagnosis, the bills can run in the 
tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars.
  Education is affected by poverty. It affects where you can live, what 
kind of schools your kids go to, and, if you have to move a lot the way 
that a lot of poor people do, it is disruptive of the continuity that 
the educators tell us is necessary for young people to make progress in 
school, if you are constantly being uprooted and shifted to another 
school or you have to deal with the various crises and agonies that 
attend to homelessness.
  Well, what about voting? Well, here is someone who provided some 
testimony about voting, from Kansas City, Missouri. Her name is Latifah 
Trezvant, with Stand Up Kansas City. She writes this:


[[Page H5194]]


  

       My name is Latifah Trezvant, and I work at Burger King, 
     where I make $9.50 an hour. I am a leader with Stand Up 
     Kansas City. As a low wage worker in America, I deal with a 
     lot. I don't have paid sick leave, and I don't make enough 
     money to afford all my basic needs, like a stable place to 
     live. And now, Missouri lawmakers want to make it harder for 
     people like me to vote.
       Earlier this year, we weren't able to afford our rent and 
     had to move out on a moment's notice. In the rush to pack up 
     all my stuff and find some place where I can lay my head, I 
     lost my ID. So I had to get a new State-issued ID. Should be 
     pretty simple, right?
       I go to the DMV office, and I am already knowing that I had 
     to have proof of address. As I walk to the window, I tell the 
     lady I need a new ID. She asked for my proof of address and I 
     show her my debit card statement. Immediately, she tells me, 
     ``There is nothing I can do for you.'' And she gives me a 
     piece of paper of the things I needed to use:
       A utility bill--I don't have that because I am homeless and 
     I stay with a friend.
       A paycheck--I don't have a paycheck because I had to leave 
     my last job when I couldn't afford reliable transportation so 
     I could get to work.
       A government check--I don't have that.
       A mortgage statement--well, I sure don't have that because 
     I am a low-wage worker and I can't even afford rent, let 
     alone a mortgage statement.
       Property tax--no.
       A housing rental contract--well, I am homeless, so no.
       A bank statement--I don't have a bank account. I don't have 
     enough money to open up a bank account and deal with all 
     those fees and penalties.
       Okay, so here, I am looking at this long list that I do not 
     have. I am so upset. I am standing in line looking at this 
     paper with tears running down my face.
       But there is one more way I can prove that I am a Missouri 
     resident: a voter registration card. Okay, I actually have 
     that because I plan on voting this year, for the first time 
     in my life, so I had to register back in March. So I go into 
     the election board and get a voter form to take back to the 
     DMV. Two days later, I finally get my ID.
       There are so many people in my shoes: unpaid workers living 
     in poverty, our elderly people, people who don't have a 
     State-issued ID. For us, it can be really hard, or even 
     impossible, to get an ID.

                              {time}  1745

       If Missouri passes amendment 6--which is an attempt to 
     restrict who could actually register to vote--over 220,000 
     people may lose their right to vote in our State. The people 
     who would be disenfranchised would be mostly elderly, 
     students, and low-wage workers like myself. Please make sure 
     that all people in our country have the right to vote. Fight 
     for America to be a country of freedom, justice, and equal 
     rights for everyone.

  There is one more. Because my grandfather used to say to us, you 
know, it is very expensive to be poor, and a lot of these statements 
that I read dealt with the way that people are essentially charged or 
taxed for being poor. So here is one that comes from Kentucky.

       My name is Mary Love, and I have testified in Frankfort, 
     Kentucky, and other places about the payday lending trap. 
     Fourteen years ago, when I was making a pretty good salary, I 
     came up short one month when the rent was due. I saw an ad 
     for a payday lender and I thought, ``This will be a good way 
     to cover the rent until I get to payday.'' So I applied for 
     their $200 loan. I gave them a check for $230, and I walked 
     away with the cash that I needed.
       When payday came around, I went into their office and gave 
     them $230 in cash, and I got my check back. But I wanted to 
     pay off a few more bills, so I wrote them another check that 
     same day for $400 plus $60 interest, and I walked away with 
     $400 cash. Next payday, I did the same thing, and the next 
     and the next and on and on for 2 years.
       Because I was paying them an exorbitant amount of 
     interest--$60 every 2 weeks--I could never catch up. Someone 
     told me that I paid over $1,400 in interest over 2 years, but 
     I sat down with my computer and recalculated that, and I 
     ended up paying them almost $2,880 in interest charges over 2 
     years.
       Payday lending as advertised is a one-time solution for 
     emergency financial needs, but all too often the story 
     doesn't end there. Many people like me get loan after loan 
     and end up paying an exorbitant amount of interest. I was 
     finally able to pay all my outstanding debts, but it took me 
     over 2 years to do it.
       The payday loan industry is making millions every year by 
     charging exorbitant interest rates and driving consumers 
     deeper into debt. I believe the Bible has something to say 
     about folks engaged in usury. It is past time that 
     politicians stopped letting them engage in this criminal 
     practice.

  Mr. Speaker, I am going to yield back to my friend, Ms. Jayapal, who 
has come back with further testimony to read.
  Ms. JAYAPAL. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Raskin for yielding.
  You know, that story about payday lending just reminded me of how in 
the State senate right before I came here, we had to fight back to make 
sure we stopped the rollback, because we actually were able, with 
activists from around our community, to pass some of the strongest laws 
that prevented payday lenders from taking advantage of people, with 
great off-ramps.
  Unfortunately, there were over and over again attempts to try to roll 
those back, and we at the Federal level need to make sure that the 
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is strong, so that we can make 
sure that these folks are not getting trapped in payday lending.
  So I know we are running short on time. I want to make sure we get 
some of these read. So let me read another one from my home State. This 
is testimony from Mashyla Buckmaster.

       I am 28 years old. I am a proud single mom of a beautiful 
     1-year-old named Ella. As of today, I am celebrating almost 2 
     years clean and sober. I live in Westport in Grays Harbor 
     County, Washington. I have spent 5 years of my life homeless.
       Once during my homelessness, a neighbor tried to assault me 
     by throwing a log through the window of the empty building 
     where I was squatting because he was so enraged that homeless 
     people were living on his block.
       I got Section 8 housing after my daughter was born just 
     before my organization began providing cold weather shelter 
     to our homeless members. For 110 days last winter, Chaplains 
     on the Harbor hosted about 20 people in our church, most of 
     them millennials who caught a record trying to survive in a 
     county with no good jobs; no decent, affordable housing; 
     horrible healthcare; and plenty of heroin.
       Business and property owners were outraged by our cold 
     weather shelter. Our homeless members were stalked by police. 
     Our pastor was threatened with vigilante violence. The same 
     man who had tried to attack me during my own time squatting 
     also assaulted a 19-year-old homeless member of our community 
     on church property and later attempted to run him over with a 
     truck.
       I volunteered to stay overnight at our church and keep 
     people safe while they slept. I stayed there through the 
     nights while the threats continued to pour in. I stayed 
     because my community stepped up to save my life, when the 
     rest of society didn't care whether I lived or died, and now 
     it was my turn to protect my community.
       I am joining the Poor People's Campaign because I need a 
     movement that is as tough as I am.
       Poor and homeless people get stereotyped like we are too 
     stupid or lazy to solve our own problems. I wasn't homeless 
     because I was stupid and lazy. I was homeless because our 
     country has no problem with pregnant mothers being homeless 
     in the dead of the winter, while just 2 hours away in 
     Seattle, the founders of Microsoft and Amazon have made 
     themselves the richest individuals on the planet. You tell me 
     who is messed up in this situation.
       Some of you might be suspicious about a Grays Harbor County 
     person getting up in front of this crowd, thinking, ``Aren't 
     they just a bunch of rednecks out there?'' Hell, yes, we are 
     rednecks. We are radical rednecks. We are hillbillies for the 
     liberation of all people. ``We are the living reminder that 
     when they threw out their white trash, they didn't burn it.'' 
     We are here to stand shoulder to shoulder with anybody 
     taking up this campaign, and trust me, we are the kind of 
     Scrappy you want on your side in a fight.

  Mr. Raskin, that testimony resonates for me, because I represent 
Seattle where we do have some of the biggest corporations. But I will 
tell you what, we also have 11,500 homeless people in Seattle. And it 
has been breaking my heart that my community, so tolerant, so 
wonderful, so inclusive, has been, unfortunately, turning anger of 
inequality in our system against people who are experiencing 
homelessness just like the testimony I just read.
  I want to read another one that also strikes home for me, because it 
is a testimony from the Fight for $15 in Massachusetts. As you know, I 
was proud to be on the committee that passed a $15 minimum wage in 
Seattle, proud to be one of the first cities in the Fight for $15.
  This is testimony from Deanna Butler, and this is from August of 
2016. She is in Massachusetts. I think I said that.

       I am a 31-year-old resident of the Dorchester area. I am a 
     fast-food worker and a member of the Fight for $15. I have 
     been working in the fast-food industry for over 15 years. I 
     work at the Shake Shack, and I make $11 an hour as an end 
     cashier. I am married with three children ages 8, 14, and 15. 
     My check is the only income for my family, because my husband 
     is disabled and battling with several health conditions.
       $11 an hour isn't much. I have worked other jobs, too. I 
     have worked in the retail industry and at the YMCA. But the 
     one thing I have found in all of those jobs is that anything 
     less than $15 an hour just isn't enough. It prevents families 
     like mine from thriving to our full potential.
       My family receives food stamps and MassHealth, which takes 
     off a heavy load,

[[Page H5195]]

     but I am still left to figure out how I am going to make my 
     $350 paycheck stretch for five people. School is about to 
     start again, and I have three kids getting ready to go back 
     to school. I have student loans that I have to pay back, but 
     I am also behind in bills, so I am left to prioritize which 
     bill I can afford to pay this month.
       Me and my family have been living in the shelter for 6 
     years--yes, 6 years--because I don't make enough to afford 
     market rate rent anywhere in the greater Boston area. I don't 
     understand how these multibillion-dollar corporations are 
     able to build an empire on the backs of low-wage workers and 
     get away with making millions in profits while we have 
     nowhere to live and have to depend on brothers and sisters to 
     help us make it through. My kids deserve so much more, and I 
     deserve so much more.
       That is why I am fighting for $15 an hour, so that one day 
     soon, I will be able to provide for my kids the way I have 
     always hoped to. I will be able to go back to school and 
     finish my medical billing program that I had to put on hold, 
     because making poverty wages and taking care of my family 
     made it challenging for me.
       We work hard. We deserve more. And people have started to 
     realize that $15 an hour is the new minimum wage standard. We 
     have been winning in cities across the country, and I hope 
     through this moral revival, we can build a tomorrow where not 
     only the rich matter, but we all matter.

  Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I thank Ms. Jayapal for participating in the 
Special Order.
  What does climate change have to do with poverty? Well, today we face 
accelerating extreme weather events, such as intensifying hurricanes 
that displaced and impoverished hundreds of thousands of citizens in 
Louisiana, Mississippi, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, New Jersey.
  Here is another way that climate change affects people in poverty: 
through healthcare events that take them out of the workforce.
  Here is the testimony from Liz Betty-Owens from Vermont. She writes:

       I am 26, a home care provider and a bartender. Just over a 
     year ago, I was diagnosed with Lyme disease and began a 
     lifelong battle with not only this crippling disease but also 
     the healthcare industry and my struggle to access the 
     healthcare I need.
       At 25, I was incredibly ill, attempting to continue my work 
     as a healthcare provider and making all of my healthcare 
     decisions not based on a doctor's recommendation, but based 
     on what my health insurance at the time would cover and what 
     I could afford with my meager out-of-pocket expenses. I 
     realized that BlueCross BlueShield of Vermont had more power 
     over my health and wellbeing than me or my doctor.
       I accumulated several thousand dollars of debt, and then, 
     in April, I was booted off my mom's insurance plan because I 
     turned 26. I began the 3-month process of registering for my 
     State's Medicare. I was unable to go to the doctor for months 
     while I was still showing symptoms and recovering from 
     initial treatment. I was held up in the process of trying to 
     prove I made such a small yearly income that I was in fact 
     eligible for the State's Green Mountain health plan. And 
     ever since I was finally accepted, I have had to try and 
     tread a careful line making sure I don't make too much 
     money and get booted off the State plan, risking fines 
     from lack of health insurance and, yet again, not having 
     access to the care that I need as I fight this 
     debilitating disease.
       It is devastating to experience the exhausting and harmful 
     approach of a healthcare system controlled by insurance 
     companies, Big Pharma, and hospital monstrosities that care 
     more about the bottom line than the needs of healthcare 
     workers and patients, rather than living in a society where 
     everyone can get the care they need and have it be solely 
     based on decisions between the individual and the doctor. It 
     is exhausting to know that I am already struggling with this 
     at the age of 26 and that I live in a rapidly aging State 
     where an entire generation will have to fight to get the care 
     they need. And home care providers like myself will be caught 
     in the crossfire of providing care services with working 
     people who are not allowed the resources to compensate for 
     the care that they actually need.
       It is also terrifying being diagnosed with Lyme disease, 
     which is transmitted by a tick bug that is infected by a 
     bacterium. As weather patterns continue to hit new extremes 
     because of climate change and the northeast continues to 
     warm, the number of infected tick bugs is only expected to 
     grow. The people at the greatest risk are those of us who 
     work outdoors growing food or working on farms, maintaining 
     State and Federal lands, and our heightened risk to this 
     disease is made even more terrifying by the continued threat 
     of our already limited access to healthcare.
       We need universal healthcare as a human right and a public 
     good, and not a commodity to buy and sell. We need this Poor 
     People's Campaign to unite the poor and dispossessed, and 
     indict the immoral status quo that produces poverty and is 
     ravaging our communities.

  Mr. Speaker, with those words, I yield back the balance of my time.

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