[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 173 (Thursday, October 31, 2019)]
[House]
[Pages H8713-H8714]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                RISE AND MAKE TOMORROW BETTER THAN TODAY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2019, the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Hill) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.


                             General Leave

  Ms. HILL of California. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that 
all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks 
and include extraneous material on the subject of my Special Order.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentlewoman from California?
  There was no objection.
  Ms. HILL of California. Madam Speaker, this is the last speech that I 
will give from this floor as a Member of Congress. I wasn't ready for 
my time here to come to an end so soon. It is a reality I am still 
grappling with, and I will be for a long time to come.
  I expected, or I at least hoped, to be here for as long as the voters 
of California's 25th District deemed me worthy of the honor of 
representing them. I thought I could make a difference here in making 
our community, our great country, and the world a better place for 
generations to come.
  I, like so many of my colleagues, ran for office because I believed 
that our political system was broken, controlled by the powerful and 
the wealthy, ignoring and failing the regular people that it is 
supposed to serve. I came here to give a voice to the unheard in the 
halls of power.
  I wanted to show young people, queer people, working people, and 
imperfect people that they belong here because this is the people's 
House. I fell short of that, and I am sorry.
  To every young person who saw themselves and their dreams reflected 
in me, I am sorry.
  To those who felt like I gave them hope in one of the darkest times 
in our Nation's history, I am sorry.
  To my family, my friends, my staff, my colleagues, my mentors, and to 
everyone who has supported and believed in me, I am sorry.
  To the thousands of people who spent hours knocking on doors in the 
hot summer Sun, who made countless phone calls, and who sacrificed more 
than I could ever know to give everything they could in every possible 
way so that I could be here, I am so, so sorry.
  And to every little girl who looked up to me, I hope that one day you 
can forgive me.
  The mistakes I made and the people I have hurt that led to this 
moment will haunt me for the rest of my life, and I have to come to 
terms with that.
  Ever since those images first came out, I barely left my bed. I have 
ignored all the calls and the texts. I went

[[Page H8714]]

to the darkest places that a mind can go, and I have shed more tears 
than I thought were possible.
  I have hidden from the world because I am terrified of facing the 
people that I let down. But I made it through because the people who 
loved me most dragged me back into the light and reminded me that I was 
stronger than that.
  To those of you who were by my side in my worst moments--you know who 
you are--I love you. I am so grateful, and I will never forget.
  And I am here today because so many of the people I let down--people 
close to me, supporters, colleagues, people I have never even met--told 
me to stand back up and that, despite all of my faults, they still 
believed in me and they were still counting on me. And I realized that 
hiding away and disappearing would be the one unforgivable sin.
  I will never shirk my responsibility for this sudden ending to my 
time here, but I have to say more because this is bigger than me.
  I am leaving now because of a double standard.
  I am leaving because I no longer want to be used as a bargaining 
chip.
  I am leaving because I didn't want to be peddled by papers and blogs 
and websites, used by shameless operatives for the dirtiest gutter 
politics that I have ever seen and the rightwing media to drive clicks 
and expand their audience by distributing intimate photos of me taken 
without my knowledge, let alone my consent, for the sexual 
entertainment of millions.
  I am leaving because of a misogynistic culture that gleefully 
consumed my naked pictures, capitalized on my sexuality, and enabled my 
abusive ex to continue that abuse, this time with the entire country 
watching.
  I am leaving because of the thousands of vile, threatening emails, 
calls, and texts that made me fear for my life and the lives of the 
people that I care about.
  Today is the first time I have left my apartment since the photos 
taken without my consent were released, and I am scared.
  I am leaving because, for the sake of my community, my staff, my 
family, and myself, I can't allow this to continue, because I have been 
told that people were angry when I stood strong after the first article 
was posted and that they had hundreds more photos and text messages 
that they would release bit by bit until they broke me down to nothing, 
while they used my faults and my past to distract from the things that 
matter most.
  I am leaving because there is only one investigation that deserves 
the attention of this country, and that is the one that we voted on 
today.
  Today, I ask you all to stand with me and commit to creating a future 
where this no longer happens to women and girls.
  Yes, I am stepping down, but I refuse to let this experience scare 
off other women who dare to take risks, who dare to step into this 
light, and who dare to be powerful.
  It might feel like they have won in the short term, but they can't in 
the long term. We cannot let them.
  The way to overcome this setback is for women to keep showing up, to 
keep running for office, and to keep stepping up as leaders; because 
the more we show up, the less power they have.
  I am leaving, but we have men who have been credibly accused of 
intentional acts of sexual violence and remain in boardrooms, on the 
Supreme Court, in this very body, and, worst of all, in the Oval 
Office.
  So, the fight goes on to create the change that every woman and girl 
in this country deserves. Here in the Halls of Congress, the fight will 
go on without me.
  I trust so many of my colleagues to be strong on this front while I 
move on to one of the many other battlefields, because we have an 
entire culture that has to change, and we see it in stark clarity 
today:
  The forces of revenge by a bitter, jealous man, cyber exploitation 
and sexual shaming that target our gender, and a large segment of 
society that fears and hates powerful women have combined to push a 
young woman out of power and say that she doesn't belong here; yet a 
man who brags about his sexual predation, who has had dozens of women 
come forward to accuse him of sexual assault, who pushes policies that 
are uniquely harmful to women, and who has filled the courts with 
judges who proudly rule to deprive women of the most fundamental right 
to control their own bodies sits in the highest office of the land.
  And so today, as my last vote, I voted on impeachment proceedings, 
not just because of corruption, obstruction of justice, or gross 
misconduct, but because of the deepest abuse of power, including the 
abuse of power over women.
  Today, as my final act, I voted to move forward with the impeachment 
of Donald Trump on behalf of the women of the United States of America. 
We will not stand down; we will not be broken; and we will not be 
silenced. We will rise, and we will make tomorrow better than today.
  Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time for now, but not 
forever.

                          ____________________