[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 99 (Wednesday, May 27, 2020)]
[House]
[Page H2290]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1045
                                COVID-19

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, we are in the backdrop of commemorating 
Memorial Day just 2 days ago, when the Nation bowed their heads to 
honor the fallen. We did that without question, without equivocation. 
But we also acknowledge, and I stand here today acknowledging, the 
sacrifice of those heroes, acknowledging that 1,000 veterans, as well, 
have lost their lives from COVID-19.
  I stand here today to say to America, almost 100,000 of our fellow 
Americans, our fellow residents, our mothers and fathers, sisters and 
brothers, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, loved ones, and 
neighbors, dear friends, classmates, and all around us have been the 
victims of COVID-19.
  So I speak for the overwhelming number of Americans who say yes to 
the HEROES Act.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask those in the other body and in the administration: 
Have you ever seen a headline that said, when a city tried to do its 
best, $15 million in rental assistance runs out in 90 minutes--in my 
hometown of Houston.
  Mr. Speaker, I say thank you to the mayor, thank you to the county 
judge. They are trying.
  Have you ever seen someone who's never had to beg for food or ask for 
food sit in the hot Sun in their car for 7 hours--I have--to be able to 
get groceries for their children?
  Have you ever seen folks line up to be tested, because they should 
have been tested in February, March, but there were no kits?
  So working in a public-private partnership with UMMC, I opened seven 
testing sites. The first one opened before any governmental site was 
opened.
  So I say today, that is why I am on the floor supporting $75 billion 
in testing, $1 trillion in making sure that brave municipal workers, 
firefighters, teachers, and all those who do our work every day, police 
and others, are standing and supporting the community.
  That is why I am supporting the direct payment, because Chairman 
Powell of the Fed said we have to go big.
  There are going to ultimately maybe be 36 million people unemployed. 
That is why I am supporting rental assistance and mortgage assistance. 
That is why I am supporting food assistance.
  Mr. Speaker, has anybody seen the faces of these people? Do we not 
understand the pain of what they are going through?
  That is why I am here on the floor dealing with the support of the 
HEROES Act that must be signed by the President and passed by the other 
body, the U.S. Senate.


                         We Must Demand Justice

  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I want to pause for a moment and now 
come to something that has soaked my very DNA and my soul, and that is 
that a young man by the name of Ahmaud Arbery cannot jog in Georgia and 
be left to his constitutional rights. They were denied. He was gunned 
down for absolutely no reason whatsoever.
  It must be addressed. There must be a trial, and there must be 
justice. Justice will render not his life back to his family, but it 
will render truth.
  As a member of the Judiciary Committee, I have written letters, and I 
look forward to us organizing a response that I have asked for in terms 
of hearing from the victims and their various representatives.
  Brianna Taylor was going to be a nurse; Mr. Arbery was going to be an 
electrician. She was going to be a nurse. She was doing what Americans 
do--sleeping, getting ready for work the next day--and lo and behold, 
she was bombarded; she was invaded. And she was the wrong house and the 
wrong person, and that person was in custody already.
  We must demand justice.
  When you have the color of law and when you have those whom you look 
to for sanctity and you can respect them when they are doing their 
work, you must also--and I ask my fellow lawmakers and, also, law 
upholders--stand together.
  Now, brother George Floyd, I was up until 2 in the morning with the 
pain of the video. George Floyd, his family--he was raised in Houston 
in my district--went to Jack Yates High School. There are people 
mourning in Houston, Texas. He lived there for 40 years, a gentle 
giant, and he was taken away from us by a knee on his neck, crying for 
his mama.
  There must be charges. They must be brought to justice, even if they 
wear a uniform, in order for law and order to be upheld. Everyone is 
watching that.
  I have had fellow officers send me messages: Outrageous.
  My heart is burning; my heart is hurting. I am crying when I heard 
him say, ``Mama, Mama, Mama,'' and his brothers and sisters have the 
pain of hearing that over and over again.
  People were asking, Good Samaritans, saying: Please take your knee 
off his neck, his trach. You are choking him. You are killing him.
  How can this be?
  I quietly say, Mr. Speaker, as I close, God is on our side. We are a 
nation of laws and the Constitution. All I ask for these families, all 
I ask, is fairness, simple justice, and mercy for these families.
  May they rest in peace, those who have gone on, and others, at the 
hands of those who should not have brought them down.
  God bless you.

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