[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 31 (Wednesday, February 15, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S409-S411]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                             Maiden Speech

  Mr. PADILLA. Madam President, I rise today profoundly humbled by the 
people of California for placing their trust in me to serve and 
represent them for a full term in the U.S. Senate.
  It is a tremendous honor to return to this body, and I also recognize 
that it is also a tremendous responsibility.
  To the people of California, thank you, and please know that I will 
work hard every single day to uphold that trust.
  And to my colleagues who have helped me hit the ground running since 
my first day in the Senate 2 years ago, thank you, and that includes 
California's senior Senator, Dianne Feinstein, who has served the State 
of California for over three decades as a trailblazing public servant 
and a model for principled leadership, whom I have been honored to 
serve alongside.
  And I will always be thankful for my parents, Santos and Lupe 
Padilla, for all they did for my brother, my sister, and me growing up.
  And, of course, I could not be here without the love and support and 
often the patience and understanding of my wife Angela and our three 
boys, Roman, Alex, and Diego.
  Now, as the first Latino elected to represent California in our 
State's history, it is not lost on me what this moment means for 
millions of people back home. I understand that my family's story is a 
reflection of what so many other hardworking families have experienced.
  As I have shared many times before, my parents emigrated from Mexico. 
They came to the United States in search of a better life. For 40 
years, my dad worked as a short order cook and my mom cleaned houses as 
they raised the three of us in the proud, working-class community of 
Pacoima, CA, in the San Fernando Valley.
  I am proud of our family's journey, but it wasn't without our share 
of challenges. I remember what it looked like to see our neighborhood 
neglected, navigating everything from buckled sidewalks to drug dealers 
as we walked to and from school.
  I remember what it was like for our family to live paycheck to 
paycheck--my mom, at times, bartering the mechanic, offering some of 
her homemade tacos for just a little bit more time to pay the bill.
  And when it came time to figuring out how I was going to pay for 
college, I remember filling out the financial aid forms and realizing 
that tuition alone at MIT was a larger amount than my dad's W-2.
  But it is because of their hard work and sacrifices that I stand here 
today. The very idea that a first-generation son of a short order cook 
and a housekeeper is now serving in the U.S. Senate is proof of the 
American dream.
  But that dream has never been about passive participation. It is made 
possible by those who work for it and by those willing to defend it and 
expand it. It is about hopeful goals for a better future and the 
ambition to work towards them. It is about the drive to get up each 
morning before the sun rises, to put on a white apron, and push through 
tired eyes and a sore back because you know that someday your kids can 
have it better.
  And if my parents are my inspiration for being here, then my children 
are my motivation for fighting to keep the dream alive. I am one of the 
few Members of this body blessed to still have young kids at home. So 
when we talk about the future of our country or the future of our 
planet, it is not in the abstract. I think of Roman, Alex, and Diego 
and their generation. They are the generation who will carry on these 
monumental tasks and fight for equality and opportunity in the future.
  So, colleagues, we have to be focused on doing the work today to make 
sure the American Dream is alive for them tomorrow.
  So I ask: Who is willing to defend the dream? And what are we willing 
to do to defend it?
  (English translation of the statement made in Spanish is as follows:)
  Who is willing to defend the American dream?
  Today, I am here before you as the first Latino elected to represent 
California in the Senate. It is a dream come true because my family's 
story reflects what many working families have lived in this country.
  My parents, Santos and Lupe Padilla, emigrated from Mexico to this 
country in the sixties.
  For 40 years, my father worked as a cook, and my mother worked 
cleaning houses.
  I am here today thanks to their sacrifices, and they continue to be 
my inspiration.
  Now it is our turn to defend the dream for the next generation.

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  When we talk about the future of our country, or the future of our 
planet, I think about my sons Roman, Alex, and Diego.
  They are my motivation to continue working for a better future, and 
to continue defending the American dream.
  (End of Spanish translation).

  You know, my first 2 years in the Senate, we have made real progress 
to keep the dream alive for millions of Americans--from giving families 
the extra support they needed to get through a once-in-a-century 
pandemic to lowering healthcare costs to passing the largest investment 
in history to confront the climate crisis--but we can't stop now.
  American prosperity over the next 6 years--the survival of the 
American Dream--means keeping up the fight to level the playing field, 
and that starts with addressing some of the most urgent threats 
standing in the way of that dream.
  You know, just last month, over the course of 3 days--3 days--my home 
State experienced three back-to-back-to-back mass shootings that 
claimed the lives of 19 Californians.
  I was returning home from visiting a victim resource center in 
Monterey Park, CA, when I received word of the two additional shootings 
in Half Moon Bay and in Oakland.
  Americans are sick and tired of the Republican excuses and the gun 
lobby rhetoric. No one can deny that we have a gun violence problem in 
America. When gun violence is the leading cause of death for children, 
how can we say they have the opportunity to achieve their dreams?
  So I refuse to grow numb to the epidemic of gun violence. And I still 
have hope that we can prevent future tragedies with commonsense 
policies like universal background checks and an assault weapons ban 
that has been proven to save lives.

  This winter California also experienced a relentless stream of severe 
weather--rain storms, flooding, and mudslides--that caused over $1 
billion in damages. I welcomed President Biden and Vice President 
Harris to survey the storm damage in California, and they have been 
exemplary partners both in disaster response as well as efforts to 
rebuild our communities. But the process to rebuild is ongoing, and we 
will need to work together to get the impacted areas the resources they 
need.
  Let me be clear that, despite the record rainfall that dominated the 
news last month, California and our fellow Western States are still 
suffering from a crippling drought. Californians know all too well that 
natural disasters and extreme weather whiplash have become the new 
normal in the 21st century. Each year we brace for increasingly 
frequent and devastating wildfires, catastrophic flooding and 
mudslides, and searing droughts. They all point to one thing: the need 
for climate action.
  Our very survival depends on our ability to combat the climate 
crisis. We must continue to step up our efforts to protect our planet. 
Yes, that means eliminating carbon pollution and transitioning to a 
clean-energy economy, and it also means fighting for clean air and 
water, particularly for the more vulnerable communities 
disproportionately impacted by environmental pollution. And it means 
protecting and managing our Federal lands and waterways.
  At times, that means making difficult and innovative decisions to 
preserve our resources and protect our communities. For Western States 
that rely on the Colorado River, that means coming together to find 
consensus on a water agreement that prevents disaster and preserves the 
human right to water.
  We must also reform our outdated immigration system and do so in a 
way that better reflects our values. That means creating a pathway to 
citizenship for the hundreds of thousands of Dreamers who live in daily 
fear of deportation from the only home they have ever known and for all 
the essential workers who kept us safe and our economy going throughout 
the pandemic.
  It means making sorely needed updates to our legal migration system 
by addressing the crippling visa backlog that keeps families apart and 
denies our economy the workforce that it needs. And it means ensuring 
that individuals and families who are fleeing horrific conditions in 
their home countries and seeking asylum in the United States are 
treated humanely and provided due process.
  Our Nation is also confronting a serious mental health crisis. Now, 
this crisis existed well before COVID, but we saw the pandemic 
exacerbate the crisis. Demand for healthcare is way up, while we have 
an increasing shortage of healthcare professionals available.
  This is also a critical opportunity to fundamentally end the stigma 
surrounding mental health. You know, if a family member or a friend 
breaks their arm or leg, we don't judge them for going to the hospital 
to seek help. Nobody looks down on somebody for going to the dentist 
for regular checkups. We need to treat mental health the same way.
  And, finally, at a time of rising nationalism around the world, we 
must secure the foundations of democracy. For those who say that 
legislation to protect the sacred right to vote in America is too 
partisan, they are only right in the sense that attacks on our right to 
vote are partisan.
  We must denounce Republican candidates across the country who choose 
to divide the American people with lies and conspiracy theories. As 
long as Republican-led State legislatures work to pass voter 
suppression laws across the Nation or election deniers put our election 
workers in danger, we have more work to do.
  And as long as millions of eligible Americans have yet to exercise 
their right to vote, including the roughly 80 million who did not vote 
or were unable to vote in an otherwise record-setting 2020 election, we 
have more work to do. That work includes bolstering our cyber security 
efforts, not just to secure the infrastructure of elections but to 
combat disinformation from bad-faith actors.
  Now, I am not naive about the challenges ahead. After 2 years of 
historic achievements, an extreme wing of Republicans now hold progress 
in the House of Representatives hostage. This group has shown that they 
would rather undermine our democracy than defend it. They would rather 
risk a first-ever default by the Federal Government than serve the 
interests of the American people.
  At stake for millions of Americans are programs that they have spent 
decades paying into, like Medicare and Social Security, American 
institutions that define how we take care of one another and how we 
provide dignity for seniors.
  And they have set their crosshairs on a woman's right to make her own 
decisions about her own body.
  So we have a tall task ahead of us. But to the people of California, 
please know that I didn't seek out this office because I thought it 
would be easy. I did so because the issues are too important, and I am 
ready--I am ready--for the difficult fight ahead because today we have 
a responsibility to write the next chapter of American progress into 
history, to join so many who came before us who made the American dream 
possible.
  When ``huddled masses'' came to our shores with the belief in a 
better future, immigrants put in the work to build our country and our 
economy and to make the dream a reality. When we celebrate America as 
the land of freedom and equality, we recognize generations of civil 
rights activists who risked everything for the right to vote and to 
expand the dream to groups often denied it.
  And when a man from Jalisco and a woman from Chihuahua immigrated to 
Los Angeles in search of a better life, it was them--Santos and Lupe 
Padilla--who toiled and sacrificed to secure the dream for their 
children.
  They are the American story. They are the American dream.
  In closing, I just want to share that, over the last 2 years, 
countless people have asked me if becoming a U.S. Senator is a dream 
come true. My honest answer is no. You see, for me, when I was a kid 
growing up, I never dreamt that anything like this was possible.
  But, now that I am here, I promise I will not take a single day for 
granted, and I will never stop fighting to keep the dream alive for 
future generations.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from West Virginia.

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