[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 80 (Wednesday, May 8, 2024)]
[House]
[Pages H2941-H2942]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           FUNDING HEAD START

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Costa) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. COSTA. Mr. Speaker, for decades, Head Start and Early Head Start 
programs have provided comprehensive childhood development services to 
millions of children across America.
  Research is showing that participation in Head Start can lead to 
positive outcomes for our children. By providing children with a strong 
foundation in their early years, Head Start

[[Page H2942]]

helps level the playing field, especially for disadvantaged children, 
and gives them a better chance at academic success.
  House Democrats have made it clear that investing in America's 
children will always be among our highest priorities. Thanks to 
investments we have fought for in the budget, we are working to ensure 
that Federal dollars reach every corner of the country.
  In my district, I have secured $23 million for Fresno County and $22 
million for Tulare County Head Start and Early Head Start programs. 
These funds will provide families with health and support services 
while growing the next generation of leaders in the San Joaquin Valley 
and in California.
  Investing in education is investing in our children's future because 
when our children succeed, America succeeds.


            Honoring Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day

  Mr. COSTA. Mr. Speaker, I also rise today to recognize what has been 
taking place this week in this country and around the world, and that 
is commemorating Yom HaShoah ending in 1945, recognizing the 6 million 
Jewish victims who were killed in the Holocaust.
  Sadly, on October 7 last year, 79 years after the Holocaust, we 
witnessed a terrorist organization, Hamas, rape, execute, and take 
hostages. Over 1,400 Israelis, Americans, and other nationalities were 
killed, which was the largest killing of Jews since the Holocaust.
  There is clear evidence of the rising threat of hate and anti-
Semitism being spread here at home and across the world.
  I commend President Biden and Speaker Johnson yesterday for bringing 
together a bipartisan gathering to speak against anti-Semitism and the 
challenges here in America. In the United States, anti-Semitic 
incidents have soared over 140 percent in 2023, breaking all previous 
records.
  In America, we support free speech and peaceful protests, but 
disrupting academic education and attacking Jewish students and faculty 
have no place on college campuses or universities in America. It must 
be stopped.
  We must unmask groups like the National Students for Justice in 
Palestine for what they are. They celebrated on October 8 the actions 
of Hamas that took 1,400 Israeli lives.
  This is an extension of terrorist groups like Hamas. Hamas' mission 
statement is to eliminate the State of Israel and to kill Jews, as 
referenced in their slogan: ``From the River to Sea.'' The river is the 
Jordan River, and the sea is the Mediterranean. Their purpose is to 
eliminate the State of Israel and kill Jewish people.
  We must work together to break this cycle of hate that is plaguing 
our society and putting lives at risk around the world. In an era of 
rising anti-Semitism coupled with fading memory of the Holocaust, we 
must fight conspiracy theories and ensure the lessons of the past are 
never ever forgotten.
  Last month, I was in Israel, and I went to the Nova concert site to 
witness the makeshift memorial where 364 concertgoers, innocent people, 
were killed on October 7.
  Last week, I participated in a bipartisan visit of Members to the 
Holocaust Museum for an exhibit that clearly raises the issues of anti-
Semitism in America in the 1920s and 1930s, which was led in part by 
prominent Americans like Henry Ford and Charles Lindbergh.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues and others coming to Washington to 
go to see this comparative analogy of anti-Semitism from the 1920s and 
1930s to what we are dealing with here today. For it is real, and we 
must do everything together to combat this plague of anti-Semitism, the 
politics of hate, and the politics of fear. For as the famous historian 
George Santayana once said: ``Those who cannot remember the past are 
condemned to repeat it.''
  That is why it is important that we recognize this anniversary of the 
Holocaust and why we remember October 7 of last year. It is not a 
lingering, distant, fading memory. It is a reality that we have to deal 
with here today.

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