[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 145 (Wednesday, September 18, 2024)]
[House]
[Pages H5434-H5438]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               REFLECTING ON TRAJECTORY OF OUR DEMOCRACY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Burlison). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 9, 2023, the gentlewoman from Michigan (Ms. Stevens) 
is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Ms. STEVENS. Mr. Speaker, I rise before you here this evening, a 
stormy evening in Washington, D.C., in our Nation's Capital, to make an 
address on behalf of my constituents in my district in Michigan, 
Michigan's 11th District, representing and covering the bulk of Oakland 
County.
  I make such an address this evening to reflect on the trajectory of 
our democracy, to reflect on events that have occurred since I booked 
this Special Order hour address back in July, and also to make some 
pronouncements around reforms, revisions, and efforts to come together 
for the health of our Union.

                              {time}  1900

  Make no mistake about it, Mr. Speaker, I absolutely recognize the 
profound and humbling reality that it is to be a duly elected Member of 
the House of Representatives speaking and maintaining the privilege to 
speak in this Chamber to anyone who seeks to be watching back at home 
and on behalf of this profound nature of the discourse of our 
democracy.
  I booked this Special Order hour because so much happens in the days 
of Congress, the session days of committee markups, of meetings with 
stakeholders and constituents, and conversations with colleagues who 
hail from every ZIP Code around this great Nation. Something that I 
would like to tell the people back at home is that I have friends, such 
as the woman from Oakland County, Michigan, who is a champion for 
advanced manufacturing. Somehow now I have friends from Alaska to 
Tennessee to Maine to the coasts of California and inland into Nevada 
and the like, and the experiment of America and the experiment of 
American democracy really truly manifests in this very Chamber.
  Of course, we recognize that all too often it is not celebrated, and 
it is not covered in the media outlets from the national news to the 
print journalism to the ongoing nature of social media when and how we 
come together on behalf of this Nation.
  Something that we just witnessed is a failure to vote on passing our 
budget, and the clock is clearly ticking. The Democrats and Republicans 
couldn't come together. In fact, Republicans joined Democrats to tank 
Republican legislation to fund the government. So we are again faced 
with the scenario that we have seen ourselves in time and time again in 
the 118th Congress where the minority party comes forward to act to 
save the worst from happening.
  Proudly, President Biden in the last year of his Presidency can now 
just about claim that the government hasn't shut down once under his 
watch. We have not defaulted on our debt, and, of course, just last 
term in the Congress, we rescued this Nation from the worst effects of 
the COVID-19 pandemic, investing in communities, investing in the 
incredible county I am so privileged to represent in Oakland County.
  We gave Oakland County $300 million, so we didn't have to go back to 
our taxpayers and ask for more.
  We are a donor-rich area. We all know that. We pay more than our fair 
share of taxpayer dollars, and then when we want to do more in the 
communities we have to go back and excise new tax. We have got to do 
millages.
  Oakland County is under the great leadership of Dave Coulter. He is 
someone whom I am so proud to call a dear friend and collaborator. He 
is someone I work with really closely on behalf of the constituents of 
the 11th District because we believe in the table setting of 
government. We believe that government works best when Federal, State, 
local, and municipal come together to utilize taxpayer dollars 
effectively.
  So what Coulter and his team were able to do with the moneys that 
came down from the great American Rescue Plan Act, the tiebreaking vote 
that Vice President Harris placed to pass it, is that they have 
invested in dozens of senior centers. Senior centers like the one in 
Waterford that was going back time and time again for a millage and 
couldn't achieve that millage, and now they have their funding. 
Birmingham next has their funding. Medical debt for the people of the 
11th district and Oakland County is wiped out. Money is available to 
invest in 3-D printing, a program designed by Automation Alley, which 
is now being replicated in several other counties and has received 
funding from the State.
  So that was just one bill that was passed at the beginning of the 
117th session of Congress when President Biden rightfully took his oath 
and was sworn in as the 46th President of the United States.
  We didn't stop there, and we did become bipartisan when we passed an 
infrastructure bill.
  Who knew that infrastructure would become so partisan?
  It was somewhat partisan for some who were adamantly against the bill 
and now they go home and take the credit when the bridge is being 
repaired and the road is being paved. It is absolutely enormous that, 
for once, instead of just authorizing, we appropriated money to say we 
are going to do the maintenance and repair, and we are going to put the 
contractors to work. We are going to make sure we have got a prevailing 
wage and good wages and a seat at the table for our unions.
  I talk to my building trades. They tell me they are all very busy and 
that they couldn't be busier. Of course, when matched with the 
incredible infrastructure bill, which has done a lot for our water 
systems and our lead pipes and public transportation as well, of 
course, Oakland County passed a major transportation millage as well. 
Here in the Motor City, we now have busing that works very well and 
goes east to west. It was quite the triumph last term.
  What we also have noticed, though, here is that when we did the clean 
energy investments, when we looked global competition in the face and 
said: In the last administration in a bipartisan way, we renegotiated 
NAFTA, we halted USMCA, we plussed up buy American content, we said we 
are going to have the rules of the road for our auto industry to 
succeed, a platform for us to go into markets. Yes, this happened under 
President Trump with Speaker Nancy Pelosi. We renegotiated USMCA.
  Then in the next term we said: We are going to make investments in 
clean energy, not subsidies, not ownership structures, but large 
capital-intensive investments in industries of scale.
  Mr. Speaker, that is so we are not overly reliant on our adversaries 
on the global stage, the Chinese Communist Party for one. Gosh knows 
what is going to totally happen over there.
  We want to have domestic technologies in innovations. We want to have 
an ownership structure so that we are not forced to go and buy from 
overseas markets. We have learned this lesson over and over and over 
again. We have, frankly, learned this lesson with semiconductors, the 
microchips that go into anything from our general electronics devices, 
our cell phones, our 

[[Page H5435]]

computers, our music players, if we are still listening to those, too, 
of course, the automobile.

  The pandemic hit, and all of a sudden, we couldn't get the shipments 
in, and we were making all these beautiful cars. We really do salute 
our autoworkers for their great efforts during a very trying time, 
certainly protecting and maintaining their safety but staying dedicated 
to the production and the production efforts of their enterprise as 
well as their innovation ecosystem.
  So you see, Mr. Speaker, Michigan did something enormous. We 
responded to the industrial call to action during the COVID-19 
pandemic. It was, of course, our manufacturers, large and small, that 
were addressing the supply chain disruptions, from the personal 
protective equipment to the ventilators that we were running low on, 
and all that.
  Then they continued to innovate, and here we stand at the precipice 
of this incredible, new mobility moment that is being led by the auto 
industry. I think some want to say: Oh, my gosh, this is the government 
dictating the terms.
  Of course, I just received an incredible briefing today from the MIT 
Sloan School of Management. They work across the aisle. They have this 
unbelievable dataset that shows what we need to do to stave off the 5-
degree warming of the planet, and it is a whole host of things. Of 
course, to my capitalist focused friends and my capitalist focused 
countrymen and -women, those are all profit-making endeavors.
  We are here, Mr. Speaker, to talk about the future, and we should be 
celebrating it and not cowering and clinging to the past. We should 
absolutely be saluting and recognizing the freedom of our fellow 
countrymen and -women who are going to buy the automobile they want to 
buy.
  Of course, we have 1 million new electric vehicles that were sold in 
the United States of America, 75,000 from GM, 75,000 roughly from Ford. 
They are being honest and transparent about what they want to do.
  Every week I go and I visit a manufacturer, and I meet them where 
they are at, and I sit in their conference rooms. I walk their floors. 
I am in my sixth year of doing this.
  Really tremendous things are happening all across southeast Michigan 
with our automotive supply chain. They have been very dedicated to some 
of the transition that their customers, the OEMs, the original 
equipment manufacturers, are professing to make if they want to be zero 
emissions maybe in total.
  We want to win the future, and we want to be innovators and 
technology leaders. Of course, I mentioned chips and microchips were 
running short during the global pandemic, and Michigan really responded 
to it in a tremendous way.
  We also, frankly, Mr. Speaker, learned a big lesson which is that the 
United States, Gordon Lawrence and the brainiacs out West, innovated 
the chip. They innovated the microchip.
  We were at one time producing 40 percent of these chips in the United 
States of America. It was our technology, and it was our innovation. 
Then it wasn't just low labor costs, which is a reality, but it was 
kind of an investment structure. It was kind of a wooing that took 
place, and the chips started going over to Taiwan and China and all 
this and that. The tide really rolls out.
  I can speak to this as someone who was serving as a Presidential 
appointee in the administration of Barack Obama during the Great 
Recession when we were doing a rescue, not just of Wall Street, it 
wasn't just a Wall Street rescue that started under President Bush. 
These financiers in the capital markets and the derivative trading that 
had gone awry, it was derivative trading that had gone awry. It was the 
foreclosure crisis that was tied to that, it was the Main Street effort 
saying that we were not going to liquidate or see the liquidation of 
General Motors or Chrysler. We used the Troubled Asset Relief funds to 
invest in the companies, not to own them or control their day-to-day 
management.
  Of course, we were sitting in these ornate government rooms, and we 
were rightfully saying that we have two other big problems. One is on 
semiconductors. We are not making enough chips. We are too overly 
reliant on foreign markets. That comes to roost in the COVID-19 
pandemic.
  Of course, I, a humble Member of Congress from southeastern Michigan 
and someone who evangelizes and champions our manufacturing economy, I 
decide to reach out to the Speaker of the House through the 
professional way in which we do so as Members of Congress, by letter. I 
sent the Speaker of the House a letter a week almost. Let's do 
something on chips.
  Then, of course, the great Gina Raimondo, Commerce Secretary, 
partners up with the White House Office of Legislative Affairs and some 
of us lawmakers. The Senate was involved, and I love to tell the 
Homeric story about passing bills.
  The short of the long is we passed a chips bill, CHIPS and Science. 
It was a really ringing moment here in this body because, again, it was 
bipartisan. Of course, I am sitting in the Science Committee as chair 
of the Subcommittee on Research and Technology authorizing the doubling 
of scientific research for the National Science Foundation. It all 
passed unanimously, and it all passed bipartisan. We passed CHIPS and 
Science with a tranche of money. I understand that my friends and 
colleagues on the other side of the aisle are more keen to austerity 
measures and maybe didn't take the vote accordingly, $52 billion we 
said we would commit in the marketplace.
  Of course, we are poking and prodding at the Commerce Department. 
They are working through some of the legal matters to get more of the 
money out. We don't want it to be too cumbersome, but $52 billion 
signed into law and was committed. It was an August day in 2022, hot as 
all get out.
  It is absolutely incredible because within one business quarter, $200 
billion of private-sector capital commitments were made here in the 
United States of America. That is a 21st century industrial 
policy approach.

  So we are looking at this also because there was a number two, we had 
two problems, chips, which we sought to solve. Then Secretary Raimondo 
will tell us that we have a plan to be the only country by 2030 who 
will design, produce, and ship these chips. We will be the ones to do 
it. I am very excited to see where these investments are going.
  We had a second problem that we had recognized 1\1/2\ decades ago, 
and that was around critical minerals. We, again, are overly reliant on 
foreign markets, and particularly the Chinese Communist Party, on 
critical minerals. The challenge here is that 98 percent of these 
minerals that go into the cell phone and that go into manufactured 
goods that are so absolutely tied, the critical minerals are so tied to 
our manufacturing enterprise, and it is a weakness, a supply chain 
weakness of the United States of America.

                              {time}  1915

  We are now starting to form a legislative agenda around how we could 
do similar to what we did with CHIPS, although it is more complicated. 
Of course I can see my colleagues on the other side of the aisle eyeing 
on some of the permitting challenges and some of the reforms that we 
want to do to accelerate this clean energy revolution, so you have got 
the environmentalists and the regulating insecure people coming 
together for once.
  We want to do the same thing on critical minerals, right? We want to 
work with our allies. We want to pass trade deals. We know we are going 
to be renegotiating USMCA. The year 2025 is just around the corner. So 
many of us remember the energy, the enthusiasm, the almost 
revolutionary moment that it felt like to arrive in the 21st century. 
Everything was 21st century. Everything was the next 21st century plan 
and the agenda and all of this.
  Well, now we are squarely in the 21st century, and we have got 
opportunities galore, and we have some challenges that we want to 
address. We want to bring together our allies, similar to how we did in 
other types of arrangements. The AUKUS arrangement that is now 
Australia, U.K., U.S., allowed us to invest in nuclear submarine 
development and technology development.
  We have the Quad initiative, and we really do salute and recognize 
the current administration's approaches to

[[Page H5436]]

foreign policy as a way forward and a way to lead by bringing people 
along, and not saying that we are going to pay for everything, but 
bringing people along through the rules-based, open, free-market, 
capitalist, democratic society principles.
  In April of this year, believe it or not, we passed a foreign aid 
package for democracy here in the Chamber, and of course in the other 
Chamber, the upper Chamber, and it was signed into law by the 
President.
  Well, it was, to a tee, the exact package he asked for in October. 
You know, support for our democratic allies, support for democracy, and 
obviously some efforts which have fallen off the rails this term around 
securing our own borders, and we can only hope to see the day in which 
such important things are not so political that they remain stalemated.
  I certainly seek to be a part of the bipartisan solutions to say 
that, if you are trained in the United States of America, if you are 
getting that Ph.D., we want to find a way to keep that talent here. 
This is something that we heard over and over again from our 
stakeholders on the Select Committee on Strategic Competition Between 
the United States and the Chinese Communist Party: Don't let the talent 
leave our shores. That is a way in which we innovate. At the same time, 
too, let's truly invest in border security.
  I come from a northern border State, and we take really seriously our 
relationship with Canada and the security of both of our borders and 
trade, and certainly looking at the rail and the bridges and we are 
working on building a new bridge.
  Well, it is almost built in southeast Michigan, a large export 
destination. It is economics, it is livelihoods, and it is also 
people's lives. It is what draws people together in many respects, the 
ability to connect.
  That was something that was somewhat taken from us during the 
pandemic period, and we are not forgetting of it, and we certainly want 
to continue to support people to be the best and the most achieving 
that they can be.
  That is all around us in southeast Michigan, people innovating in 
their garages and creating new businesses and being entrepreneurial. We 
always want to support people to succeed in small businesses and listen 
to them. I always say: Listen, if I can be of help, that is great. If 
not, I am happy to step and get out of the way.
  Of course, some other matters of bipartisan congressional coming 
together at this moment are worth reflecting on, and a new subject. 
That is with regard to a role that I have had in this Congress since 
the year 2022, as the co-chair of the Task Force on American Hostages 
and Americans Wrongfully Detained Abroad.
  This is a task force that is bipartisan. It is co-chaired by the 
gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Hill). It brings together Members from all 
over Congress to shine a light on these wrongful detentions, on these 
American hostage scenarios.
  We have certainly had a term around hostages here in the Chamber, and 
some really great work has been done in addressing the hostage crisis, 
the hostage crises, and the ways in which we can operate most 
effectively as a legislative body.
  I fell into this role on the request of a former Congressman from 
Florida, who now runs the American Jewish Committee, the president of 
the American Jewish Committee, former Congressman Ted Deutch, a dear 
friend of mine. He was the co-chair. Upon his retirement, he asked me 
to fill his shoes.
  In part, it is because I was showing up at all the task force 
meetings on behalf of Paul Whelan--Paul Whelan, resident of Novi, 
Michigan, employee of BorgWarner, a very large, billion-dollar-plus 
American automotive supplier, in which he was in charge of global 
security.
  Of course, it is quite memorable because, just as I was preparing to 
be sworn in for my first term in Congress representing Michigan's 11th 
District, right as the year 2019 was being rung in, we had gotten word 
December 28, 2018, that Paul was taken captive by the KSB and the 
Russian Federation. They ultimately charged him on false grounds, a 
total sham, of espionage.
  It was 5 years, 7 months, and 5 days that Paul was unlawfully and 
illegally and unjustly imprisoned.
  In this term of the 116th Congress, I had the privilege and the 
rightful duty in coordination with Paul's incredible family of writing 
a resolution, H.R. 552, calling on the Russian Federation to free Paul 
Whelan. I worked with my colleagues across the Michigan delegation.
  Mr. Tim Walberg was, at the time, representing Manchester, Michigan. 
That is where Paul's family lived, and I was in regular communication 
with them.
  We were staring down the face of Putin because it was Putin's game to 
take Paul Whelan, a former marine, a hometown son of Michigan, and 
attempt to disappear his life and attempt to play games of politics and 
embarrassment to the United States and, of course, with the ultimate 
goal of getting a swap.
  Now, H.R. 552, the resolution calling on the Russian Federation to 
free Paul Whelan, produce the evidence or free Paul Whelan, they had no 
evidence. There was nothing he had done wrong. He was a citizen on his 
own time, an American citizen on his own time visiting Russia. That 
resolution was voted on unanimously. Everyone who voted that day, they 
voted ``yes.'' They voted to support the resolution, and the same thing 
happened in the Senate. We had three terms, and we voted on the same 
resolution each time.
  On August 1--it was a Thursday into, actually, almost the following 
day--it was nearing midnight by the time the plane landed--Paul Whelan 
returned home to American soil. The ultimate and largest hostage-
freeing effort since really the Cold War took place: Paul Whelan, Evan 
Gershkovich, involving some of our other European counterparts.
  Of course, I was watching as the plane, the bright light in the sky 
descending from the heavens, it felt like, landing at Andrews Air Force 
Base, greeted by President Biden, greeted by Vice President Harris, 
among the political events that were going on as well, but of course 
the governing, as President Biden always reminds us, still goes on. 
There is still so much work to do. Paul Whelan--the door opens, he 
appears, and he steps off the plane. He walks down the stairs.
  The President placed the very American flag pin that he was wearing 
on Paul, and we know that Paul cherishes that and wears that pin often. 
It was so momentous. It was so surreal. We had so many starts and stops 
and missed opportunities and trials and tribulations and lack of 
familiarity of what it was like to see an American--he was the first 
one out of the crew who was taken--be put into a prison, not wanting to 
at all prevent what needed to happen from happening.
  That was such a cause for celebration in Michigan. Billboards: 
Welcome home, Paul, with a yellow ribbon adorned on the billboard that 
people could see as they drove along our highways.
  There is so much to share about this journey and the legislative body 
of work that surrounds hostage affairs and negotiations and the return 
of wrongfully detained Americans. It was 5\1/2\ years. Paul lost his 
job. He lost his place of residence. His dog passed away. We have 
mentioned Flora on this House floor before.
  Now it is an effort to rebuild.
  As we know, we are passing an NDAA soon. We got the Robert Levinson 
bill passed in 2020, and a really phenomenal package of legislation 
that has passed, but there is more to do.
  We remain dedicated to that effort, but, of course, later that month, 
that very same month of August, just last month, another tragedy struck 
our hostage community.
  Six hostages who were taken from Israel on October 7, 2023, were 
murdered, murdered by Hamas terrorists in a tunnel. It takes your 
breath away. It puts sand in your mouth. What is there to say beyond 
the overwhelming expression of condolences to the families and the 
people impacted by this?
  We don't even have the exact date. We have a sense of the exact date. 
The bodies were recovered on August 31. Hersh Goldberg-Polin, whose 
name I know has been spoken in this Chamber and who has absolutely 
remarkable parents, Jon and Rachel. Rachel, who received a TIME 100 
designation. It is a TIME 100 ``Person of the Year'' for her advocacy.

[[Page H5437]]

  Hersh is American. Hersh was born in America. Hersh was born on U.S. 
soil, and he was taken by terrorists on October 7, 2023, because he was 
at a concert celebrating peace, love, and freedom.
  As someone who has been doing the task force work and working so 
closely with so many advocacy partners, over and over again, we kept 
expressing that the hostages in Gaza, the Americans--32 Americans 
killed that day, 9 Americans taken--that they are the heartbeat of 
negotiation. Hersh wasn't the only person killed, murdered, in August, 
23 years old--Eden at 24, Ori at 25, Alex at 32, Carmel at 40, and 
Almog at 27.
  These are shots heard around the world, and they are attacks on all 
of our humanity. They are a reminder to those of us who are stewards of 
democracy and freedom and the efforts of this Chamber that we must do 
more; that we must continue to say the names; we must continue to push 
for a just cease-fire, an end to the war, which means that we are going 
to see a return of the hostages and Hamas surrendering; that these 
individuals should have never been murdered.

                              {time}  1930

  In August, we weren't in session. There was no way to verbally 
address this Chamber. As I had booked this Special Order hour address 
before the last session had concluded, it weighed on me, recognizing 
that we had a pretty enormous month in terms of these affairs and the 
work and the support alongside the Levinson family, alongside Paul 
Whelan and his family, the family of Hersh, the remaining hostages in 
Gaza, who have suffered through torturous conditions in tunnels and 
with starvation. One of the young women who was murdered was just 79 
pounds.
  This is why we stand united around a foreign aid package for 
democracy here in the United States of America as we seek to continue 
to do the work on behalf of the people who sent us here, to continue to 
do the work on behalf of justice and fairness, and to remind ourselves 
that there are many who, unfortunately, do not share our view of 
freedom and who want to disrupt it, who want to override it. Is the 
target Israel, or is the target America?
  Israel is at war now on so many different fronts with pressures in 
the north. Mr. Speaker, 80,000 people removed from their homes and the 
like.
  I am proud to be a supporter of the U.S.-Israel relationship. I am 
certainly not a voting member of that country, but I am a supporting 
Member of this body who recognizes the essential nature of the U.S.-
Israel relationship and what that means, not just for our national 
security, which, in this moment, is quite paramount, but also what that 
means for our trade, economy, innovation, and the like.
  We continue to extend our support, encouragement, and love to the 
people of Israel, to the people suffering, to the people who are scared 
because of the sirens. Are you going to have to hide? Are the children 
going to be able to go to school?
  The reality of what Hamas has done in Gaza, caring nothing for the 
nearly trillion dollars of assets for the people, the innocent people 
who live in Gaza, proclaiming that civilian deaths are a good thing.
  Of course, that is one element of what is going on now in the Middle 
East. As I look toward the next 25 years in terms of the first quarter 
of the 21st century to the mid-21st century, and what is going to be 
determinative of our outcomes, we certainly recognize that history, the 
brief history of this incredible Nation of ours, is so incumbent upon 
us. It is heavy, and it is incumbent upon us, in part, because of a 
great World War that Michigan played a critical and central role in, 
the Arsenal of Democracy, as we responded to the attacks on our 
country, the attacks on civil liberties, and playing a role in ending 
it, and then using our industrial might to change the world's economy 
yet again, almost 80 years since the end of World War II.
  A living memory it is barely, and it is a history worth teaching. It 
is a history worth knowing as an American. As part of the horrors of 
the Holocaust, we say Never Forget, and we ask ourselves what our 
challenges are for these next 25 years.
  I don't want to see it be the drumbeat of war. My responsibility here 
is not to shepherd America into war, but certainly, it is recognizing 
that autocracy and democracy are competing and there is an undergird of 
jihad taking place, a jihad that seeks to disrupt and to dismantle, to 
bring us back to an ancient time that we don't want to see arrive again 
that terrorizes people.
  The jihad is hitting in Russia, and it is a threat and a reality here 
in the United States of America and across Europe. Yet, as we look at 
ways in which our Nation exemplifies its leadership on the global stage 
with allies, trade partners, and the like, we have to seek ways in 
which we bring people along to succeed.
  It can't just be America on an island alone. We have to advance and 
continue to push forward a foreign policy agenda that allows for and 
provides the conduit for our success, not just as a nation but as the 
harbinger of freedom.
  Last century, we tried a lot of different ways to place freedom on 
people and to encourage democracy. In some ways and countries, it 
worked, and in some countries, it didn't. Exploited free markets on 
behalf of the Chinese Communist Party remain a problem.
  As a member of the Select Committee on Strategic Competition Between 
the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, as I have mentioned, 
we really seek to compromise and work in a bipartisan way because that 
sends a bigger message.
  Some of this also comes back now to another important topic, which is 
the reform of our democracy, not in full, but as lawmakers. Anytime we 
are passing a law, we are making a contribution to our democracy. When 
I, as a Member of Congress from Michigan, introduce a bill, Mr. 
Speaker, it is not just for my constituents. It is the Nation's laws.
  We here this evening couldn't pass a Federal budget. We are passing 
the Nation's budget, so I find it worth our efforts as lawmakers and as 
stewards of the Constitution to ask ourselves of worthy improvements. 
You have seen this term ``seven bills'' introduced by colleagues on the 
other side of the aisle specific to the District of Columbia and its 
unique status, non-State status of seeking to govern ways in which the 
District of Columbia works.
  I don't know if those are messaging bills. Sometimes that is what 
they call them, messaging bills, or points that folks are trying to get 
across. It puzzles me. Why would you come here from Texas to legislate 
specifically to the District of Columbia?
  I have participated in the majority in the debate to add the District 
of Columbia as a State to the Union, and this is not about politics. Of 
course, there is the Puerto Rico consideration, and that comes with its 
complexities and its own points about self-determination, but the 
people of Washington, D.C., over 700,000 people, larger than a handful 
of States, have said they want to become a State.
  This is the grand conversation of the historic nature of the body we 
serve in. It is every debate that was had in the first 100 years of 
this Chamber. How did States get added? Well, of course, it was 
controversial, based on the horrors of slavery and something that this 
country had to shed itself of through Civil War, and I am not saying 
that is what is weighing down on District of Columbia, but we added 
States to this Union.

  It was a Constitution with 13 Colonies. It was a Constitution that 
was written over periods of time. We have these constitutional scholars 
and these points of history, and allow me to just share as an aside 
that it is really quite humbling to talk about the Constitution on the 
floor of this House.
  Debates that we can go back to that were written up and points that 
were made and doctrines that were written surrounding it, of course, 
starting with the Declaration of Independence, that is an origin story. 
Our Declaration of Independence is an origin story. It is just like 
meeting someone for the first time. Where were you born? Who were your 
parents? What is your origin story?
  Origin stories become not things of myth but really cause for 
celebration. We should be proud of America's origin story. I certainly 
am. I revel in celebrating July Fourth safely and freely here in the 
United States of America every year, and I am grateful for it.
  It is not to be blasphemous to our Constitution. It is not to be 
disregarding of its strong governance and

[[Page H5438]]

the ways in which our laws and our systems have moved us forward over 
and over again, much to the envy of many.
  We have a strong economy, the strongest economy in the world, great 
innovation, great communities, great schools, good elections, but we 
have to look this time in the face.
  In July 2020, I didn't speak these words, but I wrote these words and 
submitted them to the Chamber. I think that they are worth sharing in 
part because we are in an election year. I am not politicking, and I am 
not abusing this lectern or my time or my space here.
  These elections seem to drive us further from each other than they do 
drive us together. It is like we can't see each other. I am from a 
politically popular State, Michigan. People are campaigning and 
competing for Michigan, so I see it all. I see what is going on with 
these national campaigns.
  On July 9, 2020, I submitted words to the Congressional Record:

       Madam Speaker, I rise today with respect to our democracy. 
     We boast a steady history, no matter the circumstance, of 
     maintaining a peaceful and efficient process upon the 
     conclusion of our Presidential elections. Whether a President 
     continues in office for another term, experiences defeat, or 
     concludes holding office due to the constitutional term 
     limit, our democracy has flourished to the benefit of the 
     American people for centuries.

  Now, I am going to guess that we are going to have a passionate, 
heated November 5 and a result is going to happen. I am going to make 
this extension, similar to how I did in written form 4 years ago, of 
committing to that peaceful process.
  This is not to shame, scold, or admonish. We are in a new time. We 
are not struggling with the pandemic. We are not struggling with people 
not being able to work and dealing with some other matters that kept 
them pent up, but we are here to flourish as the 21st century hits its 
quarter mark.
  When I think about what happened, and I was here as the 2020 election 
happened and then debates pursued and fights and claims of malfeasance, 
which were really never proven, but I stand here because, from 2000 to 
2020, we had a lot of frustrations with our Federal elections. 2000 was 
one. It was major.
  Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to the time remaining.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentlewoman from Michigan has 15 minutes 
remaining.
  Ms. STEVENS. Mr. Speaker, 15 minutes, a good 45 minutes of going 
strong here, and not a sip of water. Mr. Speaker, I will use my 15 
minutes.
  I am going to say this because we had the 2000 election, which was 
really determined by the Supreme Court. People who were in the 
political process and people who surround the lawmaking of this Nation, 
instead of saying, gosh, what are the American people telling us over 
and over again? We are closer together than we are further apart.

                              {time}  1945

  We have a four-seat effort to have a new majority in the Congress. We 
have a 50-50 Senate.
  We have an electoral college, which was somewhat designed to placate 
and recognize legal and important matters in the United States of 
America.
  We have an electoral college that has determined a handful of these 
elections, particularly in this century. We want to say your vote 
matters.
  Well, the popular vote is recognized, but it is not determinative, 
and we really haven't reformed or adjusted a thing. We have just 
continued on.
  We haven't made amendments. We haven't added States to the Union. We 
have just said, this is the way it is going to be.
  We are experiencing a somewhat frustrating and tragic uptick in the 
disappointment of our fellow countrymen and women. They don't trust the 
system.
  It astonishes me. This is the time in the process of elections where, 
of course, I am in rigorous conversation with voters, but I am also in 
rigorous conversation with people who aren't voting the way I am. Why 
is that?
  I know that the world changes really quickly after an election, and 
we have to find a way to keep going. We have to find a way to make sure 
that this institution hits its pitch level of perfection. It will never 
be perfect, but in terms of outcomes and results.
  Frankly, if you don't understand why people are voting a certain way, 
if you are just quick to write them off or to make a judgment or an 
insult, and maybe this is a lecture to everyone, but it is really just 
a point of personal privilege, you are not on the path to succeeding, 
and we know that.
  I take pride as a liberal, as a Democrat who came in and won because 
people who voted for the 45th President voted for me, and I recognize 
that. I took that seriously. I always kept it up.
  We have had a couple of impeachments last term and this term and the 
term before it. Every term I have been here, impeachment comes up. It 
is not clear to me that impeachment is even working for its intended 
purposes.
  Now, the last time we impeached a President, I thought, well, that is 
very impeachable because of the dereliction of duty and the total 
abandonment of the roles and the responsibilities of the Commander in 
Chief. The government was being attacked. There is no excuse about it. 
Well, that impeachment failed. The impeachments are failing.
  We do have elections, and elections have to be fair, we can say that, 
but they have to be trusted. They have to be trusted.
  Whether it is me or another elected official always deems someone as 
political it is because they are falling in a party, well, you are on 
that side and I am on this side. The trust can only extend so far, and 
that becomes painful to our democracy.
  While I haven't proposed every answer on every reform, de 
Tocqueville, certainly when he was evaluating our Nation and exploring 
it and writing about it, said ``Nothing is more wonderful than the art 
of being free, but nothing is harder to learn how to use than 
freedom.'' The freedom of our fellow citizens, our fellow residents, 
and the freedom as lawmakers who have been bestowed a trust on behalf 
of the citizens of our district, the voting residents of our districts, 
to continue to help to form a more perfect Union.
  We must reclaim trust. We must utilize every facet of this body, not 
in perfunctory terms, not for show, which is why I have carved out an 
hour of my evening to make this extension and to make this reflection 
and to dare to proclaim that a reformed and strengthened American 
democracy will best serve us to the future generations and those before 
us today.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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