[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 146 (Thursday, September 19, 2024)]
[House]
[Pages H5453-H5454]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        HISPANIC HERITAGE MONTH

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Michigan (Ms. Tlaib) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. TLAIB. Madam Speaker, this Hispanic Heritage Month, I want to 
honor a powerful community mother in our district. She is an advocate. 
She has been a social worker for over 40 years. Our community mother, 
Mary Turner, serves with so much incredible commitment to community.
  Mary's Catholic faith drove her to service. In southwest Detroit 
where there are 20 different ethnicities, you will find someone who has 
a story about Mary helping their family.
  She brings so much heart and humanity to everything that she does, 
helping families navigate our broken, inhumane immigration system that 
too often works against them.
  Her commitment to justice, equality, and compassion reminds us of the 
essential contributions that our Latino neighbors make every day in our 
Nation.
  Mary doesn't just serve our community, she empowers us.
  As we celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month and the more than 63 million 
Hispanic and Latino Americans in our country, let's honor people like 
Mary Turner and continue to fight for a future where every person, 
regardless of their background, has access to the opportunities they 
deserve.
  I thank Mary Turner for her many years of service. She continues to 
inspire us all.


                            Hazardous Waste

  Ms. TLAIB. Madam Speaker, this month I join Congresswoman Debbie 
Dingell and Wayne County Executive Warren Evans for a townhall to 
discuss the impending radioactive waste shipments that are coming to 
Michigan from New York.
  This waste, and thousands of other truckloads our residents never 
hear about, comes to our communities right into our backyard because 
Michigan

[[Page H5454]]

has become the country's hazardous waste dumping ground.
  Wayne County, the largest county in Michigan, is home to six of 
Michigan's eight hazardous waste dumps. Our laws must change, Madam 
Speaker. We must protect our residents.
  I don't know if folks know, but it costs about $13 to dispose of a 
ton of waste in a landfill in Wisconsin, but it only costs 36 cents in 
Michigan.
  We have made ourselves the most attractive place in our Nation to 
dump hazardous waste while surrounded by 84 percent of our country's 
surface freshwater. It doesn't make sense.
  The truth is our environmental protection laws aren't strong enough 
to protect our people. They certainly do not go far enough, again, to 
protect working families and communities of color.
  I introduced the Cumulative Impacts Act that would require the EPA 
and EGLE to consider cumulative impacts of pollution on our communities 
when it considers permanent facilities like this one and reject those 
permits when they would put our health at risk.
  We need to pass this bill and more. Our residents are getting sick 
every single day while we do nothing.


                           Palestinian Babies

  Ms. TLAIB. Madam Speaker, we are witnessing the Israel Government 
carry out a genocide in Gaza.
  Recently, the Gaza ministry of health released a 649-page document 
with the name, age, and ID number of 34,344 Palestinians killed in Gaza 
who have been identified.
  Most of them are women, children, and the elderly. These are just the 
identified individuals; many public health experts believe the death 
toll will climb. Every single day higher numbers will come out due to 
disease and starvation.

  There are thousands more who are dismembered, unrecognizable, or 
buried beneath the rubble. However, behind these numbers are real 
people who have had their futures stolen. Their lives are forever 
changed.
  The first 14 pages alone are the names of babies--I wish my 
colleagues would look at--who were under the age of 1 when they were 
killed. There are 14 pages of babies' names. That is 710 babies that 
the Israeli Government has murdered. This is not self-defense. This is 
genocide.
  How can anyone justify this?
  Madam Speaker, I include in the Congressional Record the link for the 
list of the children: https://d12t4t5x3vyizu.cloudfront.net/
tlaib.house.gov/uploads/2024/09/Palestinian-Ministry-of-Health-
Casualty-List-31-Aug-24.pdf
  We are living through one of, again, the most documented and horrific 
crimes against humanity in our history.
  Again, these are children who did not live to see their first 
birthday. We cannot normalize this, Madam Speaker.
  My colleagues continue to be silent. I wonder if it is because these 
babies are Palestinian. They are children. That is it. They are 
children. I can't believe I have to consistently remind my colleagues 
that Palestinians are also human beings.
  Our tax dollars paid for this. U.S. weapons are being used to commit 
war crimes in violation of our own U.S. Leahy Laws and international 
laws, but many of my colleagues in the Biden-Harris administration 
continue to send bombs to kill children.
  This is not working tirelessly for a cease-fire. If the Biden-Harris 
administration wants a cease-fire, then they should stop sending the 
bombs and the weapons. We must stop arming and funding genocide.

                          ____________________