[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 146 (Thursday, September 19, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6199-S6201]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                             Maiden Speech

  Mr. HELMY. Madam President, it is a distinct honor to stand in this 
esteemed Chamber as a Member of the world's greatest deliberative body, 
the U.S. Senate. That I am even standing here, just as the 81st New 
Jerseyan, the 204th American, currently the only Arab American, and the 
first member of the Coptic Church to hold the title of U.S. Senator, is 
something I had never imagined and still struggle to accept.
  For many years, I proudly served as a staffer for two U.S. Senators 
from the great State of New Jersey: first, the late Senator Frank 
Lautenberg; and, as fate would have it, my friend, mentor, now 
colleague, and senior Senator, Cory Booker. As such, it was always my 
job to be the guy behind the guy. It was my job to make sure they were 
prepared, that they had the best possible counsel, and were ready to 
make the consequential decisions required of every U.S. Senator. So 
standing here now is a little odd, a little overwhelming, and very 
humbling.
  I will, as I have for many years, continue to do my utmost to live up 
to the faith placed in me by Governor Phil Murphy to be thoughtful, 
diligent, and a forceful voice and representative of the people of New 
Jersey. And I have a very short window in which to do just that. In 
fact, it is my stated intention to resign from this post once the 
general election is certified by Lieutenant Governor Tahesha Way, who 
also serves as our secretary of state, at which point Governor Murphy 
has said he will appoint my duly elected successor.
  So there is a possibility that my tenure in this body will last all 
of 73 days. Should that be the case, that means I will tie for the 10th 
shortest ever tenure as a U.S. Senator, which also means I will forever 
be rooting for the good health and good fortune of those who follow so 
that I can make at least one top 10 list at some point in my life.
  As with those who have come before me and those who will follow me, 
no one comes to this august and revered Chamber because they were a 
wallflower before they got here. So, then, no one seeks to be a 
wallflower, whether they are here for a day or for a decade.
  The challenges facing our Nation are many, but that means so too are 
the opportunities, and I am going to lean into these opportunities so 
that, while my time here may be short, my impact may be lasting. So I 
intend to be focused and I intend to be busy, and I intend to make 
every single day count for the people of New Jersey.
  One vital issue close to my heart and which I will spend much of my 
energy on over the next 9 weeks is that of our Nation's youth mental 
health crisis. As a father of two sons--Joshua, age 15, and Elijah, age 
12--I know that I cannot make them immune from the strains and 
stressors that impact their or their friends' mental health, but I can 
at least try to mitigate the harmful impacts of those stressors while I 
hold office--and longer, while the Lord gives me life and voice.

[[Page S6200]]

  The challenges are well known and, frankly, shocking. Over the past 
decade, cases of severe depression among young adults have nearly 
doubled. Since 2010, suicidal behavior among our high school students 
increased by more than 40 percent. And since 2017, the number of our 
youth hospitalized for anxiety has increased by half, and the 
proportion hospitalized for self-harm has nearly doubled.

  Allow me to repeat that. In just 7 years, the number of youth 
hospitalized for anxiety has increased by 50 percent, and the 
proportion of our kids hospitalized for self-harm has increased by 
nearly 100 percent.
  The kids are not OK. Last year alone, 40 percent of our Nation's high 
schoolers reported feeling so sad or hopeless that they stopped doing 
their usual activities. That is a truly tragic statistic. Childhood and 
adolescence should be a time of great hope and optimism, not 
hopelessness and pessimism.
  In our home State of New Jersey, up to one-half of our youth are 
experiencing poor mental health, and we know this is even more 
prevalent among young women. In 2021 alone, in New Jersey, nearly 60 
percent of female students reported experiencing persistent feelings of 
sadness and hopelessness. That is double the rate of their male peers. 
And nearly one in four of our female students have made suicide plans--
one in four.
  I am incredibly grateful to welcome two teens from New Jersey who 
have overcome their own struggles with mental health and are now 
looking toward college and a brighter future.
  Emma Baez, sitting in the Gallery, is a senior from North Arlington 
High School. After experiencing her own challenges, she is now a junior 
commissioner in the Bergen County Commission on the Status of Women, an 
important commission serving women like her.
  Valeria Gimenez, also in the Gallery, just graduated from Carteret 
High School. She participated in the Pathways Program, an important 
counseling center in New Jersey, and says it changed her life. Valeria 
is starting college in the spring and wants to be a physician one day.
  Thank you so much for being here, Valeria and Emma. I deeply admire 
your courage and perseverance. It gives me great hope that we can and 
must do more to support teens like you.
  The statistics revealing the scope of the suffering among our next 
generation are unconscionable and unacceptable. We need far more 
support for our American youth in this acute crisis, and to that end, I 
am cosponsoring the Supporting All Students Act. The bill will lead to 
peer line support to provide the critical support our youth need during 
these moments of crisis, and the bill would also allocate the required 
funding for more professionals who can support these youth.
  Among the LGBTQIA+ youth, the numbers are even more dire, with nearly 
40 percent having contemplated suicide and with 1 in 10 having actually 
attempted to take their own lives. That statistic should break our 
hearts. I have signed onto a bill with my colleagues, including my 
mentor and friend Senator Booker, called the Pride in Mental Health 
Act.
  Before I go on, I would be remiss not to acknowledge the senior 
Senator from New Jersey, Senator Cory Booker, who is seated to my left 
here today. I am in awe of the relentless fight that he has undertaken 
for the voiceless and marginalized, both back home in his beloved city 
of Newark, throughout our entire State of New Jersey, the Nation, and 
beyond.
  Senator Booker, your work ethic and compassion inspire me every day. 
I am beyond blessed to have you in my corner. Both Cory and I are known 
for quoting the same line because of the upbringing that we have had. 
And we like to say in our speeches that we stand on the shoulders of 
giants. Well, let me say now, that from the moment I met Cory in 2012 
up to this very moment standing here on the Senate floor, I have stood 
on his.
  I am excited to partner with my senior Senator and others on the 
Pride In Mental Health Act, which will enhance mental health support 
for the LGBTQIA youth, both by providing grants to provide and improve 
mental health and substance abuse outcomes, in addition to mandating 
the cultural competency and training for our caregivers that we know is 
so needed.
  We can point to numerous stressors which are feeding the crisis. I 
think all parents like me know them well. Social media lands at the 
very top of that list. Social media has altered not only the way our 
young people interact but the way they see themselves and even the way 
their brains develop. Just last year, the Surgeon General released a 
historic and alarming report recognizing the detrimental impacts of 
social media on our youth. Like the warning linking cigarettes to 
cancer and mortality, the Surgeon General issued an unprecedented 
warning last year, confirming the serious risks to our youth from 
social media.
  There has been an unprecedented shift in how our young people are 
spending their time with each other and alone. Over half of our 
teenagers spend at least 4 hours per day on social media. Frequent 
users of social media are likely to experience twice as many mental 
health challenges, including suicide.
  The isolation forced upon our youth in the pandemic and compounded by 
social media has further exasperated stress in their lives and on their 
families. In the daily beat of news stories, practically every teen 
sees almost every minute on their phones: school shootings, climate 
change, political division and animosity, the opioid and fentanyl 
epidemic, anti-Arab rhetoric and anti-Semitism, and on and on. It has 
only aided in creating this hopelessness feedback loop.
  I have also cosponsored the Youth Mental Health Data Act, which aims 
to establish a Federal task force focused on improving the data systems 
needed to help solve the problem.
  It can be easy for some of us to sit back and say counseling is what 
our kids need. And, yes, the resources have been poured by this body 
and others into communities to provide more and better counseling for 
our at-risk youth. However, serious disparities remain.
  And even in areas where access has been enhanced--particularly in 
those lower income and immigrant communities which have received 
funding to address these key issues--the utilization of these services 
remains unacceptably low.
  To tackle this problem, we must first fully understand, for example, 
why at-risk youth are not availing themselves of the available services 
and resources.
  I am committed to breaking this negative cycle. I am committed to 
preventing our most precious national asset--our next generation--from 
falling further into this downward spiral.
  Yet here, amongst all this despair, is where I see opportunity, and 
opportunity means hope. I am hopeful because I know my colleagues on 
both side of the aisle, led by our majority leader Chuck Schumer, see 
these opportunities too. From my neighbor colleague representing 
Pennsylvania, Senator Bob Casey, to my friend and staffer turned Member 
from Alabama, Katie Britt, I am inspired by the conversations I have 
had with Members and others about protecting our children. And I am 
hopeful to continue to find common ground and that both parties can 
stand to address the universe of issues. The youth mental health crisis 
is not a Democratic or Republican issue. It is and must be an American 
priority.
  We need not reinvent the wheel. As mentioned, there are numerous good 
pieces of legislation before the Senate. I have proudly put my name on 
cosponsoring a number of them. We must also look to the States, the 
true laboratories of our democracy, for policy solutions that have 
worked to chip away at this crisis.
  During my time serving as chief of staff to Governor Murphy, he led 
the National Governors Association and committed 1 year of his term to 
building a national playbook for tackling just this, the youth mental 
health crisis. I should note that his cochair, whose staff I worked 
with closely, was Governor Spencer Cox of Utah. No one is ever going to 
confuse the politics of Governor Spencer Cox and Governor Murphy. But 
together, our teams proved the power of bipartisanship in taking on 
seemingly intractable issues.
  I will be clear-eyed about one thing. Even if we are successful 
getting at least one measure to the President's desk and seeing it 
become law, it will not mean the end of our efforts to address the 
youth mental health crisis. As with many things in this Chamber,

[[Page S6201]]

there will always be more work for us to do together.
  As I conclude my remarks, Madam President, it is in this spirit--the 
spirit of bipartisanship, of partnership, of collaboration for the 
greater good--upon which I wish to land. I had no intention of ever 
seeking office. I guess, for me, once a staffer, always a staffer. 
However, duty called to continue my service to the people of New 
Jersey.
  I have had the great privilege of directly working for two U.S. 
Senators and a Governor, all who embody the true term ``public 
servant.'' These jobs afforded me the ability to work alongside many 
more elected officials, from local council and school board members all 
the way up to President of the United States.
  I draw great inspiration from one of my own esteemed former New 
Jersey colleagues, our late Lieutenant Governor, Sheila Oliver. She was 
the first Black woman elected to serve as speaker of the New Jersey 
Assembly and the first Black woman in our State's history to be elected 
to statewide office. She was smart; she was funny; and, you bet, she 
was Jersey tough.

  In her first inauguration, January of 2018, Sheila said, ``We make 
history not in the moment, but in what we do with it.''
  During my time in this capacity, I am dedicated to making a lasting 
impact that will benefit our Nation's youth. When I accepted this 
position, I told the people of New Jersey that part of my job, aside 
from representing them here on the floor of the U.S. Senate and in the 
important work we do in our State offices, was to begin to restore 
their faith in our democracy and trust in this office. If I can do just 
that, even for a little bit in my remaining time, I will have 
succeeded.
  I thank my colleagues who have honored me and joined me on the floor 
or for tuning into my maiden speech. And I want to dedicate and thank 
my team who are here on the floor, in the Gallery, and offices back 
home, for standing by my side as we continue to serve the people of New 
Jersey.
  In regard to my short time here, I channel the late great Robert F. 
Kennedy:

       Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but 
     each of us can work to change a small portion of events. It 
     is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that 
     human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an 
     ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out 
     against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and 
     crossing each other from a million different centers of 
     energy and daring those ripples build a current which can 
     sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.

  I pray that my work here will be remembered as a tiny ray of hope. I 
look forward to the next few months in which I will be a Member of this 
august body, and I intend to use every moment to its fullest, working 
with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle.
  I hope and pray that I can be helpful to making a difference to what 
they do, to continue to support their work with this brief moment here 
in the Senate.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Peters). The Senator from New Jersey is 
recognized.
  Mr. BOOKER. Mr. President, I want to take a moment.
  We just heard a speech that is special, not just because it is a 
maiden speech but because of the man who gave it. George Helmy is 1 of 
2,004 Americans in the history of our country--hundreds of millions of 
people--who has ever been a U.S. Senator.
  I will tell you, he is different. He said it in his biography. He is 
the first-ever person of the Coptic faith to be here. That is a 
phenomenal accomplishment in and of itself to the growing diversity of 
a body known for its lack of diversity.
  But I will say what makes him truly special is that he has been a man 
behind the scenes that, for the Governor, Senators, and others, has 
made our State already such a better place. I have watched him do the 
work that others often take credit for, that has made him in my heart 
and through the millions of New Jerseyans he has touched--has already 
made him one of New Jersey's extraordinary public servants.
  I will note that he--in his time in the Senate--has staffers, as he 
pointed out, and many of them have taken an unusual assignment: to 
leave their jobs that they had to come take a temporary assignment to 
serve this country. For that, they have my tribute.
  If I can end by just saying one more thing that makes him special. He 
is throwing himself into this job as if every single day is precious. I 
dare say, there is not a Senator in this body who is taking each day 
like he is and trying to make it as meaningful as possible. In that 
sense, Jersey has a Senator that is incredibly hard-working.
  I want to tell you something. This morning, I woke up and saw a text 
message from him at 6 in the morning. The last time he annoyed me like 
that, he was my State director because that is how hard-working he was 
then. And when I woke up then and I got those early, early morning text 
messages, they were often about something that was vital, something 
that was important.
  This morning, that text message made me angry because here is the 
most junior Senator--100th in seniority--writing to me asking my advice 
on what to do about something that happened yesterday, in which 1 of 
our 100 colleagues in a hearing took on a witness who happened to be 
there to talk about working against hate--the chairman will know this--
attacked them with questions that were so painful to listen to. I went 
to the tape and heard a Muslim American being asked if they support 
Hamas, being asked if they support Hezbollah. It was offensive.
  And this Arab American, this U.S. Senator, at 6 in the morning, 
wanted to make sure that this was the first thing I read to talk to me 
about that.
  George Helmy is a colleague--equal vote, equal power--but his being 
an Arab American gives this body something that is needed, that I have 
seen in the women that are here, I have seen in the Latinos, the Asian 
Americans--people that have come from unusual pathways to be in this 
body to stretch its diversity and representation. They bring a 
different lived experience often and a deeper empathy and connection.
  We are in a moment in America where we are seeing rising hate, rising 
hate crimes, rising racial violence, rising religious violence. And 
every single one of us has an obligation to lose sleep over it, to 
struggle with it, to feel the pain of Americans like that witness in a 
Judiciary hearing, to feel the pain that they feel when they are being 
accused or questioned or attacked for who they are or how they pray.
  It may be only 73 days George Helmy is serving in the Senate, but 
this body needs him. It needs his conscience. It needs his heart. It 
needs his empathy. It needs his love. And I dare say, he will have a 
short time here, but I know the difference he makes here will endure.
  Thank you, Mr. President.
  Thank you, George.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Missouri.