[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 80 (Tuesday, May 13, 2025)]
[House]
[Pages H1990-H1996]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
BIG, BACKSTABBING BILL
(Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3, 2025, Ms.
Kamlager-Dove of California was recognized for 60 minutes as the
designee of the minority leader.)
General Leave
Ms. KAMLAGER-DOVE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all
Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks
and include extraneous material on the subject of this Special Order.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentlewoman from California?
There was no objection.
Ms. KAMLAGER-DOVE. Mr. Speaker, it is with great honor that I rise
today to co-anchor this Congressional Black Caucus Special Order hour,
along with my distinguished colleague from the great State of Ohio,
Representative Shontel Brown, who hopefully will be joining us.
Along with some of our other colleagues, she is in her committee
hearing, trying to figure out if Republicans
[[Page H1991]]
will stand up with the American people and vote down so many of the
disastrous proposals that are being brought up in these various
committees as it relates to the reconciliation bill.
Mr. Speaker, for the next 60 minutes, members of the CBC have an
opportunity to speak directly to the American people and directly to
you on the Republicans' disastrous reconciliation package. This is an
issue of great importance, of utmost importance, and of perilous
importance, not just to the Congressional Black Caucus but to everyone.
Hopefully, Republican Members, not just Democratic Members of
Congress, will stand up with and for the American people and vote down
some of this nonsense that is going to be coming before all of us in
our committees. At the very least, let's not be silent. That is why the
Congressional Black Caucus is here tonight.
Mr. Speaker, House Republicans on the Ways and Means Committee just
released text. This is the one big, beautiful bill. This is the 386-
page manifesto that killed trees and trees.
Mr. Speaker, I have to tell you that there are only two words in that
phrase that are accurate. This is a bill, and it is big, but it is not
beautiful. It is a backstabbing bill because all the items in the 386
pages of this bill are about how this administration is going to
backstab the American people. It is not going to feel good.
Unlike the O'Jays song ``Backstabbers,'' this doesn't have a good
melody.
This is about cutting Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, and
benefits for veterans. This is about killing young people, seniors, and
those who are disabled. This is about cutting important critical
services for the American people to give tax credits to billionaires.
There are a lot of B's in this statement. None of them are very good.
Let me be very clear: Republicans have barely made any attempts to
support working families. Instead, they have written an economic love
letter to people like Elon Musk. This is a 386-page love letter to Elon
Musk.
Republicans can run from the truth all they want--they have been
silent--but the truth is in the eyes of this administration: Americans
don't need healthcare, but this administration somehow needs a $400
million plane gifted to them from the Saudi Government. Americans don't
need SNAP assistance, but this administration and all of his
billionaire buddies need millions in tax writeoffs.
Mr. Speaker, how are my constituents supposed to live? How are your
constituents supposed to live? How are any of our constituents supposed
to pull themselves up by those ridiculous bootstraps that people like
to talk about?
This administration and the House majority are actually not just
taking away their boots but taking away the leather, the rubber, the
soles, and the labor that would be used to even make these boots. We
are going to be spending the next hour talking about all of that.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from the great State of
Maryland (Mr. Ivey), my very good friend.
Mr. IVEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, it is an honor to be here on behalf of the Congressional
Black Caucus to address and speak to these issues because they are so
timely.
There are new developments that come every day that keep us guessing
as to what the Trump administration is going to do from one moment to
the next. I am going to talk about this plane from Qatar toward the
end.
Mr. Speaker, I want to speak today about my deep concern about the
appropriations and budget processes as established by the Constitution
because they are broken. I rise out of deep concern for our
institution, our responsibilities, and for the American people who
elected us to make decisions.
The continuing resolutions that we have been passing are temporary
stopgaps, but they have become the norm. It is not just a failure of a
process. It is a failure of President Trump's leadership and House
Republican leadership.
Trump's economic failures include trying to make his tax cuts
permanent, the DOGE cuts, and the irresponsibility of the tariff
packages. Thank goodness, I think he backed away a few days ago with
respect to cutting a deal with China, but that is only for 90 days.
The challenge of the erratic and illegal behavior he has been
exhibiting is that it really puts companies in a very difficult spot.
Companies have to make decisions not just moment to moment, as
apparently President Trump does, but over months and sometimes years,
especially if they are going to make major decisions about something
like investing to build a new plant. That can cost millions or even
billions of dollars.
When he does things like puts up 130-something percent in tariffs
against one of the main trading partners of the United States, like
China, it creates a major problem for companies that trade with China
and that get their materials or send their finished products to China.
Many of them are small American businesses. We have seen and heard
from many of those over the past couple of days. I have been listening
to some who are toy manufacturers. They talk about what has happened to
their companies on the radio. They are concerned about what might
happen for them during the Christmas holidays, a key time of year for
their businesses.
The Trump administration didn't pay any attention to that. In fact,
he just moved forward with the tariffs that he put in place. He did so
not just against China, not just against our adversaries, but against
allies like Canada, Mexico, France, Germany, and other countries. It
has been devastating to the American economy and businesses across the
country.
{time} 1945
He ran for election telling the American people that he was going to
make their economic lives better and that he was going to help them
financially be better off than they were under the Biden
administration. However, it is clear in the first 6 months that what he
has been doing is he is not putting money in their pockets, he is
taking it out.
I think it is critical for us to make sure we understand fully what
is going on here with respect to the packages that they are trying to
move. He is trying to do this mainly through executive order. He has
been unable to move major pieces of legislation through the House, and
House leadership hasn't pressed him to do it, even though we are
supposed to be doing these things through the appropriations process.
As a matter of fact, the Constitution gave us the obligation to move
these bills through the appropriations process, but the Republican
leadership in the House has failed to do that.
The failure to pass these appropriations bills has led to things like
Federal workers are being forced out of their positions. Some of them
are concerned about whether their paychecks are going to come. Small
businesses, we just mentioned a moment ago, especially those who are
relying on government contracts, are having trouble making payroll. In
some of those instances, they have already done the work that they are
supposed to get paid for.
However, the Trump administration has done two things. One is it has
withdrawn contracts, but it has also, even though they performed the
work, refused to make the payments and forced some of these companies
to shut down and fire some of their employees even though they already
did the work.
We are also going to have challenges I think, too, with respect to
communities who have been hit by major disasters. Unfortunately, I just
saw while we were waiting to start this process a few minutes ago, we
had three major natural disasters today across the country, but FEMA is
under attack, and the funding is being cut.
With respect to reconciliation, as we just talked about a moment ago,
the $881 billion in cuts to Medicaid are a shocking development. We
know what that could mean for communities across the country is that
hospitals have to shut down, medical treatment facilities might have to
be closed, and people who perform medical services like doctors and
nurses might not be available.
Certainly, in urban areas and suburban areas like mine, there is
going to be a major impact from that, and in red States and rural
districts as well.
I just heard a report on the radio last week. It was talking about a
district in
[[Page H1992]]
a rural area where I think they said that 70 percent of their funding
comes through Medicaid in one way or another. If these cuts are made
then that hospital is going to have to close and if that hospital
closes then it creates, essentially, a medical desert going 200 miles
each way. So the next time you have a serious car accident in that
area, Mr. Speaker, they are going to have a tough time getting people
the care that they need for any kind of medical emergency, say perhaps
from a complication in a birth scenario or basic day-to-day medical
services, they are going to have to drive hundreds of miles, in some
instances, just to go see a doctor.
With respect to the impoundment issue, I want to raise that too
because the Trump administration has started making the argument that
even though money has been appropriated, they don't have to spend it.
The reason they are trying to do that is because they want to take
control away from Congress. They want to take control of the power of
the purse that was given to Congress through the Constitution. They
want to do that so they can marginalize Congress and make the spending
decisions that they want to make.
We saw that with the $1.6 trillion, the Trump administration decided
how to spend that because we didn't pass a regular appropriations set
of bills. We had to do it through the continuing resolution. It left
them discretion that I don't think they should have. I have to say I am
concerned about the way he has used that discretion in some of these
processes.
They have made budget cuts, for example, to VOCA. That stands for the
Victims of Crime Act. They are cutting grants to help people who are
victims of crime.
Why would he take a step like that?
The Violence Against Women Act, VAWA, is to help women who are
surviving sexual assault and domestic violence.
Why would he cut a program like that?
They cut USAID programs. One of our colleagues referenced earlier
about how that has had a positive impact on the starvation issues, the
USAID efforts. However, they are cutting programs that will to lead to,
I saw one estimate, 1.6 million people who will die over the next year
based on these cuts that he is making right now to foreign aid.
We stopped funding AmeriCorps, which means less teachers in areas
that are in desperate need of teaching assistants. We have a lot of
schools out there who are short on full-time teachers. They are
certainly short on full-time certified teachers. Cuts to AmeriCorps
just exacerbate the problem.
Cutting rental subsidies means that low-income families will have
trouble keeping a roof over their heads. The Trump administration is
going to make it even harder for them to do that.
Why would we take that step?
How is that consistent with the promise he made to help American
people who needed help the most?
He is making cuts to mental health services. We have got kids who are
struggling in school. They are bullied sometimes. We have some
scenarios where we have serious violent attacks in the schools. It
might be a mass shooting from a gun situation. It might be something
less serious than that. We have got kids who need assistance with their
mental health challenges across the country, and making cuts to those
sorts of programs only makes it harder for these kids to survive and
get through the school process.
There are cuts to NIH. Now, I know he had, frankly, a vendetta,
essentially, against Dr. Fauci, and he is taking that out on many of
the health institutions, like the NIH. However, at the end of the day,
it is clear that the NIH has been and continues to be, hopefully, at
least if it can survive these cuts, one of the premier institutions
that do medical research that makes a difference here in the United
States and around the world.
He is cutting medical research on cancer. I am a cancer survivor. It
is important to folks like me, and there are a lot of folks who are
cancer survivors. The only reason we are still here is because of the
medical advances that were made at places like NIH based on research
that was done using government funding. That is how these things
happen.
Alzheimer's is another one. My father died from Alzheimer's. It is
one of the most horrific diseases you can possibly imagine. Mr.
Speaker, you would never even wish it on your worst enemy. It is hard
to even explain how tragic it is to watch a human being slide from
being the full person that they were into something ravaged by
Alzheimer's. They cut funding for clinical trials for Alzheimer's at
NIH. The thing about clinical trials that you need to remember, Mr.
Speaker, it is not like an off switch. You don't just flick it on and
off and it comes right back. If you shut down a clinical trial, Mr.
Speaker, you might have to start that all the way from scratch. In some
instances, the research and the projects that have been going forward
under that have taken years. So he is setting that back years and
months.
Why? Why would he do that?
He is making cuts to grants to help people who want to go into the
science fields. The United States, certainly in the last 50 years and
the postwar era, has been the premier nation with respect to science
and technology and innovation.
That is how we got Apple, that is how we got Microsoft, and that is
why we have quantum computing. All of these fantastic innovations and
giant steps forward came from the United States, in part because of the
research that was funded in part by the Federal Government. The people
who developed many of those advances got their training and got their
college and Ph.D.s paid for using funding that helped them get through
school. They wouldn't have been able to pay for it otherwise. Yet the
Trump administration is making cuts not just to those programs but also
to the grants and funding that help those people get through.
To add insult to injury, he makes personal attacks on research
institutions like Harvard, which has been the source of some of the
best, the brightest, and most talented who have taken leadership in
these fields. He is making threats to undermine those institutions and
those universities just out of personal venom.
It makes absolutely no sense. It is damaging to the United States,
and it undermines our leadership in science and technology in the
world. He says it is America first, but sometimes it feels like China
first. Sometimes it feels as if he is actually trying to help the
Communist Chinese Party leadership surge ahead of the United States in
its leadership role in science and technology.
Then there are $40 million in cuts for election security. I know he
still says that he won the 2020 election. Okay, fine. However, one of
the things we can all agree on for sure is that we know the Russians
and the Chinese and, in some instances, Iran and terrorist
organizations around the world are making efforts to influence our
elections with misinformation, disinformation, and the like.
Why would we ever make our elections more vulnerable to those kinds
of attacks by cutting the funding that helps defend against it?
I will stop with this regarding the plane. When I first saw that on
the news, I thought it was a joke. I thought it was a clip from
Saturday Night Live or something. I never imagined that the Trump
administration or the Trump family would even consider taking a $400-
million plane from a country like Qatar, which is not exactly an
adversary country but certainly it is not an ally country. It is a
foreign country. The reason the Emoluments Clause was put in place in
the Constitution was to make sure that Presidents of the United States
of America, whether it is number one or number 47, are not tempted or
tested with these kinds of, essentially, bribes to try and get them to
lean and issue support for their countries in making decisions. We want
to make sure we have people like the President of the United States not
tested by the money and not tempted by the money but always making the
decisions for the best possible reasons and the best interests of the
United States.
However, here we have a $400-million plane, and apparently, he will
eventually own it personally.
Now, Mr. Speaker, tell me why that is beneficial for the country. It
creates
[[Page H1993]]
conflicts of interest and then some, because we have all of these
issues with Qatar, including the negotiations with the Gaza conflict.
How is this going to be beneficial to the United States to create
these levels of conflict?
Even if he can rise above them, the appearance of the conflicts is
ridiculous, it is astonishing, and it is unacceptable. The National
Review, not exactly a liberal rag and not exactly a liberal bastion,
has said that the swamp is under new ownership.
So much for the commitments that he made to the American people when
he first ran and when he ran again to so-called clean up the swamp.
Here we are. It violates the Constitution. I think on its face he
should know better, and I am sure that everybody in the Congress knows
that sometimes he needs guardrails. He always needs guardrails. This is
the moment we have to make sure we stand up and put the guardrails in
place.
To my colleagues here in Congress: Let's get back to work. Let's
stand up and address this issue. As far as the conflicts of interest
with the plane, let's make it clear that we unanimously oppose him
taking the plane, certainly on behalf of the United States, and
certainly in his personal capacity.
We unanimously want to move forward with a budget that is fair and
reasonable and helps the American people, not one that takes $881
billion out of their pockets, out of the pockets of kids, out of the
pockets of seniors, out of the pockets of the disabled, and the people
who need it the most.
We have to make sure that when the budget process is done, we are
protecting the people who need it the most. Right now it looks like we
are taking from the most vulnerable to give to the most wealthy, like
Elon Musk and his allies. We have got to reverse that process.
I want to commend the gentlewoman for pulling this together, my
colleagues with the Congressional Black Caucus, my colleagues in the
Democratic Caucus, and, hopefully, my colleagues in the Republican
caucus who will stand up and say: We can't do this. We cannot cross
these lines. The plane is over the line. The $881 billion in cuts to
Medicaid is over the line. The no more appropriations bills, that is
over the line. Let's get back to work. Let's engage in clear and proper
oversight, and let's address these problems and do the work that helps
the American people.
Ms. KAMLAGER-DOVE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from the great
State of Maryland (Mr. Ivey) for keeping it real and really
underscoring the challenges that are in front of us as Americans and
for really articulating why courage, backbone, and just basic common
sense are so needed right now in these perilous times.
Why are these times perilous?
These times are perilous because in Congress we are in the process of
debating and trying to pass this reconciliation bill.
People might be saying: Well, what is it?
It isn't actually a budget. In each of the committees, discussions
are had about where to spend and where to cut. This House majority has
been given marching orders, and the marching orders are to cut as much
as possible and to cut until the American people bleed. The only folks
who will be able to afford Band-Aids to prevent them from bleeding to
death will be the richest of the rich.
{time} 2000
Everyone else, you will have to fend for yourself. In each of these
committees in which we sit, on which we sit, we are debating cuts that
will hurt this economy, that will hurt constituents, that will hurt
American businesses, that will hurt our standing in the world.
This is not a red or blue discussion. This is not even a Black Caucus
or other caucus discussion. This is about what is at risk, who is at
danger, who is being put at risk by this administration and, quite
frankly, by the silence coming from this House majority.
Tonight and later on this week, Ag, Energy and Commerce, and the Ways
and Means Committees are meeting, and they have been meeting earlier
today, and they are also continuing to meet right now.
The challenge is meeting this late in the evening allows them to do
dirty business, allows them to vote on bills and amendments that will
hurt the American people without the benefit of having the news being
able to report on it before people go to bed. It is almost like these
dirty deeds will be happening at night when no one can see or hear what
is going on.
Maybe we are spending our time talking about this $400 million bribe
that was just given to this administration when we should be talking
about all of the cuts that are going to be coming from these
committees.
With reconciliation, Republicans want all the cuts, but they do not
want the political consequences. That is why we are here tonight
talking about what those consequences will be, talking about what is in
these reconciliation bills, what is in this package, because we don't
want anyone to get political amnesia.
We don't want anyone to forget when they are hurting, when they are
trying to pay a bill, when they are trying to get gas, when they are
trying to buy eggs, when they are trying to buy a home, when they are
looking for a job, when they are trying to bury a loved one, why it is
so hard to do any of those things, why the costs are so high.
We are going to continue to remind the American people why all of
those costs are going to be so high, and it is because of the cuts that
are coming in this reconciliation bill, cuts that Republicans could
have stopped, but they have been too silent.
Last week we were here, and we had hearings in the Committee on
Foreign Affairs, Committee on the Judiciary, Committee on Small
Business, Committee on Veterans' Affairs, Committee on Natural
Resources, in those committees and in others.
I don't know if many of these discussions or outcomes from these
committees have made it into the news cycle, so folks don't know what
really happened in those committees. I am going to say, in those
committees we talked about cutting State Department by close to 50
percent, terminating workers in the State Department, finalizing the
shuttering of USAID.
People might say, well, what is USAID? Well, part of what USAID does
is contract with American farmers. Farmers have contracts with USAID.
USAID buys their product and then uses it. All of those contracts have
stopped because Republicans are looking for ways to fill the gap, the
big gap, the chasm that has been made by these tax cuts going to
billionaires.
They have done so much at the State Department that they have even
fired the people who are responsible for purchasing the tickets to
bring Americans home from all of their missions around the world. You
have Americans who are stuck in countries around the world separated
from their families, unable to get home because the ticket agency in
the State Department has been shut down.
In the Committee on the Judiciary, we talked about billions of
dollars going to ICE for bonuses to buy computers and cars and
deporting Americans and allowing January 6ers to be hired to work for
the Federal Government, people who came in here trying to bludgeon the
Capitol Police and the people who work in this very institution.
In that committee, Republicans voted to allow them to work for the
Federal Government and have the authority to go after other Americans.
In the Committee on Natural Resources, they passed a bill that would
allow us to sell Federal land, land that we all enjoy, parks,
recreational services, and forests.
I want the people in my life, the little people in my world to be
able to go and visit a natural reserve or to go to one of our national
parks and monuments and see that it is still owned by the United
States, that we haven't sold it to some corporation or, God forbid,
some other country, someone with the highest bid.
We are selling that land, and the proceeds are going into the coffers
because, remember, we have to cover the $4.5 trillion gap that House
Republicans made because they want to give tax cuts to the wealthiest
of the wealthy.
What else does that mean? It means that Republicans plan to cut $900
billion to Medicaid, kicking 8.7 million people off of Medicaid over
the next 10
[[Page H1994]]
years. The plan calls for new requirements for beneficiaries, for those
who are on Medicaid, work requirements.
Some say: Well, I don't have a problem with people going to work.
They are also saying: We want seniors, we want folks who are disabled,
we want the elderly, we want those folks to be schlepping down the
street trying to find a job in this market, of course, when it is
actually hard to find employment.
They have been saying: Well, you can make these cuts because there
are not even that many people on Medicaid. There are these people who
are 150 years old or 130 years old or they have been dead for 4 years,
and they are on Medicaid. Well, the reality is that so many of us have
constituents who are dependent on Medicaid and Medicare and Social
Security that are going to be devastated because of these cuts.
In California, there are 470,000 people on Medicaid, and they are
going to be at risk of losing their care because of what the Republican
budget plans to do. This is 140,000 children under the age of 19 and
40,000 seniors over the age of 65 just in my district.
I am going to say it again. My district has the 4th highest Medicaid
enrollee numbers in the country. California has 7 of the 10th highest
Medicaid enrollee districts. There are poor people, there are
struggling people everywhere in every district in every state who need
Medicaid, who need Medicare, who need Social Security.
I just have to say: If Republicans are so enamored with this big,
beautiful, backstabbing bill and believe it to be the manna from
heaven, then they shouldn't be afraid to go into their districts and
talk about the cuts, talk about cutting Medicaid.
Look at the person in the wheelchair, look at the person who is
dependent on Social Security benefits, look at the veteran who is
receiving Social Security, and tell them that they don't matter. Tell
them that their benefit is not as important as giving the money to Elon
Musk and the billionaires. You tell them that.
If you are not telling them to their face, you are certainly going to
be telling them that when you vote for this reconciliation bill.
Let's talk about education. DOGE and Musk, under the authority of
this administration, have already fired half of the staff in the
Department of Education. I don't know about you, but I have young
people in my family who are excited about going to college, and they
are also scared because they don't even know if the colleges are going
to stay open.
I am not just talking about elite Ivy League institutions. I am
talking about community colleges; I am talking about state colleges. I
am talking about legacy institutions where parents and grandparents
went to, and it means something to be able to get into that school and
graduate.
I have talked to young people who don't know if there will be any
money for them if they get in, even with the grades. I have talked to
young people who are getting ready to graduate and don't know if there
will be a job for them. And I have talked to young people who were
excited about representing this country and helping us be more
competitive and now don't even know if this country is for them.
News flash, all of these young people who I have been talking to are
U.S. citizens, American-born, who don't even know if there is going to
be a country left, who don't even know if there will be educational
institutions left because this proposal includes $330 billion in cuts
that will impact Pell grants, Head Start, school lunches, and more.
We are talking about a $1 billion freeze for school-based mental
health. I don't know about you, but it seems like every single person
in this country should be accessing mental health services right now
just to make it through the day.
That is what is coming out of this reconciliation package.
Going back to student loan borrowers who saw a glimmer of hope last
year, and now they are going to be tracked down like animals in the
night when you have an administration that just accepted a $400 million
bribe from another country. The math doesn't math up.
Why are you asking for young people to pay their fair share when it
seems like not everyone else is doing the same thing? The regional Head
Start office serving my district closed, and Head Start funding at
roughly $12 billion annually represents less than .2 percent of total
Federal spending.
Eliminating Head Start would cut childcare and supportive services
for about 80,000 young children in California.
Then let's talk about ag. This proposal would halt funding for the
Rural Energy for America Program. Once again, cutting a billion dollars
in funding for programs that help schools and feed folks through food
banks. Cutting this funding would threaten the livelihood of our
American farmers and also threaten the nutrition of our children.
Let's talk about our veterans. Under this reconciliation package
proposal, we are talking about firing 6,000 veterans. My God. My God.
People who have served our country in wars, who have stood up for this
country and the people in it, who have stood up for our Constitution,
who came back from their service and were hired by the government will
be fired, have been fired, are being fired.
Not only are we talking about firing 6,000 veterans, but we are also
talking about cutting their services, cutting their medical services,
forcing longer wait times for them because when they call, when they go
to the VA to get help, there will be fewer people there to help them.
I think about the veterans in my district that I talk to, and they
don't deserve to be mistreated like that.
{time} 2015
My God, they want to come back and enter into society and be part of
a thriving business, to help open a business, and they still need
access to their medical care. They still need access to their mental
health support, and we are going to cut that. In my mind, that is just
so unchristian.
Then, we are talking about cutting Health and Human Services so that
if we are trying to make sure that folks don't get tuberculosis, that
we keep measles at bay, that we keep HIV at bay, well, if you are at
risk, you are going to be in greater danger because the proposed cuts
would be cutting NIH, the National Institutes of Health; CDC, the
Centers for Disease Control; and FDA, the Food and Drug
Administration--the people who make sure that the food we eat is safe,
is not poisonous, won't kill us, and the people who make sure that we
get accurate, nonpartisan, truthful information about the diseases and
the ailments that are out here in this world so that we have the
information that we need to keep ourselves and our children safe and
healthy. We are not going to have access to that.
The research that is being done to help us fight against cancer and
to cure so many other diseases that are out there, those research
programs are going to be compromised. The clinical trials happening are
going to be compromised because we have decided this reconciliation
package, which is a statement of values, is going to be deciding that
those things are not important. It is not important to eat healthy
food. It is not important to have access to medicine. It is not
important to research, to find cures for diseases and illnesses that
have plagued our grandparents, our parents.
Have you gone to a children's hospital? Have you visited a child who
is dying from cancer? Would you go to that child and tell them there is
a higher probability that you are going to die because we are cutting
the grants that would allow us to find a cure? That is what is in this
reconciliation package.
Then Social Security, cutting 7,000 employees, you cut so many
employees in your thirsty quest to find ways to fill this hole for
these tax cuts for the billionaires, but you crashed the Social
Security website. You have closed offices. You have told seniors and
those with disabilities to figure out a way to get themselves to one of
the few offices that are still open, but you are going to have to wait
in a longer line because we have fired employees and are actually
ending phone services for claims.
Really, it is a very sneaky, shady way of kicking people off of the
services because you are constricting access.
I don't know about you, but I don't want to see a bunch of seniors
struggling in a car or trying to get on the bus to go to the Social
Security office that now has shorter hours and longer
[[Page H1995]]
lines because they are trying to get a claim that they have earned. Who
tells a 75-year-old, a 68-year-old, an 80-year-old grandparent to go
suck it--basically, figure out how you are going to survive. We are
going to cut all of this from you, but I still want to visit you on
Easter. I don't know what people say. I don't know how the hypocrisy
formula works, but I am not down for cutting access to Social Security,
cutting Social Security, and hurting our seniors because we want to
give billions more, trillions more, in tax cuts to millionaires.
Let's talk about the arts and cutting funding for the arts, closing
down museums, grant programs, and after-school programs that teach
young people how to play music, how to play an instrument, and shutting
down libraries.
It is so healing when we turn on the radio. We want to go to a
concert. We go to an art performance because that is meaningful,
regardless of your political party. Everyone deserves an opportunity to
enjoy art, to be able to go to a library and have the choice of what
book you want to pick out, but you have no choice when they are all
shut down. That is what is in this reconciliation package.
Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to how much time is remaining.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Haridopolos). The gentlewoman from
California has 15 minutes remaining.
Ms. KAMLAGER-DOVE. Mr. Speaker, I almost lost my train of thought,
but it has come back to me because I was talking about the arts.
The gentleman from Maryland was talking about our leadership as a
country and how our leadership is in question. I would just like to add
that not only is our leadership in question, but our attractiveness as
a country is in question. Our competitive edge is in question. Our
ability to be seen as forthright and a country of high integrity is in
question.
These cuts are hurting our children. They are hurting our
grandparents. They are hurting our farmers. They are hurting our small
businesses. They are hurting the infrastructure in our States. They are
hurting our ports. They are hurting our hospitals. They are hurting our
clinics. They are hurting our parks. Honestly, they are hurting our
hearts.
I think about that big red, white, and blue flag right behind the
Speaker's chair and what that flag represents: opportunity, access,
honesty, integrity. What we have seen last week and what we are seeing
this week from the House majority when it comes to this reconciliation
bill is silence. It is silent on these issues that mean so much to the
people in our communities.
I can't tell you how many times I have walked down the street and
have had an older person grab me and say, ``What is going to happen to
my Social Security?'' Coming here to vote, I had a Capitol Police
officer pull me to the side and ask me what it meant for his job, if he
would have a job. Going to talk to farmers, I had them tell me that
they may have to fire or lay off the rest of their employees, that they
would not be able to make it. Small businesses in the community that
are hiring other people from the community are concerned.
Everyone asks, ``What are Republicans doing? Why aren't they standing
up for us, too?''
I don't have an answer to that question. I want an answer to that
question because when you are silent, it means you are complicit or
apathetic. I would hope that there would be no one here who would want
to be complicit in the taking away of Social Security, Medicaid, or
Medicare. I would hope that no one here would want to be complicit in
having young children with cancer at a children's hospital die because
we have cut cancer research funding.
As I say this, I think about my mother, a breast cancer survivor who
wonders every day if it will come back. Boy, how do you think it gets
me right in the craw to have to tell her that this country doesn't care
if she lives or dies because it doesn't care enough about finding a
cure for cancer to continue to fund that kind of research?
We just celebrated Mother's Day. I wonder if people shared with their
mothers how all the support that helps mothers will now be on the
chopping block.
I am sharing all of this on behalf of the Congressional Black Caucus
because as we wait to see what comes out of the remaining committees
that are meeting, just know that there is a $290 billion cut to the
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, cutting off food assistance
to thousands of families who need it.
Just know that, in these committees, they will be debating raising
the age for mandatory work requirements because we want people to work
longer and harder and get less while somehow billionaires make more off
of the backs of these working families.
Just know that, in these committees, they are going to be talking
about cutting access to school lunches. So many of us live in districts
where the school district is actually responsible for feeding the
children in the community because of the free lunch program.
I know that people might be distracted by the Qatar gift, the $400
million flying palace. Let's hope there are no bugs in it. I don't
know. I know people want to be distracted by all the other things that
seem to be coming out of the administration, but I don't want us to be
distracted by that.
I want us to be talking about this reconciliation bill. I want us to
remember what is going to be voted on in this package, and it is a
thing. It is a thing that it is actually taking so long for this
package to arrive on the floor.
Do you know why it is a thing? Because we have a House majority
trying to wiggle through the truth and figure out a way to spin death,
destruction, and poverty.
There is no way to spin kicking granny off of Social Security. There
is no way to spin shutting down hospitals and clinics. We can demonize
the folks who are on Medicaid and Medicare, but I want to also remind
us that if there is a doctor, if there is a clinic, if there is a
hospital that is receiving a reimbursement for taking care of a
recipient on Medicaid, that doctor, that hospital, that community
clinic is open to serve you, too, because that reimbursement allows
that clinic, that doctor, that hospital to stay open to help and serve
everyone else in the community.
A lot of this rhetoric that you are hearing from people who don't
want to talk about this reconciliation bill is trying to divide us into
``us'' and ``them'' buckets. The truth is that we are all in this
together. We are all in this country together. We are all in this
debate together. We are all in this fight together to make sure that
the people in our districts have access to the services that they
deserve.
{time} 2030
If you are not willing to stand up for Medicare--and don't sign a
letter and then run and don't show up in a district. Stand up and talk
about saving it, protecting it, defending it, and making it better so
that it can serve more people who deserve it rather than cutting it and
lying about it and running from the truth.
The truth is that this reconciliation bill, this package, is going to
hurt people. It is going to impoverish people. It is going to destroy
businesses because the funny thing about economies is that they are
circular. Nothing happens in a silo, in a vacuum. Businesses stay open
because people are able to go into those businesses, and they are able
to shop and buy things. When that happens, that business is able to
grow, and they are able to hire more workers. Then those workers are
able to do more or produce more.
Mr. Speaker, that is how it works. Yet, when you cut off opportunity,
access, incentive, and support, then you compromise that ecosystem. We
all have those micro-ecosystems in our communities. That is what makes
this country strong. That is what makes this country unique. That is
what makes this country worthy of this kind of debate.
Mr. Speaker, I am going to close right now because I know the
witching hour is among us. I am grateful for the time that has been
given to the Congressional Black Caucus. The Speaker has heard from my
distinguished colleagues about this reconciliation package and about
all issues of great importance to this caucus, to our constituents, to
the Congress, and to all Americans tonight.
This reconciliation bill is a big deal. It is important and it should
be talked about and discussed. The best disinfectant is sunlight, and
we have to stop allowing people to be so shady about
[[Page H1996]]
what is happening in these committees and what is being cut. We have to
turn all the lights on and talk about all of the cuts that are coming
in this reconciliation package. Yes, we have to point the fingers and
point the blame at the people who plan to make these cuts and kill the
American people.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
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