[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 13175]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            UNFINISHED WORK

  (Ms. PLASKETT asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. PLASKETT. Mr. Speaker, I am upset that the House is heading to 
August recess today with so much unfinished work in front of us.
  We could be working to find a transportation bill that both we and 
the Senate can agree on, a bill that would begin to fix our broken 
roads, bridges, and highways. My district, the Virgin Islands, has been 
hit by nearly 6 years of substantially reduced Federal highway funding.
  We could be working on an appropriations bill to fund important work 
for this country. In my district, the Virgin Islands, the Interior 
Appropriations bill is vitally important.
  This funding would go toward the children in our schools. Right now 
the schools are not structurally sound and are decaying. In fact, a new 
school hasn't been built in my home district on the island of St. Croix 
or St. Thomas in the last two decades.
  It is shameful to leave town without working on a Voting Rights Act. 
The ability and ease of access to voting must be expanded, not 
restricted. It must also be further expanded to include the 4 million 
Americans who do not have the right to vote for their President simply 
because they live in a territory.
  These men and women love their country, they fight for their country, 
but they are excluded from the most basic democratic function.
  We could be working to fix these and a myriad of other things, but, 
instead, we are leaving with these matters unattended. This is an 
embarrassment to this body and must not happen again.

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