[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 8]
[House]
[Pages 11142-11143]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     VOTE ON LIFESAVING LEGISLATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Illinois (Ms. Kelly) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. KELLY of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I rise, yet again, to beg this 
House for action. Let us have a vote on lifesaving legislation.
  Just this weekend, 57 Americans were shot in just one U.S. city. 
Tragically, 11 of them passed away, including a 10-year-old boy and a 
revered community activist who worked to create jobs for at-risk kids.
  The violence did not take a rest after the weekend. On Monday, 13 
more people were shot and 3 were killed.
  Mr. Speaker, what are we doing here?
  People, Americans, American kids are dying every day in every 
community, in every State, in every district, yet this House, the 
people's House, continues to do nothing.
  Why, Mr. Speaker? Why is that?
  Well, I think greed and dollars.
  My 101st victim I want to share with you is Gustavo Garcia, who was 
10 years old. Mr. Speaker, Gustavo would have turned 11 next month. He 
would have started fourth grade at Arnold Mireles Academy next month. 
Instead, he was murdered in the back seat of an SUV by an assault 
weapon, a weapon of war that this House has allowed to be legal and 
spill blood on our city streets.
  These weapons have one purpose: killing people. They are not for 
sportsmanship. They are not for personal defense. They are for theaters 
of war. They are designed to devastate, maim, kill, and destroy. That 
is why assault weapons were banned from our streets until this House, 
poisoned by NRA dollars, allowed the bill to expire.
  Mr. Speaker, Gustavo Garcia was 10 years old. He had an entire 
lifetime ahead of him. Mr. Speaker, the operative word in that sentence 
is ``had.'' Now he has become ``Dollar NRA No. 101.''
  $102, William ``Willie'' Cooper, who was 58 years old. Willie was 
working to change Chicago and give our children a future. He founded 
the Lilydale Outreach Workers for a Better Community and helped mediate 
more than 50 conflicts that could have turned deadly.
  Willie was everything you could want in a neighbor, a community 
leader, and a friend. He was kind, concerned about others in his 
community, someone who truly loved all of his fellow men. Now he is 
``$102.'' He was assassinated also with an assault weapon in front of 
the nonprofit he founded to help young people find jobs.
  Time and time again I hear from the other side of the aisle that work 
is transformative, it gives people purpose and direction in life. I 
could not agree more.
  Mr. Speaker, nothing stops a bullet like an opportunity. What Chicago

[[Page 11143]]

needs is jobs for our young people, not guns flooding from States likes 
Wisconsin and even the Vice President's home State of Indiana.
  Mr. Speaker, it is about jobs. So I join Senators Dick Durbin and 
Tammy Duckworth to introduce three pieces of legislation directly 
targeted to support at-risk youth and the amazing businesses that take 
a chance on them to change their lives. To date, these bills have 
simply been referred to committee.
  Mr. Speaker, when is the agenda of this House going to turn to the 
actual issues devastating American families?
  This Congress has voted to allow companies to poison our air and 
water. We passed a bill that stripped 23 million Americans of their 
health insurance. We even passed a bill that lets dangerously mental 
ill people buy a firearm. Shameful.
  We have not had one single debate, not passed one bill, nothing, 
zero, zilch, to save American lives. I guess some things just aren't 
worth the price.

                          ____________________