Speeches

Madam Speaker, I want to remind us today of President Lincoln’s words to Congress. He said: ‘the dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew.’ So it is today.
 

I want to thank all the Members of the Caucuses that are here, including the Chairman of our [Democratic] Caucus [Hakeem] Jeffries, Vice Chair [Katherine] Clark. 

Thank you very much. [Rep.] Bobby Rush and I are close and dear friends and have been for many years. [Chairwoman] Karen [Bass], I was at an event some two years ago, and… Joe Madison,

It’s never too late to do the right thing. About sixty days after…Congress passed the ERA, Maryland voted to ratify the ERA. I had been in the State Senate for five years at that point in the time, and I could not understand why women were not equal under our Constitution as it read, and how sad it was that, the consciousness of our Founders, which was extraordinarily high for their time – extraordinary – but they didn’t say ‘we hold these truths to be self-evident that all human kind are created equal.’ It is time to act. It is far past time to act. As I said in Maryland, 48 years ago, [we] overwhelmingly said: all of us are equal.

Madam Speaker, history will remember this generation of Puerto Ricans for their perseverance, their courage, and their strength. Having endured two devastating hurricanes in 2017, they have had to cope with their heartbreaking aftermath, characterized by the Trump Administration’s failure to allocate resources properly, fairly, and effectively. Now, a series of powerful earthquakes have struck the island, causing additional damage and, sadly, loss of life. We have heard reports that, while much of the power transmission infrastructure that was rebuilt stronger after the hurricanes were able to hold up, the aging power plants they serve sustained damage.

I solemnly swear that in all things appertaining to the trial of the impeachment of Donald J. Trump, President of the United States, now pending, I will do impartial justice according to the Constitution and laws.’ That is the oath Senators swore on January 16. It is the oath created by Senators when they tried the first impeachment of a President in 1868. It is an oath rooted in the revolution fought by their grandparents to create a republic of laws, not kings. 

Madam Speaker, I want to thank Rep. Lee and Rep. Khanna for their continued efforts to prevent American forces from being sent into combat without Congressional authorization. Americans have now experienced a generation of war abroad to prevent terror at home. In Afghanistan and Iraq, our troops have fought courageously. Their families have sacrificed. Their friends and neighbors have waited anxiously for news of their safe return home. Many, tragically, did not return. We hold them in our hearts today as we engage in this critical debate about the nature of Congress’s role in making consequential decisions of war and peace.

This weekend, a draft of the upcoming book by President Trump's former National Security Advisor, Ambassador John Bolton, was reported on by The New York Times. In that book, Ambassador Bolton, who was the National Security Advisor and Foreign Policy Advisor for President Donald Trump, Ambassador Bolton revealed additional evidence pertinent to the impeachment trial now under way in the Senate.

“Thank you very much, Madam Speaker… I am so pleased to join my colleague from Maryland, [Rep.] John Sarbanes, who has been such a leader on this issues, thank you very much. His father and I were very, very close, and I’ve become very close to his son, and his son has demonstrated the same kind of integrity and focus on good government that his father did. [Rep.] Ben Ray Lujan, the Assistant Speaker, thank you for your galvanizing, certainly for the freshman class, on this issue. And [Rep.] Chris Pappas, thank you very much for being a representative of that freshman class, and [Rep.] Tom O’Halleran, who has been very much in [this issue]. And thank you, of course, our leader on the [Committee on House Administration], [Rep.]  Zoe Lofgren.
 

I appreciate this opportunity to submit this testimony for today’s hearing.  On December 4, I sent a letter, along with Chairman Connolly of the Subcommittee on Government Operations and Reps. Holmes Norton, Sarbanes, Beyer, Brown, Raskin, Trone, and Wexton urging conferees working to reconcile the House- and Senate-passed versions of the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to include paid family and medical leave benefits for all federal employees.