Speeches

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Speech: October 1, 2020

Hoyer Floor Remarks on the Updated Heroes Bill

Madam Speaker, the House passed the Heroes Act more than four and a half months ago. At the time, around 85,000 Americans had lost their lives to Covid-19. Today, that sad figure is at more than 205,000. The House did its job in May for the American people, yet the Republican Senate and President Trump have still not done theirs.
Speech: October 1, 2020

Hoyer Remarks at the House Rules Committee’s Members’ Day Hearing

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, I'm glad to be with you today, and I thank Mr. [Tom] Cole as well. I think the House is advantaged by the new relationship that you and Tom Cole as the Ranking Member have, and the fact that both of you care about the institution.
Speech: October 1, 2020

Hoyer Floor Remarks on House Democrats Governing For The People

Madam Speaker, since the beginning of this Congress, House Democrats have fought for the people. From lowering health care costs, to raising wages by rebuilding America, to cleaning up corruption and strengthening democracy, House Democrats have passed major legislation and shown the American people what our priorities are.  At the same time, Republicans have also made clear what their priorities are – priorities the American people do not share.
Speech: September 29, 2020

Hoyer Remarks on the School-Based Allergies and Asthma Management Program Act

I thank my friend, the Chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee [Frank Pallone], and Mr. [Greg] Walden, the Ranking Member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, for bringing this bill to the Floor. But most of all, I want to thank my friend, Phil Roe - Dr. Roe – from Tennessee, a medical doctor.
Speech: September 24, 2020

Hoyer Floor Remarks on How President Trump and Republicans Are Failing the American People

Madam Speaker, this week, Democrats are coming to the Floor to highlight the work we have been doing over the past two years governing for the people – in sharp contrast with the way President Trump and Republicans have failed the people.
 
Speech: September 23, 2020

Hoyer Floor Remarks on the Clean Economy Jobs and Innovation Act

Madam Speaker, the global climate crisis is one of the greatest challenges of our time. We must confront climate change, and an essential part of that is investing in clean energy innovation. This alone is certainly not going be enough to address the climate crisis we face. But it is a critical step forward that we can and must take right now.
Speech: August 22, 2020

Hoyer Remarks on the Delivering for America Act

…84,631 deaths since [the] Heroes [Act] passed…. No action in the Republican-controlled and led United States Senate. So, don't whine to me about what you want on the Floor. Don't whine to me about ‘we could have done this,’ ‘we could have done that,’ ‘we could have done the other.’ ….
Speech: July 29, 2020

Hoyer Floor Remarks on Legislation to Address the Child Care Crisis in America

Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of the bills on the Floor today to protect child care workers from losing their jobs and to help more families afford the cost of childcare. They build on provisions we included in the Heroes Act in May.
 
Speech: July 27, 2020

Hoyer Floor Remarks on the National Museum of the American Latino Act

Madam Speaker, I rise as a proud cosponsor of this bill, and I thank Rep. José Serrano and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus for leading this effort. Rep. Serrano, the Dean of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, has been one of the most effective and hardworking Members of this House, and he will be missed next year when he retires after thirty years representing New Yorkers. He has been – and will continue to be – a dear, dear friend. This is also a very meaningful day for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. I’m proud to join Rep. Serrano and the CHC on this bill and bring it to the Floor today.
Speech: July 24, 2020

Hoyer Floor Remarks on the 30th Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act

Madam Speaker, I rise to mark the thirtieth anniversary on Sunday of the Americans with Disabilities Act being signed into law. I was proud to be the lead sponsor of that legislation in the House.
Speech: July 22, 2020

Hoyer: John Lewis Represented the Best of Humanity

Some in my generation remember the song, Abraham, Martin, and John. And then, of course, there was Bobby. All four taken from us far too early in their lives. God blessed each of us, this institution, and this country with giving to John Lewis health for eight decades. He used that health and strength, mind and body to serve his God, his faith, his country, and his people.
 
Speech: July 22, 2020

Hoyer Floor Remarks on Legislation to Replace Taney Bust, Remove Confederate Statues from the U.S. Capitol Building

Madam Speaker, the Capitol building is a sacred space for American democracy. It is where we write our laws, inaugurate our presidents, and say a somber farewell to great Americans who earned our respect, like Dwight Eisenhower and Rosa Parks. We cannot erase the difficult history and painful truth that this temple to liberty was built using the labor of enslaved people. But we can do everything in our power to ensure that how we use the Capitol today reflects our commitment to equality and justice for all.
Speech: July 22, 2020

Hoyer Floor Remarks on the Great American Outdoors Act

Madam Speaker, I want to thank Chairman [Raul] Grijalva of the Natural Resources Committee for steering the legislation before us through his Committee and working with the Senate to get it passed through that body. I would also especially like to thank Reps. [Joe] Cunningham, [Mikie] Sherrill, [T.J.] Cox, [Xochitl] Torres Small, [Kendra] Horn, and [Jared] Golden for leading this legislation in the House, along with my good friend, Mike Simpson.
Speech: July 22, 2020

As Americans Speak Out in Support of Police Reform, Hoyer Shares their Stories on the House Floor

Madam Speaker, it has now been nearly four weeks since the House passed the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. Leader McConnell and the Republican-led Senate, however, refuse to call it up for consideration or a vote. Meanwhile, the problem of racial injustice is not going away on its own.
 
Speech: July 22, 2020

Hoyer Remarks at Press Conference on Legislation to Remove Bust of Dred Scott Jurist, Confederate Statues from U.S. Capitol

good morning. Today will be a historic day in the Congress of the United States, and in our country. Today, the House is taking a long-overdue and historic step to ensure that individuals we honor in our Capitol represent our nation’s highest ideals and not the worst in its history.
Speech: July 20, 2020

Hoyer Floor Remarks Honoring the Life and Legacy of Congressman John Lewis

Madam Speaker, I have walked with John Lewis at least fifteen times across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, where with courage and commitment he made a seminal difference in the life of our country. Many of us walked with him. As we followed in John Lewis’s footsteps, I suspect my colleagues saw, as I did, that the man we knew to be a veteran legislator and person of wisdom and experience still carried in his heart the same energy, optimism, and determined spirit that he bore in his youth.
Speech: June 30, 2020

Hoyer Remarks at Press Conference Following White House Briefing on Russian Bounties on U.S. Troops in Afghanistan

“Good morning. Thank you for being here. Sunday evening I received a telephone call from my former colleague, Mark Meadows, now the Chief of Staff at the White House, who asked me to put together a group of eight to 10 members for the purposes of having a briefing in the SCIF at the White House. I indicated to him I would consider that. I talked to the Speaker about it. Our view has been and always been if the White House asked you to come down for a meeting and to be briefed, you respond to that request.
Speech: June 29, 2020

Hoyer Floor Remarks on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Enhancement Act

Madam Speaker, last week in the middle of the worst pandemic in our lifetimes, the Trump Administration submitted briefs to the Supreme Court in support of a lawsuit by Republican-led states seeking to overturn the law that provides millions of Americans with access to affordable health care.
Speech: June 26, 2020

Hoyer Floor Remarks on Historic DC Statehood Vote

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this bill, and I thank Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton and her extraordinary quest, keeping her eye on the prize to make sure that the citizens she represents have full citizenship. I’m proud to stand with her in supporting statehood for the people of the District of Columbia…I want to thank Mayor Bowser with whom I have been proud to work [with] to move this issue forward, with the leadership of Delegate Holmes Norton. I made clear when we announced that the House would consider this bill today, the people who call our nation's capital home have been disenfranchised and shortchanged for too long. Martin Luther king said how long? Too long. 
Speech: June 26, 2020

Hoyer Urges Senate Action on H.R. 4 at Press Event Marking the 7th Anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Shelby County v. Holder Decision

Thank you very much. I’m going to leave this mask on. This mask is about voting rights. This mask is about respect. This mask is about doing what our democracy demands: facilitating that everybody in America, every individual, every American citizen has the right to vote and to have their vote counted.
Speech: June 25, 2020

Hoyer Floor Remarks on the George Floyd Justice In Policing Act

Mr. Speaker, we ought to come together, we ought to reason together, and we will get a better product in the legislative process. Sadly, our friends in the United States Senate don't always do that. Sadly, when your party was in the leadership, it didn't always do that. And yes, from time to time, we do that.
Speech: June 25, 2020

Hoyer Remarks at Press Conference on DC Statehood

We are going to pass a bill in the House of Representatives that says those who happen to live within these three quarters and a river are full citizens of America and should be accorded, therefore, the full rights of citizenship in our country. I am so very proud of [Rep.] Eleanor Holmes Norton, and of Mayor [Muriel] Bowser, and of [DC Council] Chair [Phil] Mendelson, and of Senator [Paul] Strauss, who is the Shadow Senator
Speech: June 16, 2020

Hoyer Announces House Vote on DC Statehood

The Speaker and I have agreed on that for a long period of time: that the District of Columbia citizens were not being treated fairly.
Speech: June 8, 2020

Hoyer Remarks at Press Conference on the Introduction of the Justice in Policing Act

These are serious times. I have walked across the Edmund Pettus Bridge 15 times, hand and hand with my brother [Congressman] John Lewis. My grandchildren have been there; my daughters have been there. In Selma in 2015, President Obama asked us this: ‘what greater form of patriotism is there than the belief that America is not yet finished, that we are strong enough to be self-critical, that each successive generation can look upon our imperfections and decide that it is in our power to remake this nation to more closely align with our highest ideals?’
 
Speech: May 28, 2020

Hoyer Floor Remarks on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act

For my entire career in public service, I have supported efforts to make America both strong and safe and a force for peace and reconciliation. In the course of those years, I have striven to draw an acceptable balance between our national security and the protection of our personal liberty and the right to privacy central to our unique and extraordinary democracy: a government of laws, not of men.