[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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