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[Page H2511]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
2018: A BAD YEAR FOR CHILDREN
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New
Jersey (Mr. Payne) for 5 minutes.
Mr. PAYNE. Mr. Speaker, when Speaker Pelosi took the gavel on January
3, she was surrounded by children, and as she brought down the gavel to
commence the 116th Congress, these were her words: ``I now call the
House to order on behalf of all of America's children.''
The importance of Speaker Pelosi's words cannot be overstated. Last
year was horrendous for children in our country.
If we look at gun violence or immigration or healthcare or poverty
relief, children suffered last year under the Trump administration and
a Republican Congress.
On February 14, 2018, a gunman walked into Marjory Stoneman Douglas
High School in Parkland, Florida, to commit mass murder; 17 people were
killed, another 17 were injured, and most of them were children.
The Parkland shooting wasn't the first school shooting in our
Nation's history, and it wasn't the last. But the Parkland students,
standing on the shoulders of student leaders before them, stood up and
marched. They bound together in an intersectional, nationwide movement
to demand that Congress and the President do something to make our
country safer.
Unfortunately, their pleas fell on deaf ears. The President and his
administration were too inept or too cowardly to confront the NRA. And
because my colleagues across the aisle were too inept or too cowardly
to confront the NRA, we witnessed preventable shooting after
preventable shooting.
Then, when the Trump administration finally did release its School
Safety Comission report, it completely ignored evidence-based violence
and prevention strategies. Instead, the report suggested rolling back
civil rights protections for students and making guns more easily
accessible in schools.
Look, there is a commonality among the mass shootings in America's
schools: easy access to firearms. But rather than address the root
cause of school shootings, the Trump administration suggested that we
put guns in classrooms, as if teachers are security guards and schools
are prisons. Nobody thinks that is a good idea except for the NRA.
Meanwhile, educators across the country are clamoring for funding to
install new locks on classroom doors, harden school entryways, and
secure school facilities.
The 116th Congress was called into order on behalf of all children
because Democrats will listen to teachers and students--not the NRA.
That is why we passed two bills in February to institute universal
background checks and close the Charleston loophole. That is why I
introduced the Safer Neighborhoods Gun Buyback Act: to save children's
lives.
We were called into order on behalf of all children, including those
who are at our borders.
Under the Trump administration and Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, both
of whom were empowered by my colleagues across the aisle, the United
States of America ripped children away from their parents and put them
in cages.
Ripping children away from their parents and lying about it to the
American people was evil, plain and simple, and it should have ended
Secretary Nielsen's career. I feel Secretary Nielsen is incompetent,
inept, and is not up to the task of securing the homeland's safety.
Anyone who would put children in cages, fenced cages, taken from their
parents can just not be trusted.
President Trump's deplorable, inhuman attempt to change our
immigration system has killed people.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to refrain from
engaging in personalities toward the President.
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