also violates our values as a country. thank you very much. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2018] >> we take you live now to the u.s. house, they're returning for votes on a couple of bill december baited earlier. will b following order. the question is on passage of h.r. 5788 and the question on passage of h.r. 5735. the first electronic vote will be conducted as a 15-minute vote. the remaining vote will be

conducted as a five-minute vote. the unfinished business is the vote on passage of h.r. 5788 on which the yeas and nays are ordered. the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: union calendar number 557, h.r. 5788, a bill to provide for the processing by u.s. customs and border protection of certain international mail shipments and to require the provision of advanced electronic information on international mail shipments of mail, and for other purposes. the speaker pro tempore: the question is on passage of the bill. members will record their votes by electronic device. this is a 15-minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.]

the speaker pro tempore: on this vote the yeas are 353. the nays are 52.

the bill is passed. without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. the unfinished business is the vote on passage of h.r. 5735 on which the yeas and nays are ordered. the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: union calendar number 554, h.r. 5735, a bill to amend the united states housing act of 1937 to establish a demonstration program to set aside section 8 housing vouchers for supportive and transitional housing for individuals recovering from opioid use disorders or other , and ce use disorders for other purposes. the speaker pro tempore: the question is on passage of the bill. members will record their votes by electronic device. this is a five-minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is

expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.]

the speaker pro tempore: on this vote, the yeas are 230 and the nays are 173. the bill is passed and without objection the motion to reconsider is laid on the table.

he house will be in order. members will take their conversations off the floor. the house will be in order. for what purpose does the gentleman from arizona seek recognition? without objection, the gentleman will suspend. he house will be in order. members will clear the aisles. he gentleman from arizona.

he house will be in order. >> mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: please remove conversations from the floor. the gentleman from arizona. >> thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, we rise today to -- and sacrifice -- s. army staff sergeant the speaker pro tempore: the entleman will suspend. members will take their conversations off the floor, lease.

the gentleman may proceed. >> we rise today to honor the life and sacrifice of u.s. staff sergeant alexander w. conrad from chandler, arizona, who was recently killed by indirect enemy fire while in support of operation shield in so mall qua. he was a human intelligence noncommission officer asigned to the first battalion third special forces group. sergeant condition rad's decorated service included two tours in afghanistan in support of operation enduring freedom. he was award the purple heart and meritorious service medal. mr. speaker, sergeant conrad was one of arizona's finest he fought to free the oppressed and ensure all americans live out their days in liberty. please keep his family, friends and comrades in your prayers and now i ask that you please join me and my arizona colleagues for

a moment of silence to remember u.s. army staff sergeant alexander w. conrad. the speaker pro tempore: members will observe a moment of silence. the speaker pro tempore: the chair will now entertain requests for one-minute speeches. -- hat purpose does the without objection. >> mr. speaker, i rise today to

commemorate the brand opening of the wichita advanced learning library. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman will suspend. members will please take their onversations from the floor. the gentleman may proceed. >> mr. speaker, i rise today to commemorate the grand opening of the wichita advanced learning library on june 16, 2018. the wichita advanced learning library has been a central project of wichita's largest city since 2006. after breaking ground on the project two weeks ago, it will be an honor to attend the grand opening this saturday. mr. estes: the old library was built more than 50 years ago. at that time there was no such thing as personal computer, phones were used for fen calls and wichita had a population of less than 250,000. with the opening of the new library, wichita and the surrounding region will have a library ready to serve our

growing population. these advancements will provide students with enrichment opportunities in all areas, including stem, increasingly important for our work force of the future. as a member of the education and work force committee, i understand the importance of education and i'm proud of the city of wichita for moving forward with the advanced learning library to continue the pathway to a lifetime of learning. with that i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. for what purpose does the gentleman from new jersey seek recognition? weather, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. i rise : mr. speaker, to recognize the wonderful accomplishments of two young

women from my district, april vassel and navia parker were ach selected to attend the united nations foundation 2018 girls n science or wisci camp in namibia. the camp will bring together 100 high school girls from the african continent and the united states for a two-week intensive learning program. this amazing camp is co-hosted by the u.s. department of state and private partners. it brings girls together to help close the gender gap in science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics. april and navia will have the opportunity to grow as young leaders and develop relationships with their sisters

from africa. these two young women and the other campers have a lot to be proud of. i ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing their achievements and their potential and success. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. for what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognition? mr. poe: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. poe: mr. speaker, our supposed turkish allies are holding americans hostage. at least two americans, andrew brunson, and sirkan, are being . ld by the turkish regime the president believes he can use imprisoned americans as bargaining chips. he hopes he can trade american hostages for political opponents that have fled turkey's dictatorship. even if the individuals the

president wanted had clearly committed crimes, which there's absolutely no evidence they have, we should never engage in rewarding turkey for taking hostages. he's proven he has no respect for the rule of law and instead rules by fear. we must not assist him in his destruction of democracy in turkey. american hostages like pastor andrew brunson, who have been held for more than 600 days, must be returned. until then, the united states needs to re-evaluate whether turkey wants to be considered a friend or a foe, and that's just the way it is. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. for what purpose does the gentleman from rhode island eek recognition? mr. langevin: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. langevin: mr. speaker, i rise today to decry last week's

supreme court decision in the hio voting case. mr. speaker, the ruling appears to have willfully misinterpret the national voter registration act of 1993. it lays ways to congressional intent and sets a dangerous precedent of being permissive of voter suppression across the country. the nvra was enacted with the expressed purpose of increasing voter registration and protecting against voter purges and prohibits states from removing voters by the rolls. yet, this is exactly what the state of ohio is doing. ohio officials are purging voters if they do not vote in three consecutive federal elections. i believe that every person should vote in every election, but they may be reasons why they have not, for whatever reason, and we should be erring on the side of caution. our democracy is built on each person having a voice yet the supreme court has affirmed

ohio's right to silence those voices. congress must act now to correct this injustice and resort the rights -- the courts have so carelessly cast aside. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. for what purpose does the gentleman from west virginia seek recognition? >> to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> mr. speaker, i rise today to announce a new internship program my district office has started. my program is designed to help individuals who are in long-term substance abuse recovery meet their programming requirements of obtaining job readiness skills. along with the bill's we're passing this week to fight the opioid epidemic, my office has partnered with recovery point in charleston, west virginia, to help those who have decided to get their lives back on track. mr. mooney: west virginia has been ground zero of the drug epidemic and it's important support that crucial recovery

programs that are changing the lives of so many of our people who have fallen on hard times. this internship opportunity will help prepare these individuals to re-enter the work force. it's important to lead by example and help those who have decided to turn their lives around. i encourage all of my colleagues in congress to partner with recovery programs in their districts to create similar opportunities for recovering addicts. the interns in my charleston office have already made a positive impact and are a great addition to our team. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. for what purpose does the gentleman from washington seek recognition? without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. kilmer: thanks, mr. speaker. one of the best parts of this job is getting to develop relationships with outstanding people in my district. people who are difference makers in the best sense of the word. one part of washington is a better place because of natalie

bryson. our schools are providing more opportunity for young people because all she's done for the local school district and the paul linder foundation. our communities are more welcoming places with natalie's involvement with the h.i.v. foundation. more doors are open for women because she's been a railblazer in our community, and she let me have lunch with her at the rotry club. whether she's participating at the council or giving loving advice to her member of congress, natalie has been such an impactful person. a fiercest advocate, an amazing friend. mr. speaker, sometimes it's important for us just to express some gratitude, to say thank you, and that's something i want us to do today for someone who's done so much for so many. so thank you, natalie. you are so appreciated. and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. for what purpose does the gentleman from iowa seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one

minute and to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. blum: thank you, mr. speaker. like the rest of my colleagues, you know, we go home on the weekends when we're not voting and when we're not voting during the week we are in our districts and it's wonderful to visit with our bosses and i was in bridgewater, in adair county, on monday and it's a lovely town. mr. young: strong people. a lot of grit. a lot of love and compassion. but in a way i wish i wasn't in bridgewater that day because we were meeting, having an opioid roundtable because opioids and this addiction has really taken a toll on this community. but the people of bridgewater are strong. and take back bridgewater is he mantra, and take back bridgewater in our of our communities is a must. i am glad to be working with my colleagues on both side of the aisle to address this issue in a bipartisan way because it's

about the human issue, caring one another, taking care of those we represent. and god bless my colleagues and those in bridgewater, and all the people in america who have uffered under this affliction, these addictions and i am glad we are going to come together and address them. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. for what purpose does the gentlelady from texas seek recognition? ms. jackson lee: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute, without objection. ms. jackson lee: mr. speaker, americans love sports, and they love honest sports. they love the win of the stanley cup, by the great team here in washington. we love winning the world series, the houston astros. and we love our olympics. today i stand because i cently introduced h.r. 6067, roda, because in the realm of international sports, it has

become almost commonplace for too many athletes to yield to the temptation of bridging the gap between their own skill and the pinnacle of athletic achievement by resorting to performance-enhancing drugs and to conceal this fall from grace, cheerts are employing modes of masking the use of any prescribed drugs. this practice, some of it state sanctioned, undermines international athletic competition. that's why i introduced this bill and ask my colleagues to join me. it's a bipartisan bill with ms. gwen moore and dr. burgess and sheila jackson lee. and our numbers are growing. the legislation i introduced is bipartisan and as well we salute the valiant man who revealed the truex tent of a complex state-run doping scheme there in russia. -- true extent by a complex state-run doping scheme there in russia. one lost a race to russians who

had been part of anti-doping. she lost the medal and she lost millions but she may have lost sometimes her spirit. join me in supporting the rada bill, and i submit in the record the u.s. lawmakers article, the u.s. lawmakers seek to criminalize doping. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlelady's time has expired. ms. jackson lee: i thank you and i thank isabella and the staff. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from rhode island seek recognition? mr. cicilline: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. cicilline: mr. speaker, in my home state of rhode island and all across america, people are working harder than ever just to get by. wages are flat and costs continue to rise. in fact, just last month, gas prices hit a three-year high. it's obscene. working people have been getting ripped off at the pump for years. one of the biggest reasons is that countries in opec and other foreign oil cartels work together to inflate the cost of

gas. some folks thinks there is nothing we can do about this. that's why last month, along with steve chabot, i introduced and gas by ting oil cartels act. this will make them subject to u.s. antitrust laws and prevent them from price gouging and companies withholding their supply of oil in order to raise prices. earlier this week our bill was approved by the house judiciary committee. i look forward to this bill coming to the floor and its swift passage. it's long past time we deliver some much-needed relief to working people in this country. with that, mr. speaker, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. for what purpose does the gentlewoman from the district f columbia seek recognition? without objection, the gentlelady is recognized for one minute. ms. norton: mr. speaker, when members attack one another on

this floor we sometimes have to apologize publicly. what is the penalty when a presidential administration attacks children in our country? that's what's happening now at the border as children are forcibly taken from their parents. even if these children were being held in plarblee splendor, nothing -- palacial splendor, nothing could make up for being taken from the person they have known since birth. our country has always been family reunification. breaking with that policy and decency, donald trump and jeff sessions have advised a new deterrent from crossing the border and seeking asylum. says investigation -- says sessions, if you smuggle a child, then we're going to prosecute you and that child will be separated from you. if they want to attack border

crossers, the trump administration should pick on somebody their own size. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman yields back. for what purpose does the gentleman from west virginia eek recognition? sorry. nevada. mr. kihuen: i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. kihuen: thank you, mr. speaker. today i rise to remember the life of christopher robbald. he survived two shootouts in afghanistan. he attended the route 91 festival on october 1. he served in the navy seven years before he left on a medical discharge after he had become mostly deaf in his left ear from all the explosions that happened near him. after leaving the navy, christopher began working in crunch fitness gyms where he managed new facilities as they opened around the country. christopher went to the route

91 festival with friends and family to celebrate his upcoming 29th birthday. everyone who knew him remembers him as a man who could always put a smile on anyone's face. his favorite thing was to do was sarinating his friends with spanish balanced as and singing karaoke. i would like to extend my col dolenses to his friends and family. please know that the whole rieve cun grieve with you. -- whole country grieve with you. thank you, mr. speaker. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the chair announces the speaker's appointment pursuant to section 1238-b-3 of the floyd spence national authorization act for fiscal year 2001, 22 u.s.c. 7002, as amended, and the order of the house of january 3, 2017, of the following individual on the part of the house of the united states -china economic security and

review commission for a term expiring on december 31, 2019. he clerk: rear admiral michael mcdevitt, retired, arlington, irginia. after 2:30 p.m. today and tomorrow. mr. donovan of new york for today. mr. jones of north carolina for today and tomorrow. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the requests are granted. under the speaker's announced policy of january 3, 2017, the gentleman from maryland, mr. raskin, is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader. mr. raskin: mr. speaker, thank you very much. and i ask unanimous consent that all members participating in this special order have five

legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include any extraneous material that they would bring on the subject of this special order. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized. mr. raskin: i appreciate that to take this delighted hour with several of my distinguished colleagues to talk about a matter of moral, social, political and economic urgency to the american people, which is the vast group of americans who are living in poverty today. and we are observing the 50th anniversary of dr. martin luther king's poor people's march on ashington.

reaching out to communities across the country working in more than 35 states across america in order to put in the very forefront of the public consciousness the fact that tens of millions of our fellow citizens simply don't have enough money to meet the basic needs of life. the poor people's campaign has met with tens of thousands of americans and witnessed the courage and strength of a lot of poor people across the country and they've gathered testimony from hundreds of individual americans in a number of the testimonials will be read this evening by members of congress in this special order. the testimony we are going to read reinforces the assessment conducted by the poor people's

campaign and institute for policy studies about the effect of poverty, racism, ecological devastation. he souls of poor folk report reveals that these interrelated problems are perpetrated by a moral narrative that must be challenged today. we believe when americans see the faces and the facts that are represented in this testimony and by this report, america will be moved deeply to change things when confronted with undeniable truth of the indignity and cruelty of poor circumstances that so many of our fellow americans are living under, we believe that millions more americans will join the ranks of those determined to see an end to poverty in our lifetime. i'm joined by a number of my colleagues this evening, who will come up and read some of

the testimonials as well as give thoughts of their own and i will be giving commentary of my own. and i'm beginning first with my colleague gwen moore from wisconsin. please welcome congresswoman moore, who is a great leader for he people of wisconsin and a spokes person for poor people across the country. ms. moore: thank you so much for yielding to me. as you mentioned, the poor people's campaign was a national call for a moral revival and we we're doing here now, are re-engaging the poor people's campaign for the nonviolent economic reform movement that the reverend dr. martin luther king was organizing when he was

assassinated in 198. this resurgens is being called the most extensive wave of nonviolent resurgence in our history. and what it recognizes is that dr. king was right, that the ifecta is interconnected and today they are tracking 140 million americans in poverty and low wealth and many of them are children and veterans. mr. speaker, i would like to lk to you about one of dr. king's triple evils. and i want to talk about it, because the kind of people that we have a total volunteer army now, we don't have the draft. and so the young people that are being recruited into our

military today are young people often from low-income house holds who are seeking an opportunity and they are being seduced into the military with promises of technical training, bonuses and college. i would like to share with you a letter from one of those people. mr. brock mcintosh of illinois. of he says, quote, this way injecting poisonous -- the poisonous drugs of hate into veins of people normally humane cannot be recognized with justice and love. i would like to tell you about the precise moment that there was poison in me. i'm the child of a nurse and a factory worker in the heartland of illinois, the family of blue

collar and service workers. at the height of the iraq war, military recruiters at my high school a tracted me with sign-up bonuses that some sought as their ticket out. for me, i thought it was my ticket up providing opportunities that i once felt were out of reach. two years later, when i was 20 years old, i was standing over the body of a 16-year-old afghan boy, a roadside bomb he was building, prematurely detonated, he was covered in shrapnel and burned and one of his hands amputated and his other hand had the callous roughness as a farmer or a shepard. as he lay there, i studied the details of his face and caught myself rooting for him.

if this boy knew me, i thought, he wouldn't want to kill me. and here i am that i'm supposed to want to kill him and i feel bad that i wanted him to live. now that's the poison mind. that is the militarized mind and all the opportunities afforded me by the military can't repay the cost of war on my soul. it is those who carry. a working class boy from illinois sent halfway around the world to kill a young farmer, how did we get here? how did this crazy war economy come to be? first, there is the demand, a society that feels threatened and prepares for war even in a time of peace. to do this requires a military,

industrial complex, a vast war economy whose charters profit, stock and jobs depends on permanent mill tarizzation and who pros percent most in times of war. secondly, there is a supply. a nation who wants to attract volunteers and care for veterans provides opportunity that alieu recruits from predominantly working class folks with limited opportunity. we need a poor people's campaign to amplify the voices like this of regular folks above the lobby f the militarized economy, a poisonned economy, to demand jobs and demand working class folks that don't demand killing. we need a poor people's campaign to demand for justice where

people of color killed by police forces are poisonned law enforcement. we need a poor people's campaign a ransform a militarized poisonned white house and congress that proves their toughness with chest and units their base. war always has a way of distracting our attention and perverting our priorities. we need a poor people's campaign to have economic and ecological justice to bring these issues to the forefront. i yield back to the gentleman. mr. raskin: thank you for that powerful testimony. i'm going to call upon my colleague from washington state,

ms. jayapal. lease come up. i yield to her as much time as she may consume. ms. jayapal: thank you so much, representative raskin for your leadership and to all my colleagues for the deep devotion that you have shown over the years to addressing racism, poverty, inequality. and it is my honor to help bring a light, shine a light on the stories of men and women around the country who are fighting to make ends meet. these are our neighbors, our brothers, our children, our parents, our friends and they are struggling. here's an incredible statistic. across the united states today, 67% of all americans do not even have $1,000 in their savings

account. that means they can't take care of a leak in the roof or take care of a sick child. if they don't get paid sick days, they can't take care of an aging parent. they are focused on surviving and not thriving and that is outrageous. it is time for us to lift up the american people who are the bedrock, the national bedrock of our country, the teacher who spends more time with our children than any other, but hasn't yet been compensated for that. the domestic workers and caregivers that take care of our elderly and our homes and our lives with their great strength, compassion and efficiency. the laborers who build the foundations of the homes and the workplaces that we stand on, live and work in. the women in every single industry who have faced disrespect, unequal pay and they

are the glue that hold our society and families together, the farmworkers who pick the food we eat, the nurses who listen to our hearts and bring us back to wellness, the sanitation workers, the parks people, the servers, the artists, the advocates who shine a light on the most vulnerable, the poorest amongst us. these are the people who have come together as the poor people's campaign under the incredible leadership, the visionary leadership of reverend william barber and a huge coalition to fight against racism, poverty, inequality and ecological devastation that continue to plague our country still today. and i am proud to join you, representative raskin and others, as we tell their stories today. i'm proud to stand with these

courageous soldiers for peace and for justice as we fight for equity. and i thank them for leading with love, with generosity and with abundance. one of those people is reverend sarah monroe from my home state of washington and i want to read her testimony. i wanted to start by speaking to the context i'm in. 'm speaking as a christian theologian and working in one of the least religious parts of the country and speaking as a pastor and episcopal priest. this is a rural community on the pacific coastline of washington state and i grew up in this county. we face a post-industrial economy. timber was our main industry and today it's gone. we live in a context where 46% of our people are on public

assistance and one out of 25 people are homeless. we are a majority white community south of an indian nation. we have very little legal industry to employ our people which means our people turn to a black market economy that most offense sells and trades drugs and sex and brings our young people into extensive gang involvement. so many of our people, both white and native are very young, they are millenials and teenagers, many of whom have been incarcerated as young as eight. and so in this context, morally, we face a lot of issues and three of those that i want to talk about right now. first, we as an organization are committed to lifting up the leadership and the agency of poor and struggling people.

we believe that god takes the side of the poor and we believe that jesus built the poor people's movement. we believe in raising up young leaders from the streets, from the jails, from the homeless encampments and from the trailer parks and we believe that they are the only moral voices that can save us and lead us to liberation. we believe that the outcasts and the sk workers and drug addicted will find that healing. we believe that no poor people's can be can be paign built without this fundamental commitment. as one example of that, we had a group over this past easter of young men in jail and organized their own bible study and fasted and prayed and came to us and said from isaiah 58 that they were called to be the restorers of the streets with dwellings.

. . we face the moral issue of state violence. what i mean by this is that poor people in this country are systematically disenfranchised at every turn. that means that the county has money for militarized police equipment but not for housing. the county and the cities in this county have resources for consultants to build the tourist industry but not for providing a path out of poverty for young people. but what i also mean is that our people across lines of race face extensive police brutality , death, beatings, shakedowns, and the use and really the extensive use of a bench warrant system that ensures that if you are young and you are poor, you are likely to have a warrant that allows you to be stopped or chased at any time. most of our young people go from the juvenile system to an

early felony for drug possession or property crime and spend most of their lives in and out of jail and prison where they also experience extensive and institutionalized violence. state power now, as in the time of jesus, is use to violently repress people and to deprive them of their rights. but last, we are theologically committed to hope, and for us, hope is not a feeling because us ced powers larger than at every turn. we face a staggering amount of personal and communal trauma. we openly stand against the narrative of white supremacy that has often been fed to our people and we believe in the power of the gospel. we believe in the power of the moral voice of the people waking up and claiming their own dignity, even when they're taught to deny it, at every

turn. claiming their own power when they are taught they are powerless. we believe that we are a resurrection people, even when jesus was murdered by empire -- and i said this in a sermon a couple years ago for easter -- he rose again and in rising god gave the finger to every power in this world that seeks to oppress the world and keep us down. i thank the reverend from our community for that testimony and that story, and i yield back to you, mr. raskin. we have other stories but i want to make sure other members have a chance to tell theirs as well. mr. raskin: ms. jayapal, thank you for your eloquent statement, thank you for your leadership here in congress. one of the shocking findings of the poor people's campaign, there are nearly 140 million americans, more than 43% of people in our country who are either legally poor, living below the poverty line, or low income in the united states

which is the world's richest nation and we are at the richest moment in our history today. and yet we still have 140 million people who simply don't have enough to meet the basic expenses of existence. this should not be a matter of partisan politics. it should be a matter of concern to everybody on both sides of the aisle and across the political spectrum. here's president dwight eisenhower speaking in april of 1953, on april 16, 1953, he said, every gun that is made, every warship, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those that are cold and are not clothed. this world in arms is not spending money alone. it is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its

children. the cost of one modern bomber, president eisenhower said, is this, a modern brick school in 30 cities, two electric power plants, two hospitals, a half million bushels of wheat, 8,000 new homes. and he said, this is not a way of life at all in any true sense. this cloud of threatening war that's paid for by the treasurer of our people. we're appealing to people across the political spectrum, at this time of roaring stock market and trumped claims of great wealth and bounty in this society, look at the cost of social and economic inequality, looking from the top down, not the bottom up, the situation with wealth in america. i am delighted now to yield to my distinguished colleague from

california, mr. khanna, ro khanna, who has been a great champion of putting these questions at the forefront of our discussions here. mr. khanna: thank you, representative raskin, on putting the focus on the poor people's campaign and your advocacy for so many issues of economic justice and racial justice. in nt to join my colleagues the issues the poor people's campaign has had. there was a panel senator warren had a few days ago where reverend barber was there and ordinary individuals were testifying about their experiences. the people we should be hearing in congress. i want to share two quotes and then share some testimony. one is what reverend barber

said which in my view makes him the great -- one of the great civil rights leaders in this country. he said, and i quote, i would to er join with you and die try to change the morals of this country than live in the time when moral dissent was necessary and he and they said nothing. that requires such courage and it's so believable when dr. barber was with a number of others at the hearing. they had this chant that before the poor people's campaign will fail they will go to jail. and that sense of civil disobedience to -- for a moral cause is part of the great

tradition of our nation and what has brought change. so i want to thank reverend barber for being such a moral leader and everyone who is risking arrest, risking their life for justice. now, i'm honored to read the testimony of paul boden, who's the western regional advocacy project lead in my home state of california. he writes -- my name is paul boden and i'm the western regional advocacy project lead. we're based out of california, colorado, and oregon with core members doing local organizing around poverty and homelessness issues in 10 communities. i'm testifying today about the advent of contemporary homelessness in the early 1980's and the connection to neoliberal economics and how that's paid out over the past 35 years.

-- played out over the past 35 years. in doing this research we found at two less attacked submarines, two less combat ships, we would more than triple all of the funding that is currently dedicated to public housing capital investments, public housing maintenance, and all of the federal homeless programs. clearly these spending priorities have nothing to do with security or the need for an investment in our military complex. as part of the consequence of the advent of homelessness that this kind of approach to governance created, we have spoken to 1,600 homeless communities. and 82% of them have reported that they're getting arrested, harassed, and ticketed. we know the fines and fee games that local governments play. 77% of these people are getting

the same kind of policing activity for sitting down or laying down on a sidewalk. 75% for loitering. sleeping, standing, and sitting are criminal offenses when you are the population that's being targeted by local government for removal from those communities. d this is happening, unfortunately, in communities across the united states. my research also brought out very clearly and undeniably, these are the same unfortunately, in policing programs, these are the same laws, the same racist and classist policing programs that were used with the anti-okie laws, with the sundown towns, the japanese american exclusion acts, the ugly laws, and with the jim crow laws. the darker your skin color, the greater your disability, the poorer you are, you are way more likely to be a target of these policing programs and that's the way it's been

playing out for years. we've written legislation and gotten it introduced in california, oregon, and colorado. we had introduced it eight times. we got crushed eight times. but we're going to keep bringing it back until the final answer is yes. our law, our legislation would make it illegal for local government to criminalize life-sustaining activities and activities we all commit -- eating, sleeping, sitting, standing still. we all do that. to criminalize doing it is to purposely and maliciously create legislation specifically aimed at enforcement only applying to some people. that's us, all of us. paul boden's words are ones i hope this entire country will hear. and as we are listening to the voices of so many people marching in our streets in

washington, i hope we will take some inspiration from their courage, their courage far exceeding any afars in this body, and be inspired to do the right thing and fight for economic justice and the policies that they recommend that would help alleviate poverty and help the working poor and poor people across this nation. thank you, mr. raskin. mr. raskin: the gentleman yields back. thank you, mr. khanna, for your very moving statement that you made. and i will yield now to my .olleague, sheila jackson lee i believe she's here. ms. jackson lee, who's been a terrific champion for economic equity and social justice in our country and i'm delighted to yield to her now.

ms. jackson lee: thank you very much, congressman raskin. i want to thank you for your leadership, consistent leadership on these issues, and certainly, i think, the recognition of the fact that the poor of this nation, both in the biblical sense of our faith or the document of your faith, the poor have always been acknowledged and in a certain sense, the christian bible honored. and it is a sad state of affairs for us to come to this realize he nation to that our poor are suffering at large numbers and that there is no relief. i know that dr. king some 50 years ago, as he was planning the poor people's march, and many of us realized that he was

not able to fulfill it for he was shot by an assassin's bullet on april 4, 1968. but the valiant people went forward with his dream of eliminating poverty and i'm reminded of his words injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere. and so i speak today of the sprinkling, the harsh sprinkling of poverty and injustices in this nation today . and i make it a very special message to the leader of the free world who has every power to collaborate with this important body to make commitments to end the very conditions that dr. king some 50 years ago sought to come to

shington that was ultimately proceeded with with leaders from the southern christian conference and poor people across the nation. they may not have succeeded specifically, but they did bring to the nations eyes and hearts, the violence of poverty among native americans, latinos, african-americans, oor caucasians in places beyond the south and beyond. interesting little enough, that poverty continues. so i speak in particular of certain elements that show our lack of concern and where we must get steady and back on track. and so, first, what all of us have been speaking about over the last couple of days and weeks is the untoward and the

impossible thought of taking children away from parents who are fleeing poverty, violence and desperation. and we know in my home state of committed rant suicide while in federal detention. and a mother who while breastfeeding her child, had her child ripped away from her arms. so that must stop. that is the poverty of mind, a poverty of heart and spirit. i thank reverend barber who will be headed to washington june 23 with the expression of those who still unfortunately live in the shadows, not of their own making. they are not in the shadows.

they are there. and in the shadow with respect to the policies of this administration. the terrible robin hood tax bill that has created nothing but a balloon of wealth for the top 1%, so much so that the wages of americans have not gone up. and when you travel throughout the country and my district, working americans have no idea y a tax bill was supposed to impact them but hasn't impacted them. there is a flush of corporate profits. now it would seem that one is criticizing that success. we are criticizing the unequalness of working families and not had a wage increase. and out of that comes the implosion of the affordable care act. brick by brick being taken away. i know people who told me that

their loved one was put in a wheelchair and pointed toward the door, get out. and the affordable care act provided that there were no caps on one's insurance until you got better in the hospital. but because of the atmosphere and the climate and the constant attack on the affordable care act, hospitals are feeling the burden and sending people out the door who are not well. even more frightening for people are those who have pre-existing conditions. one of the glaring parts of the affordable care act, one where people were waving the flag, they were excited that if they had a pre-existing condition, which before the affordable care act, it could have been acne or presenting narnssi, but now that coverage and protection of our loved ones who may have pre-existing conditions, loved ones who could function with

health care and not be relegated to be home bound because they were so sick, they could not work. this is a terrible approach to how you run a country. and so in these two points, i want to make it clear how important it is to recognize that poverty still is. and not only dr. king, but we recognize that robert kennedy struck down by an assassin's bullet, worked in his campaign for president in 1968 to bring to the attention of americans, to bring to the attention of is soans the fact that it important to realize poverty exists in the worst way, in the mountains and valleys and urban centers and americans should stand up against poverty. poverty impacts the criminal justice system.

in 1968, african-americans were about five times more likely as whites to be in prison or in jail compared today. and this is especially troubling given the population difference. as judge hand observed, if we are to keep our democracy, there must be one commandment, thou ration rationon -- justice. we must match it with meaningful sentencing reduction. we must stop the tide of poverty by ending mass incarceration. and we must, in fact, recognize that we must fight against recidivism and open the doors or opportunities for ex-felons and reducing the mandatory

minimums that have kept people in jail 10, 15, 20, 25 years. we must recognize that poverty attacks at a very young age. and it moves people towards the juvenile justice system. and it only causes them to believe that the only thing they can engage in. i have introduced legislation to give hope to the juvenile justice system. no more solitary confinement or alternative placement and as they rehabilitate, we ban the box by saying they have been in the juvenile system. i want to stop homelessness. and dr. king knew to end that aspect of poverty and end it among our veterans. i want to end the idea of $23 billion out of snap's program and i want to recognize that when we have these devastating

storms, the amount of homelessness goes up. it is so very important to recognize the devastation of hurricane harvey and make a commitment after every disaster, we make those communities whole, volcanos, fires, tornados, flooding. i thank the gentleman for allowing us to be here tonight and i would like to show how this robin hood tax bill, stealing from the poor. this year, the administration, mr. trump, proposed to slash housing benefits by $11 billion because he had to pay for the tax cut. weeks after that tax cut was passed, the president proposed to pay for the bill by slashing housing benefits and other support for low-income people who struggle to make ends meet.

and here we stand with the $1.5 trillion deficit. so what is our message many? we must never give up in this fight. stand in the tradition of dr. king, we must be reminded of those who are coming to washington in the coming days and we must say to have mercy on them, and to, of course, as reverend barber would say, they would be blessed with mercy and success as they stand against poverty and stand for the ending and elimination of poverty. i thank you for yielding, and i yield back. mr. raskin: thank you congresswoman jackson lee for your eloquent words. you know there is a distinction between misfortune and injustice. i'm a cancer survivor. and if you wake up one day and a

doctor tells you that you are suffering from stage three colon cancer and you have not one but two jobs that you love and constituents that you love and work that you're engaged with and a great family and you're told that you've got this terrible diagnosis, it can happen to anybody and that is a misfortune. it happens to people all over the world every day. but if you get a diagnosis like that and you can't get health care because you are too poor or because you lost your job or because as it was you loved the wrong person, that is not just the misfortune, that is an injustice, because we can do something about that. we know how to organize in such a way that everybody gets health care and everybody gets the attention they need in the event of a catastrophic diagnosis. and life is hard enough with all

the sickness, the illness, misfortunes, the accidents, that we don't need to compound the misfortunes of life with government tale imposed injustice on people. the role of government has to liberate people from injustice and alleviate the misfortunes of life. so now we've got here in washington, a whole new public philosophy which is government is a money-making operation for the president and the president's friends and the president's business associates and the people who surround him. that's the new loyalist vision of government that we've got. it's a betrayal of the original conception is that government would be advancing the common good of everybody, not just the people who happen to use their wealth and their power to get into public office. if you are poor in america today

, you got a lot of problems. you got problems with health care. we know that health crises remain the single dominant cause of personal bankruptcy. not business bankruptcy, the kind that the president of the united states filed for five different times. business bankruptcy is not caused by sickness or illness. donald trump was perfectly covered in health care while his businesses went bankrupt and got covered. but we have millions of americans who were forced into bankruptcy because someone got sick and we didn't have a national health insurance policy to take care of that and they didn't have the private health insurance that they needed. congresswoman jayapal says 2/3 of americans don't have $1,000 to deal with a personal crisis. they don't have $1,000 to deal with. and for a serious kind of

agnosis, the bills can run into tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars. if you got to move a lot the way poor people do, it's disruptive of the continuity that the educators tell us that is necessary for young people to make progress in school. if you are constantly being uprooted and shifted to another school and deal with the various crises and agonies. what about voting? here's someone who provided some testimony about voting, from kansas city, missouri. er name is lateefa, stand up kansas city. she writes this. i work at burger king and make $9.50. i'm a leader with leadup kansas city. i don't have paid sick leave and

don't make enough money to afford my basic needs. and now missouri lawmakers want to make it harder for people to vote. we weren't able to afford our rent and had to move out. in the rush to find some place, i lost my i.d. so i had to get a new state-issued i.d. i got to the d.m.v. office. as i walk to the window, i tell the lady i need a new i.d. and i show her my debit card statement and tells me there is nothing i can do with you for that. and gave me papers, a utility bill because i don't have which i'm homeless. a paycheck. i don't have a paycheck, i had to leave my last job when i couldn't afford reliable transportation. a government check, i don't have any of those. a mortgage statement, i don't

have that because i'm a low-wage worker. property tax, no. housing rental contract. a bank statement. i don't have a bank account. i don't have enough money to open a bank account. so here i am looking at this long list of things i don't have. i'm so upset and looking at this list. but there is one more way i'm a voter registration card. i have that because i plan on voting that for the first time. i had to register back in march. i go to the board and get a voter form to go back to the d.m.v. i get my i.d. there are so many people in my shoes, unpaid workers, elderly people, people who don't have a state-issued i.d. if missouri passes amendment 6, which is an attempt to restrict who could actually register to vote, over 220,000 people may

lose their right to vote in our state. the people would would be disenfranchised would be elderly, students and people like myself. please make sure all people have the right to vote. this country needs to be freedom, justice and equal rights for everyone. my grandfather used to say to us, it's very expensive to be poor. and a lot of these statements that i read dealt with the way that people are essentially charged or taxed for being poor. o here's one that comes from so here's one that comes from kentucky. my name is mary love. and i've testified in frankfurt, kentucky, and other laces about the payday lending trap. 14 years ago i came up short one month when the rent was due. i saw an ad for the payday

lender and thought, this would be a good day to cover the rent until i get to payday. so i applied for their $200 loan, i gave them a check for $230 and i walked away with the cash that i needed. when payday came around, i went in their office and gave them $230 in cash and got my check back but i wanted to pay off for a few more bills so i wrote them another check that same day for $400 plus $60 interest and i walked away with $400 cash. next payday i did the same then and the next and next and on and on for two years. because i was paying them an exorbitant amount of interest, $60 every two weeks, i could never catch up. someone told me i paid over $1,400 in interest over two years. but i sat down with my computer and recalculated that and i ended up paying them almost $2,880 in interest charges over two years. payday lending is advertised as a one-time solution for emergency financial needs but all too often the story doesn't end there. many people like me get loan

after loan and pay an exorbitant amount of interest. i was finally able to pay my outstanding debts but it took me two years to do it. the payday loan industry is making millions every year by charging exorbitant rates and driving people deeper into debt. i believe it's pastime that ians let them -- politicians stop them. ms. jayapal. ms. jayapal: you know, that story of payday lending reminded me how in the state senate right before i came here we had to fight back before we stopped the rollback because we were able to with activists around our community, we were able to pass some of the strongest laws that prevented payday lenders from taking advantage of people with great offramps and unfortunately there were over and over again attempts to roll those back.

we at the federal level needs to make sure that the consumer financial protection bureau is strong so we can make sure that these folks are not getting, you know, trapped in payday lending. i know we're running short on time. i want to make sure we get some of these read. i want to read one from my home state. esh is testimony from mi buckmaster. i'm 28 years old and proud a single mom of a beautiful 1-year-old girl named ella. i live in west port, in grace harbor county, washington. i spent five years of my life homeless. once during my homelessness, a neighbor tried to assault me by throwing a log through the window of the empty building where i was squating because he was so enraved that -- enraged that homeless people were living on their block. i got section 8 housing before my daughter was born. for 110 days last winter,

chaplains on the harbor hosted about 20 people in our church. most of them millennials who caught a record trying to survive in a county with no good jobs, no decent, affordable housing, horrible health care, and plenty of heroin. business and property owners were outraged by our cold weather shelter. our homeless members were stalked by police. our pastor was threatened with vigilante violence. the same man who tried to attack me during my squating, also assaulted a 19-year-old homeless member of our community on church property and later attempted to run him over with a truck. i volunteered to stay overnight at our church and keep people safe while they slept. i stayed there through the night while the threats continued to pour in. i stayed because my community stepped up to save my life when the rest of society didn't care whether i lived or died and now it was my turn to protect my community. i'm joining the poor people's campaign because i need a movement that's as tough as i

am. poor and homeless people get stereotyped like we're too stupid or lazy to solve our own problems. i wasn't homeless because i was stupid and lazy. i was homeless because our country has no problem with pregnant mothers being homeless in the dead of the winter with just -- while just two hours away in seattle the founders of microsoft and amazon have made themselves the richest individuals on the planet. you tell me who's messed up in this situation? some of you might be suspicious about a grace harbor county person getting up in front of this crowd thinking, aren't they just a bunch of red necks out there? hell, yes, we're red next. we're radical red nix. we're hillbillies. we're the living reminder when they threw out the white trash we withstood it. anybody taking up this campaign, trust me, we are the kind of scrappy you want on your side in a fight.

mr. raskin, that testimony resonates for me because i represent seattle where we do have some of the biggest corporations. i tell you what, we have 11,500 homeless people in seattle and it has been breaking my heart that my community, so tolerant, so inclusive has been turning anger of inequality in our system against people who are experiencing homelessness just like the testimony i just read. i want to read another one that also strikes home for me because it's a testimony from the fight for 15 in massachusetts. as you know, i was proud to be on the committee that passed the $15 minimum wage in seattle, proud to be one of the first cities in the fight for 15. this is testimony from dei anna butler, and -- deanna butler, and this is from august, 2016. and she's in massachusetts. i think i said that. i'm a 31-year-old resident of the dorchester area. i'm a fast food worker and fight for the -- fight for 15.

i work at the shake shack and make $11 an hour as a cashier. i'm married with three children ages 8, 14, 15. my check is the only income for my family because my husband is disabled and battling with several health conditions. $11 an hour isn't much. i worked other jobs too. i worked in the retail industry and at the ymca, but the one thing i found in any of those jobs, anything less than $15 an hour just isn't enough. it prevents families like mine from thriving to our full potential. my family receives food stamps and i'm still left to figure out how i'm going to make my $350 paycheck stretch for five people. school's about to start again, and i have three kids getting ready to go back to school. i have student loans that i have to pay back, but i'm also behind in bills so i'm left to prioritize which bill i can

afford to pay this month. me and my family have been living in the shelter for six years. yes, six years because i don't make enough to afford market rate rent anywhere in the greater boston area. i don't understand how these multibillion-dollar corporations are able to build an empire on the backs of low-wage workers and get away with making millions in profits while we have nowhere to live and have to depend on brothers and sisters to help us make it through. my kids deserve so much more, and i deserve so much more. and that's why i'm fighting for $15 an hour so that one day soon i'll be able to provide for my kids the way i always hoped to. i will be able to go back to school and finish my medical billing program that i had to put on hold because making poverty wages and taking care of my family made it challenging for me. we work hard. we deserve more. and people have started to realize that $15 an hour is the new minimum wage standard. we've been winning in cities across the country and i hope through this moral revivel we

can build a tomorrow where not only the rich matter but -- revival we can build a tomorrow where not only the rich matter but we all matter. i yield back to you. mr. raskin: thank you, ms. jayapal. what does climate change have to deal with poverty? well, today we face accelerating extreme weather events such as the intensifying hurricanes that displaced and impoverished hundreds of thousands of citizens in louisiana, mississippi, puerto rico, the virgin islands, new jersey. well, here's another way that climate change affects people n poverty. through health care events that take them out of the work force. here's a testimony from liz betty owens from vermont. she writes, i'm 26, a home care provider and bartender.

just over a year ago i was diagnosised with lyme disease and began a life-long battle not only with this crippling disease but the health care industry and my struggle to access the care i need. at 25 i was incredibly ill. attempting to continue my work as a health care provider and making all of my health care decisions, not based on a doctor's recommendation, but based on what my health insurance at the time would cover and what i could afford with my meager out-of-pocket expenses. i realized blue cross blue shield of vermont had more power of the health and my well-being than my doctor. i accumulated thousands of dollars in debt. i was booted off my mom's plan because i turned 26. i was unable to go to the doctor for months while i was still showing symptoms and recovering from initial treatment. i was held up in the process trying to prove i made such a small yearly income that i was in fact eligible for the state's green mountain health plan. and ever since i was finally

accepted, i've had to try and thread a careful line making sure i don't make too much money and get booted off the state fine, risking fines from lack of health insurance and again not having access to the care i need as i fight this debilitating disease. it's devastating to experience the exhausting and harmful approach of the health care system controlled by insurance companies, big pharma, and hospital montrossities that care more about the bottom line than the needs of health care workers and patients. rather than living in a society where everyone can get the care they need and have it be solely based on decisions between the individual and the doctor. it's exhausting to know i'm already struggling with this at the age of 26 and that i live in a rapidly aging state where an entire generation will have to fight to get the care they need. and home care providers like myself will be caught in the cross fire of providing care services with working people who are not allowed the resources to compensate for the care that they actually need. it's also terrifying being

diagnosed with lyme disease which is transmitted by a tic bug that is infected by a bacteria. as weather patterns continues to hit new extremes because of climate change, and the northeast continues to warm, the number of infected tick bugs is expected to grow. those who work outdoors growing food, working on farms, maintaining state and federal lands are at heightened risk. it is made more terrifying because of the continued threat of our already limited access to health care. we need universal health care as a human right and public good and not a commodity to buy and sell. we need this poor people's campaign to unite the poor and indict the moral status quo that produces poverty and is ravaging our communities. with those words i yield back, mr. speaker, and thank you very much. the speaker pro tempore: the entleman yields.

under the speaker's announced the of january 3, 2017, chair recognizes the gentlewoman from ohio, ms. kaptur, for 30 minutes. ms. kaptur: thank you. thank you, mr. speaker. i rise tonight and have chosen not to attend the congressional baseball game because i think i have an important message which needs to be heard. and i rise to elevate an economic and humanitarian issue that is manifesting itself across ohio, our nation, and our continent. millions upon millions of workers, many landless workers, essential to getting america's work done in agriculture and other sectors, live in toil in an eerie shadow existence. these workers often are exploited due to our broken

immigration and legal systems which affords them and their work no respect. our beloved father, steven, would say they are caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. let's take a peek inside who some of these workers really are. these workers dare to climb skyscrapers and install the steel beams and pour concrete across our country. ne slip away from death. they embrace harsh work circumstances, going into the brutally hot sun in the south and west, picking your vegetables and fruits for 12 to 16 hours a day at high season. in our vast tobacco fields, they work from sun up to sun down picking off flowers from tobacco plants in the

blistering 110-degree heat as their fingers and hands numb from the nicotine. and their sweaty sun-burned bodies turn ripe for melanoma skin cancer. and they have no health insurance. . they work in hot steam chambers cleaning our laundry in the big cities. difficult very, very environments of slaughter houses, using electric cutting equipment and they're covered in blood in those slaughter houses. for the meat that we eat. they trudge through manure in dairy farms and they harvest mushrooms sold in every store, any grocery stores around this country. in cold, damp, dark, underground caves, walking through horse dung.

they catch by hand thousands of chickens every night in the dark, hot coops that generally have 25,000 or more chickens each, where the stench and the dust are life-threatening. they clean bathrooms in amusement parks, along state turnpikes, and in airports. and why do they do this work? to survive. while holding out hope for a better life for them and their loved ones. without these workers, our tables would be berest of the food we -- bereft of the food we depend upon. america could not feed itself. without these workers, companies would have to pay higher wages and offer health nsurance to do the work. indeed, many, many, many millions of these workers are uprooted, actually continental

labor refugees spit out of vicious and violent economic and political systems across the americas. yet continental trade compacts like nafta and cafta were designed purposefully to create this landless class of laborers , to purposefully undervalue them and their work. nafta caused millions of these workers to be upended and lose their small farm steadies in exico -- farmsteads in mexico, precipitating the largest exodus in modern history, and in our country, millions of americans lost their jobs in factories and farms across the nation as our jobs were shipped south. trade agreements have failed workers on this continent in their homelands, and many of hose south of our border fled,

fled to find ways to make a living, drawn by worker shortages and many -- in many countries, including our own, finding work in the most unappealing jobs, jobs our citizens won't take. now, for those who came here to work, they face even more cruelty by the trump administration and many members of this body too, as their children and families are being ripped apart. i'm going to tell you a story about that in a second. news reports are beginning to reveal the edges of this ugly system of de facto human bondage. our nation, founded in slavery, fought a bloody civil war. over whether the economic system of the south would be extended west, and we have not completely healed from that war, even until today. sadly, american history has not been immune from subjugating

and indenturing workers. this situation of pennyless workers in bondage is the modern-day version of a continuing continental exploitation of labor. it is an old story, repeating itself in a new chapter. last tuesday in a very well-known greenhouse operation in my district, in erie county, ohio, near sandusky, the home of the roller coast at cedar fair, this well-regarded greenhouse operation was raided at the height of this spring season by dozens and dozens and dozens of federal immigration, border patrol and i.r.s. officials. at least 114 male and female workers were detained, removed to jails, and are being questioned somewhere.

but where? those who are parents have been cruelly separated from their children with no provision made for the children. this is a photo, i'll say something about that in a second, of what was going on last week in ohio. the reverb rations of this raid in ohio will be felt across a greenhouse -- the greenhouse and nursery industry at high season when these companies must have workers. they are highly dependent on thousands of seasonal laborers to perform the necessary work. and i'm talking just in ohio, tenses of thousands of workers -- tens of thousands of workers. the same is true in the border state of michigan. i worry about these workers and i worry about whether these firms will find the workers to perform the work at such a key time of the year. there simply aren't enough hands left to do the work. men and women workers, some of whom had worked for this firm

for nearly two decades, were surrounded by i.c.e. officers who came out of another state, detroit, michigan, heavily armed with rifles. they even tied the hands of citizens of our country behind their hands -- backs before questioning them. border patrol helicopters whirred overhead as workers were handcuffed and made to lie down on their bellies before being taken by bus to detention centers hundreds of miles from erie county, where this raid occurred. as far as i've been able to determine, the women workers, most of whom are mothers, have been placed in the calhoun county jail near battle creek, michigan, and the men in a facility in northeast correctional center in youngstown, ohio. i took particular note that immigration and customs enforcement must have notified

the associated press that took this picture of the impending raid, as a reporter traveled all the way from michigan to take this particular photo and report on the raid. but the same notification was not extended to the local press, nor for that matter to local ohio law enforcement officials who knew nothing about this raid. it certainly looks like the trump administration seems intent on staging a big show on immigration. but where is its interest in real solutions? was this raid really about security? or is it more about intimidation? or is it trying to divide americans along economic and racial lines? i was told the greenhouse workers put up no resistance. they were peaceful. when i asked i.c.e. if i could visit the workers in one of the detention centers this past weekend, i was told arrangements could not be made,

even though these workers work in the district i represent. this is simply unacceptable. i.c.e., which reports to the superlords in the trump administration responsible for this, have been over a day late and a dollar short in their answers back to us in their communications. yet people's lives and their children's well-being are at stake. stonewalling is simply not an option. so i intend to head to michigan in a few days to try to find the detention center and hopefully speak to some of the women. i understand if i do so, we have to do it over a video phone or something. and i will say to the department of homeland security, i expect a full report on the status of each of these workers, as well as evidence they are being treated with dignity and respect in the county jail. i hope to share more publicly

about what i learn with my colleagues here in the house, as well as people of ohio's ninth district. i want a full effort and report on what is at issue with each of the persons apprehended. i want to know where each is located, as well as what can be done to minimize the trauma for their children being separated from their parents. so how did america get to a point where people who work hard with their hands for a living are rounded up like cattle? and their children taken from them to places they know not where? some of these children may be dreamers, americans who have grown up in the united states, whose immigration status needs to be addressed. so, let's do it. today we learned that next week this house apparently will vote on two competing measures that relate to immigration. one is from mr. bob goodlatte 4760, called r.

securing america's future act of 2018. that bill only gives temporary status to young people who have grown up in this country. it makes deep cuts to legal immigration. it prevents legal immigrants from sponsoring their family members to enter the united states, and of course it boosts enforcement. it is a punitive bill. certainly not a very hopeful bill. and even if it could pass this house, it's not going to pass the senate. then there is this mysterious new bill that speaker ryan calls a compromise bill. and the compromise bill we may vote on next week still isn't written. but it follows the framework, we're told, set forward by the white house. legal status for dreamers, increased border security, including funding for a wasteful, ineffective border wall, an end to the diversity visa lottery, and curbing family-based legal immigration.

wow. there's so many people who have come to our office who want to marry someone who's waiting in another country, how many decades are they going to have to wait? just an hour ago a summary provided said this. the second measure would authorize funding for construction of a border wall sought by president trump and give a path for so-called daca population to apply for a six-year indefinitely renewable, nonimmigrant legal status after which they can apply for newly allocated green cards. we'll see. count me as a skeptic. to date the trump administration has failed to help young dreamers who have been here their whole lives. to date the republican congressional majority has failed to provide a pathway for these dreamers. the majority has failed to act on comprehensive immigration reform, which we really need. years of inaction by house republicans who hold the majority have brought us to

this point. and we had a measure down here on the floor that had garnered 216 signatures, to bring a set of votes to the floor that could really have addressed this problem and the majority jerked it off the ledger the other day. rather than blaming workers and harming u.s. companies, let's put the blame where it belongs. on the trade agreements that the united states has been passing since the 1990's, that set us on a treacherous and greedy path of bad trade deals ke nafta and cafta, that threw millions of workers out of work in our country, and millions of workers and small businesses in countries like mexico lost their work, treated like chattel on this continent. we need a renegotiated nafta. these bad deals have never resulted in a positive trade balance for our country.

instead they displaced millions of workers in north america. u.s. plants shut down here and trade deals like nafta thrust cheap labor into the market, forcing wages down across the continent. including in mexico. border crossings doubled into our country after nafta's passage. including illegal entries of desperate people under desperate circumstances. those trade deals dith disrupted the market -- deals disrupted the markets that small farmers in mexico and central america relied on to support themselves. who would not flee desperation? you would too if your livelihood disappeared. think about it. the best estimates suggest 11 million undocumented immigrants have assumed some of the

hardest, lowest paying jobs inside our economy. since nafta's passage, and 10 years after that, cafta's passage. employers and employees are transfixed by a rigged global economy that pits businesses and workers across this continent against one another. who benefited from that? ask yourself that question. answer the question. many workers have endured long journeys by foot, train, boat, as labor traffickers indebted them to make it across our border. others who work here simply stayed beyond the expiration of their temporary visitor permits . the situation is more complicated than many people realize. the reality is about 60% of the unauthorized population of workers here has been here for at least a decade.

1/3 of undocumented immigrants, 15 years of age and older, live with at least one child who is a u.s. citizen by birth. so do we close our eyes to all of this? and what has happened on this continent? or do we fix it? the renegotiation of nafta presents a precious moment, and i'm with the president on renegotiating nafta. but with what provisions? a chance to create an economic model for all of north america that recognizes employer needs and labor rights should be in a trade agreement. it could have a monumental pact on millions and correct distorted migratory patterns made so much worse by nafta. instofede lifting up workers and

improving their plight, achieving good jobs with living wages, the current nafta-cafta system forces workers into a harsh system that equates to a modern day version, yes, of slavery. workers understand that standing up and complaining about abusive conditions will mean termination because an employer can report them to immigration authorities. so the guillotine always hangs over their heads. a renegotiated nafta can bring workers out from under the shadows. who will benefit? business. it will benefit workers. it will benefit communities and our cant innocent. when workers are asked why do they endure all this, almost all had the same reason. survival. and a hope for the american dream.

for those that have come peer from other places and work here, they're performing the jobs the rest of america chooses not to do. rather than end this miserable underground system of indentured servitude, republicans have chosen inaction time and time again. nafta and cafta need to be renegotiated to institute a legal system that gives workers standing in the law, not exploitation, whatever side of the border they live on. now republican lawmakers fail to acknowledge the vast role american foreign policies has played in creating the conditions in north america that pushed and pulled workers on their perilous trek, destabilizing their way of life. you cannot solve this problem without solving the nafta and cafta problem.

recall president reagan worked with congress to pass the last comprehensive immigration reform bill in the 1980's and at the same time, unfortunately, the united states government negotiated with international development institutions to develop new policies that favored large multinational corporations but undercut workers, including the smaller farms and businesses that created economic opportunity for communities in our country and south of our border. in 1994, the north american free trade agreement, boy is that a misnomer, was sold to congress as a way to keep mexicans home and to make sure that american workers were cared for. guess what? nafta actually threw millions of americans out of work and also millions of mexican farmers and small businesses were displaced.

these upended workers sought opportunity wherever they could find it. indeed, immigration torte united states from mexico doubled post-nafta as millions of u.s. citizens saw their jobs shipped south of the border and those south of the border who couldn't even afford food at that point, a desperate exodus began, and people were willing to work for penny wages. a decade later, congress passed calf theark central american free trade agreement, further undercutting agricultural workers and small entrepreneurs through the the rest of the southern tip of north america. these policies trapped latin american workers between a foreign policy that drove them from home and a u.s. domestic policy that kept them in the shadows while driving good jobs out of the united states to low

wage environments. ask yourself, who would benefit from that kind of system? look at the profits of some of the companies and the c.e.o.'s of those companies that did that. we also know far too many employers take on undocumented workers and exploit them for their willingness to work long hours for no pay. president trump, please know, lls will not solve these massive economic inequities. our trade policies created. only fixing nafta and cafta will. our nation needs comprehensive continental immigration reform e-verify d include an employee system to take the nuss off the employers to verify a worker's status. and to give workers standing on this continent no border wall can succeed against the enormous

pull of our vast economy's needs including for labor. as employers complain every day to me, they cannot find the workers they need. let me conclude in my remaining minutes with a few stories that came out of this horrendous raid that occurred in northern ohio. maria sandra works at this greenhouse and was present the day of the raid. she recalls clocking in at 7:00 a.m. these folks work hard. she walked to her van to get her sunscreen and gloves when she heard vehicles slamming on the brakes in the gravel. the officers got down with large weapons so she figured they were looking for a dangerous criminal. then she says i realized it was immigration. two men came up behind me screaming at me to walk. i told them i had my i.d. and my social security card. they screamed louder, walk! i picked up my phone and they

told me to put it away, that i couldn't use it. i was so scared. seeing how they pushed people and put us together like animals on their way to a slaughter house. the officers tied everybody up. i kept saying i have my document, i'll show them to you, but they ignored me. they began separating us into two lines. everybody that was white was let go. i was there so long that i had to use the bathroom. they refused to let me go until many others had to go. we were taken, tied, to the restroom, accompanied by an officer with a big gun. i kept asking why are you doing this? i have all my documentation in my van. they asked me, are you a citizen? and i said yes. they laughed at me. i had never felt so humiliated. i can still hear everybody crying. when they finally ran my social they escorted me to my van, still tied, they told me to leave and i said how can i drive with my hands tied?

another officer came with some scissors to untie me and actually cut my wrist. i pulled away in pain and he got angry and said why did you move? i said because you cut me. i stormed out of there in fear. i have never experienced anything like this in my whole life. i was treated like a criminal. with no voice or rights. gloria works there and was there the diof the raid. a co-worker asked gloria to drop off her lunch bag at home and check on her children. her co-worker, whose name she prefers not to give out out because of fear to the children. gloria went to the house and when she knocked she could hear them behind the door shushing each other. gloria says, i knocked for a while and just kept saying, son, open up, i won't hurt you, i came to drop off your mom's

lunch. the eldest finally opened the door but wouldn't let me in the broke down crying. and asking questions i couldn't answer because i didn't know where any of them were. i tried to calm him down and said everything would be ok. i went back to take the children food but nobody answered the door. i don't know if they're ok. those children only have their mother. i have been here in this community 42 years and i have never seen anything like this. families are being broken without caring of what would be of the children. working is not a sin. and all those people just wanted to better themselves. we work hard. sometimes taking shifts from 7:00 a.m. until midnight. but the -- what the government is doing is wrong. people are suffering. the american children are suffering. another woman writes, at corso's, that she escaped the raid and wants to remain anonymous because she sneers might be hunted down.

she said i never expected anything like this to happen, when i saw them coming, i ran and i ran and ran until i hid under a bed of flowers and buried myself under the dirt and cried in silence. all i could think about was my kids. i have three. a lot of us have small children who need us my skin itched of the mud stuck to my body dried. is this america? is this america? i prayed to goth for strength. i hid there for eight hours in fear of being taken or that maybe someone would come back. i still feel like i'm suffocating there, when i came out i asked someone who also works there for a ride. the entire complex was silent. lunch boxes were left everywhere. there was a void. as i got home i was scared to get out of the car. i looked around the neighborhood to make sure there were no officers around. walking through the door and hugging my son was a relief however, i hurt when he asked me what's going to happen now? i don't know what to say. all i know is, i have to provide

for them. i'm alone. i don't have a dime to my name. if i had a voice, i'd tell the government that we don't hurt anymore, we are humble people who are just working to better our lives. i tell them to put their hands on our hearts and realize they're hurting people. children are suffering. please, stop. a young girl age 13 who resides in a place named willard, her mother was taken in the raid. she said i was still in bed when i could hear someone banging on the door. right after there was banging on my bedroom window so i got up to see what was going on. as i opened the door my neighbor in panic and tears asked where mom was? i said she's work, why. she asked had i spoken to her. gyne say no when she interrupted me to say she'd been arrested at her job along with many others from our town. my neighbor said call your dad. i didn't know what to do i couldn't remember my dad's phone

number. my dad didn't answer so i panicked. i cried on the floor hugging a picture of my mom. all i could do was cry and hope it wasn't true. not her. my father eventually walked through the door and just hugged me tight and we cried. i have little sisters and they kept asking, mommy, mommy? i just say she's at work. it was even harder to tell my little brother, i played a song "i'm not alone" and i prayed and prayed. that night my sisters wouldn't go to bed, insithsing to wait for mom. i went to sleep at 4:00 a.m. thinking every time my mom gave me advice and how i wished i had listened every time my dad didn't go to work the next day. i think everybody is scare. everyone says be strong. it's going to be ok. but all i can think about is, when will i see my mom again? when will i hug her again. now i have to take care of my sisters. but looking at mom's empty chair at the table just doesn't seem fair. i hope the american people who are listening tonight think about these human beings that

honestly don't deserve to be caught between our government, the mexican government, the governments of the southern tip of north america, nafta and cafta have to be renegotiated. and workers of this continent have to be respected. we have to treat people like human beings and there must be a legal system that protects them all. god bless america and god bless this continent. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields. members are reminded to address their remarks to the floor -- to the chair. for what purpose does the gentlewoman from ohio seek recognition? ms. kaptur: i move that the house now adjourn. the speaker pro tempore: the question is on the motion to adjourn. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes have it. the motion is adopted. accordingly, the house