Becca Balint

Ms. BALINT

Ms. BALINT. Mr. Speaker, I thank Representatives Torres and Jayapal for their leadership. I am very happy to speak here tonight on an issue that is so important to so many Americans. I want to talk about power tonight, Mr. Speaker. Before I came to Congress, I was a public school teacher. I can tell you, when you are a teacher, you have a lot of power over the young people in your classroom. You set the rules. You decide when to speak and when to listen. You can make students feel seen or feel small. I learned very quickly that the more power that you have over someone, the greater responsibility you have to them. This is the lesson that this administration hasn't learned. Right now, we are watching our government exercise enormous power over people who have almost none, and they are doing it carelessly, with deadly consequences. Since President Trump took office, 56 people have died in ICE custody. This is a failure beyond measure. Every one of those people was a human being: someone's mother, someone's father, someone's child, someone who others had been waiting to come home, our friends, our neighbors, our family. When a government, our government, takes someone into custody, it is making a commitment. It is a commitment that while you are in our care, we are responsible for you. If you are sick, we have a responsibility to give you access to healthcare. If something goes terribly wrong, we have a responsibility to tell your family the truth about what happened quickly and transparently. There is no immigration status that changes that or makes a human being disposable or expendable. In a democracy, dignity and due process are not optional. There is a lot of talk in this Chamber all the time about who belongs in this country, but tonight I will ask you this: What do we owe the people whose lives we have put in our hands? We owe them due process. We owe them care. We owe them dignity. We owe their families the truth. When we fail them, we owe them accountability. In this room, we have a responsibility, too. We must stop funding a lawless and chaotic immigration enforcement system that has treated human lives as expendable. We have to use our power. Every government official who has abused their power and contributed to this horrific death toll must be held accountable.

Ms. BALINT

Ms. BALINT. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition to the Republican reconciliation bill. While American families struggle to afford housing, healthcare, and groceries, Republicans are proposing to spend more than $150 billion on immigration enforcement, roughly $59 billion for detention and deportation operations. Working families right now can't afford a doctor's visit, and Republicans are worried about multiplying our budget for detention facilities--not lowering healthcare costs, not giving relief to families who are struggling with obscenely high insurance premiums, but instead giving even more money to ICE and Border Patrol. This bill says that while American families pay nearly $27,000 a year for health insurance costs, Congress should prioritize spending even more on ICE detention beds. Healthcare costs are rising faster than wages for many Americans, and this is what we are focused on? It is incredibly screwed up. This administration wants you to believe that people who don't look like you or don't sound like you are the source of your financial struggles. Trump and his allies do this so you don't see that their policies benefit billionaires and greedy corporations that have hollowed out the middle class in this country. Don't believe them, not for a minute. We should be lowering healthcare costs. We should be investing in the working families in our communities across this country.

Ms. BALINT. Mr. Speaker, we should be lowering costs and investing in the working families and communities across this country, not weaponizing our government to go after the most vulnerable.

Ms. BALINT

Ms. BALINT. Mr. Speaker, the President has created an entirely corrupt slush fund to give money to his allies, including the violent attackers who beat police officers on January 6. This is not a settlement as the President keeps calling it. Mr. Speaker, you can't spring an absurd $10 billion lawsuit against an agency in your own government then instruct your lackeys at the Department of Justice to make a deal with the other agency to drop your ridiculous lawsuit that you brought in the first place in exchange for a $1.7 billion illegal fund for payouts to your political allies. This is not a settlement. It is theft. The President is illegally taking our money, taxpayer dollars, to give to his friends, his allies, and his foot soldiers for their craven loyalty. Former Capitol Police Officers have already filed a lawsuit to stop it. I am cosponsoring a bill to put an end to this disgusting, illegal corruption. Let's be clear: Congress on both sides of the aisle must say ``no'' to this President.

Ms. BALINT

Ms. BALINT. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in fierce opposition to this harmful attack on public schools. Republicans are losing. Gas prices are skyrocketing. They have no plan to end the illegal and unpopular war in Iran. Rather than doing the work to solve these real problems, Republicans just keep going back to the same old, tired playbook of harassing trans kids and, it turns out, calling us Marxists. This time they want to give the Trump administration broad authority to cut off Federal public school funding if a school teaches or advances anything that the administration deems to be gender ideology. Mr. Speaker, this could be anything. A teacher doesn't get parental consent before using a student's nickname on a school form; a book in their library includes a transgender character; a teacher has a Pride Flag hanging in the classroom. As the parent of two teenagers myself and as a former public school teacher, I want all kids to be protected and supported at school as they learn, as they grow, and as they figure out who they are. For this reason, at the appropriate time, I will offer a motion to recommit this bill back to committee. If the House rules had permitted it, I would have offered this motion with an important amendment to this bill. My amendment would prevent this bill from taking effect until the Secretary of Education proves that the Department is taking the necessary steps to protect women and girls from sexual harassment and violence. I ask unanimous consent to insert the text of my amendment into the Record immediately prior to the motion to recommit.

Ms. BALINT. Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record as well a letter opposing the bill from the American Booksellers Association. Honorable Members of the US House of Representatives: I write on behalf of the American Booksellers Association, the trade association of independent bookstores representing over 3,200 bookstore companies nationwide, to express our deep concern with H.R. 2616. This book censorship bill would chill expression across the book industry, hurt small businesses, and decrease the variety of books in the marketplace. H.R. 2616 is a national book ban bill, and even its authors likely cannot say where the banning will stop. The prohibition on use of ESEA funds to ``teach or advance gender ideology'' could impact everything from picture books about crayons to Plato's Symposium, and it appears to apply to library materials as well as curriculum. The key term, ``gender ideology,'' is defined only in an executive order that has not been approved by Congress and could change in future administrations. It is not radical to say we should know what a law does before we pass it. Attacking ESEA funding, the largest source of federal funding to public schools, defunds schools that are already struggling, which also impacts the bookstores that serve them. This vague bill would stymie or halt spending on all books, regardless of content, as already-overburdened school districts struggled to comply. Bookstores that supply local districts with library materials, book fairs, and author visits will see a massive decrease in book purchases. In states where book bans are most common, booksellers have been forced to shrink or discontinue their school programs, impacting jobs and local economies. We have alread started to see less diversity in the book market due to book bans. School and library sales are essential parts of the publishing ecosystem. When stories are banned from that marketplace, authors are silenced and have their livelihoods threatened. Book ban laws censor age- appropriate stories that people just do not want told, increasingly target history, and disproportionately impact people of color, LGBTQIA2S+ people, and people with disabilities. Loss of market diversity hurts readers as consumers, as thinkers, and as human beings. For the sake of small businesses and their employees, the communities they enrich, the parents who want their kids to learn about the world as it is through the safety of a kids book, and the kids who just want to get back to their books, please vote against this bill. Sincerely, Philomena Polefrone, Ph.D., Associate Director of Advocacy, American Booksellers Association.

Ms. BALINT. Mr. Speaker, I hope that my colleagues will join me in voting for the motion to recommit. This is once again government overreach.

Ms. BALINT. Mr. Speaker, I have a motion to recommit at the desk.

Ms. BALINT

Ms. BALINT. Mr. Speaker, at the Oval Office yesterday, Dr. Oz said that one in three Americans are under-babied. First of all, that is not a thing. What are you even talking about, Dr. Oz? If Americans are having fewer kids, maybe it is because people don't think they can afford to have a family right now. They are working longer hours for flat wages while the cost of housing is crushing them. Maybe it is because millions of Americans can't afford healthcare for themselves, let alone their kids. Maybe it is because people are drowning in student debt, paying outrageous rents, and can't imagine adding childcare to their list of expenses. Dr. Oz, Americans are overworked. They are underpaid. They are struggling to get by while you, among the rich and powerful, stand and lecture them in a gold-plated room among other people who are clearly and totally out of touch with the American people. You can't serve in an administration that cuts healthcare, attacks Medicaid, drives up costs for working people and then act shocked because people say they can't afford to have kids.

Ms. BALINT

Ms. BALINT. Mr. Speaker, Ghislaine Maxwell lured countless children into Epstein's global pedophile ring. She was found guilty of sex trafficking and sentenced in our courts, but the Trump administration moved her to a minimum security facility, a ``club fed'' facility. Whistleblowers tell us that she is being waited on hand and foot. Now, Republicans on the Oversight Committee are openly floating the possibility of a pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell. This woman organized the rape of 14-year-old girls. The judge who oversaw the case said the evidence established that ``Ms. Maxwell directly and repeatedly and over the course of many years participated in a horrific scheme to entice, transport, and traffic underage girls, some as young as 14 for sexual abuse by and with Jeffrey Epstein.'' Obviously, she should not be in a cushy, minimum security prison. She should not be pardoned. There cannot be one system of justice for the powerful and another for everyone else. This administration must end the special treatment for the Epstein class.

Ms. BALINT

Ms. BALINT. Mr. Speaker, due to a flight delay I was unable to be present on April 20, 2026. Had I been present, I would have voted YEA on Roll Call No. 125.

Ms. BALINT

Ms. BALINT. Mr. Speaker, I thank both my colleagues for holding this Special Order. It is such an important issue that so many of our constituents care about. I know that, representing my home State of Vermont, people are just absolutely outraged by what is happening. I am a former teacher. I am also a mom of two teenagers, and I know deep in my bones that we have to care for all our children. When I see ICE targeting children and using kids as bait to get to their parents, I feel sick. I am disgusted. What has happened to our humanity, our moral compass in this country? From the start of Trump's term until last October, at least 3,800 kids were booked into ICE custody. This includes roughly 500 children under the age of 5 and at least 20 infants. Do you remember the experience of Liam Ramos? He was 5 years old when he was picked up. He was 5. I remember what my kids were doing when they were 5. My son and daughter were learning how to spell their names. They were learning how to count to 10. They were drawing and singing and riding their bikes. They were running around with wild abandon on a playground. This is what we are talking about when we talk about 5-year-old kids. Our government is locking them up with our taxpayer money. This is who President Trump and Stephen Miller want us to believe are villains in our national story. They are kids. They are kids. As my colleague said: What is happening in these facilities? They don't have clean water. They don't have food that they can eat that isn't filled with worms. Think about that. There is nothing that justifies treating children like this. Nothing. They are our kids, and I am using that because it is the truth of the matter. It is not somebody else's kids. These are our kids. They live in our communities. They live in our districts, and we should care about all of our kids. Every single child in this country deserves care and humane treatment. It is that simple. What is happening at the hands of ICE is an abomination. Kids are not the enemy. I can't believe I even have to say that on the floor of the House of Representatives of the United States of America, that kids are not the enemy. This is a fundamental question of decency and who we claim to be as Americans. Are we a country that looks at a child and sees innocence and wonder and potential or are we looking at a child and seeing some kind of enemy, an enemy of the people? This is absurd. This is unconscionable. Again, it is happening with our taxpayer money. You cannot look away. I know what Vermonters believe, which is why I took to the floor today. Children deserve protection and dignity, period. No exceptions. We must fight together to find our way, our collective way, back to decency and compassion in this country.

Ms. BALINT

Ms. BALINT. Mr. Speaker, Americans do not want to live in a country where masked agents can carry you away in an unmarked car. Americans don't want to live in a country where innocent people are just dumped on the side of the road in freezing temperatures because ICE agents made a mistake and arrested the wrong person. They don't want to live in a country where agents can bust down the doors to their homes without a warrant. They don't want to be stopped while they are out shopping and have somebody in a mask and armed to the teeth asking them where their papers are. None of these things happen in a free country. They don't. We are in a dangerous place right now. We have a choice, all of us. We can either speak out and defend the rights that are given to us in our Constitution, or we can watch them slip away. Those are the stakes. We have to push back. We have to speak out and use our voices against this tyranny.

Ms. BALINT

Ms. BALINT. Mr. Speaker, what happened to Aliya Rahman is chilling, and it is a warning for all of us. Aliya is a U.S. citizen. She is a software engineer. She identifies as disabled, autistic, and as someone suffering from a traumatic brain injury. On her way to a doctor's appointment, she was stopped by ICE. They screamed conflicting orders at her, dragged her from her car, and carried her while she screamed: I am autistic. I am disabled. She said: Please, I am disabled. It didn't matter. She was denied medical care. She lost consciousness in detention. She suffered a concussion. She had to be taken out in an ambulance. Mr. Speaker, this is not about immigration enforcement. This is not about public safety. Aliya was a victim of terror at the hands of her own government. We owe Aliya and all Americans real accountability, and I will not stop demanding it on the floor of this House. It is repugnant, absolutely disgusting what happened to her, and she is not the only one.

Ms. BALINT

Ms. BALINT. Mr. Speaker, let's be clear. This is not about catching the most violent criminals. It is about power. It is about control. It is about cruelty. It is about depravity and abandoning human decency. I have spent time in Chicago. I have spent time in Minneapolis-Saint Paul. I have talked to the people there. We knew it would end like this. President Trump and his apologists and his enablers have been demonizing and dehumanizing immigrants and refugees for years. Americans are now dead at the hands of ICE, and over 40 others have been killed in DHS custody. Despite what Secretary Noem has said, over 170 Americans have been arrested and detained. As I said, we knew that this is how it would end. There are people of color across this country afraid to leave their homes because right now ICE and Border Patrol will detain anyone who they think they can use to meet a quota based on the color of their skin or the accent that they are using. This didn't have to go like this. I remind everybody who is responsible for supersizing the ICE budget and bringing us to this place, it was Republicans in Congress who did this, even though we warned them that this is what would happen. ICE needs to be dismantled. Secretary Noem needs to be fired, and Stephen Miller has to go. He is the mastermind of this ghoulish plan.

Ms. BALINT

Ms. BALINT. Mr. Speaker, tonight, as I stand here, people across this country are being terrorized by ICE with our tax dollars. Americans do not support this, and I will be their voice tonight on the floor. They don't want to live in a country in which you can be randomly stopped by a masked man and have him demand from you your papers. They don't want to live in a country where your First, your Second, and your Fourth Amendment rights are being violated. They don't want Americans gunned down because they are standing up for their immigrant neighbors. Mr. Speaker, we warned Republicans. We told them. We said: If you give a $170 billion blank check to Kristi Noem, you will create a paramilitary force, a lawless force that will brutalize Americans. We warned them, and I am sorry to say that we were right. Our predictions were right, and our worst fears have been realized. Americans are being traumatized. Immigrants are being brutalized. We have to impeach Kristi Noem. We must dump Stephen Miller, and we have to end this ICE terror and lawlessness.

Ms. BALINT

Ms. BALINT. Mr. Speaker, I need to level set here. The President cannot take money from the proceeds of seized Venezuelan oil and control it himself via means of a highly illegal and improper offshore slush fund. The President has no constitutional authority to do this. He doesn't get to create his own secret, overseas slush fund, which is outside of our purview and oversight. This is absolutely insane. We take Venezuelan oil at gunpoint, engage in regime change and nation building, and then the President personally controls the proceeds? What has happened here? Why do my colleagues give up their power? Mr. Speaker, where is the Republican opposition to this lawless, half-baked, absurd plan? You know that if any Democratic President claimed this kind of maniacal power, you would be enraged. So I ask you, Mr. Speaker: Where is the outrage now? Where is the pushback? Do not give this President any more power.

Ms. BALINT

Ms. BALINT. Mr. Speaker, Rabbi Abraham Heschel once sent a telegram to John F. Kennedy. Referring to racism in this country, he said: ``The hour calls for moral grandeur and spiritual audacity.'' Now, 62 years later, we see the excessive brutality of ICE agents. Peaceful protesters are tear-gassed in the face. A pastor was shot in the head with a pepper ball. We have children being zip-tied, car windows smashed, people tackled and dragged, and guns pointed at unarmed bystanders. We have people targeted for the color of their skin or the accents that they speak in. ICE agents are demanding entrance to homes without warrants, and last week, an American citizen was gunned down. Americans know this is wrong, and they are horrified. People of conscience across this country must come together and be that voice of moral grandeur and spiritual audacity once again. We have to find our courage and speak out. There is no other way.

Ms. BALINT

Ms. BALINT. Mr. Speaker, 1 week ago today, Republicans allowed the ACA premium tax credits to expire after telling us there was no money to do so. Healthcare premiums have soared, and millions of Americans will lose their healthcare coverage because they simply can't afford it. Just 3 days later, the President found money, a lot of money, to pay for a very extensive and expensive military raid to capture the President of Venezuela. This regime change and the nation building that will come later is going to cost us additional billions of dollars. We have seemingly endless money to spend for illegal, unauthorized warmongering, but there is no money available for healthcare for Americans. It doesn't have to be this way. We are the richest Nation in the world. We have the money to make sure everyone has healthcare. Voting to extend these healthcare tax credits is the least that we can do for Americans to show them that we are focused on them and their needs. Mr. Speaker, I urge a ``yes'' vote.

Ms. BALINT

Ms. BALINT. Mr. Speaker, it is a somber day of remembrance in our Nation's Capital. It was on this day 5 years ago when this Chamber, the people's House of the United States of America, was viciously attacked by a violent mob. No tweet, no post, no spin, no disgusting lie-filled website is going to change the facts of the history of what happened on that day. I rise today to honor the men and women who with great courage and sacrifice defended this Capitol Building. Our Capitol Police are still being treated with disrespect and now denigration from the President who today has accused them of somehow being responsible for their own beatings. They have already given so much. Mr. Speaker, the leader of this Chamber is bound by law to hang the plaque in remembrance of what these brave men and women did on January 6, and there is no excuse, no excuse, for his moral failure.

Ms. BALINT

Ms. BALINT. Madam Speaker, I rise today in fierce opposition to Representative Greene's bill that would throw doctors and parents in jail for providing lifesaving medical care. Even for Republicans, this bill is extreme. Are we really attempting to lock up parents and doctors? Your kids' medical care is none of their damn business. We should call their obsession with being in your kids' pediatrician's office and what treatment they are getting in a pediatrician's office what it is. It is creepy. It is a creepy obsession we have had to deal with for years. The science is clear: Evidence-based, medically necessary care for transgender youth is safe, effective, and supported by every major medical association in the United States, including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics. My Republican colleagues know this, because this intentionally discriminatory bill includes a bunch of exemptions to allow other kids to receive the exact same medical care. I call on my colleagues to vote ``no'' on this truly reprehensible piece of legislation. Congress should not be making medical decisions for your kids. For this reason, at the appropriate time, I will offer a motion to recommit this bill back to committee. If the House rules permitted, I would have offered the motion with an important amendment to this bill. My amendment would ensure that this bill does not compromise the private medical records of a minor or result in parents and doctors being thrown in jail. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to insert the text of my amendment in the Record immediately prior to the vote on the motion to recommit.

Ms. BALINT. Madam Speaker, I hope my colleagues will join me in voting for the motion to recommit.

Ms. BALINT. Madam Speaker, I have a motion to recommit at the desk.

Ms. BALINT. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Ms. BALINT

Ms. BALINT. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.