Jonathan Jackson

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that I may hereafter be considered to be the first sponsor of H.R. 4261, a bill originally introduced by Representative Payne of New Jersey, for the purpose of adding cosponsors and requesting reprintings pursuant to clause 7 of rule XII.

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I thank the Congresswoman from the great State of Florida for yielding. Mr. Speaker, the Honorable John James of the great State of Michigan, it is my privilege and pleasure to stand before you today to speak on behalf of the Honorable Shirley Chisholm, a woman who has come from such depths to such heights that everyone should be reminded of her greatness and the trail that she had to blaze. She had no path to find. She had to, indeed, blaze a trail. If you think about it, since 1789 to 1969, after 180 years, it was the first time an African-American woman was able to be called a Representative. African-American women have been at the bedrock, the foundation, of this Nation and oftentimes had gone without recognition. Think about the indignities that women have experienced in the past and in the present. We are still fighting the same fights for dignity, for a woman to have rights over her body. Now, the corridors are filled with so many men who have had transgressions against women. I thought those fights were behind us, but we are still fighting for a woman to be believed in these same corridors. Think about it. It wasn't until 1993 that female Senators actually had a place to give their bodies comfort because there was no restroom off of the Senate floor. We have come a long way, but we have so much further to go. It was only in 2011, not that long ago, that they finally built restrooms off of this House floor on the second floor so that women could relieve their bodies. We have a very long way to go to understanding the issues that they face, the believability that they should be given the assumption of, as now people are seeking nomination and are still being hurled with these accusations because they won't give women a fair voice. Mr. Speaker, I am thankful for the lovely legacy of the Honorable Shirley Chisholm. If you can imagine, being born in 1924 at the height of lynching in the United States of America, but something did not put out that burning fire inside of her soul that she would have the audacity, the unmitigated gall, to want to be President of these United States, to know that she, indeed, could serve. From that was a spark that could not be quenched out, a flame that has lit so many other women. I say thank God for her. As we commemorate, as we hold aside a special time to remember a woman who was a trailblazer, let's remember that she didn't follow a path. There was no path for her to follow. She has since laid a path so that so many others could matriculate and ascend to the height of their full potential. It is at this time, Mr. Speaker, the Honorable Congressman John James, that I will turn this back over to my colleague, the Honorable Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, from the great State of Florida.

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the 10th anniversary of National Apprenticeship Week and celebrate the Workforce Innovation Network Consortium. This week is an opportunity to honor the incredible apprentices, graduates, employers, and workforce partners that make the American workforce the greatest and most skilled in the world. In my home state of Illinois, there are over 400 Registered Apprentice programs and over 21,000 registered apprentices. I am proud of these members of our community and thankful for the opportunity they have available to them through Registered Apprentice programs. As the Representative of Illinois's 1st Congressional District, I am proud to lend my voice and support to these life changing programs and to raise awareness throughout National Apprenticeship Week. National Apprenticeship Week was established by the U.S. Department of Labor to showcase and promote high quality, inclusive, and in demand career pathway opportunities through Registered Apprentice programs. This nationwide celebration allows employers, apprentices, graduates, workforce partners, educational institutions, and Federal, State, and Local governments to showcase the success and value of Registered Apprenticeships. These opportunities strengthen our economy, create pathways for career seekers to land good jobs while advancing racial equity. Apprenticeships play a vital role in developing our workforce and creating opportunities for Americans from every walk of life. Over the last 10 years, apprentices and graduates of apprentice programs have played a key role in modernizing our country's infrastructure, building clean energy technology, and addressing cybersecurity threats. Their skills and expertise continue to move our country forward and they rise to meet the needs of our growing and evolving national needs. As we look to the next 10 years of apprentice programs and beyond, we should continue to provide the support necessary to continue providing these vital opportunities. As the American economy continues to be the envy of the world, Apprentice programs will continue preparing the next generation of American workers to face the challenges of tomorrow. This week is a reminder that there is no task too large that we cannot accomplish through diligence and hard work. I am proud to support Registered Apprentice programs that prepare our workforce to face these challenges together while building solidarity and unity among people of all backgrounds. I ask that my colleagues join me in providing this support and recognizing and thanking all apprentices, graduates, and workforce partners who continue to move our country forward.

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I thank the Honorable Congressman Huffman who also shares that lineage of being a fighter for the people. I thank him for convening us, bringing us together for this Project 2025 that we must discuss. Mr. Speaker, I rise today because we cannot allow the agenda of MAGA Republicans to go unaddressed and quietly into the night. On page 4 of Project 2025, it explicitly states that the goal is to get rid of terms like inclusion, equity, and diversity, so that no governmental policy can consider these things when determining who gets a contract, who gets hired, what management looks like, or who gets helped by a particular policy or administrative agency. I find this to be as tragic as it is interesting because in a perfect world, we would not need diversity, equity, and inclusion, but that is not where we live. We live in the United States of America, and we also live in a material universe where it is impossible to undo 300 years of legal exclusion with just 50 years of making this country do what is right. For those who say America is different now, let me remind you that America didn't include Black people in the inherent opportunities that come along with being born into this great Nation because she magically wanted to. It was those persons, the abolitionists and the civil rights workers and Black Americans, who made America do it. That is why the civil rights movement enacted laws and policies and protections because of the whimsical nature of America. America's commitment to our own principles cannot always be trusted. It, indeed, can be thick on ideals and thin on deeds. Let us not forget that during the Reconstruction in the late 1860s, Black people were given access to the mechanisms of power in this country. Then in the 1890s, America took it all back with the imposition of Jim Crow and segregation. Some people in this institution need to know America's history. Here again, in the 1960s, African Americans made significant political and economic gains. Yet, here we are in 2024, living under the tyranny of a Supreme Court determined to roll it all back. Affirmative action on college campuses, gone. A women's right to determine what can happen with her body, gone. The tragedy of our current situation is we don't know what is coming next. Laws and policies that require the inclusion of Black people are not there to give us an advantage. They are here to make sure that we are not once again excluded because of the color of our skin by American law. Project 2025 was created by the same people who formed the so-called intellectual brain trust around the candidacy of Donald Trump. These are his advisers, and here is what we know. We know that Project 2025 wants to impose a national ban on abortion, prosecute political enemies, and eliminate the Department of Education. Just think about it. What would we do without a public education policy? Project 2025 wants to continue to ban books about slavery and the civil rights movement and prosecute teachers and librarians for assigning them. This is insanity. Just think about the insanity that we are living in. MAGA Republicans believe that books are dangerous for children, but automatic rifles are not. Project 2025 openly declares that it wants to get rid of school lunches and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for families and children. Both of these are part of the social safety net that ensures that millions of people will continue to have dignity in old age and access to clean food and water. Project 2025 wants to get rid of it. Now, if it is okay to spend billions of dollars on bombs but making sure millions of people don't starve to death is somehow completely out of the question, something is wrong. Please note that Project 2025 doesn't say anything, nothing, about getting rid of poverty, but they have no problem with getting rid of the programs that help people deal with the fact that they are tragically poor in a country that has excessive wealth. They want to leave poverty alone, but they want to undermine how people survive it. Project 2025 wants to allow employers to no longer pay overtime. If your employer can demand that you work overtime, but they don't have to pay you for the extra time you put in, to put additional money into their pockets and making them rich, something is tragically wrong. Can you imagine being required to work extra hours without extra compensation? That too is in Project 2025. Essentially, Project 2025 says that you should be happy to have a job and that whatever your employer asks you to do, you should be happy to do it. We don't owe you anything beyond the minimum requirement of your basic paycheck. That is un-American. This is ridiculous, but this is what Donald Trump and the people around him want to do. Project 2025 is a complete disavowal of workers' rights. If you think they are going to stop at eliminating overtime, then you are completely delusional and drastically out of touch with reality. This is not the language in the document, but I bet you all the money in my pocket against all the money in your pocket that healthcare will be next. They have been trying to get rid of the Affordable Care Act, also known as ObamaCare, for the last 12 years. Project 2025 wants to give wealthy corporations another tax break. It is not enough that multibillion dollar corporations got the biggest tax break in American history under Donald J. Trump. They want to give corporations more. Notice how one-sided this is. They want to give corporations a big tax break, where Project 2025 says nothing about increasing wages. Follow the wickedness of the logic. Corporations get bigger tax breaks so they can keep more of the money workers made for them, but the workers don't get to participate in the success of the corporation by having an increase in their wages. Project 2025 calls for an end to Social Security, our great safety net program. Goal 3 of Project 2025 says that only a nuclear family should receive governmental support. This is a part of the ill-fated logic of J.D. Vance and Donald J. Trump. If you are a single mother raising your children or a grandparent raising your grandchildren, Project 2025 says that the government should not make you a priority, and basically, you are not a family. The policies and prescriptions of Project 2025 would lead to the greatest assault on Medicaid and Medicare in the history of this Nation. This is what we are up against. This is why we are determined not to let it happen. We are determined to fight for what is right. We are determined to resist. Once again, I thank the Honorable Congressman Huffman from the great State of California for championing this cause and for calling us out here tonight. I thank him for his undying commitment to our American democracy and his fight for what is right.

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his outstanding leadership.

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight because we gather on this floor to give recognition to a growing and troubling problem in America today. Never before have so many young people, and in particular so many African-American young people, been susceptible to the tragic influence of suicidal thoughts. One of the things that we cannot leave out of this discussion is how much the anxiety of our politics has contributed to the overall dysfunction that has become a cancer on the lives and mental health of America's citizens. I say to you tonight when people have to worry about political violence and insurrections, that is a strain on mental health. When people have to be concerned about losing their healthcare when they need it most; when people are concerned about the attacks on Medicaid and Medicare; when people are concerned about not being able to make decisions on their own bodies; when people are concerned about whether or not there will be a shooting in their school today; and when people have to listen to the former President of the United States demonize Haitian immigrants with absolutely no evidence for the erroneous claims he happens to be making, it is no wonder that America has become a Nation riddled with anxiety. Let us be very clear: The will to live is connected to the conditions of one's life. I am not a mental health expert, Mr. Speaker, but I happen to believe that people who have something to live for are often engaged in the act of living with a sense of promise and hope. I understand that mental health diseases are real and must be treated separately, but there are a lot of people in this country who contemplate ending their lives not because they have a mental health disease but rather because the conditions in which they have to live have become overwhelming and completely debilitating. Mr. Speaker, and when people can no longer see a future for themselves, they are more susceptible to the vicissitudes of despair. The epidemic of opioid abuse is indicative of this analysis. There are millions upon millions of people in this country who are simply trying to escape the conditions of their lives. And every day they are fighting not to give in to the encroaching darkness that seems to stalk them both day and night. And let's be honest, it is a familiar darkness. The content of which is comprised of questions like: How will I pay my mortgage; How can I afford rent and keep up with my car note; and How can I pay for the college education of my children while at the same time afford school supplies for the ones who are still in elementary school. It is a familiar darkness. It is comprised of concerns about the future of democracy; the right to vote; racism and the creeping eradication of America's commitment to diversity; the criminal justice system; questions of war and peace; and clean water, clean air, and clean food. And my question tonight is this: What about them? What are we prepared to do in this Congress to make the lives of the American people more secure and worthy of what it means to be called an American? And contrary to what some have come to believe, not everybody in this country can pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. There are millions of people who proverbially don't even own boots. And I still believe that a nation of great wealth owes it to all of its citizens to provide a basic level of support, so that while it is true that not all of us will have maximum success--none of us, however, should be condemned to fail. We have a moral and ethical obligation to make the future of this country brighter than the one we were born into. And we do this not just in the policies we legislate, but also in the tone of our politics. High octane rhetoric will not bring a level of ease to the hearts and minds of the American people. And so I say to you tonight, let us not just be concerned about preventing suicide without confronting the conditions that make the lives of the American people needlessly miserable and more difficult than it has to be. Let us dedicate ourselves to the flourishing of all people. And let us be particularly mindful of the suffering that grows among us. We want you to know tonight that we see you, we hear you, we love you, and you are not in this battle alone.

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Madam Speaker, I thank the Honorable Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, my co-anchor on this Congressional Black Caucus Special Order hour, for yielding. I affiliate myself with all the comments that my colleagues have shared regarding this remarkable woman, our colleague and dear friend, Sheila Jackson Lee. Madam Speaker, I rise tonight to lend my voice to the chorus of those who have gathered in this Chamber to honor and give mournful recompense to the life and legacy of Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, a woman of such grave significance who even in repose remains a towering figure among us. Sheila Jackson Lee was no shrinking violet, She was no harbinger of demure expectations, and she did not cower in the face of adversity, nor did she retreat in the midst of a storm. Sheila Jackson Lee did not do as some have already done; namely, get elected to political office and forget where they come from. Sheila Jackson Lee carried the people of Houston with her because her dreams were their dreams too. Their adversities were her adversities too. She wanted for them no less what she wanted for herself. Here is a woman who in her lifetime had to deal with policies who told her she had to sit in the back of the bus. She went from having people tell her she had to go through the back door to being a Member of Congress who passed laws to make America a better place for all people. She lived long enough to see President Barack Obama ascend to the Presidency. She lived long enough to see Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown elevated to the Supreme Court. She was just a few days away from living to see Vice President Harris selected to be the Democratic nominee for the Presidency of the United States. What a life. What a witness. What a legacy. Tonight, I say to you, a mighty oak has fallen. I shared so many evenings and days and times with Congresswoman Lee, my heart is filled, and I thank God for her having come this way. I felt in many ways like the words in the book of ``Animal Farm,'' ``All animals are equal, but some are more equal. . . . `' I never looked at myself as a peer of Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee. I was honored to carry her bags. I was honored to walk beside her. I was honored to be in the midst of her company. I thank God for having put me in a place where I could be from afar and then in my lifetime be able to work up close and hand in hand with her. In this place where she will no longer stand is a hole that will never be filled in this Chamber because while none of us are indispensable, some of us can never be replaced. That is the legacy of Sheila Jackson Lee. This is the brightness of the one who we remember, who in death has become both the singer and the song. Let the word go forth from this time and place that Sheila Jackson Lee was a steel magnolia, one of the daughters of thunder, a woman of such invention and personal power that you could hear the sound of the oceans gathering in her voice. She was, she is, and she will always be one of the great gifts of the African- American community to the future of America. Tonight, we remember her. Tonight, we sit upon the ground and tell sad stories, and we laugh and joke about the death of a queen here in this Chamber. Under the canopy of this temple of democracy, we dare to make letters of her once and glorious life. From serving as the first female ranking member of the judiciary Subcommittee for Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security, Sheila's talents made room for herself. She will be missed, she will be mourned, and she will be lamented, but now she belongs to the ages. Like Barbara Jordan, Shirley Chisholm, John Lewis, and Donald Payne, she will be watching over us. Sleep on, my sister. You deserve your rest. You have won the race. God will bless you.

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I thank the Honorable Congresswoman Terri Sewell for her comments. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the subject of this Special Order.

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Madam Speaker, it is with great honor that I rise today to coanchor this Congressional Black Caucus Special Order hour along with my distinguished colleague, Representative Terri Sewell, of the great State of Alabama. For the next 60 minutes, members of the Congressional Black Caucus will have an opportunity to speak directly to the American people on the subject of the Shelby v. Holder decision and the American Voting Rights Act, specifically the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, an issue of great importance to the Congressional Black Caucus, Congress, the constituents we represent, and all Americans. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Alabama (Ms. Sewell).

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from the great State of Alabama (Ms. Sewell), and I wish to be totally associated with all of her great remarks and scholarship. Mr. Speaker, I rise today because 11 years ago the Supreme Court of the United States proved that it lacked the judicial imagination befitting an institution clothed with immense power as 11 years ago the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Frighteningly, 11 years ago, the highest Court in the land decided that racism had magically evaporated in America and that hatred had somehow receded quietly into the history of the Republic never to be seen or heard from again. Eleven years ago, nine Justices on the Supreme Court decided that they were social scientists with a particular expertise in racism and the politics of voting. Instead of being Justices who were hired by the American people to decide the constitutionality of a law, they rather took the position that the Court knew more about voter suppression than the people who have dedicated their entire lives to the subject. Nine Justices on the Supreme Court, Mr. Speaker, thought they had a better working knowledge on the state of racism in America than people living with it every day. However, I rise tonight to declare emphatically that nothing could be further from the truth. This Supreme Court does not know more about racism in America than do the people who are the survivors of it. The members of the Supreme Court are not experts on everything. They are not omniscient. They are not infallible. They are not beyond all moral and political reproach. In fact, based upon what we have recently heard about certain members of the Supreme Court, it would seem that the complete opposite, in fact, is true. When it comes to the Supreme Court as it is currently configured, fallibility abounds. I rise tonight, Mr. Speaker, because the elected Representatives of the American people cannot allow six unelected and seemingly uninformed individuals to undo the moral and democratic gains won by the civil rights movement over 50 years without doing something about it. All over this country, we have seen the disparate impact that the Shelby County decision has had on voting access in America, and what was once thought to be a regional problem has now metastasized and become nationalized. Since the Shelby decision, every region of this country is struggling to overcome novel attempts at voter suppression and the like. Regrettably, 11 years ago, those of us in the civil rights community told the leaders of this Nation what was going to happen. We told America that gutting the Voting Rights Act would cause voter suppression to spread like a virus in a second-grade classroom, and that is exactly what has happened. That is exactly where we find ourselves today. Those of us who believe that the only threat to democracy are events like unto those on January 6 are painfully naive. The greatest threat to democracy isn't the outright violence that takes place when citizens who are motivated by lies engage in hand-to-hand combat with one other, but rather by the legalized and the systemic unraveling of the cherished democratic norms. However, those of us who love America cannot sit idly by and allow the darkness of bigotry to, once again, embed itself into the electoral systems of this country as it once was. Those of us who have a constitutional mandate to establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, and secure the blessings of liberty cannot allow what African Americans did to expand the general welfare of this country's commitment to opportunity be erased. Nothing is more indelible and inherently fundamental for the success of a thriving democracy than is the quality of a citizen's right to vote, because in America, voting is the manifestation of citizenship. In this country, if you cannot vote, then you are not a citizen. Moreover, what most people miss about the civil rights movement is that at its core it was an attempt to empower African Americans with the rights afforded to us by virtue of our citizenship. The right to vote is our birthright, and, yet, for hundreds of years, this country denied African Americans born in this Nation what was legitimately due to them. Moreover, it is only through blood, sweat, and tears that African Americans were able to fight in every war to, once again, regain full citizenship. It was only because people were willing to give their lives that Black people in this Nation can cast a ballot for the candidate of their choice, and we are not going to let anyone take those rights away. Reflecting upon Shelby v. Holder 11 years later, I would like to quote the Assistant State's Attorney General Kristen Clarke. She said: ``This anniversary provides an important opportunity to reflect on the profound consequences of that opinion'' in Shelby County v. Holder ``which struck down the key provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and left millions of voters of color without the mechanism that had stopped voting discrimination before it could be implemented. ``When President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law, he described it as `one of the most monumental laws in the entire history of American freedom.' The Voting Rights Act was the product of bold action by Congress. It forcefully addressed the problem that nearly a century after the Reconstruction Amendments, millions of Americans were still denied the ability'' to cast their ``vote and participate in our democracy because of their race. ``One of the most important pieces of the Voting Rights Act'' that was taken away ``was section 5's `preclearance' requirement. Enacted in 1965 and reauthorized by Congress in 1970, 1975, 1982, and 2006, section 5 required jurisdictions that had a history of voting discrimination to obtain approval from the Attorney General or a Federal Court before implementing changes in election procedures and practices. ``Covered jurisdictions could not implement their proposed voting changes until they had received preclearance. Thanks to section 5, jurisdictions that tried to make changes that had a discriminatory impact or were adopted with a discriminatory purpose were blocked from doing so. More than 800 proposed changes were altered or withdrawn in the period after 1982 alone. ``A repository of the department's section 5 `objection letters,' which provided an official record of each objection as well as the basis of the decision, can be found. ``The Shelby County ruling marked a significant turning point for voting rights in the United States. In its decision, the Supreme Court invalidated, on constitutional grounds, section 4(b) of the Voting Rights Act, which provided the formula for determining which jurisdictions were covered under section 5. ``Without that formula, all jurisdictions were released from coverage overnight. Section 5 was rendered effectively inoperative, freeing States and localities to enact voting laws without Federal oversight. ``States wasted no time implementing election changes that had not or might not have survived the preclearance requirement. On June 25, 2013, the very day that the Supreme Court issued the Shelby opinion, Texas officials announced that they would implement a discriminatory and burdensome photo identification statute. And on June 26, the day after the Shelby County decision, Senator Tom Apodaca, chairman of the North Carolina Senate Rules Committee, publicly stated that the North Carolina legislature would be moving forward with an omnibus law imposing multiple voting restrictions.'' Why weren't they trying to expand voting? They said: We will use this decision to restrict voting. ``In the absence of preclearance, the statutes went into effect and the department, along with private parties, had to file suit under a different part of the Voting Rights Act to enjoin them.'' Mr. Speaker, I continue: ``States have adopted photo identification requirements, limited those who can provide assistance at polling places, reduced options for early voting, and closed polling places. Unfortunately, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg proved prophetic when she observed in her Shelby dissent that ending preclearance was like `throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet.' ``Without section 5, new laws can be challenged only through long, protracted, resource-intensive, case-by-case legislation,'' and fights. The John Lewis Voting Rights Act is the most fundamental piece of legislation pending before the United States Congress, and it must be enacted with all deliberate speed. This is something, Mr. Speaker, we must do. Securing the right to vote is the moral obligation we have to the principles of America and to whatever we believe is a future worthy of our children. Let me remind my colleagues that the progenitors of suppression do not stop with their initial targets. Today, the votes of African Americans are being suppressed all over the Nation, but tomorrow it might well be yours. Do not forget the lessons of history. The people who are coming for our rights will never be satisfied with what they have attempted to do to us. Soon they will look for new targets; that is to say, new objects of their resentment, their ridicule, and their scorn. However, what the Supreme Court Shelby decision has reinforced, in no uncertain terms, is the fact that elections have consequences. The inability to elect a Democratic President in 2016 led to this horrible decision, and those of us who stand on the precipice of a national election must remember this invaluable lesson. Let us not forget that in 2016 the woman with the most votes did not win the presidency. Whatever policy differences we may have with the President of the United States, we cannot allow the protection of our civil rights to be left in the hands of Justices who are so ideologically motivated that they unapologetically fly insurrectionist flags upside down at their homes. Moreover, the only way to protect America from the conservative judicial fanaticism of the Supreme Court is to reelect President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. There is simply no other way for us to go. Let us do what we must do so that justice will roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream. Mr. Speaker, you have heard from our distinguished colleague, the Honorable Terri Sewell from the great State of Alabama, on this topic for the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. Mr. Speaker, all issues of great importance to the Congressional Black Caucus are our constituents, Congress, and all Americans tonight. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Alabama (Ms. Sewell).

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the subject of this Special Order.

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. It is with great honor that I rise today to co-anchor this Congressional Black Caucus Special Order hour along with my distinguished colleague, the Honorable Representative Sheila Cherfilus- McCormick, from the great State of Florida. For the next 60 minutes, members of the Congressional Black Caucus have an opportunity to speak directly to the American people on the topic of Caribbean American Heritage Month, an issue of great importance to the Congressional Black Caucus, Congress, the constituents we represent, and all Americans. Mr. Speaker, it is my privilege to yield to the Honorable Congresswoman Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick from the State of Florida.

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I thank my co-anchor and leader, the Honorable Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick of Florida, for her remarks. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to celebrate Caribbean American Heritage Month. For much of the long history of this Nation, it has been lost to most of our citizens the tremendous role that the nation of Haiti played in the formation of the United States of America. What most people miss is that it was because of the Haitian Revolution that Napoleon lost interest in maintaining control over his so-called Caribbean landholdings and, therefore, saw no use in keeping Louisiana, prompting him to facilitate the Louisiana Purchase, which doubled the size of the United States of America. The expansion of this Nation west of the Mississippi was directly related to the Haitian Revolution, a point I invite my colleagues to remember the next time they wonder why members of the Congressional Black Caucus are so concerned about Haiti. Let me further remind my colleagues that the city responsible for my birth, the city of Chicago in the State of Illinois, was founded by a Haitian immigrant, Jean Baptiste Point du Sable. While I was growing up, if you talked about the erasure of history, there was no monument formally dedicated in the great city of Chicago to the founding father of the city of Chicago. It was first recognized in what was formerly a city jail that Dr. Margaret Burrows turned into the DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center in the city of Chicago. Most recently, our magnificent Lake Shore Drive was renamed Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable Lake Shore Drive. We have had to insert the history to make it whole because when history is not made whole, it is propaganda. I was born and raised in Chicago, and there would be no Chicago without a member of the Caribbean-American community. It is about time the people of this Nation come to terms with the immense contribution of Haiti to the United States of America. Everything that we love about New Orleans and Chicago is directly dependent upon the nation of Haiti and the children she sent around the world. The people of Haiti had as much to do with the formation of America's cultural influence as any of the descendants of Europe. Yet, somehow, Haitians are left out of the conversations when it comes to the contribution other nations have made to the formation of the American spirit. The father of Chicago was a Haitian man, but there was a time in American history when history books would not acknowledge the ancestry of persons of African heritage. In fact, there was a time in the history of Chicago when Jean Baptiste du Sable's name would never be erected on a building. We had denied the truth of Haiti's contribution, and yet, the reality of Haiti's indelible endowment to America lives on. Those of us who rise tonight do so because we refuse to be silent about the great contributions that African descendants from the Caribbean have made to this Nation's history and this Nation's future. Malcolm X once said: ``Of all our studies, history is best qualified to reward our research.'' Yet, what he meant by the statement was that it is only when we discover the immovable truth of our history that we find the footing we need to leap out of the darkness and into the kind of future we deserve. A point which I should add is that Malcolm X was himself of Caribbean-American descent, as his mother and her descendants hailed from Grenada. Needless to say, there is a long and noble list of Americans whose ancestry goes back to the Caribbean, and we would be wise to honor that history because in honoring it we honor, in fact, ourselves. It is only when we honor the truth that we tear down the load-bearing walls of falsehood, hatred, and bigotry. The days when we could be in denial about the unique and important contribution of marginalized parts of the world to the formation of America are over. Mr. Speaker, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said that before you leave the house in the morning you have already depended on half the world to clothe you, to feed you, and provide you with a cup of coffee to wake you up. I submit to the Members of this body that America is better when we are about the business of acknowledging the longstanding connection that our pursuit for freedom has with other parts of the world. I know sometimes certain populations in America would like to believe the mythical lie of a rugged American individualism. I understand that there are those who would rather think that this country pulled itself up by its bootstraps without any assistance from anybody anywhere. Regrettably, nothing could be further from the truth. America is not a weaker country because nations such as Haiti assisted us and directly benefited us, but rather, we are stronger because the truth will set you free. Mr. Speaker, this is a 220th anniversary of the Republic of Haiti. Haiti is America's longest and oldest democratic partner. Haiti now celebrates 220 years. I would like to remind this body, on Haiti's 220-year anniversary, their democratically elected president was highjacked, kidnapped, and taken out with U.S. assistance from his homeland to an African city. Now, Mr. Speaker, this is a time where the Haitians certainly need our assistance. Haiti is not a debtor country. Haiti is a creditor country to the United States. Haitians supported America during the Revolutionary War in Savannah where a statue still rises from those ashes. Let us celebrate this Caribbean Heritage Month. Let us celebrate all of those that have been erased from history that have committed such great and noble works to us. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the distinguished gentlewoman from Florida (Mrs. Cherfilus-McCormick), the co-anchor of this Congressional Black Caucus Special Order hour.

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I thank the Honorable Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, my co-anchor of this Congressional Black Caucus Special Order hour, for her comments. Mr. Speaker, in closing I would like to share that Haiti has a rich and a very vibrant history. It pains me deeply to see that people look at Haiti as a beggar nation. Haiti has gone through one of the most horrendous stories in mankind. After the Haitian people valiantly fought off those that enslaved them, American powers and European powers forced those that had been enslaved, kidnapped, raped, and robbed to pay reparations back to France up until the 1940s. The Haitian people are vibrant people and honorable people, and Haitians deserve our help and support. The United States asked the Kenyan Government to support the Haitian people to help gain back control of their country by the citizens for their rightful democracy. We very well, as the world's most powerful country, should be able to send our forces down and assist those people so they can build back their country. We owe them a development plan. We cannot be the greatest nation having the poorest country in the world off of our shores. Haitians have been our best allies, our longest democratic partners, and we can do better. Mr. Speaker, you have heard from my distinguished colleagues and the Honorable Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick of all the great issues important to the Congressional Black Caucus, our constituents, Congress, and all Americans tonight. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Madam Speaker, I was not present due to a prior engagement. Had I been present, I would have voted NAY on Roll Call No. 236 and NAY on Roll Call No. 235. PERSONAL explanation

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Madam Speaker, first, I thank the Honorable Congresswoman from the great State of Florida, the Honorable Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, for yielding. Madam Speaker, today I rise because June is National Reunification Month, and we owe it to Black families not to be silent about what the child welfare system has done to them in both tragic and traumatic ways. I say to you today, Madam Speaker, the effects have been devastating and long-lasting on our children. The fact that we even have to have a National Reunification Month says it all. How can it even be possible that a system that purports to help Black families has been so chiefly responsible for the separation of the very families it supposedly exists to serve? This kind of morose contradiction cannot be allowed to persist and linger because whether some people in this country are willing to admit it or not, families come in all shapes and sizes. Families come in all colors and configurations. They even come in various economic conditions and levels of education. All of them are still families, and all of them deserve our commitment. All of them are dependent on the work we do in this Chamber, and the Members of this body cannot just care about the families that remind them of their own. No matter the race or configuration of a particular family, we are here to serve every family in this country. Either we care about all American families or, in truth, is it that we only care about some, most, or none? Black families deserve all the rights and opportunities extended to every other family in this country. In fact, considering the historical assault on this country's institutions and policies against Black families, one might even suggest that Black families deserve to have more than most. We have been through a lot. I am honored to be a Member of this congressional body and to represent the First Congressional District of the State of Illinois. When I think of the life of a young child who was kidnapped from West Africa by the name of Phillis Wheatley in 1753, who was manumitted from slavery in 1773, our Nation has come a long way, but let us never forget that a child had been kidnapped who was 8 years of age. They approximated her age because of the size of her teeth. She had to go up and talk to John Hancock and others and had to recite poetry that we later came to find out were anagrams. She was an absolutely brilliant child, and she was the first person of African ancestry from 1619 to 1753 to have been manumitted from slavery. I want us to know that Black families are more valuable simply because they have been through so much. Black families don't have their value just because they have been through so much. It is because of the compassion they have had to grow. Not one family is more valuable than the others. We all have different experiences, and sometimes they have had a long-lasting and devastating legacy of neglect that has too often resulted in outright violence. We rise tonight to reflect on the role of this tragic system and how we might strengthen bonds and not just perpetuate historical problems and systemic norms in the child welfare system that is tearing so many families apart. I am convinced now more than ever that we must do whatever we can to reduce the need for foster care and strengthen families in whichever configuration they are formed. Until the system of child welfare can see the value in keeping families together, we must hold the system accountable for what we know to be right. What we do, we also have to know is the right thing. We know that, yes, every child should be protected, and they still need their mothers and their fathers no matter the frailty and the conditions that they suffer from. Yes, children should have their basic needs met, too, but they still need their grandmothers and grandfathers. Our child welfare system should not separate children. Our child fostering system that is supposed to help feed and nourish children should not separate children in any case. Every child who has a brother or a sister deserves to have a relationship with their brother or sister they possess. As much as children should be protected from whatever seeks to threaten the integrity of their lives, it is also the case that no child should be erroneously or permanently separated from people who love them. We must change the economic conditions and political factors that make it even possible for Black children to end up not being cared for by their relatives because of a lack of capacity and their resources. There is a reason Black families are more likely to be investigated by child protective services and to have their children removed and placed in out-of-home care. There is a reason more than 50 percent of Black children in the U.S. will experience a child welfare investigation before their 18th birthday and 10 percent of Black children will be placed into foster care. These are not accidental occurrences. Rather, they are the manifestation of a deep and pervasive systemic bias. Black children spend more time in foster care; Black children have more placements; and, yes, Black children are less likely to be reunified with their families. Somebody needs to stand up for those who cannot stand up for themselves. Since the children of our community cannot speak on the floor of this Chamber tonight, we dare to speak for them. Tonight, we pick up the standard for their cause and declare emphatically on their behalf: Let these children return home to loving families. Let them be treated with respect. Let's give them the presumption of innocence and virtue that they deserve. Let them be reunited with the kindred spirit that produced them and continues to love them in spite of the challenges that they face. This pattern of unjustified investigation and prolonged separation must be brought to an end, not just for the sake of the children but also for the sake of this Nation's future. Unless the children of our community are returned to the loving arms of their families, no child in this country is safe. No child can sleep easy tonight, and we will not rest until the circle is restored and until the village can, once again, decide for itself what is best for our children. As we work to keep them safe, let us live to make them free because the light shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it alone. We thank God for the life, the living, and the legacy of the Honorable Phillis Wheatley, a child who was separated and was the first to be manumitted to be free in America, a child who was kidnapped that God had borne free and who had to have her rights restored as a human being. Madam Speaker, I thank the Honorable Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick from the great State of Florida for her continued service.

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I rise because it is imperative that this body move with all deliberate speed to pass a farm bill that is both responsible and enriching for the American people. The farm bill is one of the most fundamental pieces of legislation that we enact as a government, not simply because of the dollars we dedicate, but more so because of the number of people who are supported by the passing of this indispensable law. Unlike most of the bills we pass, the farm bill is not a dry and depersonalized legislative act. There are names and faces attached to food. There are real people in dire situations associated and connected to the success of this bill. Unlike most of the appropriations we allocate in this body, the farm bill is a moral document that reminds us that we owe each other as human beings. It brings us back to the fundamental things. It reminds us that the politics of the future mean nothing in the stomach of a child who is hungry. To be sure, this bill compels us to move forward. This bill moves us beyond politics of blame so that we might embrace a more excellent way. In fact, I would go so far as to say that the farm bill is one of the few manifestations of the social contract this government makes with the American people. The SNAP program alone is a moral accomplishment that we have to reach for. Over 300,000 people make up my district in Illinois. Almost 73,000 of those households receive SNAP benefits. Almost 40 percent of these households have a child in them, and almost 45 percent of those children have some sort of disability. In fact, I would go so far as to say that the bill is one of the few manifestations of the social contract of this government that the American people deserve. The SNAP program alone is our moral achievement, and I say this because all of us know that 86 percent of the SNAP benefits go to the households of women and children. Mr. Speaker, we have to move with speed. Ask not what you can do for your country but what your country can do for you. Let me tell you, there is a mutuality in this contract. We also have to understand that the state has to support the people, not simply the people supporting the state. The farm bill helps those who are in need when their backs are against the wall. Does this bill achieve that? No, Mr. Speaker. Taking food off of children's plates is not the best of the American ideal. We say our prayers, and we pray for the food we are about to receive. We do not pray for the food that has now been removed from our table by our government. We must, indeed, fight for the rights of all those women and children and disabled families that need our help. This is important because the time when we ignore cities and emerging farming centers is over. In the district that I represent, we celebrate community gardens and urban farms because inasmuch as I believe that access to healthy food is a right that all human beings should enjoy, it is also a responsibility that each of us must take into our own hands. Each of us must do whatever we can to ensure that our families have the sustenance and nutrition they require for flourishing and the possibility of a great life. We need a farm bill that is responsible. Taking food out of the mouths of the most desperate and those of the least, the lost, and the left behind cannot stand. I will be opposing this farm bill until it is more responsive and we leave SNAP alone and ensure that every family is well fed in America. I thank Mrs. Hayes for picking up this fight.

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the subject of the Special Order hour.

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, it is now my privilege to address you. In the play ``Julius Caesar,'' Mark Antony proclaims: ``What cause withholds you then to mourn for him?'' I rise tonight because this is our question today. By what measure and according to what standard might we allow this week to slip between our fingers and not remember what happened on a street in Minneapolis on May 25? What in all creation would justify our forgetting a collective unconsciousness? We are summoned into this Chamber tonight because George Floyd should be alive today. He should be enjoying the matriculation of his daughter from one grade to the next. He should be living out his days under the protections afforded to every American citizen, such as the presumption of innocence, equal protection under the law, and all the Eighth Amendment rights against cruel and unusual punishment. Tragically, none of what ought to be is true in the case of Mr. George Floyd. George Floyd is not alive, George Floyd was not protected, and George Floyd was not a victim of just bigotry and neglect. He was killed by the very institution employed to ensure his safety. This is what happens when people don't see you as being someone and something worthy of protection. This is what happens when you are viewed as a threat and Blackness is seen as a problem and not as a gift to the world. Indeed, what happened to Mr. George Floyd over a $20 alleged bill--they said there was a $20 bill that was counterfeited-- that had the assistance of five officers dressed in uniform, in broad daylight, to suffocate him. No one would ever know what happened to the alleged $20 fraudulent bill. What happened to George Floyd is a predictable outcome when the country you live in would rather build prisons than reimagine schools, would rather blame poverty on the poor but never question the gluttony of the rich, and would rather ignore the persistent evil of racism as if the record of our inability to honor each other's humanity had not already resulted in tragedy and death. The beaches of American history are cluttered with the bleached bones of the innocent, needlessly slaughtered on the battlefield of this Nation's preoccupation with subjugation and hatred. I remind Members that Mr. George Floyd died in the new millennium. This isn't some type of tragedy I am talking about from a century ago. This was the new millennium, and George Floyd deserves to be alive today. What happened to Mr. George Floyd is the rhyme that makes history, it makes whatever we fail to be honest about: racism, militarism, and, indeed, a destructive system. We have gathered here today to answer Mark Antony's question. There is no cause, and there are no foreseeable circumstances that would compel us to forget what happened to Mr. George Floyd. George Floyd was murdered by a police officer who refused to see the humanity of the helpless, who refused to see the humanity of a handcuffed man, who refused to see a man gasping for his last breath with a knee wedged on his back while suffocating him and imperiled. I say to Members: Anyone born of a woman should have been able to identify with the pleading of George Floyd not to lose his life. Mr. Floyd asked for his mother as he gasped his last breath. One does not need a graduate degree in ethics, morality, or philosophy to have been moved by the elegy of George Floyd. Not only does this event say something about the totalitarian impulses of policing in America, but it also says something about the kind of Nation we have allowed ourselves to become. We have also allowed certain political influences to compel us to see each other as enemies and not merely as adversaries. We have allowed resentment to determine how we respond to one another and not what is required of us if we are to survive. This week also presents us with a golden opportunity that we cannot ignore. The painful anniversary of the murder of George Floyd presents us with a chance to not only recommit ourselves to the eradication of racism and police-sponsored violence in America, but it also reminds us that there is a piece of legislation pending in the Senate that needs to be passed right away. The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act deserves to be taken under consideration by every United States Senator immediately because not reforming how Black people are policed in this country will render the murder of George Floyd a tragedy, but nothing more. I say to my colleagues today: Why settle for a tragedy when we can pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act and we can make a new beginning. We have it within our power to make sure that what happened on May 25, 2020, just 4 years ago, never happens again. We have it within our reach to lift America from the fatigue of despair to the buoyancy of hope. Every Member of the United States Senate has a moral obligation to reconsider and, indeed, pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act and not hide behind the politics of our respective parties. The question before us is a simple one: Do my colleagues want our beloved and great country to be a place that is safe and fit for our children to forge a future without fear and the prospect of indiscriminate hate and violence? If the answer is yes, then let us work toward getting together to ensure that we will never again be driven into this Chamber to remember the death of innocence. If the answer is yes, then let us choose a more excellent way. If the answer is yes, then let us not be weary in well doing, for in due season we will reap what we have sown if we faint not. Mr. Speaker, it is so important that, today, we remember those from Central Park, the innocent young men who were tortured into a false confession. They received no mercy 35 years ago. They received no recognition by a former President 35 years later. Those young men had their lives turned upside down when they were accused of a hateful, vengeful attack and rape--indeed, it was done by a person who had been convicted of such. Yet, this man asked for these men to be given the death penalty, and these were teenagers who had been found innocent. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Michigan (Ms. Tlaib).

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I thank the Honorable Congresswoman from the great State of Michigan (Ms. Tlaib) for her outspokenness. Mr. Speaker, we have heard from my distinguished colleagues today about policing in our communities and about the loss of innocence, all issues of great importance to the Congressional Black Caucus, our constituents, Congress, and all Americans tonight. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I thank the honorable Congresswoman Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick from Florida and the co-anchor of this Special Order hour for yielding. Mr. Speaker, tonight just a few of my colleagues and I gather in this place and at this time to remind the Members of this body and the American people of the cost of progress in this country. I submit to you that there are too many people who have come to believe that progress is inevitable, that history is slanted upward, and that if left to its own devices, this country will magically always do the right thing. It is not ironic that those are usually also the same people who believe that marches and demonstrations are untimely and excessive. In a very real sense, these are the people who said that Reverend Martin Luther King was a rabble-rouser; that Thurgood Marshall was delusional; that college protests are inconveniences and not to be taken seriously; that the preservation of the status quo is of more social value than is the expansion of opportunity and liberty. They do further believe that public demonstrations of discontent are more about law and order than about the irrepressible yearning in every human being to unapologetically be free. What they miss is that all of us want and deserve to be treated with respect and have our dignity intact. What they fail to realize is that all of us want to see our children live in communities where they are safe and valued and have opportunity. Regrettably not all of us have access to the things that make for peace. In the words of Reverend Martin Luther King, peace is not the absence of noise, but it is the presence of justice. Not all of us are judged by the content of our character nor simply the color of our skin. As long as a child in Brooklyn cannot read and a child in Atlanta and Appalachia may not have a desire to learn, we cannot be complacent in a Nation of great wealth. What the purveyors of inevitability fail to understand is that freedom and justice have never come to those who waited for someone else to decide it was time for them to be free. Even in this body, there are far too many individuals under the impression that this Nation will become a more perfect Union if we just leave things alone, but nothing could be further from the truth. Today, and this week, we commemorate the 70th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education. What made this a landmark decision was not just that it undermined the fallacious reasoning that made segregation possible in this country, but also the fact that the decision itself was the result of generations of American citizens working diligently in the shadows of American history to push this Nation forward. Brown v. Board of Education didn't just happen 70 years ago. An entire movement made it possible for the Supreme Court not to ignore the arrival of an idea whose time had come. We are only able to have this commemoration because Black people and honorable White people in this country refused to wait another generation before we could enjoy some of the promises of America. What happened in that courtroom in 1954 in Arkansas cannot be understood apart from what is happening in the streets of America today. Progress in America is a fact that cannot be denied, but it did not happen because America wanted to change. This Nation is not a better place to live in because southern segregationists changed their minds. Change happened in America because, though the wheels of God grind slow, they grind exceedingly small but go forward. That is to say it was nothing but the righteous indignation of ordinary people doing extraordinary things that made justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream. Just the other day, not far from here in the Capitol in Statuary Hall, we celebrated the statue of Daisy Bates taking her rightful place in Statuary Hall. As a child, I grew up in Chicago and Mrs. Bates oftentimes came and shared the holidays with my family. It was indeed an honor to be a Member of the 118th Congress and to see the unveiling of her statue, an African-American woman, who at the age of 8, had lost her mother to men that had raped her and killed her and put her in a mill pond in Arkansas never having faced justice, but then to see President Bill Clinton and Governor Mike Huckabee unveil a statue and a highway, a road in her honor, was truly an honor in 1998. As we celebrated the valorization and veneration of her likeness, I would remind us of how many different kinds of people it takes to move a nation forward in the direction of its principles on paper. Daisy Bates was a publisher and an activist who gave counsel to the Little Rock Nine, nine children who were denied access to a public education under Governor Orval Faubus of Arkansas. She was someone instrumental in the effort to undermine the Nation's separate but equal law, a Jim Crow-era law that still remained. She didn't come out of her mother's womb wanting to be an activist, but she lived in a country where activism was as much a necessity as breathing. When our young children are gathering up on the campuses today, they yearn for freedom. She did what she had to do for herself and her progeny. This Nation owes her our deepest gratitude for laying such a costly sacrifice upon the altars of equity and equality in America. To each and all of the remarkable trailblazers who dedicated their lives to the possibility of unbridled opportunity in this country, we owe you and Miss Daisy Bates our devotion, and we owe our children common sense. Do not be deceived. We still need people who are willing to do extraordinary things in the cause of freedom and justice because when a Black United States airman can be murdered in his house for expressing his Second Amendment right to bear arms while Kyle Rittenhouse can shoot three people and walk down the streets with an AR-15 in his hands and nobody even asks him a question, clearly there is work that still needs to be done in our country. Be not deceived. As long as women do not get equal pay for equal work, we have work to do. As long as anti-Semitism is taking on a life of its own while anti-Blackness has never truly subsided, there is still work that must be done, and we are the ones to do it. Let us continue the work. Let us continue to fight for what is right. Let us challenge our friends to do more, our enemies to do better, and ourselves to never give up. God bless the memory of all of those who kept America strong and made America better. We commemorate this day for Miss Daisy Bates, the children of Little Rock, and those who brought in a new era of desegregation.

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include any extraneous material on the subject of this Special Order hour.

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I, too, acknowledge the tremendous loss that those families have incurred, and I thank them for their service. Mr. Speaker, it is with great honor that I rise today to co-anchor this Congressional Black Caucus Special Order hour, along with my distinguished colleague, Representative Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick. For the next 60 minutes, members of the Congressional Black Caucus have an opportunity to speak directly to the American people on the topic of mental health, an issue of great importance to the Congressional Black Caucus, the Congress and the constituents we represent, and all of America. Mr. Speaker, it is now my privilege to yield to the gentlewoman from New Jersey, the honorable Congresswoman Watson Coleman.