Christian Menefee

Mr. MENEFEE

Mr. MENEFEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Prairie View A&M University, on the occasion of its 150th anniversary celebration for its outstanding contributions to higher education. Prairie View A&M began as an Agricultural and Mechanical College for the ``colored youth'' with just 8 students. Today, it stands as Texas' second oldest public institution and a leading Carnegie-classified R2 research university, enrolling more than 10,000 proud Productive Panthers. As an exemplary Historically Black College and University, Prairie View A&M is home to numerous distinguished research centers and institutes, including the National Center for Infrastructure Technology and the Texas Juvenile Crime Prevention Center. Throughout its history, the University has expanded access to higher education, particularly for underrepresented communities, by fostering an environment of growth, academic achievement, and innovation. Under the visionary leadership of President Dr. Tomikia P. LeGrande, Prairie View A&M has launched its ``Journey to Eminence'' plan, an ambitious effort to elevate the institution as a premier public historically Black university and a national model for student success, with an emphasis on research excellence, increased graduation rates, and strong post-graduate outcomes. Prairie View A&M's legacy stands as a testament to the power of access, opportunity, and academic excellence. Its impact will continue to shape generations of leaders for years to come. Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the people of Texas, I commend Prairie View A&M University on this remarkable milestone and extend my deepest gratitude for 150 years of service to students, to Texas, and to the Nation.

Mr. MENEFEE

Mr. MENEFEE. Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Jackson for setting this up and for shining a light on such an important issue. Mr. Speaker, President Trump has spent more than a year promising that he would make life more affordable for Americans, but when he took office, instead of lowering grocery bills, rent, and healthcare costs, he went straight after diversity, equity, and inclusion. He threatened private corporations that refused to give up their programs without legal action, while Vice President JD Vance even went so far as to describe these policies as discrimination against White men. That sounds ridiculous because it is, and my constituents know that. Last month, a Federal judge ruled that Houston's minority and women- owned business enterprise program is unconstitutional for considering race when awarding city contracts because of President Trump's anti-DEI policies. That program was created under the President Reagan administration because Houston had clear evidence that Black, Brown, and women-owned businesses were being left behind in city contracting. That evidence still exists today in 2026. Across industries, Black-owned businesses were consistently at a disadvantage. The goal of the program was simple: to address those barriers and give qualified businesses a fair opportunity to compete. Instead of asking why those disparities exist, we are being told that addressing them is the issue. If you look at every single metric for families in this country, whether it be annual income, wealth accumulation, or education, Black folks are behind in just about every single metric. Instead of us asking why those disparities exist and instead of us working as a government to solve those problems and address those disparities, we are now being told that it is reverse racism to address issues that come from a system that enslaved folks in this country and perpetuated inequalities and Jim Crow for much longer than that. Houston knows better. Republicans call DEI policies handouts and reverse discrimination, but we know that is not true. This is how we correct injustices that disproportionately harm Black and Brown communities like the ones I serve. That is what these programs are about, and that is a promise that is worth defending.

Mr. MENEFEE

Mr. MENEFEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this constitutional amendment that would lock the number of Supreme Court Justices at nine. The more I listen to this debate, the more it is abundantly clear to me that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have no desire to use the power that was given to us under the Constitution. When President Trump starts a war in Iran, they refuse to pass a War Powers Resolution. Now I am hearing an argument that we should lock the number at nine because that is what the Supreme Court wants, but that is not how the Constitution works. The Constitution says that it is Congress that has the power to set the size of the Supreme Court. It is our call, and this has happened multiple times in the history of this country. Ask yourself, why would my colleagues on the other side of the aisle want to give that power away? Because they want to lock in this Supreme Court--this Supreme Court that has gutted voting rights, this Supreme Court that has taken away a woman's right to choose, and this Supreme Court where Justices take secret gifts and private jets and answer to absolutely nobody. Americans are asking for something in the Supreme Court. They are asking for reform. They want to see ethics reform. They want to see term limits. They want to see a Supreme Court that reflects the American people and not just the few, a small group of elites. Congress should be using its power, not giving it away. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``no.''

Mr. MENEFEE

Mr. MENEFEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to oppose H.R. 9237, which, if we are being clear, cuts veterans' benefits. The President and my colleagues on the Republican side in Congress have no problem sending our men and women off to war, but the real measure of a nation is not just how it treats their servicemembers when they are on Active Duty. It is how it treats them when they are no longer dodging the bombs, the bullets, and the storms at sea and when they are no longer serving in war. As a Congress, we have to do right by our veterans, and this bill simply does not do it with $57 billion in cuts for disability benefits for veterans. It raises home loan refinancing fees $4 billion on veteran borrowers. Mr. Speaker, I am the son of two veterans, and we would have never purchased our first home when I was in high school were it not for a VA home assistance loan. That is to say not just for me but for so many folks across the 18th Congressional District of Texas. I keep hearing my colleagues on the other side of the aisle saying that we have to find money to offset to be able to pay for some of the other benefits in this bill. Yet, if we are pinching pennies, let's tell the President to end his war in Iran, which has cost taxpayers billions and billions of dollars. It is time for this Congress to do right by our veterans. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to vote against H.R. 9237.

Mr. MENEFEE

Mr. MENEFEE. Mr. Speaker, last week marked 4 years since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and ripped away the constitutional right women had relied on for nearly 50 years. In Texas, Republican politicians rushed to impose some of the most extreme abortion bans in the entire country. They promised that these laws would protect life. They told us that there would be no consequences. However, now the consequences are here, and it is women who are paying for them with their lives. Since Dobbs and Texas' total abortion ban, infant deaths in Texas jumped from 1,985 to 2,240 in a single year. That is a 255-death increase. It should pain each of us that here in this country, a woman can walk into a hospital with a medical emergency, and doctors will have to stop and ask whether politicians will put them in prison if they save her life. If those pushing these abortion bans truly cared about life, they would be fighting for affordable childcare, paid family leave, and better maternal healthcare. On this anniversary, I hope that we all stay committed to fighting so that every single woman in this country can get their freedom and their right to an abortion back in this country.

Mr. MENEFEE

Mr. MENEFEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the Faster Labor Contracts Act. Mr. Speaker, I am just astonished to hear my colleagues on the other side of the aisle argue that this bill was rushed when they failed to take it up in committee, when we all know that under their leadership, the committee has focused on attacking unions and attacking trans kids. Maybe if they focused more on education and workforce, we would see more bills like this come to the floor through a proper process that actually helps unions. I represent Houston and the longshoremen on the Ship Channel, like my grandfather; freight drivers; steelworkers; and electricians. These are folks that without them, this country would come to a screeching halt. Right now, when those workers vote to form a union, what the law requires is that the employer bargain in good faith. That is exactly what the law requires, but we all know that is not what happens in real life. In reality, employers stall. They run out the clock. That is why the average time between a union vote and the first contract is over a year, a year when the bosses hold all of the cards. That is a loophole that lets employers act in bad faith. All this bill does is close it. It sets clear deadlines; a fair process; mediation, if needed; arbitration as a backstop; and it only applies to first contracts. It is focused, and it is reasonable. When workers follow the rules, the rules have to work for them. I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I urge my colleagues across the aisle to spend better time when they are managing their committees.

Mr. MENEFEE

Mr. MENEFEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise to oppose H.R. 7892, the so-called No Aid for Ghost Students Act. Think about a first-generation student who is applying with a FAFSA for the first time. It is already one of the most confusing processes out there, but all this bill does is make it worse. This bill would require the government to run every single financial aid application through a fraud detection algorithm, and if you get flagged, the college that you have been admitted to cannot release a single dollar until you jump through hoops to prove who you are. When a student gets flagged, there is no timeline, no appeals process, no accuracy standards. For a kid who does not know the system, that could mean a missed enrollment deadline. It could mean lost housing. It could mean the end of a dream before it even starts. I know that as a first-generation college grad. However, I want to be very clear about how this bill will impact folks. We heard earlier that this only applies when there is a real fraud risk, but that is a misnomer. Study after study on identification verification programs and fraud detection algorithms consistently show a higher false positive for Black and Hispanic users. Who are the students who are going to get flagged the most here? I bet they are going to be disproportionately Black. I bet they are going to be disproportionately Latino. I bet they are going to be lower income, those experiencing homelessness, eligible noncitizens, working adults who cannot afford to take a day off to drive to the financial aid office. My colleague on the other side of the aisle said it best, and I completely agree: Taxpayer dollars are finite. Therefore, why is this body supporting the President and his war of choice? Why is this body supporting the President's creation of a ballroom? Why is this body supporting a President who is creating a fund for folks who stormed the Capitol? My colleagues on the other side of the aisle could have targeted the fraud where it actually exists in higher education, but they didn't. Instead, they are locking in a brand-new unevaluated system into law with zero guardrails. That does not protect taxpayers. It just gives this administration unchecked power to delay aid to the students who need it the most. If even one student in this country is denied financial aid wrongly because this algorithm did not work out properly because we rushed the process and didn't have accuracy standards, that would be an absolute travesty to the people that we serve. Mr. Speaker, I oppose this bill, and I urge my colleagues to do the same.

Mr. MENEFEE

Mr. MENEFEE. Mr. Speaker, June is Pride Month, a month celebrating the contributions of the LGBTQ community, but it also must be a month of speaking hard truths. Texas has more anti-trans murders than any other State in the Nation. Over half of Texas victims are Black transgender women. We cannot celebrate Marsha P. Johnson and not protect the women who look like her. Last week, Persia Amarra Conway was killed in Houston. She was 33 years old. She was loved, and she is not alone. Jade Roberts, Diamond Brigman, Muhlaysia Booker, name after name after name, were all from Texas, all taken from this Earth, stripped from their loved ones and from their communities. These killings are happening across our country, and silence is not an option. This Pride Month, I say clearly: We must stop the targeting and killing of members of the trans community in Houston, in Texas, and across our Nation.

Mr. MENEFEE

Mr. MENEFEE. Mr. Speaker, grocery prices are up. Gas prices are up. Families across this country are choosing between rent and food. What does this administration do? They just created a $1.7 billion fund, not for working people, but for the President's people. The President confirmed it himself. January 6 insurrectionists, who stormed this very building, can apply. These are the same people he already pardoned. Now, they get a payout as well using taxpayer dollars with no court, no judge, just a commission that the President controls, writing checks to whomever this administration decides deserves one. It amazes me that this President, who has said that we don't have money to provide people with childcare, a President who has said we don't have money to provide people with healthcare, that this President and his administration could somehow find $1.7 billion for compensation for criminals, $1.7 billion in reparations for rioters, $1.7 billion in income for insurrectionists. This is corruption, and the American taxpayer is footing the bill. The American people deserve better.

Mr. MENEFEE

Mr. MENEFEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce the Kimberly Vaughan Firearm Safe Storage Act. Eight years ago, Kimberly was a student at a Texas high school, and she and several of her classmates and teachers were murdered by a student who brought his parents' gun to school because it was not properly secured. Their deaths were both a tragedy and entirely preventable. Safe firearm storage is one of the simplest and most effective ways to reduce gun violence, suicides, accidental deaths, and having stolen weapons end up in the hands of people who should not have them. Seven million children in this country are in a home with a loaded and unlocked firearm. Every year, hundreds of kids are killed and injured because guns are within arms' reach. This bill aims to change that. It requires safe storage devices with every firearm sale. It provides grants so that communities can distribute those devices. And it gives retailers a tax credit to make it easier for them to do the right thing. Kimberly and her schoolmates should have come home that day. This bill ensures that every single kid does.

Mr. MENEFEE

Mr. MENEFEE. Mr. Speaker, I want to be very clear about what this bill is. This is part of a greater effort to ensure that we have cash bail systems throughout this country, which would keep rich people on the streets, even if they are violent criminals, and would have poor people locked behind bars because they don't have the money. Picture two people accused of the same low-level, nonviolent misdemeanor and who come from the same background. A judge looks at both of them and says neither is a flight risk and neither is a threat of harm to the community. The bail is set at $1,500. Because one person can pay the $1,500, they are back on the street. The other person is in jail for 6 months, maybe a year. They lose their apartment. They lose their job. They may even lose custody of their child. That is not justice. That is a tax on people who don't have spare cash. I know this because we experienced this in Harris County. My home county, Harris County, asked the right question and found the answer. Judges started releasing people accused of nonviolent misdemeanors before trial. Do you know what happened to crime? Absolutely nothing. Pretrial release went up 30 points, from 50 percent in 2015 to over 80 percent today. Repeat offending did not go up, not even a little.

Mr. MENEFEE. Mr. Speaker, I was proud to defend that consent decree. Let's be clear about what this is. If somebody is a threat to the community, they should be in jail, regardless of whether they have a billion dollars or a thousand dollars. If they are not a threat to the community, they should not be left to languish in jail, potentially lose their livelihood, their family, all so we can make cash bail companies more rich. We should be about protecting the community, not protecting industry.

Mr. MENEFEE

Mr. MENEFEE. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from New York for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of this resolution to bring an end to the President's war in Iran. This administration started a war that the American people never asked for. A majority of Americans oppose it, and every single day, Americans are paying for it. Before this war started, gas in Houston cost about $3 a gallon. Today, it costs over $4 a gallon. That is the largest 2-month gas price spike in the recorded history of Houston, which is the energy capital of the world. The average Houston family is paying $100 more every single month just to fill their tanks. This administration told us that they would put America first. Instead, they have put Americans, our servicepersons, and our wallets last. This administration has blown up the global markets. People are paying more for groceries. Businesses are paying more for supplies. People are struggling to get by that much more because of this President's actions. The experts say prices will fall slower than they rose, even if this war ends today. The American people did not ask for this war. It was forced upon them, and Congress must force it to end. I urge my colleagues to support this War Powers Resolution. We have heard a lot of conversation about imminence here tonight, but that is not the question before us. The question before us is: Who has the power to declare war? That is the United States Congress. We have seen this President haphazardly bring us into a dispute overseas, resulting in the deaths of 13 U.S. servicepersons, while at the same time conducting foreign policy over Truth Social, saying that he is going to annihilate an entire civilization. I don't care what your feelings are about any nation. This country operates by a Constitution, and the President must follow it the same way as anybody else. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this War Powers Resolution.

Mr. MENEFEE

Mr. MENEFEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today because the right to vote is under grave attack. The Supreme Court opened the door, and Republican officials throughout the South are running straight through it. Republican State legislatures are racing to redraw congressional maps across the South, and they have one clear goal: to make sure that Black communities cannot elect a candidate of their choice. Look at Tennessee. Memphis is a majority-Black city, and instead of keeping it whole in one district, Republicans sliced it into three separate districts and imported White voters from hundreds of miles away. That is not an accident. That is a blueprint. In Texas, a Trump-appointed Federal judge found that Republicans used race to dismantle minority districts, like in my hometown of Houston. I have seen so many Republican officials argue that this is not about race. But look at North Carolina where Republican legislators requested data on voting patterns broken down by race. They then changed the voting rules based on that data, and a Federal court said that they targeted African Americans with ``almost surgical precision.'' This is about race. These maps are a pattern, and after Callais, it is spreading like wildfire. Cracking Black communities apart district by district is not politics. It is a declaration that Black voices do not belong in this democracy. Our Nation is better than this. Racist cheating has no place in the greatest democracy on Earth. This Congress must fight back. The right to choose our own Representatives is sacred and something our ancestors have fought and bled for, and we will not let it be stripped from us community by community or ZIP code by ZIP code.

Mr. MENEFEE

Mr. MENEFEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor and commemorate the 160th Anniversary of Antioch Missionary Baptist Church. Mr. Speaker, 160 years ago, formerly enslaved persons got together along Buffalo Bayou with nothing but faith and freedom. There, they built a church with their own hands, their own bricks, and their own will. That church is Antioch, which has served Fourth Ward, downtown Houston, Texas. Antioch has been a hub of activism since Reconstruction. It had its doors open during the civil rights movement, where people needed organizing and courage. Under Pastor Lou McElroy and First Lady McElroy, that mission continues today. Isaiah 43 tells us not to dwell on the former things. Antioch's impact is not just the past. It is present. The congregation is still educating, organizing, impacting, and showing up for Houston each and every day. Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in congratulating Antioch Missionary Baptist Church on 160 years of excellence and service to Houston, Texas, and to this Nation.

Mr. MENEFEE

Mr. MENEFEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor one of Houston's and this Nation's great public servants. Ambassador Arthur Schechter ended his journey in life on April 13, at the wise age of 86. He was an attorney, a diplomat, a philanthropist, and one of Houston's most committed civic leaders. Ambassador Schechter was a Houston man through and through. He built his legal career there, fought for maritime workers and working people and poured himself into this community for decades. His impact didn't just stop in the city. President Clinton appointed him U.S. Ambassador to the Bahamas in 1998, and he served our country with dignity and honor. The Governor General of the Bahamas called him the finest ambassador ever posted to that country. That says everything you need to know about the ambassador. When Ambassador Schechter finished his post abroad, he continued the work back home. He chaired Houston's Public Transit Authority and helped open Houston's first light rail on our Main Street. He rode in that very first car with his grandchildren. That image captures who Arthur Schechter was. He didn't just build things. He made sure that the people he loved and everyone else in our communities got to experience them. To Joyce, to Jennifer, to Leslie, and to the grandchildren and other family members that Ambassador Schechter loved so deeply, an entire Nation is grieving with you. God bless Ambassador Schechter in his service. May we carry his legacy forward.

Mr. MENEFEE

Mr. MENEFEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to oppose President Trump's budget. A budget is a statement of values, and this one shows what President Trump cares about: his senseless war first and American families last. Across the country and in my home in Houston, Americans are fed up with a government that seems more focused on endless wars than on whether people can afford groceries or gas. President Trump's proposed budget cuts many of the programs that would offer even a little bit of relief to the economic pain he has caused. It would even cut childcare, ignoring the realities families face. As a father of two, I know how costly childcare is, and I am troubled by leaders who would make it harder, not easier, for parents to work and raise their children. We are feeling these cuts uniquely in my city of Houston. Despite having some of the most food-insecure neighborhoods in the entire country, we have seen massive cuts to food banks, including tens of millions of dollars from the Houston Food Bank. Despite having the largest medical research hub in the entire country in the Texas Medical Center, which relies on a routine basis on NIH grants, we have seen $5 billion cut from the NIH. Despite having some of the most environmental injustice-ridden communities in the entire United States of America, we have seen more than 50 percent in funding cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency. We know that those cuts are coming mostly from the environmental justice divisions. This budget is immoral. It is an attack on Americans. It is going to severely harm people in Houston. The President's policies have raised costs, worsened the affordability crisis, undermined access to healthcare, and delivered tax breaks for billionaires while working families fall further behind. Millions of people risk losing vital care and financial security while a small number of billionaires see their wealth grow. Think about that: Families are going without care so that the rich can get richer. We are the wealthiest nation on Earth. Our budget can and must afford investments in childcare and healthcare and support for our seniors while managing our finances responsibly. What we cannot afford are priorities that put the richest first and leave working families behind. Mr. Speaker, President Trump's budget represents not America First, but America last.

Mr. MENEFEE

Mr. MENEFEE. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from the Commonwealth of Virginia for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I speak today because Congress must do all it can to end the disparities in Black maternal health outcomes in this country. Moriah Ballard was 22 years old, a Houston woman, who was 7 months pregnant. She was ready. She and her husband had just bought a four- bedroom house. The nursery was set. The baby shower was planned. They had clothes, the onesies, and the books, until she went to the hospital with a headache one day and had some dizziness. Doctors found her blood pressure was dangerously high. She had preeclampsia. They transferred her to a larger hospital, one of the most celebrated medical institutions in the entire country. Over the next 3 days, her pain became unbearable. Her vision started to fail. Her blood pressure climbed to an untenable level. She kept pressing the call light in her room and kept pressing it, but nobody came. She lost her son in that experience--delivered stillborn. She woke up from surgery blind in one eye. Doctors later told her they wished that they had acted sooner. That Houston woman's story is not a tragedy. It is a pattern. Across this country, Black women die from pregnancy-related causes at three times the rate of White women. The CDC tells us that more than 80 percent of those deaths are preventable--not inevitable, but preventable. In Texas it is even worse. In my district, it is the worst in the Nation. Harris County leads this Nation right now in Black maternal deaths. From 2016 to 2020, the maternal mortality rate for Black women in Harris County was 83.4 per 100,000 live births, the highest in the Nation. And it is only getting worse. Harris County's maternal morbidity rate climbed nearly 35 percent between 2019 and 2024, outpacing the Texas statewide increase every single year. This is happening in the shadow of the largest medical complex in the entire world. So what do we do about this? We as a body must act. We pass legislation like the Momnibus Act, which invests in the full spectrum of solutions that this crisis demands. We address the social determinants of health: stable housing, nutritious food, mental health care. You cannot have a healthy pregnancy in an unstable life. We grow the perinatal workforce, so every woman giving birth has access to a midwife, a doula, a community health worker who looks like them, who understands their culture, and we extend postpartum coverage through Medicaid and WIC because a mother's health does not stop mattering the moment she leaves the delivery room. Too many Black women walk into a hospital wondering if they will walk out with an ailment or if they will walk out at all. My wife wondered that when she was giving birth to our youngest son and her blood pressure dropped to a dangerous level. I looked her in the eye and saw not just tears flowing but fear and the question of whether she would leave that hospital alive at all. Moriah Ballard wondered that when she pressed the call light, and she prayed and she prepared herself to die. No woman should ever have to do that--not in Houston, not in America, not ever. This body has the power to change that. There have been Black women who have been leading this Special Order hour today, and I wanted to be here to make sure that they knew that the Black men in this body have their back. We are going to do every single thing we can to pass the momnibus act to end these disparities in maternal health outcomes, and I intend to make sure that we do so.

Mr. MENEFEE

Mr. MENEFEE. Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Pallone for yielding me time. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition of the FENCES Act. My colleagues on the other side of the aisle talk about protecting public health and the environment and without sacrificing environmental protection in this country, but I want to point out that it is this administration currently in office that has eviscerated the EPA. Time after time, we have seen these bills filed that are intended to weaken our environmental protection. Let me be clear about what the FENCES Act actually does. It weakens the Clean Air Act. It removes the EPA's ability to hold States accountable when they fail to reduce air pollution, and it gives polluters a free pass in communities that can least afford it. I represent Houston, Texas. In my district, environmental justice is not a talking point; it is a reality that people wake up to each and every day. We have communities that have some of the highest concentrations of industrial pollution in the entire country: communities with more than five polluting facilities in a 2-mile radius, cancer clusters, high rates of lung disease and heart disease, lower life expectancies, children and seniors breathing in some of the most contaminated air in America. These communities don't need us here in Washington making it worse. I know firsthand what happens when you take the pressure off of State environmental regulators. Before I came to Congress, I served as the chief legal officer for Harris County, the largest county in Texas. I watched the State's environmental regulators look the other way when pollution ran rampant in underserved communities. They sat on cancer clusters. They let polluting facilities concentrate in neighborhoods that had no political power to fight back, and they handed passes to industry while residents got sick. I had to sue them to get them to act, but that is not how our government should work. The Federal Government has to hold these folks accountable when they put industry over people and put our communities' health at risk, but this bill would add yet another obstacle to holding those in power accountable. Here is what the FENCES Act actually does. Under current law, States already get credit when pollution blows in from other countries or from out of State. They are not penalized for pollution that they cannot control. That protection exists today. This bill doesn't fix a gap. It tears open a new one. It expands that exemption so broadly that States can point to foreign pollution as a reason to stop making progress on air quality altogether. It removes the EPA's ability to hold them accountable. It is a built- in excuse to look the other way. State regulators and polluters both know exactly how to exploit it, and they will. That is why I tried to change this bill by submitting an amendment. It said one simple thing: that before this law takes effect, the Secretary of Health and Human Services must certify that the impacts will not harm children and the elderly. That is it. Prove that this is safe for our kids and our seniors before it takes effect. My colleagues on the other side of the aisle blocked it. They would not allow that vote. They couldn't say yes to that because this bill was never about clean air. It is about giving corporate polluters cover while the people in our districts pay with their health.

Mr. MENEFEE. Over 100 million Americans already live in counties with unhealthy air quality. Air pollution contributes to more than 100,000 premature deaths in this country each and every year. The people in our communities are not abstractions. They are already on the wrong side of these numbers. This body lets pollution run rampant as our communities see poison in the wind that blows and wonder ``Where did all the blue skies go?'' We should be standing up to make sure that every single person in our communities has clean land, clean air, and clean water, regardless of their ZIP Code or socioeconomic status. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on the FENCES Act.

Mr. MENEFEE

Mr. MENEFEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to the so- called RED Tape Act. This bill clearly harms our communities. Right now, when the Federal Government approves a major construction project, like a highway or a Federal facility, the EPA has the legal authority to review it and to flag public health concerns. It can say that this project will harm air quality in this community. It can put that on the record, and regulators can act on it. This bill eliminates that EPA review entirely. The one agency whose job it is to protect human health and air quality gets cut out of the process--no EPA air quality check, no independent public health voice at the table, major Federal projects approved with zero input from the people whose mission it is to protect the air we breathe. That is not cutting red tape. That is cutting public health protection. This bill hits different for my district back in Houston. I remember walking through a neighborhood in my district that for years had been fighting a cancer cluster as a result of environmental contamination. The woman who lived there told me: ``In that house, two grandparents passed away. In that house, it was a child. In that house, it was a mother.'' She said it matter-of-factly, the way people do when grief becomes routine. I later walked that same neighborhood with the EPA Administrator under President Biden. I showed him what I had seen. EPA under that leadership showed up. They did the work, and they provided a line of protection for the community that they never had before. The Trump administration and my Republican colleagues are now rolling all of that back. They have already fired thousands of EPA employees, roughly one in four people in the agency. They shut down the Office of Environmental Justice. They took down the EPA's environmental justice mapping tool that communities and local governments were beginning to rely on. One in three EPA staffers who were there on Inauguration Day will be gone by the time this is all over. That is not reform. That is demolition. Today, the air quality in Houston is unhealthy for sensitive groups. The experts routinely tell us to reduce our time spent outside. It just happened this morning. Houston already ranks among the worst cities in the entire country for toxic air pollutants: ethylene oxide, benzene, and fine particulate matter from petrochemical plants and heavy traffic. Black and Brown communities in Houston are more than twice as likely as White residents to live in neighborhoods that fail on multiple pollution metrics. Those are the communities that this bill will hurt. Those are the communities that need EPA review of major Federal projects, not less of that, but more. People across this country are dying and having horrible health outcomes because of hyperconcentration of pollution in their communities. This body's response is to present a bill that removes the one Federal agency charged with protecting public health and the environment from the room entirely. Before I came to Congress, I stood up to the Trump administration in court when they tried to roll back environmental protections, and I plan to do the exact same thing in the Halls of Congress, as well. We owe it to our communities to make sure they have access to clean air, clean land, and clean water, regardless of where in this country they live. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to vote ``no'' on this bill.

Mr. MENEFEE

Mr. MENEFEE. Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Fields for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor a freedom fighter, a legend in this country, my Omega brother, the late Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr. He was an icon who marched with Dr. King, who helped lead the Poor People's Campaign for economic justice, and to end an unjust war. He was an icon who ran for President and changed what this country believed was possible. He registered millions of voters who had never seen themselves in this democracy that we also hold dear. He built the Rainbow PUSH Coalition to prove that our differences are our strength. Black, Brown, White, indigenous, immigrant, he believed we rise together or we do not rise at all. Reverend Jackson was a truth teller, and the ills that he spoke to still demand an answer today. Courts still to this day strike down voting laws that target Black Americans with what one Federal court called ``almost surgical precision.'' Black women still to this day die in childbirth at rates that shame this Nation. The racial wealth gap still to this day robs entire communities of the opportunity that the late Reverend Jackson fought his entire life to deliver. Those battles are not behind us. They are right here. They are in this Chamber. They are in our districts. They are in the choices that we make every single day that we serve. We carry Reverend Jackson's legacy forward by engaging in those battles, by being a voice for those who have been made to feel like they are voiceless. We are going to be all right, but not by accident and not without work. Reverend Jackson did that work for six decades. Now it is on us. Rest in peace, Brother Jackson. It is the honor of my life to follow in your footsteps of fighting every single day alongside your son, my colleague, Jonathan Jackson. Rest in peace, brother.

Mr. MENEFEE

Mr. MENEFEE. Mr. Speaker, I am here today representing the people of Houston, Texas, asking House Republicans to take up, to put for a vote, the deal that was agreed to in the Senate that would fully fund FEMA, the Coast Guard, as well as TSA. Houston has a unique impact in all of this. We are home to Bush Intercontinental Airport, right in my district, which has seen some of the longest wait times in the entire Nation and has had some of the highest TSA callout rates in the entire Nation. We are also home to a U.S. Coast Guard base. Sector Houston-Galveston has more than 1,500 personnel, folks who are not going to be receiving paychecks if we don't agree to this deal. We are also one of the most disaster-prone places in the entire country. We have had 500-year storm after storm, flood after flood, where people have lost their property, their dignity, and, in many instances, their lives. We rely on FEMA. We rely on FEMA workers. We need this deal to happen, and the deal is already right here for the taking. We have already seen that Senate Republicans and Senate Democrats have agreed on a clean funding bill that would fully fund these agencies and would benefit all the American people, particularly the folks in Houston, Texas. I am calling on my colleagues in the House of Representatives, my Republican colleagues, and Speaker Johnson: Put this deal forward for a vote. Give the American people what they want, and that is a fully funded TSA, Coast Guard, and FEMA.

Mr. MENEFEE

Mr. MENEFEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to ask my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to vote to fully fund TSA. Across our country right now, we are seeing long lines at airports because they are understaffed because TSA workers are not being paid. Look at Houston, which is home to Bush Intercontinental Airport right here in my district. I was just up there yesterday talking to folks who were in line waiting to be screened for 3 hours, 4 hours, sometimes 5 hours before they saw a single machine and were able to make it onto their flight. We know exactly why we are here, because the President is working to tether ICE funding to TSA funding. I was proud to join my colleagues to provide for a clean funding bill that would fully fund the Coast Guard, fully fund FEMA, and fully fund TSA. Right now what we need in this country is commonsense governance. That means ensuring that our TSA workers are paid for the work that they are doing so that nobody is having to stand in line 4 hours just to get on a flight.

Mr. MENEFEE

Mr. MENEFEE. Mr. Speaker, I was 5 years old in 1993 when Tupac Shakur said: You know, it's funny when it rains it pours They got money for wars, but can't feed the poor. Today, those words feel as real as ever. President Trump, no one wants this war, and the American people literally cannot afford it. Mr. Speaker, I am not an economist, but I understand that the U.S. war with Iran has shaken global markets, driven oil prices up more than 40 percent, and is even raising fears of a worldwide recession, impacting flights and the cost of goods. We feel it at home, where the price of gas is far more expensive than it has ever been. This is not just about economics. It is about accountability. As a lawyer, I understand all too well that every President, including Donald Trump, takes an oath to defend the Constitution. That Constitution gives Congress, not the President, the power to declare war. Yet, Congress was sidelined. The American people were given no clear cause, no clear strategy, and no clear endgame. We cannot afford this--not economically and not morally. America's conscience cannot afford it. When leaders promise peace but deliver war, that is not just a policy failure. It is a betrayal of trust.