Ayanna Pressley

Ms. PRESSLEY

Ms. PRESSLEY. Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Ms. PRESSLEY. Mr. Chairman, I rise today in support of my amendment which would provide increased funding to support the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Family Self-Sufficiency Program. Access to stable, safe, and affordable housing is a fundamental human right. In my district, the Massachusetts Seventh, one of the most diverse and unequal districts in our Nation, we are distinctly aware of the connection between housing and economic opportunity. Affordable housing promotes healthy living and provides low-income people a chance at upward mobility. Without it, families are destabilized, productivity suffers, and entire communities crumble. Recently, the Boston Housing Authority partnered with Metro Housing and Compass Working Capital, a nonprofit financial services organization which provides financial coaching services and support to Family Self-Sufficiency Program participants in my district. The Family Self-Sufficiency Program is a voluntary, 5-year program that provides participants in the federally-funded Housing Choice Voucher Program the opportunity to save part of their rent increase when they earn more money at work. The program provides participating families with an FSS savings account. My amendment provides $5 million in additional funding to the organizations working with individuals and families seeking to improve their financial standing. This partnership, under the auspices of the Family Self-Sufficiency Program, has supported low-income families to build assets, pay off debt, and save for their retirement. Participants have gone on to earn degrees, purchase their own homes, and start small businesses. This includes Julia, a woman who, after years of working as a tailor and taking on additional side work for friends, learned about the FSS program. Julia used Compass' financial coaching to launch JDLS Couture, a tailoring and design business in Boston. This includes Ernise, a resident of Cambridge, who graduated from Compass' program last year. Ernise joined the program while unemployed, saying that before she joined she was ready to give up. Ernise found full-time work, paid off debt and increased her credit score, and built enough savings to begin the home purchasing process. My amendment will support a program rooted in financial empowerment and independence, a proven program. We must also work to enact policies to guarantee housing for all and leverage the resources to make it a reality. I encourage my colleagues to support my amendment. Mr. Chair, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Price).

Ms. PRESSLEY. Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

Ms. PRESSLEY. Mr. Chair, I have an amendment at the desk.

Ms. PRESSLEY. Mr. Chair, I rise today in support of my amendment, which underscores the importance of investing in safe, efficient, people-centered transportation systems for all communities across the country. I view every issue through a lens of equity and health. Without access to safe, reliable, and inclusive modes of transportation, our collective well-being suffers; our families suffer; our communities suffer. For far too long, our Federal transportation funding and policies have created a landscape which has exacerbated inequities and disparities, particularly for low-income communities, people with disabilities, our youth and seniors. In my district, Black and Latino commuters are more likely to experience longer travel times than their White peers. These unequal burdens make the promise of economic mobility further out of reach. I recently rode the T back home with an advocate named Dianna, who was fighting for transit justice. We spent over 2 hours making a journey of just a little over 4 miles. Broken elevators and outdated infrastructure meant that the wheelchair Dianne uses to navigate ran into constant access barriers. Just 2 weeks ago, the red line train derailed twice in 1 week, causing massive gridlock across my district and impacting the ability of riders to commute to work, school, home, and everywhere in between. Unfortunately, this isn't new. MBTA trains have derailed 43 times over the last 5 years, the second highest total of any metro transit system in our country. Many of these derailments place a disproportionate burden on the shoulders of low-wage hourly workers who are rushing to their second- or third-shift jobs, parents or caregivers who are traveling with young children on overcrowded and delayed trains, and riders with disabilities who already experience the failures, daily, of a biased and discriminatory system with ableist privilege as a lens. Our chronic underinvestment in mass transit bus systems, bicycle- accessible and pedestrian paths have caused income inequality and opportunity gaps in communities throughout the country. According to the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, inadequate access to affordable, reliable transportation has exacerbated health disparities, forcing many low-income patients to miss appointments, oftentimes worsening medical problems. Mr. Chair, people do not live in silos. They live in intersectionality, and our policies at the Federal, State, and local levels should reflect this reality. We cannot spur economic development and tackle economic inequities in urban, suburban, and rural communities without modernized roads, bridges, and mass transit, which connects communities to jobs and higher education. We cannot tackle health disparities without reliable and affordable mass transit systems which enable low-income families, seniors, and people with disabilities to access care. We cannot tackle the existential threat of climate change without intentionally investing in mass transit systems that protect frontline communities and alleviate the environmental health hazards caused by traffic congestion. Transit equity is a civil rights issue and an economic justice issue. We must continue to invest in transit infrastructure, multimodal improvements that promote inclusivity and dependability. My amendment emphasizes the important role that Federal policy and investments make in equalizing access to reliable commuter rail and other mass transit options for all. The BUILD grant program helps to support these types of State and locally driven transit projects. From investing in bus or commuter rail systems or cycling and pedestrian path projects, the BUILD program helps to drive innovative projects, and it seeks to expand the system, and is people-centered. Mr. Chair, I thank Chairman Price for his efforts to ensure robust funding for this program, which I do believe gets us one step closer to addressing these inequities across the system, repairing our crumbling infrastructure, as well as expanding our investment in multimodal transit. Mr. Chair, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Price), the chairman.

Ms. PRESSLEY. Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

Ms. PRESSLEY

Ms. PRESSLEY. Mr. Chair, I have an amendment at the desk.

Ms. PRESSLEY. Mr. Chair, during a recent Oversight and Reform Committee hearing, of which I am a member, on Ban the Box, an advocate and formerly incarcerated mother testified that ``People do not go to prison; families do.'' From personal experience and a career spent in community and advocating on behalf of families destabilized by mass incarceration, I know firsthand the trauma that comes from having a parent involved in the criminal justice system. We must break the chains that keep families ensnarled by the mass incarceration system generation after generation. We must end the prison industrial complex that has brought so much devastation and trauma to many families and communities. As many as 2.7 million children have at least one parent in prison or jail. That is 1 in 9 Black children, 1 in 28 Latino children, and 1 in 57 White children. Too many children are bearing the trauma, the shame, and the stigma that often comes along with having a parent or caregiver incarcerated. In the Massachusetts Seventh, which I am fortunate to represent, a Boston reentry study that tracked formerly incarcerated men and women found that over half of respondents had less than $400 in their pockets upon release from prison; about a third went to unstable or temporary housing in shelters and transitional housing programs, motels, or on the street; and fewer than half were in paid employment after 2 months. Mass incarceration and the lingering effects of a criminal record have a profound impact on families. From unemployment and financial instability to eviction and hunger for families involved in our criminal injustice system, incarceration is, quite literally, a shared sentence. As lawmakers, as mothers, as fathers, as brothers, as sisters, we can and must do better. My amendment would increase funds to support the Children of Incarcerated Parents Program and help reduce the harms of parental incarceration and alleviate generational trauma. In the wealthiest Nation on Earth, we must ensure that all families can truly have a second chance. Funding for these programs will help provide that. Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

Ms. PRESSLEY. Mr. Chair, I have an amendment at the desk.

Ms. PRESSLEY. Mr. Chair, I rise today in support of my amendment, which would provide increased funding to support the DOJ's Community- Based Violence Prevention program. This program provides crucial funding to tackle the epidemic of violence ravaging our communities. In my district, the Massachusetts Seventh, this program supports the Boston Public Health Commission's Violence Intervention and Prevention Initiative. The VIP Initiative specifically operates in neighborhoods severely impacted by gun violence but maintains strong community infrastructure. Each neighborhood has its own resident coalition that is coordinated by a local organization with deep ties to the community. VIP, like other similar programs, empowers communities by providing the knowledge and resources necessary to create long-term solutions to the persistent socioeconomic and systemic issues sustaining the public health epidemic of gun violence. Violence begets violence. Whether it is domestic violence, sexual violence, gun violence, or gang and street violence, we must stop treating it as an issue of law and order but, rather, invest in the public and social needs of our most vulnerable people and communities. My amendment will support initiatives that are led and informed by the community to help stem the violence devastating our communities. It centers those closest to the pain closest to the power and the solutions. Mr. Chair, I encourage my colleagues to support my amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Ms. PRESSLEY

Ms. PRESSLEY. Madam Chair, I arrived from committee late. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay'' on rollcall No. 324. Amendment No. 79 Offered by Ms. Jackson Lee

Ms. PRESSLEY

Ms. PRESSLEY. Madam Chair, I rise as the designee of the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Speier), and I have an amendment at the desk.

Ms. PRESSLEY. Madam Chair, I not only rise in strong support of this amendment proposed by my colleague, Congresswoman Speier, but I rise today as a survivor of sexual violence. Let me be clear: Every single survivor of sexual assault and sexual violence deserves justice and deserves healing. For far too long, we have made excuses about a culture that tolerates violence, discredits survivors, and looks the other way. Justice has been delayed. Today, we are fighting to change that. We are speaking up. We are standing up. We are speaking out, demanding that we end tolerance of rape culture. The CDC's Rape Prevention and Education program has been woefully ignored and underfunded. Our amendment increases critical funding and puts us one step closer to treating sexual assault as the public health crisis that it is. Using a public health frame to tackle this systemic issue can have a transformative impact on the lives of the women, men, and nonbinary individuals affected by sexual violence. Our prevention approaches must be grounded in data and the lived experiences of our constituents. We must teach consent, promote understanding, and reshape the status quo in our workplaces, our households, and our schools. To my survivor tribe, we hear you. We see you. We are fighting for you. This one is for you. I thank the gentlewoman from California for her partnership on this issue, and I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Ms. DeLauro).

Ms. PRESSLEY. Madam Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

Ms. PRESSLEY

Ms. PRESSLEY. Madam Chair, I rise today in support of this amendment and applaud my friend and colleague, Representative Jeffries, for his leadership in the fight against this calloused administration and its efforts to roll back critical civil rights protections for millions of students across this country. Under Secretary DeVos' failed leadership, OCR has scuttled more than 1,200 civil rights complaints, hastily dismissing cases, closing investigations, and depriving students and families of justice. At the same time, the Education Department has taken one action after another to make schools less safe for Black and Brown students, queer and trans students, students with disabilities, and sexual assault survivors. The Department has rescinded critical Obama-era guidance intended to protect students from excessive disciplinary practices that disproportionately push out Black and Brown students and students with disabilities and exacerbate the school-to-prison pipeline. The agency has proposed rules that would make it harder for survivors of sexual violence to seek justice and easier for K-12 schools and universities to sweep these cases under the rug. Instead of ensuring that all students have access to quality education, she embraces and promotes private schools and voucher schemes that would funnel Federal funds to schools that explicitly discriminate against LGBTQ students, all while defanging the very office intended to enforce the law and do right by students and families. Our amendment would block Secretary DeVos' efforts to dismantle this office. We finally say enough is enough.

Ms. PRESSLEY. Madam Chair, I have an amendment at the desk.

Ms. PRESSLEY. Madam Chair, a school nurse saved my life. Throughout grade school, I was a frequent flier at the nurse's office, not because anything was physically wrong with me, but because the nurse's office was a place of refuge from the destabilizing, predatory abuse that I was experiencing at the hands of people charged with my care. Instability, abuse, food insecurity, and violence are serious systemic issues that are significant barriers to learning. Trauma is a barrier to learning. According to the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, more than 25 percent of American youth experience a serious traumatic event--such as sexual abuse, community violence, displacement--by their 16th birthday, and many children suffer multiple and repeated traumas. Health and education are inextricably linked, and it remains one of the greatest public health challenges of our time. As a Boston city councilor, I fought for equitable access to school nurses in the Boston Public Schools system, and as a Member of Congress, I plan to do the same. My amendment provides $5 million to fund high-quality healthcare for children and young people in schools and to support school-based health centers, a critical safety net for our Nation's youth. School-based health centers provide excellent, accessible, trusted healthcare and information for students. I firmly believe students who are present and healthy are best prepared and able to learn. That is true for children across my own district in the Massachusetts Seventh and all districts throughout our country. Today, nearly 4 million children are uninsured and lack access to necessary healthcare services. There are children living in poverty for whom school-based health centers and nurses are their only source of accessible primary and mental healthcare. Rates of suicide, childhood chronic illness, and community gun violence are on the rise. This is a public health crisis. It is downright irresponsible, unconscionable for us to ignore it. In addition to funding high-quality and accessible healthcare, my amendment leverages the safety and convenience of neighborhood schools, like those across the Massachusetts Seventh, to improve the health and well-being of students and help families access the quality healthcare they need. School-based health centers provide comprehensive healthcare to children and young people in a setting that they trust, a setting that is familiar, and a setting that is accessible at their school. It was a school nurse who picked up on the signs. Like so many children, some act out and some shut down, and I was one of those who shut down. Were it not for a school nurse who saw the signs that I was exhibiting of distress and trauma, I doubt that I would be here standing before you today. There are young people like Sofia, a junior at a Boston public high school whom I spoke with recently, who visited the school nurse and revealed that she was depressed, suicidal, and missing school. The proximity to the school nurse's staff made her feel safe and listened to, and they helped her brainstorm ways to talk to her parents. Within a week, she was in school-based counseling, with the consent of her parents, as well as working to manage her assignments. Unfortunately, Sofia's story isn't unique. There are many students who struggle under the weight of mental health and trauma every day. It was a former Surgeon General who once said: ``We can't educate children who are not healthy, and we can't keep them healthy if they aren't educated.'' It is our moral imperative to support children in their health and wholeness. My amendment asks Congress to do the right thing, the smart thing, and invest in school-based health centers to improve the health and well-being of our Nation's youth. Madam Chair, I yield 45 seconds to the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Ms. DeLauro).

Ms. PRESSLEY. Madam Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.

Ms. PRESSLEY. Madam Chair, I could argue that this amendment will actually find administrative savings to cover healthcare costs. Further, it has been my experience that the elders and the grandparents I work with are deeply concerned about the state of their grandchildren and the growing chronic illness, mental health, substance abuse issues, rates of suicide. Furthermore, persistent disparities exist in my district and districts throughout the country where ZIP Code determines your health outcomes. Children in Dorchester are two times more likely to be hospitalized, three times more for asthma, than children in more affluent parts of my district. We should leverage every tool available to us to ensure that all children, regardless of where they live, have access to the health services they need to thrive. Madam Chair, I urge my colleagues to support this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Ms. PRESSLEY

Ms. PRESSLEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise on behalf of the mothers, fathers, brothers, and daughters, the classmates and coworkers, the surviving family and community members, all of whom have been robbed of loved ones due to senseless acts of gun violence. I rise on behalf of mothers with broken spirits and broken hearts. I rise on behalf of fathers with deep wounds and invisible scars, a lifetime of guilt because they couldn't keep their child out of harm's way. Mr. Speaker, I rise on behalf of young boys and girls, children traumatized and sad because they have attended more funerals than graduation parties. I rise on behalf of survivors, community organizations, and advocates who selflessly trigger their own trauma to stand on the front lines of justice and movement building. I rise on behalf of districts like mine, the Massachusetts Seventh, that are weighed down by systemic inequities, generational poverty, and cycles of violence. Today, in partnership with organizers, advocates, and survivors, I am calling for a National Survivors of Homicide Victims Awareness Month to amplify the voices of families and communities severely and disproportionately impacted by gun violence; to center their struggles, their stories, their truths; to foster peace; and to seek justice. Already this year, 16 families across the Massachusetts Seventh have been robbed of their loved ones. I rise in remembrance of them and in recognition of those they left behind: Emmanuel Molin, 32, survived by his two sons, mother, father, and five siblings; Godfrey Jenkins Hall, 28, survived by his son, brother, and aunt; Carl Reynolds, 28, survived by his mother, father, siblings, and daughter; Gary Brown, 34, survived by his son and sister; Jeudy Romero, 29, survived by five children, fiance, father, and siblings; Juan Morales, 32, survived by his three children; Kasim Kahrim, 36, survived by his sisters, aunts, and uncles; Kendric Price, 32, survived by his mother, grandmother, brothers, and godchildren; Haki Sanders, 33, survived by his mother; Eleanor Maloney, 74, survived by three daughters, a son, six grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren, and four siblings; Michael Dukes, 53, survived by his mother, father, five children, one grandson, sister, and dear friends; Kevin Boyd, 53, survived by his wife, two sons, grandchildren, and brother; Kevin Brewington, 33, survived by his mother, father, son, brothers, and sisters; Donell Davis, 24, survived by his mother, brothers, and sister; Carl Brown, 43, survived by his child; and Luckinson Oruma, 60, survived by his wife and five children. Tomorrow will mark the anniversary of 49 souls lost, lives we were robbed of 3 years ago at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, and the fear and trauma of those who survived and the families and loved ones that they left behind. May we remember them. May we speak up for them. May we fight to ensure that there is no one else like them. Long gone are the days of thoughts and prayers. Now is the time for outrage, equitable outrage, policy, and change. This is a public health crisis, an epidemic. Bullets do not discriminate. They don't care if we are a Member of Congress, a World Series champion, a senior citizen, or a child. It is up to Congress to demonstrate courage, to do what is right for our children, for our communities, for all survivors impacted by gun violence. Enough is enough. These survivors deserve our respect. They deserve our resources. They deserve healing. They deserve justice. In districts like the Massachusetts Seventh, community-based organizations are doing their job every day: Violence in Boston, Operation LIPSTICK, We Are Better Together, the Louis D. Brown Peace Institute, the Justice Resource Institute, the Women Survivors of Homicide Movement, and the Bobby Mendes Peace Legacy project. Our Suffolk County D.A., Rachael Rollins, is fighting every day to improve our clearance rates to get these surviving family members the justice they deserve. It is time for Congress to do our job. Enough is enough.

Ms. PRESSLEY

Ms. PRESSLEY. Madam Chair, I have an amendment at the desk.

Ms. PRESSLEY. Madam Chair, I rise today in support of my amendment to H.R. 1500 and in support of the Consumers First Act. I also want to thank Chairwoman Waters for her leadership and her stewardship in this endeavor. I am proud to cosponsor this bill, which will return the Consumer Bureau to its intended role as a nonpartisan consumer watchdog that protects the interests of American taxpayers, not those of special interests. In 2017, the Urban Institute found that 71 million Americans had a debt in collection on their credit report. Meanwhile, collectors estimate they contact consumers more than a billion times a year--a billion. During the 2008 financial crisis, people lost homes, jobs, and hard- earned wealth. This crisis was the prime example of what can happen when nobody is looking out for the consumers who are left to navigate a financial system built to confuse, mystify, and capitalize on the most vulnerable. In response, Democrats created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an agency with the sole mission of protecting consumers and holding lenders accountable when they put profits over people. In my home State of Massachusetts, 46 percent of those living in communities of color have debt in collections compared to only 18 percent of residents in predominantly White areas. We know that debt collectors engage in some of the most aggressive tactics: harassing, berating, and even falsely threatening legal action against vulnerable consumers. My amendment would require the Director of the Consumer Bureau to issue quarterly reports to Congress, including an analysis of complaints submitted by consumers. The Consumer Bureau's complaint database has been a crucial tool to monitor harmful industry trends and agency enforcement efforts in defense of consumers. Since the beginning of this administration, more than 62,000 consumers submitted complaints on harmful and unfair debt collection practices. The Consumer Bureau, under Director Mulvaney and now Director Kraninger's failed leadership, has returned zero--zero--relief to harmed consumers. My amendment will require the Director to report on the various enforcement actions taken against these debt collectors because we cannot afford to go back to the days in which consumers were left to fend for themselves in a financial industry that was stacked against them. Information is power. The more information we have, the more power we have to protect consumers from harassment. Recently, the Consumer Bureau released a proposed debt collection rule filled with carveouts and loopholes that would allow debt collectors to more aggressively target and harass consumers through emails and text messages. My amendment would prohibit the Director from issuing further rules that would essentially open the floodgates and allow collectors to bombard consumers. I urge my colleagues to stand with consumers and to support my amendment. Madam Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.

Ms. PRESSLEY. Will the gentleman yield?

Ms. PRESSLEY. Yes, that is correct.

Ms. PRESSLEY. Madam Chair, how much time do I have left?