Haley Stevens

Ms. STEVENS

Ms. STEVENS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I enthusiastically rise in support of the Innovation Mitigation Partnerships for Asphalt and Concrete Technologies Act, or the IMPACT Act, H.R. 1534. A good gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Miller) and a fantastic gentlewoman from North Carolina (Mrs. Foushee) have reintroduced this bipartisan bill, and I salute them. Mrs. Foushee is very much a leader on the Science, Space, and Technology Committee, a cutting-edge voice in artificial intelligence, a ranking member on the Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee, and we are very grateful for her leadership and acumen here. As our chair just extrapolated, the United States produces approximately 95 million metric tons of cement each year, representing nearly 400 million cubic yards of concrete, with another 454 million metric tons of asphalt pavement materials produced per year. Now, as a Member of Congress, I am not fully in the composites business, but we must understand where our materials come from and how they are procured and produced. We must look it squarely in the face as to how we do not remain overly reliant on competitive countries for access. A byproduct of these industrial processes are certainly greenhouse gas emissions. There is a State representative from Michigan, State Representative Kelly Breen of Novi, who has, on occasion, spoken to me at length about the materials used in our roads. We know right now that the byproduct of the industrial processes for these cement applications accounts for 8 percent of human-induced carbon dioxide emissions. Now, I come from the Motor City. We like our paved roads. We like access to cement. Demand is not decreasing. It is going up. Demand is expected to increase by 12 percent when we hit the mid-21st century mark. We here in the United States of America are building roads, bridges, factories, schools, so many things. It is really quite exciting, and the IMPACT Act can play a role. The bill will improve cost- effectiveness, durability, and material demand efficiency of widely used cement, and similar materials while achieving measurable greenhouse gas emissions reductions in their production processes. We like to call this a win-win. H.R. 1534 would also accomplish this goal by directing the Secretary of Energy to support research, development, and demonstration of innovative technologies that could become commercially viable. Again, the State representative from Michigan, Kelly Breen, has talked to me about her desire to see this in Oakland County, Michigan. We have been working on this in the Motor City. My colleagues from North Carolina and Ohio have put forward national legislation that will benefit us all, and we have got next-generation technologies that are a significant improvement over the processes used by these industries today, ensuring that we can continue to build while reducing negative environmental impacts that come about from producing building materials. We have a good, practical bill to maximize our production capabilities while minimizing any negative impacts, and we have research and development and demonstration of novel cement, concrete, and asphalt processes. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on a bill I am very excited about, H.R. 1534, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Ms. STEVENS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentlewoman from North Carolina (Mrs. Foushee) to speak on behalf of H.R. 1534.

Ms. STEVENS. Mr. Speaker, I also have no further requests for time to speak on this bill, and I yield myself the balance of my time to close. Mr. Speaker, I again thank my colleagues from the committee, Mr. Miller and Mrs. Foushee, for their work on this bill. I urge a ``yes'' vote on H.R. 1534. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Ms. STEVENS

Ms. STEVENS. Mr. Speaker, within 12 hours, this very Chamber is going to witness a joint address to Congress. I will take my time and my privilege as a duly elected Member of this Chamber to share some of the sentiments about the state of the Union that is emerging very clearly and loudly from Michigan and on behalf of my constituents. First and foremost, tariffs that are coming down today on Canada are wreaking havoc on autoworkers, our auto industry, and, frankly, the stock market. Secondly, I am hearing very grave concerns about the state of Social Security and Social Security's ability to meet its fiduciary commitments to its millions and millions of recipients. Never once in the history of that program has a payment been missed, but the actions of DOGE are disrupting that very agency. There is also a very palpable fear in my constituents. Veterans who are 100 percent disabled are concerned and fearful that they may or may not be able to continue to receive their medical care. This is a serious and profound moment. This is a self-inflicted crisis. I did serve this Nation during a time of real economic crisis during the Great Recession in the administration of Barack Obama. That was when I was in the Treasury Department, working to save General Motors and Chrysler and millions of American automotive jobs as the companies were staring liquidation in the face. Mr. Speaker, I will take a moment to share some words. On February 8, at the Sheet Metal Workers union in Oakland County, Michigan, I was joined by an incredible medical expert from Michigan, my friend, Dr. Preetha Iyengar, who happens to be in this very Chamber alongside her family here today. She read these words, which I would like to share and read on her behalf, and on the behalf of the American people, in this Chamber. Dr. Iyengar shared: I am a pediatrician and epidemiologist. After residency, I trained for 2 years at the CDC and then worked in Washington, D.C., at an NGO and the D.C. Health Department. I am here today to highlight the impact of recent policies and actions on scientific institutions and how that impacts us in Michigan. Our scientific institutions are being attacked from many angles, but I wanted to highlight three areas: spreading of misinformation, purging of experts and destruction of scientific institutions, and destruction of critical infrastructure. We are seeing that the current administration's agenda is misinformation and confusion. Federal healthcare and public health institutions are facing unprecedented censorship and harassment. Bans for external communications have crippled international collaborations, with special exceptions given at random and many that have not been restored. Websites with CDC healthcare guidelines used by doctors and public health information used by all of us in the medical community, like vaccine safety information sheets, were forced to be removed without warning. Dr. Iyengar also mentioned that we now are less safe in protecting ourselves during the flu season, particularly with bird flu. I may insert the question: How much are egg prices today in the United States of America? People are stealing eggs outside of delivery trucks and engaging in fights in supermarkets across this country. This is the United States of America, and we need an egg price plan. Dr. Iyengar also went on to say that, as a woman in STEM, she is horrified to see the targeting of DEI programs, and let's say the words: diversity, equity, and inclusion. Equity, which is enshrined in our very Constitution, is something that all equal Members of this Chamber swore an oath to uphold. I will remind people of the rights and the tenets of Article I in our Constitution. Dr. Iyengar says that she is horrified by the cuts to diversity, equity, and inclusion as a woman in STEM. Frankly, as the leader of the Women in STEM Caucus, I founded this bipartisan caucus with four Members of this Chamber, two Republicans and two Democrats. It is Women's History Month, and we would like to do some things for women in STEM to meet the workforce challenges and needs of this great Nation. Of course, I cannot, at this present time, tragically, get a Republican Member of Congress to join the Women in STEM Caucus for this term.

Ms. STEVENS

Ms. STEVENS. Mr. Speaker, I rise this evening to say that tariffs on Canada are going to blow a hole in the United States automotive industry. I ask the President to not put 25 percent tariffs on Canadian goods. Our automakers, our supply chain, and our autoworkers cannot take this hit. Let's work together to come up with a plan to invest in manufacturing in a bipartisan, commonsense way. These tariffs are not the answer. This is a threat to too many livelihoods. Listen to the autoworker.

Ms. STEVENS

Ms. STEVENS. Mr. Speaker, I am waiting for the bill to lower egg costs. I am seeing headlines that eggs are being stolen. I am hearing from constituents who are nervous about Elon Musk having access to their records and their payment system, and they are wondering why they can't go to the grocery store and find eggs. They are wondering about the high cost of everything. They are wondering why prescription drugs are about to go up because of an executive order. Where are we working on that? Mr. Speaker, let's pass the amendment, let's do H.R. 1101, and let's get back to business for the people of this country.

Ms. STEVENS. Mr. Speaker, I thank my profound and wise colleague, the ranking member of the Rules Committee and former chairman, Jim McGovern, for yielding to me. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman is absolutely right that H.R. 1101, the Taxpayer Data Protection Act, which I was so pleased to author and introduce last week alongside my colleague, Sean Casten, and alongside our Democratic leadership is where we need to move. We need to ensure that we have some guardrails in our Treasury Department. I was a former Treasury Department official myself in the very beginning days of a new administration, the administration of Barack Obama, when actually a bipartisan group of us came together to respond to the economic and fiscal crisis of the time. I was put on the auto rescue team, the team responsible for saving General Motors and Chrysler from liquidation. Again, it was a bipartisan effort, and it saved 200,000 Michigan jobs and millions of jobs across the country. Nowhere in that process, when we were working with the troubled asset relief program dollars, did anyone dare to think about going into the Bureau of Fiscal Service and tapping the wires and the accounts of the American public and jolting and shaking the very foundation of trust. This bill is a very simple measure saying: Let's make sure that we have true public servants, people who have passed protocols, people who have top security clearances, people who don't have conflicts of interest. The American people deserve that modicum of trust. Mr. Speaker, what is even more outrageous, as we are talking about the rulemaking and the rolling back and the ways in which we choose to legislate here, is we are not talking about the costs that are impacting everyday Americans. I got sworn in on January 3 into the 119th Congress.

Ms. STEVENS

Ms. STEVENS. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Casten), for his remarks, his dedication to this Chamber, to this process, and to the lawmaking. We are both in our fourth term. Mr. Speaker, I thank you in obliging us with this Special Order on the grand discourse of our democracy. It has always been a delight to work with Mr. Casten, a longtime member of the Science, Space, and Technology Committee, a dedicated member of the Financial Services Committee, and a thinker, to say the least. When we came together last week to introduce H.R. 1101, the Taxpayer Data Protection Act, I actually don't think that that piece of legislation was on our minds until we witnessed the very troubling, concerning, and questionably legal actions of an unelected bureaucrat, billionaire, appointee going into the Bureau of Fiscal Service to get access to the wires and the information of our taxpayers to do God knows what with. All of a sudden, the phones of Members of Congress were ringing off the hook: What is going on? I couldn't take two steps in my beloved Oakland County in southeast Michigan, the district which I am so proud to represent, without somebody asking me, in deep concern, what was going on. Mr. Speaker, I mentioned Mr. Casten's background, which was also tied to business and certainly tied to the workings of our Congress, but I happen to be a former Treasury official. I went into the Treasury Department as a political appointee right after an oath of office was taken in the early, early days of President Barack Obama's administration because I was a part of the auto rescue team. What we were looking at was actually a real crisis in this Nation. For the kids watching back home, I don't know how old they are and how much they would remember, but we had a great recession going on. We had double-digit unemployment. We had a rocked financial services sector. We had an insurance market that was practically crumbling. We had housing with subprime mortgages up the wazoo. There weren't for-sale signs in front of people's homes. Then there was the question about what was going to happen to General Motors and Chrysler because they were staring liquidation in the face. Mr. Speaker, this Congress, in a different session and a different time, almost in that lameduck period before President Obama took office, passed something known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program to stabilize, ameliorate, and address our economy to make sure it didn't roll off of a cliff. The Main Street effort of the Troubled Asset Relief Program was this effort to save General Motors and Chrysler from liquidation along with millions of jobs across this country, including 200,000 in Michigan. They all came into the Treasury Department, from the smallest of suppliers, to the mayors, to the auto dealers, small businesses in their own right, even the foreign original equipment manufacturers, saying: Do not let them liquidate. We used $80 billion of taxpayer money, which, by the way, was repaid--which, by the way, worked and which, by the way, rebounded the U.S. auto industry. Did you hear that point? The Federal Government made money off of the $80 billion to save General Motors and Chrysler. Now we have a strong manufacturing economy with true innovation happening, and we are producing and making cars at a rate that was unfathomable at that time, over 15 years ago. Never once, by the way, did we ever question or seek to knock on the door of the Bureau of Fiscal Service, which is off campus, by the way. It is not in the main Treasury building. We had bipartisan emergency workers. We had people from the Bush administration stay on. We had people from the Obama administration coming in. We were trying to save this country from falling off of a cliff. We were trying to save us from a true great depression, and no one was meddling in the wires. Mr. Casten and I had to write this bill, the Taxpayer Data Protection Act, to put up and remind ourselves of guardrails. The painful point of this is that we are waiting and eager and just wondering when our colleagues, who don't even seem to be in this Chamber right now, are going to give us the bill to lower the price of goods? We are waiting. I had a meeting in my district on housing. I brought all of the stakeholders together. We have beautiful homes in Oakland County, Michigan, but we don't have enough of them. We have homes that need to be rehabbed. There is building that needs to happen. So I brought together, as Members of Congress do, all of the stakeholders. I brought them together, and we invited HUD. We invited HUD, but you know what, per a new executive order, HUD can't go to meetings. So we can't even have a conversation about how the heck we are going to lower the price of housing and get more housing built. Mr. Speaker, the other thing my constituents are talking to me about on overdrive are the eggs. There are no eggs. We don't have eggs. Mr. Speaker, there are eggs, but there are shortages on the eggs. People are going to the store, and they can't find eggs. There was a headline last week in Pennsylvania that $40,000 worth of eggs were stolen. Just yesterday, in Washington State, more eggs were stolen. I see this Commander in Chief doing all of these press conferences about every revenge tactic and different type of endeavor for the Federal Government. What are we doing about the costs? What are we doing about the costs of everyday goods? An executive order came out about the cost of prescription drugs, which are about to skyrocket again, and it is rolling back what we did to lower the cost of prescription drugs and put Medicare at the negotiating table. This is unbelievable. This is a simple bill and a simple measure to protect the American taxpayer, to reestablish trust, yes, as duly elected Members of Congress, the stewards of the public trust as quoted and delivered by the great Henry Clay, otherwise known as the great compromiser of the 1800s. We are the holders of the trust, so this bill is a matter that should just be done tomorrow. We should get this done. We are waiting for the leadership of this very body, those who move the bills to the floor, to give us something that will actually help the pocketbooks of the American people.

Ms. STEVENS

Ms. STEVENS. Mr. Speaker, today, I stood with the House Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffries, the House Democratic Whip, Katherine Clark, our House Democratic Chair, Pete Aguilar, and Congressman Sean Casten to introduce the Taxpayer Data Protection Act because what is going on in the Treasury Department is lawless and wrong and frightening for the American people. Elon Musk should not have access to your data and to the payment systems. What is going on? Mr. Speaker, I deliver this statement and this bill to this Chamber calling on all of my colleagues to join because I was a Treasury employee. I served in the Treasury during the Barack Obama administration. In fact, I worked in a time of crisis, the Great Recession, when General Motors and Chrysler were staring bankruptcy in the face. Millions of jobs were on the line. We were doing the work for the American people, not threatening their payments and their data.

Ms. STEVENS

Ms. STEVENS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This past Monday, our Nation celebrated MLK Day, a powerful reminder of the ongoing effort for equality and justice and the profound impact an individual can make. It is also a day spent volunteering and a day of action. I am so deeply proud of the schools across Oakland County, Michigan, who engaged in volunteer activities. I also would like to share some of Dr. King's powerful words that resonate not only with me, but I believe speak to the moments that we find ourselves in today: ``Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.'' ``Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.'' ``The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.'' ``We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.'' ``I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.'' ``Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.'' Lastly, ``Life's most persistent and urgent question is: `What are you doing for others?' '' In service, we honor Dr. King's legacy, and we commit to his written words from the Birmingham jail that we continue to strive toward justice.

Ms. STEVENS

Ms. STEVENS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the tremendous achievements of President Joe Biden, the 46th President of the United States. While I could spend my time highlighting the nearly innumerable achievements of his administration, I rise to celebrate what this Nation is today because of President Biden's leadership, a nation on the rise. President Biden and Vice President Harris inherited a nation in crisis; the greatest public health crisis in generations coupled with a threatening economic downturn with rising costs and high unemployment. President Biden recognized this head-on. He saw what our Nation needed, and he acted with a jump-start of economic investment to get Americans working, moving, and innovating like never before. Alongside congressional leaders, he delivered for the American people. President Biden delivered historic investments into our communities through the American Rescue Plan, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act, just to name a few. These historic legislative packages unleashed hundreds of billions of dollars into our communities to get us moving and growing again. The national statistics may highlight the breadth and depth of these historic investments, but no place speaks better to the generational change created by President Biden's leadership like my home State of Michigan with $13 billion in infrastructure funding that has flowed through Michigan. Mr. Speaker, there have been 62 new clean energy projects, and the most in the country have been announced in Michigan. Over 400,000 new jobs have been created in Michigan, so many, in fact, that Detroit has been boasting its lowest levels of unemployment in three decades. With the largest investment in the Great Lakes in decades, nearly all areas of concern in Michigan will be remediated, including two affecting my district: the Clinton River and the River Rouge. Combined with historic State-level investments, Michigan, the home of the Flint water crisis, is officially headed to a lead-free future with Detroit being lead-free by the end of the decade. As home to the Big Three automakers, no place is leading the charge to electrify our future like we are in Michigan. We are manufacturing, we are growing, and we are innovating. These are stories, these are numbers that represent the American worker. American workers have been able to achieve an economic reality, not just a political wish list, because of President Biden's dedication and leadership. The needs of the American worker were heard, including seeing President Biden be the first President to join striking workers on a picket line in, of course, my home State of Michigan alongside the United Auto Workers. It is the last week of President Biden's historic administration. President Biden is a true public servant who has stood up every single day of his career on behalf of the American people, who has reached out to the next generation to make sure that we are heard, to mentor individuals like myself, and who has been selfless in his actions. We salute President Biden, and we recognize him for everything that he has done and committed to and the changes he has made.

Ms. STEVENS

Ms. STEVENS. Mr. Speaker, I rise in the concluding salvo of this Congress to thank the 118th session for allowing me to advocate for the incredible constituents and communities that comprise my district, from our robust manufacturing economy, to our amazing public schools, to the hardworking tradespeople building homes and new factories. Most of all, I recognize my team, the staff here in Washington, D.C., and in Farmington Hills, who had sleeves rolled up and helping people each and every day. We have authored over 31 unique bills, 2 that have become signed into law, and 6 that passed this very Chamber. Here is to the 118th session and more to come.

Ms. STEVENS

Ms. STEVENS. Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize the honorable life of Thomas Violante, an incredible businessowner from Royal Oak, Michigan, who inspired many through his pursuit of the American Dream and service to others. Mr. Violante was born in 1929 to a working-class family. His father ran a small market, and he gained a passion for supporting his community through entrepreneurship. This passion solidified in 1951 when Thomas and his wife, Janet, purchased a small specialty store for just a pack of cigarettes and six-pack of beer. It would become the Holiday Market of Royal Oak. Thomas Violante's business was more than just a grocery store, though. It was the embodiment of his values. He empowered his employees to be creative, to work hard, and to achieve their dreams. Mr. Violante passed away on his 95th birthday last month. Beyond his role as a businessowner, he was a proud father, grandfather, great grandfather, veteran, and philanthropist. He left an incredible mark on Michigan's 11th District, and I ask my colleagues to join me in honoring him.

Ms. STEVENS

Ms. STEVENS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in joint support of our Jewish community and to condemn the recent Europa League soccer match attacks that took place in Amsterdam, wreaking unbelievable violence on our Jewish community. These attacks occurred just days before the 86th anniversary of Kristallnacht, and it is a stark reminder of the devastating consequences of unchecked hatred. Simply put, Jews and Israelis in Amsterdam were attacked following a soccer match simply because of who they are. We are calling on the Dutch Government to respond. We are calling on worldwide officials to invest in safety and to combat hate wherever we may see it. This has been a hateful incident that has reverberated across the world and is felt in my home State of Michigan.

Ms. STEVENS

Ms. STEVENS. Mr. Speaker, it is my great pleasure to recognize the honorable life of my dear friend, Mitchell Meisner, a passionate legal professional and civil rights activist. Mr. Meisner, in his over 60 years of work, advocated for the original civil rights bills, volunteered his time to support aspiring lawyers, and protected vulnerable individuals by offering pro bono legal services. Mr. Meisner was born in Washington, D.C. and was raised to value civil service. His parents exemplified these principles, as his father served as an attorney at the Department of Commerce, and his mother was as a teacher who also worked at NOAA and in the White House under President Jimmy Carter. I had the good fortune of seeing his childhood home in Bethesda, Maryland, with his only daughter, Amy, and am inspired by their story. Mr. Meisner carried on his parents' legacy, achieving a bachelor's, master's, and Doctor of Philosophy degree in political science. He then took his passion to Michigan, where he received his Juris Doctor degree at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Throughout his educational career, Mr. Meisner was incredibly active in national politics and the Civil Rights Movement. He bore witness to Martin Luther King, Jr.'s ``I Have A Dream'' speech and found joy in sharing his stories of the famed 1963 March on Washington. When President John F. Kennedy visited Amherst College, where Mr. Meisner was working towards his bachelor's degree, he led a student- protest calling for a civil rights bill. As a legal professional, Mr. Meisner often donated his time as a volunteer judge in the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition, providing free legal representation to those who needed it, and serving as a mentor and a teacher. He was dedicated to giving back to the community and considered it a privilege to mentor young law students. Mitchell Meisner passed away on June 20, 2024, after an admirable battle with pancreatic cancer. He is survived by his incredible wife, Marica, who resides in their longtime home in Huntington Woods; his brother, Jon; his three children, Jesse, Geoff, and Amy; and his seven grandsons. Mr. Speaker, I am deeply honored, on his 81st birthday, to recognize the life and service of Mitchell Meisner, who dedicated his work to uplifting the voices of those most in need. Please join me in celebrating this wonderful individual whom I miss dearly and was proud to call a friend.

Ms. STEVENS

Ms. STEVENS. Mr. Speaker, it is my great pleasure to recognize the honorable life of Sergeant Nicholas F. Kastrantas, a distinguished veteran, father, and artist. Mr. Kastrantas, in his military service, creative endeavors, and personal life displayed intelligence, dedication, and a commitment to fighting on behalf of the greater good. Mr. Kastrantas was born in Pennsylvania and grew up in Greece, where he joined the Greek army and mastered the art of cartography. He returned to the U.S. in 1939 and immediately enlisted to serve his country. He was personally selected by Lieutenant Colonel James Gavin to contribute his artistic and linguistic abilities to the 505th Parachute Infantry. Mr. Kastrantas was a skilled mapmaker and spoke five languages fluently, allowing him to be an incredible asset to the 82nd Airborne Division during World War II. Affectionately nicknamed ``The Greek,'' he used his skills to map drop points at Normandy and completed four combat jumps in Normandy, Sicily, Salerno, and Holland as a paratrooper. His intelligence and abilities were invaluable, enabling him to create a 3-dimensional sand table map for his unit's mission on D-Day. Nick also fought in the Battle of the Bulge and earned six bronze stars, the Combat Infantryman Badge, and the Parachutist Badge through his heroic service. Mr. Kastrantas settled down in Detroit, MI after the war and made a name for himself as a commercial artist. He lived a long life and left us on August 31, 2011. His legacy lives on through his daughter, Ann, and in his murals that can be found in restaurants around Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I am deeply honored to recognize the life and service of Private Nicholas F. Kastrantas--a man who used his creativity and dedication to serve his country in its hour of need. Please join me in celebrating his wondrous life.

Ms. STEVENS

Ms. STEVENS. Mr. Speaker, 15 minutes, a good 45 minutes of going strong here, and not a sip of water. Mr. Speaker, I will use my 15 minutes. I am going to say this because we had the 2000 election, which was really determined by the Supreme Court. People who were in the political process and people who surround the lawmaking of this Nation, instead of saying, gosh, what are the American people telling us over and over again? We are closer together than we are further apart. We have a four-seat effort to have a new majority in the Congress. We have a 50-50 Senate. We have an electoral college, which was somewhat designed to placate and recognize legal and important matters in the United States of America. We have an electoral college that has determined a handful of these elections, particularly in this century. We want to say your vote matters. Well, the popular vote is recognized, but it is not determinative, and we really haven't reformed or adjusted a thing. We have just continued on. We haven't made amendments. We haven't added States to the Union. We have just said, this is the way it is going to be. We are experiencing a somewhat frustrating and tragic uptick in the disappointment of our fellow countrymen and women. They don't trust the system. It astonishes me. This is the time in the process of elections where, of course, I am in rigorous conversation with voters, but I am also in rigorous conversation with people who aren't voting the way I am. Why is that? I know that the world changes really quickly after an election, and we have to find a way to keep going. We have to find a way to make sure that this institution hits its pitch level of perfection. It will never be perfect, but in terms of outcomes and results. Frankly, if you don't understand why people are voting a certain way, if you are just quick to write them off or to make a judgment or an insult, and maybe this is a lecture to everyone, but it is really just a point of personal privilege, you are not on the path to succeeding, and we know that. I take pride as a liberal, as a Democrat who came in and won because people who voted for the 45th President voted for me, and I recognize that. I took that seriously. I always kept it up. We have had a couple of impeachments last term and this term and the term before it. Every term I have been here, impeachment comes up. It is not clear to me that impeachment is even working for its intended purposes. Now, the last time we impeached a President, I thought, well, that is very impeachable because of the dereliction of duty and the total abandonment of the roles and the responsibilities of the Commander in Chief. The government was being attacked. There is no excuse about it. Well, that impeachment failed. The impeachments are failing. We do have elections, and elections have to be fair, we can say that, but they have to be trusted. They have to be trusted. Whether it is me or another elected official always deems someone as political it is because they are falling in a party, well, you are on that side and I am on this side. The trust can only extend so far, and that becomes painful to our democracy. While I haven't proposed every answer on every reform, de Tocqueville, certainly when he was evaluating our Nation and exploring it and writing about it, said ``Nothing is more wonderful than the art of being free, but nothing is harder to learn how to use than freedom.'' The freedom of our fellow citizens, our fellow residents, and the freedom as lawmakers who have been bestowed a trust on behalf of the citizens of our district, the voting residents of our districts, to continue to help to form a more perfect Union. We must reclaim trust. We must utilize every facet of this body, not in perfunctory terms, not for show, which is why I have carved out an hour of my evening to make this extension and to make this reflection and to dare to proclaim that a reformed and strengthened American democracy will best serve us to the future generations and those before us today. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Ms. STEVENS. Mr. Speaker, I rise before you here this evening, a stormy evening in Washington, D.C., in our Nation's Capital, to make an address on behalf of my constituents in my district in Michigan, Michigan's 11th District, representing and covering the bulk of Oakland County. I make such an address this evening to reflect on the trajectory of our democracy, to reflect on events that have occurred since I booked this Special Order hour address back in July, and also to make some pronouncements around reforms, revisions, and efforts to come together for the health of our Union. Make no mistake about it, Mr. Speaker, I absolutely recognize the profound and humbling reality that it is to be a duly elected Member of the House of Representatives speaking and maintaining the privilege to speak in this Chamber to anyone who seeks to be watching back at home and on behalf of this profound nature of the discourse of our democracy. I booked this Special Order hour because so much happens in the days of Congress, the session days of committee markups, of meetings with stakeholders and constituents, and conversations with colleagues who hail from every ZIP Code around this great Nation. Something that I would like to tell the people back at home is that I have friends, such as the woman from Oakland County, Michigan, who is a champion for advanced manufacturing. Somehow now I have friends from Alaska to Tennessee to Maine to the coasts of California and inland into Nevada and the like, and the experiment of America and the experiment of American democracy really truly manifests in this very Chamber. Of course, we recognize that all too often it is not celebrated, and it is not covered in the media outlets from the national news to the print journalism to the ongoing nature of social media when and how we come together on behalf of this Nation. Something that we just witnessed is a failure to vote on passing our budget, and the clock is clearly ticking. The Democrats and Republicans couldn't come together. In fact, Republicans joined Democrats to tank Republican legislation to fund the government. So we are again faced with the scenario that we have seen ourselves in time and time again in the 118th Congress where the minority party comes forward to act to save the worst from happening. Proudly, President Biden in the last year of his Presidency can now just about claim that the government hasn't shut down once under his watch. We have not defaulted on our debt, and, of course, just last term in the Congress, we rescued this Nation from the worst effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, investing in communities, investing in the incredible county I am so privileged to represent in Oakland County. We gave Oakland County $300 million, so we didn't have to go back to our taxpayers and ask for more. We are a donor-rich area. We all know that. We pay more than our fair share of taxpayer dollars, and then when we want to do more in the communities we have to go back and excise new tax. We have got to do millages. Oakland County is under the great leadership of Dave Coulter. He is someone whom I am so proud to call a dear friend and collaborator. He is someone I work with really closely on behalf of the constituents of the 11th District because we believe in the table setting of government. We believe that government works best when Federal, State, local, and municipal come together to utilize taxpayer dollars effectively. So what Coulter and his team were able to do with the moneys that came down from the great American Rescue Plan Act, the tiebreaking vote that Vice President Harris placed to pass it, is that they have invested in dozens of senior centers. Senior centers like the one in Waterford that was going back time and time again for a millage and couldn't achieve that millage, and now they have their funding. Birmingham next has their funding. Medical debt for the people of the 11th district and Oakland County is wiped out. Money is available to invest in 3-D printing, a program designed by Automation Alley, which is now being replicated in several other counties and has received funding from the State. So that was just one bill that was passed at the beginning of the 117th session of Congress when President Biden rightfully took his oath and was sworn in as the 46th President of the United States. We didn't stop there, and we did become bipartisan when we passed an infrastructure bill. Who knew that infrastructure would become so partisan? It was somewhat partisan for some who were adamantly against the bill and now they go home and take the credit when the bridge is being repaired and the road is being paved. It is absolutely enormous that, for once, instead of just authorizing, we appropriated money to say we are going to do the maintenance and repair, and we are going to put the contractors to work. We are going to make sure we have got a prevailing wage and good wages and a seat at the table for our unions. I talk to my building trades. They tell me they are all very busy and that they couldn't be busier. Of course, when matched with the incredible infrastructure bill, which has done a lot for our water systems and our lead pipes and public transportation as well, of course, Oakland County passed a major transportation millage as well. Here in the Motor City, we now have busing that works very well and goes east to west. It was quite the triumph last term. What we also have noticed, though, here is that when we did the clean energy investments, when we looked global competition in the face and said: In the last administration in a bipartisan way, we renegotiated NAFTA, we halted USMCA, we plussed up buy American content, we said we are going to have the rules of the road for our auto industry to succeed, a platform for us to go into markets. Yes, this happened under President Trump with Speaker Nancy Pelosi. We renegotiated USMCA. Then in the next term we said: We are going to make investments in clean energy, not subsidies, not ownership structures, but large capital-intensive investments in industries of scale. Mr. Speaker, that is so we are not overly reliant on our adversaries on the global stage, the Chinese Communist Party for one. Gosh knows what is going to totally happen over there. We want to have domestic technologies in innovations. We want to have an ownership structure so that we are not forced to go and buy from overseas markets. We have learned this lesson over and over and over again. We have, frankly, learned this lesson with semiconductors, the microchips that go into anything from our general electronics devices, our cell phones, our computers, our music players, if we are still listening to those, too, of course, the automobile. The pandemic hit, and all of a sudden, we couldn't get the shipments in, and we were making all these beautiful cars. We really do salute our autoworkers for their great efforts during a very trying time, certainly protecting and maintaining their safety but staying dedicated to the production and the production efforts of their enterprise as well as their innovation ecosystem. So you see, Mr. Speaker, Michigan did something enormous. We responded to the industrial call to action during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was, of course, our manufacturers, large and small, that were addressing the supply chain disruptions, from the personal protective equipment to the ventilators that we were running low on, and all that. Then they continued to innovate, and here we stand at the precipice of this incredible, new mobility moment that is being led by the auto industry. I think some want to say: Oh, my gosh, this is the government dictating the terms. Of course, I just received an incredible briefing today from the MIT Sloan School of Management. They work across the aisle. They have this unbelievable dataset that shows what we need to do to stave off the 5- degree warming of the planet, and it is a whole host of things. Of course, to my capitalist focused friends and my capitalist focused countrymen and -women, those are all profit-making endeavors. We are here, Mr. Speaker, to talk about the future, and we should be celebrating it and not cowering and clinging to the past. We should absolutely be saluting and recognizing the freedom of our fellow countrymen and -women who are going to buy the automobile they want to buy. Of course, we have 1 million new electric vehicles that were sold in the United States of America, 75,000 from GM, 75,000 roughly from Ford. They are being honest and transparent about what they want to do. Every week I go and I visit a manufacturer, and I meet them where they are at, and I sit in their conference rooms. I walk their floors. I am in my sixth year of doing this. Really tremendous things are happening all across southeast Michigan with our automotive supply chain. They have been very dedicated to some of the transition that their customers, the OEMs, the original equipment manufacturers, are professing to make if they want to be zero emissions maybe in total. We want to win the future, and we want to be innovators and technology leaders. Of course, I mentioned chips and microchips were running short during the global pandemic, and Michigan really responded to it in a tremendous way. We also, frankly, Mr. Speaker, learned a big lesson which is that the United States, Gordon Lawrence and the brainiacs out West, innovated the chip. They innovated the microchip. We were at one time producing 40 percent of these chips in the United States of America. It was our technology, and it was our innovation. Then it wasn't just low labor costs, which is a reality, but it was kind of an investment structure. It was kind of a wooing that took place, and the chips started going over to Taiwan and China and all this and that. The tide really rolls out. I can speak to this as someone who was serving as a Presidential appointee in the administration of Barack Obama during the Great Recession when we were doing a rescue, not just of Wall Street, it wasn't just a Wall Street rescue that started under President Bush. These financiers in the capital markets and the derivative trading that had gone awry, it was derivative trading that had gone awry. It was the foreclosure crisis that was tied to that, it was the Main Street effort saying that we were not going to liquidate or see the liquidation of General Motors or Chrysler. We used the Troubled Asset Relief funds to invest in the companies, not to own them or control their day-to-day management. Of course, we were sitting in these ornate government rooms, and we were rightfully saying that we have two other big problems. One is on semiconductors. We are not making enough chips. We are too overly reliant on foreign markets. That comes to roost in the COVID-19 pandemic. Of course, I, a humble Member of Congress from southeastern Michigan and someone who evangelizes and champions our manufacturing economy, I decide to reach out to the Speaker of the House through the professional way in which we do so as Members of Congress, by letter. I sent the Speaker of the House a letter a week almost. Let's do something on chips. Then, of course, the great Gina Raimondo, Commerce Secretary, partners up with the White House Office of Legislative Affairs and some of us lawmakers. The Senate was involved, and I love to tell the Homeric story about passing bills. The short of the long is we passed a chips bill, CHIPS and Science. It was a really ringing moment here in this body because, again, it was bipartisan. Of course, I am sitting in the Science Committee as chair of the Subcommittee on Research and Technology authorizing the doubling of scientific research for the National Science Foundation. It all passed unanimously, and it all passed bipartisan. We passed CHIPS and Science with a tranche of money. I understand that my friends and colleagues on the other side of the aisle are more keen to austerity measures and maybe didn't take the vote accordingly, $52 billion we said we would commit in the marketplace. Of course, we are poking and prodding at the Commerce Department. They are working through some of the legal matters to get more of the money out. We don't want it to be too cumbersome, but $52 billion signed into law and was committed. It was an August day in 2022, hot as all get out. It is absolutely incredible because within one business quarter, $200 billion of private-sector capital commitments were made here in the United States of America. That is a 21st century industrial policy approach. So we are looking at this also because there was a number two, we had two problems, chips, which we sought to solve. Then Secretary Raimondo will tell us that we have a plan to be the only country by 2030 who will design, produce, and ship these chips. We will be the ones to do it. I am very excited to see where these investments are going. We had a second problem that we had recognized 1\1/2\ decades ago, and that was around critical minerals. We, again, are overly reliant on foreign markets, and particularly the Chinese Communist Party, on critical minerals. The challenge here is that 98 percent of these minerals that go into the cell phone and that go into manufactured goods that are so absolutely tied, the critical minerals are so tied to our manufacturing enterprise, and it is a weakness, a supply chain weakness of the United States of America. We are now starting to form a legislative agenda around how we could do similar to what we did with CHIPS, although it is more complicated. Of course I can see my colleagues on the other side of the aisle eyeing on some of the permitting challenges and some of the reforms that we want to do to accelerate this clean energy revolution, so you have got the environmentalists and the regulating insecure people coming together for once. We want to do the same thing on critical minerals, right? We want to work with our allies. We want to pass trade deals. We know we are going to be renegotiating USMCA. The year 2025 is just around the corner. So many of us remember the energy, the enthusiasm, the almost revolutionary moment that it felt like to arrive in the 21st century. Everything was 21st century. Everything was the next 21st century plan and the agenda and all of this. Well, now we are squarely in the 21st century, and we have got opportunities galore, and we have some challenges that we want to address. We want to bring together our allies, similar to how we did in other types of arrangements. The AUKUS arrangement that is now Australia, U.K., U.S., allowed us to invest in nuclear submarine development and technology development. We have the Quad initiative, and we really do salute and recognize the current administration's approaches to foreign policy as a way forward and a way to lead by bringing people along, and not saying that we are going to pay for everything, but bringing people along through the rules-based, open, free-market, capitalist, democratic society principles. In April of this year, believe it or not, we passed a foreign aid package for democracy here in the Chamber, and of course in the other Chamber, the upper Chamber, and it was signed into law by the President. Well, it was, to a tee, the exact package he asked for in October. You know, support for our democratic allies, support for democracy, and obviously some efforts which have fallen off the rails this term around securing our own borders, and we can only hope to see the day in which such important things are not so political that they remain stalemated. I certainly seek to be a part of the bipartisan solutions to say that, if you are trained in the United States of America, if you are getting that Ph.D., we want to find a way to keep that talent here. This is something that we heard over and over again from our stakeholders on the Select Committee on Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party: Don't let the talent leave our shores. That is a way in which we innovate. At the same time, too, let's truly invest in border security. I come from a northern border State, and we take really seriously our relationship with Canada and the security of both of our borders and trade, and certainly looking at the rail and the bridges and we are working on building a new bridge. Well, it is almost built in southeast Michigan, a large export destination. It is economics, it is livelihoods, and it is also people's lives. It is what draws people together in many respects, the ability to connect. That was something that was somewhat taken from us during the pandemic period, and we are not forgetting of it, and we certainly want to continue to support people to be the best and the most achieving that they can be. That is all around us in southeast Michigan, people innovating in their garages and creating new businesses and being entrepreneurial. We always want to support people to succeed in small businesses and listen to them. I always say: Listen, if I can be of help, that is great. If not, I am happy to step and get out of the way. Of course, some other matters of bipartisan congressional coming together at this moment are worth reflecting on, and a new subject. That is with regard to a role that I have had in this Congress since the year 2022, as the co-chair of the Task Force on American Hostages and Americans Wrongfully Detained Abroad. This is a task force that is bipartisan. It is co-chaired by the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Hill). It brings together Members from all over Congress to shine a light on these wrongful detentions, on these American hostage scenarios. We have certainly had a term around hostages here in the Chamber, and some really great work has been done in addressing the hostage crisis, the hostage crises, and the ways in which we can operate most effectively as a legislative body. I fell into this role on the request of a former Congressman from Florida, who now runs the American Jewish Committee, the president of the American Jewish Committee, former Congressman Ted Deutch, a dear friend of mine. He was the co-chair. Upon his retirement, he asked me to fill his shoes. In part, it is because I was showing up at all the task force meetings on behalf of Paul Whelan--Paul Whelan, resident of Novi, Michigan, employee of BorgWarner, a very large, billion-dollar-plus American automotive supplier, in which he was in charge of global security. Of course, it is quite memorable because, just as I was preparing to be sworn in for my first term in Congress representing Michigan's 11th District, right as the year 2019 was being rung in, we had gotten word December 28, 2018, that Paul was taken captive by the KSB and the Russian Federation. They ultimately charged him on false grounds, a total sham, of espionage. It was 5 years, 7 months, and 5 days that Paul was unlawfully and illegally and unjustly imprisoned. In this term of the 116th Congress, I had the privilege and the rightful duty in coordination with Paul's incredible family of writing a resolution, H.R. 552, calling on the Russian Federation to free Paul Whelan. I worked with my colleagues across the Michigan delegation. Mr. Tim Walberg was, at the time, representing Manchester, Michigan. That is where Paul's family lived, and I was in regular communication with them. We were staring down the face of Putin because it was Putin's game to take Paul Whelan, a former marine, a hometown son of Michigan, and attempt to disappear his life and attempt to play games of politics and embarrassment to the United States and, of course, with the ultimate goal of getting a swap. Now, H.R. 552, the resolution calling on the Russian Federation to free Paul Whelan, produce the evidence or free Paul Whelan, they had no evidence. There was nothing he had done wrong. He was a citizen on his own time, an American citizen on his own time visiting Russia. That resolution was voted on unanimously. Everyone who voted that day, they voted ``yes.'' They voted to support the resolution, and the same thing happened in the Senate. We had three terms, and we voted on the same resolution each time. On August 1--it was a Thursday into, actually, almost the following day--it was nearing midnight by the time the plane landed--Paul Whelan returned home to American soil. The ultimate and largest hostage- freeing effort since really the Cold War took place: Paul Whelan, Evan Gershkovich, involving some of our other European counterparts. Of course, I was watching as the plane, the bright light in the sky descending from the heavens, it felt like, landing at Andrews Air Force Base, greeted by President Biden, greeted by Vice President Harris, among the political events that were going on as well, but of course the governing, as President Biden always reminds us, still goes on. There is still so much work to do. Paul Whelan--the door opens, he appears, and he steps off the plane. He walks down the stairs. The President placed the very American flag pin that he was wearing on Paul, and we know that Paul cherishes that and wears that pin often. It was so momentous. It was so surreal. We had so many starts and stops and missed opportunities and trials and tribulations and lack of familiarity of what it was like to see an American--he was the first one out of the crew who was taken--be put into a prison, not wanting to at all prevent what needed to happen from happening. That was such a cause for celebration in Michigan. Billboards: Welcome home, Paul, with a yellow ribbon adorned on the billboard that people could see as they drove along our highways. There is so much to share about this journey and the legislative body of work that surrounds hostage affairs and negotiations and the return of wrongfully detained Americans. It was 5\1/2\ years. Paul lost his job. He lost his place of residence. His dog passed away. We have mentioned Flora on this House floor before. Now it is an effort to rebuild. As we know, we are passing an NDAA soon. We got the Robert Levinson bill passed in 2020, and a really phenomenal package of legislation that has passed, but there is more to do. We remain dedicated to that effort, but, of course, later that month, that very same month of August, just last month, another tragedy struck our hostage community. Six hostages who were taken from Israel on October 7, 2023, were murdered, murdered by Hamas terrorists in a tunnel. It takes your breath away. It puts sand in your mouth. What is there to say beyond the overwhelming expression of condolences to the families and the people impacted by this? We don't even have the exact date. We have a sense of the exact date. The bodies were recovered on August 31. Hersh Goldberg-Polin, whose name I know has been spoken in this Chamber and who has absolutely remarkable parents, Jon and Rachel. Rachel, who received a TIME 100 designation. It is a TIME 100 ``Person of the Year'' for her advocacy. Hersh is American. Hersh was born in America. Hersh was born on U.S. soil, and he was taken by terrorists on October 7, 2023, because he was at a concert celebrating peace, love, and freedom. As someone who has been doing the task force work and working so closely with so many advocacy partners, over and over again, we kept expressing that the hostages in Gaza, the Americans--32 Americans killed that day, 9 Americans taken--that they are the heartbeat of negotiation. Hersh wasn't the only person killed, murdered, in August, 23 years old--Eden at 24, Ori at 25, Alex at 32, Carmel at 40, and Almog at 27. These are shots heard around the world, and they are attacks on all of our humanity. They are a reminder to those of us who are stewards of democracy and freedom and the efforts of this Chamber that we must do more; that we must continue to say the names; we must continue to push for a just cease-fire, an end to the war, which means that we are going to see a return of the hostages and Hamas surrendering; that these individuals should have never been murdered. In August, we weren't in session. There was no way to verbally address this Chamber. As I had booked this Special Order hour address before the last session had concluded, it weighed on me, recognizing that we had a pretty enormous month in terms of these affairs and the work and the support alongside the Levinson family, alongside Paul Whelan and his family, the family of Hersh, the remaining hostages in Gaza, who have suffered through torturous conditions in tunnels and with starvation. One of the young women who was murdered was just 79 pounds. This is why we stand united around a foreign aid package for democracy here in the United States of America as we seek to continue to do the work on behalf of the people who sent us here, to continue to do the work on behalf of justice and fairness, and to remind ourselves that there are many who, unfortunately, do not share our view of freedom and who want to disrupt it, who want to override it. Is the target Israel, or is the target America? Israel is at war now on so many different fronts with pressures in the north. Mr. Speaker, 80,000 people removed from their homes and the like. I am proud to be a supporter of the U.S.-Israel relationship. I am certainly not a voting member of that country, but I am a supporting Member of this body who recognizes the essential nature of the U.S.- Israel relationship and what that means, not just for our national security, which, in this moment, is quite paramount, but also what that means for our trade, economy, innovation, and the like. We continue to extend our support, encouragement, and love to the people of Israel, to the people suffering, to the people who are scared because of the sirens. Are you going to have to hide? Are the children going to be able to go to school? The reality of what Hamas has done in Gaza, caring nothing for the nearly trillion dollars of assets for the people, the innocent people who live in Gaza, proclaiming that civilian deaths are a good thing. Of course, that is one element of what is going on now in the Middle East. As I look toward the next 25 years in terms of the first quarter of the 21st century to the mid-21st century, and what is going to be determinative of our outcomes, we certainly recognize that history, the brief history of this incredible Nation of ours, is so incumbent upon us. It is heavy, and it is incumbent upon us, in part, because of a great World War that Michigan played a critical and central role in, the Arsenal of Democracy, as we responded to the attacks on our country, the attacks on civil liberties, and playing a role in ending it, and then using our industrial might to change the world's economy yet again, almost 80 years since the end of World War II. A living memory it is barely, and it is a history worth teaching. It is a history worth knowing as an American. As part of the horrors of the Holocaust, we say Never Forget, and we ask ourselves what our challenges are for these next 25 years. I don't want to see it be the drumbeat of war. My responsibility here is not to shepherd America into war, but certainly, it is recognizing that autocracy and democracy are competing and there is an undergird of jihad taking place, a jihad that seeks to disrupt and to dismantle, to bring us back to an ancient time that we don't want to see arrive again that terrorizes people. The jihad is hitting in Russia, and it is a threat and a reality here in the United States of America and across Europe. Yet, as we look at ways in which our Nation exemplifies its leadership on the global stage with allies, trade partners, and the like, we have to seek ways in which we bring people along to succeed. It can't just be America on an island alone. We have to advance and continue to push forward a foreign policy agenda that allows for and provides the conduit for our success, not just as a nation but as the harbinger of freedom. Last century, we tried a lot of different ways to place freedom on people and to encourage democracy. In some ways and countries, it worked, and in some countries, it didn't. Exploited free markets on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party remain a problem. As a member of the Select Committee on Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, as I have mentioned, we really seek to compromise and work in a bipartisan way because that sends a bigger message. Some of this also comes back now to another important topic, which is the reform of our democracy, not in full, but as lawmakers. Anytime we are passing a law, we are making a contribution to our democracy. When I, as a Member of Congress from Michigan, introduce a bill, Mr. Speaker, it is not just for my constituents. It is the Nation's laws. We here this evening couldn't pass a Federal budget. We are passing the Nation's budget, so I find it worth our efforts as lawmakers and as stewards of the Constitution to ask ourselves of worthy improvements. You have seen this term ``seven bills'' introduced by colleagues on the other side of the aisle specific to the District of Columbia and its unique status, non-State status of seeking to govern ways in which the District of Columbia works. I don't know if those are messaging bills. Sometimes that is what they call them, messaging bills, or points that folks are trying to get across. It puzzles me. Why would you come here from Texas to legislate specifically to the District of Columbia? I have participated in the majority in the debate to add the District of Columbia as a State to the Union, and this is not about politics. Of course, there is the Puerto Rico consideration, and that comes with its complexities and its own points about self-determination, but the people of Washington, D.C., over 700,000 people, larger than a handful of States, have said they want to become a State. This is the grand conversation of the historic nature of the body we serve in. It is every debate that was had in the first 100 years of this Chamber. How did States get added? Well, of course, it was controversial, based on the horrors of slavery and something that this country had to shed itself of through Civil War, and I am not saying that is what is weighing down on District of Columbia, but we added States to this Union. It was a Constitution with 13 Colonies. It was a Constitution that was written over periods of time. We have these constitutional scholars and these points of history, and allow me to just share as an aside that it is really quite humbling to talk about the Constitution on the floor of this House. Debates that we can go back to that were written up and points that were made and doctrines that were written surrounding it, of course, starting with the Declaration of Independence, that is an origin story. Our Declaration of Independence is an origin story. It is just like meeting someone for the first time. Where were you born? Who were your parents? What is your origin story? Origin stories become not things of myth but really cause for celebration. We should be proud of America's origin story. I certainly am. I revel in celebrating July Fourth safely and freely here in the United States of America every year, and I am grateful for it. It is not to be blasphemous to our Constitution. It is not to be disregarding of its strong governance and the ways in which our laws and our systems have moved us forward over and over again, much to the envy of many. We have a strong economy, the strongest economy in the world, great innovation, great communities, great schools, good elections, but we have to look this time in the face. In July 2020, I didn't speak these words, but I wrote these words and submitted them to the Chamber. I think that they are worth sharing in part because we are in an election year. I am not politicking, and I am not abusing this lectern or my time or my space here. These elections seem to drive us further from each other than they do drive us together. It is like we can't see each other. I am from a politically popular State, Michigan. People are campaigning and competing for Michigan, so I see it all. I see what is going on with these national campaigns. On July 9, 2020, I submitted words to the Congressional Record: Madam Speaker, I rise today with respect to our democracy. We boast a steady history, no matter the circumstance, of maintaining a peaceful and efficient process upon the conclusion of our Presidential elections. Whether a President continues in office for another term, experiences defeat, or concludes holding office due to the constitutional term limit, our democracy has flourished to the benefit of the American people for centuries. Now, I am going to guess that we are going to have a passionate, heated November 5 and a result is going to happen. I am going to make this extension, similar to how I did in written form 4 years ago, of committing to that peaceful process. This is not to shame, scold, or admonish. We are in a new time. We are not struggling with the pandemic. We are not struggling with people not being able to work and dealing with some other matters that kept them pent up, but we are here to flourish as the 21st century hits its quarter mark. When I think about what happened, and I was here as the 2020 election happened and then debates pursued and fights and claims of malfeasance, which were really never proven, but I stand here because, from 2000 to 2020, we had a lot of frustrations with our Federal elections. 2000 was one. It was major. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to the time remaining.

Ms. STEVENS

Ms. STEVENS. Mr. Speaker, it is my great pleasure to rise in celebration of the union of Mrs. Christie Houlihan and Mr. Rahul Dev Chatterjee. Christie and Rahul came from different walks of life--Rahul moved to Texas from India in the year 2000 to study at Texas A&M University, while Christie grew up in New York and had relocated to Dallas in the last several years. Their first date allowed them to bond over their Irish and Indian backgrounds, developing a mutual understanding of their love for their families and for travel. Towards the end of that first date in June of 2022, when Christie began to make her exit. Rahul presented her with a parting gift: a small box with a bottle of Shalimar perfume by Guerlain. The same type of perfume that Christie's late grandmother used to wear every day and shared with her when Christie was a young child. As was described in the New York Times. Rahul had no way of knowing the significance this small bottle had for Christie, but to her, it was a sign. They were wed on November 18, 2023, in Palm Beach, FL., surrounded by loving family and friends. Mr. Speaker, I am elated to recognize Christie and Rahul, and I extend my enthusiastic well-wishes as they continue this chapter of their life together. Please join me in celebrating the marriage of Christie Houlihan and Rahul Dev Chatterjee who are so beloved by their community and whose partnership brings joy to so many. I was honored to pay witness to their nuptials and ask Congress to join me in celebrating them as their one-year anniversary approaches.

Ms. STEVENS

Ms. STEVENS. Mr. Speaker, I was unable to vote today on ordering the previous question on H. Res. 1370. Had I been present, I would have voted NAY on Roll Call No. 359.

Ms. STEVENS

Ms. STEVENS. Mr. Speaker, I thank this Chamber that affords the time for this special hour. It is a profound and deep honor to stand here with my friend, who I am also privileged to call one of my heroes, Congresswoman Lucy McBath, who I came into this very Chamber with as new freshmen, the class of 2018. Most of us never ever had run for office, and we took on a new House majority in a very challenging time for this country. I have seen her work day in and day out. It doesn't matter if it is Gun Violence Prevention Month. While I never got to meet her son, Jordan, and his fate is certainly why I know his mother, I know his soul, and I know his spirit because his mother has channeled it into good and into change and into togetherness for this Nation of ours. Mr. Speaker, I also stand here as a Representative of Michigan, and we are coming out of a very tough week in Oakland County. About 10 days ago, we had a shooting incident at a splash park on a Saturday, the day before Father's Day, with nine injured parents shielding their infant children, a grandfather, an 8-year-old shot in the head and still is in the hospital. This was followed by another horrific scene the next Saturday; an Oakland County deputy sheriff was shot while investigating a crime in Detroit. Time and time again, we see these incidences. We see these horrific mass shootings. I have, as a lawmaker and as a policymaker and someone who has stood by President Biden, who has stood by my colleagues on getting so much done, remain absolutely baffled by these statistics, by these events, that just seemingly and uniquely happen in a country where we refuse to change our laws, where we continue on this path of insanity. There is too much pain. There are too many mass shootings. I invite everyone to 2411, my office in Rayburn, outside of my office door, where I have the orange ribbon for every mass shooting that has happened this term in Congress. We are over 800. I remember calling Congressman Neguse when the mass shooting happened in his grocery store in his district. I remember the mass shooting in Buffalo and how personal that has felt. Again, another grocery store. We are arming hate in the United States of America, and we are arming insanity. Yes, those of us on this side of the aisle are talking about common sense, and we all have a responsibility to the next generation. Our first Generation Z Member of Congress, Maxwell Frost, has been carrying the torch of gun violence prevention through his activism work before he entered this very Chamber. When are we going to double down on passing commonsense gun safety legislation? When are we going to say that the right to bear arms is a privilege in the United States of America? Our U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy, just proclaimed gun violence as a public health crisis, and that is what it is, at parties and in grocery stores and in houses of worship. We are in a grand competition on the global stage. I have been so honored this term to work on the U.S. House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party. We need to look ourselves in the face, and we need to show that democracy works, and it works when we pass laws. It works when we regulate. It works when we institute training programs and check-ins and red flag laws and when our prosecutors prosecute, like our Oakland County prosecutor did in Oakland County, Michigan, the parents who don't utilize safe storage. Your right is a privilege, and our right to live freely, safely, and peacefully deeply matters, even outside of the month of June, where we say wear orange and stand for gun safety and gun violence prevention. This is something we can all rally around and do, just as we did 2 years ago almost on this very day, when we passed a bipartisan gun safety law. That was a good start, but there is more to do because these mass shootings and these shooting deaths of innocent children and people continue to happen in the United States of America. Anyone who walks through the door to my office will see those orange ribbons and is invited into the conversation and the solution making that we need.

Ms. STEVENS

Ms. STEVENS. Madam Speaker, I thank the distinguished ranking member of the Oversight Committee for yielding. I also thank my colleague, the Representative from Washington, D.C., who tragically and outrageously does not have full voting rights here in this Chamber, but whose arguments and points are very well received. Madam Speaker, I am rising in stark opposition to H.R. 192, another unbelievable attempt by my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to legislate specifically on the District of Columbia. We are individual Representatives duly elected by our constituents to legislate for this country and our constituents have representation, and yet the District of Columbia, who we are obsessively seeing our colleagues try and legislate on, does not have representation. Why not look at the host of issues this country is facing? We only have so much time in this body. We are almost to the halfway point left of this term. We could be working on paid leave, decreasing maternal mortality, fully funding special education, the climate crisis, a national gun violence epidemic, women's rights, real voting rights for this country. Give me a break. This is how we are choosing to use our time, a fifth effort to legislate specifically to the Nation's Capital, the only capital of a country that does not have full voting rights in a Federal Chamber? This is outrageous, and it is anti-democratic. Frankly, what this also is, as we have seen this playbook before and the ranking member knows this, this is another attempt to fearmonger around national elections that are coming, that supposedly those who are voting shouldn't. We need more people to be voting. Madam Speaker, I fiercely oppose this legislation.

Ms. STEVENS

Ms. STEVENS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to highlight an extraordinary initiative in the heart of Michigan's 11th district, Project DIAMOnD, a groundbreaking program spearheaded by Troy's Automation Alley and the Oakland County Economic Development Office. This project encapsulates not just the spirit of innovation but also the determination of our local communities and our industrious small to midsized manufacturers. Project DIAMOnD is revolutionizing additive manufacturing with 3D printing, positioning Michigan as a global leader and delivering 250 3D printers to empower manufacturers in the automotive, aerospace, and defense sectors. This technology allows rapid prototyping, reduces lead times, and integrates seamlessly into existing supply chains, advancing our national manufacturing agenda. Mr. Speaker, as we look to future-proof our industries, let us support and expand initiatives like Project DIAMOnD.

Ms. STEVENS

Ms. STEVENS. Mr. Speaker, I thank my good colleague, the gentlewoman from Connecticut, for yielding time, and I reflect on this farm bill from the standpoint that at this period in time, Americans are paying more of their earned income for food than they have in the last 30 years. Our President's FTC chair has notified us that grocery stores, big grocers, some food manufacturers, but mostly the grocers are price gouging. If you are middle class, if you are poor, if you are trying to save for college for your kid, or if you are trying to save up for an unexpected occurrence, food is squeezing the middle class and working families of this country. We have a responsibility to pass a farm bill that addresses the needs of the hungry and addresses the needs of our middle class. We have to get real because what we do is we say, oh, you know what? We are going to cap you at this income level. If you are a single mom, and you are raising your kid, and you are $500 over that income level, you don't get the SNAP benefits. I am sick of this type of governance. I am sick of this type of means testing. We did this in the pandemic. It wasn't hard. Steve Mnuchin was able to give everybody a capped unemployment level, but when it comes to food, you have a Democratic Caucus over here fighting over and over and over again. We have free and reduced lunch in our schools. Thanks to the Governor of Michigan for actually getting that done. We would like to see that in the United States of America. This is real stuff, and kids are going to school hungry, and kids are ashamed when they are carrying in those meal cards, and parents are worried. Do you know what we have? We have over a trillion dollars of credit card debt because people can't go to the grocery store. They can't take their kids out to eat because it costs $50 for a family of four. You can't get lunch for under $15. What are we litigating here? We are just filling the pockets of the grocers and the big business and the this and the that when we don't actually have a real North Star here in this Chamber. Just one last fact: The maximum benefits of SNAP right now fell 19 percent short of covering basic meal costs. One study revealed that in 98 percent of counties, SNAP benefits did not cover the cost of a modestly priced meal, so we are not even meeting the bare minimum, my friends. We are not even doing the bare minimum. The House Democrats are going to continue to stand up to this wrong- minded package that will not be serving the American people.

Ms. STEVENS

Ms. STEVENS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to celebrate the President's announcement of increased tariffs on Chinese goods in key sectors. President Biden leads once again. He took strong actions this week to give us the tools that we need as a nation to combat unfair trade practices, support cutting-edge American manufacturing, and protect our national security. American workers and businesses can outcompete anyone on a level playing field, but China has undermined that level playing field for decades. The increased tariffs on electric vehicles, EV batteries, steel, aluminum, semiconductors, critical minerals, and other fundamental inputs will support American manufacturing and ensure the next generation of good-paying jobs are created right here in the United States of America with good union jobs. These measures will also help secure supply chains essential to our national security. President Biden's tariff increases will build domestic capacity and insulate critical industries from undue Chinese Communist Party influence.