Ritchie Torres

Mr. TORRES of New York

Mr. TORRES of New York. Madam Speaker, the failed wars in Afghanistan and Iraq added trillions of dollars to the debt and both began under a Republican President. The 2001, 2003, and 2017 tax cuts added trillions to the debt and each one began under a Republican President. The great recessions of 2008 and 2020 added trillions to the debt and each one began under a Republican President. The Trump administration alone accounted for one-fourth of all the debt accumulated since 2000. The Republican Party is like an arsonist who burns down your home and then blames you for the fire while lecturing you on fire safety. The fiscal responsibility of House Republicans is as fictional as George Santos. The House GOP is threatening to default on America unless it can extract draconian budget cuts against our seniors, veterans, essential workers, and families with children. Madam Speaker, that is not a negotiation. That is an extortion of the American people. That is, in the words of Matt Gaetz, ``a hostage taking.'' It is a hostage taking that will threaten to transform a Republican-made debt problem into a Republican-made debt crisis.

Mr. TORRES of New York

Mr. TORRES of New York. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 346, the NOTAM Improvement Act of 2023. The FAA's Notice to Air System, NOTAM, which sends real-time alerts to pilots about safety conditions, experienced an outage with consequences so far-reaching that it led to nearly more than 10,000 flight delays and more than 1,300 flight cancellations. Even though the cause of the outage bore no connection to a cyberattack, the breakdown in NOTAM alerts, nonetheless, raises concerns about the cyber vulnerabilities of the antiquated systems that underlie modern air travel. At a time when cyberattacks are rising in both scope and sophistication, modernizing the cybersecurity of air travel must be a priority for the Federal Government. Mr. Speaker, 20th century air systems will no longer suffice in a world of 21st century cyber challenges. That is why I wrote a letter calling upon both CISA and DOT to conduct a joint review of the cyber vulnerabilities of all aviation systems, including NOTAM. That is why I will proudly vote for bipartisan legislation requiring the FAA to establish a task force on NOTAM improvement.

Mr. TORRES of New York

Mr. TORRES of New York. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the resolution. Iran is the leading aggressor in the Middle East, the leading state sponsor of terrorism in the world, and a longstanding oppressor of its own people. The Iranian regime, which has repressed far too many for far too long, has been shaken to the core by a revolution led by powerful women. The women in Iran who are risking their lives in confronting a monstrous and murderous regime are among the most courageous freedom fighters in the world. The United States must stand unequivocally with our Iranian sisters in their fearless fight for freedom. On September 13, 2021, Mahsa Amini was brutally beaten to death by Iran's Orwellian morality police merely for not wearing a head covering. Out of the tragedy of Mahsa's murder came a spontaneous groundswell of thousands of Iranian women rising up for their freedom, some removing their head coverings and cutting their hair as a poignant form of protest. The revolution reminds us that the future of Iran does not belong to a regime whose malevolence and obsolescence have become too glaring to ignore. Iran's future belongs to its people led by its fearless formidable female freedom fighters. The vision of a free and democratic Iran is an unrealized dream whose time has come and whose realization is long overdue.

Mr. TORRES of New York

Mr. TORRES of New York. Mr. Speaker, the so-called rules package proposed by House Republicans would perpetuate same disorder, division, and dysfunction that nearly devoured the Republican nominee for Speaker. A single-Member threshold for filing a motion to vacate empowers extremism and rewards rabble-rousing. It would make the House so dysfunctional as to be ungovernable. It would give the new Speaker only a Pyrrhic victory because a motion to vacate makes him arbitrarily removable at any moment, at the whim of any person, no matter how personal or petty the underlying grievance. Simply put, this is no way to govern. Moreover, House Republicans decry the weaponization of the Federal Government. Yet the Holman rule would enable the Federal Government to be weaponized against any Federal official who draws the wrath of the Republican majority. The Holman rule would enable House Republicans to zero out funding for a criminal investigation into Donald Trump. The new rules would defund the Office of Congressional Ethics. The new rules would enable a Member being investigated by the FBI to investigate the investigators investigating him. Mr. Speaker, so much for draining the swamp.

Mr. TORRES of New York

Mr. TORRES of New York. Madam Speaker, on Friday, December 23, 2022, I was not present in the House Chamber. Had I been present, I would have voted YEA on Roll Call No. 547.

Mr. TORRES of New York

Mr. TORRES of New York. Mr. Speaker, as a Puertorriqueno, I am proud to have voted for the Puerto Rico Status Act, which, if enacted, would begin to break the cycle of colonialism that, for more than a century, has relegated Puerto Rico to second-class status. The landmark legislation would empower Puerto Rico to be in command of its own political destiny. What matters above all is not the particular status that the people will ultimately choose. What matters is the right of the people to choose the status that best expresses their will and the right of the people to have their will given the binding power it has long deserved. If enacted, the Puerto Rico Status Act would not only restore democracy on the island, but it would also reinforce democracy here on the mainland United States because it would mean no longer depriving 3 million of our fellow citizens of their fundamental right to self- determination. I call on the Senate to join the people's House in decolonizing the people of Puerto Rico.

Mr. TORRES of New York

Mr. TORRES of New York. Madam Speaker, I dedicate my remarks to two civil rights icons, Edith and Judith Windsor. Today, we repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, which degraded marriage under the pretense of defending it. Today, we put the equality of same- sex love in its rightful place under the protection of Federal law. We will not leave it to the forces of hate and the relics of the past to be the final word on the fate of love. We, in the LGBTQ community, will be the arbiters of our own legal equality and the authors of our own marital destiny, our equal right to marry the people that we love in the country that we love with the pride that we love. Today, that right makes America a more perfect union.

Mr. TORRES of New York

Mr. TORRES of New York. Madam Speaker, I am enormously grateful to Chair Waters for her advocacy for safe, decent, and affordable housing and her support. I thank the Representative from Arkansas for his kind words. The Housing Temperature Safety Act, H.R. 6528, comes more than 6 months following the tragedy of Twin Parks North West which was the scene of the deadliest fire in New York City history in more than three decades. Even though the immediate cause of the fire was a malfunctioning space heater, the deeper cause of the fire cannot be overlooked. We must ask ourselves a simple but fundamental question: What prompted tenants to use hazardous space heaters in the first place? The answer, of course, is the chronic deprivation of heat and hot water which is all too common in places like the South Bronx. Tenants freezing in their apartments are left with no choice but to resort to space heaters out of desperation for heat. A space heater is often a cry for help and a cry for heat. The catastrophic fire at Twin Parks North West was a consequence not only of a broken space heater but also of an equally broken system of housing code enforcement. The Housing Temperature Safety Act would pilot the use of heat sensors which would enable State and local housing administrators to monitor heat and hot water levels in real time in order to hold property owners accountable for providing sufficient heat and hot water. When I served on the New York City Council, I passed a local law establishing the New York City Heat Sensors Program which led to a 58 percent decline in heat and hot water complaints among buildings where the sensors were installed. The Housing Temperature Safety Act of 2022 presents us with a historic opportunity to harness the power of technology to bring housing code enforcement into the 21st century which is long overdue. Madam Speaker, I strongly encourage my colleagues to vote for H.R. 6528 and embrace the future of housing enforcement in America.

Mr. TORRES of New York

Mr. TORRES of New York. Madam Speaker, I am proud to be a gay man in Congress. I stand here as living proof that the long arc of history bends toward LGBTQ equality. I am the first Latino and Black LGBTQ Member of Congress, and I proudly serve as vice chair of the Homeland Security Committee. Back in the 1950s, President Eisenhower issued an executive order declaring people like me to be a threat to homeland security. Out of his executive order came the ``lavender scare,'' the systematic purge of gay people from the ranks of Federal employment. So the LGBTQ experience in America is as much about pain as it is about pride. We have seen the lives and livelihoods of untold numbers of people ravaged by homophobia. I wish to speak about one of those people, Walter Jenkins, who served honorably during the Johnson administration, in a time of national turmoil, only to have his brilliant career cut short by homophobia. On October 15, 1964, a columnist named William White wrote a tribute to Mr. Jenkins. It was so poignantly and eloquently written that it bears reading on the House floor, and so read it, I will. The title is, ``A Graveyard Marked Despair.'' A human tragedy of measureless pathos, a tragedy to tear the heart as few things have ever done in my 50-odd years of rather urgent living is the story of Walter Jenkins. It is too early to say what effects there may be from Jenkins' resignation, as one of the special White House assistants, in dreadful circumstances involving his arrest on disorderly conduct charges. Nor does this columnist now concern himself in the slightest way with this question. When one sees a friend bury a lost career, common humanity requires at least a brief wait at a graveside marked despair before reckoning up who else has gained or lost what. The present purpose has nothing to do with partisanship or even with politics in general. It is simply to stand as a human being with Walter Jenkins, to make one man's testimony to Walter Jenkins, in an hour for him and his wife and his six children of a sorrow and horror that has come to few even in the harsh profession to which he has given his life. I have just come from the hospital room of Walter Jenkins. It is a scene that will burn forever in the memory of one whose own profession as a correspondent has caused him to see much of human suffering--the death of so many in battle, the death of hope for so many others. Walter Jenkins I have known for 20 years. Walter Jenkins I saluted in print when he became President Johnson's assistant upon Mr. Johnson's accession to the White House after another tragedy just short of 12 months ago. I said then of Walter Jenkins that he was one of the most honorable, most conscientious, and most truly moral men I ever knew. I repeat the statement today--every word of it. For the Walter Jenkins I now see in this time of trouble is a Walter Jenkins broken at last under the terrible pressures it has been my sad lot to observe in life. I do not know precisely what in this shattered state he may have done or not done. I have not asked him; and I do not intend to ask him. But this I do know if I have any human judgment at all: Here is a man long suffering from combat fatigue as surely as any man ever suffered in battle; and of that kind of combat fatigue I have seen plenty, too. At the hospital I told this to his doctor. The doctor replied softly, ``Yes, you are right. Except that for this kind of combat fatigue, they give no medals.'' When President Johnson came to power, in a frightened and divided Nation, suffering the shock of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, he put all his enormous heart and energies into reuniting the Nation and keeping its ancient institution going on, levelly and unafraid. So did Walter Jenkins to the last extent of his own talents and his own strength. It was not easy for any of the Johnson people. They had their sophisticated sniping detractors--behind their backs within the Democratic Party as well as in front of them among their natural and proper Republican opposition. Jenkins became, next to the President himself, the chief whipping boy. Totally dedicated, tolerant and forgiving beyond ready belief, he patiently worked his 15-hour day, his 7-day week, while the biters bit--and bit and bit--at him. As month after month wore on, Jenkins developed a red and frightening flush that told even a layman of a dangerously high blood pressure. But, like the President, he never called for either the medic or the chaplain, as they used to say in the Army. There was work to be done--and for at least 15 years--long before the White House days--he had worked far too hard. Finally, he reached that point of utter physical and nervous and emotional exhaustion which will at the end, break any man of any size. So now he is broken. So now they say this and that of him. But the actions--actual or only alleged, true or trumped up--of men broken in battle are not held against them by civilized men. So, there is, at last, this to say. For 46 years Walter Jenkins has lived a life of decency, of high public service, of courage, of honor and devotion. If there has in fact been a slip, it has not been from the real, the true, Walter Jenkins. It has been from the shattered man--the man who has known no rest but now must have rest to regain his true self. Let he who wishes cast the first stone. But any man who tries to make capital of this man's tragedy will forever lessen himself in the eyes of a judgment that is infinitely more important than a mere political judgment--the judgment of decent humankind.

Mr. TORRES of New York

Mr. TORRES of New York. Madam Speaker, I am here to speak about H.R. 7077, which stems from the tragedy of Twin Parks North West, the scene of New York's deadliest fire in more than three decades, one that left the South Bronx with a death count of 17, including 8 children, one as young as 2 years of age. The legislation would empower the United States Fire Administration to investigate the deadliest fires, in partnership with State and local governments. Not all local jurisdictions have the capacity to investigate the causes of complex fires on their own. The Federal Government, tapping into the technical expertise of the USFA, can and should aid fire investigations in the aim of ascertaining the truth about what exactly happened and why. We must investigate the deadliest fires so that every lesson is learned and so that no life is ever lost in vain. The objective here is to enable the USFA to share lessons learned with governments at all levels in the hopes of transforming those lessons into policies and practices that prevent fires and save lives. Every time a fire breaks out and a life is lost, we should be reminded of a simple injunction: Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Let us enable the USFA to learn from the deadliest fires so that we as a Nation never repeat them. I am enormously grateful for the partnership of Congress Member Haley Stevens; without whose support the bill would never have been brought to the floor. I am also enormously grateful for the bipartisan cooperation of Congress Members Bice, Meijer, and Gonzalez. Madam Speaker, I include in the Record letters supporting my legislation from the FDNY, International Association of Fire Chiefs, National Association of State Fire Marshals, and the International Association of Fire Fighters.

Mr. TORRES of New York

Mr. TORRES of New York. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include any extraneous material on the subject of this special order.

Mr. TORRES of New York. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. TORRES of New York. Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Ohio (Ms. Brown) for allowing me the opportunity to speak. Madam Speaker, no human need is more important than health. Yet, no need is more neglected by America than Black health. There are two areas on which I am going to offer brief comments. The first is maternal mortality. Among industrialized nations, the United States has among the highest rates of maternal mortality. The crisis of maternal health represents American exceptionalism in the worst sense of the word. America is exceptionally cruel to Black mothers, who, far too often, face fatal barriers to accessing maternal care before, during, and after pregnancy. Although representing only 13 percent of the population, Black women account for nearly 40 percent of maternal deaths. There are racial disparities not only in maternal but also infant mortality. The Black community has a maternal mortality rate and an infant mortality rate that are more than double the mortality rates in the White community. No healthcare program is more critical to maternal health than Medicaid, which pays 40 percent of births nationwide. Attempts by Republican Governors to prevent Medicaid expansion has a disproportionately destructive impact on Black maternal health. What is most tragic is that most maternal deaths in America are preventable and can be prevented with public investments like the Build Back Better Act. The Build Back Better Act is so urgently needed because it would bring a long-overdue expansion of Medicaid to every corner of Black America. The second topic is cancer. In 2022, more than 73,000 Black Americans are expected to die from cancer. When it comes to most cancers, Black Americans have the highest death rate as well as the shortest rate of survival. In the long run, we must develop a cure for cancer in keeping with President Biden's unity agenda. But in the short run, we must double down on early detection. We must invest in the development and distribution of multi-cancer early detection tests. Black Americans have a far lower likelihood of receiving early detection cancer screening than White Americans. Early detection can mean the difference between life and death. It can mean early treatment, which can prevent cancer from metastasizing beyond the point of no return. Early cancer screenings and diagnoses are tragically less common in the Black community than elsewhere in America. Even in cases where the White community has a higher cancer incidence, the Black community will nonetheless have higher cancer mortality because of racial disparities in early cancer detection and diagnosis. Expanding access to multi-cancer early detection tests would bring us closer to closing the racial gap in early detection and in early diagnosis, and in doing so, it would save lives. General Leave

Mr. TORRES of New York

Mr. TORRES of New York. Mr. Speaker, I proudly stand before you to celebrate the 14th independence of Kosovo, one of the world's youngest nations. Rising from the ruins of ethnic cleansing at the murderous hands of one of the worst dictators in the 20th century, Kosovo has built a burgeoning democracy in whose heart the United States holds a special place. Indeed, the U.S. has no greater friend in southeast Europe than Kosovo, and Kosovo should have no greater friend in the world than the U.S. We owe it to that friendship, as well as to the greater cause of democracy, to stand firmly with Kosovo as it seeks universal recognition from the international community and membership in both the EU and NATO. The time has come for Kosovo to be given the full respect and recognition that an independent country deserves. The United States must stand with those that not only stand with America but also stand for America. Kosovo stands for the American vision of a more democratic world.

Mr. TORRES of New York

Mr. TORRES of New York. Madam Speaker, I come here with the heaviest heart. My beloved Bronx saw the deadliest fire in the history of New York City in more than three decades; a fire that has left a death count of 17 residents, including 8 children. A malfunctioning space heater was the immediate cause of the fire in a duplex on the third floor of a 19-story building known as Twin Parks North West. And even though the fire was largely limited to the third floor, both the apartment door and the nearby stairwell door were left open, causing the smoke to spread rapidly and widely throughout the 19- story building. Since the building has no fire escapes and since the stairwells were full of black, toxic smoke, the tenants had no means of escape. The smoke spread so widely that victims were found on every floor. The fatalities were tenants who died from severe smoke inhalation from cardiac and respiratory arrest. Almost all of the victims came from a single town in Gambia. The Gambian community has had roots in Twin Parks North West that date back more than half a century. It is hard to imagine a more closely knit community, a community more tied by the bonds of faith and family and fellowship than the Gambian community of Twin Parks North West, and so the loss is deeply felt. The victims were as young as 2, and no older than 50. These were victims who had their whole lives ahead of them. Ousmane Konteh was only 2 years old. Muhammed Drammeh celebrated his twelfth birthday. Sera Janneh was a student at Lehman College. She had dreams of becoming a social worker of aiding those afflicted by trauma. My heart aches for the father who lost his wife, two daughters, and a son; for the mother who lost her toddler; for the children who lost their parents; for the Drammeh family who lost four members; and the Dukureh family who lost five. The fire at Twin Parks North West was as preventable as it was tragic. If the space heater had shut off automatically, the fire would have been prevented. If the apartment door and the stairwell doors had closed automatically, the spread of the smoke would have been contained and countless lives would have been saved. If the building had a sprinkler system, the fire would have been extinguished. If the building had a two-way intercom system, the tenants would have been advised by the fire department to remain in their homes instead of fleeing to a smoke-filled stairwell that had become a death trap. And if the tenants had sufficient heat and hot water in their homes, there would have been no need to use dangerous space heaters in the first place. The use of space heaters is often a cry for help and a cry for heat. It is often an act of desperation for decent and dignified housing. Madam Speaker, the Bronx is no stranger to deadly fires. New York City's four worst fires in the past 30 years have all been in the Bronx, have all been in my district of south Bronx. The prevalence of deadly fires in south Bronx is no accident. It is a consequence of systemic disinvestment from the lowest income communities of color, from places like the south Bronx, from the safety and quality of affordable housing. When it comes to fire safety, America is a tale of two countries and New York is a tale of two cities. If you live in a luxury development in Manhattan, then fire safety can be taken for granted. But if you live in an affordable housing complex in the south Bronx, there is no guarantee that your building will have a sprinkler system; in fact, it is unlikely to have one. There is no guarantee that your building will have self-closing doors. There is no guarantee that your building will have what experts would consider anything resembling modern standards of fire safety. In America, poor people of color are left to live in conditions that put them at greater risk of losing everything, including their own homes, their own families, their own lives from a catastrophic fire. If that is not cruel and callous, I am not sure what would be. We are reminded that safe and decent affordable housing is not a privilege but a right; not a luxury but a moral necessity; not an abstraction but a matter of life and death. Building back better should and must mean building back safer for communities long forgotten. On January 9, the world bore witness to one of the fire department's finest hours of public service. It took the Herculean efforts of more than 200 firefighters to extinguish the fires at Twin Parks North West. Firefighters who had ran out of oxygen in their tanks ran into burning buildings, saving lives at great risk to their own. There are no words that can convey more powerfully the heroism shown than the image beside me; the image of Matt Zimpfer, a proud member of the FDNY carrying a baby, a visibly traumatized baby that he had rescued from the fire at Twin Parks North West. It is as much an image of our common humanity as it is of the FDNY's uncommon bravery. For the south Bronx, January 9 is a day that will live in infamy, but the image beside me reminds me that even in a moment of despair, there was cause for hope. Even in a moment of tragedy and a day of infamy, heroes can and do emerge. The overwhelming sense of sorrow that weighs so heavily on my heart is rivaled only by the overwhelming gratitude that I feel for our heroes at the FDNY, a gratitude that will remain with me for as long as I live. May God bless the heroic souls of the FDNY, New York City's bravest, and may God bless the resilient and resourceful souls of the Gambian community of Twin Parks North West. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. TORRES of New York. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the subject of my Special Order.

Mr. TORRES of New York

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

Mr. TORRES of New York. Madam Speaker, where did we get this notion that the filibuster is more worth preserving than the right to vote? That is surely not the lesson of American history. That is surely not what we teach our students in the classroom or our children at home. Yet, that is the lie that dictates what happens here in the Nation's Capitol, a lie that comes at a heavy cost to American democracy. It seems that there is nothing sacred in American politics--not the truth, not the peaceful transfer of power, not the full faith and credit of the United States, and, indeed, not even the right to vote. The enforcement mechanisms of the Voting Rights Act have been all but eviscerated. First, there is section 5, otherwise known as preclearance, which enables the executive branch, the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, to enforce the Voting Rights Act. Then there is section 2, which enables the judicial branch, the courts, to enforce the Voting Rights Act. Both of these provisions have been gutted at the hands of rightwing judicial activism. The end of the Voting Rights Act as we know it has been a political windfall for the Republican Party, which is intent on holding power by any means necessary, even if it means disenfranchising Black and Brown voters. We are here to tell you that the Congressional Black Caucus will not stand by idly while the voting rights of Black Americans come under systematic assault. We will fight back because fighting is what we do in the Congressional Black Caucus and because there were many before us who were bloodied and bludgeoned and beaten so that we can have the right to vote. The least we can do is fight back. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Ohio (Mrs. Beatty), our dynamic leader, our dynamic chair.

Mr. TORRES of New York. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Alabama (Ms. Sewell).

Mr. TORRES of New York. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Evans).

Mr. TORRES of New York. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Georgia (Mrs. McBath).

Mr. TORRES of New York. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms. Underwood).

Mr. TORRES of New York. Madam Speaker, how much time do I have left?

Mr. TORRES of New York. I will use far fewer than 16 minutes. Madam Speaker, the lesson of history is State and local governments cannot be trusted to respect voting rights in the absence of Federal oversight. Federal voting rights enforcement is essential, as essential as the right to vote itself. And the most powerful tool for voting rights enforcement is preclearance. Preclearance has been so effective that, from 1965 to 2006, it kept 1,200 State and local voting restrictions from taking effect. The John Lewis Voting Rights Act would restore preclearance as the gold standard of voting rights enforcement, not only for some States but for all. The John Lewis Voting Rights Act makes real the creed of America, liberty and justice for all. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. TORRES of New York

Mr. TORRES of New York. Mr. Speaker, I would not be here today as a United States Congressman were it not for affordable housing and the opportunity it gave me and my family. So the fight is deeply personal, and I am honored to stand in the trenches with Chair Waters and Chair Cleaver as we fight for affordable housing at a critical moment. We cannot build back better without realizing the vision of housing as a human right and without realizing the vision of housing as infrastructure. We cannot build back better without making America affordable to all Americans. Housing is not an afterthought; housing is foundational, not only to who we are but to who we become. We know from the research of Professor Raj Chetty that ZIP Code is often destiny and that where you live determines your access to opportunity. It often determines the quality of the schools you attend and the services you access. We know that housing is not only foundational but also intersectional. It intersects with climate. In New York City, we saw not one, but two record rainfalls. And as our city has become less and less affordable. More and more Americans are living in illegal basement apartments that were heavily flooded by the remnants of Hurricane Ida, and those Americans died at the intersection of the housing crisis and the climate crisis. Housing intersects with public health. As our city has become less and less affordable, more and more New Yorkers and Americans are living in overcrowded apartments. And we saw those overcrowded homes become Petri dishes for the spread of COVID-19. Housing is essential. Housing stabilizes the essential workforce that stabilizes the rest of us. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, there is not a single county in America where an essential worker earning minimum wage could afford a two-bedroom apartment, and there are only 7 out of 3,000 counties where an essential worker earning minimum wage could afford a one-bedroom apartment. If you are an essential worker earning the Federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, you would have to work 72 hours a week in order to afford a one-bedroom apartment. The central cause of my life has been public housing. My mother taught me that the most important lesson in life is to never forget where you come from. I come from the Bronx, and I come from public housing. In New York City, we have the New York City Housing Authority, commonly known as NYCHA, which is the largest provider of affordable housing in the continent of North America, housing a population of about half a million Americans. Half a million is larger than most large cities in the United States. If NYCHA were a city unto itself, it would be the largest city of low-income Black and Brown Americans in the country. I feel, Mr. Speaker, that we are on the verge of making history. We are on the verge of going from FDR's New Deal to LBJ's Great Society to Joe Biden's Build Back Better. But the fundamental difference between FDR's New Deal and Joe Biden's Build Back Better is racial equity. FDR's New Deal was racially exclusionary, and the Build Back Better Act must be racially equitable. We cannot build back better without advancing the cause of racial equity, but we cannot advance the cause of racial equity without rebuilding NYCHA, without rebuilding America's largest city of low- income Black and Brown Americans. We must rebuild affordable housing. Infrastructure is about more than roads and bridges. It is about safe, decent, affordable housing. Safe, decent, affordable housing represents roads and bridges to the American Dream, and I stand here as living proof.