Defending Social Services and Programs

Floor Speech

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Mrs. RAMIREZ. Mr. Speaker, I take to the floor today to raise the alarm for the people of Illinois' Third Congressional District.

Today, I am standing here for the 197,569 people, including 94,806 children and 22,000 seniors, whose Medicaid is at risk of being taken from them.

I stand here for the 69,000 people in Illinois-03 who count on SNAP benefits and could be losing them.

I stand here for the 28,000 people who receive coverage under the Affordable Care Act and may see their average premium go up by $820 a year, a 40 percent increase.

Mr. Speaker, the working people of my district rely on Federal programs and services, and they also rely on the essential organizations in Illinois-03 that provide federally funded social programs and services.

Mr. Speaker, I stand for the 11 federally funded health centers with a presence in Illiois-03 that leverage $78,954,648 in Federal investments for 624,770 patients.

I also stand here in the people's House for CEDA, which provides LIHEAP assistance to 179,082 working people in Cook County to weather extreme temperatures.

I stand here for the Puerto Rican Cultural Center under the leadership of Jose, the AIDS Foundation, La Casa Norte, and so many in Illinois-03 serving organizations that meet the needs of our diverse constituents who are facing uncertainty about Federal funding in this precise moment.

My colleagues and I are standing here because my Republican colleagues have bowed down to the whims of an unelected billionaire and a wannabe dictator. The majority is stealing from the American people so that Republicans can enrich billionaire bosses and expand their wealth at the expense of our working families.

Consider that for a moment. The richest man in the world is demanding cuts in the services that working families rely on. The richest man in the world, who could be making contributions to end hunger globally, decides that we should be cutting program services for working families, many of which my colleagues will talk about today.

Mr. Speaker, as we stand here today in the people's House, I want to be very clear about something. I will not betray working families by supporting a budget that harms working families to make the rich richer. We have to stand up in this precise moment in the people's House.

Republicans must also stand up to their billionaire bosses and do what is right, what they were elected to do: represent their constituents. We must protect and defend the federally funded social programs and services that the American people rely on.

Mr. Speaker, I will yield to my colleagues who will share about the programs and services that their constituents rely on and that they were sent to Congress to defend.

Mr. KENNEDY of New York. Mr. Speaker, first of all, I recognize Representative Ramirez for her leadership on this important issue.

I rise today not just as a Member of Congress, but as a healthcare practitioner. Like so many of my fellow healthcare workers, I became an occupational therapist to help people. Before entering public office, I spent over a decade working with seniors and children to help them achieve independent, full lives.

Last week, the Trump administration made it harder for our healthcare providers to deliver the services that Americans rely on by terminating 10,000 hardworking members of the Department of Health and Human Services workforce. Under this administration, a total of 20,000 HHS employees have been illegally fired, putting Americans at risk every day.

These cuts do nothing for the people in western New York or anywhere else across the country. They are a means of giving tax cuts to the ultrarich and powerful, those who never have to worry about access to reliable healthcare.

These cuts are more than numbers on a balance sheet. These are lives that hang in the balance. For western New York, this will make it harder for Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center or the University of Buffalo to advance their lifesaving work.

These cuts mean delayed treatments, denied cures, stolen hopes from patients battling cancer, Parkinson's, ALS, Alzheimer's, and so many other devastating diseases. I felt the pain and hope of patients, grandparents, mothers, fathers, and children who are counting on the next clinical breakthrough to survive. These cuts say to them: Your health doesn't matter. Your life doesn't matter.

President Trump, unelected billionaire Elon Musk, and Secretary Robert Kennedy are more concerned with cutting services and pushing an antiscience agenda than they are with supporting and improving our healthcare system. By walking away from practitioners and patients, the Trump administration is abdicating its duty to our most vulnerable and signaling to the world that the United States is no longer the global leader in scientific research.

As someone who spent years treating patients, I know that abandoning our scientists, our research institutions, our doctors and nurses, and, worst of all, our patients puts our entire community and country at risk.

Mr. Speaker, I urge this body, Democrats and Republicans, to stand up for our healthcare heroes, invest in breakthroughs that millions of lives are depending on, and restore the funding and workforce our Nation's healthcare system depends upon.

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Mrs. RAMIREZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from New York (Mr. Kennedy) for his comments.

Mr. Speaker, I have the opportunity and honor to serve with the gentleman on the Committee on Veterans' Affairs. Every day, I see the work that he does to uphold the work that is necessary to protect the benefits of our veterans. I am so grateful for the ways that the gentleman continues to show up for his constituents in New York and for the entire Nation. It is truly an honor to serve with the gentleman.

Mr. Speaker, this past Saturday, the Speaker saw constituents from every single State in the country come out to protest and rally. The Speaker saw children and saw people who are probably closer to 100 years of age walking through streets, going to the parks, and asking other Members of Congress: Have you forgotten about the people who sent you to Congress?

Mr. Speaker, I say as we are standing here in the House of Representatives that New York, Michigan, Texas, and Chicago have Members of Congress who are unwilling to accept the idea that we would slash the very same programs that we promised to protect for the American people.

Today, I am grateful that I get to be here with Members of Congress not just from New York, but also with a colleague of mine who continues to ring the alarm for the safety net programs that our constituents here and in Michigan need and deserve.

Tlaib).

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Mrs. RAMIREZ. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the comments of Congresswoman Tlaib. The gentlewoman is absolutely right. Our constituents do, in fact, deserve better.

As I go back to the district and I look at the emails and the phone calls that are coming through, our constituents are asking: What are you doing to defend me? What are you doing to protect the programs that we depend on to stay alive? You need to do more.

One of the things that we have said in our townhalls, on the calls, on the emails as constituents come to D.C. demanding that we protect these critical programs is that we have to use every single opportunity--be in committee, be in the conversations we are having with colleagues, and every moment we can get to the House floor and talk about what is at stake in this precise moment.

We have to make sure that everyone hears we are doing everything we can to protect these critical programs because many of our constituents in this moment are feeling that they are being gaslighted by the very same people that they sent to Congress.

It is important to hear from the champions that are taking a stand. With us today is one of our newer Members of Congress. She is someone that yields from the great State of Texas where there are champions for justice who are fighting to protect Social Security, who are fighting to protect Medicaid, who are fighting to protect the very same programs that are critical and have made this country great.

Johnson).

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Mrs. RAMIREZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank the Congresswoman for her remarks. She is absolutely right. Our constituents deserve better.

I will talk a little bit about what is at stake. You have heard already my colleagues talk about Medicaid. You have heard them talk about Social Security. You have heard them talk about how their constituents are living in constant fear.

I will talk to you about community health centers, which also are incorporated in the Medicaid funding that my colleagues, the Republicans, want to slash. I will start by saying to you unapologetically and very loudly that I believe to my core that healthcare is a human right.

No one should have to choose between getting the care they need, accessing their medication, or paying their mortgage, but I can tell you from personal experience growing up in a family where the insurance company they pay into constantly makes it difficult for them to be able to get healthcare. Knowing that my mom and dad have had to choose often, do they get the medication, or do they pay for the mortgage?

You see, my parents worked their lives in this country and my father today has Medicare and my mother up until a year ago had Medicaid because, unfortunately, the wages that she worked were not large enough, were not equitable enough. They weren't living wages, but the Medicaid system that we have that we know isn't working for everyone, that we should be expanding, not cutting, made it difficult for my mom to continue to get Medicaid.

I think about the challenges and the struggles that so many American people are living here. I will tell you that in the short tenure, we have seen that this administration has not talked about making Medicaid better. What they are talking about is cutting Medicaid. What they are talking about is announcing executive orders that target immigrants and the social service providers that work in strong immigrant communities. Immigrants that, by the way, pay into Medicaid that they never get.

What they are doing is undermining local governments and local agencies who know best what their communities need. You see, community health centers exist to serve an entire community, regardless of their income, regardless of insurance status, and regardless of immigration status. Many of the services they provide, like emergency care, like vaccinations, and public health outreach serve the public good. Providing these services broadly in our communities keep us all healthy.

Community health centers also make a profound economic impact on our communities, creating jobs, not taking jobs like this administration is doing, over 340,000 jobs and generating $118.4 billion in local economic activity.

Republicans have chosen to defund healthcare so that they can provide their billionaire bosses with more tax breaks. They want you to go without healthcare so the top 1 percent of Americans can get a $314,000 tax cut.

Let me say that again. They don't think that you deserve healthcare. They want to take your healthcare away, frankly, let you die, so that their billionaire bosses can get $314,000 in tax cuts. That is what they want to do. They claim to care for working people and our economy, but their actions show us just how terrible and in your face their hypocrisy really is.

There are no other words for those who knowingly would put tax benefits for the wealthiest Americans over the working families who depend on Medicaid for their basic healthcare.

In Illinois, 772,233 adults are enrolled in the ACA Medicaid Expansion. If Republicans cut Medicaid, these constituents would lose their healthcare. We have the obligation to remain defiant in our position that everyone independent of citizenship status, ZIP Code, or age has a right to a dignified, healthy life.

Now is the moment to remain united in our commitment to healthcare for all, courageous in our resistance, and undeterred in our fight against this administration's authoritarian agenda.

Mr. Speaker, I will talk to you about immigrants because apparently my colleagues here do everything they possibly can to vilify them every single day. It is almost as if they forgot that their grandparents also crossed borders and shores to get here, but let me say to you, you may have forgotten your roots, you may have forgotten that your parents or your grandparents or your great-grandparents were immigrants, but I haven't.

I am the proud daughter of Guatemalan immigrants, the wife of Boris, who until recently, was a DACA recipient, and I am the niece of a man who has contributed to this country and paid taxes for more than 30 years and put four boys through college.

This body considers, once again, a budget that leaves working people behind. I will for a moment talk about immigration and our economy because what these colleagues of mine, the Republicans, will tell you is that immigrants are taking from the American people. Immigrants are taking your jobs. Immigrants are taking your housing. They are taking, taking, taking, so let me clarify facts here.

The reality is that Republicans are pushing for a billionaire budget that gives $4.5 billion in tax breaks to the ultrawealthy like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, while cutting trillions of dollars in programs like Medicaid and SNAP. That is not immigrants doing that. That is Republicans doing that.

Republicans have the audacity to tell us that they are doing all these cuts because we are broke. Well, Mr. Speaker, like I said to Chairman Green in the Homeland Security Committee, we wouldn't be broke if the ultrawealthy would pay their fair share.

Fair taxing could fund a budget that centers working families. It could fix our tax system. It could create opportunity for policies that work for working people. Let me also say to you, immigration reform could unleash the full economic power of our immigrant communities to fully participate in a fair tax system.

Undocumented immigrants paid $96.7 billion in State, local, and Federal taxes in 2022. Mr. Speaker, $96.7 billion is what they paid.

On top of that, undocumented immigrants pay an average rate of 5.27 percent in Federal taxes. That is a rate higher than most of the United States' wealthiest billionaires or megacorporations. Yet, while Republicans give another billion-dollar company another tax break, they are telling us that it is immigrants who are taking from the community and from the people. Well, that is a lie.

It is a lie because we understand that 23.6 percent of all entrepreneurs are immigrants. Some undocumented, some are legal permanent residents, and some are naturalized citizens. Mr. Speaker, $1.7 trillion in spending power is what immigrants bring to this economy.

Every time they tell you that immigrants are taking from us, let me be very clear: Immigrants contribute every single day.

As I am wrapping up, I will say that there are many reasons to be concerned, but it is also important to remember that there are reasons to celebrate. I will take a moment to recognize a reason to celebrate.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commemorate the 111th anniversary of the Village of Elmwood Park and to celebrate the 25,500 Illinois' Third Congressional District constituents who call this village home.

Elmwood Park is a wonderful place to live, to shop, and to do business. They have built unique intergovernmental and cross-sector partnerships, and I am proud that our commitment and collaboration with President Saviano, Village Manager Volpe, and Senators Durbin and Duckworth have secured $13.1 million for a transformative project that included grade crossing improvements to enhance resident safety in Elmwood Park.

I thank all the hardworking employees of the village whose public service enables residents to access critical services and programs. I remain committed to continuing to deliver the resources our communities need to improve public safety, create well-paying jobs, and expand economic opportunity for Elmwood Park and across Illinois' Third Congressional District.

Mr. Speaker, I congratulate Elmwood Park for these 111 years of community. I look forward to many more years of partnership and to continue to fight in the Halls of Congress for every constituent in my district.

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