itself are being contaminated by those pushing socialism under the guise of being woke. woke is aware of and to facts and issues, especially issues of racial and social justice. . . i can tell you with absolute certainty that i'm woke to the following. i'm woke to the fact that innocent men, women and children are being hurt and killed because of the left's call to defund the police around this nation. i'm woke to the fact that democrats are more than willing to spend your hard-earned tax dollars on housing and free handouts for illegal aliens but cannot be bothered to care for our homeless and our veterans. i'm woke to the fact that the critical race theory is racist

in itself. and lastly, i'm woke to the fact that painting america as a racist nation is wrong on every level and a slap in the face to those of every color, every ethnicity and creed who courageously paid the ultimate sacrifice so that old glory could wave boldly and freely for years to come. now, i'm hearing calls from the far left and those what are woke to replace our beloved old glory. where has common sense gone? if the left truly wants to discuss social justice, i encourage them to talk to the countless minority business owners who watched their life's work be looted and burned in front of their very eyes last year because of woke ideologies. talk to the engineers who was fired and can't pay his bills

now because president biden has foolishly blocked the keystone pipeline. go talk to the migrant woman who was assaulted and raped during her trek to the southern border of the united states because joe biden and kamala harris told her to come here and invited her here. i could go on but here's the bottom line. if we don't stand firmly against this movement, america, whose mighty wings have fought to defeat evil tyrants, communism, nazism, in order to lift freedom-loving people out of the hands of oppressors all over this world, could soon be a socialist dictatorship herself. and completely unrecognizable to all who love her and fought for her and died for her. in a world without a free america is a dark world indeed. thank you and i yield back.

mr. roy: i thank the gentleman from texas. i appreciate your remarks and comments very much. before, in just a minute i'm going to turn it over to the other gentleman from texas, in just a minute. i know he has some issue he wants to talk about involving border security because as three representatives from texas here, i think i can speak on behalf of the entire delegation, at least the republican side of the aisle of the delegation, that our state is under siege. our state is under siege in a way that it has not been for upwards of almost 180 years. if you think about what's happening at the border and the extent to which cartels have operational control at our border, the extent to which we have attacks on citizen, ranchers having fences torn down, ranches being ransacked, we have migrants dying on the ranches, we have migrants dying in the rivers, we have migrants being abused on the journey, little girls being abused on the

journey. if you spend any time on the border, instead of here, you see what is happening. i would ask my friend from texas what his views are with respect to the state of the border. i yield him as much time as he may consume. >> i thank congressman roy for standing in tonight to speak forthrightly on this and including other members from texas to have conversation with the american people. i'm not just about the topic of being woke but actually the things that are actually happening to the united states of america. mr. sessions: congressman, you're exactly right, there's a can crisis in america today. there's a crisis that takes place because of such a rapid and swift transition to the ultra left.

the transition that has taken place began immediately upon president biden accepting the oath of office. and walking, driving, going back to the white house, after he had taken an oath of office where he raised his hand to -- and he repeat aid among the other words, to well and faithfully execute the laws of the united states. well, there's a little bit more than just well and faithfully to execute the laws of the united states. i believe the american people want and need a stable person who will recognize that they need someone to work in their best interest. in the best interest of their community. in the best interest of their job. in the intest interest of safety. in the intest interest of trying to give every single person in

this country a better opportunity to have a better life. that is what i believe is behind the well and faithfully execute the laws of the united states. in fact, what has happened is there's a sweeping revolution that's going on in the united states of america. by the elected officials. elected officials who have turned a blind eye to the things in the past that were seen as stable, as reasonable, and something that was in the best interest to protect the people that they represented. day after day we have watched what happened down at the border, the southern border of this country. i too went down. i'm no stranger to the border. i previously lived in el paso, texas, for a number of years. my father served as the chief judge of the western district of

texas and had to deal with not just the crime, but some of the circumstances that happened along the border that came home to roost, so to speak, within the united states of america. and as a federal district judge, he tried his best to deal favorably, fairly, with people who violated the law. but where there were people who were criminals, who were not here to serve in the best interest of the united states of america, those who would become enemies of the state because what they did is, they would import drugs. drugs which would kill americans. we've just been through a terrible epidemic in this country. of opioid abuse. opioid abuse that we all recognize, much of it was inherently begun and started

here in the united states. but that has taken hold with other drugs now. fentanyl. methamphetamines. heroin. cocaine. in that process, we look to where this comes from. this comes from other countries, by and large. other countries who have people who want to kill and make money off the demise of the american people. and yet, the president of the united states, at the time he served as vice president, because i know because the drug enforcement administration's senior officials have repeatedly said that the intelligence that was given to the then-vice president, now president of the united states, they understood firsthand that the danger that came from an open border, that

the dangers that came when we did not have active law enforcement and intelligence, would cause the death of thousands of americans. because of the ill list drugs. ill list drugs that not only are addicting, but even many times mixed in a way that a user never knew they were taking them. the availability of fentanyl as an example. and yet the president of the united states, with his vast knowledge of understanding from his service to the country as chairman of the senate judiciary committee, as chairman of the foreign affairs committee, as vice president of the united states, he already knew the story. the story that he wanted to project was that he's a kid from

pennsylvania who knew what real america is. but what has happened is, is that he personally and the radical left have created a circumstance in this country that we as republicans are talking about tonight, that we are supposed to be woke to understanding the social implications. the enormous implications to people that we represent. and yet seemingly, it is the police that are the problem. seemingly, it is the border that is the problem. by enforcing the law. seemingly, it is the ability that they want for criminals to run rampant throughout not just our neighborhoods but across this country.

i would say to the young congressman from texas that we need your voice. your voice of compassion. your voice of common sense. that says we need to move this country back to where it was simply a few months ago. where we respect members of law enforcement. men and women of law enforcement who make house calls because they're asked to come and make dispute resolution. many times. and then to take care of the law as it applies to a circumstance. we need to get back to where we understand that the men and women of not just the customs protection and border protection, border patrol, are back on their job instead of being moved over to take care of one million people who in the

first six months have come through illegally. we need to go back to elected officials who actually understand that the people who elected them aren't for woke. what they're for is this body to come together, to where we understand that we have an obligation to protect the men and women and children and seniors and disabled people of this country. we have an obligation to stand behind our law enforcement and to provide them with better training and the things that they need, equipment, to properly do their job. and instead, we are watching our country, whether it's chicago or los angeles or new york city. where criminals run rampant

because of woke that says we're supposed to defund the police department. we're supposed to defund those activities that would offer safety and security and opportunity for the most vulnerable of our society. and then blame others when people of color or of different races are harmed by criminals and thugs. i watched this morning on tv of the murder that took place in chicago of the young couple that came to a stoplight and they were accosted and killed by thugs. criminal thugs. i watched in a street, in broad daylight, of this weekend, where a young man walking down the street in new york city was stabbed repeatedly by a criminal

. no wonder this happens. we've already run the police out of town. we've already run people out of town who legitimately can stand up and have that obligation. madam speaker, i come here tonight to join my two texas colleagues to say, woke may be a term that we're supposed to get about enlightenment, that we need to be good and better to each other. that we need to understand that there are people who might not agree with me, and i might not agree with them, but woke has taken on a different theme. it has taken on a theme of taking on responsibility and respect. it has taken away the ability that we have in this body to

effectively even be heard from each other. it has taken away the ability of millions of americans to where they no longer feel the safety and security of their own home, of their own city street, or even their ability to stand up to those who have a different opinion. i think what congressman roy is doing tonight is more than just standing up and expressing an opinion. it actually is an opinion that i believe millions of americans support and respect by this gentleman doing this special order tonight. and i would call on this house of representatives and all of its members who understand that this phase we're going through

will have a very difficult, difficult conclusion for many people who cannot effectively get through what is happening to them. to people who live in cities where police will no longer be, to small businesses that are burned to the ground. to judges who are no longer judging based upon rule of law, but rather fear. madam speaker, we as the republican party are not standing up yelling and screaming. we have much resolve to us. but we ask tonight that the american people hear us, that we condemned what happened on january 6. we condemmed what is happening

when people take advantage of law enforcement and take advantage of people and take advantage of this great country. let us hope that tonight in our resolve of speaking forthrightly and honestly, that we want to be that great country with shining cities on the hill where people work together, where people have a common interest and goals for their communities and generations of people who can work together, whether you be a retired senior citizen or whether you be a young child that knows not, except that you live in a great country. we need to speak plainly, but we are not yelling and screaming. we are not blaming someone else for the problems, but we will

say this. the republican party of this house of representatives stands for people to be safe in their own homes, for women who are in their own homes with their own children, will not be taken advantage of because they do know they have a backup and that is of the police departments, that they know that the rule of law will effectively provide them with the needs that they have to live in the greatest country in the world, that our law enforcement agencies will know that they can continue to evolve into professionalism, that they will be able to if he cantively heal themselves and make the changes. i call on law enforcement to continue to make these changes and my republican party has these conversations with law

enforcement every day. but i call on the director of the federal bureau of investigation, christopher wray as judge william sessions was director of the federal bureau of investigations and respect them and want them to become professional. we must heal what has happened. and sunday, at church, i heard no less than 50 times the word redemption. the words that we are sinners, we make mistakes, that we need to look at each other with the faithfulness of a great nation. i heard words of love and respect for those even that we disagree with. but madam speaker, we are not down pounding on tables tonight. we are simply trying to say what

we believe is true and i believe there are tens of millions of americans who want and want this country to be safe. they want and need our elected first whether they be republican or democrat that they need the elected first to understand that their understand their family lives are important and until we get back to the standards of expectations where law enforcement is allowed to effectively professionally be there as the backup, where our military knows that we are there to support them and that our elected officials will stand on the side of righteousness, we are going to continue to wander through this terrible time that i call chaos. it is my hope, as we drop to our

knees this evening that we do offer a prayer for our president, president biden. i know him. and i know he has been through difficult times in his life. but madam speaker, i would ask that we give respect and prayer and ask that the president please understand that the most vulnerable that are there still need others to be of assistance. and we need to make sure that this country heals itself with love, respect and admiration for each other. i want to thank the young congressman for his time tonight, for his bringing feeringt the opportunity to speak about where our country is. and i want him to know that i personally admire him and respect him and appreciate his sound call to a voice of reason

and opportunity for america's future. may god bless our country. and i thank the gentleman. mr. roy: i thank my friend from texas and thank him for referring to me as young. interestingly and i will have more, 10 years ago in july that i was diagnosed with hodgkins lymphoma with a four-month old daughter and not quite two-year-old son and i wasn't sure that i could see my son play baseball and my daughter go to camp. that shifts the world about what is important and what is not important and i can tell you that my dedication to public service was fully renewed after getting through that and i was very blessed and got through

cancer free in a matter of months. i'm knocking on my head instead. but i'm honored that you would join me and say such nice things and i know that the gentleman knows that part of the purpose here is our collective desire in this body to do what is right for this country. and what i cannot for the life of me understand is why my democratic colleagues continue to insist on using this body to stoke division and to separate us by race, by sex, by, wherever we come from, all the different ways to divide us rather than finding ways to unite to protect, defend and secure our colleagues going forward. i know my friend from texas

knows, it has been a full 90 days since the vice president of the united states who is charge of the border and the vice president has not taken a second to come to the rio grande valley. it wouldn't be enough just to come. if the vice president is listening, it's not enough just to go, but it would be nice if you could find the southern border on the map and getting your tax-funded airplane and take a flight and take the time to meet with texans and local leaders and see what is happening in real-time. i know the gentleman knows we had 180 apprehensions in may. 200,000 got aways. 1,000 got-aways coming through

the ports of entry because our border patrol and we all know this. we know this. i believe the vice president knows this. and i sent the vice president a memo outlining this, incase she doesn't know but it is happening to us and happening to ranchers in real-time. i know my friends from texas know we have had 7500 pounds of fentanyl that has been intercepted by border patrol. fentanyl is killing our children. and what are we going to vote on this week? what are we going to do this week? i flew back here and my friends are not voting -- and still voting by proxy, i'm voting by proxy because of the pandemic.

we haven't having half of our committee meetings. why are we here? why are we here when there is 7 500 pounds of fentanyl. dune how many children are diing from marijuana laced with fentanyl. and how many deaths. you know where that stuff is coming from. why did the florida governor said. why would you do that? the meth and the drugs are coming from the southwest border and anybody who follows that, knows that to be true. the cartels that are running the border are moving human beings for profit. the cartel just absorbed and just absorbed the cartels in

laredo. and that is a dangerous cartel and moving fentanyl. millions of dollars a day. we know this to be true. we know this from law enforcement agents on the ground, texans, federal authorities, border patrol, i.c.e. and they are running processing facilities. processing facilities for human beings that we say are helping because we are giving them asylum, which, by the way, they are not claiming asylum under the statutes as the laws were meant to provide, right? they come across the river and there are signs on trees. and the vice president and my colleagues would know this if they would bother and you walk down to the river and it says an

arrow and points to bright lights saying go over there. when i was at the river and i met about 50 mige grants, there was a group of them and they were lost. and i drove my truck down there. these are good people seeking a better life. ask every single one of them, it was for a job and opportunity. it wasn't for asylum under our laws and we are making a mockery of our laws by saying anyone who wants to come to our country, god bless them, i understand why, i would, too. it is close to el salvador but we are turning our laws upside down. why don't we sit down and figure it out?

you can't just say wide open borders. you can't. it's irresponsible. listen to the leaders of the countries, it is devastating their own country. we should have policies to fix it. you know what would fix it the most if we didn't have a wide open border and said sorry you can't come unless you actually qualify which is a fraction, a tiny fraction of the 700,000 plus apprehensions that we have apprehended since january 1. why are we debating that and why aren't we coming up with a solution so they aren't being abused by cartels so they can make money? this is the greatest country in the history of the world but we allow that to occur.

we allow that to occur and we do so in the history of compassion. meanwhile, they have people in cages. anybody remember that? anybody remember the kids in cages? how many of my colleagues went running to the camerasr the very structures put in place by the obama administration, that fact, everybody knows that. nobody blame odd ba ma for that everybody said, kids in cages. why? we had a massive influx. they said oh, they're drinking out of toilets. it was a lie. they weren't drinking out of toilets. they were drinking out of a device that had the water

fountain on the top with toilet down below. we have those in facility, prisons, facilities. the water supply in this bathroom is connected behind the drywall. yet they went around saying kids in cages. it's shameful. we can't have a rational conversation about what's happening in texas. it's bad. there are children in stash houses right now. why are we sitting here doing nothing? why are we going to have a vote this week on two suspension bills in a quest to go after more wokeness for i think it's some lgbtq small business bill under suspension that failed to get through on the 2/3 vote. ok, debate that. have it out. they tried to get it through on

suspension, it didn't get through. so they'll do a rule. we won't have a real debate on it, by the way. everything the people see here is a sham. there's no actual debate on the floor of the body. anyone who wants to come debate me on that, i'm happy to debate it. there's no debate on the floor of the people's house, ever. we haven't had an amendment on the floor of the people's house since may of 2016 that was in order in open debate on the floor of the house so that in one of my colleagues could walk down here and say, aye got an idea. there's a bill, i'd like to change something in the bill, here's an amendment, i'd like to send it to the desk, offer my amendment. hey, what do you think about my amendment? it might make the bill better. you know what i would have liked to have had a debate on that? last friday. i would have liked to have had a debate on the juneteenth bill. why? because the purpose of the bill was excellent.

the fulfillment of the declaration of the in-- declaration of independence with the ending of slavery which we recognize in texas because juneteenth, i didn't support the bill because i didn't think the title was good. there were some other factors. but i didn't support it, i would have liked to have amended it. didn't get a chance to do it. ever. i would have liked the ability to amend it but couldn't do it. all right. you're forcing an up or down vote. we have 2,000-page bills that are $2 trillion that are dropped on the floor and they say take it or leave it. i say i'd like to cut something or i'd like to add something, can't do it. i can go to the rule committees and say, here's my thing. it gets voted down in rules committee. you see amendments on the floor of the house, it's all a fraud, ladies and gentlemen. it's all a fraud. they are hand-picked amendments designed to make it look like we're amending. no we're not. 15 amendments from the majority.

five amendments from the minority. bam. hey, look at that. that's debate. we're killing our country by partisan dropping of bills, no matter who is in the majority, by the way. i said we haven't had an amendment on the floor since 2016, guess who was in control of the house for two years of that? republicans. when will we sit down and debate this stuff and do what matters. i go home to texas and everybody is say, how can you possibly allow this to be occurring on our border? it is the fundamental duty of the federal government to secure the border of the united states. we have fentanyl pouring. in we have cartels through the border. we have terrorists, we have danger to citizen nours country occurring. we have human traffic, sex trafficking, occurring in san antonio, austin, up i-35, over to houston, we stop cars in the san antonio suburbs that have nine immigrants in them going to

a stash house in houston. driven by an american citizen employee of a cartel. i offered an op-ed explaining that to the san antonio express news along with the district attorney of kendall county texas and the paper wouldn't print it. a fact-based op-ed. ended up printing in the "national review" or someplace online. who wants to have a conversation about this stuff? the american people do. everybody i talked to in texas knows this is real. but here we are. we have a house body that's more interested and frankly an administration more interested in advancing wokeness every single day than in addressing a wide open border that endangered us and the migrants who seek to come here. i can't emphasize that enough. a wide open border that endangers american citizens, endanger ours children and

endangers the migrants who seek to come here which my colleagues on the other side of the aisle pat themselves on the back in the false name of compassion in a open borders is somehow good for borders and it's a lie. it is a blatant lie. and instead, what are we going to get? we'll get a so-called infrastructure bill next week which will come through here on partisan lines. what are we going to have in there? provisions for programs that prioritize funding based on race, ethnicity, jenner and socially disadvantaged standards. bill includes a study on how infrastructure planning exacerbated regional environmental and economic injustice. we have a bill that establishes 41 new federal programs. $ 1 million for implicit bias and training grants related to racial profiling. $5 million for programs to increase transportation job awareness and diversity. carbon pollution reduction

program. on the international stable what do we see? our own diplomats are undermining the greatness of america. linda thomas greenfield, the ambassador to the united nations, who said that racial equity is her top focus. and that white supremacy is weaved into our founding documents and principles. our advore sirs -- adversaries like russia and china are weaponing the leftist agenda at the summit, secretary blinken brought up uighurs in china and others responded by saying the united states is the same with black lives matter. instead of developing a lethal, battle-ready force which can protect when called up to do so, under the guise of reviewing extremism in the ranks of the military, in march, special operations command hired the

first chief diversity and inclusion officer. we've seen examples of west point cadets forced to attend critical race theory presentations, a space force officer was fired were saying the trainings we are receiving in the military is rooted in critical race theory which is rooted in marksism. the biden v.a. will be using american taxpayer dollars to cover sex reassignment surgery. i have multiple parents of the kids i was -- 18-year-olds i was able to nominate to go to the academy we had a celebration in san antonio, and every single one of the parents were showing me videos ofrom the air force academy, west point academy, talking about people having two mom two dads all this woke training. for heaven's sake it's a military. china and russia just looking at us and saying what in the world? they're licking their chops. you got critical race theory in education. we're seeing a large scale effort to impose tyranny over

the minds of our children for taxpayer funded indoctrination. in eness -- in evanston illinois students listen to "not my idea" a book about whiteness. that you can't be white without signing into whiteness. in california, third graders were required to deconstruct their racial identities and rank themselves corkt power and privilege. kindergarteners were required to understand their groups including race, gender family, ethnicity and ability. an advisory board in loudoun county, virginia, suggested teachers be dismissed if they question training based on critical race theory. we saw a fellow removed or told he had to be suspended in loudoun county, i think he was finally restored, because he dared to speak up about this. you've got woke corporations across america, their corporate boards, moving the major league baseball all-star game from

atlanta, georgia, which is 50% black to 10% denver. i bet all those white coloradans driving around in s.u.v.'s driving around with a rainbow flag on their car, instead of celebrating hank aaron, why? because georgia was moving an election reform bill with laws that were almost identical to colorado. major league baseball said oh, no, we're going to go join the woke brigade and we're going to go forward and say we're going to move everything to colorado. nothing was proved by that other than major league baseball's wokeness. talked about border security. and i talked about that because it's so critical to the people of texas. we can talk about the other things that are critical. all these programs i just talked about. people ask, congressman roy, why

do you come down here and vote no? because almost every single bill dropped on this floor of this house spends money we don't have, adds regulations that's going to kill small businesses, divides us by race, or adds more laws to the books. does anybody think we need more laws? more spending? when we're $30 trillion in debt? just once i would like to see an actual debate with a -- with the 435 members representing the people in this chamber about what we're going to do about $30 trillion in debt. but we got nothing. we got an empty chamber. the american people can hear my voice echoing. we're not going to actually have a debate about it, we're just going to spend more money. it's a race to see who can spend more money. does anybody have any belief that we're not endangering our kids and grandkids? somebody wants to come down here

and expound on modern monetary theory about how spending all this money is absolutely fine, i'm happy to listen. most people in america don't believe it. $30 trillion in debt. soon. $6 trillion spent in the last year. do you know how much it cost to win all of world war ii? $4.1 trillion in current dollars. we just spent $6 trillion in a year. appropriated. we'll spend it out in a little over a year. $6 trillion. shutting down small businesses. closing our schools. we have 100,000 small businesses closed. 100,000. and now we're paying people more not to work than to work. why do you suppose the vice president of the united states refuses to come to the southern border? why do you suppose the vice president of the united states

or the president refuses to go to the southern border and refuses to take me up on the offer to debate the vice president anywhere, any time about the border? because she knows and the president knows they have zero defense for our current border policies. there is literally no ability to defend the current border policies of the united states. it's laughable. high school debate team would destroy the president or the vice president in a debate about our current border. because it is so unbelievably unforgivable to turn our borders over to cartels. but that is what this administration has done. and again, look, it's all tied back together. this is all in the name of supposed compassion for people

and it continued -- and a continued desire to try to drive a wedge and say, republicans just don't want those brown people to come here and cross our river. that's what it's ability. -- that's what it's about. that's the purpose of the fight and the divide. meanwhile, ask any border patrol agent, ask anybody along the rio grande, ask anybody who is being affected by it, ask any of the myfwants about what's happening, how it's happening, about the journey. i'm not saying the migrants that are coming don't want to be here, they do. but look into the eyes of the little 7-year-old girl on the border who had no mom, no dad, no aunt, no uncle, no sister, nobody with her. but we don't care. it's all fine, it's all fine for us to have a system in which a 7-year-old girl takes a journey by herself from guatemala, through mexico, in the hands of the cartels, to get to our

border. we say that is fine. i can't state enough and the reason i'm using this time and going longer because my friends from texas used a little more time and i appreciate his being here. but every single person i talk to in texas views this through the lens of a crisis and it is absolute silence from the administration in this body. you wonder why the governor is going to take it upon himself and the state to build a wall or fund resources at the border. we had to do it for years, basically a billion dollars a

year has been funding technology. the border patrol is using technology. cameras weren't working, radios. and now the governor is going down there and texas has to figure out how to fund it. it's our border, our communities. yet contradicts, absolute contradicts, devastating contradicts from the democrat-led of the house of representatives and democrats, president biden and vice president who refuse to come to the border. the longer this goes, i get it why. how could you look any american in the eye saying you are securing our border. anybody understand in this chamber and come present behind

how bad it is for our fute furnish and the neighbors to the south to empower cartels the way we are empowering them. instead of having a robust trade and having a we could partner with countries and compete against china instead we are damaging these countries and empowering mexico and empowering cartels and endangering america. my friends on the house judiciary committee is here. i will give my warning here in a couple of minutes. i'm about to yield. i appreciate the work he is doing, my friend from colorado, trying to navigate the

complexity of antitrust laws with respect to massive companies and we are going to have a robust day tomorrow in the house judiciary committee and i thank him for the work he is trying to address that. i don't know if i will agree and i will support one or two and see what happens in the process of amending and debating. what i would say to my friend, it would be great if we could address every issue with both sides of the aisle engaging and offering amendments and restore regular order. we are never going to deal with our spending issues if we don't roll our sleeves up like a small business and don't address the border and offer solutions that will work.

never going to solve health care or a strong national defense without being involved in endless conflicts. i joined with my democrats with regard to our presence in iraq. we can find agreements if we sit down but we can't ignore cries sees and hope they will just go away. i'll close by renewing my call to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, the president and vice president, let's actually focus on these crises at the border and do our job, our constitutional duty to address them and do what we we are going to done and wanted to be part of the people's house to amend and to vote. i'm not afraid what we are go to

go do tomorrow. we are going to offer bills, amend and debate. we should do that on the floor of this house. and with that, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. under the speaker's announced policy of january 4, 2021, the gentleman from rhode island, mr. cicilline is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader. mr. cicilline: thank you, madam speaker and i look forward to our debate tomorrow and a good resolution on a number of important issues before the committee. i rise this evening to honor pride month. i want to begin by saying that we are grateful to the members of ther lgbtq equality caucus who continue to be champions for fall equality for our community. and each year we gather in june to celebrate the progress that

our community has made the lgbtq and reflect on the work ahead and how much that remains to be done. and it's an opportunity each year to really celebrate the progress we have made and recommit ourselves to the work that remains and this year is no different. in 2021, we come together on the floor to celebrate pride month with great highs and some very deep lows. our community was impacted with covid both because of pre-existing conditions and also because segments of our population faced isolation which was made worse. like all communities, we have been shocked at the efforts to undermine our democracy and restrict the right to vote that will impact our community that

will impact our people. this year we witnessed number of anti-transgender laws being introduced, many of them passing. opponents of equality have decided to zero in on the most vulnerable in our communities that is subject to the greatest amount of violence. and we must stand up in force against this. but it wouldn't be pride month without a celebration and we have much to celebrate. in the last six months we proposals missed the no-hate act, the pulse club memorial bill and the senate has passed those and in february i introduced h.r. 5 the equality act with 224 original co-sponsors and passed the house with bipartisan support. president biden is asking congress to get the bill to his

desk and we are rolling our sleeves to get the bill passed in the senate and the house of representatives did its part in passing this critical piece of legislation. no american should live in fear of discrimination. and shouldn't have to whether or not the person in the white house or the state legislature will undermine what protections they do have. the equality act is a commonsense of legislation that expands the laws to ensure that lgbtq company live their lives free from discrimination. equality is a founding principal. and i hope by the time i stand before you for pride month next year, we will have turned this bill from a hope into a reality.

i'm proud to have the support of so many members of congress and so many colleagues, in fact every single democrat, an original co-sponsor of the equality act including you, madam speaker. i'm proud of a caucus that understands the importance of recognizing the dignity and pride month is about expressing that and affirming that to all lgbtq people across this country and across the world. i'm proud to have one of the co-chairs of the equality caucus, mark takano, a chairman of the veterans' committee, a member of the lgbtq friend and a colleague and great champion. i yield the floor to mr. takano to share his views on the

celebration of pride. mr. takano: i thank my true friend from the state of rhode island, david cicilline who chairs the lgbtq caucus. thank you for yielding. i want to say that pride is a very special time of year. it is a time of protest, a time of celebration and time we honor the trailblazers and the progress we have made in the fight toward equality. throughout our history, lgbtq have been denied their basic rights. to this day, they face discrimination in key areas of life from housing to health care. while the supreme court has ruled to expand the nondiscrimination protects in employment and made marriage the

equality of the land and lgsbts aren't protected -- lgbtq, that's why we are working hard. discrimination has been enslind into policies at every level including in the mill tear. despite this, thousands of brave lgbtq americans have stepped up to serve our country in uniform. lgbtq members of the u.s. military and veterans have faced diss creme nation stemming from official military poll situation including don't ask don't tell and the transmilitary ban. before it became a military policy, certain members had to hide their identities and those who were suspected were targeted

by horrendous and traumatizing so-called witch hunts that were mistreated them that had nothing to do with their service. it estimated that 114r,000 servicemembers were discharged on the basis of their sexual orientation twn world war ii and 2011. while veterans have been impact d by quote, hostility, harassment and assault behavior by discriminatory military policies. many who were discharged are unable to access their v.a. benefits and those facing make them vulnerable to harassment and put their careers at risk. but the true by the policies and

at v.a. is not known or well understood. to remedy the harm, we must reckon with what has happened and reckon with the policies on lgbtq policy and i introduced a commission to study ongoinging equity for veterans otherwise as the commission servicemembers. this legislation would launch a comprehensive study on the effects of discriminatory policies on affected servicemembers, their families and units to help america learn the harm caused by these policies and the status ever servicemembers to date. there are currently 250,000

active duty lgbtq servicemembers and 1.5 million lgbtq servicemembers receiving health care but there is a lack of data collection and absence of education tore both members of the military and the general public become members of the lgbtq community who serve in uniform. this legislation seeks to address that. it is essential for the american people to hear stories of lgbtq servicemembers to understand the stigma 'tisation they endured and despite this, they are proud of their service. this month, i have been sharing powerful stories of lgbtq stories on my media and there are stories and veterans sharing

the same message. lgbtq want and deserve to serve like everyone else. we have made a lot of progress as a country but there is a lot of work that needs to be done to make the military and v.a. more inclusive. that is it is my mission to ensure that we honor the service of every american who has served, regardless of their identity. this past weekend we saw action that steers us toward that goal. the biden administration announced that v.a. will begin the first steps to expand care to include gender confirmation surgery for transgender veterans. this is truly a first and incredibly significant step that the v.a.'s taken and i applaud v.a.'s decision. veterans in need of