On the recordNovember 20, 2024
I thank Congressman Deluzio for convening this Special Order hour, and I am grateful it is on a topic that I believe is so critical to so many of the conversations that we are having right now. You are talking about babies still impacted. You brought me back to thinking about what it was like for me growing up. I grew up in Humboldt Park in the city of Chicago. I saw my immigrant parents work pretty long hours in minimum wage jobs. My dad worked two jobs, my mom worked two jobs, and somehow she also managed to give a lot of time to her local church. What they couldn't afford was childcare. My mother worked first shift so my dad could work third shift, and they could figure out how to make sure that their kids always had someone at home. That meant that my parents could barely ever see each other. My parents' experience is not very different from the reality of so many others right now. I witnessed the struggles of my community to secure stable housing, to ensure quality education for their children, and to raise a family with the rising cost of living. Let me be very clear: Working people are still struggling. The cost of living in America is too damn high. Too often I hear my constituents, my neighbors talk about having to make a decision: Can I go to the grocery store and buy the eggs and the milk, try to get some spinach, try to get the bread, pay the $2,200 a month for a two-bedroom apartment in Chicago, and then afford my inhaler? Mr.…
