Ayanna Pressley

My bill requires the Fed to build this system in 3 years, allowing the U.S. to remain competitive.

That is why I was proud to introduce the Payments Modernization Act in partnership with Representative Chuy Garcia and Senators Warren and Van Hollen.

This is no longer a question of if, but when and how fast--how this faster payment system will develop.

Working families should not have to wait days at a time just to access their own hard-earned money.

The wealth held by the bottom 90 percent of Americans is rapidly shrinking.

Nearly half of all wealth grown since 1986, as you well know, has gone to the top 1 percent of our households, while the top 1 percent controls 42 percent of the nation's wealth.

Over the past 4 decades, wealth and income inequality has skyrocketed.

I am working with some restaurant workers to eliminate the subminimum wage, which in many ways, given who represents that workforce, contributes to the very issue we are discussing today.

Now, I'll get to Dr. Rizzo. So we have seen no evidence that e-cigarettes are useful for smoking cessation. In fact, dual use is significantly more prevalent. Is dual use safe?

So, Ms. Porter, you know, I'm grateful for every one adult smoker that e-cigarettes are actually helping to quit nicotine, but for every one adult smoker that is being helped, 81 kids will be introduced to nicotine through e-cigarettes and…

A new generation of young people are becoming addicted to nicotine through these kid-friendly flavors, and we have no idea, truly, the long-term impacts this will have.

To be effective, do you agree that the flavor ban needs to include mint and menthol?

I am heartened to see the bipartisan interest and commitment to address what is a fast-moving outbreak and am hopeful that we will show similar and equitable outrage when it comes to gun violence, which is also a public health crisis.

I think first and foremost, the strategies that are being developed...needs to identify violent white supremacy as the current serious domestic threat that it is.

What should Congress do to ensure that other counterterrorism agencies do not similarly and unjustly target minority communities?

In August, we learned from a leaked 2018 FBI document that the FBI considered BIE, black identity extremists, to be as high a priority as white supremacy extremists.

There is concern amongst the civil rights community, that any new counterism authorities or resources could be used against vulnerable groups when defining violent white supremacy as international terrorism.

I also want to give up power to the people and just thank those who have labored in love, foot soldiers who have organized and mobilized and raised your voices time and time again.

I renew my request that the principle of self-government be extended and the right of suffrage granted to the citizens of the District of Columbia.

When our Nation was founded, it was based on the belief that no people should be subjected to taxation without representation or be governed without their consent.

D.C. residents have all of the responsibilities of citizenship, but they have no congressional voting rights and only limited self-government.

Congress, because we are not a state, prohibited our implementing that program.

For the people of D.C., taxation without representation is more than just a catchy hashtag or a bumper sticker slogan.

I am so very proud to serve on this committee alongside her, to take up the fight for the rights of workers, families, and the American people.

I want to give credit where credit is due, send some shine to my sister in service Eleanor Holmes Norton, who has been a stalwart fighter and champion for over two decades.