I thank the gentlelady for yielding. Unfortunately, I don't have time to respond to many of the representations that Mr. Sessions made with reference to our economy, but we can all agree that our most important responsibilities as Members of Congress is to grow this economy, create the kinds of jobs that Americans need so that they can succeed and support themselves and their families. I want to speak about a couple of things in this rules package. Traditionally, Democrats will vote against and Republicans will vote for because traditionally this is a partisan vote. I urge the Rules Committee chairman to adopt a couple of changes which I thought would make this rules package a better one. First, I ask the House to move to ban discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender employees. We provide in our rules that you cannot discriminate against people based upon race, nationality, gender, and other arbitrary distinctions. We should have added this as we have in so many of our laws. Currently there are no protections for a congressional staffer fired or refused promotion simply for LGBT status. I regret that the Rules Committee was unprepared to offer such a protection to our employees. Secondly, since Republicans assumed the majority in 2011, Delegates from the District of Columbia, the U.S.…
Share & report
More from Steny Hoyer
I come to the floor to urge Members to understand it is not just about them. It is about this institution and the ability of people to serve in this institution with the resources necessary to sustain themselves and their families. Too…
It has been 687 days since Putin invaded Ukraine. It has been 379 days since we secured our last aid package for the Ukrainians. It has been 97 days since Hamas launched its brutal terror attack on Israel and took numerous Israelis and…
I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, we spend a lot of time in this House focusing on that which we disagree on. I think if we spent more time focusing on what we have been able to do together and agree on, we would be a better…
There are 4 legislative days left in 2023. Yesterday, I spoke from the well about the need to provide critical aid to Ukraine and Israel--just as I did the week before, just as I did the month before, just as I will continue to do until we…





