On the recordMay 23, 2024
I thank the distinguished ranking member of the Oversight Committee for yielding. I also thank my colleague, the Representative from Washington, D.C., who tragically and outrageously does not have full voting rights here in this Chamber, but whose arguments and points are very well received. Madam Speaker, I am rising in stark opposition to H.R. 192, another unbelievable attempt by my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to legislate specifically on the District of Columbia. We are individual Representatives duly elected by our constituents to legislate for this country and our constituents have representation, and yet the District of Columbia, who we are obsessively seeing our colleagues try and legislate on, does not have representation. Why not look at the host of issues this country is facing? We only have so much time in this body. We are almost to the halfway point left of this term. We could be working on paid leave, decreasing maternal mortality, fully funding special education, the climate crisis, a national gun violence epidemic, women's rights, real voting rights for this country. Give me a break. This is how we are choosing to use our time, a fifth effort to legislate specifically to the Nation's Capital, the only capital of a country that does not have full voting rights in a Federal Chamber? This is outrageous, and it is anti-democratic.…





