Rashida Tlaib

It is so critically important that we elevate the voices of so many residents that are not in this room that are dealing with this on a daily basis, every single day, and now their children.

It always starts with all of you. Please believe that, that movement starts with you that demands it of us.

It sounds like this is about basically allowing us to have more of a say whether or not to allow a permit to come into our space and where we live.

All of you play an incredibly essential role in addressing environmental racism in our country and the fight against corporate assault on our families.

The Justice For All Civil Rights Act is the way we do it because, to me, that is going to be transformative.

The main theme here is environmental racism, right?

We need Federal protection to guarantee a right to affordable water in order to ensure that people have access to this basic human need.

I think that is the root of the problem.

If they are only three percent and we go through all of this, and there is 97 percent worse, I mean, we are totally doomed.

From the 400th anniversary of enslavement in this country, we are still not fully recognized as full human beings, right?

We literally had toxic gas leaks from Marathon last week.

This is the sacrifice zone, right? Wayne County especially.

We need to get our EPA office back into Wayne County.

When people take to the streets to protest for environmental justice, they are standing up for their lives, their right to live.

Water is a human right, and so we are going to ensure that every single person has access to clean water.

Part of the way we fight back is funding the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, fully funding it.

The environmental injustice affects all of Wayne County, just to be very clear.

The Flint water crisis is an example of what happens when the needs of profit and industry are deemed more important than the needs of the people.

We know that our communities, our neighbors, and our families are so much more important than corporate profit.

We have a right to breathe clean air, and water is a human right.

We hear so much testimony from so many experts in D.C., but often what is missing is that connection to the lived experience.

I am honored to bring Congress to the original Southwest Detroit in the zip code of 48217...

He has been one of the key champions on PFAS contamination in our country and has not backed down.

Some have been at the front line of really trying to show what doing nothing looks like.

It was really important when I was first elected and as I got into office that I was fighting for the right to breathe clean air, the right to access clean water.