G. K. Butterfield: “Let me thank you, Mr. Jeffries, for yielding time, and thank you for your passion and your willingness to come to this…”

“Let me thank you, Mr. Jeffries, for yielding time, and thank you for your passion and your willingness to come to this floor each week to raise issues that are very important to the Congressional Black Caucus and should be important to every American. Thank you for your energy and the way you represent your district in Brooklyn. Thank you to Mr. Horsford for your tireless efforts as well. Mr. Speaker, I am looking forward to the State of the Union message tomorrow night. I have seen probably nine or 10 since I have been in Congress, and each one is unique in its own way. But I am really looking forward to the State of the Union message tomorrow night from President Barack Obama. If press reports are correct, it seems to me that the President is ready to pull off the Band-Aid and expose the disease of income inequality in this country; and, hopefully, the President will lay out a plan tomorrow night to address poverty and to address the huge income disparity that we see in our country. These are the facts: there are 46.5 million Americans that live below the poverty level. Mr. Jeffries, there are 308 million people in America, and one out of six of those lives in poverty. That is unacceptable. In my district in North Carolina, one of four lives in poverty. That includes some 73,000 children, and my congressional district is among the bottom 10 of all of the congressional districts in the country.…”