Ritchie Torres

I dedicate my remarks to two civil rights icons, Edith and Judith Windsor. Today, we repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, which degraded marriage under the pretense of defending it. Today, we put the equality of same- sex love in its…

So, I think we have a distance to travel before----

I just want to interject, because I see my time--$3 billion will lead to the rebuilding of how many homes?

Reporting by municipality would seem more natural, more logical to residents on the island.

LUMA's practice of reporting outages based on arbitrarily drawn regions, in my view, has led to more confusion than clarity.

What progress are you making toward rebuilding the grid with greater resiliency and with more distributed energy?

Puerto Rico's electric grid is so fragile that every natural disaster seems to cause widespread power outages.

Does the public have a right to know the FBI's view on whether a compound in their backyard poses a threat to the security of the homeland?

What is new is the technology that enables it to spread to an extent and at a pace we have never seen before.

In terms of how it affects our students, many of them, especially if they come from not such a strong Jewish education, not such a strong Jewish background, they just want to hide their identity and make it all go away.

Those who traffic in conspiracy theories, who traffic in extremism in general, are inciting antisemitism regardless of whether you intend to do so.

Is the ADL fundamentally satisfied with efforts to prevent, police, and prosecute antisemitic hate crimes?

Have victims of antisemitic hate crimes lost confidence in the ability of the criminal justice system to secure justice on their behalf?

If a student association adopts a policy that has the real-world effect of excluding most of the Jewish community, is it fair to see that as an example of how anti-Zionism in policy could morph into antisemitism in practice?

We have seen an enormous rise in not just extremism but in extremist rhetoric becoming more mainstream.

January 6th shows us certainly a degradation of democracy. It also shows us the increasing polarization in our country.

The House Homeland Security Committee has jurisdiction over the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, which has emerged as a vital tool for protecting the Jewish community from violent extremism.

Combating antisemitism is not and should never be the sole responsibility of the Jewish community.

I am deeply grateful to Congressman Josh Gottheimer for generously hosting us in his district and for his visible and vocal leadership in combating antisemitism.

So in some sense, Jewish students have to be in the closet?

It just seems to me that that would facilitate compliance.

If we do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result, that is the definition of insanity, as Albert Einstein said.

Should we not fundamentally rethink the model of voluntary compliance? Should security assessments be binding?

If I scored 30 percent on an exam, I would receive an F, a failing grade. Am I right to see a compliance rate of 30 percent as a failure?

The Federal Government must not only preach but also practice cybersecurity, it must lead by example.