Joyce Beatty

We are still, in my opinion, hitting the headwinds of systemic racism.

Thank you so much, Chairman Beyer, for not only hosting this committee, but bringing in witnesses that have been able to speak to this issue.

I am a big proponent of the vaccination for a whole lot of reasons, mostly based on data and statistics.

This must be the catalyst to trigger actions far beyond today.

We are hopeful that today will be the catalyst to turn the pain, the agony, the justice delayed into action.

We have to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. And we have to continue to be in this fight for justice because too many lives have been lost.

It was today we could for a moment exhale. Exhaled not only for black America but for America.

We know all too close and too much about justice delayed is justice denied.

Whether it`s a $20 bill, a cigarette, an air freshener, this is something that the Congressional Black Caucus is going to be joining with other communities, civil rights groups, to make sure that our voices are heard and that we`re going…

The Congressional Black Caucus announced yesterday at the White House, with the President of the United States, that we are going to have Congressional Black Caucus Vaccination Week.

When you give individuals money, they put it back into the economy. And think about it. 60 percent of the American people wanted those dollars. And they believed in it.

Yes, it was great to have the president here today because as you know we are in this healthcare pandemic with COVID-19. So to be able to say that help is here, and to be able to say what he is doing not only in the nation, but right here…

We need to have further discussions about how we fund and what we should do in Congress for public housing.

When we cut funds, when we don't make investments in public housing, it gives me great pause to ask why?

If you go back to 1966, in Chicago with the Housing Authority and HUD was sued for alleging that public housing had been built purposefully to keep Black families segregated from the White neighborhoods.

I worked in public housing and as a part of the movement.

The faster that we can get to work there in the pipeline and creating the programs that allow diverse asset management, the better we will be as a country and a profession.

Systemic racism exists, regardless of education, regardless of where you live.

Get vaccinated. Get vaccinated. The vaccine is far scarier than COVID (sic).

I think it’s important for us, as we’re doing with the Congressional Black Caucus through our education program, to encourage students that you have to come back, but you have to come back when it’s safe.

There are dollars set in there for us to do education and awareness because the first lady, we should have had or she should have been able know what she needed before going there and getting in front of the line.

We are engaging barbershops and beauty salons to get engaged and to tell their constituents more about how to get the shot and where to go.

It’s very devastating that when we think of the coronavirus, we cannot think of it as a single issue. It is the economic issue and it is also the social justice issues.

It is important that we take this step to affirm that conspiracy theories and outrageous lies have no place in the Congress, no place in the people’s house.

It is an honor for me to be here today. Certainly, as we have heard, and research and the people's comments have supported, individuals need relief.