Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Jackson and Congresswoman Cherfilus-McCormick. I thank our CBC colleagues for speaking tonight on this important topic and for the incredible work they do on so many issues impacting our communities. National Diabetes Month is a call to action. It is a call to action to invest in our people, invest in our neighborhoods, and invest in public health and medical research. It is a call to take the simple and direct actions that are often right in front of us. Just a few weeks ago, President Biden declared November to be National Diabetes Month. While diabetes is truly a widespread problem, it is also a disease that shows some of the deeper sickness of America's history. Roughly one in eight Black Americans has diabetes, and nearly 40 percent of the population that doesn't have diabetes is already prediabetic. It is not just an older person's disease. {time} 2045 In the last two decades, the prevalence of diabetes among people under 20 who are Black and Hispanic Americans has increased by 95 percent. Mr. Speaker, when you add it all up, Black Americans are 60 percent more likely than White Americans to have diabetes. In Cuyahoga County, which I represent, the Black diabetes rate is 25 percent. For Whites, it is 7 percent. When the CDC released the Census tract data, it showed there were neighborhoods in Cleveland where the diabetes rate was nearly 40 percent.…”