Madeleine Dean

Our goal in Congress must be to support and grow these systems, but it cannot be at the expense of equity and access.

Increasing the amount and access to modes of public transportation must be part of this conversation.

I hope that the members give special attention to the needs of our multi-modal transportation.

I do think that it distracts from the debate about equality to try to make those debates the focus of our attention now.

But it is no reason not to adopt the ERA now.

Wouldn't the ERA actually help us--wouldn't it actually tamp down the false lousy legislative proposals that we see session after session in many of our state legislatures that are, clearly, anti-abortion, they are, clearly…

It is necessary, it is essential, and it is not just symbolic but let me say symbols are important.

Our Constitution is a very important symbolic commitment to equality that speaks volumes.

This will just grant unfettered rights to abortion, I think it is, obviously, a specious argument, a false argument.

What is anybody afraid of? What is there to be fearful of if we make this enshrined in our Constitution that women hold the same right?

How in God's name have we not done this yet and why would anyone want to stand in the way?

I just would comment that it seems to me kind of late to just be coming to that notion...

I am certain that education is going to be the key and our way out of this.

I think fighting terrorism rests in practicing our Constitution and our freedoms and our rights as Muslim Americans and other Americans, all together.

The way we do that is to lift up stories of love.

I am not interested in sort of the false discussion over whether or not White supremacy exists in America or around the world. It does. We know it does, and we know it costs lives.

Hateful rhetoric does have consequences, and Doctor, we do extend our deepest condolences to you regarding what happened to your family.

What are we going to do about it? Because you know, there is hope--we do have an opportunity to move forward.

I do believe that in this country, we are better than that.

We would love to see Republicans stand up and say, 'Mr. Trump, what you are saying is not helpful. It harms people of color. It harms Muslims.'

Your testimony shows beyond measure the extraordinary heartbreaking discrimination.

I don't understand that in the balance, even if any of those, anecdotally, things were true, on whole, on the measure, in the balance of how we move forward in this country, are we to be held back those phantom anecdotes, or are we to look…

It is not only the right thing to do, it is the economically smart thing to do to come up with more creative solutions.

Economically, it is the right thing to do to make your workforce as diverse as possible.

I thank Mr. Cicilline for his extraordinary leadership on this legislation.