Bill Lee

Madam Secretary, you just don't care much about civil rights of black and brown children. This is horrible.

The Trump Administration has advocated for arming teachers, yet all credible research we have shows that more guns lead to more accidents.

We know that school discipline practices disproportionally impact black and Latino students.

This budget request fails miserably in fulfilling that mission. It represents the hollowing out of the Department of Labor and a fundamental failure to govern.

I do not know if you understand what these cuts are going to do to communities of color and people of color because we have huge disparities in healthcare.

But you are robbing Peter to pay Paul in many of these budget items, in terms of, say, opportunity grants not being authorized.

But that was not under this President's policy.

The tax law incentivizes outsourcing. It encourages companies to export jobs by creating a lower rate for multinational corporations to invest abroad.

It is not just unemployment, Mr. Secretary. Black full-time workers earn less than 60 percent of what white workers earn every year.

But you are still cutting their budget, Madam Secretary. And that is going to mean that we will have less civil rights enforcement for students of color.

We need to enact policies that ensure that everyone can benefit from the economic recovery and that everyone has the training they need to get good jobs with fair wages.

In many communities, housing was segregated. We passed fair housing laws. Affordable housing now is out of reach for many African Americans. This administration is now gutting all of our fair housing programs, our public housing programs…

I want to share a passage from the unity statement that was developed. This was an ecumenical group of over 100 religious denominations: ``Racism is more than individual behavior, language, and overt hostility toward particular people…

First, let me thank Congressman Dwight Evans for, once again, hosting this very important Special Order and for really continuing this fight for racial and economic justice both here in the House of Representatives but also in his…

Should the President's view prevail in arming teachers, do you see why black and brown students are really worried and anxious about this?

the Federal tip minimum wage has been stuck at about $2.13 an hour for about 25 years.

I believe that this budget does decimate public education. But let's talk about, for a minute, institutional racism and racial discrimination and what this budget says about students of color. For me, it is a slap in the face.

Walmart shuttered their doors of 63 Sam's Clubs, cutting 10,000 jobs.

This directive was really to ensure that students of color are not subject to the harsher disciplines and practices.

But with these cuts now, I am concerned that we are going to turn back the clock.

Let me put this in for the record. Black unemployment is double that of whites at 6.8 percent, which is the highest among all racial groups nationwide.

Cuts to the NIH or even level funding is not an option.

If you worked for more than 20 years of service, you got $1,000; 15 to 19 years, $750; 10 to 14 years, $400; 5 to 9 years of service, $300; 2 to 4 years of service, $250; and less than 2 years of service, $200.

how do you expect people on SNAP to get a job if you are cutting the very programs that they are supposed to help?

That is not acceptable when you look at the huge expulsion and suspension rates and what is taking place in terms of racial bias in our public schools.