[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 64 (Tuesday, April 18, 2023)] [House] [Pages H1772-H1782] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Date: 2023-04-18
Chamber: HOUSE
Ms. LEGER FERNANDEZ: I thank the gentlewoman from Indiana for yielding me the customary 30 minutes. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, today we consider a rule for two bills that do not address the most pressing issues in our country. Over the last 2 weeks in New Mexico, I spent my time in my beautiful, large district in classrooms, meeting with healthcare providers, learning from Tribal leaders, and talking to students and their parents. They shared their worries about poor access to healthcare, about affordable housing, their worries about whether we were going to target Social Security and Medicare in this House.  They talked to me about the epidemic of gun violence. Let's talk about that epidemic. There have been at least 145 mass shootings so far this year. More kids die from gun violence than from any other cause. Americans want Congress to pass meaningful gun safety laws so our kids can be safe and cared for in our schools. What are we getting out of the Education and the Workforce Committee? We are getting book banning and now sports banning. You know what? Books and sports don't kill kids, guns do. I have behind me here just some of the names of the many children who have died in their classrooms and in their schools. Parents are scared. Students are terrified of being killed at school, a place where they should be safe and ready to learn. Kids should be able to go to a 16th birthday party and come home again. But the bills this rule makes in order won't fix the scourge of gun violence in this country. While kids are dying from gun violence, the answer from the House Republican majority is to bully trans girls with H.R. 734 and undermine D.C.'s local laws. That is not okay. Today, I stand in strong solidarity with some of the most vulnerable students in our schools, trans girls. Trans kids deserve to be understood. They deserve to be loved. They deserve an opportunity to play on a team and make friends. Today, the Republican majority has brought up yet another bill that is meant to divide us and to get people angry and upset over things that are not key to whether they can have what they want their kids to accomplish in school. H.R. 5, which the Republican majority passed in March, was about banning books. H.R. 734, which we are debating this week, is about bullying kids. The problem is this: When you bully these kids it can lead to their death. I am worried that this bill will lead to rising suicide rates among the most vulnerable kids in our schools. Studies have proven that when we welcome trans kids with compassion and kindness they are less likely to attempt suicide. Studies have shown that the problem isn't whether a kid is trans or not, it is are they accepted? At a time when trans kids face alarming rates of behavioral and mental health issues and 53 percent of trans kids have considered suicide, my colleagues have chosen to use fear to score political points. Mr. Speaker, 1 in 25 American kindergartners won't live to adulthood. Imagine that. Imagine going into a kindergarten class, like I did several times in my district, looking out at that class and thinking, which one of those precious children will not make it to adulthood? That is the issue we should be addressing, both gun violence and addressing behavioral and mental health, and providing the resources that they need. You know what? The rate of children not making it is twice as much for Hispanics and over three times as much for Black students. Do we go after that in this bill? No, we don't. Sports and books are what H.R. 734 goes after, not guns and violence. There is already a mechanism in place to address the fairness in playing sports that has been raised on the other side of the aisle. There is already a way of addressing those distinctions in playing sports. The NCAA and Olympics put these in place decades ago. The Olympics already has a manual for what you should do, and it was done in 2003. Here in the United States we already have something done by the NCAA. The NCAA adopted a student athlete participation policy that will cover the concerns that some people may have.  Women in sports, I will tell you--they say they are doing this for women. Guess what? Women in sports who compete, they don't want this bill. They understand it is not about sports but about making people angry. We have the statements of women's rights and gender justice organizations in support of full and equal access to participation in athletics for transgender people, and it is signed by numerous women's sports organizations. One after another they have lined up to say, no, this bill is bad for women in sports. You know what? I want to make sure here in Congress that we lead with compassion. We are all human. We all have within our families, within our communities, people who are lesbian, who are gay, who are trans, who are many, many different aspects of who they are, who they actually are and authentically are. Why are you willing to sacrifice those beautiful kids of ours? Why? I just don't understand it. You know what? Trans kids deserve to live. The rule also makes in order H.J. Res. 42, which disapproves of the District of Columbia's Comprehensive Police and Justice Reform Amendment Act. The D.C. Council, elected by D.C. residents, passed this bill through democratic process. D.C., just like those in Kentucky and other local jurisdictions--it is the local jurisdictions which should have the right to enact laws through their democratic process without congressional interference. We should not be having congressional interference into local matters, like protecting our citizens and like having a police force that is responsible to those citizens.  {time}  1245  Just because Congress can intervene in D.C. affairs, doesn't mean that it should. The D.C. reform bill includes many of the reforms that both Republican and Democratic States and localities have passed, things like banning choke holds, things like using body cameras. That is available in red districts, in red States, in red cities, and in blue cities. In New Mexico we have those things. So let's stop interfering in D.C.'s affairs. Let's put forward legislation in contrast that addresses the needs of all Americans. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to oppose the rule, and I reserve the balance of my time.