Promoting United States Wireless Leadership Act of 2025
Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1765) to direct the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information to take certain actions to enhance the representation of the United States and promote United States leadership in communications standards-setting bodies, and for other purposes, as amended.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Latta) and the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone) each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Ohio.
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material in the Record on the bill.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Ohio?
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 1765, the Promoting United States Wireless Leadership Act, sponsored by the gentleman from New Jersey's Seventh District, the gentlewoman from Michigan's Sixth District, and the gentlewoman from New York's Ninth District.
For decades, the United States has led the development of next- generation wireless technology. To maintain our technological leadership and defend against our foreign adversaries, we must continue our leadership in standards development, including our participation in global, industry-led standards bodies.
Without participation by U.S. agencies and companies, we allow our adversaries to pursue their own economic and national security interests unchecked and the opportunity to lead in the development of standards for the next generation of wireless technology.
Already, we are hearing about the Chinese Communist Party's efforts to dominate the upcoming 2027 World Radiocommunication Conference.
I again thank the Representatives from New Jersey's Seventh District, Michigan's Sixth District, Michigan's Fifth District, and New York's Ninth District for their leadership on this legislation.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 1765, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 1765, the Promoting United States Wireless Leadership Act. This legislation is an important step toward ensuring that the Nation and global bodies crafting standards for next-generation wireless technologies, such as 6G and Wi-Fi 8, include significant representation from trusted American companies and those from allied countries, as well.
H.R. 1765 accomplishes this objective by requiring the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information to encourage and facilitate the participation of trusted companies and stakeholders in the domestic and international standards-setting bodies for wireless technologies.
The Assistant Secretary must also brief Congress within 60 days of the bill becoming law on the strategy to accomplish these objectives.
It is crucial, Mr. Speaker, that American and allied interests are well-represented at these standards-setting bodies. If the United States is not a leader in shaping the wireless future, our adversaries will step in to fill the leadership void. This includes dominating the future 6G marketplace in a
We cannot allow that to happen. History has shown us that early developers and adopters of technology define the marketplace, drive innovation, and reap the economic benefits. That is why America must lead here.
Moreover, as we have seen with the Salt Typhoon cyberattack, foreign adversaries often see our communications networks and devices as the entry points to disrupt our daily lives and conduct espionage campaigns.
In the Salt Typhoon cyberattack, which was backed by China, several American telecommunications networks were infiltrated to gain access to detailed information about President Trump, former Vice President Harris, other political leaders, and American surveillance information.
It is imperative that American interests are at the table as new wireless standards are crafted, including those that have cybersecurity and national security implications.
I thank Representatives Dingell, Clarke, Kean, and Walberg for their bipartisan work on this bill.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 1765, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Kean), the Representative from the Seventh Congressional District.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 1765, the Promoting United States Wireless Leadership Act.
The United States has long been a leader in the development and deployment of the wireless infrastructure that connects Americans and the world.
America led the way in the development and the deployment of 5G, an important tool in our communications arsenal that connects millions to everyday needs, emergency services when needed, and to one another.
Make no mistake, our adversaries are aggressively working to exert their own influence, their own values, and their own interests on the global wireless stage. As the next generation of wireless technologies take shape, it is critical that America leads and does not follow.
This bipartisan bill will cement our continued leadership by directing the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, or NTIA, to encourage participation by trusted stakeholders in the international standards-setting bodies, like 3GP and IEEE, that develop technical standards for 5G and next-generation wireless.
Through this bill, NTIA will partner with these trusted stakeholders, representing companies, engineers, and policymakers from America and our allies, to offer technical expertise to American-led innovators.
By ensuring that our companies, engineers, and policymakers have a seat at the table, we can promote fair competition, protect our national security, and prevent our adversaries, like China, from shaping the future of global communications to their advantage and to our detriment.
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the partnership of Representatives Dingell, Walberg, and Clarke, as well as the work of the Energy and Commerce Committee, on this matter.
Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from Michigan (Mrs. Dingell), the sponsor of this bill and a member of our committee.
Mr. Speaker, I thank my dear friend, the chair of the subcommittee, Bob Latta, and our ranking member, Frank Pallone, for helping to move this and for recognizing me today.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the 5G and Beyond Caucus bill, H.R. 1765, the Promoting United States Wireless Leadership Act.
As a co-chair of the 5G and Beyond Caucus, it is good to see that we actually have bipartisan agreement in this body that the United States must be a leader in the development and deployment of cutting-edge technologies.
Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Tom Kean, who we just heard from, Representative Tim Walberg, and Representative Yvette Clarke for their work on this legislation. They are my co-leads on this bill and are also members of the 5G and Beyond Caucus.
This bipartisan bill ensures the United States remains at the forefront of innovation by playing a central role in setting international wireless standards in emerging technologies such as 6G, and what is to come.
Today's policy decisions have lasting effects on the global wireless technology development of tomorrow. Today, we are taking concrete, proactive steps to lower the barriers of entry for U.S. companies and other stakeholders to promote American ingenuity at international standards-setting bodies as they develop the next generation of wireless technologies.
Mr. Speaker, let's be clear. Our global competitor is China. As 5G has become the backbone of our digital infrastructure, China has aggressively positioned itself as the global leader for this technology. To accomplish this, the Chinese Government has streamlined spectrum management, invested heavily in telecom infrastructure, and launched diplomatic efforts to shape international standards in its favor.
To maintain our technological edge, we must invest now in setting standards for the next generation of wireless technology, which is 6G. We need to counter China's influence. We must work to ensure that we shape these global standards as they will define the future of telecommunications technologies.
This bill will do exactly that. It will have a real impact on our global competitiveness, 6G deployment, and our national security.
Mr. Speaker, I am glad to see that today we are making real progress, and I strongly urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support H.R. 1765.
Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers, and I am prepared to close. I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, I urge bipartisan support for this legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, I also encourage a ``yes'' vote on the bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Latta) that the House suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 1765, as amended.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was passed.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
Honoring John Lewis
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days in to revise and extend their remarks and include any extraneous material on the subject of this Special Order.
Mr. Speaker, it is with great honor that I rise today to anchor this Congressional Black Caucus Special Order hour marking the fifth anniversary this Thursday of when we lost a civil rights giant, Congressman John Lewis.
Congressman Lewis' parting words to us were published in The New York Times in an op-ed entitled, ``Together, You Can Redeem the Soul of Our Nation.''
It was a message of hope as he passed the baton as a drum major for justice to the next generation of Americans. His words are more necessary today than ever and need to be repeated.
For the next hour, my colleagues will hear members of the Congressional Black Caucus and other members who served with Congressman Lewis or were inspired by him, using his own words to talk about his legacy.
I would like to start with the beginning of his op-ed, which is poignantly relevant today.
``While my time here has now come to an end, I want you to know that in the last days and hours of my life, you inspired me. You filled me with hope about the next chapter of the great American story when you used your power to make a difference in our society.
Millions of people, motivated simply by human compassion, laid down the burdens of division. Around the country and around the world, you set aside race, class, age, language, and nationality to demand respect for human dignity.''
Mr. Speaker, we need that call, that clarion call, that demand for respect for human dignity today more than ever before. We need the hope and inspiration that this drum major for justice saw in the next generation that would succeed him in the battle for the soul of our Nation.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Clarke) and the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Virginia for yielding.
``Our society is not unlike the children in that house, rocked again and again by the winds of one storm or another. . . . The people of conscience never left the house.''
In his memoir in 1998, ``Walking With the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement,'' the great Congressman John Lewis recounted a childhood memory of being caught in a terrifying storm with a group of children in his Aunt Seneva's small house in Pike County, Alabama, near the town of Troy.
As the storm tried to lift the house, John and the children held hands and worked together, using their unity as their strength to stabilize the home. This was, among many things, a metaphor for how society, especially in moments of discord, upheaval, and conflict, requires people to come together, hold on, and stand firm against forces trying to tear it apart.
As it happens, Congressman Lewis' timeless words speak directly to the unique moment we find ourselves in today. With the unprecedented assaults on our voting rights and the slow erosion of our constitutional and democratic norms, the house most certainly is in danger.
Voting rights are, and have always been, the CBC's North Star, and right now, the franchise, this tool, the foundation of our democracy, is under threat. At a time when our democracy is under constant siege by the Trump administration, we must do all we can to protect it.
As we speak, extremist Republicans at the local, State, and national levels are running the table with every tactic in their arsenal to disenfranchise Black and minority communities. To date, hundreds of bills to restrict voting access have been introduced in States around the country, with the aim of closing polling locations, curbing early voting and vote by mail, and imposing stricter voting ID requirements.
These efforts are coordinated, well funded, and targeting our communities with laser-like precision.
The question now is: What are we going to do to stop it?
For generations, we have marched, fought, and even died for the right to vote. Congressman Lewis certainly knew this.
It is a shame that partisan politics have brought us to the point that we cannot agree that access to the ballot box should be a right afforded to every American.
Congressman John Lewis devoted every day of his life to fighting to make our country live up to its highest ideals and to the promise that all men, and may I add women, are created equal.
From the Edmund Pettus Bridge to the Halls of Congress, the boy from Troy never stopped making good trouble. It is in that spirit that the CBC and House Democrats will always fight back against the voter suppression that plagues our country and impedes access to the ballot box, particularly in Black communities.
It is in that spirit that we will not stop until we pass the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to restore and modernize the protections of the Voting Rights Act to prevent States from erecting new barriers to the ballot box.
As our beloved John said: The people of conscience never left the house.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Nevada (Mr. Horsford), who is our immediate past chair of the Congressional Black Caucus.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from the Commonwealth of Virginia for yielding.
``What is right? . . . If we act on the answer with courage and commitment, we will overcome all that stands between us and the glory of a truly beloved community.''
Those are the words of our dear friend and colleague, Representative John Lewis. He didn't just preach these words. He lived them.
Progress only lasts when protected by vigilance. Today, our democracy faces threats so similar to what Representative John Lewis endured-- voter suppression, book bans, and economic injustice. The solution isn't to step back. It is to lean in.
That is why I am proud to cosponsor the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and reintroduce the Break the Cycle of Violence Act to carry his work and legacy forward.
Let's do more to remember this giant among men. Let's legislate. Let's lead. Above all, let's get in what he called ``good trouble, necessary trouble.''
I commend our chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, all of our members, and the Members of this House to carry on the legacy of Representative John Lewis.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Ohio (Mrs. Beatty), who is the former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus.
Mr. Speaker, I thank Congresswoman Jennifer McClellan for yielding and to our chairwoman, Congresswoman Clarke, for her leadership.
In the words of John Lewis: ``Democracy is not a state. It is an act, and each generation must do its part to help build what we called the beloved community, a nation and world society at peace with itself.''
Mr. Speaker, on this fifth anniversary of the passing of Congressman
After the Supreme Court's Shelby County v. Holder decision, nearly 100 new laws surfaced, closing polling places, cutting early voting, banning drop boxes, and changing ID rules.
Who is paying the price? It is our democracy.
That is not policy, Mr. Speaker. That is persecution. These restrictions aren't about protecting democracy. It is simply a modern poll tax in disguise, aimed to confuse and designed to suppress and discourage voters.
When we vote, when we fight, we win at the ballot box. I know this firsthand, and I know the importance of acting for our democracy. You see, Mr. Speaker, I marched with Congressman John Lewis in Washington, in Selma, and in my hometown of Dayton, Ohio, to the board of elections to stand up and to stand against voter suppression with a new generation of warriors in that fight.
That is why we must pass the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act to end discriminatory practices and make it easier, Mr. Speaker, for everyone to vote. That is because our democracy is not a state. It is an act.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi), who is the Speaker emerita and who worked with Congressman Lewis very closely for many years.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Virginia for calling us together on this anniversary week of losing John Lewis. Many of us served with him in this body. I served with him for 30 years, my brother. He challenged us each day to do our very best for the American people by his words and by his example.
As the distinguished former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, we marched with him in Atlanta. We marched with him in Selma again and again. We marched in Washington. We followed his lead wherever he took us to make this statement.
As a distinguished chair of the Caucus, Congresswoman Clarke of New York mentioned earlier voter suppression and how John was here to fight it. I will go into that in a moment. First, I want to quote John Lewis: ``In my life I have done all I can to demonstrate the way of peace, the way of love and nonviolence, is the more excellent way.''
``Now it is your turn,'' he said, ``to let freedom ring.''
Mr. Speaker, John Lewis' lasting legacy represents both the progress of our Nation and the promise of what our Nation can become. He believed in a better tomorrow and a more perfect Union, one country and one destiny. He believed in all of us. He had a deep faith in the goodness of people, and he believed that everyone was worthy of respect.
Again, I was honored to serve with him for more than 30 years, and I learned from him all that time. I saw in this Congress how he taught us through words and actions what true moral leadership looks like.
From time to time, when he rose to speak, he reminded us of our duty to the American people, to lift up our voices and to guide them to a future where freedom and justice are not just ideals but guarantees.
As the distinguished chair of the Caucus and the former chair, Mr. Steven Horsford, as well as Congresswoman Beatty, mentioned, he was there. He said that the right to vote was so central to our freedom. He wrote the first 300 pages of the For the People Act, which was to end voter suppression.
We all know of his leadership, as we see in the title of the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which is still not there.
Today, as we witness attacks on civil rights, democracy, diversity, and even people's basic necessities, many Americans are looking for hope.
In these moments, let us be reminded of John's spirit and honor him not just with words but with deeds. It is on us to rise to the moment and to get in good trouble for the children. Let freedom ring.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Johnson), one of John Lewis' delegation mates.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairwoman for yielding time, and I thank the Congressional Black Caucus and the leadership of Yvette Clarke for hosting this Special Order hour to honor John Lewis, who was a one-of-a-kind public servant. He served humanity as a youth and as an adult, and he served we, the people, before and during his many years in elected office on the local and Federal levels of government.
I had the honor and pleasure of serving closely with John Lewis during 14 of my 19 years here in Congress. During those years, I learned so much from John Lewis. We all did. I continue to learn from the writings he left for posterity.
The lessons Congressman Lewis imparts in his book, ``Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement'' today inspires us and provides us with direction on the way forward during these unprecedented and deeply disturbing times in which we are living.
John tells the story about 15 children outside playing in his Aunt Seneva's dirt yard. The sky began clouding over, the wind started picking up, lightning flashed, and suddenly the 15 children felt terrorized.
John's Aunt Seneva was the only adult around. As the sky blackened and the wind grew stronger, she herded those 15 children inside her small, clapboard house. With 16 people squeezed into that house, it was surprisingly quiet as the wind howled, and the house built on cinder blocks began to shake. They were scared. Even Aunt Seneva was scared. Then it got worse.
Now the house was beginning to sway. The wood plank flooring beneath them began to bend. Then a corner of the room started lifting up. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. None of them could. This storm was actually pulling the house toward the sky with them inside. That was when Aunt Seneva told them to clasp hands, line up and hold hands, she said, and they did as they were told.
Then she had them walk as a group toward the corner of the room that was rising. From the kitchen to the front of the house they walked, the wind screaming inside, sheets of rain beating on the tin roof. Then they walked back in the other direction as another end of the house began to lift. So it went, back and forth, 15 children walking with the wind, holding that trembling house down with the weight of their small bodies.
The 15 children, Mr. Speaker, in that small house, with a fierce storm upon it, is the America that we see today. Those 15 children represent Black, White, Latino, and Asian people. Among them are our LGBTQ brothers and sisters. They are Democrats, Republicans, and Independents. We are diverse. We are all equal, and we find ourselves included in the same house, America. That house, or our country, is under assault.
More than half a century has passed since that day that John just spoke about. It has struck me, he said, more than once over those many years, that our society is not unlike the children in that house rocked again and again by winds of one storm or another, the walls around us seeming at times as if they might fly apart.
But, Mr. Speaker, a storm always passes, and the Sun always comes out. As Aunt Seneva said, clasp hands, walk to the corner of the house that is moving, and then move to the next corner, and the next, and don't stop until the storm blows over.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Alabama (Ms. Sewell), who has made sure that Members of Congress follow the footsteps that John Lewis took, where he bled for our right not only to vote but to be here in this Chamber.
Mr. Speaker, never give up. Never give in. Keep the faith and keep your eyes on the prize.
Those were the words of John Lewis as he crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge for the last time before his passing in 2020. If I close my eyes, I can hear him say it: Never give up. Never give in. And keep the faith.
His body was frail and stricken with cancer, but his mind was sharp. His charge to us was clear. No matter what challenges we face, we can never give up.
In these troubling times, I think of those words often. John would have a lot to say about what is going on these days: the attacks on our democracy, the erasing of our history, the efforts to make it harder for people to vote.
Old battles have indeed become new again. But if there is one thing that John has taught us, it is that we must press on.
Just imagine where we would be if John Lewis and those foot soldiers had given up on Bloody Sunday. They were beaten and bruised. They were gassed and whipped. They had every reason to throw up their hands and surrender, but they didn't. They got back up, they tried again, and they marched on until victory was won.
So as we navigate this dark chapter of our history, let us be guided by their persistence and inspired by their determination. Let us pledge that we will introduce in Congress after Congress after Congress the John Robert Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act until victory is won.
We can be tired. We can be frustrated. We can be downright mad. But we can never give up.
From the boy from Troy to the girl from Selma, in remembrance of John Lewis, let's keep the faith and let's keep our eyes on the prize.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from North Carolina (Ms. Adams).
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Virginia for yielding.
When you see something that is not right, not fair, or not just, you have a moral obligation to say something, to do something. Those were John Lewis' words.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today on the fifth anniversary of the late, great John Lewis' passing, a firebrand, a trailblazer, a mentor, and a leader whose outsized presence can still be felt throughout the Halls of Congress.
Congressman Lewis taught us that we have a moral obligation to root out injustice wherever we find it proudly, boldly, and unapologetically.
He believed that the soul of our Nation hinged on everyday people dedicating themselves to the pursuit of justice. To honor his life and legacy, we must speak out about the injustices we face today.
The one big, ugly bill that my Republican colleagues applauded and cheered in this very Chamber earlier this month stands opposed to everything Congressman Lewis spent his life fighting for. It strips care away from the sick, threatening Medicaid for more than a half million North Carolinians. It takes food off the plates of the hungry, with 1.4 million North Carolinians, including 600,000 children, now at risk of losing their food assistance. It denies our children the right to a quality education, targeting our public schools and making it even harder for average Americans to afford higher education.
Make no mistake. This bill places the American Dream further out of reach for nearly everyone who calls our country home and breaks the American promise. The one big, ugly bill is a betrayal of our country. It is up to every single person in the United States, the ordinary people with extraordinary vision, to join us in standing against it.
We must fight back the way John Lewis did, using our voice, our actions, and our communities to right wrongs and to protect those who are suffering from the injustices they face. This is the moral obligation that Congressman Lewis talked to us about. Now is the time to speak up, to act up, and yes, cut up, if we have to, but let's go make some good trouble.
Mr. Speaker, it is now my pleasure to yield to the gentlewoman from New Jersey (Mrs. Watson Coleman).
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding me time.
Wherever community is interrupted by evil or hatred, by greed, or by the lust for power, it is the moral responsibility of people of good will to respond.
John Lewis wrote those words over 27 years ago. He was echoing calls for resistance to oppression passed down from our Founding Fathers, but it could very well have been said about today.
John was calling on all of us to fight for our communities. It was a call for solidarity. It was a call to reject the corporate influence that permeates our politics and puts profits over people.
Today, we are seeing the GOP pass bills that cut nutrition assistance to pay for corporate tax cuts, bills that cut funding to nursing homes to pay for billionaire vacation homes, and Republican Senators with Ivy League degrees working to eliminate college loans for poor students who are trying to work their way into the middle class. It will take all of us to change this culture of greed and put people over politics.
John Lewis was a hero of mine not just because he raised up working- class Americans with his soaring rhetoric but because he walked the walk. He put his body on the line because he knew that the power of the people is greater than the people in power.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from New Jersey for her words.
Mr. Speaker, I now yield to Representative Lucy McBath, one of Congressman Lewis' delegation mates from Georgia.
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague, Representative McClellan from Virginia, for leading this time here on the House floor.
Mr. Speaker, it is pretty difficult to believe that it has actually been 5 years that have passed since the loss of our dear friend and our colleague, Congressman John Lewis.
At this delicate moment in our Nation's history, we draw upon the wisdom of his words and look to his legacy for strength and guidance as we carry the torch that he lit for civil rights.
In his last words to the American people, John wrote: ``Ordinary people with extraordinary vision can redeem the soul of America by getting in what I call good trouble, necessary trouble. Voting and participating in the democratic process are key.''
Ordinary people with extraordinary vision can redeem the soul of a nation. Where else but America could one develop that sense of conviction?
John Lewis knew it was true because he lived it every single day of his life. The son of sharecroppers who preached to chickens as a young boy when nobody else would listen would go on to become known as the conscience of Congress, this body. It is a legislative body which once denied him his right to participate in American democracy.
When John marched, Americans were moved to act with him. When he spoke, people listened. When he participated in sit-ins, including one in this very Chamber, to confront the issue of gun violence in America, he challenged each of us to join him in getting in that good and necessary trouble to raise the consciousness of the American public and lay down the heavy burdens of hate.
Ordinary people with extraordinary vision, that is who John Lewis was, and it is who he calls on each of us to be, especially in this day and in this hour.
We must continue to honor his legacy with unshakeable determination to fight for what is right and for what is just because I promise you that this is exactly what the American people deserve.
Mr. Speaker, it is now my pleasure to yield to Congressman Lewis' successor, Representative Nikema Williams of Georgia's Fifth.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding.
``Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful, be optimistic.''
``Ours is not the struggle of 1 day, 1 week, or 1 year . . . ours is the struggle of a lifetime. . . . `'
When Congressman John Lewis spoke these words, he was reminding us that justice work is much longer than a moment. It is a commitment, a calling, and a lifelong fight.
Mr. Speaker, 60 years after he put his body on the line for our freedom, our struggle continues. We are marching in our communities and fighting back in committee rooms.
We do this to push back against cuts to Medicaid that will leave NICU babies without care, cuts to SNAP that will take food out of the mouths of children and seniors, and cuts to education that will tell our students to dream smaller.
We bring our full selves to the struggle in many ways: through early mornings in community centers and late nights on the House floor; by standing up at the mike and showing up in the
Getting into good trouble was never a one-size-fits-all call to action, and we honor the legacy of Congressman Lewis when we all find always to get in the way.
Mr. Speaker, this moment is not the last struggle that we will face, but we fight anyway with hope, with intention, and with determination to achieve the beloved community. This is the struggle of a lifetime, the struggle of our lifetime. With urgency, clarity, and intention, we march on.
Mr. Speaker, I now yield to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Carter).
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Virginia for yielding.
`` . . . the path to which I've been committed . . . extends beyond the issue of race alone, and beyond class as well. And gender. And age. And every other distinction that tends to separate us. . . .''
These words are from Congressman John Lewis. These words from the late, great Congressman John Lewis remind us that the struggle for justice isn't confined to just one issue, one identity, or one community. It is a path that winds through race, class, gender, age, ability, sexual orientation, and faith because injustice does not discriminate, and neither should our fight to end it.
Intersectionality teaches us that we must see the whole person, not just a voter, a worker, or a statistic but a human carrying layered experiences that public policy must protect. Civil rights cannot be carved up. They must be defended broadly, boldly, and universally.
As a son of the South and as a Congressman from Louisiana, I know the dual truths of this region, the undeniable progress that we have made, and the painful inequities that still persist. In the very soil where freedom once faltered, we have seen hope rise, but let's not mistake signs of change for signs of completion. Our work is far from done.
From voting rights to reproductive justice, from health equity to environmental justice, from economic fairness to criminal justice reform, the fight continues, and it must be rooted in policies that recognize the full complexity of who people are.
This isn't about left or right. It is about right and wrong. It is about ensuring that, whether you are Black, White, rich, poor, young, old, gay, straight, rural, or urban, your dignity is protected, your rights are upheld, and your government sees you.
Let's walk the path that John Lewis laid for us with moral clarity, radical inclusion, and relentless love not just for some but for all.
That is how we protect democracy. That is how we make good trouble. That is how we build a more perfect union.
Mr. Speaker, I now yield to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Ivey).
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for yielding and for organizing this Special Order hour honoring the life of the late colleague of ours, Congressman John Lewis.
Congressman Lewis once said: ``Ordinary people with extraordinary vision can redeem the soul of America by getting in what I call good trouble, necessary trouble.''
We need to get into good trouble now more than ever.
It certainly feels like today we are in the struggle for the soul of America, a soul that desperately needs healing.
In the fight to heal the soul of America in 1965, Congressman Lewis got into good trouble. The good trouble he found himself in in Selma nearly cost him his life, but from that good trouble came great progress: the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, Medicaid, Medicare, and the Fair Housing Act. These were monumental achievements made possible through many years of nonviolent struggle by ordinary people with an extraordinary vision.
Sadly, 60 years later, it feels like we are going backward. Last time we were on this floor, House Republicans passed a bill to rip away healthcare from millions of Americans and to take food assistance away from families in need.
For House Republicans and President Trump, making it harder for kids to eat so that some billionaires can pay less in taxes, may count as progress, but America is better than that.
To move in the right direction again, we must fight back for what we believe in: to protect the vulnerable, to assist those in need, and to fight against discrimination.
John Lewis serves as an inspiration for all of us during these unprecedented and difficult times for so many of our constituents. We must stay engaged, stay focused, and stay committed to the American ideals we cherish, the ideals Congressman John Lewis fought for both in this House and in Selma.
To heal the soul of America, again, we need to remain inspired by John Lewis and to get into good trouble again.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from California, Representative Sydney Kamlager-Dove.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Virginia for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, the Congressional Black Caucus is often referred to as the ``conscience of the Congress,'' and Congressman John Lewis was our North Star.
I never had the privilege of serving alongside Congressman Lewis, who is also my fraternity brother, but 5 years after his passing, his faith, his words, his story, and his work inform my work.
I often recall his words: ``It is not about who wins. It is not even about who is right. It is about what is right. That never changes.''
Regardless of if our districts are cobalt blue or ruby red, every single Member of Congress took an oath to do right by our constituents and to fight for policies that not only help them get by but help them get ahead. However, Mr. Speaker, my Republican colleagues have just enacted the largest transfer of wealth from the working class to the top 1 percent in our Nation's history, cutting essential programs and leaving many Americans poorer, sicker, and hungrier.
Furthermore, Mr. Speaker, they continue to turn a blind eye to our neighbors, friends, and family members who are being torn from our communities by this administration's militarized ICE. No matter who is in power, we should all agree that it is unacceptable for infants to go without formula, for toddlers to attend school on empty bellies, and for children to be handcuffed and separated from their parents.
It is wrong for children battling cancer to lose access to healthcare or to be deported to countries they have never known.
Mr. Speaker, if my colleagues on the other side of the aisle cannot put politics aside to advocate for children, then who are they truly standing up for? I will let you all figure that one out.
America is at a crossroads. Where we go from here as a nation depends on those courageous enough to stand for the most vulnerable among us rather than selling us out to the highest bidder.
Mr. Speaker, as congressional Republicans stare down both paths, I urge them to remember the words of John Lewis, one of the greatest to have ever served: ``It is not about who wins. It is not even about who is right. It is about what is right. That never changes.''
May they find even a fraction of the courage that Congressman Lewis had and do right by their constituents.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Rhode Island, Gabe Amo.
Mr. Speaker, as Congressman John Lewis said: ``We live together in the same house. If one section of our house begins to rot, the entire structure is in danger of collapsing.''
This week marks 5 years since his passing, but his words are more important than ever.
Congressman Lewis understood that the fate of all Americans was intertwined, and that laws that hurt one, hurt us all.
Take the tragic action on Medicaid, for example. Just 2 weeks ago, Republicans in this very Chamber passed Donald Trump's big, ugly bill which included the largest cuts to Medicaid in the program's history.
Republicans slashed nearly $1 trillion from the program, leaving roughly 17 million Medicaid and Affordable Care Act recipients without health insurance.
Every American, no matter where they get their health coverage, will be hurt by this law.
Just like a leak in the roof of a house can cause rot that could collapse the entire structure, these cuts could bring down the entirety of our healthcare system.
Republican cuts to Medicaid erode vital funding for hospitals in low- income and rural communities, will shutter one in four nursing homes, and cripple Americans' access to behavioral healthcare. It will make emergency room wait times longer. It will close local doctor's offices. It will mean the Black students, some of the least resourced, won't be able to get government-backed student loans to fund their full medical education.
If Congressman Lewis were here with us in this Chamber, he would be at the vanguard, decrying this immoral, sinful, cruel bill. He was a key player in moving our Nation closer to securing the right of healthcare for all, eliminating disparities in health equity, and improving access to care in his role to draft the Affordable Care Act.
We must stand up as our colleagues on the other side of the aisle strip away Americans' Medicaid and hurt that legacy of the Affordable Care Act. We must, as Congressman Lewis would remind us, do the right thing, cause good trouble, and ensure that no one, no one destroys the progress that we have made.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Bishop), one of Congressman Lewis' delegation mates.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, I am honored to speak today in tribute to the life and legacy of an iconic American patriot John Robert Lewis, our friend and colleague who transitioned from labor to reward 5 years ago this week.
John was and still is the conscience of this Congress. In his posthumously published op-ed, ``Together, you can redeem the soul of our Nation,'' John Lewis wrote: ``I just had to see and feel it for myself that, after many years of silent witness, the truth is still marching on.''
Those words speak to us today as truth is no longer valued in our public dialogue. Lies are rampant from our public spaces in support of denying basic rights of voting, health, nutrition, opportunity, and humanity.
In official attempts to rewrite and whitewash our history, lies to deny diversity, equity, and inclusion, lies to remove African American and other culture and racial groups from public spaces in our history books and museums, John told us we must study and learn the lessons of history because humanity has been involved in this soul-wrenching, existential struggle for a very long time.
John wrote: ``The truth does not change, and that is why the answers worked out long ago can help you find solutions to the challenges of our time.''
``Truth does not change,'' he said. We must continue to use the truth of history to move us forward. Yes, the truth is still marching on.
Lowell said: ``Truth forever on the scaffold. Wrong forever on the throne. Yet that scaffold sways the future, and, behind the dim unknown standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own.''
John gave his life for the truth that all men and women are entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is our duty to keep up his fight, to get into good trouble, to make that happen.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from New Jersey (Mrs. McIver).
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Virginia for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, I rise as a new voice, as a new face, as a new generation, but still living by the words: ``When you see something that is not right, you must say something. You must do something. Democracy is not a state. It is an act.''
Those words, the words of the late John Lewis, are as relevant now as they have ever been. They ring true in a time when our democracy is threatened, in a time when politicians attempt to choose their voters instead of letting their voters choose them in an effort to suppress the voices of the American people, and when the powerful reject accountability and oversight and come after those who stand up against cruelty.
Representative John Lewis believed that our democracy is precious and sacred. He believed that showing up and taking action had the power to create a more perfect Union. He was right. His passion for peace, justice, and a true belief in America inspired generations.
Today, we stand on his shoulders as we continue to fight to protect our democracy on so many fronts, and as we defend that sacred right at the heart of it: Our voice, our vote.
I am proud to stand beside my colleagues in this work and the battle for the soul of our democracy.
Mr. Speaker, I will continue to allow the spirit of John Lewis to encourage me to act and to get into some good trouble and necessary trouble to redeem the soul of America.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Figures).
Mr. Speaker, in his final op-ed, Congressman Lewis said: ``You must also study and learn the lessons of history because humanity has been involved in this soul-wrenching, existential struggle for a very long time.''
Some may take those as just wise words from a civil rights icon, but for me, I take that statement as a personal charge because I now have the privilege, the blessing, of representing not only the birthplace of the civil rights movement in Montgomery, Alabama, but also the birthplace of John Lewis, the man who often referred to himself as the boy from Troy, which is a small town in Pike County, Alabama, which is now in District Two, a district, I might add, that exists in its current format today because of the Voting Rights Act, the very same Voting Rights Act that John Lewis risked his life to see enacted.
Those words in that final op-ed, to me, are a charge to not forget where we have come from or what we have been through as a nation, but also a charge to be vigilant and to commit to ensuring that we never go back to certain days in this country's past.
That charge is becoming increasingly more important by the day. It seems that every day there is another effort to set us back to times we thought we were beyond as a nation: from watching the current administration walk back school desegregation consent decrees to the closing of civil rights offices across the Federal Government, to straight-on attacks to efforts to ensure that the playing field is balanced for everybody, regardless of what you look like.
It seems to me that we are forgetting where we came from as a nation, forgetting the times when people who look like me did not have the opportunity or the privilege to live in the same America as people who don't look like me.
These are not just efforts by this current administration to overtly roll back equal protections and access, but even in this very body, where just recently we passed legislation that imposes student loan borrowing caps on Americans who want to be doctors or lawyers, and those caps are less than the average cost of those degrees.
To some people, they may say that is just race-neutral. Those lessons of history that John Lewis was speaking of teach us a different lesson. They teach us, in practice, that means fewer Black people will be able to become lawyers, and fewer Black people will be able to become doctors.
That means fewer opportunities. That means fewer Black parents can tell their kids that they can literally be anything they want to be when they grow up. They must now caveat that by saying: If we can afford it, you can be a doctor. If our credit is good enough, you may be able to be a lawyer.
That same history that clarifies what those recent actions mean tells us that, no matter how dark the days may be now, no matter how dark the motives or the efforts are, no matter how dark the outcomes may be, those spaces can never be as dark as they once were because the light of progress made hangs forever in those spaces. The light of John Lewis hangs forever in those spaces.
This is not a moment of complacency. We cannot afford to be complacent in this moment. We must aggressively continue the fight, as my colleagues have so eloquently laid out here tonight. We must continue the fight for justice, learning from our past and building upon the legacy of John Lewis and others, which demands that, in moments like this, we stand firm, keep the faith, and continue the struggle.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Simon).
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in honor of the late Congressman John Robert Lewis on the fifth anniversary of his passing.
Congressman Lewis said, in a beautiful quote: ``Children holding hands, walking with the wind. That is America to me . . . the endless struggle to respond with decency, dignity, and a sense of brotherhood.''
We are so thankful for the long-living, forever legacy of Congressman Lewis. Before he took the oath here in this room, many of us studied his legacy as a young activist and organizer. It shows depth with peace and clarity.
He held hands with others and walked across the bridge in Selma to meet what we know then was a violent mob, who they themselves swore to decency. They beat those young people that day, young people who rose up and decided that they, too, belonged to a democracy that they were born into but never saw. Their mothers never saw it. Their fathers never saw it.
These young people took the mantle of peace and shone a mirror, a mirror of hatred, of segregation, of degradation, and they walked away harmed but with more clarity. Mr. Lewis was one of the leaders that day.
Those who studied the theology of freedom that is so deeply embedded in all of our faith traditions know that the actions of Mr. Lewis on that bridge, on the streets, and on this floor will forever live.
Before I end, I want to go back to that quote: ``Children holding hands, walking with the wind.'' Those children, America's children, need us now more than ever.
Children will go back to school in 6 weeks, and because of what has been done on this Hill recently, they will not have school lunches. We will diminish the Department of Education. The Office of Civil Rights within the Department of Education, which is responsible for making sure that those children, disabled children, children who had been pushed to the side, had national standards so that they, too, could be centered in the classroom with dignity and support.
We are tearing those winds apart. As children go hungry, as they are pushed to the side in their classrooms, as we continue to pay teachers less than what they are worth, I ask folks to do what we have learned from our dear mentor, John Lewis: Shine the light with peace and dignity upon those who put forth evil, who strike down the widow, who take food from the poor, who take the word of our God out of context, and who feed the wealthy while starving the homeless.
We will forever walk in Mr. Lewis' path for justice, for liberty, and for the sake of our children who need and deserve the winds at their back.
Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to the time remaining.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentlewoman from Virginia has 3\1/2\ minutes remaining.
Mr. Speaker, one of my biggest regrets is that I did not get to serve with Congressman Lewis, but I did get to meet him. He came to Richmond about a year, year and a half before he passed, for the renaming of Arthur Ashe Boulevard.
I had the opportunity to sit with him at lunch and ride with him to an exhibit at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in a former Confederate chapel, on land that was once a Confederate veteran's home.
Walking into that chapel, knowing the history that occurred there and watching John Lewis sit and listen for the first time to the speech he gave during the Clinton impeachment, and he had tears streaming down his eyes. The quote that sticks with me is when he asked in his booming voice: ``Is this good for America? If it's good for the American people, it's good for the institution.'' That, Mr. Speaker, is the question I ask myself every day in this office.
John Lewis understood, just as Dr. King did, he wasn't going to reach the promised land of that more perfect Union, but he fought for it.
In his final words to us, he said: ``Though I may not be here with you, I urge you to answer the highest calling of your heart and stand up for what you truly believe. In my life I have done all that I can to demonstrate that the way of peace, the way of love and nonviolence is the more excellent way. Now it is your turn to let freedom ring.
``When historians pick up their pens to write the story of the 21st century, let them say that it was your generation who laid down the heavy burdens of hate at last and that peace finally triumphed over violence, aggression, and war. So I say to you, walk with the wind, brothers and sisters, and let the spirit of peace and the power of everlasting love be your guide.''
John Lewis handed us the baton. Are we going to pick it up?
Are we going to carry on his work?
The Congressional Black Caucus will make sure we do.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back my time.
