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Congressional Daily Record
This section captures a floor statement or debate entry. It mentions members such as Haley Stevens.
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September 16, 2026
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Download official House Record PDFReturn to issue contextUnder the Speaker's announced policy of January 3, 2025, Ms. Stevens of Michigan was recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.)
General Leave
Ms. STEVENS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and to submit extraneous material into the Record.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Barrett). Is there objection to the request of the gentlewoman from Michigan?
There was no objection.
Ms. STEVENS. Mr. Speaker, I rise at this podium on this mid-day week evening as the House is set to adjourn. I was not expecting the House to be adjourning this evening for the remainder of the election cycle, 48-some days until the American people participate in one of the most incredible and fascinating processes, which is to vote and to engage in our elections, but as we will return after such midterm election, the Congress will be in a lameduck period.
As you and I both know, Mr. Speaker, we do not use such Chamber activity to engage in electoral politics, so I make this address not for political purposes but to reflect in a matter of ways on the state of our Union, the state of our economy, the direction that this country is going in, and what it means for the American people.
American democracy. It is a participatory process of engagement, one in which Americans can self-select. They can self-select to run for office. They can self-select to serve their country. To the brave men and women in uniform here in our own borders and across the world, we respect, honor, and salute their service. Those who are carrying a tremendous weight of intelligence and information and those who seek the disruption of our very Nation are recognized. They are seen and valued and heard by so many of us in this Chamber.
We also know that people show up for America in so many ways. In Michigan, in Rochester Hills, we just concluded the Art & Apples Festival. My parents helped start the Art & Apples Festival, and it is a great family event that goes the weekend after Labor Day. The bees are already starting to get weird in Michigan at this time of the year because they know that summer is ending, so they tend to bother you a little bit more.
ready for bee stings at the Rochester Hills Art & Apples Festival. It is largely volunteer run, and it is participated in by members of the community.
in ZIP Codes, in towns, in villages, in cities across America, across Michigan in all seasons. Although, certainly in the upper North, we do appreciate our good weather days, and we hold on to them for as long as we can.
Now, Mr. Speaker, I did advise to the public, the members of the press corps—I don't see any of them up there. That is okay. They don't need to be up here. They have other deadlines and things to write, but I did advise I was giving this address. It is not the first address that I have given to this tune from this Chamber.
me, although I voted at every turn and never missed vote—I actually might have missed one. I was talking to someone in the Speaker's lobby, and it was one of those 2 minutes. I know they like to play the gotcha.
{time} 1940
I have always taken the vote very seriously. Before such political activity, I always found it very important to deliver these addresses, not assuming that it would be met with a huge audience or fanfare. Sometimes I told people to tune in, friends and family. You can see the Chamber is fairly empty.
Mr. Speaker, because this is the United States of America, this is the U.S. House of Representatives, as the incredible former majority leader and statesman from Maryland, Congressman Steny Hoyer, would remind and tell all of the new Members of Congress as he led them through an orientation upon their election to Congress that, as we all know, you can't be appointed to this body. You have got to be elected.
is constitutionally required, meaning for the whole country—the States can't usurp this—that a vote has to be taken.
Now, Mr. Speaker, I am very well aware of the generosity of the time that such a Member of Congress as I get allocated, the 60 minutes, to make such remarks, to etch them in the historical document of the House Record. I firmly and readily believe in the power, the beauty, and the magnificence of the House Record. I very much thank the typist who is making notes in real time about such remarks so that they can go into the House Record.
Some in the American public might wonder why we have the recorder. You have got the remarks on digital and audio, and all of that. Decades ago now, they opened this whole place up to the cameras and C-SPAN, which is actually a wonderful thing to have the ability to tune in—not to doomscroll, not to engage in rage as you face the intersection of American Government, but to see really what happens here—not by way of the media outlet, not by way of some orchestration. You know, these internet maestros, the really talented people, I know that they will maybe take an interest. They did in one of my hour addresses during a campaign I just completed—not a big deal. It was just a few clips of a clip. Yet, that is someone's perception. It is someone's orientation of what gets said.
believe, Mr. Speaker, that no matter what America faces, what challenges, what great opportunities we seize, we will always have the House Record, not some incredible article—there are so many articles, journalistic articles, internet articles, tweets, posts, engagements, likes, clicks, data ballooning by the millisecond, more than any data that has ever been created in the history of the world up until the internet age proliferated—proliferated through the economic might and ability of the United States of America, might I just say.
Earlier this month—well, just 5 days ago now, Mr. Speaker, we recognized the 25-year anniversary of 9/11. Now, I remember that time very clearly.
I was 18 years old. I had actually just temporarily moved to the Nation's Capital. I had received admittance into a college called American University—Go Eagles—and I took the opportunity to get my degrees at American University. My mother and my brother dropped me off to my Washington, D.C., dorm room 3 such weeks before the terrorist attack that took the precious lives, stolen in instances of American people going to work, serving this country, those in the Pentagon, those whose lives were forever changed and impacted, the heroes of our fire departments and our police departments, and those who put up their hand to volunteer in such a dark moment.
My first term in Congress, 9/11 actually turned 18 years old. It had grown up. It was an adult. Now, it is further distant from us. In reflecting on the years that we have now spent in this 21st century, as a millennial, of course, I am mightily aware of how people celebrated and recognized the arrival of the 21st century. Everything was 21st century. Everything was focused on this not only new century, but new millennium. I mean, oh, my goodness gracious, the United States of America also just turned 250 years old, and we have been cruising through this new millennium.
What do we make of it? Can we take a moment, Mr. Speaker, to reflect after this unbelievable tragedy that befell us, that impacted us, that shook us to our core—so unimaginable. I remember being woken up by my landline ringing from my college roommate's mother calling in, shrieking, and I am turning on the TV just in time to see the second plane crash, attack, blow up the second tower.
So what has happened since? What is our story? You know, we didn't cower per se. No, we didn't at all. In fact, we were the ones who propagated the age of the gig economy, the mass proliferation of ones and zeroes through fiber optics, less than a decade later, these handheld, flat screen, computer-type phones that had cameras, texting, the internet, and music, and all of a sudden, a new economy of scale.
century called Google—started by some Michiganders, as a matter of fact, in a college dorm room or college garage, or something along those lines—Google's first outpost out of the innovative area of California was to Michigan, actually to Birmingham, Michigan.
High School—go Maples—still a fantastic school, still a school that has so many engaged and talented students, students who I recently visited because they were putting together a documentary recognizing 75 years of Seaholm High School's existence. I challenged them on a claim that I make often that I am the first Seaholm graduate to Congress. As far as my records and their records show, that is true.
graduate of Seaholm High School, but she came to Congress a term after me. I said: Kathy, I really needed that benchmark more than you because I don't think a lot of people in North Carolina know about Seaholm High School on Lincoln Street in Birmingham, Michigan.
{time} 1950
It was kind of cool, to say the least. We were Motor City. We were continuing to, as we do now, lead the world on manufacturing, innovation, putting the world on wheels, and continuing to innovate around safety standards, technology standards, and emission standards. There is incredible benchmark-setting that goes on to this day, but why did Google come to Michigan?
It is not just because we are good, hardworking people. It is because of that auto industry. They came to Michigan because of the auto industry and the advertising dollars attached to it.
adoration, and adulation for the proud, incredible State that I represent, my nearly 800,000 constituents, here in the United States Congress. This is Michigan's 11th District. Oakland County, 26 communities, they are all phenomenal. I love and adore working with all of them, by the way. I love coming here to the Nation's Capital to make sure that Michigan is heard.
Mr. Speaker, that is not the intent of such an address. There are many such moments to make love letters, overtures, and fanfares to Michigan. This address is about centering us on why the American people and the people of Michigan, the heartbeat of making things and growing things, are feeling twisted, frustrated, and maybe somewhat confused.
Not everyone is angry. There is some unhappiness in this country. We do seek the pursuit of happiness—life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness here in the United States of America.
It is more so, Mr. Speaker, the confusion around why, in Heaven's name, do we have nearly 65 percent of Americans in this country living paycheck to paycheck.
say, the high school student working a job, to the single parent, to the hardworking middle-class family, they are living paycheck to paycheck? We must ask that, Mr. Speaker.
but around policy propositions. You see, Mr. Speaker, in the last handful of years in this quarter century mark of which America finds themselves in, I feel more compelled than ever to fight for my country, to fight for our freedoms, our way of life, the ability to start a small business without drowning in debt, the ability to live your life.
When I look around, I am not seeing anyone's bills going down. I am not seeing housing prices going down. I am not seeing healthcare bills going down. I am not seeing energy costs going down.
with the people in my communities and in Michigan. It is hard to even say this in a way that will actually land, but this is the truth: that the people who I talk to, particularly retirees on that fixed income, with their incredibly well-earned Social Security check, that earned benefit—Heaven knows why the trust has been robbed, why the trust is on shaky ground, what the next session of Congress will inherit to secure the earned benefits for the American people, the hardworking American people, even some who are doing hard labor, inspecting our trains—AFGE Union and SMART are some who come to mind—the incredible manufacturing workers of the machinists, the UAW, my friends at the bricklayers union, Mr. Speaker—I believe you know them well—physical labor.
Pension Plan Relief Act from this very floor. What was that bill? Securing the multiemployer pensions of millions of Americans. People to this day come up to me with tears in their eyes with gratitude that their pension was saved.
What is the deal here? What is the deal? The future Speaker of the Chamber, a history-making, wise, steady, leaderly individual, Hakeem Jeffries, led the Congress today on these very steps, saying that we are fighting for an affordable America.
We have to say this, but we also have to do something. That is what Speaker—future Speaker Jeffries knows. Pardon the slip, but what we say gets willed sometimes into existence.
to call out for action as I maybe peel into some statistics. I did print out the numbers.
Who is paying for Social Security? Why is it that we have a cap at a certain salary? What is that saying to the middle class and the hardworking person? You are paying for it.
infrastructure bill? I can't believe it, Mr. Speaker. The last one we did in this very Chamber was over 5 years ago, just about.
in Detroit, the water pipes in the Great Lakes State in the Nation, are 100 years old. It is a multibillion-dollar problem to replace those pipes. I live in Oakland County, Michigan. Boil-water advisories because of pipes bursting happen regularly.
50 hours to whatever job, those who are raising the young people of America through our great public schools, who deserve and need full funding for special education, why, Mr. Speaker, must I turn to those individuals and say to them they have to pay more? Why is it that I have to say that to them?
I am aware of the reality that this Nation is in debt. It is terrifying—$40 trillion. In the last year, the debt has grown faster than the economy. You have people being misled around growth sectors, people freaked out about new tech and outside billionaires coming in.
I am talking, of course, about data centers. There is work to build them. There is no work to maintain them. There is a little bit of an incentive, and people—look, I am not pointing fingers, but take 10 steps back and ask yourself why the taxpayer has to get taxed again for the pipes, the roads, and to make sure the air stays clean. Why is it, Mr. Speaker, that in Genesee County, Michigan, some people—too many people, residents—are paying electricity bills that are higher than a mortgage?
{time} 2000
thing that the Republican Conference sought to get done this 119th session in the Congress. Not much else has happened. I do remember the showerheads bill, you know. We are not doing too many bills.
I have written 60 bills this term. They are great. They are bipartisan. I would love to see some of them get voted on and passed and signed into law. The current President has signed some of my bills into law in his prior term, the only other one I shared while he was in such a role. It is not clear how much bills are looking to be signed over executive orders written.
debated about, I hope the American people tuned in to what was taking place on the House floor. I hope they tuned in when Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries gave the longest floor speech in the history of this body. I was sitting in this very cold Chamber right by him, paying witness to history taking place.
my gosh, we are going to cut healthcare, we have slashed Medicaid. Take a phone call to the Medicaid recipients of America. Talk to those families and their sobering experiences.
with Michiganians whose eyes well up in tears because they worked all their life and never thought that they would have to be nervous about what was going into their grocery cart: embarrassment, shame, food banks being pushed to a brink.
surrounding every great secondary school student reading Steinbeck's “Grapes of Wrath,” well, the 1930s are certainly a bygone era. Plastic has been invented, right?
the brink, being unheard, not even making pennies on a dollar. Mr. Speaker, it is why I wrote the No Tariffs on Groceries Act, but there is nothing more palpable. It is not hyperbole. It is not hysteria. It is just my lived experience as a Congresswoman in Michigan's 11th District that I have witnessed my constituents cry because they cannot afford food.
Why is that happening? Why are SNAP benefits being cut? Why are clean energy tax credits out the window? My goodness gracious, it is a deep frustration of the utility companies who, on occasion, when they are working with organizations such as the League of Conservation Voters, and we remember this on such a bill called the Inflation Reduction Act that was signed by President Biden that made some incredible transformations, one of which being the largest investment ever to address climate change.
See, those utility companies were with the environmentalists. I was fascinated by the Inflation Reduction Act, Mr. Speaker, because as a Michiganian, I have never seen the auto companies and the environmentalists say they wanted the exact same thing in a bill, and they got it.
bill, abandoned their ratepayers. They didn't tell the administration that they couldn't go forward. Remember how I just mentioned that we have to upgrade and replace our pipes, our water pipes?
outdated, overextended, fragile electric grid and the needed investments for that, but what has been said to the hardworking taxpayer yet again? You will pay. You will pay in your annual taxes, and you will pay with an increased utility bill.
I call outrage. I frankly call, Mr. Speaker, unfairness. Economic unfairness off the backs of hardworking people who continue to work, who continue to meet the charge of America, who continue to do remarkable things in their communities, and yet they are being suffocated because it is not just 65 percent living paycheck to paycheck.
Let's talk about what that really means. It means that we have got $1.3 trillion of credit card debt, Mr. Speaker, $1.3 trillion of credit card debt.
Department with. One is a former mayor in Connecticut, Luke Bronin. Another is a mayor of Scranton, Pennsylvania, Paige Cognetti. We all worked in the Treasury Department during President Obama's first term. Actually, Democrats and Republicans worked alongside one another during what we called—with a capital G and a capital R—a Great Recession, of which our
State of Michigan was the absolute nadir of.
Do you know what I don't want to live through again, Mr. Speaker? Another that. I don't want to live through another Great Recession. Some of the contributing factors, as you know, were that Wall Street was unregulated. All those folks made out like bandits as a result of not being prosecuted. That is such a reality many decades on now.
Another reality, Mr. Speaker, from that time period was that we had to stabilize our economy. We had to spend taxpayer dollars. We did. There were no bread lines. There were homes lost, iPhones kept, an economy shaken, and an American people who were left holding the bag.
Mr. Speaker, I don't want to go back to another Great Recession. I want some real honesty from the creditors and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, should this President still be maintaining such an agency, to answer and address why we are in such a debt position.
$40.1 trillion. Yes, Mr. Speaker, it is very clear that I am a prominent Democrat—I will give myself that accolade—talking about the debt. Publicly held debt is $32 trillion. Intragovernmental debt is $7.69 trillion. The debt service cost, over a trillion. The alarm bells are ringing.
Mr. Speaker, there are only so many of us in this Chamber, and there is only so much willingness to concentrate and address probing and pressing challenges that aren't explosive crises.
I remember acting in such a bipartisan way upon the arrival of COVID. I am not sure if our current Secretary of Health and Human Services would join in such a note of gratitude to the President for making his first action in the COVID-19 crisis to invest in the research to create the vaccine. That vaccine was produced in Michigan. The first vaccines rolled out of a community in Michigan to begin saving lives.
{time} 2010
It was bipartisan action. It was legislation from this Chamber. The CARES Act was written, literally, I believe, on napkins. We could ask Secretary Rubio about that. I know he was involved with writing the personal payment protection program. Of course, the incredible Italian- American Speaker, the woman from Baltimore, the Congresswoman from San Francisco—who also, alongside Mr. Hoyer, concludes a remarkable tenure of service in this very Chamber—Nancy Pelosi, led those bills in a Democratic majority that were signed by the President.
Of course, I remember cowering. We had to be socially distant. It was a nerve-wracking time for Members of Congress. We had another bill, the Families First Act. We were ready to go on it. I was the first one here in the Chamber for the CARES Act, driving through the night to exercise from the will of our democratic institution here in the Congress, the floor of the House of Representatives, Mr. Speaker.
The Families First Act, we were waiting for the President to tweet. This is before he started his own social media platform. It is unclear who uses that one, but this was on the Twitter platform. We were waiting for him to do a tweet in order to move forward with lifesaving legislation. It actually got us paid family leave. It passed bipartisan in the House.
and Shakespearean things happened as well. This is not an address to reflect on the period of time from 2020 to 2022 when we wrestled and we fought each other. I know that we are analyzing and experiencing as a society, as a people, as a world, the consequences of such a virus, a pandemic, hitting all of us and impacting our lives and changing the world forever.
Mr. Speaker. It is propelling us on an agenda to move forward, to get in front of what our taxpayers are dealing with. That is because, Mr. Speaker, when you are working a job and you are seeing all that tax coming out from the Federal Government, and you are not seeing your bills go down, who is fighting for you?
Who is saying that we need taxpayer fairness?
That is because it certainly is not the people who took $75 billion of your taxpayer money and put it into some crazy slush fund.
This needs to be said, Mr. Speaker, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement department, we had a disaster of a Secretary prancing around as a social media star, not at all focused on the security of this country. It is the most sensitive thing we deal with, the border, immigration. One-half of it is stuck in the last century. It is driving everybody crazy.
Do you know what my district experienced, Mr. Speaker, in March of this year?
A Hezbollah terrorist attack on Temple Israel.
Why was ICE not there?
They weren't. It was State and local law enforcement and the security of that temple, and by the darn grace of all things holy, the 104 lives in that very temple, all children, were saved and spared. The last time I darn checked, ICE was not available, and they had your money while your food bills are going up, Mr. Speaker. They had your money when your healthcare is through the roof, Mr. Speaker. You owe it to the people of Michigan, the people of Michigan's 11th Congressional District, to explain why you took our taxpayer money to allow for a naturalized citizen to come and do that. It really boils my blood, Mr. Speaker.
shortly after that terrorist attack in the United States of America, in my district, Temple Israel is located in West Bloomfield, Michigan. It is comprised of incredible individuals from our community. We were delighted to see them reopen after destruction, after being blown out, the commitment and the will of the people. It would have been great to give assistance to the places of worship that get attacked in a country such as ours.
Let me clarify this, Mr. Speaker. A couple of months after that attack, ICE did make an arrest in Michigan. They did. They arrested a lady who cleans up the homes. She cleans up the homes. She was on the street in Beverly Hills, Michigan. It is in Oakland County. Her paperwork was in her car, but she was intercepted.
It is not said with any such gratitude that our taxpayer dollars, $75 billion of it, instead of being redirected to State and local law enforcement, of which Congressman Chris Pappas has led a bill that I have joined him on to redirect that funding, to re-center it to the places of real community safety are going forward.
Mr. Speaker, I don't seek to propel division or frustration or hatred. I don't believe in any hatred of Americans. No American is my enemy. The United States is reckoning with some very real and profound forces at this time.
Let us look forward, Mr. Speaker, as I pause to ask you how much time I have remaining in my 1-hour address.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentlewoman from Michigan has 19 minutes remaining.
Ms. STEVENS. Only 19 minutes remaining. How interesting, Mr. Speaker, 19 is my father, Jim Stevens', favorite number. So how nice that I pause to ask about the time for how much of this address I have remaining.
Let us look forward, Mr. Speaker, because we know that that is only where we are going.
far in such an address, what will this country look like in the year 2050?
I am so very hopeful, Mr. Speaker, but I have a direction for us. I have a proposal for us. It is that American freedom, American entrepreneurship that I mentioned. My amazing father alongside my amazing mother were small business owners for a time together and then separately. Different enterprises—many countries really don't have small business owners. We should really understand what happens in those countries. Entrepreneurship doesn't exist. It all goes toward the State.
I am a Democratic labor capitalist. Mr. Speaker, I believe in the 21st century labor movement to continue to move people into the middle class to
United States of America, troubling and unearthing in this moment, Mr. Speaker, is the reality that the middle class is putting the grocery bill on a credit card.
Costs Caucus that she leads, adopting measures, saying that we are not going to saddle the burden of paying for everything through the middle class.
Mr. Speaker, that is what has been occurring under this full Republican-led government.
Mr. Speaker, you will just pay more.
Mr. Speaker, aren't you paying more?
It is interesting to see the gas prices in Michigan nearing $5. We have got a lot of land in Michigan; a lot of people rely on their automobile to get to their job. We see the repairman charging a gas fee. It is a frustrating matter, and we were being so misled during an unbelievable electoral season several years ago now, being promised in the State of Michigan that China was going to be taken on, that jobs from Shanghai were going to come back to Sterling Heights.
to balloon costs for those seeking affordable prescription drugs, given the administration wants to continue the previous administration's effort to lower cost.
In Michigan we have a little trick. We cross the bridge. We just had this new Gordie Howe International Bridge, finally. It only took two decades. Canada paid for the whole thing.
{time} 2020
They paused its opening. I worked on that bridge creation with the great Congresswoman Debbie Dingell and the former ambassador to Canada, former Governor of Michigan, Jim Blanchard, when I was in the Obama administration.
The little trick in Michigan: crossing the bridges—we have two now right there in Detroit—to go get lower-cost drugs. We did lower the insulin cost for seniors. We do it for everyone who is on insulin, just a lifeline-type of medicine. Now, when you go and try to cross the bridge to get cheaper drugs, you are met with a tariff. We are being entrapped. It feels like we are being suffocated.
Maybe it would help if we had a few who were not in the 0.01 percent wealth class running things like the Department of the Treasury or the Department of Commerce. Maybe if we had a Secretary of Health and Human Services who upheld science over conspiracy theory—I love science. Oh, my gosh. We could do a whole other hour address on just that, Mr. Speaker, but I will save that for the next time. This is a series of remarks around the economic challenges that we face and the economic opportunities.
We can't wait another term to do nothing. We can't wait another term to just see one big crazy life-altering bill come through that I really can't pinpoint lowered anyone's bill. It just didn't. I find it offensive. I know it is offensive to the many people who we know will go to the polls, who maybe don't spend their lives in the political industry or affairs but who are being deeply impacted. The hardworking men and women of our building trades union, who would love another infrastructure bill. That one should include recycling in it, by the way, because recycling, which sounds sometimes like a throwback, is a critical part of our supply chain and is a community affair. We salute those who choose to sort. It does help on the back end.
set, money that could be made, businesses that could be spurred, costs that could be lowered. Mr. Speaker, I have this fantastic bill called Unearth America's Future Act. It is taking the most beautiful parts of the CHIPS and Science Act, which we did to lessen our Nation's dependence on critical parts, components, the microchip that goes into all high-end manufactured goods, most notably, Mr. Speaker, our automobile.
guarantees, tax credits, and moneys for an R&D center of excellence with an emphasis on synthesizing, processing, and refining for the critical minerals that become our critical materials, 95 percent of which come from China.
be subject to the cost manipulations of the Chinese Communist Party as a democratic ally of ours, as a trade partner of ours, as a nation that abides by the rules-based order. That cannot be assumed.
Hope is absolutely an action. I am always hopeful, but we have to be actionable. We have to not only set goals but lead around them.
The goal, Mr. Speaker, has to be the success of the American enterprise, the success of American democracy in this very moment and into the mid-century mark and beyond, for freedom, for those with an idea, those seeking to create wealth for themselves—a lowercase w—the putting food on the table, being able to retire with dignity, being able to take an idea and propel it into an enterprise.
Mr. Speaker, this is such a fantastic and incredible moment for this country. The bills that get moved to the floor of the House—those of us who take the time to share, to engage, to participate in the discourse, the hard-nosed, dedicated work—Mr. Speaker, you are going to have to indulge me because there is a bit of philosophical work that I believe should be revived. Habermas, writing in the mid-20th century, into the late 20th century—Mr. Habermas talked about the concept of discourse as action, discourse as movements for democracy.
in this Chamber do, that we are a democracy. We have to feel compelled to recognize and go back to the words of this very Chamber's great legislator Henry Clay, a good Kentuckian. I had no idea as a child I would ever run for such an office, but I always thought he was such a neat guy when I was in history classes as a kid, the great compromiser. Can you believe it? This very Chamber, from a time that no one is certainly alive from anymore. We know that. Debating, adding States to the Union, States that would have human beings as slaves to move parts of their economy forward. Clay, during a time period leading up to a Civil War, sought to keep this country together.
He had some words. He had this great quote that I just adore, and I had it on the wall of my cubicle in the Department of the Treasury when I was working on the auto rescue when I was an appointee in the Obama Administration, just saying, as some 20-something-year-old, I want to do something for Michigan, that we can't let this industry go bankrupt, as a former Michigander who ran for President once famously said.
Mr. Clay said that government—government of which we, in this Chamber, are a part—government is a trust, and the officers of the government are the trustees. Both the trust and the trustees are created for the benefit of the people.
What did Mr. Clay mean with those remarks? That those in the government, those elected to office, don't own political power. No, that is for the people.
There is such an unbelievable industry in American politics. I don't even know what to call it. Punditry doesn't seem to quite fit it. Consultants, politicos, campaign people, talkers, tweeters, influencers, volunteers, parties that get created. Well, we have two major, big parties here in the country, still. It is a whole industry. There is even cable news still going on about it. They are very much a part of this political-industrial complex. I say that with love, okay? I am not trying to attack anybody.
{time} 2030
It is all about assumption. It is all about assumption.
Then there is some—and they are good people. I do like to name names of some good political scientists. I haven't spent enough time with them.
Jeremi Suri, who talks about—Lee talks about the Congress, and Suri talks about the Presidency and some of its challenges.
Certainly, all our branches are in need of modernity and reform. I would always like to see, Mr. Speaker, Michigan get more attention.
of
the commentary and the exchange, the gossip, and the drama. American politics is quite dramatic, very much more dramatic than our neighbors, our Canadian neighbors from the north.
what takes place when people vote. That is the whole shebang. Yet, we spend years leading up to votes, years of speculation, and there are still people just living their lives and going to the polls who are counted as part of a vote. I think that is what we have to remember. In this country power lies in the vote and those who engage in democracy.
where we know, Mr. Speaker, many more assumptions will be made—I do hail from a State that receives a fair amount of electoral participation. I am such a proud Michigander. I started getting involved in the American democratic experiment and process at a very young age. I am still very proud to be a part of that. I don't say it wistfully, but my name is not on the ballot for November.
move ideas and exchange ideas and support one another. As Truman once said: America is not built on fear; America is built on courage, imagination.
America is not built on fear. America is built on courage, imagination, and the willingness to do the job at hand.
We will break for elections. We will return, hopefully, for a rigorous lame-duck, and I will see you then.
Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.