Public Education

Floor Speech

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Ms. STEVENS. Mr. Speaker, what an honor it is to be on this House floor with you here today in representation of the 700,000 constituents I serve from Michigan's 11th District. We are here for the activity of this House floor. We are here for the grand deliberation of our democracy and for the discourse that makes our Nation's laws.

It is clear, Mr. Speaker, that this pandemic is continuing to pose a serious threat to our communities and to our Nation. As the global death toll has crossed 500,000 this week alone, the World Health Organization has warned that the worst is yet to come. The suffering and loss of life that we have already endured in Michigan and throughout this Nation is unfathomable.

We must recommit to saving lives by listening to the guidance of the public health experts who are telling us to wear a mask and to socially distance as much as possible. We must recommit to the science that stands before us.

As a result of this pandemic, Mr. Speaker, we must look at the battle before us in terms of what our States are facing with budget shortfalls. You see, Mr. Speaker, this is what we do as appropriators, as individuals who conduct oversight and who authorize the activity and the efforts of our Federal agencies and for the Nation's purse strings.

Without additional Federal funding for Michigan's public schools, a typical school district in Michigan is looking at a $750-per-pupil cut to our State's budget shortfall.

The White House recently signed an executive order saying, we are going to look for the skills in an individual. How do you obtain the skills if you are not in a fully funded school? When first robotics doesn't exist, when the skills training doesn't exist, and when the guidance counselors who are going to be there to shepherd our students through this trauma they endured cannot do their jobs?

When we are cutting, cutting, cutting. And then we say: Guess what? The Federal taxpayer dollars that you pay and the State taxpayer dollars that you pay are not enough.

Who pays again?

Who pays again?

It is the middle class. It is the individual.

Mr. Speaker, I am tired of it. I am tired of the tax cuts for the wealthiest corporations at the expense of our middle class. I am here to deliver for my constituents. I am here to give them a return on their investment that they make every year. They are looking at us.

In fact, Mr. Speaker, this is something that this House majority has already done in the HEROES Act. We have already taken these steps to address these budget shortfalls. We are here today to vote on an infrastructure bill to rebuild America's schools, to put people back to work, and to stand for the best this Nation has to offer.

I did this work in the halls of government on the other side of Pennsylvania Avenue during another time of crisis, during another time of choppy waters, and I am a believer in these institutions, Mr. Speaker. I saw what happens when Democrats and Republicans come together for the best outcomes, when we rescued the auto industry and millions of auto worker jobs, saying, we will not let you fail, picking up from where the Bush administration left off and where the Obama administration finished it.

We will not let you fail. That is what I say from this House floor today on behalf of the 700,000 constituents from Michigan's 11th District I proudly represent.

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