Bustos Kicks Off Final Year In Office in Floor Speech Outlining Family-Focused Priorities

Today, Congresswoman Cheri Bustos (IL-17) spoke on the House Floor to push for action on family-focused priorities in her final year in office. During her speech, Bustos emphasized the urgent need to renew the expanded Child Tax Credit, which expired this month, and the critical necessity of reducing child care costs for working families.

Congresswoman Bustos' full remarks can be found below. Video of her floor speech can be found here or by clicking the image above.

Full Speech:

Mr. Speaker,

I rise today to mark the beginning of my final year in Congress.

Throughout my five terms, I have always made working families my No. 1 priority.

So, in my final year, what's at the top of my list to make sure that I'm focusing on?

Well, right now, it's reinstating the Child Tax Credit that just expired this month.

Hard working families who are just trying to get ahead have come to count on that support month to month since we passed that last year.

Now, there are 71,000 families, just in the congressional district that I serve, who won't see that deposit into their bank account starting this month.

So, let's get to work.

In Illinois, more than half of the children living in poverty don't have a seat in a pre-K classroom.

So, let's get to work!

Parents across our nation are spending a good chunk of their take-home pay for the child care they need in order to be able to go to work. And it's our job to help make that more affordable.

So, let's get to work!

I've got one year left in Congress and so much to accomplish. So, I say to my own staff, I say to myself, I say to everybody in this body -- let's get to work.

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