Announcement By the Clerk

Floor Speech

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Mr. AGUILAR. Madam Clerk, I rise to nominate Hakeem Jeffries of New York for Speaker of this House.

Madam Clerk, I speak on behalf of the Democratic Caucus when I say that there is no victory in adjourning without doing the business of the people.

Madam Clerk, House Democrats are united behind a champion of expanding and protecting the right to vote. Since the beginning of 2021, 21 State legislatures have passed 42 restrictive voting laws. Hakeem has stood up against voter suppression in the new Jim Crow era every step of the way.

As we begin a new Congress, we need a leader who believes in strengthening democracy, who understands that to cast a vote is a sacred responsibility that should be afforded to the many, not the privileged or the select few. Hakeem understands that in order for us to be a more perfect Union, we can't deny the voices of individuals in the democratic process.

Madam Clerk, today, we affirm our support of the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. Madam Clerk, that is why I am directed by the Democratic Caucus to advance the name of Hakeem Jeffries from New York as Speaker.

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Mr. AGUILAR. Madam Clerk, I rise again to nominate Hakeem Jeffries for Speaker of the House.

Madam Clerk, I thank my colleague on the other side of the aisle for sharing his American Dream story and to his family for being with him at his side.

It is our hope that this Chamber gets down to the business so he and all the new Members in this Chamber can be sworn in to do the work of the people.

That is why House Democrats stand united, again, on this ballot to make sure that Hakeem Jeffries is the lead vote-getter in this Chamber. It is also why it is important, just as I relayed a few days ago, Madam Clerk, the importance of the character of Hakeem Jeffries, who he is, his story, and why he should be given an opportunity to lead this Chamber.

In New York, after the fifth grade, you can't get on a bus to go to school anymore. You have to take alternate means. You can walk or you can take a train. In sixth grade, Hakeem and his brother would walk to the train station, take the train, get off the train, and walk to school.

Now, there is a little disagreement in the Jeffries' household as to how many days his father took him on that route before he let him navigate that route with his younger brother.

The character it takes for an older brother in sixth grade and his fourth-grade little brother to go to school each and every day in New York, to be on their own, to handle themselves and to handle each other, that is the character of this man.

That is the character of a leader you want in this Chamber. He is going to be the one who walks with you, who sees you through the day, who makes sure your priorities are his priorities. And at the end of the day, when it is just you and he, he is going to make sure we all do the business of this body, and we all get home for our families.

There is nothing more important than the work that we do in this Chamber for the American people: safeguarding priorities like Social Security and Medicare; making sure that our families are taken care of; making sure that the families in our communities are taken care of.

What we have seen in this Chamber is tough. It is tough to watch. It is tough to imagine what would happen in this Chamber today if we were debating Social Security and Medicare.

What would happen?

What would the votes be?

Where would people stand?

That is why it is important that Hakeem Jeffries leads this body.

On behalf of the Democratic Caucus, I am nominating the leader of the governing party in this Chamber, Hakeem Jeffries from New York.

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