Enhancing Social Security

Floor Speech

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Mr. NEGUSE. Mr. Speaker, first and foremost, I thank the distinguished gentleman from Connecticut, our former Caucus chair, for his clarion call that he has issued year after year, month after month, and day after day to protect and strengthen Social Security.

It couldn't be more important, and we couldn't be more grateful for his leadership and the leadership of so many of my colleagues who have joined us tonight on the House floor to talk to the American people about the ways in which House Democrats are protecting critical programs like Social Security and Medicare and the myriad ways in which, unfortunately, our colleagues on the other side of the aisle are doing the exact opposite.

I will give you but one example, Mr. Speaker, with respect to the latter. I know you are familiar with the Republican Study Committee, the largest caucus within the Republican Conference. I don't know if the American people are familiar with it.

Eighty percent of the Republican Conference consider themselves members of this committee. A hundred percent of House Republican leadership count themselves among the members of this committee. The former chairman of the Republican Study Committee is now the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Why do I bring up the Republican Study Committee? Well, it might interest you to know, Mr. Speaker, that just 2 months ago, the Republican Study Committee issued a budget for 2025. Again, this is a committee that has 80 percent of the Republican Conference in its membership. This backward budget plan is incredibly revealing.

What does it do? It upends critical programs that American families depend on, makes draconian cuts to Medicare and Social Security with a plan that increases the retirement age to 69, forcing Americans to work longer for less, a plan that cuts disability benefits and erodes care for children, making it more expensive to care for our families.

Their plan raises Medicare costs for seniors, takes away the program's ability to negotiate prescription drug costs, and repeals the $35 insulin and the $2,000 out-of-pocket caps that House Democrats, the Members gathered here on the floor this evening, fought so vigorously to enact in the 117th Congress.

Just to be clear, Mr. Speaker, although we are here tonight to talk about Social Security and Medicare and our efforts to protect, strengthen, and expand both of those programs, and Republican efforts to dismantle them, it is worth noting that this is Police Week. Notwithstanding the many statements made by my colleagues on the other side of the aisle concerning their purported support of law enforcement, their budget tells a very different story. Why? How? I encourage every American to go to page 148 of the Republican Study Committee's budget. What you will find is clear, unambiguous, plain language that states that they would like to reduce funding for community-oriented policing services, the COPS Program, a program that the distinguished gentleman from Pennsylvania has fought to expand for years, a program that is funding the hiring of law enforcement officers in my district in Colorado and countless other jurisdictions across our great country, a program that is critical to law enforcement's abilities to provide for public safety in our country, and a program that they intend to cut.

Make no mistake, Mr. Speaker, insofar as one were to glean essential observation from a review, a cursory review of their budget, it is simple: House Republicans are uninterested in tackling issues that matter to the American people.

We will not let them cut Social Security. We won't let them cut Medicare. We won't let them cut law enforcement funding. That much is clear.

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Mr. NEGUSE. Mr. Speaker, I would simply say one of the many privileges I have in serving as assistant Democratic leader is having the opportunity to see firsthand the way in which my colleagues in the House Democratic Caucus are able to convert their passion and conviction on consequential public policy issues into action. That is precisely what the gentleman from Connecticut has done for the better part of the last decade, from when he first introduced this legislation.

I am proud to support it. I am proud to support his efforts to protect and enhance Social Security and to do everything that we can to ensure that our colleagues' plans on the other side of the aisle to dismantle this program never see the light of day.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my distinguished colleague and friend from Connecticut for yielding.

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