Congressional Black Caucus

Floor Speech

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Ms. FUDGE. Thank you, Madam Chairman. I would say there are so many things we need to be addressing. Certainly what I have found in my home district is that as you look at what is happening with women and children, it is really appalling. Right now, the fastest growing group of children in schools today are homeless children. That means their parents are homeless, and more times than not it is just a mother. So these are people who most of the time don't have jobs and don't have the ability to take care of their children, and we have to do what we have to do as a government. We have to make sure we provide.

So I am really happy that in the Recovery and Reinvestment Act we put significant money in there for shelters, for meals for children, for food stamps, for many things that I think are going to make their lives better. We have done what we think we needed to do to at least get them back moving in the right direction.

So I think you are right. As we look at where women are today, not just in equal pay, not just in benefits, but in how we live as people in this society, I think it is very, very important that we focus on where women are going in this society. I know that because of your leadership, that is one of the things the CBC has been looking at.

So I thank you again for all that you do to make sure that women get equal treatment, that women have the ability to raise their children in a positive and safe place, because if we hadn't done some of the things that we have done with this recovery package, where would they be? Certainly you may be poor, but you still deserve a decent place to live. You still deserve to be able to feed your children and send your kids to school in a safe environment.

Again, I thank you just for the kind of leadership that you have given to us that makes us really take a look at what is happening in our communities.

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