Press Release

News that the death toll from Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico has reached at least 1,065 is deeply saddening and alarming.  Puerto Ricans, who are our fellow American citizens, continue to face serious, life-threatening hardship after the storm as a result of inadequate access to medical care and from poor conditions in areas still without power, clean water, or sufficient food. 

While the jobs report released this morning continues to show our economic resilience, with 221,000 private sector jobs created in November, the first eleven months of 2017 have been the worst for private sector job creation since the depths of the worst recession in generations in 2010.

Today, the Democratic Whip Task Force on Poverty, Income Inequality, and Opportunity met with Diane Yentel, President and CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC), to discuss housing issues.

I am pleased to join my friend, Nydia Velázquez, and so many others who are here who are going to speak up. Today, we will have a vote that will be a vote on delaying action, on delaying responsibility for the sole purpose of not working on help for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, for not helping on numerous other issues that will be important to the American people, tomorrow.

“President Trump seems to forget that, with Republican majorities in the House and Senate, he and his colleagues control all the levers of our government. 

Congress faces a vast set of urgent, overdue priorities for the American people.

Jerusalem is the capital of the State of Israel, something that the United States Congress has reaffirmed and a fact of history that cannot be denied.

Today, the House overwhelmingly passed the Taylor Force Act, which would cut off assistance to the Palestinian Authority as long as it continues to reward convicted terrorists and their families for acts of violence.