Sydney Kamlager-Dove

Mr. Speaker, Greeting · 24 wordsI thank my colleague from the great State of Virginia, Congresswoman McClellan, and to the Congressional Black Caucus for organizing this Special Order hour.Greeting Claims · 15 wordsFor the past month, we have been home in our districts, listening to our constituents. Anecdote · 17 wordsFor me, they run up on me in the streets, in the grocery store, and at church.Anecdote Procedure · 7 wordsWhat I am hearing is very simple: ProcedureClaims · 16 wordsPeople are tired of paying more and getting less, and they have a lot of questions. Procedure · 10 wordsI am going to tell you what I am hearing.Procedure Positioning · 34 wordsI am going to share with you the questions that my constituents are asking because there are huge gaps between what this administration promises and has promised and what working families are actually experiencing.Positioning Procedure · 12 wordsLet’s get into it, and let’s start by talking about the economy.Procedure Claims · 34 wordsIn Los Angeles, in my district, gas is $6, at least, depending on where you go.¹ You can go to some gas stations, and it is as high as $8.² Groceries are too expensive. Anecdote · 36 wordsI have constituents telling me that they are making choices between buying a protein to feed their children and not buying any protein at all for maybe a day or 2 days or an entire week.Anecdote Positioning · 7 wordsThe housing market is in the toilet.Positioning Claims · 35 wordsMoney is too expensive, the rates are too high, and if you buy a home or are trying to fix up your house, you cannot even find the workforce for some of these smaller projects. Procedure · 3 wordsThey are asking: ProcedureThe question · 5 wordsWhere is our economic relief? Claims · 37 wordsJust recently, they just saw the President hosting a racing car event on The National Mall, a bill that most likely the American people are footing, that has not, will not, is not benefiting their bottom line. Positioning · 5 wordsWorking people are not stupid.PositioningUnearned certainty Reasoning · 35 wordsThey know the difference between a stunt to distract and having real conversations about what you are doing to help them at the pump, to help them get a home, to help them purchase groceries. Procedure · 8 wordsI actually have a question for Secretary Bessent: ProcedureThe question · 27 wordsWhy can’t you fix the economy? If tariffs, tax cuts, and deregulation were supposed to deliver prosperity, then why are families still struggling to make ends meet? Procedure · 7 wordsHere is another question I have heard: ProcedureThe question · 14 wordsWhat are we doing to Canada and what is with all of these tariffs? Claims · 13 wordsThe administration keeps telling Americans that tariffs are paid for by somebody else. Reasoning · 35 wordsIf someone is telling you that, you need to remind them that they don’t know how to do math because American consumers and businesses are ultimately the ones that are feeling most of those costs. Claims · 67 wordsThose costs are going up, and they are disrupting supply chains. Now, Canada is fighting back with new tariffs on hundreds of American products, ³so Canada is boycotting our goods. They have been boycotting tourism to our country. They have jacked up the prices on appliances, on steel, on agriculture equipment, on toilet paper. Thirty percent of the paper pulp for our toilet paper comes from Canada.⁴ Procedure · 3 wordsNot only that, ProcedureClaims · 72 wordsbut they have also enticed close to 50 of our most prominent tenured faculty in American colleges and universities who are saying good-bye to the United States and hello to Canada.⁵ Our prices are going up. We are suffering a brain drain. Our toilet paper is going to be too high. We have a President who seems more obsessed with changing the name of a lake, from Lake Ontario to Lake America. Positioning · 31 wordsHowever, don’t be distracted by this Lake America nonsense because it looks as if, by the looks of it, it is our economy that is at the bottom of the lake.Positioning Procedure · 4 wordsPeople keep asking me: ProcedureThe question · 13 wordsWell, this President keeps talking about America First, but who is actually first? Claims · 7 wordsRepublicans ran on putting American families first, Positioning · 30 wordsbut too often the folks who are benefiting from these tax breaks, from these cuts, from these backroom deals happening with the administration are people who already have the most.Positioning Claims · 35 wordsThe folks who are asking me about what Republicans are doing are concerned about their SNAP benefits, housing assistance, and Medicaid. In my district, 400,000 of my constituents are enrolled in Medicaid.⁶ They are concerned. Positioning · 30 wordsThe working class is being disrespected every single day, and they are tired of the propaganda coming from this administration, telling them that what they are experiencing is not real.Positioning Procedure · 8 wordsThen they also ask about Republicans. They say: ProcedureThe question · 13 wordsWell, how come Republicans aren’t standing up to Trump? What are they doing? Positioning · 17 wordsThat is also a question that I have, wondering is there a backbone in the Republican Party.Positioning The ask · 10 wordsWe should ask that, really, of Senators Cornyn and Cassidy: The question · 16 wordsAt what point does loyalty to the country become more important than loyalty to one man? Claims · 17 wordsCongress is supposed to be a check on the executive branch, not a cheer squad for it. Procedure · 7 wordsThey ask about this Russell Vought guy: ProcedureThe question · 12 wordsWho is this guy, and why does he still have a job? Aside · 14 wordsI don’t know, but I am working on it is what I tell them.AsideVague promise Claims · 45 wordsI have introduced Articles of Impeachment against OMB Director Russell Vought after the administration admitted in court that Federal funding was terminated based on political criteria.⁷ If a State voted for Kamala Harris or voted with Democrats, they were on the short list for cuts.⁸ Reasoning · 46 wordsWe are talking about Federal dollars that belong to the American people, not to the President or his political allies. When an administration uses government funding to punish a State because of how their residents voted, that is not governance; that is an abuse of power. Procedure · 10 wordsThey have been asking about healthcare. They want to know: ProcedureClaims · 47 wordsWhy is it that we have a President who can find money for spectacle, while Republicans tell families there isn’t enough money to protect their healthcare when we have an endless, unnecessary war costing $2 billion a day, ⁹and Republicans cannot find money to pay for healthcare. Procedure · 13 wordsThey also want to ask about the President’s health. They want to know: ProcedureClaims · 33 wordsIs he healthy? That is because what they see on the television doesn’t look healthy. Then they remind me how every week during the Biden administration, Republicans were whining about Joe Biden’s health, Positioning · 8 wordsbut that was a President who was awake.Positioning Claims · 42 wordsJoe Biden wasn’t sleeping in meetings in the Oval Office. Joe Biden wasn’t putting a whole bunch of concealer and foundation on his hand to cover up blotches. It has been radio silence from the Republicans on the health of this President. The question · 10 wordsThey want to know if he is in cognitive decline, Reasoning · 16 wordsand the transparency of the President’s health is vitally important and a valid question to ask. Claims · 14 wordsPeople have been asking about Venezuela and why this administration is stealing their oil. Reasoning · 14 wordsThe American public deserves to know what our government is doing overseas and why. Procedure · 4 wordsThey have asked me: ProcedureThe question · 34 wordsHow can this administration kidnap a sitting President, steal a country’s oil, and then enslave the people in that country just to get rich for themselves, and how do they think this is okay? Claims · 56 wordsThere are no answers. When we are in our hearings asking Cabinet members these questions, they don’t seem to have any answers for us either. My district, my city, is also asking about immigration and why this country is sanctioning terror in the streets. We had a bipartisan immigration reform bill that this current President tanked, ¹⁰Promise · 24 wordsand we still need immigration reform.Vague promise We need an immigration system that is secure, that is orderly, that is humane, and that is functional. Reasoning · 43 wordsTerrorizing community members in the streets is none of those things. When workers are hiding in their homes, afraid to go to work and afraid to get their children to the doctor, then our communities suffer, our neighborhoods suffer, and our economies suffer. Positioning · 14 wordsAll of those things are at the hands of this administration and this President.Positioning Anecdote · 5 wordsI was in my district.Anecdote Claims · 18 wordsIt was over 100 degrees for a couple of weeks during the month of August in Los Angeles.¹¹ Procedure · 6 wordsSo people are asking about that: ProcedureThe question · 13 wordsWhy is it so hot? What is this administration doing about climate change? Claims · 41 wordsWhat they are doing is unleashing fossil fuels and giving permits to anybody who has the cash to buy one, damaging our natural land, drilling, and taking the climate with us. Ultimately, the people in my district are asking about themselves, Aside · 7 wordswhich is what they should be doing.Aside The question · 37 wordsThey want to know why this administration is not helping them with jobs, with student debt, with healthcare, and with a trustworthy and credible government with an agenda that is forward-thinking and actually is centered around them. Claims · 60 wordsThat is because my constituents are showing up every day. They are working, they are hustling, and they are making ends meet. They are doing their part for this government and this economy, and they are wondering why this administration, why this President, is not showing up for them and why they are getting the short end of the stick. Positioning · 12 wordsThe Black Caucus has been showing up. I have been showing up.Positioning The ask · 9 wordsI wish my Republican colleagues would do the same. Reasoning · 64 wordsThat is because fighting for a healthcare system that works for all; for an economy that is just; for an education system that is funded, just, and in every community across this country; and for an economy that supports growing jobs, supporting small businesses, and re-creating the vibrancy that each of our districts deserves should be the priority of this President and this administration. Positioning · 22 wordsIt should not be trying to find another way to host another spectacle or distraction at the expense of the American people.Positioning