Seth Magaziner · TranslatePolitics.com

House of Representatives

Remembering September 11 Anniversary

2026-09-03

“Today is the anniversary. Many people died on September 11. That is sad. Some of the people who tried to help are still sick. That is also sad. We should stop anything like that from happening again.”

Official Congressional Record

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks and to honor the nearly 3,000 Americans we lost that day, including nine Rhode Islanders. I recognize the bravery of the first responders who ran toward danger to save others: firefighters, police officers, paramedics, ordinary people who became heroes, and who we continue to lose today due to illnesses tied to their service at Ground Zero. We remember that in the days after 9/11, our Nation stood united, regardless of party, in grief and in resolve. In the face of tragedy, we showed the world how strong a united America can be. As a member of the Homeland Security Committee, I take seriously our duty to ensure that such an attack never happens again and to honor the sacrifices of the 9/11 generation with the vigilance of this one.

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House of Representatives

Welcoming Cantor Dr. Joel Gluck

2026-09-03

“I chose someone from my district to say the prayer today. He's a Jewish leader in my state. I'm going to list his jobs and activities to fill time. He's a good guy. I wish everyone a good holiday.”

Official Congressional Record

Mr. Speaker, I am so pleased to introduce Cantor Dr. Joel Gluck of Rhode Island, who delivered today's opening prayer for the House of Representatives. I could not think of someone better to open today's session, especially ahead of the Jewish high holidays later this month. Cantor Gluck is a committed member of the Rhode Island community. A native of Warwick, Rhode Island, he serves as spiritual leader of United Brothers Synagogue in my hometown of Bristol, and as artistic director of the Shireinu, the Jewish Community Chorus of Temple Sinai, in Cranston, Rhode Island. His leadership expands beyond his faith and is recognized by others in Rhode Island. He teaches anatomy and physiology at Cranston High School West and the Community College of Rhode Island, where he is president of the Part-Time Faculty Association. I am proud to represent Rhode Island's Second Congressional District in Congress and to call Cantor Gluck a constituent. Mr. Speaker, I wish our Jewish neighbors in Rhode Island and across the country a meaningful holiday season.

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House of Representatives

Mail Ballot Whistleblower

2026-09-02

“You caused a war. The war cost a lot of money. Many people died in the war. I don't like the war. We could have spent that money on other things. I want to spend the money on other things. The war made gas prices go up. People paid more money for gas. Our military is not as strong now. I want to blame the President. I say the President promised to be different. I say this is not different. I want to end the war.”

Official Congressional Record

Mr. Speaker, the President's unnecessary war in Iran has now lasted 6 months with no end in sight. Mr. Speaker, 18 American servicemembers are dead. Countless civilians, including 100 children, have been bombed in their school. This war has now cost $100 billion and counting. Think of what we could have done instead with $100 billion. We could have built 1 million new affordable homes for Americans. We could have repaired 80,000 bridges, made insulin free for every American who needs it, and given a $1,000 tax cut to every middle-class family. Instead, we are wasting this money on a completely unnecessary war with no end in sight. Because of this stupid war, the Strait of Hormuz is closed, and the cost of gas is skyrocketing. There has been a 40 percent increase since before the war began. The average American has paid $500 more for gas in the last 6 months than they would have if the President had never bungled us into this stupid and unnecessary war. To make it all worse, our top military leaders are sounding the alarm that we are depleting our munitions to the point that it has made us more vulnerable and less safe than we were before. The American people are tired of politicians sending other people's kids to fight and die in unnecessary wars in the Middle East. The President promised people that he would be different, but he is not. This is just another unnecessary war with no plan and no regard for what the American people actually need.

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“I want to talk about a plot. I say it will make the elections bad. I say there is a secret list. I don't like the secret list. I say the secret list will stop many people from voting. I say this is chaos. I say the other side is bad and does bad things. I say we should work together to make elections secure. I don't like an untested system. I say it is very bad. I want the votes to be counted. I want us to win. We will stop this bad thing. We will fight for voting rights.”

Official Congressional Record

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to call attention to a plot that threatens to undermine the security of the upcoming elections. A whistleblower has revealed that the Trump administration has directed the United States Postal Service to secretly build an untested, illegal system to intercept mail ballots on their way to State election administrators. It is a system that will disenfranchise thousands of American citizens and throw the November elections into chaos. The whistleblower reports that under this new system, the Trump administration is building their own list of who they think should be eligible to vote, and Postal Service workers will be required to scan bar codes on ballots to see if the voter appears on the Trump administration's list, a list that has not been made publicly available. They admit that it exists, but they have not shown the list to the public. If just one bar code on just one ballot does not match a name on this secret list, then the whole batch of ballots numbering as many as 10,000 will not be delivered to the States to be counted. Think about that. Do we really trust the Trump administration's secret list of who they think should be eligible to vote? And if one ballot is found not to match, should thousands of others also be seized? They are launching this system with no testing at all and with no time to identify and fix the bugs in the system. That is to say nothing of the fact that they are doing this illegally. They have defied multiple court orders telling them to stop. This secret system that they are forcing on the American people without the consent of Congress threatens to throw our elections into chaos. But the chaos is the point. President Trump knows Republicans can't win the midterm elections on the merits--not with this economy, not with these tariffs, not with this war. The Republicans have given up on trying to earn the votes of most Americans, and instead, they are trying to ensure that votes do not get counted, unless the voters are on their secret list. Vote by mail is how millions of Americans, especially seniors, exercise their right to vote. President Trump even voted by mail himself just last month. There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in American elections. We must ensure our elections are secure, and I am open to working with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to do that, but launching an untested, illegal, last-minute system that can silently wipe out thousands of legitimate ballots is a recipe for disaster. I am joining a number of our colleagues in filing an amicus brief to stop this half-baked and dangerous attempt to interfere with American elections. When Democrats take back the majority, we will end this nonsense. We will fight for every Americans' right to vote and defend our democracy from those who seek to undermine it from within.

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House of Representatives

Stop Insider Trading Act

2026-07-22

“I don't like this bill. It has some stock restrictions but not a full ban. I think the other side is trying to trick us. They want to pass a bad bill and pretend it's good. I want my bill instead. My bill would ban all stock trades by politicians. I tried to change this bill to be like my bill instead. I think many people agree with me.”

Official Congressional Record

Mr. Speaker, I thank the ranking member for his leadership and partnership. Mr. Speaker, House Republicans are pushing a voter suppression bill that would severely restrict the mail ballots that seniors, rural Americans, and so many others rely on, and would throw our elections into chaos late in the cycle while people are already casting their ballots. They are doing this at the behest of Donald Trump, who continues to obsess over his 2020 election loss and promote election conspiracy theories. They are trying to trick us into supporting their voter suppression bill by calling it the Stop Insider Trading Act and including watered down language that would still allow Members of Congress to own stocks and to trade stocks with only some new restrictions. Make no mistake, this is a trap. This bill is to make it harder for eligible Americans to vote. The Republican leadership is trying to trick us into supporting it by calling it a congressional stock trading ban, even though it doesn't actually fully ban congressional stock trading. This bill also does nothing to stop the biggest stock trader in Washington, President Trump, who has made millions of dollars trading stocks for the companies that he regulates--tech companies, healthcare companies, defense companies, and more. The American people are sick of corruption. The American people are sick of politicians getting rich off of inside information while working people struggle. The American people want a real stock trading ban for politicians in Washington. Last year, I worked with reformers on both sides of the aisle, including Mr. Roy, whose partnership I very much appreciated. Republicans and Democrats wrote a strong bill that will actually ban congressional stock trading with no loopholes and no gimmicks. That is what the American people want. Mr. Speaker, for this reason and at the appropriate time, I will offer a motion to recommit this bill back to committee. If the House rules permitted it, I would have offered that motion with an important amendment to this bill. My amendment would replace this Republican voter suppression bill with the Restore Trust in Government Act, our bill to fully ban stock trading in Congress and the Oval Office. Mr. Speaker, 190 Members have signed on to support this bill, and it is time to bring it to the floor. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to insert the text of my amendment into the Record immediately prior to the motion to recommit. The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. DesJarlais). Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Rhode Island? There was no objection.

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House of Representatives

No More Endless Wars

2026-07-21

“I want to blame President Trump for starting a war. The war is expensive. It costs too much money. It makes gas prices high. I want that money spent on other things. I want Congress to stop the war.”

Official Congressional Record

Mr. Speaker, in recent days, three more American servicemembers have been killed in the Iran war, while another is missing, and 1,600 civilians have been killed--not combatants--with our tax dollars. Here at home, the average price of gasoline is above $4 a gallon again, and we continue to spend billions of dollars of taxpayer money on this unnecessary war that President Trump started. This is money that could have been spent to make people's lives better here at home. President Trump got us into this war for no good reason, with no good plan, and no regard for the pain that it is causing. The American people are tired of endless wars, tired of unnecessary bloodshed, tired of children being bombed in their schools with our tax dollars, and tired of our best and brightest coming home in caskets for a war that nobody can explain. It is time to put the adults back in charge. Put experienced negotiators at the table to find an end to this unnecessary war, not the President's relatives and real estate buddies. It is time to elect a new majority here in Congress that takes our responsibility to be a check on the President seriously. We need people here in Congress who have the courage to say ``no'' when the President has a bad idea, especially when it gets people killed. We grieve for the American servicemembers who have lost their lives in this war and for their families, and we pray that the Members of this Congress can find the courage to stand up and end this unnecessary war.

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House of Representatives

ICE Shootings

2026-07-14

“I don't like what ICE is doing. I think it's bad. I want people to be upset about this. I won't give them money. I want there to be consequences.”

Official Congressional Record

Mr. Speaker, in the last week, ICE agents shot and killed two more innocent people in broad daylight. In both cases, the people who they shot and killed weren't even the people who they were looking for. In both cases, they shot and killed people who were on their way to work in front of their families. In Houston last week, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a construction worker who has lived in the United States for 35 years, a husband with three children, no criminal record, was driving to work with the lunch that his wife had packed for him, and his brother riding in the passenger seat, when ICE agents rammed his vehicle and shot him because they thought he was someone else. Yesterday, in Maine, Joan Sebastian Guerrero, 26 years old, legally authorized to work in the United States--legally authorized--was shot and killed by ICE agents who thought he was somebody else, in front of his wife and his 3-year-old daughter, who screamed and wearing her Bluey pajamas, while she watched her father bleed to death. How many more innocent people have to be killed in broad daylight? How many more children have to watch their parents shot to death by masked men too cowardly to show their faces? When will this madness stop? When he took his position, Secretary Mullin said that his goal was to get the Department off the front page of the news. Well, you are back on the goddamned front page now with two innocent people gunned down in broad daylight. Nothing has changed. Nothing has changed. It is total chaos. Do you know what? In both of these shootings in Texas and in Maine, none of the agents were wearing their body cameras. Congress gave them tens of millions of dollars for body cameras, and none of them were wearing them. Where is the accountability? Do you want to know why I won't vote to give funding to this lawless, reckless, dangerous agency? Mark my words. We are not going to be silent about what is happening. We are not going to forget until there is justice.

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