Fighting Back: “Republicans are trying to score putrid political points while storm damaged communities cry out for help.”

 
 

The Weekly Democratic Party Address was delivered by Congressman Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri. He highlighted the pressing need to pass the bipartisan disaster relief package to support communities ravaged by natural disasters.

(Congressman Emanuel Cleaver highlighted the pressing need to pass the bipartisan disaster relief package to support communities ravaged by natural disasters, a bill which House Republicans have sabotaged three times in the past week.)

“We can disagree on policy, in fact it’s healthy to disagree and debate, however, when it comes to the aiding communities razed by raging storms or American families facing tragedy, we must come together for the sake of the people.

“The American people – Republican and Democrat, rural and urban – are counting on us to provide the relief they have been waiting on. I have no doubt that we will meet the challenge before us and provide what the people are calling for, but I would urge all of my colleagues to take some time this weekend to reflect on how we’ve reached this low point when even natural disasters cannot bridge the political divide of our body.

(CSPAN link to Weekly Democratic Address: here)

Transcript: Congressman Emanuel Cleaver Delivers Weekly Democratic Address

Washington, D.C. – Congressman Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri delivered the Weekly Democratic Address. In this week’s address, the Congressman highlighted the pressing need to pass the bipartisan disaster relief package to support communities ravaged by natural disasters, a bill which House Republicans have sabotaged three times in the past week.

Below is a full transcript of the address:

“Hello, I’m Emanuel Cleaver, and I serve the people of the Fifth Congressional District of Missouri, home of the Kansas City Chiefs and right smack dab in the heartland of America.

“This spring has been an abnormally stormy and rainy season all across the nation, but particularly in the Midwest. In just the past week, we’ve seen tornados wreak havoc on Kansas and Missouri destroying homes, decimating farmland, devastating communities, and even taking lives.

“We’ve also witnessed calamitous floods in Iowa, Nebraska, and in Missouri throughout the spring season, causing roads to flood, farms to delay planting, and businesses to take a severe economic hit.

“Just this week, Kansas City broke the record for rainfall in the month of May, and we’re facing the consequences of this torrential rainfall all around my Congressional district. As I speak, there are currently more than 300 – 300 – road closures across the state of Missouri, from local roads to major highways. This isn’t just harmful to the people and businesses I represent, the effects are being felt across the nation.

“That’s why today I want to talk to you about our Country’s dire need for Congress to come together and pass a disaster funding bill for the people.

“Over the past 4 months, Democrats in the House have worked hard to reach across the aisle to pass two supplemental funding bills that would help address not only the needs of the Midwestern communities I’ve been speaking about, but communities in California dealing with wildfires, towns in Alabama ravaged by tornados, and Americans in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands are still rebuilding from the disastrous hurricane that occurred in 2017.

“Last week, our colleagues in the Senate were able to reach an agreement, with 85 senators, almost unheard-of in terms of bipartisanship in these tribalistic times, voting to support the $19 billion deal that would bring relief to American communities from sea to shining sea.

“But unfortunately, a select few of our Republican colleagues in the House have decided to put politics over the needs of the American people, choosing to object and obstruct the disaster bill while we are back home serving our constituents in the district.

“These individuals understand that they are a small minority of the House of Representatives and that they are simply delaying the inevitable. That’s why I find is so unfathomable and unconscionable that they have chosen this moment to try to score putrid political points when Americans all over the country are pleading, pleading for our help.

“I find myself questioning how we as a nation have found ourselves in this position. It is exactly moments like these, when disaster strikes, that Americans have historically put partisanship aside and worked together for the betterment of the country.

“Have we really reached the point where members of the People’s House are going to deny traumatized communities the assistance they so desperately need just so they can go back home and say they stuck it to the opposition party? Is that really what this body has come to?

“That is the exact opposite of why we were sent to Congress and an untenable way to govern any nation, let alone the most powerful nation in the history of the world.

“We can disagree on policy, in fact it’s healthy to disagree and debate, however, when it comes to the aiding communities razed by raging storms or American families facing tragedy, we must come together for the sake of the people.

“The American people – Republican and Democrat, rural and urban – are counting on us to provide the relief they have been waiting on. I have no doubt that we will meet the challenge before us and provide what the people are calling for, but I would urge all of my colleagues to take some time this weekend to reflect on how we’ve reached this low point when even natural disasters cannot bridge the political divide of our body.

“For if we cannot come together in times like these, in a time of crisis, we are falling apart altogether.

“I’m Emanuel Cleaver from Missouri’s Fifth Congressional District. Thank you for listening.”

Any bolding has been added.

~

The House was not in session this past week so there was no weekly news conference from Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. However, she spoke after an event in her home district about Robert Mueller’s statement and that is included here:

Transcript: Pelosi Statement on Special Counsel Mueller’s Press Statement Reiterating the President’s Obstruction

San Francisco – Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued this statement after Special Counsel Mueller made a press statement reiterating the extent of Russian efforts to disrupt our elections and that President Trump was not exonerated of obstructing the Trump-Russia investigation:

“It is with the greatest respect for Special Counsel Robert Mueller and the deepest disappointment in the Department of Justice holding the President above the law, that I thank Special Counsel Mueller for the work he and his team did to provide a record for future action both in the Congress and in the courts regarding the Trump Administration involvement in Russian interference and obstruction of the investigation.

“Special Counsel Mueller made clear that he did not exonerate the President when he stated, ‘If we had confidence that the President clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so.’ He stated that the decision not to indict stemmed directly from the Department of Justice’s policy that a sitting President cannot be indicted. Despite Department of Justice policy to the contrary, no one is above the law – not even the President.

“The Special Counsel’s report revealed that the President’s campaign welcomed Russian interference in the election, and laid out eleven instances of the President’s obstruction of the investigation. The Congress holds sacred its constitutional responsibility to investigate and hold the President accountable for his abuse of power.

“The Congress will continue to investigate and legislate to protect our elections and secure our democracy. The American people must have the truth. We call upon the Senate to pass H.R. 1, the For The People Act, to protect our election systems.

“We salute Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his team for his patriotic duty to seek the truth.”

~

Pelosi Statement on Louisiana’s Draconian Abortion Ban

San Francisco — Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued this statement on Louisiana’s new abortion ban, which prohibits abortion at as early as six weeks, before most women know they are pregnant, and does not contain exceptions for cases of rape or incest:

“Louisiana’s draconian new abortion ban is the latest in a heartbreaking and nationwide assault against women’s reproductive freedoms. These bans show a staggering lack of respect for women: for their health, for their control over their bodies and for their right to make decisions about the timing and size of their families.

“Every woman, everywhere has the constitutional and moral right to basic reproductive health care. We will fight these immoral and dangerous attacks on women’s health and freedoms with all our strength.”

~