Maxine Dexter

“This past weekend, I stood in Montgomery, Alabama, on ground that has absorbed the blood, tears, and sweat of people fighting for equal rights and felt the full weight of this moment. Around me were civil rights activists, elected leaders, and organizers on the front lines fighting against racist redistricting and gerrymandering, a fight the Supreme Court has made harder and more urgent. From the Northeast to the West Coast, Members of Congress showed up in solidarity and to say: We are not going back.”

“The American people need to know that their government is intentionally suffocating the nation of Cuba. There is no other way to describe what is happening. Earlier this month, I traveled to Cuba with a congressional delegation to see firsthand how U.S. policy is affecting this country that is just 90 miles off our shore. This is a country that is known for its joy and for its culture.”

“I rise today in strong opposition to the FIRE Act, a bill that undermines the protections that keeps our air safe to breathe. In 1970, Democrats and Republicans came together to pass the Clean Air Act and put public health at the center of our national policymaking. That was a promise to the American people, and it is a promise we cannot forget. That law has delivered cleaner air and longer lives, but our work is not finished. More than 100 million Americans live in counties with unhealthy levels of pollution.”

“I rise today not just as a Member of this body but as a physician who has spent nearly two decades caring for patients in the intensive care unit, many of them fighting for their lives because of a system that has failed to support them before a crisis hit. In Oregon's Third District, we see every day how critical prevention, treatment, and recovery programs are. We need those programs that my colleague from New Jersey just referred to as being cut. This bill does nothing to repair those cuts. These aren't abstract policy ideas.”