'This Is Not A Joke!': Kathy Castor Rips GOP For Prioritize 'Gulf Of America' Renaming

In House floor remarks on Thursday, Rep. Kathy Castor (D-FL) tore into Republicans' bill to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.

Transcript

00:00our reserve gentlemen reserves gentlemen California thank you mr. speaker I yield

00:07now two minutes to the gentlewoman from Florida who represents the Gulf and may

00:13have some wisdom to share with us about this subject the woman from Florida is

00:18recognized well I thank the ranking member for yielding the time and I

00:21wanted I rise in opposition to this farcical bill and I thought I'd share

00:25what I'm hearing from my neighbors across the Gulf Coast they want

00:31policymakers in Washington DC to tackle the cost of living and during this

00:35Congress the Republican-led Congress there has not been one bill brought to the

00:39floor of the house and here we are in May to lower the cost of living for

00:43families along the Gulf Coast and all across America in fact what the

00:48Republicans have been focusing on is a massive tax giveaway to billionaires like

00:53Elon Musk while they rip away health care from millions of Americans and in

00:59Florida we have about 4.6 million Floridians that rely on the Affordable Care

01:04Act for their health care and about 3.9 million Floridians who rely on Medicaid

01:11these are the the family members we love the most kids with complex conditions

01:16seniors in skilled nursing seniors that want to live in dignity in their homes

01:21with the home health aid but their priority is it to make people's lives

01:25easier to make people's lives better no it's been totally focused on how you rip

01:31that away make people's lives more expensive it it also means it for the

01:39Gulf Coast we are still reeling from Hurricanes Helene and Milton just like other

01:44parts of the country in Georgia and North Carolina we don't need Elon Musk creating

01:50turmoil and firing civil servants and public public servants who are helping us

01:55rebuild we do not need the Trump administration making people's lives

01:59harder to rebuild and to afford to stay in their homes we're preparing for

02:05another hurricane season and folks along the Gulf Coast need a National Weather

02:09Service that is functional that can warn us about the threats ahead we need the

02:14hurricane hunters out in the Gulf telling us how severe the storms are going to be

02:18but the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress seem to be

02:22turning away from the people along the Gulf Coast and along all across America to

02:28understand the threats of a warming climate

02:31gentleman's time is expired yield the gentlelady 30 seconds thank you mr.

02:35Huffman because you started this with saying that Gulf of America started as a

02:40joke this is not a joke to the people I represent they want help they want help with

02:48the cost of living and it seems like the Republicans are doing the last that's

02:52the last priority on their list instead they want to give a massive tax give away

02:56to the wealthy and the well-connected while people really need help with their

03:00pocketbooks they need help they want to retain their health care they want to

03:04make sure that the ocean waters are free of pollution the EPA and all of the

03:10Trump administration initiatives are to take the

03:12general woman's time is expired please vote no and focus on what's important