00:00comments he wishes to make. Well, thank you, Madam Chair. And I want to begin by condemning,
00:06in the strongest possible terms, the appalling act of anti-Semitic violence that happened in
00:11Boulder, Colorado over the weekend, which happens to be in our colleague, Mr. Ngoose's district.
00:16Let's be clear. Anti-Semitism is vile. It is wrong. And it has absolutely no place in America.
00:23And targeting peaceful protesters for exercising their First Amendment rights
00:27flies in the face of everything this country is supposed to stand for.
00:31My heart is with the victims, their families, and everyone impacted by these cowardly acts of hate.
00:38And now turning to the matter at hand, these bills before us are just another attempt to vilify all
00:46immigrants and distract from the Trump administration's disastrous failure to lower
00:51costs or do anything meaningful to help the people of this country. By vilifying all immigrants,
00:57but vilifying all immigrants doesn't make us safer, Madam Chair. In fact, it makes us less safe.
01:03It tears families apart, and it hurts people, including people like Carol Huey in Missouri,
01:09who worked two jobs to support her son, who's beloved in her community, and who has been detained by ICE.
01:16There is a powerful story about her, which I would encourage every one of you to read,
01:20which I would like to insert into the record, entitled,
01:22a Missouri town who was solidly behind Trump, than Carol was detained.
01:28Without objection.
01:29Even U.S. citizens, even U.S. citizens are being swept up in overzealous crackdowns.
01:35That's not border security. It's cruelty for political gain.
01:40And to be clear, Democrats are not denying that there's a problem.
01:43We want smart, humane, effective solutions that keep us safe without sacrificing our values.
01:51What Republicans are offering is the opposite, a system that lets real threats slip through while largely punishing innocent people.
02:00And that brings me to the bills that are before us today.
02:03One bill reauthorizes funding for programs that help communities fight the opiate crisis,
02:08something that I have supported.
02:11But it's hard to take Republicans seriously when Trump and his cronies are actively dismantling those very programs.
02:18If they were serious about this crisis, they'd stop undermining the solutions.
02:23Then we have the other three bills, which claim to support small businesses, but do the exact opposite.
02:28Doge already shuttered an SBA office in my district of Massachusetts, forcing rural small business owners to drive hours to get to the nearest SBA office in Boston.
02:43Now, under this bill, if Republicans force the closure of the Boston office out of political spite,
02:49it will leave small businesses in Massachusetts with nowhere else to turn.
02:53It will have disastrous long-term consequences for the rural entrepreneurs and working-class families in my home state
03:00who rely on the SBA to navigate federal assistance and recover from economic setbacks,
03:06like the increased costs that they're facing because of Trump's reckless trade war.
03:10Because, in case you didn't know, Trump's tariff chaos does, in fact, punish small businesses.
03:16Unlike the mega-donors who bankroll Republican campaigns,
03:19small business owners can't hedge against that kind of volatility.
03:24Every time Trump throws another tantrum on trade,
03:27Republicans are tossing small businesses into a tailspin with no warning, no help, and frankly, no concern.
03:35But maybe that's the point.
03:36Republicans aren't governing to help regular people.
03:39They're governing to protect the powerful and punish the vulnerable.
03:43Look no further than the GOP tax scam House Republicans jammed through the House last month.
03:48On the recent pay-for-play pardons handed out to Trump loyalists, people who paid up or praised him.
03:55The Republicans' message is clear.
03:57If you're rich and you support Trump, Republicans will take care of you.
04:00If you're not, you're on your own.
04:03They're not in this for working families or small businesses.
04:06They're in it for themselves and for ultra-wealthy,
04:08and for the ultra-wealthy who keep their campaigns afloat.
04:12Madam Chair, I think it's disgraceful, and I think the American people deserve better.
04:15And with that, I welcome our witnesses and look forward to their testimony.
04:21I yield back.
04:23I thank you, Mr. McGovern, for mentioning the horrific attack.
