Melanie A. Stansbury
Representative for New Mexico · Democratic · United States
“Congressional Record, Volume 172 Issue 116 (Thursday, July 16, 2026) [Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 116 (Thursday, July 16, 2026)] [House] [Page H4617] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] FIGHT AGAINST ASSAULT ON PUBLIC LANDS (Ms.”
“Congressional Record, Volume 172 Issue 116 (Thursday, July 16, 2026) [Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 116 (Thursday, July 16, 2026)] [House] [Page H4617] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] FIGHT AGAINST ASSAULT ON PUBLIC LANDS (Ms.”
“They hold thousands of ancestral sites that are central to ceremonies, traditions, the stories, and the people who have cared for these lands since time immemorial. These repeals disregard years of Tribal consultation and open the door to oil, gas, and mining, threatening sacred sites that are irreplaceable. Let me be clear, though.”
“They hold thousands of ancestral sites that are central to ceremonies, traditions, the stories, and the people who have cared for these lands since time immemorial. These repeals disregard years of Tribal consultation and open the door to oil, gas, and mining, threatening sacred sites that are irreplaceable. Let me be clear, though.”
“We will continue to actually work to make this government work for the American people, to actually cut real waste and real fraud and real abuse and the real abusers who are sitting in the White House and committing waste, fraud, and abuse on the American people every single day.”
“I did not come to Congress to write blank checks to foreign militaries to bomb civilians, and I did not come here to support an unending and illegal war in the Middle East. That is why I chose today to block offensive military aid. Today, I choose our people over weapons. I choose peace over war.”
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“This is a sign that the American people need to continue to stand up, to speak out, to show up, to attend those townhalls, to call their Representatives, to continue marching, to continue making sure that we hold our elected officials to account. All across my district, there is not a single family who has not been touched over the last 100 days: People who have lost their jobs, teachers and firefighters, people who work for the VA and the Forest Service, who work for our national security programs, scientists and engineers, people who just started their jobs and people who have been there for countless decades. These are real stories, real people, real lives that have been impacted every single day for the last 100 days. What have my colleagues across the aisle done? Nothing. They have done nothing.”
“Everywhere we go, across the aisle, we saw people who are afraid they are going to lose their Social Security, people who are afraid they are going to lose the healthcare that keeps them and their family members alive, people who are afraid that they are not going to be able to afford to put a roof over their head or food on the table, people who are afraid watching as their family members and friends are facing the threats of deportation, students who are afraid to show up to school because they don't know what will happen to themselves or their families. This is the sign of an unhealthy democracy. This is the sign of an executive who has lost touch with the American people. This is the sign of an authoritarian and autocratic way of operating. This is the sign of a democracy that has lost its way.”
“While my colleagues across the aisle are afraid to even face their constituents, we are showing up every day across our communities: 15 townhalls touching 15,000 New Mexicans across every county that we represent in 12 towns and communities and Tribal communities across our State. Let me say this: Our people are afraid.”
“Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for convening this Special Order hour. Mr. Speaker, this week marks this administration's first 100 days in office. It has been 100 days of chaos, corruption, confusion, and absolute destruction of our Constitution and the norms that this great Nation was built on; 100 days of tearing apart our democracy, our families, our communities, the vital Federal programs that serve the people who make up our communities; thousands fired, agencies dismantled, and people's personal and private data stolen; self-dealing billions of dollars in Federal contracts, judges jailed, a Congress that refuses to act and to do its job, and the countless Americans who are living in fear. Mr. Speaker, I have just wrapped up a townhall tour across my district.”
“Here just 1 week after the 55th anniversary of Earth Day, my colleagues across the aisle are putting forth a set of resolutions to gut protections for clean air and public lands across the West, while they prepare a reconciliation package next week that would open our public lands to oil and gas drilling, selling them to the lowest bidder, and repealing historic investments in climate and clean energy. To think that just 55 years ago, a historic bipartisan people's movement led the United States in leading the world to protect our air, land, and water. We are here today to say we are not going back and we will continue to fight for our planet and our communities. ____________________”
“Congressional Record, Volume 171 Issue 71 (Tuesday, April 29, 2025) [Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 71 (Tuesday, April 29, 2025)] [House] [Page H1714] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] ONE HUNDRED DAYS OF CHAOS, DYSFUNCTION, AND ATTACKS (Ms. STANSBURY asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.) Ms. STANSBURY. Mr. Speaker, today marks the 100th day of this administration. One hundred days of chaos, dysfunction, and attacks. Attacks on our democracy, our communities, and our environment, rollback protections for climate and clean energy, for our air, land, water, and wildlife.”
“MOORE of West Virginia and McDOWELL changed their vote from ``yea'' to ``nay.'' Mr. PETERS and Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin changed their vote from ``nay'' to ``yea.'' So (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was passed. The result of the vote was announced as above recorded. The title of the bill was amended so as to read: ``A bill to ban the sale of products with a high concentration of sodium nitrite to individuals, and for other purposes.''. A motion to reconsider was laid on the table. Stated for: Ms. STANSBURY. Mr. Speaker, had I been present, I would have voted YEA on Roll Call No. 108. ____________________”
“Gooden Goodlander Graves Gray Green (TN) Green, Al (TX) Griffith Grothman Guest Guthrie Hamadeh (AZ) Harder (CA) Haridopolos Harris (NC) Harshbarger Hayes Hern (OK) Higgins (LA) Hill (AR) Himes Hinson Horsford Houchin Houlahan Hoyer Hudson Huffman Huizenga Hunt Hurd (CO) Issa Ivey Jack Jackson (IL) Jackson (TX) Jacobs Jayapal Jeffries Johnson (GA) Johnson (SD) Johnson (TX) Jordan Joyce (OH) Joyce (PA) Kamlager-Dove Kaptur Kean Keating Kelly (IL) Kelly (MS) Kelly (PA) Kennedy (NY) Khanna Kiggans (VA) Kiley (CA) Kim Krishnamoorthi Kustoff LaHood LaLota LaMalfa Landsman Langworthy Larsen (WA) Larson (CT) Latimer Latta Lawler Lee (FL) Lee (NV) Lee (PA) Leger Fernandez Letlow Levin Liccardo Lieu Lofgren Lucas Lynch Mace Mackenzie Magaziner Maloy Mann Mannion Mast Matsui McBath McBride McCaul McClain McClain Delaney McClellan McCollum McDonald Rivet McGarvey McIver Meeks Menendez Meng Messmer Meuser Mfume Miller (OH) Miller (WV) Miller-Meeks Mills Min Moolenaar Moore (NC) Moore (UT) Moore (WI) Moran Morelle Morrison Moskowitz Moulton Mrvan Mullin Murphy Nadler Neal Neguse Nehls Newhouse Obernolte Ocasio-Cortez Olszewski Omar Onder Owens Pallone Palmer Panetta Pappas Patronis Pelosi Perez Peters Pettersen Pfluger Pingree Pocan Pou Pressley Quigley Ramirez Randall Raskin Reschenthaler Riley (NY) Rivas Rogers (AL) Rogers (KY) Rose Ross Rouzer Ruiz Rulli Rutherford Ryan Salazar Salinas Sanchez Scalise Scanlon Schakowsky Schmidt Schneider Scholten Schrier Schweikert Scott (VA) Scott, Austin Scott, David Sessions Sewell Sherman Sherrill Shreve Simon Simpson Smith (MO) Smith (NE) Smith (NJ) Smith (WA) Smucker Sorensen Soto Spartz Stanton Stauber Stefanik Steil Stevens Strickland Strong Stutzman Subramanyam Suozzi Swalwell Sykes Takano Taylor Tenney Thanedar Thompson (CA) Thompson (MS) Thompson (PA) Timmons Titus Tlaib Tokuda Tonko Torres (CA) Torres (NY) Trahan Tran Turner (OH) Underwood Valadao Van Drew Van Orden Vargas Vasquez Veasey Velazquez Vindman Wagner Walberg Wasserman Schultz Waters Watson Coleman Weber (TX) Webster (FL) Westerman Whitesides Williams (GA) Williams (TX) Wilson (FL) Wilson (SC) Wittman Womack Yakym Zinke NAYS--42 Biggs (AZ) Biggs (SC) Boebert Brecheen Burchett Burlison Cline Cloud Clyde Collins Crane Crank Estes Fulcher Gill (TX) Gosar Greene (GA) Hageman Harrigan Harris (MD) Kennedy (UT) Knott Loudermilk Luttrell Malliotakis Massie McClintock McCormick McDowell McGuire Miller (IL) Moore (AL) Moore (WV) Norman Ogles Perry Roy Self Steube Tiffany Van Duyne Wied NOT VOTING--12 Cohen Connolly Davidson De La Cruz Gottheimer Hoyle (OR) James Luna McGovern Norcross Nunn (IA) Stansbury {time} 1726 Messrs.”
“The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 378, nays 42, not voting 12, as follows: [Roll No. 108] YEAS--378 Adams Aderholt Aguilar Alford Allen Amo Amodei (NV) Ansari Arrington Auchincloss Babin Bacon Baird Balderson Balint Barr Barragan Barrett Baumgartner Bean (FL) Beatty Begich Bell Bentz Bera Bergman Beyer Bice Bilirakis Bishop Bonamici Bost Boyle (PA) Bresnahan Brown Brownley Buchanan Budzinski Bynum Calvert Cammack Carbajal Carey Carson Carter (GA) Carter (LA) Carter (TX) Casar Case Casten Castor (FL) Castro (TX) Cherfilus-McCormick Chu Ciscomani Cisneros Clark (MA) Clarke (NY) Cleaver Clyburn Cole Comer Conaway Correa Costa Courtney Craig Crawford Crenshaw Crockett Crow Cuellar Davids (KS) Davis (IL) Davis (NC) Dean (PA) DeGette DeLauro DelBene Deluzio DeSaulnier DesJarlais Dexter Diaz-Balart Dingell Doggett Donalds Downing Dunn (FL) Edwards Elfreth Ellzey Emmer Escobar Espaillat Evans (CO) Evans (PA) Ezell Fallon Fedorchak Feenstra Fields Figures Fine Finstad Fischbach Fitzgerald Fitzpatrick Fleischmann Fletcher Flood Fong Foster Foushee Foxx Frankel, Lois Franklin, Scott Friedman Frost Fry Garamendi Garbarino Garcia (CA) Garcia (IL) Garcia (TX) Gillen Gimenez Golden (ME) Goldman (NY) Goldman (TX) Gomez Gonzales, Tony Gonzalez, V.”
“Congressional Record, Volume 171 Issue 71 (Tuesday, April 29, 2025) [Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 71 (Tuesday, April 29, 2025)] [House] [Pages H1709-H1710] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] YOUTH POISONING PROTECTION ACT The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, the unfinished business is the vote on the motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1442) a bill to ban the sale of products with a high concentration of sodium nitrate to individuals, and for other purposes, as amended, on which the yeas and nays were ordered. [[Page H1710]] The Clerk read the title of the bill. The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Bilirakis) that the House suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended.”
“Here just 1 week after the 55th anniversary of Earth Day, my colleagues across the aisle are putting forth a set of resolutions to gut protections for clean air and public lands across the West, while they prepare a reconciliation package next week that would open our public lands to oil and gas drilling, selling them to the lowest bidder, and repealing historic investments in climate and clean energy. To think that just 55 years ago, a historic bipartisan people's movement led the United States in leading the world to protect our air, land, and water. We are here today to say we are not going back and we will continue to fight for our planet and our communities. ____________________”
“Congressional Record, Volume 171 Issue 71 (Tuesday, April 29, 2025) [Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 71 (Tuesday, April 29, 2025)] [House] [Page H1714] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] ONE HUNDRED DAYS OF CHAOS, DYSFUNCTION, AND ATTACKS (Ms. STANSBURY asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.) Ms. STANSBURY. Mr. Speaker, today marks the 100th day of this administration. One hundred days of chaos, dysfunction, and attacks. Attacks on our democracy, our communities, and our environment, rollback protections for climate and clean energy, for our air, land, water, and wildlife.”
“MOORE of West Virginia and McDOWELL changed their vote from ``yea'' to ``nay.'' Mr. PETERS and Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin changed their vote from ``nay'' to ``yea.'' So (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was passed. The result of the vote was announced as above recorded. The title of the bill was amended so as to read: ``A bill to ban the sale of products with a high concentration of sodium nitrite to individuals, and for other purposes.''. A motion to reconsider was laid on the table. Stated for: Ms. STANSBURY. Mr. Speaker, had I been present, I would have voted YEA on Roll Call No. 108. ____________________”
“Gooden Goodlander Graves Gray Green (TN) Green, Al (TX) Griffith Grothman Guest Guthrie Hamadeh (AZ) Harder (CA) Haridopolos Harris (NC) Harshbarger Hayes Hern (OK) Higgins (LA) Hill (AR) Himes Hinson Horsford Houchin Houlahan Hoyer Hudson Huffman Huizenga Hunt Hurd (CO) Issa Ivey Jack Jackson (IL) Jackson (TX) Jacobs Jayapal Jeffries Johnson (GA) Johnson (SD) Johnson (TX) Jordan Joyce (OH) Joyce (PA) Kamlager-Dove Kaptur Kean Keating Kelly (IL) Kelly (MS) Kelly (PA) Kennedy (NY) Khanna Kiggans (VA) Kiley (CA) Kim Krishnamoorthi Kustoff LaHood LaLota LaMalfa Landsman Langworthy Larsen (WA) Larson (CT) Latimer Latta Lawler Lee (FL) Lee (NV) Lee (PA) Leger Fernandez Letlow Levin Liccardo Lieu Lofgren Lucas Lynch Mace Mackenzie Magaziner Maloy Mann Mannion Mast Matsui McBath McBride McCaul McClain McClain Delaney McClellan McCollum McDonald Rivet McGarvey McIver Meeks Menendez Meng Messmer Meuser Mfume Miller (OH) Miller (WV) Miller-Meeks Mills Min Moolenaar Moore (NC) Moore (UT) Moore (WI) Moran Morelle Morrison Moskowitz Moulton Mrvan Mullin Murphy Nadler Neal Neguse Nehls Newhouse Obernolte Ocasio-Cortez Olszewski Omar Onder Owens Pallone Palmer Panetta Pappas Patronis Pelosi Perez Peters Pettersen Pfluger Pingree Pocan Pou Pressley Quigley Ramirez Randall Raskin Reschenthaler Riley (NY) Rivas Rogers (AL) Rogers (KY) Rose Ross Rouzer Ruiz Rulli Rutherford Ryan Salazar Salinas Sanchez Scalise Scanlon Schakowsky Schmidt Schneider Scholten Schrier Schweikert Scott (VA) Scott, Austin Scott, David Sessions Sewell Sherman Sherrill Shreve Simon Simpson Smith (MO) Smith (NE) Smith (NJ) Smith (WA) Smucker Sorensen Soto Spartz Stanton Stauber Stefanik Steil Stevens Strickland Strong Stutzman Subramanyam Suozzi Swalwell Sykes Takano Taylor Tenney Thanedar Thompson (CA) Thompson (MS) Thompson (PA) Timmons Titus Tlaib Tokuda Tonko Torres (CA) Torres (NY) Trahan Tran Turner (OH) Underwood Valadao Van Drew Van Orden Vargas Vasquez Veasey Velazquez Vindman Wagner Walberg Wasserman Schultz Waters Watson Coleman Weber (TX) Webster (FL) Westerman Whitesides Williams (GA) Williams (TX) Wilson (FL) Wilson (SC) Wittman Womack Yakym Zinke NAYS--42 Biggs (AZ) Biggs (SC) Boebert Brecheen Burchett Burlison Cline Cloud Clyde Collins Crane Crank Estes Fulcher Gill (TX) Gosar Greene (GA) Hageman Harrigan Harris (MD) Kennedy (UT) Knott Loudermilk Luttrell Malliotakis Massie McClintock McCormick McDowell McGuire Miller (IL) Moore (AL) Moore (WV) Norman Ogles Perry Roy Self Steube Tiffany Van Duyne Wied NOT VOTING--12 Cohen Connolly Davidson De La Cruz Gottheimer Hoyle (OR) James Luna McGovern Norcross Nunn (IA) Stansbury {time} 1726 Messrs.”
“The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 378, nays 42, not voting 12, as follows: [Roll No. 108] YEAS--378 Adams Aderholt Aguilar Alford Allen Amo Amodei (NV) Ansari Arrington Auchincloss Babin Bacon Baird Balderson Balint Barr Barragan Barrett Baumgartner Bean (FL) Beatty Begich Bell Bentz Bera Bergman Beyer Bice Bilirakis Bishop Bonamici Bost Boyle (PA) Bresnahan Brown Brownley Buchanan Budzinski Bynum Calvert Cammack Carbajal Carey Carson Carter (GA) Carter (LA) Carter (TX) Casar Case Casten Castor (FL) Castro (TX) Cherfilus-McCormick Chu Ciscomani Cisneros Clark (MA) Clarke (NY) Cleaver Clyburn Cole Comer Conaway Correa Costa Courtney Craig Crawford Crenshaw Crockett Crow Cuellar Davids (KS) Davis (IL) Davis (NC) Dean (PA) DeGette DeLauro DelBene Deluzio DeSaulnier DesJarlais Dexter Diaz-Balart Dingell Doggett Donalds Downing Dunn (FL) Edwards Elfreth Ellzey Emmer Escobar Espaillat Evans (CO) Evans (PA) Ezell Fallon Fedorchak Feenstra Fields Figures Fine Finstad Fischbach Fitzgerald Fitzpatrick Fleischmann Fletcher Flood Fong Foster Foushee Foxx Frankel, Lois Franklin, Scott Friedman Frost Fry Garamendi Garbarino Garcia (CA) Garcia (IL) Garcia (TX) Gillen Gimenez Golden (ME) Goldman (NY) Goldman (TX) Gomez Gonzales, Tony Gonzalez, V.”
“Congressional Record, Volume 171 Issue 71 (Tuesday, April 29, 2025) [Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 71 (Tuesday, April 29, 2025)] [House] [Pages H1709-H1710] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] YOUTH POISONING PROTECTION ACT The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, the unfinished business is the vote on the motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1442) a bill to ban the sale of products with a high concentration of sodium nitrate to individuals, and for other purposes, as amended, on which the yeas and nays were ordered. [[Page H1710]] The Clerk read the title of the bill. The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Bilirakis) that the House suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended.”
“No firing of generals or Federal workers, no banning of books or threats to schools, no purge of websites or removal of artifacts from the Smithsonian or any other institution, and certainly no change to our national holidays will erase American history because the people of this country will not be silenced. We will not allow this President to turn back the clock to take away American rights. We will keep speaking, we will keep marching, and we will keep fighting to protect our democracy because this is our country, and we are not going back. ____________________”
“Congressional Record, Volume 171 Issue 70 (Monday, April 28, 2025) [Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 70 (Monday, April 28, 2025)] [House] [Page H1672] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] AMERICAN HISTORY (Ms. STANSBURY asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.) Ms. STANSBURY. Mr. Speaker, Black history is American history, indigenous history is American history, Latino history is American history, and women and LGBTQ+ history is American history. We will not be silenced. No illegal or unconscionable executive orders can erase American history.”
“Speaker, the craziest thing is the majority said that Republicans wouldn't vote for it if it would raise the debt and the debt ceiling, and here they are. Bravo to my friends. My Republican colleagues are blowing a hole through the debt ceiling, and we will vote ``no.''”
“Mr. Speaker, the amount of gaslighting in this Chamber this afternoon has been absolutely stunning, truly, as I sat here this afternoon. What the GOP is doing is they are introducing a budget resolution that takes the worst of the House and the worst of the Senate and puts it in one big, beautiful bill that is going to blow a hole through the national debt. It will do that by raising the debt ceiling by $4 trillion, cutting $1.5 trillion in vital programs, giving $7 trillion in permanent tax breaks to billionaires, and raising the debt by $37 trillion over the next 30 years. How are Republicans going to pay for it? On the backs of the American people with cuts to Medicaid, food assistance, housing, school meals, clean energy, and selling your public lands. Mr.”
“It is because of their actions that Elon Musk--thank you very much--is finally leaving the building. Make no mistake, this agenda will continue, as we see here this week. That is why it is vital that the American people continue to speak up and speak out, keep marching, keep showing up, and keep telling these folks that we reject their agenda and its harmful impacts to the American people, and we will not allow it to continue. The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to direct their remarks to the Chair.”
“How about the No Rogue Rulings Act that is also being heard this week? It would undermine the courts. [[Page H1479]] There are a couple of bills to roll back consumer protections to keep banks from ripping them off. Is that your agenda? That is it? You are going to rip off American consumers, undermine their voting rights, undermine the judiciary, and insult moms? Cool. Yes, this sounds like a great agenda. Oh, I forgot, you are also going to tank the economy while Donald Trump is playing golf, and you are going to try to pass a budget that literally will cost the American people $37 trillion over the next 30 years while gutting their Medicaid and their food and housing assistance. Now, luckily, the American people are not falling for it, and millions of Americans are speaking out and marching in the streets.”
“Mr. Speaker, I want to start by saying welcome back to my friends across the aisle. It is really nice to have them back here in the people's House, especially after last week. Their leadership shut down the United States House of Representatives rather than accommodate new moms voting remotely with a newborn child. Stellar work, my friends. You have simultaneously managed to shut down the House and enrage millions of moms across America. The American people actually want a government that represents them, and that is why they are also outraged by the agenda that Republicans have in this rule and are putting on the House floor this week, including the SAVE Act, which would disenfranchise millions of Americans, including millions of married women. You refuse to take up an amendment that would protect them, so congratulations to my friends.”
“Let us be clear. This is a direct attack on our communities on whose histories, whose cultures, whose languages, and whose communities count. Last week, we met with the Secretary of Education and hand delivered a letter calling on the administration to end these attacks on our schools, on our communities, on Tribal communities, and our education system. We will continue to fight back because we cannot stand with a country that is attacking our students. Mr. Speaker, I say to our President: Hands off our schools, hands off our students, and hands off our communities. ____________________”
“Congressional Record, Volume 171 Issue 62 (Monday, April 7, 2025) [Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 62 (Monday, April 7, 2025)] [House] [Page H1445] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] HANDS OFF OUR EDUCATION (Ms. STANSBURY asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.) Ms. STANSBURY. Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight to say to our President and to his administration: Hands off our education, hands off our teachers, hands off our students, and hands off our schools. Last week, the Department of Education sent a letter to thousands of public schools across the country asking them to certify that they would end programs promoting diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility or they would have their Federal funding cut.”
“Their Federal funding will be cut if they teach history, if they teach language, if they teach culture, and if they celebrate the multiple cultures and diversity of this country. The administration is trying to dismantle Tribal schools, which were created because of our trust and treaty responsibilities, trying to turn them into a voucher program and school choice. There are no choices in many of our rural and Tribal communities. The choice is to keep our Tribal schools open, which provide multicultural programs, language, and other programs that are the root of these communities. Mr. Speaker, we cannot give in. We will not allow them to roll back the clock. We must keep fighting for the future of this country. We will not give in to the politics of despair because the time is right to always do right.”
“They are engaging in trying to stifle and chill the telling of American history by putting the Vice President in charge of a commission, just last week, to erase history from our Smithsonian Institution as well as attacking our schools. Across the United States, there are 98,000 public schools. Last week, the Trump administration issued a letter to those schools saying that they must certify that they will end the use of diversity, equity, and inclusion in our public schools, or they will have their Federal funding cut. Imagine that in schools across every community. These are schools in your neighborhoods. They are the schools that I attended. They are the schools that your children attend.”
“Republicans even want to delete a picture of [[Page H1427]] the Enola Gay airplane because it contains the word ``gay'' in it. We have seen the termination of the Commissioners of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and a memo from the Department of Justice that would investigate, eliminate, and penalize those who engage, both in the private sector and universities, in diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility for our communities who live with disabilities, claiming that they will unleash the law and criminal proceedings on private companies, unleash the FCC, threatening to block mergers of companies like Disney and ABC. Federal contractors are being told that they cannot have contracts with the Federal Government if their boardrooms engage in diversity and inclusion.”
“We see it in the executive orders that Donald Trump signed in his first days in office, terminating diversity, equity, and inclusion across our Federal agencies, putting thousands of Federal workers on leave, shuttering offices and freezing Federal funds, and scrubbing websites of American history. We see it in the military in the treatment of our veterans, firing one of the highest-ranking generals serving on the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the first females in military leadership across multiple armed services divisions, the banning of our trans and LGBTQ+ servicemembers from serving openly, the scrubbing of DOD websites trying to erase the history of our veterans with 26,000 images and web pages of our history to be erased including the Tuskegee Airmen, Jackie Robinson, and the Navajo Code Talkers.”
“If Members zoom out and look at the bigger picture and the larger movement of this moment, my colleagues can see the ways in which this administration is trying to roll back the clock on American history, to redefine whose histories count, whose languages count, whose cultures count, whose identities count, whose personhood counts, whose very civil rights count, and who belongs in this great country. We see it in this Chamber this week with a GOP that is trying to roll back the voting rights of Americans across the country, and we see it in the insidious rollback of civil rights across the administration, in our workplaces, in our schools, and all across this country, as the administration has armed itself with Project 2025 and has sought to redefine American society and roll back advancements of the civil rights era.”
“Congressional Record, Volume 171 Issue 62 (Monday, April 7, 2025) [Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 62 (Monday, April 7, 2025)] [House] [Pages H1426-H1427] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] IMPACT OF TRUMP ADMINISTRATION ANTI-DEI ACTIONS (Ms. Stansbury of New Mexico was recognized to address the House for 5 minutes.) Ms. STANSBURY. Mr. Speaker, among the daily assaults on our communities, on our economy, and the daily distractions and absurdities that we see from this administration and from my friends across the aisle in this Chamber, it can be easy to lose track of the bigger picture of what is happening across our country right now and the historical inflection point on which we stand.”