Follow the Science and Respect the Lives of Our Children

I introduced an amendment during yesterday’s House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Markup that would prohibit funding from flowing to any state until all public schools in the state resume in-person learning.

To read the text of the amendment, click here.

 To watch my remarks on the amendment, click here

Remarks as prepared

Thank you, Chairman DeFazio and Ranking Member Graves.

I often hear politicians say we must “follow the science”.

Well, the CDC said that we needed to wear masks, and we have worn masks. 

The CDC said that we needed to be vaccinated, and there are lines for miles to get the vaccine.

Now the CDC has said our schools need to reopen for the good of America’s students, and we are still dragging our feet. 

Last week, the head of the CDC said, “There is increasing data to suggest that schools can safely re-open and that safe reopening does not suggest that teachers need to be vaccinated.”

Remote learning is increasing student education gaps and creating a chasm of learning loss particularly among vulnerable, lower income populations. It is time to stop the suffering of these working families and an entire generation of our children simply because half of this Congress is choosing unions and shallow, politics over students who are begging to return to the classrooms. 

By continuing to prolong the reopening of our schools, we are – quite literally – killing this future generation’s potential. 

Demanding parents teach their children from home while attempting to hold down a job has set working families up for failure and cost many their livelihoods, homes, and even the ability to feed their children. Divorce rates are increasing, drug abuse, alcohol abuse, domestic abuse and as a consequence, suicides, are all increasing.

If this bill has any hope of providing the critical relief needed, we must start by ensuring the services for our children are provided, and that means returning to the classroom.

Follow the science and respect the lives of our children and our working families – these are not trivial matters to treat like cheap, political hostages.  

I urge all of my colleagues to support this critical amendment for millions upon millions of Americans and their children.  

I yield back the balance of my time.