“You could save lives. You can look your kids in the eye, you can say that when everything was at stake, that you had clarity and you did the right thing.”

“I’m not begging you for benevolence. I’m asking you for decency. Do right by the people that sent you here.”

Video (YouTube)

WASHINGTON – Early this morning on the House floor, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07) made a direct, final appeal to her Republican colleagues to oppose their budget reconciliation bill, which would gut Medicaid, slash food assistance, and make millions of people in America poorer, sicker, hungrier, and more vulnerable. The Congresswoman’s remarks came during debate on the bill and ahead of the House’s vote on final passage.

A full transcript of the Congresswoman’s speech is below and video is available here.

Transcript: On House Floor, Pressley Makes Final Appeal to Republicans to Reject Cruel, Callous Budget Bill
House of Representatives
May 22, 2025

Mr. Speaker, I rise in vigorous opposition to this bill that is callous and cruel and clueless about what the American people are dealing with.

This bill, if passed, we’re talking about generations of harm, lives lost because of defunded cancer research, pregnant mothers denied essential health care, school lunch programs gutted, our babies hungry.

And for what? To line the pockets and stroke the egos of a few petty billionaires?

I believe in the promise of this nation. 

I believe in the possibility that government can and can do right by people and help us through our most vulnerable moments. 

This bill, this bill is the antithesis of that. 

This bill is a threat to the lives and livelihoods of so many people. 

The mood up here is somber. Y’all are gleeful. It’s somber, because this is shameful. 

Republicans, we just need four of you to be people of conscience, to stand up against this.

And in exchange, you could save lives. You can look your kids in the eye, you can say that when the world, when everything was at stake, that you had clarity and you did the right thing. 

I’m not begging you for benevolence. I’m asking you for decency.

Do right by the people that sent you here. 

I yield. 

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