WATCH: Ahead of Vote, Pressley Implores House to Reject Big, Ugly Bill That Rips Food & Healthcare from Millions

Transcript: Ahead of Vote, Pressley Implores House to Reject Big, Ugly Bill That Rips Food & Healthcare from Millions
U.S. Capitol
July 2, 2025

You know, a moment ago there were some hecklers here, and they were cheering on every time we invoked Donald Trump and JD Vance’s name. They were cheering them on and clapping for them. 

I wish they were still here so that I could tell them “I will pray for you.” And myself and my colleagues are fighting hard to defend you.

You have been deeply betrayed. The only thing that the occupant of the Oval Office, this fascist dictator, white supremacist-in-chief is doing is equal opportunity harm.

Nothing will save anyone from the harm that is coming if this bill becomes law. 

Rural communities, yeah, Meemaw, papaw, jumbug. Urban communities, big momma, all our cousins.

Everyone will feel this, in urban, rural and suburban communities. And I want them to know that we are fighting hard to defend everyone from this harm, because this will be a tsunami of hurt. 

Thank you to my sister-in-service Congresswoman Delia Ramirez for convening us today and to our colleagues for speaking out in this somber moment.

I’m reminded often of the words of Coretta Scott King who said that “starving a child is violence. Neglecting schoolchildren is violence. Ignoring medical need is violence. Contempt for those living in poverty is violence.”

And let me be clear: Republicans’ big, ugly, betrayal of a bill is violence.

It is an assault. It is an assault on working families and on every person who calls this nation home.

It would rip healthcare away from over 17 million people.

It would deny food to hungry elders and babies. 

It would destroy Medicaid for babies in the NICU and parents with chronic illnesses, gut services like prenatal care and cancer screenings at Planned Parenthood, and push critical reproductive healthcare even further out of reach.

And for what?

To give billionaires even more money they do not need.

Republicans are so desperate to line the pockets of their ultra-wealthy donors that they are willing to make millions of people, millions of their own constituents, poorer, sicker, hungrier and more vulnerable—and strip them of basic bodily autonomy.

This is an anti-freedom agenda supposedly wrapped in the flag and so-called faith.

It is shameful, and they are shameless.

At this point, I’m running out of words to describe the harm of this bill.

It is cruel. It is callous. And it is completely clueless.

Clueless about the lives of everyday people—real people with real struggles and real needs.

Republicans claim to be the party of God. But I don’t know what God these people serve. It must be god with a lowercase “g.”

Because as someone who grew up at the knee of my grandfather of a Baptist preacher of a small store-front church, who spent my summers in the south of vacation Bible school, I have yet to find a Psalm that says “Thou shalt make people poorer, hungrier, and sicker.” 

But that’s exactly what this bill would do if it becomes law.

And we must do everything in our power to ensure that it does not.

In addition to slashing resources that help people make ends meet, this bill would also shamefully fund Donald Trump’s unlawful mass deportation agenda—pouring more money into ICE to terrorize our immigrant neighbors.

The cruelty is the point.

Let’s be clear: Republicans are ramming this bill through Congress so they can move us closer to their dark, dystopian vision of Donald Trump’s America.

An America where billionaires thrive and everyone else suffers.

An America where families are criminalized for needing food or healthcare.

Where patients are denied the care they need.

And where the poor are punished simply for being poor.

I represent the Massachusetts 7^th, one of the most vibrant, diverse, and dynamic districts in the country, but also one of the most unequal.

A district home to one of the highest concentration of community health centers, which provide life-saving care to 1 in 3 of my constituents.

A district where hospitals have already closed, and where others would be at risk of closure if this bill becomes law.

Across the Commonwealth, over 320,000 people would lose health insurance. At least 103,000 could lose food assistance.

Over 11,000 manufacturing & energy jobs would be cut, ACA premiums would skyrocket, and energy bills would go up.

Behind each number and statistic is a family. A parent, a child, an elder, a loved one. 

And as much as JD Vance may call them “immaterial” – these are people’s lives and livelihoods.

Republicans in both chambers rushed this bill through under the cloak of night. They’re hiding, like they always do, because they still have some semblance of shame.

Enough to run and hide. But they still have time to reverse course.

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. 

You can change this.  This legislation is NOT inevitable.

And we will continue to resist, to obstruct, and to fight with every tool to stop it in its tracks.

Because as our late movement sibling, the great Cecile Richards once said before she transitioned, “the question will be asked when everything was at stake for the country, what did you do? And the only acceptable answer will be everything that I could.”