REFLECTING ON THE STATE OF OUR UNION

On 2026-09-16, Representative Haley M. Stevens (D-MI-11) delivered a floor speech titled "REFLECTING ON THE STATE OF OUR UNION" in the House.

REFLECTING ON THE STATE OF OUR UNION

Congressional Record, Volume 172 Issue 146 (Wednesday, September 16, 2026) [Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 146 (Wednesday, September 16, 2026)] [House] [Pages H5964-H5969] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] REFLECTING ON THE STATE OF OUR UNION (Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3, 2025, Ms. Stevens of Michigan was recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.) General Leave Ms. STEVENS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and to submit extraneous material into the Record. The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Barrett). Is there objection to the request of the gentlewoman from Michigan? There was no objection. Ms. STEVENS. Mr. Speaker, I rise at this podium on this mid-day week evening as the House is set to adjourn. I was not expecting the House to be adjourning this evening for the remainder of the election cycle, 48-some days until the American people participate in one of the most incredible and fascinating processes, which is to vote and to engage in our elections, but as we will return after such midterm election, the Congress will be in a lameduck period. As you and I both know, Mr. Speaker, we do not use such Chamber activity to engage in electoral politics, so I make this address not for political purposes but to reflect in a matter of ways on the state of our Union, the state of our economy, the direction that this country is going in, and what it means for the American people. One thing is clear that not one person controls the full wheel of the American democracy. It is a participatory process of engagement, one in which Americans can self-select. They can self-select to run for office. They can self-select to serve their country. To the brave men and women in uniform here in our own borders and across the world, we respect, honor, and salute their service. Those who are carrying a tremendous weight of intelligence and information and those who seek the disruption of our very Nation are recognized. They are seen and valued and heard by so many of us in this Chamber. We also know that people show up for America in so many ways. In Michigan, in Rochester Hills, we just concluded the Art & Apples Festival. My parents helped start the Art & Apples Festival, and it is a great family event that goes the weekend after Labor Day. The bees are already starting to get weird in Michigan at this time of the year because they know that summer is ending, so they tend to bother you a little bit more. You always have the emergency EpiPens or allergy medications at the ready for bee stings at the Rochester Hills Art & Apples Festival. It is largely volunteer run, and it is participated in by members of the community. That is just another way in which we build our brilliant societies, in ZIP Codes, in towns, in villages, in cities across America, across Michigan in all seasons. Although, certainly in the upper North, we do appreciate our good weather days, and we hold on to them for as long as we can. Now, Mr. Speaker, I did advise to the public, the members of the press corps--I don't see any of them up there. That is okay. They don't need to be up here. They have other deadlines and things to write, but I did advise I was giving this address. It is not the first address that I have given to this tune from this Chamber. In fact, before political activity consumed much of the last year for me, although I voted at every turn and never missed vote--I actually might have missed one. I was talking to someone in the Speaker's lobby, and it was one of those 2 minutes. I know they like to play the gotcha. {time} 1940 I have always taken the vote very seriously. Before such political activity, I always found it very important to deliver these addresses, not assuming that it would be met with a huge audience or fanfare. Sometimes I told people to tune in, friends and family. You can see the Chamber is fairly empty. Mr. Speaker, because this is the United States of America, this is the U.S. House of Representatives, as the incredible former majority leader and statesman from Maryland, Congressman Steny Hoyer, would remind and tell all of the new Members of Congress as he led them through an orientation upon their election to Congress that, as we all know, you can't be appointed to this body. You have got to be elected. [[Page H5965]] If a Member resigns midterm, passes away midterm, leaves a vacancy, it is constitutionally required, meaning for the whole country--the States can't usurp this--that a vote has to be taken. So what is the beauty and the state of this Chamber and its responsibility to the American people in such a moment? Now, Mr. Speaker, I am very well aware of the generosity of the time that such a Member of Congress as I get allocated, the 60 minutes, to make such remarks, to etch them in the historical document of the House Record. I firmly and readily believe in the power, the beauty, and the magnificence of the House Record. I very much thank the typist who is making notes in real time about such remarks so that they can go into the House Record. Some in the American public might wonder why we have the recorder. You have got the remarks on digital and audio, and all of that. Decades ago now, they opened this whole place up to the cameras and C-SPAN, which is actually a wonderful thing to have the ability to tune in--not to doomscroll, not to engage in rage as you face the intersection of American Government, but to see really what happens here--not by way of the media outlet, not by way of some orchestration. You know, these internet maestros, the really talented people, I know that they will maybe take an interest. They did in one of my hour addresses during a campaign I just completed--not a big deal. It was just a few clips of a clip. Yet, that is someone's perception. It is someone's orientation of what gets said. Now, the typist here, she is recording for the Record, and I firmly believe, Mr. Speaker, that no matter what America faces, what challenges, what great opportunities we seize, we will always have the House Record, not some incredible article--there are so many articles, journalistic articles, internet articles, tweets, posts, engagements, likes, clicks, data ballooning by the millisecond, more than any data that has ever been created in the history of the world up until the internet age proliferated--proliferated through the economic might and ability of the United States of America, might I just say. Earlier this month--well, just 5 days ago now, Mr. Speaker, we recognized the 25-year anniversary of 9/11. Now, I remember that time very clearly. I was 18 years old. I had actually just temporarily moved to the Nation's Capital. I had received admittance into a college called American University--Go Eagles--and I took the opportunity to get my degrees at American University. My mother and my brother dropped me off to my Washington, D.C., dorm room 3 such weeks before the terrorist attack that took the precious lives, stolen in instances of American people going to work, serving this country, those in the Pentagon, those whose lives were forever changed and impacted, the heroes of our fire departments and our police departments, and those who put up their hand to volunteer in such a dark moment. Now, that was just 5 days ago that we recognized the quarter century mark of 9/11. My first term in Congress, 9/11 actually turned 18 years old. It had grown up. It was an adult. Now, it is further distant from us. In reflecting on the years that we have now spent in this 21st century, as a millennial, of course, I am mightily aware of how people celebrated and recognized the arrival of the 21st century. Everything was 21st century. Everything was focused on this not only new century, but new millennium. I mean, oh, my goodness gracious, the United States of America also just turned 250 years old, and we have been cruising through this new millennium. What do we make of it? Can we take a moment, Mr. Speaker, to reflect after this unbelievable tragedy that befell us, that impacted us, that shook us to our core--so unimaginable. I remember being woken up by my landline ringing from my college roommate's mother calling in, shrieking, and I am turning on the TV just in time to see the second plane crash, attack, blow up the second tower. So what has happened since? What is our story? You know, we didn't cower per se. No, we didn't at all. In fact, we were the ones who propagated the age of the gig economy, the mass proliferation of ones and zeroes through fiber optics, less than a decade later, these handheld, flat screen, computer-type phones that had cameras, texting, the internet, and music, and all of a sudden, a new economy of scale. Now, interestingly, a company that started at the tail end of last century called Google--started by some Michiganders, as a matter of fact, in a college dorm room or college garage, or something along those lines--Google's first outpost out of the innovative area of California was to Michigan, actually to Birmingham, Michigan. I remember being a young girl, graduating from Birmingham's Seaholm High School--go Maples--still a fantastic school, still a school that has so many engaged and talented students, students who I recently visited because they were putting together a documentary recognizing 75 years of Seaholm High School's existence. I challenged them on a claim that I make often that I am the first Seaholm graduate to Congress. As far as my records and their records show, that is true. The Congresswoman from North Carolina, Kathy Manning, was also a graduate of Seaholm High School, but she came to Congress a term after me. I said: Kathy, I really needed that benchmark more than you because I don't think a lot of people in North Carolina know about Seaholm High School on Lincoln Street i