PEOPLE, NOT STATISTICS

On 2025-03-05, Representative Shomari Figures (D-AL-2) delivered a floor speech titled "PEOPLE, NOT STATISTICS" in the House.

PEOPLE, NOT STATISTICS

Congressional Record, Volume 171 Issue 42 (Wednesday, March 5, 2025) [Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 42 (Wednesday, March 5, 2025)] [House] [Pages H981-H982] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] PEOPLE, NOT STATISTICS (Mr. Figures of Alabama was recognized to address the House for 5 minutes.) Mr. FIGURES. Mr. Speaker, I had the privilege last night of sitting in this Chamber yet again, and I witnessed a lot of my colleagues cheering as the President rattled off the numbers, the statistics, and the data of how many people he has terminated and has laid off or fired. Whatever my colleagues want to call it, people are out of a job. As I sat here, I sat in a little bit of amazement because these aren't just statistics that we are talking about. These are people. These are real people. These are real lives. These are not just data points in a spreadsheet. These are real families that we are talking about. These aren't just numbers in some speech or in some press [[Page H982]] release that my colleagues put out expressing joy over the misfortune of hundreds of thousands of people. These are real people, some of whom I know, some of whom I have met, and some of whom my colleagues know. These are people. These are people, yet last night, many people in here cheered as the President took pride in announcing his terminations of them. The Bible says: ``Do not gloat over your brother's day, the day of his misfortune.'' Gloating is what we saw. Gloating is what we have seen. Gloating is what we continue to see. Cheering is what we continue to see. We have seen hand clapping and high fives over people losing their jobs, people losing their livelihoods. We have seen cheering at the downfall of people, cheering as if these people are somehow just invisible numbers and invisible things, cheering as if these are not people who are paying mortgages, cheering as if these are not people who are paying student loans, and cheering as if these are people who are not paying car notes or putting their kids through school or taking care of their elderly parents or paying for a wedding or are new parents. These are people. {time} 1030 These are people. These are real people. These are real lives that we are impacting, and yet we sit in here and we cheer. We cheer the downfall. The sad part about it is that regardless of how you feel about the Federal Government, regardless if you feel that these jobs were unnecessary or unneeded, even if you feel that way, I think we can all agree that there is a better way to treat somebody than sending a 20- year worker, a 15-year worker, a 10-year worker an email on a Saturday night saying you are out of a job on Monday morning. There are better ways to run a country. There are better ways to run a business. It is not necessary to mistreat people that way. You can incentivize people who are close to retirement to retire early. You can freeze hiring. You can give people a 6-month, a 9-month, a 12-month heads-up that we are phasing out your job, but to get rid of people in the manner in which this administration has done it is simply indecent. It is, as my 5-year-old son would say, just not nice. It is not how you treat people. It is not how we should be treating people in America. We should not be cheering and gloating over the downfall of people who did nothing wrong but show up to work. It is not right. Meanwhile, all of this is done allegedly to save money. Yet, if we were serious about saving money, the President would lead by example and not by exception. We know that practically every other weekend the President is traveling down to Mar-a-Lago on trips that cost the American taxpayer, on average, about $3.5 million per trip. That is not even including the money that Members of this body spend in going to join him down there for meetings that they could have here in Washington, D.C., for free, but we are allegedly saving money. That is the goal. We are not achieving it because my colleagues are pushing a budget that is going to add trillions of dollars to the national deficit while firing hardworking men and women while we continue to spend $3.5 million per trip for the President to go gallivanting to Mar-a-Lago. That is something that DOGE should look into. Mr. Speaker, if we are serious about saving money, they should look into that. That is something that they should seriously look at. We spend $3.5 million per trip. Tell Mr. Musk to go and ``DOGE'' that because that is something that is real. That is something that is within the President's power to be able to stop. Yet, we come in this Chamber and take pride in firing and announcing the terminations of hardworking men and women. ____________________