WASHINGTON – Congresswoman Marcia L. Fudge (OH-11) joined with Democratic Members of the House Committee on Education and Workforce to send a letter to Chairwoman Virginia Foxx requesting hearings to examine school shootings.  At yesterday’s joint subcommittee hearing on the impacts of opioids in the workplace, Congresswoman Fudge urged her colleagues to do more than offer their thoughts and prayers to the victims and their families. 

Below is an excerpt of her remarks and a link to the video:

Click here to watch the video.

“Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I'm really happy that we're having this kumbaya moment right now - that we're such a religious group.

“You know the Bible tells us to watch as well as pray.  We should be knowing and talking about what is going on around us. 

“The Bible tells us that we are our brother's keeper.  The Bible tells us that we should take care of our children and what Jesus thinks about those who don't. 

“We talk about praying is enough.  It is not enough. 

“We talk about the mentally ill. There are mentally ill people in every industrialized nation in the world and there is no other country that has these kinds of shootings.

“And you know why?  Because they do not have access to weapons of mass destruction by way of assault rifles, AR-15s, AK-47s.  They don't have them.  That is the difference. 

“Yet, we talk about mental health as the problem, but we defund mental health treatment.  We defund counselors in schools.  You can't have it both ways - either you care about these kids or you do not.  Praying doesn't make it any different.”

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