U.S. Senate Committee/Subcommittee Meeting

Alice Stone Blackwell
categories: Speeches, U.S. Senate Committee/Subcommittee Meeting
Statement at a Hearing before the Select Committee on Woman Suffrage - Feb. 18, 1902
February 18, 1902
Mr. Chairman and gentleman of the committee, I wish to submit to you to-day a few remarks, in very brief compass, simply from the standpoint of common sense. I wish to recall to your memory the fact that every step of progress toward improvement in the condition of women has been opposed by exactly the same predictions of disaster as are now made in regard to equal suffrage. When my mother was trying to secure for married women the right to control their own property it was said that it […]
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
categories: Speeches, U.S. Senate Committee/Subcommittee Meeting
Significance and History of the Ballot - Feb. 15, 1898
February 15, 1898
Cady Stanton gave this address in a hearing before the Committee on Woman Suffrage in the U.S. Senate. Since our demand for the right of suffrage under the Fourteenth amendment, which was denied by Congress and the courts, the only discussions in Congress have been our appeals for a sixteenth amendment until the recent bills on immigration, by Senator Lodge of Massachusetts, and Senator Kyle of South Dakota, indirectly involving this question, and affecting the interests of woman. Their proposition to demand a reading and writing qualification on landing, strikes […]
Florence Kelley
categories: Speeches, U.S. Senate Committee/Subcommittee Meeting
The Working Woman's Need of the Ballot - Feb. 15, 1898
February 15, 1898
Kelley gave this address in a hearing before the Committee on Woman Suffrage in the U.S. Senate. No one needs all the powers of the fullest citizenship more urgently than the wage-earning woman, and from two different points of view—that of actual money wages and that of her wider needs as a human being and a member of the community. The wages paid any body of working people are determined by many influences, chief among which stands the position of the particular body of workers in question. Thus the printers, […]
Marsha Blackburn
categories: Speeches, U.S. Senate Committee/Subcommittee Meeting
Barrett Supreme Court Confirmation Hearing Opening Statement – Oct. 12, 2020
October 12, 2020
Judge Barrett, congratulations to you and to your family. I'm delighted to see that they are back in the room and I'm thrilled that they are here with us today. You know, we have had 164 American citizens come before this committee for nomination to the Supreme Court and today is the fifth time that we have had a female judge come before us, so we welcome you. And I will say this, unfortunately it’s neither rare nor remarkable to see the kind of performances my Democratic colleagues have put […]
Joni Ernst
categories: Speeches, U.S. Senate Committee/Subcommittee Meeting
Barrett Supreme Court Confirmation Hearing Opening Statement – Oct. 12, 2020
October 12, 2020
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And Judge Barrett, thank you so much for being in front of us today, welcome to you and of course I am so glad that you have had your family join you today as well. Only a hundred years ago, women in this country were given the right to vote and today we consider adding another woman to the highest court in the land and I can't help but be so proud of all every one of our women have accomplished in this incredible nation. This […]
Dianne Feinstein
categories: Speeches, U.S. Senate Committee/Subcommittee Meeting
Barrett Supreme Court Confirmation Hearing Opening Statement - Oct. 12, 2020
October 12, 2020
Good morning, Judge Barrett, and welcome to you and your family. Less than one month ago, the nation lost one of our leading voices for equality: Ruth Bader Ginsburg left very big shoes to fill. Judge Ginsburg loved the law and she loved this country. She worked all of her life to ensure that the opening words of our Constitution — "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect union" — included all the people, not just an elite few. She was a standard-bearer […]
Amy Klobuchar
categories: Speeches, U.S. Senate Committee/Subcommittee Meeting
Barrett Supreme Court Confirmation Hearing Opening Statement - Oct. 12, 2020
October 12, 2020
Welcome Judge Barrett. This committee is gathered today for what I consider one of its most solemn duties and one that I take very seriously. Federal judges, Senators, the President of the United States, we all take an oath to uphold the Constitution. We make promises to do justice, to tell the truth — at its core. That’s what judges do, right? Figure out the truth, figure out justice. My mom, a second-grade teacher, spent her life teaching little kids what was right or wrong, what was true or false. […]
Kamala Harris
categories: Speeches, U.S. Senate Committee/Subcommittee Meeting
Barrett Supreme Court Confirmation Hearing Opening Statement - Oct. 12, 2020
October 12, 2020
This hearing has brought together more than 50 people to sit inside of a closed-door room for hours while our nation is facing a deadly airborne virus. This committee has ignored common sense requests to keep people safe, including not requiring testing for all members despite a coronavirus outbreak among senators of this very committee. By contrast, in response to this recent Senate outbreak, the leaders of Senate Republicans rightly postponed business on the Senate floor this week to protect the health and safety of senators and staff. Mr. Chairman, […]
Mazie K Hirono
categories: Speeches, U.S. Senate Committee/Subcommittee Meeting
Barrett Supreme Court Confirmation Hearing Opening Statement - Oct. 12, 2020
October 12, 2020
Judge Barrett, welcome to you and your family, as we say in Hawaii, aloha. Mr. Chairman, these are not normal times. Nearly 8 million Americans have contracted COVID-19 and tragically 215,000 people and counting have died from this disease. 12.5 million Americans are out of work, tens of thousands more children are living in poverty, going hungry because their parents have lost their jobs and can't afford to buy food. Hundreds of thousands of small businesses have closed their doors forever, shattering dreams and livelihoods. The White House has become […]
Alice Stone Blackwell
categories: Speeches, U.S. Senate Committee/Subcommittee Meeting
Hearing before the Senate Committee on Woman Suffrage – Feb. 21, 1894
February 21, 1894
Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Committee: As we were coming along the corridors of the Capitol on our way to this hearing I overheard a gentleman who, I think, is a member of Congress, say: “We shall have to let the women vote. This is what we are coming to.” I suppose he meant that this perpetual procession of women through the halls of the Capitol will go on until their efforts are crowned with success. That gentleman was a true prophet. We will continue to come here until […]