States get to improve transportation infrastructure; that creates economic development, puts people back to work and, most important, enhances safety and improves local communities.

I come from a district where the veterans are not the richest in the country.

So here we are, just two months away from the election, with more and more examples that modern day Jim Crowe laws are alive and well in the state of Florida.

As a Member of the CBC, I will fight tooth and nail to increase funding for programs, such as Ryan White, that were flat funded in the President's budget.

I do not support a constitutional amendment to prohibit gay marriage.

We are also ignoring and underfunding high speed rail which is one of the best ways to move citizens and improve congestion on our highways.

The Emancipation Proclamation, signed by President Abraham Lincoln, was put into effect on January 1, 1863, but news of the Proclamation and enforcement did not reach Texas until after the end of the Civil War almost two years later.