[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 60 (Tuesday, April 9, 2024)]
[House]
[Pages H2145-H2146]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               CONNECTICUT IS WORLD'S BASKETBALL CAPITAL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Connecticut (Mr. Larson) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, I rise with an enormous sense 
of pride today. April 9 is my mother Pauline Nolan Larson's birthday. 
She would be 99 today, and I am sure she is smiling down on this 
magnificent day when we also celebrate Connecticut being the basketball 
capital of the world with Connecticut's UConn Huskies now winning back-
to-back national championships and both the men and women going to the 
Final Four.
  I won't go into the call on Friday night, but I will just say that 
Geno Auriemma and the women's team were outstanding, and Dan Hurley and 
the men's basketball team deserve all the credit in the world.
  When you see   Joe Courtney on the floor, Mr. Speaker, recognize his 
district in Storrs, Connecticut, as the basketball capital of the 
world.
  I especially commend Dan Hurley for the shout-out he gave to all the 
former

[[Page H2146]]

players and former coaches, from Dee Rowe to Dom Perno and Kevin Ollie, 
and, of course, the house that Jim Calhoun built, bringing those 
initial championships to Connecticut, and nobody has won more 
basketball championships than Geno Auriemma and the women's team, as 
well.

  Connecticut rightfully deserves that. We are so proud of everything 
that they have done, and we commend and congratulate them.


                        Enhance Social Security

  Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, I am also here to discuss 
Social Security.
  As you know, Mr. Speaker, more than 70 million Americans are on 
Social Security and receive it. Yet, Congress, Mr. Speaker, has not 
acted since 1971 to enhance and improve anything about Social Security.
  For the people in our audience today, they have to be scratching 
their heads and saying: What is this? Why is it that for 40 percent of 
all people on Social Security, it is the only pension benefit that they 
have, and every day 10,000 fellow Americans become eligible for Social 
Security, but Congress has not voted to enhance Social Security in more 
than 50 years?
  It is long overdue. We have a proposal not to cut Social Security and 
not to raise the age. For every year you raise the age for Social 
Security, Mr. Speaker, that is a 7 percent cut in benefits.
  Does it make any sense to say people are living longer, so we ought 
to raise the age so they can receive less the older they get? That 
makes no sense.
  It is long overdue for Congress to take the steps and do what it 
should do. All the American people are asking is that we vote on their 
interest to increase Social Security, which hasn't been done since 
1971.
  We need to make sure that teachers, firefighters, and police officers 
see that WEP and GPO is repealed and paid for, that they get the 
benefits that they have been denied, and to make sure that people who 
are working currently and receiving Social Security don't pay tax on 
that Social Security.
  Those are the things that we need to do to improve this program, 
which is the number one insurance program in the country. It is the 
number one program that prevents both the elderly from being 
impoverished and children from being impoverished.
  Only in Congress do people sit here day after day and not take up the 
most important thing they can do on behalf of the American people to 
improve their lot in life.
  As important as basketball championships are, Americans are having 
kitchen table discussion about: ``What are we going to do, honey? Why 
hasn't Congress voted to make sure that we get a cost-of-living 
increase that actually reflects the cost of things today that we have 
to account for?''
  Mr. Speaker, 1971, when Richard Nixon was President of the United 
States, was the last time that Congress voted to enhance the Nation's 
number one insurance program. It is long overdue that Congress step up 
and make sure that we take these votes that will help every single 
American.

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