The Origins of “Reclaiming My Time”

2017

Maxine Waters’ declaration inspires others not to let their time be wasted.

Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA) is the first woman and first African American Chair of the House Financial Services Committee. Waters ‘went viral’ when she invoked House procedural rules during Steven Mnuchin's House Financial Services Committee hearing. Rejecting Mnuchin’s attempts to avoid her questions, Waters repeated the phrase “reclaiming my time” to indicate her right to retain minutes on the clock that had been allotted to her. The hashtag #ReclaimingMyTime began trending on social media and has since become a symbol of resistance and refusal.