To designate certain buildings of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I presume this is either All Saints Day or the Christmas season because we are certainly honoring two saints, and I do not think there will be a single ``nay'' vote on this bill. I am pleased to endorse these bills to name buildings respectively after Mother Teresa and Rosa Parks.

As if a bio was needed for Mother Teresa, the record probably should reveal some of the background of Mother Teresa who began life as an ordinary human being like the rest of us. She just went on to sainthood even before she died.

She was born in Macedonia in August of 1910. At the age of 18, she left home to join the Sisters of Loreto, an Irish community of nuns conducting missionary work in India. In 1931, after training in Dublin, Sister Teresa arrived in India, where from 1931 to 1948 she taught at St. Mary's High School in Calcutta. In 1948, Sister Teresa received permission to leave the high school to minister to the poorest of the poor in the slums of Calcutta. In the ensuing half century, she created a legacy of human charity and good works that have become the standard for all to emulate.

In 1959, she received permission to start her own order known as the Missionaries of Charity whose primary task is to look after those left with no one prepared to look after them.

The Society of Missionaries has spread all over the world, including the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. The society provides help to the world's needy in a number of countries and houses alcoholics, the homeless and AIDS sufferers.

Mother Teresa's work is acclaimed throughout the world. Her awards and distinctions are countless. In 1979, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of her work to bring help to suffering humanity. She is one of only nine women to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Respect for individual dignity and each person's innate value are at the core of her beliefs and provide the basis for her charitable work. Her order receives the dying, the destitute, abandoned lepers and the poor. Her work and her personal philosophy is grounded in her Christian faith. It is certainly proper and appropriate that the building located on the campus for the Centers for Disease Control at 1600 Clifton Road, Atlanta, Georgia, be named in Mother Teresa's honor.

Also, at the same location, a building dedicated to Rosa Parks will be identified as the Rosa Parks Emergency Operations Center.

We honor Rosa Parks for her courage and conviction. By now, Mr. Speaker, we all know the story of that December evening in 1955, 50 years ago, when a 42-year-old black woman riding a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on demand. Montgomery segregation laws were complex and deeply humiliating, but Rosa Parks' personal and quiet strength and sense of justice changed not only the laws of Montgomery she challenged, but also the laws of the United States of America.

For her boldness, she was arrested and found guilty of disorderly conduct. These actions led to the famous Montgomery bus boycott that lasted over a year and ultimately to a Supreme Court decision that banned segregation in city public transit systems, led also to the great civil rights laws enacted in the 1960s and led also to the civil rights movement itself which followed her lead and took up the struggle with an army of black and white nonviolent activists working in imitation of Rosa Parks.

It is impossible to overstate the impact of her actions in defiance of segregation. Her story has become part of the American story and of the story of Congress itself where she became the first woman to lie in State in the Rotunda in November.

I am honored to support this bill that acknowledges the contributions of two exceptional women.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Davis) and a cosponsor of the bill.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I understand the gentleman's point. But I do not understand this bill to be a retort or a response to Senate action. I understand it to be an affirmative act on the part of the bipartisan House of Representatives. The only reason I raise it is because we are not a party to whatever is the discussion that has gone on on that. I do understand the concern, and I listened to it.

But I would not want anything to take away from the way I opened my remarks about All Saints Day and the Christmas season because I think the gentleman perhaps did not mean it. And if I may so, by inserting that, and I am not questioning it, I have no personal knowledge of it, it leaves, I think, an unfortunate impression that I do not think the gentleman means to leave. Perhaps it should have been inserted into the Record if the gentleman thought so.

I will be happy to yield to the gentleman from Iowa.

Mr. Speaker, the gentleman made that clear. I appreciate that the gentleman made that clear. I was trying to think, as my colleague spoke, about whether or not we have named things after Members of the House while they were still here.

I had a young man, kid from D.C., some people brought him in today, along with a whole group of students, and I showed him pictures, I explained pictures on my wall that when I came to Congress, instead of putting some fake Picassos, I put pictures of old Washington. I went to the Library of Congress and to the D.C. Historical Society. And this child interrupted me, he is a high school student. He said, why do you not have a big picture of yourself there? It simply provided an opportunity for me to let him know that he ought to wonder about a Member of Congress who had a big picture of herself in her office. I do not know who she ought to have, and I did not suggest to him who she ought to have.

But in this season, when we have the opportunity, and I was called, literally, only a couple of hours ago to say would I manage a bill that would name buildings at the Centers for Disease Control against these two women, I said, well, here is one that I know this is only love and praise and I really think we should rest on that, whatever is the predicament that the gentleman discussed.

And I do not mean to cast any aspersion upon what he said because he is talking about matters that are of some concern, insertions into the bill and so forth. But that is not the spirit in which I came forward on this side to offer this bill, and I do not think it is the gentleman's spirit, and I do not think it is the spirit of the House today. And Merry Christmas everybody.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to echo the words of the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton) and to have an opportunity to offer H.R. 4500 which names two recently completed Centers for Disease Control buildings after two heroic and renowned women in our Nation's and in fact our world's history: Mrs. Rosa Parks of Tuskegee, Alabama; and Mother Teresa of Calcutta.

In their own ways, each of these women helped to make our country and

our world more just and caring. I am sure everyone in this House is aware that Rosa Parks passed away this October, and we have since had a real chance to celebrate her life and her contribution to this Nation. Her courage and her will to do what was right will continue to be an example to all Americans and to the people of other nations who are dedicated to the cause of justice and equality.

Mrs. Parks was a seamstress in Montgomery, Alabama, when, in December, 1955, she refused to give up her seat on a city bus to a white passenger. The bus driver had her arrested for being in violation of the law, granting preferential seating to white passengers. Her subsequent trial and conviction for this act of civil disobedience sparked the Montgomery bus boycott, one of the largest and most successful mass movements against racial segregation in history. It launched Martin Luther King, Jr., as one of the organizers of the boycott, and he came to the forefront of the civil rights movement.

Rosa Parks ignited a civil rights struggle and made possible the eventual overturn of the Jim Crow laws. Over the next four decades, she reminded her fellow Americans of our ideals and our commitment to justice and equal treatment under the law.

She was a recipient of innumerable awards, including the Martin Luther King, Jr., Nonviolent Peace Prize and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Our country will always be indebted to her for the moral courage she showed to call on our country to live up to our ideals and promises. Senator Barack Obama said it best upon the President's signing of legislation placing a statue of Rosa Parks in Statuary Hall, ``Rosa Parks held no public office, but when the history of this country is written, her name and her legacy will be remembered long after the names of Senators and Presidents have been forgotten. So it is fitting that her legacy, her hopes, and her struggles be immortalized alongside the statues of men and women whose hearts she helped change.''

Mr. Speaker, this bill also pays homage to the life and work of Mother Teresa by naming the Global Communications Center building at the Centers for Disease Control after her.

Mother Teresa was born in Macedonia in 1910, and at an early age, she felt the calling to serve God and her fellow man and joined the Sisters of Loreto that had missions in India. While teaching high school in India, Mother Teresa witnessed the poverty outside of her convent and asked permission to devote her life and her ministries to serving the poor and the sick, bringing them medical care, education and food.

Her remarkable work helped bring comfort to people around the world that society had forgotten or neglected. The Missionaries of Charity, which she founded, carries on her work, operating schools, orphanages and houses for the poor in over 130 countries.

Mother Teresa's saintly good works received acclaim and recognition throughout the world. In 1979, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and later President Reagan awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1985.

In 1996, shortly before she died, Congress made her an honorary citizen of the United States, one of the highest honors our country can bestow on foreign nationals. I think it is particularly fitting that her name adorn CDC's Global Communications Center which will allow it to share in the legacy and mission of Mother Teresa's work by serving the world's poor and sick.

Mr. Speaker, thank you for this opportunity to pay tribute to these two profoundly good women who sacrificed so much so we can all live in a freer and more compassionate world. I urge every Member to support

Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. King).

Mr. Speaker, in closing, let me just say that I think that these two women served as wonderful examples of humble and effective service in this country and around the world, and naming these two buildings at CDC is something that I think all Americans would join us in believing would be an appropriate name for those buildings.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 4500, a bill to designate the Headquarters and Emergency Operations Center building of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia, as the ``Rosa Parks Headquarters and Emergency Operations Center Building''. The bill also honors Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, also known as Mother Teresa of Calcutta, by designating the CDC's Global Communications Center building as the ``Mother Teresa Global Communications Center Building''.

Mother Teresa devoted her life to helping the poor and sick throughout the world. Her compassion and humanity, in the face of abject poverty, war, and starvation serves as a reminder to us all that when our hearts are focused on helping those who can not help themselves, our potential for greatness is unlimited. Although, at first sight, she appeared to have been a tiny woman, Mother Teresa was strong enough to carry the weight of the world's suffering on her narrow shoulders and to bring love and dignity to those facing the greatest challenges that life can offer.

Mother Teresa was born in Skopje in modern day Macedonia on August 27, 1910. She recalled being pulled to the work of God at the age of 12 and, by age 18, she left her family to join the Sisters of Loreto, an Irish community of nuns with missions in India. After teaching at St. Mary's High School in Calcutta for 17 years she found that she could no longer simply hear the stories of dismal poverty and despair that existed outside the convent walls. In 1948, Mother Teresa left the convent school to devote her time to working among the poorest of the poor in the slums of Calcutta. There she opened a school for poor children though she had no money herself.

On October 7, 1950, Mother Teresa received permission to start her own order, ``The Missionaries of Charity''. Since its inception in 1950, the Missionaries of Charity has spread to all corners of the world, tending to the most desperately needy in Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe, and Latin America. They also assist in relief work in the wake of natural disasters such as floods, epidemics, famine, and earthquakes, and care for the homeless and those suffering with the AIDS virus.

Mother Teresa's work was not limited to the developing world. In the United States, the Missionaries of Charity have established many soup kitchens, emergency shelters for women, shelters for unwed mothers, homes for the dying, prison ministries, service to hospitals, and nursing homes.

In 1985, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom; in 1997, she was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. In 1996, Congress passed and the President signed Public Law 104-218, proclaiming Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu--Mother Teresa--to be an honorary citizen of the United States of America. At the time she was only the fifth person to ever receive this honor.

Mother Teresa died on September 5, 1997, in Calcutta. She continued to work with the poor right up until her death.

Mr. Speaker, the bill also designates the headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as the ``Rosa Parks Headquarters and Emergency Operations Center Building''.

As I noted during debate on H.R. 2967, which designates a Federal building in Detroit, Michigan, in honor of Rosa Parks, she is known as the ``mother of the civil rights movement.'' With one single act of defiance--when she refused to give up her seat on the Cleveland Avenue bus in Montgomery, Alabama--she galvanized a Nation and changed the course of history. On December 1, 1955, Mrs. Parks was sitting in the middle rows of the bus with three other black riders. The bus driver demanded that all four give up their seats so that one white man could sit. Three of the riders complied. Mrs. Parks remained seated.

As Mrs. Parks herself has said in the years following that pivotal moment, she hadn't planned on taking a stand that day. She hadn't planned on becoming the face of the injustices of segregation. She had simply had enough. She was tired of being treated like a second-class citizen. She had had enough.

Rosa Parks' act of courage sparked the civil rights movement.

The strength and presence of a Federal building perfectly captures the character and personality of this icon of the civil rights movement.

It is fitting and just that the lives and accomplishments of Mother Teresa and Rosa Parks are acknowledged with these designations.

I strongly support H.R. 4500 and urge its passage.

Mr. Speaker, I particularly want to thank the gentlewoman from Kentucky (Mrs. Northup) for bringing this piece of legislation before the House Chamber today. This is an important statement to be made on a number of points, one of them being that this bill sends an important message that sitting Members of Congress should not take it upon themselves to name public buildings or infrastructure after themselves or other Members. This violates our House rules.

Mr. Speaker, often in this Chamber we have the opportunity to name Federal buildings after worthy individuals. We are about to do that here today. As we elected officials have a responsibility to our constituents and to the laws that we pass, we must spend our time and the American taxpayers' money wisely, and we have to do so also honestly with the attention and care that I know my constituents in Iowa expect.

When we name Federal buildings, we should do so and insist that they be worthy of our time, our Nation's tax dollars, and the trust of those who elected us. And I think that my record here in this Congress does demonstrate that, and that is why I am here on this floor this afternoon, Mr. Speaker. But most recently, the Centers for Disease Control buildings appeared in the Labor-HHS appropriations bill named after two sitting Senators. And it is in violation of our House rules.

Because that conference report has not yet passed both Houses, both bodies, the buildings are currently unnamed. But under the Labor-HHS conference report that was filed just today, the buildings would be named the Arlen Specter Headquarters and Emergency Operation Center and the Thomas R. Harkin Global Communications Center Building. This provision

violates House rule XXI, and that prohibits the naming of a public work after a sitting Member of Congress.

Our bill proposes to name the buildings the Rosa Parks Headquarters and Emergency Operations Center and the Mother Teresa Global Communications Center Building. I urge my colleagues to support this legislation. It prevents abuse of power. It adheres to the rules of the House of Representatives, and it also does a couple of very important things, and that is it honors two of the greatest women in my contemporary time: Rosa Parks, who stood tall and sat down 50 years ago, who inspired generations of Americans and actually was a key player in renovating this concept of segregation that still remain.

And 10 years later, we saw the passage of the Voting Rights Act and piece after piece of the civil rights legislation that came about that same period of time was inspired. And I saw a time when it was a glorious time for the civil rights movement, a glorious time when there were peaceful demonstrations throughout the South. And I watched on a black and white television from up in Iowa wondering really what was going on down there. Now I understand it.

At this stage of my life I appreciate it a great deal. I thought I understood it then, but appreciate it far more today, the movement that was begun in significant part by Rosa Parks, who was honored and lay in state here in this Capitol Building, the first woman ever to be given that honor.

And Mother Teresa, a fine Catholic nun, a sister that through prayer and work and sacrifice and devotion and the power of her personality and her character and self sacrifice, moved millions of people, and her legacy remains today.

I look back on Harkin grants that are granted in my State, and also I think of a building named again in that fashion. I have stated that if we are going to name grants after someone, we should name them after the taxpayers that fund them. And if we are going to name buildings, we should name the buildings after people who are not seated Members of Congress, but people who really stand tall for America and for the world.

So I congratulate the gentlewoman from Kentucky (Mrs. Northup) for bringing this legislation today. I am proud to stand on the floor and join in this request to name these two buildings after Rosa Parks and Mother Teresa.

Will the gentlewoman yield?

I thank the gentlewoman. I am referencing House rule XXI. And my point was to illustrate what can come from that. But also it is my emphasis to be here today to honor the two people that we hope to name these buildings after, and that is the focus of my remarks.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the distinguished gentlewoman from the District of Columbia for yielding me this time.

I am pleased to cosponsor this resolution with the gentlewoman from Kentucky (Mrs. Northup) and rise in strong support of it passage.

Mr. Speaker, this bill renames two buildings at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in honor of two of the world's most outstanding and most accomplished contemporary women.

Designation of building one names the Headquarters and Emergency Operations Center Building of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention located at 1600 Clifton Road in Atlanta, Georgia, as the Rosa Parks Headquarters and Emergency Operations Center Building.

Designation two of this bill changes the name of the Global Communications Center building at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Building 19 located at 1600 Clifton Road as the Mother Teresa Global Communications Center Building.

Mr. Speaker, we all know that Mother Teresa was one of the greatest advocates for the poor, disadvantaged and downtrodden that the world has ever seen. She, in many instances, almost single-handedly brought greater attention to poverty and the needs of the poor.

And given the mission of the Centers for Disease Control, there is no greater way or better way to draw attention to its continuing needs than to have one of its buildings named in honor of Mother Teresa.

Mr. Speaker, all of us have most recently participated in the celebration of the life of Rosa Parks, and many of us actually were able to attend her funeral. This dainty freedom fighter who defied years of tradition and the law in refusing to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama to a white person, this calculated act of defiance helped to spark the civil rights movement of the late 1950s and 1960s, which resulted in desegregation of public accommodations throughout the South, brought about the Voting Rights Act of the 1960s, actually fostered development of the War on Poverty, and put America in a serious position to look hard at the health care needs of the poor and disadvantaged in its country.

So naming a building at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will help us to recognize that health care needs are still unmet; that there are still great disparities that need to be corrected; that there are still areas of research which need to be conducted. And so, Mr. Speaker, I am indeed pleased to join with the gentlewoman from Kentucky in cosponsoring this resolution and urge its passage.