Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise to commemorate the 29th Anniversary of the pogrom against the Armenian residents of the town of Sumgait, Azerbaijan. Twenty-nine years ago, Azerbaijani mobs assaulted and killed their Armenian neighbors. When the violence finally subsided, hundreds of Armenian civilians had been brutally murdered and injured, women and young girls were raped, and victims were tortured and burned alive. Those that survived the carnage fled their homes and businesses, leaving behind everything they had in their desperation.

The pogroms were the culmination of years of vicious anti-Armenian propaganda, spread by the Azerbaijani authorities. The Azerbaijani authorities made little effort to punish those responsible, instead attempting to cover up the atrocities in Sumgait to this day, as well as denying the role of senior government officials in instigating the violence. Unsurprisingly, it was not the end of the violence, and was followed by additional attacks, including the 1990 pogrom in Baku.

The Sumgait massacre and the subsequent attacks on ethnic Armenians, resulted in the virtual disappearance of a once thriving population of 450,000 Armenians living in Azerbaijan, and culminating in the war launched against the people of Nagorno Karabakh. That war resulted in thousands dead on both sides and created over one million refugees in both Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Time has not healed the wounds of those murdered in the pogroms in Sumgait, Kirovabad, and Baku. To the contrary, hatred of Armenians is celebrated in Azerbaijan, a situation most vividly exemplified by the case of Ramil Safarov, an Azerbaijani army captain who savagely murdered an Armenian army lieutenant, Gurgen Margaryan with an axe while he slept. The two were participating in a NATO Partnership for Peace exercise at the time in Hungary. In 2012, Safarov was sent home to Azerbaijan, purportedly to serve out the remainder of his sentence. Instead, he was pardoned, promoted, and paraded through the streets of Baku as a returning hero.

The assault on ethnic Armenian civilians in Sumgait helped touch off what would become a direct conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno Karabakh. And today, Azerbaijan's dangerous behavior on the Line of Contact threatens peace and stability in the region. Artillery and sniper fire across the Line

of Contact has become a fact of daily life for civilians in the Nagorno Karabakh Republic, causing numerous casualties. In April of last year, Azerbaijan launched its most aggressive attack in many years, resulting in the loss of many lives over the course of three days of intense fighting.

Along with other Members of Congress, I have consistently called for a direct international response to Azerbaijan's aggressive behavior through deployment of international monitors and technology to monitor ceasefire violations. Azerbaijan's continued rejection of these simple steps speaks volumes, but I believe they should not prevent the installation of these technologies within Nagorno Karabakh. The anniversary of Sumgait is a reminder of the consequences when aggression and hatred is allowed to grow unchecked.

Mr. Speaker, this April we will mark the 102nd Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, an event the Turkish government, Azerbaijan's closest ally, goes to great lengths to deny. We must not let such crimes against humanity go unrecognized, whether they occurred yesterday or 28 years ago or 100 years ago. Today, let us pause to remember the victims of the atrocities of the Sumgait pogroms. Mr. Speaker, it is our moral obligation to condemn crimes of hatred and to remember the victims, in hope that history will not be repeated.

Mr. Speaker, 100 years ago next month, on April 2, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson stood in this Chamber and asked Congress to declare war on Germany. While the proximate cause for America's entry into World War I was Germany's campaign of unrestricted submarine warfare, Wilson and his supporters were also motivated by the belief that they, and the force of American arms, could deliver Europe from its intractable squabbles and, in so doing, make the world safe for democracy.

It was not until the following spring that the American doughboys were committed to the Western Front in large numbers, but they provided not only the additional combat power needed to break the exhausted Germans within months, but also imbued a sense of moral purpose into what had been nearly 4 years of futile slaughter.

A generation later, millions of American GIs returned to help free Europe from Adolf Hitler, while millions more pushed Japan back from its imperial conquests in Asia. This time we stayed--the living to keep the peace and prevent one form of tyranny being replaced by another and the dead as silent witnesses to the cost of liberation.

The United States worked to create the United Nations and a host of other international organizations designed to bind together humanity and avoid another catastrophic world war. We extended aid and friendship to our former enemies through the Marshall Plan and rebuilt Western Europe into an alliance of democracies, a shining contrast to the Soviet Union's eastern satellites.

America's commitment to peace was matched by an equally resolute willingness to defend freedom. When the Soviet Union blockaded Berlin in 1948, in an attempt to force the Western allies out of their half of the city, American pilots flew missions around the clock for 11 months to keep the city supplied until the Soviets relented.

Walls, barbed wire, and stifling oppression characterized the Soviet bloc and Communist Asia. Against this, the United States marshaled its greatest weapons--individual liberty, democratic governance, and a market economy to discredit and defeat communism.

When the Cold War ended four decades after it had begun, it was the fall of the Berlin Wall that symbolized the triumph of freedom and seemingly heralded a new era of peace and prosperity.

Nearly three decades have passed since communism's collapse and the global harmony that many hoped for has been replaced by an international order more challenging to American leadership and American ideals than any we have seen in my lifetime.

Intolerance, ultra-nationalism, and crude populism are rising across the developed world and threaten to undo the work of decades. After a century of American leadership of the international community, there was a sense among many here at home and around the world that we have lost our will to lead, that we will no longer honor President Kennedy's commitment to ``pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.''

The world sees President Trump's executive orders on immigration and asks: Where is the America that welcomed millions to its shores?

Well, I am happy to say that America is alive and well in communities across this great Nation, where people from every continent live together, eat each other's food, celebrate each other's holidays, and it also lives on in the hundreds of State Department officials who signed a Dissent Channel memorandum opposing that policy.

The world sees President Trump's threats to withdraw from Europe and Asia unless our allies ``pay up,'' and asks whether America will still defend its friends. That America, the one that stands shoulder-to- shoulder with NATO and South Korea, can be found in our troops stationed in the Baltics, Poland, and along the DMZ; and it can be found here in Congress, where there is broad support for our alliances and our allies.

The world sees President Trump threatening to drastically cut our foreign assistance budget, the literal difference between life and death for millions of the world's most vulnerable people, and asks: Where is America's legendary generosity?

That America, Mr. Speaker, is alive and well, too. Our USAID professionals, our Peace Corps volunteers, and the thousands of individual Americans working as medical missionaries or with NGOs are still making a difference around the globe every day.

The world sees President Trump's embrace of Vladimir Putin and his seeming disdain for key allies like Germany and Australia and wonders whether we will remain committed to democracy and the rule of law, or we will abandon principle in favor of expedience and flattery.

That America--the America that stood with Solidarity in Poland, with Nelson Mandela in South Africa, and with Aung San Suu Kyi in Burma--is still here, too. Millions of Americans, Democrats and Republicans, the old and young, still stand with those who seek freedom, and we will never allow this President to abandon our ideals.

And finally, Mr. Speaker, the world has seen the rise of Donald Trump and wonders whether Americans will still fight for their own democracy--are we still worthy heirs to Washington, Lincoln, and Roosevelt? The answer to that is on display every day across this country. From the millions who clogged our nation's streets on January 21st, to the calls pouring into Congress every day to demand a full investigation of the Russia scandal, the American people are engaged and ready to fight for our democracy here at home and for freedom around the world.

To those who doubt us, or wonder whether we remain true to our ideals, whether we will stand up for what we believe, and defend not only America but the beautiful idea it represents, let me borrow a phrase from John Paul Jones, the Revolutionary War hero. ``We have not yet begun to fight.''

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life of celebrated artist Tyrus Wong, of Sunland, California, who passed away on December 30, 2016, at the age of 106.

Tyrus Wong, best known for his beautiful, impressionistic renderings in the Walt Disney Studio's animated film ``Bambi,'' was born as Wong Gen Yeo in China on October 25, 1910. He and his father emigrated to the United States in 1920.

Tyrus' father taught his son calligraphy, drawing and painting, encouraging Tyrus' artistic talents. Tyrus attended junior high school in Pasadena, but left that school to attend Otis Art Institute, now Otis College of Art and Design, on a full scholarship. At Otis, Mr. Wong

studied great western artists and Chinese brush paintings, especially Song dynasty landscapes that expressed mountains, trees and fog with nominal brush strokes. He graduated from Otis and joined the Depression-era Federal Art Project, creating paintings for government buildings and other institutions. During this time period he was a featured artist at an Art Institute of Chicago exhibition that included artists such as Pablo Picasso, and was active in organizing local art exhibitions for Los Angeles' Asian artists.

In 1937, Tyrus married Ruth Ng Kim, and after the birth of their first daughter, Kay in 1938, he began working for Disney as an ``inbetweener,'' where he worked on hundreds of Mickey Mouse sketches. After learning about Disney's film ``Bambi,'' which was in pre- production, he created watercolors and drawings of a deer in a forest, and those tiny, evocative renderings became the basis for the film's visual style and he became the film's lead artist. In 1941, after a Disney animators' strike, Mr. Wong went to work at Warner Brothers Studios as a film production illustrator and sketch artist, where he drew set designs and storyboards for movies such as ``Sands of Iwo Jima,'' ``Rebel Without a Cause'' and ``Auntie Mame.'' Tyrus retired from Warner Bros. in 1968, but continued to work as an artist, creating greeting cards for Hallmark Cards, working as a ceramicist, and building and designing exquisite hand-made kites.

Mr. Wong's life and work has been featured in many significant exhibitions at The Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco and The Museum of Chinese in America in New York City and his striking Chinese Dragon mural is prominently displayed in Chinatown. Tyrus is featured in several documentaries, including the award-winning documentary ``Tyrus,'' in which he shared his struggles with poverty, racism and adversity.

Mr. Wong is survived by his daughters: Kay Fong, Tai-Ling Wong, Kim Wong and two grandsons.

I would like to ask all Members to join me in remembering Tyrus Wong, a Disney Legend, whose innovative work inspired generations of animators, and who leaves a lasting legacy as one of the foremost artists in Los Angeles, California.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to celebrate the 100th birthday of Mr. Henry Morgenthau, III. Mr. Morgenthau was born at home in New York City on January 11, 1917, to Henry Morgenthau, Jr. and his beloved mother Elinor Fatman.

A man of creativity, and vision, a parent, poet, author, film maker and producer, Mr. Morgenthau found his own success in a family known for its achievements in public service.

In his 20s, Mr. Morgenthau graduated from Princeton University and served his country as a U.S. Army officer, rising to the rank of Captain, and receiving a Bronze Star.

In his 30s, Mr. Morgenthau developed his distinguished career in public broadcasting which lasted into his 60's. He produced an impressive group of documentaries and series, including ``The Negro and the American Promise'' with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and James Baldwin; and ``Prospects of Mankind'' with Eleanor Roosevelt. His work won him and Boston's WGBH, national acclaim, including Emmy, Peabody, UPI, and other awards and nominations.

In his 40s, Mr. Morgenthau married Professor Ruth Schachter, a refugee of the Holocaust who became an advisor to Presidents, a world renowned Africa expert, a champion of the underdeveloped world, and a trailblazer for women, among her many significant accomplishments. Together, Henry and Ruth have three children, Sarah, Henry (Ben), and Kramer; and six grandchildren Edward, Henry, Mizia, Henry, Mizia, and Osias.

In his 70s, Mr. Morgenthau published ``Mostly Morgenthaus,'' a history of an American

family known for its remarkable public service. At the outbreak of World War I, his grandfather, Henry Morgenthau, Sr., served as Woodrow Wilson's U.S. Ambassador to the Sublime Porte (the imperial government of the Ottoman Empire), distinguishing himself in part by his unblinking dispatches about what he described as ``a campaign of race extermination'' against the Armenians before the term ``genocide'' had been coined. His father, Henry Morgenthau, Jr., served as Treasury Secretary for eleven years under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. His brother, Robert Morgenthau, was named U.S. Attorney by President Kennedy, before entering politics as the 1962 Democratic nominee for Governor of NY, and then winning elections to be Manhattan's longest serving District Attorney. Other distinguished members of Mr. Morgenthau's family include his sister Joan Hirschhorn, his first cousin Barbara Tuchman, and his great uncles Governor Herbert Lehman and Chief Judge Irving Lehman of NY.

Mr. Morgenthau, along with his father, grandfather, brother, and sister, has distinguished himself in his dedicated support for American and International Jewry. He and his wife Ruth were named as Harvard Hillel's 2004 Tribute to Excellence Honorees. His wife served on the board of the American Jewish World Service and his brother was a founder of Manhattan's Museum of Jewish Heritage. Henry Morgenthau, Sr. led a major relief effort for the Jews in Palestine before it was Israel. Mr. Morgenthau has also been a great supporter of Armenia and her people.

At 95, Mr. Morgenthau took up poetry as ``a celebration of the evening of a long life.'' He writes: ``In these precious days I dress my private demons in these scribblings to come out from behind the shadows that have darkened my long and privileged life.''

At 96, Mr. Morgenthau published his first poem, and at 99 his first solo book of poetry was published, ``A Sunday in Purgatory.'' Pulitzer prize winning poet, Peter Balakian, wrote: ``Morgenthau's poems are crisp, elegant forays into memory both personal and cultural . . . His surgical examinations of self and his unflinching stare into mortality define the unique and honest voice of this remarkable first book of poems.''

A man of elegance, distinction, and sweetness, at 100 Mr. Morgenthau remains alive to the world, eager to create more.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to join my colleagues in urging the Republican leadership to advance bipartisan legislation that will keep the American people safe by continuing to fund the Department of Homeland Security.

On behalf of the dedicated men and women at the Department of Homeland Security--those who screen passengers traveling into and out of the country, those who ensure that our borders and shores are protected, and those who enforce the deportation of dangerous criminals--let's put aside partisan politics and come together on one thing we can all agree on: to prioritize the safety and security of the American people.

As the tragedies of recent events abroad have demonstrated, we can ill-afford another day of inaction by this Congress. The clock is running out. Sixteen days. Let's do our job. The American people expect better and they deserve better. Let's vote on a clean spending bill today.

I rise today, Mr. Speaker, to recognize the passing of my friend Larry Silverton.

How do I describe Larry? A lot of words apply: businessman, lawyer, father, friend, Democrat, and mensch. He was generous, funny, endearing, and a little zany.

He met me for breakfast one morning in Burbank and looked a bit disheveled.

I said: What happened?

He said: Well, I rode here.

I said: On your bicycle?

He said: Don't be ridiculous--on my motorcycle.

He was well in his eighties at the time.

My fondest memories, though, were riding horses with Larry and talking politics. He was equally at home on horseback or in the middle of a discussion of the Keystone pipeline.

He was a wonderfully good man, and if he were watching us here today, he would probably say: A tribute on the floor of the House, not too shabby.

Good-bye, Larry. You were my very good friend, and you will be missed.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the Armenian Sisters' Academy of Los Angeles upon its thirtieth anniversary.

The Armenian Sisters' Academy of Los Angeles (ASA), nestled in the foothills of the Verdugo Mountains in Montrose, offers a Day Care Program, Preschool, Kindergarten and grades 1st through 8th. Established in 1985, the ASA is one of three schools in the United States operated and governed by the only existing Catholic Order of the Armenian Sisters of the Immaculate Conception, which was founded in 1847. The other two schools are located in Radnor, Pennsylvania and Lexington, Massachusetts, established in 1967 and 1979, respectively.

Since its inception, the ASA has been committed to providing an exemplary and well-rounded education to its students. The ASA offers a bilingual curriculum, art, music and computer instruction to all students, and has been successful in preserving the identity and culture of the Armenian people by teaching the Armenian language, Armenian cultural courses and religion. The ASA also offers after school extracurricular activities such as Armenian dance classes, basketball and volleyball.

The Armenian Sisters' Academy of Los Angeles is dedicated to the development of the child spiritually, personally, emotionally, intellectually and socially. Among the many goals and objectives the ASA strives to achieve include providing each student with a respectful and optimistic environment in which each student feels encouraged, creating an atmosphere where the Armenian language, heritage and culture may be taught and experienced, emphasizing the heritage, privileges and responsibilities of American citizenship, and encouraging small group work and the increased use of independent study. I commend the ASA for being an integral part of the community, and applaud the school's unwavering commitment to our youth. The ASA plays a central role in shaping our children into responsible citizens and thriving members of society.

I ask all Members to join me in congratulating the Armenian Sisters' Academy of Los Angeles for thirty years of dedicated service to the community.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to Eleanor Ownbey and to honor the work of her two daughters, Maggie and Sue Ownbey, for their many years of advocacy on behalf of their mother and the Alzheimer's disease community.

Eleanor battled Alzheimer's disease for more than ten years, passing away from this tragic disease on February 18, 2014. Maggie and Sue watched as their mother not only forgot that they were her daughters, but also how to talk, to walk, and to feed herself. Eleanor spent the last three years of her life in hospice care and most of that time confined to a bed. Her daughters describe her as a brave woman with a strong spirit and an infectious sense of humor.

Inspired by their mother's courage, Maggie and Sue have spent the last eight years telling their mother's story and how much this ravenous disease costs families, what caregivers need, and how desperately a cure needs to be found.

In fact, someone develops Alzheimer's disease every 67 seconds and more than five million Americans suffer from Alzheimer's disease. It is also the only cause of death in the top 10 in America without a way to prevent it, treat it, or slow its progression. This devastating disease is also taking a toll on our economy and health care infrastructure. Caring for people with Alzheimer's and other dementias cost the United States an estimated $214 billion in 2014, and unless something changes, costs are estimated to rise to a total of $1.2 trillion in 2050.

I call on my colleagues to recognize the growing Alzheimer's crisis and to support a strong increase in funding for Alzheimer's disease research for Fiscal Year 2015 that will enable the National Institutes of Health to arrive one step closer to finding a cure for this tragic disease.

Eleanor Ownbey is survived by her children Maggie, Sue, Steven, and Mark and her grandchildren Jason, Summit, Netanya, Allie, and William ``Finn.'' I wish the Ownbey family all the best in their future endeavors and express my deepest gratitude for their advocacy on behalf of the millions of families whose loved ones suffer from Alzheimer's disease.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I want to join my colleagues in urging the House to support the 2015 Intelligence Authorization Act which has now returned to us from the Senate, but before I address the substance of the bill, I would like to congratulate Chairman Rogers and Ranking Member Ruppersberger for their extraordinary efforts to get this bill passed and to the President.

As a member of the Intelligence Committee, I know how hard they and the staff have worked to make this happen, and I would especially like to congratulate Chairman Rogers and wish him well as he prepares to leave the House at the end of the year. It has been a great pleasure working with you, and I wish you all the very best.

These are challenging days for America's intelligence officers and analysts. As ISIS continues to threaten the Middle East; as Russia's ``little green men'' continue to coordinate attacks on the Ukrainian Government; as North Korea's young, isolated, and often dangerously erratic leader continues his behavior; and as the international community continues its efforts to secure Iran's agreement to dismantle its nuclear weapons program and infrastructure, our intelligence professionals play a vital role in keeping us safe and secure.

Developing and maintaining actionable intelligence on ISIS is of particular urgency. While the intelligence community has been following ISIS' growth for some time, the group's takeover of a large swath of Syria and Iraq has made it a top intelligence priority.

If we are to be effective in partnering with regional allies to degrade and destroy ISIS, we need to be able to develop the very best intelligence and accurate ground truth. That takes time, and it takes assets--on the ground, in the air, in space--to collect information. It also takes the world class analysts of our intelligence community to turn that information into recommendations for policymakers.

We must also remain focused on Russian efforts to destabilize its neighbors, particularly Ukraine, but also the Baltic States. Our intelligence community has given us insight into Russian involvement in these efforts and into the events that led to the tragic downing of the Malaysian airliner last summer.

The bill also prioritizes vital efforts at nonproliferation and will help give us the tools that we need to assess events on the ground in North Korea and Iran and wherever there is a threat of WMD.

These are but a few of the important matters covered in the Intelligence Authorization bill. As a member of the committee who has been proud to work closely with both the chair and ranking member, I am confident it supports our intelligence professionals while providing oversight that is so critical to the proper functioning of our intelligence agencies.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor two giants of this House: George Miller and Henry Waxman, who will be leaving this institution at the end of this Congress. They will be missed, but their legacies live on the myriad ways that they have made America better.

Henry and George have made their marks on this nation through an unwavering commitment to their ideals, dogged hard work and a pragmatism that is too often lacking in this hyper-partisan era. One, or the other--or both,

have been instrumental in almost every major piece of domestic policy legislation in the last few decades and have improved the lives of countless Americans and millions overseas.

As long as George and Henry have been in Congress, those who had long been ignored by Washington have been heard. Poor people, the sick, persecuted minorities around the world, and our nation's children have all been lifted up by the work of these two men.

During his 40 years in Congress, George chaired three committees--the Select Committee on Children, Youth and Families, the Natural Resources Committee, and the Committee on Education and the Workforce--and through them fought for high quality education not just for a select few students but for all. He has worked to strengthen environmental protections even in the face of aggressive opposition from entrenched interests, and for safe conditions and a living wage for workers in America and overseas.

George is blessed with boundless energy and has never been satisfied to rest on his laurels--staying engaged to ensure that the bills he has passed are implemented and improved upon. He wrote the legislation that successfully raised the minimum wage in 2007 and has written the bill to increase it again.

He worked across the aisle to write and pass No Child Left Behind and has not wavered from his efforts to improve and fund it.

Beyond his extensive legislative achievements, George has touched so many lives, including mine when I interned in his office as a college student. At the time, I never imagined I would one day serve alongside him, but it has been a great honor.

Henry Waxman has similarly focused a wide array of causes, focusing on investigating companies whose products had harmed consumers, and questioning and holding accountable corporate executives on behalf of those who otherwise had no opportunity to seek justice.

As Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Committee, Henry investigated waste, fraud and abuse in the tobacco, finance and energy industries to name only a few.

Conducting investigations and oversight was not enough for him, once he exposed wrongdoing, he would work, sometimes for decades, to translate his findings into legislation. As Chairman of the Energy and Commerce he helped write and oversaw the passage of the Affordable Care Act, the culmination of lifelong work on behalf of uninsured Americans.

Henry's commitment to human rights, especially the persecution of religious minorities in the former Soviet Union and Iran has given hope to those without hope. His steadfast support of Israel has ensured that our two nations will remain allies and partners.

As dean of the Los Angeles delegation, Henry has been both a leader on issues facing Angelenos, and a mentor. I consider myself privileged to have had the opportunity to work with him.

Our state and the nation have been lucky to have the decades of service that George and Henry have given us. They will be missed from the halls of Congress, but their legacy will continue to shape this institution and nation for decades to come.

Mr. Speaker, equal justice under the law--impartial and uniformly applied--has been, for more than two centuries, the ideological underpinning of American democracy.

But from the very beginning, this noblest aspiration has been intertwined with our struggle with race, a battle that has sometimes come to define our Nation and to divide it in ways that too often cleave us still today.

Mr. Speaker, 150 years since the Emancipation Proclamation and half a century after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 formally ended Jim Crow, our President, his Attorney General, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and the National Security Adviser are all African American.

Blacks are now prominent in every facet of American life. But much of this has occurred during my lifetime because people marched and sat and voted and demanded greater equality.

Yet despite the progress, equal justice under law is not the reality for too many of our fellow citizens, and injustice continues to limit their lives and their livelihoods in ways that are difficult for many White Americans to comprehend.

Inequality manifests itself at every rung of the criminal justice system, but its most deadly consequences are to be found in the encounters of young men of color with the police.

I have seen the video of Eric Garner in New York and watched the tragedy in Ferguson in the aftermath of the shooting of Michael Brown. The agony of those families and the anger of their communities have rightfully moved the Nation.

Sadly, they are not alone. The deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown grabbed national headlines, but decades of strife between police and many poor and minority neighborhoods have resulted in an endemic mistrust of law enforcement there.

One need only consider a phenomenon almost completely foreign to much of America, ``the talk.'' It is a ritual that plays out in Black and Brown households across our Nation every day as parents teach their young children about the special dangers they face from law enforcement.

As a father, to hear that is heartbreaking. As someone who has long worked with and on behalf of law enforcement and who has deep respect for the bravery and integrity of so many who wear the uniform, it is a call to action.

First, in the months since the Michael Brown shooting, I have pressed for greater deployment of body-worn cameras to police departments across the country, an idea that the President has now endorsed. Cameras are not a panacea, but they are a first step on a path to greater accountability and transparency.

Second, since cameras alone will not bridge the chasm of mistrust between many communities of color and the police there to protect them, we must invest in 21st century police departments.

Effective policing requires mutual respect between the public and the police and a renewed emphasis on community policing strategies. Diversifying police forces so that they are more reflective of the communities they patrol and improving the training of officers to reduce the likelihood of violent confrontations are essential. This cannot be accomplished overnight, however, and generations of injustice have left deep scars.

So the third leg of any law enforcement reform agenda must be enhanced oversight by the Department of Justice, which has a long record of working with State and local police agencies to modernize and improve practices and behavior.

Justice Department intervention, as in the recent release of a report detailing excessive use of force by Cleveland Police, can be instrumental in overcoming opposition to reform. And I know that Attorney General Holder's successor will make this a priority.

We ask a lot from our police, who have a difficult and often dangerous job, and we grant them enormous power, including the right to take a life under certain circumstances. It is not only proper that we insist this power is used impartially and as a last resort. It is fundamental to a just society.

In a 1951 speech to the New York Legal Aid Society, the great jurist Learned Hand challenged his audience: ``It is the daily, it is the small, it is the cumulative injuries of little people that we are here to protect. If we are able to keep our democracy, there must be one commandment: Thou shalt not ration justice.''

Mr. Speaker, 63 years later, on a street corner in the same city, Eric Garner hauntingly invoked Hand when he pleaded in vain: ``Every time you see me, you want to mess with me. I'm tired of it. It stops today. I'm minding my business, officer. I'm minding my business. Please just leave me alone.''

Mr. Speaker, it must stop today.

Mr. Speaker, equal justice under law--impartial and uniformly applied--has been for more than two centuries the ideological underlining of American democracy.

But, from the beginning, this noblest aspiration has been intertwined with our struggle with race--a battle that has sometimes come to define our nation, and to divide it in ways that too often cleave us still today.

One hundred fifty years since the Emancipation Proclamation and half a century after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 formally ended Jim Crow, our President, his Attorney General, Secretary of Homeland Security and National Security Advisor are all African-American.

Blacks are now prominent in every facet of American life. And much of this has occurred during my lifetime, because people marched and sat, and voted and demanded greater equality.

But, despite the progress, equal justice under law is not the reality for too many of our fellow citizens and injustice continues to limit their lives and their livelihoods in ways that are difficult for white Americans to comprehend.

Inequality manifests itself at every rung of the criminal justice system, but its most deadly consequences are to be found in the encounters of young men of color with the police.

I have seen the video of the Eric Garner incident in New York and watched the tragedy in Ferguson in the aftermath of the shooting of Michael Brown. The agony of their families and the anger of their communities have rightfully moved the nation.

Sadly, they are not alone.

The deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown grabbed national headlines, but decades of strife between police and many poor and minority neighborhoods have resulted in an endemic mistrust of law enforcement there.

One need only consider a phenomenon almost completely foreign to much of America--``the talk.''

It is a ritual that plays out in black and brown households across our nation every day--as parents teach their young children about the special dangers they face from law enforcement.

Even the mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio, said last week that he and his wife had to prepare their son--``as families have all over this city for decades--how to take special care in any encounter he has with police officers.''

As a father, to hear that is heartbreaking. As someone who has long worked with and on behalf of law enforcement, and who has deep respect for the bravery and integrity of so many who wear the uniform, it's a call to action.

First, in the months since the Michael Brown shooting, I have pressed for greater deployment of body-worn cameras to police departments across the country, an idea that the President has now endorsed. Cameras are not a panacea, but they are a first step on a path to greater accountability and transparency.

Second, since cameras alone will not bridge the chasm of mistrust between many communities of color and the police there to protect them; we must invest in 21st Century police departments.

Effective policing requires mutual respect between the public and the police, and a renewed emphasis on community policing strategies. Diversifying police forces so that they are more reflective of the communities they patrol and improving the training of officers to reduce the likelihood of violent confrontations are essential. This cannot be accomplished overnight, however, and generations of injustice have left deep scars.

So the third leg of any law enforcement reform agenda must be enhanced oversight by the Department of Justice, which has a long record of working with state and local police agencies to modernize and improve practices and behavior.

Justice Department intervention, as in the recent release of a report detailing excessive use of force by Cleveland police, can be instrumental in overcoming opposition to reform, and I know that Attorney General Holder's successor will make this a priority.

We ask a lot from our police who have a difficult and often dangerous job, and we grant them enormous power, including the right to take a life under certain circumstances. It is not only proper that we insist this power is used impartially and as a last resort, it is fundamental to a just society.

In a 1951 speech to the New York Legal Aid Society, the great jurist Learned Hand challenged his audience, ``It is the daily; it is the small; it is the cumulative injuries of little people that we are here to protect. . . . If we are able to keep our democracy, there must be one commandment: Thou shalt not ration justice.''

Sixty-three years later, on a street corner in the same city, Eric Garner hauntingly invoked Hand when he pleaded in vain: ``Every time you see me, you want to mess with me. I'm tired of it. It stops today. . . . I'm minding my business, officer. I'm minding my business. Please just leave me alone.''

Mr. Speaker, it must stop today.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Los Angeles City College (LACC) upon its eighty-fifth anniversary.

LACC's site is one of the most significant locations in Los Angeles' education history, as it was not just the first community college in Los Angeles, but also served as the initial campus for both the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and Cal State University Los Angeles. Its storied history began with the Normal School in Los Angeles, which provided graduates with credentials to teach kindergarten through twelfth grade. In 1919, to address the city's request for a local university, the Normal School transitioned into serving as the southern branch of the University of California Berkeley (UC Berkeley) for classes only; and in 1925, UC Berkeley permitted the southern branch, now UCLA, to award degrees.

In 1929, after UCLA purchased their own land and moved west, the Los Angeles Board of Education bought the campus and turned it into the Los Angeles Junior College, now called Los Angeles City College. On September 4, 1929, LACC welcomed 1,350 students to its first fall semester, at the time the fourth largest academic institution in the country. Under new president Dr. William Henry Snyder, LACC's mission was twofold: to provide two years of transfer education, and to provide career training with general education via vocational programs such as civil engineering, mechanical and electrical engineering, civic health, aeronautical engineering, secretarial science, social arts, and general business.

The Depression era saw enrollment grow in 1933 from over 4,000 students to nearly 7,000 students in 1940. Enrollment dropped significantly during World War II, and during this time, the college assisted the war effort by conducting courses for the Aviation Ground School, Civilian Pilot Training Program, the Army Specialized Training, and the Naval Reserve. After the war's end, many students attended LACC under the G.I. Bill, when enrollment went from 3,000 to 8,000 and half of the students were veterans. In 1947, an experimental four-year school was formed on the campus, called the Los Angeles State College of Applied Arts and Science, which while an admirable idea, proved to be impractical; so in 1955, the four-year school moved east to become California State University Los Angeles. During the 1950's, LACC received its first accreditation as a junior college, classes covering remedial instruction and new occupational programs including computer technology, human services, dental assisting, and nuclear medicine technology were offered, and an American Cultures Department was formed.

The 1960's saw increased diversity among the student body, and new programs such as community service and non-credited classes in recreational areas, and the 1970's brought its first woman president, Dr. Stelle Feuers and an enrollment of 22,000 students. Today, some of LACC's programs and developments include the addition of a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) Academy, a Guardian Scholars Program (GSP) for current and former foster youth, and the LACC Alumni Association Foundation which includes a database of over 500,000 alumni. Famous LACC alumni include composer John Williams, musicians Leonard Slatkin, Les McCann, and Odetta, actors Donna Reed, Morgan Freeman, Clint Eastwood, Esther Williams and Robert Vaughn, and producer Gene Roddenberry, creator of Star Trek. The college is currently thriving under the guidance of President Renee D. Martinez.

I ask all Members to join with me in commending Los Angeles City College for eighty-five years of educating the greater Los Angeles community.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Lewis MacAdams, Jr. whose life's work and 70th birthday are being celebrated at the Friends of Los Angeles River's (FoLAR) Fandango on October 12th, 2014.

The project that would most define Lewis's extraordinary life, and ultimately redefine the landscape of Los Angeles, began in 1985 when he co-founded the Friends of Los Angeles River. Lewis says that he asked the Los Angeles River if he could speak for it, and the river, in his words, ``didn't say no.''

Lewis has described the revitalization of the Los Angeles River as his ``forty-year artwork.'' He began this work with a series of community clean-ups, performances and protests. His early efforts blossomed into a social movement that has given Los Angeles a renewed sense of its own possibility for ecological transformation. Using poetry as well as politics, Lewis fought back against projects that would have extinguished the last glimmer of life out of the river, organizing broad community coalitions and winning the support of officials at every level of government.

Over the past three decades, Lewis's leadership of FoLAR has given Angelenos a vision of the river as a 51-mile greenway from the mountains to the sea. FoLAR's annual ``La Gran Limpieza'' has drawn thousands of volunteers to clean up the river, has trained dozens of educators, and has introduced thousands of students to the river's existence and ecology. He has led countless ecological studies, vastly enriching the region's understanding of the river's abundant and diverse habitats. In 2014, FoLAR's vast library of environmental work was acquired by the special collections of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) archive.

Most recently, Lewis MacAdams, Jr. helped win the Army Corps of Engineers' support for the habitat restoration and redevelopment of the Los Angeles River to return it to its pristine state generations ago. Without Lewis MacAdams' passion, commitment and drive, the cultural and ecological health of the Los Angeles River would be unimaginably diminished. In celebration of the FoLAR Fandango, I ask all Members of Congress to join me in commending Lewis MacAdams, Jr. for his great accomplishments and contributions.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate Marvin Schachter of Pasadena, California, upon receiving the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Southern California Bill of Rights Award.

Born on May 17, 1924, Marvin grew up in Brooklyn during the Great Depression as the

youngest of four children. The hard-hitting Great Depression years had enormous influence in determining Marvin's life direction. At the young age of 15, he became involved in student activism and joined the national board of the American Student Union, a progressive organization of college students known for its protests against militarism. In 1943, Marvin was drafted into the Army and served in military intelligence until February, 1946 when he was discharged. Shortly after his discharge, he received his bachelor's degree at Brooklyn College, married Doris Donnally and began his graduate work in economics at Columbia University. During this time, he was actively involved in the civil rights movement organizing marches and establishing statewide student organizations against segregationist laws. He completed his master's degree in economics at the University of Colorado, and in 1951, he was admitted as a graduate student at Cambridge University, England.

When Marvin returned to the United States as a trained economist, he wanted to pursue a career in academia, but was prevented from doing so due to unwarranted concern over his history of student activism. He became a market researcher for Hallicrafters, a company that specialized in constructing electronic equipment for the Air Force, but was let go when an executive learned of his activism in leftist organizations. This turn of events led Marvin to go into retail and merchandising.

In 1954, tragically, his wife Doris passed away. In 1956, Marvin met and married Esther Adler. The Schachters moved to Los Angeles for Marvin to take a job offer by the Mays Department Stores Company. At that time, Marvin joined the American Friends Service Committee in Pasadena and the ACLU's board of directors. He became president of the ACLU of Southern California, and served on the national board for 17 years. In the 1980s, Mr. Schachter hosted a weekly radio program on domestic and foreign policy issues on KPFK, and became one of the founders of the Pasadena Weekly, for which he continues to write an occasional column. Marvin left a successful retail career to establish a real estate business, but continued his social and political work. He was the Vice Chair of the Interfaith Center to Reverse the Arms Race, a leader in the California nuclear freeze movement, and chaired a steering committee that organized and united California's disabled communities.

In the 1990s, Marvin expanded his volunteer service to include the senior community, serving as a Governor's appointee to the California Commission on Aging, chair of the Senior Advocacy Council of Pasadena, and President of the L.A. County Agency on Aging Advisory Council. Recently, he has worked with the International Criminal Court Alliance, the United Nations Association, the California Commission on Aging, and the Center for Healthcare Rights, among many other organizations. He is also documenting his life through the Pasadena Historical Society's Oral History Project. Marvin and Esther have two daughters, Pamela and Amanda, and two grandchildren, Emma and Max.

I ask that all Members of Congress please join me in recognizing the extraordinary lifetime contributions of Marvin Schachter, a true guardian of our civil liberties.

Mr. Speaker, this afternoon I will cast my vote to approve the President's funding request to train and equip the moderate Syrian opposition forces. I do so after long consideration and am mindful of the difficulties of vetting such a force during the middle of a brutal civil war.

Any decision to supply arms to combatants must be weighed carefully. Indeed, for the last several years, I have opposed arming the Syrian rebels out of a concern for our ability to properly vet such troops and the fear that weapons we provide may end up in the wrong hands. Those concerns persist, but they have been overcome by the growing menace of ISIL and the willingness of our regional allies to play a greater--and open--role in the support of these forces.

ISIL now controls about a third of Iraq and a like portion of Syria. It has been unsurpassed in its brutality, committing mass executions, forced conversions, trafficking in women, and beheading its hostages, including Americans James Foley and Steven Sotloff.

If ISIL is allowed to consolidate its territorial gains, or expand them, it will be able to act on its stated intention of serving as the platform for attacks on the United States. The thousands of foreign fighters, including Americans, who have flocked to join its ranks will one day attempt to return to the West and attack our homeland.

Our response must be proportionate to the threat. It does not justify American occupation of Iraq or Syria or the introduction of American ground forces, all of which are likely to be counterproductive. It does justify the use of American air power, intelligence, and financial, diplomatic, and military support. And since air power alone will not be sufficient on the battlefield, it will necessitate the assistance of local ground forces.

In the case of Iraq, those ground forces will be provided by the Iraqi military and Kurdish Peshmerga. In Syria, with rigorous vetting, training, and support, the rebel opposition may provide the raw material for a credible military force.

There is no guarantee that the Syrian opposition can form a cohesive fighting force, something that has thus far eluded them. But the open support of gulf nations in housing and funding this opposition holds the promise of consolidating regional support behind them.

Mr. Speaker, this afternoon I will cast my vote to approve the President's funding request to support the training and equipping of moderate Syrian opposition forces. I do so after long consideration, and mindful of the difficulties of vetting such a force during the middle of a brutal civil war.

Any decision to supply arms to combatants must be weighed carefully; indeed, for the last several years I have opposed arming the Syrian rebels out of a concern for our ability to properly vet such troops and the fear that weapons we provide may end up in the wrong

hands. Those concerns persist, but they have been overcome by the growing menace of ISIL and the willingness of our regional allies to play a greater--and open--role in the support of these forces.

ISIL now controls about a third of Iraq and a like portion of Syria. It has been unsurpassed in its brutality, committing mass executions, forced conversions, trafficking in women and beheading its hostages-- including Americans James Foley and Steven Sotlof. If ISIL is allowed to consolidate its territorial gains, or expand them, it will be able to act on its stated intention of serving as the platform for attacks on the United States. The thousands of foreign fighters, including Americans, who have flocked to join its ranks will one day attempt to return to the west and attack us on the homeland. The longer ISIL can draw new recruits, the longer the United States will have to confront the threat that these fighters will return home, many with visa-free travel to our shores.

Our response must be proportionate to the threat. It does not justify American occupation of Iraq or Syria, or the introduction of American ground forces--all of which are likely to be counterproductive. It does justify the use of American air power, intelligence, financial, diplomatic and military support. And since air power alone will not be sufficient on the battlefield, it will necessitate the assistance of local ground forces. In the case of Iraq, those ground forces will be provided by the Iraqi military and Kurdish Peshmerga. In Syria, with rigorous vetting, training and support, the rebel opposition may provide the raw material for a credible military force. There is no guarantee that the Syrian opposition can form a cohesive fighting force, something that has thus far eluded them, but the open support of Gulf nations in housing and funding this opposition holds the promise of consolidating regional support behind them.

The threat posed by ISIL is an outgrowth of the disastrously sectarian policies of the Nouri al-Maliki regime in Baghdad and the ruthless dictatorship of the Bashar al-Asad in Damascus. Our military efforts and those of our allies alone cannot succeed without addressing the political fractures created by both. I applaud the Administration for its role in urging the Iraqis to form a new and more inclusive government and look forward to the day when a representative government can take shape in neighboring Syria and this carnage can come to an end.