Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, and still I rise.

Today, I would like to thank the Speaker of the House, Speaker McCarthy, and the leadership on the Republican side as well as Minority Leader Jeffries and the leadership on the Democratic side for affording me this opportunity to be heard.

And still I rise, Mr. Speaker, and I rise today because there are moments in time that impact the rest of time. January 27 of 1945 was such a time.

January 27, 1945: It is said there are days that will live in infamy. This has to be at the top of the list of such days because today we will commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day because of an event that took place on January 27, 1945.

Please allow me to share with you, Mr. Speaker, some information that I have from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

On January 27, 1945, the Soviet Army entered Auschwitz and liberated more than 7,000 remaining prisoners who were mostly ill and dying. It is estimated, Mr. Speaker, that at minimum, 1.3 million people were deported to Auschwitz between 1940 and 1945. Of these, at least 1.1 million people were murdered.

One person who survived--whose name I shall not reveal but is available to me for those who might want to make a further inquiry-- indicated: ``So I was hiding out in the heap of dead bodies because in the last week when the crematoria didn't function at all, the bodies were just building up higher and higher.''

Another person indicated: ``And they said, `From now on you do not answer by your name. Your name is your number.' And the delusion, the disappointment, the discouragement that I felt, I felt like I was not a human person anymore.''

This is what happened to people at Auschwitz--human beings being reduced to numbers and sentenced to death, innocent people.

Another article from the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust in the U.K. indicates:

27 January 1945, liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

On 27 January 1945, Soviet soldiers liberated Auschwitz-

Birkenau the largest Nazi concentration and extermination

camp.

Mr. Speaker, many people focus on the concentration aspect of what happened there, and we should. But the horrific occurrence included extermination. This means in everyday language the murder of innocent people.

This article goes on to indicate:

``When Soviet soldiers arrived, they found several thousand emaciated survivors and the smoldering remains of gas chambers and crematoria after the Nazis had attempted to destroy evidence of their crimes.''

An article from ``This Day in History'' on history.com indicates, on January 27, 1945, Auschwitz is liberated.

``On January 27, 1945, Soviet troops enter Auschwitz, Poland, freeing the survivors of the network of concentration camps--and finally revealing to the world the depth of the horrors perpetrated there.

``Auschwitz was really a group of camps, designated I, II, and III. There were also 40 smaller `satellite' camps.''

This was a commercial operation, as it were, wherein there was a systemic means by which persons were being put to death. These are my words.

Continuing with the words from the article:

``It was at Auschwitz II, at Birkenau, established in October 1941, that the SS created a complex, monstrously orchestrated killing ground: 300 prison barracks; 4 `bathhouses' in which prisoners were gassed; corpse cellars; and cremating ovens.''

Stepping aside for a moment, it seems that it is difficult for some people to believe what actually occurred. It is so horrific that some human minds refuse to accept what occurred.

Now, there may be others who for reasons associated with malice aforethought have just decided they won't agree. But there are many people who just cannot, with their human mind, conceive of such a thing happening.

I want to comment on something that I saw this morning on television and compliment Joe of ``Morning Joe.'' He went to Auschwitz, and he was reporting from Auschwitz. I compliment him because, too often, we don't allow the actual place where these things occurred, the venue, to be properly exposed to the public. I thank him for going there because he has inspired me to believe that this is a place that I have to add to my bucket list. I want to go and see for myself the facility that facilitated, with the hands of evil persons, the murder of millions of people. I want to see what actually happened in those facilities, actually see the facilities where these horrors occurred: 300 prison barracks, 4 bathhouses in which prisoners were gassed.

``Thousands of prisoners were also used for medical experiments.''

I have been to Yad Vashem in Israel. It breaks your heart. For many people, it is impossible to go there and not have tears well in your eyes. It is impossible to see the depictions of persons who were used as human guinea pigs, experimented on. It is impossible to see the horrors depicted and not leave feeling the sorrow and the hurt and the pain associated with knowing that human beings were tortured and experimented upon.

Continuing on: ``Thousands of prisoners were also used for medical experiments overseen and performed by the camp doctor, Josef Mengele, the `angel of death.' . . . In anticipation of the Soviet arrival, SS officers began a murder spree in the camps, shooting sick prisoners'' in their efforts to destroy the evidence. No more ovens. If they couldn't get to them, just take your weapon and kill, kill sick people. Just kill to destroy the living evidence of the horrors and evils that were being perpetrated. `` . . . shooting sick prisoners and blowing up crematoria in a desperate attempt to destroy the evidence of their crimes. When the Red Army finally broke through, Soviet soldiers encountered 648 corpses and more than 7,000 starving camp survivors. There were also six storehouses filled with hundreds of thousands of women's dresses, men's suits, and shoes that Germans did not have time to burn.''

They valued the clothing. They valued the paraphernalia more than they valued the lives of the people. They saved the material things and destroyed the human beings. What kind of people were they? Evil is not a sufficient label for persons who would do such dastardly things.

Mr. Speaker, in the United States, Days of Remembrance for Victims of the Holocaust were formalized when President Carter signed the establishing resolution. The Days of Remembrance will occur in April. President Carter signed the resolution. The resolution was signed for April 28 and April 29. It passed the House on April 17, 1978. It passed the Senate on April 25, 1978, and President Carter signed the resolution on September 18, 1978, the Holocaust Remembrance Day Resolution designating April 28 and 29, 1979, as days of remembrance of victims of the Holocaust.

Here are words from the resolution:

``Whereas, 6 million Jews and millions of other people were murdered in concentration camps as part of a program of extermination carried out by the Nazi Party during World War II;

``Whereas, the people of the United States should recognize''--this is what the resolution said; I would add ``people of the world should recognize''--``that all acts of bigotry are rooted in the cruelty of spirit and the callousness that led the Nazis to commit atrocities against millions of people, and should dedicate themselves to the principle of human equality.''

Speaking aside for a moment, the world should recognize, not just the United States but the world, that those who tolerate bigotry perpetuate bigotry. The acceptance of bigotry, the toleration of bigotry, is the perpetuation of bigotry, and we should all devote ourselves to the principle of human equality.

This is from our resolution, the dedication and devotion of ourselves to human equality. I am proud of the House of Representatives for passing this resolution.

It continues:

``Whereas the people of the United States should recognize that tyranny creates the political atmosphere in which bigotry flourishes, and should be vigilant to detect, and ready to resist, the tyrannical exercise of power.''

Let me step aside for a moment and remind us that not only should we resist the tyrannical exercise of power; we should also resist the voices that verbalize power. We should resist those who would march through the streets of an American city carrying torches, shouting, ``Jews will not replace us.'' Our failure to resist and to announce, to state without question, without hesitation, or reservation, that such persons are persons who are perpetuating bigotry and hatred, the kind of bigotry and hatred that can lead to the death of people, our failure to do so is a means by which our inaction causes the perpetuation of bigotry and violence.

Inaction is unacceptable. Every person has a duty, a responsibility, and an obligation to speak up and speak out against such demonstrations by people in this country.

The unfortunate circumstance is that, in this country, there is at least one person who would proclaim that among those who were screaming, ``Jews will not replace us,'' there is at least one person who found some ``nice people'' to be among the ranks of those who would say such a thing.

``Whereas, on April 29 of 1945 the Armed Forces of the United States liberated the surviving victims of Nazi internment in the concentration camp in Dachau, Germany, and revealed to the world evidence of a tragic human Holocaust that must never be forgotten. . . .''

To never forget is to do more than to recite what happened. To never forget requires that we also denounce those who would do dastardly deeds today. It is good for us to say that those who perpetrated deeds in the past should not be forgotten, but we must also denounce those who would perpetrate such dastardly deeds today.

These deeds include statements that some people see as harmless, what they see as just name-calling. When you call a person who happens to be of a certain ancestry the name ``Coco Chow,'' that is just name-calling to some people. When it comes from a person who has held the highest office in the land, it is more than name-calling. It gives some people a belief that people of a certain ethnicity, of a certain ancestry, are not as worthy of human life as others.

We have a responsibility to call out these things. We cannot allow this kind of name-calling, which can eventually conclude in the loss of life, to go unchecked. We have to check it. I am here today to check it.

Ours is a great country. I love my country. I salute the flag. I say the Pledge of Allegiance. I sing the national anthem. I stand. I place my hand over my heart. I love my country. But that doesn't mean that I won't criticize those who would do things that would cause harm to others within the country.

It also doesn't mean that I won't defend those who choose not to salute the flag, who choose not to say the Pledge of Allegiance or sing the national anthem. That is a right that they have in this country.

We also have to recognize that all of us, we have to denounce people who say things, who use words that according to Emily Dickinson when she indicated to us: ``A word is dead when it is said, some say. I say it just begins to live that day.'' Those who give life to these words can cause some people to harm other people.

Whereas the Nazi concentration camp in Dachau, Germany, is not only a shocking symbol of Nazi brutality and destruction, but also a symbol of the danger inherent in tyranny, the pernicious quality of bigotry, and the human capacity to be cruel: Therefore, now, be it resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled that April 28 and 29 of 1979 are designated as ``Days of Remembrance of Victims of the Holocaust,'' and the President is authorized and requested to issue a proclamation calling upon

the people of the United States to observe such days with appropriate ceremonies and activities. Approved September 18, 1978.

Today, we commemorate the liberation of Auschwitz.

Later on, we will commemorate these days of remembrance. I have lived long enough now to know that if we fail to remember the Holocaust, a great human tragedy, a crime against humanity unlike any other, there is no other crime against humanity that can be compared to the Holocaust, just as there is no other crime against humanity that can be compared to slavery.

If we fail to remember the crimes against humanity committed in Auschwitz, I believe, unfortunately, that humankind is capable of repeating the horrors of the Holocaust. It is our eternal vigilance that will prevent this from ever occurring again. Our failure to be vigilant will create days that the human mind cannot conceive of occurring again.

I am here today as a Member of Congress to make sure that my record reflects that I will not forget, that I will stand with my Jewish brothers and sisters against all who would claim that the Holocaust never occurred, against all who were to proclaim that Jewish people have done things that would merit this kind of horrific behavior. I stand with them. They are my brothers and sisters. Their lives are important to me, and the lives that were lost are important to me.

I want my record to reflect that when I had the opportunity as a Member of Congress to stand before the world and take a stand, Mr. Speaker, I want my record to reflect that I took a stand against the evils that took place at Auschwitz and the evils of the Holocaust.

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

Madam Speaker, and still I rise, to quote Maya Angelou, ``Bringing the gifts my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave.''

I rise today as a proud descendent of enslaved people, a proud descendent of the foundational mothers and fathers of this country. They are foundational because they helped to build the infrastructure that allowed this great country to become the great Nation that it is.

There were many others who contributed to this country, but they by the millions contributed, and their lives were sacrificed such that we might have the great Nation that we have today.

I rise today to talk specifically about a conscience agenda. A conscience agenda is one that I believe can be embraced by all people of good will. A conscience agenda.

I have before you and me some of what would be included in a conscience agenda, and I will give a brief explanation about each. I will set the stage by explaining some of what Dr. King called to our attention with reference to this question of the conscience.

In speaking to a group of clergy and laypeople concerned about the Vietnam war on February 6, 1968, in Washington, D.C., Dr. King concluded his speech with some very powerful language that addresses the role that conscience plays in doing some things and taking certain positions.

Dr. King's final words were: ``On some positions cowardice asks the question, is it safe?''

I will add parenthetically here, is it okay for me to do this or will I be harmed in some way physically? Cowardice will ask you, is it safe to do this?

He goes on to say: ``Expediency asks the question, is it politic?''

Does it make good political sense to do what I am about to do?

He further indicates: ``Vanity asks the question, is it popular?''

If I do this will I have a parade in my honor?

Will there be people who will celebrate what I am about to do or what I am doing?

Dr. King concludes with this: ``But conscience asks the question, is it right?''

He goes on to say: ``And there comes a time when one must take the position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right.''

I am not sure that it is safe, politic, or popular to take a position on all of these issues, and I am not sure that it is not safe, nor politic, nor popular, but I do say this: Conscience tells me that I should do this.

There is a moral imperative to bring these issues before the Congress of the United States of America, and I do so because conscience tells me it is the right thing to do.

I believe that as a matter of conscience we should have a Slavery Remembrance Day. I understand that this day is one that ought to be commemorated. Unlike many other days that we celebrate, we must commemorate this day. There can be some celebration of the lives of those who were lost to slavery, but this is a day for commemoration principally.

As a day of commemoration, I believe that we ought to let the world know how much we appreciate those millions of people who were enslaved, many of whom were born into slavery, lived as slaves, and died as slaves. It is time for this country to show some appreciation for them.

For too long we have revered the enslavers and reviled the enslaved. This conscience agenda would have us recognize Slavery Remembrance Day, and August 20 of 1619 is the date that the first enslaved people were brought to this country. It was on that day in Point Comfort that a slave ship, the White Lion, landed. It brought with it some 20-odd, as it is said, enslaved persons. They were introduced to the English- speaking colonies in this country. Twenty human beings were stolen, kidnapped, and brought to our country. They were brought to our country and traded just as you would trade a horse, or you would trade some piece of machinery. They were traded--human beings on August 20, 1619-- traded into slavery into this country.

This is the day that we have set aside to recognize as Slavery Remembrance Day because that day set into motion events that haunt us to this day. We ought not forget that date, August 20, 1619.

I am so proud to tell you that this House has already passed a resolution honoring the persons who were enslaved. This House passed a resolution. Some 218 Members of this House voted in support of Slavery Remembrance Day. This was already a part of the annals and the history of the House. It is, therefore, those who look through the vista of time at this time

to understand what happened. I can't explain it all today because I have much to say, but I will tell you that I am proud to tell you, in fact, that the President of the United States of America, the Honorable Joe Biden--a man that I have great respect for; I support him; I have supported him; I support him today; I will support him tomorrow because of what he has done--this President recognized Slavery Remembrance Day with a statement that he issued on August 20 of 2022.

In the many things that he has indicated in this statement I will just focus on a very few words, some seven words that are contained within this statement. He indicated: ``Great nations don't hide from their history.'' He said much more, but it is important for us to accentuate this statement: ``Great nations don't hide from their history.''

There are too many people in this country to this day who would have us hide from our history, have our history be proclaimed involuntary relocation. That is what is happening in the State of Texas currently, we have a group of folks who want to proclaim slavery, the enslavement of human beings, as involuntary relocation.

We cannot hide from our history. There are people who don't want it taught in schools. They want us to somehow give a rendition of history that reveres those who were the enslavers and revile those who were the enslaved.

For too long this has been the case in this country. It is my desire and my belief that people of conscience that the conscience dictates that there is a moral imperative for us to change this misunderstanding of history. To do this, we obviously need a Slavery Remembrance Day.

In Houston, Texas, on August 20, 2022, we had an event, a Slavery Remembrance Day event. A thousand people showed up for Slavery Remembrance Day, including our mayor Sylvester Turner. Many notable members of the clergy were in attendance. Our city council people were in attendance. State representative Ron Reynolds was there. We had commissioner Rodney Ellis in attendance. Many people of note were there, but there were also people who were not among the elected officials, people who simply wanted to let the world know that they understand the necessity to commemorate Slavery Remembrance Day.

By the way, it is not unusual for us to have these remembrance days. We have a day to remember the day Pearl Harbor was bombed. That is a day we set aside annually, December 7.

We have a day to remember the day that the Twin Towers in New York were attacked, when our Nation was attacked and the Twin Towers came tumbling down.

We have a day set aside to remember the Holocaust, the horrors of the Holocaust, so that we will never allow it to be repeated any place on the planet Earth. There is no event comparable to the Holocaust just as there is no event comparable to slavery, the enslavement of people that took place in this country.

What we want to do now is expand Slavery Remembrance Day. We want to make sure that in every church, in every house of worship there is an opportunity on August 20 of this year to have a Slavery Remembrance Day ceremony wherein we will explain what happened and proclaim that we must always remember these events that took place.

Slavery Remembrance Day is important, and conscience dictates that we would do such a thing as commemorate the lives that were lost to slavery.

I will say more about those lives as I move forward with our next Conscience Agenda item, which is awarding a Congressional Gold Medal to the enslaved, a Congressional Gold Medal to the enslaved.

I am now using what is called a mnemonic device. It is said that if you repeat things multiple times, people are more likely to remember than not.

So, in the utilization of this mnemonic device, I repeat: We want to award a Congressional Gold Medal to the American enslaved.

There are many people who don't understand, and because they don't understand, their visceral reaction is: Why would you award a Congressional Gold Medal to the enslaved?

Well, I have a ``Dear Colleague'' that my dear colleagues will be receiving. I am going to read it, perhaps not in its entirety, but I will cover some of the important excerpts.

This ``Dear Colleague'' reads--and this is a part of the style of it, the Congressional Gold Medal, obviously, and it reads: Confederate soldiers--silence is a way of accentuating--Confederate soldiers. Confederate soldiers were awarded a Congressional Gold Medal in 1956. The Congress of the United States of America awarded a Congressional Gold Medal to Confederate soldiers in 1956.

I figure it can be fairly said that Confederate soldiers were persons who fought on the side of many who were fighting to maintain the institution of slavery.

We have revered the Confederate soldiers. We have reviled those who were enslaved. Silence accentuates.

I go on to indicate--I used the personal pronoun ``I'' because this is my work, but I really am a ``we'' person. I prefer saying ``we'' because nothing is done alone.

It goes on to read: What Congress did for Confederate soldiers, it, as a matter of conscience, should do for the enslaved.

What we did for Confederate soldiers as a matter of conscience there is a moral imperative to do for the enslaved.

I am asking Members to support the historic Congressional Gold Medal for America's economic foundational fathers, mothers, and children, the enslaved.

Note that I said ``children.'' I am not proud that this happened. I love my country, but I speak truth to power, truth about power.

I am a liberated Democrat, unbought, unbossed, unafraid, and willing to stand here and say: I love my country, salute the flag, say the Pledge of Allegiance, sing the national anthem, but I am going to tell the truth about our history.

I want history to also reflect properly that we honored the persons who helped build this country, that we would not honor those who sought to enslave them and dishonored those who were enslaved.

I am asking my colleagues to support the historic Congressional Gold Medal for America's economic foundational fathers, mothers, and children, the enslaved.

There are already persons who have acknowledged that they will be original cosponsors. I call them persons of conscience, persons of goodwill, persons who understand the zeitgeist of the time.

I am going to call their names. There are 19 such persons. By the way, if a name is not called, it doesn't mean that the name won't be an original cosponsor. It just means that these are persons that I have talked to in passing, and they have said they would like to be original cosponsors.

Again, I consider them the persons of conscience who have decided to sponsor as original cosponsors this Congressional Gold Medal to the American enslaved.

Their names are the Honorable Maxine Waters, the Honorable Bennie Thompson, the Honorable Danny K. Davis, the Honorable Jim McGovern, the Honorable Brad Sherman, the Honorable Barbara Lee, the Honorable Yvette Clarke, the Honorable Hank Johnson, the Honorable Gerry Connolly, the Honorable Kweisi Mfume, the Honorable David Cicilline, the Honorable Pete Aguilar, the Honorable Ted Lieu, the Honorable Adriano Espaillat, the Honorable Sylvia Garcia, the Honorable Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Honorable Ilhan Omar, the Honorable Ayanna Pressley, and the Honorable Troy Carter.

Only the persons that I have talked to and, I might add, I have not talked to a single person who has said: ``No, we should not honor the enslaved. No, it is okay to honor the Confederate soldiers but not the enslaved.'' I have not talked to a single person with that mindset.

Every person, without question, reservation, hesitation, or equivocation, immediately said: ``Yes. Yes, sign me up.''

The deadline for original cosponsors for this historic legislation will be February 28, 2023. This is the last day of Black History Month.

Now, a little bit more about why this is so important. On July 18, 1956, the

Congress, that would be the House and the Senate, awarded a Congressional Gold Medal to Confederate soldiers.

However, to this day, Congress has never awarded a Congressional Gold Medal to the over 10 million enslaved men, women, and children who toiled for over 240 years--silence accentuates--toiled for over 240 years to build the economic and infrastructural foundation of the wealthiest nation to ever exist on the planet Earth.

These foundational mothers and fathers of our country labored arduously, constructing our cities, roads, bridges, and wells.

They laboriously planted, as well as harvested, the food that fed our Nation. They were the de facto producers of the cash crops that fueled our Nation's foundational wealth.

These enslaved human beings of African ancestors, of African ancestry, toiled as slaves without remuneration or recompense.

Their humble hands were relied upon for the construction of some of our Nation's most renowned edifices and monuments, including the White House, the Capitol Building, and the Washington Monument.

In truth, their sacrificed lives provided the genesis for our Nation's economic preeminence. These sacrificed human beings, men, women, and children, were the greatest contributors to the American foundational economy.

Yet, their contributions are almost universally forgotten, underrecognized, ignored, overlooked, and/or undervalued.

For these and countless other justifications, I am beseeching Congress as a matter of conscience--silence accentuates--I am beseeching Congress as a matter of conscience to award a Congressional Gold Medal collectively to the human beings who are the foundational fathers, mothers, and children that toiled as slaves without recompense or recognition for their unparalleled contributions to the infrastructural and economic development of the Nation that we enjoy today. We are all the beneficiaries of their sacrifice.

Awarding a Congressional Gold Medal to groups of individuals, for those who may not know, is not unprecedented as the Congressional Gold Medal was awarded to the Confederate soldiers that I mentioned earlier, but also to the Tuskegee Airmen, both antemortem and postmortem, I might add, to the Navajo Code Talkers, and postmortem to the servicemembers who perished in Afghanistan on August 26, 2021.

It is my belief that the men, women, and children who suffered a great crime against humanity--silence accentuates--who suffered a great crime against humanity, toiling unremunerated as slaves, many for their entire work lives, are deserving of a Congressional Gold Medal. They are deserving to the same extent as those who soldiered to preserve slavery.

The zeitgeist of our time impels the introduction of this historic legislation, and I want Members to know that if they wish to be recognized as a courageous person of conscience who is an original cosponsor, that they would please contact my office.

In the words of Maya Angelou, ``Bringing the gifts my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave.'' I would hope that others will join me in bringing forth this historic legislation.

Now, dear friends, I call to your attention another piece of legislation. It is a resolution that would remove the name of Richard Russell from the Russell Senate Office Building.

Richard Russell was a self-proclaimed white supremacist, a self- proclaimed white supremacist. He helped to author the Southern Manifesto. He fought against legislation that would accord punishment for those who were lynched. He was a self-proclaimed white supremacist.

His name ought not be on a building that is paid for with tax dollars. I am as adamant about this as I would be about a building having the name of someone associated with the Third Reich.

I would never tolerate that. I would take the stand I am taking here and now to get that person's name off of that building. No person associated with the Third Reich should have his or her name on a building paid for with taxpayer dollars in a country that professes liberty and justice for all.

Richard Russell's name needs to be removed, and his statue, which happens to be in a rotunda devoted to him, his statue has to be removed from the building.

His name off the building, his statue removed from the building--he is a self-proclaimed white supremacist.

I understand that this is more than some people can handle. I understand. As a matter of fact, it hurts me to even say it.

If I could live my life and do otherwise, I would, but my conscience won't allow me to do it. My conscience dictates that I must do this.

This is a part of the conscience agenda. His name should be removed.

Now, there are those who would say, whose name do you want? That is a fair question; here is a fair response: The fair response is, remove his name, let it revert to the name that it had prior to his name being placed on the building, then select the name of your choice.

We can remove his name. We can separate the removal of his name from the renaming of the building. The name that was on the building before it became the Richard Russell Office Building was the Old Senate Office Building. Let it revert back to the Old Senate Office Building, then select a name.

I have not pronounced at any point in time that I have a name. I have no name to offer. I offer justice to people who find that this name is offensive, and it is offensive.

I don't go into the Russell Office Building. That is my means of protesting, what I see as something that is insulting. My guess is that it is insulting to a good many other people. A good many don't know the history that I know. Perhaps that is the reason they don't take the positions that I take.

I take this position as a matter of conscience. Richard Russell's name should be removed from the Senate office building paid for and maintained with tax dollars.

The next item on the conscience agenda is the enactment of legislation that we will be filing, styled with some variation possibly, the Securities and Exchange Atonement Act.

As the chair of the Subcommittee for Oversight and Investigations of the Financial Services full committee, we held hearings. We had the largest banks come in and we posed a question: Do you think that your institution has done enough to atone for its predecessor institutions or institution having been involved with slavery?

Let me explain. Many of our very large banks--I won't go into the names today. I am prepared to, but I won't--many of our largest banking institutions had predecessor institutions, meaning banks that at some point they are acquired, that literally engaged in the slave trade.

One bank--more than one, actually. One just came to mind--actually took slaves as collateral just as you would take a car, a piece of furniture. Human beings, collateral.

Then when the person that placed them in the contract as collateral defaulted, then they were possessed. Just as you would go out and claim a horse that was collateral, they took possession of the slaves.

They made money by trading in slavery and in slaves in this fashion. They need to atone. There were insurance companies that insured slaves just as you would insure a horse or cattle, insured human beings for the benefit of the masters. So that if something happened to the human beings, the master would be compensated.

Conscience dictates that there be atonement for this. The world has been set in motion such that you cannot create such egregious offenses and just walk away, then later say, well, I had nothing to do with that, why should I have to be a part of the atonement process?

Because we are the beneficiaries of slavery. We are. The President, whom I happen to agree with, indicated that great nations don't hide from their history; but I would also add, great nations do the responsible thing as it relates to their history, which is to acknowledge it and then atone for transgressions. That is what great nations do. This is a great Nation. There should be some atonement.

So we will have this introduced, this legislation, and colleagues will be

given the opportunity to be original cosponsors, as well as cosponsors. It is not asking too much for us to investigate and find out which of these mega-institutions engaged in the utilization of human beings as collateral and insured them as they would cattle. We should investigate, and they should atone.

Because of all of these things making it perspicuously clear that we need some sort of reconciliation, we will be introducing a resolution, legislation in the form of a resolution for a department of reconciliation.

We have a Department of Labor to deal with labor issues, a Department of Commerce to deal with issues associated with commerce and business. We have a Department of Defense to deal with issues related to war and peace. We ought to have, as a matter of conscience, a department of reconciliation with a secretary of reconciliation just as we have a Secretary of Labor, Secretary of Commerce, Secretary of Defense, with a budget just as we have a budget for the Secretary of Labor to further the aims of the Department, there ought to be a budget for the secretary of reconciliation to further the aims of the department of reconciliation.

It is time for us to take a systematic approach to dealing with the question of reconciliation in this country. A department of reconciliation would have undersecretaries of reconciliation, just as we have undersecretaries of commerce and undersecretaries of labor.

It ought to have a budget that is comparable to its mission. I have not set the budget, but I do believe that if we index it to the Department of Defense and make it some percentage of that budget, we are likely to have it funded on an annual basis. So I am of the opinion that we should index it, tie it to the budget for the Department of Defense so that we will always have the money necessary.

These things, I would hope, would happen in the 118th Congress. I don't know that they will, to be very candid. But I do know this: My record will show that as a person of conscience, I brought them to the attention of Congress and that Congress had every opportunity to embrace what I believe to be questions of conscience that have to be dealt with at some point.

This is a methodology, a means, if you will, by which we can address some of the egregious circumstances emanating from the arrival of some 20-odd persons of African ancestry in the English-speaking colonies on August 20, 1619. That has to be addressed. We still have issues that can be logically traced back to the arrival of some 20-odd persons, who were of African ancestry, on August 20, 1619.

Let me walk you through a bit of history. Yes, we ended a war that was a part of bringing slavery to an end, and we passed the 13th Amendment. The war and the 13th Amendment brought slavery to an end, except then there was something called the Black codes. These codes allowed persons to be arrested for not having a job.

If you had been a slave and you are now free, they didn't have the kind of systems that we have in place now for persons who are unemployed. You would be picked up and arrested. Then you could be placed into what is known now, and then, as a convict leasing program, which was simply another way of saying slavery. People were placed into this convict leasing program, and many of them never left. They were placed into this program for petty offenses.

In Houston, just outside of Houston, we have a common grave with 95 bodies, 95 skeletons, the evidence of 95 people, who were in a convict leasing program all buried in a common grave. So sad. It hurts the heart. I understand why people don't want to hear it, because I don't want to say it. Convict leasing is slavery by another name.

Moving forward in history, we then had lawful segregation. I lived through lawful segregation. I know what it is like to drink colored water. I know what it is like to go through a door that had ``coloreds'' on it, go through the back door to get my food.

I just celebrated recently, last several months, on September 1, my 25th birthday for the third time. I lived through segregation. I know the horrors of it. I know what it is like to be separated from others. I know what it is like to sit at the back of the bus. I know what it is like to understand that you have a separate line when you go into the food store, a line for whites and a line for coloreds. I know what it is like to be next in line and have every person who happened to be of Anglo ancestry to come ahead of you until every person is served and then you take your opportunity to be served.

You were last in line simply by being in line. It didn't matter whether you got there first. I know what it is like. I know what it is like to go to schools with hand-me-down books, pages torn out. I know what it is like to be bused to schools some 20 miles to another school such that you would not be allowed into the same classroom with children who were of a different hue. I know what it is like. I suffered it.

But I am also very proud that we are beyond that. I am walking you through this history because there is a point to be made. The Civil War, ending of segregation, ending of convict leasing, the one thing that they didn't end was white supremacy.

The Civil War and the 13th Amendment did not end white supremacy, and that is what we have been fighting.

By the way, not all persons who are what we call White, who are Anglos, are participating intentionally in something that we would call white supremacy. That is not the case. It is not.

There is empirical evidence to support the notion that if you are a person of color and have superior credit and seek a loan, you are likely to get less money and a higher interest rate than a person who is not of color who doesn't have superior credit. The empirical evidence is there. Testing has been done.

By the way, there are many people who fight allowing us to do this testing. There are people who don't want the empirical evidence to surface. They give all kinds of reasons for why we ought not do that.

We ought to do that because that is a means by which we can ascertain how far we have truly come and understand that sometimes it is the color of skin, not the character within, that determines the worth of women and men. The color of skin still does.

Try getting a loan as a person of color. Personal experience: Finished law school, and four of us applied for a loan. The loan officer cooperated with us. We cooperated with him. We received a loan to open a business, paid every payment on time, and paid the loan off early.

We went back to get another loan. A different loan officer declined to let us have a second loan. When we judiciously explained we received the first loan; we are asking for less money; we paid the first loan off; we paid it off early; and we were never late with a payment, his response to us: You shouldn't have gotten the first loan.

I have lived it. I don't have to talk about what others have said, what they have told me. This was a loan officer telling four lawyers who repaid a loan, paid on time, and repaid the loan early, that they shouldn't have gotten that loan.

One can but only imagine, if you are not me, what that was like as a lawyer to be told that you didn't qualify for what you qualified for and you repaid.

The point is this, dear brothers and sisters--whether you like it or not, I consider you my brothers and sisters. I do. I do because Dr. King was right. There really is but one race, and that is the human race. I concur with him when he said that all persons are created equal, from a bass black to a treble white.

I believe he was right when he said that:

Fleecy locks and black complexion

Cannot forfeit nature's claim

Skin may differ, but affection

Dwells in Black and White the same.

Were I so tall as to reach the pole

Or to grasp the ocean at a span,

I must be measured by my soul

The mind is the standard of the man.

And woman, I might add.

I believe in my country. I have faith in the words in the Declaration of Independence: persons created equal, endowed by the creator with certain unalienable rights, among them life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

I have faith. I have faith in the Pledge of Allegiance, liberty and justice for all.

Don't class me with those people who hate the country. I am not a country

hater. I am a country lover, just as I love members of my family that I have to tell the truth about and let them know when they have made mistakes, just as you have done similar things with people you love.

You can love a country and still want to make sure that it lives up to its promise. This is about living up to the promise, the Conscience Agenda.

Remember now, those who do this, I know that some, to quote Dr. King, will ask and respond to cowardice which asks the question: Is it safe?

Cowardice asks the question, is it safe?

Expediency asks the question, is it politic?

Vanity asks the question, is it popular?

But conscience asks the question, is it right?

I believe this is not only the right thing to do but the Conscience Agenda is the righteous thing to do. Because I believe it, I shall pursue it.

I believe that there are persons in this Congress who will join us in the Conscience Agenda, who will understand that there may be times when you have to do that which is neither safe nor politic nor popular. To quote Dr. King, you do it because conscience says it is right.

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

Mr. Speaker, had I been present, I would have voted ``nay'' on rollcall No. 21 and ``yea'' on rollcall No. 22.

Madam Speaker, I greatly appreciate the gentleman according me the time. I thank the ranking member for being here, a dear friend, as well.

Madam Speaker, and still I rise. I rise today as the Representative of those persons who work in the VA hospital in Houston, Texas, known as the Michael E. DeBakey hospital, one of the finest, in my opinion, because it is in my Congressional district, the finest VA hospital in the world.

I go there quite regularly. In fact, annually, we go into that hospital and we deliver flags to every veteran that is in the hospital. We will order a thousand flags this year to deliver to the hospital.

We give them a copy of the Constitution. We work with not only the administration but also the nurses and the doctors at the hospital. We are there for celebrations. We are actively involved with the VA.

This is one of the reasons why I believe I have some insight as to H.R. 1948. I support it fully, and I do so because it is the thing that every employee here has in our offices.

I shouldn't say every. If you are in management, I think you may be excluded.

But I voted for that to give them the right to organize, and I am talking about here in Congress. I also am a member of a labor union, Local 1550. I am a dues checkoff member. So it would be completely anathema to my philosophy for me to conclude that these nurses and these physicians should be denied rights that I have, when I'm a part of a labor union, or others do--and right here in Congress we have people with these rights--it would just be out of character for me.

That is just not all of it. I understand the importance and the value of the right to organize and to bring to the attention of people who can make a difference some of the issues that are impacting patients that the administration won't be aware of. And there are many people who won't want to speak up simply because they fear retribution.

The right to organize is the right to speak up and understand that you can do so without retribution.

I would also add that this right to organize does not accord the workers the right to strike. They are not going to go on strike. They are not going to shut down a VA hospital. They are not going to have the ability to cause the management to have to take some extreme measures. This is just to give people the opportunity to talk about the things that are important to the patients.

We are really doing something for the patients today. We are giving them more power by allowing the workers to organize.

Madam Speaker, I stand by what I have said, and I support H.R. 1948.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding the time.

And still I rise today, a proud graduate of the Thurgood Marshall School of Law, a son of the segregated South, and a person who believes that this is a great day in the history of this country.

To have this legislation pass means a lot to my generation. To those of us who had to sit in the back of the bus, the balcony of the movie, and go to the back doors of restaurants, it means a lot.

It means a lot for me to simply say this: I associate myself completely, totally, and absolutely with the words of the Honorable Steny Hoyer.

I heard his speech. I was moved by what he said, and I came to the floor to let the world know that we have made a large, gigantic, huge step in terms of bending the arc of the moral universe toward liberty and justice for all.

I am grateful, and I thank the gentlewoman again for yielding time.

Mr. Speaker, and still I rise.

At this time, prior to going into my message, I yield such time as he may consume to the Honorable Mark Takano, the pride of California's 41st District and the chair of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs.

Thanking Toria Sullivan

Mr. Speaker, and still I rise, a proud, liberated Democrat, unbought, unbossed, and unafraid to speak truth to power as well as truth about power concerning the topic of slavery and the need for atonement.

Let's start with slavery and identify it for what it was. A proper identification of slavery would cause one to conclude that it was truly one of the greatest crimes ever committed against humanity.

Slavery was kidnapping. People were stolen from their homes. They were traversed across the oceans.

Slavery was murder because in the process of transferring persons, if they became unruly, unmanageable, they could simply be thrown overboard into the shark-infested waters. In fact, it is said that sharks would follow the ships knowing that, at some point, a body might be thrown over that they could feed upon.

Slavery was robbery. People had their identities stolen from them. People were put in a position such that they could not know who they were in terms of their connection to the past, and they could not get an education about what the world was all about.

Slavery was rape. It was not unusual for the masters to rape the women. It was not unusual for them to father the children, and then for those children to become slaves.

Slavery was about the enslavement of babies. What kind of people would do such a dastardly thing as to enslave babies?

The people who would do this were the people who didn't see the human beings, the human qualities associated with slavery. They just saw them as chattel, something to be traded, something to be used, and something to be discarded.

Slavery was also about forced labor. I would like to say more about this topic of forced labor and slavery because I happen to have the good fortune to be the chair of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of the Financial Services Committee.

I serve under the leadership of the Honorable Maxine Waters, who is one of the most courageous Members of Congress. Under her leadership, we have had hearings on this question of slavery and how this slavery, this evil, has impacted not only the people of that time when they were enslaved but also the people of this time.

Mr. Speaker, it is a very sensitive topic, and it deserves our attention. For those who desire not to give it attention, there are places for them to have their conversations off the floor. I beg that they would do so. It is a very sensitive topic.

We have held hearings on this topic, and at these hearings we have discovered that there are institutions that have a historical connection to slavery. These institutions include our mega banks. I will call them ``big banks.'' They include mega insurance companies. I will call them ``big insurance companies.''

These mega banks, these big banks, these big insurance companies have predecessor institutions, predecessor banks and insurance companies, that actually engaged in the slave trade by way of with banks insuring slaves as chattel, and the insurance companies would insure them, and the banks would make loans against slaves as chattel.

Let me give some examples. One big bank had a predecessor bank that was found to have had a connection to chattel slavery by accepting 8,149 enslaved people as collateral for loans and coming into possession of 437 enslaved people.

Another predecessor bank accepted approximately 13,000 enslaved people as collateral for loans as well as took possession of approximately 1,250 enslaved people upon default.

Mr. Speaker, it might be worthy of noting that these predecessor banks were located in our State. I was born in Louisiana. You represent a great Congressional District in Louisiana. Predecessor banks that took possession of approximately 1,250 enslaved people upon default on loans.

Another predecessor bank made a loan of $135,000 to a railroad company to use slave labor. Adjusted for inflation, $135,000 is worth approximately $4,776,840 in 2022.

Another predecessor bank accepted enslaved people as collateral in at least 24 transactions, took possession of enslaved people upon default on loans, and engaged in business and investments with the Confederacy that by 1862 exceeded $1.5 million. That amount is worth $44,000,230 in 2022.

Mr. Speaker, as a proud descendent of enslaved people, I cannot in good conscience allow these transgressions to go unchallenged, to allow them to continue without atonement. There are some things that we ought not allow to remain a part of our history without proper redress. The enslavement of people and the profits that were made off of these people as slaves is something that must be redressed. These big banks and these big insurance companies have a duty, responsibility, and an obligation to atone for their connectivity to slavery.

As a result, Mr. Speaker, I plan to file a big banks' and big insurance companies' atonement legislation, a piece of legislation that will address the injustices that were perpetrated upon human beings, the greatest crime against humanity, that we call slavery.

This piece of legislation will require these big banks to assess whether their institutions, their predecessor institutions had direct or indirect ties to or profited from the institution of slavery. We already know that some did. They will have to issue a report containing all findings and determinations made in carrying out the assessments required, and to the extent the institutions, these big banks and these big insurance companies, identify ties to or profits from the institution of slavery a disclosure of the steps these institutions have taken to reconcile such profits and ties shall be reported. This report will be made available to the public, including on a website of each of the institutions making the reports.

Further, this legislation will require a fine to be imposed on any institution that fails to issue a report as required or that reports false, misleading, or inaccurate information on such a report. They shall be fined $20,000 per day until the report is issued properly or until the report is corrected to not be false, misleading, or inaccurate.

Mr. Speaker, this is a part of the process necessary for great a nation--and ours is a great nation--to be an even greater nation after it has properly reconciled for its greatest sin, its seminal sin of slavery; as I have indicated one of the greatest crimes ever committed against humanity, a crime that has implications on this very day and will have implications on tomorrow in a very negative way.

We still have people who are suffering from these crimes that were committed centuries ago. Slavery didn't end all of the suffering. After slavery we had Black codes, which allowed Black people to be arrested and then forced to work as persons who were leased. It was called ``convict leasing.'' You could be arrested for something as simple as not having a job and then forced to work. Many people worked until they died; literally, they would work them to death.

In Texas we have discovered a grave of 95 such people known as the Sugar Land 95, a common grave with persons who were slave laborers.

It didn't end there. It went on to have persons who were discriminated against lawfully in this country because we had segregation. Segregation was another means of maintaining people of African ancestry as second-class citizens, people who were not entitled to the same privileges and opportunities as others.

But it didn't end there. We then suffered from--and still to this day--suffered from invidious discrimination. Yes, there are some people who say that it doesn't exist, but it does. There is invidious discrimination in the House of Representatives. Invidious discrimination, discrimination that keeps people from reaching their potential because of who they happen to be.

In fact, our failure to recognize marriage as we have voted to do so today was a form of invidious discrimination.

So it doesn't just consume people of African ancestry. I am making that the topic today. On some future occasion I will be talking about the invidious discrimination perpetrated against others, but today as it relates to African Americans there is still invidious discrimination in our country.

African Americans were not given the same opportunities to acquire wealth. Over the centuries, we have had circumstances where in this country you could acquire wealth by simply going out in the West and fencing in as much property as you could, buy a Winchester rifle, defend it, and it was yours. You could simply squat and acquire land. People of African ancestry were not given the opportunity to acquire land in this fashion.

When the GI Bill was passed, many people benefited from it. Very few of them were of African ancestry. People who fought, many of them died, but

people who fought and survived and came back could not get the same loans, the same grants, the same opportunities as others. So the opportunity to build wealth has been denied, and that opportunity denied has manifested in a wealth gap that is unimaginable with Black people having pennies on the dollar for the many dollars that White people have in terms of wealth.

This wealth gap is something that cannot be ignored, and atonement has to be a methodology by which we achieve a bringing together, a closing of the wealth gap, if you will. And until we close the wealth gap we have to continue to require atonement.

Now, there are many people who conclude that atonement and just talking about slavery is something that ought to be against the law.

In the State of Texas they have in our legislature imposed a law that as many read it would not allow teaching the truth about slavery in schools. There are people who don't want their children to be harmed by hearing about the suffering that people in this country had perpetuated upon them for centuries. They don't want their children to know. They want their children to believe that liberty and justice for all has always applied to all of the people in the country, and it hasn't. They want their children to believe that there has always been equal access to opportunity in this country, which is not true. They don't want their children taught the truth, but the truth is going to be told and taught. The truth will be known. Carlyle was right: ``No lie can live forever.'' William Cullen Bryant was right: ``Truth, crushed to Earth, shall rise again.'' Dr. King was right: ``The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.''

The truth will be told. You can't hide it from your children. They need to know the truth. It is only after the truth is known that we can then reconcile and have an even greater country than we have today.

The process of reconciliation requires atonement, and for this process of reconciliation I have legislation pending to have a department of reconciliation, a department with a secretary of reconciliation with undersecretaries of reconciliation who will have the responsibility to wake up each and every day and deal with the racial wealth gap, deal with the invidious discrimination that took place against persons who came here and built the railroads, persons of Asian ancestry, the invidious discrimination that took place with the Trail of Tears when people were forced to leave their homes, move across the country, and dwell in a foreign place as it related to them, and the invidious discrimination to deal with the Latino population that many years ago had land taken from them.

Yes, we need a department of reconciliation. I have the legislation for such a department.

But notwithstanding that, we still need this legislation to deal with the atonement of these big financial institutions that have profited from the labor of human beings who were treated as chattel.

Mr. Speaker, it is with great pride that I say every word that I have said today because I am the proud descendent of these humble hands that helped build this Capitol, the proud descendent of these humble hands that helped build the roads and bridges, laid the foundation for this country. They were the foundational mothers and fathers of this country. I am proud to be a descendent of the enslaved people who helped make America great. I am proud to say that I think these enslaved people who helped make America great deserve more than being reviled while the people who tried to maintain slavery are revered--the Confederacy--revered by this House of Representatives.

Slavery reviled. The slaves reviled.

Why do I say that the Confederacy was revered or is revered or has been revered by this House?

Because this House of Representatives granted a Congressional Gold Medal to Confederate soldiers. Some things bear repeating. The House of Representatives in this Chamber passed legislation to accord a Congressional Gold Medal to Confederate soldiers. We revere the enslavers and revile the enslaved.

That hasn't changed. This Congress or the next should accord a Congressional Gold Medal to the enslaved people who built this country. If we could do it for the enslavers, then we can do it for the enslaved.

I will have legislation before this House to allow each and every person to go on Record as to whether you have the courage and the intestinal fortitude necessary to set the record straight, to do the right thing--no, more importantly--to do the righteous thing: give the people who built this country the same recognition that you gave to the people who would keep them in chains.

My dear brothers and sisters will have an opportunity. We will find out whether you put principle above politics or whether you are going to put the Confederacy above the enslaved. We will find out.

I assure you; the Record will be made known. We will know who voted for and who voted against.

Mr. Speaker, as I was saying, we will file this legislation. We will give Members an opportunity to demonstrate where they stand.

Dr. King was right: The truest measure of the person is not where you stand in times of comfort and convenience when all is well in your world. The truest measure of the person is where do you stand in times of great challenge and controversy?

I plan to bring the time of challenge to the floor of the House.

The question is: Where will the Members of this great House stand?

Will Members have the courage to accord a Congressional Gold Medal to the enslaved persons?

Will Members have the courage to pass a resolution asking for a department of reconciliation?

Will Members have the courage to vote for legislation to require these megabanks and mega-insurance companies to atone for their connectivity to the greatest crime committed against humanity?

We will find out because the legislation will be presented.

Mr. Speaker, let me close with this: Notwithstanding all that I have said, I still love my country. I still pledge allegiance to the flag, and I still sing the national anthem. I still support those who choose not to say the pledge of allegiance and refuse to sing the national anthem. But I do it because I believe in the Constitution. I believe in the words liberty and justice for all as extolled in the pledge of allegiance. I believe that we can be a country of the people, by the people, and for all of the people.

I believe these things in spite of the fact that my country hasn't always loved me as much as I love it. I just celebrated my 25th birthday for the third time, and my country hasn't always loved me as much as I love my country.

My country required me to drink from colored water fountains, Mr. Speaker. My country required me to sit in the back of the bus and to sit in the balcony of movies. My country required me to go to back doors and get my food. My country required me to step off the sidewalk when other persons of a different hue passed.

I still love my country. I am standing here today because I love my country, and I want my country to live up to the promise made in the Declaration of Independence and the promise made in the Constitution.

I want America to be America for all Americans, and until that day, I will still love my country, but I will remain a liberated Democrat, unbought, unbossed, and unafraid to speak truth to power and truth about power.

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

Mr. Speaker, and still I rise a very proud, liberated Democrat, unbought, unbossed, and unafraid. I am proud to say that, today, I will address the question of comprehensive immigration reform.

But before moving into this question of comprehensive immigration reform, I thank those who make it possible for me to have these opportunities to speak. I thank the Speaker of the House. I thank all the persons who are in leadership. I am grateful for the opportunity because this is a means by which messages can be made known to the masses. Many of the masses would not receive these messages but for what they hear from the floor of the House of Representatives.

I am honored to represent the Ninth Congressional District in Texas, and I am honored to thank those who allowed me to serve previously and who are allowing me to serve for an additional 2 years in the Congress of the United States of America.

Mr. Speaker, immigration reform is exceedingly important for many reasons. I will speak to one reason that is exceedingly important today, but I in no way want people to conclude that I am not concerned about what is happening at the border, that I am not concerned about ingress and egress into the country.

I wouldn't want people to think that I don't believe we need to know who is coming into the country, who is leaving the country. All of these things are important. I am concerned about them. But I am also concerned about them in a comprehensive way. I don't believe that we should try to do a patchwork fix of what is happening with immigration.

I think that we look at it from a holistic approach, and if we do, we will have an immigration bill that we can be proud of, that can deal with many of the nuances that are not brought to the attention of the public with any degree of regularity.

We tend to focus more on the border than on other aspects of immigration reform. Today, I will focus on an aspect of it that is somewhat different from the border itself and people who find themselves crossing the border for many reasons--many with good reasons, I might add.

Today, I would like to talk about Mr. Jaime Avalos Rosales. Mr. Jaime Avalos Rosales was born on November 25, 1994, some 28 years ago, in Oaxaca, Mexico.

Mr. Avalos was brought to this country as a baby. He was about 1 year of age at the time that he was brought into the country.

He has lived in this country for more than a quarter of a century. He is a graduate of a high school in this country, in Houston, Texas, Bellaire High School. He worked in Houston, Texas.

Mr. Avalos married an American-born woman and has a son. His wife, Yariana Martinez, and he have a young son, Noah Blake Avalos. This beautiful young baby is currently with his mother in Houston, Texas.

Mr. Avalos has been banned from the country and is in Juarez, Mexico, banned from the country for a period of 10 years.

This is why I rise today to give some intelligence on what has happened to cause Mr. Avalos to find himself in this predicament of being banned from the country for a period of 10 years.

Mr. Avalos, living in this country as a DACA recipient, working, not having committed a crime, decided that it would be appropriate to become a lawful citizen in the country. He was here undocumented. He wanted to do what was right for himself, but, more importantly, for his baby, Noah, and his wife.

He and his wife conferred, and they concluded, after having conferred with persons who were supposed to know, that he should return to Mexico, to Juarez, to the consulate there, and that he would apply for his visa to return to this country. Go to Mexico, Juarez, and apply for a visa to return to this country lawfully.

By the way, he made an appointment to go to Juarez, Mexico. He made an appointment to go there to the consulate. This is the way it is done. You make an appointment; you go there; you make your application to return lawfully into the country as a person with a visa. He did this.

He had no reason to leave the country other than to do this. He loves this country. He has been a hardworking person. Moralistically speaking, he is an American, but he does not have the documentation that would make him an American in the eyes of the laws of this country.

So, he leaves this country, leaves his wife, leaves his baby, goes to Juarez, and makes application.

Upon making application, it is discovered that Mr. Avalos was brought to Mexico at the age of 7 from the United States to Mexico for a purpose of having his birth properly registered in Mexico. So, he leaves the United States, not of his own volition, but in the arms of his mother who takes him to Mexico to register his birth.

Upon registering his birth, he comes back to this country. He has been in this country for decades, more than a quarter of a century.

Upon going to Juarez to register, they discover that he was brought to Mexico for this purpose, one time, leaving the country, going to Mexico to have his birth registered.

There is a law on our books indicating that if you are in this country for more than 365 days, and if you leave after more than 365 days, you cannot return for a period of 10 years.

That is the ban that Mr. Avalos finds himself having to suffer from.

He left, but he left in the arms of his mother. He left as a 7-year- old child. In fact, he was taken out of the country. This was not something that he did of his own volition. He has no recollection of having done it. Having no recollection of it, he didn't call it to anyone's attention because he, quite frankly, didn't recall the circumstance having occurred.

But having done this, the consulate and the officials there, whom I visited with, concluded that he was subject to this 10-year ban because he came back at the age of 7 to have his birth registered. This, literally, is why he is banned from the country.

I, along with staff members, his wife, and his lawyer, Attorney Salem, we went to Mexico to visit Mr. Avalos.

He is my constituent. I do this. He is not the first constituent that I have had to go to Mexico to visit. We had a Mr. Escobar who was in El Salvador. I went there. I saw him. We eventually brought him home.

My intentionality is to bring Mr. Avalos home. It may not happen as soon as I would like, but we will bring Mr. Avalos home. This is an injustice.

I took staff, his wife, baby Noah, and his lawyer to Mexico. We went there to

Juarez, and we met with him extensively.

I had an opportunity to see him interact with baby Noah. I saw tears well in his eyes as he talked about how much he loved his son, how he misses his son, and how he doesn't want his son to grow up without his father being in his life.

It was a very touching and moving moment to see this occur. This man who loves his child. The child's mother was there with us at the time. Attorney Salem was there. We had a reporter there as well.

This is a very heart-wrenching circumstance to have to negotiate. He wants to return home. He is living there. Fortunately, he has a relative, and he is living there with a relative. He does not venture far from the place where he is staying.

In Mexico, Mr. Avalos is a stranger. In Mexico, Mr. Avalos is viewed as an outsider, especially if it is known that he is barred from coming back to this country. Mr. Avalos is concerned about his safety, as am I, as is the case with his wife. We are all concerned about his safety. He is very careful not to go very far away from where he lives, and when he does, he is usually accompanied by some other person who is familiar with the environment, who can help him to be assured that he will return home safely.

Concern for his safety is something that I would call to everyone's attention, and I think this in and of itself is reason for us to want to make sure that we bring him home. But aside from this, Mr. Avalos has a home in Houston, a home that he is purchasing. As I have indicated, he is hardworking; productive; buying a home; has an American-born wife; an American-born child.

So he wants to return to his home and his child. He wants to give that child the opportunity to have the presence of a father in his life, throughout his childhood and into his adulthood. He would like to be there when his child takes his first step. The child is just learning to speak and learning to say ``daddy.''

I was there when the child was reaching for his father and trying his best to utter the words ``daddy.''

He wants to enjoy the things that a father can enjoy with a son: To be there on the first day of school; to participate in activities with his son. He is a good and decent person who has done nothing wrong other than what we perceive to be wrong, and that is having been taken out of the country at the age of 7 by his mother to register his birth.

It is my belief that the law ought to have some consideration for persons who are taken out of the country, as opposed to persons who leave the country.

Many persons will leave the country. They are persons who have the intentionality of leaving, and the law should apply to them. But a child at the age of 7, who has no recollection of it, who was taken out of the country, in my opinion, there ought to be some exception for this person: Mr. Avalos.

I believe we should try our best to get him returned to this country, so there are several things that we are doing.

We have two pieces of legislation that we have filed. One piece of legislation would deal with Mr. Avalos and his circumstance. We believe that his is a special circumstance, and the law provides for this type of legislation. Another piece would deal with persons who are similarly situated.

We believe that if there are such persons--and there are, I am told by others who should know--we want to make sure we cover them as well: Young people, babies, children who are removed from the country by parents who don't leave of their own volition. We want to make sure that we capture them in the law because this type of injustice should not go unnoticed and should be corrected.

We also believe that Mr. Avalos is a candidate for what we call humanitarian parole. I believe firmly that if he is granted humanitarian parole, he will return to our country, be a law-abiding person and who will be a credit to our society; will make America a better place by being here; who will be a great father to his son Noah, and will be a good husband to his wife, Yariana.

This can be accomplished, and we are making every effort to do so, through the good offices of Secretary Mayorkas, the good offices of Homeland Security. We believe that this can be accomplished through USCIS and he will have the opportunity to return home.

All of these things are going to take time. I am a patient person, but I believe that the longer he is away from his son, the longer this becomes an injustice and the longer this becomes a circumstance where justice is being denied.

So we are going to push for all of these things to try to bring Mr. Avalos back to this country, and we would like to do it as timely as we possibly can because one can see that his son misses him. If you are in the company of Mr. Avalos, he and his son, then you would see immediately that there is a bond between them.

I mention this case because this is the type of case--and there are many others--but this is the type of case that hardly makes the news. It is not a part of what we talk about when we talk about immigration and the need to have immigration reform, but this is why immigration reform has to be comprehensive because there are nuances in the law that have to be addressed that are not making the news on some sort of daily basis or with any degree of regularity.

I believe that we have to take a holistic approach to immigration reform; that it has to be comprehensive. I don't think that we can just conclude that by dealing with the border alone.

And there are many ways to deal with the border, but I will use an example that is cited quite regularly, and that is, deal with the border and construct the wall. A wall high enough to keep people from going over it, a wall deep enough to keep people from tunneling under it.

If such a thing can be done, this is what I believe many people would propose, but I do know that there are circumstances where people find a way over high walls and tunnel under low walls.

But let's assume this can be accomplished in a positive way. There are still circumstances, however, where the gunrunners will still get their guns over the walls. They are using drones now to get guns over walls, and those guns are the ones that are being used to terrorize people, causing many people to want to come to this country.

Assume that we can prevent the guns from coming over the wall, people from going over the wall and under the wall, I don't think that resolves the question of immigration reform. That is an aspect of immigration reform; that is not total immigration reform.

We have people who are living in this country who are doing us no harm, who came here with the best of intentions. They have to be addressed. There must be a remedy for all of this before we can take up some aspect of this.

Here is what I believe would happen if we only addressed the wall. If we only addressed the wall, I believe that the opportunity to deal with those who are living in the shadows, those who live in fear of being stopped when they are out and being taken away from families that they have in this country, are those who are in the circumstance of Mr. Avalos, they would not have their petitions, their proper redress accorded them.

I believe that we have to have a holistic approach. Let's let those who want to address the wall, let's do this: Let's let them address the wall. And let those of us who would like to have other things a part of comprehensive immigration reform, let's add these things.

Let's have one bill that includes the things that all people believe to be necessary to have a border that they believe to be secure, and people addressed in this country that will understand that they no longer have to live on the run or in the shadows, as we say, or live in fear of being deported and taken away from their families. I think this holistic approach can be accomplished.

I am available to talk to anybody who wants to talk about it. I am not in any way fearful of talking to you about the wall that you would like to build. I will talk to you about it, but let's talk about all aspects of immigration reform when we do this.

I am a person who has been to the border on many occasions. I have seen

what is happening at the border. But I didn't leave the border thinking that I was an expert simply because I saw people entering the country in ways that are unfavorable in the eyes of many.

I didn't leave assuming I was an expert. As a matter of fact, just recently, over the Thanksgiving holidays, I went on the other side of the border, to the consulate in Juarez and I talked to the members of that consulate.

It is amazing what one can learn by simply going to the other side of the border and talking to the people who also have a hand in helping us to secure the border. They are with the State Department. They deal with things in a diplomatic way, but they, too, have a hand in this. And one would be wise to take some opportunity to go there and talk to them.

The Consul General in Juarez, Mexico, is very receptive. He listens and he gives you thoughtful information, in my opinion. I think it would benefit persons who go to the border to simply just go over to the other side. And I am not saying that there are not others who haven't done it, but a good many haven't. But just go over to the other side to the consulate and talk to the people who see these problems and have some thoughts as to some of the remedies that might be beneficial to us. I have done this.

So I have seen the border from both sides. I have seen the border from the perch of one who is making a concerted, conscientious effort to help people who are trapped on the other side of the border. I have actually been there to visit with them. I have been to El Salvador to visit with the constituent, brought that constituent home--didn't come home as soon as I wanted, but we did get it done. We will bring Mr. Avalos home as well, just as we brought Mr. Escobar home.

But this is an important circumstance that highlights the need for comprehensive immigration reform. I assure you that this is the methodology by which this can be resolved for both sides of the aisle, all parties concerned. I'm not sure anybody is going to get everything they want. I probably would not, using such a process, but we will do what the American people would have us do, and that is, negotiate, develop legislation. Let the legislation matriculate, take votes, come to a conclusion. That is the way the House should function as well as the Senate, I might add.

I would have us do this, but we can't do it if the only solution proposed is a wall, or if the only solution proposed is to have something done about the persons who are here living in the shadows. Either of those without the other would not be the comprehensive immigration reform that we need. This is what I support.

I believe that if we negotiate as opposed to require what I would call capitulation as opposed to negotiation. Negotiation involves give- and-take. Capitulation involves one way or no way at all. That way is an unacceptable way of doing business. Everybody is going to have to give something. Hopefully, everybody will get something.

I don't believe that we should allow the perfect when it comes to this. Someone who believes that, Hey, I have the perfect solution and it is either this or nothing. I don't believe we should allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good. But I do believe that we should allow right to be the enemy of wrong.

It is just wrong for us to have someone in the circumstance that Mr. Avalos finds himself in. It is wrong to allow this to exist. And I believe that I have a right to do the righteous thing, and that is to try my best to extricate him from this most enigmatic circumstance.

I plan to do all that I can in the future. I plan to go back if I need to--and I believe that I will--to see Mr. Avalos again. I will do all that I can to help his family get back to see the father of baby Noah and the husband of Yariana. I plan to do this.

I think that I am not a live-and-let-live guy, meaning you do what you can to make your way through the world, and I will stay out of your way. Let me do what I can to make my way through the world, and you stay out of my way.

That is not my philosophy. My philosophy is one of live and help live. Live and help live. If I had the resources and the means of helping some person who is in harm's way, I believe that I ought to do that. I ought to help that person who is in harm's way. There are many people in this country who left places south of the border because they were in harm's way only to come here and have to live in the shadows. I want to get them out of the shadows. Mr. Avalos wanted to extricate himself from the shadows, which is why he left.

To recap quickly: He was in this country and was brought here by his mother at the age of 1 year. His mother decided at the age of 7 that she was taking him back to register his birth; and she did so. He then continued to live here abiding the law. He married an American woman, has an American child, graduated from high school in this country, and purchased a home. Moralistically he is an American. He and his wife jointly decide to go back to Mexico as the law allows, go back to Mexico, and make an appointment.

He didn't go under the cover of darkness. This was not something done in a stealthy fashion. He went back to Mexico to legitimize himself in the eyes of our laws. He had no other reason to leave.

He was a DACA recipient. He could easily have stayed here for many, many, many more years as a DACA recipient and been a good father and husband. But he wanted to do the right thing. In his effort to do the right thing, he finds himself now entrapped. He finds himself now in Mexico banned for 10 years because of the law.

I will cite the law for those who may want to have the benefit of knowing what law it is that I speak of. The law is Immigration and Nationality Act, and it is 212(a)(9)(C)(i). This piece of law, this legislation, indicates that if you have been in this country for more than 365 days and if you leave, if you have been here more than 365 days, then you are undocumented. You leave, you are banned for 10 years.

He didn't leave. He was taken out of the country, and but for that circumstance, he would still be here; and, in my opinion, he would have received his visa from the consulate in Mexico and he would return to the country.

Now, if I have got colleagues who have differences of opinion with me, I am available to discuss those differences with colleagues. I am, as I have indicated, a liberated Democrat. I have many friends who are very conservative, persons who are probably what many people would assume that I don't associate with, but I do. I am not a guy who disassociates because a person happens to have a label that is different from mine. If I did this, then I would have very few friends probably.

So I have friends who are very conservative. I invite my very conservative friends who would like to have this discussion with me. I am available. I answer my phone. Please give me a call. Come by my office. I will come by your office.

But these issues have to be addressed. I am all for addressing them in a comprehensive fashion such that we take care of the persons who are caught up in the nuances of the law such as is the case with Mr. Jaime Avalos.

Mr. Speaker, this is a great country. I love my country. I wear a necktie that should give some indication that it means something to me to be an American. It means something to me. I say the Pledge of Allegiance, I salute the flag, and I sing the National Anthem.

But I also believe that I ought to defend those who do not salute the flag and who do not sing the National Anthem. I believe that that is what makes America great; the right to say that I disagree, the right to protest, and a Constitution that makes it lawful for us to have disagreements. I believe in this Constitution. I believe that we can get things done if we would but only exercise our right to talk to each other.

Let's talk. Let's try as best as we can to make this country the country that all of us would like to see it be through our various different eyes, through the different perches that we all have. We all have different ideas as to what the ideal circumstance is. I think that we can do this by simply deciding to talk to each other about these issues.

So let it be known far and wide that I stand ready to talk with anybody who

is ready to have that conversation with me.

I thank you Madam Speaker Pelosi for your many years of service as the Speaker of the House. You have been the person who taught me to say Madam Speaker, as well as many others, I might add, because before you there was not a Madam Speaker. I appreciate the service that you have rendered. I thank you for the many opportunities that I have had to speak on the floor.

To Mr. Hoyer, the majority leader currently: I greatly appreciate the many things you have done, Mr. Hoyer, to help me with legislation. You have been a real friend to me. I won't forget many of the things that you have done to help my constituents and this country legislatively speaking. You have taken some tough positions, Mr. Hoyer, but history is going to reward you for those tough positions.

Mr. Clyburn, I admire you and thank you for staying on. Your wisdom is needed. You have seen things because you have lived longer. I haven't lived as long. I respect the wisdom that you accord me. I recently celebrated my 25th birthday for the third time. I respect you, Mr. Clyburn, and I appreciate the fact that you are staying on in a leadership position.

To those who have just acquired these new positions, I am going to do everything that I can to make your administration a success. I stand ready to work closely with you, as closely as you would have me work with you. I stand ready to do the things that can help you to achieve your goals.

I do believe that we have selected capable, competent, and qualified people who are ready to assume leadership in the next Congress--we are in the 117th now--in the 118th Congress, I believe they are ready. I believe Mr. Jeffries is ready. I believe that he has been seasoned properly and that he is ready to grow into this position.

So, dear brother--if I may be so bold as to say dear brother as opposed to Mr. Minority-Leader-to-be--dear brother, I want to see you do well as is the case with the rest of your leadership team. I look forward to serving you as we serve the people of the United States of America.

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

Madam Speaker, as my friends are assisting me, I

shall start by thanking the leadership for the opportunity to give this message today. I believe this is a message that is long overdue. In fact, it is hundreds of years overdue.

I thank the persons who are assisting me. They have done an outstanding job. I thank all of the persons associated with this body for making it possible for me to have this opportunity to speak today on a matter of vital importance, an issue that is hundreds of years overdue, an issue that can make a difference in the life of our country.

I am Al Green, Member of Congress from Texas, and still I rise, Madam Speaker, and still I rise today to call to the attention of the Congress that I will be asking for a Congressional Gold Medal for the many persons who toiled and slaved in this country such that our country is the economic and, quite frankly, the world powerhouse that it is when it comes to all of the things that can make a country great as it relates to its economic standing.

This is the message that I would have my colleagues take note of, the message that I hope they will give consideration to.

The message: Confederate soldiers were awarded a Congressional Gold Medal in 1956. When some people hear this, they have what we call a double take, because it is difficult for them to believe that Confederate soldiers were awarded a Congressional Gold Medal.

Some things bear repeating. A Confederate soldier, more than one, were awarded a Congressional Gold Medal in 1956. What Congress did for the soldier enslavers it should do for the enslaved. I am asking my colleagues to support the historic Congressional Gold Medal for America's economic foundational mothers, fathers, and children.

I say children because in this country, persons of African ancestry early on were born into slavery, lived in slavery, and died in slavery. This was the status of things in the United States of America at one point and when the country was known as the colonies at another point.

The enslaved people made a difference in the lives of those who were living here as persons other than slaves. The deadline for this document, this monumental piece of legislation, this bill requesting a Congressional Gold Medal, will be February 1, 2023. This will be the first day of Black History Month.

Black History Month has been chosen, Madam Speaker, because the history of Africans in America has not been told. There are many aspects of it that have been deleted from history. I believe that it is time for us to clear the record.

The deadline will be February 1, 2023, the first day of Black History Month. This date was chosen because Black history has not been told. It is one of the greatest stories never told, and we are still trying to complete it. This will be a part of that process, to let people know more about what the enslaved people in this country contributed to the country.

Some people would say to me, and I have had at least one person to say: Do you really believe that Congress will accord a Congressional Gold Medal to the slaves? And my answer is: Yes, I believe Congress will do it.

I believe Congress will do it because I remember what the father of Juneteenth suffered in his effort to get Juneteenth as a holiday in Texas. I remember how he was called names and castigated. I remember how there were people who felt that Juneteenth was a country holiday, they felt that it was too bucolic, too rustic, for intellectual society to embrace. But he fought and he won. The Honorable Al Edwards is now the father of Juneteenth. At the time he introduced it, he was thought of as a person who would never succeed in the Texas House of Representatives, but he served well and he showed and demonstrated to us that persistence can make a difference.

So we plan to be persistent with this legislation, and we plan to make sure that we continue until we get the legislation passed.

The letter that I will send to my colleagues reads--continuing to read it--on July 18, 1956, Congress--this would be the House and the Senate--awarded a Congressional Gold Medal to Confederate soldier enslavers. However, to this day, Congress has never awarded a Congressional Gold Medal to the over 10 million enslaved men, women, and children.

I have to pause. Ten million men, women, and children. Who can imagine that a country would have a process by which a person is born into slavery, lives his or her entire life in slavery, and dies in slavery. This was the status of things in this country at one time.

The country has never awarded a Congressional Gold Medal to the over 10 million enslaved men, women, and children who toiled for over 240 years to build the economy and the infrastructure, the foundation, if you will, of the wealthiest nation to ever exist on the planet Earth.

These foundational mothers and fathers of our country labored arduously, constructing our roads, bridges, wells, and cities. They laboriously planted as well as harvested the food that fed our Nation. How ungrateful can we be to people who made such a sacrifice for this country, to still to this day see them as less-thans, to this day not accord them some degree of honor and dignity for the suffering that they endured for some 200-plus years.

They were the de facto producers of the cash crops that fueled our Nation's foundational wealth. America is the wealthy powerhouse that it is today because of Black people, people from Africa, who were enslaved, brought to this country, and made to work their entire lives, many of them, so that America could be the economic powerhouse that it was then and has continued to be until this day.

These enslaved human beings of African ancestry toiled as slaves without remuneration or recompense. They have not been given any emolument, and to add insult to this injury, they have not been given any degree of respect for what they did to make this country great.

Their humble hands were relied on for the erection of some of our Nation's most renowned edifices and monuments, including the White House, the Capitol Building--this is the Capitol Building, for those who may be unaware--and the Washington Monument. Humble hands, forced to do the bidding of those who lived lives of luxury, many of them, made America great, built the Capitol, humble hands, the Washington Monument.

In truth, their sacrificed lives provided the genesis of our Nation's economic preeminence. These sacrificed human beings--men, women, and children--were the greatest contributors to the foundational economy whose contributions are almost universally forgotten, underrecognized, ignored, overlooked, and/or undervalued.

Many of the things that I read to you today I will repeat. They have not been said before. They should be heard multiple times, and some things just bear repeating.

So let me repeat. These sacrificed human beings--men, women, and children, with the emphasis on children--were the greatest contributors to the American foundational economy whose contributions are almost universally forgotten, underrecognized, ignored, overlooked, and undervalued.

For these and countless other justifications, I am beseeching the Congress to award the Congressional Gold Medal collectively to the human beings who are the foundational fathers, mothers, and children who toiled as slaves without recompense or recognition for their unparalleled contributions to the infrastructural and economic development of the Nation that we enjoy today.

Awarding a Congressional Gold Medal to groups of individuals is not unprecedented, as a Congressional Gold Medal was awarded to Confederate enslavers. I think this bears some sidebar commentary. Confederate enslavers. The people who fought to maintain slavery have been awarded a Congressional Gold Medal. The people who sought to maintain the institution that prevented people from having the freedom that they had have received a Congressional Gold Medal.

What is wrong with us? What mindset could we have had in 1956 when this House decided that it would accord Congressional Gold Medals to Confederate soldiers? I cannot understand how we would ever do this. But then to add additional insult to injury, to never consider the people who helped build the country, the people who made it the economic powerhouse that it was then and is now.

What is wrong with us? Is racism such a disease that it infects our minds to the extent that we cannot see and concentrate with the degree of clarity necessary to make righteous decisions? This was one of the saddest days in this Congress when it voted to give a Congressional Gold Medal to Confederate soldiers.

But there is a way for Congress to redeem itself. Redemption is at hand. And here is the means by which you can redeem yourself, Members: Give these persons who toiled and slaved, born into slavery, lived and died in slavery, give them the same level of respect that you gave the people who sought to enslave them, that fought to enslave them. Some of them died in their effort to keep them in chains, in bondage, subject to the whims of their masters, and their whims were many times things that are unacceptable in decent societies.

Awarding a Congressional Gold Medal to groups of individuals is not unprecedented, as a Congressional Gold Medal was awarded to Confederate soldier enslavers, also to the Tuskegee Airmen--some of them received their Congressional Gold Medals antemortem, and some others postmortem--to the Navajo Code Talkers, and posthumously to the servicemembers who perished in Afghanistan on August 26, 2021.

So, friends, the point to be made here is, you can't make the argument that we can't do it because it is a group of people. We have done it for other groups. You can't make the argument that we can't do it because none of them are alive. We have done it posthumously for others.

There is really no argument to make except you don't believe that persons who toiled all of their lives--many of them lived, died, born into it--that they deserve respect and recognition. That is what this is about, respect and recognition.

I am bringing this to your attention so that you can give consideration to it. We won't ask for signatures until the next Congress because to ask for them in this Congress with the short period of time left would be futile, and I believe that we should wait, and we will wait until February 1 of next year to do it during Black History Month.

It is my belief that men, women, and children who suffered a great crime against humanity--and this was a crime against humanity; slavery was a crime against humanity, one of the greatest crimes ever perpetrated on humanity--it is my belief that men, women, and children who suffered a great crime against humanity, toiling unremunerated as slaves, many for their entire work lives, are more deserving of a Congressional Gold Medal than those who soldiered to preserve slavery.

To be as clear as I can be, perspicuously so, it is my belief that those who were enslaved have a greater entitlement to a Congressional Gold Medal than the soldiers who fought to maintain slavery.

The zeitgeist of our time, the mood, the spirit, the zeitgeist of our time impels the introduction of this historic legislation. I am going to ask if Members wish to be recognized as a courageous historic original cosponsor, they should contact my office. We will more than honor requests that are made early, but officially we will start in the next Congress. We will have this historic legislation made available on our website. In my office, you might contact Aaron, and his email address is readily available for those who would like to contact him, or you can simply call our office, and we will be more than pleased to speak to you.

I will close by talking about a couple of pictures that I have here. It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words. This is a depiction of the arrival of these first 20 or so persons in this what is now the United States of America. It wasn't then, 1619. If you can see this, you can see a representation of persons who are standing around.

This is purported to be the White Lion, the ship that brought them here, and these persons standing around, you can see that they have on clothing that would protect them from the weather. It appears to be a day wherein the weather is not kind, inclement weather. But if you look at the persons who are enslaved, shackled, to say that they are scantily clad is a gross understatement. It would be an insulting euphemism.

This picture speaks volumes about what slavery was all about. It was about people who were thought of as less than human. Didn't have to treat them fairly. Didn't have to keep them warm if you chose not to. Didn't have to keep them alive. One insult could cost a person his or her life. The picture is worth a thousand words. These people, well- clothed, looking on, some of them possibly contemplating what they would do with these human beings.

I plan to go to Norfolk, Virginia, Old Point Comfort, if you will. I want to see this place. It is identifiable. I want to see it. I want to say I was there. I want to say I stood on the soil where human beings were first introduced, by many accounts. There may be some discrepancy, but my most accounts, this is where it happened. I am going to go.

Here is another rendition. This one shows a baby. Looks like the baby is with a female, possibly the mother, dressed in clothing that I would consider more acceptable for the weather than in the other. There are many renditions, but we still have the White Lion, and we still have persons standing around talking about these human beings, contemplating their fate is my speculation.

What kind of person enslaves a baby? What kind of person enslaves a baby? What kind of person would see a child and see labor that can be the benefit of having this human being survive and have this child grow up and deny the child an opportunity to get an education? What kind of person denies a baby the opportunity to grow up and just understand the world by virtue of being able to read?

There are still places on the planet where young girls are not allowed to get the same level of schooling and education as young men. I am opposed to that. I am opposed to the people who do that. I have good reason to be opposed. Here is one. I understand what has happened.

What kind of person keeps people in ignorance intentionally? The kind of person who would want to make sure that this person never has a life, but only an existence. They didn't have a life. They just existed to serve their masters.

Anybody who believes that this piece of legislation is inappropriate is a person that doesn't understand this, and I am being kind by saying what I just said. There are many other ways; there are many adjectives.

When I first examined these photos, I had tears well up in my eyes because I realized who they were. Not only were they human beings, these were my relatives. These are the people on whose shoulders I stand. More than 240 years they suffered. These are the people that this country ought to honor and appreciate, and these are the people that deserve what we have given to the enslavers.

I won't give up, friends. I will not. These are my people. I am not ashamed to say that I am a proud descendant of the enslaved people who made America great. I am not ashamed of it.

My dear brothers and sisters, my dear friends, I beg that you give consideration to the legislation. Those who want to have further query can call me, talk to me. I will be on the floor.

It would be no surprise, when I initially thought about introducing the legislation, my thought was, well, we will just wait and introduce it and start asking for signatures. But, no, I want to make sure that everybody has an opportunity to read it, peruse it, dissect it, scrutinize it, and do all the things you need to do to make a decision. Then, once we file it, I am going to come back to this floor, and I am going to announce and thank the persons who have signed on to the legislation. Anybody who signs on to this legislation deserves a word of gratitude, and I will be one of the many who will, hopefully, give these expressions of gratitude. I plan to come back to the floor and say to the public at large: We thank you for supporting this legislation.

My hope is that we will get the signatures necessary for the benefit of the public at large. You cannot get this legislation passed in the House with a majority of votes. It will take 290 votes or more.

I see the Parliamentarian looking in my direction. If I am incorrect, Madam Parliamentarian, will you give me some nod as to being correct or incorrect? She indicates that I am correct. So, now you have heard it from me and you have heard it echoed from the Parliamentarian: 290 votes we will need, not 289, 290 people of goodwill who have the courage to recognize the people who made America great.

Others have done things to make America great. I don't mean to minimize the efforts of any others. I just mean to maximize the efforts that have been ignored, that have been, quite frankly, with intentionality pushed aside.

They are people who are ashamed to acknowledge that they are the proud descendants of the enslaved people who built this country. I am not one of them, of course. But there are still people who are. They are ashamed. We have to change that. I want to do everything I can to bring about that change.

I will return to Al Edwards, the father of Juneteenth. I remember what he went through. He was my friend. I saw him suffer. I know about his fight to rid South Africa of Apartheid, how he went to jail in that struggle.

I am prepared to do whatever it takes, however long it takes, as long as I am in Congress.

Madam Speaker of the House of Representatives, I thank you for this time, and I will be asking for additional time to have additional commentary about this subject. I assure you that those who take this seriously will be doing the righteous thing, not just the right thing, but the righteous thing.

Again, I will close with Maya Angelou's very powerful words. She reminded us that we--persons of my ilk, if you will--were:

Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,

I am the dream and the hope of the slave.

I plan to fulfill their dreams.

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

Mr. Speaker, and still I rise, a proud descendant of the enslaved people who made cotton king and America great; the enslaved people who had a hand in the construction of this Capitol, who had a hand in the construction of the White House; the enslaved people who constructed roads and bridges across the length and breadth of this country, who worked for more than 200 years without a payday. They made the difference for what we call the United States of America on the global scene at the time.

I am honored to be a descendant, and I am honored to say also that this House, on July 27, took the historic step of according them Slavery Remembrance Day, a day to remember their lives and commemorate their accomplishments.

It is important that we do this because, for too long, we have reviled the slaves and revered the enslavers. For too long, we have placed them in such a position as to cause the people who are the very descendants to be ashamed of who they were associated with, with reference to their heritage.

I am proud that this House has taken this important historic step with Slavery Remembrance Day, but I am also proud to say that at 2 o'clock tomorrow in Room 145A at the Washington Convention Center, we will continue to talk about this piece of legislation that we passed, H. Res. 517, the Original Slavery Remembrance Day Resolution.

We will talk about this. We will give a legislative update. The Reverend Al Sharpton will be there, and he will give insightful information on this very topic.

I am just proud that we no longer fear having those persons who made this country great recognized by this Congress, and that had been the case in the past.

I thank all the Members of the Congress, 218 of whom who voted for this legislation. I thank the President, who recognized Slavery Remembrance Day. I thank all of the leadership for allowing this resolution to come to the floor.

I thank Ms. Elizabeth Warren, the Senator who supported it, and I thank Mr. Hoyer. Mr. Hoyer was a man of his word, a person of his word. He said this resolution would come to the floor for a vote. He supported it, and it came to the floor for a vote.

I thank you for the courage that you showed, Mr. Hoyer, and the judicious insight that you utilized to make sure that we had this opportunity.

Tomorrow, we continue what I cannot finish today at the convention center, 2 o'clock, Room 145A.

Madam Speaker, the great Maya Angelou summarized the very essence of my being when she proclaimed `` . . . the gifts my ancestors gave, I am the dream and hope of the slave.'' I am proud to say tonight that I am a descendent of enslaved people.

I also want to acknowledge tonight a couple of righteous allies of enslaved people. Mr. Steny Hoyer, the majority leader of the House. Mr. Hoyer and I worked closely to bring the Slavery Remembrance Day resolution to the floor. I am very proud of what he has done to help us. I consider him a righteous ally of enslaved people.

President Joe Biden: President Biden issued a press statement that I will be eternally grateful for as it relates to enslaved people. In fact, I would like to read from the statement that the President actually issued. Of course, it is the President's statement, Joe Biden, marking Slavery Remembrance Day. He issued this on August 20, 2022.

It reads:

More than 400 years ago, 20 enslaved Africans were forcibly

brought to the shores of what would become the United States.

Millions more were stolen and sold in the centuries that

followed, part of a system of slavery that is America's

original sin.

Great Nation's don't hide from their history. They

acknowledge their past, both the triumphs and the tragedies.

Today is a day--

He is talking about August 20.

Today is a day to reflect on the terrible toll of slavery,

and our Nation's profound ability to heal and emerge

stronger.

He goes on to say:

Despite the horrors they faced, these men and women and

their descendants have made countless contributions to the

building of this Nation and the continuous effort to realize

the American ideal. I was honored last year to declare

Juneteenth a national holiday, another moment to reflect and

rededicate ourselves to becoming a more perfect union. And it

is why my administration will continue the hard, ongoing work

to bring true equity and racial justice to our country.

I am grateful for the efforts of Congress--in particular,

Representative Al Green and Senator Elizabeth Warren--to

recognize the significance of this day.

Madam Speaker, I mention the President because this day was many years in the making, many years. In fact, it was on August 20 of 1619 that the White Lion, a slave ship, a ship with enslaved human beings on it, docked at Point Comfort, near what we now call Norfolk, Virginia, and it had these 20 human beings on it from Africa. They were traded for materials and goods and left there.

This was a seminal moment in our history, August 20, 1619, some 246 years, 108 days ago. From August 20, 1619, to January 31, 1865, when the 13th Amendment was ratified, we considered these the years and days that this country had lawful slavery.

It is interesting to note that over this entire period of time, there were persons who were very helpful to those who were enslaved. I shall talk about them later on in this half hour.

The value of that 246 years of labor, unpaid labor, unpaid slave labor, has been estimated to be such as $14.2 trillion. That is in 2009 dollars. So it is important for us to realize that these persons who were enslaved over these 246 years, 108 days, these persons gave America a foundation, an economic foundation that has persisted to this

day--246 years, 108 days of free labor, some $14.2 trillion.

In fact, these persons are the greatest contributors to the American economy, the greatest contributors ever to the American economy, because of 246 years, 108 days of free labor.

Here are some of the well-known landmarks and buildings built by enslaved human beings. I will talk about them. This is according to an article styled ``15 American landmarks that were built by slaves,'' published in the publication known as the Business Insider and by James Pasley. Let me now start.

The first is the White House. According to the White House Historical Association, enslaved human beings were likely involved in all aspects of the construction, including the carpentry, masonry, cording, rafting, plastering, glazing, and painting.

The task force reported this. Slaves appeared to have shouldered alone all the grueling work of sawing logs and stones.

The White House: Constructed by slaves.

The U.S. Capitol Building: Enslaved human beings quarried the stone used for the floors, walls, and columns of the Capitol. They shaped that stone. They laid the brick foundations of the buildings.

Enslaved human beings, in large part, also completed the carpentry as they framed the roof and installed its shingles and its coverings. Enslaved human beings were responsible for more skilled labor like plastering and painting.

The White House and the Capitol.

The Statue of Freedom atop the Capitol: If you have been to Washington, D.C., you have seen the Statue of Freedom atop the Capitol. An enslaved human being created the Statue of Freedom.

This is remarkable and almost painful to say, knowing that a person who was enslaved created the Statue of Freedom that is atop the Capitol. It was done so because Philip Reid was the only person available with the skill to make a bronze statue out of the plaster cast.

The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.: Although enslaved individuals did not work on the actual building, they were the ones who quarried the iconic red sandstone that still adorns the building to this day.

Wall Street in New York: Enslaved human beings built the titular wall for which the street is named. In addition, Wall Street was the location of one of the largest slave markets in the country in the 1700s.

Trinity Church in New York: Enslaved human beings helped to build the original Trinity Church on Wall Street, which stood from 1698 until 1776.

Fraunces Tavern in New York: Although few specific details still exist on the process, enslaved human beings built one of the oldest buildings in Manhattan.

Faneuil Hall in Boston: Enslaved human beings helped build the cradle of liberty indirectly by working for Peter Faneuil, who helped fund the building with funds made from slavery.

Fort Sumter in South Carolina: Enslaved human beings helped build the fort where the Civil War began. They were forced to help create the bricks that made up the structure, as well as forced to repair the fort while it was under attack. As many as 20 slaves died during the attack on the fort.

Harvard Law School in Massachusetts: Enslaved human beings helped build the Harvard Law School through the wealth of the slave owner Isaac Royall, Jr., whose wealth came from his sugar plantations and farms.

Castillo de San Marcos fort in Florida: The oldest missionary fort in the United States was built by enslaved human beings who toiled for around 25 years under the Spanish to build the fort.

Georgetown University: Enslaved human beings were sold in order to raise $3.3 million in funds, in today's money, to finance the construction of the Georgetown campus.

The University of North Carolina: Enslaved human beings helped build the oldest public university in the country. Many of the University of North Carolina structures were built and maintained by slaves.

Monticello in Virginia: Thomas Jefferson's home had its bricks and limestone quarried, built, and placed by enslaved human beings.

Montpelier in Virginia: President James Madison's family had their homes cleared, created, and constructed by enslaved human beings.

Mount Vernon in Virginia: President George Washington's home, Mount Vernon, was built by enslaved human beings who were forced to quarry the materials, as well as build and maintain the home.

In summary, enslaved human beings built some of the most well-known structures in our country. To recap, they built the White House in Washington, D.C., or helped to--there were others involved--the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., the Statue of Freedom atop the Capitol, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., Wall Street in New York, Trinity Church in New York, Fraunces Tavern in New York, Faneuil Hall in Boston, Fort Sumter in South Carolina, Harvard Law School in Massachusetts, Castillo de San Marcos fort in Florida, Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., the University of North Carolina, Monticello in Virginia, and Montpelier in Virginia.

It should be noted also that these structures are among those that are known to us. The list does not include the untold number of roads, bridges, and water wells, as well as houses and more, that were constructed by enslaved human beings. It also does not include the many crops planted and harvested in the agrarian economy built on the backs of enslaved human beings.

All told, the total value of labor of every hour toiled under the whip of slavers in this country has been estimated to be between $5.9 and $14.2 trillion, 2009 dollars. This is why I say that the enslaved human beings are the greatest contributors to the American economy.

As a group, as a lot, as a people, the enslaved human beings contributed upward of around $14.2 trillion of free labor to this country. They were the foundational mothers and fathers of this country.

This is a widely cited number, and it was calculated by the University of Connecticut researcher Thomas Craemer using the number of unremunerated work hours multiplied with historical free market labor wages. This is wealth that was stolen from human beings who have seen little to none of it repaid.

The American economy had hundreds of years of free labor that gave it a start, that allowed it to compete and, in a sense, to have a competitive edge that many other countries did not have simply because of enslaved human beings.

I am honored to say that I am proud to be a descendant of enslaved human beings, the persons who built this country, the foundation of it, who gave it its start, its place in the economic order as a world power--enslaved human beings.

So, now, let's look at some of the people who were the enslavers.

John L. Manning owned at least two plantations holding 670 human beings against their will, one in South Carolina and another in Louisiana--a slave owner.

Meredith Calhoun held more than 700 enslaved people and produced cotton, more cotton than any other property in Louisiana.

William Aiken was one of the State's wealthiest citizens, the owner of the largest rice plantation in the State, with over 700 enslaved on 1,500 acres under cultivation, almost twice the acreage of the next largest plantation.

This is, for many of the persons who have inherited wealth, how that wealth was initially brought into being. Enslaved human beings gave them their start with free labor--John Manning, Meredith Calhoun, William Aiken.

Another, John Burnside, was the largest sugar producer in the country during his time. Before he died, he owned 10 different plantations and enslaved 753 people at his peak.

Joshua Ward, also known as the king of the rice planters, had 1,130 enslaved people.

Stephen Duncan was a businessman who collectively enslaved more than 2,000 human beings. He was one of the largest cotton producers, not in this country but in the world.

The most that he enslaved that one time was 858.

These were the people who had the opportunity to acquire great wealth at the expense of the lives of other people, many of whom lived their entire lives in bondage and died as enslaved human beings.

And what is unfortunate about all of this is we in this country have come to glorify those who were the enslavers. We glorify the Confederate military. We glorify, and to a certain extent, we deify many of the Confederate generals. These were the people that were fighting to maintain slavery. They get all of the honors, until as of late when we started to change that. But they have been given the honors.

The persons who were the liberators were demeaned and portrayed as insane, portrayed as murderers. But these were the people who were the liberators. We have vilified the liberators and have glorified the enslavers.

It is with great difficulty that we try to change this, but the difficulty is such that people don't really want to hear about the slaves. They have been so indoctrinated with the glory of the enslavers that they can't accept--many people--the fact that the slaves are the persons who were the foundational mothers and fathers of this country.

The slaves should be honored and they should be memorialized. They should be placed in the same position, not for having done the same thing that persons have done on Memorial Day, those that we memorialize in the wars, but they should be given the same dignity and respect because they died for this country. They died in bondage for this country. They were born into slavery. They lived as slaves, and they died as slaves. They ought to be honored and memorialized to the same extent as we honor and memorialize those who died in the wars. That is hard for some people to accept.

Many don't want to hear that said. But they should be given the honor that they deserve for living and dying for this country, because they did. But not only did they live and die for this country, their children lived and died for this country. Their children were taken away from them, sold at the auction block. Their children and grandchildren lived and died as well.

Why wouldn't we honor the people who lived and died in bondage and gave this country its economic foundation to the same extent that we honor the people who died in the wars? We should. They made America great. They deserve the honor and dignity, the same honor and dignity that those who died in wars have been given.

So let's talk for a minute about the liberators.

John Brown. I remember when I was in high school--or I don't know if it was high school, maybe it was junior high. We studied our history. And I remember the indication to us was that John Brown was a crazy man, just out to murder people senselessly.

John Brown was a liberator. He was fighting to liberate the people who were enslaved. He has never been given the honor that he deserves. John Brown ought to be honored to the same extent that we honor other persons who were liberators in wars. He was a liberator in this country.

The difficulty associated with honoring John Brown is this: When we honor others who liberated people from injustice, we are looking through a window into the world of other people. But if we honor John Brown, we have to look into the mirror and we see ourselves and our transgressions.

We have a lot that we have to do to atone for slavery: for taking people, selling their children, raping their women. We have a lot to atone for. And it is difficult for us to accept the fact that atonement is still something that we have not achieved.

Madam Speaker, I appreciate this President because he has acknowledged our history. This President, in my opinion, will be among the pantheon of the greatest Presidents this country has had because he has fought injustice that others wouldn't speak of.

He put a Black woman on the Supreme Court. Others could have done it; they didn't. President Biden did it.

He acknowledged Slavery Remembrance Day. Others could have; they didn't. President Biden did.

He will be seen by those in the distant future as one of the greatest Presidents this country has had, especially as it relates to addressing injustices.

Sojourner Truth, abolitionist. She became the first Black woman to win a case against a White man in this country. It is amazing how people like Sojourner Truth are now starting to be recognized, but for years, have been denied their rightful place in history as persons who fought for the liberation of Black people.

Nat Turner, a preacher. A preacher who rebelled. He led a 4-day rebellion of enslaved people to free Black people. This was in 1841. When I studied this in high school or junior high--I am not sure which--Nat Turner was portrayed as a traitor, as someone who attacked this country.

Nat Turner was a liberator. Nat Turner was trying to free people who were in bondage.

Robert E. Lee, on the other hand, was trying to maintain slavery. Yet, we have had Lee high schools across this country. I know of no Nat Turner high school in this country. There may be one, but I know of no Nat Turner high school.

There ought to be Nat Turner high schools across the country to the same extent that we have had Lee high schools because Nat Turner was the liberator. Lee was the enslaver. He was the person who would maintain slavery. Why would we honor Lee to the exclusion of Nat Turner, who was a liberator?

I know this is difficult for some people to manage because we have always been told that the liberators were people who were working against our country. They were working to free people. The Confederate soldiers were working and killing to maintain people in bondage.

Madam Speaker, I speak the truth. No one can deny the truth of what I say. You can deny wanting to see and hear that truth, but it is the truth.

Harriet Tubman, abolitionist, who sought to free slaves as well. She made 13 missions and rescued some 70 enslaved people.

Madam Speaker, there are many more. I know that my time is nearing its end, but there are many more.

Madam Speaker, I will just say this about Harriet Tubman. It has been said that she said she could have freed many more ``if they had known they were slaves.''

William Still, Elijah Anderson, Frederick Douglass, and, of course, the great Abraham Lincoln: All persons who worked as liberators.

I will be saying more about this. If you missed out on some portion of it tonight, I will present it in a similar fashion at a later time.

Madam Speaker, I thank the majority leader, Mr. Hoyer, for being a righteous ally of enslaved people. I will be eternally grateful to the President for being a righteous ally and a person who issued the statement recognizing Slavery Remembrance Day on August 23 of each year.

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

And still I rise, Mr. Speaker, and still I rise.

Mr. Speaker, a monumental motif of American jurisprudence is the basic premise that no one is above the law. It doesn't matter your station in life, it doesn't matter whether you are the President of the United States, and it doesn't matter how much money you have. No one is above the law.

I would also remind us, Mr. Speaker, that there is a compelling corollary to this premise, and it is that no one is beneath the law. No one is above the law, yes, but no one is beneath the law. It doesn't matter how poor you are. It doesn't matter what kind of job you have. It doesn't matter whether you are a janitor or you are a sanitation worker. It doesn't matter. You are not beneath the law in this country. Even if you are an asylee coming here from another country, you are not beneath the law.

I'm so proud, Mr. Speaker, to announce to my colleagues that the D.C. Council will vote on a migrant bill today. It seems that on Tuesday there will be an emergency bill to establish an Office of Migrant Services for the thousands who are being brought here by Governors of Texas and Florida.

These persons in Washington, D.C., they are doing the righteous thing. They are trying to help lawful asylees as they traverse to their destiny. The Governors of Florida and Texas, they would have derailed the Underground Railroad. They would have been the persons who were out looking for those who were seeking freedom.

I am proud of the Mayor of Washington, D.C. I don't know how efficacious the program will be, but I do know that they are making an effort. For this effort, I not only commend them, I will do whatever I can to help them. It is time for us to realize that no one is beneath the law. Asylees are not beneath the law. They are law-abiding persons. The mere fact that they have submitted themselves and seek to have this opportunity to live in this country means that they have broken no law.

I have a question for the Governors of Texas and Florida. Here is my question: You are spending millions to bring people out of their way and to some extent put them in harm's way. I have a question for you: How much will you spend to help them get to their hearings? How much will you spend to help them continue their journey?

Yours is not a righteous cause. Yours is a cause to do what you can to prevent lawful, law-abiding asylees from having their day in court. History will not be kind to you. You ought to be ashamed of what you do.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Scott, as well, for the outstanding job that he has done.

Mr. Price, I don't know what more you can do. I really don't. This bill is

bipartisan; it is bicameral; and, by God, we ought to pass it.

Mr. Speaker, and still I rise. I rise today to defend a woman's right to choose. I rise to say that I am totally, completely, and absolutely opposed to Senator Graham's bill.

I rise to say that Senator Graham's bill would deny a woman the right to choose, that it is a bill that is antithetical to the best interests of women.

I stand with the women. I support their right to choose. A woman ought to have the opportunity to consult with those who are closest to her, including her physician, to make this medical decision. Senator Graham would deny this.

I stand with the women, and I stand for a woman's right to choose.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding time, and I say to the gentlewoman that it has been a preeminent privilege to serve with her for lo these many years; indeed, superlative pleasure. I miss you already. Thank you for what you are doing.

I am grateful to my colleague, Chairman Connolly. I see this as another example of his legislative brilliance: to make a decision that will allow people to succeed on their merits or fail on their demerits, to take the political patronage out of the civil service system.

The civil service system functions efficaciously across the length and breadth of this country. Police departments and fire departments across the country that have civil servants provide the institutional knowledge. They have the expertise. Mr. Speaker, you don't want to just throw out all the best of the best that have been working there and understand what the system is all about.

Every new person who comes in would like to bring in people to support his or her political philosophy. I support your having people to work with you, but I don't support destroying a system that allows us to have the institutional knowledge to keep the government functioning efficaciously.

This patronage system that has developed under F has been a failure, and it is little more than fatuous folly that will prove to be harmful to this country.

Mr. Speaker, I support H.R. 302, and I beg that my colleagues would do so, as well.

Mr. Speaker, to my friends across the aisle: Where were you when your twice impeached President was putting billions of dollars in the pockets of the wealthy?

You complain about drug prices being reduced for seniors, complain about them having out-of-pocket costs capped at $2,000?

I refuse to allow a bill that is good to be defeated by a perfect bill that we won't get. I will support this bill, and I ask my colleagues to do so as well. It is time to take care of our seniors.