Alcee L. Hastings

Madam Speaker, I am honored to rise today and recognize my esteemed former colleague and dear friend, Congresswoman Carrie P. Meek on the occasion of her 95th birthday.

Congresswoman Meek was born on April 29, 1926, in Tallahassee, Florida. She is the daughter of sharecroppers and the granddaughter of a woman who was born a slave.

Despite growing up experiencing discrimination in the segregated South, she graduated from Florida A&M University in 1946 and then journeyed North where she would graduate with a Master of Science from the University of Michigan in 1948. She moved back to Florida to work at Bethune-Cookman University and then her alma matter Florida A&M, whereafter she accepted a position with Miami-Dade Community College.

After a distinguished career in education as a single mother to two children, Congresswoman Meek was the second Black legislator to be elected to the Florida House in 1979. She served there until 1982, when she became the first African American woman to be elected to the Florida State Senate. As a State Senator, she served on the Education Appropriations Subcommittee and advanced minority and literacy policies.

In 1992, Congresswoman Meek was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Florida's 17th Congressional District. Upon taking office, she was placed on the powerful House Appropriations Committee, where she led on district priorities, including the hard work of helping Florida rebuild after the devastation wrought by Hurricane Andrew. During her tenure, she successfully addressed issues such as economic development, health care, education, and housing for marginalized and underserved communities. Her efforts delivered $100 million in federal assistance to rebuild Dade County. She also sponsored legislation creating the Florida Commission on the Status of Women. These exemplary contributions have inspired countless young women and men to serve their communities.

Congresswoman Meek is a strong advocate for gender and racial equality, senior citizens, the poor, and Haitian immigrants. She has received dozens of honors and awards including Juris Doctorates from the University of Miami, Florida A&M University, Barry University, Florida Atlantic University, and Rollins University.

Madam Speaker, I had the great privilege of serving alongside Congresswoman Meek for many years. She is a trailblazer and inspiration to so many women. I wish her many more years of happiness as she celebrates her 95th birthday.

Madam Speaker, this body has long recognized the accomplishments, unique heritage, and rich diversity of cultures that make up the United States.

Roma have been part of every wave of European migration to the United States from the colonial period to the present day, coming from every part of Europe. There may be as many as a million Americans with some Romani ancestry, whether distant or more recent. Roma enrich the fabric of our nation, tie our country to Europe, and build the transatlantic bond.

Few cultures are as geographically diverse as the Romani people. Romani people trace their ancestry to the Indian subcontinent and settled throughout Europe roughly a thousand years ago. In some places, Roma were subject to expulsion or arrest solely because of their ethnicity. In the Wallachian and Moldovan principalities, Roma were enslaved by the crown, nobility, and monasteries until the founding of modem Romania. Sometimes Roma were subjected to forced assimilation.

Roma were among the many groups of people that suffered at the hands of the Nazis and their allies during World War II. At least 23,000 Roma were brought to Auschwitz; almost all of them perished in the gas chambers or from starvation, exhaustion, or disease. Some Roma also died at the hands of sadistic SS doctors, like Joseph Mengele, who performed inhumane medical experiments on Roma. Approximately 25,000 Roma were deported en masse from Romania to Transnistria by the Antonescu regime in 1942; at least 11,000 of them perished. The Romani collective farms in German-occupied Soviet territory became Romani mass grave sites. It is estimated that between 200,000 to 500,000 Romani people were killed in death camps and elsewhere throughout Europe.

As chairman of the Helsinki Commission, I have supported efforts to acknowledge this tragic past, including by ensuring that survivors and historians have access to relevant archives like those from Bad Arolsen and Lety. I've also ensured that Romani voices have been heard in the Commission's work to advance safe, equitable, and inclusive societies. I welcome the groundbreaking collaboration by the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard and the Voice of Roma to collect qualitative and quantitative data about the lived realities and challenges faced by American Roma.

Today I am re-introducing a resolution recognizing and celebrating the heritage of Romani Americans.

This resolution does four things. First, it celebrates Romani American Heritage. Second, it supports International Roma Day and the Department of State's robust engagement in related activities. April 8 marks ``International Roma Day'' around the world and is a day to celebrate Romani culture and raise awareness of the issues facing Romani people. Third, it commemorates the destruction of the ``Gypsy Family Camp'' at Auschwitz. Fourth, it commends the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum for its critically important role in promoting remembrance of the Holocaust and educating about the genocide of Roma.

Through this resolution, we celebrate our shared history and applaud the efforts to promote transnational cooperation among Roma at the historic First World Romani Congress on April 8, 1971.

I ask that you join me and cosponsor Chairman Gregory Meeks in supporting the resolution.

Madam Speaker, this chamber recently passed H.R. I, the ``For the People Act,'' significant legislation making it easier for American citizens to vote in U.S. elections and improve transparency and accountability in our election process. The White House also recently announced a new executive order to assist this effort. These are positive developments that I welcome and support, but, as we all know, not everything regarding the conduct of elections can be done at the federal level. Unfortunately, many state legislatures are now undertaking efforts that would make it more difficult for eligible Americans to participate in the electoral process and vote.

As Chair and in the leadership of the Helsinki Commission, I have supported the positive steps we are trying to take on this issue, yet I remain deeply concerned about those who want to move our country backward.

Perhaps it would help our debate to look at the conduct of the 2020 U.S. elections from an international perspective, including the conduct of elections in conformity with international commitments first proposed and advocated by the United States more than 30 years ago.

The United States has been one of five countries thus far where the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly has observed elections during the unprecedented challenges of the pandemic, and a German parliamentarian reported on its findings on February 26. He did not point fingers at us and accuse. He mentioned the positive as well as the negative. He is clearly a friend who cares, as most of the OSCE observers undoubtedly were.

As a previous election observer in the OSCE region, I can also attest, that the code of conduct makes it is extremely unlikely that the OSCE election observation could be steered in support of any particular agenda other than better democracy.

I therefore want to commend to my colleagues the full OSCE Final report ``United States of America General Elections, 3 November 2020, ODIHR Limited Election Observation Mission'', which can be found at https://www.osce.org/files/f/documents/7/7/477823_2.pdf. It offers an important perspective on our elections from persons who rightly care about the process, not the result. They have observed not only our elections since 2002 but elections in dozens of other countries on a regular basis.

The issues raised in the report are the same issues we Americans debate here in Washington, in our state capitals and through the media. I take the conclusions and recommendations, including criticisms, in this election observation report seriously. It serves as a helpful guide on what next steps we should take to improve our electoral system. I believe our election officials and state legislators should read this report; indeed, I recommend it to any American who cares about his or her country. It is a broad snapshot of our entire, complex electoral system.

Several of the priority recommendations in the report deal with voting rights and voter identification. Specifically, it says that ``authorities should review existing measures to further reduce the number of unregistered voters, including addressing burdensome procedures and obstacles faced by disadvantaged groups.'' It also says that ``states should make every effort to ensure that voter identification requirements are equally accessible to all voters.'' It also makes specific recommendations regarding specific groups of American citizens.

We do not need to agree about every conclusion and recommendation in this report to take it seriously. It is a contribution to our debates from a unique perspective. Moreover, our acceptance of international observation serves a useful function in our foreign policy. OSCE election observation has encouraged practices giving voters a real choice in numerous other countries, many of which were once repressive, one-party communist states but are now our friends and even, in some cases, allies. The United States initiated this effort with the OSCE and contributes significantly to election observation missions elsewhere, providing the expertise that comes with our experience. If we are to encourage other governments to take this effort seriously and implement recommendations, we need to set the example ourselves. Unfortunately, several U.S. states greatly restrict or even prohibit international observation. This is something which must change as we prepare for mid-term elections in 2022 and general elections in 2024.