Floor Statements

I want to thank the gentleman for yielding and for his leadership.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in total opposition to the rule for H.R. 5825, the Electronic Surveillance Act, and the underlying bill.

The FISA law the President chose to ignore, and that this bill seeks to bypass, is a law that powerfully symbolizes both the risk of the abuse of executive power and the strength of our system of checks and balances.

Now, the FISA law was enacted to protect against very real abuses in the name of fighting communism, if you remember. Not terrorism then, it was communism. Our executive branch, through the likes of J. Edgar Hoover and COINTELPRO perpetrated massive abuses and surveillance of innocent Americans. These abuses included the surveillance, among many others, of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his wife Coretta as part of what the Church Commission described as ``an intensive campaign by the Federal Bureau of Investigation to neutralize him as an effective civil rights leader.''

The only thing that redeems our Nation's great shame at these abuses was that the system of checks and balances created by our Constitution worked. Congress passed a law that allowed us to protect our Nation and our Constitution and our citizens.

Mr. Speaker, 25 years after the start of the devastating global HIV/AIDS pandemic, this disease is still devastating black America. Among young people, among women, among men, African Americans are most at risk of getting infected with HIV and developing AIDS and dying of this disease. Enough is enough.

Over the last 5 years, this Republican-led Congress has done nothing to recognize this pandemic and the scope of this problem. We need to focus our efforts on the spread of HIV and AIDS in our prison system and provide routine but rigorous HIV testing, linked with treatment, to all incarcerated individuals, and support Congresswoman Waters' H.R. 6038, the Stop AIDS in Prisons Act.

We need to pass my bill, H.R. 6083, the JUSTICE Act, to allow condoms, yes, condoms, in our prisons and to demand accountability in stopping the spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections among incarcerated individuals.

Mr. Speaker, this is a state of emergency. Let us declare it. We must declare it. We must declare resources to confront it. The entire Congress needs to support more funding for the Minority AIDS Initiative, beginning with a minimum of $610 million for the Minority AIDS Initiative. Let us declare this state of emergency.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman for yielding and for his leadership and his commitment to our young men and women in uniform throughout the world.

At a time when even the National Intelligence Estimate has concluded that the occupation in Iraq has spawned a new generation of terrorists and made us, quite frankly, less safe, this bill now will undermine the security of our brave troops and hand a victory to those who believe the rule of force should prevail over the rule of law.

I have to say once again, as the daughter of a 25-year military Lieutenant Colonel who served this country in many, many capacities through two wars, that this scares me. It scares me to death.

What century are we living in when we trust intelligence acquired through torture? Clearly, the President fails to realize that these techniques will destroy the credibility of any verdicts that use information derived from torture.

Insisting on fairness and just credibility is all we are asking for, credibility in the process. This isn't about protecting those who would harm us, as the Republicans would have you believe, it is about protecting our own troops and our Nation and not further alienating our country in the eyes of the world community.

When we turn away from the legal and the moral values that have guided our Nation, we give up the principles that differentiate us from the terrorists.

I quoted from a prayer given by Reverend Baxter at the National Cathedral during the memorial service for the victims and families of 9/11 5 years ago, and Reverend Baxter said, and I keep thinking about this prayer, he said, ``Let us not become the evil who we deplore.''

So I just want to urge a ``no'' vote on this bill; and I want to thank Mr. Skelton for his leadership, for his support for the troops, for his steadfast work on behalf of our national security, and for making sure that this body continues to try to uphold the rule of law.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 5347, the Hope VI Reauthorization Act of 2006.

Congress created the bipartisan HOPE VI program in 1992 to restore distressed housing and build new, safe, and cohesive communities. To date HOPE VI has awarded over $5 billion to revitalize 193 public housing developments.

In my district alone, we have three HOPE VI projects: Mandela Gateway, Lions Creek Crossing, and Chestnut Linden Court.

The HOPE VI program works because its requirement for community buy- in is a responsive, flexible, and accessible redevelopment tool that effectively addresses the multi-billion dollar backlog in public housing capital needs.

But despite the accomplishments of HOPE VI, the administration continues to try and kill it. That just doesn't make any sense.

In passing H.R. 5347 today, we send a message to the administration, to housing authorities, and to the business community that HOPE VI is here to stay.

But we can't stop with Hope VI re-authorization.

We must also fully fund our housing authority's capital and operating needs, Section 8 vouchers, and special-needs tenants like the elderly, the handicapped, and those living with HIV/AIDS.

Together these initiatives can help re-focus our attention on those who are most in need.

Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 5503, the FHA Multifamily Loan Limit Adjustment Act of 2006.

This bipartisan bill will allow the FHA program to keep up with the skyrocketing boom in housing prices--particularly in areas like my district in California, where the average price of a home is nearly $600,000.

The FHA program has provided homeownership opportunities to millions of Americans who have been deemed high-risk or struggled to save down payment costs.

Many residents in high-cost states like California are unable to tap into FHA's homeownership programs.

In 2005, FHA only insured 5,000 loans in California because housing cost were too high for the FHA's low loan limit.

Madam Speaker, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of eligible renters ho want to be homeowners. We must work with HUD to ensure that they are not locked out of the housing market.

I applaud Congressman Miller, Congresswoman Waters, Ranking Member Frank and all the members who have worked together to make this bill and the dream of homeownership a reality.

I ask my colleagues to support H.R. 5503.

Mr. Speaker, for 5 weeks President Bush has been telling the American people that they are safer now than they were before 9/11 even though all 16 of his intelligence agencies were telling him that simply was not the case.

The Bush administration's own spy agencies say we are less safe today, and they put the blame on the President's decision to invade Iraq.

If President Bush and Republicans here in Congress are serious on winning the global war on terror, they would not ignore this classified report and would finally join us in coming up with a new strategy for Iraq.

It is clear that staying the course is simply not working. We have lost nearly 2,700 troops and spent upwards of $320 billion. And yet there are still no positive developments on the ground. In fact, things seem to be getting worse as more than 100 Iraqis are now being killed every day.

Mr. Speaker, the war in Iraq and the occupation is making our Nation less safe. It is time that we redeploy our troops out of Iraq so we can finally achieve some form of national security. I mean real national security and real peace.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentlewoman for her leadership, for her yielding, and for her fairness in this overall process. And I also want to thank the distinguished ranking member of the Defense Subcommittee, Mr. Murtha, and the ranking member of the full committee, Mr. Obey, all of whom have been champions for a significant provision of this bill that would ensure that we are not establishing permanent military bases in Iraq.

The American people do not want an open-ended occupation in Iraq. Congress must be on record supporting this. My colleague, Mr. Allen, and myself offered a similar provision to the war supplemental in March, but it was stripped in the conference committee for the supplemental. So I am pleased this conference committee for this bill retained this important first step in taking the targets off the backs of our troops in Iraq by showing the world that we have no designs to stay in Iraq permanently.

However, the language will apply only to funds for this fiscal year of 2007, which this conference committee is responsible for, and we need to make the policy of the United States permanently not to have permanent military bases in Iraq. So while I support this provision, I cannot support this bill.

Yes, this war was authorized by this body. And, in fact, several of us, many of us supported a resolution that would have provided for the United Nations to continue with the inspections process. I offered the resolution, so did Mr. Spratt. Had that happened, and had this body allowed for the process to move forward, 2,700 of our young men and women would not have died, nor would 15,000 to 20,000 have been seriously injured.

This war was unnecessary. Many knew that then, and of course now the National Intelligence Estimates are saying exactly what many of us tried to say during that horrible, horrible period. There were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. We knew that; you knew that. There was no connection between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda. We knew that; you knew that. Iraq was not a hotbed for terrorism when this march to war began. You knew that; we knew that.

And so this war has been deceitful all the way from its beginning. It has been wrong and it has been immoral. It is a perfect example of the failed policies of this administration's priorities when it comes to protecting our Nation. Again, we have spent over $300 billion on an unnecessary war in Iraq that our own intelligence services say is increasing the risk of terrorism, yet we don't have any money to secure our ports or to implement the 9/11 Commission recommendations.

So why should the American taxpayers fund a failed occupation? Why should we pay for increasing the risk of terrorism and funding a hotbed for terrorists in Iraq?

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from New York for yielding and for his steadfast support on behalf of women's health and a woman's right to choose.

I rise today to defend once again a woman's right to choose what is best for her own body. Prohibiting interstate travel for an abortion and punishing those who participated in that travel fails to protect the health and safety of women and their children.

This bill subjects taxi drivers and bus drivers and other transportation professionals to jail time, mind you, jail time, although they had no knowledge of the activity. Are we in good conscience going to legislate penalties against innocent people who do not have knowledge or control over the actions of their customers? Are we encouraging cabbies and bus drivers to start asking every person, every woman that gets into a cab or on a bus, if they are pregnant or are they going to have an abortion, because they want to limit their liability?

Furthermore, Mr. Speaker, how could anyone support this bill knowing that some of these minors, knowing this, that some of these minors may have

decided to have an abortion because they have been raped by a family member or a guardian? This is simply bad public policy. It will turn back the clock not only on choice but on privacy for young women.

The best way to reduce the number of abortions is to prevent unintended pregnancies, and the best way to do that is through access to contraception and comprehensive sex education. So if my colleagues really wanted to reduce abortions, they would support H.R. 2553, the Responsible Education About Life Act, or REAL Act, which would allow full and comprehensive sex education for our young people. Unfortunately, many of my colleagues would rather put cabbies and drivers in jail than take real steps to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies in this Nation.

This bill is nothing short of a public misinformation campaign from the conservative religious right to hinder the safety and the health of women and girls throughout the country. This bill is intentionally dangerous, it is vague, it is harmful to women, it is harmful to women's health and the decisions that she must make about her body.

I urge a ``no'' vote on this bill.

Mr. Speaker, let me thank the gentleman from California, our ranking member, for yielding and for your leadership. I also want to thank Chairman Smith. I want to thank Mr. Payne for your leadership and for helping to get this bill this far.

This is a good step in a direction that I hope will ultimately stop the slaughter, stop the genocide, protect the people of Darfur and allow the people of Darfur to go home.

Over 2 million people have been displaced. We hear upwards of 450,000 people have been killed. This is a horrific genocide. We need the world community to say no, and we need to make sure that the young people who have been working and organizing throughout the country and raising their voices saying ``not on our watch'' that this is not on our watch and that we on our watch allow for the genocide to end.

You do remember very clearly that over a million people were killed in Rwanda. And what we did, unfortunately, was sit back and say later that we were sorry. This should not ever happen again. Not on our watch will it happen again.

So I think even with the difficulties we have had with the language remaining with regard to not preempting States in their divestment movements, this is, again, a good first start.

I just want Members in this body to know, especially, that we are coming back on divestment, because it makes no sense to allow companies with holdings in the Sudan to continue to do this type of business. Pension funds should not have blood in their banks, and that is exactly what has happened.

The people in the United States of America do not want genocide to take place with their money. That is what is taking place. And so we need to allow the wishes and the desires of people throughout the country, including in New Jersey, and today California signed its divestment legislation, Illinois, there are many States that are moving forward.

So we are going to come back with our divestment legislation so that this Federal law will not preempt it.

So thank you again, Mr. Lantos and Mr. Smith.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank Chairman Chris Smith and Ranking Member Don Payne for their hard work on H.R. 3127, the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act but have concerns on versions emerging from the other body.

We all agree that the systematic displacement, torture and slaughter of millions in Darfur must be stopped.

However, the legislation before us today is not the same bipartisan bill that received almost unanimous support in the House of Representatives in April of this year--and then awaited consideration in the other body for nearly 6 months.

Mr. Speaker, the original H.R. 3127 legislation that the House approved contained all the steps necessary to bring about peace and justice for the victims in Darfur and criminal penalties and financial sanctions against those who perpetrated the genocide.

H.R. 3127 still contains many strong provisions including: immediately mobilizing support to expand the African Union mission, blocking assets and restricting travel of any individual the President determines is responsible for acts of genocide, war crimes, or crimes against humanity in the Darfur region; and offering U.S. support for the International Criminal Court's efforts to prosecute those responsible for acts of genocide in Darfur.

However, Mr. Speaker, this bill falls short on the issue of divestment.

The bill that came out of the House International Relations Committee and passed by the House included an amendment I authored on divestment.

In particular, the language that was included in the House-passed bill provides pre-emptive protections for states and universities who are mounting divestment campaigns throughout our Nation.

States and localities, and colleges and universities across the Nation have passed legislation mandating divestment of State funds

from companies that conduct business in Sudan.

Mr. Speaker, divestment works.

The lessons from South Africa taught us that divestment is an effective tool--and clearly it's time we hit Khartoum where they'll feel it most, in their pocket books.

We should not provide cover to businesses whose profits maintain Khartoum's systematic torture, rape, murder and displacement of millions.

And moreover, I am profoundly disappointed at my colleagues in the other body.

By removing this key provision, they are sending a message to states and universities nation-wide that stopping divestment is ultimately more import than stopping the genocide.

Without the Lee Section 11 Divestment language a message is also going out to Khartoum and the companies that have been sheltered by the removal of this language--the message is ``With a wink and an eye your profits are more important than the Darfur people.

I will support this bill. But, Mr. Speaker, I will also continue to fight to ensure preemption protections for states and communities and other bodies pursuing divestment strategies.

That is why I introduced H.R. 6140, a bill that bars Federal contracts with firms doing business with Sudan but also protects states' ability to divest their pension funds from such companies.

Mr. Speaker we have a moral responsibility to use every tool at our disposal to stop the genocide. And divestment is a powerful tool and should have been part of the legislation we are considering today.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to introduce the Darfur Accountability and Divestment Act of 2006.

As a Member of Congress who traveled to Darfur and visited the refugees in camps along the Chadian border, I am confident that now is the time for a two-pronged approach of diplomacy and divestment to end the genocide in Darfur.

As many of you know, divestment was a successful tool in ending the apartheid in South Africa. Similarly, we must make sure that the federal government prohibits contracts to multinational businesses enterprises if they maintain business relationships and investments with Sudan and other national, regional, and local governments involved in genocide or participating in business activities with any warring parties or rebel groups perpetrating genocide.

Today, state legislatures, colleges, and universities are leading divestment campaigns to pressure the Khartoum regime and show the international community that to achieve an end to the fighting, peace, truth, and reconciliation are needed immediately in Darfur.

The hard earned money of American citizens should not be used to support a pariah government that is killing its own people and supporting terrorists.

State legislatures in Illinois, New Jersey, Oregon, and Maine have passed legislation mandating divestment of State funds from companies that conduct business in Sudan. California, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, North Carolina, Kansas, Wisconsin, Indiana, Georgia, Maryland, New York, Iowa, and Texas have considered or are considering legislation to divest State funds from companies that conduct business in Sudan. Connecticut, Ohio, and Vermont have passed nonbinding divestment legislation with respect to Sudan; and Arizona, Louisiana, Missouri, and Pennsylvania have adopted screening processes for investments in companies that conduct business in countries that are sponsors of terrorism, including Sudan.

Additionally, Students Taking Action Now: Darfur (STAND) has launched successful student campaigns across the country, driving their respective colleges and universities to divest from companies doing business with Sudan.

Amherst, Boston University, Brandeis, Brown, Columbia, Dartmouth, Harvard, Middlebury, Oberlin, Princeton, the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, Samford, Simmons, Smith, Stanford, Trinity, the University of California, the University of Maryland, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Southern California, the University of Vermont, the University of Washington, Williams, and Yale have all divested their funds from, or placed restrictions on investment of their funds in, certain companies that conduct business in Sudan.

The Darfur Accountability and Divestment Act aplauds the divestment efforts of the state and local government, colleges, and universities.

Mr. Speaker, my bill would also require the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) Division of Corporate Finance and the U.S. Treasury to require all companies listing securities on United States capital markets, either directly or through a parent or subsidiary company, including partly-owned subsidiaries, have business operations in a country with a genocide declared by the Department of State or Congress, to disclose the nature of their business operations.

The Darfur Accountability and Divestment Act of 2006 would require:

(1) The Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) Division of Corporate Finance and the U.S. Treasury to require all companies listing securities on United States capital markets, either directly or through a parent or subsidiary company, including partly-owned subsidiaries, have business operations in a country with a genocide declared by the Department of State or Congress, to disclose the nature of their business operations.

(2) The United States Government (federal) to prohibit contracts with multinational business enterprises if:

(a) They maintain business relationships and investments with national, regional and local governments involved in genocide; and

(b) They participate in business activities with the government or government entities.

(c) Exemptions for businesses who are working in areas of Sudan that have been neglected by the Khartoum regime (Darfur, Southern Sudan, Kordofan/Nuba Mountain State, Blue Nile State or Abyei) or who are providing immediate humanitarian assistance (delivery of food aid, road construction, basic sanitation, education, etc.).

(3) Recognition and support of:

(a) States and Cities that have divested or are in the process of divesting State and City funds from companies that conduct business in Sudan; and

(b) United States colleges and universities that have divested their funds from, or placed restrictions on investments of their funds in, companies that conduct business in Sudan.

(c) Provides preemption protection for states and universities who have sponsored their own divestment campaigns.

(4) Within 180 days, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to investigate the existence and extent of all Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board investments with national, regional and local governments involved in genocide; or business activities with any warring parties perpetrating genocide; or related to debt-obligations issued by the government of Sudan;

(5) The following reports not later than 60 days after enactment:

(a) The Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission shall report to Congress the names of the business enterprises and the details of their business operations in Sudan;

(b) And biannually thereafter, the Office of Global Security Risk shall report to Congress the names of the business enterprises and the details of their operations in Sudan;

(6) The Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to maintain and publish a list of the names of the business enterprises identified by the Securities and Exchange Commission as having ties with perpetrators of genocide.

Please join me in sending a message to the international community and out national pension funds that we do not want blood on our hands.

Mr. Speaker, I encourage you to lend your support to the Darfur Accountability and Divestment (DADA) Act of 2006.

Madam Speaker, more than $600 million of Federal contracts has gone to companies whose business in Sudan may directly or indirectly support the Sudanese Government's campaign of genocide in Darfur. No one should have to worry that their tax dollars are supporting genocide, and that is why I am introducing the Darfur Accountability and Divestment Act of 2006.

This bill is designed to wash the blood off of our Federal contracts and increase the financial pressure on Khartoum to end the genocide in Darfur. It also protects the rights of States to divest their own public pension funds from companies doing business in Sudan, because some in the other body insist on stripping that language out of the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act.

Divestment played a critical role in ending apartheid in South Africa, and it is unconscionable that anyone in Congress would try to prevent people from washing the blood from their pensions and doing their part to end this genocide. We have a moral responsibility to use every tool at our disposal to end this genocide.

I call on my colleagues to cosponsor my bill and support the growing national divestment movement.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition to all three of these bills.

We should be passing real immigration reform today not these mean- spirited, divisive bills.

Real immigration reform should include a clear path to citizenship not targeting people who don't fit the Republican majority's conception of what a citizen should look like. Under the provisions of H.R. 6094, they want to be able to single out two or three minorities walking down the street, call them a gang, and have an easy route to deport them by classifying them as a ``criminal street gang.'' Not only is that an infringement on the constitutional guarantee to right of a assembly, it's indicative of the xenophobic sentiment shrouding the Republican's version of immigration reform.

Real immigration reform should take meaningful steps at securing our borders like investing in infrastructure at our ports and airports. We shouldn't be deputizing local law enforcement as border police.

Real immigration reform should recognize the intrinsic value that diversity through immigration has brought to our Nation and not seek to divide us as these three bills do. Unfortunately, this debate is no longer about border security, jobs, or the economy--it has become about spewing hateful, rhetoric. These bills will contribute to the incitement of attacks against the immigrant community, such as the recent arson on a Mexican restaurant in California, or the attack on the young Latino student in Texas earlier this year.

Mr. Speaker, these bills are nothing but a cynical attempt 7 weeks before an election to score political points. That's not only irresponsible it's reprehensible.

I urge my colleagues to reject these hateful bills.

Mr. Speaker, let me thank the gentleman for yielding and for his leadership in the preservation of democracy and also in the promotion of justice.

Talk about a cynical and discriminatory election-year ploy. This is unbelievable. This bill, as well as this closed rule, should be defeated.

As the country with one of the lowest percentages of voter participation in the world, we should be doing everything we can to remove the barriers to voting. For example, we should have been debating legislation to fix the real problems with the 2002 and 2004 elections: long voting lines, voter intimidation, faulty machines, poor training for poll workers, discriminatory voter registration laws; or making, for example, election day a Federal holiday so everyone can exercise their right to vote.

But, instead, we are debating a bill that effectively suppresses voter turnout by imposing this new, unconstitutional poll tax on all Americans. Have we already forgotten why we just reauthorized the Voting Rights Act a few months ago? Now the Republican leadership is already working overtime to try and undermine it.

Yes, we must eliminate voter fraud, but that is certainly not what this bill does. There are real solutions that will enforce our constitutionally guaranteed right to vote, that will ensure that every vote is cast and counted. That is what we should be voting on.

As we supposedly promote democracy throughout the world, we are quickly, and I mean quickly, eroding it right here at home, and this bill is an example of another step in that direction.

Let us practice what we preach. Let us defeat this rule and this sham bill and do some things in this body this session to make sure that every individual who has the right to vote is allowed that right and that voting becomes freer and fairer in our country.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to speak out of order.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Payne for his leadership, and for being that lone voice many, many years ago, calling to our attention the atrocities, the genocide, that has been taking place in Darfur.

We have debated this genocide for nearly 2 years now. It is time for action. As we speak, the violence in Darfur escalates while the hands of the United Nations, quite frankly, are tied by Sudanese President al-Bashir.

Mr. Speaker, this is the moment of truth. The world is watching. Just yesterday, the President announced at the United Nations General Assembly that Andrew Natsios will serve as the President's Special Envoy for Sudan. A special envoy is long overdue.

The situation in Darfur has deteriorated rapidly over the last few months. Rapes have increased. There were about 500 rapes over the summer in one camp alone. Twelve humanitarian workers have been killed, including two in the last 4 weeks.

Mr. Speaker, 26,000 Sudan armed forces are headed to Darfur for major offensive. There has been renewed aerial bombardment. Twelve years ago, the world stood by when almost 1 million people were slaughtered in Rwanda. And for the most part the only thing our government did was say ``I'm sorry,'' and that was after the fact.

Now we have said, ``Not on our watch. We will not have another Rwanda,'' so our credibility, quite frankly, is on the line. We cannot let Darfur become another Rwanda. Already too many people, we are hearing upwards of 400,000 to 450,000 people have died. Too many women have been raped, too many villages have been burned, and too many people have been displaced.

I witnessed this ongoing tragedy on two occasions. The first time was in January of 2005 in a bipartisan delegation under the leadership of Chairman Ed Royce. We visited the refugee camps in Chad and went into Darfur with two great humanitarian leaders, Don Cheadle, the brilliant Academy Award nominee, star of ``Hotel Rwanda,'' and also Paul Rusase- bi-gee-na whose courage in Rwanda saved many, many lives.

During that visit we saw children and we talked to the children who were traumatized. Everyone was traumatized. You could see it in their eyes. They were dazed. The children painted pictures when we said what happened. They painted pictures of airplanes and helicopters with bombs dropping on the villages. Then at the bottom of picture, what was there but men on horseback with guns and with machetes burning down the villages and killing the people. This is what children saw and what they were communicating with us and begging and pleading us to stop.

Most recently, under the great leadership of Minority Leader Nancy

Pelosi, she led a bipartisan delegation, we once again visited refugee camps in another region of Darfur and saw the same suffering. This was a year and a half later, and it was escalating and getting worse. We talked to people and saw once again, genocide is taking place right during our watch. We have to be more about action and not just about talk. We have to use every tool available to end this genocide. That is why we are doing everything we can do.

We are frustrated by the slow action of this Congress and especially the Senate. The House passed the bipartisan Darfur Peace and Accountability Act in April. Who knows how many lives would have been saved had that bill been moved out of the Senate quickly?

Yes, I believe we have to hit Khartoum where it hurts, and that is in their pocketbook, and allow States to divest of their pension funds in companies with blood on their hands, companies that have invested and are doing business in the Sudan. You may remember that divestment was a successful tool in ending the apartheid regime of South Africa.

Today, young people, State legislatures, colleges, universities, States, Illinois, New Jersey, Oregon and Maine, have all passed legislation mandating divestment of State funds from companies that conduct business in the Sudan. The divestment legislation in California awaits signature of our Governor. States like Massachusetts, Rhode Island, North Carolina, Kansas, Wisconsin, Indiana, Georgia, Maryland, New York, Iowa and Texas, all of these States have legislation, they are drafting it or it is in place, to divest of State funds from companies that conduct business in the Sudan. It is a shame that we can't get this provision in the bill or keep it in the bill as it moves out of the Senate.

Additionally, Students Taking Action Now: Darfur (STAND) are driving their respective colleges and universities to divest from companies doing business in the Sudan.

And yes, we have introduced the Darfur Accountability and Divestment Act which applauds the divestment efforts and provides preemption language to protect their divestment activities.

And we also believe in this bill that we are going to go a little bit further and say the United States Government prohibits contracts with any multinational company doing business in the Sudan if the nature of the business relationship is with the national, regional, and local Government of Sudan, and many other aspects of really calling out those companies who continue to hide behind the shield of their business operations and investment operations, but really what they are doing is contributing to the Sudanese Government in their efforts to wipe out a whole group of people.

We are not without options to stop this genocide and the suffering in Darfur. If we have the political will, we can end the suffering. It is a desperate situation. It is a humanitarian catastrophe. We must insist upon a real political settlement, a peace agreement that goes far beyond the May 6 agreement.

We have to ensure that Darfurians return to their villages quickly and reclaim their lives. We have to bring the perpetrators of this State-sponsored genocide, and that is what it is, State-sponsored genocide; we have to bring them to justice. I thank Mr. Payne for his leadership.

Mr. Speaker, President Bush continues to say that one of the most difficult parts of his job is trying to connect the war in Iraq with the overall war on terror, but I tell you it is a difficult job because it is clear there is no connection between the war in Iraq and the overall global war on terror.

Just this past week, a bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee report concluded that there was no link between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda. In fact, the Senators wrote that Saddam, ``only expressed negative sentiments about Osama bin Laden.''

And yet, President Bush continues to contend that our Nation's safety depends on what happens on the streets of Baghdad. With all due respect, this is just not the case.

The President is trying to convince the American people that al Qaeda is responsible for all of the violence in Iraq. In reality, the overall majority of the violence today comes from the growing sectarian divisions between the Sunnis and the Shias, a civil war which some of us believe has begun.

From day one, the Iraq war diverted the Bush administration's attention from those who attacked us on 9/11. Today, Osama bin Laden is still at large, and the Taliban is alive and well in Afghanistan.

It is time for the President to focus his attention on those responsible for the horrific 9/11 attacks 5 years ago.