Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, first let me thank our chairman, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hyde), and our ranking member, the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos), for their leadership on the Committee on International Relations, a committee on which I am proud to serve, and for their consistent efforts to ensure that there is bipartisanship in this body and our committee.

Let me just say to them today that I respectfully rise to disagree with them on this issue. This resolution does, however, express condolences to the families of the dead soldiers and innocent Iraqis who have been killed in Iraq. Today, unfortunately, many more lives were lost. My thoughts and my prayers go out to these families and the families of all of those who have been wounded in this unnecessary war.

As a daughter of a career military officer, I know what it means to support our troops, and I do. However, this resolution paints a totally false picture of the situation in Iraq, the fact that it ignores the blamelessness of the President's claims that led us into this unjust war, and that it endorses a failed Bush policy in Iraq.

As an example of what I mean, let me just draw my colleagues' attention to page 4, the third paragraph down which says, ``Paul Bremer, the administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority, has ably advanced the international coalition's goals in Iraq of transforming Iraq into a safe, secure, stable, sovereign, democratic state that serves the interests of the Iraqi people.''

This resolution also commits our troops to an indefinite period of time in Iraq.

Mr. Speaker, this undue praise flies in the face of reality on the ground. Again, as I said earlier, just today it is reported that 92 people have lost their lives including three United States soldiers and more than 320 people wounded.

Moreover, this resolution completely ignores the false basis for the war and its cost. It also leaves out the fact that we were misled regarding the weapons of mass destruction and the alleged cooperation between al Qaeda and Iraq as it relates to 9/11. It makes it sound as if the occupation and the aftermath of this unjust war is a success.

Again, that ignores reality. We had choices; we had options. I offered an amendment that would authorize the United Nations to continue with this inspection process. Unfortunately, that failed. Now we have a resolution that celebrates the war. I respectfully disagree, and I must vote against it.

Mr. Chairman, I rise to engage in a colloquy with the gentlewoman from California, the ranking member of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

I want to thank the gentlewoman for her steady leadership on so many issues that are very, very grave related to our national security. Let me just say that I appreciate this opportunity to discuss an issue very briefly that is of great importance, that is, ensuring that our Federal intelligence dollars are not used to support groups or individuals engaged in efforts to overthrow democratically elected governments.

I yield to the gentlewoman from California.

I thank the gentlewoman for her attention to this issue. I look forward to working with her.

Mr. Speaker, first let me thank the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Scott) for yielding and for his leadership in a very short time in terms of his leadership on our Financial Services Committee, specifically in the areas of housing and home ownership. So thank you for your leadership and for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, let me just say how delighted I am today to be able to speak in support of this bipartisan bill, with the hope that it will spur a movement toward more aggressive quality affordable housing for all Americans, and I want to thank my colleague, a member whom I had the pleasure to serve with in the California Legislature, the gentleman from California (Mr. Miller), for bringing forth this bill, H.R. 658, because he certainly understands the critical need for home ownership and the affordability factor in terms of home ownership. So thank you for making sure that this is a bipartisan bill and for your leadership.

Mr. Speaker, we all understand the challenges of home ownership and the need to build more affordable housing and to market products that will help more middle- and low-income individuals and families, more people of color to acquire a home.

The FHA program is a very necessary tool to get these target communities into a home. It uses flexible down payment amounts ranging from 0 to 3 percent of the loans total, and it also helps with closing costs and considerable foreclosure and loss mitigation assistance.

Now, FHA is pioneering in the areas of not only helping people get into their homes and purchase their homes but also helping people keep their homes. This is key to home ownership in our current economy, where bankruptcy and foreclosures have become a reality for far too many people.

FHA is successful, but it, of course, is not perfect. In areas like California, currently, also areas such as Massachusetts and New York, the FHA program is crippled by the expensive housing market, and it, in fact, limits the amount of people who can participate in home ownership solely because of their geography.

FHA uses a market median to calculate their loan amounts and caps loans in high-cost areas to $290,000. Our goal today is to provide a vehicle for Americans to achieve the American dream, which is very quickly, quite frankly, turning into a nightmare.

We all know that it is not the stock market that provides the foundation for the accumulation of wealth for ordinary working Americans. It is the equity in one's home that allows people to, for instance, start a small business or send their children to college or to travel or to do whatever they desire to be part of the American dream, and while I recognize market forces dictate the cost of housing, in no way should we let market forces run away out of control without helping those individuals and families who really do play by the rules.

When I see a dilapidated house in California, just this weekend the average cost of housing in my area, northern California, I think is $509,000. That is for a dilapidated house, quite frankly, a small shack. That is $509,000. So when I see houses going for that, I shudder at the numbers of families who are permanently shut out of homeownership.

When we see a bill today, such as we have before us, that increases this limit to 100 percent of the local median price, I am very excited that finally, finally we have a vehicle now that will allow not only those individuals in California and my district to begin on the path to home ownership, but people

throughout our country will see that we are for real in terms of making sure that we do something to allow them to realize the American dream.

In addition, let me just close by saying how important it is to prevent foreclosures and to build more quality affordable housing that establishes through the establishment of what we are calling the National Housing Production Program, using some of the FHA reserves.

So let me just say thank you once again to the gentleman from California (Mr. Miller). Thank you to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Scott). I want to thank the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Frank) and the gentleman from Ohio (Chairman Ney) and the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Waters) for making sure our subcommittee works in a bipartisan fashion on behalf of the American people.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me time.

Mr. Speaker, let me just say to the gentleman from California (Mr. Gary G. Miller), one point I want to emphasize also as to why this is so important is that in many of our communities that are diverse economically and ethnically, what we are seeing is the resegregation of America because of income disparities. In many communities, such as mine, for instance, you have a diminishing African-American population because the cost of housing has gone up so high and the income level has not been on par with the cost of housing.

So I just want to say this bill has far-reaching implications, because, in fact, we all agree that an integrated America is also the American dream, and we want integrated communities, not communities where one cannot afford to reflect the ethnic diversity of our great country.

Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word.

Mr. Chairman, I rise to engage today in a colloquy with the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Murtha), the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Defense appropriations.

First, let me just thank the gentleman for the very hard work that he

consistently does for the security of our Nation. I appreciate this opportunity to discuss an issue that is of great importance, that is, ensuring that our Federal defense dollars are not used to support groups or individuals engaged in efforts to overthrow democratically elected governments.

I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania.

Mr. Chairman, let me just thank the gentleman for his attention to this issue and so many issues that are important to our Nation.

Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the requisite number of words.

Mr. Chairman, I rise today in strong support of this amendment, and I want to applaud the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Slaughter) and the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Shays), co-chairs of the Arts Caucus, and their staff for their leadership and for this very important work of national importance.

Congress has the responsibility to provide adequate funding to the National Endowment for the Humanities which is the largest single funder of humanities programs in our country; and also the National Endowment for the Arts, the infrastructure for private nonprofit and Federal arts initiatives.

This support is especially important given the current state of the economy which has stifled private funding used to subsidize many arts and humanities programs nationwide. The economic downturn and our budget crisis are crippling arts initiatives all over this country, and especially in my home State of California. In my district, the 9th Congressional District of California, there are a total of 2,180 arts- related businesses that employ 10,268 of my constituents. That is a lot of people: 10,268 individuals.

Many who are eager to restrict funding for NEA and NEH forget that industries that receive grants for these institutions include museums, performing and visual arts, film, radio, television, design, publishing and educational facilities in all of our districts.

In Oakland, one of the cities in my district, most arts education programs are facing extinction. The result is the gradual disappearance of arts initiatives for people of all ages, ethnic background, social and economic backgrounds. This debilitates the foundation of our community. Few realize that nonprofit arts industry and the nonprofits that run our arts industries generate approximately $89.4 billion in household income nationally, and the economy, of course, reached its lowest point since the Depression.

This amendment also provides funding for the NEA, which is an investment in the economic growth of communities with grants reaching every single congressional district in the country. During the last 14 years, the NEA has provided funding for over 123 programs in my district alone, including the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, the Axis Dance Company, and the East Bay Institute for Urban Arts and the Museum of Children's Arts.

Clearly, a vote against this amendment, which is endorsed by our bipartisan Arts Caucus, is really an unfortunate action against the vital thread which sustains the pulse of our country.

I urge all of my colleagues to support this very modest increase. It should be much more than this. This is only a $10 million increase for the NEA and $3.5 million increase for the NEH. It is the least we can do to promote and preserve American culture and heritage.

Mr. Chairman, I thank the two co-chairs of the Arts Caucus.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Mr. Belafonte both a friend and mentor as he receives the Global Exchange Human Rights Award. I share his passion for civil rights, social justice, peace, lifting the embargo on Cuba, and eradicating poverty both abroad and at home.

Recently, I introduced legislation to create a national Caribbean- American Heritage Month, and Mr. Belafonte was a primary influence in developing this legislation. Born in New York, but raised in Jamaica, Mr. Belafonte served our country and beyond in many ways; throughout his career, Mr. Belafonte has worked to unite the international community for just causes.

When people think of Mr. Belafonte, they may remember him for his album Calypso being the first to sell over 1 million copies with his hit the Banana Boat, or they may reminisce of his scenes as the co-star in the historic adaptation of Bizet's opera, ``Carmen'' titled ``Carmen Jones.''

Many will recall Mr. Belafonte marching alongside Dr. Martin Luther King and leaders of the Civil Rights Movement. Dr. King was later to say, ``Belafonte's global popularity and his commitment to our cause is a key ingredient to the global struggle for freedom and a powerful tactical weapon in the Civil Rights movement here in America.''

Belafonte was named to the Board of Directors of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and at Dr. King's death, he became one of three executors of the great leader's estate. I commend him for his tireless efforts in championing the rights of people here in the United States and beyond.

Showing that his talents were not limited to making history in just music and politics, Mr. Belafonte became the first African-American producer in television. His company went on to produce one Emmy- nominated success after another for the three major networks--``The Strollin' Twenties,'' written by the famed author Langston Hughes, starring such great performers as Sidney Poitier, Diahann Carroll, Sammy Davis, Jr. and Duke Ellington and ``A Time for Laughter,'' featuring Richard Pryor, Redd Foxx, Moms Mabley and Pigmeat Markham. The format of this special set became the model for the TV comedy series, ``Laugh-In.''

In 1960 he was named by President John F. Kennedy as cultural advisor to the Peace Corps; this position inspired Mr. Belafonte's development of our similar passion for the people of the African continent. Twenty- five years later, Mr. Belafonte won an Emmy for the all-star We Are the World video, calling global attention to war and famine crises throughout Africa.

Two years later, he was appointed as UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, only the second American to hold that title. In this capacity, Mr. Belafonte created an historic symposium in Dakar, Senegal for the immunization of African children. The positive response to this symposium led to a successful campaign

for the eradication of curable diseases among African children. This work was continued in a convention called ``Children of the Front Line'' in Harare, Zimbabwe. As part of this effort, with the largest concentration of African artists ever assembled, Mr. Belafonte performed a concert benefiting UNICEF.

Mr. Speaker, there is much more that I would like to share about this living legend who has left a mark on our world. Clearly, Mr. Belafonte is laudable recipient of this award, which highlights his contributions toward securing human rights and freedoms locally and throughout the world. Most importantly, I am proud and honored to call ``Harry'' my friend.

I thank you for giving me the opportunity to honor Mr. Belafonte, a World War II veteran, musician, visionary, activist, and my brother, in the struggle for social justice and peace.

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

First of all let me just say I rise in support of this legislation. I want to thank the gentlewoman from Florida for her leadership and for her commitment to children throughout the world. Mr. Speaker, I also would like to thank the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hyde) and the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos) along with my colleagues on the Committee on International Relations, the gentleman from California (Mr. Rohrabacher), the gentlewoman from Minnesota (Ms. McCollum) and the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Leach) for joining me to craft this very clear and very forward-moving bipartisan compromise agreement. Also I would like to thank them for helping us get it to the floor today.

I also would like to thank our staffs for their work in crafting this bill, including Pearl Alice Marsh of the office of the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos), Christos Tsentas of my staff, and Peter Smith, who just recently actually left the Committee on International Relations. These members of our staffs and other staff on the Hill who have been working on this have worked on this not because it is part of their job only but because they really have a commitment to these children. I just want to thank them very much for their work.

I also would like to just mention briefly and thank the Global Action For Children Campaign and its members for working so passionately on behalf of this initiative.

This legislation seeks to better coordinate and comprehensively address the ever growing problem of orphans and vulnerable children in the developing world. As of 2001, an estimated 110 million children are living as orphans throughout sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. The rapid growth of HIV/AIDS in Africa and throughout the world has really dramatically impacted the number of children who are newly becoming orphans. In 2001, 34 million children, this is about 12 percent of all African children, were orphaned in sub-Saharan Africa. That is hard to imagine. Eleven million, or 32 percent of all African orphans, were orphaned as a result of AIDS. UNICEF recently released a report entitled ``Africa's Orphaned Generations'' on November 26, 2003. This report predicted that there would be, as the gentlewoman from Florida said, 20 million AIDS orphans in Africa by 2010 and that in a dozen countries 15 to 25 percent of children under 15 will have lost one or both parents to AIDS.

Today every 14 seconds another child is orphaned by AIDS. With parents dying at such an alarming rate, children are left quite frankly behind without food, without shelter, without education or protection. They are left to

fend for themselves. The global orphan crisis is a profound humanitarian disaster that will be felt for decades to come. This bill seeks to comprehensively address the growing global problem of orphans and vulnerable children by providing assistance to support the following activities:

Basic care through community care groups. Community care groups could be community care coalitions, they could be networks, they could be support groups, they could be orphanages but through the community is very important.

Treatment for HIV infected children is included in this bill.

Culturally appropriate psycho-social support which is very important for children who are orphans and who are vulnerable. That is included in this bill.

School food programs, lunch programs, nutrition programs, so important.

Expanding educational opportunities through the elimination of school fees.

Protecting inheritance rights for orphans and vulnerable children.

This bill seeks to do all of this and more under the new structure of a separate office within the United States Agency for International Development focused specifically on orphans and vulnerable children.

The bill was unanimously approved by the House Committee on International Relations on March 31. I am proud to say that we have bipartisan support, and now I believe it is nearly 100 Members of this body.

I strongly support the amendment which is in the nature of a substitute offered by the chairman and negotiated by our staffs, as it really does improve the bill in a number of very significant ways in order to address the real concerns of several Members and organizations, including USAID. We met several times with USAID, our staff, myself, and we have listened to their suggestions and have tried to incorporate as many of their suggestions into this amendment as we deemed possible. While I understand that the agency and some of the advocacy groups still have some concerns regarding the administrative provisions of the proposed Office for Orphans and Vulnerable Children, I believe that this compromise proposal really represents the best chance we have to deal with this issue in this Congress.

Each time, Mr. Speaker, that we bring a bill to the floor with regard to HIV/AIDS, like many of us here on this floor, we recognize that these bills are only but one small step forward. This bill is another one small step forward in addressing this pandemic. It is a step worthy of our support, a step that brings us closer to a solution.

Briefly let me just mention two bills which we have brought to this floor which were signed into law, which again were very small but significant steps: The Global AIDS and Tuberculosis Relief Act of 2000, signed by President Bill Clinton; and the United States Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Act of 2003, signed by President Bush. Our former colleague, Congressman Ron Dellums, sounded the alarms, suggested we look at an AIDS Marshall Plan and much of this AIDS Marshall plan we are looking at now as we move these very significant bills forward.

I am very proud of the fact that on this issue we have been able to work in a complete bipartisan fashion. We are committed to continue to work with USAID and our colleagues in the other body so that we can ensure that the needs of orphans and vulnerable children are properly taken care of through this bill. We have a moral duty, quite frankly, to provide for these children, these children who are really now victims of circumstance. As the world's most prosperous nation, we have an obligation to act. I am hopeful that as we pass this bill this evening we can encourage the other body to act quickly and to move this initiative forward so that we can get it enacted into law before the end of the 108th Congress.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee).

(Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

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

I thank the gentlewoman from Texas for her very eloquent statement, also for her leadership and her passion and for her commitment to children not only in our own country but throughout the world.

Let me take a minute, Mr. Speaker, to mention some of the projects actually that the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee), myself, and others have had the opportunity, a real privilege, to visit in Africa. We have become familiar with the work of many, many tireless individuals, committed individuals in Africa. We have met with many here in our own country. We have met on the Committee on International Relations and discussed these efforts. These individuals with barely a nickel have been able to do phenomenal work, and all of these projects that I am going to mention are led by very dynamic individuals who really continue to serve as a testament to what one person, one person, can accomplish when they have the determination and the compassion to care for their fellow human beings.

The first project, the Mother of Peace Orphanage Community in Mutoko, Zimbabwe, is one that I have become quite familiar with. Founded in 1994 by Ms. Jean Cornneck, or Mama Jean as some of us call her, the children call her that also and they are the ones who actually coined Mama Jean as her name because she truly is the mother of peace. The Mother of Peace Community provides care, support, and shelter to over 170 children. The community builds basic family-style homes, each accommodating two to three caregivers and 10 to 15 children who are brought up in Zimbabwean culture. At present there are 11 of these houses. Mother of Peace also benefits members of the adjacent rural community through its farming and building activities in the community.

It also plays a very huge role in the World Health Organization's Mutoko Poverty Alleviation and Sustainable Development Pilot Project. And I am proud to say that my own church, the Allen Temple Baptist Church, led by a great leader, Pastor J. Alfred Smith, Sr., has provided the impetus for the involvement of our community and the community in our country. And thanks to the leadership of Dr. Robert Scott and Gloria Cox Crowell, this church has set up an AIDS ministry to provide regular donations and to organize visits by our congregation to the orphanage community. It is an incredible program, and it is really a testament to how much good can be done on a shoestring budget by committed groups of people.

The second program that I would like to talk about is the Bwafwano Home-based Care Organization, run by Beatrice Chola, whom I met when I traveled to Zambia last year. Working as a nurse in the Chipata health center of Lusaka, Beatrice started Bwafwano back in 1996 when she saw that the health center was overrun with HIV and AIDS and also with TB- infected patients. She recognized the strain that the Chipata health center was under, and she saw that the needs of these HIV and TB- infected patients were not being met. So she joined with several other community members to found the Bwafwano Home-based Care Organization, which literally means ``helping one another.''

Today, thanks to her leadership, Bwafwano has mushroomed into a comprehensive community care organization offering medical services, volunteer testing and counseling for HIV, schooling, home-based care, and poverty reduction and income generation programs. Since its inception, Bwafwano has trained over 300 community health workers and is currently providing home-based care to over 1,300 HIV and AIDS patients and directly observed treatment to more than 180 TB-infected patients. In addition, the organization is caring for over 1,100 orphans and vulnerable children.

When I was there in August of last year, Beatrice was struggling to find just basic ways to provide school uniforms to the children that she was caring for, which was an impediment for these children to go to school, and the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee), the gentlewoman from the Virgin Islands (Mrs. Christensen), and I met with these young people; and they were not able to go to school for one reason, and that is they did not have any uniforms. And I am proud to say and pleased to say that they do have their uniforms now so they can attend school just like any child in the community. Thankfully, again, as I said, she did receive the donation of about 300 school uniforms, but she still needs a lot of help.

And of course I would like to mention the Nyumbani orphanages in Nairobi, Kenya, and I know many of us are familiar with Nyumbani. Founded in 1992 by Father Angelo D'Agostino,

Nyumbani initially reached only a handful of orphans because of limited resources; but thanks to the unwavering commitment of Father D'Agostino, who worked hard to raise awareness about the needs of these orphaned children, Nyumbani now provides shelter and care and nutrition, education, psychological and social services to over 100 children on-site.

But the work of Nyumbani does not stop there, as they reach out to the surrounding community to provide major assistance to nearly 800 HIV-positive children who are part of the Lea Toto Community Outreach Program in the slums of Nairobi. With the care and the devotion of the staff and all of its volunteers, Nyumbani now saves lives of most of these children while providing a model of care for nations trying to deal with their own growing HIV/AIDS epidemic.

These three incredible programs, Mama Jean, Beatrice, Father Angelo D'Agostino, they are led by three dynamic and committed people; and they are proof that despite poverty, despite hardship, despite the odds, good programs can be created even in the most difficult settings. So it is programs like these that deserve our support.

We had the opportunity to travel to South Africa and Mozambique with Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson in 2002. Once again it was a bipartisan delegation, and we visited several orphanages and saw exactly what many of the needs of these children were, and we took into consideration in writing this bill some of the recommendations and some of the ideas which we received not from ourselves necessarily but from what the African people told us, what African leaders, what the organizations told us that they needed. We are pleased to note that once again this has been a bipartisan effort.

This is a humanitarian crisis of enormous catastrophe, really. It is a potential disaster, and we are trying to just on both sides of the House figure out a way to deal with it. In the bill we say in closing, ``Congress recognizing the need and prompt action by the United States to assist orphans and other vulnerable children in developing countries is an important expression of the humanitarian concern and the tradition of the people of the United States. We affirm the willingness of the United States to assist such orphans and other vulnerable children.''

And with that, Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentlewoman from Florida. I want to thank the gentleman from Illinois (Chairman Hyde) and the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos), our ranking member, for helping us through very difficult negotiations; but once again we are here with another small piece of our efforts to stop this pandemic.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in regards to H.R. 4061, the Assistance for Orphans and Vulnerable Children Act of 2004, which passed the House International Relations Committee by unanimous consent on March 31. On May 5 the International Relations Committee filed H. Rept. 108-479.

Because House rules prohibit the addition of co-sponsors to a bill once the committee report has been filed, I am not able to formally add another Member of Congress as a co-sponsor of this legislation.

I ask that the Record show that Mr. Frank of Massachusetts is in support of my bill and should be considered by this body as a co- sponsor of H.R. 4061.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in regards to H.R. 4061, the Assistance for Orphans and Vulnerable Children Act of 2004, which passed the House International Relations Committee by unanimous consent on March 31st.

On May 5th the International Relations Committee filed House Report 108-479.

Because House rules prohibit the addition of co-sponsors to a bill once the committee report has been filed, I am not able to formally add another Member of Congress as a co-sponsor of this legislation.

I ask that the record show that Mr. Frank of Massachusetts is in support of my bill and should be considered by this body as a co- sponsor of H.R. 4061.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor and recognize the Alpha Nu Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., as it celebrates its 75th Anniversary. Since it was chartered on June 8, 1929, the Alpha Nu Omega Chapter has enriched the social and intellectual life of African American college women in Berkeley and Oakland, California and contributed to the social and economic well-being of the greater East Bay community.

Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., is an international society that was founded at Howard University in January 1908. First conceived as an organization to enrich the social and intellectual aspects of college life, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority cuts across racial, international, and social barriers to help individuals and communities develop constructive relationships with others.

Inspired by the mission and dedication of the National Sorority, young women in Oakland and Berkeley, California founded the Alpha Nu Omega Chapter 21 years later. The moving spirit in the establishment of Alpha Nu Omega Chapter was Soror Ida L. Jackson who, at that time, was an Oakland public school teacher.

Over the years, Alpha Nu Omega Chapter has undertaken a wide range of community service activities that have greatly benefited communities in the East Bay and throughout the country.

The main thrust of its work has been to aid the community through social, civic, and health programs, vocational guidance, and political awareness.

As early as 1934, the chapter began supporting health programs and projects when Soror Ida L. Jackson proposed opening a health clinic in Lexington, Mississippi. In 1964, before Head Start, the chapter organized and operated an interracial ``Pre-Kindergarten Program'' for children from two elementary schools in Berkeley. Since the early 1970's, the chapter has sponsored a reading experience program-- ``Reading is Fundamental''--in several schools in Oakland.

Political activities such as the Rumford Fair Housing Bill, passage of school financial bills affecting thousands of California students and teachers, and voter registration and education have all been part of Alpha Nu Omega's ongoing commitment to community service.

During critical periods in our history--such as the transition from segregation to integration, wartime, the post war era, sit-ins, struggles for human dignity, acts of civil disobedience--Alpha Nu Omega has held high the torch for equality and social justice. I have no doubt that they will continue to blaze new trails and provide visionary leadership in the area of community service and political action throughout the Oakland-Berkeley area.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to remember our veterans and to mourn all our losses. Our words today cannot match the eloquence or power of the moment of silence that preceded them because that silence reflects all the voices that have been stilled by war.

Each Memorial Day we pause to remember those who have fallen in the service of our country. Sadly, in the last year we have added hundreds of names to that tragic roll call.

Among those names is that of twenty-six year old Specialist Joseph Carl Norquist, of Oakland, California in my district. Specialist Norquist died in Iraq on October 9, 2003. He was serving in the 588th Engineering Battalion. He died when his convoy came under fire, and he posthumously received the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart.

Today, my thoughts and prayers go out to Specialist Norquist's family and friends and to all of those who mourn loved ones that they have lost.

This weekend, we also dedicate the World War II Memorial on the Washington Mall, to honor the service of those veterans, to recognize their tremendous sacrifice, and to shudder to think for a moment about what our world might have been like had they not served.

Mr. Speaker, on Memorial Day, we are especially aware of the terrible costs of war. Let us also then re-dedicate ourselves to the cause of peace so that we can dream of a year when we add no new names to the roster of those who have fallen in battle.

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

Mr. Speaker, let me just say, Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of this legislation; and I urge my colleagues to do so as well.

First, Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hyde), the ranking member, the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos), and the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith). I want to thank all of them for their very strong interest and support of the Peace Corps, its nearly 8,000 volunteers and the larger Peace Corps community.

Now, last year, Mr. Speaker, the House of Representatives approved the Peace Corps Expansion Act, which is designed to double the size of the Peace Corps and to increase its effectiveness overseas.

The legislation before us today builds upon this important initiative by focusing on the need to improve the safety and the security of our Peace Corps volunteers. While most Peace Corps volunteers have a safe and positive experience, the General Accounting Office testified before the committee that volunteers under-reported crimes against them in part due to the belief that the Peace Corps lacks the capacity or the willingness to help.

The GAO and the other witnesses also testified that the lack of well- developed assignments really discourages volunteers from adequately immersing themselves in their host communities and thereby benefiting from the protections afforded to members from these villages and also those towns.

Finally, the witnesses noted that the administrative impediments such as limitations on terms of employment within the Peace Corps and worrisome changes within the Office of Medical Services constrain Peace Corps employees from providing the best possible support to volunteers.

Mr. Speaker, the bill that we are considering today addresses these issues by establishing an ombudsman within the agency to listen and to attend to volunteer and employee concerns by increasing the independence of the Inspector General of the Peace Corps to strengthen his ability or her ability to act as a watchdog on behalf of volunteers, also by requiring the agency to study and to report to us on how it can improve programming for volunteers and by lifting the term limits for key offices within the agency. I strongly support all of these provisions.

Now, just as I support this bill to enhance the security and well- being of the volunteers, I also might mention support for legislation which I have introduced to create a special postage stamp through the Peace Stamp Act which calls for the creation of a stamp, the revenues from which would send money to the Peace Corps. This stamp would help provide funding, badly needed funding, for the increased Peace Corps force that President Bush has called for. This bill, H.R. 4060, which we have before us today, will help us ensure the well-being of an expanded Peace Corps.

Mr. Speaker, we must not lose sight of the fact that Peace Corps volunteers for over 40 years have been doing extraordinary jobs as our development ambassadors to the most remote centers of the world. They have truly been our very best ambassadors; and they have been doing their jobs, quite frankly, under very difficult and oftentimes very risky conditions. However, as we consider measures to improve the health, safety and security of our volunteers, we must be careful not to forge shields around our volunteers which will make it harder for them to reach the young English student, for example, in Central Asia or the Women's Cooperative in Peru and to reach and really pursue their own growth and development. So there is this very delicate balance that we must meet and we must put together, and I believe this bill does that.

I strongly support passage of this legislation and urge my colleagues to do so as well.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Farr), a good friend, a great leader in this

House, a former Peace Corps volunteer who served in Colombia and who knows the Peace Corps backwards and forwards and who has provided many years of service not only in this body but in many legislative bodies, and I think especially and most importantly for us today as our Peace Corps volunteer.

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

Mr. Speaker, I will close for our side with just these few comments. I want to thank the gentleman from California (Mr. Farr) for his comments and for his really deep and abiding commitment to the Peace Corps.

I will say that I have had the privilege since I guess about 1980 to travel and meet with Peace Corps volunteers throughout the world. What I have witnessed in terms of their level of commitment, their level of understanding of their work and their real commitment not only to their region or their community or their village where they are working but really to the entire world is really phenomenal; and I want to support the gentleman from California (Mr. Farr) in his position and his comment that we need to fully fund the Peace Corps at the levels that the administration has requested.

Having said that, let me just say how important this measure is today. Those Peace Corps volunteers who are out there, as I said earlier, representing our country, they are really our best ambassadors; and, minimally, we should provide for every bit of security and safety that they need, everything that they need to make their job not only rewarding but safe so that they can return and really share their experiences with those who have not had the opportunity to volunteer abroad and help develop even an expanded and larger Peace Corps force.

Let me thank everyone for their support of this bill for ensuring that it is a bipartisan bill.

Mr. Speaker, we have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition to this rule, which silenced all three of my amendments.

My first amendment called for the creation of an international commission, with Iraqi, U.S., and U.N. participation, to monitor prison conditions in Iraq. The Geneva Convention is neither quaint nor obsolete, and this amendment would have ensured compliance and help to restore badly damaged U.S. credibility.

My second amendment would have created a database of those who have been detained.

My third amendment prohibited the use of U.S. funds in the overthrow of democratically elected governments. Given the allegations of this government's involvement in the overthrow of President Aristide in Haiti, this amendment would have restored confidence in the protection of democracy.

Once again debate was stifled on many critical issues. The Republican majority continues to abuse its power.

Oppose this rule.

Mr. Chairman, let me thank the gentleman from my home city of El Paso, Texas, for yielding me this time and for his commitment to our young men and women in uniform. My father served many, many years at Fort Bliss, Texas.

I rise today to discuss the three amendments that I would have offered had the Republican leadership allowed genuine debate on our Nation's defense policy. Of course, instead we heard earlier a rule was crafted which silenced probably over 95 amendments.

Let me talk about my three amendments for a minute. The first amendment which I offered called for the creation of an international commission to monitor prison conditions in Iraq. This commission would be made up of representatives from the Iraqi Government and Iraqi civil society, the International Red Cross, the International Red Crescent, the United Nations, the United States and Coalition Armed Forces. Contrary to what the President's lawyers apparently think, the Geneva Conventions is neither quaint nor is it obsolete. This amendment would have ensured compliance to help restore badly damaged United States credibility. We have all seen the pictures. The whole world has seen the pictures. We need to take action to correct the situation and to convince the Iraqi people and the world that we are abiding by international law.

My second amendment would have created a database of those who have been detained. Family members should not have to wonder if their loved ones have simply disappeared. We have learned that over 70 percent of the detainees probably are individuals who should not be detained. We cannot condone the policy and practice of holding ghost prisoners who just vanish into United States custody. This is simply wrong. But this amendment also was rejected.

Finally, my third amendment prohibited the use of United States funds in the overthrow of democratically elected governments. That is a simple democratic principle that I thought we held. Given the allegations of this government's involvement in the overthrow of President Aristide's government in Haiti, this amendment would have restored confidence in the protection of democracy. It was born out of the Bush administration's alleged involvement in the recent coup in Haiti.

First of all, this is a similar amendment that was instituted under Representative Edward Boland, who prohibited the Reagan administration from using money to fund the Nicaraguan contras. It is shocking and totally shameful that we even need an amendment saying that our government is not in the business of overthrowing its democratically elected counterparts throughout the world; but history, including our very recent history, teaches us that we do.

This amendment also was rejected, along with many others offered by my colleagues. Some would have called for an exit strategy from Iraq; others would have reined in the uncontrolled and unmonitored use of private contractors, and that would have prevented the escalation, of course, of the arms race. These are, again, some other amendments that would have been allowed had we been allowed to debate them.

I say that the Republican majority continues to abuse its power.

Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentlewoman for her leadership on this issue.

This commonsense amendment would simply allow military women and their dependents that are stationed overseas to exercise the same rights as women in this country, the right to comprehensive family planning, including access to a safe, legal abortion.

It is important to point out that this amendment would not allow one cent of taxpayer money to fund these procedures. It simply allows women to use their own money, mind you, their own money to pay for this procedure in an overseas military facility.

It makes no sense that we have asked these soldiers to serve our country, and yet we cannot serve them with basic, comprehensive health care.

Let us reject this administration's ongoing, politically motivated war on women; and let us start by adopting this important, commonsense amendment. Let us stop discriminating against women in the military. I urge a ``yes'' vote.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in regards to H.R. 4061, the Assistance for Orphans and Vulnerable Children Act of 2004, which passed the House International Relations Committee by unanimous consent on March 31.

On May 5 the International Relations Committee filed House Report 108-479.

Because House rules prohibit the addition of cosponsors to a bill once the committee report has been filed, I am not able to formally add three Members of Congress as cosponsors of this legislation.

I ask that the Record show that Mr. Calvert of California, Mr. Bachus of Alabama, and Mr. Gerlach of Pennsylvania are in support of my bill and should be considered by this body as cosponsors a of H.R. 4061.

Mr. Speaker, this is an enormously important day in the lives of African Americans and in the history of this country.

Brown vs. Board of Education, almost without question, is the most important Supreme Court case of the twentieth century. With Brown, the Court threw out decades of doctrine and centuries of racist practice in this country in their conclusion that ``Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.'' By making this just assertion, they forced this nation to begin to live up to its own promises and its own ideals. In the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Brown represented a ``joyous daybreak to end the long night of enforced segregation.''

Brown was a transforming moment in the life of this country. Sadly, it was not immediately transformative, nor is the metamorphosis complete, even today. It took years--even decades in many cities and states--for the mandate of the Court to be carried out. In many places, it was met with fervent political opposition and violent resistance.

In Virginia, for instance, the Governor closed the public school system rather than allow it to be integrated. And in 1957, National Guard troops had to be sent in to guard school children in Little Rock, Arkansas when they tried to begin their studies at Central High School.

In the years after Brown, many, heroic people risked and sometimes lost their lives in the fight to desegregate schools, universities, stores and lunch counters, the workplace. And they risked their well- being in the fight to ensure that they enjoyed that fundamental American right of being able to vote.

But in the end, the forces of racism did not prevail because of the Thurgood Marshalls of the world, the Medger Evers, the Rosa Parks, the Fannie Lou Hamers, the Martin Luther King Jrs, and the Malcolm X's. They ensured that this nation would live up to its own promises, the guarantees that were laid out in Brown.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964, for instance, came about because brave men and women demanded it through bus boycotts and sit-ins and marches on Washington and a thousand other battles.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 came about because people like Fannie Lou Hamer dared to fight to register to vote, dared to form the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, dared to take on the Democratic Party and the establishment, and dared to win.

The Civil Rights Act of 1968, which established the principles of fair access to housing, came about because African Americans demanded the full rights of citizenship and because they knew that housing is a human right. Unfortunately, there are some people in Washington today who still need to recognize that fact.

Thanks to their efforts, Brown became the reality of the nation, not just the law of the land.

Today, on this 50th anniversary, Brown is still the law of the land, but it is no longer a national reality. Legal walls of segregation have been replaced in many areas by de facto separation by neighborhood and community. Our schools are becoming less integrated by the year, and in too many cases, integration has vanished entirely from some schools.

Across the country, efforts have been made--some of which have been successful, unfortunately--to undo the affirmative action programs, whose goal has been to create the fully diverse and integrated justice that the Supreme Court envisioned.

In my home state of California, an African American, Ward Connerly, led the Proposition 209 initiative in 1996, which eliminated affirmative action programs for women and people of color run by state or local governments in the areas of public employment, contracting, and education.

As chair of the California Black Legislature at the time, I fought against it, as did many, many Californians of all races.

In what was a giant setback for Brown and racial equality, Proposition 209 passed, and in one fell swoop, it wiped out a very significant program that was intended to level an extremely uneven playing field. The results have been devastating. African American and Latino enrollments at far too many of our state's universities are in serious decline.

As a recent story in the San Francisco Chronicle indicated, African American admissions at UC-Berkeley, which is in my district, are down 29 percent this year. In this year's freshman class, fewer than two and a half percent of the students accepted were African American. Two and a half percent. And compounding this serious injustice, Governor Schwarzenegger is cutting the budget for the outreach efforts of our universities.

These numbers are an embarrassment. They are an embarrassment for our students, ourselves, and for the promise of Brown. These shameful statistics have profound economic, political, and cultural meaning.

Do these bleak numbers that I have cited mean that Brown v Board of Education failed? No, but it means that our revolution is not over yet. It means that our revolution is still incomplete.

On this 50th anniversary of this enormous Supreme Court victory, we must rededicate ourselves to carry out that opinion whose words rang out clear as a bell when Earl Warren, the former California governor and Oakland resident, read them, ``Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.''

We can not--we will not--let the victories that were won so hard 50 years ago by Thurgood Marshall, Linda Brown, and so many others be reversed.

Tonight we celebrate that moment, and we rededicate ourselves to ensuring that justice thrives in this country.