Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, today, I am proud to reintroduce the International Women's Freedom Act with my colleagues, Representatives Barbara Lee and Eleanor Holmes Norton. This bill is a comprehensive piece of legislation which will increase awareness of human rights violations against women, as well as provide a set of mechanisms for the U.S. to address the violations of women's human rights abroad.

The bill is modeled after the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (IRFA). IRFA created the U.S. Commission on Religious Freedom which has been successful in identifying violations of religious freedom abroad and recommending actions to Congress, the Secretary of State, and the President.

It has been clear for many years that expanding opportunities for women not only improves their position in society, but also has a positive impact on economic growth and burgeoning democracies. And yet around the world, many countries relegate women to second-class status, denying them the right to vote, restricting their travel, and limiting their access to education and health care.

The International Women's Freedom Act would ensure we have the tools to empower women on a global level. The bill would establish a Commission on International Women's Rights and would expand the duties of the existing Office of International Women's issues in the State Department and rename it, the Office on International Women's Rights. Both the Commission and the Office on International Women's Rights would be granted the responsibilities of issuing a report on the status of women's rights abroad and advising the President and Secretary of State regarding matters affecting these issues.

We need to work harder to ensure women's full participation in society. This legislation would move us closer to achieving this foreign policy imperative.

Mr. Speaker, it has been forty- one years since

Congress passed the Equal Rights Amendment (also known as the Women's Equality Amendment). This historic amendment was intended to affirm in our United States Constitution fundamental equality based on sex in all areas of society.

In 1972, Congress passed the ERA with a measure that it had to be ratified by the necessary number of states (38) within 7 years. Though this deadline was extended, it was only for 10 short years. With this narrow time limit, the ERA was unfortunately just three states shy of full ratification when the deadline passed in 1982. Other constitutional amendments were given much wider deadlines for ratification. One example is the 27th amendment, concerning Congressional pay raises, which was accepted after a 203 year ratification period.

This Congress I intend to finally add the word ``women'' to the constitution. It is time for our nation to understand the necessity of equality for women based on the way it has been deprived of them. While we have made cracks in the glass ceiling many times before, we have yet to shatter it. I believe that this amendment provides that recognition to women without taking equality rights away from others.

Over the past several decades, legislative efforts have increased women's rights--but these strides toward achieving equality are not irreversible. Without the ERA, women have often been denied the ability to seek justice when they have experienced discrimination. Though certain court decisions, such as the Supreme Court decision in the Virginia Military Institute case (Virginia v. United States), helped to clarify that gender cannot be used to keep women from achieving social, legal and economic gains, important decisions like this can also be overturned. In addition, laws can still perpetuate gender classifications that keep women from achieving their full potential. Passage of the ERA would provide a Constitutional affirmation of the Supreme Court decision.

Our democracy rests on the principle of ``liberty and justice for all.'' We need the ERA to ensure that this concept applies equally to all.

I am pleased to introduce this bill with ninety-three of my bipartisan colleagues, Representatives Cynthia Lummis, Rodney Frelinghuysen, Jerrold Nadler, Karen Bass, Joyce Beatty, Xavier Becerra, Sanford Bishop, Timothy Bishop, Earl Blumenauer, Corrine Brown, G.K. Butterfield, Lois Capps, Michael Capuano, Tony Cardenas, Kathy Castor, David Cicilline, Yvette Clarke, Wm. Lacy Clay, James Clyburn, Steve Cohen, James Cooper, James Costa, Joseph Courtney, Joseph Crowley, Elijah Cummings, Daniel Davis, Susan Davis, Peter DeFazio, Diana DeGette, Charlie Dent, John Dingell, Tammy Duckworth, Keith Ellison, Sam Farr, Chaka Fattah, William Foster, Marcia Fudge, Tusli Gabbard, John Garamendi, Alan Grayson, Al Green, Raul Grijalva, Michelle Lujan Grisham, Louis Gutierrez, Brian Higgins, James Himes, Ruben Hinojosa, Steve Israel, Sheila Jackson Lee, Hakeem Jeffries, Eddie Bernice Johnson, Henry ``Hank'' Johnson, Marcy Kaptur, William Keating, Joseph Kennedy, Daniel Kildee, Barbara Lee, Sander Levin, John Lewis, David Loesback, Zoe Lofgren, Stephen Lynch, Betty McCollum, James McDermott, James McGovern, Grace Meng, Gwen Moore, Grace Napolitano, William Pascrell, Edward Perlmutter, Chellie Pingree, Michael Quigley, Charles Rangel, Raul Ruiz, Timothy Ryan, Linda Sanchez, Scott Davis, Terri Sewell, Carol Shea-Potter, Brad Sherman, Louise Slaughter, Bennie Thompson, Dina Titus, Paul Tonko, Niki Tsongas, Christopher Van Hollen, Nydia Velazquez, Maxine Waters, Melvin Watt, Henry Waxman, Peter Welch, and Frederica Wilson. I urge my fellow Members of Congress to join in support.

Mr. Speaker, the American people have said loud and clear that what they want the most from Congress is jobs. And what is Congress giving them? Jabs--threats to bring the government to a halt; threats to let the United States Treasury default; threats to slash the funding for mass transit that brings people to their jobs. And the tentacles of sequestration will strangle growth even more. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that sequestration will cost us 900,000 fewer jobs next year.

It's time to stop playing politics with our economy and do the people's work. We need to provide a strong workforce, a strong infrastructure, and manufacturing sectors. We need to provide a living wage to grow the middle class and strengthen America's standing as a leader in education and pioneering research.

But still, our friends on the other side of the aisle are marching to the tune of their own drum when what they should be listening to is the cry of the American people for more jobs.

Mr. Speaker, today, I, along with Representatives Joseph Crowley, John Conyers, Sam Farr, Raul Grijalva, Henry ``Hank'' Johnson, Jim McDermott, Gwen Moore, James Moran, and Jackie Speier, am reintroducing the ``Fistula Prevention, Treatment, Hope and Dignity Restoration Act.'' This comprehensive legislation both prevents new obstetric fistulas and helps to treat existing ones, helping millions of women throughout the world.

Pregnancy shouldn't leave a woman with a disability and ostracized from her community. Congress should ensure investments for the more than two million women worldwide that have obstetric fistula and we do what we can to prevent new cases. Obstetric fistula is a devastating condition that results from prolonged labor without medical attention. During delivery, the infant's head presses against the woman's pelvis for so long that it kills the tissues. This causes a hole between the woman's vagina and rectum develops, leaving her without control of her bladder and/or bowels for the rest of her life if she goes untreated. It often results in the death of the infant. They are almost always abandoned by their husbands and shunned by their families. According to the World Health Organization, about two million women suffer this condition worldwide.

Fortunately, multilateral organizations such as UNFPA (the United Nations Population Fund) and bilateral organizations such as USAID are working with partners on a global campaign to prevent and treat fistula with the goal of making the condition rare in developing areas such as sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

It is imperative that we in Congress support these efforts to eradicate the devastating condition which is why this bill authorizes the President to provide assistance to prevent and treat obstetric fistula. This legislation allows for a comprehensive, three pronged approach of prevention, treatment and reintegration which includes: increasing access to prenatal care, emergency obstetric care, postnatal care, and voluntary family planning; building local capacity and improving national health systems; addressing underlying social and economic inequities such as reducing the incidence of child marriage and increasing access to formal and informal education; and supporting reintegration and training programs to help women who have undergone treatment return to full and productive lives. These essential investments create a multiplier effect of benefits in the lives of women and their communities.

The legislation also supports coordination among the community working to prevent and treat obstetric fistula through the International Obstetric Fistula Working Group. Support for monitoring, evaluation, and research to measure the effectiveness and efficiency of such programs throughout their planning and implementation phases will ensure the most efficient and effective use of US foreign assistance dollars.

I urge my colleagues to support this important, meaningful legislation.

Mr. Speaker, today, I rise in honor of July 20, which is a special day of remembrance for the families and loved ones of all those who have suffered so greatly as a result of one of the biggest national tragedies in modern Greek history: the 1974 illegal invasion and occupation of the island of Cyprus by Turkish soldiers. It happened 39 years ago this week.

The invasion forced nearly thousands of Greek Cypriots to leave their homes in the occupied area and become refugees in their own country. Their religious and cultural sites were damaged and destroyed, their religious freedoms restricted, and their rights disrespected. In violation of international law, the Turkish soldiers remain there still, occupying more than one-third of the island. They ignore all the U.N. resolutions pertaining to Cyprus--and there have been many passed.

As the cochair and cofounder of the Congressional Hellenic Caucus, I have worked diligently with my colleagues in the Caucus out of our mutual concern for the continued division and occupation of Cyprus. We continue to work to raise awareness of the Cyprus problem and the role the U.S. can play to support the negotiations.

The people of Cyprus deserve a unified and democratic country--and we are working towards that end.

Mr. Speaker, did you know that last Sunday marked the anniversary of the day in 1917 when 16 women demanded the right to vote in front of the White House? They were sentenced to 60 days in the workhouse for demanding universal suffrage for women.

Did you know that tomorrow is the day when in 1892 Doris Fleischman Bernays was born? She was to become the first married woman to get a passport in her own name and to get her name on her daughter's birth certificate.

Or did you know that the famous Ginger Rogers-Fred Astaire partnership ended in part because she was angry over gender pay standards? She grew tired of being paid half of what her male colleagues were paid in films in which she was starring.

These are the sorts of things that one day visitors will learn about at the National Women's History Museum when it opens its doors--with a goal of educating, inspiring, and empowering women.

After all, American history is her story too. That is why I have introduced with Marsha Blackburn H.R. 863, a bill to create such a museum. Join it and make your mother proud.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to invite my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to join me in asking the Citizen's Stamp Advisory Committee to issue a staff stamp in honor of Diwali. H.R. 47 has over 41 bipartisan cosponsors.

Diwali marks the beginning of the Hindu new year, one of the oldest and most storied holidays in the world. It symbolizes the triumph of good over evil and of light over darkness. Diwali is celebrated by over a billion Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Christians, and Jains alike. It has been celebrated and honored in the White House by both parties. But Diwali has yet to join the legion of holidays that we honor with a stamp.

Yesterday, Congressman Bera, along with the Indian American leaders, including Ranju and Ravi Batra, delivered over 1,300 personally signed letters in support of the stamp to the Deputy Postmaster General. They also delivered over 400,000 signatures on a petition in support of the stamp.

The time has come to issue a Diwali stamp. Please join me in asking the Citizen's Advisory Committee to do so.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to introduce the Interstate Land Sales Disclosure Act Update of 2013.

The Interstate Land Sales Disclosure Act was enacted in 1969 to protect consumers from being sold property where the property's description in the contract and related materials was not what was to be delivered to the buyer.

It was intended to protect out-of-state buyers who were sold land that was not what was advertised and provides a right of action to rescind the contract and walk away from the deal. However, Courts have ruled over the years that ISLA applies to condominiums, and developers are required to file redundant paperwork that is unnecessary and out of keeping with modem condominium development.

During the economic downturn, some buyers have used the recording requirements of

ILSA to rescind otherwise valid contracts for economic reasons, an unintended consequence of the act and its intent. The law now needs a technical fix to distinguish condominium sales from other types of land sales and to recognize the unique conditions under which these units are sold in today's market.

I fully support the consumer protections that were enacted through ILSA, and this proposed legislation does nothing to affect those protections. But I also believe that we need to make distinctions for condominiums in order to allow the condominium development industry to rebound from the recession. The bill would only exempt condominiums from ILSA's registration requirements but will maintain the consumer protections to ensure consumers still have the right to rescind contracts in cases of fraud. Developers would, of course, still be required to comply with state laws that require specific disclosures.

As we recover in this still fragile economy, we want to encourage, not discourage, buyers and sellers to enter into real estate deals responsibly.

That is why this bill is important to ensure development and the return of an important industry in our country, residential condominium sales. I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, across all sectors and industries, flexible work arrangements are a key to meeting the 21st century's diverse workforce needs. Such voluntary arrangements have been shown to boost employee satisfaction and their physical and mental health as well as improve businesses bottom line by helping to retain key talent, reduce absenteeism, and enhance employee productivity.

Flexible workplace policies are a win-win for business and workers. To help promote these policies, I am introducing the Flexibility for Working Families Act. This legislation guarantees employees the right to request flexible work arrangements and provides employers with flexibility by encouraging them to review these requests, propose changes, and even deny them if they are not in the best interest of the business. Such voluntary arrangements between employees and employers include changing the time, amount, and/or place that work is conducted.

Over the last 50 years the American workforce and demographics have shifted tremendously. Last month, Pew Research found that ``breadwinner moms'' are the sole or primary provider in more than four in ten households with children under age 18. Furthermore, more households are caring for older relatives as medical advances mean people are living longer, with studies showing that almost 60 percent of those who provide unpaid care to an adult or to a child with special needs are employed. It's important that this workforce have options such as flexibility to help them handle even the most basic demands of work and family.

I urge my colleagues to support the Flexibility for Working Families Act, and I thank Senator Bob Casey for introducing Senate companion legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I agree with President Obama when he said this week that America is uniquely suited to take on the challenge of climate change. Those of us in the Northeast know firsthand what the President meant when he said that Hurricane Sandy's destruction left our mightiest city underwater and dark. Sandy destroyed homes, businesses, and, in some cases, entire neighborhoods. It halted our markets and damaged the infrastructure that the country depends on. These costs are real and they are personal.

Now is the time to improve the world our children and grandchildren will inherit. Now is the time to protect our beautiful natural resources. Now is the time to mitigate future natural disasters, and now is the time to take on the battle against climate change.

We know where to start. We need to reduce carbon pollution, utilize more renewable energy, improve energy efficiency, and oppose the Big Oil subsidies on the floor this week.

Mr. Speaker, across the U.S., there are more than 1.2 million units of housing cooperatives. In New York City, there are close to 6,000 housing cooperatives throughout the five boroughs, housing more than half a million families. Unfortunately, these alternative forms of housing, which are becoming more and more prevalent in urban areas like New York City, Washington, DC, Chicago, and Los Angeles, are not available to our country's veterans.

In 2006, the Congress passed legislation I authored to allow veterans to use the Veterans Affairs' Home Loan Guaranty Program to purchase cooperative housing using their low interest loan benefits. This program allows veterans to buy homes with no down payment and limited closing costs. However, the loan benefit for co-op housing sunset at the end of 2011. That is why today I am introducing legislation, the Fair Access to Co-Ops for Veterans Act, which would permanently permit veterans to use their loan benefits to purchase a co-op. In addition, to ensure that veterans are aware they can utilize the loans for co-op housing units, the bill includes a provision so that the Secretary of the Veterans Administration can advertise the program to eligible veterans, participating lenders, and interested realtors.

By permanently allowing these home loan benefits to include cooperatives, we can honor and thank all who bravely served in our Armed Forces by giving them the tools and resources they need to pursue their dreams of homeownership wherever they live. I thank Senator Schumer for introducing companion legislation and thank my colleague Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton for cosponsoring today's bill.

Mr. Speaker, in just 4 days, millions of American students will quite suddenly finally find themselves between a rock and a hard place. Unless Congress acts, the interest rates on subsidized student loans will double on July 1. This increase comes on top of sharp rises in public college tuition, and together means students hoping to improve their economic chances in life have to borrow more money at higher cost to get an increasingly more expensive college education.

A new report by the Joint Economic Committee, on which I serve as the ranking Democrat on the House side, shows that two-thirds of our recent graduates now have student loan debt with an average balance of $27,000. For someone just starting out in life, that is a mountain of debt and averages about 60 percent of their annual earnings. That means that two-thirds of our college graduates today are starting out in a pretty deep, big hole.

The question for Congress is: Are we going to just sit back and let them get into a deeper and bigger hole of debt?

Let's fix the student loan problem and get America moving again.

I thank my fellow New Yorker and good friend for yielding and for her outstanding leadership in this body on so many, many issues, particularly in the area of health.

My colleagues, once again, we need to ask ourselves where were the women when the Judiciary Committee produced this outrageous assault on women's health and women's reproductive rights? The answer is very clear. On this panel, there is not one female face participating in this crucial issue in their health care, absolutely nowhere. This is a photo of the members of the Judiciary Subcommittee that held a hearing on this legislation before us, and not one Republican on that panel is a woman.

The bill that was produced is evidence that women did not participate in this decision-making. For example, it was not until the chair of that subcommittee made a comment not worthy of this House that the majority added an insulting and narrow exception for pregnancies resulting from rape.

Last November, women came out in droves to say, Keep your laws off our bodies, out of our personal lives, and out from between women and their doctor.

This bill that a man sponsored and that an all-male panel has approved jeopardizes the health and well-being of women, and only women; it is indifferent to the rights of women, and only women; and it is callous to the concerns of women, and only women.

I can promise you that women will long remember this. They will remember it today, they will remember it tomorrow, and they will remember it at the polls when they select their Representatives.

Mr. Speaker, together with my bipartisan colleagues Reps. Charlie Rangel, Eliot Engel, Brian Higgins, Nita Lowey, Jerrold Nadler, and Michael Grimm, I am introducing a bill to award a Congressional Gold Medal to Rabbi Arthur Schneier, in recognition of his pioneering role in promoting religious freedom and human rights throughout the world for over half a century.

Born in Vienna, Austria, in 1930, Rabbi Schneier lived under Nazi occupation in Budapest during World War II and came to the United States in 1947. He has been the Spiritual Leader of the Park East Synagogue in New York City since 1962.

A Holocaust survivor, and the Founder and President of the Appeal of Conscience Foundation, Rabbi Schneier has devoted his life to overcoming the forces of hatred and intolerance.

He has been a pioneer in bringing together religious leaders to address ethnic or religious conflicts. For example, in Bosnia in 1997, he convened government and religious leaders to promote healing and conciliation between Orthodox, Muslim and Jewish communities. In the Balkans, the Caucasus and Central Asia he worked with the Orthodox Patriarch and the Turkish Government to hold the Peace and Tolerance Conference in 1994 and address religious and ethnic tensions in that area. In the former Yugoslavia, he mobilized religious leaders to halt the bloodshed of the early 90's, holding the Religious Summit on the Former Yugoslavia and the Conflict Resolution Conference to build support and consensus among religious leaders of different faiths. Since the early 1980s, he has led delegations of religious leaders to China to open a dialogue on religious freedom.

I hope my colleagues will join us in honoring this distinguished pioneer of religious freedom with a Congressional Gold Medal.

I thank the gentleman for yielding and for his leadership on this important issue along with Congressmen McIntyre, Grimm, Hensarling, and many, many others.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 634, the Business Risk Mitigation and Price Stabilization Act. This bill will make it easier for companies to manage their risks and plan for their future by clarifying that Dodd-Frank does not require end users of derivatives to post collateral on these trades. Congress never intended for these companies to be required to post collateral on their derivatives, because that would needlessly raise their costs and could even discourage companies from prudently managing their risks.

But because of a drafting error in Dodd-Frank, end users of derivatives currently face uncertainty about whether the regulators will require them to post collateral. Both Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler have stated that they support this bill because it would provide them with much-needed clarity on whether their rules on posting collateral should apply to end users.

This bipartisan effort to correct a problem with Dodd-Frank is not an attempt by opponents to weaken the safeguards of the bill but, rather, an attempt to make good legislation even better. Congress needs to step in and ensure that companies that use derivatives to manage their day- to-day commercial risk are not subject to unnecessary collateral requirements.

It was reported out in a very strong bipartisan vote from Financial Services Committee, and for these reasons, I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support H.R. 634.