Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in recognition of the 167th anniversary of Jamaican Emancipation, established on August 1, 1838.

On August 1, 1838, when the enslaved Jamaicans found out that they were freed, tears flowed incessantly, while shouts of freedom rang from every direction. The sentiment of the day was jubilance; however, there was an underlying reverence for the freedom of hundreds of thousands enslaved men, women, and children. They had been freed from the oppressive social and economic system to which they had been subjected to for generations.

Similar to the Quakers in the United States, the Quakers of Jamaica were very instrumental in aiding the fight for the abolition of slavery. Many of them started campaigns against the slave system, one of which was led by the ``Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade''. This community of abolitionists believed that slavery was against the will of God and a denial of civilization. Freedom and only freedom was and is the true natural state of man. The booming rise in the sugar industry quickly fostered economic excuses in favor of slavery, which quashed the Quaker's efforts within the 17th century.

However, entrance into the 18th century, and the initial decline of the sugar industry ushered in much opportunity that encouraged a resurgence of the abolitionist movement within Jamaica. In 1807, abolitionists gained their first victory through the ``Total and Immediate Abolition of the Slave Trade'' in the British Parliament, ending Jamaican involvement in the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade, cutting off their human cargo from Africa and the influx of more potential slaves. Meanwhile, enslaved Jamaicans were taking their freedom into their own hands through the many slave revolts staged across the island. The most famous revolt took place a few days after Christmas in 1831. Reverend Samuel Sharpe, who was a leader of a secret society of slaves, and is today recognized as a national hero of Jamaica, planned that the slaves should simply stop work, present their demand for freedom, and then hold fast in resistance until the demand was met, which was one of the first acts of organized civil disobedience, prior to our modern day examples. However, the slaves still armed themselves, in case they needed to defend themselves, as of course they did. The strike turned into a running series of fights, which accumulated and spread, to over two hundred plantations. Slaves did not take the initiative in attacking their white masters, but they did systematically destroy plantation houses and equipment. Within a short time, they had control over settlements and communications in virtually all the western end of the island. This 10 day rebellion mobilized some 60,000 slaves, numbers that quickly got the attention of Parliament.

With the possibility of a general uprising looming, the idea of abolishing slavery was once again proposed to Parliament. In 1833, it decided that slavery was no longer an effective economic system. The Emancipation Act of 1834 declared that all enslaved peoples under the age of six and those born after the enactment of the bill were legally free. Those who were older were forced to become apprenticed to their former masters up until August 1, 1838, after which they would be free. Indeed, in 1838 all those who were once enslaved were made free.

Emancipation Day is celebrated across the island within churches and town squares where there are a variety of all night vigils that take place. Then at midnight, there is a nation wide celebration of drumming, pealing of bells, and much more which carry on into the dawn of the ``First of August''. All this is done to simulate or re-create the atmosphere that existed during that morning when slavery was abolished. The celebration of Emancipation Day is of the utmost importance to the historical integrity of Jamaica. It not only pays homage to those millions of Africans that were subjected to one of the worst crimes against humanity, it provides a historical foundation for the country to evolve from. As Rev. Dr. Burchell K. Taylor, Pastor of Bethel Baptist Church, states ``an event as significant as the Emancipation of our people from slavery and all it signifies in terms of human cruelty, suffering, sacrifice, folly, courage, deception, greed, triumph of the human spirit and faith and hope, cannot be allowed to slip from our collective memory. There are lessons to be learned that are of lasting value. Remembering Emancipation can itself be an ongoing liberating experience.''

I submit to you an editorial written by the Honorable P.J. Patterson, Prime Minister of Jamaica, found in the August 9th edition of the CaribNews newspaper, addressing the people of Jamaica and the significant lessons that this celebration brings with its 167th year.

There are many lessons that we, the U.S., can learn from Jamaica and its national and cultural acceptance of their past. We truly cannot know where we as a country are headed unless we first recognize, reconcile and then celebrate our history, all of our history. Emancipation is a celebration that should not be reserved for those who are descendants of slaves and abolitionists. As the Prime Minister suggests, ``the abolition of slavery meant more than the emancipation of slaves. It also meant the emancipation of those who held them in bondage, at least from the burden of callousness and greed-factors that devalue human life and desecrate any society intended to nurture that life.'' We too must engage in similar reconciliatory celebrations and find strength in our past.

What Emancipation Means to Jamaica and Its People

(By P.J. Patterson)

One hundred and sixty seven years ago, our forebears

gathered in churches all over this island (of Jamaica) to

give thanks for the release of some 400,000 former slaves

into full freedom. On that day, a clear message was sent to

the world that, as children of a Common Creator, no one could

rightly, justly or morally be the property of another.

The assertive character of Jamaican has never allowed us to

sit idly by and allow that part of our history to be either

forgotten or ignored. It is our solemn duty to secure the

gains won by the invincibility of the human

spirit against such great odds with passionate and loving

care.

We are about to celebrate yet again that freedom which set

hundreds of thousands of our ancestors free and to give the

society they were to inherit, as free men and free women, the

capacity to become civil, tolerant and enduringly humane.

The great Haitian leader, Touissant l'Ouverture in his

memorable reply to the President of France, the colonial

ruler asserted (and I quote) ``It is not a circumstantial

liberty conceded to us that we wish, but the unequivocal

adoption of the principle that no man whether he is born red,

black or white can become the property of his fellow man''.

It is that spirit of determination to effect human equity

and equality for which we here in Jamaica have struggled,

regardless of race, colour, political affiliation or creed.

The celebration of August First, then, remains an important

observance for all who inhabit this land of ours. Today's

challenges may appear formidable. But the fact that our

forebears could overcome the greatest hardship of all--that

of being enslaved--is cause enough, both for hope and for the

strengthening of our resolve, to overcome every obstacle.

We dare not betray the trust placed in us who have come

after the generation of 1838. We must never give up the fight

to become the self-directed, liberated human beings we were

created to be.

The abolition of slavery meant more than the emancipation

of the slaves. It also meant the emancipation of those who

held them in bondage, at least from the burden of callousness

and greed--factors that devalue human life and desecrate any

society intended to nurture that life.

So, let us again say thanks for that Emancipation which

allowed thousands of others, whose descendants now call

Jamaica ``home'', to enter a free society. They were still

being exploited on contract during the period of indentured

labour, but at least there were prescribed rules of

engagement covering conditions of work.

They bequeathed this precious legacy to our workers and

their trade unions, to our professionals and their staff

associations, to our citizens and their right to choose their

leaders who hold power in trust on their behalf. It was this

legacy which was to help guide us into Independence, another

milestone that we will observe in a few days. This legacy set

us on the road to civil society, democratic governance and

peaceful co-existence.

Our Emancipation Day observance is therefore a fitting

tribute to that legacy of determination and inner strength

which our freedom-loving ancestors have given to posterity.

May I wish blessed and pleasant Emancipation Day to

everyone!

(P.J. Patterson is Jamaica's Prime Minister. The

Emancipation Day Message was read to hundreds of worshippers

at a Thanksgiving Service on Sunday afternoon at Hanson Place

Central Methodist Church in Brooklyn by Dr. Basil Bryan,

Jamaica's Consul-General in New York).

Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize and honor the esteemed boxer Sugar Ray Robinson for his positive impact on the athletic world as one of the greatest boxers of all time, and to honor his service as a role model with an extraordinary positive influence on his community. Sugar Ray Robinson was a prime example of an American role model, a man from an era where blacks were seen and treated as second class citizens and he focused on his talent in order to achieve greatness, the story of a true hero. At a time when African American youth did not have African American icons to idolize; Sugar Ray more than filled this void, by being an enormous boxing influence to a variety of African American children, some of whom became Muhammad Ali, and Sugar Ray Leonard whom even took Robinson's nickname. He gave these kids something to believe in and something to be proud of.

The phrase ``pound for pound the best'' was coined in honor of Sugar Ray's boxing success, and has been used to reference successful boxers ever since. Walker ``Sugar Ray'' Smith was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1921. He began boxing as an amateur in New York City, where he quickly advanced to the professional circuit in 1940. New York has always been a tough city and to make it there as Sugar Ray Robinson did, you have to be among the best of the best. From 1946 to 1951 he became the world welterweight champion and the world middleweight title holder. Sugar Ray's athletic ability clearly outmatched his opponents, fight after fight. A fierce competitor, Sugar Ray's final record was an utterly amazing 174 wins, 109 of them being knockouts, and only 19 losses and 6 draws; this being a remarkable testament to Sugar Ray's amazing athletic accomplishments within the boxing circuit.

Sugar Ray Robinson was a Renaissance man; he did not restrict himself to solely boxing and athletics. He used his fame as keys to experiment in the musical world and also acting. Nevertheless his fame is attributed to his remarkable achievements in his boxing. He was one of the first athletic stars to cross over into different mediums of public spotlight. Sugar was known for his huge entourages and public displays of success, truly a man who enjoyed the life he lived. He showed generations of young African Americans that raw physical talent was not enough. Skill, ability and education were also important.

In 1989 Sugar Ray Robinson died a month before his birthday, leaving behind a plethora of fans, along with countless influences and friends. Sugar Ray Robinson represented hope and optimism for the African American community during an era of blatant and systematic racial oppression. He aided in racial relations in athletics while giving African Americans a sense of pride as an example of African American perseverance and strength over the negative barriers. Sugar Ray broke these barriers, charging forward for his people to be seen, to be respected and to be loved. It was a fight to show that African American people were not inferior and should be granted equal opportunity.

The African American hero, the American idol, Sugar Ray Robinson showed the American people a black man that was a powerful warrior, and clearly the best of his time in and out of the ring. I have reintroduced legislation in the 109th Congress to recognize the stellar career of Sugar Ray Robinson. It is an honor which Sugar Ray Robinson very well deserves and I truly hope my colleagues will join me in this effort.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to invite Congress to join me in cosponsoring

H.R. 1432 to require the Secretary of the Treasury to redesign the $1 coin to commemorate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

On December 5, 1955, after civil rights activist Rosa Parks refused to observe the segregation policy on buses, the residents of Montgomery, Alabama launched a bus boycott. The success of the boycott which desegregated the city bus system propelled Dr. King into national prominence. He organized and led strategic marches, protests and demonstrations for blacks' right to vote, desegregation, fair hiring practices and other basic civil rights. He led these marches under the philosophy of non-violence and civil disobedience, which gained national and international media attention. Through his influence, the world began to see first hand the inhumanity of segregation.

It wasn't until his 1963 ``I have a dream'' speech during the March on Washington, did America begin to see Dr. King as a prophetic visionary. The eloquence and optimism of his speech and vision truly inspired the collective conscience of the American public. As his message began to spread, the Nation began to change. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 became manifestations of the dreams and hopes of equality and justice for all that Dr. King so effectively represented.

Although Dr. King, once Time Magazine's ``Man of the Year 1963'' and the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize was quickly and violently taken from us, his dream still lives on. He had insight into a reality that was not yet this world's reality. Peace on Earth and goodwill towards all was not yet this world's reality. But he believed that it could be; that it ought to be. His philosophy of nonviolent direct action, and his strategies for national and non-destructive social change, galvanized the conscience of this Nation and reordered its priorities. His wisdom, his words, his actions, his commitment, and his dream for a new way of life of equality and justice for all have been intertwined with the American experience.

There is no man more deserving to have their image engraved on the face of the $1 coin than, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Not only would this be a national recognition of his many contributions to American history, but it would be a constant reminder that we have not yet fulfilled the dream, Peace on Earth and good will to all men, and equality and justice for all.

Mr. Speaker, in celebration of Jamaica's 43rd anniversary of independence I rise today to insert in the Record an article from the July 20th New York Times highlighting Jamaican cuisine and its impact on New York City.

The influx of Jamaican cuisine in New York and other cities throughout the U.S. is a testament to the richness which immigration has brought to the city of New York and our Nation. The diversity of cuisine now available to

us is but one example of the benefits we New Yorkers and Americans derive from the cultures and customs brought to the U.S. from all over the world.

The vibrant cuisine of Jamaica is a reflection of its culture and is as diverse as its people, drawing inspiration from a medley of sources. Jamaican cooking can be best described as a culinary melting pot that combines a hint of Spanish, a dash of English and a heaping teaspoon of Indian and Chinese with a cup or two of African ingredients to serve up some of the Caribbean's most creative cuisine.

As a native New Yorker I have been a Jamaican food enthusiast since my youth. It is a cuisine full of flavor and vibrancy.

Jamaicans have been immigrating to the United States for centuries and have undeniably left their mark on cities throughout our Nation. Their contributions can be seen at the center of our neighborhoods and industries, in every sector from music to cuisine.

The Jamaican American community is a prime example of a community which has and is contributing greatly to New York City and their adopted nation. Special praise is due for what the entrepreneurs of this community are contributing to the cuisine of the city and their efforts are appropriately recognized in this article.

Island Flavors in a Yellow Envelope

(By Julia Moskin and Kim Severson)

Long before the BlackBerry and the PlayStation Portable,

New Yorkers loved their hand-helds. The folded pizza slice,

the hot dog and the crusty knish have a built-in mobility

that lets hungry New Yorkers eat on the street, and enough

density to carry them through to the next meal.

New immigrants have added to the on-the-go family,

introducing Colombian arepas, Mexican tacos and Uzbek samsas.

But the hand-held with the best shot at making the list of

classic New York noshes is the Jamaican beef patty, a

rectangle of flaky yellow crust filled with ground beef shot

through with onion, thyme and the inimitable heat and perfume

of Scotch bonnet chili peppers.

The patties are familiar to New Yorkers who order bland

commercial versions sold at numerous pizzerias. But they

cannot compare to the fresh, handcrafted patties found at a

handful of Jamaican bakeries here. The flakiest crusts are

still made with a hefty percentage of beef suet, and the most

memorable fillings are unabashedly hot.

``That little country pepper takes you right back to

Jamaica,'' said Ronald Patterson, a customer at Buff Patty in

Fort Greene, Brooklyn, using a Jamaican term for the Scotch

bonnet chili pepper, which has a fruity, almost floral taste

that balances its considerable heat.

Since the 1970's, Jamaicans have been among the largest

immigrant groups in New York City, with many arrivals

settling in Brooklyn. There are large Jamaican communities in

the Wakefield section of the Bronx and (coincidentally) in

Jamaica, Queens. But the city's best Jamaican food is

concentrated in Brooklyn, along Flatbush, Nostrand and Utica

Avenues.

``We use Black Angus beef and fat from the caps of the

prime rib,'' said Desmond Patterson, an owner of Jamaican

Pride Bakery in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, Brooklyn. There,

Mr. Patterson and his crew turn out 2,000 patties from

scratch every morning and bake them throughout the day.

Jamaican Pride's ground beef filling combines plenty of

black pepper and Scotch bonnet, and a whiff of fresh thyme

and allspice (Jamaicans call it pimento), two signature

seasonings in Jamaican cooking. It is slightly soupy, not

unlike a sloppy Joe. Patties at most New York shops tend to

be drier, with the meat pastelike, in the traditional style.

Patties, it turns out, are an immensely personal matter.

Preferences for meat texture, crust style and spicing levels

are often determined by how and where one was raised.

Jamaican cooking combines local ingredients with an overlay

of Spanish, British, Indian and Chinese influences. The patty

could be a descendant of the empanada or of the meat pasty,

the traditional lunch of miners in Cornwall in southwest

England, who needed portable lunches that they could take

deep into the mines.

Other islands with British influence make patties. In

Trinidad a distinct curry flavor reflects that island's many

Indian cooks (try the patties at Al Cholo Bakery in the

Bronx); the bakers at Shaborn Juice Bar, a Guyanese bakery in

Flatbush, make round patties no bigger than the palm of a

hand. The filling is flavored with a little basil, and the

crust is rich and crumbly.

The Jamaican patty is served wrapped in coco bread, which

is like an oversize, slightly sweet hamburger bun. It is

called coco bread not because it contains coconut (it

doesn't), but because you split it open like a coconut.

Although the combination first appears dauntingly starchy,

the soft sweetness of the bread nicely offsets the spicy

filling and the crisp crust.

``You eat it with the coco bread to soak up the spice and

the juice,'' said Shana Bennett Reid, who works at Angel

Flake Patties in Flatbush.

In different times and places, the distinctive yellow-

orange color of the classic patty crust has come from palm

oil, annatto seeds, yellow food coloring and turmeric. Some

upscale patties bear a natural pale-brown crust, rather than

the traditional yellow. In developing a recipe for home

cooks, we found that using turmeric and a bit of West Indian

curry powder added a pleasant pungency and the classic yellow

color. We also found that although vegetable shortening makes

a perfectly good crust, beef suet makes a spectacular one.

Not all patties are spicy. Vegetable patties in a whole-

wheat crust may seem like an American health food invention,

but they are authentically Jamaican. Many Jamaicans are at

least part-time vegetarians because of the dietary laws of

Rastafarianism.

Jerk chicken patties, a relatively new creation gaining

popularity here and in Jamaica, can be hot or not, but they

are always heavily perfumed with allspice and thyme, the

classic jerk spices. At Jamican Pride, one popular patty is

filled with ackee, a soft, slippery-sweet fruit that

resembles scrambled eggs when baked inside a crisp crust.

Besides coco bread, the squeal of brakes seems to be a

constant accompaniment to patties; many of the best patty

shops are near bus and subway stops. At any time of day,

customers rush in holding two dollar bills, the usual

tariff for a patty in coco bread.

``In Jamaica people eat patties first thing in the morning

and last thing at night,'' said Patrick Anthony, whose father

owns the One Stop Patty Shop on Amsterdam Avenue in Harlem.

``Every neighborhood has its own patty shop, and every patty

shop has its own recipe.''

Kingston, the capital of Jamaica, is the hotbed of the

country's patty wars, with chains of Tastee Patties and Juici

Patties battling for dominance.

``I have heard of people making a living buying Tastee

Patties by the case in Kingston airport and flying them to

Miami, just going back and forth,'' Ronald Patterson said.

His favorite patty shop, Buff Patty, carries Royal Caribbean

patties, a local commercial product that stood out in our

tastings. They are sold nationally under the Caribbean Food

Delights label in Costco stores and in other large grocery

chains.

Caribbean Food Delights, Tower Isle and Golden Krust, which

sells its patties to hundreds of franchisees, are the big

players in the market. The companies, which turn out hundreds

of thousands of patties a day, are determined to make patties

as popular as hamburgers and pizza.

Vincent and Jeanette HoSang, who founded Royal Caribbean,

import Scotch bonnets and thyme from Jamaica so their patties

will taste the way they do on the island. ``But everyone buys

them,'' said their daughter, Sabrina, the bakery's director

of operations. ``Not only Jamaicans, but Caucasians and

especially Hispanics--a patty is a lot like an empanada.''

Or a lot like a calzone, a samosa or even a knish. But no

matter what your roots, the patty travels well. Especially

through the streets of New York.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay homage to one of the most significant men in my life and in the Congressional history, John H. Rainey, the first African American to serve in the United States House of Representatives and the second Black U.S. Congressman. Without his courage, strength and will to represent the issues and concerns of the once voiceless community of freed slaves, I would not be what and who I am today.

Joseph H. Rainey was born on June 21, 1832 in Georgetown, South Carolina. His parents were both slaves, but his father, Edward, had a successful business as a barber, enabling him to purchase his family's freedom shortly after Joseph Rainey's birth. As an adult, Rainey followed his father by becoming a barber. In 1861, with the outbreak of the American Civil War, Rainey was drafted by the Confederate government to,work on fortifications in Charleston, South Carolina, as well as to work as a laborer on blockade-runner ships. In 1862, he and his wife were able to escape to the West Indies. They settled in St. Georges, Bermuda, where Rainey continued to work as a barber for the duration of the war.

In 1866, following the war's end, Rainey returned to South Carolina. He quickly involved himself in politics, joining the executive committee of the state Republican Party. In 1868, he was a delegate to the convention which wrote the state's new constitution. In 1870, Rainey was elected to the State Senate of South Carolina. Later that year, he was elected to fill a vacancy in the Forty-first Congress of the United States as a Republican. This vacancy had been created when the previous incumbent, B. Franklin Whittemore, was censured by the House for corruption and subsequently re-elected, after which the House refused to seat him. Rainey was seated December 12, 1870 and was re- elected to Congress four times; he served until March 3, 1879, which made him the longest-serving black Congressmen prior to William L. Dawson in the 1950s.

During his term in Congress, Rainey focused on supporting legislation to protect the

civil rights of Southern blacks. This pursuit eventually proved unsuccessful, with the end of Reconstruction effectively meaning that the black electorate lost all political power. In 1876, Rainey won re- election against Democratic candidate John Smythe Richardson;

Richardson however challenged the result as invalid on the grounds of intimidation by federal soldiers and black militias. Two years later, as the opponents of Reconstruction solidified their control over South Carolina politics; Rainey was defeated in a second contest with Richardson.

After leaving Congress, Joseph Rainey was appointed internal-revenue agent of South Carolina. He held this position for two years, after which he began a career in private commerce. Rainey retired in 1886 and died the following year in Georgetown, the city in which he was born.

Joseph H. Rainey set a standard which all U.S. Representatives should seek to emulate. His strength and courage was unparalleled, and his will and commitment to his people, his state and his country were admirable. Thank you, Mr. Rainey for paving the way for African Americans like me in Congress, and for reminding us that we too must continue the fight for true liberty and justice for all.

The Honorable Chaka Fattah, Member of Congress and the

Honorable Robert W. Ney, Chairman, the House Fine Arts Board,

cordially invite you to the Official Unveiling of the

Portrait of the Honorable Joseph H. Rainey, the first

African-American to serve in the United States House of

Representatives, the Rayburn Foyer, Rayburn House Office

Building, Washington, D.C., Wednesday, September 21, 2005,

2:00 p.m.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to acknowledge the retirement of Jean D. Mathis whose contributions to the United States Drug Enforcement Administration have been unparalleled.

Ms. Mathis was born on March 3, 1950 in Washington, DC. She attended DC public schools (Anthony Bowen Elementary, Randall Junior High and Dunbar High) and graduated from Howard University in 1972.

Ms. Mathis worked throughout her junior high, high school and college years and was introduced at an early age to work in government service.

Immediately following her graduation from college, she began her first full-time employment in the Federal Service with the District of Columbia Department of Corrections, where she worked until 1975. In October 1975, she began her employment with the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Ms. Mathis distinguished herself from the beginning and quickly advanced through the ranks of the Operational Support Division. In 1990, Ms. Mathis was appointed as the Deputy Assistant Administrator of the Office of Personnel, becoming one of the first two women to enter DEA's Senior Executive Service (SES) and the first African-American woman promoted to the rank of SES. In 1994, Ms. Mathis was promoted to Assistant Administrator for Human Resources becoming DEA's first female Assistant Administrator.

Ms. Mathis's stellar career is marked by numerous exemplary achievements. Under her direction, the DEA instituted validated testing for senior law enforcement personnel, drug testing for employees and applicants, and psychological testing for Special Agents. In 1999, she played a vital leadership role in the opening of DEA's state of the art training facility in Quantico, Virginia. Ms. Mathis is a longstanding member of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE), and served as a member of the Training and Education Committee. She also chaired this committee for 2 years.

Ms. Mathis' outstanding work ethic and diligence have been recognized with a plethora of awards and commendations over the years. Moreover, her DEA accomplishments have been recognized government-wide as she distinguished herself and the DEA as a two-time recipient of the Presidential Rank Award for Meritorious Performance in 1995 and 2001.

Over the years, Ms. Mathis has participated in extensive training programs including Management Training at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, University of Southern California and is a 2003 Brookings Fellow. It was as a Brookings Fellow that Jean came to work in my office and I received the benefit of her experience and wisdom. I have been actively engaged in the problems associated with illegal narcotics throughout my congressional career and have been aware of the role of the Drug Enforcement Administration in the implementation of our national anti-narcotics policies. Yet Jean Mathis taught me a great deal and enhanced my understanding and appreciation of the complexities of addressing the challenges of narcotics addiction and control. She performed superbly as my Congressional staff assistant and I regretted her return to the DEA.

In summary, the essence of Ms. Mathis' career was captured in a number of performance award justifications over the years including several DEA Administrators for whom she worked directly. Among them was former DEA Administrator Thomas A. Constantine who stated, ``Ms. Mathis leads by example, demanding high ethical standards and conscientious work. Her outstanding work ethic and diligence inspire and challenge her staff.'' Ms. Mathis has inspired all of those who were fortunate enough to work for or with her. Ms. Mathis' tenacious spirit and pursuit of excellence will be missed at DEA but will continue to inspire those who engage her throughout her retirement and personal endeavors.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commemorate the life and legacy of Judge Constance Baker Motley who died September 21, 2005. Constance Baker Motley had a remarkable career as a public servant, achieving success both as an elected official and as a Federal judge. She made history and contributed greatly to the widening of opportunities for minorities and women. Judge Motley was the first woman and first African-American woman to be appointed to the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, the largest Federal trial bench in the country; the first African-American woman to be elected to the New York State Senate and the first woman to the Manhattan Borough Presidency.

Constance Baker Motley was born on September 14, 1921 in New Haven, CT, where her father worked as chef for a Yale University fraternity. Her parents were West Indian emigrants who encouraged her to excel in school and to become involved in community activities. Clarence Blakeslee, a wealthy white contractor and philanthropist was so impressed by her that he paid for her college education. She attended Fisk University and graduated from New York University in 1943. In 1946, she received her law degree from Columbia University, and married real estate and insurance broker, Joel Wilson Motley. She also began work as a law clerk with the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund. Thurgood Marshall

interviewed her for the position and continued to mentor and support her in the years to come.

As one of the NAACP's principal trial attorneys Motley played a role in all of the major school segregation cases. She helped write the briefs filed in Brown v. Board of Education, 1954, and she personally tried the cases resulting in the admission of James Meredith to the University of Mississippi and of Charlayne Hunter-Gault and Hamilton Holmes to the University of Georgia. In the 1950's and 1960's she argued 10 civil rights cases before the Supreme Court, winning 9. She also represented such luminaries as Dr. Martin Luther King and the Reverend Ralph Abernathy.

In 1964 Motley became the first Black woman elected to the New York State Senate and in 1965 she became the first woman elected to be president of the Borough of Manhattan. In 1966 she was named U.S. District Judge, the first African-American woman to be appointed to the federal bench. Her nomination was approved only after months of fierce political opposition; President Lyndon Johnson had been forced to withdraw his earlier nomination of Motley to the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Constance Baker Motley is the author of dozens of articles on legal and civil rights issues, including several personal tributes to Thurgood Marshall. She has received honorary doctorates from Spelman College, Howard, Princeton, and Brown Universities, and from many Connecticut institutions, including Yale, Trinity, Albertus Magnus, UCONN, and the University of Hartford. Among her many other awards are the NAACP Medal of Honor and her 1993 election to the National Women's Hall of Fame.

Judge Constance Baker Motley has truly been a trailblazer in the advancement of civil rights for all Americans, and a pioneer in breaking racial and gender barriers within the once homogeneous legal arenas. She is truly not only an African-American ``shero,'' she is an American icon as well. Judge Motley leaves behind her husband of 59 years, Joel Wilson Motley, her son Joel Motley III; three sisters; a brother; and three grandchildren.

I submit to you two obituaries from the September 29th, 2005 edition of the New York Times and from the same edition of the Washington Post.

[From the New York Times, Sept. 29, 2005]

Constance Baker Motley, Civil Rights Trailblazer, Dies at 84

(By Douglas Martin)

Constance Baker Motley, a civil rights lawyer who fought

nearly every important civil rights case for two decades and

then became the first black woman to serve as a federal

judge, died yesterday at NYU Downtown Hospital in Manhattan.

She was 84.

The cause was congestive heart failure, said Isolde Motley,

her daughter-in-law.

Judge Motley was the first black woman to serve in the New

York State Senate, as well as the first woman to be Manhattan

borough president, a position that guaranteed her a voice in

running the entire city under an earlier system of local

government called the Board of Estimate.

Judge Motley was at the center of the firestorm that raged

through the South in the two decades after World War II, as

blacks and their white allies pressed to end the segregation

that had gripped the region since Reconstruction. She visited

the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in jail, sang freedom

songs in churches that had been bombed, and spent a night

under armed guard with Medgar Evers, the civil rights leader

who was later murdered.

But her metier was in the quieter, painstaking preparation

and presentation of lawsuits that paved the way to fuller

societal participation by blacks. She dressed elegantly,

spoke in a low, lilting voice and, in case after case, earned

a reputation as the chief courtroom tactician of the civil

rights movement.

Gov. George C. Wallace of Alabama and other staunch

segregationists yielded, kicking and screaming, to the

verdicts of courts ruling against racial segregation. These

huge victories were led by the N.A.A.C.P.'s Legal Defense and

Education Fund, led by Thurgood Marshall, for which Judge

Motley, Jack Greenberg, Robert Carter and a handful of other

underpaid, overworked lawyers labored.

In particular, she directed the legal campaign that

resulted in the admission of James H. Meredith to the

University of Mississippi in 1962. She argued 10 cases before

the United States Supreme Court and won nine of them.

Judge Motley won cases that ended segregation in Memphis

restaurants and at whites-only lunch counters in Birmingham,

Ala. She fought for King's right to march in Albany, Ga. She

played an important role in representing blacks seeking

admission to the Universities of Florida, Georgia, Alabama

and Mississippi and Clemson College in South Carolina.

She helped write briefs in the landmark school

desegregation case Brown v. Board of Education in 1954 and in

later elementary-school integration cases.

Judge Motley was a tall, gracious and stately woman whose

oft-stated goal was as simple as it was sometimes elusive:

dignity for all people. Her personal approach was also

dignified. When a reporter wrote that she had demanded some

action by the court, she soon corrected him:

``What do you mean `I demanded the court'? You don't

demand, you pray for relief or move for some action.''

Charlayne Hunter-Gault, whose admission to the University

of Georgia was engineered by Mrs. Motley's legal finesse,

described her courtroom cunning.

``Mrs. Motley's style could be deceptive, often challenging

a witness to get away with one lie after another without

challenging them,'' she wrote in her book ``In My Place,''

published in 1992. ``It was as if she would lull them into an

affirmation of their own arrogance, causing them to relax as

she appeared to wander aimlessly off into and around left

field, until she suddenly threw a curveball with so much

skill and power it would knock them off their chair.''

As a black woman practicing law in the South, she endured

gawking and more than a few physical threats. A local paper

in Jackson, Miss., derided her as ``the Motley woman.''

In 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed her as a

judge on the United States District Court for the Southern

District of New York at the urging of Senator Robert F.

Kennedy of New York, a Democrat, and with the support of

Senator Jacob K. Javits, a Republican. The opposition of

Southern senators like James O. Eastland, a Mississippi

Democrat, was beaten back, and her appointment was confirmed.

She became chief judge of the district in 1982 and senior

judge in 1986.

Constance Baker was born on Sept. 14, 1921, in New Haven,

the ninth of 12 children. Her parents came from the tiny

Caribbean island Nevis at the beginning of the 20th century.

Her father worked as a chef for various Yale University

student organizations, including Skull and Bones. She

attended local schools in what was then an overwhelmingly

white community.

One of her first experiences with discrimination came at

15, when she was turned away from a public beach because she

was black.

She read books dealing with black history and became

president of the local N.A.A.C.P. youth council. She decided

that she wanted to be a lawyer, but her family lacked money

to send their many children to college. After high school,

she struggled to earn a living as a domestic worker.

When she was 18, she made a speech at local African-

American social center that was heard by Clarence W.

Blakeslee, a white businessman and philanthropist who

sponsored the center. He was impressed and offered to finance

her education.

She decided to attend Fisk University, a black college in

Nashville, partly because she had never been to the South. In

Nashville, she encountered a rigidly segregated society, and

brought her parents a poignant souvenir: a sign that read

``Colored Only.''

After a year and a half at Fisk, she transferred to New

York University. After graduation in 1943, she entered

Columbia Law School, where she began to work as a volunteer

at the N.A.A.C.P.'s Legal Defense and Education Fund, an

affiliate of the National Organization for the Advancement of

Colored People that Mr. Marshall and his mentor, Charles

Houston, had created in 1939.

After she graduated in 1946, she began to work full time

for the civil rights group at a salary of $50 a week. She

worked first on housing cases, fighting to break the

restrictive covenants that barred blacks from white

neighborhoods.

Also in 1946, she married Joel Wilson Motley Jr., a New

York real estate broker. He survives her, as does their son,

Joel III, who lives in Scarborough, N.Y.; three

grandchildren; her brother Edmund Baker of Florida; and her

sisters Edna Carnegie, Eunice Royster and Marian Green, all

of New Haven.

Mr. Marshall had no qualms about sending her into the

tensest racial terrain, precisely because she was a woman.

She said she believed that was why she was assigned to the

Meredith case in 1961.

``Thurgood says that the only people who are safe in the

South are the women--white and Negro,'' she said in

an interview with Pictorial Living, the magazine of The

New York Journal-American, in 1965. ``I don't know how

he's got that figured. But, so far, I've never been

subjected to any violence.''

Mr. Meredith's admission to the University of Mississippi

in September 1962 was a major victory for the civil rights

movement. Mrs. Motley worked on the case for 18 months before

Mr. Meredith's name was even seen in the papers.

She made 22 trips to Mississippi as the case dragged on.

Judge Motley once called the day Mr. Meredith accepted his

diploma in 1963 the most thrilling in her life.

She said her greatest professional satisfaction came with

the reinstatement of 1,100 black children in Birmingham who

had been expelled for taking part in street demonstrations in

the spring of 1963.

In February 1964, Mrs. Motley's high-level civil rights

profile drew her into politics. A Democratic State Senate

candidate from the Upper West Side was ruled off the ballot

because of an election-law technicality. She accepted the

nomination on the condition that it would not interfere with

her N.A.A.C.P. work and handily defeated a Republican to

become the first black woman elected to the State Senate. She

was re-elected that November.

She remained in the job until February 1965, when she was

chosen by unanimous vote of the City Council to fill a one-

year vacancy

as Manhattan borough president. In citywide elections nine

months later, she was re-elected to a full four-year term

with the endorsement of the Democratic, Republican and

Liberal Parties.

As borough president, she drew up a seven-point program for

the revitalization of Harlem and East Harlem, securing

$700,000 to plan for those and other underprivileged areas of

the city.

After becoming a federal judge in 1966, Judge Motley ruled

in many cases, but her decisions often reflected her past.

She decided on behalf of welfare recipients, low-income

Medicaid patients and a prisoner who claimed to have been

unconstitutionally punished by 372 days of solitary

confinement, whom she awarded damages.

She continued to try cases after she took senior status.

Her hope as a judge was that she would change the world for

the better, she said.

``The work I'm doing now will affect people's lives

intimately,'' she said in an interview with The New York

Times in 1977, ``it may even change them.''

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to acknowledge the eloquent remarks made by the Honorable P.J. Patterson, Prime Minister of Jamaica as he accepted the Charles Diggs Award for International Service from the Congressional Black Caucus as part of our Annual Legislative Conference Awards Dinner on Saturday September 24, 2005. His acceptance speech reached beyond words of gratitude, to encompass a stirring statement of the basis for the commonality of people throughout the African Diaspora. Prime Minister Patterson inspired us with his words to promote enlightenment, encouragement, unity and brotherhood.

In his address he reminded us of the shared histories and experiences of Blacks in the Americas and across the globe. He showed how those who survived the Middle Passage were indeed part of a larger family of shared experience. Prime Minister Patterson illustrated the common experiences of poverty, neglect and misrepresentation that affected the social status of Africa and its descendants of the Diaspora alike. His message showed that the neglectful actions of federal, state, and local governments following Hurricane Katrina were a microcosm of the global experience of blacks everywhere in the world. He gave us hope that through this shared history, we have a common foundation from which we as one people regardless of nation, or geographic location can stand on to fight injustice around the world, especially since those of African descent suffer most from the injustices.

Mr. Patterson also reminded and encouraged us as public officials and as citizens of the world to continue the fight for what we vowed to do, fight for justice on the local, national and international levels. He reminded us in the African American community that we are not alone in our struggle for justice and equality. We are part of a global struggle to bring empowerment to those who are poor and oppressed around the world and that we must take courage from our faith that what is right will prevail. We all have to engage all our energies and intellects in the struggle to build the national and global framework where marginalized groups, industrialized countries, and developing nations alike have an equal voice in the determination of how best we protect and share the resources of not only our country and others alike, but our planet as well.

Prime Minister P.J. Patterson and his words of hope and optimism were a breath of fresh air to his audience during such despondent and confusing times. He gives direction where there is seemingly none, and he makes sense out of a seemingly senseless world. Thank you, Mr. Patterson for your words of encouragement and hope, and for exhibiting much courage and strength during a time when the world needs leaders with such characteristics. The citizens of Jamaica are truly blessed to have a leader like you, to guide them successfully into the future and we are as a people are fortunate to have you as part of our African family.

I submit the transcript of Prime Minister Patterson's acceptance speech given on Saturday September 24, 2005 to the Congressional Black Caucus' Annual Legislative Conference Awards Dinner to the Congressional Record.

Over a period of two centuries, some fifteen million young

Africans were crowded into slave ships, propelled by the

winds that sweep the Atlantic at this time of year.

Family victims of the pernicious system of slavery were

separated forever according to the dictates of the

plantocracy in the Caribbean, North, Central and South

America.

So, no matter in what country we now reside, we are indeed

one big family, one people. We are all descendants of those

who survived the Middle Passage.

Once again, I express the deepest sympathy of the

government and people of Jamaica to everyone who lost a

relative or friend and to all who suffered the traumatic

experiences and material losses of Hurricane Katrina.

It is appropriate to underscore our special empathy with

our kith and kin, who by all accounts, suffered the greatest

loss from these catastrophes.

I cannot overlook the disdain manifest to the plight of the

poor in Louisiana and the weakness in the early response to

the devastation, so arrogantly described as a Third World

situation.

No one can dispute the fact that the African American

influence on the culture and vibrancy of New Orleans is the

most pervasive, has giving heart and soul to this unique

city.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Cindy Sheehan the ``Peace Mom'' from Vacaville, California, whose 24 year-old son Casey was killed in Sadr City, Iraq on April 4, 2004. Referred to by some as, the ``Rosa Parks'' of the peace and justice movement, she was arrested today in front of the White House while calling on President Bush to end the War in Iraq.

Cindy had traveled to Washington from Crawford, Texas where, intent on a face-to-face meeting with President Bush, she gained national attention by camping outside the Texas White House during the President's summer vacation. The site was called Camp Casey in honor of her son.

Cindy Sheehan wanted to ask President Bush: What is the ``noble cause'' that my son Casey died for?

Like millions of people in this country, Cindy Sheehan knew there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the citizens in the United States had never been in ``imminent danger'' from Saddam Hussein and Iraq had no connection to 9/11 as the President had claimed. As a mother she felt she had the right to ask the President to meet with her to explain why her son had been sent on a fraudulent mission. After all, he had the time for a bicycle ride with Lance Armstrong. She felt he should make the time to meet with her.

The President refused to meet with Cindy, but sent two high level White House officials in his place. Explaining this substitution, President Bush stated that he had to go on with his ``normal life'' and that the American people wanted him to do that. Cindy announced she would not leave Crawford until Mr. Bush met with her or left for Washington DC.

As Cindy Sheehan waited in the broiling Texas sun, people began to come to Crawford to be with her. They wanted to support her and to send a message to the President that they, too, wanted an explanation for the war. Thousands came from across the country; some stayed a few hours, others, a few days.

When authorities ordered her to move Camp Casey, a local landowner gave her space on his ranch for an even larger encampment. White crosses with the names of the soldiers killed were planted in the ground. The boots Casey was wearing when he died were placed with his cross as were the boots of other soldiers whose crosses were at Camp Casey.

After President Bush finally left his ranch a few days short of his planned five week vacation, four groups of Cindy's supporters--Gold Star Families for Peace, Military Families Speak Out, Iraq Vets Against the War and Veterans for Peace--left Camp Casey on a ``Bring Them Home Tour'' from Crawford, TX to Washington, DC.

The Veterans for Peace sent a bus to Covington, KY, to deliver supplies to victims of

Hurricane Katrina. Three other buses filled with representatives of each group toured the central, southern and northern States and met in Washington on September 22nd to prepare for the peace march on September 24, 2005.

An estimated 300,000 people participated in the demonstration. Cindy spoke to the crowd who welcomed her as a hero. I called Cindy the ``Rosa Parks'' of this peace movement. Like the woman who sparked the civil rights movement, Cindy is the one person who has come forth to inspire others to do more than they believed themselves capable of doing. On that day when our grandchildren ask what we were doing during the Iraq War, we will be able to say: We spoke out and stood up in support of Cindy Sheehan.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in remembrance of the legendary bassist William Thomas Betts, better known as ``Keter'', who died at age 77 on August 6, 2005.

Mr. Betts was born on July 25, 1928 in Port Chester, New York, raised by his mother, who was a hard working domestic worker. He received his nickname from a family friend who said he was as cute as a mosquito. From there, mosquito became Skeeter and evolved into Keter. Betts began his musical love affair while on a milk and bread errand for his mother. On his journey he came across a drummer in an Italian parade band. Enchanted by the music, he followed the band across town. After he braved the wrath of his mother for not coming right home, he expressed his fascination with the drums. His mother arranged for him to take drum lessons.

In 1946, Betts made the switch from the drums to the bass after the experience of having to lug the drums up and down four flights of stairs, and after an influential encounter with a bassist in Cab Calloway's band, Milt Hinton. At the age of nineteen, Betts landed his first professional gig, playing for Carmen Leggio for 13 weeks in the D.C. area. After touring the country from 1949 to 1951, Betts met jazz singer Dinah Washington and toured with her from 1951 until 1956. The next 5 years found Betts working in the hottest clubs in the country and touring Europe and South America with Charlie Byrd and Woody Herman. In 1964, Betts joined up with Ella Fitzgerald for a short tour. He would rejoin her several more times, and their career together would span 24 years.

Since the early sixties, Betts has instructed countless young people on musical appreciation through various programs, including Washington's Performing Arts Society's Concerts in Schools and Prince George County's Arts Alive. Although he has appeared on countless albums and performances, Betts did not release his first solo album until 1998 called Bass, Buddies & Blues. One year later he released a second album, Bass, Buddies & Blues Beauty Too. Betts was also a member of the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Big Band and was inducted into the Washington Area Music Association Hall of Fame. Betts performed annually at the All-Star Christmas Jazz Jam on the Millennium Stage from 2000 to 2004.

William Thomas Betts, one of jazz's musical geniuses, was truly ``on the top plateau of all the bass players.'' His contributions to both American musical history specifically and American history in general, cannot be denied. Although Betts will be greatly missed, his legacy lives through his music.

I submit the obituary of William Thomas Betts found in the August 6th edition of the Washington Post.

Jazz Bassist Keter Betts Dies at 77

(By Adam Bernstein)

Keter Betts, 77, a jazz bassist heard on more than 200

recordings, notably with guitarist Charlie Byrd and singers

Dinah Washington and Ella Fitzgerald, was found dead Aug. 6

at his home in Silver Spring.

The cause of death has not been determined, according to

the McGuire funeral home in the District.

Trumpeter Clark Terry, formerly with the Duke Ellington and

``Tonight Show'' orchestras, said Mr. Betts was ``on the top

plateau of all the bass players.''

Mr. Betts played in hands with Oscar Peterson, Tommy

Flanagan, Woody Herman, Nat Adderley, Joe Pass, Clifford

Brown and Vince Guaraldi.

After he made the Washington area his home in the mid-

1950s, Mr. Betts teamed with Byrd, the lyrical guitarist who

made his name with sensual, samba-inspired bossa nova music.

They were regulars at the Showboat Lounge in the District and

made several State Department-sponsored trips abroad.

During one trip to Brazil, Mr. Betts became enthralled with

samba records and, he said, spent months persuading Byrd to

play the music around Washington.

Although Mr. Betts was on the million-selling ``Jazz

Samba'' (1962) album--recorded at Washington's All Souls

Unitarian Church--stars Byrd and saxophonist Stan Getz were

credited with launching the bossa nova craze in the United

States.

One of the most memorable songs from the album,

``Desafinado,'' featured Mr. Betts doing the supple bass-line

introduction. But his contribution to finding the music went

unheralded until recent years, after he spoke to JazzTimes

magazine about his role.

Ken Kimery, a producer and drummer with the Smithsonian

Jazz Masterworks Orchestra, told The Washington Post in 2003:

``My experience with him is that he feels the story will come

out, and he does not feel he'll have to be the one who takes

the effort to do that. . . . Here's a gentleman who's done so

much and does not feel the need to self-promote.''

William Thomas Betts was born in Port Chester, N.Y., July

22, 1928, and was raised by his single mother, a domestic

worker. He got his nickname when a family friend said the

baby was as cute as a mosquito. Mosquito became Skeeter, then

Keter.

One day, his mother sent the youngster for milk and bread

at the market. Thrilled by the sound of a passing Italian

parade, he followed the drummer across town. He was gone four

hours with the milk and bread.

``My mother almost killed me when I got home,'' he told an

interviewer. ``I got a whippin'. After that, I told my mother

I wanted to play drums.''

She figured that if her fury did not dissuade him, he must

be serious. She arranged for drum lessons.

His switch to the bass came one day in 1946, his senior

year in high school. He went to New York to see Cab

Calloway's big band and meet the drummer. When bassist Milt

Hinton appeared at the stage door, he told the teenager that

the drummer was gone but that he would spring for a 35-cent

lunch. He also talked up the bass.

Ultimately, Hinton's words were not as persuasive to Mr.

Betts as the fact that carrying a drum set up four flights of

stairs to his mother's apartment was excruciating.

Almost from the start, Mr. Betts's professional career

brought him to Washington. New York area saxophonist Carmen

Leggio invited Mr. Betts to play with his band at a club near

the Howard Theatre in 1947.

In 1949, while Mr. Betts was playing at Washington's Club

Bali, R&B bandleader Earl Bostic heard and hired him. He made

his recording debut that year on Bostic's rendition of ``Wrap

Your Troubles in Dreams.''

``I didn't want to play R&B,'' Mr. Betts said. ``But it was

a good chance to go on the road and see the country.''

He met Dinah Washington in 1951, when she and pianist

Wynton Kelly were doing a one-nighter with Bostic's band. The

singer offered Mr. Betts a job, and he spent five years with

the notorious Queen of the Blues and cut several classic

records, including ``Dinah Jams'' (1954) and ``Dinah!''

(1956).

Her gruff exterior was ``for the people,'' Mr. Betts said.

``She was a different person inside.'' She paid for Mr.

Betts's wedding reception in 1953 at Birdland in New York;

Tito Puente provided the music.

Washington taught Mr. Betts a secret to good musicianship:

Learn the lyrics. She said the best musicians know the entire

song, not just the chord changes.

``There's an art to playing behind the singer,'' he said

later. ``When the singer comes onstage, they're buck naked.

And it's the job of the group backing her up to dress that

person for the audience.''

He met Fitzgerald through his golfing partner, bassist Ray

Brown, the singer's ex-husband and business manager. Mr.

Betts played with Fitzgerald in the mid-1960s and again from

1971 to 1993, often doing weeks of one-nighters around the

world.

Meanwhile, he played at the Kennedy Center and on jazz

cruises. He also stayed active in musical education through

Head Start, among other programs. At the Wolf Trap Institute

for Early Learning Through the Arts, he often amazed the

kindergarten set by taking ``Happy Birthday'' and covering it

in different styles: classical, Brazilian, country and

western, rock and jazz.

In 1994, he was inducted into the Washington Area Music

Association's Hall of Fame.

He emerged as a bandleader with a flurry of recent CDs and

composed a handful of songs, notably the sweet and tender

``Pinky's Waltz,'' in memory of his wife, Mildred Grady

Betts, who died in 2000.

Survivors include five children, William Betts Jr. of

Washington, Jon Betts of Olney, Derek Betts of Los Angeles

and Jacquelyn Betts and Jennifer Betts, both of Silver

Spring; and four grandchildren.

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

First, let me thank the leadership on the other side of the aisle for the cooperation that they have given. I have worked very closely with the chairman, the gentleman from California (Mr. Thomas), and I am so pleased the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. McCrery) and the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Jefferson), who come from the affected areas, have been able to work together to assist the Congress, and especially those of us on the committee, to see how fast we could get some type of assistance to the victims of this horrendous disaster.

As the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. McCrery) stated, this is a temporary provision that is not meant to indicate that the Congress has completed its work on this task. As a matter of fact, it is hardly even a beginning, but that is what we thought we could do.

The good that has come out of this is a sense of bipartisanship, that Katrina was not a Republican or a Democratic disaster, it was one that struck America. And I think the President of the United States has definitely set the tone as to what most all Americans, and certainly people from all over the world realize, that this is not just building or rebuilding a city, it is not just restoring a culture, but it certainly is making the people there whole. So as we pass this bill on the consent calendar, I hope that the tone that has been set on the other side of the aisle can continue to be a bipartisan and bicameral effort in order to do the best we can in terms of restoring the dignity and the culture of this great city.

To do this, some of us are working very closely with the people that come from this area, hoping that we can get an authority on the empowerment zone concept that goes far beyond the limitations that we have on the tax-writing committee. We hope that we can get the local officials, the State officials, as well as the business people, to come up with a comprehensive plan that would allow all of us, no matter what committees that we sit on, to be a part of this great American recovery effort.

We also have to make certain that the people that are providing the assistance down there are held accountable and that every effort is made to make certain that, one, the people who were forced to leave the area have an opportunity to return; and to some extent our tax policy will reflect what we can do to provide incentives for them to come back home. It is also important that we take into consideration the environmental conditions that exist there to make certain that it is not contaminated when the people come back.

We would also like to see an independent commission that goes far beyond what has been suggested by the Speaker to make certain that as we move forward that we do not make the same mistakes that were made in the past, and where there have been mistakes, we do not give medals of honor to those people who made them, but rather work to correct them and make certain we have competent bipartisan workers doing the Nation's business to rebuild the area that has been affected.

Some Members on this side will share their experiences with 9/11, some of the

things that did and did not happen; and I would hope that we would be able to share those views today and as we move forward to make certain that when we do have a plan, there are jobs there and we deal with housing, schools, and deal with all of these things with the same vigor as the President had indicated that we would do.

Again, I would like to thank the gentleman from California (Chairman Thomas), the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. McCrery), and the members of the Committee on Ways and Means for the speed with which we reacted to this. I hope it has set a tone, if not for the entire Congress as we relate to other things, at least to begin with Hurricane Katrina and see what we can do to set an example for the other committees in working together.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Maloney), who has done a great deal of work on 9/11; and she would like to share some of her views with us today.

(Mrs. MALONEY asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Kucinich).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Ohio (Mrs. Jones), an outstanding member of the Committee on Ways and Means.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Emanuel).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee).

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

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to bring to your attention an excellent op-ed article that appeared last week in the New York Times by David Brooks titled, ``Katrina's Silver Lining.'' The op-ed article points out that the devastation which occurred earlier this month along the Gulf region now presents us with the challenge to address the roots of poverty in the United States.

Poverty was the underlying cause of the tragedy that occurred in Louisiana a couple of weeks ago. Many of the people who were unable to evacuate did not have the economic means to flee the hurricane that destroyed their city and countless lives. An individuals financial circumstance should not get in the way of life and death decisions. Low-income families should not be forced to risk their safety and well- being simply because they do not have the financial means to protect themselves.

Addressing the tragedy that occurred in New Orleans will take more than rebuilding the city's infrastructure. In order to ensure that the human suffering that has occurred never happens again, we need to address the high rates of poverty that exist in this Nation.

Every American should have the right to live a better life. We must ensure that everyone has the ability to adequately care for their families. Moreover, we need to ensure that every American has access to educational opportunities which lead to greater outcomes. And we must ensure that no one is forced to make a life and death decision based on their financial circumstance.

Early estimates suggest that thousands of Americans may have perished as a result of Hurricane Katrina and the events that occurred after the storm, while many others were injured. The families that were forced to remain in Louisiana during the storm have finally been evacuated and now faced with the difficult task of rebuilding theirs lives. Sadly, many of them are also desperately searching for missing loved ones.

In the wake of this disaster, let us move forward with an aggressive agenda to eradicate poverty in the United States. Let us rise to the challenge that Hurricane Katrina presented to us by removing the hurdles that force too many families to live in poverty. We can do this. The survivors of Hurricane Katrina, and the millions of other Americans who are living in poverty, deserve nothing less.

[From the New York Times, Sept. 8, 2005]

Katrina's Silver Lining

(By David Brooks)

As a colleague of mine says, every crisis is an

opportunity. And sure enough, Hurricane Katrina has given us

an amazing chance to do something serious about urban

poverty.

That's because Katrina was a natural disaster that

interrupted a social disaster. It separated tens of thousands

of poor people from the run-down, isolated neighborhoods in

which they were trapped. It disrupted the patterns that have

led one generation to follow another into poverty.

It has created as close to a blank slate as we get in human

affairs, and given us a chance to rebuild a city that wasn't

working. We need to be realistic about how much we can

actually change human behavior, but it would be a double

tragedy if we didn't take advantage of these unique

circumstances to do something that could serve as a spur to

antipoverty programs nationwide.

The first rule of the rebuilding effort should be: Nothing

Like Before. Most of the ambitious and organized people

abandoned the inner-city areas of New Orleans long ago,

leaving neighborhoods where roughly three-quarters of the

people were poor.

In those cultural zones, many people dropped out of high

school, so it seemed normal to drop out of high school. Many

teenage girls had babies, so it seemed normal to become a

teenage mother. It was hard for men to get stable jobs, so it

was not abnormal for them to commit crimes and hop from one

relationship to another. Many people lacked marketable social

skills, so it was hard for young people to learn these skills

from parents, neighbors and peers.

If we just put up new buildings and allow the same people

to move back into their old neighborhoods, then urban New

Orleans will become just as rundown and dysfunctional as

before.

That's why the second rule of rebuilding should be:

Culturally Integrate. Culturally Integrate. Culturally

Integrate. The only chance we have to break the cycle of

poverty is to integrate people who lack middle-class skills

into neighborhoods with people who possess these skills and

who insist on certain standards of behavior.

The most famous example of cultural integration is the

Gautreaux program, in which poor families from Chicago were

given the chance to move into suburban middle-class areas.

The adults in these families did only slightly better than

the adults left behind, but the children in the relocated

families did much better.

These kids suddenly found themselves surrounded by peers

who expected to graduate from high school and go to college.

After the shock of adapting to the more demanding suburban

schools, they were more likely to go to college, too.

The Clinton administration built on Gautreaux by creating

the Moving to Opportunity program, dispersing poor families

to middle-class neighborhoods in five other metropolitan

areas. This time the results weren't as striking, but were

still generally positive. The relocated parents weren't more

likely to have jobs or increase their earnings (being close

to job opportunities is not enough--you need the skills

and habits to get the jobs and do the work), but their

children did better, especially the girls.

The lesson is that you can't expect miracles, but if you

break up zones of concentrated poverty, you can see progress

over time.

In the post-Katrina world, that means we ought to give

people who don't want to move back to New Orleans the means

to disperse into middle-class areas nationwide. (That's the

kind of thing Houston is beginning to do right now.)

There may be local resistance to the new arrivals--in Baton

Rouge there were three-hour lines at gun shops as locals

armed themselves against the hurricane victims moving to

their area--but if there has ever been a moment when people

may open their hearts, this is it.

For New Orleans, the key will be luring middle-class

families into the rebuilt city, making it so attractive to

them that they will move in, even knowing that their blocks

will include a certain number of poor people.

As people move in, the rebuilding effort could provide jobs

for those able to work. Churches, the police, charter schools

and social welfare agencies could be mobilized to weave the

social networks vital to resurgent communities. The feds

could increase earned-income tax credits so people who are

working can rise out of poverty. Tax laws should encourage

business development.

We can't win a grandiose war on poverty. But after the

tragedy comes the opportunity. This is the post-Katrina

moment. Let's not blow it.

Mr. Speaker, Hurricane Katrina and the tragedy that followed forced many people to revisit an issue that had been ignored by this Nation for far too long--the high rate of poverty in the United States.

There is no question that one of the root causes of the tragedy that occurred in New Orleans was poverty. The people with the economic means to do so left the city prior to the storm. Those left in the city were unable to flee because they could not afford to do so, thereby forcing them to ride out the storm in their homes or in the shelter of ``last resort.'' Many of those left behind were from predominately low-income areas, such as the city's ninth ward.

Ironically, the day after Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans, the Census Bureau reported that nearly 30 percent of the city's residents were living in poverty, making it the second poorest city in the Nation. Meanwhile, the overall poverty rate for the Nation increased for the fourth year in a row. An additional 1.1 million Americans fell into poverty last year, bringing the total number to 37 million.

It is clear that although many residents of New Orleans waited for days to be rescued from flood waters, they, and millions of other Americans, were abandoned by this administration a long time ago. Programs designed to alleviate poverty and assist working families struggling to make ends meet have seen their funding cut in recent years. Critical programs such as child care assistance, job training, low-income housing assistance, and after-school programs have seen their budgets reduced in favor of tax cuts for the wealthy.

Meanwhile, the Republican leadership plans to continue to pursue its irresponsible plan to further dismantle what is left of this country's safety net by making additional cuts to entitlement programs. Many of these programs are going to provide critical services to the survivors of Hurricane Katrina.

Repairing the damage from Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath will take more than repairing broken levees and rebuilding homes and businesses. If we truly want to ensure that the death, destruction, and human suffering that was caused by the storm and its aftermath does not happen again, we need to remove the hurdles that force people to live in poverty.

We should work to ensure that all workers receive a livable wage so that they are able to support themselves and their families. Also, we need to guarantee that every American has access to all of the educational opportunities that are available so that all of our citizens have the means to live a better life. Finally, when families fall behind and need additional assistance to get them through tough times, we need to ensure that the Federal Government has the resources to assist our most vulnerable citizens.

Let us use the tragedy that occurred in the Gulf region as a catalyst for eradicating poverty in this Nation. In memory of those who were lost in the storm and its aftermath, and for the survivors, let us do everything we can to ensure that no one is abandoned again.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support for the implementation of an independent and bipartisan commission that will lead a thorough investigation that will pinpoint what went wrong before, during and in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Long before Hurricane Katrina hit land as a category five hurricane, engineers, environmentalists and military personnel have known for years that a strong hurricane, like Katrina could devastate bowl-shaped New Orleans, prompting questions about why more was not done in advance to mitigate the damage or respond more effectively in the storm's wake. For years, scientists have warned local, state and federal officials that the strength of a storm like Katrina would threaten the integrity of the 287 year old levee system and could cause massive flooding of the New Orleans area, if the system was not properly improved and maintained.

Now, as survivors are slowly evacuated and are receiving the help they so direly need, the world is beginning to ask some pertinent questions. They are legitimately questioning the efficacy of the responses from each level of government, especially the slow and inadequate response of FEMA and the Federal government whose policies and government cutbacks might be responsible for the loss of thousands of lives. How does an event such as the Katrina Catastrophe occur when there was previous knowledge that the levees were in disrepair?

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had been working with local officials to strengthen the city's defenses in case of a massive storm, but federal funding for improving the levee system and implementing other projects to keep water from overtaking New Orleans decreased under the Bush administration. The Corps of Engineers responsible for maintenance had approximately $114 million worth of hurricane protection projects, however with federal funding down 44 percent; no new contracts for construction had been awarded since early in fiscal year 2004.

Why? The Iraq war took priority over domestic disaster prevention. As a result, the money needed to strengthen national infrastructures against natural disasters was transferred into the President's budget to fund homeland security and the war on Iraq. Also, our National Guard who is responsible for protecting our homeland from the threat of disaster was greatly affected by this administration's policies. As people begged through news cameras for food, water and shelter, our National Guardsmen were far and few in between. Most of them were fighting and continue to fight in Iraq. Most importantly, much of the equipment and materials needed, like the Guard's high water vehicles, re-fuelers and generators required to execute rescue missions, provide food, water and medicine to those trapped on their roofs or in attics were transported to Iraq.

In addition, the Bush administration made significant structural changes to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), shifting funds away from pre-disaster preparation and implementing policies promoting outsourcing of relief efforts to private companies. With regards to Louisiana, FEMA denied Louisiana funding for pre-disaster preparation, which would provide the means for items that would better equip the local government for a storm such as Katrina. Meanwhile, top officials of FEMA were forewarned that cutting cost would result in a slow response times in cases of emergencies, which took place in the wake of the hurricane.

Although the federal government's response and policies aided in this resulting tragedy, the local and state governments should not be left without responsibility. Although the Mayor had issued a mandatory evacuation of the city, given the economic background of much of New Orleans' citizens many of them did not have the means to evacuate. Why wasn't there transportation provided? Moreover, there didn't seem to be a well formulated ``worst-case scenario'' evacuation and rescue plan beyond the Superdome and the Convention Center, which would facilitate a more mellifluous process of communication between the state and local officials, and the citizens of New Orleans.

The brave citizens of New Orleans and the people of this nation want answers. We need to find out what went wrong on every level, so that we will be well equipped to efficiently handle another event like Hurricane Katrina and prevent something like this from happening in the future. I am in full support of an independent, bipartisan commission, similar to the 9/11 commission that would investigate and assess the efficacy of responses by each level of government. This commission would establish why leaders ignored urgent warnings that New Orleans would be destroyed if it sustained a direct hurricane hit. This body would assess why the notion that if a mass evacuation occurred, thousand of poor people would be left behind without any means of escape was ignored; and why the protective levees were not strengthened despite expert predictions that they would not withstand a major hurricane. In addition, the breakdown in communication and coordination between local, state and federal agencies urgently needs to be investigated, especially now that we are under constant threat of terrorist attacks.

Lastly, the actions of FEMA and its director Michael Brown who revealed his ineptitude when he appeared not to know that thousands of victims were stranded inside the New Orleans Convention Center, under deplorable conditions, despite reports about it on news broadcastings, must be thoroughly examined.

Most importantly I want to stress that this commission must be independent and bipartisan, no administration could credibly investigate such an immense failure on its own watch. We owe it to the flood victims of New Orleans to give them truthful answers as to why this event took place and to assure our citizens that tragedies like this will never happen again.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to the life and legacy of Eleanor Farrar who passed away at the age of 79, on August 25, 2005 from breast cancer. She was a founder and former Vice President of the Joint Center for Political Studies.

Born Eleanor Schneider in Vienna, Austria, Dr. Farrar immigrated to New York with her family in 1939, when she was 14. She received an undergraduate degree in political science from Mount Holyoke College in 1946, a master's degree in political science from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in 1947 and a PhD in international relations from the London School of Economics in 1952.

From 1954 to 1963, Ms. Farrar lived in Pakistan and Cambodia, working as a lecturer in political science and international relations at the University of the Panjab, Forman Christian College, both in Pakistan and the University of Karachi.

When she returned to the United States, she taught political science at Howard University, where she met Eddie N. Williams, who had served as a reserve officer in the Foreign Service, and Kenneth B. Clark, the psychologist whose work on the self-esteem of black students in segregated public schools became essential to the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in the monumental case Brown vs. Board of Education. She worked with the two men in attempts to increase the participation of blacks in the Foreign Service.

Subsequently, in the 1960's and 1970's, Eleanor Farrar worked as the director of Clark's think tank, the Metropolitan Applied Research Center. In 1970, however, that think tank entered into a partnership with Howard University to establish the Joint Center for Political Studies, established to provide training and technical assistance to black elected officials.

Ms. Farrar served as the organization's Vice President for twenty two years. The Joint Center for Political Studies has become nationally known for its research on minority economic and social issues and black political participation.

She leaves behind four children, Jon, Cynthia, Andrew, and Erin; two siblings; and seven grandchildren.

Eleanor Farrar will always be remembered as ``a woman of profound strength of character, who expressed her commitment to the study of race relations and development of sound policies with every endeavor she undertook.'' She will be truly missed.