Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, in 1976 Congressman Tip O'Neill from Massachusetts was selected by the House to serve as Speaker; and while for most of us that was an exciting era, most people did not know that when he came to Washington and brought his family, he brought the wonderful and the beautiful Mildred O'Neill with him.

All of us have heard and talked about so often the partnerships and the sacrifices that wives and children make for those of us who have offered ourselves for public service, but I do not think that was so with Millie and Tip O'Neill because they just seemed like a

perfect movie Hollywood couple that just loved each other and did not mind expressing that love in front of everybody.

I had the opportunity for 12 consecutive years to travel with Tip O'Neill as he was invited around the world as Speaker; but I do not know whether it was Tip or Millie, but one thing was abundantly clear, that they were not Democratic trips. They were not Republican trips. It was traveling with Millie and Tip O'Neill, and they made everyone feel like just one big congressional family, representing this great body and representing these great United States.

You always feel when you have lost somebody that you just did not spend enough time saying how much you appreciated them while they were here, and I tried to tell Millie how much I loved her, and Millie had been very kind to me, as had Speaker Tip O'Neill; but I suspect that for the rest of us, many who never knew this wonderful couple, that we can take time out as we lost Millie to see whether we could be more sensitive and appreciative, not only to our wives but to our families that are either with us here in Washington or back at home, and that some way we can go to the Members who were fortunate to serve at a time where we did not dislike each other as a body, we may have disagreed on war or disagreed on policy, disagreed on theories, but at the end of the day, we were just so proud to be Members of this House.

It was people like Millie who kept our families together, who kept encouraging our wives, who really inspired a lot of our Members to want to be good Members of Congress and not Democratic and Republican Members of Congress.

So I would just like to join with so many people who knew and loved Millie O'Neill. Not nearly as much as Tip did, but we always will remember him singing to her and her batting eyes as though it was a flirtatious first date. We will miss you, Millie, as we miss Tip. So many of us are just so fortunate and so lucky that if we do not have them, we have their fond memories.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commemorate a national hero: a woman who broke the color lines in tennis, pioneering in a sport which had closed its doors to people of color for many years. On September 28, 2003, Althea Gibson died, at the age of 76, at East Orange General Hospital in New Jersey.

Though unknown to many Americans, Althea Gibson paved the way for Black people in the sport of tennis, allowing athletes such as Venus and Serena Williams to reach their present level of prominence.

Althea Gibson was born in Silver, South Carolina, and soon moved to New York City's Harlem where she developed her love of the game. She won a series of tournaments for Black players, including the National Negro Girl's Championships in 1944 and 1945, which earned her great recognition. This acclaim persuaded officials at the U.S. National Tennis Championships, the precursor to the U.S. Open, to allow Ms. Gibson to compete in 1950. In participating in this preeminent tournament, Ms. Gibson became the first Black woman to desegregate professional tennis. The following year, she played in the Wimbledon tournament, but lost in the quarterfinals.

In 1955, Ms. Gibson joined the Goodwill Athletic tour, sponsored by the State Department and while touring in 1956, she became the first Black player to win French Championships. In the following year she won the singles and doubles championships at Wimbledon. In 1957 and 1958, Ms. Gibson returned to the U.S. National Tennis Championships, winning in both years and being named the Associated Press female athlete of the year each year, as well--the first Black woman to receive such an honor.

Due to racism, however, Althea Gibson was not able to acquire endorsements and tennis brought very little financial security. Ms. Gibson left the sport in the late 1950's and joined the Harlem Globetrotters Basketball Team tour, where she played exhibition tennis matches. After retiring from tennis, Althea Gibson took up competitive golf and desegregated the Ladies Professional Golf Association tour in the early 1960's. She settled in New Jersey, where she had several jobs from athletic commissioner to manager of the recreation department in the city of East Orange. Ms. Gibson wrote two autobiographies, ``I Always Wanted To Be Somebody'' (1958) and ``So Much To Live For'' (1968). With the death of Althea Gibson, America has lost one of its groundbreaking sports heroes; however, her memory and accomplishments will continue to live on.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to join Bill Thomas, Chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means, John Boehner, Chairman of the Committee on Education and the Workforce, and George Miller, Ranking Democrat on the Committee on Education and the Workforce, to introduce the ``Pension Funding Equity Act of 2003.'' This bill responds to the most pressing pension issue of the day that affects the retirement benefits of 44 million American workers, their families, and beneficiaries. I am pleased that bipartisan cooperation has allowed this process to move forward and enabled us to take action on this important issue.

The lack of retirement security for millions of workers is an issue that demands our immediate attention. More than 50 percent of American workers who work full-time and play by all the rules of corporate America have no retirement benefits. I will not rest until this Congressional body takes the necessary steps to correct this disparity.

The issue addressed in this bill is of great importance as well. The fortunate few workers who do have a pension benefit under our defined benefit system are depending on us to protect those benefits. This bill would accomplish this goal for the next two years by providing plan sponsors the certainty they need in determining the amount that must be contributed to the plan. However, a permanent solution to this issue must be found.

The long-term viability of the defined benefit plan system is crucial for the secured retirement of millions of American workers. Designing a plan to maintain this viability will be a challenge we must undertake over the next two years. Any permanent solution must balance the competing elements of this issue, including (1) providing financial relief to employers who maintain defined benefit plans, (2)

protecting the financial security of the pension benefits promised to workers under these plans, and (3) protecting the financial strength of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, the agency that insures benefits under these plans. I remain hopeful that we can work together to accomplish these goals.

I have long supported the idea of advancing legislation on this issue in a free and unfettered manner. This issue should not be held hostage to additional pension reforms that have little or no chance of being enacted this year. I am pleased to co-sponsor this legislation, and I look forward to working with my colleagues to develop a long-term solution to this issue.

Mr. Speaker, the enactment of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) was an important step toward protecting retirement benefits for millions of American workers. Over the years, ERISA has developed into a complex legislative framework. Congress regularly revisits this important area of law in a effort to perfect it.

In its efforts, Congress may be making it better as it seeks to enhance the protections provided to many workers and their beneficiaries, but this is not without added complexity. For those of us who are not comfortable making casual conversation on such topics as actuarial assumptions and technical funding rules we have valued the service EBRI has provided over these many years. EBRI is a nonpartisan research organization that specializes in employee benefits. It collects and analyzes the relevant data and make it available in a format that is easily understood by all of us.

The service EBRI provides is invaluable. Many of us in Congress find it particularly useful because of the balanced format in which the information is presented. This makes the information EBRI distributes acceptable by all sides in the debate. In addition, it provides a common base of knowledge that helps us evaluate conflicting proposals.

EBRI has now been doing this important work for a quarter of a century. As EBRI celebrates its 25th anniversary, I want to take this opportunity to wish the valuable organization well. It is my hope that they keep these analyses coming. We will need them more than ever in the months ahead.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to share an excerpt from an important policy brief published by the Brookings Institute on the meaning of citizenship and national service.

What is our civic responsibility to this land, as people who enjoy the benefits of living in a vibrant democracy? How can we keep the social contract between all segments of society without a shared sense of sacrifice and duty? Authors E.J. Dionne, Jr. and Kayla Meltzer Drogosz provide a good overview of the subject and the importance of this issue to the future success of this country.

The Promise of National Service: A (Very) Brief History of an Idea

(By E.J. Dionne, Jr. and Kayla Meltzer Drogosz)

the service idea and the american experiment

Divisions over the meaning of service are rooted deeply in

our history. When the United States was founded, liberal and

civic republican ideas jostled for dominance. The liberals--

they might now be called libertarians--viewed personal

freedom as the heart of the American experiment. The civic

republicans valued freedom, too, but they stressed that self-

rule demanded a great deal from citizens. The liberals

stressed rights. The civic republicans stressed obligations

to a common good and, as the philosopher Michael Sandel has

put it in his book, Democracy's Discontents, ``a concern for

the whole, a moral bond with the community whose fate is at

stake.'' In our time, the clash between these older

traditions lives on in the intellectual wars between

libertarians and communitarians. On national service,

libertarians lean toward skepticism, communitarians toward a

warm embrace.

America has changed since September 11, 2001. Respect for

service soared as the nation forged a new and stronger sense

of solidarity in the face of deadly enemies. What has been

said so often still bears repeating: our view of heroes

underwent a remarkable and sudden change. The new heroes are

public servants--police, firefighters, rescue workers, postal

workers whose lives were threatened, men and women

in uniform--not the CEOs, high-tech wizards, rock stars,

or sports figures who dominated the 1990s. At a time when

citizens focus on urgent national needs, those who serve

their country naturally rise in public esteem. Robert

Putnam, a pioneer in research on civic engagement,

captures the post-9/11 moment powerfully. He argues that

because of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the

Pentagon--and the courage shown by those on the plane that

went down over Pennsylvania--``we have a more capacious

sense of `we' than we have had in the adult experience of

most Americans now alive.''

september 11 and the service ideal

Accordingly, the politics of national service were also

transformed. Even before September 11, President Bush had

signaled a warmer view of service than many in his party. In

choosing two Republican supporters of the idea--former Mayor

Steve Goldsmith of Indianapolis and Leslie Lenkowsky, CEO of

the Corporation for National and Community Service--to head

his administration's service effort, Bush made clear he

intended to take it seriously.

After September 11, service became a stronger theme in the

president's rhetoric. In his 2001 State of the Union message,

he called on Americans to give two years of service to the

nation over their lifetimes and announced the creation of the

USA Freedom Corps. It was a patriotic, post-September 11

gloss on the old Clinton ideas--and the ideas of John F.

Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Bush's father, the first

President Bush, who offered the nation a thousand points of

light.

There is also a new acknowledgment across the political

divides that government support for volunteers can provide

essential help for valuable institutions that we too often

take for granted. It is easy for politicians to talk about

the urgency of strengthening ``civil society.'' But through

AmeriCorps and other programs, the government has found a

practical (and not particularly costly) way to make the talk

real. Paradoxically, as the journalist Steven Waldman points

out, AmeriCorps, a Democratic initiative, fit neatly with the

Republicans' emphasis on faith-based programs. Democrats

accepted the need to strengthen programs outside of

government; Republicans accepted that voluntary programs

could use government's help. This interplay between

government and independent communal action may be especially

important in the United States, where powerful and intricate

links have always existed--long before the term ``faith-based

organizations'' was invented--between the religious and civic

spheres.

That national service has become a bipartisan goal is an

important achievement. It is reflected in the White House's

Citizen Service Act and in bills cosponsored by, among

others, Senators John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Evan Bayh (D-

Ind.). Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) has made an ambitious

service proposal a centerpiece of his presidential campaign.

These legislative ideas mirrored the spirit of the moment. As

Marc Magee and Steven Nider of the Progressive Policy

Institute reported a year ago, in the first nine months after

September 11 applications for AmeriCorps jumped 50 percent,

those for the Peace Corps doubled, and those for Teach for

America tripled. Yes, a difficult private economy certainly

pushed more young Americans toward such public endeavors.

Nonetheless, their choices point to the continued power of

the service idea.

citizenship and service

Citizenship cannot be reduced to service. The good works of

faith communities and the private sector--or ``communities of

character,'' as President Bush has called them--cannot

replace the responsibilities of government. Service can

become a form of cheap grace, a generalized call on citizens

to do kind things as an alternative to a genuine summons for

national sacrifice or a fair apportionment of burdens among

the more and less powerful or wealthy. But when service is

seen as a bridge to genuine political and civic

responsibility, it can strengthen democratic government and

foster the republican virtues. Lenkowsky made this connection

when he urged attendees at a Corporation for National and

Community Service conference to turn ``civic outrage into

civic engagement'' by increasing the reach and

effectiveness of volunteer programs. No one can dispute

visionaries like former Senator Harris Wofford, chairman

of America's Promise, and Alan Khazei, cofounder and CEO

of City Year, who have shown how AmeriCorps, VISTA, Senior

Corps, and Peace Corps have transformed communities. But

Paul Light of Brookings questions whether this

transformation is sustainable. Can episodic volunteerism

build the capacity and effectiveness of public and

nonprofit organizations?

Will the new respect for service make government bashing

less satisfying as a hobby? It is possible, but not likely.

Underlying the debate over national service is an argument

over whether service is necessary or merely ``nice.'' If

service is just a nice thing to do, it's easy to understand

the strong reservations about government-led service programs

from critics such as Bruce Chapman who, in 1966, wrote The

Wrong Man in Uniform, one of the earliest calls for a

volunteer military.

But service has the potential to be far more than something

nice.

Will Marshall and Marc Magee of the Progressive Policy

Institute argue that the service idea could be a departure

comparable to breakthroughs in earlier eras toward a stronger

sense of citizenship. ``Like settlement houses and night

school, which helped America absorb waves of immigration,''

they write, ``national service opens new paths of upward

mobility for young Americans and the people they serve. And,

like the G.I. Bill, national service should be seen as a

longterm investment in the education, skills, and ingenuity

of our people.''

Service, then, is not simply a good in itself, but a means

to many ends. It creates bridges between groups that have

little to do with each other on any given day, and as the New

Left's Port Huron Statement put it forty years ago, draws

citizens ``out of isolation and into community.'' Michael

Brown, the co-founder of City Year, says service can activate

``people's justice nerve,'' creating a thirst for social

improvement. It could foster civic and political

participation in a society that seems not to hold public

service in the highest esteem.

But this very plurality of ends creates a certain

skepticism about service. If it offers something for

everyone, how serious can the idea really be? Michael Lind, a

senior fellow at the New America Foundation, is right when he

says that ``within the small but vocal community of national

service enthusiasts, there is far more agreement on the

policy of national service than on its purpose.'' In the

post-September 11 environment, he argues that the one

compelling case for citizen service would rest on the need to

expand the nation's capacity to prepare for and respond to

domestic emergencies, notably those caused by terrorism.

answering the call to service

However one conceives of service, surely one of its ends--

or, at least, one of the ends that wins the broadest assent--

is the urgency of finding new ways to engage young Americans

in public life after a long period of estrangement. In his

2000 campaign, Sen. McCain--initially a skeptic of national

service, now a strong supporter--won a wide following among

young people by urging them to aspire to things ``beyond your

own self-interest.'' Many surveys suggest that young

Americans are deeply engaged in civic activity. One by

Harvard's Kennedy Institute of Politics in October 2002 found

that 61 percent of its national sample of undergraduates

reported performing some form of community service in the

past year. And as Paul Light has shown in a new survey,

liberal arts college graduates from the Class of 2003 are

eager to find jobs that provide opportunities to help people.

However, when they hear the phrase ``public service,''

they think of the kind of work they see in the nonprofit

sector and not in government or politics. If we are to

expand young people's understanding of public service,

then service learning initiatives in public schools must

continue to be linked with a heightened sense of civic

responsibility and personal effectiveness.

If the new generation connected its impulses to service

with politics, it could become one of the great reforming

generations in American history. And service could become a

pathway to a stronger sense of citizenship. As the columnist

Jane Eisner argues, service ``must produce more than

individual fulfillment for those involved and temporary

assistance for communities in need.'' It should, she says,

``lead to an appetite for substantive change, a commitment to

address the social problems that have created the need for

service in the first place.'' Eisner and others have

suggested that as a nation, we should celebrate the first

vote cast by young people with the same fanfare that greets

other moments of passage to adult responsibility. The goal

would be to encourage a new generation to make the connection

``between service to the community and participation in the

very process that governs community life.''

A focus on the links service forges between the rights and

responsibilities of citizenship could offer new ways out of

old political impasses. For example, Andrew Stern, the

president of the Service Employees International Union,

suggests that a two-year commitment to national service could

become a pathway for undocumented workers to legalize their

status and for legal immigrants to speed their passage to

citizenship. Stern also proposes that former felons now

denied voting rights might ``earn credits toward restoration

of full citizenship'' through service.

At its best, service is not make-work, but what Harry Boyte

and Nancy Kari, in their book, Building America, have called

``public work.'' It is work that ``is visible, open to

inspection, whose significance is widely recognized'' and can

be carried out by ``a mix of people whose interests,

backgrounds, and resources may be quite different.'' Service

as public work is the essence of the democratic project. It

solves common problems and creates common things. Public work

entails not only altruism, but also enlightened self-

interest--a desire to build a society in which the serving

citizen wants to live.

Skepticism, Realism, Hope

Service alone cannot build a stronger sense of citizenship.

Citizenship is meaningless unless citizens have the power to

achieve their goals and to change their communities and the

nation. It is thus possible to be skeptical about the new

call to service, and it is absolutely necessary to be

realistic. Speeches about service can be a convenient way for

politicians to call for sacrifice without demanding much of

citizens. At little cost to themselves, advocates of both

conservative and liberal individualism can use service to

shroud their real intentions behind the decent drapery of

community feeling.

William Galston, a scholar who has devoted years of energy

to promoting research and action to excite young Americans to

public engagement, worries that the failure to link post-

September 11 rhetoric about service to actual calls for civic

action could lead to the very sort of cynicism service

advocates decry.

``Would Pearl Harbor have been a defining event if it had

not been followed by a national mobilization and four years

of war that altered the lives of soldiers and civilians

alike?'' Galston asks. ``In the immediate wake of September

11, the administration's failure to call for any real

sacrifice from citizens fortified my belief that the

terrorist attack would be the functional equivalent of Pearl

Harbor without World War II, intensifying insecurity without

altering civic behavior.''

Theda Skocpol, another wise student of American civic life,

sounds an equally useful warning. ``Absent organizational

innovations and new public policies,'' she writes, ``the

reinvigorated sense of the American `we' that was born of the

travails of 9/11 may well gradually dissipate, leaving only

ripples on the managerial routines of contemporary U.S. civic

life.'' In fact, as Skocpol and Galston suggest, mere

exhortation to serve will do little to foster public--and

especially political--participation if too many citizens see

the public realm as broken.

The issue of whether Americans have been called to any real

sort of sacrifice is, of course, the point of Rep. Rangel

calling for a renewal of the draft. It is neither race-

baiting nor class warfare--Rangel was accused of both--to

suggest that a democratic society has a problem when members

of its most privileged classes are not among the first to

rally to the colors at a time of trouble.

This problem also worries Charles Moskos, the nation's

premier student of service and the military experience.

Moskos has explored ways of expanding the circle of

commitment and promoting the idea of the ``citizen soldier.''

This idea has caught on in a wide range of political circles.

As Stanley Kurtz wrote in the National Review in April, ``In

a world of looming military challenges, the citizen-soldier

program may be our last chance to expand the armed forces

without a draft.'' John Lehman, the Navy Secretary under

Ronald Reagan, has also offered helpful remedies short of a

draft to overcome what he agrees is a fundamental problem:

that ``the burdens of defense and the perils of combat do not

fall even close to fairly across all of our society.''

From Service to Citizenship

If the problems of inequality are vexing where military

service is concerned, they can also be troubling for service

at home. Service, badly conceived, can distance citizens from

public problems by seeing the server more as a missionary

uplifting the needy than as a fellow citizen. Michael

Schudson, a professor of sociology at the University of

California, San Diego, sees President Bush's ideal citizen is

a ``Rotarian, moved by a sense of neighborliness, Christian

charity, and social responsibility, but untouched by having a

personal stake in public justice.'' Schudson's point is not

to knock Rotarians. It is to argue that self-interest in

pursuit of justice is a virtue. As Schudson notes in

describing the civil rights movement, the most dramatic

expansion of democracy and citizenship in our lifetime was

brought about by citizens ``driven not by a desire to serve

but by an effort to overcome indignities they themselves have

suffered.'' The point is brought home powerfully by Charles

Cobb, who sees the civil rights movement as being best

understood ``as a movement of community organizing rather

than one of protest.'' The civil rights movement performed a

huge national service--and inspired many specific forms of

service, including the registration of thousands of voters.

This quintessentially civic, ``good government'' act, the

registration of new voters, was also a powerful form of

rebellion in places that denied African Americans the right

to vote.

These are essential points. Yet it is also true that

Rotarians are good citizens. Neighborliness, charity, and

social responsibility are genuine virtues. And it is just

possible that a nation responding to the call to service

would, over time, become a nation deeply engaged in questions

of public justice.

The debate over national service is a debate over how we

Americans think of ourselves. It is a debate over how we will

solve public problems and what we owe to our country and to

each other. If our nation is to continue to prosper, it is a

debate we will have in every generation. For if we decide

that there are no public things to which we should be willing

to pledge some of our time and some of our effort--not to

mention ``our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor''--we

will be breaking faith with our nation's

experiment in liberty rooted in mutual assistance and

democratic aspiration.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to call to the attention of my colleagues a bill that would extend automatic citizenship to those immigrant soldiers who have served our country during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

I introduce this bill in honor of soldiers like Sgt. Riayan Tejeda of Washington Heights, who laid down their lives so that all of the people of the United States, regardless of immigration status, could continue to enjoy the freedoms that our Constitution lays out. To uphold and protect a Constitution that this august body continues to perfect through legislation and debate.

The Riayan Tejeda Memorial Act of 2003 goes beyond current congressional efforts by granting citizenship to all servicemembers that request naturalization and have served in a combat zone designated as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. It ensures that not only spouses and unmarried children, but also parents of soldiers killed as a result of service in the U.S. military, can apply for citizenship or legalization of status beyond the death of that servicemember. It allows undocumented spouses, dependents and parents of servicemembers to stay in the country while they are legalizing their status. Finally, this bill honors our current and fallen soldiers for their service by prioritizing the naturalization applications of servicemembers and their families.

No one in this country who works hard and abides by the just laws of this country should have to die to receive the citizenship that they crave and deserve. For men and women who decide to don the uniform of the armed forces, their actions on the battlefield should be enough to prove their allegiance and dedication to this land and our families.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to the 14th edition of the Pan-American Games, this year to be held in Santo Domingo Dominican Republic, from August 1st to August 17th.

Since 1951, the games have carried the Olympic spirit of trying to build and strengthen international cooperation through friendly, but no less intense, competition between the countries of the Western Hemisphere. In a time when we are engaged in a global struggle against terrorism, poverty and disease, the sight of some of the region's best athletes coming and sharing the same stage peacefully gives the world hope that our current struggles are just a prologue to better days.

This year's games are also a source of pride to Dominicans all over the world, especially those who live in my district's neighborhood of Washington Heights. While putting on an event of such magnitude is a challenge for any nation, there is no doubt in my mind that the world will be treated to a world-class celebration full of the best of Dominican culture. It is also a chance to sow the seeds of future economic development by showing the world that any stage can shine brightly from Santo Domingo.

So it is with great enthusiasm that I ask my colleagues to join me in congratulating all the participants and organizers in advance for all their achievements and hard work. Let us hope that the Pan-American Games' motto, loosely translated as ``The American spirit of friendship through sports,'' not only lasts beyond these two weeks in August, but also extends beyond sports and the island of Hispanola into the hearts of all of the world's citizens.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to one of New York's oldest celebrations of Dominican culture, Manhattan's Dominican Day Parade.

The annual parade, which once ran through the heart of Washington Heights, has grown to become one of August's most anticipated celebrations of cultural and ethnic pride on New York's Sixth Avenue.

This year's parade on August 10th not only comes on the heels of the Dominican Republic's hosting of the 14th edition of the Pan-American Games, it also kicks off Dominican Heritage Week in New York City. From then to August 16th, New Yorkers of all ages will get a chance to learn about some of the ways in which this vibrant community is transforming the nation.

We have begun to hear of Dominicans and Dominican-Americans in the context of stars like baseball slugger Sammy Sosa, designer Oscar de la Renta, and Miss Universe 2002 Amelia Vega. However, there are hundreds of Dominican professionals and an increasing amount of Dominican students that are blazing trails in government, law, science, and technology. They understand that they stand on the shoulders of not only the sacrifices that their parents have made but also on the achievements of members of other freedom-loving people.

In many ways, their journey is similar to other immigrant groups that have landed on our shores. But make no mistake, the people of the Dominican Republic have a style all their own. They are part of the wonderful mosaic that is America whose continuing empowerment can only help this country reach its full potential as a democracy.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to one of New York's oldest celebrations of Dominican culture, Manhattan's Dominican Day Parade.

The annual parade, which once ran through the heart of Washington Heights, has grown to become one of August's most anticipated celebrations of cultural and ethnic pride on New York's Sixth Avenue.

This year's parade on August 10th not only comes on the heels of the Dominican Republic's hosting of the 14th edition of the Pan-American Games, it also kicks off Dominican Heritage Week in New York City. From then to August 16th, New Yorkers of all ages will get a chance to learn about some of the ways in which this vibrant community is transforming the Nation.

We have begun to hear of Dominicans and Dominican-Americans in the context of stars like baseball slugger Sammy Sosa, designer Oscar de la Renta, and Miss Universe 2002 Amelia Vega. However, there are hundreds of Dominican professionals and an increasing amount of Dominican students that are blazing trails in government, law, science, and technology. They understand that they stand on the shoulders of not only the sacrifices that their parents have made but also on the achievements of members of other freedom-loving people.

In many ways, their journey is similar to other immigrant groups that have landed on our shores. But make no mistake, the people of the Dominican Republic have a style all their own. They are part of the wonderful mosaic that is America whose continuing empowerment can only help this country reach its full potential as a democracy.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to the 14th edition of the Pan-American dames, this year to be held in Santo Domingo Dominican Republic, from August 1st to August 17th.

Since 1951, the games have carried the Olympic spirit of trying to build and strengthen international cooperation through friendly, but no less intense, competition between the countries of the Western Hemisphere. In a time when we are engaged in a global struggle against terrorism, poverty and disease, the sight of some of the region's best athletes coming sharing the same stage peacefully gives the world hope that our current struggles are just a prologue to better days.

This year's games are also a source of pride to Dominicans all over the world, especially those who live in my district's neighborhood of Washington Heights. While putting on an event of such magnitude is a challenge for any nation, there is no doubt in my mind that the world will be treated to a world-class celebration full of the best of Dominican culture. It is also a chance to sow the seeds of future economic development by showing the world that any stage can shine brightly from Santo Domingo.

So it is with great enthusiasm that I ask my colleagues to join me in congratulating all the participants and organizers in advance for all their achievements and hard work. Let us hope that the Pan-American Games' motto, loosely translated as ``The American spirit of friendship through sports,'' not only lasts beyond these two weeks in August, but also extends beyond sports and the island of Hispaniola into the hearts of all of the world's citizens.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize a very important national holiday in the Dominican Republic, Restoration Day or El Dia de la Restauracion, celebrated annually on August 16.

Although the Dominican Republic declared its independence from Spain in 1821, it wasn't until February 27, 1844, that they established constitutional self-rule. However, years later a series of internal events led a faction of government to call on Spain to reclaim their former Caribbean colony. With the United States in the middle of its own civil war, the Dominican people were left to their own resources to wage another battle for their country's freedom. Starting on August 16, 1863, nationalists launched a counteroffensive against the Spanish crown, ultimately leading Spain to withdraw from the island of Hispaniola on March 3, 1865.

For Dominicans, August 16 is a second Independence Day, a lasting symbol of the dedication of their community to be free. In the Dominican Republic, it has been, among other things, the traditional day when victorious candidates assume the presidency. In the United States, the day serves as a cultural holiday around which many hold concerts, festivals and other celebrations. In my own city of New York, there is a grand parade down Sixth Avenue, from 36th to 56th Streets. This year, it also marks the end of Dominican Heritage week, a time when New Yorkers of all ages get an opportunity to learn about this vibrant Latino community.

So I ask my colleagues to join me in celebrating this holiday with Dominicans all over the world. The success of our current democracy in many ways depends on us never forgetting the sacrifice of those who have fought for the cause of freedom and peaceful self-rule all over the world.

Mr. Speaker, I wanted to take this time to highlight some of the contributions that baseball players of Dominican decent are making not only to America's national pastime, but also to communities in the Dominican Republic.

It isn't long into SportsCenter or any other sports highlight show before one notices that some of the game's greatest contemporary players hail from the DR. Perennial All-Stars like Sammy Sosa, Pedro Martinez, Alex Rodriguez and Manny Ramirez, joined now by youngsters like Odalis Perez, Albert Pujols, Carlos Delgado, Alfonso Soriano and Miguel Tejada, are redefining the game by challenging long-established records and moving the bar of excellence higher than many would have imagined.

Baseball has a long established tradition in the DR, showcasing Negro-League stars like Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson in winter league games at a time when the color-line barred African-Americans from playing with white players in America. And these new stars know that they follow in the footsteps of major league trailblazers like Felipe Alou, Joaquin Andujar, George Bell, Rico Carty, Tony Fernandez, Pedro Guerrero, Juan Marichal, and Jose Rijo.

However, what makes these ballplayers different from athletes of the past is that they can afford not only to be positive role models of behavior, but also economic role models of philanthropy. According to Major League Baseball, the 79 Dominican major league baseball players earn a combined salary of $210 million. Like many immigrants, they send money directly home to family members. However, they also contribute to the local economy by building homes, investing in business ventures and making contributions to charities based in their hometowns.

Their success in the major leagues has also brought in Major League Baseball as a partner in the island's economic development. According to a recent study, MLB has created 1,200 jobs, with $14.7 million going directly to the country through the operation of 30 baseball academies that are all looking to find the next diamond in the rough. These are academies that not only provide services, but also buy from local merchants, which has lead to the creation of as many as 900 new jobs.

Success in baseball is not based on the play of one player but on the efforts of the entire team. These Dominican athletes know that the best way that they can truly honor the sacrifices of their family and friends is making sure that they give back with both their hearts and their wallets. Collectively, they and other Dominicans around the world are helping to shatter the myth that some people are forever destined to be the recipients of handouts and hand-me-downs. That with an investment of faith and money, talent can surface to change a game--and the world.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize and celebrate Trinidad on the forty-first anniversary of her Independence and the 169th anniversary of emancipation in Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean.

Trinidad and Tobago and the U.S. have long enjoyed a prosperous relationship that has hinged upon interests in investment, trade, and regional security. Often noted for holding one of the largest and most elaborate Carnival celebrations in the world, there is much to know about how this small island nation evolved and has come to be such a great friend to our nation.

Trinidad was settled by the Spanish a century after Columbus landed there. The original inhabitants--Arawak and Carib Indians--were largely wiped out by the Spanish colonizers, and the survivors were gradually assimilated. Although it attracted French, free Black, and other non- Spanish settlers, Trinidad remained under Spanish rule until the British captured it in 1797. During the colonial period, Trinidad's economy relied on large sugar and cocoa plantations.

Tobago's development was similar to other plantation islands in the Lesser Antilles and quite different from Trinidad's . The smaller island of the pair, Tobago became known first as Tavaco, then Tabagua, then as Tobago. This was the name given by its tribal people who used a long stemmed pipe in which they smoked a herb called Vcohiba, known today as tobacco.

During the colonial period, French, Dutch, and British forces fought over possession of Tobago, and the island changed hands 22 times--more often than any other West Indian island. Tobago was finally ceded to Great Britain in 1814. Trinidad and Tobago were incorporated into a single colony in 1888.

Trinidad became an oil economy in the 20th century. Oil was discovered in the Guayguaygare, Point Fortin, and Forest Reserve areas in Trinidad. Over time oil and oil related exports came to dominate the economy.

The establishment of U.S. bases on the island in 1941 in exchange for 50 destroyers which at the time was sorely needed by an overstretched Britain, resulted in the construction of numerous roads. Additionally, the G.I.s injected American culture and money into a stagnant economy and shifted the focus of the country from Britain to the U.S.

In the 1950s, the British sponsored the West Indies Federation as a potential post-colonial model, in the belief that most of the Caribbean islands would be unable to survive politically or economically on their own. The Caribbean peoples thought otherwise and the Federation collapsed in the early 1960s.

In Trinidad and Tobago a movement was being born in the 1950s. After receiving his Ph.D. and serving as assistant professor at Howard University, Eric Williams returned to Trinidad and Tobago and formed the People's National Movement (PNM), a political party of which he became the leader. In September of 1956, the PNM won the national elections and he became the chief minister of the country from 1956 to 1959, premier from 1959 to 1962, and prime minister from 1962 to 1981. During his term as prime minister, Williams led Trinidad and Tobago into full independence within the Commonwealth in 1962. Eric Williams is considered the father of Trinidad and Tobago. He died in office on March 29, 1981.

After its 1962 independence, Trinidad joined the United Nations and the Commonwealth. In 1967, it became the first Commonwealth country to join the Organization of American States (OAS). A U.S. embassy was established in Port of Spain in 1962, replacing the former consulate general. Today, the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago remains a stable government with close ties and a working relationship to the United States.

Evidence of government stability is represented in the fact that U.S. investment in Trinidad and Tobago exceeds one and one-quarter billion dollars. In addition, Trinidad and Tobago is becoming the leading importer of liquefied natural gas to the U.S. It also is active in the U.S.-initiated Summit of the Americas process and fully supports the establishment of the Free Trade Area of the Americas.

With a population of 1.2 million people and the size of the state of Delaware, Trinidad and Tobago maintains strong relations with its Caribbean neighbors as well. As the most industrialized and second- largest country in the English-speaking Caribbean, Trinidad and Tobago has taken a leading role in the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM), and strongly supports CARICOM economic integration efforts.

The two countries also share its people and culture. There are large numbers of U.S. citizens and permanent residents of Trinidadian origin living in the United States. These individuals keep strong cultural ties to their country of origin. About 20,000 U.S. citizens visit Trinidad and Tobago on vacation or for business every year, and over 2,700 American citizens are residents. In addition, Trinidad like carnivals are held in numerous cities across the U.S. with a major celebration occurring in Brooklyn every Labor Day of which Trinidadians have played an integral role in sustaining.

The Trinidadian, Jessie Wardell was responsible for obtaining the first street permit to celebrate Carnival outdoors on Lenox Avenue in Harlem. Trinidadian, Rufus Gorin, moved the Carnival to Brooklyn where he paired with the Trinidadian, Carlos Lezama, and formed the West Indian American Day carnival Association (WIADCA), which for over thirty years has participated in attracting millions of people to New York to participate in the largest Carnival celebration in the U.S.

I take great pleasure in reflecting upon the magnitude of Trinidad and Tobago's contribution to New York City, our nation, and the world and expressing my personal appreciation for the association I have had with her people over the years. I salute the republic of Trinidad and Tobago and her accomplishments and ask that you join me in honoring her as she celebrates her 41st Anniversary.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize and celebrate Jamaica on the forty-first anniversary of her Independence and the 169th anniversary of emancipation in Jamaica and the Caribbean. I take pleasure in reflecting upon the magnitude of Jamaica's contribution to New York City, our nation, and the world and expressing my personal appreciation for the association I have had with Jamaica and its people over the years.

I have been privileged to know and work with all of the Prime Ministers of Jamaica since my election to the Congress, beginning with Prime Minister Michael Manley's appeal for assistance to prevent retaliation by the U.S. Government in response to a justified increase in the royalty paid by U.S. aluminum companies for the exploitation of Jamaica's bauxite. I was privileged to work with Jamaican leaders in the creation and expansion of the Caribbean Basin Initiative which has in the last twenty years significantly increased the trade and commercial relationship between the U.S. and Jamaica and I continue to work in support of the Jamaican government's efforts to obtain U.S. government recognition of the need for special and differential treatment of small economies in the negotiation of the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas.

Jamaica has produced extraordinary leaders from Marcus Garvey to Alexander Bustamente to Norman and Michael Manley who have significantly contributed to the historical global struggle for freedom, self-determination and human rights. I salute Jamaica on this anniversary and the great legacy it has created for us all.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor, recognize and celebrate the anniversary of his birth on the 16th of August and to praise Marcus Garvey for his seminal contribution to the civil rights movement.

Marcus Garvey, born in rural St. Ann's Bay, Jamaica rose from the humblest of beginnings to attain international stature. He brought African nationalism and pride to the oppressed African-American community. In doing so, he challenged mainstream white America and predominant racist stereotypes. The passion and fervor with which the African-American community responded to Marcus Garvey's arrival indicated the boiling energy and pride that existed but without leadership. Marcus Garvey provided that leader, took pride in his skin color, and demanded that others do the same. In doing so, he energized a generation of African-Americans and laid much of the groundwork for the civil-rights movement.

In 1914, Garvey formed the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) and the African Communities League (ACL) while studying in England. In doing so, Garvey sought ``to work for the general uplift of the Negro peoples of the world.'' At its peak, in 1922-1924, Garvey's movement encompassed over 8 million proud followers. Through the hundreds of UNIA chapters throughout the world and the newspaper Negro World, Garvey encouraged and worked for economic success and political influence for his followers. He urged people of African descent to create their own businesses and to wield the influence that accompanies personal wealth. He refused the notion that African-Americans could not succeed as entrepreneurs in the mold of Rockefeller and Carnegie. Such notions were novel and exciting for oppressed minorities around the world.

In what would prove to be a fatal mistake, Mr. Garvey organized a steamship company called ``Black Star Line.'' Garvey designed his company to realize his dream of a powerful African nation built on the foundations of black culture and independence. The fundamental principle of Garvey's repatriation to Africa movement was one of pride. He wanted people of African descent to celebrate themselves and raise their culture to international prominence. Garvey awakened, energized and cultivated the modern nationalist movements that eventually opposed European colonial domination and began African self-determination.

Garvey sought to combat the racism and the stigma of black skin that had seeped into the culture of his own people. He made black dolls for black children and called for separate black institutions under black leadership. Mr. Garvey's pride and his activism threatened white America, and J. Edgar Hoover quickly took notice. After failing to uncover any evidence of subversion, Marcus Garvey was arrested and convicted of mail fraud relating to ``Black Star Line.'' His sentence was eventually commuted, and Garvey was deported to his native Jamaica.

Considering that Marcus Garvey spent only 10 of his 52 years in the United States, his impact on our culture was phenomenal. The ideas that Mr. Garvey espoused were not necessarily phenomenal in their originality, but Mr. Garvey's charisma and rhetorical excellence forced not only African-Americans, but mainstream America, to listen to his message. While I encourage my colleagues to reexamine H. Con. Res. 74, exonerating Marcus Garvey, I've risen today so that Mr. Garvey's legacy and his contributions to racial equality are not forgotten.

I would like to share with you an Op-ed that I wrote in March of last year in support of H. Con. Res. 74.

In 1987, the centenary of Marcus Garvey's birth when I

first introduced legislation to exonerate the great civil

rights leader, the New York Times cited a study of J. Edgar

Hoover's role in Garvey's prosecution:

``Hoover saw the blacks and the reds as a larger

conspiracy. The new Negro movement, which Garvey symbolized,

Hoover saw as a terrible threat to the American way.''

Even then, in 1987, Hoover remained a near sacrosanct

figure in Washington, not yet fully exposed as a bully who

wielded the power of the nation's preeminent law enforcement

organization. Today, the late former director of the FBI is

widely discredited as a power-hungry blackmailer of U.S.

presidents and a hateful bigot and slanderer of Martin Luther

King who shied away from prosecuting organized crime while

doing everything in his power to intimidate and undermine

leaders of civil rights aniti-war movements of the 1960's.

As Hoover's reputation declines--a pending bill in the U.S.

House of Representatives would strike his name from FBI

headquarters in Washington--Garvey's is rising. Last year's

PBS documentary on Garvey placed his name among the giants of

American 20th century Black history.

Marcus Garvey was one of America's great Black leaders and

in the early 1920's he was wrongfully prosecuted and

imprisoned on charges of mail fraud. It is time high time

that the Congress of the United States of American recognizes

this injustice and clear his name.

Born in St. Ann's Bay, Jamaica, August 17, 1887, Garvey

epitomized the strength and pride of the people of the

Caribbean. Garvey was virtually self-taught, reading

voraciously from his father's extensive library. By 1910, and

when residing in Kingston, he quickly established himself as

a spellbinding orator and political organizer.

Garvey's philosophy and accomplishments challenged the

myths of inferiority that demeaned people of African heritage

in the 1920s. When lynching of Black men was commonplace,

when house burning by Southern Klansmen and northern rioters

were routine when theories of white supremacy were acceptable

and notions of equality subversive, Marcus Garvey preached

racial pride and economic independence.

He raised more than one million dollars from thousands of

investors in the United States, the Caribbean, Africa and

Europe to establish the Universal Negro Improvement

Association (UNIA) and his well-known Black Star Line

steamship company. The Black Star Line was established to

purchase ships to initiate trade with and evenutually carry

New World Blacks to Africa. Indeed, one of Garvey's most

important legacies was his internationalism, his recognition

that the struggles of the Black people of America were linked

by blood and history to the quests for independence by people

of color around the world.

Garvey's success inevitably drew suspicion of an ambitious

J. Edgar Hoover, who ordered the surveillance and

infiltration of Garvey's UNIA. When evidence of subversion

failed to turn up, Garvey was indicted on a business offense.

Garvey's trial was a mockery of justice. The charges were

confused, the evidence flimsy, and the judge biased. To make

matters worse, Garvey insisted on defending himself.

In 1923, Garvey was convicted of mail fraud and sentenced

to five years in prison. His appeals to higher courts were

promptly denied. Numerous petitions for Presidential pardons

signed by thousands of the very people whom he was accused of

defrauding-were rebuffed.

Garvey's prosecution was one of this nation's great

miscarriages of justice. This fact has been well documented

by Prof. Robert

Hill, editor of the Garvey papers at UCLA, historian John

Henrik Clark and others.

Yet, the government has held firm in its conviction that

Garvey was a ``menace,'' as he was described by the young J.

Edgar Hoover, who made Garvey one of his first targets, as

FBI director. Among his last was Martin Luther King, a

philosophical successor to Garvey, who was branded a

``communist,'' wiretapped and hounded by the aging Hoover.

It may be difficult to comprehend today, but in the racial

climate of the 1920's, Garvey success was his greatest

liability. At a time when Black people were stigmatized as

intellectually inferior--and were economically more

disadvantaged than today accomplishments of the magnitude

achieved by Garvey were immediately and almost universally

dismissed as fraudulent. But as Garvey's mystique has grown,

so too has our understanding of the wealth of his

contributions and his historical importance as the

trailblazer for the great civil rights leaders who followed.

In the United States, where he lived for 10 of his 53

years, Garvey inspired hundreds of thousands of Black

American supporters with hope for a better future. Today, he

stands out in the pantheon of Black America's greatest and

most controversial leaders. But in the records of the U.S.

Department of Justice and the Federal Courts, Garvey remains

ex-convict number 19359.

Almost 75 years ago, Marcus Garvey was released from

Atlanta Federal Penitentiary, his sentence commuted by

President Calvin Coolidge. Deported to his native Jamaica,

Garvey died 13 years later, and entered history as that

nation's preeminent hero. As a role model to millions of

common people in the Americas and the Third World, he would

inspire the independence movements that liberated colonial

Africa.

Despite the harassment and the weakness of the evidence

against him, Garvey's prosecution may have been inevitable in

the 1920's. But by unbiased standards, the charges were not

substantiated and his conviction was not justified. We cannot

overturn the verdict but we can prove that times have changed

and that we now know better.