Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, it is with great pride that I rise today to recognize a great man and leader, Mr. Burney L. Adams. A man who has given much to his community, Mr. Adams will be honored this Friday, May 2, 2003 by Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University's National Alumni Association with their 2003 Distinguished Alumni Award.

After graduating from Florida A&M, Mr. Adams was signed with the Canadian Professional Football team, the Hamilton Tigers. Upon release, he journeyed to Newark, New Jersey where he took a job with the Newark Board of Education. Mr. Adams made Newark his home, and has been a role model and significant contributor to the community for the past 40 years.

Through his work with the Board of Education as well as Football Coach at Weequahic High School, Mr. Adams saw the need for assistance of minority students in pursuing higher educational goals. Since 1963 he has been instrumental in obtaining college scholarship assistance for more than 900 youth in both my district as well as neighboring areas.

As a former teacher and current member of the Education & the Workforce Committee here in the House of Representatives, I appreciate the drive and determination of educators such as Mr. Adams. Coach Adams has a dedication and devotion not only to his players on the field but also to the youth of his community. Investing personal time, effort, and money into his students, Coach Adams believes in the spirit of his students to succeed. It is members of our community like Mr. Adams who give so selflessly of their time that enables our youngest citizens to reach their dreams.

Mr. Speaker, I know that my colleagues here in the U.S. House of Representatives join me today as I recognize Burney Adams and his well deserved award from Florida A&M University. I wish him the very best on this special occasion and best wishes in all his future endeavors.

Mr. Chairman, let me express my strong support for this legislation and begin by commending the Bush administration for this initiative of 15 billion new dollars. I would like to also commend the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hyde), the chairman of the Committee on International Relations, for standing up to criticism primarily from his own friends. In spite of the criticism, the gentleman from Illinois showed that he still has the competitive drive that he had as an outstanding basketball player, that when the game got close, when it got tough, when it was needed, that last push, he stayed the course; and I would like to certainly commend him for that.

We appreciate the work of the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos) and the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee) and the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Leach). We have all come together.

But let me just say that I have seen the devastation with my own eyes. Over the 15 years that I have been in Congress, I have spent time during my first year visiting hostels and hospitals where HIV and AIDS patients were dying, and it was a time when many people throughout the world were crying out for help. I was devastated because their voices were not being heard. People were dying all around us.

Voltaire said, ``Nothing is as powerful as a dream whose time has come.'' The dream that we should really fight this devastating disease, the fact that people around the world are being devastated, not because of anything that is abnormal, but because of something that has just entered into this society. And so I hope that we will keep the legislation intact. I am proud to stand here and say that we are doing probably the greatest thing that we have done since I have been in the Congress, as has been mentioned earlier today.

Mr. Chairman, I stand in strong opposition to this amendment. Currently, IDEA guarantees every child with a disability a free and an appropriate public education. Diverting public funds to private and parochial schools through vouchers really undermines the public school system, and it undermines that guarantee that we have made to every youngster in this country. Vouchers would subsidize the enrollment of children in private schools that are not accountable nor subject to Federal civil rights laws.

Our Republican colleagues have pushed for accountability in education through the Leave No Child Behind Act; yet if this amendment passes, private schools would not be held to the same standards as public schools. We all know that. Public schools accept all children; but private and religious schools can and often do discriminate by rejecting students due to academic standards, disabilities, behavior problems, religious affiliations, and other criteria.

Public schools are simply that. They are public. Private and parochial are simply that. They are private and they are parochial. Under this amendment, private schools accepting voucher funds would not be required to recognize any of the parental rights contained within IDEA. It would be a step backwards.

We need to move forward in this new millennium. This is directly opposite to what IDEA was created to do, giving parents a voice in their children's education. Voucher programs will not pay for the entire cost; and, therefore, it would simply subsidize those. I strongly urge rejection of this amendment.

Mr. Speaker, it is with great pride that I rise today to recognize Mr. Ellis Simon Smith, Sr. and Mrs. Lillie Mae Smith as they celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary.

Born in Trenton, North Carolina on November 12, 1933, Mr. Ellis spent his early years growing up and working in North Carolina. At the age of 19, he met and married Miss Lillie Mae Jones of Falling Creek, North Carolina and they began their journey together.

The proud parents of four daughters: Barbara, Helen, Cheryl, and Margaret, the Ellis family has spent the years since 1958 as residents of Newark, New Jersey. Here they are proud members of the Love of Christ Ministry where their son, Ellis, Jr. is the pastor.

Finding a special person and friend to share your life with is one of the great joys of life. I hope that they both have found great joy and happiness together and will cherish the wonderful years ahead. I rise today to recognize that wonderful bond that they have found and continue to share and wish them great happiness as they celebrate together with family and friends.

Mr. Speaker, I stand today to recognize Africa Malaria Day, declared on April 25, 2000 by 43 African heads of state. That declaration marked the end of a 3-day summit called to renew and re- invigorate Africa's commitment to defeating malaria, a disease that takes a terrible toll on the African continent. It renewed a commitment to exploit all means possible to finally tame the disease that kills more African children than any other single disease. It recognized the massive impact of malaria and Africa's potential for reducing that impact. It affirmed African leaders' intent to remove roadblocks to malaria control and called for more active participation by the international community.

UNICEF and the World Health Organization estimate that malaria kills from 1 million to 2 million people every year, most of them young children and pregnant women in Africa. Along with HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, malaria is one of the three biggest infectious disease killers in the world today.

There has never been a licensed malaria vaccine, but great progress toward that end is now being made. However, the market for a malaria vaccine is primarily poor people in developing countries. This means that market forces requiring an acceptable return on investment by industry cannot, by themselves, drive malaria vaccine development. Ensuring the successful development of a vaccine for a disease that primarily affects the poorest people in the world requires public funding for research and development and funding for vaccine purchase once malaria vaccines are licensed.

Global and national efforts are making a difference. Lives are being saved, and the movement to finally control malaria in Africa is picking up momentum. Evidence of this includes the increasing level of support for malaria control by the Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. But more and broader support is needed to achieve the goal of ending deaths from malaria in the shortest time possible. For each year we delay, another one to two million lives are lost.

Friday, April 25, 2003, was Africa Malaria Day. On that day, the equivalent of seven large planeloads of children died from malaria. Most of these children were under the age of 5. While this fact deeply saddens me, it also impassions me. We can and must ensure that more is done to prevent more deaths, today, tomorrow, and into the future.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask my colleagues here in the United States House of Representatives to join me in honoring a very special person, Mr. Tony Lonero, as he is inducted into the Pennsylvania Hills Sports Hall of Fame on April 25, 2003.

Mr. Lonero's story is one of courage and inspiration which makes all of us proud. An avid athlete, he excelled in baseball during his college years and later played in Italy's baseball major league in Nettuno. He participated in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics as part of the Italian Baseball Team.

After retiring in the late 1980s, he remained involved in coaching and pursued another passion, cycling. About a year and a half ago, while preparing for a race, he collapsed and was later diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. He refused to let the diagnosis stop him from following his dreams. He continued running and cycling, and he is now qualifying for the longest and most difficult race in the history of cycling, the Paris-Brest-Paris.

Although living in Italy, Tony Lonero has always remained a patriotic American. He has maintained his U.S. citizenship and always carries out his civic responsibilities by voting via absentee ballot.

Mr. Speaker, let us join in offering our warmest congratulations and best wishes for continued success to this outstanding athlete and American, Mr. Tony Lonero, as he receives the special honor of being inducted into the Pennsylvania Hills Sports Hall of Fame.

Mr. Speaker, it is with great pride that I rise today to recognize my constituent, Charlie Nathaniel Hall, Sr. Mr. Hall was born and raised in my hometown of Newark, New Jersey and has become a very active member within the community.

Attending public schools in Newark, Mr. Hall went on to earn an art degree from the Newark School of Fine and Industrial Arts, with a concentration in Product Design. While there Mr. Hall was also a member of the Gamma Delta Phi Fraternity and worked part-time in downtown Newark, where he earned the reputation of a ``laborer''.

Mr. Hall's ability to grasp and handle multiple tasks sent him through the ranks and earned him the Vice-Presidency of Local 108 in 1984. He was eventually elected President of the Local Union in 1989 and served until

1998. Later in that same year he would be elected vice-president of the UFCW. Working in all aspects of these organizations, Mr. Hall is an integral component of the development and success of all organizations with which he works. He is currently President Emeritus of Local 108,

Mr. Speaker, I commend the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Cummings) for the leadership the gentleman has shown in the Congressional Black Caucus in the short time he has been our Chair. Just this past weekend the gentleman conducted a housing summit in Florida where the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Corrine Brown) had close to a thousand people during the weekend coming to a housing fair, and his participation in Houston, Texas, where he and the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee) talked about the fight against the Bush plan to end affirmative action. I think the great work that you have been doing is commendable; and as was just indicated, affirmative action is supported by many of the Fortune 500 companies. I spoke at a Black History Program at Merck in New Jersey, and mentioned seven or eight of the companies that were supporting affirmative action, and I failed to mention Merck, and as I finished my speech and came off the platform at their home office, they said we are part of that suit that supports affirmative action.

Our military generals, such as retired General Schwarzkopf, say we should keep affirmative action, especially because our troops need to see diversity in our leadership. As we talk about that, I would like to join with the gentleman in this question about the budget.

I rise to join my colleagues in expressing my grave concern about the budget plan approved by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. With our Nation engaged in a military conflict overseas, we are told that this is a time of sacrifice on the part of Americans. Unfortunately, both in the military conflict and on the domestic front, sacrifices are being asked mainly from those at one end of the income scale. The fact is that the sons and daughters of wealthy Americans rarely serve in combat while minorities and lower-income men and women serve in disproportionate numbers. It is a time we as a Nation renew the spirit of shared sacrifice. That is what made us so strong in World War II, shared sacrifice, rationing of food, rationing of meats, fuel, price controls, wage controls. Everyone came together, and that effort during World War II made us and saved the world and rebuilt Europe, and Asia then began to strengthen itself. Shared sacrifice is what is fair, not what we are seeing today.

During this time of rising unemployment rates, we should be concentrating on creating jobs for those out of work rather than giving the wealthy more tax breaks through a $1.3 trillion tax cut. Is that fair? Is that shared sacrifice? I do not think so from my math.

Is it fair to approve a budget that cuts domestic appropriations by $244 billion over 10 years, below the amount needed to maintain services at the present level, and we know that services will need to increase, but at the present level cutting it $244 billion? All of the spending cuts will be used to finance the huge tax cut for the wealthy, for those at the country clubs, which most Americans say we should not do. Most Americans say we should not

have a tax cut at this time, but the Bush administration insists on a $1.3 trillion tax cut for the wealthiest of our Nation.

As a former teacher and as a member of the Committee on Education and the Workforce, I am deeply concerned about the fact that the Republican budget approved by the House of Representatives cut education by $2.1 billion in fiscal year 2004 and by $25.7 billion over the next 10 years, and that is below the Bush budget which freezes spending for education by failing to keep up with inflation or increasing enrollments. His budget did not give any increase, but the House Republican-approved budget cuts $25 billion below what President Bush asked for.

The House budget also fails to provide an increase for Head Start, despite the fact that the program is serving only 54 percent of those eligible 3- and 4-year-olds. We know there is a real problem with affordable housing in this Nation, and yet the Republicans drastically cut spending for housing. It is a shame. It is a disgrace.

The Bush administration budget eliminates funding for the Hope VI program, which displaces distressed low-income housing with new community housing. It is hope, Hope VI. That is what people are looking forward to. So what did they do, cut it out. Funding is slashed for the public housing capital fund by $71 million below fiscal year 2003. Rents have increased for thousands of tenants who receive Federal housing aid through minimum rent requirements for public housing and section 8 vouchers. Section 8 vouchers are for the truly poor in our community. That has been cut.

The Republican budget calls for $169 billion in cuts that could harm Medicare and Medicaid. By contrast, the budget put forth by the Congressional Black Caucus led by the gentleman from New York (Mr. Owens) and the Progressive Caucus led by the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee) and the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Kucinich) implements the Medicare For All Program. That is what our budget did, a single payer, universal health care plan that guaranteed access to health care regardless of income. There are close to 70 million people now. The number grew from 40 to close to 70 million who are uninsured today. Where are we going as a Nation? Our budget, the Congressional Black Caucus and the Progressive Caucus budget, provides an economic stimulus plan that provides $20 billion in extended unemployment assistance and $50 billion for Federal revenue sharing with States, as well as $50 billion for needed infrastructure investment.

States need help. Our government has turned its back on our States. New Jersey has a $5 billion budget gap, Pennsylvania has one, as does California and New York. States are cutting budgets, and we are turning our backs on them. That is unfair.

We need to restore fairness to our Nation's veterans in gratitude for their service to our country. Our budget provides $3 billion over what the Bush administration allocates. Our plan would provide a substantial investment in school construction, in our Nation's teachers, in student loan programs. We would also create a national housing trust and restore the reckless cuts in housing put forth by the Bush administration, including Hope VI and the Public Housing Drug Elimination Program which has been eliminated.

Mr. Speaker, let us come together as a Nation and truly move forward in the spirit of shared sacrifice. Let us not continually target those who can least afford those severe cuts in order to fund a reckless, unfair tax cut tilted towards the wealthiest members of this society.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman very much. As I met with our Governor, Governor McGreevey, a bright young man who for 2 years in a row had to cut $5 billion each year, does not want to raise taxes, refused to raise taxes, but cut funding for arts, cut funding for hospitals, cut funding for all kinds of programs. The Governors deserve better, whether they are Democrat or Republican Governors. The people in the State are saying really do not tread on us, but bring us in. As a matter of fact, in the first 13 original colonies, New Jersey's flag was a flag with a snake that said, ``Don't tread on us.'' We are treading on our States. It is unfair. It is wrong, and I wish that all the Governors, Republican and Democrat, would tell the unfair Bush tax cut, cut the tax cut, help the States. I thank the chairman.

Mr. Speaker, it is with great pride that I rise today to recognize Dr. and Mrs. Frank Light for their many contributions to health care in my district and around the world.

As a member of Rahway Hospital's Medical/Dental staff since 1973 and long-time trustee of the Rahway Hospital Foundation, Dr. Light is a very active member within his hospital community. Dr. Light is also an active member of the American Society of Anesthesiologists as well as former board member and president of the John E. Runnels County Hospital and the Family and Children's Society, Counseling, Testing and Adoption Center.

In addition to their contributions within the hospital community, Dr. and Mrs. Light have dedicated their time to helping provide free health care to needy children around the world through Healing the Children Midlantic, Inc. As a member of the International Relations Committee, I am very aware of the need for quality medical care for children around the world, and am extremely appreciative of Dr. Light's efforts over the past twenty-five years as part of a medical team that has traveled to many countries to provide such medical services.

Dr. and Mrs. Light have also provided a home to many children while they undergo medical treatment and surgery in this country. They are able to give love to these children while they are far away from their loved ones as well as support while they undergo medical procedures. Dr. and Mrs. Light have dedicated their lives to bettering the lives of children around the world.

Mr. Speaker, I know that my colleagues here in the U.S. House of Representative join me today as I recognize Dr. and Mrs. Light and their innumerable contributions to the medical community and to the health and future of children around the world. It is selfless acts such as these that set an example for the rest of the world.

Mr. Speaker, it is with great pride that I recognize Truth Seekers Substance Outreach Ministry, Inc. on their 10th anniversary celebration in Newark, New Jersey.

Under the direction of Reverend Lance Abercrombie, Truth Seekers Outreach Ministry began its journey in 1993. Traveling throughout the tri-state area, Reverend Abercrombie and his cousin, Wayne Reynolds, worked to spread the word of how their faith saved them from a life of substance abuse. Becoming incorporated in May of 2000, they have worked hard to refer individuals to detoxification and rehabilitation centers, shelters, as well as other organizations to help assist individuals on their road to a life free of substance abuse.

The Truth Seekers Outreach Ministry, Inc. has reached out to our community to see that those in need are not left behind. They are providing a wonderful service to the many men and women in this country who suffer from substance abuse, by showing them that there is hope and that they can conquer their illness.

Mr. Speaker, I know that my colleagues here in the U.S. House of Representatives join me in congratulating Truth Seekers Outreach Ministry, Inc. on their 10th anniversary, and wishing them the best for the future.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus for yielding. Let me say how proud I am of the outstanding job the gentleman has done in the short time he has been chairing our beloved caucus.

As a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, I thank the gentleman for taking this Special Order. As we have recently celebrated Black History Month, I want to say how proud I am of our troops, all of our troops, white, black, Hispanic, that are there, even some persons who are there to fight who have green cards, who are risking their lives for this country, and they are not even citizens of this country. So I applaud all of our young people who are there to stand up for our country when our Commander in Chief sends them to a place.

As we have just recently celebrated Black History Month, we look at African Americans who were the first to die in this Nation. On March 4, 1770, in the Boston Massacre, Crispus Attucks was the first person to die when those five patriots died at the Boston Massacre, shot down by the British. It was at the Battle of Bunker Hill that Peter Salem, who was a Minuteman, killed the commander of the British troops,

the Redcoats, at the Battle of Bunker Hill; Peter Salem, who was a patriot, who I had to graduate from high school and college to find out about these tributes.

We can talk about the 5,000 African Americans who fought in the Revolutionary War. And we go on to the Civil War, where the 54th Regiment, former slaves, who fought valiantly; or the Revolutionary War, where Haiti sent troops in the Battle of Savannah to fight for the independence of the United States against Britain, black men who were former slaves in Haiti came here to fight. So people of color have shed their blood for many years for this country, or the Civil War, as I mentioned, with the 54th Regiment.

When we take the 1898 Spanish-American War, when Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders were about to be annihilated at the Battle of San Juan Hill, it was the Buffalo Soldiers who came and prevented that from happening. Private Johnson and Private Roberts served 181 days in the trenches away from their battalion with 30 German prisoners of war, over a half a year in the trenches in World War I, to get the medal by the French, but not the Americans.

Even recently, Colonel Anderson from New York was on the ill-fated Columbia, one of the seven persons to die in that NASA tragedy, with a man from Israel and a woman who migrated here from India.

So our country is great. So I just wanted to say that we in the Congressional Black Caucus are proud of our history and the history that African Americans have contributed to this country.

But today we stand at the threshold of war with Iraq. It appears that President Bush intends to send our troops into combat without any further attempt at diplomacy and without the support of long-time U.S. allies. In so doing, our Nation will be setting a high-risk precedent wherein we assert the right to engage in preemptive warfare whether or not we are under direct military threat.

What about India and Pakistan? What about if they did a preemptive strike on one another? What about China and Taiwan? What happens then if they follow our lead? We are setting a dangerous precedent.

Then our allies that we are criticizing, Belgium, France and Italy, those who we were trying to bring on our side, like China and Russia, we have lost a lot of diplomacy with this act.

We are opening a door to an era which deemphasizes diplomacy and devalues peaceful solutions through negotiations.

We have been able to contain Saddam Hussein through the use of no-fly zones. More recently we obtained a concession from Iraq which gives us the authority to use our U-2 spy planes, the French Mirage planes and the Russian Antonovs, which monitor daily activities in Iraq.

If the President proceeds with his plan to attack a country without a direct provocation, ours will be a world that is filled with greater fear and danger, greater than ever before in our history. Innocent lives on all sides will be lost. I think it is tragic that we are willing to pay the price of human lives that war extracts when we have not fully explored all diplomatic channels through the United Nations.

As a member of the House Committee on International Relations, I have been directly involved in monitoring elections overseas and helping to resolve very serious conflicts. In South Africa we had a solution where it seemed impossible to reach consensus after years of apartheid and bitter racial divisions, and yet we see people in South Africa living in a new, nonracial Democratic South Africa.

I traveled to Northern Ireland, where generations of violence and animosity have created seemingly insurmountable differences. Yet with great patience and diplomacy, former Senator George Mitchell was able to bring both sides to the table to forge the Good Friday Accords.

In Rwanda, a war-torn country where genocide took place as the world watched, we saw close to 1 million people killed. Opposite sides now live together, peacefully, even some having to share the same home because of coming back and joining together in a house that was previously occupied by the other family, and they are looking forward to democratic elections.

My point is no matter how dire a situation, diplomacy can work. Before we risk the lives of young men and women in uniform, which I support and all of us in the Congressional Black Caucus support 100 percent, as well as the countless citizens in both the Middle East and our own country, should we not do everything in our power to have a peaceful solution to the situation in Iraq?

We know that war takes terrible tolls. Tragically, even as technology advances, incidents of friendly fire where our soldiers are inadvertently killed by our own troops are on the rise. The number of incidents have grown from 3 percent casualties in World War II to over 24 percent in the Persian Gulf War. That number is expected to increase, our own soldiers killed inadvertently by our own weapons. Recently there was the tragedy of Canadian soldiers brought down by mistake.

So, as I conclude, I implore President Bush to reconsider his decision before we make a tragic mistake from which there will be no turning back.

Mr. Speaker, it is with great pride that I rise today to recognize Mrs. Hortense Ridely Tate on her 104th birthday.

Born on March 9, 1899, Mrs. Tate was aware at an early age of the importance of education in her life. Upon completing high school, Mrs. Tate enrolled in Washburn College where she began her studies to become an English teacher, inspired by her father who was an elementary school principal. After completing college in 1921, Mrs. Tate took her first job at the Montclair YWCA in Montclair, New Jersey as Director of Cultural Programs. Over the next seventy-five years, Mrs. Tate made the YWCA her home away from home, serving as a committee member, board member, and eventually its President.

In addition to her involvement at the YWCA, Mrs. Tate took a position in 1930 as a teacher at the Robert Treat Junior High School in Newark, New Jersey. While there she rose to the position of head guidance counselor and was an early mentor to me as I started my teaching career at Robert Treat Junior High School.

While being extremely involved in the education community, Mrs. Tate also has a long history of community activism. She was a founding member of the National Council for Negro Women started by Mary McCloud Bethune as well as the Montclair Public Library and Human Relations Council, the League of Women Voters, her church, and the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.

Through her community service as well as her dedication to educating our country's children, Mrs. Tate has always been an active member in the 10th congressional district of New Jersey. It was a distinct honor and privilege to have worked with her and I wish her the very best on this momentous occasion. Mr. Speaker, I know that my colleagues here in the U.S. House of Representatives join me today on wishing a very happy birthday to Mrs. Tate and in wishing her health and happiness in the years to come.

Mr. Speaker, let me thank the gentleman from California (Mr. Cunningham) who has a record of his own that we all know and we are very proud of what he has done to preserve democracy in this country and his serving. The gentleman's humility in yielding is just a testament to his concern. I thank the gentleman very much.

Mr. Speaker, let me say that we stand here at a crossroads right now. Millions of people all over the world are in the wake of a humanitarian disaster to pale all others. It makes the black plague of the Middle Ages look like small things. HIV and AIDS is a global killer. As ranking member of the House Subcommittee on Africa and as a human being who has seen with my own eyes the havoc HIV and AIDS is wreaking on an entire continent of Africa, I simply am compelled to speak out not only in Africa, but now in India, a nation that will have the largest population in the world in the next few years, even exceeding that of the People's Republic of China. It will have perhaps 1.5 billion people, surpassing China's 1.3 to 4 billion people.

It is spreading there and India. It is spreading in China, and so it is something that is all around us; but I think that if we can deal with it in Africa, I think that what we learned there can actually be used in India where it has not yet taken hold as it has in Africa. And it has taken hold in Africa because the world has been silent on it, as we have seen, as devastation through the years, year in and year out, since 1988 when HIV and AIDS was first encountered in this country.

In January's State of the Union address, President Bush announced a new initiative to combat HIV and AIDS in the Caribbean. This initiative would give $15 billion for fighting HIV and AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean, including $10 billion, what President Bush called ``new money.''

This initiative, and the fact that 10 percent of Bush's speech at the State of the Union address was spent on discussing Africa, certainly marks a new day and a new pledge of a new commitment by the administration to pay more attention to the needs of the African continent. We do have concerns about this new money and where it will come from.

While child-survival funding for Africa increased in the President's 2004 budget request by about $80 million to the $542 million, this largely reflects the increase in the HIV and AIDS funding. Meanwhile, almost all other African aid was significantly decreased. For example, democracy conflict and humanitarian assistance will be cut by $25 million in the 2004 budget if the President's request is agreed upon by Congress.

This is at a time when the U.S. is urging for sound policies and for governments to demonstrate they are fighting corruption and ruling justly in order to receive part of the $1.3 billion from the Millennium Challenge Account next year. How can we hold governments accountable for making progress in these areas and simultaneously cutting the funding that has aided these activities toward reaching these goals? It does not add up.

We must fight HIV and AIDS, yes; but we must not rob from Peter to pay Paul. Child survival is important. Democracy and good governance are important, and in a day when the administration wages its war against terrorism, the administration is seeking to cut military and security aid by 23 percent in Africa, a $130 million cut, as well as peacekeeping aid in Africa by nearly 50 percent. Is the $75 million increase in HIV and AIDS a result of the cuts in other line items?

If we are serious about combating the most lethal killer we have known, we must integrate our efforts in other areas. We cannot stem the tide of HIV if we are cutting aid to agriculture, trade and investment or democracy programs. HIV affects all other sectors of society, not only health. Therefore, we have to combat the effects HIV has had on all of the areas, and we should not move towards cutting aid in those areas to fight HIV and AIDS, because it is all together.

I once again commend the administration for its effort, and we look forward to working with the administration in this new dedicated war against HIV and AIDS.

Mr. Speaker, it is with both sadness and pride that I rise today to recognize the life of an amazing young man, Mr. Andrew E. Crawford, Jr., a highly valued member of my staff who tragically lost his life a few months ago.

Born in Trenton, New Jersey on February 11, 1978 Andrew was a loving son and friend, gifted student, and dedicated staff member. Spending his early years in schools in both Pennsylvania and New Jersey, Andrew was both an outstanding athlete and student. An exceptional wrestler, Andrew found a way to balance both his athletic talent and scholastic success, being named to the ``Who's Who Among American High School Students''. Andrew was a true role model for his classmates, always taking the time for friends who confided in him and sought his guidance. Andrew continued his studies at William Patterson University, majoring in Communications. While there, Andrew became an active participant within the college community as a Resident Assistant, news announcer on the campus radio station, a member of the Brothers of Awareness Christian Fellowship, and the gospel chorus.

Upon completing his studies, Andrew joined my staff as Special Assistant in my district office in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Responsible for special projects and programs within the 10th Congressional district as well as serving as a liaison between myself and elected officials within Union County, Andrew was an extremely reliable and dedicated man. His laughter and positive spirit were contagious and he will be truly missed by myself and all who knew and loved him.

Mr. Speaker, I know that all of my colleagues here in the U.S. House of Representatives join me today in recognizing Andrew, a spirited young man whose life and spirit will never be forgotten. While his earthly life was short, his achievements and contributions were very significant. Please join me in sending our heartfelt condolences to his family: his mother Catherine, his father Andrew, Sr., and siblings Candice and Alexander.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Winnie Hollis Hutchins and John Lee Hutchins on the occasion of their 50th wedding anniversary.

Married on March 18, 1953 in Newark, New Jersey, Mr. and Mrs. Hutchins have made New Jersey their home. During their marriage they have striven to promote strong ideals of family, education, and community service to their five daughters, seven grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.

Through both their church and independent community activism, Mr. and Mrs. Hutchins have devoted time to strengthening our community and to enriching the lives of all of those with whom they have come into contact. As they gather on March 14, 2003, to celebrate this wonderful occasion with family and friends, they set an example to those around them to the wonderful gifts that life has to offer.

Mr. Speaker, I am sure that my colleagues here in the U.S. House of Representatives join me today as I congratulate Mr. and Mrs. Hutchins on this joyous occasion and wish them health and happiness as they continue their journey together.