Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, today, the House will consider yet another bill that will make secondary education even more expensive for students. I strongly oppose this legislation that would serve to deepen the student debt, and burden student borrowers with crushing debt, when we have the ability to find a temporary solution, creating the time to find a better solution that would allow student borrowers to thrive.

Pursuing higher education is becomingly increasingly essential to securing gainful and fruitful employment in the United States. Most students and their families cannot afford to pay for college outright and as such, rely on financial assistance from the government. This bill would offer these students the help they are seeking, only to later force them to accept sky-rocketing interest rates. It is projected that student borrowers entering school this fall would be subject to a 7.4 percent interest rate by the time they graduate in 2017. This is more than double the current interest rate of 3.4 percent. Approximately 81 percent of African-American students and 67 percent of Latino students find themselves graduating with both a bachelor's degree and a staggering student loan debt. This is in comparison to the 64 percent of white students who also graduate with student debt.

Students should be focusing on their studies and pursuing their dreams, not about whether or not they can afford to attend the next semester, or how they will be able to repay the tens of thousands of dollars of student debt awaiting them after graduation. Not only would the passage of the ``Smarter Solutions for Students Act'' create a crushing debt for those students and their families seeking to further their education, it would also create long-term negative effects on our already bruised economy. Student borrowers who are subject to the proposed variable interest rates would have little choice but to delay homeownership and starting families. Furthermore, subjecting students to such a drastic increase in, and variability of student loan interest rates would prohibit many students from returning to, and revitalizing their rural communities which are in need.

The ``Smarter Solutions for Students Act'' is entirely nonsensical. Student borrowers are being exploited, and turned into profit generators for the government. Over the last five fiscal years, the department of education has collected approximately $101.8 billion dollars in profits from student borrowers.

I urge the Republicans to find a short term solution to this issue and freeze the current interest rates, so that the House can work on a long term solution. We must make college more affordable for those students who wish to attend. Currently, the student loan debt is at $1 trillion. To allow the student loan interest rate to increase on July first would only serve to exacerbate this debt, and pile on billions of dollars to loan debt.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to insert my statement into the Record opposing the GOP's deplorable Mother's Day gift--more work and less pay for working moms. Happy Mother's Day.

Mr. Speaker, I join women Democratic Members in opposition to this H.R. 1406--a ``more work, less pay bill.''

Contrary to the title of this bill, it will take away the right workers currently have to overtime pay and instead authorize employers to substitute compensatory time to private sector employees. This bill is a smoke and mirrors proposal that sets up a deplorable false choice between time and money when working families need both.

H.R. 1406 allows employers to offer comp time in lieu of overtime to their hourly workers without guaranteed right to use the time when they need it, even in time of a personal or family emergency. The Republicans try to compare this benefit to federal employees but this is not a fair comparison. Hourly workers do not have the same rights that salaried employees and federal employees have. Compensatory agreements can be terminate at the will of the employer. This legislation shortchanges workers both financially and logistically.

This must not be done at any time, but certainly not at a time, when households are challenged by rising cost of living, they need cash for their time.

This idea did not work in 1997, 2003 and will not work in 2013.

I urge my colleagues to oppose this legislation.

Thank you, Mr. Horsford. Thank you and our other colleague, Mr. Jeffries, for hosting these Special Orders every week. It's been with great pride that we've watched our young new Members come to the floor and present the case so forcefully and so effectively to the American people and the disparities in all areas that African Americans and other people of color and the poor are facing.

Before I start, Representative Barbara Lee of California could not be with us this evening, but her work on HIV and AIDS, and other areas in health care, but specifically in HIV and AIDS, both here in the United States and across the globe, is worthy of recognition; and I know that she'll be entering a statement for the Record on some of the issues around HIV and AIDS.

I want to just go back a little bit and present a little bit of historical context on just how long this battle to eliminate health disparities has been going on. I'm going to go back--of course, it goes back to slavery, but I want to go back to W.E.B. DuBois in 1899, when he said, and I'm quoting:

There have been few other cases in the history of civilized

peoples where human suffering has been viewed with such

peculiar indifference.

And then 25 or so years later, and this was mentioned by Congressman

Butterfield, in 1985, the Heckler Report, where it was said, and I'm quoting here:

There was a continuing disparity in the burden of dealt and

illness experienced by blacks and other minority Americans as

compared with our Nation's population as a whole.

And as he said:

The stubborn disparity remained. The stubborn disparity

remained an affront to both our ideals and the genius of

American medicine.

Surgeon General Heckler was very surprised by what that report found, but when she asked her researchers, well, why is this, the only answer that they could give her is, it's always been that way.

And so that stubborn indifference that W.E.B. DuBois mentioned in 1899 continued into as far as 25 years later.

Almost 20 years later, the IOM issued its unequal treatment report which said:

In unassailable terms, the report found that even when

insurance and income are as the same as those of whites,

minorities often receive fewer tests, less sophisticated

treatment for a panoply of ailments, including heart disease,

cancer, diabetes and HIV/AIDS.

So even when you have insurance, even when your educational level, even when your income is the same, you are still not getting the same treatment. And so it's no wonder that African Americans and other people of color have suffered from disparities for so long.

So in 2003, led then by Jesse Jackson, Jr., we insisted that there be a report every year on health disparities, a national report. And the very last one, so we're in our 11th year now, well, we're in our 10th year now, and the very last report shows very little change.

It showed that blacks received worse care--it talks about quality-- than whites for 41 percent of quality measures. Hispanics receive worse care than non-Hispanic whites for 39 percent of measures. Asians and American Indians and Alaskan Natives receive worse care than whites for nearly 30 percent of quality measures. And in terms of access, blacks had worse access to care for 32 percent of access measures, Asians for 17 percent, American Indians and Alaskan Natives for 62 percent, and Hispanics 63 percent of the measures.

So as we look over the years from 1899 to 2011, which is what this report is on, there has been very, very little change. Among the themes that emerge from the report, health care quality and access are suboptimal, especially for racial and ethnic minorities, and this is in 2011. I'm sure the report this year is not going to be any different. Quality is improving, but disparities are not improving.

There are several areas where disparities are worsening over time between minorities and whites. Those are maternal deaths in the black population and breast cancer diagnosed at an advanced age for women in the black population. Children zero to 40 pounds--their families are not getting advice in the Asian population about seatbelts. Adults over 50 not receiving colonoscopy, sigmoidoscopy or anything in the American Indian and Alaskan Native populations.

So when looking at these reports coming back the same way year after year, the Tri-Caucus, the Black, Hispanic and Asian Caucus, when we began to debate the Affordable Care Act and to write the Affordable Care Act, we came together and said health equity had to be a major and core goal of health care reform. We were able to insert into the bill many of the provisions that we had worked on for many years to create health equity and to begin to eliminate health disparities. So we call on all people across the country to support us and make sure that all of those attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which would close the door that we have been able to open for so many who have not had access to quality health care for so long--that door would not be closed again.

Mr. Speaker, 2 weeks ago I came to the floor to congratulate Virgin Islands jockey Kevin Krigger on his Santa Anita win and qualifying for the Kentucky Derby. Kevin will be riding Goldencents co-owned by Rick Pitino and trained by Doug O'Neill.

Since then, another Virgin Islands jockey, Victor Lebron, riding Frac Daddy, co-owned by Carter Stewart and Ken Schlenker and trained by Ken McPeek, has also qualified.

They are making history, and the entire Virgin Islands is gearing up to cheer wildly for them on May 4 as they make a ``Run for the Roses.''

Another Virgin Islander, Gareem Nicholas, is an assistant trainer for Derby-bound horse It's My Lucky Day.

As a person who grew up in a horse racing family and who has always followed the sport, I could not be prouder than to see my young men riding and training in such a prestigious event, and I hope to be there to witness it.

Although there have been many people who have had a role in the success of the young Crucian jockeys who began their career on the Randall Doc James Racetrack in my home island of St. Croix, I again congratulate their parents Averill Simmonds and Albert Krigger, Jr., and Reina and Victor Lebron, Sr. The name Julio Felix also stands out as a mentor of theirs and many other young Virgin Island jockeys.

I wish both jockeys luck in their maiden runs at the Kentucky Derby, but they and Nicholas are already winners to me and in the eyes of their fellow Virgin Islanders.

Mr. Speaker, when the horses line up in Churchill Downs for the running of the Kentucky Derby next month, all eyes in my district, the U.S. Virgin Islands, will be on young Kevin Krigger, a jockey from my home island of St. Croix, who will be riding the horse Goldencents.

We are all proud of Kevin, who grew up in LaVallee and attended Central High School. According to Kevin, he has always wanted to be a jockey and grew up in the sport, riding horses on the beaches and country roads of the island and challenging anyone he could to a race. Before he was recruited by other Virgin Islands born jockeys who race in the States to join their ranks, he was well known on the tracks of St. Croix, St. Thomas and Tortola as a talent to watch. He proved himself riding on the West Coast, in particular at Emerald Downs in Seattle, Washington before his historic win on Saturday at the Santa Anita Derby.

With Saturday's win, Kevin Krigger has become the first African American to win the Santa Anita Derby. Last fall, he was the first African American jockey to win a million dollar race in Louisiana's Delta Jackpot. If he rides Goldencents to victory in the Kentucky Derby next month, he will become the first African American to do so since 1902. Goldencents is co-owned by the stable of Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino and is trained by Doug O'Neill.

Mr. Speaker, Kevin Krigger's family and fans in the U.S. Virgin Islands will be cheering wildly on the first Saturday in May. I congratulate his mother Averil Simmonds and father Albert Krigger, Jr. We are all proud of this young man and his accomplishments and wish him Godspeed in this and all of his future endeavors.

Mr. Speaker, when the horses line up in Churchill Downs for the running of the Kentucky Derby next month, all eyes in the U.S. Virgin Islands will be on young Kevin Krigger, a jockey from my home island of St. Croix, who will be riding the horse, Goldencents.

We're all proud of Kevin, who grew up in LaVallee and attended Central High School. Kevin always wanted to be a jockey and grew up in the sport, riding horses on our beaches and country roads, challenging anyone he could to a race.

Before he was recruited by other Virgin Islanders who race in the States, he was well known on the tracks of St. Croix, St. Thomas, and Tortola as a talent to watch. He proved himself riding on the west coast, in particular, at Emerald Downs in Seattle, Washington, before his historic win on Saturday at the Santa Anita Derby.

On Saturday, Kevin Krigger became the first African American to win the Santa Anita Derby. Last fall, he was the first African American jockey to win a million dollar race in Louisiana's Delta Jackpot. If he rides Goldencents to victory in the Kentucky Derby next month, he will become the first African American to do so since 1902.

Mr. Speaker, Kevin Krigger's family and fans in the Virgin Islands will be cheering wildly on the first Saturday in May. I congratulate his mother, Averil Simmonds, and his father, Albert Krigger, Jr. We're all proud of this young man and his accomplishments, and wish him Godspeed in this and all of his future endeavors.

I thank you for yielding, and for the excellent job that you and your team did on the budget.

The CBC budget is proudly a statement of CBC, but also of American, values. As a physician, I'm particularly proud of its investment in health. It protects and strengthens Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and children's health insurance; fully funds the Affordable Care Act, adds a public health option, and includes provisions that will reduce health disparities.

It fully funds the AIDS Drug Assistance Program, mental health and substance abuse, maternal and child health, community health centers, the Offices of Minority Health, and the National Institute for Minority and Health Disparity Research at NIH.

It preserves Healthy Start, funds programs to increase the number and diversity of the health workforce, and gives communities the tools to improve health and well-being through restoring programs like REACH, dental health projects, the National Minority AIDS Education and Training Center, and other related programs. And it ensures that minority physicians and those practicing in poor neighborhoods and their patients will have the benefit of health information technology.

The CBC budget in its entirety addresses the socioeconomic determinants of health, beginning with the 10/20/30 program to reduce poverty. All of these provisions will reduce health care spending in the medium and long term. It is a masterpiece of a budget, and I urge everyone to vote for it. And yes, we will not be happy until every American has access to quality health care.

Thank you.

Repealing the Affordable Care Act is going to cost this country exponentially in the years to come, so they are doing the exact opposite of balancing the budget in the long run, but I have to ask the question:

Just how much more austerity can the American people take and still survive?

The recession, which is struggling to recover, has been bad enough, but with past cuts, the sequester, the CR, and now the Republican 2014 budget, they are threatening to make a bad situation even worse. I want to focus on just the hits that health care has taken.

From Rosa DeLauro's report, we learned that since 2002, labor, health, and education programs have endured cuts of 7 percent, resulting in a nearly $12 billion reduction in funding in 2012. Going forward, the discretionary budget caps set in the Budget Control Act of 2011 are estimated to cut over $9 billion, or 5.4 percent, in 2021. Altogether, this will result in a 12 percent per capita cut, or a nearly $22 billion cut to labor, health, and education programs in 2021, when compared to the 2002 levels. These cuts will weaken these critical programs that protect the public health and safety, promote and develop our workforce, and educate the next generation of Americans.

If we just look at programs under the Department of Health and Human Services, here is a partial list compared to 2002 levels:

In 2012, the Health Resources and Services Administration has seen a $2 billion reduction, which includes a $194 million reduction to the program which provides critical funding to support training new health professionals;

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has had a $122 million reduction;

The National Institutes of Health has had a $1.2 billion reduction from 2002 levels;

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration has seen an $813.3 million reduction.

All of these reductions--all of these cuts--were in place even before the sequester, and are adjusted for inflation. Then to add insult to injury, at the first of this month, sequestration triggered an estimated 5.3 percent cut, resulting in another cut of approximately $7.5 billion from labor, health, and education programs. These cuts and those across all of the other government agencies, in programs that provide jobs and needed services, were the reason we said that the sequester ought to have been stopped, and why we still insist it needs to be repealed.

Then there is the continuing resolution for the balance of 2013. Will it end the sequester even for this year? No, it won't.

In health, the House bill would cut $75 million to State Health Access Grants and $276 million to flu funding, among other important programs.

Further, their CR underfunds priorities that are critical to crack down on fraud in health care and Social Security, and to help working families. It does not include a requested $949 million to implement the health insurance exchanges.

Their CR does not include a requested $567 million increase for Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control and for Social Security disability reviews and SSI eligibility determinations.

If these cuts and omissions were not bad enough, the Republican continuing resolution that was passed in the House does not include $35 million in emergency ADAP funding or $10 million for part C medical clinics that President Obama announced would happen on World AIDS Day in 2011. While all cuts to health programs are problematic, these cuts are especially devastating because ADAP and the part C medical clinics are there for financially and medically needy populations that need their services.

So are those all of the cuts Republicans are proposing? No, they are not.

They are proposing to pass a budget for fiscal year 2014, and the Republican budget would take the cuts in health programs that are already hurting many of our fellow Americans even further.

It would cut $810 billion from the Medicaid program over the next 10 years and would make it a block grant, which, as we heard in testimony at today's hearing in the Health Subcommittee, would jeopardize health care for children, the disabled, the elderly, and the poor--the most vulnerable in our country. It would raise the Medicare eligibility age and turn it into a voucher for future beneficiaries, shifting costs of as much as $6,000 per year to those beneficiaries, and it would repeal all of the funding, as Mr. Horsford said, needed to implement health care reform, essentially repealing the Affordable Care Act and repealing insurance for over 27 million Americans.

That is a heartless budget. Its values do not represent the values on which this country was founded and certainly not those of a nation under God.

The Democratic alternative is a far better budget for our country. It ends the sequester, it funds the Affordable Care Act, it raises revenue, and it makes sensible cuts that spare safety net programs that are more needed than ever. It also includes a doc fix, which stops the deep cuts to physicians' payments under Medicare, which would have reduced access to care for the beneficiaries.

The Democratic budget is a good budget, but the Congressional Black Caucus' pro-growth, pro-people, pro-America budget goes even further and builds on the Democratic budget, which has also adopted some of our key provisions:

The CBC budget doubles the revenue as well as increases the investment, as you've heard, in health, in education, in job creation, in housing, and in infrastructure programs. It does all of this and still significantly reduces the deficit. It protects Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid and all of the safety net programs. It, too, begins with ending the sequester and fully funding the Affordable Care Act.

I am really proud of the Congressional Black Caucus budget this year, as I am every year, and I commend Congressman Bobby Scott and his team for another job well done.

This body and the other must reject the Ryan Republican budget. Everyone

can and should support and vote for the Congressional Black Caucus budget, but I'll tell you that it would be far better to pass any one of the Democratic alternatives, as they are all better for our country today and better for our future.

I thank you for yielding, and I thank you for hosting this Special Order and for coming to the floor on many evenings to speak to the American people and make sure that they understand what is at stake here.

I am somewhat ashamed to come back to work this week because the sequester wasn't avoided, and the failure of Congress to work together and take action has put so many important programs that our fellow Americans rely on, so many jobs, and the early recovery from the recent recession at risk.

Our Democratic leaders said before the President's Day recess and again at the end of last week that we should not go home without fixing the sequester; and yet the Republican leadership, which sets the schedule, did not enable us to stay here and work together to prevent the cuts that everyone knows will hurt our country.

So under the Republican leadership--or lack of it--the Federal budget, which affects government workers, contracts, and programs in every department, will have an across-the-board ax taken to them. I think that we are smart enough that if the will was there, we would come together and reason to a far better approach than this blunt instrument that's now being applied.

It makes one wonder: what are our priorities? If we look at where the cuts will hurt the most, it does not tell a proud story--education and job training, Head Start, special education, health and programs like WIC that support the health of mothers and babies,

mental health and substance abuse programs when we have seen so vividly and painful how much these programs are needed, health care, law enforcement and homeland security, defense, housing, jobs and the economy, which is now struggling to recover.

And as often happens, people of color are disproportionately impacted. African Americans are more likely to work in the public sector where the jobs are going to be cut. We already have the highest unemployment and will be severely hurt by the reduction in unemployment benefits. The YouthBuild and Job Corps programs that were spoken about earlier, over 70 percent of the young people in those programs are African American and Latino, and those programs will be cut.

The TRIO programs, which have already been cut, caused the Virgin Islands' only Upward Bound program to be lost. They need to be more fully funded; but they, too, will suffer. And many low-income students will not have the benefit of their support to enter and complete college.

I want to focus on how it will affect my district, the U.S. Virgin Islands. We stand to lose $13 million in Federal funding. The territories already do not participate in all of the Federal programs that the States do, and many programs are capped regardless of need or what would have been the eligibility in the States.

Already, over the past 2 years, the Virgin Islands Government has had to cut salaries 8 percent and laid off about 500 government workers. The abrupt closing of the HOVENSA oil refinery has cost 200 direct jobs and many more indirect ones. So that $13 million does not tell the full impact, nor does it include the impact of possible layoffs, furloughs, or other reductions of the close to 800 Federal employees in the territory.

If we just look at WIC, Meals on Wheels, special ed, Head Start and HIV/AIDS, which serve almost 10 percent of our population of 106,405, a cut of any size will have a major impact on some of the most vulnerable in any society.

Unemployment is over 17 percent in St. Croix, the island on which I live and where the HOVENSA refinery was operating. The cuts in unemployment benefits will definitely be felt. All of these cuts hurt individuals and families, but like everywhere else, they have ripple effects across the entire community.

The American people expect better from us. They expect us to lead and to govern, to be responsive to their needs and to help the less fortunate. This 113th Congress thus far has not lived up to their expectations. The Congressional Black Caucus, as it always is, is prepared and poised to lead. We will soon be releasing our budget, which raises revenues, makes strategic investments that strengthen our country, and still would reduce the deficit over the next 10 years, more than any other budget that we've seen proposed, so we know it can be done. And we also know that the cuts the sequester would impose will cost this country more in the long run.

So where is the gain? We have been advised time and time again that the cuts in the sequester are the worst thing that we can do at this time; and although no one wants to talk about it, what we really need is another stimulus.

Last week the Fed Chairman, Ben Bernanke, strongly advised:

Congress and the administration should consider replacing

the sharp, front-loaded spending cuts required by the

sequestration with policies that reduce the Federal deficit

more gradually in the near term and more substantially in the

longer run.

That's what all reputable economists have been saying. We need to call off the sequestration before irrevocable harm is done and replace it with a sensible approach that recognizes and counts the savings that we have already put in place, that does not stifle the growth that we need and still reduces the deficit in the long run.

The American people are tired of the gridlock up here. They want us to work together. They also, in their vote in November, said very clearly that they support the President's approach and agenda. As the African Kikuyu proverb says: When the elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers.

My constituents are hurting, as I know all of yours are. The sequester only adds more pain and suffering and does nothing to reduce spending, because more spending will have to be done to clean up the mess the sequester will leave later on. Let's call it off and let's pass a responsible and fair budget for the rest of the year.

It's time for the Republican leadership to work with our President, the President of the United States, Barack Obama. Together, we can do better for our country and for those who send us here to represent them. We must do better.

Madam Speaker, tomorrow, February 7, is the 13th National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day.

We represent 14 percent of the 1.1 million Americans living with HIV, and account for 44 percent of all new infections. My district, the U.S. Virgin Islands, carries a disproportionate burden of this disease.

From 2001 to 2005, the incidence of HIV infection in the territory increased by 19.4 percent, and has increased every year since 1998. In 2008,

HRSA estimated the combined HIV infection rate of people living with AIDS in the territory to be 1 percent of our population. And CDC reports that the Virgin Islands has one of the highest newly identified confirmed HIV positivity rates among African Americans in this country.

Most, if not all of us, know someone who is living with HIV or has died from AIDS. Today no one needs to die. Let's talk openly with our partners, family, and friends; let's get educated; let's get tested; and let's reduce stigma and discrimination.

Tomorrow and every day, we will do more than commemorate those we have lost. We will rededicate ourselves to the work ahead. We can beat this disease. We can win this fight. Together, we can end this epidemic.

It will be very hard to wish the American people happy New Year unless this Congress reaches and passes an agreement that keeps taxes from going up on the 98 percent who have already had to sacrifice during the recession, that extends unemployment, enables doctors to continue to care for their Medicare beneficiaries, fixes the AMT, provides disaster recovery money to help our fellow Americans, and passes the farm bill.

Democrats agreed last year to $1.5 trillion in cuts over the next 10 years, which are already in place. President Obama offered several concessions. Now Republicans need to give up at least an equal amount on the revenue side.

And right now--but definitely early in 2013--my constituents in the Virgin Islands need relief from the highest energy costs in the country and a fair Medicaid match so that everyone can have access to quality health care.

Whatever partisan differences we have and the Republicans have with our President, let's set them aside as this difficult year comes to a close and work together to give our constituents a happy New Year.

Mr. Speaker, as if the Speaker's Plan B were not bad enough--not extending unemployment benefits or fixing the SGR so seniors would continue to have their doctors, killing jobs, again threatening the full faith and credit of our country, and leaving the sequester cuts in place--last night the Republicans dug up the horrible reconciliation bill that they pushed through this House in May. They should have left it over in the Senate where it went to die a timely death.

The reconciliation bill they will put up with it for a revote today is like Plan B, just worse. It will cut food stamps, eliminate the social services block grants, and weaken the consumer protections that we put in place. They can't help themselves. They'll make one more attempt to roll back much of the Affordable Care Act, including repealing the public health fund and funding for the exchanges, cutting the children's health insurance program, and taking away all of the Medicaid funding that was provided for the territories.

Either way, these bills would hurt many people--poor, middle class Americans, children and seniors, all to save tax cuts for the wealthy. On November 6, Americans voted for us to work together to strengthen our country, not weaken it. These highly partisan bills will hurt our country, and no one should vote for either of them.

I rise in tribute to the Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, the Honorable Emanuel Cleaver this morning.

Every Chair brings a special brand of leadership to the Caucus and every term in which that Chair serves has its own unique challenges.

Chairman Emanuel Cleaver led the 112th Caucus with humor and equanimity and provided a strong and unwavering moral compass for not just the CBC, but for the entire Democratic Caucus.

His stories--we never knew where he was going with them until the end--were always full of wit and ``down-home wisdom'' and always held a message to remind us ``whose we are'' and ``what is expected of us.'' There was always an inspirational message to fuel us for the task.

We were continually challenged during the 112th Congress, the recession, the contentious election season and its voter suppression initiatives, the ethics attacks on our members, and the Tea Party influence on our Republican colleagues made it a particularly challenging two years.

But he met and led us to meet those challenges head on and took the CBC to yet another higher level. I was proud to serve as his First Vice-chair.

I know these years were full of sacrifice for him and his family and so I proudly join all of the other members of the CBC to tell him thank you for his excellent and significant stewardship.

I thank the Democratic leader and leadership for giving us the opportunity to come to the floor as the Congressional Black Caucus. Perhaps some other Members may be joining us.

We wanted to just add our word of sympathy and condolences to the families in Newtown, Connecticut. We will all grieve for a very, very long time, and rightly so, the loss of the 20 innocent little children and seven adults

who lost their lives in an utterly senseless and horrific act of violence.

The people of the Virgin Islands, like the rest of our Nation--and indeed the world--mourn the loss of the 27 people gunned down in Newtown, Connecticut, last week. Our thoughts and prayers are with their families and the entire town and they will continue to be for a very long time. Our hearts especially go out to them throughout what we know will be an extremely difficult Christmas season.

The President and many others have reminded us that we have been here far too many times even in just this year. As he said at the ecumenical service a few evenings ago, it's time to act. It's not enough to sympathize with the families who lost loved ones. We have to take action to protect our children and to protect all our citizens. To that extent, I've signed on to the Large Capacity Ammunition Feeding Device Act, sponsored by Congresswomen McCarthy and DeGette, which would prohibit the transfer or import of large-capacity ammunition feeding devices manufactured before the date of enactment, as well as four or five other bills sponsored by Congresswomen Maloney and McCarthy, Congressman Perlmutter, and others, to improve background checks, to slow the trafficking of guns, and to keep them out of the hands of individuals who should not have them; as well as the PROMISE Act, which is a prevention bill.

I'm joined this evening by Congresswoman Yvette Clarke of Brooklyn, New York, who has long been an advocate for ending the gun violence in our communities and providing the kinds of assistance, both in intervention and prevention, that we need in so many communities around this country. She has been a leader on so many issues, and I'd like to yield her such time as she might consume.

Thank you, Congresswoman Clarke, for joining us. Again, thank you for your leadership, and thank you for those words that you have uttered on behalf of our communities and the community of Newtown and children and our citizens across this country.

Flags are flying at half-mast across this country. I know whenever I would drive at home last weekend, and I would see them, our thoughts and our hearts went out to the people of Newtown because we knew that that was why they were that way. Like my colleague, I recall going to funerals with my children, something that I never had to do, funerals of their friends.

In his column just a few days ago, Nicholas Kristof quoted David Hemenway, a public health specialist at Harvard, who reported that children 5 to 14 in America are 13 times more likely to be murdered with guns as children in other industrialized countries. And that ought to be a call of action to all of us.

He wrote, and I agree:

Let's treat firearms rationally as the center of a public

health crisis, a public health crisis that claims one life

every 20 minutes.

If only for the sake of our children, we have to act and really need to begin with renewing the ban on assault weapons.

The homicide rate in the United States is 6.9 points higher than rates in 22 other populous, high-income countries combined. This gives me great pause when I think that the homicide rate in our neighboring Puerto Rico is more than four times higher than that of the U.S., and the Virgin Islands' rate is even higher than that compared to the United States overall. The last reported in Puerto Rico was 36.2 per 100,000, and the Virgin Islands is closer to 60. We, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands have pleaded for more Federal help. And we can begin by passing the assault ban next year and the other related bills.

The United States has the highest rate of gun ownership in the world, an average of 88 per 100 people. I understand that the next highest is Yemen, somewhere around 56 per 100 people. But the rate of gun ownership doesn't always directly relate to the number of homicides. Honduras, with the most homicides by firearm at 68.43 per 100,000 has only 6.2 firearms per 100 people compared to our 88, while Finland, which has a relatively high one, 45.3 guns per 100 people, only reports about 19 per 100,000 homicides by firearms.

So while we must do what is required to reduce guns in our community, assault weapons in particular in this country, there's much more work that has to be done.

As Attorney General Holder said earlier this week, and I'm quoting him here:

As a nation, I think we have to ask ourselves some hard

questions. We need to discuss who we are as a nation, talk

about the freedoms that we have, the rights that we have, and

how those might be used in a responsible way.

I recently wrote to my fellow Virgin Islanders, as we looked at ours being one of the highest homicide rates in the Nation, I also think we need to go further in examining what we have been doing or what we have not been doing in our territory and across our Nation that has created an atmosphere where gun violence is escalating to a frightening and totally unacceptable level, and where in many districts, gun violence has turned, in my district, has turned against law enforcement. Six officers have been injured by gunfire this year in the Virgin Islands, and one, Colvin Georges, died as a result of his injuries. And communities across this country are experiencing the same thing.

I know that many feel that guns are needed for their and their families' protection. But reports show that keeping a firearm in the home increases the risk of homicide by a factor of three. And on the whole, guns are more likely to raise the risk of injury than confer protection.

The killings in Newtown, Aurora, and other places are horrific mass killings by disturbed people, and we need to find a way to prevent them from getting access to any kind of firearm. But gun violence is happening every week in neighborhoods across our country, and these, too, demand our attention, including gang-related gun violence. Gang violence is a growing epidemic across this country. Congress has to work toward passing and funding legislation like the Youth Promise Act, which helps communities facing the greatest youth gang and crime challenges to develop a comprehensive response to youth violence through a coordinated prevention and intervention response.

To go back to where we are in the United States compared to other countries, data compiled by the United Nations' Office on Drugs and Crime confirms Americans are living with greater risk of gun-related death than are residents of other developed countries. From 2007 to 2009, the U.S. averaged 10,987 homicides per year by firearm compared with an average of 182 in Germany, 75 in Spain and 47 in the United Kingdom. Mexico, though, averaged about 5,980 annual homicides, still half of ours, by firearm during that same period. Colombia was higher.

Roseanna Ander, executive director of the University of Chicago Crime Lab, has said that the U.S. is an outlier in lethal violence among developed countries. Other countries have similar rates of rape and battery, Ander said, but because so much American violence includes guns, the rate of death is so much higher.

The steady gun violence leaves especially young blacks and Latino men particularly vulnerable and more likely to die in a shooting, Federal data shows. In each year from 2006 to 2010, homicide was the leading cause of death for African American males ages 15 to 24, more than the next nine causes of death combined, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Persistent gun violence is part of a complex cycle born of poverty and residential segregation, as is poor health and substandard education, which all are related to the poverty and the persistent gun violence, challenges that the Nation has yet to truly face and address.

That's what Sampson said, and I agree. And he also said:

Guns are readily available. Gun violence thrives, in part,

because exposure to violence makes children more likely to

engage in violence themselves. It makes them have difficulty

learning and, therefore, climbing the economic ladder.

So we can make a big difference. But to make that difference, we have to have the political will. We have to be able to stand up to the NRA, which has gone silent in the face of this tragedy, and other organizations that have blocked us from doing what we know in our hearts is the right thing to do.

It is our responsibility, as Congresswoman Clarke said, to do what we must to protect our children and to protect our other citizens. President Obama has set up a task force which will be headed by Vice President Joe Biden. He is calling on us to ban military-style assault weapons, to ensure that background checks are there for all gun purchases, and to make access to mental health services at least as easy as it is to access guns.

I would hope that we would not see the partisanship or the brinksmanship that we're seeing right now on this fiscal cliff issue, and that we'll all work with our Vice President and our President to truly memorialize the children that are being laid to rest this week and not have them be martyrs to our inaction.

With that, Madam Speaker, I would love to yield to our Congressman from Louisiana. I'm sure that he will add a lot to this discussion.

I talked about the fact that African-American and Latino males have high rates of death due to gun violence, and one report that goes back to 2004 rates Louisiana as number two.

So I'll yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Louisiana, Cedric Richmond.

Thank you, Congressman Richmond.

The three of us have been here on behalf of the Congressional Black Caucus to add our voices to those across our Nation who are mourning the loss of those who were killed last week in Newtown.

The gentleman said more access to guns than schoolbooks. It's really true. There's more access to guns in most communities than schoolbooks and computers for many children; more access to guns than to decent housing; more access to guns than a decent job; more access to guns than quality health care, especially mental health care.

So, colleagues on both sides of the aisle, we need to act, and we need to act in the name of those beautiful first graders and all of those across this country who have been lost to gun violence over the years. I hope that we will take that kind of action.

With that, Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I come before the House with a heavy heart to express my condolences and pay tribute to Mr. Lowell O. Schuster a beloved Virgin Islander, loving husband, devoted father, veteran, teacher, businessman, community leader and very dear friend.

Lowell Schuster was born in Christiansted, St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, on November 12, 1928 to Mr. Eugene and Mrs. Enid Schuster of Christiansted, St. Croix. Mr. Schuster attended St. Mary's Catholic School and The Christiansted High School. After graduation from high school, he enrolled at Howard University in Washington, DC, where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology. While attending Howard University he entered the Reserve Officers' Training Corps. Following his graduation from Howard University, he entered the United States Army as an officer with the rank of Second Lieutenant.

Mr. Schuster had a distinguished military career. He was stationed in Germany where he bravely served during the Cold War. On May 9, 1955, he was promoted to First Lieutenant of the United States Army and was granted Top Security clearance. He became Infantry Unit Commander and led the troops on daily patrols along the West Germany-East Germany border. On November 26, 1958, Mr. Schuster was granted an Honorable Discharge. In recognition of his military service, he received the National Defense Service Medal. Mr. Schuster continued his service to our Nation by entering the Army Reserves where he was promoted to Captain. He also became active with the U.S. Virgin Islands National Guard. He was honorably discharged from the United States Army Reserves on February 10, 1969.

During his tenure in the Reserves, Mr. Schuster began his second career as a teacher at the Christiansted High School. He again distinguished himself as an educator and within a short period of time was promoted to Assistant Principal and later became Acting Principal. After his father became ill, he resigned from his position to enter the world of business, taking over the operations of Schuster's Services, the largest fully integrated water company in the Virgin Islands. He further expanded the business to include the bottling of water and named it Blue Mountain Water, now Blue Mountain Purified Water, LLC.

These water companies were Mr. Schuster's pride and joy. He looked forward to going to the office every morning, working tirelessly, and returning home to his family. Blue Mountain Purified Water, LLC remains the first bottled water company in the Virgin Islands and the largest of its kind on St. Croix. Schuster's Services is one of the oldest businesses in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Of all of his accomplishments, his greatest was being a devoted husband and father. Mr. Schuster married the love of his life and high school sweetheart, Rita M. de Chabert, after entering the armed services. They started their family while he was stationed in Germany. Mr. Schuster and his wife were married for 58 years and raised 4 children--Gregory, Janine, Kenneth and Troy. They are the proud grandparents of three grandchildren.

On behalf of my family, staff and the Congress of the United States, I extend our sincere condolences and want the family to know that our thoughts and prayers are with them as we mourn the passing of a great man. We cannot replace Lowell but we will attempt to improve our lives and live our lives as demonstrated by his great example.