Floor Statements

Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong support of H.R. 2262, the Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act of 2007.

In doing so, I want to congratulate its lead sponsor, the chairman of the Committee on Natural Resources, Nick Rahall. For 20 years now, Nick has led

the effort to reform mining laws which have been unchanged since 1872.

It is high time that the 19th century mining law be updated to reflect our 21st century needs and goals. The current law was enacted before the invention of the telephone and was designed to promote mineral development in the age of the pick-and-shovel prospector.

Unlike virtually any other use of public lands, the 1872 mining law allows mining on public lands for hardrock minerals such as gold and copper without any compensation or royalty. It is time that this law be changed to reflect modern mining technologies and newer social values that question whether mineral extraction is always the best or highest use of the land.

As a long-term member of the Natural Resources Committee, I want to once again commend Chairman Rahall for his commitment to mining reform, and he and Mr. Costa for producing a balanced bill which benefits American taxpayers who own the land, the environment and the mining industry.

I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 2262.

Madam Speaker, 5 years ago, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and in particular, the island of St. Thomas and the Schneider Regional Medical Center, welcomed a young, passionate, health care administrator to be its president and chief executive officer. Rodney E. Miller took on the job of ensuring that comprehensive, quality health care was available not just for the residents of the U.S.

Virgin Islands, but for the Caribbean region as well.

By all accounts, Rodney Miller did an excellent job, administering the 250-bed acute care Schneider Hospital, as well as the Charlotte Kimelman Cancer Institute and the Myrah Keating Smith Community Health Center on St. John in a manner that has advanced health care in the territory.

Most noteworthy among his accomplishments was the emphasis on improved patient care and the opening of the Charlotte Kimelman Cancer Institute. With an announced emphasis on quality patient care, enhanced customer service and improved cleanliness of the health facilities, Miller embarked upon a course for change that was driven by the expressed needs of patients. He emphasized that being the only choice for health care for most of the residents of the island meant that quality care was a must. He equally emphasized that Schneider Regional should be a good place for employees as well.

With the opening of the Charlotte Kimelman Cancer Institute in 2006, Rodney Miller and his administrative and medical team worked to realize the dream of many in the territory for a ``world class cancer care facility with an array of support services and resources'' that would allow patients to seek treatment at home, closer to the comfort of family and friends. Rodney Miller's leadership in health care has been marked by this and other noteworthy accomplishments in the territory.

In addition to his duties as head of Schneider Regional, Rodney Miller immersed himself in the civic activities of the community, and in 2004 was named Person of the Year by Rotary II Club of St. Thomas. Just last year, he received the 2006 Wilbur ``Bill'' LaMotta Community Service Award from the St. Thomas-St. John Chamber of Commerce.

His peers in the health care profession have long acknowledged his extraordinary talent. In 2002, he received the Young Healthcare Executive of the Year Award from the National Association of Health Services Executives. In 2003, he received the American College of Healthcare Executives' Regents Award and in 2005, he was elected to serve as president of the National Association of Health Services Executives. In 2006, he was named one of the Top 25 Minority Healthcare Executives by Modem Healthcare Magazine.

Recently, Rodney Miller announced that he has accepted a new position in the Florida health care system. I know that he will distinguish himself there as well, but we in the Virgin Islands wanted to express our thanks to him for the good work that he did in the territory for the past 5 years. On behalf of the people of the Virgin Islands, particularly those on the island of St. Thomas, I wish Rodney Miller bon voyage and great success in his new endeavor. He has definitely left health care in the territory in better shape than when he got there, and for that we are all grateful.

Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of the bill to continue and expand the Children's Health Insurance Program that is on the floor today and to urge every member of this body to vote for it.

Certainly there is no better investment that we can make than in our children, and this bill does so by ensuring that an additional almost 4 million children will have access to comprehensive health care--care that includes dental care and other important services.

And while many of us would have wished to cover every single child who currently lives without health insurance without regard to legality of their presence in this country, we are happy that at least all who are legally here have the opportunity for coverage. I am also disappointed that the Territories will not get full

state-like treatment, but there are improvements for us as well.

This is a big step forward for our country, which continues to lag behind every other industrialized country in the quality of its people's health.

And every penny that is spent on increasing access to care when needed, on providing preventive care and early care will save this country many more billions, and has the potential to help reduce health care costs and save Medicare into the future.

Madam Speaker, as we move to keep our promise to America's children, I only hope that we can continue on this road to invest in the health and health care of minority and rural populations. I only hope that we stand together to close the gaps in our health care system and reduce the racial and ethnic, as well as geographic and gender differences in health status because certainly providing preventive, early and culturally competent care to these will pay further dividends, further reduce the cost of health care and make this a better and stronger country.

I urge all of my colleagues to vote in favor of our Nation's children's health and health care; I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of expanding and strengthening the Children's Health Insurance Program. Today is the day for us to stop talking about doing better; today is the day to actually start doing better, and, the children shall lead the way.

Madam Speaker, I rise to introduce you and my colleagues to a very special couple who happen to be my cousins.

Conrad and Frances are first generation African Caribbean Americans who were born in New York State. The parents and grandparents of Conrad Hail from Guyana, South America, continental United States and Jamaica, West Indies. Frances is rooted in five generations of the Christian and Farrelly clans on St. Croix, United States Virgin Islands and Guyana and Nigeria, by enslavement, and also West Meath, Ireland, respectively. The two met while attending St. Augustine's Elementary School in the Bronx, New York.

After elementary school Conrad and Frances went on to Bishop Dubois High School for Boys and Blessed Sacrament High School for Girls. Upon graduation he enlisted in the United States Air Force and was honorably discharged four years later. He followed in his parent's footsteps. His father, Lionel Gaskin was a Merchant Seaman and prolific mathematician and Lillian his mother, a health care companion and a storytelling humorist.

Frances went on to City College of the City University of New York (CUNY), where her father, Clement Christian had graduated several years before, and Fordham Hospital for Registered Professional Nursing, initiated by her mother, Therese, who was a Licensed Practical Nurse and an omniscient resource person.

Frances is a second generation graduate from the CUNY system. They were married by Monsignor Cornelius Drew on September 14, 1957 at St. Augustine Roman Catholic Church in the Bronx, New York. Three children were born from this union: Conrad II (1995), Trace and Troy.

Being Catholics, the children received the sacraments at St. Augustine and Most Holy Trinity in Brooklyn, New York. The family continued its affiliation with St. Augustine until immigrating to Brooklyn, New York where Our Lady of Charity became their new Church home under the pastorship of Reverend Doctor James E. Goode, OFM. During the marriage Conrad and Frances reared their children, along with the ``village''; for it takes a Village to raise even one child. Their children learned the Montessori Method of Education at the United Nations Church Center, New York and continued their basic education at Most Holy Trinity Elementary School.

During the marriage, Conrad and Frances attained undergraduate and graduate degrees. He is an alumnus of Brooklyn College (CUNY) and Antioch University and she earned degrees from Hunter College (CUNY), Adelphi University and Fordham University. Their children were educated at Fordham Prep, New York Brooklyn Technical High School and Cascadilla Prep School in Ithaca, New York and Stuyvesant High School, New York. Conrad II, Trace and Troy went on to graduate from Bates College in Lewiston, Maine; Fordham University and Long Island University, New York, and Xavier University in New Orleans, Louisiana, respectively. A Fordham family tradition was upheld: Trace completed her undergraduate degree, Conrad graduated from Fordham Prep and Troy completed coursework at the University. Trace is a second generation graduate of Fordham. Some overlapping occurred in the family's quest for education: Four family members were in college at one time. The children went on to become responsible citizens in banking, education and brokering real estate.

Of the marriages, Conrad II; Trace and Troy united in matrimony with Adrianne; Mario, and Angela who brought forth five grandchildren: Conrad III and Kayla; Soleil Mustafa, and Briana and Troy Ashly II. Briana attends Hunter College High School and is the third generation in the CUNY system.

For a career change, Conrad and Frances emigrated from Brooklyn to Albany, New York and helped found an additional Church home in the Faith Community of the Black Apostolate, which later expanded to include St. Joan of Arc and Sacred Heart Churches of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany, New York. Father Kofi Ntsiful-Amissah serves as Pastor.

The family demonstrated entrepreneurial strengths by starting a skin and hair care business called Frances Christian Gaskin, Inc. Four patents were awarded in the United States for dissolving melanin and placing it into the MELANIN PLUS products.

The family enjoys interstate and international travel, exposing their children and grandchildren to strong family values, and other places and cultures in the United States, the Caribbean, and their own children, to Europe.

Conrad is retired from The New York State Teachers' Retirement System; Frances is a former College Professor in Nursing and is pursuing her studies in Medicine.

Conrad and Frances, recognizing that ``giving back'' is the highest form of service, continue to advise the youth in academics and sports. Conrad coached basketball and swimming. Frances has also worked with the American Red Cross and is a Staff Officer with the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary. Both are Ministers of the Eucharist.

They love participating in Church activities and sports, particularly swimming and SCUBA diving. They are also communicants and members of Our Lady Star of the Sea Church and the Polar Bears on Martha's Vineyard, and also members of the Holy Cross Church and the Lil' Bay Posse morning swim on St. Croix.

The theme song on their 50th Wedding Anniversary was ``I Believe.'' They are indeed people of faith!

We thank God for this special couple and their family and we thank Him for the 50 wonderful years He has given them.

I ask the entire Congress of the United States to join me in wishing them many more loving years together and His continued blessings.

Madam Speaker, I submit the following names of the 786th Quartermaster Battalion in celebration of their return to the Virgin Islands after their 14-month deployment to Iraq.

Members of the battalion unit are:

SSG Samuel Abraham, St. Croix (second deployment to Iraq)

CSM Leonard Amey

CPT Camella Andrews (second deployment to Iraq)

SP Tashaia Bedminster (second deployment to Iraq)

MSG Hillis Benjamin

PFC Ronal Brewley

SSG Bernard Burke (second deployment to Iraq)

LTC Patricia Charles, St. Croix

CPT Nina Clarke-Brewley

SGT Dwayne Degraff

SSG Susanatte Grosvenor

1LT Arthur Hector

1LT Josephine Hector-Murphy

SP Hes Matthew

SP Margaret Moore

MSG Omodoso Muhammad

MAJ Brian O'Reilly, St. Croix

MAJ Sally Petty

SFC Enrique Santos, St. Croix (second deployment to Iraq)

SP Crystal Testamark

SP Adasi Thomas

MAJ Gladys Turnbull

SP Mark Williams

SGT Oswald Williams

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to welcome the 26 men and women of the 786th Quartermaster Battalion led by battalion commander LTC Michael McDonald back home to the Virgin Islands. It was an emotional homecoming yesterday after 14 long months, as all honored the memory of McDonald's cousin, LTC David Canegata III, and MSG Floyd Lake, who died when their Black Hawk helicopter was shot down in Iraq in January. Just last week I joined the families at the interment in Arlington Cemetery of the commingled remains of the 12 men and women who were lost that day.

MSG Hillis Benjamin, speaking for her fellow soldiers, summed up that running the base in Taji and making sure the troops were fully supplied had been a long, hard deployment for the battalion, and Commander McDonald thanked the soldiers for their ``professionalism, commitment and patriotism,'' attributing their success to their working together as a strong team.

Mr. Speaker, I join my community in thanking God for their safe return and pray for the safe return of all of the members of the VI National Guard and all the other brave men and women who are serving today in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In fact, Mr. Speaker, it is time to begin to bring all of the troops in Iraq home.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 53) to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to enter into a long-term lease with the Government of the United States Virgin Islands to provide land on the island of Saint John, Virgin Islands, for the establishment of a school, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume to explain the bill.

I want to thank the Chair of the Subcommittee on Parks for coming to the Virgin Islands and having a hearing in St. John on this important bill.

This bill, H.R. 53, was introduced by me on January 4 of this year to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to lease land on the island of St. John to the Government of the United States Virgin Islands to build a public school. The legislation is strongly supported by the people of the Virgin Islands, particularly the residents of St. John.

The Virgin Islands National Park was authorized by Congress in 1956 and established largely by an initial land donation by Laurance Rockefeller through the Jackson Hole Preserve, Incorporated. In 1962 and 1978, the park was enlarged by Congress so that it now takes up almost two-thirds of St. John, which is only 22 square miles.

For at least the past three decades, the Government of the Virgin Islands and the National Park Service have been discussing the question of securing suitable land on the island of St. John to construct the public school. Since the 1970s, public school enrollment on St. John has more than doubled, and the U.S. VI Government owns no land on the island to expand either of the two public schools that now exist or to build a new one.

The two existing public schools, Julius E. Sprauve and the Guy H. Benjamin Elementary School, only accommodate children up to the ninth grade. St. Johnian high school children have to travel to St. Thomas, 20 minutes by ferry over open ocean to complete their secondary education.

The Julius E. Sprauve School is in the middle of a heavily trafficked area, which really threatens and puts the lives of our children at risk as they come to and from school. About 2 years ago, a second-grade student was killed leaving a Christmas party. The schools are not in the best location; especially that school is not in the best location for our students.

It is clear that with limited land and the continued growth and population, this legislation is critically needed.

I want to thank Chairman Rahall and Ranking Member Don Young and Subcommittee Parks Chairman Raul Grijalva and Insular Affairs Subcommittee ranking member, Luis Fortuno, for their support to have this legislation considered on the floor today.

I also have to thank the One Campus Group in St. John, Kirstin Cox, Lorelei Monsanto, Alvis Christian, Ronnie Jones and all of the others for the work that they have done to get us this far and to bring the community together in support of the process that is outlined in H.R. 53 when all else failed.

I urge my colleagues to support the people of St. John and to support

I thank the gentleman for his support.

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

Madam Speaker, I rise today for one main reason: the 10 million low-income children in this Nation whose health, health care and wellness are very much at stake. This is especially true today as the House votes on whether to override the President's inhumane, unethical and irresponsible veto of the Children's Health Insurance Program.

We honored the promises we made to this Nation when we not only passed the Children's Health and Medicare Protection Act, the CHAMP Act, but when we exercised the art of compromise and passed a bipartisan CHIP bill that, though more modest than the CHAMP Act, still represented a respectable step in the right direction. In fact, the CHIP bill that so many of us stood behind would have provided health insurance coverage to nearly 4 million currently uninsured, low-income children. Unfortunately, despite our tireless efforts, the President opted to veto the bill that would have reduced the number of uninsured children in this Nation by nearly half.

Madam Speaker, we can and should do better, not only because we promised to, but because this Nation's children deserve it. We cannot and should not shortchange the most vulnerable among us, and we cannot and should not relent in our efforts to ensure that our Nation's low- income children have reliable

access to the health care services and treatments that they will need to be healthy and to pursue their life's destinies.

Madam Speaker, today we have yet another opportunity to reach across the political aisle and stand together to do the right thing for America's children. As I know my colleagues on both sides of the aisle well know, the children who are currently enrolled and would be newly enrolled in CHIP are not undocumented residents; they are legal American citizens. Efforts to try to derail our intention to override the veto by inundating CHIP in an immigration debate are both unconscionable and inaccurate.

And, the children who are and would be covered by CHIP also are not children from wealthy or even middle-income families who could otherwise afford health insurance. The mythical $83,000 CHIP family is just that: a myth. They are no more real than the weapons of mass destruction we invaded Iraq to find.

The reality, however, is that more than 9 in 10 children enrolled in CHIP are from families with incomes that are below 200 percent of the Federal poverty level. That means, Madam Speaker, that CHIP kids are coming from families earning less than $41,300 a year for a family of four. These are not financially comfortable families. And, these are not families living lavishly off the backs of taxpayers. These are hardworking American families whose children's health care needs often exceed their financial means. They deserve better and their children deserve better, and we ought to override this veto to ensure that the CHIP program captures these kids and keeps them from joining the ranks of the uninsured.

It is has never been lost on me or my colleagues in the minority caucuses that CHIP is a key minority health issue. In fact, 8 in 10 currently uninsured African-American kids and 7 in 10 Hispanic children are eligible but not enrolled in the program. Without health insurance, children suffer worse health outcomes and are less able to enjoy their childhoods because of illnesses that are often preventable. Overriding the President's veto, therefore, not only will help reduce uninsurance among our Nation's most vulnerable children and improve their health, but also will help us reduce the racial and ethnic health disparities that plague our health care system.

I urge all of my colleagues to override the President's veto. We not only can and should do better, but we should demand that the President do more for our children. Let's do it now for all of America's children.

Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of H.R. 2895, the National Affordable Housing Trust Fund Act of 2007 because it is just what our country needs to strengthen the housing market, stabilize the economy, expand affordable housing and mortgage opportunities for families at risk of foreclosure and strengthen consumer protections against risky loans in the future.

Mr. Chairman, this bill takes an important step forward in addressing the subprime mortgage crisis, and it also makes way for the construction of more affordable housing and strengthens FHA's efforts to expand homeownership.

The National Affordable Housing Trust Fund Act will build or preserve 1.5 million homes or apartments over the next 10 years without increasing Government spending or the Federal deficit. It will initially allocate $800 million and $1 billion annually directly to States and local communities. It targets funds for the construction of affordable housing and more for lower income families facing the greatest housing affordability challenges.

Mr. Chairman, I am particularly pleased that 40 percent of the funding will go to States, Indian tribes and insular areas, with special requirements for funding in rural areas, many of which face particular challenges.

I urge my colleagues to support this important measure which ensures that the American dream of owning a home can become a reality for yet another generation of Americans.

Mr Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 3056 to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to repeal the authority of the Internal Revenue Service to use private debt collection companies, to delay implementation of withholding taxes on Government contractors, to revise the tax rules on expatriation, and for other purposes.

I want to begin by thanking the gentleman from New York, the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, Charles Rangel, for including language to address the question of the statute of limitations for residents of the U.S. Virgin Islands.

As you know Mr. Speaker, residents of the Virgin Islands, as citizens of the United States, are required to pay Federal income tax like any other citizen living outside the United States. However, section 932 of the Internal Revenue Code, ``Code'', states that bona fide residents of the Virgin Islands are not required filing an income tax return with the IRS. Instead, they are required to file their income tax return with, and pay the applicable tax to, the government of the Virgin Islands. The amount of the liability to the Virgin Islands, determined under the ``mirror code'' system, in most cases is exactly the same amount that they would otherwise have been required to pay to the Federal Government.

In response to concerns that some U.S. citizens claimed tax benefits who neither lived nor worked in the Territory, Congress tightened the income and residency rules of the Virgin Islands Economic Development Commission, EDC, program as part of the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004.

The U.S. Internal Revenue Service subsequently initiated a comprehensive series of audits not only of individuals who participated in the Territory's EDC program, but also many taxpayers who had moved years earlier to the Virgin Islands and who did not participate in the EDC program as well as taxpayers who were born in the Virgin Islands but who had spent periods of their working life outside the Territory due to the lack of opportunities in the Virgin Islands.

In the course of these audits, the IRS reversed its long-standing administrative practice and published position, and now claims that the statute of limitations never runs for V.I. taxpayers who reasonably and in good faith file their tax returns with, and pay their tax to, the Virgin Islands Bureau of Internal Revenue, ``BIR'', as the law requires them to do. In a General Counsel Advisory Memorandum, the IRS announced its new position that it has the right to audit the returns of a V.I. taxpayer as far back as they like and, if the IRS determines under the subjective pre-Jobs Act test that the taxpayer was not a bona fide V.I. resident, that it can assess full tax and penalties even if the taxpayer has paid the correct amount to the Virgin Islands. Because the Virgin Islands statute of limitations will have run in many of these circumstances, the taxpayer will be precluded from seeking a refund of tax paid to the Virgin Islands, and thus be subject to double taxation. Moreover, since the IRS position reverses a previously issued IRS advisory memorandum and also ran counter to the general rule that persons can be audited for up to 3 years after filing a return, many taxpayers who are being audited no longer have the records to defend themselves.

The bill before us today would end this heavy handed and unfair practice and treat bona fide U.S. Virgin Islands residents who files a return in the territory in the same manner as if the return were an income tax return filed with the United States.

I urge my colleagues to support adoption of H.R. 3056.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 3648, the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007 because I believe that it is the least that the Congress can do to aid beleaguered homeowners, who in addition to facing foreclosure, are also facing taxation on phantom income.

It was not a long time ago that the housing market was being touted as the savior of the economy and that homeownership was looked to as a reliable, stabilizing force in communities across the country. Now that the pendulum has swung in the other direction, and the housing market is wobbling under the weight of the subprime crisis, it is incumbent upon the Congress to assist beleaguered homeowners.

H.R. 3648 would amend current law which would now tax a homeowner who received relief from financial institutions on their mortgages in order to save their homes. H.R. 3648 would provide a permanent exclusion for any discharge of indebtedness which is secured by a principal residence through acquisition, construction or substantial improvement of the principal residence.

Mr. Speaker, this bill also extends the deduction for private mortgage insurance for 7 years through 2014 and would relax the rules, making it easier for housing groups to qualify as a cooperative housing corporation. It would also modify the exclusion of gain on sale of a principal residence, all items that would make it easier for homeowners to survive the murky waters of the current housing market. As the housing crisis continues to run its course, I believe that this legislation is a step in the right direction. I believe that more has to be done in order to keep homeowners in their homes and help stabilize the part of our economy that has been the surest route to wealth in our country. I urge all of my colleagues to vote for its passage.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to a brilliant Virgin Islander and friend, Mr. Athneil C. (Addie) Ottley, who has distinguished himself as a broadcaster, businessman, legislator, and community activist. This weekend, ``Addie'' as he is known to one and all will be honored in my district, St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands for 25 years as the host of ``Face to Face'' a community talk show on our local public television station, WTJX.

But, Madam Speaker, I am sure that the honors that will be bestowed on Addie on Saturday evening will go well beyond his service as a talk show host because in his inimitable style, he has been a leader in the broadcast industry in the Virgin Islands for more than 40 years.

Born on November 19, 1941, Addie is 1 of the 11 children of the late Charlotte Amalie Postmaster. His interest in broadcasting began at a young age and he was given his own teen show at WIVI called ``Addie at Night.'' After graduating from Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic High School, he built his own ham radio station, KV4BW and was the first teenager to be granted a license in the territory. He now holds the highest FCC amateur license, the Extra Class license and the highest Commercial Radiotelephone operators license, the First Class General Radiotelephone Certificate with radar endorsement.

Addie went on to graduate from the RCA Institute of Technology in New York, majoring in electronics and subsequently from Indiana Institute of Technology, majoring in electronics and engineering. Upon returning to the St. Thomas community in 1965, he worked as assistant manager and host of the ``Morning Show'' at WSTA. He later became the manager and then producer of the youth television show ``Youthquake.''

Pursuing political aspirations, Addie ran for and won a seat in the U.S. Virgin Islands Legislature in 1970 and 1972. In 1973, he was appointed Lieutenant Governor in the administration of the late Governor Melvin H. Evans. He later served a third legislative term in 1978 and was appointed executive assistant to the Commissioner of Commerce in 1981.

It was in the 1980s, that Addie became the host of ``Face to Face'' the public television talk show that provides an hour long discussion of community news and events that goes beyond the daily news sound byte. It was in 1984, with a group of local friends and investors, that Addie became President and CEO of Ottley Communications Corporation and purchased WSTA radio, making it the first radio station to be owned by local interests. In 1995, Addie bought out his investors and became the full owner of the station.

In addition to business, communications and politics, Addie has also served the community as Chairperson of the Advisory Committee of the Reichhold Center for the Performing Arts Advisory Committee, a member on the Board of Directors of the Advisory Committee of the United Negro College Fund to benefit the then College of the Virgin Islands, a member of the advisory Committee and MC of the Muscular Dystrophy Association annual telethon. He was also appointed Civilian Liaison Officer for the Virgin Islands National Guard.

Addie has been President of the St. Thomas-St. John Chamber of Commerce and member of the Phi Kappa Theta Fraternity and the Mental Health Commission. He is also on the Board of Arts Alive and is Chairman Emeritus of the Virgin Islands Chapter of Employers Support for the National Guard and Reserve.

Addie has won his share of awards to include the 1990 Feddy Award for dedication to youth, the 1982 Business Advocate of the Year Award, and the Rotary II Man of the Year. He was recently named the ``Executive of the Year'' by the African American Ethnic Sports Hall of Fame.

Madam Speaker, Addie Ottley has contributed to the wellbeing of the people of the U.S. Virgin Islands as a leader in business, communications, politics and community service. It is fitting that he be recognized today as an exemplary Virgin Islander and American.

Mr. Speaker, I stand before you today in support of our continued support and defense of Taiwan. The United States has stood on the forefront of making the World safe and as a protector of democratic freedoms. To that end, Taiwan has emerged as flag bearer of not only democratic principles but as a strong economic partner.

Although Taiwan enjoys a robust economy and has a strong trade- relationship with countries within Asia they do not have the ability to defend themselves militarily if the need arises. The United States has played a major part in the development of Taiwan's economy over the past 40 years. In order to continue this relationship, we should help to guarantee their safety.

On a recent trip to Taiwan, I was pleased to learn of the great strides they have made in a short period of time to become such a powerful economic power. Although they have an aggressive economy, they have also developed a society built on the safety and health of its citizens. A first class government funded healthcare system that provides service to over 90 percent of its people, speaks to their commitment to its citizens. A bustling industrial sector where the creation of new innovations for an ever increasing technological world is a top priority. They are also fulfilling their commitment to a secure international port with 21st century safeguards to ensure that all shipments are properly inspected and tracked before transshipment to other parts of the world.

Recently, I participated in a ceremony in the Capitol where agreements Taiwan has made to purchase billions of dollars in U.S. agricultural goods over the next several years were signed. I was a signatory to several of them as a witness.

Taiwan's continued commitment to trade in good faith with the United States should not be one sided and we should do our part in upholding our agreement with them as it pertains to the Taiwan Relations Act. I am in full support of H. Res. 676 and ask my colleagues to support the resolution and Taiwan.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 3432 which establishes the

200th Anniversary Commission of the Abolition of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. It was 200 years ago in 1807, when first the British Parliament and then the U.S. Congress abolished the then 300 year old practice of forcibly removing Africans from their homes along the Western coast of that continent to provide free labor for the empires of Europe in the New World.

The triangular trade would link the peoples of Africa, Europe and the Americas in a chain of blood, power, money, imperialism and despair and set the tone for our modern day relationships as none of our ancestors were left untouched by its sheer brutality.

By the time it was all over, the world's first massive attempt at globalization, would profoundly change it from corner to corner and would leave behind many of the social reverberations of race, class and poverty that we as a world community struggle with today.

As we recognize this momentous anniversary and the way it has shaped the lives of African descendants in the Western Hemisphere, and as one of those descendants I want to take the opportunity to call attention to the end of enslavement of Africans in my own district, the U.S. Virgin Islands, which was then the Danish West Indies. The abolition of the slave trade did not immediately end slavery. It was not until 1848 in response to an uprising by enslaved Africans demanding emancipation that slavery was ended there. It is a day which we celebrate on July 3rd of every year, and this year will be the 160th Anniversary of that important event.

As we approach that anniversary it is relevant to note the dialogue that the people of the Virgin Islands and the people of Denmark have embarked upon regarding reparations--not in terms of monetary compensation, but in education, restoration and reconciliation efforts that can finally close that sad chapter of our history and our relationship. While discussions have not taken place at a government to government level, we anticipate that these will begin in the near future and we look forward to the opportunities this could make available to both sides.

Mr. Speaker, returning to the resolution before us, it is important that we mark the end of this dark period in world history and human relations and that we study and commemorate the events that led up to the beginning, the middle and the end of slavery. It is important that the civic, historical, educational, religious and economic activities planned on the state and national levels be used for the American people to look back and seek understanding of that time and the legacy that it has left behind.

As we commemorate with speeches and conferences and exhibitions, let us remember that there is still human trafficking taking place today and that we should be as adamant and as vigilant as our forbears of 200 years ago, in seeing to its end.

Congresswoman Tubbs Jones, it's a pleasure to be back with you on the floor this evening. We were here together last week discussing SCHIP and the situation in Jena with the Jena 6 high school students, which was also a part of our discussion, a very integral part of our discussion at the annual legislative conference.

We were very fortunate that while we were there, Mychal Bell was released from prison, and we were able to have the lead attorney, Lewis Scott, come up and join us for a session.

But this was our 37th Annual Legislative Conference, and our theme, as you heard, was ``Unleashing Our Power.'' That is also exactly what we here in the CBC and our constituents across the country intend to do going forward, unleash our power.

I also want to join my cochair in thanking the Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Kendrick Meek, for his strong and visionary leadership of the foundation and of the conference, and to thank our CBC chairwoman, the Honorable Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, for her stellar guidance. As we have come into the majority, she has coalesced and directed our power to influence the product of what I think will be a historic 110th Congress.

I also, as you heard just a few minutes ago, had a great partner in my cochair, Congressman G.K. Butterfield of North Carolina, whose input, vision and hard work really helped to make this week a successful and momentous one as it was.

Of course, as he said too, the ALC could not have been successful without the work of our staff, his staff and my staff and the staff of the foundation under the excellent and skilled leadership of Dr. Elsie Scott, its president.

As this year's cochair, it was a special pleasure for me to welcome Generation Now and other Virgin Islanders, including Neville Peter, who sang at the prayer breakfast.

Both singers were great, but it was really inspiring. We were really pleased he was able to join us.

He is a young man, born in my district in the U.S. Virgin Islands. He started his musical career very early, at about 5, mostly in the piano and one other instrument. But at about 12, he pretty much lost all of his sight. He became blind at about age 12.

That didn't stop him, though. He went on to college at the University of Miami and studied music there, actually specializing in jazz and some other kinds of music. But in the recent years, he has turned his talent to the service of the Lord, and he has been a gospel singer, writer. He actually performed one of his original compositions, which, as he said, was a testimony of his own life and finding God; it was personal. Now it's personal.

Yes, he has a great voice and a great talent. We look for him to go to great places in the future.

So we have him and we have the Generation Now, and, of course, many of us in the Congressional Black Caucus also had our emerging leaders come up from our district that we sponsored; mine, attorney Mark Hodge and Natalie Humphries, also of Generation Now, the last person. So that was exciting.

Our opening session, of course, featured our Chairs, including my colleague here, Mrs. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones, but also Chairman Rangel, Chairman Conyers, Chairman Thompson, and of course, our whip, Jim Clyburn. That was a very, I think, powerful way to start off a conference, a weekend that was all about power.

It wasn't only about power in the Congress, but it was about a power in our community that is still really untapped and unleashed. We could really be agents of change for our community and our country if we were to really come together and use the power that is ours.

I wanted to focus the rest of my remarks on the town hall, though, and on the health sessions that I was a part of. There were many health sessions. There were many sessions, period, on a number of issues, and all very informative.

The town hall, first, was a real powerful discussion on ways to eliminate or reduce the factors that lead so many black men and now, increasingly, black women into prison. We called it ``Disrupting the Prison Pipeline'' because we wanted to focus on positive action to really stop what was happening over the years.

Too, our session was attended by, I think, over 1,000 people who were at that town hall that morning. And we discussed the disparities in education, health, including mental health and substance abuse, how poverty and unemployment in the criminal justice system, the disparities in those areas create a pathway to incarceration rather than college for so many in the African-American community.

We had wonderful speakers. We had Reggie Weaver, the president of the National Education Association; Dr. Marian Wright Edelman, the president of the Children's Defense Fund; Dr. Beny Primm was a drug addiction expert from New York; Dr. Debra Prothrow Stith, a public health expert who focuses on violence prevention; attorney Rhonda Stewart from North Carolina, an expert on child and family judicial issues; Janks Morton, who is a writer in D.C. representing the media; and several ex-offenders who have made a dramatic turnaround in their lives.

We want to thank them, as well as our moderator, Leon Harris, and the Members of Congress who participated; Congressman Bobby Scott, who chairs the Crime Subcommittee of the Judiciary and has turned that into, has begun to focus that committee on prevention, which we have long looked forward to doing; Danny Davis, who heads a subcommittee himself on health under the Government Reform Committee. But primarily he was there as the leader of the State of the Black Male Initiative that the CBC and the CBC Foundation have been working on and, of course, Chairman Rangel, who brought the economic opportunity piece to that discussion. They brought their expertise, they brought the work that they're engaged in, both inside and out of Congress to help disrupt the prison pipeline.

What's clear is that there's too many communities where a young black male in this country has no alternative opportunities, nor is he provided with adequate opportunities to be able to succeed on the path to college. And the two unfortunate recent examples are the Jena high school students and Genarlo Wilson who is still in prison in Georgia. What we will do from here, though, Madam Speaker and colleagues, is to issue a report that incorporates the date, the key points of the discussion, and legislative recommendations, which would be a blueprint for the Congressional Black Caucus, as well as other elected leadership on State and local levels.

What we've heard from our panelists and the audience was a compelling call to action to indeed disrupt that prison pipeline.

The first health session, which I co-chair every year with Congresswoman Barbara Lee on HIV and AIDS, global HIV and AIDS focus on the growing role and the influence of the faith community in combating the HIV/AIDS crisis in the African American community. Ten years ago we called for a state of emergency and a minority AIDS initiative for our community and other communities of color. This administration has taken it far away from the original intent of building the local capacity in our communities to address this epidemic. And the consensus in that conference was that we need a national plan, as we discussed with the Black AIDS Institute on the Hill last week; and it's time to reissue that call for the state of emergency and reclaim our minority AIDS initiative.

Also, on Thursday afternoon there was a great discussion on bringing corporate, State, and union leaders into the disparity elimination partnership. With the ongoing need for corporations to provide health care and the extreme pressures of its rising costs, they will be looking for ways to cut those costs. The health coverage will continue to be a major cause of contention as unions negotiate contracts, and States are beginning to take coverage for all of their residents into their own hands.

We called on business, union and State leaders, we called them together for this dialogue because we want to make sure that as all of this begins to take some kind of shape into a health care reform initiative, that closing the gaps in health care and in health status that's faced by racial and ethnic minorities and rural residents in this country, that those issues would be at the center of that reform; and we intend for that to be an ongoing dialogue.

The last session that I'm going to mention is the Friday session on demanding opportunity and justice for African American health care providers. It spoke to challenges that are almost as disturbing as those we discussed in the prison pipeline discussion. Our keynote speaker, Dr. Sullivan, gave us an update on the still low representation of African Americans and other minorities in health professions schools and in practice, far below our representation in the Nation and woefully inadequate to meet the needs of our diverse society. We heard from hospital administrators, doctors, dentists and others, including students, about the barriers to getting into the health profession school and staying there. Those stories were bad enough. But there was more. We then heard from African American doctors and other health providers, those in practice, about the difficulties they face in staying in practice, given exclusions from certain facilities, faculties and organizations, unfair investigations and sanctions that hold them to a far higher standard than other providers, and also disparities in reimbursement.

What we heard signals a looming crisis that must be prevented if we are ever to eliminate health disparities, if we're ever to improve health care for everyone in this country, and if we're ever to stop the skyrocketing rise in health care costs. Those are just three of the many outstanding issue forums and brain trusts that informed, inspired, and invoked action on the part of the black community.

As I close, I want to thank all of my CBC colleagues, including you, Madam Speaker, for your support. Because of your hard work and that of your staff, we had one of the best annual legislative conferences ever and I want to thank all of the speakers, the exhibitors, and all who attended from all over the country, and even some from beyond and outside of our country, from the Caribbean, from Africa and other areas of the world. Because of the input that you brought, and the support that you gave to the conference, we, as a community, stand more ready than ever to unleash our power.