Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor Colbert (Colby) I. King, the Washington Post's Pulitzer Prize winning columnist and Deputy Editorial Page Editor. In a recent column, Mr. King informed his readers that he soon will cease writing editorials. However, Colby King's informal and spontaneous Saturday morning reading club takes some comfort in knowing that Colby King will continue to write his weekly column.

For 16 years, the Post, our city, and the region have benefited from reading a man who learned to write by doing it, not by going to journalism school. Colby went to school right here in the District, native born and native educated in the D.C. Public Schools and at Howard University.

Colby King's preparation for the career for which he will be best remembered came from the life he has lived--a childhood bereft of privilege, even equality, but rich in family love and upbringing. His pre-Post eclectic career ranged from the U.S. Army and VISTA to Treasury Department official and international banker.

Colby wrote about any and everything, but he was in his special element when he wrote about his hometown. Most of what the Post editorial page has had to say about this city came from Colby King-- sometimes sizzling with pride or indignation at shabby treatment by Congress and the like, even more often, hot with criticism of local officials and citizens alike, whose actions he thought unworthy of the city on a hill Colby wanted his hometown to become. Colbert King's role in writing the Home Rule Act, his special feel for the city of his birth, his wit and ability to laugh and to cry about this city, all contributed to the authority with which his views were received throughout the District and the region.

Colbert King has a way with words, a mark of pure talent, but talent alone won't win you a Pulitzer in his tough and competitive business. Colby's Pulitzer was his alone, the fruit of his columns. He used them to speak his mind on an unpredictable variety of subjects-too much crime and too little punishment; forgotten children and star-crossed residents, often remembered only in his Saturday columns; national and local politics and politicians scored without fear, favor or mercy; and the beloved family that reared him and the family that he and his wife, Gwendolyn, raised.

Colby King will be remembered also for his remarkable range. His contributions to the editorial page covered the page's territory, as Members know well from watching him on foreign and domestic affairs as a television opinion show panelist. His unusual set of talents and his judgment took him to editorial leadership on one of the world's most important papers. His contributions came during troubling times in our country and in this city. A failing war at home and an insolvent hometown, for example, badly needed unadulterated self-criticism and tough love. Colby King had the credibility, the talent, and the wisdom to offer both, to make us shake our heads up and down in agreement, and then to try again to reach his high expectations.

Mr. Speaker, if I may, I note a personal regret as well that Colby is ending one part of his career. His 16 years on the editorial page and my 16 years in Congress overlap. I will miss not only reading Colby. I will miss having someone at the Post with whom I personally identify in so many ways--a friend who remembers the District as it was when we both were born in a segregated city and when we went to Dunbar High School, and a city that is both the same and very different today. I wish the Post good luck in finding such invaluable, institutional and personal experience for its editorial page.

Colbert King has decided to no longer write editorials, but he has certainly left his signature in indelible ink on the Washington Post. I ask my colleagues to join me in both honoring and thanking Colbert King for using his craft in service to the public.

I thank the gentleman for yielding. I thank my good friends on both sides for bringing this resolution forward before the 109th Congress ends.

Mr. Speaker, Ed Bradley was much honored by his peers, the best honor always to receive, from those who judge harshest and judge best. It is very appropriate that Ed Bradley would be honored here in the halls of the Congress of the United States.

Perhaps he was destined to be honored in any case, because he was a pioneer, a first of his kind. We are still in an era when the first blacks are coming forward and we honor them simply for piercing the iron veil of race, but we honor Ed Bradley in this Chamber today as a leader of his profession.

Indeed, we honor Ed Bradley because he became, in his profession, an admired American figure. That is very hard to do in the field of journalism today. Journalism is almost down there with Members of Congress, but there are journalists who are universally admired, and Ed Bradley was one of those journalists.

He was in, perhaps, the most difficult aspect of journalism, at least that for which he became best known, investigative journalism, and, indeed, he was part of the premier investigative journalism program, 60 Minutes.

What Ed Bradley did is really difficult to do. You have got to be fair, but you have got to ask very hard, uncomfortable questions. Somehow he was able to do that without having people dislike him, and without having the television audience believe he had overreached. Here is a man who began as an elementary school teacher and went to the top of the journalism profession at a time when blacks were not supposed to be in the journalism profession at all.

Bradley excelled in his profession in ways that you have just heard from the sponsor of this resolution, 20 Emmys and all the rest. I also want to say that here is a man who had many friends who loved him despite his fame and fortune. Would that Members of Congress could be loved in spite of their profession, not because of it. Two of those who loved him most, are also dear friends of mine, Charlayne and Ron Gault. Charlayne Gault is the functional equivalent of Ed Bradley in journalism as a woman who entered this field at a time when there were very few blacks at the New York Times and in television.

Some of us may have seen the memorial service to Ed Bradley that was televised. It was a real testament to the fact that Ed Bradley loved life. All of us workaholics here in the Congress who are about to go home need to have looked at that memorial service, because Ed was remembered as much for his love of jazz, a jazz aficionado, as he was for his extraordinary reputation as a journalist.

Now, most of us are likely not to be remembered for being in Congress at all, but the notion of being remembered for loving life and living life and yet going to the top of your profession, there is no better life than that. Thus, it is with great pride that I rise to thank the sponsors of this resolution for honoring a man who did honor to his profession. We give honor to his family by reminding them that he is still remembered and will not be forgotten in his profession and in the life of our country.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the resolution that recognizes the achievements and the life of famed basketball coach, Arnold ``Red'' Auerbach. Auerbach was both a player and a coach during his career in collegiate and professional basketball, but we all best remember Red as the cigar-chewing coach of the Boston Celtics.

As coach of the Celtics, Auerbach led his team to ten Eastern Division titles in 16 years and nine National Basketball Association titles overall. His most astonishing achievement of his 17-year career as coach of the Celtics was winning eight straight NBA titles, a feat unmatched before or since.

Red coached the Celtics from 1959 to 1966, but he did not stray far from the team when his coaching days ended. He moved from the court to the front office and was an executive with the franchise until 1980. Auerbach will always be remembered as the coach of one of the most famous basketball dynasties in history. He will always be regarded by many as the best NBA coach of all time.

The picture of Red Auerbach that most of us carry in our minds is the image of him lighting up a cigar on the sidelines after his Celtics had won another game, but there are a few lesser known facts about Auerbach that mean a great deal to me and to all African Americans.

Red's great vision led him to draft the first African American basketball player in NBA history, he was the first coach to start an all African American lineup in the NBA, and Auerbach was the first executive to hire an African American to coach a professional basketball team. Red changed the way professionals play the game of basketball, and these achievements helped to change the face of basketball as well.

On October 28, the basketball world lost a great coach, and the rest of us lost a great American citizen. Although we mourn his loss and will miss his presence at NBA events, we cannot help but see his influence on the game of basketball, wherever it is played. I ask for the adoption of this resolution.

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

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Markey), the cosponsor of this resolution with me.

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

I thank the gentleman for those comments. That is a very appropriate prop to use this time. I have just an additional word about Red Auerbach.

Mr. Speaker, when you have won two-thirds of the games you ever coached over a 20-year period, there is hardly anybody in America who is not going to claim you. Brooklyn has every right to claim Red Auerbach for growing up there. Boston certainly claims him. Actually, Russia could claim him. The man was born in Russia, and we remember the time when Russia used to claim to invent everything whether it happened there. Well, this did happen there.

I am here to claim Red Auerbach, too, because he actually began his coaching career right here in the District of Columbia, coaching on two high school teams, one, a private high school team, St. Albans; the other, a public high school team, Roosevelt High School. Wouldn't you know it?

The great characteristics of sportsmanship should be remembered as much as the more than thousand games that Red Auerbach won, the notion of respect and loyalty, the culture he brought to the game, which, if I may say so, often today seems absent from the game and from sports. As we remember Red Auerbach, I hope we will remember his standards and the culture that he insisted upon by the example he set in the sport where he excelled above all others.

He never stopped working for basketball in countless ways, as an ambassador of the game, his television series, Red on Round Ball. The man wrote seven books about basketball.

Finally, of course, today it may seem unbelievable that as recently as 1950 Auerbach distinguished himself by drafting the first African American player in the NBA, Chuck Cooper. Goodness sakes, very late in the history of our country, particularly if we consider that the game is, if anything, inordinately dependent today on African American players.

Then, of course, about 16 years later, it would seem he hired the first African American head coach in professional sports. That is a real breakthrough because you have to have the courage to move with someone whom you believe can do exactly what you are doing and what those who are leaders of the game did, and of course he found the right man and the right time in Bill Russell. As recently as 1964, Red started the first all African American lineup of players. I think there was some reluctance to do that by some. Regardless of what it might have done for the game before that, Red Auerbach simply did it.

There are many ways, Mr. Speaker, for a man or a woman to show courage on race. There are many ways to be a civil rights leader. For America and especially for those who needed him most, we in the House today say thanks, Red.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to Lola Beaver, a longtime Capitol Hill resident who owned and operated The Costume Shop for 34 years after an equally long and successful career as a dancer, choreographer and dance instructor. She died at home in her sleep on Tuesday, November 28. When she died at 96, Lola's sharp wit, sparkling intelligence and high-spirited spunk had not deserted the woman whose loyalty and love were treasured by countless friends, customers and neighbors.

Born Luola (Lola) Murchison Hurkamp in Fredricksburg, Virginia, on July 5, 1910, she moved to the Washington area after her mother committed suicide when Lola was four years old. After five long years as a boarding student at the National Cathedral School, she graduated in 1929, came into her inheritance and promptly hopped on a Holland American liner headed for Europe. At summer's end, she returned to the States and arrived in New York City in a Chevrolet roadster that boasted a rumble seat and an item she had picked up in a Paris flea market and screwed onto the outside of her car: a French horn.

The 1929 stock market crash forced Lola, a student at NYC's Grand Central Art School, to earn a living as a dime-a-dance girl. She met and married a struggling actor, Andy Beaver, who was sharing an apartment with Henry Fonda and Burgess Meredith. When her husband joined the Marine Corps, the couple moved to Washington, DC. After twin boys died within two months of their birth, Lola opened the Lola Beaver Dance School in downtown Washington.

While her husband was fighting overseas, she performed for the troops at Washington's Stage Door Canteen and with the USO, traveling from the Caribbean to the Arctic with dancers from her school. A White House request that Lola create handmade bow ties to match President Lyndon Johnson's navy blue tuxedo marked her career move into costume design and rental. She moved to Capitol Hill in 1972 and converted a dry cleaning shop at the corner of 8th and A streets NE into The Costume Shop. ``I liked Capitol Hill,'' she told an oral historian. ``It had a nice small-town atmosphere. The people on the Hill are people you wouldn't mind knowing.'' Donna Brazile, my former chief of staff, moved across the street from Lola about 10 years ago. They became fast friends, and Lola knew that Donna was a friend to have. Donna virtually adopted Lola, cooking for her and nurturing Lola with friendship until the end.

Along with the city's most prestigious live theaters and Halloween revelers of all ages, members of Congress and burlesque queens, Lola's customers included every president from Johnson to Bill Clinton. During the height of the Watergate scandal, the lifelong Democrat took particular glee in outfitting then Indiana Sen. Birch Bayh as a burglar and his wife as a bug for Halloween. The ever-slim beauty with a thick mane of white hair never hesitated to render her opinion on a customer's choice of costume or actual weight. ``You're too fat for that dress'' or ``You should be a pirate/princess/clown--you look like one'' were the price of rental at The Costume Shop. Regarding the elegant turn-of-the century cutaway Bill Clinton rented, Lola recalled, ``He was bigger than I thought he was. He must've worn a corset when he had his picture taken.''

It was considered a high honor to be invited to join Lola, a grandmother figure for countless Hill residents, children and adults alike, for a bourbon-soaked ``teatime'' that lasted until the wee hours of the morning. Many a glass of Jim Beam will be raised in her honor at a luncheon that will immediately follow a memorial service to be held December 9 at Christ Church, noon, 620 G St., SE.

In lieu of flowers, Lola, a lifelong animal lover, asked that contributions be made in her name to the Washington Humane Society (washhumane.org) and The Elephant Sanctuary (elephants.com).

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

I rise in support of H. Res. 1087 to designate room H-139 in the Capitol as the Henry J. Hyde Room. Congressman Hyde is widely respected and regarded on both sides of the aisle as an effective leader and able legislator. He has served with distinction for more than three decades, working to improve the lives of senior citizens, veterans and families of all sizes. He has focused on job creation and better education for all, better housing for senior citizens, and the needs of special education students.

During his tenure as the chairman of the House International Relations Committee, he focused his work on terrorism and, in particular, biological and chemical weapons threats. Congressman Hyde also served as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee from 1995 to 2001.

It is fitting and proper to honor the distinguished career of Henry Hyde with this designation. I support the resolution and urge my colleagues to also support this resolution today.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from Guam (Ms. Bordallo).

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

Mr. Speaker, the international war chest of AIDS is black Africa, and in our country it is black America. How did half the cases become African American? Even worse, new cases are overwhelmingly black.

We have seen this disease stereotyped as homosexual and now as black. The one constant is its spread. Yet, unlike many diseases today, AIDS is preventable and can be contained and defeated.

The answers are not complicated, beginning with far more visible and substantive leadership, leadership on testing--I will be tested on the Capitol complex grounds in a D.C. health van this afternoon to set an example to help prevent the epidemic spread of this disease among African Americans--leadership on safe sex and condoms; leadership on overcoming homophobia, which is in league with this disease in the black community; and above all, leadership from the Congress of the United States, which must not go home without reauthorizing the Ryan White Act.

Mr. Speaker, the District of Columbia Omnibus Authorization Act, a major bill to assist the District of Columbia in carrying out timely and critical operational responsibilities, received final approval as a result of House passage this evening and is on its way to the President for his signature. The DC Omnibus Authorization Act, sponsored by Government Reform Committee Chairman Tom Davis and me, includes permanent midyear budget autonomy in a collection of crucial provisions that have been approved or passed by the District, but must come to Congress before becoming law. The most important omnibus authorization provision, long sought by the District since home rule was granted, allows the city to spend local funds without coming back to Congress for approval through the congressional mid-year supplemental appropriations process. We worked hard to convince appropriators to implement this critical change for the first time beginning this year, but the provision in today's bill is needed to authorize mid-year budget autonomy permanently. This is the first structural change in the original Horne Rule Act since it was enacted over 30 years ago and brings the city close to obtaining full budget autonomy. It is impossible to overestimate the hardship to this or any city of being unable to carry on normal business and engage in fiscal transactions--from spending local revenue already in the bank for vital city needs to floating baseball stadium bonds--without coming to Congress. Budget autonomy from the congressional supplemental process essentially enacts part of the DC Budget Autonomy Act that Chairman Davis and I have introduced to give the District greater freedom from the annual congressional appropriations process that redundantly requires the District's balanced budget to come to the Congress before it becomes effective.

The Omnibus Authorization Act includes many other vital provisions, including one that gives greater city control and use of reserve funds--up to 50 percent--with specific procedures for reimbursement. The District's sound fiscal practices, along with limitations required by Congress, have led to an impressive reserve fund. However, residents watched the neglect of basic services and continued to send their children to dilapidated public school buildings while the District grew an ever larger reserve fund that could not be tapped. As a result of work with appropriators last year, DC already is spending part of its reserves that had been piling up.

Both the House and the Senate approved an omnibus authorization bill earlier this session. However, the House needs to approve the Senate version that added provisions not in the House bill. The new provisions include: a change in the fiscal year that the District of Columbia Public Schools requested; permission for the DC libraries to accept gifts--currently only the Mayor's office can receive them; enhanced dental and vision benefits for court employees; and a requirement that within 1 year of congressional passage, the District must start using a metered system for taxicabs, unless the Mayor signs an executive order opting out. I strongly urge my colleagues to support this bill.

Mr. Speaker, as an original Co-Chair of the Honorary Congressional Host Committee for the Duke Ellington Jazz Festival, with Representative John Conyers, I rise today to recognize one of America's great jazz musicians and celebrated music innovators, Dr. Billy Taylor. As we look forward to and celebrate the second annual Duke Ellington Jazz Festival in the District of Columbia, we recognize the talented individuals who contributed to the unique sounds that form modern jazz. As a world-renowned jazz artist who uses his talent not only to entertain, but also to educate and inspire, Dr. Billy Taylor will be honored this year with the Festival's Lifetime Achievement Award. He joins last year's inaugural honoree, David Brubeck, as a recipient of this award.

I am proud that Dr. Taylor grew up in the District of Columbia in a family that valued artistic expression through music. His talent was undeniable. Dr. Taylor experimented with the sounds of the saxophone, drums, guitar and piano, receiving lessons from Henry Grant, who taught classical piano to the legendary Duke Ellington 20 years earlier. By the age of 13, Dr. Taylor had made his first professional appearance at the Republic Gardens on U Street.

After graduating with a Bachelor of Science in music from Virginia State University, Dr. Taylor took time off to continue to study, practice and perfect his musical skills. In 1944, he set out for New York City and became instantly emerged in the music scene. Soon after his arrival, Dr. Taylor was invited to play piano in saxophonist Ben Webster's quartet. He also performed on 52nd Street with the legendary Dizzy Gillespie. In 1946, Dr. Taylor embarked on an 8-month tour of Europe with Don Redman's Orchestra, the first American band to visit the continent after World War II. Upon his return, Billy Taylor became the house pianist at Birdland, the historic jazz venue where he was surrounded by pioneering jazz musicians and played with greats such as Ella Fitzgerald and Miles Davis.

As an eminent jazz musician, Billy Taylor began to educate the public on the world of

jazz. In the early 1960's, Dr. Taylor became the first black artist to host a daily radio show, ``The Billy Taylor Show,'' on WNEW, a major New York station. Dr. Taylor also brought jazz back to Harlem and the surrounding communities through the revolutionary Jazzmobile project, which he co-founded with Daphne Arnstein, a fellow member of the Harlem Cultural Council. The Jazzmobile began with a float borrowed from the Budweiser Beer Company that was converted into a bandstand-on-wheels. The organization produced summer outdoor concerts, lectures and special programs for disadvantaged inner-city youth. Renowned artists such as Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington, Lionel Hampton, Buddy Rich, and Milt Jackson all contributed to the Jazzmobile by performing free outdoor concerts for the public. In particular, Dr. Taylor recalled the excitement of the audience when Duke Ellington performed, saying, ``I don't know who was more excited, the audience, or Duke. He loved playing for the people of Harlem, and they loved him, madly.'' The program continues today throughout the United States.

Billy Taylor's recording career is nothing short of extraordinary. With more than two dozen albums recorded over a span of six decades, Dr. Taylor is renowned within the recording community through such compositions as, ``I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to be Free'' and ``Peaceful Warrior,'' a work inspired by and dedicated to the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In 1990, Dr. Taylor was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President George H.W. Bush and also has received two Peabody Awards, an Emmy, and a Grammy.

Dr. Taylor continues to be the country's spokesman for jazz. From 1977 until 1982, Dr. Taylor hosted ``Jazz Alive,'' National Public Radio's most listened-to jazz program of its time.

In March 1993, he was appointed Jazz Adviser to the Kennedy Center, where he was responsible for dramatically expanding and enhancing its jazz program--and although he has officially retired, Dr. Taylor is busier than ever, continuing to provide his expertise to the institution. As with Jazzmobile, Billy Taylor continues to create outreach activities and public performances to expose people of all ages to the genre of Jazz at the Kennedy Center. At the University of Massachusetts, where he is the Wilmer D. Barrett Professor of Music, Dr. Taylor leads the annual Jazz in July program.

As we prepare for the 2nd Annual Duke Ellington Festival to be held in October, it is my pleasure to recognize Dr. Billy Taylor for his lifetime achievements and contributions to the genre of jazz and to the world at large. He is not only an extraordinary artist, but also a renowned and celebrated professional who has dedicated his life to bringing music to the masses. Dr. Billy Taylor inspires the next generation of musicians to continue in his footsteps and not only excel in their musical performances, but also to motivate and educate.

Mr. Speaker, I take considerable pleasure in welcoming Archbishop Donald Wuerl to Washington and to the archdiocese of Washington. Although born in Pittsburgh, where he last served, Archbishop Wuerl is very familiar with Washington where he studied at our own Catholic University of America. The archbishop follows Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, whose humble priestly ways and message of inclusiveness made him beloved by people of all religions and backgrounds here.

Archbishop Wuerl will minister both to official Washington and to average parishioners in the District and Maryland. The archbishop's work in Pittsburgh, however, foreshadows a leader who is first and foremost a pastor. We warmly welcome Archbishop Donald Wuerl.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor the first African American graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and a venerable District of Columbia resident, Retired Lieutenant Commander Wesley Brown. On the Fourth of July, I urged District residents to commemorate the day by celebrating the service of Wesley Brown as a tribute to his historic achievement and as a way of reminding the nation on this day of liberty that thousands of men like Wesley Brown have served their country in the armed forces without equal representation in Congress and that the pending District of Columbia Fair and Equal House Voting Rights Act affords a way to begin to right this wrong.

Wesley Brown is an alumnus of Dunbar High School, and upon graduation, entered the United States Naval Academy. There, he not only met the tough academic and military requirements to graduate from the Naval Academy in 1949, but also prevailed over racial discrimination and physical and mental abuse at the Academy. Mr. Brown served honorably in World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. He retired from the Navy at the rank of lieutenant commander. In recognition of his achievement, the Academy named a building after Mr. Brown last year. His remarkable life story is chronicled in the book ``Breaking the Color Barrier: The U.S. Naval Academy's First Black Midshipmen and the Struggle for Racial Equality'' by Robert Schneller. I am particularly and personally grateful to Mr. Brown, who chaired my first Service Academy Selection Board, which assists me in nominating D.C. high school students for appointments to the military academies, and remains Chairperson Emeritus.

Wesley Brown has become a historical figure living among us. His graduation was a pivotal moment in the nation's efforts to integrate the armed forces of the United States and to improve racial conditions. His leadership paved the way for over 1,600 African Americans who have since graduated from the Naval Academy. Today, nearly 23 percent of the Academy's students are from minority groups.

Wesley Brown deserves special recognition for this pioneering accomplishment, and the service he rendered to the cause of equal treatment for all Americans by courageously accepting unusually difficult challenges for a young Black man before the armed forces themselves were integrated. He did so as generations of Washingtonians have done for the past 230 years in serving the Armed Forces of the United States, always without equal representation in the Congress of the United States and always paying taxes without representation, notwithstanding that this form of tyranny was one of the major causes of the War for Independence which led to the founding of the United States of America.

In the spirit of another great Washingtonian, Frederick Douglass, who challenged the nation in a July 4th address to live up to its stated ideals of freedom and equality, I recognize

and honor other District veterans and remind the nation of the necessity to pass H.R. 5388, the Fair and Equal House Voting Rights Act which would afford the full vote in the House of Representatives for the first time in American history. Passage of this legislation would be the optimal way to recognize the service of Mr. Brown, D.C. residents who are currently serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the 44,000 D.C. veterans who have honorably served our nation in the United States Armed Forces.

Mr. Speaker, I am not opposed to the legislation, nor should anybody else in this Chamber be.

Mr. Speaker, when I was asked did I want to accept time in opposition, when I said nor should any Member of this body, I was not being rhetorical. This bill is indispensable to the Federal Government, and it is indispensable to the 20 million visitors who come every year.

I don't want anyone to think that the chairman and the Members who have come forward would have the chutzpah to come forward and say support a local transportation system.

This system was created by the National Transportation Act. It was not created by Maryland, Virginia, or the District of Columbia but by the Federal Government. It was created by the Federal Government, because by 1969, the Federal presence had spread to Maryland and Virginia, and it was very clear that the Federal Government itself could not operate without a modern transportation system allowing what amounts to 200,000 workers today to get from one place to the other.

Meanwhile, the gentleman from Texas has cited the many programs and the transportation funds that the local jurisdictions get, and that, of course, is what has supported this system ever since. What this funding is necessary for is capital funding in order to keep the system up and operating because of pressure put on the system by the Federal Government and nobody but the Federal Government. Almost half of those who ride every day are Federal employees.

Without dedicated funding, and here is where the chairman and the Members of the region deserve real credit because there is no dedicated funding for the system, so it has to be funded on an annual basis. The chairman's bill, supported by all of us, essentially says no funding is available unless there is a dedicated funding source.

So it performs the task that is responsible to the Federal Government by saying, here is your share that you must give, and it says to the local jurisdictions, you do not get the Federal share unless you come forward not just with funding, but with dedicated funding. The purpose of this bill is to deal with the initial investment that the Federal Government made, which is now going down the drain because the local jurisdictions cannot in fact, by themselves, deal with the maintenance and capital costs that Federal pressure has put on it.

Let me tell you what I mean by Federal pressure. We are so dependent on this system, that we subsidize Federal workers to, in fact, take Metro. As it is, you cannot, in fact, get on the roads here, even with Metro. Imagine what would happen if Metro were not available; but it is becoming unavailable because its cars are so crowded that there are many Federal workers who believe that they should just as well take a car, something that the roads coming to and from the District cannot stand.

I am a member of the Homeland Security Committee. I do not believe there is a single Member who would not not understand what in the post- 9/11 world this transportation system means to the safety and security of this region. But I can tell you from my work, and the chairman is also on the committee, that it adds to the necessity that President Eisenhower saw in 1969, and an additional one that we cannot turn our heads from.

Ask your own constituents how they get around Washington when they come. There are 20 million of them. They are not my constituents, and they are not Chairman Davis's constituents, they are yours. And they would be lost without the Metro system.

The beauty of the bill is that it is going to get the local jurisdictions to do what all of our hectoring has not made them do until now, and that is to get the dedicated funding so that the cars, which are now overloaded with Federal workers every morning, you cannot get on these cars, will indeed have additions to them; so the facilities, indeed, can be maintained. The gentleman complained about that. He was perfectly right. There are not the funds to maintain it and keep it operating if you depend only on the three local jurisdictions.

Mr. Speaker, today I introduce the District of Columbia District Attorney Establishment Act of 2006, continuing a series of bills that I will introduce this session to ensure a continuation of the process of transition to full democracy and self-government for the residents of the District of Columbia. This bill is the ninth in our ``Free and Equal DC'' series of bills to eliminate anti-Home Rule legislation and to remedy obsolete or inappropriate congressional intervention into the local affairs of the District of Columbia or denials of federal benefits or recognition routinely granted to other jurisdictions.

This bill will establish an Office of District Attorney for the District of Columbia, to be headed by a District Attorney elected by DC residents. Accordingly, this bill would move the city a quantum leap toward full home rule for the District of Columbia and equality with other Americans. This bill effectuates a November 2002 referendum where DC voters overwhelmingly (82 percent) approved a locally elected D.A.

This important legislation is designed to put the District of Columbia on par with every other local jurisdiction in the country by allowing DC residents to elect an independent District Attorney to prosecute local criminal and civil matters now handled by the U.S. Attorney, a federal official. Instead the new District Attorney would become the city's chief legal officer. As presently constituted, the U.S. Attorney's office in the District is the largest in the country only because it serves mainly as the local city prosecutor. That office needs to be freed up to do security and other federal work particularly in the post 9-11 nation's capital.

There is no issue of greater importance to our citizens and no issue on which residents have less say here than the prosecution of local crimes. A U.S. Attorney has no business in the local criminal affairs of local jurisdictions. No other citizens in the United States are treated so unfairly on an issue of such major importance. This bill would simply make the D.A. accountable to the people who elect him or her as elsewhere in the country.

In addition to issues of democracy and self government, such as congressional voting rights and legislative and budget autonomy that District residents are entitled to as American citizens, residents are determined to achieve each and every other element of home rule. Amending the Home Rule Act with a local D.A. provision would be an important development toward our goal of achieving true self- government. I urge my colleagues to support this important measure.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased today to introduce legislation to restore the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) authority to regulate marketing to children under the age of 18 in order to help eliminate an epidemic of overweight and obesity that studies link to pervasive advertising of junk food to the Nation's youth. A similar provision has been introduced as part of a larger bill in the Senate, and former President Clinton is taking a leading role in efforts to control the rapid increase in overweight and obesity in children. Yet Congress has failed to take decisive action, despite definitive studies that show that childhood obesity has become one of the Nation's most serious health issues, creating a surge in debilitating diseases we are seeing for the first time in kids.

The Centers for Disease Control reports that 12.5 million children and adolescents, ages 2-19, are overweight, a rate that has tripled in the last 40 years. As a result, the incidence of Type 2 diabetes in children, a disease that is mainly associated with adults, has become widespread in recent years. Overweight children have a more than 70 percent chance of being overweight adults, putting them at risk for many serious health conditions, such as high blood pressure, asthma and heart disease. Many of these children are obese in part because they watch so much television, on the average, over 2 hours a day. However, a study by the congressionally chartered Institute of Medicine (IOM) found extraordinary growth in new food products targeted to children, from just 52 new product introductions in 1994 to close to 500 just last year. Significantly, the IOM report finds that advertisements during children's programming feature foods high in fat, with little to no nutritional value.

The problem is even greater in programming geared toward African American television consumers, adults and children alike. A summer 2005 survey of programming on Black Entertainment Television (BET) found that 66 percent of the ads were for fast food commercials. The study monitored commercials during the afternoon hours, when children watch cartoons and ``tween'' shows. The WB Network and Disney Channel were also monitored in the study. During that time slot, over 1,000 ads were shown on all three channels. Only 34 percent of ads on the WB promoted fast foods, and none at all on the Disney channel. McDonald's was the leading fast food advertiser on BET. Further, 82 percent of advertisements on BET were for soda, with the WB at 11 percent. The Disney Channel accounted for only 6 percent of soda advertisements. Advertisements for snacks accounted for 60 percent of BET programming, 40 percent on the Disney Channel and none

on the WB. As a result of increased fast food advertising, children are more likely to consume an additional 167 calories a day, a caloric intake that further exacerbates already high obesity rates. Currently, obesity affects nearly 18 percent of black children compared to 14 percent of white children.

These studies are evidence that the estimated $15 billion spent on junk food marketing in the last year is adversely affecting the eating habits, and consequently, the health of our nation's youth. This marketing is especially problematic in poor, predominately African American neighborhoods, many of which have no access to fresh and healthy food products due to a dearth in neighborhood grocery stores. This problem is highlighted here in the District where the lowest income wards attract corner convenience stores that feature unhealthy, fatty foods in abundance, but do not provide foods of significant nutritional value that assist both in the intellectual and physical growth and development of children.

The FTC and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) have historically shared joint jurisdiction over advertising to children. The FCC first implemented regulations on children's advertising in 1974, setting limits on the amount of advertising per hour during children's programs, but these limits do not address the content of the ads. Under current law, the Children's Television Act of 1990, advertising during children's programming is restricted to no more than 10\1/2\ minutes per hour on the weekends, and 12 minutes per hour on the weekdays. However, these ``restrictions'' are simply an adoption of what is already the established industry norm.

In 1978, the Federal Trade Commission recommended banning television advertising to children under the age of eight after research at the time indicated that marketing to young children was unfair because young children do not understand the persuasive intent of advertising, thereby establishing an unfair and deceptive act or practice. However, industry lobbyists filed a lawsuit against the FTC, and lobbied Congress instead to pass the FTC Improvement Act of 1980, which stripped the FTC of its authority to issue industry-wide regulations to stop unfair advertising practices.

The debate still continues, however, as the IOM's recent report recommends banning television advertising to children even up to the age of twelve, and the American Psychological Association (APA) says that children under the age of nine cannot understand persuasive intent. Nevertheless, the methods for advertising products to children have become more sophisticated. Marketing strategies now include Internet games, specialized product placement in stores, as well as cartoon character endorsements like those that featured Sponge Bob Square Pants endorsing Burger King products, and promoting unhealthy eating habits.

Ironically, funding will lapse this year for a successful program I cosponsored that turned television on its head, and according to studies, has effectively used TV to get children active. The Youth Media Campaign--VERBTM program, the brainchild of the former chair of the Labor/HHS subcommittee, Jon Porter, with whom I collaborated when I had a similar bill, received no funding in the President's Fiscal Year 2007 budget, and the program, despite its demonstrated effectiveness, has received less and less funding since its inception, from an initial appropriation of $125 million. The VERBTM program focuses children on physical activity at a time when physical education is often no longer a required component of school curricula. Through print, radio, internet and television advertising targeted at the nation's 21 million children aged 9-13 years, VERBTM programming emphasized free-time, outside of the classroom where children traditionally are at play. The program also featured a multicultural message, giving extra focus to African American and Hispanic youth who have the highest incidence of childhood obesity. Most important, two recent evaluations of VERBTM have found the program to be remarkably effective. VERBTM offered the first concrete hope of progress against the alarming surge in debilitating diseases we are now seeing for the first time in children, and I sincerely hope that the Congress will again fund this program to ensure its continued success.

However, I am pleased to join with Senator Tom Harkin, who has introduced this language in the Senate as part of a more comprehensive bill promoting healthy lifestyles and disease prevention. I am also pleased to join with others, such as former President Clinton, who has joined with the Nickelodeon Channel to promote responsible, healthy food choices and lifestyles. I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.

Chairman Davis has gone to wonderful creative trouble to find the funds, funds that were not being obligated to use for other purposes. This may look like a regional matter. It is a matter involving 20 million visitors who come to the District of Columbia and, frankly, have so piled on to the system that they have broken it down. Moreover, the rest of the people who use it during the weekdays are almost always Federal workers. We subsidize those Federal workers in order to get them to use this system. Watch what you wish for. They are now using it.

Now the system in which we have invested so much, we helped build it, we the Federal Government, because we knew visitors and Federal workers were chiefly involved. Because of that we have got to have a dedicated stream of funding or we do not have enough cars and we are not able to protect our investment by keeping the upkeep and that is why it is falling down.

In every respect, Members have more at stake than we do because of Federal workers and because our own constituents use this system. I thank the gentleman.

I thank the gentlewoman for her initiative. As a former chair of the EEOC credited with bringing efficiencies that eliminated the backlog, I strongly support her amendment. The efficiencies that I brought to the commission included settling cases. At first, they were controversial, but the civil rights community focused in and around them. When the remedy rate increased, the businesses were very grateful for them because they got them out of the city.

The call system is not such an efficiency. It makes work that has not saved either work or money. Callers instead want to get to somebody who really knows something, the way when you have a recording or a customer service person and you say, let me speak to a real person who can tell me some real information.

Meanwhile the Nation's civil rights enforcement agency is being dismantled. What other agency has lost 20 percent of its staff since this administration took power? What kind of message is the 109th Congress sending to civil rights. Eliminate the call center. Let trained staff do their work.