Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend from New York for yielding.

I don't see how my colleagues can go home for Christmas leaving their constituents who are unemployed with no Christmas at all. I understand this bill to be important for its elimination of some sequestration. That is a small favor considering that sequestration may be the only bill nobody wanted that nevertheless prevailed. But the callous treatment of the unemployed is unforgiveable, especially at this season. I am really outraged by the notion of some of my colleagues about the incentive to remain on unemployment

insurance, when the benefits per week have gone down one-third across the States.

We are exposing those who have worked and paid into unemployment insurance to more hard times, but we are also exposing our economy, itself, because the loss of unemployment insurance means another loss of 300,000 jobs.

This bill is counterproductive. It is counterintuitive. It spoils an otherwise acceptable bill. It makes a mockery of Christmas.

I thank my good friend, the gentleman from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, who is so honorably following the great example of his

predecessor Bill Gray in leading us today in the House and for all of the work that he has done in the House.

I want to thank the Congressional Black Caucus and particularly our chairman, Marcia Fudge, who led us on an exhausting but exhilarating trip to South Africa just this week. I want to thank the CBC--before I ever thought about coming to Congress--for their decades of work which was instrumental in release and the work of Nelson Mandela.

I went to South Africa earlier this week to share with South Africans their farewell to the father of their country, Madiba, the man who meant so much to millions of us, for his leadership throughout the world. And I went because, for me, he was a freedom-defining leader.

I knew Nelson Mandela before I met him. I was a member of the Free South Africa Movement that was particularly active here in the District of Columbia, the movement led by TransAfrica which became synonymous with Free Mandela.

Mr. Speaker, it was almost 30 years ago that four of us went into the South African Embassy--Randall Robinson; the head of TransAfrica, Dr. Mary Berry; my own predecessor, former Congressman Walter Fauntroy and I--who secured an appointment with the ambassador of South Africa, I must say, under false pretenses because we didn't intend to come out.

However, in those first arrests, we could not have imagined the cascade of events that followed. We did not imagine that from all over the country people would come to be arrested to free Mandela.

Mr. Speaker, perhaps least of all did I imagine that on his 95th birthday we would have a commemoration where the Democratic and the Republican leaders of this House would gather to celebrate Mandela's 95th birthday. If you can imagine the life of Nelson Mandela, there is so much about that life that was unimaginable.

And there are so many people to thank tonight because as I think about all of those who are connected with Mandela--because there are millions of them--I hope we do not forget those who led this movement, that we do not forget Bill Gray who was the sponsor of the sanctions bill and succeeded in overriding a veto to get it through the Congress of the United States. I hope we do not forget TransAfrica, which invented the struggle for freedom for Mandela, or Ron Dellums or former Senator Mike Lugar, who were sponsors of the bill. I hope we do not forget the hundreds of thousands who lobbied and picketed their State legislatures to divest pension funds from South Africa. It is very difficult to imagine that without collective action, Mandela would have been free to free his country.

Most of all, Mr. Speaker, tonight we thank Nelson Mandela himself. How do you thank a man for making the highest and best use of his best years, by spending them--almost 30 years--incarcerated and then coming out to peacefully and ever so gently lead his fellow South Africans to lay down their grievances--just as Martin Luther King said, ``Lay down your arms''--laid down their grievances, rose above their painful scars, their own years of suffering, and to somehow march with him into a new multiracial South Africa. It is a South Africa which today, like Madiba, its great leader, is an example for the rest of the world.

Much of the rest of the world today I hope remembers Madiba not only for what his years of sacrifice meant but for how he used those years to bring peace in the last place where peace was expected.

I thank the gentleman for leading us tonight.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to ask the House of Representatives to join me in remembering Edward Augustine Savoy, a freeman of color who held one of the highest government positions possible for an African American at the time, Chief Messenger to the Secretary of State, on the 70th anniversary of his death.

Edward Augustine Savoy was a third-generation Washingtonian born to a father who was a former slave and a mother who was a teacher in Northwest Washington, D.C. in 1855. Edward Savoy's illustrious career spanned 64 years, during which he worked for 21 Secretaries of State. Through 14 presidencies he played a significant role in many of the historic events in our nation. Even though Edward Savoy never ascended higher than Chief Messenger to the State Department because of the color of his skin, Edward Savoy still managed to become a great public servant, and was well known and respected by politicians, dignitaries, and international emissaries alike.

Edward Savoy began his career at the young age of 14 as page for the State Department in 1869, serving Secretary of State Hamilton Fish. In a time that was especially difficult for African Americans, Edward Savoy had a remarkable career as a public servant. Edward Savoy's intelligence, tactfulness, and remarkable memory allowed him to become a trusted employee inside the State Department, privy to confidential information, such as coming wars, yet never violated the trust placed in him.

In 1914, Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan recommended Mr. Savoy for promotion and President Woodrow Wilson authorized this promotion in an executive order. President Herbert Hoover's Vice President, Charles Curtis, and two Secretaries of State, Frank Billings Kellogg and Henry Lewis Stimson, intervened to extend his federal service past mandatory retirement age. Secretary Stimson called the native Washingtonian ``indispensable.'' In 1931, a bill was introduced by Congressman Hamilton Fish III of New York asking Congress to extend the employment of Edward Augustine Savoy ``indefinitely despite his years.'' This would have been the third extension of his retirement. Secretary of State Henry L. Stimson retained Mr. Savoy as a personal assistant, paying his wages from his own paycheck. In 1933, at the age of 77, Edward Augustine Savoy retired under Secretary of State Cordell Hull, after 64 years of uninterrupted federal service in the State Department, unheard of even in today's time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to ask the House of Representatives to join me in congratulating Capital Partners for Education (CPE) on 20 successful years of providing low-income youth in the national capital area with the necessary support to get to and through college.

Founded in 1993, CPE is a dynamic college preparatory program that helps motivated, low-income youth to overcome the academic and social barriers that may otherwise prevent them from attending and succeeding in the college of their choice. Through its proven combination of one- on-one mentoring, partnerships with quality schools, academic financial assistance, and a customized array of academic, career, and life skills development, CPE works to break the cycle of poverty by leveling the educational playing field for low-income students.

Since its inception, CPE has helped 99% of its graduates enroll in college and 70% to graduate on time. To meet the needs of the community and the 21st century workforce, CPE is expanding to reach more students. Currently, the organization serves 200 students and is on track to double its student body by 2016.

Mr. Speaker, I ask the House of Representatives to join me in thanking the staff, volunteers, donors, partner schools and organizations, students, parents, and alumni as they celebrate the 20th anniversary of CPE and its many accomplishments.

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

I am pleased to rise in support of H.R. 2061, the DATA Act, and I am pleased to work with the chairman as we continue to reconcile this bill with the Senate bill.

The DATA Act will provide the public with information about how the government is spending its money. This will hold agencies accountable for their spending, and it will result in a more effective and efficient government.

The President emphasized the importance of access to data when he issued an executive order on May 9, 2013, that requires government information to be released in ways that make it easy to find and use. The DATA Act would require government spending data to meet those same requirements through data standards issued by the Office of Management and Budget.

The bill also requires that spending data be available through a single Web site.

H.R. 2061 authorizes, in addition, the Recovery Act Board through the year 2017, and requires the Recovery Board to conduct a pilot project involving direct reporting of spending information from recipients of Federal money.

There are a couple of issues that I hope will be resolved as the bill moves forward to the Senate. During the committee markup of this bill, Ranking Member Elijah Cummings requested that the bill be amended to address two specific concerns.

One of those concerns was the need to ensure that stakeholders have an opportunity to provide feedback before OMB decides whether to extend the pilot project on recipient reporting.

The other issue was the need to ensure that OMB has the option to extend all the requirements under the pilot project, or just some of the requirements, if the Director determines that is the best course.

Just as the chairman led H.R. 2061 through our committee on a bipartisan basis, I am hopeful that Chairman Issa will work on the same basis to address these outstanding issues.

This, however, is a good bill, Mr. Speaker; and I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I associate myself with the remarks of the chairman.

I rise in support of this important legislation, with special appreciation to Majority Leader Eric Cantor and particularly to Chairman Issa and Ranking Member Cummings for quickly marking up this bill so that it could come to the floor expeditiously, as the District is in the throes of hiring a new CFO. I will have more to say on their indispensable support presently.

The District of Columbia's independent chief financial officer is a unique office in the United States created by Congress. The city cannot obligate or expend funds without the CFO's approval, and the CFO can only be terminated for cause.

Today's bill, which contains a formula developed by Chairman Issa, is an important example of the chairman's continuing commitment to assist the city in improving and safeguarding its vital operations.

When the current CFO announced his retirement earlier this year, the Mayor formed a CFO search committee, led by Alice Rivlin, the former head of the D.C. Financial Control Board, the Office of Management and Budget, and the Congressional Budget Office, and former Mayor Anthony Williams.

The search committee determined that the allowable compensation that is in the bill is necessary for the recruitment and retention of a CFO, but the District government does not have the authority under the Home Rule Act to alter the CFO's compensation. This bill would amend the Home Rule Act to permit the D.C. government to pay its CFO an amount that may not exceed the pay of members of the Senior Executive Service in agencies with an Office of Personnel Management-certified appraisal system.

Currently, the Home Rule Act sets the CFO's pay at the basic pay for level I of the executive schedule. The bill's compensation standard, as with the term of an interim CFO under the D.C. Chief Financial Officer Vacancy Act, which we got enacted earlier this year, was established by Chairman Issa and is supported by the city. I am particularly grateful to the chairman and also to Majority Leader Cantor for their continued partnership on legislation to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the District of Columbia government.

As with today's bill, their assistance was indispensable last month as the Congress, with bipartisan help from the Senate, agreed for the first time to remove the threat of a D.C. government shutdown by permitting the city to spend its local funds, its own locally raised taxpayer funds, for the entire fiscal year 2014.

While Federal agencies' spending authority expires on January 15, the CR that Congress approved matches the city's responsibility to raise local funds with its right to, therefore, spend these funds, consistent with budget autonomy for the District, which Majority Leader Cantor, Chairman Issa, and Ranking Member Cummings have all supported.

Again, I want to offer not only my own but also the gratitude of the city. The District has chosen a CFO; but, unfortunately, that matter is still pending because it has to lay over here in the Congress. The city is faced with the issue of two sovereigns that must approve a piece of legislation. Whenever I have had anything approaching that kind of emergency, the chairman has gone out of his way to see to it that we proceeded and that the city was not inconvenienced or, dare I say, embarrassed. I very much appreciate the way in which he expedited this bill and got it on a markup--and there have not been a lot of markups-- but he made sure this got on the most recent markup. I particularly appreciate his innovation in devising a formula that would, in fact, be approved as I believe and hope it will today by this House.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, today I introduce the Low-Wage Federal Contractor Back Pay Act of 2013, to grant back pay to federally contracted retail, food, custodial and security service workers who were furloughed during last month's federal government shutdown. The bill, which would amend the current continuing resolution, would apply to all three branches of the federal government. The idea for the bill was brought to my attention by these federally contracted service workers, some of whom work here on the Capitol grounds providing Members of Congress and congressional staff with daily services.

Many federally contracted workers in federal agencies earn little more than the minimum wage with few, if any benefits, and while others are unionized with little better wages, all are the lowest paid workers in the federal government and should not be punished because Congress failed to do its job and keep the government functioning for 16 days. Congress did the right thing when it gave back pay to federal employees, who work in the same buildings as these low-wage service workers. However, both groups of workers were victims who deserve to be made whole. I recognize, of course, that contract workers are employees of contractors, but the distinction between federal workers and at least the lowest-paid service workers who serve the federal government and its employees and keep, for example, their premises clean, fails when it comes to a deliberate government shutdown. Unlike many other contractors, those who employ low-wage service workers have little latitude to help make up for lost wages. Low-wage federally contracted service workers could least afford the loss of pay during the shutdown, and should not now have to go to work every day with everyone else in their federal buildings having received back pay except for them.

The nation's capital is the high-profile home of the federal government's collusion with those that pay low wages through leases and contracts with federal agencies. At least this legislation would provide some parity to these low-wage federal contractor workers.

I strongly urge my colleagues to support the legislation.

Mr. Speaker, when the time comes, Members and staff will get their insurance at dchealthlink.com. They will have a good chance to pay less because they will have 267 choices.

In advance, one of my staff members, who has a name-brand policy from our Federal program, went on dchealthlink .com and found that she could get a comparable policy for at least $100 less with no deductible.

If Republicans want to deal in anecdotes, hers is far more typical than those from the crowd who have gone from 41 repeals to their new strategy of actively sabotaging the Affordable Care Act.

Mr. Speaker, at a time when 900,000 veterans and 5,000 active duty service members face Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program cuts, I introduce a bill to allow the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to provide financial support to law school clinical programs that provide pro bono legal and support services to veterans, including, among other things, assistance with disability claims and appeals and foreclosures. The enormous backlog of disability claims at the VA and homelessness among veterans remain critical problems for our veterans. Approximately 107,000 veterans are homeless on any given night in this country and over 600,000 veterans are waiting for their disability claims to be processed by the VA. Providing clinical programs with the resources to assist veterans can result in faster processing of claims and quicker housing assistance to our veterans, who have repeatedly put their lives on the line for this country.

This bill, introduced by my colleagues Senators Jeanne Shaheen, Amy Klobuchar and Chris Murphy in the Senate, would allow the

VA to work with and support clinical programs for veterans. This bill merely builds on what some law schools have begun to do for the last several years while providing vital legal services to our veterans and reducing the backlog that has plagued the VA for many years. However, more needs to be done to sustain these programs and to recruit and retain qualified attorneys to supervise law students.

Mr. Speaker, just as we honored our veterans on Veterans Day, I urge my colleagues to support this bill, which would further honor and assist our veterans in their daily lives.

Mr. Speaker. I rise today to ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing Maudine Cooper for a lifetime as a dedicated public servant both in government and on the outside, and particularly for 23 years of outstanding service as President and CEO of the Greater Washington Urban League.

After earning her undergraduate and law degrees at Howard University, Ms. Cooper has spent most of her professional life as a consummate administrator and creator of social programs. Her work as Assistant Director for Federal Programs for the National Urban League soon led her to be named Vice President for Washington Operations and Legislative Affairs. Her sterling professional reputation led then-D.C. Mayor Marion Barry to tap Ms. Cooper to become the Director of the Office of Human Rights in the District of Columbia and ultimately the Mayor's chief of staff

In 1990, Maudine Cooper became President and CEO of the Greater Washington Urban League and began to transform the organization. She leaves the Greater Washington Urban League having more than doubled its programs, including creating an organization for young professionals, the Thursday Network. She leaves the League here as a major provider of education, employment, job training, health, nutrition, and utility assistance services for more than 50,000 residents in the national capital region.

Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in honoring Maudine Cooper for a life of committed service to the residents of this region and in congratulating her on her retirement from the Greater Washington Urban League.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing Kojo Nnamdi for his outstanding contributions to journalism in the District of Columbia and the national capital region, and in congratulating him on the occasion of his 15th anniversary at WAMU 88.5, the leading public radio station serving D.C., Maryland and Virginia.

For more than four decades, Kojo Nnamdi has been a source for issues of importance and of interest that has made him a fixture on the airwaves in the Washington region, on radio and television. Born in Guyana, South America, Kojo has been one of us in the District since 1969, when he came here to develop an independent Black curriculum for the Center for Black Education. Kojo soon began putting on radio plays, and then doing radio news at WHUR radio, where he was news editor, news reporter, and became news director. In 1985, Kojo moved to public television at Howard University Television, where he became a master of hosting a great variety of guests on many subjects on Evening Exchange for more than 20 years. In 1998, Kojo joined WAMU 88.5 as a host of a show called Public Interest. The show soon took on his distinctive name, along with his distinctive voice.

Since joining WAMU 88.5, Kojo has brought the Kojo Nnamdi Show into communities across our region, documenting transformations and educating residents about the issues that span the interests and concerns of the region. His show casts a broad net, covering politics, culture, the arts, and education. His interviews and live debates among candidates, and always probing and informed questions, have helped hold elected leaders accountable. While covering national and international concerns alike, Kojo never forgets where he lives and the struggle of the residents of the District of Columbia for full voting rights, budget autonomy, and statehood.

Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in honoring Kojo Nnamdi and the entire team at the Kojo Nnamdi Show for their 15 years of outstanding service to the field of journalism and to the residents of the District of Columbia and the national capital region.

I thank my good friend from California, and I thank all of the bipartisan leaders of this bill, especially Mrs. Capps, who has made health care a signature issue for herself ever since coming to the Congress.

Mr. Speaker, we haven't found our way out of one of the great disparities in medical science: the difference between the 100,000 patients seeking organ transplants and the mere 30,000 who get such transplants annually. The HOPE Act provides a possible breakthrough, one that I don't think we can refuse. It is a breakthrough for many whose condition would make them hopeless in waiting for an organ transplant.

The regular reviews to evaluate medical research that are mandated by this bill could allow transplants from HIV-positive donors to HIV- positive recipients if the procedure--and this is important; the safeguards are tightly woven into this bill--if the procedure is shown to be both safe and effective. No wonder the Boxer-Coburn HOPE Act was passed by unanimous consent in the Senate.

The wholesale ban in 1988 did not even allow research on HIV-infected organs. I am not sure I understand that since in this country we usually do not take research out of the picture.

Today, medical science has come a long way, allowing many to live with HIV. We save many lives but then lose them to chronic conditions such as kidney and liver damage, often caused by the very HIV medications that have saved their lives. If they go on dialysis, there is virtually no hope for a transplant today.

The way out of this conundrum is the way we have understood since the Enlightenment: ``Look for the evidence.'' Who can know where the science will take us or whether it will take us anywhere? With estimates of as many as another 600 organ donors who could be helpful annually, who would not want to try to find if this could be accomplished?

Again, I thank the sponsors of this bill, which I think is rightfully named the HOPE Act.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to ask the House of Representatives to join me in recognizing the historic Woodlawn Cemetery and in celebrating Clean-up our History Day at Woodlawn Cemetery in the District of Columbia on Saturday, October 19, 2013, at 10 a.m.

Woodlawn Cemetery is the final resting place for many prominent African Americans, among them, Blanche K. Bruce, the first African American U.S. Senator; Mercer Langston, the first African American President of Virginia State University, the first dean of Howard University Law School and the first African American Member of Congress from the State of Virginia; and John Willis Menard, the first African American elected to Congress. There are 36,000 African Americans buried at Woodlawn, including ordinary citizens but also many of the most distinguished African Americans of the 19th and the early 20th centuries.

Located in Southeast Washington, DC, Woodlawn Cemetery, for good reasons, has been on both the District of Columbia's Inventory of Historic Sites and the National Register of Historic Places since the early 1990s. The daily operations of the cemetery are entrusted to the Woodlawn Cemetery Perpetual Care Association, but most who work with the association as volunteers have loved ones buried there. The main focus of the association is to preserve the cemetery and to raise funds to renovate and restore prominence to this sacred site.

This treasured site needs our help in the same way that a congressional resolution aided in getting assistance from citizens and from volunteers from the armed forces for the Congressional Cemetery two decades ago. The Woodlawn Cemetery Perpetual Care Association, along with DC National Guard volunteers, has developed a cleanup plan to restore this historic site. On Saturday, October 19, 2013, we will celebrate the first Clean-up our History Day at Woodlawn Cemetery, 3900 Benning Road, SE, at 10 a.m. Joining us for the clean-up will be Yvette Alexander, Ward 7 Councilmember; Major General Errol R. Schwartz, Commanding General of the District of Columbia National Guard; Lonnie Bunch, Founding Director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture; Dr. Vincent Hill, University of the District of Columbia Mortuary Science Program Director; and supporting organizations and residents from all over the city.

I ask the House to join me as we recognize the volunteers from the District of Columbia National Guard, Woodlawn Cemetery Perpetual Care Association, and families of loved ones interred at Woodlawn for their participation in the kickoff of the cleanup of historic Woodlawn Cemetery as we begin an effort to restore the cemetery to its rightful place on the historical map for the benefit of families, historians, scholars and visitors, and cast light on one of the most important periods in African American history.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing Maria Gomez, president and CEO of Mary's Center, for her outstanding contributions to health care, education and other social services in the District of Columbia and for being awarded the 2012 Presidential Citizens Medal.

A nurse by training, Maria Gomez holds a nursing degree from Georgetown University and a Master of Public Health degree from the University California at Berkley. Mary's Center's services often are comprehensive, but Maria Gomez has never strayed far from health care. Maria Gomez founded Mary's Center in 1988, initially to provide bilingual prenatal and maternity care to vulnerable immigrant women in the District of Columbia. The small, basement- level facility, which served 200 women yearly in 1988, quickly expanded and today there are six locations in the District of Columbia and Maryland, and two mobile units, which serve over 50,000

men, women, and children of every background yearly. Maria Gomez molded the mission of Mary's Center into a model wraparound non-profit to improve the futures of our Hispanic residents through the delivery of health care, education and social services.

Maria Gomez's has received numerous awards for work at Mary's Center. Among her awards are recognition in Washingtonian Magazine as one of the 45 individuals who shaped Washington, D.C. between 1965 and 2010, a Washington Post Award for Excellence in Nonprofit Management, and a Champions of Choice Award from Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington. She also has been singled out by the federal Health Resources and Services Administration for her excellent leadership in providing access to care for Latino women and children.

Mr. Speaker, in this first month of the D.C. Health Benefit Exchange, it is appropriate to note that Mary's Center is a neighborhood Health Exchange Assister, a natural role for a leadership organization and for a leader whose career exemplifies offering health care to D.C. residents. I ask my colleagues to join me honoring Maria Gomez for her work in health care and her excellence in providing other services to the people of the District of Columbia.

Mr. Speaker, today, as hundreds of thousands of our federal workers face furloughs and a third year of pay freezes, I introduce a bill to clarify certain due process rights of federal employees serving in sensitive positions. The bill would overturn a recent, unprecedented federal court decision, Kaplan v. Conyers and MSPB, that strips many federal employees of the right to independent review of an agency decision removing them from a job on grounds of ineligibility. The case was brought by two Department of Defense (DOD) employees, Rhonda Conyers, an accounting technician, and Devon Northover, commissary management specialist, who were permanently demoted and suspended from their jobs after they were found to no longer be eligible to serve in noncritical sensitive positions.

Specifically, the decision prevents federal workers who are designated as ``noncritical sensitive'' from appealing to the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) if they are removed from their jobs. Noncritical sensitive jobs include those that do not have access to classified information. The decision would affect at least 200,000 DOD employees who are designated as noncritical sensitive. Even more seriously, most federal employees could potentially lose the same right to an independent review of an agency's decision because of a pending rule by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) that would permit agency heads to designate most jobs in the federal government as noncritical sensitive.

The Kaplan decision undercuts Title 5, section 7701 of the Civil Service Act, which ensures due process rights for federal workers required by the United States Constitution. Stripping employees whose work does not involve classified matters of the right of review of an agency decision that removes them from their jobs opens entirely new avenues for unreviewable, arbitrary action or retaliation by an agency head and, in addition, makes a mockery of whistleblower protections enacted in the 112th Congress. My bill would stop the use of ``national security'' to repeal a vital component of civil service protection and of due process.

I urge my colleagues to support this bill.