Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I ask that the House of Representatives recognize the Affirmation of Dr. John Haywood Boyd, Sr. as an Apostle of the New Greater Bethel Ministries, located in Cambria Heights and Queens Village with the Sixth Congressional District of New York. Dr. Boyd is a well-known and much-admired figure in clerical and civic circles in southeast Queens. He began his ministry in 1972 in a small canvas tent at the intersection of Francis Lewis and Linden Boulevards in Cambria Heights.

From that site New Greater Bethel Ministries grew in number, influence, and impact, having established a food pantry and soup kitchen which fed hundreds of homeless individuals and families. Under Pastor Boyd's guidance, New Greater Bethel Ministries established a prison ministry to tend to the spiritual needs of incarcerated men and women. Pastor Boyd himself did outstanding work with the Inmate Community Improvement Program for which he received a certificate of recognition from the superintendent of the Queensboro Correctional Facility.

In 1993, the New Greater Bethel Ministries expanded with the addition of a location on Jamaica Avenue in Queens Village. Where rundown structures once stood, Dr. Boyd built a 1500 seat worship and community service facility, complete with a Christian Literature and Media Center, a digital recording studio, a television studio, and a drama center. Later, Dr. Boyd opened the K-12 Bethel Christian Learning Academy and the New Greater Bethel Bible Institute.

Despite episodes of illness and having now reached 85 years of age, Dr. Boyd still provides dynamic leadership to New Greater Bethel Ministries, ensuring that the church to which he had devoted his life continues to minister to the spiritual and material needs of several thousand members of its congregation as well as thousands of residents in the surrounding communities. Dr. Boyd studied at the Manhattan Bible Institute and earned his doctor of divinity from the United Christian College of New York. Over the course of his ministry he has received numerous award commendations from federal, state, and municipal elected officials, clergy, religious organizations, and community groups. He has been named ``Man of the Year'' by The New York Christian Times.

Dr. Boyd has been married to his wife, Mother Margie Boyd, for over 60 years. He has six children and numerous grandchildren and great grandchildren.

On December 10, 2011, over 1,000 congregants, community residents, and guests attended the ceremony at which Dr. John Haywood Boyd, Sr. was affirmed as an Apostle of the New Greater Bethel Ministries.

I thank the chairman for his work and I thank the ranking member.

Let me start off by thanking Mr. Levin also, because indeed I know he's been back and forth to Colombia, and he's made this a better trade bill with the action plan. And it was your hard work and dedication, Mr. Levin, and I thank you for doing that.

Yesterday, I had a chance to talk briefly on the floor in regard to the economics of it, and I'm hearing a lot of people talk about the past of Colombia, but not some of the things that are taking place on the ground right now. I have heard a lot of individuals talk about how it may be devastating in reference specifically to the African Colombian community.

But let me bring some facts to the issue, because I think oftentimes when I looked and talked to President Santos and the civil rights struggle right here in America, I see some similarities that we've got to think about because there's some positive things, a lot of positive things that happen on the floor.

For example, for the first time we have the Victims and Land Restitution Law in Colombia that was passed by the Government of Colombia. We have at the Presidential program on Afro-Colombians. We have the development projects. We have the mining and prior consultation law. We have addressing discrimination law that has been passed. We have the Afro-Colombian and Indigenous Program that has been passed by the Colombian legislature. We have the Afro-Colombian leadership and scholarship program. We have the Martin Luther King scholarship program. We have the Equal Employment Opportunity initiative. All of this is done by the Santos government. We have the Pathways to Prosperity Women Entrepreneurs Mentoring Network. We have 400 scholarships for Afro-Colombian police. We have the emergency humanitarian assistance programs. These are just some of the programs that are happening on the ground right now that are benefiting African Colombians.

When you talk about the leadership there, because I'm getting letters back and forth, this is a diverse leadership in Colombia. This is a diverse leadership here in America.

And just as the goal is to make sure that we enact certain things into laws so that we can make changes to make it better for people for tomorrow, that is what President Santos has been doing. That's what has happened, and that's what is happening.

Some say Santos is not going to carry it out. When Lyndon Baines Johnson became President, some said he wouldn't do anything.

But he did. He came with some of the most landmark legislation with reference to civil rights and voting rights in the history of this country, the same thing that I see happening right now on the ground with President Santos. Landmark, for the first time ever, legislation addressing the rights of African Colombians; and because of the work of Mr. Levin, also landmark rights addressing the rights of all in labor.

I think that it's a positive thing and we should pass this Colombia free trade agreement because we are moving in the right direction. We're not there yet, but we're moving in the right direction.

Mr. Speaker, I feel a sense of urgency about passage of the FTAs before us. Urgency because while we have been waiting on the passage of the agreements, South Korea has

moved forward on trade with Europe, and Colombia and Panama are moving forward on several bilaterals of their own with Canada, China, and others.

And trade is never just about economics. It's also about our relationships with other nations, our allies. It's about strengthening the rule of law, and it's about deepening ties. A recent report by the Council on Foreign Relations said it well, ``Trade has been and remains a major strategic instrument of American foreign policy. It binds together countries in a broad and deep economic network that constitutes a bulwark against conflict.'' But let me also talk specifically about the Colombia free trade agreement.

Many of my colleagues have talked today about the violent past in Colombia and of the remaining vestiges of that past. Having traveled extensively in Colombia over the last decade, I can tell you personally that Colombia is not what it used to be. It's far from it. Even if it is not where it wants to be just yet, there has been major progress in Colombia, and this has been with a tremendous amount of cooperation with and between our great nations. The agreement with Colombia certainly has its many economic benefits for America. We are leveling the playing field for American business.

Beyond that, what I want to emphasize right now is a role that the agreement plays in strengthening the rule of law, specifically as it relates to labor. The agreed-upon action plan between the Obama administration and the Santos administration brings about important changes that labor groups in Colombia have sought to solidify for years. In fact, several labor organizations in Colombia made public statements about the importance of the action plan. One of Colombia's major labor federations lauded the action plan, signifying that, if one of the results of the FTA is the advancement of labor and is an increase in the guarantees to exercise freedom of association, then the FTAs are welcome. Moreover, the federation and others have stated that this action plan will continue to fight against impunity.

I am pleased to say that just last month, the Obama administration announced that Colombia has fully complied with its commitments under the Labor Action Plan that was set for completion in mid-September. At the same time, the State Department also notified that Colombia is meeting statutory criteria relating to human rights that call for the obligation of U.S. assistance funds for the Colombian Armed Forces.

Let's pass this agreement.

Madam Speaker, I rise to recognize a student of the Month from the Sixth Congressional District of New York.

Hillary Berkowitz is the valedictorian of the 2011 class of Benjamin Cardozo High School. She will be attending Barnard College in the fall. She challenged herself with the most rigorous of college preparatory courses that Benjamin Cardozo High School have to offer, and has attained a grade point average of 103.13.

In May 2010, Hillary was the proud recipient of the Queens College Presidential Excellence Award granted to the ``best junior'' in each Queens high school, and she is currently a 2011 National Merit Semifinalist. She is a dedicated member of the school and actively participates in school events. She is the treasurer for her leaders club, volunteers in tutoring other students, and always helps her teachers in whatever way she can.

Her college counselor has deemed her ``Benjamin Cardozo High School's finest'' and is an exceptional young woman. She has a great love for academia and the arts, and hopes that she can attend law school in the future. Her hard work and dedication to success have earned her the respect of her peers, her teachers, and the community. I know that she has a bright future ahead of her.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize a student of the Month from the Sixth Congressional District of New York.

Every month I seek to recognize students for their outstanding achievements and exceptional stride.

I am here to recognize a student who warmed my heart. Britni is a senior at Excelsior Preparatory High School and is set to graduate this month. She is a very determined young lady who has served as the manager of the soccer team, was involved in the school's talent show, and participated in other school events despite her unique needs.

Britni participated in the Upward Bound Program at Queens College, which focuses on improving academic achievement.

Britni has excelled academically, passed Regents Examinations in various subjects, received commendations for passing all her classes, and has gone above and beyond to overcome social and academic challenges.

Her family and friends have encouraged and motivated her to focus on her strengths and abilities. I am confident that she will be accepted into a college that will continue to support her academically and socially to ensure her success. Britni's Principal was extremely proud to recognize her hard work in school and the positive accomplishments that she continues to achieve. She is a great inspiration and a true example that if you work hard to achieve your goals, you can succeed.

Mr. Speaker, today I say that we have an opportunity. The camera of history is rolling, is watching what we do today. We can authorize the President to continue the limited use of the United States services, working in conjunction with NATO today so that we can show that we are united with our allies.

Think about what history will say 50 years from now. We have an individual who was going to massacre his individuals. And by us stepping in, working in conjunction with our NATO allies, we are saving thousands of lives. What would have taken place historically if we had allowed the annihilation of the Libyan people? Let's stick together on this.

From its inception, this has been an international initiative to enforce U.N. Resolution 1973 and the response to the request of Libya's Transitional National Council, the Gulf Cooperation Council, and the Arab League. President Obama deployed U.S. assets early, said he will continue just with what we have, our special assets, and then have no troops on the ground. The camera of history is rolling. Let's work together. Let's pass this resolution.

I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. Chair, I rise in support of the amendment I have regarding the St. Albans VA Hospital in New York.

First of all, this is clearly a bipartisan bill. I have the support of my good friends Peter King and Michael Grimm of New York to stop the enhanced lease process for the St. Albans VA in my district. There is rarely a time that you have an issue where everybody has come together, and, clearly, here is an issue where members of the community and the veterans have spoken with one voice to say that what is being proposed there is against the best wishes of the veterans and the needs of the veterans and against the wishes of the community, basically changing the whole complexity of the community so that the people that live there would have a terrible injustice and disservice.

Now, I know that the EUL process works in certain areas because part of it is supposed to be where the EUL process works with the community and veterans and everybody agreeing and working together. That is not the case in this scenario.

In this scenario, we have veterans from all over--in fact, we have the Queens County Council of VFWs. We have the Vietnam Vets of America. We have the New York Vets Advocacy Group. We have the Department of New York District 1 VFW, United Council for Veterans Rights, Nassau County VFW, Vets Helping Vets, Inc., all of whom are supportive of this amendment saying that this is not in the best interests of veterans.

The VA has come up with the idea of putting together a facility that doesn't even include a full-service hospital and is not based upon the number of vets that we have coming back from Afghanistan and Iraq. Now, they have put everything on the line for them, and here we have the opportunity to make sure that we do the very best that we can for our veterans. And here the whole community surrounds us, and we want what the veterans want. We want to stand behind them in 100 percent lockstep. And it seems as though, to some at the VA, there is a deaf ear in regard to that.

So we will continue to fight. And what this bill says is that we will stop the EUL process in New York at the St. Albans facility because it is not what is needed. It is not what the vets want. It just seems to me that, instead of working with the community, the VA has chosen to go out and do a high-density residential area, residential building in this facility that is not even just for veterans, which will then have a devastating impact on the local community.

So we're saying no, that shouldn't happen. You can't destroy the very fabric of a great community, and you can't produce something that does not benefit the very vets that we're supposed to be here to help.

So, Mr. Chair, I urge support of this amendment regarding the St. Albans VA Hospital. I urge that we support our veterans who are absolutely united on this matter.

I yield back the balance of my time.

The Homeland Security appropriations bill, which will be on the floor in just a few minutes, is a bad bill for America and an especially bad bill for New York, but it cuts funding for New York substantially.

Almost 10 years after the attack on New York, we tracked down and killed Osama bin Laden, but the threat to the city of New York has not dissipated. New York is a prime target for terrorists because of what it symbolizes, a vibrant economic atmosphere where entrepreneurs can flourish, and a land of opportunity and freedom that serves as a gateway for the ``poor and the huddled masses.'' Unfortunately, this bill takes a hacksaw to the city's counterterrorism and security efforts.

According to Mayor Bloomberg, this bill would jeopardize the continuity and operations of counterterrorism programs in New York City that New York City has under way. Cutting more than $100 million in Homeland Security funding for New York is not only nonsensical, it is dangerous. As my friend Peter King has said, this bill puts New York ``at risk.''

These cuts place an unconscionable burden on New York, and I will therefore vote against the bill.

Offered By: Mr. Meeks

Amendment No. 1: At the end of the bill, before the short

title, insert the following:

Mr Speaker, I rise today to honor and recognize a respected leader in my community, Rev. Dr. Henry Thomas Simmons, who is celebrating twenty years of dedicated service to the St. Albans Congregational Church in my district.

Since March 1, 1991. Dr. Simmons has served as Senior Minister of the St. Albans Congregational Church in St. Albans, New York. Under his visionary leadership the congregation has grown from 400 to 1,200 active

members who share mutual labors sponsoring just over fifty ministries for congregants and the community. In addition to his role as an ordained minister, Dr. Simmons has played an important continuous role as a father, husband, and grandfather. Dr. Simmons continues to serve as an advocate for his community by committing to serving his members within the church as well as the wider St. Albans community, which encompasses a variety of Queens' diverse population.

Dr. Simmons began his public service as an ordained minister of the gospel as Associate Minister with the Peoples Congregational United Church of Christ in Washington, DC, from 1973-1977. In August 1977 he was called to serve as Senior Minister of the Mayflower Congregational Church in Detroit, Michigan. After six years of leading that congregations' renewal as a vital urban church, Dr. Simmons was elected in 1983 as Secretary for Racial, Ethnic, and Minority Church Development for the United Church Board for Homeland Ministries in New York City. For eight years he assumed primary staff leadership for the denomination's evangelism efforts in new and urban church renewal for African American, Latino, American Indian, and Pacific Islander-Asian American churches before moving to Queens, NY.

Dr. Simmons has served as Chair of the Board of Directors of the United Church of Christ Justice and Witness Ministries; Chair of the United Church of Christ Search Committee for General Minister and President; and President of the Southeast Queens Clergy for Community. Empowerment, Inc, now known as Clergy United for Community Empowerment. Among the awards and honors Dr. Simmons has received are citations for outstanding ministerial leadership from the Michigan State Legislature, the Detroit city Council, the New York City Council, and honorary Doctor of Divinity degrees for contributions to racial and social justice from the Ursinus College and Huston-Tillotson College.

Through his leadership, Dr. Simmons continues to represent wisdom and strength for the entire congregation of St. Albans Congregational Church. I am sure Dr. Simmons has faced many joys and challenges during his twenty year tenure at St. Albans Congregational Church, and I wish him continued success throughout the remainder of his time there. I applaud Dr. Simmons for all he has accomplished and for his unrelenting commitment to God, his family, public service, and the community of St. Albans.

I thank the gentlelady from California.

You know, I have been listening to the debate in my office, et cetera, and I agree with my colleague Mel Watt. Sometimes we get confused, I think. Maybe if we can just break this down to the common denominator.

I used to be a prosecutor, and I asked the following question: If a burglar breaks into your house and steals your life savings, do you then go to the police department and ask the police department to have the investigator or someone there so you can try to find out who did it or put in measures to prevent it from happening again, because you ask him to look to see how they broke into your house, what they did, how can you fix it? Or do you say, we don't need a police department. Forget having the police department, so that other people's homes can be broken into also. That is really what we are talking about here.

So in the aftermath of the largest crisis of our lifetime, a crisis that not only wiped out trillions of dollars worth of investments and savings but led to the exposure of what we talked about, the Ponzi schemes and crimes perpetuated against the American people, it is imperative that we don't handcuff the people who can look and put in preventive measures and make sure that we don't have this catastrophe again.

The amount of money that the SEC and the CFTC are requesting, $160 million, is less than we spend a day in petroleum marketplaces, in Baghdad or Kabul. We all agree, this argument comes in, everybody knows that government needs to tighten its belt. But indiscriminate cutting across the board is not only absurd, it is dangerous. Reducing funding for the SEC and the CFTC is irresponsible and will lead to additional Madoffs in the future. I think that we owe the American people much more than that.

What we are simply talking about here is making sure that those individuals whose responsibility it is to make sure that we don't get in this predicament again, that people don't lose their life savings, have the resources that are necessary to do it. That is what we are talking about.

So I would urge that we not cut, but give the amount of money that is requested by the SEC and the CFTC, because I think that is what the American people would expect of us as being Members of the People's House, taking care of them and making sure that their life savings are protected.

Madam Speaker, I rise in support of the Resolution Honoring Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and the victims of this weekend's horrific shooting.

I have had the opportunity to serve with Congresswoman Giffords on the Foreign Affairs Committee. In our time serving together, I have witnessed a courageous, hardworking, admirable public servant, dedicated to her constituents and to this Nation.

Most importantly, Gabby is highly regarded and a family person. Just a few months ago, Gabby's cousin, Elisa Giffords, told my wife how proud she and her family are of Congresswoman Giffords and that they all know how important she is to her constituents. Those who know Gabby best, her family, love and respect her.

Gabby Giffords has developed a reputation as an astute public servant. The community meeting she organized in Arizona, last weekend-- an event she had called `Congress in your Corner,' which exemplifies the essence of our democracy. Americans with varied views gathered peaceably to discuss how they could work together to improve their community. We all now know how this public gathering that aimed for positive community action ended tragically. A mother of two and wife of fifty years, Dorothy Morris; Judge John M. Roll, a devoted husband, father and grandfather; Church volunteers, Phyllis Schneck and Dorwan Stoddard; Gabriel Matthew Zimmerman, a 30 year old Congressional staffer, engaged to be married; and Christina Taylor Green, a third grader, there to meet a role model--Congresswoman Giffords--were all senselessly taken from us.

While shocking, this horrific event cannot be allowed to detract from our obligations to our constituents or the need to peaceably assemble, a right Gabby so eloquently conveyed to us earlier this month on the House floor.

With courage, confidence, and the same grace Congresswoman Giffords has displayed, we must work with and for each other in these hard times and in the months and years ahead. In this time of great sadness, I offer all the victims, their families, friends, and neighbors my deepest and most heartfelt prayers and well wishes. God bless you and God bless America.

I want to thank the gentlelady from the Virgin Islands. I also want to thank the gentlelady from Houston, Texas, Sheila Jackson Lee, for that excellent statement on the Constitution and the 14th and the Fifth Amendments.

I am so serious about this issue that on this night when I don't have much of a voice, it is important to talk about what is really going on here. When you think about the Constitution, the first thing that we were doing when we came back in the 112th was the reading of the Constitution. The Constitution was really put in place to help and protect Americans. It's one thing to read the Constitution. It's another thing to live the Constitution. I think the gentlelady put out the facts clearly down to the 14th and the Fifth Amendments, this is constitutional. I think it is also clearly what the Constitution, what the individuals who wrote in 1787, it was a committee of the Federal Convention, that it should remind us that the sacred text employs and empowers us to provide for and protect the American people.

What is the most precious thing that one has? Is it money? What is the most precious thing? It's called life. Without life, what do we have? And what is the most important thing in living a good life? It's health. So wouldn't it seem that what would be the most appropriate thing to do is that we provide health care for Americans? It is without question I think that we can agree, whether we're Democrat or Republican, we believe that we have the best country on the planet, in the history of the planet. But look at the blemish that history will record on our great Nation if we do not provide or give access to health care for all Americans. This is a struggle that we have had for debate after debate after debate, from President before President before President. And finally this Congress did come together in the 111th Congress and said, we're going to provide health care to 95 percent of all Americans. No, we're not perfect. The fact of the matter is I don't know any bill that has ever been passed in any legislative body that is perfect. We've got to work, and in fact we talk about our union, to make it a more better union. The health care reform bill clearly does that.

Now the logic to come and to repeal the whole bill confuses me. For even the Constitution of the United States of America was not a perfect document. Clearly for those of us who happen to be African Americans, when the Founding Fathers wrote it, they said we were only three-fifths of a human being. Clearly the Constitution didn't give women the right to vote. The document itself as it was initially written was flawed. But we as a Nation didn't say come and strike the entire Constitution; repeal the Constitution. That's not what was done. What we did was we said, Let's fix it. Let's look and see where we can agree upon to amend it. In fact, there was a small debate on the floor right here which Constitution would be read. Would it be the amended version? And that's what we talked about, the amended version of the Constitution. That's what was read here.

So where is the logic now where we clearly have the law of the land to come and say, get rid of it all? You've clearly heard from the gentleman from Georgia and the others that have spoken this evening about making sure that there is no individual who's denied health care because of a preexisting condition. This bill assures us of that. If you have a child under 26 years of age, not working, they can stay on their parents' health care. Seniors and the doughnut hole, we fixed that.

So if you've got a serious problem that you want to negotiate and talk about that's within this bill that's a problem, that's a flaw, that needs to be amended, then I think that as a body we can sit down and work together to get that done.

And so I say when I look at where we are, or ask my staff, for example, in my little district in New York, the Sixth Congressional District.

Let me just end by saying this.

Let's make sure that health care is not a privilege for a few but a right for the many. Let us make sure that we do not destroy this great health care reform bill that's now law.

Who are we? We call ourselves American citizens. We're proud to be Americans. Why are we proud to be Americans? Well, we were raised in American schools, we loved our country, we studied our history, we wanted to prosper, we wanted to be able to do the things that cause us to be free.

We care about children. What we're talking about here is a group of children who all they know is what we know. In fact, many of them had no idea that they were not American citizens. They grew up loving this country; they grew up aspiring for the same things that we have; then all of a sudden they find out that they can't continue with their education, they can't go into the military.

If we are truly Americans, if we truly care about kids, if we truly stand for our core values, we will tell those children because those children are as much American as each and every one of us. Let's support the DREAM Act.

This is the United States House of Representatives, the United States of America. This is an institution that I am proud to be a Member of, and there comes a point in time in our lives when we just simply must do the right thing, keeping our priorities straight.

This is a political body, but this is not a political issue. It should not be. It was not political when every man and woman went out to save and to sacrifice their own lives, in essence, on 9/11. They went out there not because they were Democrats or Republicans, they're black or white, they're from here or there. They went out there because this is the United States of America. This is the people's House. There comes a time for us not to be political but to take care of our own, and that's what this is all about.

Our own are sick. Our own are dying. And we, in the people's House, need to come to their aid and come to their aid now.