Floor Statements

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, you like I am a freshman in this body and today we will begin the debate on one of the most important topics that this Congress has debated and that is America's involvement in the Middle East and Iraq and eventually in Afghanistan in dealing with the whole terrorist situation.

I have been in this House, Mr. Speaker, and listened to the Republicans and listened to the Democrats and the Democrats, of which I am a member, have talked about protecting the troops and opposing the President's surge, which is really an escalation, and the Republicans have come in here today and said that we need to in essence stay the course, we need to put in more troops and we're doing wrong by opposing the President's escalation or surge.

Mr. Speaker, from what I have heard from the American people, the American people realize this war has been a failure, that American men and women are dying, and dying for what purpose? For the purpose theoretically of trying to bring democracy to Iraq where the people in Iraq don't even want us to be there, where the Iraqi government is almost nonexistent, where calling what is going on in Iraq a civil war is almost a misnomer, for a civil war connotes a nation and there really is not a nation in Iraq. The ministries are not working. The government is not working. Many of the people in Iraq of the highest caliber have left Iraq and gotten out of what is a zone where there have been tens of thousands of Iraqis die. What the people across the aisle talk about in bringing democracy to these people, in bringing democracy to these people we have killed tens of thousands of Iraqis, we have destroyed their nation, and we have put casualties among tens of thousands of Iraqis. What a price to pay to bring democracy to a country, to destroy the country.

Mr. Skelton, who will bring forth the Democratic response, has said that this, quote-unquote, surge is 100,000 troops too few and 3 years too late. I don't have anybody in this House I respect more on this position than the head of the Armed Forces Committee, Mr. Skelton from Missouri.

The fact is this war was started under false pretenses and much of that information has come out lately. Many of the people who voted to give the President the power to go into Iraq did so under facts, or appearance of facts that were given the American people and this Congress that were false. I remember being at home and watching on television when the President addressed this Congress and talked about Osama bin Laden and talked about what he said were connections between Iraq and 9/11 and it made everybody feel like if you were a red-blooded American, you wanted to do something about Iraq because they had destroyed the Twin Towers, they had killed 2,000 people, Americans and others, and put a devastation in this world that we hadn't seen except in movies.

Well, that information given us was false. There wasn't a connection between Iraq and 9/11. We went to war for reasons that are still not quite clear and known, and this United States of America went to war against a country that was not at war with us and we were an aggressor nation. This is something we shouldn't have done. It is not about cut and run, as the people on the Republican side say, but it is, as President Clinton says often, it is about stop and think. And when you stop and think, do you support the troops by continuing to send them in harm's way?

Mr. Speaker, I am a prizefight fan and one of my favorite fighters was Floyd Patterson. At one time Floyd Patterson fought Muhammad Ali and Muhammad Ali was just whooping him and whooping him and whooping him. And his trainers kept putting him back in the ring and Floyd kept going in there and trying to fight. But Floyd Patterson didn't belong in the ring with Muhammad Ali. He could beat a lot of fighters, but he couldn't beat Muhammad Ali. He was in the wrong fight at the wrong time and he just got beat and beat and beat. And what a good trainer would do is throw in the towel, and say, We quit. It's a technical knockout. We'll fight another day. We'll figure out a new way to fight Muhammad Ali maybe or maybe that's just somebody we can't fight. It just wasn't our fight.

To support our troops isn't to continue to send more troops into Iraq and have more American men and women die and more American men and women come back as casualties and be in veterans hospitals but is to get them out of a war they can't win and out of a situation where all they are is fodder for a civil war, where Iraqis are killing Iraqis and Iraqis are killing Americans and whether the Americans are there or not, the Iraqis are going to have their civil war and there is going to be bloodshed. The only issue left, Mr. Speaker, is how much American blood will be spilled on this foreign soil on a foreign policy folly that is somewhat

akin to Napoleon's entries into Russia, to Hitler's entries into Russia and in the Danish countries' efforts to go into Russia. There are certain places you can't go and you can't win, and after 4\1/2\ years this country should know it. To put more troops there, to waste more blood, and to give up more lives is simply wrong. To support our troops is to bring them home.

Mr. Speaker, I thank you for this time. I hope that not more American men and women will lose their blood or lose their limbs in what is an impossible war. We need to bring America home, bring our resources home, and bring our troops home.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to introduce a resolution honoring Stax Records.

Soul music is a uniquely American art form that has enriched the Nation's cultural life. Indeed, its profound influences over popular music continues to be heard on today's music.

Stax Records, founded in Memphis 50 years ago, played a crucial role in soul music's rise to prominence. As such, it is an icon of the American recording industry. In fact, its iconic status was recognized by NARAS last night during the Grammys, when Stax legends Booker T. and the M.G.'s and their Green Onions, and Stax co-founder Estelle Axton were honored.

Isaac Hayes, Otis Redding, the Staple Singers, Wilson Pickett, Luther Ingram, Albert King, the Bar-Kays, Johnnie Taylor, and Rufus and Carla Thomas are just a few of the many singers and musicians who started at Stax.

This year, the Memphis Convention and Visitors Bureau, Concord Music Group, Stax Records, and the Soulful Foundation will be celebrating both Memphis soul music, American soul music, and the 50th anniversary of Stax's founding. Therefore, I am introducing this resolution today to recognize Stax's and soul music's enormous contribution to America's cultural fabric, and ask my colleagues, including Congressman Miller, to recognize Memphis and soul music.

Madam Speaker, Odell Horton was appointed to the United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee by President Jimmy Carter on May 12, 1980, the first black federal judge appointed since Reconstruction. Judge Horton served as chief judge of the district from January 1, 1987 until December 31, 1993.

Born in Boliver, Tennessee on May 13, 1929, Odell Horton was the oldest of four boys and a girl. Horton's father was a laborer and his mother took in laundry. Horton's first job at the age of six was delivering laundry for his mother. He and all his siblings picked cotton, stacked lumber and took other odd jobs to help support the family.

After graduating high school in 1946, Odell Horton enlisted in the Marine Corps. He took an early discharge ten months later and entered Morehouse College in Atlanta, using the GI bill to finance the tuition. By the time Horton graduated in 1951, the Korean War was underway and he returned for a second tour of duty.

Upon completion of his second tour of duty, which included graduating from the U. S. Navy School of Journalism, Horton entered Howard University in Washington, D.C., where he received his law degree in 1956. Horton moved to Memphis, rented a one-room office upstairs at 145 Beale Street, and opened his law practice.

Horton was in private practice from 1957 to 1962 and then was an Assistant United States

Attorney in Memphis for the next five years. Governor Bufford Ellington appointed Horton to the Shelby County Criminal Court, a position to which he was later elected without opposition.

In 1968, at the peak of the civil rights movement, with the black sanitation workers in Memphis on strike, Mayor Henry Loeb appointed Horton as director of the city's hospitals, making him the only black division director in City Hall at the time. Horton dealt with a bitter strike by hospital workers, who were represented by the same union leadership as the sanitation workers. During the strike, Horton confronted officials at the University of Tennessee's medical school over the way their doctors treated patients at the hospitals. Judge Horton ordered the desegregation of William F. Bowld hospital and began moving some indigent patients to Bowld and Crump hospitals, which had been reserved for paying patients from the UT doctors' private practices. In 1969, he received the L.M. Graves Memorial Health Award as the person who did the most to advance the cause of health care in Memphis.

Judge Horton stepped down from the bench to serve as the President of LeMoyne-Owen College, a historically African-American liberal arts college, from 1970 to 1974.

Judge Horton returned to federal service upon his appointment as reporter for the Speedy Trial Act Implementation Committee by the Western District Court of Tennessee and later served as U. S. Bankruptcy Judge from 1976 to 1980.

After having served as both jurist and chief justice for the United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee, Judge Horton took senior judge status on May 16, 1995, and two years later, closed his Memphis office.

Judge Odell Horton is remembered as a calm and patient judge, who carefully and deliberately explained legal concepts to jurors.

Judge Horton and his wife, Evie L. (nee Randolph), were married for over fifty years and have two sons, Odell, Jr. and Christopher, who graduated from his alma mater, Morehouse College in Atlanta.

Odell Horton's wife, Evie, spoke for so many in both his professional and personal life when she stated after his death, ``He was a rare and precious jewel in the crown of humanity and made all our lives richer and better because he passed this way.''

I had the distinct honor of presiding during the last 2\1/ 2\ hours, and I heard some verbiage that was thrown out to the freshmen about how we were not having participation in this process. And the gentleman who asked that question said nobody had answered his response. There is a rule that the Speaker cannot respond, and as a freshman it was difficult, but I restrained myself and now have an opportunity to respond.

The freshmen are happy with the procedures that are going on, and the processes, and are glad to be part of this Democratic majority.

We are funding more money in the budget for Pell Grants, which is an issue that I have great concern with. I know that Mr. Altmire also does, and so does Dr. Kagen. And we are also funding money for the COPS program and for Head Start. There are wonderful things for veterans and health care in the budget. The freshmen had input and feel comfortable with it.

I am afraid that a false impression was given to the people of America during the last hour.

If I may ask, you were here in the previous Congress. Didn't the Republican-controlled Congress have a chance to pass that budget and have all the input that they wanted, and they failed to do it? Why is the continuing resolution here?

The gentleman from Iowa talked about a cowgirl museum in Iowa. Is that in this budget?

The gentleman started with some story about Greece. I thought about it and I thought about the Trojan horse and this health care plan. The State of the Union address mentioned health care, but when you get into it, it is really a tax increase, as Representative Altmire mentioned. And it is going to affect charity hospitals, and that is the bottom line, the safety net, and it is probably going to destroy those hospitals. Is this plan not a Trojan horse?

I appreciate the opportunity to speak.

We have one of our experts here, a physician and highly respected Member from Wisconsin, Representative Kagen, and I would just say that I have learned from a lot of the briefings that the freshmen have had that the disparity of wealth in this country is the greatest it has been since the 1920s, and that is because of a lot of the actions of the previous Congress and this administration. And now they are going to make the disparity in health as great as the disparity in wealth, and we have already seen what they did with stealth.

So, Jesse Jackson, we are here.

Madam Speaker, in the President's State of the Union address last week, he made proposals for what is essentially a tax increase on more than 30 million Americans. That's right, if Congress were to pass the President's health care plan, more than 30 million Americans, many of whom are middle-class workers who have fought hard to negotiate comprehensive health care plans with their employers, would be taxed by the Federal Government. Good health insurance, for those lucky enough to have it, would be jeopardized as many Americans would be pushed into the individual insurance market where insurers can refuse coverage to workers based on their health.

That brings me to the least of these, those without insurance, a number which will grow under the President's plan. The Regional Medical Center at Memphis, the Med, a hospital that provides a disproportionate amount of service to the poor, could lose as much as $30 million a year. Tennessee could see Federal revenue to support hospitals, nursing homes and other health providers by as much as $300 million, and that would be an increase of taxes at the local level.

The Med plays a critical role in delivering health care to the poor. Losing the specialty services of the Med would leave serious gaps in our health care system that serves the entire region around Memphis, including Mississippi and Arkansas.

Mr. Speaker, this weekend tens or hundreds of thousands of Americans came to Washington to protest the war. It was reminiscent of Vietnam, as so much of this war is reminiscent of Vietnam.

What these people did was an act of patriotism and courage, exercising their first amendment rights and expressing their opinion that the policy of this administration and this country is wrong. As they protested, and throughout the weekend, American soldiers lost their lives. It is unfortunate that it seems that the calls of the people are not being heeded.

It is particularly distressing, Mr. Speaker, to hear one of the Cabinet members suggest that people who disagree with the administration are lending aid and solace to the enemy. That is wrong. The first amendment is about free speech. The demonstrations, the protests that happened this week were correct. Samuel Johnson said: ``The last refuge to which a scoundrel clings is patriotism.'' I think we saw people try to find patriotism to be the refuge rather than response to protests and analytical discussions of the policies in Iraq.

Thank you. I appreciate the gentleman from Colorado posing the question and the gentleman from New Hampshire yielding time.

Mr. Speaker, indeed the people of the Ninth District in Tennessee have felt the differences in this Congress. It has been a great honor to be here as a representative of the Ninth District of Tennessee. Bob Dylan said, ``Senators, Congressmen, please heed the call.'' I think this class has heeded the call. The call is, people felt that Congress was not a place that the American people intended it to be and our Founding Fathers intended it to be. It had fallen to one of the lowest levels of appreciation or lack of appreciation of any body or group in this country. It had a 34 percent, 33 percent approval rate. That is going to go up. The reason is, I think, because this Congress is going to look to the future and the Democratic Party looks to the future.

Most of y'all probably have heard the same stories I have heard. Politics is kind of like cars. If you want to go forward, you put your car in D like Democrat, in drive. And if you want to go in reverse, you put it in R like Republican, you go in reverse. We are in D and the Democrats are going forward and it is about the future. Most of this legislation has been about the future. It has been about the future of people never having to work for $5.15 an hour.

People have come up in this well, Mr. Speaker, and they have talked about watch out for your pocketbook or watch out for your wallet. Folks making $5.15 an hour can't hardly afford a wallet. So when they are talking about look out for your wallet, they are not thinking about the people that are performing the jobs that are necessary to keep this country moving forward that most of us don't want to participate in. Those people will be getting $7.25 in a couple of years and they will have something to put in their pocketbook.

Regarding stem cell research, the gentleman from Colorado mentioned his child. My father had Alzheimer's. Lots of people have family members or friends who have had illnesses that might be cured. That is the future. There will be cures or there will be treatments for diseases because of the legislation that was taken and passed during this 100 hours by this House, and we hope the Senate will concur.

If you look at stem cell research, that is the future. The minimum wage, that is the future. Certainly on oil and fuels and new ideas on energy and getting us independent of Middle Eastern oil, that is defense. That is the future. So if you want to go forward, you put your car in D, you support Democrats and go forward. I am happy to be a part of this Democratic class. It has been an exciting experience. It has been a great 100 hours. We have got a great Speaker, historic, the first woman Speaker. Next week when the President delivers his State of the Union address, there will be a woman behind him. Behind every successful man, there is a woman, and even behind this President there is going to be a woman, and there is going to be a great woman, Speaker Pelosi.

Mr. Speaker, as a State senator in Tennessee, I worked for

more than 20 years to pass a State lottery with proceeds benefiting education programs. The primary recipients of the proceeds are college students. In addition to keeping Tennessee's best and brightest in Tennessee, the purpose of the Lottery HOPE scholarship program is to provide students with a means to focus on their studies rather than having to take a second job to pay their tuition, and also to permit them to enter the workforce without the burden of student loans.

Tuition has risen sharply at both public and private universities, particularly at public institutions; interest rates on student loans have risen as well. This has been an onerous burden on students and their families, and for many Americans it has left them out in the cold in terms of pursuing a college education.

For the U.S. to be able to compete for jobs in the world, we must have an educated workforce. We are facing a shortage of up to 12 million college-educated workers by 2020. We need to remove roadblocks to education. There is nothing more important than the education of our citizenry, because it impacts every facet of our society.

I ask my fellow Members of Congress to join the Democratic majority, join with me in supporting H.R. 5 as part of the 100 hours. Pass this student loan reduction bill.

Mr. Speaker, it is with great honor that I stand as a co- sponsor of this bill that is sponsored by Chairman Dingell, Chairman Rangel and others.

One of the major issues I heard during my campaign from seniors was how much it cost them to buy drugs and how it is essential for their life and well being.

This weekend we will be celebrating, on Monday, the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, observing his birthday. Dr. King knew there was economic and social justice, both. Dr. King said equality means dignity, and dignity means that you can afford some health care, and you don't have to spend every penny on the utility bill and on drug prices and you run out of money.

WWMLK, what would Martin Luther King do today? He would vote for this bill. I ask everybody else to do it in honor of Dr. King.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlelady from Colorado for her efforts on this issue which are so important to America.

Mr. Speaker, when I think of stem cell research, I think of Ronald Reagan slumbering through the twilight of his life with Alzheimer's, and I think of Christopher Reeve, Superman, laid low by paralysis and the host of physical ailments that accompany paralysis. Those are images we all share in our national consciousness.

When I think of my father's struggles with Alzheimer's, I think how science might one day through stem cell research find a way to prevent others from suffering as he did and as my mother did as his caretaker.

Many people like to frame the stem cell debate as pro-life and pro- choice. For Ronald Reagan and Christopher Reeve, the question was a matter that they had no choice in. And for each public face of a political leader or a movie star, there are thousands of ordinary citizens like my father who suffer daily from diseases for which there are no cures.

My hometown, Memphis, Tennessee, is the proud home of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. St. Jude is the patron saint of forgotten and impossible causes. Saint Jude's Hospital has given hope where no hope existed. It has made possible the impossible. This is because St. Jude is a research hospital focused on medical advancement.

Let us each remember that science is our friend, not our foe, and we must embrace science. The issue of stem cell research should not be a political football tossed about with callous disregard for the very real suffering of people with Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, spinal cord injuries, cancer, stroke, burns, heart disease, diabetes, osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. We must not tie the hands of scientists and physicians with the bureaucracy and red tape. We must commit ourselves to the health of our citizenry. Like St. Jude, we must remember the forgotten, and we must have the vision to see possibilities in what appears impossible.

I ask all of my Members to join in voting for this bill.

Mr. Speaker, on November 7, the voice of the American people rang out clearly across this land: Our country is out of balance. The few have prospered while many have languished.

America has become a land of the haves and the have-nots. The disparity of wealth among the richest and poorest in this country is the greatest it has been in nearly 100 years. We have laws which provide every sort of tax break for those who are thriving, while the people who are struggling daily to put food on the table and pay their utility bills have not seen a raise in the minimum wage in nearly 10 years.

Seven dollars and twenty-five cents. Seven dollars and twenty-five cents. Many haves in this country spend that much each day on their Starbucks with a dollop or a twist. Those of us who don't struggle to make ends meet, this is truly the time to walk in our brother's and our sister's shoes, shoes that need soling, not polishing.

This is not just an economic issue, it is a moral issue. Prosperity is not the property of the few, it should also be available to the least of us.

As I left the Memphis airport, a hardworking man for Northwest Airlines said to me, Congressman, will you pass the minimum wage? To him and many others, the thousands in District Nine, I say, yes, we will do that.

This is an opportunity for us to help people who need help. And I say to my fellow so-called ``do-gooders'' of the world, let us make America more fair, more humane and more just.

Mr. Speaker, ladies and gentlemen that were watching or here in the gallery, I am a freshman Congressperson. I am from Tennessee. And last March I came up and I stood in that gallery and I looked down at this body and I wondered if I wanted to be a part of it. The decision was made partially by me by filing for office and waging a campaign. But the decision was eventually made by my voters in the 9th District in Tennessee who elected me. They elected 49 new Congresspeople, 41 of which are Democrats; and we have just completed our first week in office.

I felt like it was appropriate at the finish of this week, Mr. Speaker, to give some type of report to the people of what we have experienced as freshman Congresspeople. I don't come here like Alexander Haig might have and assume control. We have that freshman president, and I am not that freshman president, nor did I seek to be one. It is Paul Hodes from New Hampshire who is a very fine freshman legislator.

But a lot has happened in this week. We all came up here with a lot of interest in seeing America be better. And America is better. In just the one week we have been here, we have been privileged to be a part of this body. We have seen the first lady ever elected Speaker of a legislative body of this nature in the United States elected, Nancy Pelosi. It was a historic moment.

And earlier today one of our freshmen, Congressman Bilbray, talked about the fact that some years ago on this date the resolution was introduced to give women the right to vote. That resolution passed in my home State of Tennessee in 1920, when Tennessee was the perfect 36, and gave women the right to vote.

It has been a long time, and a change was coming, and a change has happened. And it is great to have a woman, an opportunity seen with the election of Nancy Pelosi.

This week, we have seen changes in the way lobbyists and legislators relate, and that is one of the reasons why I think Congress has one of the worst reputations of any collective group of professionals or government officials in this country and why some of us were elected, to see a change in that culture. And ties were cut between lobbyists and legislators which never should have existed. I was proud to vote for that and see that as part of the 100 hours of change that the Democratic leadership is bringing about.

The PAYGO policy brings some fiscal sanity to what has otherwise been a kind of runaway process where this country is in great economic distress. We have had three different bipartisan groups that we have had orientation sessions with. In each one of those classes we have been told that our economic situation is dire. The same about our foreign policy and the same about our environment and our health care system.

There are difficult times in America. It seems good, but it really isn't. The underpinnings are not there.

This week PAYGO is important. Cutting the ties between legislators and lobbyists was important. And it was also extremely important what we did today. We passed the minimum wage.

And I can't go without quoting President Franklin Roosevelt, one of my heroes, who said, ``The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have too much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.'' Today we provided for those that have too little and we did right.

And I want to quote Hubert Humphrey, a great American whose bust I looked at outside of the Senate, looked at with reverence. ``The moral test of government is how it treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the aged; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped.''

I think in the tradition of some great Americans we have acted today on the minimum wage. We will act on stem cell research and other issues. And we've acted on the 9/11 Commission reports. Most of this was done in a bipartisan manner. Not all of it.

And it has given me the opportunity, which I want to take today, to quote a line which I have read for years and thought about when I thought about these halls, not thinking of myself being a Member of this body, which is a great honor coming to me at a late time in life, after spending 24 years in the Tennessee State Senate.

``Come Senators, Congressmen, please heed the call. Don't stand in the doorway, don't block up the hall.''

For he who gets hurt will be he who has stalled. There's a battle outside and it's raging. It'll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls. For the times they are a changin'. Bob Dylan, Robert Zimmerman, was right. The times they are a changin'.

There is a Democratic majority. I am proud to be of it, as are 41 other freshmen. I can testify today that America is in better shape than it was a week ago.

Mr. Speaker, yesterday, January 8, was the 72nd anniversary of the birth of the King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley. Elvis was a Memphian, a U.S. Army veteran, and an ambassador of goodwill throughout the world through his music and movies.

I am here to tell you that Elvis is still alive today in spirit and is as relevant as ever. To quote The King as we proceed through the 100 hours, ``It's Now Or Never'' that we make the changes that America needs. When this Democratic majority finishes with the status quo, it will be ``All Shook Up'' because we will do the people's will so we will not be ``Return(ed) to Sender.'' And we won't be cruel to those being paid the minimum wage.

Mr. Speaker, by the way, I have noticed in my office, I think we need a surge protector. Can you get one up there? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, as Democrats take control of Congress this week, the American people are going to see some stark differences in how we run this institution compared to the way it has been run for the last 6 years.

First, the House is actually going to be in session 5 days a week most weeks. Last year, the Republican Congress was known as the do- nothing Congress because it met fewer days than any Congress in 6 decades.

Not only is this House going to be in session more often, it is actually going to do its job while we are here. For years, Republican Congresses refused to conduct proper oversight of the Bush administration, instead choosing to rubber-stamp its policies.

Democrats take oversight responsibility seriously, and are prepared to hold this administration accountable for its successes and its failures. In hearings, we're going to ask administration officials some tough questions so that we can make government work again for all Americans.

Mr. Speaker, at a time when our Nation is at war and with so many domestic and international issues that must be addressed, the American people rightly want us here doing our job. The new Democratic Congress will not disappoint.

On a personal note, as one of the new freshmen elected here, America, you have a great freshman class, a great deal of talent, and I think you can feel proud of your new Speaker, Madam Pelosi.