Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the Nationally Enhancing the Wellbeing of Babies through Outreach and Research Now (NEWBORN) Act, a bill I introduced earlier today.

In Shelby County, Tennessee, there were 123 children who did not make it to their first birthday in 2016. In the United States, our infant mortality rate is comparable to countries like Bosnia, Chile, and Cuba, and a recent study found that a child is 76 percent more likely to die before their first birthday in America than in 19 other wealthy nations, including Australia, Canada, France, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

More concerning is the racial and ethnic infant mortality disparities that continue to exist. In 2015, the rates for infant mortality were over double for black infants compared to white ones.

This is unacceptable. That's why I am introducing the NEWBORN Act.

If enacted, the NEWBORN Act would create infant mortality-focused pilot programs in the highest-risk areas of the country.

The pilot programs would focus on addressing one or more of the top five reasons for infant mortality: birth defects, preterm birth and low birth weight, sudden infant death syndrome, maternal pregnancy complications, and injuries to the infant.

The NEWBORN Act would specifically encourage the development of community-specific practices to promote pre-natal care and community outreach and education.

The current infant mortality rates are tragic, but good practices can improve health and save lives.

I urge my colleagues to help pass this bill.

Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

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

I rise today to offer an amendment to increase funding for the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy account by $2 million, specifically for use in the SuperTruck II program.

The SuperTruck program was started by the Department of Energy under President Obama and former Secretary of Energy Steven Chu to improve freight and heavy-duty vehicle efficiency.

The Appropriations Committee acknowledged in the committee report the success of the SuperTruck II program, noting these funds will help SuperTruck II to continue to dramatically improve the freight efficiency of heavy-duty class 8 long-haul and regional-haul vehicles through system level improvements like the hybridization of vehicles, saving more fuel while idling--that is something I saw in a field demonstration and it is pretty amazing how they turn off at intersections with lights, et cetera--engineering high-efficiency HVAC technologies, and more.

This amendment to increase funding for the SuperTruck II program will allow the Department of Energy to better achieve its freight efficiency goals, and the amendment is fully offset by decreasing the departmental administration account.

I would like to thank Chairman Simpson and Ranking Member Kaptur for their hard work on this bill and for including this amendment. The Rules Committee might have done that, but I don't think they would have if there were objections from the chair and ranking member.

Mr. Chairman, I urge my colleagues to vote yes on the amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

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

This amendment, which is an environmental amendment, would prohibit the House from spending funds to purchase plastic drinking straws in our eating areas in the House.

Plastic drinking straws are a considerable environmental risk to mammals and fish. They are dropped and discarded on the streets but particularly in the oceans. And they have had whales show up with 17 pounds of plastic in their stomachs and tortoises with straws in their nostrils and all kinds of awful things. It is a threat to sea turtles and all kinds of marine wildlife.

This would be an opportunity for us to show the public that we are aware there are cities, restaurant associations, and other groups that are banning straws or at least asking that they be made optional for customers so that they are used or not used, but let the customer make that decision. I think this would be a great thing for the House to do to show that we understand this environmental problem.

I yield to the gentleman from New Jersey.

Reclaiming my time, I appreciate the chairman and all the work he has done for many, many years in the House, and I appreciate the opportunity to serve with him.

And I appreciate the ranking member for his help on this amendment.

Mr. Chairman, I ask for an ``aye'' vote, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the 100th anniversary of the Republic Day of Azerbaijan, and to extend my best wishes to all Azerbaijanis. May 28th marks the founding of the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan, when the people of Azerbaijan first gained their independence from the Russian Empire in 1918. Although Azerbaijan's independence was ended by Soviet forces in 1920, it is noteworthy that the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan was the world's first secular parliamentary democratic republic in a predominantly Muslim nation--earning diplomatic recognition from the United States during the administration of President Woodrow Wilson. We also recall that the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan granted universal suffrage to its citizens in 1918, making it the first Muslim country to give women the right to vote.

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Azerbaijan restored its independence on October 18, 1991, when its Parliament adopted the Constitution Act on the Restoration of the State of Independence of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan has emerged as a key player for enhancing global energy security. The completion of the Southern Gas Corridor--which will run from the Caspian Sea through Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, Greece, and Albania into Italy--will increase the energy security of key American allies by increasing the amount of natural gas from the Caspian Sea to European markets.

Azerbaijan also provides roughly 40 percent of Israel's oil consumption and enjoys friendly ties with Israel beyond oil sales. Jews have resided in Azerbaijan for 2,500 years without persecution and today, the Jewish community in Azerbaijan numbers over 12,000. Azerbaijan is also home to Christian communities and has been praised for its religious tolerance by the European Parliament.

Azerbaijan is a key global security partner for the United States. As an active member of NATO's Partnership for Peace program, Azerbaijan cooperates with the United States in countering terrorism, nuclear proliferation, and narcotics trafficking. Azerbaijani troops serve shoulder to shoulder with U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan, as they previously did in Kosovo and Iraq. In support of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, Azerbaijan has extended important over-flight clearances for U.S. and NATO flights as well as regularly providing landing and refueling operations at its airports for U.S. and NATO forces.

As co-chair of the Congressional Azerbaijan Caucus, I congratulate the people of Azerbaijan on the centennial of their Republic Day. May the partnership between the United States and Azerbaijan progress and continue to benefit both of our nations.

Mr. Speaker, our country's democracy and rule of law are in danger, being threatened at every moment.

Today is my birthday and also the birthday of Bobby Zimmerman aka Bob Dylan. And with that, I quote Bob Dylan:

Come writers and critics

Who prophesize with your pen

And keep your eyes wide

The chance won't come again

And don't speak too soon

For the wheel's still in spin

And there's no tellin' who that it's namin'

For the loser now will be later to win

For the times they are a-changin'

Come senators, congressmen

Please heed the call

Don't stand in the doorway

Don't block up the hall

For he that gets hurt

Will be he who has stalled

There's a battle outside and it is ragin'

It'll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls

For the times they are a-changin'

The line that is drawn

The curse it is cast

The slow one now

Will later be fast

As the present now

Will later be past

The order is rapidly fadin'

And the first one now will later be last

For the times they are a-changin'

My colleagues, get it together and save democracy and protect us from this President.

Mr. Speaker, Tennessee has a law that is about 160 years old. The legislature changed it some, but the Governor needs to sign a bill to do it. It is a law that allows juveniles, before they are convicted, be sent for ``safekeeping'' in an adult penitentiary or prison.

This occurred recently in two cases. The Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights group took one of those cases. A girl was charged with a crime and had a $30,000 bond assigned to her. She couldn't make that bond and the court sent her to an adult penitentiary where she and one other girl were isolated in a wing of the adult penitentiary for 40 days.

The Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights group got an attorney, Josh Spickler, who got the girl's bond set at a higher figure, but one that they were willing to make to get her out of jail.

Juveniles should not be put in adult facilities before they are convicted, and nobody should be put in safekeeping and put away like that when they don't need to be, and they can be incarcerated in a juvenile facility. I hope the Governor signs the bill and makes our Tennessee law more current.

Mr. Chair, to affirm what the chairman already knows, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent that amendment No. 46 printed in part A of House Report 115-650 be modified by the form I have placed at the desk.

Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of this bipartisan, bicameral amendment, offered with my colleague on the Aviation Subcommittee, Mr. Woodall, and spearheaded in the Senate by former military pilot, mother, and great Member, Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, and Senator Perdue.

This amendment is common sense and ensures the safety of the flying public. Our bipartisan amendment streamlines an onerous process that has led to unintended burdens and delays on the State Department of Motor Vehicles across the country and delays in getting prospective pilots eligible for employment.

To be clear, this amendment does nothing to remove protections to pilots and their privacy already enshrined in Federal law.

In 1996, Congress passed the Pilot Records Improvement Act, which mandated the airlines obtain driving records of all prospective pilot employees from the National Driver Registry. An unintended consequence came about requiring only the chief State licensing official could approve such request. This has caused delays at DMVs, and currently, most employees have to request these records from Missouri, since they are the sole State still willing to access the National Driver Registry for requests from all parties. That is not what was intended, and it requires a simple and technical fix that this amendment does bring about.

That 1996 law also clearly and strictly stipulated the written consent that airlines require from pilots before obtaining their records and spells out strict guidelines on the privacy and use of that information. They cannot sell that information.

Mr. Chairman, I support the amendment and ask that it be voted on and approved, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, I would just like to take my remaining time to thank Mr. Shuster for his work on this bill, and Mr. DeFazio for his work, too. They did bring about an excellent bill that I am proud to support.

I have been proud to be a member of the committee with Mr. Shuster as the chair. He has done an outstanding job and done his father's memory as a great chairman even greater honor.

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

Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Nadler for yielding. I appreciate the work of Mr. Goodlatte and the other sponsors, Mr. Nadler and everybody else.

This was really an issue where we showed that Congress can be productive, can get something done, working

with all of the different groups and bringing them together. It is a successful effort.

Music is very important to my hometown of Memphis, which, of course, is the hometown of Elvis Presley, where Sam Phillips put Elvis in the studio at Sun Records and produced the rock and roll that Chuck Berry and Little Richard had been playing but had not really reached a lot of people's ears. It did, and it set the world on fire. It brought a change in music and an appreciation for it.

In Memphis, we have had Isaac Hayes, who did so much; Sam and Dave; David Porter; and many, many Memphians who participated.

But I have personal friends in Warren Zevon, Jackson Browne, and J.D. Souther, who were great songwriters and performers and have not received, necessarily, their financial due as they should, and fairness, and this will get them done.

As Mr. Crowley mentioned, it will get engineers and producers payment for their work to help create these musical creations that people love.

Mr. Speaker, I thank all of the sponsors and appreciate the fact that I was able to participate and support it and be a cosponsor.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding and the Republic of Azerbaijan for hosting an event on April 18th celebrating the relationship between the Republic of Azerbaijan and Israel. The Republic of Azerbaijan has been inclusive of its vibrant Jewish community and has the distinction of being a majority Muslim country that has a friendship with Israel. The United States of America and the Republic of Azerbaijan have enjoyed strong diplomatic relations since 1992 following Azerbaijan's successful declaration of independence from the Soviet Union. The Republic of Azerbaijan has been supportive of a two-state solution for peace in the Middle East while maintaining and strengthening its partnership with the State of Israel. The Republic of Azerbaijan is celebrating the centennial of becoming the first ever democratic republic in the Muslim world. Thank you again to the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding for hosting a great event honoring the enduring relationship between Azerbaijan and Israel.

Mr. Speaker, malevolent actions and accidents give an opportunity for people to rise to heroic actions. America is a country familiar with heroes.

At a sad and awful event this weekend in Nashville, Davidson County, at a Waffle House where four individuals were killed and four injured by a crazed individual with an AR-15, a man named James Shaw, Jr., rallied all of his courage and strength to rise to the occasion of heroics, to get the assailant, take his gun from him, and to save his life and other people's lives.

James Shaw, Jr., is a lifetime Nashvillian. He didn't plan to be a hero that day, but he rose to the occasion. I take my hat off to him and commend him for his actions in saving other lives.

Just a week or so earlier, we had a Southwest Airlines plane that would have crashed if it weren't for a great pilot, possibly, a plane that, tragically, had a piece of the wing come off and fly into the airplane and cause the death of a passenger and chaos on the plane.

The pilot, a trained Navy fighter pilot, Tammie Jo Shults, stayed calm and brought that plane in safely without any other loss of life or injuries. She is a Sully part 2: Sullenberger, who took that plane in New York and landed it in the river and saved a lot of people's lives.

We all honored Sully, as we should and should have. We need to honor Tammie Jo Shults in the same way. She is Sullenberger part 2. And James Shaw, Jr., of Nashville is a hero of the same dimension, and he saved many American lives. Those acts need to be remembered, reflected upon, and honored. I do so today, and I know other Members of this House do as well.

Mr. Speaker, on this day, as a lawyer and as a Congressman, I want to express my appreciation for the Department of Justice, the FBI, Mr. Mueller, Mr. Rosenstein, Mr. Wray, and others.

The attorneys in the Justice Department are among the best in the country, and Mr. Mueller and Mr. Rosenstein are in that group. The FBI have the finest law enforcement people in our country, and Mr. Wray heads that office up.

Besides being outstanding jurists, men of rectitude, and probity, what else do Mr. Wray, Mr. Rosenstein, and Mr. Mueller have in common? They are all Republicans, and they have all been attacked by our President.

Our President said, when the warrant was issued on his attorney's office for his materials, that that was an attack on our country. In my opinion, that statement and the attacks on our Justice Department and FBI, and on Mr. Rosenstein and Mr. Mueller and Mr. Wray, those were attacks on our country.

When one undermines the Justice Department and the FBI and, basically, people working in the Federal Government to protect us and see that our laws are carried out in an appropriate manner and that the rule of law, which this country is respected for all around the world, is meted out in evenhanded fashion, that is an attack on the fundamental principles of the United States of America.

Mr. Speaker, I resent that suggestion. The fact is Mr. Rosenstein showed great bravery in seeing--as we say in jury charges, ``going where truth dictated and justice demanded''--in seeing that that warrant was issued. They did it on the basis of probable cause and information that they had to have surveillance of Mr. Cohen. They had to have probable cause to even have surveillance. And then to go through--knowing this man was the attorney for the President--and authorize the warrant and to know his job was on the line and his neck was on the line showed great courage, something we all in America should respect and hold up as an admirable quality in a man who exhibits the best characteristics of our citizenry.

Then Mr. Rosenstein, a learned attorney who didn't feel that attorney-client privilege was being infringed upon, sent the case to the Southern District of New York, where other lawyers who were trained took the case to a judge, who was also learned in the law, who said the warrant should issue.

Attorney-client privilege is alive and is being dealt with in the proper fashion in Judge Wood's courtroom. She is properly seeing to it that it is respected, but that information that is not that of an attorney-client privilege will be revealed to the American public.

For some reason, a lot of people today who normally are talking about the Second Amendment are talking about attorney-client privilege like it is the biggest legal principle in our country's fabric. What is more important than anything--and attorney-client privilege is being respected--is the information that has been garnered through that search warrant that could show the possibility of crimes being committed by the President of the United States of America. There is nothing more important to be seen, and attorney-client privilege is nothing compared to that. Why people are concerned about that and not the information that they are trying to keep quiet astonishes me.

We need a transparent President. We need a President who pays his taxes and reveals them to the American public and who doesn't try to squash the Justice Department, the FBI, and means of people of probity and rectitude and character.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Rosenstein, Mr. Mueller, Mr. Wray, the Justice Department, and FBI officials.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Connolly), a scholar and a gentleman.

Mr. Speaker, I want to remind the Members that my Republican Senator Bob Corker said that this Congress will go down in history as the worst fiscal Congress in history for having voted for both the tax scam bill and the big cuts for the wealthy.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Scott).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio), the ranking member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, who is always so generous and kind.

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

Mr. Speaker, government is and should be about more than just dollars and cents. Government, and especially democratic government, is about nurturing community, taking care of one another, and defending our common humanity.

H.J. Res. 2, proposing a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget every fiscal year strikes sharply against those core values, as much that we see in government these days does.

A balanced budget amendment undermines our commitment to each other, as expressed through critical social safety-net programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, SNAP; Medicare; Medicaid; and Social Security. My constituents in my congressional district of Tennessee and millions of vulnerable Americans nationwide depend on these and other programs to make ends meet in difficult economic circumstances.

Therefore, it concerns me greatly that this Congress, which hypocritically passed massive tax giveaways to corporations and the superwealthy, has chosen to devote its limited time to what is essentially a gimmick to avoid actually making politically difficult decisions about the Federal budget.

Just this week, my Tennessee colleague, respected Senator Bob Corker, called out his fellow Republicans when he tweeted: ``If we were serious about balancing the budget, we would do it. But instead of doing the real work, some will push this symbolic measure so they can feel good when they go home to face voters.''

I wear on my lapel the letter ``F.'' That is the grade that Bob Corker and I give this Congress for its work toward balancing a budget: trillions of dollars of debt with tax giveaways to the wealthiest, trillions of dollars of debt with a budget that gives the Pentagon $70 billion more than they want.

A balanced budget is nothing but an attempt to shortcut government, and it would impose real harm on millions of Americans. Social safety- net programs would be at particular risk if a balanced budget amendment were to be adopted because they are funded every year by drawing on savings accumulated in prior years.

And let's be real about what is going on. After giving tax breaks to the wealthiest and corporations, after giving away massive budget amounts, particularly to defense, they want a balanced budget amendment. How would they balance the budget? On Medicare, on Social Security, and on Medicaid. On people who are ill and seniors who need money to live on and healthcare to keep their lives going. That is who this cruel Congress would say the balanced budget amendment falls on. They would be on the chopping block.

This funding mechanism ensures that benefits could be paid to those who need them and provides the opportunity to stave off funding shortfalls before they occur.

The state of the Department of Justice is another example, given President Trump's sharp political attacks on General Sessions out of frustration with his recusal from any investigation concerning Russia's interference in our Presidential election. Voter suppression efforts, the resurgence of white nationalists in American politics, and the active efforts to undermine the work of a free press are other meaningful topics worthy of our attention; issues that are important to the American public, not a balanced budget amendment that won't come into existence and will harm the American people.

I strongly oppose the idea of a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution because it threatens Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid; it threatens SNAP; it threatens programs that keep people alive and make their existence tolerable. Many constituents of mine depend on these and many in America do.

The House has better things to devote its time to. I strongly oppose H.J. Res. 2, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms. Schakowsky).

Mr. Speaker, I want to say, Mr. Fitzpatrick got the award from the American Bar Association for his good work on legal services, and I compliment him on that.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Neal).

(Mr. NEAL asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. Speaker, I yield the gentleman from Massachusetts an additional 1 minute.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Yarmuth), who is the ranking member and future chairman of the Budget Committee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi), the leader, the once and future Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, the previous speaker said: Does anybody have the guts to stand up? I am standing up, and I voted against the tax cut bill and against the mammoth budget bill that caused this deficit to go up by $4 trillion.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Rhode Island (Mr. Langevin).

Mr. Speaker, today is Holocaust Remembrance Day; remembrance of the horrors of 6 million Jews being killed in Nazi Germany, and others being killed as well: homosexuals, Communists, and other minorities that were objectionable, like Gypsies.

In recent polls, it shows millennials, over a third, don't realize what Auschwitz was, or that the Holocaust occurred. On this day, Yom HaShoah, we need to remind the world of what horrendous events occurred on this planet just 75 years ago.

Never again. Never again. Elie Wiesel said: ``We may not be able to defeat injustice, but we should always protest it.''

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay special tribute to my Memphis constituent Virginia Henderson Granger, a veteran overseas U.S. Army nurse during World War II, who turned 98 last month. Mrs. Granger was born on February 21, 1920, in Johnson City, Illinois. She graduated from West Frankfort Community High School in 1937 and went to nursing school at Christian Welfare Hospital in East St. Louis, Illinois, earning her R.N. in 1942. Later, after her service in the Army, Mrs. Granger went to Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, and graduated in 1952 with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Nursing.

Mrs. Granger volunteered for the Army Nurse Corps in 1943 and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant. At Camp McCoy, Wisconsin, Mrs. Granger received her basic training and then worked at the Station Hospital for six weeks while awaiting further orders.

She traveled by troop train to Camp Kilmer, New Jersey, which was the port of embarkation for the European Theatre of Operations. Mrs. Granger was sent to Barnstaple, England, as a platoon nurse caring for troops. She returned to the U.S. to take up her permanent assignment after a passenger/cargo ship, the USS Munargo, was converted into the 206th U.S. Army Hospital Ship Thistle. She served on the Thistle for most of two years, rising in rank to First Lieutenant.

The home ports for the Thistle were New York City and Charleston, South Carolina, while its overseas port was Naples, Italy. As a hospital ship, it was considered neutral under the Geneva Convention and bore a large red cross on the upper decks. While aboard the Thistle, Mrs. Granger made 12 round trips across the Atlantic Ocean bringing sick and wounded troops home from the European Theater. While in the Mediterranean Sea, the ship shuttled sick and wounded troops from Oran, Algeria and Southern France. Mrs. Granger and the rest of the crew of the Thistle participated in the Southern France Invasion in August 1944. At the end of the war in Europe, the Thistle and Mrs. Granger were sent to the Philippine Islands to evacuate the remaining sick and wounded. After three years of service, Mrs. Granger returned via Long Beach, California, and was discharged in Des Moines, Iowa.

Mrs. Granger was awarded the World War II Victory Medal, the EAME (Eastern, American, Mediterranean) Campaign Medal with three Bronze Service Stars, the American Pacific Campaign Medal, and three overseas bars.

Mrs. Granger, a widow, was married to John W. Granger, an Army veteran of the war, for thirty years.

After leaving the Army, she worked as a nurse at the John Cochran Veterans Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri, and the Memphis Veterans Hospital. She worked a total of thirty years at the two hospitals and served in almost all of the departments within the hospitals. For several years she was the supervisor of the Spinal Cord Injury, Post Surgical Unit, and Psychiatric Departments of the hospital in Memphis.

Except for her college years in St. Louis, Mrs. Granger has lived in Memphis since 1946. She helped open the Veterans Hospital in St. Louis and she helped move the Memphis Veterans Hospital from Park and Getwell to its current location on Jefferson Avenue. She retired from the VA in 1979. Mrs. Granger currently lives at the Kirby Pines Retirement Community.

Mrs. Granger is a longtime member of American Legion Post 250 in Germantown. I want to commend Mrs. Granger for her long years of service to our country and its veterans and hope that my constituents and her many friends will thank her for the devoted hard work she has done for a grateful nation.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor and recognize the coordinated struggle of workers on the 50th Anniversary of the 1968 Memphis sanitation workers' strike to voice their grievances and reach a collective agreement for rights in the workplace.

To enshrine this moment into history and the record of the House of Representatives, I recently introduced a resolution, H. Res. 720, to commemorate the historic convergence of the Civil Rights and Labor movements that the sanitation workers' strike represents. Since Its introduction, my resolution has garnered the support of a bipartisan coalition of nearly 100 members of the House including almost every member of the Congressional Black Caucus, every member of the Tennessee House delegation, and the support and passage of an identical resolution in the United States Senate.

On February 1, 1968, Memphis sanitation workers Echol Cole, 36, and Robert Walker, 30, climbed inside a garbage truck amid putrefying trash and dead chickens in a driving rain and were crushed to death when the compactor malfunctioned. Twelve days later, frustrated by the city's response to the latest event in a long pattern of neglect and disrespect for its black employees, 1,300 black men from the Memphis Department of Public Works went on strike.

Sanitation workers demanded recognition of their union, better safety standards, and higher wages. Their fight--symbolized by strike placards reading ``I AM A MAN''--brought Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to Memphis. On April 4, 1968, during the labor dispute, Dr. King was assassinated on the balcony outside his room in the Lorraine Motel, now the site of the National Civil Rights Museum.

On the cusp of the solemn 50th anniversary of the assassination of the late, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I would like to lay out the record of the Memphis sanitation workers' strike and the events leading up to the assassination of Dr. King:

In 1968, 1,300 African-American sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee, fought for collective bargaining rights and equality in the workplace.

In the struggle for workers' rights, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) integrated the labor movement and the civil rights movement in a demand for basic human rights and respect for all men and women.

Black employees doing most of the low-wage work in Memphis had almost no health care, pensions, or vacation, worked in deplorable conditions, and were shown disrespect by White supervisors.

40 percent of the workers qualified for welfare in order to supplement their low salaries and were denied the opportunity to improve their working conditions by Memphis Mayor Henry Loeb and the City Council.

On January 31, 1968, 22 Black sewer workers who reported for work were sent home when it began raining, losing a day's pay, while White workers were not sent home and received a full day's pay.

The following day, February 1, 1968, sanitation workers Echol Cole and Robert Walker sought refuge from a downpour in the hamper of a garbage truck amid putrefying garbage and were crushed to death when the compactor malfunctioned.

On February 12, 1968, Memphis sanitation and public employees went on strike after attempting last-minute negotiations with Mayor Loeb and the city on the terms of their employment, demanding that the city recognize their union, and provide a pay increase to $2.35 an hour from an average of $1.70, overtime pay, and promotions based on merit irrespective of race.

In response to the workers' demands, Mayor Loeb, on February 13, 1968, threatened to hire replacements unless workers returned to work

On February 18, 1968, the President of AFSCME, Jerry Wurf, arrived in Memphis and negotiations began in the basement of St. Mary's Episcopal Church with Rabbi James A. Wax of Temple Israel representing the Memphis Ministerial Association, mediating between the city and striking workers, assisted by Local 1733 President T.O. Jones and AFSCME Director of Legislative and Community Affairs William Lucy.

After an all-night vigil outside City Hall on February 19-20, 1968, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and union workers called for a boycott of downtown businesses.

On February 23, 1968, 1,500 strikers and supporters organized a march to the Memphis City Hall, where, 11 days after the initial strike, the City Council refused to recognize the union.

In the following days, 500 White labor union members joined members of the clergy and sanitation workers in a march downtown, 116 strikers and supporters were arrested during a peaceful demonstration, and hundreds of high school students joined in another march led or supported by members of the clergy including Rabbi Wax, the Reverend Frank McRae of St. John's United Methodist Church, Father Nicholas Vieron of Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church, and Dean William Dimmick of St. Mary's.

On March 4, 1968, a proposal by State Senator Frank White to create a State mediation board to resolve the stalemate was rejected by Mayor Loeb.

On March 5, 1968, the Ministerial Association announced that Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., would be traveling to Memphis on behalf of striking workers.

On March 7, 1968, the City Council voted to reject union dues checkoff for sanitation workers.

Throughout March 1968, national civil rights leaders, including Roy Wilkins, Bayard Rustin, Ralph Abernathy, James Bevel, Andrew Young, and Jesse Jackson, among others, came to Memphis to rally the strikers.

On March 28, 1968, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Reverend James Lawson of Centenary Methodist Church led a march from the sanitation workers' gathering spot at Clayborn Temple and on to Beale Street which was marred by window-breaking and disintegrated into a riot as police responded with tear gas and gunfire.

Also on March 28, 1968, 16-year-old Larry Payne was shot to death by a Memphis police officer, police arrested 280 mostly Black demonstrators, and the State legislature authorized a 7 p.m. curfew which was enforced by 4,000 members of the National Guard moving into Memphis.

In response to Payne's death, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., called Payne's mother, Lizzie, offering consolation, and vowed to visit her on his return to Memphis.

Also on March 28, 1968, and in response to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s promise to return to Memphis to lead a march based on the principles of nonviolence, the city obtained a temporary restraining order in Federal court forbidding such a march.

In response to the temporary restraining order, AFSCME General Counsel Mel Wulf asked the firm of Burch, Porter and Johnson and attorneys Lucius E. Burch, Jr., David Caywood, Charles Newman, and W.J. Michael Cody to work on lifting the injunction to allow the march to proceed.

Louis Lucas and Walter Bailey of the Ratner and Sugarmon firm were deeply involved in representing King and striking workers for the duration of the labor dispute.

On April 3, 1968, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., addressed a rally of 10,000 Black workers and residents, members of the clergy, White liberals, and union members at Mason Temple, the Memphis headquarters of the Church of God in Christ, for what would be his last speech, forever known for the lines `I have been to the mountain top', and `I may not get there with you but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land', linking the civil rights and labor movements and foreshadowing his fate.

On April 4, 1968, a daylong hearing on the city's injunction resulted in an order from United States District Judge Bailey Brown in the late afternoon allowing the march, with some restrictions, to go forward on April 5, 1968.

On April 4, 1968, the day after his rallying cry for compromise, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated by a sniper on the balcony outside of his Lorraine Motel room in Memphis.

On April 4, 1968, Memphis and cities across the country erupted in violent protests and rioting.

On April 5, 1968, Rabbi James A. Wax led a march from St. Mary's Episcopal Church to City Hall and confronted Mayor Henry Loeb with the Nation watching on all three networks, telling him `There are laws far greater than the laws of Memphis and Tennessee, and these are the laws of God'.

On April 8, 1968, an estimated 42,000 people, led by the wife of Rev. Dr. King, Jr., Coretta Scott King, and her children, peacefully marched in memory of Dr. King and in support of the union's requests.

On April 16, 1968, AFSCME announced that a 14-month contract had been agreed to and accepted, and included union dues check-off, a grievance procedure, and wage increases of 10 cents an hour in May and another 5 cents in September, ending the 3-month strike.

On April 29, 2011, the 1,300 sanitation worker strikers were inducted into the Department of Labor's Labor Hall of Honor.

Today, the integration of the civil rights and labor movements remains a work in progress and requires our continued vigilance.

In the days leading up to and surrounding April 4th 2018, 50 years after that fateful night, the world will converge on Memphis, a now- sacred place where the world lost a true beacon of justice. Nevertheless, the light from that beacon shines on, lighting a path towards true equality and compassion for one another, long after the passing of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. There, we will pay homage and respect to a man whose bold courage helped change the world, and whose legacy continues to be a force for justice and hope for all.

I urge my colleagues to pass H. Res. 720, to immortalize our honor and respect for the Memphis sanitation workers and Dr. King and the legacy they leave behind.