Floor Statements

Thank you, Mr. Van Hollen. I appreciate the time.

The thing that disturbs me the most about this budget is its inability to understand what our priorities should be.

The Republican budget keeps the defense budget at $550 billion. There is no question we need a Defense Department, but I don't think the other side understands what the real enemy is. The enemy to my constituents and each of us is not lurking overseas. It is disease. And to each American who will suffer from or has a family member suffering from Alzheimer's or AIDS or cancer or heart disease, diabetes, Parkinson's, post-polio, or whatever, they want cures and treatments.

The National Institutes of Health are cut in this budget by at least $1.6 billion. It is a $30 billion budget. The Defense Department is $550 billion.

I submit to you, Mr. Chairman, our enemy is disease. The department of defense for the human being and the human body is the National Institutes of Health. It is someplace the two parties should be able to come together and agree that we need to fund research, which creates jobs and finds cures and treatments.

The other side talks about what this is going to do to children and grandchildren. I have heard people talk about their children and grandchildren and what their mothers would want. Their mothers want their children to live long lives and not to suffer from cancer and to get cures and to get treatments.

The cures and the treatments are going to benefit the next generation and the generation after that more than this generation. This is a place where spending dollars creates jobs, saves lives, and benefits future generations. Most research that has been done in this country that has come up with cures and treatments has been funded by the government or at least helped by the government, and that continues to this day.

People say we should be different than Cyprus and Greece and Spain and Portugal; and we are, because we funded those researches and we have come up with the cures and the treatments. That is why this is the greatest country on the face of the Earth. We need to see that the National Institutes of Health are funded at a greater level and not diminished.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to share my grave concerns about the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, the existence of which is awaiting a decision by the administration.

Last week, 84 of my colleagues--82 Republicans and 2 Democrats-- introduced H.R. 3, a bill that would approve the construction and maintenance of the Keystone XL pipeline.

The world's foremost climatologist, Dr. James Hansen--and one of the first scientists to warn of the dangers of burning carbon fuel and a partial recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize--has likened the building and use of the Keystone pipeline to the lighting of a carbon bomb--game over.

When you brush aside the studies by TransCanada and other oil companies and you analyze the pure scientific studies, every analysis clearly demonstrates that the Keystone XL pipeline poses major threats at every turn in its extraction, its transportation, its refining, and its consumption--threats to our Earth.

The truth of the matter is the U.S. isn't even going to be using those fossil fuels transported by that pipeline; they're going straight to China. In fact, the only proposed feasible method of getting those Canadian tar sands to China or any other country is by building the Keystone XL pipeline to feed into the port in Houston, Texas.

I urge my colleagues to stop the Keystone XL pipeline, avoid lighting that carbon bomb in our country, oppose H.R. 3, and return our focus to initiatives that center on true energy independence through renewable resources and greener production.

Save the Earth.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor a champion for the rights of women, a leader in her community and a stalwart for Civil Rights, Minerva Johnican, who passed away in her hometown of Memphis, Tennessee. I was proud to call her my friend and she will be greatly missed throughout the City of Memphis.

Minerva was born in Memphis on November 16, 1938 and was the sixth of seven children to John Bruce and Annie B. Johnican. She attended Hamilton Elementary and High School and began her college studies at Central State College in Ohio before graduating from Tennessee State University in 1960.

After graduating from college, Minerva earned her certificate in library science from the University of Memphis in 1965. She served in the Memphis City Schools system as a teacher and librarian for a total of 18 years, and later, she became the head librarian at Colonial Elementary School. She was always active in politics. However, her interest crystallized in 1967 when she was driving home from school and heard on the radio that a group of ministers were maced while marching for the rights of sanitation workers in downtown Memphis. From this experience, she became an instrumental member of Citizens on the Move for Equality, which advocated for higher wages for sanitation workers. In 1971, she founded the Inner City Voter Education Committee that helped inner-city 18-year-olds register to vote. During this time, she also founded the Volunteer Women's Round Table, which was a coalition of women from different racial backgrounds who worked to support women in the Democratic Party. Additionally, in a sign of her future political aspirations, Minerva worked on Shirley Chisholm's presidential campaign.

Over the next 15 years, Minerva's political accomplishments broke several glass ceilings for African-Americans and women. In 1975, Minerva became the first woman to serve on the Shelby County Quarterly Court, now called the Shelby County Commission, and held this seat for two four-year terms. I was honored to work with her on the Board of Commissioners and one of our proudest achievements was establishing the MED Hospital when others wanted a smaller hospital. In 1983, she became the first African-American elected to represent an at-large district on the Memphis City Council. As a City Councilwoman, she founded the Building Better Bridges for Memphis Task Force, which encouraged African-Americans and Caucasians in Memphis to work together on community problems. In 1987, Minerva came in second in a six-way race for city mayor. Not to be discouraged from public office, in 1990, she became the first African-American and the first woman to be elected Shelby County Criminal Court Clerk. During her time as County Clerk, she automated the Clerk's office and implemented computers to maintain records, making it easier and more efficient to serve the needs of Memphians and staff. Her vision for improving the County Clerk's Office earned three national awards.

After leaving office in 1994, Minerva worked as a managing loan officer at Mid-America Mortgage and transferred her skills into opening up her own company, OMO Mortgage Financial Services. Although she no longer served in a public office, her passion for public service and community involvement continued. She was a vital member and supporter of my campaigns in 2006 and 2008 and she served as Co-Campaign Manager for Herman Morris's mayoral run. Minerva also served on the board of directors for the Mid-South Muscular Dystrophy Association, Mid-South Chapter of the ACLU, NAACP, and numerous other organizations.

Throughout her public and private sector work, Minerva received countless recognition for her diligence and commitment to the city of Memphis. The Women's Foundation for a Greater Memphis honored her with the Legends Award in 2009. In addition, she was awarded with the Distinguished Leadership Award from the National Conference of Christians and Jews, History Makers Award from the National Council of Negro Women, and the NAACP Life Membership.

Sadly, Minerva lost her battle with cancer on Friday, March 8, 2013 at 74 years of age. She will be remembered as a pioneer for her tireless public service at a time when women were not expected to take a leading role. Her dedication to improving her community is unparalleled. Minerva's passion led her to take risks during an era of heightened racial tensions and to encourage people from across racial lines to work together for the betterment of the city. Hers was a life well-lived. Thank you, Minerva, for coming our way.

The Ryan budget. In the words of the great Republican President, whom the Republicans like to remember: There they go again.

It's the same budget. It's catering to the wealthy, and it's cutting the middle class. It's reducing the top tax rate to 25 percent, which will give the wealthiest $200,000 a piece in tax breaks, and it continues the sequestration--a stupid, meat-ax approach to our budget that cuts $1.6 billion from the National Institutes of Health.

Does anybody out there, Mr. Speaker, have cancer? heart disease? Is anybody thinking about some relative who might have Alzheimer's? AIDS? post-polio? diabetes?

Cures and treatments come from the National Institutes of Health, and you're not going to get them if they cut $1.6 billion to $1.8 billion out of it. The cures and treatment will benefit the next generation more than this generation, and that's what we should be doing is investing there. This foolish, meat-ax approach is to be continued with the Ryan budget, and it will cost us lives and stop us from being a leader in research and innovation. We need to have a smart budget and invest in the National Institutes of Health and preserve our human infrastructure.

Mr. Speaker, the other day, it became public that Valerie Harper, the star of ``Rhoda,'' was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. She publicly went forward with that, and it was very touching. I saw her on the morning news when she talked about it. She said that she's doing chemotherapy, she has maybe 3 months--she doesn't know how much--to live, and she said her husband says that if we can slow this thing down, more stuff may come up.

They're working fast and furiously for all of us. They're not working for Valerie Harper because she played Rhoda, but they're doing this for all cancer patients. And the people that are doing this for all cancer patients--the doctors, the universities, and the scientists--are funded by the National Institutes of Health, all of which will get a 5\1/2\ percent cut in their budget because of the sequestration.

This is another example of why it was wrong for us to let the sequestration go into effect and why it's wrong for us not to make cuts that make sense. We need to put more and more dollars for cancer patients, for people with diabetes, people with Alzheimer's, people with AIDS, and people with illnesses that can and will be cured. If they can stay around for a little longer, they can come up with a cure and save people's lives. We don't need to defund or reduce the funding for the National Institutes of Health.

I join in concern about our budget. Advancements to health would be cut in a major way. When I was a child, I had polio, and it has effects on people who have polio in later years. But because of the Federal Government's investment in research like the Salk vaccine and the Sabin vaccine, it has saved many families and children from that devastating disease. And around the world it's been successful, too. There are other diseases like heart disease, Alzheimer's, and cancer that the National Institutes of Health is primarily responsible for the research.

I'm worried about health and also jobs, and a major driver of jobs is research and development, education, and infrastructure spending by the Federal Government. Most of our great advances, whether it's railroads or the Internet or health care, have come through Federal Government partnerships with the private sector. We need to continue those to create a middle class--consumers that can grow our economy out of these problems. It's not just President Obama who says it. It's also who I call the three wise men: Krugman, Stiglitz, and Robert Reich.

Austerity hasn't worked. We need to invest in America and grow our economy.

Mr. Speaker, today is the birthday of Abraham Lincoln. Unfortunately, not many Americans probably know that; but February 12 used to be a date that people remembered. Now it's just Presidents Day, a weak invocation.

An award-winning movie is presently showing about President Lincoln, a great President who saved the Union and got the 13th Amendment passed--slavery abolished. But the movie also showed that President Lincoln could make compromise and make the two sides of the bodies work together for the betterment of this Nation.

As President Obama from the Land of Lincoln speaks tonight in the State of the Union, we should remember what Lincoln taught us: that you need to work for the union of this government, the unity of our people, for rights for everybody and diversity, and for the two parties to work together for the betterment of the United States of America.

Thank you, President Lincoln.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the life and contributions of Mrs. Hattie Elie Jackson, a Memphis educator, a devout woman of faith and a leader in the Civil Rights Movement. An Arkansas native, Mrs. Jackson graduated from Arkansas AM&N College, and obtained her master's degree at Columbia University in New York. She received further graduate-level education at the University of Chicago, and finally obtained her Education Specialist degree from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.

Mrs. Jackson used her extensive education and many talents to serve and nurture the Memphis community. For 25 years she presided as principal over Double Tree Elementary School, inspiring young hearts, and helping to shape the minds of local luminaries such as former Memphis Congressman, Harold Ford, Jr. She was a devoted member of St. Andrew AME church, and played an active and energetic role in her faith community. She was the former first lady of St. Andrew AME Church, where she served as a trustee, Sunday school teacher and President of the Ruth Circle Club.

Mrs. Jackson was a leader in the Civil Rights Movement and in the Memphis Sanitation Strike of 1968. In 2004, she was inspired to write and publish an account of her personal recollection of the Sanitation Strike, entitled 65 Dark Days in '68. Her primary purpose in recording her memories, thoughts and feelings was to educate younger and future generations as to what transpired in 1968, and to inspire them to continue to strive for greater things.

Mrs. Hattie Jackson passed away on January 13, 2013 at 88 years of age. She leaves to cherish her memory two daughters and their husbands, Zita and Glenn Blankenship, and Cheri and Joseph Harrell as well as five grandchildren, two great granddaughters, a host of loving and supportive nieces, nephews, cousins, extended family and friends. I extend my heartfelt appreciation for the life and work of Hattie Elie Jackson. Hers was a life well-lived.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commemorate the 21st anniversary of the Khojaly massacre perpetrated by Armenian armed forces on February 25-26, 1992 in the town of Khojaly in the Nagorno- Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. Khojaly, now under the occupation of Armenian armed forces, was the site of the largest killing of ethnic Azerbaijani civilians in the course of the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict.

Khojaly, once the home to 7,000 people, was completely destroyed. Six hundred thirteen people were killed, of which 106 were women, 83 were children and 56 were purported to have been killed with extreme cruelty and torture. In addition, 1,275 people were taken hostage, 150 went missing and 487 people became disabled. Also in the records maintained, 76 of the victims were teenagers, 8 families were wiped out and 25 children lost both of their parents while 130 lost one of their parents. According to Human Rights Watch and other international observers, the Armenian Armed forces were reportedly aided by the Russian 366th Motor Rifle Regiment.

At the time, Newsweek magazine reported: ``Azerbaijan was a charnel house again last week: a place of mourning refugees and dozens of mangled corpses dragged to a makeshift morgue behind the mosque. They were ordinary Azerbaijani men, women and children of Khojaly, a small village in war-torn Nagorno-Karabakh overrun by Armenian forces on 25- 26 February. Many were killed at close range while trying to flee; some had their faces mutilated, others were scalped.''

As part of the Khojaly population that tried to escape, they encountered violent ambushes that led to abuses, torture, mutilation and death. The Russian organization, Memorial, stated that 200 Azerbaijani corpses were brought from Khojaly to Agdam within four days.

Time magazine published the following description: ``While the details are argued, this much is plain: something grim and unconscionable happened in the Azerbaijani town of Khojaly 2 weeks ago. So far, some 200 dead Azerbaijanis, many of them mutilated, have been transported out of the town tucked inside the Armenian-dominated enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh for burial in neighboring Azerbaijan. The total number of deaths--the Azerbaijanis claim 1,324 civilians have been slaughtered, most of them women and children--is unknown.''

The extent of the cruelty of this massacre against women, children and the elderly was unfathomable. This anniversary reminds us of the need to redouble efforts to help resolve the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict. The United States as a Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group should intensify its efforts to reach a resolution of this protracted conflict.

Mr. Speaker, Azerbaijan is a strong ally of the United States in a strategically important and complex region of the world. I ask my colleagues to join me and our Azerbaijani friends in commemorating the tragedy that occurred in the town of Khojaly.

Memphis, Tennessee, has an iconic restaurant known worldwide, the Rendezvous. And it's iconic because it's got great ribs, many artifacts about the mid-South, but also a great wait staff that makes everybody feel at home. One of those iconic waiters, Jack Dyson, will be retiring after 45 years.

Jack is 78 years old, and he will retire this week after serving millions of customers from Presidents and First Ladies to the Rolling Stones, to Bill Cosby, and to regular people that come in and are made to feel at home when they come to the Rendezvous for the world-class fare. Jack Dyson has made me feel at home. He's a part of the Rendezvous. When he retires, part of the Rendezvous will go with him.

I thank Jack for his service to his country as a Korean war veteran and to his service to the world at the world- famous Rendezvous.

Mr. Speaker, I just want to join in congratulating the University of Louisville on their success.

The University of Louisville has long been a rival of the University of Memphis. But this past year or so, the Louisville basketball coach, Rick Pitino, was good enough to champion the University of Memphis' getting into the Big East Conference. It was support we needed and support we appreciate. The conference isn't quite the same as it was when he did that, but it was a good thing to do.

We have a great rivalry, and I think we need to support our rivals and thank Coach Pitino for his helping the University of Memphis get into an additional conference, and we hope that the rivalry between the University of Louisville and the University of Memphis continues for many more years to come.

Mr. Speaker, the House just finished the reading of the Constitution. And that's fine. It's a majestic document, greatest of its kind, and it's never bad to read it.

It's one thing to read it and it's another thing to really understand it. And to understand it you've got to understand the court decisions and how the courts have interpreted the Constitution.

The courts have recognized the Constitution as a living evolving document and that it's not perfect. Congress had to pass an amendment to formally abolish slavery. It took the Supreme Court in the Topeka Board of Education v. Brown case to abolish Jim Crow, the stepchild of slavery and a great stain on this country's history.

Thanks to Roe v. Wade women have a fundamental right to make medical decisions about their own bodies, a right that continues to be threatened by this Congress. And while the Constitution grants great freedoms, the courts recognize that they come with reasonable limitations.

The First Amendment gives us freedom of speech but doesn't allow us to yell fire in a theater or to libel somebody.

And the Second Amendment, while it gives you the right to bear arms, has limitations as well. You can't carry a gun on an airplane or in a courtroom, and we need to remember that.

So just reading the Constitution is one thing, but understanding is another. I hope we will understand it and live it and see that we have a more perfect union.

We've heard from a colleague of mine on the Democratic side who sounds like he's not going to vote for this bill, and we've heard it from a couple of folks on the other side. Well, I'm going to vote for it, not because I think it's all the best sugar and spice and everything nice, but because, for one thing, I believe our President and our Vice President know what they can get in a negotiated deal with the Republican side in the Senate and what might pass this House as well, and they know what our country needs.

My district can't afford to wait a few days and have the stock market go down 300 points tomorrow if we don't get together and do something, and the people in my district need unemployment compensation and need to know in the future that they're going to have the low-income earned tax credit and college credit.

It's important that we keep this country moving in the right direction and away from another recession. ``E Pluribus Unum'' is not just on our bills, but it's what we are as legislators. We are one of 435 and one of 535, including the Senate. We need to come together and work together for the betterment of the country.

This isn't the perfect deal, but it's the deal we got, and it's the deal I'm going to support. I hope that my colleagues will resolve to give the President and the Vice President the benefit of the doubt as the year goes on and as I do today.

I appreciate the moment.

This has been a very interesting couple of days, ones that I would normally have spent with friends in Memphis, drinking champagne and looking forward to the new year.

It's been an honor serving with you, Mr. Dreier. You are an outstanding

Member, as Ms. Slaughter said. There are lots of people in the other aisle--Mr. Coble behind you--fine Republicans whom I'm friends with and think the world of, but I'm just happy this day has ended the way it is, kind of a Tiny Tim world. It's just good the way it ended up. Somehow or another, whether it be the fates or Speaker Boehner's abilities to work things from magic, we're going to end up not falling off the fiscal cliff, and I think that's wonderful.

So I thank Ms. Slaughter for the time, and I thank Speaker Boehner for whatever he's done to produce what I expect will be a positive result for the American people.

Thank you, and I appreciate the time and the opportunity to speak on this measure.

I'm concerned about the fiscal cliff. And it's important. President Obama has tried to work with the opposition party and has gone from what he was elected on--increasing taxes, for fairness, on families earning over $250,000--to $400,000. But no, that wasn't enough. This proposal goes to a million dollars a year. Now $400,000 is plenty comfortable. The President's gone a long way. The fact is that there's a lot of revenue that's being lost between $400,000 and $1 million. We need that revenue to rectify some problems in our society, of which there are still many.

This bill would cut funding for the National Institutes of Health. That is our physical cliff. And I want to talk to you how this fiscal cliff affects the physical cliff. The National Institutes of Health is the agency that comes up with research dollars that allows our lives to be extend and bettered. At Duke University there is a great lung transplant program, headed by Dr. Robert Davis. Duke needs more money to perfect their lung transplant program that's the best in the country. But still, it's only a 50 percent chance that a person will live 8 years with a lung transplant because the transplanted lung tends to be rejected. They don't know why. They need know find out it. It's National Institutes of Health funds that will find out and give people a chance to breathe and live.

In my hometown of Memphis there's research at the Methodist Hospital. We have Dr. James Eason, one of the finest liver transplant doctors in the country. But throughout the country there are people in places like St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis finding cures for childhood cancers and childhood catastrophic illnesses. This bill cuts funds to the National Institutes of Health. They should not be cut ever. They should be increased. And some of the funds that they are missing are the funds that will go to people earning over $400,000 and up to $1 million that tax relief is being given to. They don't know right now that they might not be the people that need that lung or that liver transplant or some other medical science cure or discovery. But there are people out there in the lottery of life that will. This bill doesn't take that into consideration.

Any bill that cuts funds to the National Institutes of Health will eventually cut people's lives short--and the quality of their life-- because it's through research funded at the National Institutes of Health that we find these cures and these new procedures. Doctors need to be paid, hospitals need to be paid, research needs to be undertaken.

I believe the President has gone a great distance on the fiscal cliff to get to $400,000. He's even talked about cutting some programs that deal with the most vulnerable people, the poorest, on Social Security cost-of-living increases, which I oppose. But the President has tried. I hope that this bill fails and we deal with the President in a responsible way and avoid the fiscal and the physical cliff.