[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 51 (Thursday, April 30, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H2697-H2698]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           THE LOUDEST VOICE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Wolf) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I want to begin by talking and taking a moment 
to talk about two groups that are not widely discussed on the floor. 
The first is Mother Jones, and the second is USA Engage.
  Mother Jones, or ``MoJo,'' is a national magazine of investigative 
journalism focusing on political reporting. Ken Silverstein wrote an 
article in the June 1998 issue of Mother Jones detailing the creation 
of USA Engage. This group hired Washington lobbyist Anne Wexler to try 
to make sure nothing gets in the way of promoting international trade 
with countries around the world whose governments are renown for brutal 
fear-biased repression of their own people. The human rights records of 
those countries are made more dismal by widespread torture, terror, 
imprisonment, persecution and killing of those that do not walk the 
line.
  According to MoJo, some of America's largest businesses have given 
their proxy to USA Engage to deal with these countries having a history 
of repressing their own people. I know these companies are run by good 
and decent people who are probably not aware of the range of activities 
in which the Wexler Group is intensely involved on behalf of USA 
Engage. I am sure that their stockholders and customers are not aware 
of them and would be shocked and angered if they were.
  According to the magazine, Anne Wexler has assembled a daunting army 
for her assault on Washington that includes a former U.S. Trade 
Representative, former Members of Congress, a former close staffer of 
the President, the former law firm of the State Department official who 
heads up the committee charged with reviewing proposed sanctions, and 
others. And look at what they have accomplished: Instant access to 
Congress and the ear of the State Department officials charged with 
assessing human rights violations; pro-trade studies from pricey and 
prestigious think tanks; the matching-up and contact of religious 
groups and leaders interested in human rights around the world by 
business reps thought to have special influence or sway.
  MoJo quotes human rights advocate Simon Billenness, talking about the 
important role economic sanctions played in ending South Africa's 
apartheid regime. ``If USA Engage had succeeded with these tactics 
during these apartheid years, Nelson Mandela might still be in 
prison.'' I recognize these companies can hire whomever they choose, 
but there are consequences.

[[Page H2698]]

  Look at what they are doing. Look at the real issue. We are talking 
about companies that are committing the very worst atrocities on their 
own people simply by believing in God. In Sudan, starvation is the 
weapon of choice, spiced with high-altitude bombing, mass murder, and 
selling their own people into slavery. In Sudan, over the past decade, 
about 1.1 million people have been killed or allowed to starve, and I 
have been in the south and I have seen it.
  In China, Catholic bishops and priests and Protestant lay ministers 
and Buddhist monks and nuns as well as many Muslims are jailed for 
years and years. And their jails are not patterned after those in this 
country. Starvation, torture, filth, and darkness are the steady diet. 
The fate of the prisoner is up to the whim of the guard. Brutal working 
conditions and brutal hours are the norm. Sometimes death is the only 
friend they can hope for.
  Tibet is in danger of losing its religion, its culture, its language, 
even its identity. It has already lost thousands of Buddhist 
monasteries and too many monks and nuns. And I have been to Tibet and 
have seen this.
  In Iraq, the Kurds have been used for target practice and guinea pigs 
for toxic killing. And MoJo talks about the track record of Burma and 
Nigeria. The victims of these outrages and more are Anne Wexler's 
targets. When they and her other well-connected friends are successful 
in changing a legislative clause here and writing the Dear Colleague 
letter, do they think about the Catholic bishop starting his third 
decade in a brutal Chinese prison? Do they think of the young boys on 
the slave block in southern Sudan?
  I know these are harsh thoughts, but we are dealing with harsh 
dictators and regimes. What we do here matters. And the content of 
legislation has real impact around the world. Please think about this. 
Did these companies mean to give Anne Wexler this much power? If one is 
a government official working on these matters, does he think what his 
actions mean to those who have no one looking out for them? And if one 
is a Member of Congress, does he remember when Anne Wexler and company 
stops by that no one is speaking for those on the other end, those in 
Sudan, those in prison, those in slavery, those in Iraq, those Catholic 
bishops in prison, those evangelical pastors in prison in China, and 
the monks and Buddhist nuns in prison in Tibet?
  Mother Jones or ``MoJo'' is a national magazine of investigative 
journalism focusing on political reporting. It is named after and in 
the spirit of the legendary Mary Harris (Mother) Jones who was one of 
the most effective organizers of her time. Before passing on at the 
ripe old age of 100, this spirited mother of four effectively led 
fights against child labor, and on behalf of coal miners and other 
labor groups during the early years of this century.
  Perhaps the worst thing they have done with their access is to 
deliberately misstate the moderate nature of the Freedom from Religious 
Persecution bill. At its root it calls for withdrawal of non-
humanitarian taxpayer subsidies to hardcore persecuting countries and 
gives the president total discretion to maintain the subsidies.
  In the end, however, Members will read bill and understand its 
moderate character and people in the pews will hear that this 
bipartisan effort gives the persecuted people of the world a voice.

                              {time}  1845

  Anne Wexler is the only voice. But she should not be the loudest 
voice.
  Perhaps the worst thing they have done with their access is to 
deliberately misstate the moderate nature of the Freedom from Religious 
Persecution bill. At its root, it calls for the withdrawal of all 
nonhumanitarian taxpayer subsidies to hard core persecuting countries 
and gives the President total discretion to maintain these subsidies.

                          ____________________