[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 66 (Thursday, May 21, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H3736]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            THE CLINTON NOMINEE FOR AMBASSADOR TO LUXEMBOURG

  (Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, James Hormel, President 
Clinton's nominee for the ambassadorship of Luxembourg, is a 
businessman, a diplomat, a former dean of the University of Chicago law 
school, a one-time delegate to the United Nations' Human Rights 
Commission and a philanthropist.
  He has wide bipartisan support from Senators Joseph Biden to Orrin 
Hatch, as well as Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, and even Alice 
Turner, Hormel's ex-wife. The Senate Committee on Foreign Relations has 
also approved his nomination. But he has not been able to get through 
the other body in terms of confirmation. And the reason is, Mr. 
Speaker, Hormel is gay.
  I say it is time now to treat Americans as Americans, to end the 
vicious discrimination against gays and lesbians in this Nation. That 
is why we must pass the Employment Nondiscrimination Act to eliminate 
discrimination against gays and lesbians in the workplace.
  Mr. Speaker, no one is asking for any more benefits than any other 
citizen of the United States. We all are created equal. This is a shame 
and a travesty that this qualified gentleman cannot be approved and 
affirmed to be the ambassador of Luxembourg. We need to end 
discrimination now against gays and lesbians.

                          ____________________