[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 33 (Wednesday, March 22, 2000)]
[House]
[Pages H1264-H1272]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS BUDGET

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mrs. Wilson). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 6, 1999, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Owens) is 
recognized for 60 minutes.
  Mr. OWENS. Madam Speaker, we have heard two presentations, one by the 
Democrats and one by the Republicans, on the budget. We will have the 
budget on the floor tomorrow to vote on, and nothing is more important 
than the budget this week. But nothing is more important than the 
budget at any time.
  The most important decisions we make in Washington are the decisions 
related to the budget and the appropriations process. The budget is the 
opening of the process which ends with the appropriations process. 
People should understand that we broadly categorize certain spending 
goals in the budget, and then it is the appropriations process that 
carries them through with the detailed expenditures.
  I want to talk about the Congressional Black Caucus Budget, a budget 
for maximum investment and opportunity, which we will have on the floor 
tomorrow as an alternative to the President's budget and the budget of 
the majority Republicans.
  Our budget is very important, and I am going to spend half my time 
talking about the priorities of that budget, the six priorities of that 
budget. But the seventh priority is the one that I want to begin with. 
The mission of our budget is clearly, the Congressional Black Caucus 
Budget, an advocacy budget. It advocates for those that are left out 
and forgotten, the poor in general, and more specifically African 
Americans and other neglected minorities.
  We concur with three-quarters of the President's budget and his 
priorities. But we would like to emphasize certain kinds of things that 
get left out. So in each one of these seven areas, education, housing, 
health care, economic development and livable communities, foreign aid, 
welfare and low-income assistance, and juvenile justice and law 
enforcement, we have special kinds of priorities that we have within 
those categories. We would like to make certain that those do not get 
left out.
  This presentation will start with priority number seven, which is a 
very unusual priority for the Congressional Black Caucus to focus on. 
That is juvenile justice and law enforcement. Law enforcement.
  Now, I understand that in the Democratic alternative budget that is 
going to be presented tomorrow, there will be some recommended 
increases in the law enforcement budget, the Justice Department budget. 
But that is all about increasing at the investigative end, increases 
for the prosecutions in general.
  There are a number of things that are going to happen in that 
proposed set of budget increases that we are not particularly concerned 
with. We would like to see the Justice Department capacity increased to 
handle some other kinds of pressing emergencies.
  For example, we have an explosion of high profile corruption and 
malfunctioning of the criminal justice system across America. In Los 
Angeles, in Illinois, Louisville, Kentucky and New York, on and on it 
goes. Right now, we have these high profile cases that should attract 
the attention of all Americans. Certainly the overwhelming majority of 
Americans are concerned about these malfunctionings and this 
corruption.
  Certainly in the case of Amadou Diallo and the verdict of a jury 
there in New York State, the capital, Albany, related to a case where 
Amadou Diallo was standing on his front step and was approached by four 
policemen, and they shot him to death. Forty-one bullets were fired.

                              {time}  2145

  He was hit 19 times, and some of the bullets show he was hit after he 
was on the porch. Nevertheless, those policemen were found not guilty 
of anything; not negligent homicide, not reckless endangerment, not 
guilty of anything. A survey taken a few days later showed that the 
overwhelming majority of the people of New York State were outraged. 
They disagreed profoundly with that verdict and felt that a great 
miscarriage of justice had occurred.
  But on the other coast, in Los Angeles, we had a series of 
revelations over the last few months indicating that the police 
department has been carrying out corrupt practices for almost two 
decades; that there are people in the police department who routinely, 
routinely, have planted evidence on people of drug selling, evidence of 
various kinds, planted guns on people, beaten people, and shot people. 
And the Los Angeles government now is getting ready to pay out millions 
of dollars in response to court suits that are being brought on these 
matters, as well as many, many cases that will be overturned.
  The lives of numerous individuals, thousands of individuals when we 
consider the families of the people who have been wrongfully convicted 
or harassed, beaten up, the lives of thousands of individuals are 
involved in this gross systemic ongoing set of miscarriages of justice.
  In the State of Illinois we have a situation where there were 25 
people on

[[Page H1265]]

death row, 25 people about to be executed. We were about to play God 
and take their lives. I am against the death penalty, but those who are 
for the death penalty certainly would not like to see innocent people 
executed. There was a special project conducted by some university 
students and they utilized the most advanced detective techniques, 
including DNA, to check to see whether these 25 people were really 
guilty or not. They were on death row. They had gone through the whole 
system. The district attorneys had brought cases against them, they had 
been prosecuted by public prosecutors, a judge had sat on the case, a 
jury heard the case, and now it was all over. They were on death row to 
be executed.
  Under our constitution we guaranty the right to life, liberty and the 
pursuit of happiness. But if a person's life is taken, there is nothing 
else they are going to be able to do. They cannot pursue happiness. 
Liberty means nothing. A death penalty takes away that life. And of the 
25 people who were on death row, 12 were found to be innocent. DNA 
evidence, about as conclusive as it gets, was used to prove that 12 of 
the 25 on death row were innocent. And I congratulate the governor of 
Illinois for acting after that, immediately, to say there will be no 
more executions until we straighten out this tangle.
  Where is the criminal justice system going wrong? How did it produce 
an almost 50 percent error rate in a matter as serious as taking the 
life of an individual for the commission of a crime? Twelve of the 25 
were innocent.
  Let me see, I have mentioned Los Angeles and Illinois. Let us now go 
to Louisville, Kentucky. There was a killing of a young man by the 
Louisville, Kentucky, police. Two policemen were involved. The police 
commissioner, without telling the mayor, decided to give these two 
policemen a medal, awarded both of them a medal.
  Now, they have gone through a process, I think, of being checked out, 
with disciplinary hearings, and steps have now been taken, but they 
were given a medal and the mayor was not informed about this. They were 
just given a medal, two medals, by the commissioner. And the mayor, 
rightfully so, felt that that was an outrage to do that for something 
that, one, was questionable, but to do it without his approval, without 
his involvement, was a usurpation of his authority, and it was making a 
statement about his position on this kind of action that clearly was in 
defiance of his policies.

  So the mayor of Louisville, Kentucky, fired the police commissioner. 
And right now we have almost a coups taking place in Louisville, 
Kentucky. The police are marching through the streets indicating that 
they are really in command. The police that should be under civil 
authority are refusing to acknowledge that the mayor is the final 
authority; that the man who is elected, who hired the commissioner, had 
the right to fire him.
  The problem is if we allow a police state mentality to develop in a 
small group, that spreads to the larger group, and pretty soon we are 
the victims of police state actions. I cannot remember any time that a 
whole police force has defied their chief executive, the mayor of a 
city, and gone out and thrown down the gauntlet. They are refusing to 
protect the citizens. They spend their time in demonstrating their 
strength.
  It is illogical to allow the criminal justice system to become 
corrupted. What we have in America is a small percentage of police, the 
extremists, the fanatics, and sometimes they are racists, who commit 
crimes and acts of misconduct that by themselves are outrageous but we 
say, after all, it is only a small percentage of a total police 
department. The problem that all America should be concerned with is 
the way the rest of the police department goes to work to cover up, to 
protect and to nurture the fanatics and the extremists and the racists.
  There is the so-called blue wall of silence, where no matter what is 
done they will protect them. And anybody that tells the truth will be 
isolated and browbeaten and harassed to the point where they will have 
to leave the force. The code of conduct in police departments all 
across the country is that the truth is not to be told if it will get 
one of their colleagues in trouble. So it makes the whole system 
corrupt. As we go up the chain of command, the officer at the top, 
including the commissioner, becomes involved in a pattern of cover-up. 
If the pattern of cover-up and protection is there, it means that the 
officers who are at the extreme end begin to have more and more people 
join them, more of their kind come on to the force because they have 
protection of the system.
  I have talked about Los Angeles, Illinois, and Louisville, Kentucky. 
In Louisville, Kentucky, it is the police marching to take over the 
city, a coups by the police department against the city government. In 
New York, where the overwhelming majority of the people have indicated 
their outrage in the Amadou Diallo shooting, we now have another 
shooting of a young man named Patrick Dorismond, who lives in my 
district. He was killed. The mayor and the commissioner are behaving as 
if they want to stage a coups and take over the city against the 
majority. The majority are outraged, but they insist on behaving in 
ways that protect and encourage and nurture that small percentage of 
extremists in every police department.
  The mayor has made outrageous statements about the last killing. 
Patrick Dorismond, a constituent of mine, his family lives in my 
district. Patrick Dorismond was in Manhattan, leaving work as a guard. 
He was a uniformed guard. He left work and went to a bar nearby. He 
left the bar and was hailing a taxi to get home when an undercover 
policeman approached him attempting to entrap him in a drug sale. The 
undercover policeman asked him if he had some drugs to sell. He wanted 
some drugs.
  This same undercover police team had already made eight or nine 
arrests that night. They just wanted to bolster their statistics and 
make ten collars that night, so they approached one more, Patrick 
Dorismond. Patrick Dorismond was outraged as he was being approached 
and asked for drugs. An argument ensued and the backup policeman came 
on the scene to support his partner who was in the argument. He shot 
Patrick Dorismond to death.

  Patrick Dorismond is dead and the two policemen say it was an 
accident. Most unfortunate; it was an accident. And the Mayor of the 
City of New York, Mayor Guiliani, ordered the commissioner, told the 
commissioner to immediately release the criminal record of Patrick 
Dorismond. Patrick Dorismond, at 13, had had some kind of encounter 
with the police. The laws of the State of New York say that the record 
of a juvenile should be sealed. Not only did they disobey the laws of 
the State of New York and open sealed records, but they also broadcast 
them all over the Nation.
  Patrick Dorismond had had a run-in with the police when he was 13, 
like a lot of 13 year olds may have a run-in with the police. Patrick 
Dorismond had had two arrests as an adult for disorderly conduct. So 
happens that Patrick Dorismond wanted to be a policeman. So the two 
disorderly conduct arrests that he had had as an adult, plus the arrest 
that he had had as a juvenile, would not have disqualified him from 
becoming a policeman. They were not that serious. But the mayor has 
chosen to make Patrick Dorismond look like a criminal by putting these 
things together. And he has fooled no one.
  The whole city is outraged again. It is double outrage after the 
Amadou Diallo verdict. Now comes Patrick Dorismond, with the mayor and 
the commissioner engaging in a blatant way in a cover-up. I mean, they 
are encouraging and setting the parameters for the cover-up in this 
case.
  The system has gone to work to deal with some extreme activities on 
the part of individual policemen. There were other cases, of course, 
besides Amadou Diallo. There was Abner Louima, who was sodomized with a 
broomstick in a police precinct. Abner Louima almost bled to death. In 
fact, the hope was, by the policeman who had so injured him, that he 
would die, but, unfortunately for the policeman, he lived.
  Fortunately, there were complaints made by the family, and they got 
through to a reporter and he got to a hospital and he survived. And the 
whole case broke as an exposure of what had gone on in that precinct. 
Most of the police in that precinct would not tell the truth. The blue 
wall

[[Page H1266]]

of silence went into effect immediately and nobody saw anything. Abner 
Louima had to endure a horrible experience, and they tried to pretend 
that nobody held him down while the guilty police officer committed 
that crime.
  Fortunately, the Federal Government stepped into the situation and, 
from the beginning, showed a great interest and prosecuted the 
policeman for violating the civil rights of Abner Louima. Abner Louima 
is not dead, fortunately. He is probably injured for life. He will 
never function normally again. But there was a trial and, after almost 
a year of denying that any crime had been committed, the blue wall of 
silence was at work concocting stories about Abner Louima having 
engaged in homosexual activity and that is how his guts were erupted or 
torn inside him. All kinds of concocted ridiculous stories were 
manufactured, until finally in the Federal trial, in Brooklyn, the 
perpetrator confessed that he had done it, and was found guilty, of 
course, by his confession.

                              {time}  2200

  However, even after confessing, he wanted the world to believe he did 
it all by himself and nobody else saw it, wanted to protect his 
colleagues, and came back to court to testify in a second trial, a 
conspiracy trial.
  The conspiracy trial related to Abner Louima was probably more 
important than the trial which convicted the man who perpetrated the 
heinous act against Abner Louima. Because the conspiracy trial goes to 
the heart of the problem.
  The heart of the problem is the fact that the colleagues of the 
perpetrators, the colleagues of the extremists, of the fanatics, of the 
racists cover up for them. They pretend they saw nothing, they heard 
nothing, the system, in effect, to cover up for the crime committed 
against Abner Louima. His relatives went to the police station the next 
day, and they were threatened and told to get away from there or they 
would be arrested.
  All kinds of horrible things happened before this case began to rise 
and surface in such a way that the police department had to admit that 
a great crime had been committed and they had to go to work to do 
something about it.
  But when the Federal Government entered the case early and began to 
question the police officers, the blue wall of silence went into 
effect. So they took a very important step in trying four of those 
officers for conspiracy to cover up. Because that is the heart of the 
problem. The system has to be changed. The system has to be attacked.
  The Federal Government at this point has also completed a study of 
the pattern of activity in New York City with respect to the stop-and-
frisk and the way they police minority neighborhoods.
  What does this have to do with the budget? Let me go back for a 
moment and say that all those people out there who were upset about the 
Amadou Diallo verdict, and there were many people, there was a 
spontaneous set of demonstrations. High school kids, without any 
tutelage or planning, left their schools and demonstrated in the 
streets. College kids demonstrated, white and black. There was no group 
that did not show their outrage.
  Today, on the steps of New York Police Plaza, a press conference took 
place of businessmen, businessmen and labor leaders, rabbis, civil 
liberties leaders, urban league, a press conference took place where 
they all together condemned the latest activities of the mayor with 
respect to exposing the criminal record of Dorismond as a 13-year-old 
child and taking a position in defense of the killing of Patrick 
Dorismond before the facts were examined thoroughly.
  Our constituents in New York are very upset, outraged, demanding 
action from their leaders. Our constituents are demanding action 
against these gross misjustices.
  Fortunately, none of these spontaneous responses have been violent. 
We keep telling people it does not pay to go out in the streets and 
burn anything down or conduct riots. As leaders, we have been 
successful in making people understand that negative and unproductive 
set of conduct that should not be followed. However, they turn to us 
and say, What are you going to do? What about it?
  Well, I want to say it does relate to the budget here. Because in our 
budget, item number 7 is the juvenile justice system. We want more 
money put into the Federal criminal justice system, juvenile justice, 
adult justice, law enforcement in general. We want more money put in.
  We also have a bill that will require more funds in the Justice 
Department. That bill was put in by the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. 
Conyers) 2 weeks ago. And I would like to let everybody know out there, 
the constituents, that we are not standing still, we are taking certain 
kinds of actions. This bill, the Law Enforcement Trust and Integrity 
Act, is going beyond what we have done already.

  We have gone to the Justice Department. We have gone to the deputy of 
Janet Reno. We made our appeals there. We have gone through those 
motions on these particular cases, especially Amadou Diallo. And we 
have now gone to the Justice Department about Patrick Dorismond. In 
Brooklyn, the U.S. Attorney in that district, the Eastern District, now 
has had a discussion on that. So we are taking action at the level that 
we think we can take the most relevant actions.
  We have accreditation of the bill that the gentleman from Michigan 
(Mr. Conyers) has introduced, the Law Enforcement Trust and Integrity 
Act, which will require additional funding by the Justice Department if 
they carry out these points.
  I will just quickly summarize what the bill says. The bill calls for 
the accreditation of local law enforcement agencies not to operate so 
loosely. They should have a set of procedures and standards, a training 
regiment which does not allow for inexperienced people to be set loose 
on the street with guns in their hands but make certain that they have 
had thorough training not only in the use of force but also an 
understanding of the community that they are patrolling.
  This bill authorizes the Department of Justice to work cooperatively 
with independent accreditation law enforcement and community-based 
organizations to further develop and refine these accreditation 
standards.
  Second point: Law enforcement agency development programs. The bill 
authorizes the attorney general to make grants to local States and 
governments to develop programs, such as civilian review boards, early 
warning and detection programs, which have proven effective in many 
jurisdictions, and many kinds of activities which would help develop a 
greater rapport between police and the community.
  Administrative due process procedures. The bill requires that the 
attorney general study the prevalence and impact of any law, rule, or 
procedure which interferes with prompt and thorough investigations of 
abuse.
  In New York City they have the 48-hour rule. The police department, 
the Police Benevolent Association, their union negotiated an agreement 
where no policeman who is involved in an excessive use of force case 
can be interrogated before 48 hours. Forty-eight hours must pass before 
they have the right to interrogate a policeman who is involved in some 
incident related to excessive use of force or the firing of a gun even 
if it resulted in the killing of an individual.
  Item four in the Law Enforcement Trust and Integrity Act sponsored by 
the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Conyers). It enhances the funding of 
the Civil Rights Division in the Civil Rights Department. It authorizes 
appropriations for expenses for ongoing investigations of pattern and 
practice of abusive investigation by the Justice Department.
  Item five in the pattern and practice investigations: It enhances the 
authority to bring private cause of actions limited only to declaratory 
and injunctive relief when there is a pattern and practice of 
discrimination.
  Item six: Deprivation of rights under color of law. The bill amends 
section 242 of Title 18 of the Code to expressively define ``use of 
force'' and ``nonconsentual sexual conduct'' as deprivations of rights 
under color of law.
  Item 7: The study of deaths in custody, referring back to the 
Illinois case. The bill amends the Code to require assurances that 
States will follow guidelines established by the attorney general for 
reporting deaths in custody.

[[Page H1267]]

  National Task Force on Law Enforcement Oversight. The bill requires 
the Department of Justice to establish a task force to coordinate the 
investigation, prosecution, and enforcement efforts of Federal, State, 
and local governments in cases related to law enforcement misconduct.
  Immigration Enforcement Review Commission. The bill creates a 
commission to investigate civil rights complaints against the INS and 
Customs Services with authority to make policy and disciplinary 
recommendations.
  It is very interesting that, in New York, several of the cases that 
have taken place have related to immigrants. Amadou Diallo was an 
immigrant from Africa, the country of Guinea. Patrick Dorismond is a 
Haitian American. Abner Louima is a Haitian American.
  I know this is only a coincidence because I have lived in New York 
for 42 years and there is a long list of victims of excessive force, 
negligent homicide, that were not necessarily immigrants.
  Eleanor Bumpers was a grandmother who was shot down in her living 
room. Claude Reece was a 13-year-old who lived in a housing project in 
my district. Clifford Glover was 11 years old and was shot in the back. 
Randolph Evans was shot point-blank by a policeman who used a defense 
in court called psychomotor epilepsy. I have never heard that term 
before; and since that case, that trial, I have never heard it since. 
Well, the jury found the policeman not guilty because he had had a 
seizure of psychomotor epilepsy and he could not stop his hand from 
raising the gun and pointing to young Randolph Evans's head. He walked 
off scot-free.
  So there have been a long list of deaths, of police killings and 
police brutality which did not deal with immigrants. But it just 
happens that recently the focus has been, by accident I think, on 
immigrants. So an Immigrant Enforcement Review Commission is very much 
in order.
  Item 10: Federal Data Collection on Racial Profiling. The bill 
requires the Justice, Treasury and Interior Departments to collect data 
concerned with personal characteristics of individuals targeted for 
investigation, etcetera.
  The bill establishes civil and criminal penalties for retaliation 
against law enforcement officers who in God's faith disclose, initiate, 
or advocate on behalf of a civilian complainant in actions alleging 
police misconduct and creates private cause of action for retaliation.
  These are 11 of the points that are emphasized in the Law Enforcement 
Trust and Integrity Act. Many of them will require additional funding. 
My colleague the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee) has added to 
that some other provisions that will require additional funding in the 
budget. She wants a budget increase to deal with the Weed & Seed 
program. She wants to address juvenile delinquency prevention with 
certain projects, a program to reintegrate great young offenders, and a 
program to reduce youth gun violence.
  So in our seventh category, juvenile justice and law enforcement, in 
our budget, we are addressing some of the issues that are of great 
concern to my constituents back in New York. CBC, the Congressional 
Black Caucus, wants to support these issues in every way. Tomorrow we 
will deal with a budget which does that.
  In addition to that, I think it is important to note that we are 
proposing and, in fact, I proposed at a meeting of the Brooklyn African 
American Clergy and Elected Officials, consisting of 96 members, on 
March 3, 2000, I proposed the following in reaction to my constituents 
and all those who are outraged and want some leadership, I proposed we 
have a declaration against surrender to this kind of activity.
  We will not surrender to police abuse and a policeman state 
mentality. We will not surrender to a mayor and a commissioner who 
insist on protecting the extremists and the fanatics who constitute 
only a small part of the police department.
  This declaration of surrender reads as follows: ``We, the undersigned 
leaders of the caring majority, pledge to unite in solidarity against 
continuing oppression by the extremist law enforcement establishment 
and the collaborating criminal justice system. With unrelenting fervor, 
we pledge to provide continuous leadership for the following actions 
and activities:
  (1) negotiations to achieve the 10 demands for police and criminal 
justice reform set forth on March 27, 1999, almost a year ago.
  A coalition of leaders from all parts of the city met at Local 1199 
in the heart of the city, and we drew up a 10-point plan on misconduct 
and brutality. These 10 points cover the need for civilian review board 
which has real teeth. It covers the call for a special prosecutor to be 
appointed in cases involving police brutality or police homicide. It 
calls for a residency law for New York City.
  Most of the country requires policemen to live in the city or the 
county. Most of the counties in New York State require policemen to 
live in the city or county. But not in New York City. The legislature 
exempts New York City from that requirement despite the fact that the 
city council and the people of New York want a residency law to 
guarantee that they get police that have a greater comprehension of the 
people that they are serving and the cultures that make up New York 
City.

                              {time}  2215

  On and on it goes. There are 10 demands here drawn up March 27, 1999. 
The problem with these demands is that for the 40 years that I have 
been in New York, most of these demands have been made repeatedly over 
and over again every time there has been some excessive use of force or 
misconduct among the police. The time that I have been in New York, for 
40 years, there have been three commissions to investigate corruption 
and excessive use of force. They all come up with the same 
recommendation. Nothing gets done. For that reason, we are insisting 
that we negotiate again. We like to go to our constituents and say we 
are reasonable people, we are leaders who do not under any 
circumstances want our constituents to resort to violence. We want to 
proceed in a nonviolent way, in a reasonable way to try to get these 
so-called intractable problems that seem not to be solvable, to get 
something done. So we want to negotiate these 10 demands. We want to 
ask the mayor to negotiate again, but beyond the mayor we want the 
fathers of the city, we have a phrase in New York called the permanent 
government of the city. In a lot of the cities and towns across the 
country, there is a permanent government, the business people, the 
civic leaders, a group of people who really behind the scenes, if you 
do not have their approval, if elected officials do not have their 
approval, they cannot survive, they cannot exist. There is a 
combination of financial contributions as well as the press being on 
your side, indignation of people in high places who have the bully 
pulpit. They can govern in certain ways. We think that they are guilty 
in New York City of not weighing in and doing more over the years to 
rein in the excessive police abuse that continues to erupt again and 
again in New York City. So we want to negotiate with them as well as 
with the mayor and the governor. That is point one in this Declaration 
Against Surrender.
  We want to, point two, take the necessary actions to achieve 
intervention in the Diallo case by the Justice Department and the 
prosecution of the four police defendants for the violation of the 
civil rights of Amadou Diallo. Four policemen have already been found 
innocent of anything, including reckless endangerment or negligent 
homicide, nothing, totally innocent, just as the people who beat up 
Rodney King in California were found innocent. Despite the fact that 
you had a videotape of them surrounding him and beating him, they still 
found the perpetrators innocent. The Federal Government had to go in 
and try those same people on a charge of violation of civil rights of 
Rodney King. We have asked and we are pressing hard to get the Justice 
Department to try the people who killed Amadou Diallo on the basis of 
the violation of the civil rights of Amadou Diallo, a victim of police 
profiling. Nowhere in the history of New York City have you had a 
person standing on his front porch shot down by the police. Only racial 
profiling gone mad and seeing any black as a threat could have conjured 
up an image of Amadou Diallo as being a danger to society or to the 
four policemen who

[[Page H1268]]

shot him in self-defense, they say, because they thought he was 
reaching for a gun when he pulled out his wallet. Probably, being a 
foreigner, he knows the first thing you do when you are confronted by 
the law is show your papers, show your papers and identify yourself. We 
think that we have a good case and that the Justice Department will 
move, we hope, to prosecute these defendants for the violation of 
Amadou Diallo's civil rights. We are trying to tell our constituents 
that this is a society where ultimately there is justice for all. If 
you cannot get justice for all at the city level or the State level, 
then there is finally the Federal Government which will guarantee that 
there will be justice for all.
  Our third point here is an appeal to the United Nations to secure an 
objective review of the violations of minority human rights in the 
United States as evidenced by the following. Violations of minority 
rights in the United States are out of control. Too many people in high 
places are not excited about the fact that they are out of control. 
Why? Because, one, there is a national pattern, a national pattern of 
systemic police brutality with recurring unjustified homicides. Two, 
death penalty laws which result in a disproportionate number of 
minorities executed, a disproportionate number of minorities executed 
and a high probability of innocent victims on death row. I gave you the 
case of Illinois where the death row inmates who were innocent were 
fortunate enough to have a local university project conduct an exercise 
using the latest detective techniques including DNA, and they found 12 
of 25 of the people on death row to be innocent. The next point, 
widespread officially sanctioned racial profiling. The next point, 
exposures of massive long-term corruption and illegal arrests in police 
departments. The next point of great racial disparity in sentencing. 
Great racial disparity. We have several studies which show that a black 
person and a white person accused of the same crime going through the 
same similar investigative procedure standing before a judge, the 
racial minority will get a tougher sentence, a higher sentence. 
Disparity in sentencing. Finally, the imprisonment of 2 million 
persons, most of whom are poor and members of minority groups. In the 
United States there are now about 2 million people in prison. Prisons 
have become a major industry. You can invest in prisons. If you invest 
in prisons, they do not pay off unless you have inmates. You are paid 
according to the number of inmates. There is something grossly unjust 
about this kind of system. There is something grossly unjust about so 
many people in prison. The highest number now of any of the 
industrialized nations are imprisoned in the United States of America. 
Almost half of them are imprisoned for nonviolent offenses related to 
drugs. There is something wrong with the system. We complain on the 
floor of this House, we have many bills which have made matters worse 
sponsored by the Republican majority. We complain. Nothing happens. An 
appeal to the United Nations may be where we have to go in order to get 
some attention focused on these gross abuses.
  Finally, in this Declaration Against Surrender, we the undersigned 
leaders of the caring majority pledge to sponsor periodic ``Weeks of 
Outrage'' with citywide nonviolent actions including civil 
disobedience. Such Weeks of Outrage will be periodically sponsored 
until our just demands are met. Going back to point one, the demands we 
ask to be negotiated, we will not sit still and let those demands be 
treated with contempt nor ignored. We intend to have Weeks of Outrage 
starting with an April Week of Outrage which is in the process of being 
planned. There is a call for an April Week of Caring Majority 
Nonviolent Outrage.
  The Declaration Against Surrender continues by saying that in the 
last 40 years, more than 50 outrageous killings of New York citizens by 
the police have gone unpunished, from the children, Clifford Glover and 
Randolph Evans, to grandmother Eleanor Bumpers, mental patient Gideon 
Bush, and immigrant Amadou Diallo, the callous actions of individual 
policemen have been supported and excused by a collaborating judicial 
system, by the establishment press and media, by the power brokers and 
the permanent governors of New York City. We declare that the caring 
majority of New York City will no longer surrender to these gross 
injustices.
  Mr. Speaker, I submit the statement related to the Declaration 
Against Surrender for the Record.

                     Declaration Against Surrender

       We, the undersigned Leaders of the ``Caring Majority'' 
     pledge to unite in solidarity against continuing oppression 
     by the extremist law enforcement establishment and the 
     collaborating criminal justice system. With unrelenting 
     fervor we pledge to provide continuous leadership for the 
     following actions and activities:
       Negotiations to achieve the ten demands for police and 
     criminal justice reform set forth on March 27, 1999.
       Necessary actions to achieve intervention in the Diallo 
     case by the U.S. Justice Department and the prosecution of 
     the four police defendants for the violation of the Civil 
     Rights of Amadou Diallo.
       An Appeal to the United Nations to secure an objective 
     review of the violations of minority human rights in the 
     United States as evidenced by: a national pattern of systemic 
     police brutality with recurring unjustified homicides; death 
     penalty laws which result in a disproportionate number of 
     minorities executed and a high probability of innocent 
     victims on death row; widespread officially sanctioned racial 
     profiling; exposures of massive long-term corruption and 
     illegal arrests in police departments; a great racial 
     disparity in sentencing; the imprisonment of two million 
     persons most of whom are poor and members of the minority 
     groups.
       Sponsorship of periodic ``Weeks of Outrage'' with citywide 
     nonviolent actions including civil disobedience. Such ``Weeks 
     of Outrage'' will be periodically sponsored until our just 
     demands are met.
       We, the undersigned Leaders of the ``Caring Majority'' 
     invite all citizens everywhere who deem themselves as members 
     of the ``Caring Majority'' to unite with us in the 
     ``Declaration Against Surrender''.
       Submitted by Congressman Major Owens and Approved by the 
     Brooklyn African American Clergy & Elected Officials (March 
     3, 2000).

               10-Point Plan on Misconduct and Brutality


 following are the proposals issued by a broad coalition of political 
leaders and community organizers in response to the shooting of amadou 
                         diallo: march 27, 1999

       1. Mayor Giuliani must immediately implement the 
     recommendations of the Mollen Commission, especially the call 
     to establish an independent investigative body with full 
     subpoena power that has jurisdiction over police corruption 
     and brutality in New York City. Twice, the City Council has 
     passed legislation creating a body to monitor corruption, but 
     the Mayor has done everything in his power to block its 
     implementation--first by veto and then, when the Council 
     overrode his veto, by tying the matter up in court. The Mayor 
     must also implement the recommendations (from both the 
     majority and dissenting reports) of his own Task Force, that 
     he appointed in 1997 in the wake of the shocking Abner Louima 
     incident.
       2. The Civilian Complaint Review Board must be immediately 
     reconstituted, strengthened and fully funded so that it can 
     effectively investigate civilian complaints of police 
     misconduct.
       3. The State Legislature must pass legislation creating a 
     permanent special prosecutor for police brutality and 
     corruption in New York. In conjunction with this, the State 
     Attorney General must create a special unit on police 
     misconduct and should issue an annual report documenting 
     instances of misconduct throughout the state.
       4. The Police Department must develop a comprehensive 
     training program, developed in consultation with outside 
     experts, to school its officers in racial and cultural 
     sensitivity and must also implement a rigorous process of in-
     depth psychological screening of its recruits and officer.
       5. The New York Police Department should reflect the makeup 
     of the citizen population it serves--N.Y.C. police officers 
     should live in New York City. The State Legislature must 
     immediately pass a law mandating residency for city officers.
       6. The Police Commissioner must also take specific and 
     immediate steps to recruit more minorities and women to serve 
     as police officers and develop a plan to increase promotion 
     opportunities for women and minority officers.
       7. The salary and benefits for police officers must be 
     improved. Law enforcement officers are entrusted with 
     extraordinary responsibility and they should be compensated 
     accordingly.
       8. The Police Department's ``48-hour'' rule, which delays 
     the ability of N.Y.P.D. investigators to question police 
     officers charged violations of N.Y.P.D. rules and 
     regulations, must be eliminated.
       9. The weapons, ammunition and tactics used by the 
     department must be assessed and periodically reviewed, not 
     only to measure effectiveness, but to protect the safety of 
     innocent New Yorkers. The use of hollow point bullets should 
     be discontinued immediately.
       10. Congress must call on the Justice Department to honor 
     its commitment to monitor and issue annual reports 
     documenting instances of police misconduct throughout the 
     country. This promise was made in the wake of the Rodney King 
     incident and has yet to be acted upon.

[[Page H1269]]

     Demands Cited in the Major Owens Declaration Against Surrender

         Declaration Against Surrender--Congressman Major Owens

     Call for an April Week of Caring Majority Non-Violent Outrage


                   the declaration against surrender

       In the last forty years more than fifty outrageous killings 
     of New York citizens by the police have gone unpunished. From 
     the children, Clifford Glover and Randolph Evans, to 
     grandmother Eleanor Bumpers, mental patient Gideon Bush, and 
     immigrant Amadou Diallo, the callous actions of individual 
     policemen have been supported and excused by a collaborating 
     judicial system; by the establishment press and media; by the 
     power brokers and the permanent governors of NYC. We declare 
     that the Caring Majority of NYC will no longer surrender to 
     these gross injustices.


                       the targets and the goals

       --The Caring Majority Must Be Empowered To Realize How 
     Strong They Are
       --City Hall Must be Made To Understand The Ultimate Power 
     Of The Caring Majority
       --The Police And The Power Brokers Must Be Made To 
     Understand The Limitations Of Their Control
       --Reasonable Demands Must Receive A Respectful Response, 
     Serious Negotiations And Meaningful Legislation Action
       Our primary goal is to provide leadership for the 
     following:
       Negotiations to achieve the ten demands for police and 
     criminal justice reform set forth on March 27, 1999.
       Necessary actions to achieve intervention in the Diallo 
     case by the U.S. Justice Department and the prosecution of 
     the four police defendants for the violation of the Civil 
     Rights of Amadou Diallo.
       An Appeal to the United Nations to secure an objective 
     review of the violations of minority human rights in the 
     United States as evidenced by: a national pattern of systemic 
     police brutality with recurring unjustified homicides; death 
     penalty laws which result in a disproportionate number of 
     minorities executed and a high probability of innocent 
     victims on death row; widespread officially sanctioned 
     racial profiling; exposures of massive long-term 
     corruption and illegal arrests in police departments; a 
     great racial disparity in sentencing; the imprisonment of 
     two million persons most of whom are poor and members of 
     minority groups.
       Sponsorship of periodic ``Weeks of Outrage'' with citywide 
     nonviolent actions including civil disobedience. Such ``Weeks 
     of Outrage'' will be periodically sponsored until our just 
     demands are met.
       The list of the ten demands set forth on March 27, 1999 are 
     attached at the end of this Call Statement.


                          strategy and tactics

       Using non-violent principles and techniques the purpose and 
     mission of the ``Week Of Outrage'' is to provide every 
     outraged citizen with an opportunity to publicly express that 
     outrage and bear witness to the fact that the ``Caring 
     Majority'' of New York City will not surrender to the 
     oppression of the police establishment and the collaborating 
     criminal justice system.
       For each of five days in all five boroughs Action Groups 
     shall simultaneously assemble at several strategically 
     selected protest sites within each borough for a citywide 
     total of no less than fifteen sites. The non-violent soldiers 
     at each site shall rally, march, conduct civil disobedience 
     or engage in any other pre-planned non-violent activity. The 
     absolute necessity is that citywide actions take place 
     simultaneously in order to demonstrate the lack of capacity 
     of the police to control citizens who are righteously 
     indignant and organized. New York City belongs to the people 
     and each day's coordinated mass actions will deliver the 
     message of this forgotten truth.
       In order to maximize citizen participation and conserve 
     resources the primary strategy for the assembled Action 
     Groups shall be to march through key streets and 
     intersections in ways that take command of the thoroughfares 
     and public places. Civil disobedience with pre-planned 
     arrests shall be carefully targeted. Most of each operation 
     will be merely the assertion of the right to assemble--and 
     for this activity no one can be arrested.
       The decision-making structure for the ``Week Of Outrage'' 
     shall be lean, decentralized and flexible. There shall be an 
     overall ``Caring Majority'' citywide Coordinating Committee 
     and each borough shall have a Borough Coordinating Committee. 
     Each Action Groups must choose its own Captains and Marshals. 
     Action Group must have representation at all planning 
     sessions and must accept a set of Caring Majority Non-Violent 
     Principles and Procedures; however, approval of specific 
     and detailed action plans will not be mandated.
     The Week Of Outrage War Plan
       To drive home the self-evident truth that the City belongs 
     to the people and that the police and the power brokers can 
     only operate with ``the consent of the governed'', five days 
     of coordinated citywide actions are necessary.
       On Sunday prior to the first day of activity Meditation and 
     Evaluation Rallies will be held in each borough to finalize 
     the week's master-plan.
       On Monday the important first day of action must be 
     launched on a test scale in order to pinpoint problems and 
     weaknesses.
       On Tuesday an attempt will be made to raise the level of 
     activity and to maximize the repetition of the most effective 
     actions.
       On Wednesday the peak of participation will be reached.
       On Thursday and Friday variations and innovations in 
     activity will be maximized.
     The Daily Outrage Action Schedule
       In accordance with the Daily Outrage Action Plan that has 
     been agreed on during a Meditation and Evaluation Rally on 
     the night before, Action Groups must assemble each morning at 
     the designated protest sites. At the designated sites actions 
     must begin simultaneously throughout New York City.
       Morning Actions must be conducted in ways that maximize 
     participation by local residents. In selected neighborhoods 
     within each borough, demonstrators must assemble without 
     notifying the police in advance.
       Transitional Activities must move the masses to a 
     designated citywide central protest site in Manhattan. This 
     means that local morning actions should end by 1 P.M. in time 
     for the citywide high visibility action of the day to begin 
     by 3 P.M.
       Afternoon Action will be conducted at a designated site of 
     high visibility and great traffic vulnerability in the heart 
     of the City. Without engaging in civil disobedience the 
     number of participants must be great enough to stop the 
     business-as-usual activities of the business community.
       Evening Meditation and Evaluation Rallies shall be 
     conducted in each borough. A review of strengths and 
     weaknesses must take place and clear directions be given for 
     the next day's Outrage Action Schedule.


                       the weapons and resources

       A non-violent crusade must be an organized mobilization 
     which understands how to best utilize its weapons and 
     resources:
       Mobile Cell Phones must be available in large numbers to 
     maximize communication at all times. A set of vital numbers 
     will be compiled.
       Cameras of all kinds must be recruited to record incidents, 
     especially the actions of the police. Each Action Group must 
     have a Camera Unit responsible for coverage of the action 
     from the periphery out of the reach of possible confiscation 
     by the police.
       Bull Horns must be spread through each large group.
       Marshalls and Captains must be thoroughly trained to keep 
     order, and to contain and isolate the agents of sabotage.
       A Legal Unit with at least one law student or paralegal 
     must be attached to each Action Group.
       An Emergency Unit with at least one person capable of 
     administering first aid must be a part of each Action Group.


                     the cease fire and evaluation

       At the end of the ``Week Of Outrage'' a cease fire will be 
     called for an indefinite period of time while the following 
     factors are evaluated:
       --Has the pressure of the week's actions forced the Mayor, 
     the Governor and the other significant power brokers to 
     respond to the stated demands?
       --Has the one week crusade raised the level of awareness 
     and strengthened the resolve of the ``Caring Majority'' to 
     fight for justice?
       --Are the ranks of the ``Caring Majority'' expanding in all 
     segments of the City's population?
       --Can future similar ``Weeks of Outrage'' be sustained with 
     existing resources?
       --What strengths and weaknesses in the operation have thus 
     far been identified?
       --What are the adjustments in structure with respect to 
     decision-making and leadership which need to be made?
       --Can the one week crusade be effectively turned off with 
     the capacity to resume at a later date?

  Mr. Speaker, the rest of my presentation is also concerned with the 
budget. I wanted to deal thoroughly with point seven. Point seven is 
juvenile justice and law enforcement. This is our seventh priority in 
the Congressional Black Caucus budget. Let me go back and deal with 
item one. Housing, health care, economic development, livable 
communities, foreign aid, welfare, low-income assistance, those are all 
important, but item one is education.
  In the remaining time I have, I would like to talk about our emphasis 
on education. The caring majority budget begins with the following 
introduction. We call our budget the Congressional Black Caucus Budget, 
a Budget for Maximum Investment and Opportunity.
  ``Carrying forward the great Democratic Party traditions of Franklin 
Roosevelt's New Deal, Harry Truman's Marshall Plan and health care 
proposals, Lyndon Johnson's Great Society that produced Medicaid and 
Medicare. As advocates for the Democratic Party mainstream philosophy, 
the Congressional Black Caucus sets forth this budget for maximum 
investment and opportunity.
  ``As we prepare the year 2001 budget, we are blessed by the long warm 
rays of the sun of a coming decade of surpluses. Compassion and vision 
are no longer blocked by the specter of budget deficits. The 
conservative estimate is

[[Page H1270]]

that there will be a $1.9 trillion non-Social Security surplus over the 
next 10 years. Using simple logic, we should be able to program about 
$200 billion for year 2001 as this window of opportunity opens.'' 
Program it means it may be in some tax cuts. It might be in investments 
in education. It could be in increases in jobs and training for welfare 
workers. There are a number of ways it can be programmed.
  I was pleased to hear that the Blue Dog budget, I do not know why 
they call themselves Blue Dogs but the conservative Democrats they are, 
the conservative Democrats are almost in agreement with what we are 
proposing on education. I will get back to that in a few minutes.
  ``Investment for the future must be our first priority. Maximizing 
opportunities for individual citizens is synonymous with maximizing the 
growth and expansion of a U.S. superpower economy. It is the ``age of 
information,'' stupid. It is the time of the computer and 
digitalization. It is the era of thousands of high level vacancies 
because there are not enough information technology workers. With 
enlightened budget decisions we can at this moment begin the shaping of 
the contours of a new cyber-civilization.
  ``If we fail to seize this moment to make investments that will allow 
our great Nation to surge forward in the creation of this new cyber-
civilization, then our children and grandchildren will frown on us and 
they will lament the fact that we failed not because we lacked the 
fiscal resources but our failures, our very devastating blunder was due 
to a poverty of vision.
  ``We are the custodians of unprecedented wealth in a giant economy. 
But midget minds and tiny spirits have seized control and the only big 
sweeping idea being generated during this budget discussion is the 
negative Republican proposal for a monster tax cut for the wealthy. At 
a time when positive generosity is possible, such a proposal maximizes 
great selfishness.''
  Let me just repeat that. ``We are the custodians of unprecedented 
wealth in a giant economy. But midget minds and tiny spirits have 
seized control and the only big sweeping idea being generated during 
this budget discussion is the negative Republican proposal for a 
monster tax cut for the wealthy. At a time when positive generosity is 
possible, such a proposal maximizes great selfishness.''
  I want to criticize my Democratic colleagues. They have no sweeping, 
big proposals when that is what we need at this time. In the area of 
education, we need a big, sweeping proposal. It is pretty clear that 
education is the key to the future of this Nation. It is the key to our 
building a cyber-civilization.
  Mr. Speaker, I submit the introduction of the Congressional Black 
Caucus budget consisting of an introductory statement and a statement 
of a set of principles and assumptions for the Record.

The Congressional Black Caucus Budget: A Budget for Maximum Investment 
                            and Opportunity

       Carrying forward the great Democratic Party traditions of 
     Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal; Harry Truman's Marshall Plan 
     and Health Care Proposals; Lyndon Johnson's Great Society 
     that produced Medicaid and Medicare; as advocates for the 
     Democratic Party mainstream philosophy the Congressional 
     Black Caucus sets forth this Budget for Maximum Investment 
     and Opportunity.
       As we prepare the year 2001 budget, we are blessed by the 
     long warm rays of the sun of a coming decade of surpluses. 
     Compassion and vision are no longer blocked by the spectre of 
     budget deficits. The conservative estimate is that there will 
     be a 1.9 trillion dollar non-social security surplus over the 
     next ten years. Using simple logic we should be able to 
     program about $200 billion dollars for year 2001 as this 
     window of opportunity opens.
       Investment for the future must be our first priority. 
     Maximizing opportunities for individual citizens is 
     synonymous with maximizing the growth and expansion of the 
     U.S. superpower economy. It is the ``Age of Information'' 
     stupid! It is the time of the computer and digitalization. 
     It's the era of thousands of high level vacancies because 
     there are not enough Information Technology workers. With 
     enlightened budget decisions we can at this moment begin the 
     shaping of the contours of a new Cyber-Civilization.
       If we fail to seize this moment to make investments that 
     will allow our great nation to surge forward in the creation 
     of this new Cyber-Civilization then our children and 
     grandchildren will frown on us and lament the fact that we 
     failed not because we lacked fiscal resources, but our 
     failures, our very devastating blunder was due to a poverty 
     of vision.
       We are the custodians of unprecedented wealth in a giant 
     economy. But midget minds and tiny spirits have seized 
     control and only the big sweeping idea being generated during 
     this budget discussion is the negative Republican proposal 
     for a monster tax cut for the wealthy. At a time when 
     positive generosity is possible such a proposal maximizes 
     great selfishness.
       The preparation of this Budget for Maximum Investment and 
     Growth was guided by the set of principles and assumptions 
     set forth in the statement below:
       1. We accept the general direction of the President's 
     Budget and the House Democratic Caucus. ``Families First'' is 
     a motto we wholeheartedly endorse; however, more resources 
     must be directed toward working families and the unique 
     problems of African American families.
       2. We view the projection of a 1.9 trillion dollar surplus 
     over a ten year period as an overriding factor for the basic 
     decisions to be made for the FY 2001 Budget. Common sense 
     dictates that we approach this first year of the decade of 
     budget surpluses with proposals for the most advantageous 
     uses of one-tenth of the projected surplus.
       3. Investment in the CBC designated priorities shall be our 
     number one concern. We support a moderate plan to pay the 
     national debt; however, the President's blueprint moves too 
     far and too fast with debt reduction at the expense of 
     investment.
       4. The protection of Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare 
     are among the highest priorities of the CBC; however, 
     investments in the education and training of the present and 
     future workforce will provide greater guarantees for the 
     solvency of Social Security and the sound financing of health 
     care than any other policies or actions under consideration.
       5. In budgeting for each function, the CBC accepts the 
     principles of a balanced budget, however, increases in CBC 
     priorities must not be inhibited by present budget caps and 
     conventional assumptions. We assume that there is waste in 
     several key areas which may be transferred to enhance better 
     investments for the future. We also assume that there are 
     excessive revenue expenditures to continue corporate welfare 
     which may be eliminated to increase funding for our 
     designated priorities. And finally, we assume that one-tenth 
     of the projected ten year surplus must be factored into the 
     development of this budget for maximum opportunity and 
     investment.
       6. The CBC accepts the basic thrust of President Clinton's 
     proposal for the distribution of the surplus; however, the 
     CBC will insist that the emphasis in priorities must be 
     shifted. At least 10 percent of the surplus should be devoted 
     to investments in programs for education and a second 10 
     percent should be allotted for investments which benefit 
     working families and for safety net programs.
       7. Tax cuts, which must be taken from the 80 percent of the 
     surplus which remains, are not a high priority of the CBC; 
     however, since the current political power equation dictates 
     the inevitability of a White House approved tax cut, the CBC 
     must insist that the tax cuts not exceed the percentage of 
     the surplus which is allocated for CBC priorities.
       8. Within the priorities earmarked by the President's 
     budget, in each function, the CBC will strive to target some 
     portion of the proposed allocations to the special needs of 
     working families, the poor and the African American 
     Community. New market opportunities and minority contract 
     set-asides must apply across the board--and special units 
     should be funded to implement and facilitate the targeting of 
     CBC designated constituents.
       9. Budget allocations for necessary programs that currently 
     do not exist are encouraged. The proponents must also later 
     develop legislation for authorization as part of the process 
     to sell the ideas and convince the President to place the 
     item on his priority list at the time of the end-game 
     negotiations. Proposals for new methods of proposal 
     solicitation, peer review, technical assistance, etc. are 
     also in order.
       10. The currently stated CBC FY 2001 Priorities are: 
     Education, Housing, Health, Economic Development and Livable 
     Communities, Foreign Aid, Welfare and Low income Assistance 
     and Juvenile Justice and Law enforcement. Some additions or 
     subtractions from these categories are possible; however, 
     they will remain as the basic frame-work for CBC Budget and 
     appropriations demands for the entire session of the 106th 
     Congress. Members preparing budget functions should also 
     consider promoting tactics and strategies which support the 
     CBC's ongoing advocacy of these dollar allocation positions.

  To focus specifically on the most important item, education, 
everybody agrees that it is the number one priority. I wonder why 
everybody agrees. Every elected official agrees because we all read the 
same polls. We have been reading the polls for some time now. For the 
last 5 years, education has ranked among the top five priorities of the 
American people. Finally this year it has been the number one priority. 
Above concerns about Social Security, above concerns about crime 
reduction, the number one concern of the American public is education. 
So every party, every elected official has

[[Page H1271]]

 responded. Why is the response so feeble when the demand is so great? 
There are 53 million children out there in our American public schools. 
Yet the response is so feeble to their needs that we have up to now in 
the last 5 years appropriated not a single penny for school 
construction. Why is our response so feeble on a basic item like school 
construction?

                              {time}  2230

  Is there a need for school construction? Our own General Accounting 
Office said 6 years ago that we needed $110 billion at that time, 6 
years ago, in order to just maintain a physical infrastructure for the 
students in school at that time, without projecting what was coming.
  There have been tremendous increases in the number of school children 
who are attending public school in the last 6 years, so the problem has 
been compounded. But our feeble response has been on the Republican 
side, the Republican majority, zero, zero for construction. There is 
some kind of inbred instinctive reaction against the word 
``construction.''
  I hear many of my Republican colleagues say well, the Federal 
Government is not responsible for education, should not be responsible 
for school construction.
  The Federal Government is not responsible for roads and highways and 
sidewalks, but we have appropriated, we have approved, authorized $218 
billion for roads and highways and mass transit over the next 6 years.
  There is nothing in the Constitution that says we should deal with 
highways and sidewalks and mass transit, but we are doing it. The 
highway system was not projected in the Constitution but we did it, we 
are doing it. Many other activities undertaken by the Federal 
Government are not mandated in the Constitution. It is a need we feel 
the Nation has and we rise to meet that need.
  We have great concern with defense. In all the budgets other than the 
Congressional Black Caucus budget there are proposals to increase the 
amount of defense. The President started with a huge increase for 
defense, and beyond that the Republicans want to add $17 billion more 
for defense.
  The Democratic Blue Dogs, conservatives, want to add money for 
defense. What will it gain us if we spend billions of dollars to 
perfect and to create more of these high-tech military systems if we do 
not have the people who can run them?
  The last great aircraft carrier that was launched in the United 
States was 300 personnel short. They had places for 300 people more and 
they could not find them because the high-tech systems on that aircraft 
carrier required a certain level of intelligence that would allow one 
to be trained in a certain way and a certain amount of exposure to 
previous training related to computers and the digital world.
  The world is going that way and we are rapidly pushing it that way. 
We are in the leadership. Our military technology is in the leadership 
above all. Who created the Internet? It was the American people who 
financed the Internet through the Defense Department. Our military 
created the Internet. There would be no Internet if it had not been for 
the genius of the people in the military who saw the need for that kind 
of system and began that system.
  So how are we going to operate this 21st Century military fighting 
machine unless we have more young people who have the appropriate 
training and education? No matter where one goes, they are going to 
find a need for more and better trained people. One cannot accomplish 
that if they refuse to construct decent schools, renovate schools. It 
is not just a matter of wiring the schools so that they can have 
computers and maybe hook up to the Internet, taking advantage of the 
fact that we have a thing called the e-rate which will give them a 
discount on the use of the Internet. It is not just a matter of that. 
It is a matter of they cannot even achieve in the basic areas of 
reading, writing and arithmetic if they are in schools that are 
unhealthy, unsafe and not conducive to learning.
  In New York City we have 200 schools that still have furnaces that 
burn coal. We subject children in New York City to the fumes of a coal-
burning school to pollution in the air. We also have an asthma epidemic 
in New York City that goes on year after year. Is it surprising that we 
can take a map and the asthma epidemic is at its greatest in the areas 
where there are the coal-burning schools?

  One coal burning school has 500 students, and 100 of those students 
have serious respiratory illnesses and asthma, and half the teachers in 
the school also have serious respiratory illnesses, those who chose to 
stay. A lot of them left the school, which brings us to another 
problem. We are focused on the fact that there is a great teacher 
shortage looming. It is already in effect in New York City. One-third 
of the teachers are not certified because they cannot get certified 
teachers so they have to use uncertified teachers. So we have a problem 
already. Many other big cities have the same problem but it is going to 
get worse and the cities and the suburbs and everywhere will be without 
teachers unless we do something to make up for this great coming 
retirement of massive numbers of teachers.
  There are all kinds of programs being proposed but the simple matter 
of creating working conditions where those who are teachers will stay 
in the profession and those who are not teachers will look at what is 
going on and come in is a first step. One must have a decent place to 
work. Why should a teacher, a young person, want to study and become a 
teacher when he has other alternatives that are safer? Why go into a 
school where they have a coal-burning furnace? Why go into a school 
where the top floor has been abandoned because of the fact that it 
leaks so and the walls are crumbling; no matter how they try to fix it, 
it is just not going to work? They need a new school. Why go into a 
school where there are 35 students in a classroom where classes are 
being held in the hallways and closets and in some cases they have 
converted the boys' and girls' rooms into classrooms? Why teach under 
those conditions? Why work under those conditions? Why ask any young 
person to have that kind of dedication in the United States of America, 
the richest country that ever existed on the face of the earth?
  We are able to provide. There is no reason why we cannot provide 
decent school buildings. But school construction, as I said, meets a 
zero when it comes to the Republican majority.
  The President over the last few years has proposed a program which 
was zero in appropriations but at least it was a program which proposed 
that a setup be created whereby school boards and local education 
agencies or State governments or local governments could borrow money 
to build schools, up to $25 billion nationwide, and the Federal 
Government would pay the interest on the bonds. That was the 
President's proposal, to pay the interest on the bond of $25 billion 
and the Federal Government, if that program went into effect, over a 5-
year period and all the $25 billion was spent, the Federal Government 
would be contributing over a five-year period $3.7 billion to school 
construction, to the problem of school infrastructure.
  Now, the General Accounting Office has said in 1995 we need $110 
billion just to keep our present schools going. We are proposing in the 
Congressional Black Caucus budget that we spend $10 billion this year, 
next year and for the whole 10 years in this decade. Ten billion 
dollars would be $100 billion for school construction.
  If we have a $1.9 trillion, let us round it off, about $2 trillion 
expected in surpluses above and beyond the Social Security surplus, if 
we have $2 trillion and that is a conservative estimate, then we are 
proposing that only 5 percent of that be used for school construction. 
Is that an unreasonable proposal in a nation where the people have 
indicated again and again that they view education as a highest 
priority? Is that an unreasonable proposal when some of the surveys and 
polls have gone even further to ask people, among the priorities within 
education, what do they think is most urgent?

  One poll showed overwhelmingly people said fix the schools, we need 
to fix up the schools. Fixing up the schools means in some cases 
repairing existing schools that can be fixed. Fixing up the schools in 
some cases means modernizing the school, dealing with asbestos problems 
and being able to wire the school so they can have computers and

[[Page H1272]]

get on the Internet. Fixing some schools and some problems in areas 
means they want new security measures taken and they need to have some 
capital items taken care of in terms of security. In most cases, fixing 
up schools means they need to build some new schools. Ten billion 
dollars per year is proposed.
  I have a bill which would authorize that by using provisions in the 
Elementary and Secondary Education Act. We will be marking up the 
Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the rest of it, next week, I am 
told, in our committee. I am on the Committee on Education and the 
Workforce and the chairman of the Committee on Education and the 
Workforce is one of those people adamantly opposes spending a dollar 
for school construction, but he is in favor of education being cited as 
a number one priority.
  The Republican candidate for President, Mr. Bush, is in favor of 
education action by the Federal Government because he understands it is 
a number one priority. He is going to have a great education program 
but he has ridiculed the idea of spending money for school 
construction. In fact, in a very strange dialogue, I heard him say on 
television we should not spend money on school construction; bricks and 
mortar are not important.
  The Democratic candidate, Al Gore has said he is willing to mount a 
program of $115 billion for education reform over the next 10 years. He 
is moving in the right direction. How much of that will be committed to 
school construction? That is my question.
  I have here a hard hat that I carry around as a symbol of where we 
need to go. We need to let the builders of America take over to end 
this number one problem. One cannot solve any of the problems in 
education until they deal with the problem of physical infrastructure. 
We are winning, though, because the President moved beyond his proposal 
for bonds and interest and he put $1.3 billion in the budget for 
immediate repairs. We are winning.
  I understand the Republicans have also agreed to the bond proposal. 
We are winning. They need to hear from the American people that not 
only is education a priority but number one in education is school 
construction.

                          ____________________