[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 114 (Wednesday, September 5, 2001)]
[House]
[Page H5375]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    CRITICAL ISSUES AFFECTING WOMEN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Kirk). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Millender-McDonald) is 
recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. MILLENDER-McDONALD. Mr. Speaker, I have come tonight to reflect 
upon some of the issues that I was confronted with over this August 
recess with many women whom I spoke with, and they simply wanted to 
know what we were doing in this House and this administration in trying 
to address some of the critical issues that are affecting women today. 
As we know, the women of today and tomorrow will be the majority of the 
workforce and thereby need to have the necessary tools with which they 
can provide for their families and themselves.
  As I talked with these women, they were really concerned about 
reproductive rights. They want to make sure that this House does not 
whittle away the rights that they should have to look into whether they 
will provide for their children, whether they will have the right to 
their own lives, to their own bodies; and they simply want to make sure 
that this House does not do anything that would be destructive to the 
rights of women in terms of their reproductive rights.
  Domestic violence is another one that they have talked with me about, 
because they simply look at the number of women and children who are 
now on the streets, the streets across this Nation, the most powerful 
Nation on Earth, not giving the women, again, tools to provide for 
their families and themselves, giving them the job training that they 
need so that they can sustain themselves and their families, giving 
their children the type of education that is needed to provide them the 
type of future that is required for the workforce.
  Mr. Speaker, we must simply look at the agenda that this Congress is 
bringing forth for women and their families, as well as this 
administration. We can really leave no family behind, as we talk about 
leaving no child behind.
  So as I come tonight, I just want the American people to know that I 
will be here every week now trying to synthesize and look through the 
myriad of issues that we have here on this floor, to see whether or not 
we really are serious about leaving no child behind and ensuring that 
the women of today will be sufficiently prepared for the workforce 
tomorrow and for today.
  So beginning this month-long effort, we want to look at the wellness 
of women and their families. We want to look into the public policy to 
find out whether or not this administration is serious about leaving no 
child behind. As we look at that, we simply look at the education 
proposal that has been put forth.
  We do not have the money to talk about the class sizes that the urban 
areas and the rural areas look at in terms of their children's quality 
of health and quality of education. This budget does not speak to 
reducing class sizes. It does not speak to qualified teachers that will 
be teachers who are making the salary conducive to teaching our 
children. It does not speak to the construction of schools that will 
provide the proper type of environment for our children.
  This education proposal that the President has put through will leave 
children behind if he does not put the type of financial support behind 
these words and this slogan. It will be an empty slogan if the money 
does not follow the message.
  So if we are talking about leaving no child behind, especially in my 
district of Watts and Compton and Wilmington, where you have the most 
impoverished kids, you have to make sure title I has the type of 
funding that is necessary to bring these children forward, the type of 
classrooms that will teach them high technology, the type of qualified 
teachers that will be there to teach them and to have a type of 
constructive engagement that will help them through their period of 
schooling. Healthy Start and Head Start need to have financial support.
  I will be looking very carefully at this education proposal, looking 
at the President when he speaks about leaving no child behind, to make 
sure that we have sufficient funding for math and science for girls, 
because as I have gone around this Nation over this last month, I have 
found that there is a considerably decreasing number of girls in math 
and science classes. We are not encouraging our girls to go into math 
and science, and yet these are the future engineers and scientists who 
will be speaking to and doing research on the quality of life for 
families. So that is one element that we need to look at. The other 
thing is that of health.
  Mr. Speaker, I will simply say, I will be here every week to speak on 
health, education and the quality of life for women and their families.

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