[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 162 (Wednesday, November 28, 2001)]
[House]
[Page H8555]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              THE PLIGHT OF AFGHANISTAN WOMEN AND CHILDREN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE. Mr. Speaker, first, I would like to say to the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Millender-McDonald) and the co-chair 
of the Women's Caucus, let me thank her for her leadership and for her 
outstanding commitment, on behalf of the women, to the women of 
Afghanistan. I would like to associate myself with her remarks, in 
particular to acknowledge the Women's Caucus, and to make note of the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Solis) who I joined just about 2 weeks 
ago on a briefing on Afghanistan women and children. So I rise today to 
add to that discussion.
  I will need to also assess the status of children of Afghanistan and 
to be able to lift up the women, so as we lift the women, we lift the 
children. We are finding that the children of Afghanistan are working 
at ages 7 and 8, providing for their families, making 50 cents a day 
building bricks. Those children do not have an opportunity to go to 
school, and obviously, under the Taliban regime, the girls were 
particularly discriminated against, but the boys and the girls found 
themselves building bricks every day to help support their family. The 
incomes of the families is so far below poverty of any kind that we 
would ever recognize. The Afghan children are put to work at a very 
early age, some 4 and 5, 6 and 7 and 8 years old.
  I look forward in the future weeks to hold a briefing on the 
treatment of the children in Afghanistan. It is particularly important 
as we face a very troubling scenario on the border between Afghanistan 
and Pakistan; millions of refugees with no place to go; United Nations 
fighting to provide food and, as well, comfort to those families who 
are displaced.
  It is now time, I believe, for the United States Government in its 
victory to now begin to establish an exit strategy, an exit strategy 
out of Afghanistan, but also a response to how we bring back to life 
this country that is so destroyed. How do we restore the rights of 
families, of women, of children? How do we restore the economy? How do 
we find a place for refugees who are now caught between two borders? 
How do we find relief and harmony between the governments or at least 
the to-be-established government of Afghanistan and as well Pakistan?
  It is extremely important that as we look to rebuild that we look to 
the children and we look to the families. It is also extremely 
important that rather than look to Iraq as the next stop of our 
efforts, we should look to an exit strategy and peace.
  As we relate to unfinished business, let me briefly say, Mr. Speaker, 
there is work that this Congress still needs to do. I participated, as 
many did, in the debate on the floor of the House today in the defense 
appropriations and the emergency supplemental bill, and I just want to 
again restate that, until we become proactive, we are not truly 
fighting terrorism at home.
  I am very disappointed that the Obey amendment did not pass, and I 
emphasize two particular aspects of that, that is, our public health 
system. Shortly after the September 11 attack, I went home to Houston 
and met with our emergency responders, the first responders, but 
particularly our hospitals and public clinics and particularly our 
public hospital system, already, if you will, bending under the 
pressure. More importantly, a system that already needed funding; 
without funding, without funding to address any kind of mass attack 
that requires the health system to rise to the occasion. No funds were 
given to that system today.
  Not enough funds were given to secure our border, the Canadian 
border, one of the largest borders, and the southern border. No funds 
were given to provide enough support for customs inspectors, more 
border patrol agents. An issue that I am particularly concerned about, 
the ability of individuals to come across the border with infectious 
diseases like smallpox, no sufficient number of health inspectors to 
assist us in that effort. Our work is not done.
  Tomorrow, it is proposed that we will be dealing with or we were 
supposed to be dealing with the Anti-Terrorism Risk Act. Here we are 
looking again to help industry, and yet we still are not helping the 
unemployed. Unemployed individuals are growing in numbers. We are in a 
recession, and yet this Congress has refused to pass legislation to 
help those unemployed individuals.
  Again, in my hometown we are fighting a very difficult and very 
challenging economic time, and that is, the situation occurring with 
Enron in the 18th Congressional District. There are many issues dealing 
with Enron I realize, and I hope that we can retain that company in our 
community, but the most important issue are the numbers of laid-off 
employees that we may be facing. We have got to address the 
unemployment and the recession as it impacts the unemployed in this 
Nation.
  This Congress has unfinished business. It is time for us again to 
act. It is time for us now, if we want to use the terminology, let us 
bail out the working men and women of America. Let us finish our 
unfinished work.

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