[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 62 (Thursday, May 12, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H3243-H3246]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      THE VOICE OF GEORGIA'S FOURTH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT IS BACK

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 4, 2005, the gentlewoman from Georgia (Ms. McKinney) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Ms. McKINNEY. Mr. Speaker, it has been a long time since I have taken 
the well of the House of Representatives. Today, the people of 
Georgia's 4th Congressional District are happy that I am back. I have 
received notes, calls, letters and visits from people all over America 
who are glad to see me back in Congress. They are glad to have a voice.
  That voice. The voice. The voice back. The voice who spoke out and 
asked the questions about waste and abuse at the Pentagon. The fact 
that our Secretary of Defense would come to the House Committee on 
Armed Services, on which I served, and admit the loss of $2.3 trillion 
and say in the same breath that our country can afford it; and the 
massive amounts of money that we send to the Pentagon today without 
even questioning how it has been spent; that we can afford it; or that 
we are getting the appropriate bang for our taxpayer bucks.
  I questioned the no-bid sweetheart deals with favored insider 
corporations, like the Carlisle Group and Halliburton. I did not 
understand how our sitting Vice President could still be drawing a 
paycheck from the Halliburton Company and, at the same time, serve the 
interests of the American people.
  I asked why weapon systems, unwanted by the Pentagon, still found 
their way into the President's defense request. I wondered why our 
soldiers were being required to take anthrax and smallpox vaccines that 
had not even been cleared by the FDA. I was amazed to learn that the 
administrator of the vaccines program was DynePort, a subsidiary of a 
company whose employees had been found guilty of trafficking in young 
women, raping young girls, and holding women of all ages as sex slaves.
  I asked questions about how the United States could entirely change 
its military doctrine to one of preemption and there not be a 
discussion about the ramifications of that with the American people.
  All that happened was that the Secretary of Defense came before the 
Committee on Armed Services and said that the new U.S. posture was 
going to be to seize foreign capitals and occupy them. Of course, this 
was long before anyone in the public was aware that we would soon be 
sending our young men and women off to a war to do just that. I was 
appalled at the acceptance without question of what was clearly a 
deviation from then current policy, but what was seemingly also more 
than just a theoretical forward projection of our military might. What 
Rumsfeld enunciated back then was exactly what we are doing now.

                              {time}  1515

  I publicly questioned how such a fundamental shift could be 
sanctioned without the least bit of controversy. I questioned why 
private militaries, some would say mercenary outfits while others would 
say U.S. intelligence front companies, like DynCorp were being given 
contracts that seems to me to allow escape of congressional oversight. 
DynCorp was spraying chemicals on plants and people in Colombia and had 
a presence in Peru, Qatar, Haiti, Afghanistan and now

[[Page H3244]]

Iraq. I wondered what would happen when Americans employed by these 
companies are hurt or killed or are caught carrying out a mission not 
approved by the Congress or was unknown by the Congress. I guess you 
could say I just had too many questions. And, sadly, I did not like the 
answers I was finding as I did my research.
  Over 3 years ago, I asked questions about the appearance of war 
profiteering just after our President declared the war on terror, and I 
called for an investigation into the tragic events of September 11. 
Now, I am pleased that important legislation to look into war 
profiteering has been introduced and voted on in this House. And today, 
we voted on legislation suggested by the 9/11 Commission which was 
convened to investigate the tragic events of September 11 just as I had 
called for. Everyone in this body and most who are watching know what 
happened to me for asking these questions and demanding accountability. 
I was kicked out of Congress, and for 2 years, I had the opportunity to 
travel around our country and to other countries and tell my story to 
people who were hungry to know more about America's war on terror and 
about September 11. During those 2 years, I met some wonderful patriots 
who want only the best for our country and its people and who wish for 
peace with justice for other people around the world. And that is why 
we have been inundated with letters and calls and e-mails and faxes and 
visits from people all over the country welcoming me back to Congress. 
And so I am glad to be here and rejoin my colleagues in the competition 
of ideas on how we can make our country even better.
  This afternoon I would like to start by recounting an experience that 
happened to me this morning. This morning, I was doing my customary 
walk to work to enjoy these wonderful Washington, D.C., mornings. And 
about midway through my walk, I heard a little boy yelling at me. He 
was asking me to stop the bus for him as he was running to catch the 
bus for school. Usually I am loaded down with lots of bags, but this 
morning, thank goodness, I did not have a heavy load. And so I kicked 
into high gear, and I ran so I could catch that bus for that little 
boy. I caught the tail end of the bus, and I banged on the back of the 
bus to get it to stop and let the little boy on, but the bus pulled off 
without acknowledging any of my bangs. I turned to the little boy, and 
I told him, ``Don't give up. Let's run, we'll catch that bus 
together.'' So we both got into high gear, and we ran and we ran and we 
ran and we ran. And soon I saw that the bus had stopped. So I told the 
little boy, ``Don't give up, we can make it. We've just got to keep on 
running.'' The little boy did not give up. He kept running. The little 
boy's determination to make it to that bus was evident. The little boy 
wanted to get to school. While the bus was stopped at the red light, we 
managed to catch up. The fact that we did not give up gave us the 
opportunity to catch the bus. I thought there was a good lesson in that 
for the little boy.
  And then I started to bang on the bus. I banged on the bus from the 
rear all the way up to the front passenger door. I pointed to the 
little boy who was just a few steps behind me, and I yelled, ``Please 
open the door. Let this little boy onto the bus.'' The driver looked at 
me. She looked at the little boy. She shook her head, and she drove 
off.
  The little boy was crushed. Tears welled in his eyes. He wanted to 
get to school. That bus represented the door of opportunity. He had 
done all he could to reach that door. He ran. He told himself he could 
make it. He made it. That, in and of itself, was a victory, but it 
still was not enough to get the little boy on the bus and on his way to 
school. The door of opportunity for that little boy was closed when the 
bus pulled off. It left that little boy behind.
  And so what I would like to address today are the closed doors of 
opportunity that leave too many Americans behind. That little boy's 
name was Martin. That is important, because behind the statistics that 
we tout on this floor every day over and over again are real people 
whose lives are affected by what we do and the decisions we make.
  Mr. Speaker, the policies of this Congress and this administration 
and the decisions of the court are leaving too many Americans behind. 
Our goal ought to be to open the doors of opportunity for all 
Americans, so that no one is left behind. But, sadly, the statistics 
tell us conclusively that the doors of opportunity are as closed for 
certain Americans as they were for little Martin this morning.

  Today, I would like to explore some of those statistics and suggest 
that we fail to do our jobs if we do not enact policies that turn these 
numbers around. I will be quoting from Hull House, the New York Times, 
United for a Fair Economy, and the National Urban League. Hull House is 
an organization in Chicago. They did a study on the disparities between 
blacks and whites living in Chicago, and what they found was that in 
economic and social indices, it would take 200 years for those gaps in 
the quality of life enjoyed by black Chicagoans and white Chicagoans to 
close. Here is what they said: Fourteen years ago, a report was 
released examining human relations in Chicago that told us that racism 
was alive and well. Over the years, we have seen racial disparity 
impacted by a growing economic gap that has left many behind. The 
information in this report will help us create more effective, 
sustainable solutions by allowing us to deal with systemic barriers. It 
is critical that we establish a floor under which no Chicagoan will 
fall.
  Where are these gaps in Chicago? They are in income, wealth and 
employment, education, health, housing, welfare and health of children, 
crime, law enforcement and justice and transportation. The gap between 
high- and low-income households in the region increased 11 percent 
between 1999 and 2000, the first rise in 7 years.
  Under health, in Illinois, Latinos had the highest rate of non-
elderly uninsured, 29 percent; followed by blacks at 24 percent; Asian, 
Pacific Islander/Native Americans at 17 percent. For the white 
population, the rate is 10 percent. For crime, law enforcement and 
justice, African-Americans are less likely to use drugs than whites or 
Latinos. Let me repeat that: African-Americans are less likely to use 
drugs than whites or Latinos. There is, however, a gap between the 
number of African-Americans who are convicted of drug possession or 
drug delivery and sentenced to prison and the number of whites and 
Latinos who are convicted of the same crime who get probation.
  Another study was conducted by the New York Times. In that survey, 
they found that nearly 50 percent of all African-American men living in 
New York City were unemployed. Nearly 50 percent of African-American 
men between the ages of 16 and 64 were unemployed, a crisis, an 
emergency. African-American unemployment remains high. It is 
significantly higher than the national average. The nonpartisan 
Congressional Budget Office recently reported African-Americans have 
lost up to 88 percent of their earning potential since President Bush 
assumed office in January 2001. I think I need to repeat that one: The 
nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office recently reported African-
Americans have lost up to 88 percent of their earning potential since 
President Bush assumed office in January 2001.
  Another study: Blacks lose better jobs faster as middle-class work 
drops. Unemployment among blacks is rising at a faster pace than at any 
time since the mid-1970s, and jobs lost are mostly in manufacturing 
where pay for blacks has historically been higher than in any other 
fields. Nearly 2.6 million jobs have disappeared in the past 28 months, 
nearly 90 percent in manufacturing. Jobless blacks are continuing to 
look for work, but the types of jobs lost have diminished their 
standing in the middle class.
  I have a report which is the status of health in DeKalb County, which 
is in my district of the Fourth Congressional District. Now, folks in 
the Fourth Congressional District like to tout that our district of 
African-American communities is the first or second most affluent 
African-American community in the entire United States. Yet that 
affluent African-American community, first or second in the United 
States, has a result thus in infant mortality: In 2001, Georgia had the 
ninth highest infant mortality rate in the United States with a rate of 
8.6 deaths per 1,000 live births. Infant mortality rates in DeKalb 
County have been increasing slightly from 9.9 deaths

[[Page H3245]]

per 1,000 live births in 1994 to 10.5 in 2002. From 1994 to 2002, there 
was an average of 12 black infant deaths per 1,000 live births and 4.7 
white infant deaths per 1,000 live births. That is the statistic for 
the first or second most affluent African-American community in the 
country.
  Let us look at some information that has been provided to us by 
United for a Fair Economy.

                              {time}  1530

  United for a Fair Economy produces a report every year called the 
``State of the Dream Report.'' In their 2004 ``State of the Dream 
Report,'' they discuss racial disparities in poverty. The black poverty 
rate was three times greater than the white poverty rate in 2002. At 
the slow rate that the black/white poverty gap has been narrowing since 
1968, it will take 150 years to close the gap.
  Let us look at imprisonment. They start out with a quote from Dr. 
King. He says: ``So I must return to the valley, a valley filled with 
millions of people who, because of economic deprivation and social 
isolation, have lost hope and seen life as a long and desolate corridor 
with no exit sign. I must return to the valley all over the South and 
in the big cities of the North, a valley filled with millions of our 
white and Negro brothers who are smoldering in an airtight cage of 
poverty in the midst of an affluent society.''
  African Americans on imprisonment are about six times as likely as 
whites to have been imprisoned at some point in their lives. This gap 
between black and white men is growing. One out of three black males 
born in 2001 will be imprisoned at some point in their lifetime if 
current trends continue. That is up from one out of 11 in 1974.
  By comparison, 5.9 percent of white males born in 2001, 5.6 percent 
of black females, and nine-tenths of 1 percent of white females have a 
lifetime chance of imprisonment.
  What about child poverty? Almost a third of black children live in 
poverty, 32.1 percent in 2002. The child poverty gap would take 210 
years to disappear, not reaching parity until 2212.
  Income, for every dollar of white income, African Americans had 55 
cents in 1968. That is the year Dr. King was murdered. In 2001 African 
Americans had 57 cents for every dollar of white income. It has taken 
more than 3 decades for blacks to close the gap by two cents. At this 
pace it would take 581 years for blacks to gain the other 43 cents, 
which would bring them to parity with white per-capita income.
  And let us look at housing. The homeownership gap has barely budged 
since 1970. In 2002 almost three quarters of white Americans owned 
their own home, compared with fewer than half of African Americans. If 
the homeownership gap continues to close at this rate, it would take 
1,664 years, or approximately 55 generations, before the gap is 
completely closed.
  I know that I am not willing to wait 581 years. I am not willing to 
wait 1,664 years, and I think the American people ought not be willing 
to tolerate these kinds of inequalities.
  The National Urban League produces an annual report called the 
``State of Black America,'' and they have just recently produced the 
2005 edition of the ``State of Black America.'' Their headline: ``Even 
as U.S. Economy Gets Better, Jobs and Wealth Gap Gets Larger on the 
`Equality Index.' '' They say to us: ``Equality between blacks and 
whites in urban America is not improving, and changes in national 
policies and priorities must be made to help, according to a report 
released by the National Urban League, entitled `The State of Black 
America, 2005, Prescriptions for Change.' ''
  The overall equality index shows that black status remains at 73 
percent, but the numbers inside the index tell a troubling story in 
terms of unemployment, income, and wealth. Marc Morial, the President 
and CEO of the National Urban League, says: ``Our Nation must wake up. 
The growing wealth gap in this country is not just leaving behind Black 
America. It's leaving behind the middle class, urban America, rural 
America, and Hispanic America too. When one community in America 
suffers, our entire economy suffers. That is why we are recommending 
specific changes in our national priorities and policies.''
  In economics the National Urban League finds that this is still the 
largest divide. Black economic status measures 57 percent of white 
counterparts, an equality gap 20 percent wider than any other category. 
Black unemployment remains stagnant at 10.8 percent while white 
unemployment dropped to 4.7 percent, making black unemployment more 
than twice that of whites.
  Under health, black health status is 76 percent of whites. Under 
education black education status is 77 percent of whites. Under social 
justice, when measuring sentence enforcement and victimization, black 
versus white equality under law is 68 percent of whites, 5 percent less 
than 2004, the worst decline overall. We went backwards on the measure 
for social justice. Blacks are three times more likely to become 
prisoners once arrested and a black person's average jail sentence is 6 
months longer than a white's for the same crime.
  What can be done? The National Urban League offers us some specific 
recommendations, some of which I will read here. First on their list of 
recommendations is the extension of the Voting Rights Act, which 
expires in 2007. Now, a whole lot of American people do not know, even 
our President did not know, that the important enforcement provisions 
of the Voting Rights Act expire in 2007.

  How can it be, how can it be, that the Voting Rights Act enforcement 
provisions would ever expire after the pain and the suffering that 
brought the Voting Rights Act to signature in 1965, after the American 
people had the opportunity to see Bloody Sunday when African Americans 
in Alabama were trying to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge just so that 
they could get the right to vote? How could any provision of the Voting 
Rights Act ever expire?
  The National Urban League also recommends that we raise the minimum 
wage, and they suggest that we close the homeownership gap; 1,664 years 
is intolerable. And as the President touts homeownership and how 
homeownership is an integral part of his ownership society that he 
wants to create, 1,664 years to close that gap is intolerable. 
Expanding job training, strengthening the Community Development Block 
Grant program, and to double the size of the New Markets Tax Credit 
program, these are just some of the recommendations that are put 
forward by the National Urban League.
  In the United Kingdom, it is interesting to note that a psychiatrist 
was able to publish in the ``British Medical Journal'' that racism is 
harmful to one's health, is harmful to one's mental health; racism is 
harmful to health. He notes that a group of Harvard University 
researchers documented that a mere 1 percent increase in incidences of 
racial disrespect, the kind of stuff like following black people in a 
store, for which there have been many lawsuits in stores; or having 
African Americans go to restaurants and not being served, for which 
there have been many lawsuits; or for discrimination at the workplace 
in big corporations that get tax breaks here, for which many lawsuits 
have been filed, the result of a mere 1 percent increase of racial 
disrespect translates to an increase in 350 deaths per 100,000 African 
Americans. So not only is racism harmful to one's mental health; it is 
harmful to the fabric of our country. It is harmful to the very lives 
of the people who are impacted by it.
  This is now the budget season in the United States Congress. We are 
deliberating on the budget, which are the priorities of our country; 
and pretty soon we will be receiving reports from the Committee on 
Appropriations on how those priorities are going to be translated into 
real dollars for the American people. One could say that the budget is 
the most important piece of legislation passed by any legislative body 
and certainly is very important because it sets the policies and 
priorities for our country.
  The very definition of politics is who gets what. The authoritative 
allocation of values in a society, the definition of politics: that is 
the budget process, the appropriations process. Who gets what, whose 
problems get solved. We have the opportunity in this Congress to solve 
these problems. We have a responsibility in this Congress to solve 
these problems, to make this country better for all of our people so 
that the bus of opportunity does not pull off

[[Page H3246]]

when we are standing there trying to get on, so that the doors of 
opportunity are open for all Americans.
  And I am proud to say that under the leadership of the gentleman from 
North Carolina (Mr. Watt) that the members of the Congressional Black 
Caucus have decided to tackle these disparities, these intolerable 
disparities.
  One of the things, however, that we have a responsibility to do is to 
make sure that the American people understand that these inequalities, 
these inequities, these gaps, these disparities, that they exist.
  I would like to add a few comments before I begin to wrap up. These 
comments are about the United for a Fair Economy 2005 report that takes 
into consideration the President's proposals in the budget.

                              {time}  1545

  United for a Fair Economy says that while, at first, President Bush's 
ownership society goals may appear to be consistent with Dr. Martin 
Luther King's dream of economic opportunity for all races, during the 
first Bush administration, the United States actually moved farther 
away from Dr. King's vision. The employment and income picture has 
gotten worse for people of color since 2000, eroding the progress that 
was made during the 1990s.
  We all know that not only did the Clinton years provide prosperity 
for all Americans, all boats were lifted up, but those boats within the 
African-American community and other communities of color were lifted 
up.
  In 2000, the African-American unemployment rate reached an historic 
low: an historic low. Latino and Hispanic unemployment rates also 
dropped, but have risen again in the last 4 years. About half of the 
progress in the median income of people of color from 1996 to 2000 was 
wiped out in the first 3 years of the Bush administration. After slowly 
increasing from 55 percent of white income to 65 percent in 2000, black 
median income fell to 62 percent. For the first time in 15 years, the 
average Latino household now has an income that is less than two-thirds 
that of the average white household. So not only are blacks falling 
back, Latinos are falling back as well.
  Throughout the 1990s, poverty rates fell across-the-board. All boats 
were being lifted up in the 1990s. But since 2000, more than one-third 
of that progress in reducing poverty among African-American families 
has been erased; 300,000 African-American families fell below the 
poverty line from 2000 to 2003.
  What about private retirement income and inheritances? Well, they 
remain scarce among people of color. We have heard a lot of talk about 
Social Security and privatizing Social Security, and the gentleman from 
Washington (Mr. McDermott) was here earlier, and he talked about 
insecurity, social insecurity.
  African-Americans have less in private pensions and retirement 
accounts, if you are unemployed you have got to have less, and so 
depend more heavily on Social Security. They would be more affected 
than whites by any privatization plan that made benefits uncertain.
  And, of course, we talked about home ownership; United for a Fair 
Economy revisits the issue of home ownership in their 2005 report. Then 
they add that business owners of color, who are largely small business 
owners, received only minor tax breaks from the four Bush tax cuts. 
Most tax breaks for businesses and investors have landed with those who 
are wealthy and white.
  Now, we understand what the President told us in the movie Fahrenheit 
911. He told us that his base were the haves and the have-mores. So, 
accordingly, the tax cuts have provided money for the haves and the 
have-mores, and that is borne out in these statistics.
  Now, what do we do about this? We have to address these issues in 
public policy. It is public policy that can turn these numbers around 
and make better the lives of all of the little Martins out there who 
did their best and still found that the door of opportunity was closed 
for them, to turn that around and make opportunity available for all of 
them.
  Public policy requires, though, a consensus. It requires an American 
consensus. So we fought the Civil War, and after the Civil War, the 
Congress passed a Civil Rights Act. So 1964 was not the first time that 
we had a Civil Rights Act passed, because there was a consensus that 
something needed to be done to help all Americans.
  But how can we arrive at a consensus when the American people are not 
informed of the facts? Well, you certainly cannot get it on the WB or 
UPN. You cannot even get it on BET or CNN a lot of the time. But we are 
told by a Harvard University-Kaiser Family Foundation study that 
misperceptions cloud whites' views of blacks. You cannot arrive at an 
answer if you do not know the facts.
  Misperceptions cloud whites' views of blacks: Whether out of 
hostility, indifference or simple lack of knowledge, large numbers of 
white Americans incorrectly believe that blacks are as well off as 
whites in terms of their jobs, incomes, schooling and health care, 
according to a national survey by the Washington Post, the Henry J. 
Kaiser Family Foundation and Harvard University.
  Depending on the question, the poll found that 40 percent to 60 
percent of all whites say that the average black American is faring 
about as well and perhaps even better than the average white in these 
areas. These misperceptions have consequences, the survey suggests. 
Among whites, the pervasiveness of incorrect views seems to explain at 
least in part white resistance to even the least intrusive types of 
affirmative action, and more broadly, these mistaken beliefs represent 
formidable obstacles to any government efforts to equalize the social 
and economic standing of the races.
  This is the State of the Dream 2005 report, issued by United for a 
Fair Economy, and in its introduction, it quotes President Bush: ``The 
generation of wealth should not be limited to a few in our society. It 
ought to be an opportunity for everybody. There is nothing better than 
providing the incentive to say this is my asset base, I own it, I will 
live on it in retirement, and I will pass it on to somebody in my own 
family.''
  Dr. Martin Luther King had a response for that, even though dead. Dr. 
King said, ``The majority of white Americans consider themselves 
sincerely committed to justice for the Negro. They believe that 
American society is essentially hospitable to fair play and to steady 
growth toward a middle-class utopia embodying racial harmony. But 
unfortunately, this is a fantasy of self-deception and comfortable 
vanity.''
  I would hope that all of the reams of paper that have been produced 
recording these studies that I have recounted here this afternoon, from 
Hull House reporting on Chicago to the New York Times reporting on 
African-American male unemployment at 50 percent between the ages of 16 
and 64, which is veritably the entire population, to United for a Fair 
Economy to the National Urban League to Harvard University to the 
Kaiser Family Foundation, the reams and reams and reams and reams of 
paper produced chronicaling the pitiful state that some Americans 
continue to have to endure.
  Mr. Speaker, it is clear that we are leaving too many Americans 
behind. Our policies are creating two Americas, and, instead of growing 
together, we are clearly growing apart.
  I hope to return to this place, to this well, and do more special 
orders about this subject and other subjects of interest to my 
constituents in my district and the people who have voiced their 
support around the country. We have such serious issues, and the people 
need our help and our attention.
  Mr. Speaker, I am hopeful that this Congress will provide some relief 
to all of the people who fall into the numbers that I have accounted 
tonight.

                          ____________________