[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 159 (Tuesday, December 13, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H11459-H11462]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1630
   DESIGNATING CERTAIN BUILDINGS OF CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND 
                               PREVENTION

  Mr. BOOZMAN. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the 
bill (H.R. 4500) to designate certain buildings of the Centers for 
Disease Control and Prevention.
  The Clerk read as follows:

                               H.R. 4500

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. ROSA PARKS HEADQUARTERS AND EMERGENCY OPERATIONS 
                   CENTER BUILDING.

       (a) Designation.--The Headquarters and Emergency Operations 
     Center building

[[Page H11460]]

     (Building 21) of the Centers for Disease Control and 
     Prevention located at 1600 Clifton Road in Atlanta, Georgia, 
     shall be known and designated as the ``Rosa Parks 
     Headquarters and Emergency Operations Center Building''.
       (b) References.--Any reference in a law, map, regulation, 
     document, paper, or other record of the United States to the 
     building referred to in subsection (a) shall be deemed to be 
     a reference to the ``Rosa Parks Headquarters and Emergency 
     Operations Center Building''.

     SEC. 2. MOTHER TERESA GLOBAL COMMUNICATIONS CENTER BUILDING.

       (a) Designation.--The Global Communications Center building 
     of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Building 
     19) located at 1600 Clifton Road in Atlanta, Georgia, shall 
     be known and designated as the ``Mother Teresa Global 
     Communications Center Building''.
       (b) References.--Any reference in a law, map, regulation, 
     document, paper, or other record of the United States to the 
     building referred to in subsection (a) shall be deemed to be 
     a reference to the ``Mother Teresa Global Communications 
     Center Building''.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Sodrel). Pursuant to the rule, the 
gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Boozman) and the gentlewoman from the 
District of Columbia (Ms. Norton) each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Arkansas.


                             General Leave

  Mr. BOOZMAN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members 
may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their 
remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 4500.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Arkansas?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. BOOZMAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, H.R. 4500 honors two great leaders, Rosa Parks and 
Mother Teresa, by designating buildings in their honor.
  This bill designates the Headquarters and Emergency Operations Center 
Building at the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention as the Rosa 
Parks Headquarters and Emergency Operations Center. Rosa Parks is most 
well known as the mother of the civil rights movement. In 1955, she 
defiantly refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus in 
Montgomery, Alabama, inspiring further civil disobedience. Rosa Parks' 
dedication to fight for social and economic justice continued beyond 
that monumental day in 1955, as she spent the remainder of her life 
fighting against all forms of discrimination.
  Rosa Parks received numerous awards for her contributions to the 
civil rights movement, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom and 
Congressional Gold Medal. Rosa Parks passed away earlier this year.
  H.R. 4500 also designates the Global Communications Center Building 
at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as the Mother Teresa 
Global Communications Center.
  Mother Teresa spent her life assisting those in poverty in Calcutta, 
India and throughout central Asia. Her inspiration started a movement 
of volunteers who continue to spread her message and ministry 
throughout the world. Today, over 100,000 volunteers in 123 countries 
participate in Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity program, 
bringing hope and aid to the sick and dying.
  Mother Teresa received numerous awards and recognition for her humble 
acts of kindness, including the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. Mother 
Teresa died in 1997.
  It is an honor to name facilities used to provide essential human 
services and protect the health and safety of the American people after 
two women who devoted their lives to similar causes.
  I support this legislation and encourage my colleagues to do the 
same.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the gentlewoman from 
Kentucky (Mrs. Northup) be allowed to manage the remainder of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Arkansas?
  There was no objection.
  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I presume this is either All Saints Day or the Christmas 
season because we are certainly honoring two saints, and I do not think 
there will be a single ``nay'' vote on this bill. I am pleased to 
endorse these bills to name buildings respectively after Mother Teresa 
and Rosa Parks.
  As if a bio was needed for Mother Teresa, the record probably should 
reveal some of the background of Mother Teresa who began life as an 
ordinary human being like the rest of us. She just went on to sainthood 
even before she died.
  She was born in Macedonia in August of 1910. At the age of 18, she 
left home to join the Sisters of Loreto, an Irish community of nuns 
conducting missionary work in India. In 1931, after training in Dublin, 
Sister Teresa arrived in India, where from 1931 to 1948 she taught at 
St. Mary's High School in Calcutta. In 1948, Sister Teresa received 
permission to leave the high school to minister to the poorest of the 
poor in the slums of Calcutta. In the ensuing half century, she created 
a legacy of human charity and good works that have become the standard 
for all to emulate.
  In 1959, she received permission to start her own order known as the 
Missionaries of Charity whose primary task is to look after those left 
with no one prepared to look after them.
  The Society of Missionaries has spread all over the world, including 
the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. The society provides help 
to the world's needy in a number of countries and houses alcoholics, 
the homeless and AIDS sufferers.
  Mother Teresa's work is acclaimed throughout the world. Her awards 
and distinctions are countless. In 1979, she was awarded the Nobel 
Peace Prize in recognition of her work to bring help to suffering 
humanity. She is one of only nine women to be awarded the Nobel Peace 
Prize.
  Respect for individual dignity and each person's innate value are at 
the core of her beliefs and provide the basis for her charitable work. 
Her order receives the dying, the destitute, abandoned lepers and the 
poor. Her work and her personal philosophy is grounded in her Christian 
faith. It is certainly proper and appropriate that the building located 
on the campus for the Centers for Disease Control at 1600 Clifton Road, 
Atlanta, Georgia, be named in Mother Teresa's honor.
  Also, at the same location, a building dedicated to Rosa Parks will 
be identified as the Rosa Parks Emergency Operations Center.
  We honor Rosa Parks for her courage and conviction. By now, Mr. 
Speaker, we all know the story of that December evening in 1955, 50 
years ago, when a 42-year-old black woman riding a bus in Montgomery, 
Alabama, refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on demand. 
Montgomery segregation laws were complex and deeply humiliating, but 
Rosa Parks' personal and quiet strength and sense of justice changed 
not only the laws of Montgomery she challenged, but also the laws of 
the United States of America.
  For her boldness, she was arrested and found guilty of disorderly 
conduct. These actions led to the famous Montgomery bus boycott that 
lasted over a year and ultimately to a Supreme Court decision that 
banned segregation in city public transit systems, led also to the 
great civil rights laws enacted in the 1960s and led also to the civil 
rights movement itself which followed her lead and took up the struggle 
with an army of black and white nonviolent activists working in 
imitation of Rosa Parks.
  It is impossible to overstate the impact of her actions in defiance 
of segregation. Her story has become part of the American story and of 
the story of Congress itself where she became the first woman to lie in 
State in the Rotunda in November.
  I am honored to support this bill that acknowledges the contributions 
of two exceptional women.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mrs. NORTHUP. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to echo the words of the 
gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton) and to have an 
opportunity to offer H.R. 4500 which names two recently completed 
Centers for Disease Control buildings after two heroic and renowned 
women in our Nation's and in fact our world's history: Mrs. Rosa Parks 
of Tuskegee, Alabama; and Mother Teresa of Calcutta.
  In their own ways, each of these women helped to make our country and

[[Page H11461]]

our world more just and caring. I am sure everyone in this House is 
aware that Rosa Parks passed away this October, and we have since had a 
real chance to celebrate her life and her contribution to this Nation. 
Her courage and her will to do what was right will continue to be an 
example to all Americans and to the people of other nations who are 
dedicated to the cause of justice and equality.
  Mrs. Parks was a seamstress in Montgomery, Alabama, when, in 
December, 1955, she refused to give up her seat on a city bus to a 
white passenger. The bus driver had her arrested for being in violation 
of the law, granting preferential seating to white passengers. Her 
subsequent trial and conviction for this act of civil disobedience 
sparked the Montgomery bus boycott, one of the largest and most 
successful mass movements against racial segregation in history. It 
launched Martin Luther King, Jr., as one of the organizers of the 
boycott, and he came to the forefront of the civil rights movement.
  Rosa Parks ignited a civil rights struggle and made possible the 
eventual overturn of the Jim Crow laws. Over the next four decades, she 
reminded her fellow Americans of our ideals and our commitment to 
justice and equal treatment under the law.
  She was a recipient of innumerable awards, including the Martin 
Luther King, Jr., Nonviolent Peace Prize and the Presidential Medal of 
Freedom. Our country will always be indebted to her for the moral 
courage she showed to call on our country to live up to our ideals and 
promises. Senator Barack Obama said it best upon the President's 
signing of legislation placing a statue of Rosa Parks in Statuary Hall, 
``Rosa Parks held no public office, but when the history of this 
country is written, her name and her legacy will be remembered long 
after the names of Senators and Presidents have been forgotten. So it 
is fitting that her legacy, her hopes, and her struggles be 
immortalized alongside the statues of men and women whose hearts she 
helped change.''
  Mr. Speaker, this bill also pays homage to the life and work of 
Mother Teresa by naming the Global Communications Center building at 
the Centers for Disease Control after her.
  Mother Teresa was born in Macedonia in 1910, and at an early age, she 
felt the calling to serve God and her fellow man and joined the Sisters 
of Loreto that had missions in India. While teaching high school in 
India, Mother Teresa witnessed the poverty outside of her convent and 
asked permission to devote her life and her ministries to serving the 
poor and the sick, bringing them medical care, education and food.
  Her remarkable work helped bring comfort to people around the world 
that society had forgotten or neglected. The Missionaries of Charity, 
which she founded, carries on her work, operating schools, orphanages 
and houses for the poor in over 130 countries.
  Mother Teresa's saintly good works received acclaim and recognition 
throughout the world. In 1979, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 
and later President Reagan awarded her the Presidential Medal of 
Freedom in 1985.
  In 1996, shortly before she died, Congress made her an honorary 
citizen of the United States, one of the highest honors our country can 
bestow on foreign nationals. I think it is particularly fitting that 
her name adorn CDC's Global Communications Center which will allow it 
to share in the legacy and mission of Mother Teresa's work by serving 
the world's poor and sick.
  Mr. Speaker, thank you for this opportunity to pay tribute to these 
two profoundly good women who sacrificed so much so we can all live in 
a freer and more compassionate world. I urge every Member to support 
H.R. 4500.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from 
Illinois (Mr. Davis) and a cosponsor of the bill.
  Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the distinguished 
gentlewoman from the District of Columbia for yielding me this time.
  I am pleased to cosponsor this resolution with the gentlewoman from 
Kentucky (Mrs. Northup) and rise in strong support of it passage.
  Mr. Speaker, this bill renames two buildings at the Centers for 
Disease Control and Prevention in honor of two of the world's most 
outstanding and most accomplished contemporary women.
  Designation of building one names the Headquarters and Emergency 
Operations Center Building of the Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention located at 1600 Clifton Road in Atlanta, Georgia, as the 
Rosa Parks Headquarters and Emergency Operations Center Building.
  Designation two of this bill changes the name of the Global 
Communications Center building at the Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention Building 19 located at 1600 Clifton Road as the Mother 
Teresa Global Communications Center Building.
  Mr. Speaker, we all know that Mother Teresa was one of the greatest 
advocates for the poor, disadvantaged and downtrodden that the world 
has ever seen. She, in many instances, almost single-handedly brought 
greater attention to poverty and the needs of the poor.

                              {time}  1645

  And given the mission of the Centers for Disease Control, there is no 
greater way or better way to draw attention to its continuing needs 
than to have one of its buildings named in honor of Mother Teresa.
  Mr. Speaker, all of us have most recently participated in the 
celebration of the life of Rosa Parks, and many of us actually were 
able to attend her funeral. This dainty freedom fighter who defied 
years of tradition and the law in refusing to give up her seat on a bus 
in Montgomery, Alabama to a white person, this calculated act of 
defiance helped to spark the civil rights movement of the late 1950s 
and 1960s, which resulted in desegregation of public accommodations 
throughout the South, brought about the Voting Rights Act of the 1960s, 
actually fostered development of the War on Poverty, and put America in 
a serious position to look hard at the health care needs of the poor 
and disadvantaged in its country.
  So naming a building at the Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention will help us to recognize that health care needs are still 
unmet; that there are still great disparities that need to be 
corrected; that there are still areas of research which need to be 
conducted. And so, Mr. Speaker, I am indeed pleased to join with the 
gentlewoman from Kentucky in cosponsoring this resolution and urge its 
passage.
  Mrs. NORTHUP. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from 
Iowa (Mr. King).
  Mr. KING of Iowa. Mr. Speaker, I particularly want to thank the 
gentlewoman from Kentucky (Mrs. Northup) for bringing this piece of 
legislation before the House Chamber today. This is an important 
statement to be made on a number of points, one of them being that this 
bill sends an important message that sitting Members of Congress should 
not take it upon themselves to name public buildings or infrastructure 
after themselves or other Members. This violates our House rules.
  Mr. Speaker, often in this Chamber we have the opportunity to name 
Federal buildings after worthy individuals. We are about to do that 
here today. As we elected officials have a responsibility to our 
constituents and to the laws that we pass, we must spend our time and 
the American taxpayers' money wisely, and we have to do so also 
honestly with the attention and care that I know my constituents in 
Iowa expect.
  When we name Federal buildings, we should do so and insist that they 
be worthy of our time, our Nation's tax dollars, and the trust of those 
who elected us. And I think that my record here in this Congress does 
demonstrate that, and that is why I am here on this floor this 
afternoon, Mr. Speaker. But most recently, the Centers for Disease 
Control buildings appeared in the Labor-HHS appropriations bill named 
after two sitting Senators. And it is in violation of our House rules.
  Because that conference report has not yet passed both Houses, both 
bodies, the buildings are currently unnamed. But under the Labor-HHS 
conference report that was filed just today, the buildings would be 
named the Arlen Specter Headquarters and Emergency Operation Center and 
the Thomas R. Harkin Global Communications Center Building. This 
provision

[[Page H11462]]

violates House rule XXI, and that prohibits the naming of a public work 
after a sitting Member of Congress.
  Our bill proposes to name the buildings the Rosa Parks Headquarters 
and Emergency Operations Center and the Mother Teresa Global 
Communications Center Building. I urge my colleagues to support this 
legislation. It prevents abuse of power. It adheres to the rules of the 
House of Representatives, and it also does a couple of very important 
things, and that is it honors two of the greatest women in my 
contemporary time: Rosa Parks, who stood tall and sat down 50 years 
ago, who inspired generations of Americans and actually was a key 
player in renovating this concept of segregation that still remain.
  And 10 years later, we saw the passage of the Voting Rights Act and 
piece after piece of the civil rights legislation that came about that 
same period of time was inspired. And I saw a time when it was a 
glorious time for the civil rights movement, a glorious time when there 
were peaceful demonstrations throughout the South. And I watched on a 
black and white television from up in Iowa wondering really what was 
going on down there. Now I understand it.
  At this stage of my life I appreciate it a great deal. I thought I 
understood it then, but appreciate it far more today, the movement that 
was begun in significant part by Rosa Parks, who was honored and lay in 
state here in this Capitol Building, the first woman ever to be given 
that honor.
  And Mother Teresa, a fine Catholic nun, a sister that through prayer 
and work and sacrifice and devotion and the power of her personality 
and her character and self sacrifice, moved millions of people, and her 
legacy remains today.
  I look back on Harkin grants that are granted in my State, and also I 
think of a building named again in that fashion. I have stated that if 
we are going to name grants after someone, we should name them after 
the taxpayers that fund them. And if we are going to name buildings, we 
should name the buildings after people who are not seated Members of 
Congress, but people who really stand tall for America and for the 
world.
  So I congratulate the gentlewoman from Kentucky (Mrs. Northup) for 
bringing this legislation today. I am proud to stand on the floor and 
join in this request to name these two buildings after Rosa Parks and 
Mother Teresa.
  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  I understand the gentleman's point. But I do not understand this bill 
to be a retort or a response to Senate action. I understand it to be an 
affirmative act on the part of the bipartisan House of Representatives. 
The only reason I raise it is because we are not a party to whatever is 
the discussion that has gone on on that. I do understand the concern, 
and I listened to it.
  But I would not want anything to take away from the way I opened my 
remarks about All Saints Day and the Christmas season because I think 
the gentleman perhaps did not mean it. And if I may so, by inserting 
that, and I am not questioning it, I have no personal knowledge of it, 
it leaves, I think, an unfortunate impression that I do not think the 
gentleman means to leave. Perhaps it should have been inserted into the 
Record if the gentleman thought so.
  Mr. KING of Iowa. Will the gentlewoman yield?
  Ms. NORTON. I will be happy to yield to the gentleman from Iowa.
  Mr. KING of Iowa. I thank the gentlewoman. I am referencing House 
rule XXI. And my point was to illustrate what can come from that. But 
also it is my emphasis to be here today to honor the two people that we 
hope to name these buildings after, and that is the focus of my 
remarks.
  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman made that clear. I appreciate 
that the gentleman made that clear. I was trying to think, as my 
colleague spoke, about whether or not we have named things after 
Members of the House while they were still here.
  I had a young man, kid from D.C., some people brought him in today, 
along with a whole group of students, and I showed him pictures, I 
explained pictures on my wall that when I came to Congress, instead of 
putting some fake Picassos, I put pictures of old Washington. I went to 
the Library of Congress and to the D.C. Historical Society. And this 
child interrupted me, he is a high school student. He said, why do you 
not have a big picture of yourself there? It simply provided an 
opportunity for me to let him know that he ought to wonder about a 
Member of Congress who had a big picture of herself in her office. I do 
not know who she ought to have, and I did not suggest to him who she 
ought to have.
  But in this season, when we have the opportunity, and I was called, 
literally, only a couple of hours ago to say would I manage a bill that 
would name buildings at the Centers for Disease Control against these 
two women, I said, well, here is one that I know this is only love and 
praise and I really think we should rest on that, whatever is the 
predicament that the gentleman discussed.
  And I do not mean to cast any aspersion upon what he said because he 
is talking about matters that are of some concern, insertions into the 
bill and so forth. But that is not the spirit in which I came forward 
on this side to offer this bill, and I do not think it is the 
gentleman's spirit, and I do not think it is the spirit of the House 
today. And Merry Christmas everybody.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mrs. NORTHUP. Mr. Speaker, in closing, let me just say that I think 
that these two women served as wonderful examples of humble and 
effective service in this country and around the world, and naming 
these two buildings at CDC is something that I think all Americans 
would join us in believing would be an appropriate name for those 
buildings.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Boozman). The question is on the motion 
offered by the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Boozman) that the House 
suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 4500.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds having voted in favor 
thereof) the rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

                          ____________________