[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 172 (Monday, November 30, 2015)]
[House]
[Pages H8436-H8444]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 6, 2015, the gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms. Kelly) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.


                             General Leave

  Ms. KELLY of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all 
Members be given 5 days in which to revise and extend their remarks.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentlewoman from Illinois?

[[Page H8437]]

  There was no objection.
  Ms. KELLY of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, tonight is a night of action and 
reflection for this Congress. This evening, the Congressional Black 
Caucus will take a look at a number of significant events that have 
occurred this year and discuss the urgent and pressing concerns of 
today.
  In the waning weeks of 2015, we will have this moment of reflection 
in order to examine the issues that have caused our community the 
greatest concern. This conversation must be had, so we have to have an 
honest and impactful dialogue that will help Congress engage 
communities and act so we can create a better future today.
  It is said that the blood brother of apathy is the inability to 
prioritize that which is important. Congress cannot afford to be 
apathetic any longer. We must get serious about the issues that 
threaten the true potential of our Nation--issues like gun violence 
that imperil our safety and security, issues like joblessness and wage 
discrimination that are barriers to our collective economic prosperity, 
issues like restrictive voting laws that are fundamentally contrary to 
the democratic right of American citizens and concerns with bad-apple 
community police.
  The Congressional Black Caucus has come to this very floor numerous 
times to address many of these issues, and, sadly, this body has yet to 
act on many of these concerns.
  Last week, in my home district, Chicago was rocked by a disturbing 
video that was released showing the police shooting of 17-year old 
Laquan McDonald. He had been shot 16 times by his arresting officer. 
Most of the shots were fired when McDonald was no longer standing. Some 
entered through his back.
  I cannot begin to fully express the depth of my outrage at this 
senseless killing. The video is nothing short of horrific. Tonight, I 
want to express my condolences to the McDonald family, for whom the 
pain of losing their loved one has undoubtedly been compounded by 
having his death on public display.
  There is a role that Representatives in Congress can play in putting 
the issues of violence in our communities in the forefront. We have 
chosen not to.
  As horrifying as the video of Laquan's death is, it needed to be made 
public because the lingering questions surrounding this case and cases 
like the death of Walter Scott are equally disturbing.
  In reflecting on this tragedy, I want to take a moment to give my 
thanks to the many activists in Chicago who expressed their outrage in 
a civil and productive way and, particularly, the young activists.
  I remain encouraged by those who have been at the forefront of the 
call for justice for Laquan and their positive and productive movement 
for change. It is an example I hope all Americans will follow in 
helping to create a fairer, more equitable system of justice for us 
all.
  So, in that vein, tonight we will have a conversation about how, in 
the midst of these tragedies and national adversity, the Congressional 
Black Caucus is working and achieving positive and productive moments 
of change.
  In this hour, you will hear from my colleagues about efforts the CBC 
has led to usher in criminal justice reform, about the work of the CBC 
in increasing diversity in the tech sector through our TECH 2020 
initiative, about the CBC Health Braintrust work and addressing the 
issue of health disparities through the release of the 2015 Kelly 
Report, about how we are raising awareness and working to bring back 
kidnapped victims of Boko Haram in Nigeria, and about how the CBC has 
been a critical broker in numerous legislative efforts before this 
Congress.
  There is much to discuss this evening because there is much worth 
reflecting on and celebrating.
  Mr. Speaker, this is Mr. Payne and my last Special Order hour for the 
year. I must say that, while this time has flown by, it has been an 
honor and a privilege to represent this distinguished caucus.
  So I yield to the distinguished gentleman from New Jersey, Mr. Donald 
Payne, Jr., my very distinguished partner in crime for this past few 
months, or year, actually.
  Mr. PAYNE. Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my dear friend and 
colleague, Congresswoman Kelly, for anchoring this final Congressional 
Black Caucus Special Order hour. In fact, I would like to thank 
Congresswoman Kelly for coanchoring all the Special Order hours with me 
throughout 2015. It has been my real honor and pleasure to spend all 
these Mondays with you bringing forth issues that matter in our 
community.
  I would also like to thank the CBC chair, Congressman G.K. 
Butterfield, for his outstanding leadership this past year.
  I appreciate you choosing me to coanchor these congressional Special 
Order hours with Congresswoman Kelly. It is a great honor, and we are a 
body of 40-plus, so to have that honor to be chosen means a great deal 
to me. And I am certain that 2016's coanchors will proudly serve, as we 
have.
  As Congresswoman Kelly mentioned, we are here to reflect on all the 
work that the Congressional Black Caucus has done throughout the year, 
to look at the accomplishments.
  In February, we kicked off the CBC Special Order hour by reflecting 
on the 50th anniversary of the March on Selma, where we are today, and 
where we are headed for tomorrow. Through this hour, we were able to 
set the tone for the Congressional Black Caucus agenda with our leader, 
G.K. Butterfield, at the helm.
  We remembered all the strides that were made by African Americans to 
the place that we are today. We reflected on the work that is being 
done right now through the caucus in the House of Representatives.
  And, most importantly, during that hour, we looked towards the 
future. We intend to put forward the most effort in order to make sure 
that African Americans are well-represented and afforded equally in all 
phases of these United States.
  Monday after Monday, we have addressed the many challenges and 
inequalities that face African American communities. We have 
contributed to this country with blood, sweat, and tears, hard work and 
entrepreneurial ideas and inclusiveness. We aren't owed anything. We 
are a significant thread in the cloth that makes this United States 
grow.
  We have talked about criminal justice reform, economics, 
unemployment, underemployment, incarceration, voting rights, felon 
disenfranchisement, and health disparities, and those are just a few of 
the issues that we have tackled this year.
  As we have been known to be called the ``conscience of the 
Congress,'' we continue to put forth issues that are relevant and 
prevalent in today's society. I have just been honored to be part of 
the spokes-team to bring awareness and raise these issues on a week-to-
week basis.

  Ms. KELLY of Illinois. Thank you, Congressman Payne. Thank you for 
those kinds words. It has truly been an honor serving with you.
  I yield to the esteemed chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, the 
gentleman from North Carolina, Congressman G.K. Butterfield.
  Mr. BUTTERFIELD. Thank you, Ms. Kelly.
  Let me begin this evening by first thanking Congressman Donald Payne, 
Jr., from the Tenth District of New Jersey for his friendship and for 
his tireless work on behalf of the Congressional Black Caucus and on 
behalf of the people that he represents back home in the great State of 
New Jersey.
  Thank you, Mr. Payne, for your work, and thank you for the kind words 
that you had to say about me this evening.
  And to my other colleague, Congresswoman Robin Kelly from the Second 
District of Illinois, not only do you manage the floor on Monday 
nights, Ms. Kelly, on behalf of the Congressional Black Caucus, but you 
also are the chair of our CBC Health Braintrust that does so much for 
so many.
  You also have carved out a niche. You have begun to focus the 
attention of the Nation on the issue of gun violence in our country.
  So I want to begin this presentation this evening by thanking both of 
you for your work.

                              {time}  1945

  Mr. Speaker, many of my colleagues here this evening, especially the 
newer ones to this body, may not fully understand what the CBC is. The 
Congressional Black Caucus is an organization.

[[Page H8438]]

It is a caucus of African American Members of Congress.
  We were founded in 1971. But, Mr. Speaker, that does not mean that 
1971 was the first year that this body had African American Members of 
Congress. Actually, the first African American was elected to Congress 
in 1870.
  There were some 21 African Americans who served in this body during 
Reconstruction and post-Reconstruction. The CBC formally organized, Mr. 
Speaker, in 1971 with 13 Members. Over the years, those 13 members have 
now grown into 46 members.
  I might say that two of the founding members of the CBC continue to 
belong to this body. They are Congressman John Conyers from Michigan, 
who is actually the dean of the House, as well as Congressman Charles 
Rangel from the State of New York. They were two of our founding 
members.
  The CBC, as I said, now consists of 46 members. Of the 46 members, 
one is from the other body, from the United States Senate, and 45 serve 
here in the House of Representatives.
  I might say that one of our 45 members is a Republican Member of this 
body, our dear friend from Utah (Mrs. Love). And so it is absolutely 
correct for us to say that we are bicameral and we are bipartisan.
  Collectively, we represent 23 States in addition to the District of 
Columbia and the Virgin Islands. Collectively, Mr. Speaker, we 
represent more than 30 million people.
  I might say, of the 21 standing committees that we have here in this 
House, 7 of those 21 committees have a CBC member as the top Democrat 
on the committee. We call that the ranking member. The gentleman who 
will speak in just a moment, Mr. Scott of Virginia, is one of those 
ranking members on the Committee on Education and the Workforce.
  Mr. Speaker, this past year has been very demanding on CBC members. 
We have been busy. We have consistently fought back every day and every 
week against Republican attempts to balance the budget on the backs of 
hardworking Americans--not just African Americans, but hardworking 
Americans, Black, White, and Brown.
  The struggle continues. We, as the CBC, have been focused on many 
different things. I will mention just a few. In the interest of time, 
we have been focusing on criminal justice reform because that is so 
important to the African American community.
  We have been protecting--or trying to protect--the social safety net 
that many of our vulnerable communities depend on. We have been trying 
to enhance educational opportunities for African American students and 
strengthening and preserving HBCUs, that is, Historically Black 
Colleges and Universities.
  Mr. Speaker, we have spent considerable energy this year trying to 
have full enforcement of the Voting Rights Act. As many of my 
colleagues may know, the U.S. Supreme Court decided in a decision some 
years ago, 4 years ago--actually, in 2013 it was--that the Voting 
Rights Act, at least a part of it--that part that deals with 
preclearance of voting changes--that that section could not be enforced 
until this Congress redefined the formula for determining which States 
or which counties should be subject to that part of the Voting Rights 
Act, and this Congress has not acted.
  This Congress continues to not fully enforce the Voting Rights Act. 
We have exposed that and we continue to fight. We are talking about 
diversity in corporate America, and we are going to hear more about 
that in the years to come.
  Finally, Mr. Speaker, we have talked about investments in underserved 
communities.
  Mr. Speaker, we have attempted to carry out these priorities. This 
year the CBC launched the CBC TECH 2020. This initiative brings 
together the best minds in technology in nonprofit education in the 
public sector to increase African American inclusion at all levels of 
the technology industry.
  In addition to outlining best practices for diversity principles, CBC 
TECH 2020 has empowered our members to provide resources for African 
American students and entrepreneurs through the introduction of 
legislation focused on increasing STEM education.
  I would hope that every American would embrace that concept, the 
concept of STEM education--science, technology, engineering, and 
mathematics--and workforce development, cybersecurity, and copyright 
and patent reform.
  In August, we traveled to Silicon Valley, talked to the technology 
giants like Apple, Google, Bloomberg, and Intel about their diversity 
efforts. We were pleased with their response and their willingness to 
improve the diversity within their companies.
  This year, Mr. Speaker, we revamped the biweekly CBC message to 
America. We now broadcast across several digital platforms. The 
messages to America have been highly received. They have been widely 
watched with some of our most popular messages focusing on criminal 
justice reform, police violence, poverty, education, the importance of 
HBCUs, and ending the stigma of racism in America.
  Finally, on August 6, the CBC recognized the 50th anniversary of the 
Voting Rights Act. In the 2 years following the Supreme Court's ruling 
to overturn section 4 in the Shelby County v. Holder case, voting 
rights have come under assault, Mr. Speaker. They have come under 
renewed assault.
  Since 2010, new voting restrictions have been put in place in 22 
States, making it harder for millions of eligible Americans to exercise 
their right to vote. The CBC has been very vocal on these efforts, 
including outreach in Wisconsin. We filed an amicus brief in the States 
of Wisconsin, in North Carolina, and in Alabama.
  The CBC has asserted for years that Black Americans are unfairly 
treated and disproportionately exposed to the criminal justice system. 
Police bias and excessive use of force are real in the African American 
community. We see it every day. We must restore the American people's 
trust in our criminal justice system.

  Finally, we have worked to expand the economic opportunities for 
African Americans. The CBC, in coordination with the Joint Economic 
Committee Democrats, have held two public forums in Baltimore and 
Harlem, I might say, entitled ``The American Dream on Hold: Economic 
Challenges in the African American Community,'' where we discussed with 
those communities the impact of economic challenges and persistent 
inequities facing African American communities across the country.
  Mr. Speaker, there are so many more things that I could say about the 
work of the Congressional Black Caucus. We are busy. We are engaged 
every day not only representing African Americans, but representing 
every American who is affected by some of the policies that have been 
enacted by this Congress.
  Thank you for the time this evening.
  Ms. KELLY of Illinois. Thank you, Congressman Butterfield. That was 
certainly a great list of our achievements. Like you said, that was 
just some of the things that we have been able to accomplish, and there 
is a lot more that you can say. We can go on and on. Thank you for your 
leadership and making sure that we get some of these things done.
  Mr. BUTTERFIELD. Ms. Kelly, I believe you mentioned to Mr. Payne that 
he was your partner in crime. I want those who may be watching this on 
television to know that was really a joke.
  Ms. KELLY of Illinois. Of course. At this time, I yield to the 
gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Scott).
  Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentlewoman 
from Illinois and the gentleman from New Jersey for organizing this 
Special Order tonight. It takes a lot of work and a lot of time to 
organize these efforts, and I want to thank them both for the time and 
effort that they have put into this.
  We have heard a lot about what the Congressional Black Caucus has 
done over the years. There are two areas that I have been personally 
involved in with the CBC effort in the areas of education and criminal 
justice reform. On both we have worked hard and achieved bipartisan 
support.
  The Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which is a civil rights 
bill, makes sure that the admonition in Brown v. Board of Education 
becomes a reality. It says that no child shall reasonably be expected 
to succeed in life if denied the opportunity of an education and such 
an opportunity must be made available to all on equal terms. That is 
what the Brown decision held.
  But we know that we don't have equal education in America because we

[[Page H8439]]

fund it primarily through the real estate tax, guaranteeing that 
wealthy areas will have more resources for education than low-income 
areas.
  So 50 years ago we passed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, 
which provides funding directed primarily to help the challenges in 
educating low-income children particularly in concentrated areas of 
poverty.
  No Child Left Behind a few years ago added to that by making sure 
that we ascertained whether or not there are achievement gaps in 
certain groups and requires action to be taken to solve those 
achievement gaps.
  This week we should reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary 
Education Act to ensure that the needs of all children are addressed. 
That legislation has just come out of conference. It came out of 
conference with an overwhelming--almost unanimous--vote, a bipartisan 
vote. So we look forward to the continuation of the Elementary and 
Secondary Education Act.
  Mr. Speaker, the next area that we are going to be working on is the 
Higher Education Act, also originally passed 50 years ago. When 
President Johnson signed that bill, he pointed out that every child 
should be able to go to any college in any State. Back then that was 
actually a reality because a low-income student with a maximum Pell 
Grant and a summer job could virtually work his way through college 
with no debt.
  Now, because the buying power of the Pell Grant has eroded, instead 
of 75 percent of the cost of education, now it is down to about one-
third and the rest has to be picked up with devastating student loans. 
We need to pass a Higher Education Act that makes access to college a 
reality, not just a dream.
  We can do that, and there is bipartisan support for that effort. So 
in education we are making progress with the Congressional Black Caucus 
and we have been able to achieve bipartisan support.
  It is interesting that we have also been able to achieve bipartisan 
support in the criminal justice reform efforts. We have a problem in 
criminal justice now because, for decades, we have been passing all 
these slogans and sound bites, particularly, mandatory minimums that 
have run our incarceration rate up to number one in the world by far. 
We have 5 percent of the world's population and 25 percent are 
prisoners.
  Several recent studies have pointed out that our incarceration rate 
is so high that it is actually counterproductive; that is, we have got 
so many children being raised with parents in prison and we have got so 
many people with felony records that can't find jobs and the prison 
budget in the Department of Justice is eating up so much of the budget 
that the other things that can actually reduce crime don't have the 
funds that they actually need.
  One bipartisan effort that we were able to achieve late last year was 
the Death in Custody Reporting Act, which requires any death in the 
custody of law enforcement--that is a death in jail, a death in prison, 
or death in the process of arrest--will be reported to the Justice 
Department so that the discussion about all of these deaths can be 
based on facts, not just speculation.
  We also are in the process of trying to pass criminal justice reform. 
The Judiciary Committee, in a subcommittee task force led by Jim 
Sensenbrenner from Wisconsin and myself, had an overcriminalization 
task force. The one thing we noticed was that 30 States were able to 
reduce incarceration and reduce crime at the same time.
  One example was Texas. Texas was faced with a $2 billion request for 
prison expansion to keep up with the slogans and sound bites that they 
had been codifying over the years--$2 billion. Someone suggested, 
instead of spending $2 billion, how about trying to spend a couple of 
hundred million--research-based, evidence-based targeted expenditures--
to actually reduce crime, and maybe they wouldn't have to spend all $2 
billion.
  Well, that is what they did. They intelligently spent. With a 
research-based and evidence-based approach to reduce crimes, they made 
those expenditures and looked up. They didn't have to build any new 
prisons at all. In fact, they were able to close some of the prisons 
they had. Over 30 States have reduced crime and saved money just in 
using the same strategy.
  So as a result of the overcriminalization task force, we created a 
comprehensive criminal justice bill that starts with investments in 
prevention and early intervention, has diversion to drug courts so that 
people with drug problems can have their problems solved rather than 
just spinning through the criminal justice system, a significant 
reduction in mandatory minimums so they would be reserved for true 
kingpins, not for people caught up in the conspiracy, like girlfriends 
and things like that.
  Only the true kingpins would get the mandatory minimums. Everyone 
else would get a sentence that made sense. If you go to jail, then you 
should be rehabilitated, not just warehoused, and we should have 
funding for Second Chance programs.
  The beauty of the bill is that the savings in prison space by the 
reduction in mandatory minimums will be redirected to pay for the 
prevention and early intervention, the drug courts, the prison reform 
efforts, and the Second Chance programs so all of those programs are 
paid for.

                              {time}  2000

  We also have significant funding for police training. As we go 
through the trauma of these trials that are going on as we speak in 
Baltimore and Chicago, when you get to a solution, it will undoubtedly 
involve police training and probably body cameras, and those are funded 
in the Safe Justice Act by diverting money from the savings in 
mandatory minimums to those programs. We have broad bipartisan support, 
many very conservative, many very liberal organizations, all supporting 
the Safe Justice Act and other criminal justice reform efforts. The 
Black Caucus should be proud of the efforts that they have put in to 
making sure that we have a fair and equitable criminal justice system.
  I would like to thank again the gentlewoman from Illinois for all of 
her hard work and the gentleman from New Jersey for his hard work in 
pointing out many of the good things that the Congressional Black 
Caucus has accomplished, many things they have accomplished this year 
and a lot of things we are working on for next year. So I thank you for 
your hard work and dedication.
  We have a conference committee report that came out with an 
overwhelming bipartisan vote that will ensure that young people will 
have their educational needs met. I want to thank the gentleman from 
Minnesota (Mr. Kline) for his hard work and cooperation on that bill.
  Ms. KELLY of Illinois. Thank you for the information on the Safety 
Justice Act and education. The two really go hand in hand. If our young 
people have more skills and are educated, then I think that we will see 
less crime. We always say, in my area, ``Nothing stops a bullet like a 
job,'' so thank you for that information and for all of your hard work.
  At this time, I yield to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee), a 
woman of great knowledge and experience, and one of my heroes.
  Ms. LEE. First, let me thank Congresswoman Kelly for those very 
generous remarks, but also for your tremendous leadership and for 
staying the course and making sure that we are here really speaking 
truth to power each and every week on behalf of the Black Caucus.
  Also, to you, Congressman Don Payne, thank you very much for your 
leadership and for really rising to the occasion on so many issues. In 
the very short time that you have been here, you have hit the ground 
running and really have made a tremendous difference.
  I want to just speak for a few minutes as it relates to the review of 
the Congressional Black Caucus for the last year or 2 years. I have to 
just say that our leader, Mr. Butterfield, has been a very bold and 
tremendous leader. We have accomplished quite a bit, and we have a lot 
more to do. While 2015 has been very challenging, I believe that the 
Congressional Black Caucus has really stepped up and made a huge 
difference not only for the African American community and communities 
of color, but for the entire country.
  It has also been an inspiring year. We have seen the birth and growth 
of the

[[Page H8440]]

vital Black Lives Matter movement. We have also witnessed powerful and 
moving protests across the country in places like Missouri, New York, 
and even in my district in Oakland and in Berkeley, California, with 
people of all backgrounds and ages coming together to demand justice, 
to petition their government, to exercise their democratic rights.
  I am so proud of the young activists who are standing up and 
demanding an end to racism and injustice in many of our communities. 
They are truly bringing the civil rights movement into the 21st 
century. I want them to know that they have allies here in the people's 
House.
  For too long Congress has ignored or brushed aside issues affecting 
the African American community and other communities of color. It is 
past time that everyone steps up and does the good work that we were 
sent to Washington to do, that the Congressional Black Caucus has done 
for many, many decades.
  We need to start by talking about and looking at what has happened 
with the Voting Rights Act. As you know, this year marks the 50th 
anniversary of this landmark legislation. The Voting Rights Act was 
gutted by the Supreme Court in its Shelby v. Holder decision, and, of 
course, Republican State legislators have fallen all over to restrict 
voting rights across the country everywhere.
  These dangerous restrictions come in the form of voter ID 
requirements, elimination of same-day voter registration, and really 
severe reduction in early voting efforts. We must call these efforts 
for what they are: Republican attempts to take away one of our most 
fundamental rights. But we will not let this happen.
  I am so proud of the Congressional Black Caucus--Congresswoman Terri 
Sewell and John Lewis and Mr. Clyburn, the entire Congressional Black 
Caucus. Our bill, H.R. 2867, the Voting Rights Advancement Act, 
sponsored by Congresswoman Sewell, who represents Selma, Alabama, would 
restore the preclearance provisions of the Voting Rights Act for any 
State that has had 15 or more voting rights violations in the last 25 
years in the preclearance process.
  As Dr. King once said: Give us the ballot, and we will fill our 
legislative halls with men--and, of course, women--with goodwill.
  We can fill this body with those who really want to see democracy 
fulfilled. So we need our young people to keep up the street heat and 
demand that Congress act.
  It is past time that we get serious about restoring the Voting Rights 
Act and ensuring that all Americans--and that means all Americans--have 
free and unobstructed access to the ballot box.
  Also, the serious economic disparities that persist in the African 
American community are very, very evident. According to a report 
released earlier this year by the Joint Economic Committee, led by 
ranking member Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, and the Congressional 
Black Caucus, we learned, and it is very glaring, that more than one in 
three Black children are born into poverty, and the African American 
poverty rate is three times that of White Americans.
  The cycle of poverty and inequality starts in our school systems, 
where Black students account for 42 percent of preschool student 
expulsions, despite accounting for only 18 percent of enrollment. Now, 
that is preschool expulsion. Every time I remember this and say this, 
it really makes me very terrified about what is taking place with young 
Black kids, especially with young Black boys, because there is no way 
anybody, no kids, should be expelled from preschool. That is ages 1 to 
4. That is outrageous.
  I am the mother, yes, of two fabulous great Black men, and I am the 
grandmother of two Black boys, and I find statistics like that very, 
very troubling. For African Americans, we have allowed our school 
system to be turned into a pipeline to prison. We must act now to 
address systemic issues facing our education and our criminal justice 
systems.
  I want to applaud Congressman Bobby Scott and Congressman Conyers 
because they have worked for decades on criminal justice reform, and we 
are beginning to see some progress as a result of their very diligent 
work.
  Our criminal justice system is broken. It needs to be rebuilt from 
the ground up. So alongside of our CBC colleagues, once again we are 
calling for comprehensive criminal justice reform.
  Also, I want to mention our effort, which I co-chair with Chairman 
Butterfield, our Tech 2020 initiative. Silicon Valley is right next to 
my district in California. There are great opportunities there for 
everyone.

  However, the tech industry has not been inclusive of hiring and 
contracting with and working with communities of color, especially the 
African American community. So I am very pleased that the Tech 2020 of 
the Congressional Black Caucus has been initiated. We are working with 
our great leader, Reverend Jesse Jackson, with an inside-outside 
strategy. Many of the tech companies understand what is taking place 
and that they need to be an industry that is inclusive of everyone.
  So the Black Caucus along with Rainbow PUSH, along with the tech 
industry are working on a variety of strategies to make sure that this 
industry which provides good-paying jobs and opportunities is an 
industry that is inclusive, that does not discriminate, and that 
includes the diversity of this great country.
  So I have to just say to Congresswoman Kelly and Congressman Payne, 
thank you for giving us a chance to talk about so many of the issues 
that we have been working on. When you look at the issue of poverty, 
cutting poverty in half in 10 years, we know how to do it. We have 
legislation, the Half in Ten Act, H.R. 258, to do that, and the 
Pathways Out of Poverty Act, H.R. 2721. We know how to provide 
opportunities. The Congressional Black Caucus once again is leading on 
all of these fronts. It is a big agenda, but it is an agenda that makes 
our country stronger.
  So thank you, Congresswoman Kelly, and thank you, Congressman Payne, 
for the chance to be with you tonight.
  Ms. KELLY of Illinois. Thank you, Congresswoman Lee. You have brought 
up so many issues that are so interconnected--again, education, 
diversity inclusion. When you think about preschoolers getting 
expelled, that is not a good start. And what message does it send to 
that young man or that young woman or that little boy or that little 
girl? But all of the things that you talked about--voting rights--are 
all interconnected, and we need to accomplish all of those goals for a 
better America, and not just for African Americans, but for everybody.
  Ms. LEE. Thank you very much.
  I just want to say that I think what is reflective in the 
Congressional Black Caucus' agenda and all of the work that we have 
done for so many years is really an effort to show that how, if you 
ensure that opportunity is there for everyone, including African 
Americans and communities of color and people who have been shut out 
and marginalized, our country becomes stronger. This means that 
everybody benefits--not only for the Congressional Black Caucus, this 
is for the entire country. So thank you again for your leadership.
  Ms. KELLY of Illinois. Well, we want to thank you for your leadership 
and all of the work that you have done to make Congress stronger, as 
well as the caucus stronger.
  At this time, I yield to the gentleman from Brooklyn, New York (Mr. 
Jeffries).
  Mr. JEFFRIES. Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished gentlewoman for 
yielding. And I also thank, of course, my good friend and colleague, 
Congressman Don Payne, from across the Hudson River, who does such a 
tremendous job of representing the people of Newark and Essex County.
  It has been an honor and a privilege to watch my two colleagues 
during this year preside over the CBC Special Order hour, giving us, as 
a caucus, an opportunity to share with the American people some of our 
thoughts and ideas and the issues that we are working on to improve a 
lot of those that we represent in the African American community and 
all across this great, gorgeous mosaic in the United States of America.
  I am troubled, of course, by the events of the last few days as 
relates to the Laquan McDonald case out of

[[Page H8441]]

Robin Kelly's hometown in Chicago. About a year ago, many of us from 
the Congressional Black Caucus were on this very House floor talking 
about the failure to indict in the killing of Michael Brown; and in the 
same week, 3 days later, the failure to indict in the strangulation of 
Eric Garner, who, of course, was put into an unauthorized choke hold 
and killed as a result of allegedly selling loose cigarettes.
  It, of course, highlighted the problem of African American men being 
killed at the hands of police officers, which is a decade-old problem 
that, hopefully, here in America we will find the courage one day to 
confront.
  And now, of course, we are compelled to come to the House floor to 
deal with the tragedy of the Laquan McDonald case, a 17-year-old shot 
16 times in 15 seconds by an officer who had 20 prior civilian 
complaints filed against him. I am no mathematician, but those numbers 
simply do not add up. The tape comes out and we see what occurred: an 
individual, Laquan, who was walking away from the officers, not toward 
the officers. There is no reasonable circumstance, I believe, that led 
to that individual being shot down like a dog on the streets of 
Chicago.
  The officer has now been indicted 13 months later, and, hopefully, 
the justice system will run its course and the officer will be 
prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

                              {time}  2015

  I am here today to talk briefly about another troubling issue that 
relates to this problem of the police use of excessive force. That is 
not just the bad apples who engage in this behavior; it is the fact 
that, far too often, the police officers in the department, who may not 
otherwise engage in excessive force but who have grown up in a culture 
of a blue wall of silence, support these officers either with their 
inaction or, in some instances, by actively participating in a coverup.
  Now, I know that is hard for a lot of Americans to hear because, 
listen, I also believe that the overwhelming majority of officers are 
hardworking individuals who are there to protect and serve.
  I don't take lightly the fact that I am here concerned on the House 
floor that far too many officers stand by, tolerate, and enable the 
excessive use of force, sometimes resulting in American citizens being 
killed without justification.
  This case actually highlights the problem. Laquan gets killed, and if 
you look at the reports in the immediate aftermath of his death last 
October--and I just pulled a few--here is what we were told.
  ``The suspect fled, and officers gave chase, police said. When the 
officers confronted him near 41st Street and Pulaski Road, he refused 
their orders to drop the knife and began walking toward the officers, 
police said.
  ``Pat Camden, spokesman for the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police, 
said the teen had a `crazed' look about him as he approached the 
officers with the knife.''
  That was reported by CBS.
  Let's go to NBC. ``Responding officers found a 17-year-old boy `with 
a strange gaze about him,' who was carrying a knife and wouldn't drop 
it when police ordered him to do so, Fraternal Order of Police 
spokesman Pat Camden said.
  ``Other officers used a squad car to try and box the boy in against a 
fence near West 41st Street and South Pulaski Road, Camden said. An 
officer shot him in the chest when the teen didn't drop the knife and 
continued to walk toward officers, police said.''
  WGN-TV: ``Chicago police officers shot and killed a 17-year-old after 
a foot chase near 41st Street and Pulaski . . . Officers shot the teen 
after he waved the knife at them.''
  In the interest of time, let me just read one more. This is from the 
Chicago Tribune: ``Officers got out of their car and began approaching 
McDonald, again telling him to drop the knife, Camden said. The boy 
allegedly lunged at the officers, and one of them opened fire.''
  `` `When police tell you to drop a weapon, all you have to do is drop 
it.' ''
  I mean, Shakespeare would be proud at the fiction that was put out 
there to justify the murder of this 17-year-old.
  Here is what is worse. It has now been reported that in the immediate 
aftermath of the shooting four or five officers went to a nearby Burger 
King and asked to view the surveillance tape. The manager at Burger 
King gives them the password to the video. They spend a couple of hours 
in Burger King--I mean, a couple of hours in Burger King, allegedly--
and then they leave.
  Then internal affairs officers apparently come in the days afterward, 
and they pull the tape. Guess what? Eighty-six minutes are missing. It 
happens to be the 86 minutes that cover the period of time when Laquan 
McDonald was killed.
  When we come to the House floor and people across the country say 
Black lives matter and they are concerned about the lack of justice in 
the system, understand that it is not just the excessive use of force; 
it is the fact that far too many officers, law enforcement folks, 
participate actively in covering up what has occurred.
  Until we deal with that cancer of the blue wall of silence, we are 
going to continue to have to come to this House floor, and you are 
going to continue to see individuals be killed as a result of the use 
of excessive force.
  It is an American problem that we should confront, and we should 
confront it boldly and directly and without hesitation if we really 
want to uplift the best values of our great democracy.
  I thank Congresswoman Kelly, and I thank Congressman Payne for their 
tremendous leadership.
  Mr. PAYNE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his profound 
remarks on this occasion.
  I have my own remarks in reference to what happened to this 
youngster. That is what he was--a youngster, a child. I have 17-year-
old triplets. God forbid my children find themselves in that 
predicament.
  I will not even try to match the remarks by the gentleman from New 
York. I think he stated the case clearly.
  Black lives matter. I know there is a segment in this country that 
gets upset when they hear that, but you need to understand what they 
are saying. It is: Why is there no worth to African American lives? 
That is what they are asking. Why is it so easy that we continually 
find people of color on the wrong end of these weapons?
  Then to have it covered up in the manner in which the gentleman from 
New York stated--86 minutes. Now, my children love Burger King, but you 
only need 20 minutes if there is a line in Burger King to do what you 
need to do. But they spent hours there, getting their story right, 
making sure everybody would corroborate what they were going to say.
  That is why ``Black Lives Matter'' exists. That is why we continue to 
bring these issues up. That is why we will not let it go quietly into 
the night.
  Everybody has seen that videotape. When did he lunge? When was he 
shot once in the chest? When did any of those things that were reported 
occur in that video? He was walking away. He did still have the knife 
in his hand, but he was walking away. Most of the shots that were put 
into his body were after he was on the ground. The officer feared for 
his life.
  Black lives matter.
  Our next speaker is the gentlewoman from Houston, Texas, the 
wonderful, dynamic, one of my heroes, the Honorable Sheila Jackson Lee.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE. I thank the gentleman from New Jersey and the 
gentlewoman from Illinois but I want to specifically say Chicago. I 
join my colleagues.
  Mr. Speaker, I think this is, again, an important statement of the 
value of the Congressional Black Caucus. I am glad our tone is such 
that we are compassionate, we have emotion, but we are detailed.
  With the remaining time, let me try to be concise on the value of the 
Congressional Black Caucus in American history, its place in this 
Congress to be the provocative orators and articulators of the 
conscience of this Nation.
  Let me first of all say that I have been privileged but certainly 
have mourned May 15, when all of us paid attention to fallen law 
enforcement officers who are honored here in the United States Capitol. 
Any number of us has gone to the grounds, and we have hugged those from 
our districts, we have honored families, and we have recognized the 
pain.

[[Page H8442]]

  I think many of you recall that there was an assassination of sorts 
of a deputy sheriff in Houston, a number of unfortunate assassinations 
or shootings of police in New York, and I saw the Nation mourn.
  I think it is important to say this because, often, when we say 
``Black lives matter,'' it seems conflicted. People raise the issues 
that African Americans or the Nation seem to be hesitant about law 
enforcement officers, and that is not true.
  I want to thank the Congressional Black Caucus and Chairman 
Butterfield because we started out this year with a criminal justice 
agenda. I just want to quickly go down memory lane or to reflect very 
quickly to say that it was the leadership and the combined Members who 
raised a number of issues that have brought us to the point that we 
have actually passed in the Senate and in the House Judiciary Committee 
criminal justice sentencing legislation.
  We are not where we need to be, but the Sentencing Reform Act will 
reduce mass incarceration by 11,500. Of those who are currently 
incarcerated, it will give retroactive relief, and an additional 4,000 
will benefit each year. Combined with that, it will be 50,000 over 10 
years.
  We are beginning to look at the criminal justice system in a way that 
speaks to the whole idea of Blacks, minorities, Hispanics, and others 
being the fodder for the criminal justice system. In my district in 
Houston, Texas, Black and Hispanic youth make up over 75 percent of the 
male population age 10 to 24 years, but Black and Hispanic youth 
account for 85 percent of the youth admitted in our detention centers.
  We are working on the reduction of sentencing, and I think with the 
help of this bipartisan legislation, which has been initiated and 
brought to the attention of this Congress by members of the 
Congressional Black Caucus in working with other Members of this body, 
both Republicans and Democrats, we have legislation that should pass.
  As we all know and as we have been mystified and mourning this tape, 
I know that Congresswoman Kelly in her hometown has been a champion for 
justice, along with her fellow colleagues of the Congressional Black 
Caucus, Bobby Rush and Danny Davis, who have been front and center on 
these issues. So we must continue the journey of dealing with the 
juvenile justice.
  Might I say that I hope we will come around the issues of the RAISE 
Act, of the Fair Chance for Youth Act, and of Kalief's Law, ending 
solitary confinement for young people in the juvenile justice system, 
banning the arrest record, and, of course, giving alternative 
sentencing to these young people.
  I want to quickly get back to this horrific shooting, because what 
``Black Lives Matter'' speaks to is coming together around an improved 
law enforcement system. That is why I came to the floor today--to be 
able to say, unless we move forward on legislation that deals with best 
practices in our police departments, we are going to continue the 
tension that should not exist.
  There is no explanation or no answer to the video that has been 
shown. I wonder what the sentencing or the reaction or the ultimate 
result would have been if there were a video of Darren Wilson and 
Michael Brown. There was not. I still believe that with Michael Brown, 
an unarmed youth, his actor, who happened to be a law enforcement 
person, should not have gone unpunished.
  In this instance, we see a video that was completely 
mischaracterized, or, in essence, the story was characterized 
completely contrary to the video that was shown. So what is the answer?
  Law enforcement officers who I work with all the time will indicate 
that there are bad apples, and they are right. Then work with us to 
pass the Law Enforcement Trust and Integrity Act, which provides the 
roadmap and the incentive for all of these departments to be accredited 
and to have officers go through the specific training that documents 
how you address the question of the street.

                              {time}  2030

  It includes video cameras. It includes community-oriented policing. 
It includes grants to incentivize better training and better training 
practices.
  We must find an answer in this term of Congress. We should not end 
this Congress without a complete and reformed criminal justice system, 
including dealing with law enforcement, which is clearly what the 
Congressional Black Caucus has been working on.
  So I am hoping that we can find this common ground because there is 
no explanation that is reasonable or rational of the actions of the 
officer in Chicago.
  There is no reasonable explanation to the officer in the Sandra Bland 
case. Ladies and gentlemen, you remember this young woman dying in a 
jail. They have yet to come up with an indictment or a response. They 
have yet to have an answer of the jail that standards were an 
embarrassment in Waller County.
  The District Attorney has yet to come forward in the Sandra Bland 
case. The family has not been notified. The lawyer doesn't know what is 
going on. We met with those individuals not to direct them, but to 
ensure that they were going to respect this death. Nothing has happened 
about the stop that we saw in the video. Nothing has happened about the 
jail incarceration.
  I simply have come to the floor to indicate to my colleagues, 
Republicans and Democrats, to work with us on a number of issues that 
those in the Congressional Black Caucus reach out in the spirit of 
bipartisanship, dealing with the Voting Rights Reauthorization in 
section 5, providing opportunities for Historically Black Colleges 
which we have been at the leadership realm of, making sure that the 
criminal justice system addresses the overincarceration of our youth, 
dealing with the question of policing, which the Black Lives Matters 
speaks to it eloquently.
  We should not be condemned for the massive protests of 10,000 people 
down this wonderful Michigan Avenue as: There they go again. We have 
got to find a place at the table to be able to reorient, if you will, 
how we do policing in America. I would ask my colleagues that we move 
swiftly in this term in this Congress to be able to address this.
  Let me finish on this one last point. The violence of guns is 
outrageous. I want to speak very quietly about the Planned Parenthood 
incident because I don't want to provoke, but I believe it is important 
to note we always say for those who don't want to hear us about gun 
safety closing the gun show loophole, banning assault weapons which the 
individual had.
  However it plays out, the individual may be determined to have a 
mental health concern or condition, but he had an automatic rifle of 
some sort. And, unfortunately, we lost several persons in the course of 
the incident, although the investigation is still ongoing.
  It also happens in Black-on-Black crime. My friends, our community 
doesn't ignore that. But what we say is that guns are involved in most 
of these deaths. Not only are guns involved, but we must understand 
that, when a gun is used by an officer, it is distinct from Black-on-
Black crime because it is under color of law.
  The Congressional Black Caucus comes to the table to ensure that 
these very sensitive issues are handled with the greatest delicacy, but 
with the greatest commitment and passion that we want to stop the 
killing, stop the deaths, and have the decency to reflect on a parent 
like Mr. Payne, a parent like Ms. Kelly, a parent like myself.
  Black lives matter. Our children matter. The Congressional Black 
Caucus wants to work to ensure that we have the answers that the 
American people have asked us for and that they deserve.
  As a senior member of the House Committee on Homeland Security as 
well as the Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee's 
Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Investigations, I am pleased to 
join my colleagues of the Congressional Black Caucus for this Special 
Order to speak to the issues that members of the 114th Congress must 
address.
  No other country imprisons a larger percentage of its population than 
the United States or spends anywhere near the $6.5 billion that we 
spend annually on prison administration.
  We now know that the cost of imprisoning so many non-violent 
offenders is fiscally unsustainable and morally unjustifiable and it

[[Page H8443]]

will take the combined efforts of policy makers, reform advocates, 
legal professionals, and private citizens to solve the problem.
  Congress took a giant step forward on the road to reform with a law I 
co-sponsored, the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010, which eliminated the 
crack versus powder disparity. Earlier this month, the House took 
another big step when its Judiciary Committee favorably reported 
another bill I sponsored, the Sentence Reform Act of 2015 (H.R. 3713), 
which will help reform a criminal justice system that often seems less 
effective at reforming criminals and more effecting in inflicting 
collateral damage on families and communities.
  Specifically, the Sentence Reform Act will reduce mass incarceration 
by making over 11,500 individuals, who are currently incarcerated, 
eligible for retroactive relief and an additional 4,000 will benefit 
each year. Combined, this is over 50,000 in ten years. These estimates 
are conservative, as not all the positive reforms can be quantified.
  Today, we know also that more and more young children are being 
arrested, incarcerated, and detained in lengthy out-of-home placements.
  Our youth easily encounter law enforcement through the mass transit 
on the way to school, the school resource officer at school, and patrol 
officers on the way home.
  A youth experience behavior issues when encountered should not be 
arrested but assessed for underlying issues that can nearly always be 
handled without ever having contact with the justice system.
  At least 75 percent of children within the juvenile justice system 
have experienced traumatic victimization, making them vulnerable to 
mental health disorders and perceived behavioral non-compliance and 
misconduct.
  Numerous studies have also shown that as many as 70-80 percent of 
youth involved in the justice system meet the criteria for a 
disability.
  In my district in Houston, Texas, Black and Hispanic Youth make up 
over 75% of the male population aged 10-24 years.
  Yet, Black and Hispanic Youth account for 85% of youth admitted in 
our detention centers.
  A majority of these admissions into detention are for minor and 
misdemeanor offenses--behavior that should not require locking youth 
up.
  Especially when the rate of detention continues to reflect 
disproportionate minority contact and criminalization of minority 
youth.
  As we look to reform our juvenile and criminal justice system, and be 
what President Obama has called upon us be: ``My Brother's and Sister's 
Keeper''--we must move away from the engrained culture of 
criminalization as the answer to our problems.
  These include:
  I have introduced 13 additional pieces of legislation this Congress 
pertaining to Criminal Justice Reform.
  The RAISE Act (H.R. 3158) which helps young people in the federal 
system by providing judges more flexible sentencing options, encourages 
diversion, increases home confinement opportunities, ends mandatory 
life without parole, mandates housing and programming specific to the 
needs of youth, and creates youth-specific diversion and pilot 
programs.
  The Fair Chance for Youth Act (H.R. 3156) better enables young people 
to reenter and contribute to our communities by creating a mechanism 
for sealing or expungement of certain youth criminal records. If we are 
ever to stop the cycle of recidivism, we must give our young people a 
real chance to succeed after they have paid their debt to society.
  Kaliefs Law (H.R. 3155). named in memory of Kalief Browder, to 
establish more humane rules for incarcerated youth by banning the use 
of solitary confinement, mandating certain minimum standards and 
procedural protections for pretrial detention and speedy trial rights, 
and ending the shackling of youth at federal court appearances.
  I am also a co-sponsor of the Fair Chance Act that aims to prohibit 
Federal agencies and Federal contractors from requesting that an 
applicant for employment disclose criminal history record information 
before the applicant has received a conditional offer, and for other 
purposes.
  There now exists a broad and bipartisan consensus that our criminal 
justice system is broken and a historic opportunity to pass meaningful 
legislation reform the system so that it works for everyone--the 
general public, law enforcement personnel, taxpayers, crime victims, 
and offenders who have served their time, paid their debt to society, 
and anxious to redeem the second chance so they can ``pay it forward.''

  It is past time for us to Ban the Box!
  Missouri has lately taken center stage when it comes to racial 
tensions: the unrest in Ferguson and the protests at the University of 
Missouri.
  Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, was shot and killed on Aug. 
9, 2014, by Darren Wilson, a white police officer, in Ferguson, Mo., a 
suburb of St. Louis.
  The shooting prompted violent protests and helped form the Black 
Lives Matter Movement.
  The unrest in Ferguson likely comes from Missouri's acute levels of 
racial segregation.
  The African-American population is heavily concentrated in the 
segregated cities of St. Louis and Kansas City.
  St. Louis is the fifth-most racially segregated city in the United 
States.
  The state poverty is located mostly within predominantly black areas.
  The racial segregation that is rampant in the ``Show Me State'' stems 
from white hostility towards African Americans and that hostility 
magnifies itself on college campuses, including the University of 
Missouri.
  Protests have been on-going in Columbia, MO since October in response 
to racist incidents that further the rampant racism in the state.
  For example, in 2010, two white students were arrested for dropping 
cotton balls in front of the Gaines/Oldham Black Culture Center and in 
2011 a student was given probation for racially charged graffiti in a 
student dormitory.
  On September 12, 2015, a Facebook post by the student government 
president Payton Head complained of bigotry and anti-gay sentiment 
around the college campus, which gained widespread attention.
  The Mizzou football team announced on November 8th that they would 
boycott playing until the administration took drastic steps.
  The University President Tim Wolfe and Chancellor R. Bowen Loftin 
both stepped down on November 9th but the protests are ongoing.
  October 20, 2014 is an unforgettable day because a young man named 
Laquan McDonald was fatally shot 16 times in the middle of the street 
by Chicago Police officer Jason Van Dyke.
  Sadly, October 20, will serve as a yearly reminder of the unambiguous 
slaying of a young man who will never have the chance to grow old.
  More than 500 protesters marched through Chicago for nearly 9 hours 
after officials released the chilling dash-cam video showing the fatal 
shooting of Laquan McDonald.
  Protesters marched along Chicago's famous Michigan Avenue the day 
after Thanksgiving, demanding the resignations of the city's top 
leaders.
  The Protesters stood in harmony with locked arms outside the doors of 
major retailers chanting ``Stop the cover-up'' and ``16 shots! 16 
shots'' which was the number of times the officer fired upon Laquan 
McDonald.
  Other Police killings include:
  The death of 43-year-old Eric Garner resulting from the application 
of a NYPD police chokehold occurred in the Northeast and the death of 
18-year-old Michael Brown and the resulting events in Ferguson occurred 
in the border state of Missouri.
  The killing of 12-year-old Tamir Rice by a Cleveland police office 
occurred in the Midwest and death of unarmed 26-year-old Jordan Baker 
by an off-duty Houston police officer occurred in Texas.
  In Phoenix, Arizona, Rumain Brisbon, an unarmed black father of four, 
was shot to death in when a police officer allegedly mistook his bottle 
of pills for a gun.
  In Pasdena, California, 19-year-old Kendrec McDade was chased and 
shot seven times by two police officers after a 911 caller falsely 
reported he had been robbed at gunpoint by two black men, neither of 
whom in fact was armed.
  And, of course, on April 4, the conscience of the nation was shocked 
by the horrifying killing of 50-year-old Walter Scott by a North 
Charleston police officer in the southern state of South Carolina.
  Nearly 1,000 people in Minneapolis, Minnesota marched to City Hall 
less than a day after five protesters were shot near a Black Lives 
Matter demonstration.
  This shooting which is seen to be a racially motivated attack has 
pushed Minneapolis into the national spotlight.
  The events in Minneapolis reminded us that we cannot and we must not 
allow tensions, which are present in so many neighborhoods across 
America, to go unresolved.
  Beyond Broke: Why Closing the Racial Wealth Gap is a Priority for 
National Economic Security uses the most recently available data from 
the U.S. Census Bureau's Survey of Income and Program Participation 
(SIPP) along with the National Asset Scorecard in Communities of Color 
(NASCC) to highlight the current state of America's racial wealth gap.
  The report findings include:
  Between 2005 and 2011, the median net worth of households of color 
remained near their 2009 levels, reflecting a drop of 58 percent for 
Latinos, 48 percent for Asians, 45 percent for African Americans but 
only 21 percent for whites.
  Hispanic households experienced the largest drop in net worth 
following the recession.
  More than half of whites own four or more tangible assets, compared 
to 49 percent of Asians and only one in five of African Americans and 
Latinos.

[[Page H8444]]

  African Americans (38 percent) and Latinos (35 percent) are over 
twice as likely as whites (13 percent) to hold no financial assets at 
all and to have no or negative net worth.
  At no point in our nation's history has a single human been more 
capable of inflicting massive death and misery, and our society is 
producing more individuals who seek to employ such means to carry out 
their ill intentions.
  While it is certainly true that violent crime and homicide rates in 
this country have been declining in recent years, they are still far 
above those in other industrialized nations.
  Most recently, the horrible attack on a Planned Parenthood in 
Colorado Springs that took the lives of 3 Americans, including a mother 
and an Iraqi war Veteran.
  That is just one horrific example of why we must act now to stop gun 
violence, protect citizens, and end the urban warfare.
  And we have a plan of action.
  1. Require universal background checks to keep guns out of dangerous 
hands; an estimated 40% of gun transfers--6.6 million transfers--are 
conducted without a background check. 1/3 of ``want-to-buy'' ads online 
are posted by people with a criminal record. More than 4 times the rate 
at which prohibited gun buyers try to buy guns in stores. That would 
equate to 25,000 guns in illegal hands.
  2. Ban military-style assault weapons;
  3. Closing of the gun-show loophole; and
  4. Increase access to mental health services. We must work to reduce 
access to firearms for people with suicidal tendencies. 90% of suicide 
victims should have been diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder. 
Firearms are the most common method of suicide--51%. We need to ensure 
that mental health professionals know their options for reporting 
threats of violence--even as we acknowledge that someone with a mental 
illness is far more likely to be the victim of a violent crime than the 
perpetrator.
  Every day, 48 children and teens are shot in murders, assaults, 
suicides & suicide attempts, unintentional shootings, and police 
intervention. Every day, 7 children and teens die from gun violence.
  Over 17,000 (17,499) American children and teens are shot in murders, 
assaults, suicides & suicide attempts, unintentional shootings, or by 
police intervention each year. 2,677 kids die from gun violence each 
year. Every day, 297 people in America are shot in murders, assaults, 
suicides & suicide attempts, unintentional shootings, and police 
intervention. Every day, 89 people die from gun violence.
  Over 108,000 (108,476) people in America are shot in murders, 
assaults, suicides & suicide attempts, unintentional shootings, or by 
police intervention. 32,514 people die from gun violence each year.
  The senseless killings in Bamako, Mali, Beirut, and the Bataclan 
Theater in Paris are the most current examples of global terrorism.
  The terror attacks that unfolded across Paris continue to tear at the 
hearts of all Americans.
  Those who think that they can terrorize the people of France or the 
values that they stand for are wrong. The American people draw strength 
from the French people's commitment to life, liberty, the pursuit of 
happiness.
  In response to these disgusting attacks, I call on my colleagues to 
pass my bill H.R. 48 the No Fly for Foreign Fighters Act.
  This would require the Director of the Terrorist Screening Center to 
review the completeness of the Terrorist Screening Database and the 
terrorist watch list utilized by the Transportation Security 
Administration.
  Despite the recent terrorist attacks around the world, ISIS is not 
the most deadly terrorist organization.
  The 2015 Global Terrorism Index found that Boko Haram in Nieria 
killed 6,644 people in 2014. 77% of deaths were private citizens.
  This compared to 6,073 at the hands of ISIS.
  Boko Haram was formed in 2002 and became armed in 2009.
  In the last six years, Boko Haram has carried out more than 500 
violent attacks against a broad array of targets: Christian and Muslim 
communities, government installations, schools, hospitals and medical 
facilities, aid workers, and journalists.
  Their latest attack on Yola, Nigeria, left more than 30 people dead.
  Boko Haram became well-known on a global stage when they kidnapped 
200 school girls.
  During my visit to Nigeria over the summer I met with government 
officials, including President Muhammadu Buhari, and others to discuss 
what is currently being done to bring these girls back to their 
families as soon as possible.
  Children's rights are human rights, and these types of attacks, 
specifically targeting of schools, are strictly prohibited under 
international law and cannot be justified under any circumstances.
  Girls and young women around the world absolutely must be allowed to 
go to school peacefully and free from intimidation, persecution and all 
other forms of discrimination.
  I have introduced H. Res. 528, Expressing the sense of the House of 
Representatives regarding to the Victims of the Terror Protection fund, 
which expresses the sense of the House of Representatives that: Boko 
Haram and other terrorist organizations be declared an existential 
threat to the human rights and security of the Nigerian people and 
their regional neighbors; the global strategy for ending the suffering 
and creating solutions for displaced persons in Africa includes a 
Victims of Terror Protection Fund, which should provide humanitarian 
assistance to Boko Haram victims; military technical assistance be 
provided to Nigeria and its neighbors; and the Victims of Terror 
Support Fund should be modeled after the cases of Khazakhstan and 
Equatorial Guinea where prior kleptocracy initiatives have been created 
to benefit communities and victims in need of support.
  I also wear red every Wednesday to stand in solidarity with 
Representative Wilson in our combined effort to #BringBackOurGirls.
  A terrible blow was dealt to the Voting Rights Act on June 25, 2013, 
when the Supreme Court handed down the decision in Shelby County v. 
Holder, 537 U.S. 193 (2013), which invalidated Section 4(b), the 
provision of the law determining which jurisdictions would be subject 
to Section 5 ``pre-clearance.'' The reason the Court gave for its 
ruling ``times have changed.''
  Times have changed, but what the Court did not fully appreciate is 
that the positive changes it cited were due almost entirely to the 
existence and vigorous enforcement of the Voting Rights Act.
  In the 50 years since its passage in 1965, the Voting Rights Act has 
safeguarded the right of Americans to vote and stood as an obstacle to 
many of the more egregious attempts by certain states and local 
jurisdictions to game the system by passing discriminatory changes to 
their election laws and administrative policies.
  I am a sponsor of the H.R. 2867, the Voting Rights Advancement Act of 
2015, a bill that restores and advances the Voting Rights Act of 1965 
by providing a modern day coverage test that will extend federal 
oversight to jurisdictions which have a history of voter suppression 
and protects vulnerable communities from discriminatory voting 
practices.
  I am also a sponsor of H.R. 12, the Voter Empower Act of 2015, which 
protects voters from suppression, deception, and other forms of 
disenfranchisement by modernizing voter registration, promoting access 
to voting for individuals with disabilities, and protecting the ability 
of individuals to exercise the right to vote in elections for federal 
office.
  This year I had the honor to present the Barbara Jordan Gold 
Medallion for Public-Private Leadership to a pioneer in her own right 
Hillary Rodham Clinton.
  This prestigious award is presented annually to a woman of 
demonstrated excellence in the public or private sector whose 
achievements are an example and inspiration to people everywhere, but 
especially to women and girls.
  Ms. KELLY of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my 
time.

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