[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.
____________________