[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 105 (Wednesday, June 16, 2021)]
[House]
[Pages H2822-H2823]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      REPEAL AUTHORIZATION FOR USE OF MILITARY FORCE AGAINST IRAQ

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
New York (Mrs. Carolyn B. Maloney) for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York. Madam Speaker, I rise today to 
urge all my colleagues to join me in voting for H.R. 256, Congresswoman 
Lee's legislation to repeal the 2002 Authorization for Use of Military 
Force against Iraq.
  In 2002, Congress voted to authorize the use of force against Iraq 
based on what would later prove to be false, baseless, and misleading 
intelligence provided by the Bush administration. A year later, Saddam 
Hussein was overthrown; a democratic government was established; and, 
finally, in 2011, a formal declaration of the end of our mission was 
announced.
  But 10 years later, this authorization for the use of force remains 
on the books.
  We must repeal this 19-year-old authorization that has been used and 
abused to justify expansive military actions across the globe. If we 
are serious about preventing forever wars, we must repeal the AUMF and 
exercise Congress' constitutional authority to declare war and peace.
  Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on this important 
legislation.


                  Increasing Corporate Board Diversity

  Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York. Madam Speaker, I also rise in 
support of H.R. 1187, the Corporate Governance Improvement and Investor 
Protection Act, and, specifically, the Meeks-Maloney amendment that we 
will consider today.
  We show our priorities by our actions; and, today, we are not just 
talking about diversity, we are acting to improve diversity in the 
corporate boardroom.
  I want to thank Mr. Meeks, the sponsor of this amendment. He and I 
have worked on this issue a long time together, and I thank him for his 
leadership.
  The goal of our amendment, the Improving Corporate Governance Through 
Diversity Act, is extremely important, increasing diversity on 
corporate boards. This is something I believe in passionately; and 
while we have made great progress, we still have a long way to go.
  Getting more women, minorities, and individuals from historically 
underrepresented communities into corporate leadership positions is 
extremely important. Leaders set the tone, and they set the priorities.

[[Page H2823]]

  Back in 2015, I asked the Government Accountability Office to look at 
the gender makeup of corporate boards, and the results were 
discouraging, and they convinced me that we need to do more.
  Women make up roughly 47 percent of the workforce, yet they hold 
roughly 29 percent of corporate board seats. The GAO found that even if 
we assume that equal proportions of women and men started joining 
boards starting right now, it would take more than 40 years for there 
to be an equal number of women and men in the corporate boardrooms.
  We can't wait 40 years for parity. Something needs to change.
  But let's also be clear: Increasing diversity on corporate boards is 
not just a moral issue; it is good for business, too. Study after study 
has shown that companies with greater diversity on their boards perform 
better financially, which is why investors want the companies they 
invest in to make diversity a priority.
  In fact, I started working on this bill at the request of investors 
and investor organizations that wanted to more easily be able to track 
diversity on boards.
  This legislation would help investors accomplish this by requiring 
public companies to report the voluntary, self-identified racial, 
ethnic, gender identity, and sexual orientation composition of their 
board members and executive officers in their annual proxy statement.

                              {time}  1015

  By putting this information in one place for investors, the bill 
would help investors to quickly sort the companies that do and do not 
have diverse boards.
  The legislation would also establish a diversity advisory group at 
the SEC, which would study strategies to increase diversity on 
corporate boards because the truth is that making meaningful progress 
on board diversity is going to require a range of different policies in 
addition to the improved disclosures in this legislation.
  The diversity advisory group at the SEC would continue to study these 
issues and would continue to make recommendations of best policies for 
the future.
  I urge my colleagues to support this effort, support this bill, 
support our amendment, and vote ``yes'' on H.R. 1187.

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