[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 151 (Friday, August 27, 2021)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E934-E936]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  URGING AWARD OF CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL TO PRESIDENT LYNDON BAINES 
  JOHNSON FOR HIS EXTRAORDINARY RECORD OF ACHIEVEMENT IN THE FIELD OF 
                            DOMESTIC AFFAIRS

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. SHEILA JACKSON LEE

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, August 27, 2021

  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Madam Speaker, I rise in remembrance of one of the 
true giants of American history and politics, Lyndon Baines Johnson, 
the 36th President of the United States, who was born 113 years ago 
today, August 27. It might be fair to say that I have quoted the wise 
words of President Abraham Lincoln on this floor perhaps more than any 
other Member and my appreciation and profound gratitude for leadership 
of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who led our country out of the 
Great Depression and into an economic and military superpower, to 
victory in World War II, and whose New Deal transformed the way 
Americans live and work for the better, is unsurpassed.
  But next to these two greatest of all American presidents, in my view 
shared by millions, stands Lyndon Baines Johnson, the visionary and 
architect of the Great Society, which centered federal policy on the 
growth and human development of the individual, providing educational 
and economic opportunity to all persons of all races, genders, and 
creeds living in every rural and urban community in every region of the 
nation. As I will discuss, the acclaimed Pulitzer Prize winner and 
preeminent historian and biographer, Robert Caro, is exactly right when 
he wrote that with the single exception of Abraham Lincoln, Lyndon 
Johnson was the greatest champion of the poor and underprivileged in 
the history of the Republic and was the President ``who wrote mercy and 
justice into the statute books by which America was governed.''
  That is why earlier this year I introduced H.R. 115, legislation 
awarding the Congressional Gold Medal to President Lyndon Baines 
Johnson, whose vision and leadership secured passage of the landmark 
Voting Rights Act of 1965, the Social Security Amendments Act 
(Medicare) of 1965, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Higher Education 
Act of 1965, the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965, to name 
just a handful of the more than 180 laws that have done so much to 
shape American society in the 21st Century. The awarding of the 
Congressional Gold Medal is long overdue recognition of the remarkable 
record of achievement in the field of domestic affairs of the person 
most responsible for several of the nation's landmark laws that mark 
their 56th anniversary this year.
  Madam Speaker, as a Member of Congress from the Tenth Congressional 
District of Texas, as Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate, Vice 
President and President of the United States, Lyndon Baines Johnson's 
domestic accomplishments in the fields of civil rights, education, and 
economic opportunity rank among the greatest achievements of the past 
century. As President, Lyndon Johnson proposed, championed, led to 
passage, and signed into law on August 6, 1965 the Voting Rights Act of 
1965, which swept away barriers impeding millions of Americans from 
meaningful participation in American political life. On July 30, 1965, 
President Johnson signed into law the Social Security Amendments Act of 
1965, which we today know as Medicare, which has transformed the 
delivery of health care in the United States and which, along with 
Social Security, reduced the rate of poverty among the elderly from 
28.5 percent in 1966 to 9.1 percent in 2012.
  On July 2, 1964 President Johnson secured passage and signed into law 
the most sweeping civil rights legislation since Reconstruction, the 
Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination in employment, 
education, and public accommodations based on race, color, religion, or 
national origin.
  On November 8, 1965, President Johnson signed into law the Higher 
Education Act, which provided need-based financial aid to students in 
the form of scholarships, work-study grants, and loans, and thus for 
the first time made higher education more accessible to populations of 
persons who were previously unable to attend college because of 
economic circumstances.
  On October 3, 1965, President Johnson signed into law the Immigration 
and Naturalization Act of 1965, which transformed the nation's 
immigration system by abolishing the racially based quota system that 
had defined American immigration policy for the previous four decades 
and replaced it with a policy whose central purpose was family 
reunification, with a preference for immigrants with specific 
skillsets.
  Madam Speaker, Lyndon Baines Johnson began his working life as a 
teacher and debate coach in the poor Hispanic community in the South 
Texas town of Cotulla, where poverty was so bad that he recalled seeing 
``Mexican children going through a garbage pile, shaking the coffee 
grounds from the grapefruit rinds and sucking the rinds for the juice 
that was left, a sight he never forgot, and which fueled his passion 
and commitment to ending poverty in America. This teacher who became 
president served his country in numerous, distinguished ways, including 
as Lt. Commander in the U.S. Navy during World War II, as a Member of 
both houses of Congress, as Vice President of the United States, and as 
the 36th President of the United States. Lyndon Baines Johnson was born 
on August 27, 1908, in Stonewall, Texas.
  In 1927, he enrolled in Southwest Texas State Teachers College at San 
Marcos, Texas (Texas State University-San Marcos) and graduated with a 
Bachelor of Science degree in August 1930. After graduation he taught 
at Pearsall High School in Pearsall, Texas, and taught public speaking 
at Sam Houston High School in Houston, Texas, where in the spring of 
1931, his debate team won the district championship. In a special 
election in 1937, Johnson won the U.S. House of Representatives seat 
representing the 10th Congressional District of Texas, defeating nine 
other candidates, and would be re-elected to a full term in the 76th 
Congress and to each succeeding Congress until 1948.
  After the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Johnson became 
the first Member of Congress to volunteer for active duty in the armed 
forces (U.S. Navy), reporting for active duty on December 9, 1941. 
Johnson received the Silver Star from General

[[Page E935]]

Douglas MacArthur for gallantry in action during an aerial combat 
mission over hostile positions in New Guinea on June 9, 1942. President 
Roosevelt ordered all Members of Congress in the armed forces to return 
to their offices, and Johnson was released from active duty on July 16, 
1942. In 1948, after a campaign in which he traveled by `newfangled' 
helicopter all over the state, Johnson won the primary by 87 votes and 
earning the nickname `Landslide Lyndon' and went on to victory in the 
general election, where he served until inaugurated Vice-President of 
the United States on January 20, 1961.
  As a member of the Senate, Lyndon Johnson is acknowledged by 
historians, scholars, and students of politics as the greatest Majority 
Leader in the history of that chamber. Lyndon Johnson became the 36th 
President of the United States on November 22, 1963, after the 
assassination of President John F. Kennedy. During his administration, 
education was one of the many areas where President Johnson blazed new 
ground, proposing numerous education initiatives which became landmark 
education bills he signed into law. In 1963, President Johnson signed 
the Higher Education Facilities Act (P.L. 88-204) which authorized a 
five-year program of federal grants and loans for construction or 
improvement of public and private higher education academic facilities. 
This legislation was the largest education program enacted by Congress 
since the National Defense Education Act of 1958, and itwas the first 
broad education bill enacted in the post-World War II period that was 
not tied to national defense.
  In 1964, Johnson signed the Library Services Act (P.L. 88-269) to 
make high quality public libraries more accessible to both urban and 
rural residents. The funds made available under this Act were used to 
construct as well as operate libraries, and to extend this program to 
cities as well as rural areas. Later that year, President Johnson 
signed the Civil Rights Act (P.L. 88-352), which included Title VI 
among its landmark provisions authorizing federal authorities to sue 
for the desegregation of schools and to withhold federal funds from 
education institutions that practiced segregation. In 1965, in the 
presence of his first teacher, Mrs. Kathryn Deadrich Loney, President 
Johnson signed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (P.L. 89-10) 
at the former Junction Elementary School in Stonewall, Texas, where he 
first attended school. This legislation was the first general aid-to-
education program ever adopted by Congress, and it provided programs to 
help educate disadvantaged children in urban and rural areas.
  Later that year, he also signed the Higher Education Act (P.L. 89-
329), which was the first program approved by the U.S. Congress for 
scholarships to undergraduate students. In 1965, President Johnson 
launched Project Head Start, as an eight-week summer program, to help 
break the cycle of poverty by providing pre-school children from low-
income families with a comprehensive program to meet their emotional, 
social, health, nutritional, and psychological needs. Recruiting 
children from ages three to school-entry age, Head Start was 
enthusiastically received by education and child development 
specialists, community leaders, and parents across the nation. 
Currently, Head Start continues to serve children and their families 
each year in urban and rural areas in all 50 States, the District of 
Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Territories, as well as many 
migrant children. In 1966, President Johnson signed the International 
Education Act (P.L. 89-698), which promoted international studies at 
U.S. colleges and universities.
  In 1968, he signed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act 
Amendments of 1967 (P.L. 90-247), establishing bilingual education 
programs for non-English speaking children, and providing more funds 
for special education for disabled children. Later that year, he also 
signed the Handicapped Children's Early Education Assistance Act (P.L. 
90-538), which authorized experimental programs for disabled children 
of preschool age. In 1965, President Johnson achieved passage of the 
greatest legislative achievement for the cause of civil rights and 
equality of opportunity, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which outlawed 
discrimination in voting, thus allowing millions of southern black 
Americans to vote for the very first time. In other actions on the 
civil rights front, President Johnson nominated civil rights attorney 
Thurgood Marshall to the positions of Solicitor General and later 
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, making him the first African 
American to serve in either capacity.
  Madam Speaker, I include in the Record a document entitled the ``The 
Legislative Legacy of President Lyndon Baines Johnson: 1963-1968,'' to 
remind all Members and the Nation what can be accomplished under the 
leadership of one who had a servant's heart, an iron will, and as the 
famed biographer Robert Caro memorably characterized it, ``a natural 
genius for politics.'' I invite all Members to join me in sponsoring 
H.R. 115, legislation awarding the Congressional Gold Medal and 
recognizing the extraordinary domestic achievements of President Lyndon 
Baines Johnson, the 36th President of the United States.

  The Legislative Legacy of President Lyndon Baines Johnson: 1963-1968


                                  1963

       College Facilities
       Clean Air
       Vocational Education
       Indian Vocational Training
       Manpower Training


                                  1964

       Inter-American Development Bank
       Kennedy Cultural Center
       Tax Reduction
       Farm Program
       Pesticide Controls
       International Development Association
       Civil Rights Act of 1964
       Water Resources Research
       War on Poverty
       Criminal Justice
       Truth-in-Securities
       Food Stamps
       Housing Act
       Wilderness Areas
       Nurse Training
       Library Services


                                  1965

       Medicare
       Medicaid
       Elementary and Secondary Education
       Higher Education
       Bilingual Education
       Department of Housing and Urban Development
       Housing Act
       Voting Rights
       Immigration Reform Law
       Older Americans
       Heart, Cancer, Stroke Program
       Law Enforcement Assistance
       Drug Controls
       Mental Health Facilities
       Health Professions
       Medical Libraries
       Vocational Rehabilitation
       Anti-Poverty Program
       Arts and Humanities Foundation
       Aid to Appalachia
       Highway Beauty
       Clean Air
       Water Pollution Control
       High Speed Transit
       Manpower Training
       Child Health
       Community Health Services
       Water Resources Council
       Water Desalting
       Juvenile Delinquency Control
       Arms Control
       Affirmative Action


                                  1966

        Child Nutrition
       Department of Transportation
       Truth in Packaging
       Model Cities
       Rent Supplements
       Teachers Corps
       Asian Development Bank
       Clean Rivers
       Food for Freedom
       Child Safety
       Narcotics Rehabilitation
       Traffic Safety
       Highway Safety
       Mine Safety
       International Education
        Bail Reform
       Auto Safety
       Tire Safety
       New GI Bill
       Minimum Wage Increase
       Urban Mass Transit
       Civil Procedure Reform
       Fish-Wildlife Preservation
       Water for Peace
       Anti-Inflation Program
       Scientific Knowledge Exchange
       Protection for Savings
       Freedom of Information
       Hirshhorn Museum


                                  1967

       Education Professions
       Education Act
       Air Pollution Control
       Partnership for Health
       Social Security Increases
       Age Discrimination
       Wholesome Meat
       Flammable Fabrics
       Urban Research
       Public Broadcasting
       Outer Space Treaty
       Modern D.C. Government
       Federal Judicial Center
       Deaf-Blind Center
       College Work Study
       Summer Youth Programs
       Food Stamps
       Urban Fellowships
       Safety at Sea Treaty
       Narcotics Treaty
       Anti-Racketeering
       Product Safety Commission
       Inter-American Bank


                                  1968

       Fair Housing
       Indian Bill of Rights
       Safe Streets
       Wholesome Poultry
       Commodity Exchange Rules
       School Breakfasts
       Truth-in-Lending
       Aircraft Noise Abatement
       New Narcotics Bureau
       Gas Pipeline Safety
       Fire Safety

[[Page E936]]

       Sea Grant Colleges
       Tax Surcharge Housing Act
       International Monetary Reform
       Fair Federal Juries
       Juvenile Delinquency Prevention
       Guaranteed Student Loans
       Health Manpower
       Gun Controls
       Aid-to-Handicapped Children
       Heart, Cancer and Stroke Programs
       Hazardous Radiation Protection
       Scenic Rivers
       Scenic Trails
       National Water Commission
       Vocational Education
       Dangerous Drug Control
       Military Justice Code
       Tax Surcharge

                          ____________________