[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 13]
[House]
[Pages 18673-18679]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



        THE EFFECTS OF TERRORISM ON EDUCATION POLICY IN AMERICA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Grucci). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 3, 2001, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Owens) is 
recognized for 60 minutes.
  Mr. OWENS. Mr. Speaker, I would like to talk about three important 
items which definitely overlap: education, reparations and terrorism. 
As a member of the House and Senate Conference Committee on H.R. 1, the 
Leave No Child Behind Act, a major initiative of President Bush that 
probably will come to the floor in the next 10 to 15 days, I would like 
to emphasize the fact that this legislation focusing on education, 
which will probably set a tone and establish some basic principles and 
concepts and procedures and movements for the next 10 years, is very 
important legislation. It is still important today, despite the 
pressures that we feel as a result of the tragedy of September 11. In 
fact, after September 11, education becomes even more important in 
general; and specifically, as we move toward creating recovery and 
construction programs, education must play a major role in this process 
of creating recovery and restructuring and construction programs.
  September 11 presented us with a tragic and compelling landmark 
event. It said to us that terrorism will be a scourge on civilization 
for a long time. Modern societies are amazingly vulnerable to 
terrorism. The domino impact of the destruction of the World Trade 
Center towers overwhelms the mind. How can one event have so many 
repercussions? How can one event, one destructive, heinous event lead 
to the collapse of so many life elements of our economy and of our way 
of looking at certain civil liberties, and a number of other major 
tenets of our society? One event.
  During World War II when targets were picked to cripple the 
industrial might of Germany, they bombed the oil fields in Romania and 
they bombed the industrial complex in Hamburg and a number of different 
targets, they had definitely aimed at crippling the industrial might of 
Hitler, not any one target ever had that kind of an impact. But in our 
present society we have constructed, it is so fragile in one sense that 
a strike at one point can lead to the tremendous repercussions which 
impact not just my City of New York or the State of New York, but the 
entire Nation and the economy of the entire world. So I want to 
highlight the fact that this event let us know that we can have people 
with cavemen mentalities.
  In fact, Osama bin Laden, and I say bin Laden because The New York 
Times said that he pronounces it as Sadden; their pronunciation guide 
said it rhymes with Sadden, and I think it is ironic that it rhymes 
with Sadden, S-A-D-D-E-N. Osama bin Laden is supposed to live in a cave 
and there are people surrounding him in a cave; but, nevertheless, out 
of that cave, we do not get a caveman mentality, we do not get an 
illiterate. We get an evil genius, an evil person with totally no 
regard for human life who can strike at one of our vulnerable points 
and cause so much harm. Educated people surround bin Laden; educated 
people who know how to use computers and know how to communicate all 
over the world and who are very patient and very well organized, who 
know how to take advantage of every soft spot in our society; educated 
people who can only be corralled and only be matched by educated 
people. We say, well, we have plenty of educated people. We do not need 
to worry about that. But I want to take a few minutes to examine some 
of the institutions of our society.
  Just as my predecessor was examining INS, I think unfairly in so many 
ways, but just as he examined INS, I want to examine some of the 
institutions in our society which are constructed to protect us. Those 
institutions are run by very well-educated people, run by very well-
trained people, scientists, specialists, maybe some geniuses are in the 
CIA and FBI. So where did we go wrong and what are we as citizens 
supposed to do?
  In my district, I assure my colleagues, we have lost many wonderful 
human beings. All human life is sacred and every soul that died in the 
World Trade Center was sacred. I have gone to many memorial services. I 
experienced firsthand a situation where my daughter-in-law, who worked 
in the World Trade Center on the 68th floor of the first tower, was 
supposed to be at work at 9:30 instead of 9 o'clock, her

[[Page 18674]]

usual time. Because she was due at 9:30, she heard the plane hit the 
building from the ground. She was not in the building at that time. But 
for 4 hours, I did not know where she was. We did not know where she 
was. And the kind of anxiety that I went through, we went through, for 
4 hours is just a tiny, tiny portion of the kind of anxiety that others 
have suffered over these last few weeks.
  When we finally found out where she was, I confess, I cried 
uncontrollably for a while. I found myself crying often uncontrollably 
for those others who did not get out and for various stories that I 
hear; and I cry when I realize that probably this great catastrophe 
could have been avoided. I have the same experience that every other 
human being has in terms of the loss of immediate people that I know, 
the loss of heroic firemen and policemen, and I react like everybody 
else.
  But on top of that, as an elected official, I wake up at night and I 
feel something else. My post-traumatic stress has another element. And 
I have noted in conversations with some of my colleagues that they are 
probably feeling the same thing. We are the Government. We are 
responsible. Therefore, when the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Gephardt) 
stood on the floor and said, we failed to keep our people safe from 
harm, we have to accept that, in some way, we are failing and have 
failed.
  I am going to have a series of town meetings, not memorial services. 
Other people are doing that very well, and I have attended those. If 
people who have lost relatives want to come to town meetings, they 
certainly are welcome; and we can take time out to deal with their 
concerns. But I want to have a series of town meetings that are 
probably very small, because I am not going to take a long time to plan 
them and look for a big audience; but I want my constituents all over 
the district to come and talk to me about their reaction to what has 
happened. I want them to hear that I feel, as a tiny portion of the 
total apparatus of government, I feel guilty. I want them to hear that 
I feel that we as Americans have a job to do; we have a new mission in 
this complicated world, very complex. Our society is far more complex 
than any nuclear physics apparatus or any ballistic missile apparatus. 
The society and the functioning of the society like ours is very 
complex, and it must have well-tuned, well-lubricated institutions 
which deal with that complexity. I want to talk to them about it and I 
want them to hear me, and I want to hear from them.
  In elections, we often hear our constituents talk endlessly about 
what have you brought home to the district. How many buildings have you 
gotten, Federal buildings have you gotten built? How many grants from 
the Federal Government have you brought home? What benefits directly 
and concrete can you offer? And the orientation of most of us has to be 
in the direction of what can I do for my district in a very concrete 
way.

                              {time}  2030

  So who wants, in this situation, to spend time on the floor of the 
House or in any other way confronting institutions of our government 
that are not functioning properly and which are not under the 
jurisdiction of our committees?
  I am on the Committee on Education and the Workforce. I am willing to 
talk to you all day about the Department of Education and the various 
ramifications of what they have done or not done, but I am not on the 
Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. I am not on the Committee 
on the Judiciary.
  Often when I come to the floor and talk about those items, my 
colleagues do tell me that, Well, you are out of your league. Other 
folks know more about that. I have been sort of driven away from a 
discussion of certain items as a result of being reminded that I am not 
the expert.
  Well, I am not the expert, but from now on I intend to be like the 
child in Hans Christian Anderson's ``The Emperor Has No Clothes.'' 
Because I am not the expert, I am going to ask the questions that the 
fresh eye and fresh ear can afford to indulge in. It is very important 
that I tell my constituents a year from now that I asked all the 
questions, I sought the answers, I did the best I could, even though 
these things were not directly under the jurisdiction of my committee.
  I am going to ask some questions of the CIA and the FBI. I have done 
that before, I think 3 or 4 years ago. For several years in a row, 
several colleagues would join me, or I would join them in using the CIA 
appropriations as an opportunity to discuss the function of the CIA, so 
we would always offer an amendment to cut it by 10 percent or 1 
percent. We do not know exactly what the budget is, but the New York 
Times consistently says it is $30 billion plus. So we used to come to 
the floor. It was an opportunity to talk about various problems.
  Mr. Speaker, our amendment got fewer and fewer votes. It was one of 
those items where I felt a little guilty about discussing it because I 
am not on the committee and I do not have the expertise, so I 
retreated. I have not talked about the CIA in several years, but I 
intend to talk about it tonight.
  Education, terrorism, and reparations. The last part of that is 
reparations. The treatment of the subject of reparations at the World 
Conference Against Racism in Durbin, South Africa, this past summer is 
evidence that freedom-loving societies are carrying unnecessary baggage 
as we seek a more just world. It is as much a part of the dialogue on 
what our role is and where we go now as we search for the terrorism 
network and the terrorism, the individuals who guided that network, and 
we do things that are unusual, and in some cases incurring collateral 
damage that is unavoidable.
  What is our moral mission here? How are we going to justify that? We 
can justify it only if we reassert the fact that we stand for freedom; 
we stand for democracy; we stand for the pieces of the Declaration of 
Independence that people like to push aside. We still believe that 
everybody has the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. 
We really believe that. We have the right to hoist a flag and march 
behind that flag and to deal with those perpetrators who are determined 
to knock down those principles.
  We have a right to have as much fervor and as much zeal as anyone 
else, but we have to understand that the lack of fervor and the lack of 
zeal makes us more vulnerable. We have not pursued the perfection of 
our institutions with the right amount of fervor and zeal. Too many of 
us, Member of Congress, have run away, backed down, as I did: ``The CIA 
is someone else's job; the FBI is someone else's job.''
  Yet in this calamity that we have just begun to live through, there 
are critical questions that somebody must answer. The INS was being 
blamed by the previous speaker, my colleague on the Committee on 
Education and the Workforce. I know all about H-1B visas and the kinds 
of things that he was talking about, but his overall thesis was that we 
were in the present predicament because there are too many people from 
outside the country being let into the country.
  That sounds like something that Sitting Bull might have said, or 
Chief Joseph. The Native Americans probably had real justification for 
making that kind of statement: Too many people have been let in the 
country, and it is our country.
  I reject any blanket statement that says that as a nation of 
immigrants we are at a great disadvantage. We are not at a great 
disadvantage as a nation of immigrants; we are at a great advantage. 
President Clinton has often said that diversity, diversity is one of 
our greatest strengths. As we seek world markets, as we seek the good 
will of people all over the globe, and as we seek right now these 
various alliances and coalitions to fight terrorism, our diversity is 
our greatest advantage.
  I recall seeing not too long ago, a few months ago, an old movie, one 
of those old thrillers. The movie was all about during World War II 
they were trying to break the German code. In order to do that, they 
came up with a daring plan in Washington where they went out and 
recruited ethnic Germans,

[[Page 18675]]

American Germans who were all put together on an American submarine, 
and they were put into a situation where they encountered a U-boat. And 
actually were able to fool, with their tactics, the people in the U-
boat, and they took over the U-boat.
  The point is that the whole project depended on the recruitment of 
ethnic Germans, people that we were at war with, but American Germans 
were Americans first. It is a good example of what is happening in many 
economic ventures. We have overwhelmed some of our opponents. The 
Japanese do not really know what has hit them in certain markets 
because they have very little diversity, but we have diversity which 
allows us entry into all kinds of markets and situations.
  Likewise, if the CIA and the FBI made use of it, that same diversity 
could help us infiltrate spy rings and infiltrate terrorism rings, and 
provide better protection for us. At least it could provide us with 
translators.
  One of the real scandals of the present situation is that the FBI was 
on television and the radio in my city 2 weeks ago advertising for 
people, they are probably still on but I just have not heard them 
recently, advertising for folks who could speak Arabic or Farsi. Well, 
better late than never, but I thought it was strange. We have been 
fighting an Arab-based terrorist ring for a long time. We knew that 
when they bombed the barracks in Beirut under Reagan. We knew that when 
they bombed the barracks in Saudi Arabia. We knew that when they bombed 
the Cole battleship. Why is it that we are not equipped with a 
sufficient supply of Arabic translators?
  I have heard from the talking heads on television, and I have read in 
several articles, that this is a real problem; that there were 
documents and communications that lay there undeciphered, unread, not 
interpreted, because there were no translators. There were no analysts.
  In this great country of ours, we ought to have groups of people who 
speak practically any language in the world. I went to my staff and 
asked, in New York City, how many colleges are there where Arabic 
instruction is provided? New York City has about 20 city universities, 
20 colleges and city universities in the system, more than 20, and then 
there are other colleges; a total of about 40 different higher 
education institutions. We found only six, only six that had some 
courses in Arabic, only six. Let us not even go to Farsi, which is what 
some folks in Afghanistan speak, or Pashtu in Afghanistan, Urdu in 
Pakistan.
  In this great Nation of ours, with 3,000 universities and colleges, 
more than 3,000, there should not be a single language that we do not 
teach somewhere. There should not be a single culture that is not being 
thoroughly explored by some group in one of our great universities or 
colleges.
  But we need to understand our mission. We need to go back and 
understand that in this global community that we have helped to create, 
we made the WTO, we did Fast Track and NAFTA, we have argued that the 
markets of the world belong to us, and therefore we are willing to have 
an interaction with the rest of the world unlike any ever known before.
  If we are going to do that, let us use some of our magnificent 
resources. We have foundations that are loaded with dollars, 
foundations which certainly could have programs on culture and 
languages that they finance in our various universities. I am not 
talking about a government program or a government initiative; but our 
universities and colleges and foundations should have an initiative 
which guarantees that no matter where we go on this globe, we have a 
body of people who understand the culture and the language of those 
people.
  For the CIA, it becomes an immediate need; for the FBI, it becomes an 
immediate need. I will submit this article from the New York Times on 
Wednesday, October 3, in its entirety. I will read some excerpts from 
it.
  Mr. Speaker, this is an article that appears today in the New York 
Times, Wednesday, October 3, entitled ``House Panel Calls for Cultural 
Revolution in FBI and CIA.''
  Now, I am still a little reluctant to do too much criticism of these 
venerated institutions here on the floor because I have had these 
comments from my colleagues. One colleague said to me that I 
embarrassed him by, at a time like this, bringing up possible 
inadequacies in the CIA or FBI. He was embarrassed. His naivete 
embarrasses me, because here in the New York Times today it shows that 
there are a lot of people who are members of the intelligence 
community, very much pro the CIA and the FBI in every way, who are 
embarrassed and want to see something done.
  This is an article by Alison Mitchell:
  ``The House committee that oversees the Nation's intelligence 
agencies has called for far-reaching changes in intelligence operations 
and for an independent investigation into why government did not 
foresee or prevent the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. 
Reflecting the mood since September 11, the House Permanent Select 
Committee on Intelligence, in a report accompanying a classified 
intelligence bill expected to be taken up by the House this week, says 
it is a matter of urgency `like no other time in our Nation's history' 
to address the `many critical problems facing the intelligence 
agencies.'''
  Now, these are people who are friends and protectors of our 
intelligence agencies talking. This is the committee of responsibility, 
the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
  ``The bill approved by the committee late last week would create an 
independent 10-member commission to study `preparedness and 
performance' of several Federal agencies during and after the September 
11 strikes. It would also increase the roughly $30 billion intelligence 
budget, but the exact dollar sums the bill contains are classified.''
  There are always increases; $30 billion is not enough, even though 
that was roughly the amount we had during the Cold War when we had the 
evil empire of the Soviet Union to battle. But $30 billion is not 
enough; we need more.
  ``The committee calls for a cultural revolution inside agencies like 
the Central Intelligence Agency and the Federal Bureau of 
Investigation, and a thorough review of the Nation's national security 
structures.''
  This is the House committee itself responsible for this. In the past 
they have been rather soft on the CIA. The man who heads the Permanent 
Select Committee on Intelligence is the gentleman from Florida (Mr. 
Goss). He is a former CIA agent. But here is the problem. In a later 
paragraph in the same article, we run into the problem: ``The House 
committee chose its words carefully. In the report that accompanies its 
bill, the committee says it does not in any way lay blame to the 
dedicated men and women of the U.S. intelligence community for the 
success of these attacks.''

                              {time}  2045

  ``If blame must be assigned, the blame lies with a government as a 
whole that did not fully understand nor wanted to appreciate the 
significance of the new threats to our national security despite the 
warnings offered by the intelligence community.''
  How is that for a turn of logic in terms of, no, the agency that is 
directly responsible is really not responsible? It is the government as 
a whole. Well, we are right back to me. I am part of the government as 
a whole. Every Congressman is part of the government as a whole. We are 
to blame. But we are not going to accept the blame by ourselves. We and 
the CIA and the FBI, the staff, the policy-making structure, we are all 
to blame. Do not say that the wonderful dedicated men and women of the 
U.S. intelligence community cannot be blamed.
  When we talk about reform of welfare programs, any mother who 
deliberately got more food stamps than she should have we put her in 
jail. We call for maximum responsibility. So why are we running away 
from maximum responsibility and maximum accountability for people who 
are in such a critical position?
  I will not read the entire article but I do want to complete just a 
few other

[[Page 18676]]

choice paragraphs. ``The commission would be appointed by the President 
and congressional leaders; and the commission would examine the 
performance of several Federal agencies responsible for public safety, 
law enforcement, national security, and intelligence gathering. It 
would have subpoena powers and would report back in six months of its 
formation.''
  I think it is important to note that our previous speaker who laid a 
blistering attack against the INS, the INS which brought all of these 
immigrants in and is not doing a good job to keep people out, he holds 
them responsible, they are not mentioned in this article. They are not 
mentioned as an intelligence gathering agency or a national security 
agency. In fact, repeatedly, it has been noted that in terms of 
processing the terrorists that have been identified, the INS did its 
job. But it was a failure of communication between the FBI and the CIA 
after the INS pinpointed the people were in the country, the failure of 
communication that resulted in two of them not being apprehended.
  ``President Bush has already ordered internal reviews of intelligence 
gathering.'' President Bush has already ordered internal reviews of 
intelligence gathering. But the committee said, ``If history serves, 
however, no substantial changes will occur after these internal reviews 
are completed. The committee believes that major changes are 
necessary.''
  Another way to interpret that is the usual response to any 
embarrassment experienced by the CIA or the FBI is to have an internal 
review. For the 19 years that I have been here, there have been several 
internal reviews of the CIA and FBI. Now this committee, this friendly 
committee is saying, look, we will not go for this. It is not going to 
result in any major difference. We need the independent investigation. 
I agree with the committee.
  I applaud the fact that they are willing to tell the truth partially, 
but they are wrong in not assuming that we can hold accountable the CIA 
and FBI.
  Further quoting from this article, ``While the intelligence bill is 
not expected to be controversial, some amendments could prove to be 
controversial as Congress contends with how much it wants to rethink 
the limits on covert operations. The House committee focused in its 
report on the shortage of intelligence analysts and case officers with 
foreign language skills.''
  This is where I want to end. ``The House committee focused in its 
report on the shortage of intelligence analysts and case officers with 
foreign language skills. At the NSA and the CIA, thousands of pieces of 
data are never analyzed or are analyzed after the fact.'' It said, 
``Because there are too few analysts, even fewer with the necessary 
language skills. Written materials can sit for months and times years 
before a linguist with proper security clearances and skills can begin 
the translation.''
  Mr. Speaker, I want to go back and tell my constituents that we have 
a $30 billion agency that cannot find and hire linguists and analysts, 
and that documents which might have uncovered this plot have been 
sitting there all this time, and we do not want to blame anybody. The 
brave men of the CIA should not be blamed for allowing a situation like 
this to take place?
  ``The committee recommended that intelligence agencies offer bonuses 
for language proficiency. They are considering creating their own 
language schools.''
  We do not to create language schools. There are languages schools out 
west. The military uses them. They can train anybody in any language. 
We need to have decision-making at the top that it is important for 
people to learn certain languages and to send them out there so you 
will not have a gaping hole in the operations of this magnitude.
  ``The committee also said that the Nation needed to increase its 
frontline field officers, clandestined case officers and defense 
attaches. It said a fresh look should be taken at restructuring the 
CIA.''
  Where does education come into all of this? I started by saying I 
wanted to talk about education. They should have no problem finding the 
people they need in this great Nation. But I know one of problems they 
encounter if they find somebody who speaks the language, they have to 
go through a series of checks in terms of loyalty, et cetera. They find 
somebody who speaks the language, they may not write English well 
enough or they may not use computers well enough. They may not be 
appropriately educated.
  We do not have a pool of educated people to draw from for those kind 
of jobs. We are headed toward a great calamity in the United States of 
America for a lack of educated people, people with college educations 
who can part of a pool from which you draw all the professionals you 
need. There is a teacher shortage of great magnitude. There is a law 
enforcement shortage. Law enforcement agencies are having trouble 
recruiting people. There is a shortage in the military in terms of 
people who are educated enough to operate very sophisticated high tech 
weaponry. Everywhere there is a shortage of people who are properly 
educated. So we are back to education. We do not need at this point to 
say that we have a major crisis created by September 11. And therefore, 
we should ignore the education bill that is being considered by the 
Senate and the House at that point or that we should downplay it and 
not give it the increases that were foreseen before September 11.
  In New York City, there is a rush to cut the education budget. First 
thing they want to cut because we have less revenue coming in, we have 
a lot of problems. So education is the first agency on the chopping 
block. That is a primitive, backward reaction and failing to understand 
where we are.
  Our law enforcement agencies, our CIA, our FBI, needs trained people 
to draw from, from diversified backgrounds. We cannot penetrate certain 
groups unless we have somebody who looks and acts and has the 
background and culture of that same group, but America is rich because 
of immigration. The immigration that has been criticized before has 
given us practically every religion, every ethnic group, every language 
in the world. We have to open our institutions to a process that allows 
these people to come in.
  The CIA was sued by women and minorities. The FBI was sued by 
Hispanics and African-Americans. In the last 5 years, there have been 
suits brought against them for their discrimination. We are back to my 
third subject now, reparations.
  The World Conference on Racism and how racism is a problem that keeps 
us from maximizing our resources, our human resources on our maximizing 
in this country because there are these layers of racism, and racism is 
worse in the law enforcement community than in any other sector of our 
society, whether we are talking about local law enforcement, state 
troopers or the Federal level. Racism is a major problem. We have to 
confront this and stop carrying the baggage of racism. We have to force 
the intelligence community to stop being so incestuous, incestuous, and 
open up so that they have the tools that are needed, the human 
resources.
  Our electronic surveillance systems are magnificent. It can pinpoint 
people, objects, anywhere in the world, but this incident, this tragedy 
shows that we have to get down on the ground, and we have to have human 
beings face-to-face, whether they are agents or assets or people back 
in the office, analysts, good librarians.
  I am a librarian. What they needed in many cases was good librarians 
to organize the information, librarians who also could speak the 
language, who would help them recruit people who speak the language. 
Arrangements could have been made to set up a first class translation 
system if the decision-makers on the top had considered it important.
  So one of the questions I asked, which embarrassed one of my 
colleagues, the CIA and the FBI, do they have decision-makers who 
understand the cultures of our enemies? Is there anybody in the high 
place in the CIA or the FBI who understands the culture of Islam? Or 
who have a pool of people relating to them that they can rely on to 
give them up-to-date firsthand ongoing interpretation of what is 
happening?

[[Page 18677]]

  Simple questions. I do not think I in any way endanger national 
security by asking the questions, and I said to myself, well, I may not 
push anybody to answer it because that might endanger national 
security, but now, since newspapers and talking heads and everybody is 
asking the same question, why do we not have people who understand the 
cultures, people who speak the language? We are asking the obvious 
questions.
  Education would give us a pool of people who are in a position to be 
trained to take these positions. We cannot ever eliminate racism, but 
if we had less racism we could develop those diverse groups. Whether it 
is people who speak Islamic or different colors, whatever, if there was 
less racism we could make use of our great advantage of diversity which 
President Clinton so often talked about.
  The conference on world racism which talked about reparations was 
hijacked by some selfish Arabs who forced the issue, twisted the issue 
and made it part of the conflict between Israel and Palestinians. So 
there was no real discussion of the ramifications of reparations, but 
reparations is something that we have to get off the table, an apology 
for slavery, something to get off the table. We ought to go on and do 
those things, apologize for slavery, just as the Japanese were asked to 
apologize and the Germans apologized to the holocaust victims. There 
have been a lot of apologies to people who have been wronged.
  Let us apologize for slavery. Let us talk about reparations in some 
sensible way. It may mean just the creation of an education system 
which guarantees the descendents of slaves who were economically 
disadvantaged will always have the opportunity get the first class 
education, and by helping them get the first class education, we help 
to enlarge the pool of people we need.
  There was a time when I heard frequently when I was younger in high 
school, I heard people say that the society only needs so many educated 
people, and therefore, if you educate too many people, there will be no 
jobs for educated people. I heard that at one of the colleges. I heard 
it as early as 10 years ago. People feeling that we have got enough 
educated people, but the needs have been mushrooming.
  One of the characteristics of this very complex modern world of ours 
is that it needs so many more educated people. You cannot get educated 
people, of course, by giving more scholarships and fellowships at the 
college and university level if you do not have the raw material coming 
up from elementary and secondary schools.
  Our problem in this country is not the opportunity for people who 
make it to college. There are all kinds of benefits, all kinds of 
opportunities for people who qualify to go to college. The problem is 
that there are too few among certain groups that are very much needed 
in this society who are able to qualify for entry into college.
  So education, the kind of bill we are considering now, what President 
Bush chose to call leave no child behind becomes as vital as anything 
we are doing. The terrorism bill is not more important than the 
education bill. The stimulus bill that we are talking about, a package 
to help boost the economy at a time like this, it is not more important 
than the education bill.
  In order for all of these things to work, we have got to have a 
continuing flow up from the pool of people with good education.

                              {time}  2100

  H. G. Wells said, and I often get the quote wrong, I am not sure I 
have it right, that ``civilization is a race between education and 
chaos.'' I think I came close to what he said. ``Civilization is a race 
between education and chaos.'' And it is even more true as our society 
becomes more complicated.
  There are people who can wreck our computer systems and our whole 
cyber-networks, and we need people who are as smart as they are who are 
constantly able to have a counteraction and monitor these things. We 
need large numbers of young people with those kinds of minds. Large 
numbers. What happened at the World Trade Center showed how vulnerable 
an attack on a physical facility can be; but Y2K, which I understand, I 
do not know the details, but I understand we must give credit to the 
CIA and FBI for stopping some plots related to the sabotage of our 
whole computer system at the changing of the century. The Y2K problem 
that we were so concerned about.
  Education is relevant today just as it was a few weeks ago. We have 
just completed a Congressional Black Caucus Annual Legislative Weekend 
where we come together from all over the country and we talk about 
certain issues and problems. I serve as the chairman of the 
Congressional Black Caucus Education Brain Trust. I am going to just 
read a statement that I made at the opening of our brain trust:
  ``As we assemble on this historic legislative weekend, we must all 
resolve that no emergency situation or special event will be allowed to 
lessen the priority we assign to the education emergency in the African 
American community. The nature of the critical problems that we 
presently face reemphasizes the need for America to have the most 
diverse and best educated population possible. In order to improve 
their operations and to achieve greater efficiency and excellence, 
every profession needs more and better educated recruits. Law 
enforcement and military agencies have a mushrooming need for personnel 
with information technology know-how. Unless we create and maintain a 
rapidly expanding pool of high quality students, the effectiveness of 
the military as well as intelligence operations will continue to be 
inadequate.
  ``Our Nation's needs for digital expertise will increase for a long 
time in the future. Activities similar to the recent terrorist act and 
other pressures on America will last into the next decade. Our school 
system has a new challenge and thus will need new resources. Advocates 
for education must focus intensely on current legislation at every 
level beginning with President Bush's 'Leave No Child Behind Act,' 
which is now under consideration. As America marshals its resources to 
fiercely fight new threats to our way of life, our greatest weapon 
remains our educated citizens. We shall overcome.''
  Our educated citizens are our greatest weapon. This bill is not just 
any other bill. President Bush has led the creation of landmark 
education legislation. The bipartisan effort that went into this 
legislation is unprecedented.
  There are pieces that I do not like. I do not like the fact that it 
has a great deal of emphasis on testing. I do not like the fact that it 
calls for a testing program for students in grades 3 to 8 every year; 
that there must be a testing program and the results of those tests 
will be used to judge the effectiveness of the schools. If a school is 
not doing well, after 2 years it will be put into a probationary 
program. After 3 years they may choose to reorganize the school, wipe 
it out and start something new, or send the kids off somewhere else.
  It has some real harsh measures. Three years is not long enough. We 
do not really pass judgment on most projects at 3 years. A school and 
the process of education is very complicated. In the conference 
committee we are now trying to ameliorate some of the harshness. But 
basically that is a feature I do not like.
  I do like the fact the President proposed that we double title I 
funding. Title I funding in 5 years is supposed to go to $17.2 billion. 
That makes the bill worthwhile. We have some problems between the 
Senate and the House in terms of overall funding authorization. I like 
the Senate figure of $32 billion versus the House figure of $23 
billion. We can do so much more with the $32 billion in terms of 
meeting the education crisis that we face.
  I propose that we support efforts in this bill to double the funding 
for school renovation. Unfortunately, the House bill had zero dollars 
for school repairs, construction or renovation. The Senate bill had 
$200 million for charter school construction. But since the item of 
construction is included, it is fair game for discussion, and I am 
proposing that we accept the charter school construction.

[[Page 18678]]

  But there is another construction item that we have in operation at 
this point, and that is a program that is underway, which most Members 
of Congress do not know about, and that is the program to repair and 
renovate schools with $1.2 billion that was included in the omnibus 
appropriations bill last fall. President Clinton signed it on December 
21.
  H.R. 4577 had a provision for $1.2 billion for school renovation and 
modernization. I am happy to report, and most people do not know about 
it so I am taking this time to talk about it, because I want the 
children of America to celebrate with me, it is a hidden victory, but I 
am happy to report that the distribution of the $1.2 billion for school 
repairs and renovation is going forward. I have a list of the amounts 
of money that each State will get.
  New York will get $105 million. You can build a few schools with $105 
million. California, of course the largest population, gets $138 
million. On and on it goes. It is a small amount of money, $1.2 
billion, because we need about $200 billion to rebuild our schools 
across America; but this was a breakthrough. We persisted. We said our 
institutions are not working properly. The Department of Education did 
not support school construction. We took our case straight to the 
President. And finally, in his last month, we got the President to 
approve $1.2 billion.
  It is a good example of how citizen scrutiny, citizen push makes a 
difference. Just like the Mothers Against Drunk Driving, MADD, made a 
big difference with regard to policies on drunk driving. The Million 
Moms March started us on the road to more reform toward gun safety. We 
need a citizens group that is watching our law enforcement agencies at 
the national level. Citizens, ordinary people, should be asking 
questions about the way the CIA operates and the way the FBI operates. 
The fine-tuning of these vital institutions, the lubrication, the 
guarantee that the very best that we can get is occurring in these 
agencies is a life and death matter. It is a life and death matter.
  Another item in the education bill is increased funding for IDEA, 
special education. The Senate has taken a position that we need to have 
the funding for special education as a mandatory expenditure off the 
budget, not competing with other budget priorities in education. I 
wholeheartedly support that. The Congressional Black Caucus 
wholeheartedly supports mandatory expenditure of IDEA; that the special 
education programs should be covered with mandatory expenditures and 
not part of the regular budget.
  We insist that the Federal Government pay for any costs of these new 
tests. I do not like the test, but if we are to have the tests from 
grades 3 to 8, the costs should be paid for by the Federal Government, 
which mandates them.
  We support the inclusion of two very effective programs that we 
helped to create, Community Technology Centers and 21st Century 
Community Learning Centers, which have after-school components and 
Saturday workshop components and summer school components.
  We support funding for Teaching Quality Grants, Troops to Teachers, 
which is a program which allows people in other careers to become 
teachers with a minimum amount of red tape. We support HBCUs. 
Historically Black Colleges and Universities should be involved in 
these teacher recruitment programs, teacher training, teacher 
orientation, so that there are more minority teachers brought into the 
education field.
  We also support the funding of a special initiative by the 
information technology industry and the computer industry to assist in 
establishing functional technology programs in schools. During this 
period of slow activity within that industry, such goods and services 
should be provided at a discount rate. An authorization program of this 
nature, if we authorize it in the education package, it will be 
eligible for additional funding in the economic stimulus package. I 
think it would contribute greatly to closing of the digital divide to 
have those high-tech agencies in the computer industry, in the software 
industry, who have a lot of idle workers and who are going through a 
crisis, to have them at this point bring all of our educational 
institutions up to date at cut rates. Let them do it at very low rates 
as a contribution, but it also would give them work.
  Returning to the Congressional Black Caucus weekend, on Saturday we 
had a special tech fair, and I talked about the digital divide: 
``Closing the digital divide, building schools first must be a 
continuing priority for all of us who welcome the new cyber-
civilization and who are determined to rescue the communities and 
students that are being left behind. Partnerships to promote school 
construction and education technology are absolute necessities. Uniting 
labor unions and underserved schools and communities to gain repairs, 
wiring, and new schools is one kingpin goal of education. Fostering 
private sector partnerships to assist in carrying the initiatives of 
the Federal Government forward to practical utilization is a high 
priority of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's Annual 
Legislative Weekend.
  ``One of the boldest and most vital proposals of the Congressional 
Black Caucus during the 106th Congress involves the heart of the 
national debate on education: funding for school construction. Time and 
time again, poll after poll, the American people have identified 
education as our number one priority. And during a recent debate on the 
floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, more than 70 Members of 
Congress endorsed the caucus's alternative budget that called for a $10 
billion increase over the President's budget for school construction. 
In a period of unprecedented wealth and opportunity, the caucus 
believes that this amount should be taken from the $200 billion budget 
surplus.
  ``I believe an investment for the future should be our first 
priority. Maximizing opportunities for individual citizens is 
synonymous with maximizing the growth and expansion of the U.S. 
superpower economy. It is the age of information. It is a time of 
computer and digitalization. It is the era of thousands of high-level 
vacancies because there are not enough information technology workers. 
With enlightened budget decisions, we can, at this moment, begin the 
shaping of the contours of a new cyber-civilization. If we fail to 
seize this moment, to make investments that will allow a great Nation 
to surge forward in the creation of this new cyber-civilization, then 
our children and grandchildren will frown on us and lament the fact 
that we failed, not because we lacked fiscal resources, but because our 
very devastating blunder was due to a poverty of vision.''
  At our decision-makers lunch we had as a guest the honorable Dan 
Goldin, who is the administrator of NASA. Dan Goldin has visions for 
where we should go in space. And unlike any other administrator in 
government, Dan Goldin understands that in order for us to realize our 
ambitions and our dreams for outerspace, we must have a firm foundation 
of education which is constantly creating new pools of recruits to go 
into our various professions.
  Dan Goldin pointed out that at NASA there are twice as many people 
over 60 as there are under 30. The space program faces a critical 
shortage. If that agency faces a critical shortage, imagine all of our 
other priority projects and industries where that must be so.
  In conclusion, it may be that these three topics do not really 
relate, but I think that it is time that we put forth the energy to 
make it merge. We must merge them and understand the complexity of our 
society.
  My message is our institutions are vital. But to keep them 
functioning properly, they must have the scrutiny of the American 
people at all times. They must be kept in good tune, well tuned and 
well lubricated, to do the job they are set up to do.

                              {time}  2115

  If they do not do that, it is a life and death matter, and we have 
just experienced an unfortunate matter where thousands of people died 
because we in the government could not keep our people safe from harm.

[[Page 18679]]

  Mr. Speaker, we feel guilty about that, but the important thing is to 
look forward and make certain that it never happens again.

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