[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 12]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 16266-16267]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




            RECOGNIZING THE COMMITTEE FOR CITIZEN AWARENESS

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. PHILIP M. CRANE

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 25, 2003

  Mr. CRANE. Mr. Speaker, at a time when strained Federal, State, and 
local budgets are affecting our country's funding for the education of 
our people, some individuals and organizations in our private sector 
are doing

[[Page 16267]]

something about it. They have combined efforts with the Committee for 
Citizen Awareness (CCA) to provide all the secondary schools and many 
others in their area with free educational videotapes. These videotapes 
explain civic issues about our country and how our government works.
  The CCA is a nearly two-decade-old not-for-profit organization that 
produces and distributes award-winning educational videotapes that 
focus on civic issues. These videotapes feature appearances by people 
such as Secretary of State Colin Powell, Supreme Court Justice Ruth 
Bader Ginsburg, many Members of the U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. 
Senators, and other pertinent individuals.
  The subjects covered in these videotapes are particularly important 
for a number of reasons. For example, although America is the world's 
greatest democracy, our people vote at a rate lower than any other 
country. Surveys have shown that one of the major reasons for not using 
the right to vote is a general lack of understanding of our government 
and the citizen's role in it. One of the many civic goals of the CCA 
and these civic-minded individuals and organizations is to correct this 
problem with the gift of these educational videotapes.
  The videotapes are given free to all the public and private high 
schools, community and junior colleges, community access television 
stations, and to many libraries and chambers of commerce. Our country 
and our democracy are better because of the efforts of the CCA and 
because of its countless dedicated sponsors.

                          ____________________