[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 6]
[House]
[Page 8473]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




        A SALUTE TO WOMEN DURING NATIONAL WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise this afternoon to 
comment on what has been an important journey that this House has 
taken. As I do that, might I also mention that we celebrate National 
Women's History Month and salute the women Members of the United States 
Congress, and particularly salute and offer my admiration for our new 
Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi.
  At the same time, I want to pay tribute to my mother, Ivalita 
Jackson, and my late aunt and all of the women in my family. Also might 
I especially pay tribute to the women of the 18th Congressional 
District. They are certainly strong, and they certainly have invested, 
not only in Houston, Texas, but in this Nation. Dominique de Menil, 
Christy Adair, the businesswomen of our community, Ninfa Lorenzo, and 
so many others that symbolize the kind of strength that women have 
exhibited as strong Americans.
  I am also quite enthusiastic about the fact that we will soon have 
the bust of an early suffragette in legislation that just passed and 
was signed by the President that I authored, along with Senator Clinton 
in the other body, and that is the bust of Sojourner Truth, an 
abolitionist and a woman suffragette.
  We have come a long way, but we have a long way to go. So I simply 
wanted to capture very briefly the journey that we took.
  Last week, this body voted 218 votes for the emergency supplemental 
that would set a timeline to bring our troops home, men and women who 
have been on the front lines in Iraq, who will come home now with 
dignity and success because the military benchmarks have been met. 
Saddam Hussein has been deposed, there have been no findings of weapons 
of mass destruction, and, frankly, it is time now, as the President has 
said often, for Iraq to stand up and for us to stand down. It was a 
courageous vote, and I am delighted that we unified the Nation and were 
successful.
  Mr. Speaker, we traveled through the week. We passed hurricane 
recovery legislation that was never passed in the last Congress. And 
now we have a budget that defends America. It lifts up firefighters and 
law enforcement officers. It provides middle-class tax credits, like 
the child tax credit and marriage penalty relief. It looks forward to 
fixing the alternative minimum tax. It protects the middle class. It 
engages working America by providing health care for all of America's 
children. $50 billion is in this budget.
  What concerns me, Mr. Speaker, is although I believe in democracy, 
what concerns me is when my friends on the other side of the aisle 
continue to play procedural games. You just saw a few minutes ago the 
objection to setting the time for us to come back after the work 
recess, the repeating and the re-voting of votes over and over again, 
dilatory tactics so that this body cannot move forward and pass 
legislation. Albeit over the last 10 or 12 years that I have been here 
under the Republican majority, they couldn't get after the tragedy of 
9/11, a real 9/11 bill passed. We did it in the first 20 days. They 
couldn't pass a Medicare prescription drug bill that wouldn't hurt the 
senior citizens who are still trying to find out how can I pay and leap 
over the donut hole. They couldn't do it, and we are doing it.
  Over and over again, moneys would come back into the Federal 
Government because of the poor structure of SCHIP, the State Children's 
Health Insurance Program. They weren't prepared to fully fund it, and 
we are. The collapse and debacle of Leave No Child Behind that 
disrespects teachers and takes learning away from children, they could 
not fix it; but we are going to fix it.
  So my instructions to my friends as we go home for Passover and 
Easter and other religious holidays that we will commemorate, a season 
of peace, come back with the attitude of working for America and not 
for yourselves. Come back with the attitude of being respectful to the 
process of democracy. The majority represents the American people now, 
and the American people want change, not bickering. They want 
bipartisanship, not divisiveness.
  When you have a budget that fully funds defense, but yet allows us to 
be able to be compassionate with the heart and support the American 
Dream, then this side of the aisle should stop with the dilatory 
tactics.
  Mr. Speaker, I hope when we return, we will be a bipartisan Congress 
and move America forward. The Democrats have taken the leadership. We 
are doing the right thing, and I want to thank them for all their work.

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