[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 6]
[House]
[Pages 9037-9038]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         BUILD A BETTER NATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Michigan (Ms. Kilpatrick) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. KILPATRICK. Mr. Speaker and Members, I stand here today as 
chairperson of the Congressional Black Caucus to say thank you to 
America, thank you to the president and CEO of NBC News network, as 
well as the president and CEO of CBS News network. I had an opportunity 
to meet with them last week. They did the right thing.
  Our country is in peril. We need to bring our country together. Thank 
you very much for the senior staffs of both of those organizations and 
for the people of America for standing up and speaking out.
  We are in trying times at the moment, and there is much we must do to 
bring our country together and make our families stronger. Kudos, most 
gracious love, to the women of the Rutgers' basketball team, 10 young 
women, all honor students, child prodigies, dedicated and working to 
make life better for themselves and for America, to get to Rutgers, to 
stay there, to achieve academic excellence, and, yes, then to excel. 
Also, kudos to the University of Tennessee women's basketball team, the 
NCAA women's basketball champions.
  This is the 35th anniversary year of title IX. Title IX is the 
legislation 35 years ago that was enacted that would make an equal 
playing field for women in sports and athletics. We will celebrate 
title IX and have been all year. I have spoken to President McCormick, 
and the Congressional Black Caucus, the Speaker of the House and others 
will be welcoming the Rutgers and Tennessee teams as well as the 
president and coaching staffs to our city of Washington, DC, very soon. 
We will hold a 2-hour summit and hear from the National Organization 
For Women, a psychiatrist from Rutgers University, some renowned women 
and others who speak to the values of America.
  Today we had the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission in 
our Appropriations Committee. He came for his budget today. We talked 
about how do we make America better; how do we shut down some of the 
smut and other things that are negatively impacting our children. We 
are a better Nation than that. He has agreed to work with us and 
together, through this Congress, the FCC will be stronger. We must 
strengthen some of the things that they must do.
  The 1934 law is archaic. The courts have interpreted that law very 
narrowly. This is far bigger than a person. This is about the strength 
and success of our families, of our children.
  On behalf of the men and women who serve in this United States 
Congress, and specifically the men and women of the Congressional Black 
Caucus, let us rise up and build a better Nation for our sisters, our 
girls, our women, and, yes, our men and boys.

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