[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 18]
[House]
[Pages 24696-24697]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




      SAY ``YES'' TO INTEGRITY IN THE NFL, ``NO'' TO RUSH LIMBAUGH

  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. Madam Speaker, this is the value of 
democracy: differences of opinion. And, frankly, I believe that this 
government, this majority is on the right track. We were in an 
emergency, a recession that has continued for a period of months. Even 
as we watch Wall Street bounce back, we know the pain of Americans who 
have suffered the loss of jobs.
  It is important to note that history is at our back; for if FDR had 
not been aggressive and taken risks to invest in programs that 
generated jobs, maybe not the type of focus of the 21st century but the 
WPA, who put our grandfathers and some grandmothers to work, allowed 
young men who were able to come back from World War II to be able to 
have an opportunity to then grow a capitalistic society, the boom of 
the 1950s, when those young men and young women married and created 
families and built homes.
  And so it is important to have the facts. And I would say to you that 
the jobs data which we are collecting says that jobs have been created, 
important jobs. Thousands and thousands of teachers have been able to 
be retained to educate our children. We have had a number of others in 
various agencies that we have been able to keep, and those jobs then 
generate into the private sector.
  I am often well aware that there are different economic perspectives, 
but Paul Krugman has a note, not necessarily the full article that I 
hope to associate myself with, but it says, Pressure to scale back 
efforts to support the economy from those fearful of a sliding dollar 
should be ignored.
  We are going to have to take risks. It is not a perfect system, but 
we are contemplating what will create more jobs. I believe it happens 
to be infrastructure and transportation, and we are looking at those 
issues. So know the facts. And we will have the facts because we are 
collecting data from all the States to be able to make the point that 
jobs have been created by this stimulus, and we know that we can do 
more.
  Let me finally move to another topic and offer my thoughts, even 
though I believe in the First Amendment and the right to freedom of 
association, but I stand with the NFL Players Association, not to make 
Rush Limbaugh any kind of national standard or a national hero or the 
national issue. I will let my friends on the other side of the aisle 
determine what he is and what he is not, but I know that he is not the 
kind of owner that the NFL needs.
  He does not represent the fullness of appreciation of athletes of all 
diverse backgrounds no matter what he wants to portend to say on his 
radio station. But he is one who is divisive. Just as they are about to 
select him as a judge for a Miss America contest; I can't understand 
that, but that is their choice. Maybe they think he will bring in 
millions of listeners. But can you imagine a poor girl, scared already, 
to be able to ask a question about the person she admires most and she 
says somebody that happens to be a different political affiliation, she 
is, of course, not a winner. But that's their decision.
  NFL has become one of America's pastimes. All of us from all walks of 
life and economic backgrounds look at the NFL. I know that there are 
far better owners that could be selected than one package that has this 
gentleman in it. I would ask the NFL owners to put standards in place, 
criteria; base it on integrity, not just the bottom buck. Anybody that 
wants to call a quarterback in Pennsylvania and call him out--he 
happens to be African American--as not being competent, just somebody 
that the media has promoted, not being talented--interestingly enough, 
that football player happens to still be playing and doing a great job. 
I don't know why in the heck, other than the big dollar, that Rush 
Limbaugh would be interested in the NFL. And so we're not interested in 
him either. And I would hope--though this is not my choice. This is not 
a government issue as well as it is an issue of integrity for those of 
us who believe that this is a great sport that brings all of us 
together.
  I would hesitate to say that he is not someone who brings people 
together.

[[Page 24697]]

And I just simply ask those owners to do the right thing; have a 
criteria of standards, a bottom line of integrity. It is not all about 
the dollar. It is about the value of sports and teamwork and working 
together and bringing young people together and looking at values that 
are not political, that are simply about us getting along as a Nation, 
being admired by the world for having a great sporting community, if 
you will, whether it's baseball, basketball, football, soccer, tennis, 
golf. That's what it's about.
  NFL owners, have some integrity. I think you need a different owner 
team.

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