[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 9]
[House]
[Pages 12198-12199]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         ISSUES FACING AMERICA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I listened to many of my good friends

[[Page 12199]]

and to colleagues. We are, in fact, good friends and colleagues hoping 
to do what is right on behalf of the American people. I always 
appreciate and respect those individuals who have chosen to serve the 
Nation, so I take issue very briefly with my good friend and colleague 
about the criminal acts of one of the most honest and forthright 
Attorney Generals of the United States of America.
  Attorney General Holder has not been charged with criminal activity, 
except for the aggressive and desperate actions of our Republican 
friends. He has been noted for his great leadership on civil rights and 
criminal justice issues. He's been a leader on the prohibiting and 
fighting against human trafficking. And certainly he has been one who 
has stood up for our children in this Nation, and also the many law 
enforcement officers who are on the front lines protecting us here in 
America. I hope that we can respect those who offer themselves to the 
service of this Nation for as long as Attorney General Eric Holder has 
done.
  I have listened to friends as well speak about the devastation of the 
sequester. I again suggest to my colleagues that, through H.R. 900, a 
simple bill that eliminates the sequester and goes back to the budget 
reconciliation of 2011 and, as well, to force or to push this 
Republican majority to move to conference, would be the better 
approach.
  I, too, have gone and delivered meals for Meals on Wheels, and I've 
seen the faces of seniors who will now face serious cuts in this 
effort. I see the loss of 750,000 jobs. I see the impact on the 
economy, where the unemployment has stayed somewhat static. But when 
you go into the business community and the hesitation, even though Wall 
Street is thriving, it all points to the fact of the sequester. It has 
become a dirty word. It has become one that has victimized the American 
pubic: it has victimized young families; it has victimized college 
students; it has victimized seniors; it has victimized those who are 
ill. And yet we continue to, piece by piece, fix the FAA problem but do 
not address the 70,000 children that are suffering and losing seats in 
Head Starts.
  I remember, as the Head Start seats were being lost, fathers crying 
when they were told by their Head Start facility that their child would 
no longer have a seat. It seems sad that we would cut Head Start or 
disaster aid by $1 billion because we have Head Start, or the 
Department of Transportation, $1.9 billion, when many of us know that 
those are the basic reasons for job creation is building America's 
infrastructure.
  As we plod along with sequester and we see good public workers not 
being able to work--and might I just say, let me thank our own staff, 
which gets condemned all the time. You work for a U.S. Member of 
Congress, and every day our staff fights to help some constituent keep 
their house from being foreclosed on or keep a Medicare recipient 
continuing to get their benefits or veterans, and yet we are 
furloughing them. We are cutting people that are mere workers, that are 
working for us. They can't make ends meet. They're getting second jobs. 
It's a disgrace. It's an absolute disgrace. I am not going to condemn 
our staff--committee staff, government staff. They are working for the 
American people.
  Then I want to offer a disagreement, Mr. Speaker. I know the Senate 
is going to vote on a student loan program. They say it's a compromise. 
Well, I've got to tell my students, because I've held campus meetings, 
we've met, I've got to tell them and I've got to tell the parents, yes, 
they're going to get a low interest rate today, but watch out for 
tomorrow because it's a trigger. Before you know it, they may be paying 
10 percent.
  They say it's a cap, but I don't know what the cap is going to be as 
it relates to whether a student can pay 6 percent or 7 percent, when 
they can stay at 3.4 percent. As someone said, why should the Federal 
Government be making money on the backs of students? I'm concerned 
about that.
  Finally, Mr. Speaker, let me say there has been a lot of discussion 
this week about issues of race, issues of the tragedy of Trayvon 
Martin. I intend to introduce the Justice Exists for All Act, a review, 
as Senator McCain has suggested, of the Stand Your Ground legislation 
across America. It will increase public safety. It will reduce the 
incidence of gun violence, among other things, by providing incentives 
for any State with the Stand Your Ground law to amend it to require a 
duty to retreat. For States that do not require a duty to retreat, we 
will question their Federal funding and assess their Justice Department 
funding and reduce it by 20 percent.
  We will also decrease the incidence of gun violence resulting from 
vigilantes by reducing by 20 percent the funds that would otherwise be 
allocated for that fiscal year to any State that does not require local 
neighborhood watch programs be registered with a local enforcement 
agency, and require the Attorney General, Mr. Speaker, to study Stand 
Your Ground laws.
  Let's speak to the pain of the American people. Let's look at ways of 
fixing the law.

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