[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 3]
[House]
[Page 4350]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, this morning we are now in the midst of 
Women's History Month. I want to associate myself with the women's 
history Special Order that was on the floor last evening. I look 
forward through the rest of the month of March to continue or to 
acknowledge women from my own congressional district.
  This morning, however, I wish to comment on a woman who has loomed 
large in our political eyes, and I thought out of fairness to give the 
record of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton a fair shot. The 
reason I chose to do that, Mr. Speaker, is over the weekend, as many 
occurrences occur, political meetings abound in this Nation, and the 
Conservative Political Action Conference met.
  Interestingly enough in the reporting, the newspaper noted that 
Hillary Rodham Clinton had a presence at the Nation's largest gathering 
of conservative activists. Interestingly enough, former Secretary 
Clinton was not there, obviously not invited. I think it is important 
to take note of some of the comments that were made that really require 
some kind of addressing.
  One comment was that women should not be used. Another came from the 
former Speaker and charged that if Secretary Clinton decided to run for 
President, it would be like a prison guard for the past. Words I think 
that may be political rhetoric but really do a great disservice to a 
woman with a very strong historical record.
  Early in her life, former Secretary Clinton met Dr. Martin Luther 
King, born in Chicago to parents whose political beliefs, or part of 
their political beliefs, were different from Secretary Clinton's today. 
She was an active young woman and through her church had the 
opportunity to meet Dr. Martin Luther King. You can imagine her 
thoughts a few years later when Dr. King was assassinated. It may have 
had a major impact on her belief in serving her country and helping 
America.
  Hillary Clinton is a graduate of Wellesley College and Yale Law 
School. She worked on migrant worker issues for Walter Mondale's staff. 
Also, she was on the law editorial board--I would suggest, at that 
time, certainly one of the pioneering women at Yale Law School.
  Of course many of us know that she worked for the Children's Legal 
Defense Fund and really honed her skills of concern about making 
children our number one priority. I would offer to say that when I came 
to the United States Congress, former Secretary Clinton was First Lady. 
At that time I organized and founded the Congressional Children's 
Caucus. During the 1990s it was very clear that the First Lady at that 
time was very concerned still with children's issues and held one of 
the first conferences on 0 to 3 months, and how a baby could learn and 
how we should be nurturing that infant. It was a very major conference 
to focus our legislative agenda on that issue. It was during that time 
that Marian Wright Edelman continued to work with the former Secretary 
of State on the issues of dealing with the whole comprehensive child, 
what a child needs from 0 on to adulthood. Even today I would argue 
that we do not have a children's agenda.
  I will soon be offering a briefing promoting a children's budget that 
came out of the efforts and collaboration with the former Secretary of 
State during her tenure in the White House as First Lady. As First Lady 
she traveled to emphasize the importance of freedom for women around 
the world. She was not yet Secretary. One of the first acts that we 
remember, among the acts that we remember, is her going to China and 
declaring that women's rights are human rights.
  I would venture to say that the words at the CPAC convention do not 
in any way characterize the leadership of Hillary Rodham Clinton. 
Certainly she has gone on to many other successes, which include her 
leadership as Secretary of State, the constant work of freeing women, 
women's rights. I would say, Mr. Speaker, that she is a fine example of 
a mother, a wife, a leading national figure, a historic figure who 
represents Women's History Month.

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