[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 5995]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from California, 
Congressman Barbara Lee, for her courtesy.
  I join today in standing with my chair, Congressman Butterfield of 
the Congressional Black Caucus. I, as well, am overwhelmed with the 
pain that we have seen not only in Baltimore, which we have seen most 
recently, but in cities like Ferguson, in North Charleston, in New 
York, where we have seen the convergence of poverty and the need for 
criminal justice reform converge.
  I too want to offer my sympathy to the family of Freddie Gray. We 
have watched them over the past couple of days. In the midst of their 
mourning to be able to stand up and call for peace, nonviolence, 
nonviolent protests, they should be honored.
  And to those in Baltimore, and particularly my colleague from 
Maryland--I will call him Congressman Cummings with the bullhorn 
politics, the bullhorn leadership--he should be commended for the 
stunning and outstanding engagement, that he touched the hearts and 
minds of his constituents, walked those streets, to be able to 
acknowledge the pain, the poverty, but that there is a better way, that 
there is a way toward the stars that we all want our children to have.
  And, yes, to Ms. Graham, who wanted better for her son Michael. I 
want him not to be embarrassed but to be proud that he had a mother 
with such deep love that she wanted to take him away from doing it 
wrongly--not against protests, not against the quiet marching of the 
spirit of Dr. King, but to know that engaging in violence is 
intolerable and will not allow him to reach the very high heights that 
he can reach.
  Today I stand here to acknowledge the convergence of the need for 
criminal justice reform and the deep and abiding poverty in the African 
American community. One in every six Americans is living in poverty, 
totaling 46.2 million people. This is the highest number in 17 years. 
Children represent a disproportionate amount of the United States poor 
population. It falls heavily on the African American community.
  In my district, there are 190,000-plus living in poverty. It falls 
heavily on the African American community.
  Mr. Speaker, this is not a standing invitation for the door to open 
and say, let's blame President Obama. President Obama has been a 
stellar leader on the questions of realizing the investment in people. 
From the stimulus that brought us out of the depths of collapse of the 
markets and a complete imploding of the capitalistic system, he 
provided the stimulus that moved us toward an economy where we were 
creating jobs.
  But here we have in Congress this dastardly sequester that is cutting 
Head Start seats, not investing in infrastructure, not creating jobs or 
providing opportunities for our young people.
  So today I say that there needs to be a call for action. That call 
for action is that this Congress must get rid of sequester and must 
look at the Baltimores and must look at the Fergusons and Houstons and 
L.A.s and New Yorks and cities across America and realize that we are 
coming upon a summertime. And if we don't act to invest in our children 
and to begin to give an agenda to release ourselves from poverty, we 
will have doomed ourselves.
  And I would offer to say that the inertia of moving toward criminal 
justice reform in this Congress is unacceptable.
  I call upon Members to come together collectively to be able to pass 
legislation, the Cadet bill that I have introduced, the Build TRUST 
bill. But, more importantly, I am calling upon our government to invest 
in our youth, to get rid of the poverty, to prepare them as they go 
into higher education, as they go into upper grades. We must have a 
program of summer jobs this summer, and we must have a collaborative 
effort with corporate America.
  Wake up, corporate America. Wake up, corporate Baltimore. Wake up, 
corporate New York. Wake up, corporate Houston. There must be an 
investment in summer jobs, collaborating with the Federal Government to 
make a difference to lift families out of poverty. We do know that 
summer jobs with young people elevate families' ability to pay their 
bills and to provide resources for their families.
  So if the story of Baltimore is any, it is one, don't jump to 
conclusions. Don't jump to conclusions that Freddie Gray tried to hurt 
himself. Don't jump to conclusions that these young people don't mean 
well. Don't jump to conclusions that they shouldn't have done what they 
have done. Jump to the conclusions that these are young people who are 
hungry and looking for leadership and are in pain, as Congressman 
Cummings said.
  Look for the opportunity for them. Help rebuild Baltimore. Help give 
them jobs. Help tell them that the improved relationships between 
police and community are going to be moved forward as a number one 
agenda for the United States Congress and this government that they 
call the United States of America.
  Let us have a call to action--not of condemnation, but of action.
  I want to thank the young people who nonviolently marched all over 
America, indicating Black lives matter and all lives matter. The 
Congressional Black Caucus stands to stamp out poverty, and we stand, 
Mr. Speaker, to bring opportunities to young people.

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