Sherrod Brown

Mr. BROWN of Ohio

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the legislation we are considering today, the National Emergency Services Memorial Service. I strongly support this effort to honor the dedicated men and women in our emergency medical service and rescue squads who have laid down their lives in the line of duty. All across the country, municipal and volunteer EMS and rescue squads saves thousands of lives each year. In this capacity, these brave women and men often place their lives in grave danger to save the lives of their fellow citizens. In my district in northeast Ohio, rescue squads in communities like Medina and Brunswick and Sheffield Lake are on call night and day, utilizing their well-honed skills to meet the needs of citizens whom they serve. This legislation, which pays homage to EMS personnel who have died in the line of duty by recognizing an annual national memorial service in their honor, was unanimously passed by the Committee on Commerce. I would like to thank my Chairman, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Bilirakis), for his leadership on this issue in honor of the thousands of dedicated EMS and rescue squad professionals around the country and those who have died in the line of duty saving lives. I urge my colleagues to support this legislation. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Goode). (Mr. GOODE asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. BROWN of Ohio

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 30 seconds. I appreciate the debate today and the sincerity of my friends on the other side of the aisle. I would hope that as we move on, and the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hastert) mentioned that there will be one of these every week or so for the next 10 weeks, I hope that as we get into more substantive debates and more substantive resolutions and more substantive legislation, that we do go through the committee process and work these through and are able to write, bipartisanly, together, the most effective substantive legislation we can. Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman from North Carolina (Mrs. Clayton).

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Illinois for his comments and look forward to that challenge. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Reyes).

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this resolution expressing the sense of the House with respect to winning the war on drugs to protect our children. Since the majority party did not, for whatever reason, have hearings on this bill, I thought I would just read for Members in the House that are watching today just the basic thrust of the bill: Resolved that it is the sense of the House that the House declares its commitment to create a Drug-Free America; that Members of the House should work personally to mobilize kids, parents, faith-based and community organizations, educators, local officials and law enforcement officers as well as coaches and athletes to wage a winning war on drugs; that the House pledges to pass legislation that provides the weapons and tools necessary to protect our children and our communities from the dangers of drug addiction and violence; and that the United States will fight this war on drugs on three major battle fronts: deterring demand, stopping supply, increasing accountability. That is the resolution in front of us. Who could oppose it? While I share my colleagues' commitment to protecting our children from the dangers of drug abuse, Mr. Speaker, I have my doubts that a 3- page resolution which commits this House to the creation of a drug-free America will move the Nation any nearer to accomplish this goal. It will not stop one more child from using drugs. It will not prevent another young man or young woman from overdosing on drugs. It will not stop a single drug dealer from peddling his poisons. Drug abuse in our schools, our workplaces and our communities remains a serious problem that demands serious answers. For these reasons, we must build on successful drug abuse prevention initiatives like the safe and drug-free schools program, which provides grants to State and local schools. These funds have helped thousands of schools and local communities across the country combat the scourge of drugs by allowing them to implement effective and creative prevention strategies based on the unique needs of the students they are trying to protect in the neighborhoods in which they live. In the district I represent in northeast Ohio, parents, teachers, and students in areas as diverse as the city of Lorain and Amish farm communities in Geauga County have utilized tools like this program to successfully fight drug abuse. These efforts across the country have helped millions of children reject the lure of illegal drugs and succeed in school. But our fight is not yet won. We clearly need more help. Additionally, this resolution will not stem the flood of illegal drugs which are being trafficked across our border with Mexico. A recent confidential report entitled ``Drug Trafficking, Commercial Trade and NAFTA on the Southwestern Border,'' by Operation Alliance, a task force led by the U.S. Customs Service, found that it is easier than ever to smuggle drugs into the United States through Mexico. According to the report, drug cartels have purchased legitimate trucking, rail and warehousing companies which they have used as fronts in their smuggling operations. Due to the flood of commercial vehicle traffic across our border, spawned by NAFTA, the failure of State governments, especially in Texas, to inspect trucks and our lax and inadequate inspection system, we have made it much easier for the drug cartels to smuggle their poisons into the United States. A former DEA official said, for Mexico's drug gangs, NAFTA was a deal made in narco- heaven. So we find not only has this failed trade agreement cost American workers their jobs, it also put our children at greater risk by increasing their exposure to illegal drugs. Mr. Speaker, we will not deter drug abuse by passing 3-page resolutions expressing the sense of the House of Representatives. We will only help parents, teachers, and students by providing them with the resources and the tools they need to better educate our children to the dangers of drug abuse so they can avoid falling into its deadly grip. We undermine these efforts by passing bad trade agreements and ignoring the woefully inadequate interdiction efforts on our southwest border, in essence rolling out the red carpet to foreign drug smugglers. While I support this resolution before the body today, I do so in the hopes that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle will join us in passing real meaningful legislation which will help protect our children from drugs. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Slaughter) for yielding me this time. Mr. Speaker, I rise to oppose the rule and to express my strong opposition to the manner in which this legislation was reported to the floor of the House for today's vote. This legislation was referred to the Committee on Commerce. The members of this committee, the Committee on Commerce, are entitled to review, to amend, to express their views on legislation referred to the committee through hearings, through markup, and through committee reports. Unfortunately, the Committee on Commerce members, Republicans and Democrats alike, Committee on Commerce members on both sides of the aisle were denied this opportunity. As the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Health and Environment of the Committee on Commerce, I believe rushing this complicated and controversial legislation to the House floor without proper review is clearly at odds with the best interests of the House and ultimately the American people. This body does not produce the best public policy in the best interests of this Nation when we rush legislation to the floor in this manner. Mr. Speaker, the issue of needle exchange programs and whether they help control the spread of HIV and AIDS or promote illegal drug use is highly controversial. Experts from across the country are deeply divided over this issue. Historically, needle exchange programs have been the subject of deliberations by the Committee on Commerce and the Subcommittee on Health and Environment. In the 105th Congress, Mr. Speaker, neither H.R. 3717 nor comparable legislation has been subject to any such review. For these reasons I urge my colleagues, Republicans and Democrats alike, because Republicans and Democrats alike were denied the opportunity to discuss and amend and to talk about this legislation, I urge my colleagues to oppose this rule and respect the regular order of the House of Representatives.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I want to yield to the gentleman from Milwaukee, Wisconsin (Mr. Barrett) in a moment because he tells the story so well, but we tend to lose sight, I think, people that are Northerners and especially people that are white, people who have not paid as much attention to the civil right movement, and we lose sight of the fact that this was made up of a lot of very young people that are leaders in this room. John Lewis, when he led the freedom riots, was 21 years old, when he knew he was going to get beat up on the bus when the bus arrived in Montgomery. Martin Luther King was 24 years old when he took his church, and during the bus boycott he was 26 years old, and what all of that meant and how he won the Nobel Prize at 35 and was killed at 39. He was such a young man during all of this. My friend from Milwaukee has a story about a man that was very, very young and showed more courage than perhaps most of us have in our lives combined.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, we saw people at their best and worst. We saw illustrations of that on that trip. I see the pictures that were on national television of the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. John Lewis) and Josea Williams standing two by two as they walked across the bridge, standing there with hundreds of people behind them, neatly lined up, off the street, on the sidewalk so they were not disturbing anybody; and the guard came at them and the police came at them with night sticks and just started beating them up, with horses. The capacity to absorb that violence is really what changed the hearts and minds of America. Perhaps if they had not been nonviolent, if there had been guns or any kind of weapons or any fighting back, the American public would not have seen the purity, if you will, of the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. John Lewis) and others, of their motives and beliefs and cause. I think that really changed people's hearts. The Voting Rights Act passed 3 months later overwhelmingly, because of what my friend did; and as the gentlewoman from Houston, Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee) said, it was LBJ's speech, ``We shall overcome.'' He would not have been moved to say that if it had not been for the very strong, nonviolent, but strong actions, not weak. Nonviolence is the strongest reaction, because of the strength it takes to love, forgive, and to stand there and take it, if you will. I think that is part of the answer to the question, I say to the gentleman from Wisconsin, to see both the worst and most brutal in people come out, and then to see the best come out in people's reactions and the best come out in the strength and discipline and love. It is also I think that we as a people need to listen to each other. It is so rare, as I saw the President's race retreat or town meeting in Akron, which I attended, not far from where I live. What came out there was that white people listened to African Americans talk about themselves, and African Americans listened to white people talk about themselves. That is something in this society, that as integrated as we are on the surface, we are not very integrated in talking about our personal lives. Whites work with blacks and blacks may be on a softball team with whites, or they may hang around the drinking fountain together, or may even travel with them occasionally, but we do not have the kind of heart to heart discussions: what is my life like, Earl, what is your life like, and talk to each other that way. So much of it is just simple understanding that we really fail to do, I think.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. I thank the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) for yielding. I very much appreciate the opportunity to say a few words tonight. Especially, even more, I appreciated the opportunity to be part of a remarkable weekend in Montgomery and Birmingham and Selma. I was there with my mother, who grew up in a small town in Georgia, and with my daughter Emily, who is 16. To watch the interaction between the two of them was remarkable in this kind of situation. Margaret Mead once said many, many years ago that grandparents tend to impart wisdom to their grandchildren; that knowledge in this society is passed from grandparent to grandchildren. So for my 16-year-old daughter Emily to listen to my mother talk about drinking fountains in the South that said white and said colored, the white drinking fountain was much nicer and newer than the drinking fountain reserved for African-Americans, and to spend these 3 days with the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) in Selma and Montgomery and Birmingham, to see what happened to him in these periods in 1965 and really in the many years in the 1960s when he was so much a part of the civil rights movement, so much a leader in the civil rights movement. But what comes through more than anything that my mother and my daughter and all of us that were part of this pilgrimage to Alabama, what we all saw was the ability, the capacity for forgiveness. People that were literally trying to kill John Lewis, people that were beating, beating with sticks, or were giving political orders or whatever to hurt people like John Lewis. And to end this movement, that the gentleman from Georgia and others in the civil rights movement, people like the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Hilliard), were able to have a capacity to forgive in a situation like that. It is a remarkable thing that, as the gentleman from Georgia forgave and as others in the civil rights movement forgave people that wanted to wrong them, it really did begin to change the hearts of those people who would either hit them with sticks or tromp them with horse's hooves or giving political orders to attack or to assault, those people's hearts were changed as the gentleman from Georgia and others forgave. That is really maybe the most remarkable part about the week and the most remarkable part about the civil rights movement is the mayor of Selma, Alabama, who is a very impressive gentleman, who is now 68 years old, 34 years ago, he was elected mayor. Several weeks later, he met the gentleman from Georgia. He at that time called John Lewis a rabble- rouser and a troublemaker. Today, this past weekend, at lunch, he called John Lewis one of the most, if not the most, courageous person he had ever met. This man had a wonderful capacity to change and open his heart up as people like the gentleman from Georgia had the same capacity to forgive and saw bringing together the races. The best part about all of that is that we, for the first time in many people's lives that were in this trip, we heard African-Americans talk honestly about what it is like to be black, and then blacks were able to listen to white people talk about what it is like and to really communicate with each other, something that we clearly do not do enough of in this country. So it was a remarkable time in the 1960s and throughout the civil rights movement and the last 200 years, but a particularly remarkable time as things began to more rapidly change. I think all of us, African-Americans and whites, on this trip were all changed for the better.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, one of the lighter moments of the trip, perhaps, was we met the fellow, I believe Deacon McNair, in the church, and we will put his picture up in a moment. He is, I believe, 89 years old, he told us, sort of soft-spoken, a slightly built man, who told us as he ran through sort of the history on the wall, this was the church in Montgomery where, the Dexter Avenue Church where Dr. King was called. And he told us the story that in 1954, I believe, when Dr. King would have been 24 years old, 1953, I guess he would have been 24 years old, and he had already accepted his first church, his first calling at a church in Chattanooga, and this gentleman in Montgomery decided that he was going to do something about that. So he drove his car over to Atlanta and met with Dr. King's parents and Dr. King and convinced him not to go to Chattanooga, but instead to go to Montgomery. So he changed history when he did that. I see the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Hilliard) laughing, because I imagine he was an old friend of his. But it was a wonderful story, and Dr. King only had one church in his life that he was the pastor of, the church in Birmingham on Dexter Avenue, and this man was the gentleman responsible for getting him there.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I rise to oppose this closed rule. Several of us have tried in the Committee on Rules to offer amendments to attach labor, environmental, and human rights standards to this measure. We were denied that by the Committee on Rules and by the closed rule. The Africa Growth and Opportunity Act, so-called, is just like fast track. There are no environmental, there are no human rights, there are no labor rights safeguards. It is just like CBI, the Caribbean Basin Initiative. There are no labor standards, there are no environmental standards, there are no human rights standards. And it is just like the North American Free Trade Agreement. Again, there are no environmental standards, there are no worker safety standards. There are no labor standards of any kind, or human rights standards, in this bill. In fact, Mr. Speaker, this bill is misnamed. The Africa Growth and Opportunity Act should be known as the ``NAFTA Expansion to Africa Act.'' We should have learned something from the North American Free Trade Agreement. When we pass these trade agreements and we do not put environmental standards in, we do not put labor standards in, we do not protect workers in both, in all the countries involved, ours and theirs, we end up costing American jobs. We end up exploiting workers in those countries, whether it is Mexico, whether it is in the Caribbean, whether it is in Africa, whether it is in China, however we write these trade agreements. And we ultimately hurt people in both countries. We hurt workers in the United States. We hurt workers in Africa. You lock in the exploitative conditions of those workers in those countries so their standards of living never improve. Go to the Mexican border, go into homes in Mexico where two people, a home I visited, two people, both working for a major American auto company, do not make enough money, husband and wife, to have electricity in their home, to have running water in the home. That is what we are doing when we lock in these kinds of trade agreements without human rights, without worker safety standards, without labor rights, without environmental standards. Mr. Speaker, I ask for defeat of the closed rule.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, St. Patrick's Day is fast approaching, that time of year when we all feel a little Irish. On this day, we honor Ireland's patron saint in a variety of ways, but Chippewa Lake Village, a small town in my northeast Ohio district, is home to perhaps the most unique celebration. At the urging of councilman Leonard English and other local residents, its town council has recently declared March 17 to be a legal holiday. As the only municipality in the state, and possibly the nation, to honor St. Patrick's Day in this manner, Chippewa Lake Village is the proud inheritor of a tradition established in 1980 by neighboring Briarwood Beach which merged with Chippewa-on-the-Lake on January 1 of this year to form the new community of Chippewa Lake. The history of Irish contributions to American and world achievements is a story well worth celebrating. I am sure my colleagues will join me today in recognizing this unique and fitting tribute to a distinguished people and their heritage.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield 8 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Ortiz).

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, 150,000 children in the United States are born each year with a serious birth defect. Depending on the severity of the defect, many of these children die at a young age. Almost 1 out of every 5 infant deaths can be attributed to birth defects, according to recent data from the National Center for Health Statistics. Those who grow up to be adults oftentimes develop serious mental, emotional and physical disabilities. Compounding these human costs are the staggering financial burdens facing the families whose children suffer from birth defects. Fortunately, there are reasons to hope that the future is brighter for individuals suffering from birth defects and that we will ultimately be successful in our efforts to prevent more infants from suffering from these horrible illnesses in the future. As the ranking Democrat on the Subcommittee on Health of the Committee on Commerce, I am pleased to join the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Bilirakis) and the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Dingell) in bringing legislation to the floor today to address this serious public health problem. I would also like to say a special thanks to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Ortiz) who has worked so hard on this issue. He has dedicated many years to passing legislation to provide CDC with the tools to reduce the number of children born with birth defects and reduce the economic costs associated with this national tragedy. The gentleman from Texas has been a tireless champion in the fight against birth defects, and without him and his efforts, we probably would not be here today considering this bill. Many birth defects are preventable, and with integrated systems in place to help health care providers evaluate needs and deliver services and implement effective prevention strategies, we can win the fight against birth defects. Just as we have eradicated life threatening and crippling diseases like smallpox and polio, we can similarly win the battle against birth defects. I urge my colleagues to support this legislation which will ensure that millions of children have an opportunity to grow up healthy and strong, free of debilitating and life-threatening birth defects. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, what is this bill really all about? Last month the Los Angeles Times ran a story: ``National GOP Officials Outline Poll Watcher Plan.'' Behind closed doors at last month's Republican National Committee meeting, Republicans cooked up a plan to put ``poll watchers'' and ``challengers'' at key precincts on Election Day. Mr. Speaker, are they putting them in Beverly Hills? No, they are targeting, quote, ``districts with substantial racial or ethnic populations.'' The L.A. Times reported: ``For many in Orange County, the proposed poll watchers would be reminiscent of the uniformed security guards that the GOP placed outside voting sites in Assemblyman Curt Pringle's district in 1988. Republicans ended up paying $400,000 to settle a civil lawsuit brought by several Latinos outraged by the incident.'' Mr. Speaker, every American should be outraged. Whether they are white, black, brown, Hispanic, Asian Americans, African Americans, this bill is an outrage. The Republicans should be ashamed of themselves.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce a resolution calling for Taiwan's representation in the World Health Organization (WHO) and U.S. support for such a bid. As the ranking member on the House Subcommittee on Health and Environment, I am pleased that several of my colleagues from both sides of the aisle have joined me in this important endeavor, for health knows no boundaries and this issue is one that should unite rather than divide us. Sick children feel the same pain and shed the same tears, whether they live in Taipei, Los Angeles, Milan, or Nairobi. The stated and noble aim of the WHO is to help achieve the highest possible level of health for all peoples, but the 21 million people of Taiwan are currently barred from accessing the latest medical knowledge and techniques which the WHO could provide. Moreover, Taiwan cannot contribute its own substantial health resources and expertise to furthering the goals of the WHO, as it did prior to 1972. Quite simply, as increased international trade and travel leads to a greater potential for the cross-border spread of infectious diseases, the case for Taiwan's participation in the WHO grows stronger every day. Taiwan and its children have much to gain from the WHO, as does the WHO from Taiwan. This issue is principally a matter of the basic human right to good health, and I encourage all my colleagues to support this resolution.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, there is a bipartisan coalition formed in Congress to pass a patient bill of rights to curb abuses from health maintenance organizations, from HMOs. This bill would give people the right to know all their medical options, not just the cheapest: the right to choose the doctor they wanted for the care they need, the right to emergency room care wherever and whenever one needs it, and the right to keep medical records confidential. A majority of Congress, almost all the Democrats and a fairly large number of Republicans, support the bill. So what is the problem? The problem is Speaker Gingrich, Republican leadership in this House, Republican leadership in the other body and the insurance industry. Not so long ago there was a memo passed around from one of the top Republican leaders in the other body talking about opposing this legislation and he said, quote, get off your butt, get off your wallets. He talked about spending money and raising money from insurance companies, spending that money to defeat this bipartisan legislation. Again, Mr. Speaker, it is the right thing to do. It is too bad the Republican leadership will not get out of the way and let the House pass it.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, last week Levi Strauss laid off 6,400 workers, mostly women, most of them making between $5.50 and $7.50 an hour. But last year, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, Levi Strauss gave its No. 2 executive, Thomas Tusher, $105.8 million in stock options. Then it threw in another $21.5 million as a bonus to offset taxes. Mr. Speaker, 6,400 people lose their job, one executive gets $127 million. My colleagues have heard of golden parachutes? Well, this, Mr. Speaker, is a platinum parachute, and meanwhile 6,400 people are looking for work. This has got to stop.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.