Jim Clyburn

Mr. CLYBURN

Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend, Congressman Veasey, from the great State of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise today as part of the observation of Black History Month to continue my series of remarks recognizing HBCUs, Historically Black Colleges and Universities. I ask my colleagues to join me in celebrating Benedict College in Columbia, South Carolina. Founded in 1870, just 5 years after the end of the Civil War, by the American Baptist Home Mission Society, Benedict was originally named Benedict Institute, after Stephen and Bathsheba Benedict of Rhode Island, Baptist abolitionists who had donated the funds to acquire the property on which the campus sits. Formerly the site of a pre-Civil War plantation, the first classes were held in a dilapidated mansion on the grounds. Benedict Institute was formerly chartered by the South Carolina General Assembly in 1894 and renamed Benedict College. From its founding through 1930, Benedict was led by northern White Baptist ministers. In 1930, Reverend John Starks, an alumnus of Benedict, became the school's first African-American president. The heart of its campus has been designated the Benedict College Historic District, consisting of Morgan Hall, Pratt Hall, Duckett Hall, Antisdel Chapel, and Starks Center. Like Allen University, its neighbor, Benedict College has a long legacy of activism for civil rights and social justice. One of the very first civil rights campaigns in South Carolina was organized at Benedict College in 1937. Students participating in a national NAACP campaign led a demonstration in support of antilynching legislation pending in Congress. One of Benedict's early graduates was Reverend Richard Carroll. Born into slavery in Barnwell, South Carolina, Reverend Carroll was a prominent Baptist minister in the late 1800s who received honors and appointments from both President William McKinley and President Theodore Roosevelt. Other prominent alumni include Modjeska Simkins, a prominent civil rights and public health champion; General Matthew Zimmerman, who served as Chief of Chaplains of the United States Army; and I.S. Leevy Johnson, the first African-American president of the South Carolina State Bar Association. In the modern era, under the leadership of President David Swinton, Benedict has grown to a student body of more than 2,800 undergraduate students. In 1995, Swinton revived the football program and marching band 30 years after they had been shut down. He also championed a new sports complex on Two Notch Road in Columbia, which includes a football stadium, tennis courts, baseball fields, and fitness facilities. The liberal arts curriculum now offers degrees in 30 different disciplines. President Swinton also has led the efforts to preserve and restore many of the historic buildings on the campus, in part paid for with Federal funds from the HBCU Historic Preservation Program that we in this Congress have championed. President Swinton will retire this summer after 23 years of service to the institution. I wish him well and thank him for his leadership. Today, on the same land where Blacks once toiled in slavery, their descendants are now learning the tools they need to live up to Benedict College's motto: to be powers for good. Like so many HBCUs, Benedict offers a unique religious experience in which students from many different backgrounds share a common struggle for equality, and I am pleased to recognize them today.

Mr. CLYBURN

Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, standing before almost entirely White crowds in North Carolina, Michigan, Virginia, and Ohio, candidate Donald Trump painted a bleak picture of African-American life in 2016, full of crime, high poverty, and failing schools. He went on to say, ``It is a disaster the way African Americans are living,'' and asked, ``What the hell do you have to lose?'' In just 3 short weeks, Mr. Speaker, President Trump has shown the world exactly what a disaster looks like. He has put a White supremacist in the White House as his chief political adviser. He has given us an Attorney General who spent the last 30-plus years working against civil and voting rights. He has appointed a shamefully ill- prepared Secretary of Education whose only qualification seems to be her ability to contribute millions to Republic candidates in what can only be described as the textbook definition of pay to play. Candidate Trump promised to be the hero of working people, but President Trump is doing the exact opposite. His actions tell a lot more than his tweets. His Cabinet is full of millionaires, many with ethical challenges and conflicts of interest. He has already raised the cost of mortgages for many Americans. He is proposing that we abandon the overtime rule that would ensure bigger paychecks for working people. He is working to dismantle Wall Street reform and is proposing a border tax that would give corporations a huge tax break while costing working men and women more on groceries, clothes, and other goods. The policies of the Trump administration are an extension of the policies that Republics in the House have pushed for years. To candidate Trump's question what do you have to lose, for starters, your voice at the ballot box. A free and fair election is the hallmark of democratic governance, yet the Trump administration and Republics in Congress continue to threaten this basic pillar of democracy. They have promulgated blatant falsehoods about voter fraud, sowing fear and distrust. They have worked and are working across the country to prevent people of color from voting. They are refusing to investigate Russian interference in our elections and are currently moving legislation through the House of Representatives to eliminate the only Federal agency tasked with helping Americans vote and protecting our voting machines from hacking. As President Trump and his spokespeople continue to make demonstrably false claims about widespread voter fraud and cozying up to the country that attacked our democracy, House Republics just passed out of committee H.R. 634, legislation to eliminate the only Federal agency tasked with certifying the security of our voting machines, the Election Assistance Commission. Forty-seven out of fifty States rely on the EAC's voting machine certification program in some capacity. A recent report by the Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology concluded, ``Voting machines are neither secure nor complex. In general, these stripped- down computers utilizing outdated operating systems possess virtually every conceivable vulnerability that a device can have.'' In my home State of South Carolina, we currently use voting machines that were rejected by the State of Ohio in 2007 for being ``buggy, unstable and exploitable.'' And even though machines are not supposed to be connected to the internet, they are well past their shelf life and, therefore, more likely to break down, crash, and produce errors. Replacing these outdated machines with updated ones will cost a significant amount of money, and the burden is on the States to do so. Mr. Speaker, if House Republics are serious about election integrity, they ought to stop working to prevent people of color and start investing in voting infrastructure.

Mr. CLYBURN

Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, HBCUs, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, have been the topic of a great deal of discussions recently, and I rise, as part of the observance of Black History Month, to recognize and celebrate one of them, Allen University in Columbia, South Carolina. Similar to the many Historically Black Colleges and Universities across the Nation, Allen University's contributions to my home State of South Carolina and the Nation are immeasurable. Founded to offer education and opportunity to formerly enslaved African Americans, HBCUs have been central institutions in African-American communities for generations. In 1870, 5 years after the end of the Civil War, the clergy of the African Methodist Episcopal Church set out to create an institution to educate newly freed slaves and train clergy for the AME Church. The Church purchased land in Cokesbury, South Carolina, and named the new college Payne Institute in honor of AME Bishop Daniel Payne, a native of Charleston, South Carolina. Bishop Payne had become the first Black college president in the United States at Wilberforce University in 1863, which he had helped found. In 1880, Bishop William Dickerson sought to relocate the college to Columbia and acquired land on which the campus sits today. The institution was renamed Allen University after Richard Allen, the founder and first bishop of the AME Church. Higher education remained segregated in South Carolina until the early 1960s. The University of South Carolina, also in my district, only a mile away from Allen, for example, admitted its first African American in 1963, 2 years after I graduated college. Throughout the Jim Crow era, Allen University offered degrees in law, education, and theology, and at one time also offered elementary and high school classes. Several of its buildings are on the National Register of Historic Places, forming the Allen University Historic District. Arnett Hall, the oldest building on campus, was constructed in 1891 by the students themselves. It was named after Benjamin W. Arnett, an early leader of the AME Church, who served on Allen University's Board of Trustees. The Chappelle Administration Building, which houses the Chappelle Auditorium, was designed by John Anderson Lankford, known as the dean of Black architects, and completed in 1925. It was named after William David Chappelle, the great-grandfather of comedian Dave Chappelle, and a graduate of Allen University, who later served as its president. Chappelle Auditorium is one of five buildings in Columbia designated a National Historic Landmark. This historic campus has been central to the Waverly neighborhood and the African-American community in Columbia. Black artists, such as Leontyne Price, Langston Hughes, and Brook Benton, all appeared at Chappelle Auditorium. In 1947, the Reverend James Hinton, then-president of the NAACP of South Carolina, held a rally at Chappelle, which was attended by Reverend Joseph A. DeLaine, an Allen University alumnus. Inspired by the event, Reverend DeLaine organized families in Summerton, South Carolina, to petition their school district to provide buses for Black students who, at the time, were forced to make a daily walk of 9 miles to school. This case, Briggs v. Elliott, was the first of the five cases that became Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. It is no exaggeration, Mr. Speaker, to say that Allen University was the birthplace of the movement that overturned ``separate but equal'' and brought an end to legal segregation in America. Allen University will remain central to the struggle for civil rights. In the early 1960s, Allen University students led demonstrations at segregated lunch counters and participated in many of the marches in Columbia during that period. National leaders such as Martin Luther King, Jr., Roy Wilkins, and Ralph Abernathy visited Allen during these demonstrations, often staying on campus when they came to town. Today Allen University is a liberal arts institution still operated by the AME Church. It has graduated many notable elected officials, including State Representative William Clyburn and his wife, Beverly Dozier Clyburn, who retired from the Aiken, South Carolina, City Council several years ago. Retired State Senator Kay Patterson is also a graduate. Two of Allen's alumni, former Senator Clementa Pinckney and Tywanza Sanders, were among the nine who were murdered during the attack at Emanuel AME Church in 2015. Several of its historic buildings, like Arnett Hall and Chappelle Auditorium, have been restored recently with Federal funding from the HBCU Historic Preservation Program, which this body in its collective wisdom voted unanimously last year to reauthorize. I plan, along with my friend Representative Green and other members of the Congressional Black Caucus, to reintroduce that bill this year. I am hopeful that we will repeat the unanimity this year and that the Senate will support our efforts. Allen University has made an indelible mark on our society over the past 147 years. I ask all of my colleagues to join me in honoring its great contributions to this great Nation.

Mr. CLYBURN

Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, I am proud to cosponsor H.R. 794, which will reauthorize the Election Assistance Commission until 2022, provide payments to the States to upgrade the security of voter registration databases, and require an assessment of each State's voting systems. Foreign hackers targeted the voter registration databases in more than 20 States in 2016. Candidate Trump encouraged hackers to target his opponent. He won the election and continues to cozy up to Russia. And now, House Republics are moving to eliminate the EAC, a key force in combating foreign cybersecurity attacks against our democracy. ``What do you have to lose?'' candidate Trump asked. Try free and fair elections, Mr. Speaker. I urge my Republic colleagues to put country before party and stand up for American democracy. Stop trying to suppress minority voters. Support an independent commission to investigate Russian meddling in our election.

Mr. CLYBURN

Mr. CLYBURN. Thank you very much for yielding to me. Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to join my colleagues and people throughout the United States to celebrate Black History Month. It may come as a surprise to some that Black History Month is also celebrated in Canada and the United Kingdom, although they do so in the United Kingdom in the month of October. Thanks to the hard work and persistence of Carter G. Woodson and the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, known today as the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, the celebration of Black history was inaugurated in 1926. In response to Mr. Woodson's advocacy, it was to be for 1 week, the second week in February, in order to envelope the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln, February 12, and Frederick Douglass, February 14. First proposed by students at Kent University in 1969 and 1970, the week was officially expanded to a month in 1976. Gerald Ford was President at the time. When the month was established, President Ford urged the country to ``honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of black Americans.'' There is a lot of talk about health care these days, and in no area has the contributions of African Americans been more neglected and dishonored as much as in the field of health care. How many people are aware of the contributions of Charles Drew who unlocked the secrets that led to the ability to perform blood transfusions; or Daniel Hale Williams who performed the first successful open-heart surgery; or Samuel Kountz who performed the first successful kidney transplant not done on identical twins? Because of these and many other slights in many other fields, Mr. Speaker, I have not always celebrated this occasion with pleasure. During those discussions back in the late 1960s and early 1970s, I, and many others, felt that the appropriate action was not just to expand from 1 week to a month but to mandate the incorporation of African-Americans' contributions and achievements throughout the curricula of all of our schools year round. But, with each passing day, I grow more and more appreciative and respective of a lesson taught in 1 Corinthians 11:13, which I share with you in Jim Clyburn's version. ``When I was a child, young and inexperienced, I spoke with the reasoning and understanding of a child, but as I grew and matured, I put those childish thoughts, expressions, and ways behind me.'' I have come to understand, Mr. Speaker, that Black History Month is not only about celebrating past achievements and contributions. It is also a time for reflection and introspection. Aristotle once intoned: ``A life without contemplation is not worth living.'' I have spent a lot of introspective moments over the last several weeks. Over the last several days, I have reflected on the comments made by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., at the annual meeting of the Medical Committee for Human Rights back in 1966, when he said: ``Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.'' That is what was on my mind when I addressed this House on the day that we passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. On that occasion, I referred to the Affordable Care Act as the civil rights act of the 21st century. It may seem a bit odd to some to hear the Affordable Care Act referred to as a civil rights act, but that is exactly what it is. The Affordable Care Act outlawed discrimination against children with preexisting conditions, outlawed discrimination against people with disabilities, and outlawed discrimination against women just because they are women. Mr. Speaker, I want to believe that we have grown and matured beyond where we were when our country allowed insurance companies to discriminate against women with breast cancer and men with prostate cancer. I would like to believe, Mr. Speaker, that we have put behind us the childish practice of kicking children off of their family insurance policies as soon as they turn 21, even if they are still in school or have not yet found employment. Mr. Speaker, what could be more childish and immature than allowing insurance companies to deny benefits to the sick and disabled in order to gain big bonuses and payouts for executives? These arguments are not new. In fact, they are reminiscent of an age- old debate. Fifty years ago, during my years of student protest, there were those who urged us to slow down. You are pushing too hard, too fast, they would say. Some of those who wanted a slower approach claimed to be on our side, like those eight White ministers who implored Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to slow down, arguing that Christianity took 2,000 years to accomplish all it has. Those ministers believed that the escalation of marches and demonstrations to secure civil rights was unwise and untimely. In 1963, while sitting in the Birmingham city jail, Dr. King started penning a letter that, of course, he finished after leaving jail, but in that letter he dealt with the whole issue of time. In his letter, Dr. King said: ``Time itself is neutral; it can be used either destructively or constructively.'' He continued: ``More and more I feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than the people of good will. We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful word and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people.'' Dr. King continued: ``Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitably; it comes through the tireless efforts of men''--and, I might add, women--``willing to be coworkers with God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that time is always ripe to do right.'' I believe these words ring true today, in our current situation. Our Nation has waited for nearly a century to find a way to bring all its citizens into the healthcare system. The time was ripe to do right for the American people.

Mr. CLYBURN

Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to Mr. Eckerd Findley, an outstanding South Carolinian, who is retiring from Piedmont Airlines this month after 40 years of service. Mr. Findley was born on May 4, 1953 to the late Reverend Alex and Ms. Ethel Findley. He graduated from Columbia, South Carolina's Booker T. Washington High School in 1972. After graduation, Mr. Findley went to work for Mount Vernon Mills, a textile company which was housed in the building that is now the South Carolina State Museum. It was at Mount Vernon Mills that he met his wife Ann. They were married in 1973 and in 1975 they were blessed with a son, Edward. Their daughter, Antonitte, was born in 1984. The Findleys currently have four grandchildren. Mr. Findley's father, the Reverend Alex Findley, worked for Delta Airlines from 1944 until his retirement in 1986. Eckerd decided to follow in his father's footsteps and in 1976 he landed a position at Piedmont Airlines. He has been with the company ever since, helping it to grow into US Airways, which recently merged with American Airlines. Eckerd was taught and--in turn--has taught his family Matthew 22:39, ``love thy neighbor as thyself,'' and that lesson shows in the way he works and lives. He is a member of Pleasant Springs AME Church and is a pillar of the community. Mr. Speaker, I ask that you and the Members of this House join me in recognizing the outstanding service and example of citizenship that have been shown by this fine gentleman, Eckerd Findley. I wish him a long, productive and rewarding retirement.

Mr. CLYBURN

Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, I rise to congratulate a great American, and outstanding South Carolinian, Reverend Dr. Hiram Spain, Jr. Dr. Spain, who was simply Hiram to me when we shared classes and hallways at South Carolina State College, is retiring from public service. Dr. Spain served as Executive Secretary of the Baptist Educational and Missionary Convention of South Carolina since his election in 2000 until his recent retirement. Dr. Hiram Spain, Jr. is a native of Conway, South Carolina. In addition to graduating with honors from South Carolina State University, he received the degree of Juris Doctor from Howard University. He did additional studies at the University of South Carolina, Morris College Extension and the Columbia International Seminary. He is presently pursuing the Master of Divinity degree at the Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary. Dr. Spain was ordained by the Gethsemane Baptist Association and retired as Pastor of the Saint Mark Baptist Church in Columbia, South Carolina. During my tenure on the staff of Governor John West, I brought Dr. Spain on board where he headed the program that became the state's first Office of Rural Development to outstanding success. He has served as the Chief Executive Officer of the Columbia Urban League and as the first Black Bureau Chief of the South Carolina Department of Social Services. Dr. Spain serves his community in several civic capacities, including the Board of The United Black Fund of the Midlands, The Executive Board of the Gethsemane Baptist Association, The Board of the South Carolina Christian Action Council, past Board Member of the Communities in Schools of South Carolina, member of the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance of Greater Columbia, Board Member of the I.D. Quincy Newman Institute for social change at the University of South Carolina, Board Member of Partnership, South Carolina, and a life member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. He has received numerous awards and honors for his civic and community service and was recently honored by the City of Columbia and the Midlands Authority for Conventions, Sports and Tourism for his outstanding service and leadership. He has never been reluctant to give of his time and energies to civic, professional and community service organizations. His favorite Bible verse is Psalm 121 verses 1 and 2, ``I will lift up mine eyes to the Hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.'' Dr. Spain is married to the former Doris Bush, a Benedict College graduate and retired teacher at W.A. Perry Middle School. They are the parents of two adult children, both of whom are social work administrators. Mr. Speaker, I ask that you and this Congress join me in wishing this outstanding South Carolinian, and longtime personal friend, the Reverend Dr. Hiram Spain, Jr., a long and productive retirement.

Mr. CLYBURN

Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, in just three days, the National Museum of African American History & Culture will officially open its doors to the public. One hundred years in the making, the museum explores the richness and diversity of the African American experience. As a former public school history teacher in Charleston, South Carolina and a lifelong student of history, I have always worked to improve our understanding of the past. History frames our views on current events and has been called the study of human nature by using examples. The struggle for the right to vote is an important part of that history. It's a history that I know quite well--having lived through some of it. I met my wife while in jail for helping to organize one of the biggest student demonstrations in the South. More than one thousand students from South Carolina State and Claflin University assembled to march to downtown Orangeburg in March 1960. 388 of us were arrested. A few months later, in October 1960, I met John Lewis and Dr. King on the campus of Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. We were seeking the right to vote. When the Voting Rights Act was signed into law in August 1965, it restored the promise of the 19th amendment. It prohibited racial discrimination in voting and has been called the most successful piece of civil rights legislation in American history. It was reauthorized by Congress on a strong bipartisan basis in 1970, 1975, 1982, 1992 and, most recently, in 2006. I testified before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights in support of extending Section 5, with its strong preclearance requirements, in 1981. I was South Carolina's Human Affairs Commissioner at the time. At the time, the preclearance requirements were necessary to prevent states with a history of discrimination from engaging in further discriminatory practices. They were necessary again in 1992, in 2006, and they still are necessary today. With no coverage formula in place for the last three years, states have been free to engage in nefarious schemes to suppress minority turnout, dilute the voting strength of communities of color, erect new barriers to the ballot box and make it harder for millions of Americans to exercise their constitutional right to vote. And they have. When Americans go to the ballot box in less than fifty days they'll find new voting restrictions in place in 17 states for the first time in a presidential election. Nearly 8 million Latino voters living in previously covered jurisdictions will be vulnerable to voting discrimination and changes in election administration. Five federal lawsuits involving Native American voting rights in ND, UT, SD, AZ and AK have been filed since Shelby County v. Holder. North Carolina's legislature got to work within hours of the Shelby County decision on its ``monster'' voting law which imposed strict photo ID requirements and cut back early voting. The state has spent more than $5 million defending the law--which the 4th Circuit said, ``target[ted] African Americans with almost surgical precision'' and ``impose[d] cures for problems that did not exist.'' Six former preclearance states have closed voter registration offices and moved or closed polling places. And six local jurisdictions have redrawn districts or changed the rules to dilute minority votes. In Georgia alone, 372,000 voters have been purged or removed from the voter rolls in the last two years with little or no awareness. And in Hancock County, one in twenty voters--virtually all African-Americans-- were removed from the voting rolls and sheriff's deputies began showing up at their homes commanding they defend themselves at board meetings as a so-called ``courtesy.'' Texas has spent more than $3.5 million defending its discriminatory photo ID law and just yesterday, was ordered by a federal court to stop purposefully misleading voters about the requirements to vote. A recent study from 2006-2014 found that the racial turnout gap doubles or triples in states with strict voter ID requirements. They concluded that ``strict voter identification laws substantially alter the makeup of who votes and ultimately skew democracy in favor of whites and those on the political right.'' I'm not reading from a history book. This is happening right now--in the United States of America in 2016. This Congress--Republicans in this Congress--have done little more than pay lip service to voting rights for the last three years. As we approach the upcoming election, I cannot help but feel as if the lessons of history are creeping up on us. Let us not be doomed to repeat it. Congress must restore the Voting Rights Act. We can do it immediately and we should.

Mr. CLYBURN

Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 295, my bill to reauthorize the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Historic Preservation program. This bill has been cosponsored by my colleagues in the Congressional Black Caucus and is broadly supported by all of our colleagues. It received a unanimous vote in the House Natural Resources Committee earlier this year, and I thank Mrs. Radewagen and Mr. Sablan and all of our colleagues for their support. As a former high school history teacher, I have worked during my tenure in Congress to preserve and protect our Nation's historic treasures. Historically Black colleges and universities, commonly called HBCUs, are some of the most important historic educational institutions in our country. Many of them have buildings and sites on their campuses that have existed for over a century. Unfortunately, many of the historic buildings and sites on these campuses have deteriorated over the years and are at risk of being lost completely if not preserved and protected. In 1998, at the request of the Congressional Black Caucus, the United States Government Accountability Office surveyed 103 HBCU campuses to identify the historically significant sites on these campuses and project the cost of restoring and preserving these properties. The GAO identified 712 historic buildings and sites and projected a cost of $755 million to restore and preserve them. Each of these sites has national significance to American history, and I believe we have an obligation to be stewards of these cultural treasures. Congress first authorized grants to HBCUs for historic preservation in 1996. In 2003, working with our former colleague, the gentleman from Utah, Jim Hansen, and our current colleague, and my friend, the gentleman from Tennessee, Jimmy Duncan, Congress expanded the program that was originally championed by our former colleague, the gentleman from Tennessee, Bob Clement. Ten million dollars was authorized annually for 5 years. The bill before us today extends that authorization at the same level for an additional 7 years. I have seen the transformative effect of these historic preservation grants on HBCU campuses in my district and across the country. Arnette Hall at Allen University in Columbia, South Carolina, was designed by an African American architect and constructed by the university students themselves in 1891. Before being restored to the Secretary of the Interior's standards, Arnette Hall had been boarded up for nearly 40 years. Testifying before the Committee on Natural Resources earlier this year, Claflin University's president, Dr. Henry Tisdale, spoke of the tremendous impact the restorations of Ministers and Tingley Halls have had on his institution. Last June, I spoke at the rededication of historic Chappelle Auditorium, on the campus of Allen University, which was painstakingly restored thanks to funding from this program. Originally built in 1925, this building was central to the cultural life of African Americans in South Carolina for generations. In 1947, Reverend Joseph A. DeLaine attended a NAACP event at Chappelle Auditorium that inspired him to organize Black families in Clarendon County to petition their school district to provide buses for Black students who, at the time, were forced to make a daily walk of 9.4 miles to school. This case, Briggs v. Elliot, precipitated the frontal attack on segregation in the country and was later combined with four other cases that became Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, at the United States Supreme Court. Overturning the ``separate but equal'' fallacy, Brown ended legal segregation in this country. Historic buildings and sites at 59 HBCUs in 20 States have benefited from this program. Their stories are similar to those in my district that I have just shared. There are many more buildings and sites on these campuses that are in dire need of restoration and preservation. H.R. 295 will renew our commitment to the stewardship of this critical aspect of American history. Although it will not provide all of the funding the GAO estimated is needed to preserve every threatened site, H.R. 295 will continue the progress Congress has made in preserving these unique treasures. I thank Chairman Bishop, subcommittee Chairman McClintock, and Ranking Members Grijalva and Tsongas for their support of this important legislation, and I urge all of my colleagues to support it.

Mr. CLYBURN

Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding to me, and I thank him so much for doing this Special Order. I want to begin, first of all, by thanking my colleague on the other side of the Capitol, Senator Tim Scott, for a tremendous speech he gave on the floor of the Senate last evening. I thank him so much for sharing with the American people an issue that has, for some reason, converged with our overall discussions of gun violence. Now, tonight, at around 7:30, we are going to have a national SpeakOut here on the west lawn of the Capitol. We will be speaking out on this whole issue of gun violence. I am particularly interested in one part of our effort dealing with background checks. Now, some have said that background checks legislation that we are proposing would not have had any impact on most of these issues, if not all. Well, I beg to differ when it comes to Charleston and the Emanuel 9. The facts are very clear that the gentleman who purchased the gun that he used to murder those nine souls doing their Bible study at Emanuel AME Church June 17 of last year was not eligible by law to have purchased a gun because of a 72-hour rule that we have in our background check laws. If you apply to purchase a gun and the background check is undertaken and it is not completed in 3 days, you can go back and get the gun, irrespective of whether or not you are eligible to have it. Now, thanks to the Government Accountability Office, 2 days ago, they issued a study, and the study covered a period of 10 years, from 2006 to 2015. Here is what they have revealed. During that 10-year period, 89,000 requests to purchase a gun were denied because of domestic abuse; however, 6,700 were purchased by people who were ineligible because of that 3-day rule. Now, over 90 percent of the people who apply to purchase a weapon have their background checks completed within 2 days, but there is that 10 percent that require additional scrutiny. We don't know whether or not people intentionally give the wrong information. If someone really wanted to curtail the law and knows what the law is, that person could very well give the wrong address, give the wrong middle initial, do something to cause the background check to be extended beyond the 3-day period. The gentleman who purchased the gun in the case of the Emanuel 9, it was an interesting confluence of mistakes. It had nothing to do with the bureaucracy. For some strange reason, when he was arrested for his problem, rather than taking him to the Columbia jail, they took him to the West Columbia jail. So, when they looked for his record, they looked for the record in Columbia. But for some strange reason, the record was across the river in West Columbia. By the time they detected what the problem was, the 3 days had expired and he was able to purchase a gun. Within days of that purchase, he went online and he studied the history of Emanuel AME Church, the church where Denmark Vesey organized an insurrection in 1822 in the basement of Emanuel Church. He looked at that history. He saw Emanuel AME Church as one of the most historical African American churches not just in the State of South Carolina, but in the country, and he targeted that church. He went there, invited himself into the Bible study with these blessed souls, and sat with them for an hour. Then he got up, took out the gun that he had bought, which he was not eligible to purchase, and began to murder them systematically. One woman, Ms. Sanders, is here in Washington and will be here with us this evening, lost her son, her aunt, and a cousin. The reason she is still with us today is because she played dead under a table while covering up her little grandchildren. She watched her son walk up to the shooter and say: Why are you doing this? We mean you no harm. But he said: I have got to do it. Why? Because I want to start a race war. Well, he did not start a race war. This whole country saw what forgiveness was all about. Within 48 hours, these family members, these survivors, were in a judicial courtroom. They looked at the perpetrator, and one after the other looked at him and said: I forgive you. Well, I am appreciative of my constituents for forgiving, but I believe, as their representative here in this body, it is incumbent upon me to do whatever I can--and, hopefully, we will be joined by others in this body--to close this loophole. Let's make sure that gun purchases are not made until the background check is completed. If it takes 4 days or 5 days, what is that all about? What we must do is make sure that demented criminals and domestic abusers are not allowed to purchase guns because we know from history that they mean no good when they do.

Mr. CLYBURN

Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Speaker Ryan for his comments this morning and thank him so much for asking the people of our great country to take stock. I want us to take stock in more ways than one. I often talk about having been born and raised in a parsonage. One of the earliest discussions I remember my father having was with a few other ministers trying to decide what to do about getting rid of a minister that had betrayed his trust. So I think that we have to look at these issues on all sides. I honor police officers. I have relatives who are police officers. I have great friends who are police officers. But the fact of the matter is there are times when people of the cloth need to be defrocked, and there are times when people in the law enforcement community need to take stock. The fact of the matter is we do know that any time you see a young African American being stopped 52 times by one jurisdiction, something is wrong. And I say to my 21-year-old grandson son: When you are stopped by the police, suppress your manhood so that you can be sure that you come home safe at night. Let's take stock on all sides of this issue. This is not about being against law enforcement. I support law enforcement, but I do not support those who use the color blue to commit criminal acts.

Mr. CLYBURN

Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, I come today to draw attention to the fact that tomorrow evening we are going to be hosting a SpeakOut on the west front of the Capitol, the west lawn, and we are going to be highlighting four pieces of legislation: H.R. 1217, H.R. 1076, H.R. 3051, and H.R. 4603. I am particularly interested today in H.R. 3051. That is the legislation that seeks to close what has become known as the Charleston loophole. The reason I am particularly interested in it today is because yesterday the General Accountability Office issued a 57-page report. Now, that report is so voluminous I am not going to ask that it be entered into the Record, but I will include the one-page summary into the Record. Here is what you are going to find in this report: [From GAO Highlights, July 2016] Gun Control Analyzing Available Data Could Help Improve Background Checks Involving Domestic Violence Records What GAO Found Most of the 50 states submit domestic violence records-- misdemeanor crime of domestic violence (MCDV) convictions and domestic violence protection orders--to the Department of Justice's (DOJ) Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for use during National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) checks, but states vary in their efforts to identify (``flag'') such records that prohibit an individual from obtaining a firearm under federal law. For example, in 2015, 22 states voluntarily participated in a program to identify criminal history records that prohibit individuals from obtaining firearms, which can include domestic violence records. FBI data also show that 47 states identified domestic violence protection orders that prohibit firearm purchases. Since not all domestic violence records that states submit to the FBI meet federal prohibiting criteria, flagging prohibiting records can help expedite NICS checks. The total number of prohibiting domestic violence records that states submit to the FBI is generally unknown because states are not required to flag prohibiting records and there is no automated process to disaggregate such records from other records checked by NICS. For fiscal years 2006 to 2015, FBI data show that most NICS checks involving domestic violence records that resulted in denials were completed before firearm transfers took place (see table). However, about 6,700 firearms were transferred to individuals with prohibiting domestic violence records, which resulted in the FBI referring these cases to DOJ's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives for firearm retrieval. Under federal law, firearm dealers may (but are not required to) transfer a firearm to an individual if the dealer has not received a response (proceed or denial) from the FBI after 3 business days. Background Check Denials and Firearm Transfers for Misdemeanor Crimes of Domestic Violence (MCDV) Convictions and Protection Orders, Fiscal Years 2006 to 2015 Category--MCDV convictions, Total denials--59,000, Within 3 days--41,000, After 3 days--18,000, Firearm transfers--6,221. Category--Protection Orders, Total denials--30,000, Within 3 days--28,000, After 3 days--2,000, Firearm transfers--559. FBI data also show that during fiscal year 2015, the FBI completed 90 percent of denials that involved MCDV convictions within 7 business days, which was longer than for any other prohibiting category (e.g., felony convictions). The FBI completed 90 percent of denials that involved domestic violence protection orders in fewer than 3 business days. According to federal and selected state officials GAO contacted, the information needed to determine whether domestic violence records--and in particular MCDV convictions--meet the criteria to prohibit a firearm transfer is not always readily available in NICS databases and can require additional outreach to state agencies to obtain information. DOJ has taken steps to help states make prohibiting information more readily available to NICS--such as through training and grant programs--but does not monitor the timeliness of checks that result in denials by prohibiting category. Ongoing monitoring could help the FBI determine if specific prohibiting categories present greater challenges in making determinations than other categories and, in turn, the FBI could provide the results to other DOJ entities to help them establish priorities, such as for grants, state outreach, or training.

Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, this report says that the General Accountability Office has found that between the years 2006 and 2015, 89,000 people have been blocked from purchasing weapons who were not eligible to purchase weapons because of their records. But the report says that 6,800 others were able to purchase firearms because the 3-day limit expired before they had the chance to complete the background checks. That is what happened to those nine souls at Emanuel AME Church when the gentleman, if I might call him that, who purchased a weapon and murdered those nine people was not eligible to purchase a weapon. He was joined by 6,800 others. Now, we have heard from people who tell us--and this report says-- that this is the biggest contributor to domestic violence. 6,800 people who have been convicted of domestic violence were able to go and purchase guns simply because of this loophole. We have been asking for years now that the Centers for Disease Control be authorized to go and study this issue to help better inform us on the impact of gun violence, but this House has passed prohibitive legislation that will not allow funds to be used to do that study. I don't quite understand. Why is it not proper for the Members of the United States Congress to be equipped with information that will allow us to make better decisions about how to protect the American people? People who are guilty of domestic violence and have been proven in the courts to be guilty ought to not be allowed to go onto the Internet and purchase a weapon. We have case after case where these weapons were then almost immediately used to injure, maim, and, in some instances, kill wives, spouses, and children because of this loophole. I would have hoped that after June 17 of last year that we would come to our senses in this body and close this loophole, but tomorrow evening we are going to once again draw attention to this loophole because the American people are deserving of being protected by those of us who are elected to protect them, secure them, and to make sure that they can live out their lives in security.

Mr. CLYBURN

Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, I rise to once again call upon Members of Congress to enact some commonsense gun reform because I really believe that we are misusing the word ``reform'' every time we talk about this issue. Reform means a change for the better. It doesn't mean just to go through a process. It means a change for the better. Mr. Speaker, we have seen that our gun laws need to change. I am very emotional for nine souls in my congressional district who lost their lives because of an inadequate, nonsensical background check law that says that no matter what the situation might be, if you wait for 3 days, you can go get the gun. Irrespective of your mental condition, irrespective of your background, irrespective of your intentions, you can still buy the gun. We need to close this Charleston loophole, and we need to enact a law that says, if you are not qualified to buy a plane ticket, you are not qualified to buy a gun.

Mr. CLYBURN

Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to bring up H.R. 3051, a bill that would close the Charleston loophole that allowed the assassination of Reverend Clementa C. Pinckney and eight of his parishioners.

Mr. CLYBURN

Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased that the House will finally consider legislation to make reforms to our background check system for firearm purchases. Now, Mr. Speaker, the word ``reform'' can either be a noun or a verb. As a noun, reform means a change for the better, improving a situation without revolutionary change, a moral improvement. But I am afraid, Mr. Speaker, that in this instance, the reform we are about to vote upon is a verb, where it simply means to form again or to become formed again. Americans are demanding a background check system that is a change for the better and is not riddled with loopholes. They demand a system that protects the rights of law-abiding Americans while preventing dangerous individuals from obtaining weapons. They demand a system where, to purchase a gun, you must pass a background check. Unfortunately, the bill before us, crafted by the NRA, will not deliver this to the American people. One of the fundamental loopholes in the Brady bill, which requires background checks for most purchases, is that, if the sale is not approved after 3 days, a firearm dealer can make the sale anyway, even though the background check is still pending. Tragically, this loophole has been given a new name and nine new faces following the attack at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston on June 17, 2015. Prior to that fateful day, the Charleston shooter was arrested in Columbia, South Carolina, on March 1, 2015, and charged with a felony drug offense. FBI Director James Comey has since confirmed that, as part of this arrest, the shooter admitted to the city of Columbia police that he was in possession of drugs. Under the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, an unlawful drug user or addict is prohibited from purchasing a firearm, and this information should have barred the shooter from the purchase. Now, on Saturday, April 11, 2015, the shooter attempted to purchase a firearm in West Columbia, South Carolina, and the background check process was initiated. Now, Mr. Speaker, 91 percent of FBI background checks are processed within minutes, and gun dealers are informed the buyer is either approved or denied; however, the other 9 percent require additional scrutiny by FBI examiners and are not processed immediately. The Charleston shooter's background check was marked ``delayed/pending.'' Though the shooter was arrested on March 1 by the city of Columbia police, he, for some reason, was taken to the Lexington County jail, and his arrest record listed the arresting agency as the Lexington County Sheriff's Office. Columbia, South Carolina, is in Richland County. This clerical error was noticed by a Lexington County corrections officer shortly after and corrected, but was only corrected internally. That correction was not given to the FBI. On Monday, April 13, when the FBI investigator sought to get more information about the shooter's March arrest, she initially contacted the Lexington County Sheriff's Office for more information, who informed her that the case was in the city of Columbia. Not seeing a listing for Columbia on the Lexington County law enforcement list, she contacted West Colombia, who had no knowledge of the arrest. By Thursday, April 16, the background check was still listed as delayed/pending, but three business days had passed. Consequently, Mr. Speaker, he was allowed to purchase a gun, and nine souls lost their lives because of this loophole. We should close it and do it today.

Mr. CLYBURN

Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, I believe that that bill has been filed and it is languishing in the committee. My inquiry is, isn't it true that we can have a vote on that bill right now?

Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, I respectfully request that the Chair answer the question posed.

Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, I have a parliamentary inquiry.

Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, isn't it true that the majority can schedule a vote on the no-fly, no buy bill right now?

Mr. CLYBURN

Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to the victims and survivors of the Emanuel AME Church massacre in Charleston, South Carolina, last year. This was a heinous crime and the response of the families and community has been even more deeply impactful. As a longtime AME congregant, a former resident of Charleston and longtime Representative of the Holy City in the U.S. House, I have a deep and abiding connection to that community. The victims of that horrific crime were my friends, neighbors and constituents. Their deaths pained me in profound and personal ways and the wounds to our community will take time to heal. Mr. Speaker, on the night of June 17, 2015, my friend Reverend Clementa Pinckney left his service in the state senate to travel to Charleston to conduct his other kind of service, that of tending his flock at Mother Emanuel AME Church's regular Wednesday night Bible study. Rev. Pinckney was a tremendous leader in our community. Several weeks prior to that night, I had been with Rev. Pinckney at a service in North Charleston after the police shooting of an unarmed black man, Walter Scott. Rev. Pinckney's ministry at that event made a tremendous difference in defusing a very tense time and helped restore calm and allow the local authorities to exert justice on a most unjust situation. Into that Bible study entered an uninvited outsider. Though he was a stranger, he was embraced by the worshippers who welcomed him into their weekly exploration of their faith. Yet that hate-filled young man shunned their neighborly embrace and conducted an act of violence so heinous the horror has been immeasurable. Our nation has long had a common sense policy of background checks for prospective gun buyers. Unfortunately, that law has a glitch in it that allows a gun purchase after three business days, even if the background check is not complete, and tragically this shooter was able to purchase the gun due to an error in the paperwork. I have introduced legislation to close this Charleston Loophole in federal law once and for all. This common sense fix will ensure that background checks are completed before gun purchases are allowed. I have also been pleased to support the request of the Medical University of South Carolina for federal funds to support the community, and last week the Department of Justice released a grant of more than $3.5 million to support that work. I am pleased that the Department has awarded this grant to help MUSC and their partners, the City of Charleston and other local governments deal with the continuing needs in the community as we approach the first anniversary of this horrible chapter in our lives. I want to thank Attorney General Loretta Lynch, for expediting this award, and all of my colleagues in the South Carolina congressional delegation for joining me in supporting MUSC's request. I have been extremely proud of the resilience and compassion shown by the people of Charleston and South Carolina following the horrific attack at Mother Emanuel on June 17 last year. The survivors of the attack and the families of the victims have been an inspiration to their communities, our state and the whole nation. While the Charleston community has rallied together, as we approach the first anniversary of the Emanuel AME church massacre, we must stay vigilant and continue providing the proper support for the survivors and victims.

Mr. CLYBURN

Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, this morning, as I watched some news reports of my good friend Chris Murphy's closing comments on the Senate floor, I thought about another period of time in this country that focused on some real troubling circumstances that existed. A man named Thomas Paine sat down to write what he felt. He wrote: ``These are times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the Sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us that, the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.'' We are living in some trying times. This House, for some reason, is refusing to stand up and face the consequences of what we are about to live if we don't close these loopholes that exist in our gun laws. Mr. Speaker, in a few minutes, we are going to be debating a piece of legislation that we have already voted on, but it didn't stop Orlando or Charleston. Tomorrow, as we commemorate the first anniversary of the Emanuel nine, I would hope we would give serious consideration to closing these loopholes.

Mr. CLYBURN

Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, on tomorrow, we are going to commemorate the first anniversary of the events that occurred at Emanuel AME Church. On Sunday, AME churches all over the country will be commemorating this great loss. I will be in Lakeland, Florida, at the Bethel AME Church, and we are going to be praying and singing and hoping, hoping that at some point in the not too distant future this House, this Congress will recognize that we have a big, big problem that must be solved. Why is it that this young man, who was not eligible to purchase a firearm, was able to get one? He got one because there is a loophole in that law that says the 3- day background check is not operative if you don't complete the background check in 3 days. So the reasons that exist for him not to have a firearm still existed on the fourth and fifth day. Now, I have no idea of why the information got keyed in wrong. It was Columbia versus West Columbia. And when they detected it, this gentleman had the firearm and was off to Charleston, South Carolina, my congressional district, where he murdered nine people. He allowed one of them to live so she could tell the story, and two others played dead. The Charleston 12. Well, I am hopeful that the people of goodwill in this body will do something to close this loophole.

Mr. CLYBURN

Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, I often quote Martin Luther King, Jr.'s iconic letter from the Birmingham City Jail when he wrote: We are going to be made to repent not just for the hateful words and deeds of bad people, but for the appalling silence of good people. Mr. Speaker, some very dastardly acts have been committed, one of which we will be commemorating the first anniversary of on Friday, June 17, when the people of Charleston, South Carolina, the State, and many across the Nation, will pause to commemorate the lives of nine people who were murdered and the three who survived because our gun laws allowed a young man to purchase a gun whose background check showed he should not have have been allowed to purchase a gun. However, the loophole says if the background check is not completed in 3 days, you can still purchase the gun. Mr. Speaker, it is time to close the Charleston loophole.

Mr. CLYBURN

Mr. CLYBURN. I appreciate that. I do have something I would like to say on that. Dr. King was sitting in jail in Birmingham, Alabama, because he found some injustices there. In fact, in the letter, he said--in responding to those ministers--that a threat to justice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. And I think that Dr. King, if he were here today, would be speaking out about the threat to justice that the LGBTQ community is now experiencing. I do want the people of that community to know that they are not alone. I do believe that we should all respect human beings. If I may? I thought as you were speaking, Dr. King, in his letter, talked about those who carried the gospel and how they were vilified. I thought about, I believe it is the 11th chapter in the Book of Second Corinthians, Paul, in his writings, talked about all that he had endured--the beatings, the jailings that he had endured--trying to spread the gospel. I thought about those badges of honor--the jailings that Dr. King, John Lewis, and many others endured. I had a few sentences myself, but I thought about that, and these are, in fact, badges of honor. So I want the people of the LGBT community to know that they are not alone in their trials and tribulations, and that at some point in, hopefully, the not too distant future, the good people in this body will rise up and break their silence.