John Conyers

Mr. CONYERS

Mr. CONYERS. I yield to the gentleman from Illinois.

Mr. CONYERS. Then that makes it OK then to bring in habeas?

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, yes.

Mr. CONYERS

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I rise this evening to honor the memory of former Secretary of Commerce Ronald H. Brown, an American pioneer, patriot, and hero. Secretary Brown was also a dear friend. I am sure that my sense of loss is shared by many who work, or have worked, on Capitol Hill. In 1979, Secretary Brown became the first African- American to serve as a chief counsel for a standing Senate committee when he took over the Senate Judiciary Committee. As was the case throughout his career, his service on the Hill helped to chart a new course of participation for African-Americans within the corridors of political and public policy decisionmaking. Being the first, being the only, being a pioneer, was the former Secretary's calling card. He was the first African-American to join a social fraternity during his undergraduate days at Middlebury College. An Army officer, he was the only African-American officer in his unit during his tour of duty in Germany. He was the first African-American partner in the law firm of Patton, Boggs & Blow. He was the first African-American to head a major political party. Finally, he was the first African-American to head the Department of Commerce. Upon nominating Ron Brown to be the 30th U.S. Secretary of Commerce, then-President-elect Clinton declared, ``American business will know that the Department of Commerce has a strong and independent leader and a forceful advocate.'' The President could not have been more prescient, nor could have made a more brilliant appointment. Under the leadership of Secretary Brown, the Commerce Department became one of the major success stories of the Clinton administration. He launched a national export strategy predicated on the very basic idea that American exports translate into jobs and opportunities for American business and working people. In the pursuit of this strategy, Secretary Brown conducted trade mission after trade mission abroad. He traveled most often to what he liked to call the big emerging markets of Asia, Latin America, and Africa. The trip on which Secretary Brown and his 34 colleagues lost their lives was typical of his missions. It was visionary in the most practical sense of the word. It was practical in the most visionary sense of the word. He had the vision to see that beyond the horrors of war wracking Bosnia and Croatia, lay opportunities for American business to be of service, as well as to engage in commerce. He was grounded enough in the realities of that conflict to understand that the road to peace lay in the rebuilding of those shattered communities. When Secretary Brown's plane crashed into that mountain on the way to Dubrovnik, an American patriot became an American hero. He is no less a hero because he died in an accident. He is no less a hero because some persons serving in this Congress have spent an inordinate amount of time besieging him and undermining the Department he led so brilliantly. He is a hero because he died in the service of this Nation, pursuing its interests at the cutting edge of diplomacy and peacemaking. I would be remiss if I did not comment on Secretary Brown's meaning to me as an African-American public servant. Secretary Brown could not be mistaken for anything else than what he was, an African-American. He did not deny that fact, nor did he allow that fact to limit his personal or professional horizons. To be sure, Secretary Brown did everything within his power to help African-Americans. Beyond that, he did everything he could to find points of convergence between the interests of America, African-Americans, and Africa. But he never allowed himself to be the black Secretary of Commerce, nor, for that matter, the black head of the Democratic National Committee, or the black anything else. Ron Brown was the Secretary of Commerce, in the service of each and every American, hyphenated and unhyphenated. It is often said that a picture is worth a thousand words. I agree, a thousand and sometimes more. The picture that I have in mind is that of President William Jefferson Clinton presenting an American flag to Mrs. Alma Brown at Arlington National Cemetery on Wednesday, April 10, 1996. That picture says it all. Secretary Brown's life was a life of service in the public arena in the pursuit of justice and opportunity. It was the life of an American pioneer, patriot, and hero.

Mr. CONYERS

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I will step into the breach and yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from West Virginia [Mr. Wise].

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas [Mr. Edwards].

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Frank].

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Frank] because the gentleman's name was mentioned but he was not yielded to.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman very much for yielding to me. Mr. Speaker, is the gentleman aware that in his charts where he indicates the supermajority of States, he includes California and Florida?

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 45 seconds. Mr. Speaker, I would ask my distinguished colleague, the gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Chrysler], would he not have felt better if a constitutional amendment would have had some hearings in some committee before we brought it to the floor to attempt to send it out to the States?

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, then does the gentleman know that in those two States, that the requirement of supermajority does not apply to sales tax, which is the principal means of raising revenue in those two States?

Mr. CONYERS. Is the gentleman aware of that?

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 1 minute. Mr. Speaker, the distinguished chairman of the Committee on Appropriations, the gentleman from Louisiana [Mr. Livingston], made some comments that need to be rebutted. During the 40 years that we claim that Democrats were running wild, we had Presidents Nixon, Bush, Eisenhower, Ford, and Reagan. We had Republican majorities in the Senate. In many years, in some of those years, we had Republicans with working control of this House, so I think trying to blame this on one particular party, the debt that we find ourselves in, is unfair and inaccurate. Further, Mr. Speaker, under this President we have reduced the deficit from $290 billion, the highest in history, to $140 billion, which is more than a half, a 50 percent reduction.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas, Ms. Sheila Jackson-Lee a distinguished member of the Committee on the Judiciary. (Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to yield 45 minutes to the distinguished past chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means, the gentleman from Florida [Mr. Gibbons], and I ask that he be recognized to yield blocks of time.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Scott], a member of the committee.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from North Carolina [Mr. Watt], a distinguished member of the Committee on the Judiciary.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New York [Mr. Walsh].

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California [Mr. Filner].

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Colorado [Mr. Skaggs], a Member who has been on the floor a lot tonight.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 30 seconds to remind my Republican colleague whose voice was raised pretty loudly about the $5 trillion debt that it was initiated under the administration of Republican Presidents, sir. It was under the Democratic administrations that we have been able to make a dent in this debt. So the gentleman's fulminations are appropriate for April 15, but factually they are seriously inaccurate. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentlewoman from Ohio [Ms. Kaptur].

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes and 30 seconds time to the gentleman from Missouri [Mr. Volkmer], a Member who was once the speaker of the statehouse in Missouri. (Mr. VOLKMER asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from New York [Mrs. Lowey].

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California [Mr. Miller].

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, this is not a good day to have brought this measure to the floor. I would have liked to have recommended that you brought it on April 1 instead of April 15, and that is because this is a grand and elaborate but clear scheme that attempts to fool the American people. It is also, as it has been pointed out, a sham, to protect the wealthy of this country from being taxed fairly. It is a proposal that the House has once earlier defeated as a constitutional amendment and which the majority, the new majority, has on 4 different occasions violated the very principle that they now attempt to enshrine as a constitutional amendment on April 15. It is a demeaning insult to a Constitution that deals with fundamental rights and liberties, and it is a scam that will fail, and many of its proponents are fully aware of that. At heart, the measure before us tonight is designed to ensure that the very wealthiest of individuals and corporations never have to pay their fair share of taxes. And how? Well, consider the tax loopholes for the super-rich that this bill would all but ensure would never be closed. First, it would take a two- thirds majority to make billionaires who make their fortunes in this country, to make them pay their fair share of taxes instead of moving out of the Nation and renouncing their citizenship to avoid such payment. Second, it would take a two-thirds majority to end tax incentives for companies that open plants overseas. Third, it would take a two thirds majority to stop the financial markets from permitting the wealthy to defer capital gains. Finally, it would take a two-thirds majority vote to stop the wealthy from hiding their income from the Internal Revenue Service by using foreign trusts for safe havens. And so this is a cruel and a patent hoax that I hope will be refused at this late hour of the night on a measure written somewhere other than in the Committee on the Judiciary and which is one that does not deserve to be supported on this night of April 15. I urge a ``no'' vote on the measure now pending. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.