John Conyers

Mr. CONYERS

Mr. CONYERS. I yield 2 minutes to a distinguished member of the Judiciary Committee, the gentleman from Illinois, Luis Gutierrez. He has worked on this issue, not just on the DREAM Act but on the whole question of immigration, with great skill and knowledge.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. Honda) for a unanimous consent request. (Mr. HONDA asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. CONYERS. I am pleased at this time to yield 1 minute to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the gentlelady from California, Ms. Nancy Pelosi.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 30 seconds to Barbara Lee of Oakland, California.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, Howard Berman is not only the chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee; he is the second ranking member of the Judiciary Committee. I yield him the balance of my time.

Mr. CONYERS

Mr. CONYERS. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of the child nutrition bill, S. 3307, the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. The reauthorization of this bill will significantly improve child nutrition programs by addressing hunger and obesity in children. It will provide healthier meal options, eliminate junk-food and sugary beverages from a la carte lines and vending machines from all schools, increase student eligibility to access school meals and enhance school wellness policies to improve opportunities for nutrition education and physical activity. At a time when unemployment rates continue to climb it is essential that we provide for the nutritional needs of our children. As a result of these tough economic times many families are stricken with poverty and are currently facing severe food shortages. Furthermore, obesity is increasing at an alarming rate due to poor dieting. Nearly one third of children are either overweight or at risk of becoming overweight. Obesity is even a greater problem amongst African-American children. Currently, thirty-six percent of African-American youth are either overweight or obese compared with less than thirty percent of white youth. This is a result of the fact that African American children are more likely to lack access to healthy fruits and vegetables at lunch time. For example, in a school with a majority of all Black students, forty-seven percent of Black middle school students receive fruits and vegetables compared to sixty-three percent of students in predominately white schools. Childhood hunger and obesity is unacceptable within our country. Moreover, these disparities must be addressed. Our children deserve better and, thus, the time to strengthen our child nutrition programs is now. It is disappointing that my Republican colleagues would attempt to kill this bill and leave children to the pain of hunger and lack of nutritional meal. But, we cannot afford to delay the passage of S. 3307. This bill is our best chance at combating obesity and hunger and addressing disparities in child nutrition. Although it is paid in part by ending a temporary increase to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, I am confident that President Obama and his administration will work to restore these benefits before the SNAP cuts take place. I urge that my colleagues vote ``No'' on the Motion to Recommit and ``Yes'' on S. 3307.

Mr. CONYERS

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 4853, the Middle Class Tax Relief Act of 2010. The middle class in America is struggling to make ends meet as they face a weak economy and bleak job market. Unless Congress acts sometime during the next month, Americans will see their income tax rates return to Clinton-era levels next year. Today's legislation would ensure that 98 percent of Americans will not see a tax increase next year. President Obama and Democrats have advocated to extend tax cuts on income below $250,000 (which will benefit Americans of all income levels) while allowing the tax cuts on income above $250,000 to expire. Specifically, the Middle Class Tax Relief Act will permanently extend relief for the 10 percent, 25 percent and 28 percent rate brackets. Ninety-eight percent of Americans will benefit from this proposal while allowing the richest 2 percent, the millionaires and billionaires, to pay their fair share in taxes. The Middle Class Tax Relief Act of 2010 also provides working families with permanent extensions of popular tax cuts. The bill will extend the $1,000 child tax which is set to expire on December 31st. It will also help families by providing permanent extension of the adoption tax credit, the employee tax credit for employee child care, and the increased dependent care tax credit. Lastly, the Act will permanently extend the capital gains and dividend tax at a 15 percent rate for middle-class taxpayers. Furthermore, the Middle Class Tax Relief Act of 2010 will provide Alternative Minimum Tax, AMT, relief for the middle class. The Congress created the AMT in 1969 to ensure that the wealthy did not abuse loopholes in the tax code and thus avoid paying any taxes at all. However, because the AMT was not adjusted for inflation, it now will affect a large percentage of the middle class. Today's bill will provide a two year extension of AMT relief for joint filers who make up to $72,450 and for individuals who make up to $47,450 in 2010 and 2011. Today's debate is larger than the future of tax policy. This moment offers this body a critical opportunity to draw a line in the sand and make a definitive and powerful statement about their commitment to working class and middle class families. It is an opportunity to show average Americans who are fed up with their government that we hear them, believe in them, and will fight for them. It is an opportunity to show that government has the ability to improve people's lives in a tangible way and that the rich and well connected don't always win. It is time for Congress to stand up for the middle class and extend tax relief. I encourage my colleagues to support this bill.

Mr. CONYERS

Mr. CONYERS. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (S. 1338) a bill to require the accreditation of English language training programs, and for other purposes.

Mr. CONYERS. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material.

Mr. CONYERS. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker and Members, S. 1338 requires that visas for foreign students seeking to attend English schools in the United States only be granted when the student attends a school accredited by an agency recognized by the Secretary of Education. What we found, in short, is that some of these language schools are undermining the laudable mission of this visa program. And it has been determined that many of them are not even attending schools. So thanks to the diligence of the chairman of the Committee on Financial Services, Barney Frank, we have introduced the bill. The Senate has passed the same bill. Now it is over here for our final approval. But before I reserve the balance of my time, I would thank Lamar Smith, the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. CONYERS. I am going to yield back, but can I ask my friends on the other side, if you have got another subject matter you want to introduce on a bill, can you wait until we pass the bill and then make your speech about whatever you want? I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. CONYERS

Mr. CONYERS. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (S. 1421) to amend section 42 of title 18, United States Code, to prohibit the importation and shipment of certain species of carp.

Mr. CONYERS. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.

Mr. CONYERS. Madam Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I may consume. Madam Speaker and Members of the House, S. 1421 prohibits importation and interstate shipment of certain species of carp and amends section 42 of title 18 of the code to add the bighead variety of the species commonly known as Asian carp to the list of injurious species that are prohibited from being shipped in or imported into the United States. Asian carp are a significant threat to the Great Lakes because they are large, extremely prolific, and consume vast amounts of food. They can grow to more than 6 feet in length and weigh in excess of 100 pounds, quickly dominating the waters they inhabit and eating as much as 40 percent of their body weight daily. Researchers caution that these fish could pose a significant risk to the Great Lakes ecosystem by damaging habitats and disrupting the food chain that supports native fish. In the 1970s, two species of Asian carp, the bighead and silver, were imported by catfish farmers to remove algae and suspended matter from their ponds. During large floods in the early 1990s, many of the catfish ponds overflowed their banks, and the Asian carp were released into local waterways in the Mississippi River basin. In an effort to prevent the carp from getting to the Great Lakes, a barrier was constructed in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal which connects the Mississippi River to the Great Lakes. Unfortunately, the Asian carp are steadily making their way northward up the Mississippi, and Asian carp DNA has been discovered beyond the barrier. If these carp reach Lake Michigan, they are likely to spread throughout the Great Lakes, where they would threaten the environment and the economy. The Great Lakes are some of the most unique bodies of water on the planet, and they would threaten not only the commercial but recreational fishing on the lakes, both of which are major contributors to the economies of Great Lakes States. The Asian Carp Prevention and Control Act lists the bighead variety of the species called Asian carp as injurious to wildlife under the Lacey Act. And by including them in the Lacey Act, this bill will prohibit importation or interstate transportation of live Asian carp without a permit. It is our hope that this will help deter further intentional or accidental introduction of the species into our waterways. It should be noted that this legislation does not interfere with existing State regulations of Asian carp. In addition, permits to transport or purchase live Asian carp can still be issued for scientific, medical, or educational purposes. I commend my colleagues, the senior Senator from Michigan, Carl Levin, and Senator George Voinovich, co-chairs of the Great Lakes Task Force, for introducing this legislation, and hope it will be favorably considered in this body. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. CONYERS. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. CONYERS

Mr. CONYERS. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and concur in the Senate amendment to the bill (H.R. 5283) to provide for adjustment of status for certain Haitian orphans paroled into the United States after the earthquake of January 12, 2010.

Mr. CONYERS. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.

Mr. CONYERS. I yield myself as much time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, Members of the House, this bill, entitled the Help HAITI Act of 2010, was introduced by the gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Fortenberry). It is incredibly important that we finish the job we undertook when we rescued just over 1,200 Haitian orphans immediately following the earthquake that devastated Haiti on January 12 earlier this year. All in all, 1.5 million people were directly affected in terms of human and economic impact. It was one of the worst natural disasters ever recorded in the Western Hemisphere. In response to this disaster, the Department of Homeland Security instituted a policy for the immediate evacuation of Haitian orphans who had been adopted or were in the process of being adopted as citizens. Now, in the United States with their adoptive or prospective adoptive American parents, these children need one more bit of assistance. Had the earthquake not hit and disrupted the adoption process in Haiti, each of these children would have entered the country as United States citizens under current immigration law. But because of the emergency procedures used to evacuate these children, they must now wait years before they can get permanent residency and years more before they can qualify for citizenship. Some are even running the risk of aging out even before they can get their residency, which would make them ineligible for legal status in the country. So what the measure before us does is treat these children as if they had come to the United States under the normal adoption procedures that would have applied had the earthquake not occurred and required hastening their move. It is with that in mind that I am pleased to thank the bipartisan efforts of the Judiciary Committee, starting with the ranking member, Lamar Smith; the immigration subcommittee chair, Zoe Lofgren; and, of course, Judge Poe, who is leading the measure on the other side. With that, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. CONYERS. I want to commend Judge Ted Poe as a gentleman and a scholar, and we are proud of his service on the Judiciary Committee. I yield as much time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from Texas, Sheila Jackson Lee.

Mr. CONYERS. Madam Speaker, I now recognize the gentlewoman from Brooklyn, New York, Yvette Clarke, for as much time as she may consume. And I note that she has the second largest number of Haitians and Haitian Americans in her congressional district.

Mr. CONYERS. I yield back as well.

Mr. CONYERS

Mr. CONYERS. I want to let the gentlelady from Minnesota know that I would like to work with her on getting these numbers straightened out because there were some erroneous conceptions involved here. I would like to begin by recognizing the chairman of the Subcommittee on Crime in the Judiciary Committee for 1\1/2\ minutes, my dear friend, Bobby Scott.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I am a little dismayed that we come back after this recess and after a struggle that has gone on for generations, and we come here, and of all my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, I am stunned that only one person rises in support of a claim that is so gross, so discriminatory, and I was glad that the gentlelady raised the question of why nobody was ever fired or punished or discharged. That is how deep and pervasive this problem has been over the centuries in this country. That is why nobody was punished. That is why it makes it all the more important that we, if we can, get as bipartisan a vote from everybody in this House on this matter. Chairman Bobby Scott mentioned John Boyd of the National Black Farmers Association. He is sitting up in the gallery right now. I want you to know that he came to me in the spring of 1983. That was 27 years ago, and we have been working on this matter ever since. All across the South--we even had problems, we found out, in the North. It wasn't just the South, but the South was obviously the most pervasive. So we are talking about something that was written up by Wil Haygood a number of years ago in The Washington Post, on October 3, 2004, in an article entitled, ``The Promised Land. Bigotry and bankruptcy haven't driven Ricky Haynie from the fields his ancestors worked as slaves.'' Now, as much as I appreciate the Secretary of Agriculture for his work in this, and as much as I appreciate those who are going to support this measure, I am sorry to say that this matter of fairness to farmers of color, Hispanics, and women is not yet resolved. And they are black farmers who, because they were late filers--and how can you be somewhere out in God knows where, and you are supposed to know when the filing date for things are. There are over 12,000 African American farmers that have been excluded from the Pigford settlement merely because they didn't do it on time. Do you think they have got a lawyer out there? Of course they don't. The claims of Latino farmers, late filers, and women farmers are still not resolved even when we finally pass this measure. I yield back the balance of my time. Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore

Mr. CONYERS

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, on November 29, 2010, I regret that I was not present to vote on H.R. 5877 and H. Res. 771. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on both bills.

Mr. CONYERS

Mr. CONYERS. Madam Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 5712, ``The Physician Payment and Therapy Relief Act of 2010.'' One of the most important priorities of Congress, regardless of our current economic downturn, is the financial well-being of our Nation's hospitals, and the ability of patients to have access to medically necessary care when they need it. Passage of H.R. 5712 accomplishes both goals by blocking the 23 percent cut in Medicare payments to doctors, for one month, while Congress and the Obama Administration work together to put together a permanent fix to ensure the optimal Medicare reimbursement rate to doctors and hospitals. In order to have world class hospitals in the United States, we must have the needed funding to ensure that our Nation's hospitals can provide the highest quality care possible. Passage of H.R. 5712 will help strengthen our Nation's hospitals, especially those located in our inner cities and rural areas. Many of these hospitals are experiencing serious funding shortages, and are at risk of losing much needed doctors and medical staff. H.R. 5712 is a bipartisan bill that costs one billion dollars, and is fully paid for. This legislation helps to protect access to doctors for Medicare beneficiaries and military families, given that payment rates for doctors in TRICARE, the health care program for active-duty service members, National Guard and Reserve members, military retirees, and their families are tied to Medicare rates. H.R. 5712 is a good example of how Members of Congress working together in a spirit of bipartisan unity can improve the health and well being of all Americans. I encourage my colleagues to support the bill.