Barbara Lee

Ms. LEE of California

Ms. LEE of California. Mr. Speaker, I wanted to thank the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Bonior) for really helping this House to focus on the basic question of what is right and what is wrong. So often we forget about those issues here. I want to thank him and the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) and the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Kucinich), the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown), and the gentleman from California (Mr. Sherman) for continuing to help educate this body with regard to really what the right thing to do is in this instance. As we entered the new century and the new millennium, relations among Nations in the Pacific rim and Africa are becoming very significant. Trade with China represents a substantial component of our country's international commerce. So as Congress has debated United States' trading policies toward China and Africa, I have carefully considered many fundamental issues. Now, I am a firm believer of self-determination for China. China has chosen communism. Whether we agree with it or not, that is their right. However, it is wrong to round up, to intimidate, and to arrest people, to place them in slave labor camps with no due process, regardless of whatever political or economic system one lives under. So the time is now for us to send a strong and unyielding message that the United States will not condone mass suffering and oppression. Trade must be open. Trade must be fair. Standards for human rights must be included in all trade agreements. Environmental protections must be in place. Women's rights should be advanced. Worker rights abroad everywhere should be protected. Of course religious freedom should be protected. American jobs should be protected and should not become a casualty of our trade policy. And, of course, as we have heard over and over again, many argue that the best way to ensure China's respect for all of these issues is to admit China into the World Trade Organization and to grant it PNTR. Well, I disagree, as the gentleman disagrees, and believe an annual review actually provides for this.

Ms. LEE

Ms. LEE. These are good jobs. And this is very scary. What do we do? We have had many go-rounds of base closures and we are just now beginning to recover. California workers do not deserve this, and I hope people throughout the country understand what the magnitude of this job loss is to American workers. So we support free trade, I know the gentleman supports free trade, but it must be fair. Our policies also should at least put an end to slave labor in China rather than reward it. And, in essence, PNTR rewards slave labor. Now, we are not talking about cutting off our relationship with China at all. We want to make sure that our trade relations are such that the people of China and the people of the United States benefit from a fair and free trade policy. Very seldom do we have these defining moments in the Congress. This vote really does define who we are as a people and as a Nation. And as an African American, whose ancestors were brought here in chains and forced to help build this great country as slaves, I must oppose any measure that allows for the exploitation of people anywhere in the world, whether it is here in America, whether it is in Africa, the Caribbean, or in China. So I appreciate the gentleman's taking the leadership in this effort and really trying to help all of us in this Congress know that we must do the right thing, because this is our moment to be true to who we are as Americans.

Ms. LEE. That is right. Annual review at least provides for an effective mechanism for us to review China's compliance with all these standards. Also, it is the most viable assurance for the American worker. According to the Economic Policy Institute, over 870,000 jobs are projected to be lost within the next decade. What will happen to these workers here in our own country? If this bill passes, of course, the United States trade deficit will continue to escalate, leading to job losses in virtually almost every State.

Ms. LEE

Ms. LEE. I thank the chairman and the ranking member for allowing me to bring this request to their attention, and I look forward to working with the committee on this important project.

Ms. LEE. I yield to the gentleman from Ohio.

Ms. LEE. Mr. Chairman, I want to thank the ranking member, the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Olver), for yielding me this time. Mr. Chairman, I would like to engage the distinguished chairman of the subcommittee in a colloquy. I first want to commend the committee for their hard work in crafting the bill before us today. I know that funding for new initiatives or requested increases would be difficult. However, there is a project recently brought to my attention, which is vitally important to my district. The East Bay Municipal Water District, better known as East Bay MUD, is the water district for much of the East Bay, and it is required because of new Federal regulations to expand its waste water treatment plant. East Bay MUD is currently located adjacent to the bay and adjacent to land acquired by the Army Reserves through the 1995 base closure. Through almost a year of negotiations, we have arrived at a solution to our problem and the Army Reserves is willing to move their entire operation to Camp Parks in Dublin, California. This would free up approximately 16 acres for East Bay MUD's expansion, and as well provide additional development of land for the City of Oakland. So this appears to be a very viable solution for our parties. We are, therefore, requesting $1.9 million to conduct a feasibility study. This would evaluate the alternatives and also plan and design for the land transfer. If feasible, the actual relocation would cost approximately $18 million, which we would seek in another funding cycle if the study proves positive.

Ms. LEE

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

Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this bill. First, let me just thank the gentleman from New York (Mr. Gilman) for all of his work and his bipartisan efforts in allowing this bill to come to the floor. An environmental threat looms over our allies in Europe and the emerging democracies in the Baltic region. Twenty-one thousand spent fuel assemblies from Russian submarines are lying exposed. Nearly 60 dangerously decrepit nuclear submarines, many in danger of sinking, are languishing in northwest Russia. Whole reactors and radioactive liquid waste are stored on unsafe floating barges and there are significant risks of marine and atmospheric contamination from accidents arising from loss of electricity or fire on deteriorating, poorly monitored nuclear submarines. This waste poses a threat to the safety and the stability of Northern Europe and to countries of the Eurasian continent. A fire or explosion on one of these subs could spread contamination over a wide area. Theft of plutonium from a submarine could become a proliferation issue. This important bill, introduced by our foresighted ranking member of the Committee on International Relations, ensures that at least $4 million will be spent on environmental cleanup and cross-border cooperation in this region. It also mandates a study on this potential environmental crisis that threatens regional environmental stability and therefore the United States' national interests in the region. By mandating a report to address the severity of this situation and by urging President Putin to make progress on concluding liability issues to move forward on nuclear waste management issues, this bill makes a very important contribution to proactively preventing a security crisis in Northern Europe before it erupts. Just as our foreign policy must address regions in crisis in Europe and around the world, likewise, we cannot afford to neglect areas that appear to be stable but may have problems that lie beneath the surface. Northern Europe has made progress over the last few years, particularly among the Balkan states, but the division itselves of the Cold War and the legacy of the Soviet Union damaged trust and a sense of community which flourished in this region in the past. This bill reaffirms support for Northern Europe's initiative, and it also seeks to continue the progress towards rebuilding confidence and security in the region. So for those of us who are very much opposed to nuclear proliferation and who support the environment, we urge our colleagues to support this bill. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Ms. LEE

Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 6 minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Markey), whose work has been very sustained and consistent on this issue.

Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, I just want to thank the chairman, the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Gejdenson), and the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Markey) for working in a bipartisan fashion in bringing this resolution to the floor.

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

Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume, and I rise in strong support of this bill. In 1994, the United States and North Korea signed the Agreed Framework under which North Korea was obligated to freeze its activities at several nuclear related sites subject to international on-site inspection. These sites included an operating nuclear reactor that the North Koreans had built themselves, a nuclear reprocessing plant suitable for producing plutonium for nuclear weapons from this reactor's fuel, and two larger nuclear reactors under construction. In exchange for North Korea's freeze, the United States was obligated to provide low-grade heating oil and create an international consortium to construct two civil power reactors to replace the two reactors that North Korea had been building. International inspectors continue to verify that activity at these North Korean nuclear cites remain frozen. The Agreed Framework has successfully ensured that they cannot contribute to a North Korean nuclear weapon program so long as the Agreed Framework is in force. However, I am concerned that the United States and its allies cannot be assured at this point that North Korea is not surreptitiously seeking to develop nuclear weapons. We must be vigilant that North Korea fully and completely meets all of its nonproliferation obligations under the Agreed Framework, the Treaty on Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons, and its obligations to allow inspections of its activities by the International Atomic Energy Agency. This bill will require congressional review and approval of any nuclear cooperation with North Korea. Such cooperation will be necessary to complete the two civil nuclear power reactors now being built in fulfillment of the Agreed Framework agreement between the United States and North Korea. This bill is a significant improvement over last year's version. Under the previous Gilman-Markey amendment, one committee chair or Chamber leader could have prevented consideration of the joint resolution approving the President's certification that North Korea is living up to its nonproliferation obligations. The version before the House today contains expedited procedures ensuring that there will be a vote on the joint resolution in both Houses. Mr. Speaker, the Agreed Framework is clearly in our national security interest of the United States and our allies in the region. A nuclear- armed North Korea would be a serious threat to all of us. So long as North Korea is meeting its obligations under the Agreed Framework, and those nuclear facilities are shut down, it is strongly in the United States' national interest to live up to our side of the bargain and support the construction of these two reactors. This bill today places a serious responsibility on the shoulders of a future Congress. When the time comes for a decision on whether to move forward with the provision of two nuclear reactors to North Korea, Members of Congress must deliberate coolly, objectively, and without partisan rancor. If the Agreed Framework ultimately comes apart with all the potential devastating consequences for peace and stability in the region, then it must happen because the North Koreans did not live up to their obligations, not because the United States walked away from the agreement. I urge my colleagues to support this bill. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Ms. LEE

Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I rise in strong support of this resolution, Mr. Speaker. Just as the committee takes the time to criticize the outcome of election results that produce controversial governments, it also produces resolutions which commend the results of positive elections, such as the recent elections in Croatia in February. The results of recent elections in Croatia have been described as some of the best news to emerge from the Balkans since the Dayton accords were signed 4 years ago. The first elections to follow the death of Croatia's longtime leader saw Croatians turn out in large numbers to elect reformers promising to steer Croatia towards a more moderate internationalist path. United States policymakers are optimistic that positive ripples from the wake of this election will bode well for American interests throughout the region. A new reform-minded, Western-leaning coalition scored a comprehensive victory on the January 3 parliamentary elections, securing 71 seats while the HDZ won just 40. On the heels of the parliamentary election, the February 7 race for president saw a battle of two reformers. During the campaign, the newly-elected president promised that he would be the opposite of his predecessor in everything. He said, ``Where he was autocratic, I will be democratic; where he was nationalistic, I will be pro-European.'' It is important to note that the United States' pro-democracy assistance to Croatia helped lay the foundation for this historic election. USAID's 5-year commitment to strengthening a broad spectrum of political parties and advocacy groups culminated in a 148-NGO coalition of trade unions and small business groups teamed for a wide- scale ``get out the vote'' campaign of media and face-to-face citizen outreach. I urge my colleagues to support this resolution. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Ms. LEE

Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express strong support for the World Bank AIDS Marshall Plan Trust Fund Act, H.R. 3519. First, I would like to thank the gentleman from Iowa (Chairman Leach) for his wisdom and commitment to ensure that Congress is on the right side of history and that we address this pandemic in a bipartisan fashion. Also, I would like to thank my colleagues, the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Gephardt), the minority leader, the ranking member, the gentleman from New York (Mr. LaFalce), the gentleman from New York (Chairman Gilman), and the Congressional Black Caucus, especially the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Waters) and the gentlewoman from the Virgin Islands (Mrs. Christensen), for demonstrating leadership in moving this issue forward in the spirit of bipartisanship and cooperation. Finally, I also would like to acknowledge the contributions of my predecessor and dear friend, Mr. Ron Dellums, for remaining committed to the fight as a public citizen, and raising consciousness throughout the world regarding this pandemic. The World Health Organization has proclaimed that HIV/AIDS is the world's deadliest disease. It has ravaged Sub-Saharan Africa, claiming 13.7 million lives. Today, 23.3 million adults and children are living with HIV and AIDS. AIDS is decimating the continent and leaving behind millions of orphans in its wake. By the year 2010, the number of orphans in Africa will equal the number of children in America's public schools. An estimated 6,000 people die in Africa every day due to AIDS. Since I introduced my original bill last August, H.R. 2765, of which most provisions are retained in this bill, 1.8 million people have perished. The survival of a continent is at stake. This is not only a humanitarian crisis, it is an emerging economic catastrophe. Teachers are disappearing from classrooms. Skilled workers are vanishing from production plants. Over the past year, our Nation's moral compass has pointed us in the direction that guides us now to address the AIDS crisis globally and most profoundly in Africa. However, I remind Members again that the AIDS crisis in Africa is only the epicenter. The Caribbean, Asia, India, Latin America, and the Balkans are only ticking time bombs. In our own country, people of color are being disproportionately hit by HIV and AIDS. The Clinton administration has rightfully recognized AIDS as a national security threat and has issued an executive order to provide access to HIV/AIDS pharmaceuticals and medical technologies. This is a step in the right direction. The President has also issued a statement of administration policy in support of the World Bank AIDS Marshall Plan Trust Fund Act. Mr. Speaker, I include for the Record the Statement of Administration Policy issued by the Executive Office of the President. The document referred to is as follows: Statement of Administration Policy h.r. 3519--world bank aids marshall plan trust fund act The Administration strongly supports the passage of H.R. 3519, which would increase international efforts to combat the global spread of HIV/AIDS, and agrees with its sponsors that there is a critical need for new sources of funding in order to combat this growing pandemic effectively. The President's FY 2001 Budget requests a $100 million increase for HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, and related activities, bringing the total HIV/AIDS funding (exclusive of research) in FY 2001 to $342 million. The current U.S. efforts to combat global HIV/AIDS are by far the largest among bilateral and multilateral donors. In addition, the Administration has proposed a $50 million contribution to the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) and new tax credits to help spur the development and distribution of vaccines for HIV/AIDS and other diseases that result in millions of deaths every year in the developing world. The Administration believes that H.R. 3519 takes an important step towards our common objective of increasing the international effort to combat this pandemic. We believe that additional flexibility in negotiating the exact structure of the multilateral funding mechanism will ensure that this mechanism will best meet the objectives of other donors and the requirements of recipient countries and organizations, and therefore will maximize our ability to increase other donor participation. The Administration looks forward to working with the Congress to address this goal. We also note that H.R. 3519 raises constitutional concerns regarding the President's exclusive authority in foreign affairs to represent, and negotiate on behalf of, the United States. The Administration remains fully committed to other high priority international initiatives and to the funding levels proposed in the President's Budget for HIV/AIDS programs and other critical components of our existing international affairs budget request. A new multilateral funding mechanism will take time to become operational and effective, and therefore the passage of the President's FY 2001 Budget for HIV/AIDS programs is imperative and will result in immediate assistance in the fight against global HIV/AIDS. Mr. Speaker, AIDS, like all diseases, knows no boundaries. There is no guarantee that the scale of the problem on one continent can be contained in that region. In fact, it is just the opposite. So I want to leave on one thought. An old Swaziland proverb says, ``There is a poisonous snake in our house. If we do not get it out, it will kill us all.'' Left unaddressed, AIDS will wipe out Africa. Today, as the world watches, Congress must step up to the plate and hit a home run. Vote yes for final passage of H.R. 3519, the World Bank AIDS Marshall Plan Trust Fund Act.

Ms. LEE

Ms. LEE. Mr. Chairman, on rollcall vote No. 174, the amendment offered by my colleagues Mr. Udall and Ms. Clayton, I inadvertently voted ``no.'' I intended to vote ``yes.'' Amendment No. 24 Offered by Mr. Gibbons

Ms. LEE

Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, I strongly support the Million Mom March. This weekend, mothers from across the nation will convene on the National Mall to put the U.S. Congress on notice that common sense gun policy-- specifically licensing and registration--is the will of the people. I stand beside and applaud these women. They and many of their families have been devastated by the unnecessary and preventable deaths of their children. Many of them have seen first hand the harrowing effects of too many massacres, too much heart break and too many tragedies, sometimes, even at the hands, of our children. We promised these moms and the American people common sense gun control legislation. We have not delivered on that promise. In fact, we have gone in the other direction--engaging in a war of words only. For more than two months now, the Congress has had an opportunity to act responsibly and at a minimum insist that the conferees to the Juvenile Justice bill meet immediately. Yet our Republican leadership refuses to assert their leadership and do the right thing. In my district, in Northern California, the Oakland City Council has taken a strong stance on gun control. They are putting human lives first by prohibiting the sale of compact hand guns, penalizing firearms ``straw sales,'' and prohibiting people under the age of 18 from entering establishments that display firearms. Yet here in Congress we won't take even the minimum steps, such as requiring child safety trigger locks, to ensure the safety of our children. As a mother, I too feel that we can no longer afford to play partisan politics while so many children's lives remain at stake. All of the moms who will be in Washington, D.C. this weekend want results. They want us to do the right thing. They too want the Juvenile Justice Conferees to meet immediately and they want the Congress to deliver on its promise. Congress must pass common sense gun control legislation.

Ms. LEE

Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, please submit the following article into the Record. [From the Washington Post, Sun. Apr. 30, 2000] AIDS Is Declared Threat to Security--White House Fears Epidemic Could Destabilize World (By Barton Gellman) Convinced that the global spread of AIDS is reaching catastrophic dimensions, the Clinton administration has formally designated the disease for the first time as a threat to U.S. national security that could topple foreign governments, touch off ethnic wars and undo decades of work in building free-market democracies abroad. The National Security Council, which has never before been involved in combating an infectious disease, is directing a rapid reassessment of the government's efforts. The new push is reflected in the doubling of budget requests--to $254 million--to combat AIDS overseas and in the creation on Feb. 8 of a White House interagency working group. The group has been instructed to ``develop a series of expanded initiatives to drive the international efforts'' to combat the disease. Top officials and some members of Congress contemplate much higher spending levels. The urgency of addressing AIDS has also touched off internal disputes over long-settled positions on trade policy and on legal requirements that aid contractors buy only American supplies. The new effort--described by its architects as tardy and not commensurate with the size of the crisis--was spurred last year by U.S. intelligence reports that looked at the pandemic's broadest consequences for foreign governments and societies, particularly in Africa. A National Intelligence Estimate prepared in January, representing consensus among government analysts, projected that a quarter of southern Africa's population is likely to die of AIDS and that the number of people dying of the disease will rise for a decade before there is much prospect of improvement. Based on current trends, that disastrous course could be repeated, perhaps exceeded, in south Asia and the former Soviet Union. ``At least some of the hardest-hit countries, initially in sub-Saharan Africa and later in other regions, will face a demographic catastrophe'' over the next 20 years, the study said. ``This will further impoverish the poor and often the middle class and produce a huge and impoverished orphan cohort unable to cope and vulnerable to exploitation and radicalization.'' Dramatic declines in life expectancy, the study said, are the strongest risk factor for ``revolutionary wars, ethnic wars, genocides and disruptive regime transitions'' in the developing world. Based on historical analysis of 75 factors that tend to destabilize governments, the authors said the social consequences of AIDS appear to have ``a particularly strong correlation with the likelihood of state failure in partial democracies.'' Another mobilizing factor is American politics. African American leaders, such as former representative Ron Dellums (D-Calif.) and Rep. Jesse L. Jackson Jr. (D-Ill), have adopted the cause of AIDS in Africa. Their interest is converging with that of long-standing AIDS activists in the United States and Europe, where the course of the epidemic has been slowed by preventive efforts and life-saving combinations of anti-retroviral drugs. They are angry at policies that price those medicines beyond the reach of the developing world. In June, those activists disrupted Vice President Gore's presidential campaign announcement in Carthage, Tenn., and two other speeches that week--``blindsiding us completely,'' as one senior adviser put it. The activists, and several senior Clinton administration officials, say that pressure accelerated the White House's response. There is no recent precedent for treating disease as a security threat. So unfamiliar are public health agencies with the apparatus of national defense that one early task force meeting was delayed when co-chairwoman Sandra Thurman, whose Office of National AIDS Policy is across the street from the White House, could not find the Situation Room. For all the stakes they now describe, Clinton administration officials do not contemplate addressing them on a scale associated with traditional security priorities. Gore's national security adviser, Leon Fuerth, freely acknowledged that the 2001 budget request of $254 million to combat AIDS abroad--a sum surpassed, for example, by drone aircraft in the Pentagon budget--provides ``resources that are inadequate for the task.'' He called the work of the task force ``an iterative process'' aimed at slowing the plague's rate of increase and alleviating some of its effects. Before this year, federal spending on AIDS overseas remained relatively flat. Other officials noted that the United States has endorsed U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan's declared five-year goal of reducing the rate of new infections by 25 percent. That falls close to the CIA's best-case, and least probable, scenario. Because such a turn of events would demand resources from U.S. allies and multinational bodies, the new White House group has been instructed to ``develop a series of expanded initiatives to drive the international efforts.'' Fuerth, a member of the ``principals committee'' that takes up the most important foreign policy questions, told representatives from 16 agencies on Feb. 8 that the panel wanted a package of proposals for Clinton within several weeks. The working group is scheduled to finish drafting its proposals in May. Fuerth said the government is looking for ``the kind of focus and coordination on this issue that we normally strive for on national security issues.'' ``The numbers of people who are dying, the impact on elites--like the army, the educated people, the teachers--is quite severe,'' he said. ``In the end it was a kind of slow- motion destruction of everything we were trying, in our contact programs and our military-to-military programs, to build up, and would affect the viability of these societies, would affect the stability of the region. . . . In the world that we're facing, the destiny of the continent of Africa matters. And it isn't as if this disease is going to stay put in sub-Saharan Africa.'' Twenty-three million people are infected in sub-Saharan Africa, with new infections coming at the rate of roughly 5,000 a day, according to World Health Organization figures. Of 13 million deaths to date, 11 million have been in sub- Saharan Africa. In the developing world, the disease spreads primarily through heterosexual contact. The intelligence estimate portrays the pandemic as the bad side of globalization. Accelerating trade and travel--along with underlying conditions favorable to the disease--are pushing much of Asia, and particularly India, toward ``a dramatic increase in infectious disease deaths, largely driven by the spread of HIV/AIDS,'' the intelligence report said. ``By 2010, the region could surpass Africa in the number of HIV infections.'' The number of infections now is relatively low, but the growth rate is high and governments have been slow to respond. Infections are also growing rapidly, and largely unchecked, in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. The intelligence estimate said this growth will ``challenge democratic development and transitions and possibly contribute to humaniarian emergencies and military conflicts to which the United States may need to respond.'' The report also anticipates that ``infectious disease-related trade embargoes and restrictions on travel and immigration also will cause frictions among and with key trading partners and other selected states.'' ``The thing that's most staggering, and people are just begnning to grasp, is that Africa is the tip of the iceberg,'' Thurman said. ``We are just at the beginning of a pandemic the likes of which we have not seen in this century, and in the end will probably never have seen in history.'' Senior administration officials, some of them apparently frustrated, said that the government does not dispute estimates by the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS that it would take nearly $2 billion to fund adequate prevention in Africa, and a like sum for treatment. What the United States has been spending, by contrast, ``is a rounding error for county budgets'' in Fairfax and Montgomery counties, said one disgusted official. ``I don't have a fantasy that we're going to go to the Hill and get $5 billion to build Africa's health care infrastructure,'' said one senior Africa policymaker. ``We're trying to determine effective steps that need to be taken, and can be taken, right now.'' After initial resistance from U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky, the government has agreed in principle to encourage cheaper access to life-saving drugs by relaxing hard-line positions that protect U.S. drugmakers' intellectual property. Gore has said publicly that the United States does not rule out the use by afflicted countries of locally made or imported generics of drugs under patent by American companies. Assistant Trade Representative Joseph Papovich has written to the governments of Thailand and South Africa with new formulas for resolving intellectual property disputes on such medicines. But several participants in the government effort said the practical meaning of the change, if any, will have to be decided at the Cabinet level or by Clinton personally. An early test comes in May, when Barshefsky's office decides whether South Africa should be removed from the ``watch list'' of countries facing potential trade sanctions. South Africa is on that list because it passed a law the United States initially described as threatening to the intellectual property of American drug manufacturers. With the prospect of substantial new spending, agencies ranging from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and National Institutes of Health to the Labor Department are fighting over the allocation of funds. Undersecretary of State Frank Loy, meanwhile, is said by participants to be resisting the emerging consensus that the international AIDS effort should be centered in Thurman's office. The task force has also battled over proposals to amend the Foreign Assistance Act, which requires all taxpayer-funded aid to come from American suppliers. Public health agencies want exceptions for condoms and AIDS test kits, which can be acquired more cheaply overseas. Congress willing, the task force is likely to recommend that change. The high-profile attention from the top is ``raising this issue in ways that leaders [of afflicted nations] can't ignore it,'' one White House official said. Richard C. Holbrooke, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, used his rotation as Security Council president in January to declare a month on Africa. He made AIDS the subject of the first Security Council meeting of 2000 and invited Gore to speak. When Clinton traveled to India in March, he successfully pressed the government to issue a joint declaration on AIDS. Pervading the recent U.S. effort is a strong sense among participants of time misspent. The virulence of the pandemic are accurately foreseen, and ``the United States didn't exactly cover itself with glory,'' said one close adviser to Clinton. ``We saw it coming, and we didn't act as quickly as we could have,'' said Helene D. Gayle, a physician who directs AIDS prevention at the CDC. ``I'm not sure what that says about how seriously we took it, how seriously we took lives in Africa.'' Peter Piot, a virologist who heads the United Nations AIDS efforts in Geneva, said ``the good news is that the U.S. government is mobilizing. The bad news is that it took so long. This is not a catastrophe that came out of the blue. It has been clearly coming for at least 10 years.'' Asked about those comments, Thurman looked pained. ``Oh yeah,'' she said softly. ``It's very late. But better late than never. You rarely ever get a second chance in an epidemic.''

Ms. LEE

Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, I am happy to present to the house a review by Don Hopkins of a book by my friend and mentor, Ron Dellums. It is a moving account of his rise in politics, and the major contribution he made to Congress, and indeed to the world as follows: Dellums' ``Lying Down With the Lions'' Former Berkeley/Oakland Congressman Ronald Dellums has recently written a book, co-authored by his long time colleague, H. Lee Halterman, entitled ``Lying Down with the Lions.'' Since I was also a staffer of the Congressman, one would expect that I would have laudatory things to say about his book. I will not disappoint such expectations. My interest is to urge people who are interested in the struggle for social, political and economic justice in America to read the book and enjoy what it says about us, as much as what it says about him and for the movement he came to symbolize, and to the best of his abilities, to lead. My thought is that for Bay Area residents who take pride in the Niners, the Sharks, the Raider, the Warriors, the Stanford Cardinals and the Cal Bears et al., it does not seem a reach to suggest that they take pride in a home grown warrior on the political front, like Ron Dellums. Ron, after all, grew up in West Oakland. West Oakland, it might be recalled, is that picturesque corner of Oakland that Leslie Stahl of 60 Minutes recently defamed as a ``pocket of poverty'' within an otherwise prosperous Northern California. What Ms. Stahl apparently did not know, and what one can discern by reading ``Lions,'' is that their exists serious progeny from West Oakland that has contributed monumentally to the success of this nation. For the purpose of this note, however, I would focus on Ronald V. Dellums. As we speak, there is a federal building named after him. There is a train station named after his uncle and mentor, a hero of the civil rights movement, the distinguished C.L. Dellums. There are countless public improvement projects and programs in the era, like the Chabot Science Center, the Federal Building, the Military Base projects, that are extant and flourish because of his work and sacrifice. More than all of this, however, what should be known by Bay Area residents is the tremendous contribution Dellums made to the politics of this area, this nation, and most significantly, the world. Ron Dellums' politics, which were grounded on the notion of ``coalition'', gave meaning, structure and guidance, across race, gender and class lines, to a set of politics that first led to the significant inclusion of minorities in elected positions in the Bay Area of Northern California. The same politics, grounded in the notion that all of the world's ``Niggers''--the excluded and disenfranchised--working together, could ``change the world.'' This particular characterization of logic and integrity of a coalition of all the disenfranchised later became passe (Nigger could only be snickeringly referred to, as during the O.J. Simpson trial, as the ``N'' word, and what a crock, for a word so well worn) the fact is that the political activists of the Bay Area and other urban communities touched by the intractable logic of Dellums' ``Nigger speech'', was a critical ingredient in the development of the coalition, the struggle, that ended America's involvement in the war in Vietnam. It gave philosophical and emotional resonance to Lyndon Baines Johnson's call for a War on Poverty, and it laid the groundwork for a political movement that brought Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, Women, Handicapped people, Gays, etc., into the limelight of political recognition, respectability, and redress. Dellums built upon the eloquence and commitment of the likes of John George and Bob Scheer to give the antiwar movement focus, legitimacy, credibility, multiethnic support and moral tonality. His passion for justice for the disenfranchised was responsible for the impact his presence made in the legislative agenda and the political culture of the United States Congress. Upon his retirement from the Congress, members from both sides of the aisle, testified, that his efforts contributed significantly to the culmination of the cold war, the modification of military procurement policies that prolonged that war, and to a social agenda that promised a peace divided that would benefit the poor and less fortunate in American communities. None of what Ron Dellums accomplished can be known without some effort. Books have been written about the Kennedys and Martin Luther King, about Whitney Young, Andrew Young, Jesse Jackson and other heroes of that struggle. Those of us, who believe in the importance of coalition politics, the politics that binds the interests of the disenfranchised American across ethnic, gender, age, and sex lines, could not be fulfilled by any chronicle of the era, without a book by and about Ron Dellums. Dellums' book, which is a short but thoughtful recapitulation of the issues that first led him to Congres-- the philosophical and political ideas that sustained his growth as a public person, and the impact these had on the political process, is therefore a ``must'' to read for anyone who seeks a handle on the flavor of what happened and why during the critical years of our national life when he served us as an activist, a local legislator, and a member of Congress. I trust that those who lived through the tumultuous sixties, seventies, and eighties in the Bay Area, who lived through the saga of the Black Panther Party, the antiwar movement, the struggle for the liberation of South Africa, and the struggle to end the Cold War, will take time to read the Dellums tome.

Ms. LEE

Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentlewoman from Maryland (Mrs. Morella) for that very eloquent statement and for setting forth the case and bringing out more statistics as it relates to this pandemic, and also for her leadership on not only HIV/AIDS but also on health care issues in general for our country. Let me also mention that as the gentlewoman from Maryland (Mrs. Morella) and the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi) indicated earlier, AIDS threatens economic security but also human life. It has been set forth in a Washington Post article, which I would like to put into the Record, from today. It is titled, ``AIDS is Declared Threat to Security. White House Fears Epidemic Could Destabilize the World.'' HIV and AIDS in Africa has created also an economic crisis, crippling Africa's workforce in many areas and creating even greater economic instability where poverty is ever present. In many countries now, companies are hiring two and three persons, two and three employees to fill one job, because, of course, it is assumed that one or two will die of AIDS. In the Republic of Congo, according to the National Intelligence Estimate, it indicates, this document indicates that the militias in Anglo and the democratic Republic of Congo show an HIV prevalence rate of 40 to 60 percent. As the AIDS crisis grows, it will only exacerbate dangerous economic and political instability. Mr. Speaker, I would like to yield now to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Davis), my colleague who throughout his life has been a consistent supporter for justice and equality and health care for all throughout our world. I want to thank the gentleman for being with us tonight.

Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, let me just say thanks to my colleague, the gentlewoman from San Francisco, California (Ms. Pelosi), for her very strong support and also for her consistent work throughout the years on behalf of peace and security throughout the world. I thank her very much for everything that she does on behalf of all of our people, not only in the Bay Area but throughout the country and the world. The gentlewoman mentioned the whole issue of orphans in Africa and the impact of the HIV/AIDS crisis on children. Last year I had the opportunity to participate in a presidential delegation to Africa and met with and witnessed some of the children who had been orphaned by AIDS, many who had the virus. We are told now that there are 7.8 million children in southern Africa alone who are orphaned as a result of AIDS; but by the year 2010, it is expected, if we do nothing, that there will be 40 million children orphaned by AIDS; and this number, 40 million, is the number of children in our entire public school system in the United States of America. Staggering numbers. So I just want to thank all of the Members here tonight for helping us raise the level of awareness for the country to really understand the tremendous serious implications of what this whole virus presents to us. Now I would like to yield to my colleague, the gentlewoman from Maryland (Mrs. Morella), who has been very instrumental in helping us forge a bipartisan strategy to tackle this pandemic.

Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, first I would like to thank my colleagues for allowing tonight's special order to be held to increase awareness of the AIDS epidemic which is really scourging Africa and many other developing nations throughout the world. Sixty percent of the 16 million deaths, however, have been in sub- Saharan Africa as a result of AIDS. I would also like to applaud the leadership and commitment of the gentleman from Iowa (Chairman Leach) and the gentleman from New York (Mr. LaFalce), the ranking member, of the House Committee on Banking, and also the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Gephardt), our minority leader, for addressing this huge crises in Africa and throughout the world. I believe that the diligence of the hearings and the markup held in March of this year on H.R. 3519, the World Bank AIDS Prevention Trust Fund Act, represents a necessary response to the urgency of the AIDS crisis in Africa. The World Bank AIDS Marshall Plan Trust Fund Act represents the most effective bipartisan strategy to date possible to push this issue to the national forefront. As we work to establish partnerships and relationships with African countries whether as health care experts, business persons, activists or policymakers, it is critical that we unite to focus both attention and resources on the global emergence of HIV and AIDS which wreaks havoc in developing countries, most tragically in sub-Saharan Africa. I have worked very closely with my colleague and dear friend, Congressman Ron Dellums, who served with distinction in this body for over 27 years. Congressman Dellums has been instrumental on focusing on this initiative and building constituent and congressional support to address the AIDS pandemic. With his position as chair of the White House Council on AIDS and as president of the Constituency for Africa, he has engaged in consistent dialogue regarding this pandemic both here and within the United States. And I want to thank him for his remarkable contributions. Tonight we have Members who will talk about this huge pandemic. We appreciate being allowed the hour of time. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from San Francisco, California (Ms. Pelosi).

Ms. LEE. Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Texas once again for participating with us this evening and also for participating and fighting on all of the issues that we tackle here in Congress and for her leadership on the whole HIV/AIDS crisis both here and abroad. I say, Thank you very much, Congresswoman Jackson-Lee. Madam Speaker, I now yield to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Cummings), who has been consistent and very instrumental in forcing the United States Congress to deal with the devastating effects of drugs and the impact of drugs as it relates to the HIV/AIDS crisis. I thank the gentleman very much for being with us tonight.

Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms. Schakowsky) for that very succinct and very profound statement and also for her consistent hard work on this issue and many others that we are dealing with here in the Congress. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to my colleague, the gentlewoman from Los Angeles, California (Ms. Waters), whose life has been about fighting injustices wherever they may occur. She has taken the lead here in the United States Congress in terms of the whole HIV/AIDS pandemic, both here in the United States and abroad. The gentlewoman from California has been in the forefront of seeking peace and security on the continent of Africa.

Ms. LEE

Ms. LEE. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks on the subject of our special order tonight.