Barbara Lee

Ms. LEE

Ms. LEE. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Mascara).

Ms. LEE. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio).

Ms. LEE

Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the 2-year increase in the minimum wage. Working men and women deserve an immediate increase in the minimum wage from a meager $5.15 to $6.15 an hour. During these times of unprecedented economic prosperity, we should do nothing less. What we really should be talking about, though, is a livable wage, a living wage, which in Northern California, for example, is $14 an hour. I also oppose the Republicans' proposal for the tax cut because $123 billion will go to the wealthiest of Americans. This is wrong. Why should the rich get a tax break while America's lowest wage workers continue to struggle each and every day to make ends meet? We should be supporting our lowest wage individuals. The Republican plan ignores these hard-working men and women. When in the world are we going to begin to close these huge income disparities in our country? Income inequality should not exist in a country such as America. Let us be fair to working men and women. Let us raise the minimum wage as soon as possible. At least we should raise it within 2 years.

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, and I rise in strong support of this resolution. Mr. Speaker, the Lithuanian people have always been in the forefront of democracy. Ten years ago, the Lithuanian parliament defied the Soviet Union by proclaiming its independence. Today, Lithuania continues to be the window of democracy for its neighbors. Lithuania has welcomed the exiled politicians from Belarus who fled the oppressive regime of President Lukashenka. The Lithuanian people should be proud of the magnitude of the political transformation. Lithuania today is a European nation. This week, the Lithuanian delegation, headed by Professor Landsbergis, is in Washington to commemorate this historic transformation. Lithuanian economic achievements are no less significant. Lithuania has successfully carried out economic reforms and is well on its way to developing a functioning market economy. Lithuania, together with other Baltic countries, is considered a success story. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support Senate Concurrent Resolution 91. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mrs. LEE

Mrs. LEE. Mr. Speaker, it is a privilege and an honor to stand before you today and pay tribute to an outstanding educator from the great State of California and my congressional district, Dr. Jewelle Taylor Gibbs. After a distinguished 20 year career in teaching and research, Dr. Gibbs is retiring from the University of California at Berkeley's School of Social Welfare, where she has served as the Zellerbach Family Fund Professor of Community Change and Practice. Dr. Gibbs, who graduated from Radcliffe College with honors, received her M.S.W., M.A., and PhD degrees from the University of California at Berkeley. She is a licensed clinical psychologist whose areas of specialization focus on the psychosocial problems of adolescent, social and mental health issues of low-income and minority populations. Dr. Gibbs is the authority of Young, Black and Male in America: An Endangered Species (1988) and co-author of Children of Color: Psychological Interventions with Minority Youth (1989), as well as numerous book chapters, articles and essays. In Fall of 1994, she was a Visiting Professor at the University of Toronto (Canada). She has also been a Visiting Scholar at the University of London, the National Institute of Social Work in England, McGill University (Canada), Wayne State University, and the Claremont College system. Dr. Gibbs is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association (Div. 27) and of the American Orthopsychiatric Association. She has also served on the Board of Directors and Editorial Board of the American Orthopsychiatric Association, The Publications Board of the National Association of Social Workers and is a founding member of the Advisory Council of the National Center for Children in Poverty. She has also served as a member of the Board of Regents of Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, California and has been a consultant to the Carnegie Foundation and the Ford Foundation. From 1977-79 she served as a member of the Special Populations Task Panel of the President's Commission on Mental Health. In 1987, Dr. Gibbs was the recipient of the McCormick Award from the American Association of Suicidology for her research on minority youth suicide. In 1990, she received an Alumnae Achievement Award from Radcliffe College, where she currently serves on the Board of Trustees. She has also received numerous other awards for her research and advocacy on behalf of African-American youth from national, state and local groups including the Northern California Chapter of the NAACP- Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education, the National Black Child Development, Institute, the city of Detroit and the Michigan State Legislature. In 1985, Dr. Gibbs was a Fellow at the Bunting Research Institute at Radcliffe College and from 1991-92 she was a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Washington, D.C. In 1991, she was also selected as a Scholar for the 21st Century Commission on Black Males in Washington, D.C. She currently serves on the Presidio Advisory Council in San Francisco. Dr. Gibbs is listed in the Who's Who of American Women, Who's Who Among Human Service Professionals, Who's Who in Education and Who's Who Among Black Americans. She has lectured in Canada, England, Japan and Hawaii and is a frequent guest on radio and television programs about youth and inner-city issues. The above reflects just a sampling of Dr. Gibbs' illustrious career. As a trailblazer in the area of social work, she has provided outstanding service to our nation and I am sure she will continue to do so throughout the years to come. In closing, I congratulate Dr. Gibbs, once again, on her retirement and wish her the very best in all of her future endeavors.

Ms. LEE

Ms. LEE. Madam Speaker, I recently returned from Cuba with the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Waters) and had the chance, while in Cuba, to talk with many people regarding Elian Gonzalez. As a trained social worker, as a mother, and as a grandmother, my concern is that the child be in a loving environment, free of abuse. My concern is for his well-being, his mental and physical health and that he has a stable family environment. We met with Mr. Juan Gonzalez, Elian's father, and his great grandmother and other members of his family. This meeting and discussions with many people in Cuba who know the family have convinced me unequivocally that Elian does have a loving, fit, and equipped family, and that he should be returned to his father immediately. There is no way that a child should not be with his or her parents because of material things that we value in this country. In our own country, for example, 18.9 percent of our children under 18 live in poverty. In Florida, 22.3 percent of the children live in poverty. In my own home state of California, over 23 percent of California's children live in poverty. I say this to say that we cannot evaluate Elian's situation in material terms because there is nothing more valuable than the love of a father and the support of a family unit. Now, I am greatly concerned that, in addition to the traumatic experiences of losing his mother, being shipwrecked, and nearly losing his own life, that Elian is now caught in an international custody battle. The constant barrage of questioning, interviews, protests, and the relentless exposure to the media, that has really only exacerbated the already extremely stressful and disorienting circumstances. Elian's health and his welfare must be our first priority. We must consider the potentially damaging and adverse impact of all of this negative activity. I urge for Elian's expeditious return to his family, his father, his community, and his familiar environment. It is my fear that the longer that this battle continues, the more Elian and his family will be harmed emotionally. The decision of whether to return Elian to his family in Cuba should not be a political decision. It should be a decision that exclusively supports the best interest of the child and his need to be reunited with his father. The time that I spent with Elian's father and his family has assured me in no uncertain terms that this reunification is a moral imperative and the right thing to do. I am appalled by the manner in which the rights of Elian's father, Mr. Gonzalez, continue to be threatened. To continue this policy which excludes Elian's father from participation in his son's life in his home sets a very dangerous precedent. In no way would we allow our young people who do not have a lot of material things at home to be placed in homes that have more wealth. That is just unacceptable. Please, let us do the right thing for Elian and please let us send him back home to his father and his family.

Ms. LEE

Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to salute, congratulate and honor Mal Warwick & Associates on celebrating its twentieth anniversary. Mal Warwick & Associates is a fund-raising and marketing agency serving non-profit organizations and socially-responsible businesses. Over the years, they have assisted a wide variety of organizations both large and small; local, state, and national, as well as six Democratic Presidential candidates. Mal Warwick, founder and Chairman of Mal Warwick & Associates has been a consultant, author and public speaker for non-profits for more than thirty-five years. Mr. Warwick is very involved in the community affairs of the City of Berkeley in California, including serving on the boards of the Berkeley Community Fund and the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra. Prior to Mr. Warwick's move to Berkeley, Mr. Warwick served for three years as a Peace Corps volunteer in the 1960s. Due to the efforts of Mal Warwick & Associates over the last twenty years, the quality of life of many non-profits and the communities they serve, has been enhanced tremendously. Thanks to these efforts, many voluntary organizations have built the foundation towards a more peaceful, productive and better way of life for citizens throughout the world. I proudly join my friends, colleagues and clients of Mal Warwick & Associates in recognizing its twentieth anniversary and also join in the celebration of its many years of extraordinary service to people and organizations through the Bay Area and the world.

Ms. LEE

Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to salute, congratulate and to honor Oakland's best and brightest youth: Mr. Davon Blackwell, Ms. Brittany Dunning, Ms. Delanor Ford, and Ms. Magdalena Larios of McClymonds High School; Ms. Sonneng Chan of Castlemont High School and Ms. Ann Nguyen of Skyline High School. I praise them for taking leadership roles in addressing the problem of youth violence in our community. These six students represented my home district, the 9th Congressional District of California, at the ``Voices Against Violence: Congressional Teen Conference'' held on October 19th and 20th here in our nation's capital. I commend these students for their efforts in working with federal law enforcement and education officials, national legislators, and leaders of the entertainment industry to develop substantive solutions related to youth violence. They made valuable contributions to the national dialogue by offering ideas on how our nation can work together to tackle this problem on a national level as well as locally in our schools and communities. These students, and their committed campus coordinators, stand as shining examples of the type of determination, vision and energy we as concerned adults, parents, and community members must exhibit in order to eradicate the epidemic of youth violence. As I reflect upon my interactions with this cadre of distinguished leaders, I cannot help but marvel at the spirit of cooperation and commitment they had between them. I firmly believe that if we, in this great deliberative body, applied the same level of cooperation and commitment to confronting the issue of youth violence that these six students displayed, we would finally put principle over politics and solve this problem. I say, let them stand as a source of inspiration and encouragement for us all.

Ms. LEE

Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, it is with a great sense of loss that I rise to pay tribute to Mr. Victor Van Bourg, one of the nation's leading labor union lawyers, who recently passed away at the age of 68. As a young man, Mr. Van Bourg joined the building trades as a member of his father's Local of the Painters' Union. He later attended the University of California at Berkeley where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1953 and his law degree from the University's Boalt Hall School of Law in 1956. In 1964, Mr. Van Bourg co-founded the law offices of Van Bourg, Weinberg, Roger & Rosenfeld, one of the largest union-side law firms in the country. During his career, he appeared numerous times before the United States Supreme Court, the California Supreme Court, as well as many other State and Federal Courts, and administrative agencies. One of his most recent victories included a unanimous California Supreme Court decision upholding the validity of a labor agreement guaranteeing that all work on the San Francisco Airport's multi-billion dollar expansion project would be completed with union workers. Mr. Van Bourg was a fierce believer that only through unions could workers gain the strength to stand up to the otherwise unrestrained power of their employers, and he spent his life trying to even the odds against workers and unions. Mr. Van Bourg represented workers all over the country, in every trade and profession where workers gathered in unions, from carpenters to costume designers, from teachers and professors to janitors, healthcare workers, cement masons, and stationary and operating engineers. He also traveled abroad to meet with workers and their unions in nations including Poland, the USSR, and Israel. Van Bourg was also General Counsel to the Ironworkers' International Union for more than a decade, spending much of his time in Washington, D.C., not only to represent the Ironworkers' International, but also participating in the AFL-CIO's General Counsels' Committee, and meeting with and advising labor leaders from all over the nation. Mr. Van Bourg will be missed by his family, friends, colleagues, and members of the labor community. He may be one of those remarkable human beings who is truly indispensable.

Ms. LEE

Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor and to salute Floretta Chisom on her retirement from her position as the Director of the City of Oakland's Department of Aging, Health and Human Services. Ms. Chisom's professional career, spanning more than a quarter century, began as the Director of the East Oakland Parent Participation Nursery School. She also served as Director of the District Parent Program for the San Francisco Unified School District and the Parent Education Program for the San Francisco Community College District, Assistant Director of the Life Enrichment Agency, and as Executive Director of Oakland's Community Action Agency. Ms. Chisom also served for fifteen years as the Director of Oakland Head Start, helping the program to grow from serving fewer than 200 children to more than 1,500 children. While at the Oakland Head Start, Ms. Chisom was responsible for a number of innovative and pilot programs, including Home Base (where teachers visit families and provide instruction to parents in the home), services to homeless families with children of Head Start age, and a program to provide Head Start through family day care homes. Since 1992, Ms. Chisom served as the Director of the City of Oakland's Office of Health and Human Services. In that role, she served as the Executive Director of the City's Community Action Agency as well as staffing a number of other city boards and commissions. She began Oakland's involvement with the California Healthy Cities program, assisted the City to develop a Child Care Plan, a Homeless Plan, and promoted expansion of programs to address homelessness, hunger, illiteracy and poverty. In response to the termination of Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), and the creation of CalWORKSs, Ms. Chisom established the City of Oakland's Welfare Reform Coordinating Committee and served as Chair of the Committee. During this time, she was appointed as the Welfare Reform Manager for the City and, along with the Community Action Agency, coordinated the development of the City of Oakland's Welfare to Work Training Program. In addition to her career in the public sector, Ms. Chisom is also active in many volunteer organizations including previously serving as a Board Member of the Breast Cancer Fund and her recent appointment to the California Breast Cancer Research Council. I proudly join friends and colleagues in thanking and saluting Ms. Chisom on her twenty-five years of dedicated public service, leadership and innovation to the people and City of Oakland and extend my best wishes to her on her upcoming retirement.

Ms. LEE

Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor the memory of my good friend and colleague, George E. Brown, Jr. George was a man of many accomplishments, who led by work and example. He was the leader of the California delegation and led our state on many issues of importance. George came to the U.S. Congress after an illustrious career in California where he had served as a city councilman and mayor of Monterey Park. Subsequently, he was elected to the California State Assembly where he authored legislation providing public employees the right to bargain collectively and foreshadowing his many environmental efforts in the House; he also introduced the first ban of lead in gasoline in the nation. George was elected to the U.S. Congress in 1962. He was in the forefront of fighting for passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and many of us remember that picture of him with President Johnson, Martin, Robert Kennedy and Rosa Parks hanging in his office. He protested the Vietnam war when it was not popular to do so. To give leadership to the anti-Vietnam war movement and the Civil Rights movement, George made a brave but unsuccessful run for the Senate in 1970. As a result of the census reapportionment, a new House seat was created and in 1972, George returned to his beloved Congress to serve the people in communities where he was raised, the Inland Empire. In the 1960's and again in the 80's George guided the National Science Foundation into a more progressive position, refocusing it on engineering, science education, and the development of advanced technologies. George Brown became Chairman of the House Science Committee in 1991. While Chair, he was an innovator in both Science and Technology, always looking to the future and to our nation's progress as the path to follow. He brought creativity and innovation to the House Science Committee and he was instrumental in creating what we now think of as the framework for science and technology in the federal government. Ahead of the mainstream, he shaped our nation's science for good by bringing its oversight into the Executive Office and establishing the Office of Science and Technology Policy. By doing so, he made science and technology truly a national priority which provided the impetus to the research initiatives so important to the great research and technology enterprises in our country and especially in California. I was fortunate to have developed a friendship with George when we worked closely together on California base conversions, an issue of the utmost importance to my district, the 9th Congressional District of California. George was a tenacious fighter for the public good; many of us could learn from his great example. Even when the Democrats lost their majority in 1994, George remained influential. Earlier, I mentioned George's leadership in the California Assembly on environmental protections issues. In the House, he also recognized the importance of protecting the ozone layer and other elements of environmental health as well as championing the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Office of Technology Assessment. His courtly style and hard work made him a favorite in his district; he respected all points of view and all parties respected him in turn, making him a formidable advocate and effective negotiator on the side of the liberal and moderate. I will truly miss my friend George Brown.

Ms. LEE

Ms. LEE. Madam Speaker, I rise to express my concern as well as that of my constituents regarding the Senate version, the Gramm version, of the Financial Services Modernization Act. The initial report by the media that the conference report met the expectations of consumer advocates raised hopes that the Senate would meet the House's commitment to two major aspects of this critically important bill: the Community Reinvestment Act provisions and the necessary protection of the privacy of consumer, customer information, and records. I continue to want to vote for a Financial Services Modernization bill. I want to address the importance of the Community Reinvestment Act which is also known as CRA. This act was passed almost 30 years ago to say that banks should also lend to low-income customers and neighborhoods in their areas of operation. In the 23 years of bank practices to meet CRA provisions, an impressive $1 trillion has been generated as loans to low-income customers; the clear majority of banks recognize the value of CRA as a powerful tool to build community trust and respect for the otherwise cold marble and steel of stone-hearted bankers. Let me share a success story of CRA in my community, affecting my constituents in Oakland and adjoining cities. The success story is about an old, crumbling, and once-beloved vegetable and meat market known as Swan's Marketplace. In the last two decades, as residents and businesses flowed out of downtown, Swan's found it more and more difficult to survive. It finally had to close. Stories were written about its demise. It took years, but the city government and the people of Oakland and community agencies knowledgeable about CRA, our community heroes, the very same people that Senator Gramm so recklessly labels as ``extortionists,'' pulled together, in a magnificent civil effort to create a wonderful center combining almost every aspect of community development into one square city block. The heroes and sheroes who put this together say: ``We have a market, affordable housing, services to special populations and community revitalization. On top of that, we've included use of the arts for economic development and restored and preserved a city historic landmark.'' I hardly have to add that the housing is a wonderful plus in an area with severe housing shortages, and that jobs have been created, and that an essential community success has added to the revitalization of a declining downtown not only during the day but also at night. Swan's was complex from a banking perspective. ``There's nothing commonplace about it'' said a representative from a large local bank that provided a $7.8 million construction loan. CRA had encouraged banks to look at financing difficult projects that benefit communities. Before CRA, banks may have dismissed the project as too difficult, but CRA has provided the needed motivation which has prompted banks to successfully invest in communities. The story of CRA's important role in the reformation of Swan's Marketplace is not a rare occurrence. Community after community have called on members of the Banking Committee and the Commerce Committee to protect, and to include the CRA provisions in any banking modernization bill. I have worked since I joined Congress over a year ago, to include the basic elements of CRA in H.R. 10. The House-passed version of the Financial Modernization bill, to my mind, had fairly weak CRA provisions by excluding securities and insurance functions. But the Gramm version weakens these protections even further by requiring banks to report every 5 years. Senator Gramm added a wickedly ironical provision that he describes as a ``sunshine'' regulation. In California sunshine provisions protect citizens by requiring that the legislative bodies act with proper and timely notice being given to the public on time of meeting and publication of issues to be discussed. This sunshine provision in Senator Gramm's bill is a terrible perversion of that protection. This provision mandates that community organizations working with banks to produce more affordable housing have to report on their functions, and their contracts. These reporting requirements are not made of financial institutions, only community organizations. Instead of treating these groups as heroes for their life-saving, community-saving work, they must report like criminals. Presently, banks have to meet a satisfactory rating, and then maintain it in order to be favorable considered for expansion or mergers. S. 900 allows these banks to meet the ``satisfactory'' standard only once and frees them from further obligation to maintain it. Do it once and you are free of obligations thereafter. This is a terrible travesty of present CRA practices. The other major weakness in S. 900 has to do with the easy access to customer's private information that is available. Presently, each one of the three functions: banking, insurance, and securities, cannot share their customers' information with each other. With the passage of S. 900 the walls are down. Insurance companies have records on a customer's health. This record will now be available to the bank, or the insurance company that can now offer banking services, when you apply for a loan. Is this information that should be so easily available. Is this what our constituents would allow? I don't think so. However, should customers want to know how the bank, or the insurance company, or the securities sales office is handling their account and ask for a record, and possibly make the necessary corrections, they will not be able to do so. We are considering legislation that could really produce nightmare situations for our constituents. S. 900 only asks that banks report their plan to protect privacy without any obligation to any one, or any institution to implement it, to modify it, or to improve it. This is a hollow requirement, devoid of substance. These are two of the major flaws of S. 900. But I have to raise the objections that I raised in the Banking Committee about the consequences of financial services modernization without appropriate safeguards. S. 900 will allow for further mergers and conglomeratization. It will once again expose us to the congressional, national liability for the $500 billion bailout of the savings and loan industry of the 1980's. The conglomerates will be too big to regulate and too big to fail and the taxpayer will be stuck with the consequences. Additionally, along with my colleagues, Representatives Waters, Franks, Sanders, Jones of Ohio, and Schakowsky, we have tried to introduce the most basic of consumer protections as we give the financial services what they want. We have tried to protect fair housing by prohibiting insurance companies from discriminating, and we have tried to establish limited basic banking accounts for low-income customers, but without success. This financial modernization bill, S. 900, or H.R. 10, is the product of 20 years of effort. It saddens me to see 20 years of work dissolve into this miserable bill. I ask my colleagues to vote against it.

Ms. LEE

Ms. LEE. Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for yielding me the time. Madam Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to S. 900. There is no question that we need to update 1930's laws on financial services. I joined with many colleagues to try to craft a bill so that it would also, however, protect consumers. Financial services are making big gains with this bill, and consumers should be included. Unfortunately, they have been left out. For example, pro-consumer amendments offered were rejected by the conference committee. Strong consumer privacy provisions were rejected by the conference committee. It is terrifying to know that Big Brother is here to stay as a result of this bill. Sharing the private financial information among financial institutions should really scare us to death. My anti-redlining, non-discrimination amendment passed by the House Committee on Banking and Financial Services was blocked from consideration by this House without even taking a vote to block it. What does that say about our democracy? With regard to the Community Reinvestment Act, punitive reporting required of community groups building affordable housing, for example, will create unwarranted witch hunts. I wanted to cast an aye vote for financial modernization but only if consumers, ordinary people, could also benefit from these megamergers. Unfortunately, the bill went in the wrong direction. I urge a no vote.

Ms. LEE

Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of ensuring the solvency of the Social Security program. Today, there are 44.4 million Americans who receive Social Security benefits. Over 4 million of these individuals reside in the State of California. Americans all over our Nation depend on this retirement benefit as a source of major income. This program is the principal source of retirement income for two- thirds of our elderly. For about one-third of all seniors over the age of 65, it represents 90 percent of their income. In fact, Social Security benefits lifted approximately 15 million senior citizens out of poverty last year. Now, Social Security is not just a retirement program for our seniors. It provides badly needed survivor benefits, also. One out of every five Social Security beneficiaries receives survivor or disability benefits. This program also provides for disability benefits to our Nation's workers. For three out of four workers, Social Security represents their only form of disability coverage. The Republican budget does absolutely nothing to extend the life of the Social Security program. Democrats want to strengthen the Social Security program and actually extend its life. The President's plan extends the life of Social Security for 15 years. Republicans do not propose extending the life of the program by a single day. Instead, they are actually raiding the Social Security trust fund to the tune of $13 billion. The President's plan, however, would apply the interest savings gained by paying down the debt to saving Social Security. While the so-called lockbox proposed by Republicans would have used any such interest savings to finance a huge tax cut for the wealthy, the Democrats propose to devote the entire interest savings to ensuring the life of the Social Security program. The President's plan solves two major problems also simultaneously. This plan will directly invest Social Security surpluses into paying off our public debt as well as extending the program's solvency. This proposal will reduce the debt by $3.1 trillion over the next 15 years, thereby creating badly needed resources for our children and our families, such as education, health care and housing. By investing a decade of Social Security surpluses to debt reduction, we will cut the debt by $2.1 trillion, cutting interest payments to $56 billion. The President's plan proposes to devote the entire interest savings to extending the life of Social Security. The Social Security program is expected to have difficulty paying timely benefits starting in the year 2034. According to preliminary estimates by the Social Security program's Office of the Actuary, the President's proposal would extend solvency until 2050. This is an extra 16 years added to the life of the program. This Congress has an obligation to strengthen the Social Security program, because working people have earned and deserve Social Security. It is the most sacred and fundamental measure for the survival of all Americans. The American people deserve the truth. The Republicans are not saving Social Security nor protecting the program so that our children and grandchildren can benefit from this retirement program. Social Security will not be around for our children if we allow the Republicans to continue to spend as they do. Let us support the President's proposal to ensure that Social Security survives for our seniors today as well as for our future generations. Our children and our grandchildren deserve no less.

Ms. LEE

Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise to object strenuously to this appropriations conference report. We have had almost one year to craft these appropriations bills. Yet now the Republicans are talking about across-the-board cuts that would decimate those who we deeply care about--our families, our children, our senior citizens. It does not protect Social Security or Medicare. This bill does not extend Social Security by a single day. It does not provide for our senior citizens' need for a minimum Medicare prescription drug benefit. It does not support effort to strengthen community policing. This bill attacks our national cry to improve our educational program and hurts our children by reducing efforts for immunizations, reading instruction, math and reading teachers and after school centers, and small class sizes. In a time when the Republicans wanted a $790 billion tax cut, which of course the American people said no to, we see now an effort to wreak havoc in the daily lives of those we care about. I urge my colleagues to reject this bill.

Ms. LEE

Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in honor of Mr. Percy Julien, a resident of the Ninth Congressional District. After 36 years of distinguished service with the Oakland Unified School District, Mr. Julien is retiring. For the past 11 years, Mr. Julien has served as the Director of the Oakland Unified School District's Office of Adult Education. As Director of Adult Education, he was responsible for over 26,000 students per year and a budget of approximately $10 million. Mr. Julien had jurisdiction over 5 administrative sites and 140 satellite sites throughout the city of Oakland. His agency was responsible for the educational development of persons ranging from young adults to senior citizens. His most recent accomplishment was the creation, development and building of the Oakland Adult Education and Technology Center, which hosted its grand opening in April of this year. This facility includes a state-of-the-art computer center, and houses many other vocational classes which help students prepare for their future. Throughout his brilliant career, Mr. Julien has served the Oakland Unified School District in many capacities. These roles have included teacher, counselor, work experience coordinator, leader in the career opportunities program, vice principal, principal, and lastly an administrator. In addition, he was the first elementary school counselor in the Oakland Schools. Mr. Julien has been recognized and received countless awards from organizations across the State of California. These awards include the Oakland Alliance of Black Educators--the Personal Achievement Award; St. Columba's Church--the Ujima Award for Community Service; and the Baha'i--Annual Human Rights Award. As an active member of his community, Mr. Julien has served on various boards and committees throughout the city including the Mercy Retirement and Care Center Board of Education; State of California Adult Education Master Plan Strategies Committee; and the St. Paschal Baylon's Board of Education. The City of Oakland and its surrounding environs owe a great deal of appreciation and gratitude to Mr. Julien for his 36 years of committed service to education. It is for this reason that I take great pride and honor in saluting this education hero and thanking him for his many years of commitment to educating Oakland's students.

Ms. LEE

Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, as a student, active in the African liberation movement, President Julius Nyerere was a source of inspiration to me. As a supporter, educator and celebrator of indigenous African cultures, Nyerere was a President who left an indelible mark not only on Africans of all countries, but of people of all nations. It is fitting at this time to pay the utmost respect to his insight, which recognized the beauty and value of cultures that have so traditionally been devalued or exploited. President Nyerere, for example, promoted the use of Swahili, making this native African language the official language of Tanzania. Those of us who were active in the movement against apartheid in South Africa, looked to Nyerere for this leadership, and emphasis on a collective system of government in which all people in the community are valued and provided for, ujamaa, or ``familyhood''. Fittingly, President Nyerere was and is addressed throughout the world as ``teacher'', and his legacy of supporting and upholding the beauty of Africa for the world will live on in the people of Tanzania and everywhere.

Ms. LEE

Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize the work and exceptional contributions of the late Dietra Leake Ford to the small business community and the entire Federal Government. Ms. Ford passed away on October 21, 1999. Dietra Ford was a valuable leader in the advocacy of small, minority, and women-owned businesses; she accomplished much in her position as Associate Administrator for Enterprise Development at the General Services Administration. Under her leadership, the Office of enterprise Development won the 1997 North Star Award for excellence and leadership in economic development programs that serve women business owners. This July 1st she had just completed three years at GSA, and in that time contract numbers had tripled with women-owned businesses and doubled with minority businesses. Ms. Ford was a highly esteemed leader and advocate for small business, not only at the General Services Administration, but also nationwide throughout the federal government and private sector. A powerful crusader for the interests of minority and women entrepreneurs, Ms. Ford served as a liaison with the White House Office of women's Initiatives, the Interagency Committee on Women's Business Enterprise, the Small Business Administration, the Office of Management and Budget, other Federal agencies, and Members of Congress. Prior to going to GSA Dietra Ford had over 15 years of senior executive experience in both the legislative and the executive branches of the Federal Government. She served in the Clinton Administration as Executive Director of the Thrift Depositor Protection Oversight Board from 1993 to 1996. In 1992 she was named as one of the ten cluster coordinators for the Transition Office of the President-Elec. From 1975 to 1993, she was a senior legislative associate for the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the District of Columbia. Ms. Ford was active in many civic organizations. She served as a member of the Board of Directors of Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington, DC. She also was a former director for the United Methodist Church General Board of Global Ministries and traveled and represented this board at numerous international forums. Ms. Ford held a bachelor's degree from Howard University and a master's degree from Boston University, where she was HUD Urban Studies Fellow. Dietra Ford has left to the small business community, GSA, and the Federal Government at large an impressive legacy of innovative programs and creative initiatives. She is mourned by her many colleagues and will be sorely missed.

Ms. LEE

Ms. LEE. Madam Chairman, I move to strike the requisite number of words. Madam Chairman, I rise today in support of the Mink-Woolsey-Sanchez- Morella amendment, and I want to especially thank the gentlewoman from Hawaii (Mrs. Mink) for her decades of hard work on behalf of all women in this country. Now, we want our boys and girls to reach their optimum and not be restricted by false social limits. This amendment restores current gender equity provisions from Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act to H.R. 2 to ensure that boys and girls succeed in the classroom. This amendment allows Title I schools to set up programs to encourage girls and underrepresented groups to pursue careers in higher education degrees in math, science, engineering, and technology. Now, I raised two boys. I have two sons. This amendment has nothing to do with stifling boys, as some may imply, and are implying, but what it will do is help to make sure that girls are provided with equal opportunities. We do have a gender gap problem. While gaps in math and science achievement have narrowed, a new gender gap in technology has emerged. A recent report conducted by the American Association of University Women found that when we compare the performance of girls and boys in the classroom, girls appear to be at a significant disadvantage when it comes to their exposure to technology. Girls tend to come to the classroom with less exposure to computers and other forms of technology. They, in turn, become less proficient in using technology than boys. These early limited interactions with technology perpetuate a cycle of disadvantage in educational technology for girls. When young women and girls are underrepresented in computer and technology courses, this means that fewer women will be eligible for high-paying, high-tech jobs in the future. This issue needs to be addressed considering that by the year 2000, 65 percent of all jobs will require technological skills. Also, Madam Chairman, this amendment targets dropout prevention programs for pregnant and parenting teens. For young girls, pregnancy and parenting is one of the major reasons why they drop out of high school. We know that the United States has the highest teen pregnancy rate of any industrialized nation. Each year, almost 1 million teenagers become pregnant. For young girls, pregnancy and parenting account for half of the dropout rate and for one-fourth of the dropout rate for all students. Two-thirds of girls who give birth before the age of 18 will not complete high school. Further, the younger the girl is when she becomes pregnant, the more likely she is that she will not complete high school. Again, we know that the less education a person obtains, the lower their lifetime earnings will be. This is particularly important because the new welfare reform law, enacted by the 105th Congress, provides little opportunity for education and training, and places time limits on public assistance in education. Single women make up 95 to 98 percent of the 2.8 million single adult welfare recipients heading families. Of this group, one-third of welfare recipients have minimal skills, those skills that are similar to that of a high school dropout; and these women will face the most extreme employment situations. These women are employable, but only in the least skilled, lowest paying jobs. In fact, minimally skilled women employed year-round earn on the average $15,200 a year. So as we enter the new millennium, we know the job opportunities for minimally skilled people will cease to grow. Only 10 percent of all new jobs will be generated at this new skill level. And by 2006, only 12 percent of all jobs will require minimal skill. So without the proper investments in education and training, many women will continue to rely on public assistance. It is critical that parents and pregnant teenagers do not drop out of school but complete their high school education. So this reauthorization act must provide every proven alternative to strengthen and support programs to keep pregnant and parenting teens in school to receive a high school degree. I urge my colleagues to support this amendment. We are really talking about nothing more than plain old equity.

Ms. LEE

Ms. LEE. I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time. Mr. Speaker, I do also rise in strong opposition to the Commerce, Justice, State appropriations conference report. I too believe that the very successful Community Oriented Policing Service program, familiarly known as COPS, which has been reduced has been a program that has allowed for the reduction of crime in this country. And I believe that the President is right to say that this is one of the three main reasons why he will veto the bill. A second major problem with this bill is the repeated denial by the majority of the United Nations debt which makes us an embarrassing deadbeat country in the international community. The list of nations that have lost their vote in the United Nations General Assembly for failure to pay dues is largely a list of small, war-torn nations such as Sierra Leone, Bosnia and Iraq. It is shameful that the United States would stiff the United Nations. I certainly hope that we do not lose our vote. Another major flaw of this bill is that it fails to respond adequately to the investigation and prosecution of hate crimes and freezes funding for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The horrendous murders of Mr. James Byrd in Jasper, Texas and Mr. Matthew Shepard in Wyoming are just two instances of crimes for which we should have zero tolerance. The gutting of this portion of this bill is a strong indication of the lack of commitment to move against hate crimes by the majority. For all of these reasons, I ask my colleagues to vote against H.R. 2670.

Ms. LEE

Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, I first want to thank my colleague, the gentleman from California (Mr. Matsui), for yielding and for his strong commitment to justice for all. Some of us here in this House have members of our families who are disabled, and so I just want to thank all of the cosponsors and all of the supporters of H.R. 1180 for that, on a very personal level. We know that the current system is extremely frustrating for disabled people eligible for medicaid. This bill will help disabled workers by extending the period of medicaid coverage as needed. It also creates options for States by removing senseless limitations for workers with disabilities. Now, many of these individuals who can work want desperately to contribute to society and to become self-sufficient. However, the current system of cumbersome Federal regulations and conflicting rules discourage and block many qualified, competent, and energetic individuals with disabilities from the world of work. They can provide our Nation with tremendous resources, experience, and knowledge by directly investing their abilities in the workforce. We are currently denying our Nation the talent of these individuals and limiting their ability to exhibit their untapped resources. So let us stop limiting the rights of so many competent people. Let us pass 1180 on a bipartisan vote and send the right signal so that so many eager and valuable Americans may be included.

Ms. LEE

Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to support the VA HUD conference agreement. I want to thank the chairman, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Walsh), and also the ranking member, the gentleman from West Virginia (Mr. Mollohan), for their excellent work in dramatically improving this bill since it left this House. I also want to thank Secretary Cuomo for his tireless efforts and commitment to the housing needs of those with minimum resources in this country. As someone who represents one of the highest housing cost areas in the Oakland/San Francisco Bay area, I am especially supportive of this effort. The conference report is really a better bill because it includes additional section 8 housing preservation and tenant protection. We are rapidly losing hard-gained section 8 housing because of high rents. This bill now allows for some rent increases to preserve such housing. It also gives additional protections to tenets by promoting housing preservation with specific mechanisms to bring in local resources to work with HUD to do everything possible to protect our existing housing stock for low income tenets. The shocking fact of housing in this country is that there are from 5 million to over 12 million people who are in housing that is grossly substandard who have to pay over 50 percent of their income for housing. The Washington Post had an excellent story on this just 2 days ago. How we respond to such facts, to me, is a true test of our ethical and moral sense. This bill comes a bit closer to our desperate housing needs by providing $690 million and 60,000 section 8 vouchers more than the House bill. It also better attends to the housing needs of our elderly and disabled by increasing living facilities which are assisted, service coordinators, capital repairers, elderly housing debt forgiveness and other mechanisms; and for our very important veterans it provides 1.7 billion more than fiscal 1999 and 1.8 billion more than requested by the administration. Of course like some, I too am not pleased with the funny accounting devices; but we must see this as a cup that is half full rather than half empty. I ask my colleagues to support the conference report.

Ms. LEE

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

Ms. LEE. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the requisite number of words. Mr. Chairman, I would first like to thank our ranking member, the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Gejdenson), for all the work he has put forth in strengthening the implementation of OPIC's environmental standards, and also for his support and guidance on this issue. Being a new member of the Committee on International Relations, this is the first year that I have reviewed in-depth the purpose and function of OPIC. I have been very careful and very deliberate in my support of OPIC. For the last two decades, and particularly during my time in the California State legislature, I have strongly encouraged the Bay area and the State of California and members of the business community to forge fair trade partnerships, particularly with countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. In that vein, the mission and work of OPIC is very much in line with initiatives that I have been encouraging for nearly two decades. I understand from some of my colleagues that they believe that OPIC sends American jobs overseas. Quite to the contrary, OPIC does not support projects that would create any job loss in America. Additionally, California OPIC projects have created almost 40,000 American jobs, and in the last 5 years, OPIC projects identified $1.5 billion in goods and services that they will buy from California suppliers, 70 percent of which are from small businesses. Additionally, as I researched OPIC's standards for the approval of projects, I became acutely aware of the concerns and criticisms from the environmental community. The adherence to strong environmental standards in business is fundamental to my support of export policy, and a necessary standard for my constituents in an area of our country that is the birthplace of the environmental movement. It is for this reason that the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Gejdenson) and I engaged in a process of dialogue and exchange with OPIC and the environmental community. The result of that exchange is the amendment that we are offering today. OPIC has played a leading role among bilateral international investment agencies in developing reasoned standards that take into consideration the concerns of their business clients and those of environmental groups and the United States taxpayer. Working with a broad range of stakeholders ranging from U.S. exporters to international environmental organizations, OPIC has developed a sound environmental policy handbook over the past 2 years. However, many remain concerned with implementation of these standards in a meaningful and transparent manner. The Gejdenson-Lee amendment balances those concerns by codifying existing practices and increasing the transparency in a manner that will not affect U.S. competitiveness. This amendment will play a key role in promoting strong environmental and social standards for all projects supported by OPIC. Specifically, the amendment will strengthen the process of the 60-day public comment period on OPIC's environmental impact assessments by prohibiting the OPIC board of directors from voting on any proposed action that may have a significant adverse environmental impact until the 60 days of the public comment period. Secondly, it allows for a representative of the NGO community to meet with the President of OPIC or his designee to directly discuss concerns regarding possible adverse environmental impacts of proposed projects. Thirdly, it mandates semiannual public hearings of OPIC's board of directors to allow, once again, direct discussion of a wide range of environmental and labor concerns regarding both past and future projects. Fourth, it requires that the IG of USAID conduct an assessment of OPIC's procedures for reviewing a project and report the results to the Committee on International Relations and the Senate foreign relations committee. We should be promoting the highest environmental standards possible, certainly when public funds are at issue. I have followed OPIC's progress and am convinced that what is now on the books should be implemented in a meaningful manner. In the writing of this amendment, we worked closely with OPIC and several environmental groups. The amendment is endorsed by the Friends of the Earth, the Environmental Defense Fund, the Sierra Club, Rainforest Action Network, and others. I urge my colleagues to support this environmental accountability amendment.