Barbara Lee

Ms. LEE

Ms. LEE. Madam Chair, I have an amendment at the desk.

Ms. LEE. Madam Chair, I want to thank the Chair and our ranking member for your leadership on this subcommittee for your interest and support on this amendment. I recognize the point of order and plan to withdraw the amendment. Recent events in Ferguson, Staten Island, Baltimore, and around the country really illustrate the need for significant reform in police interaction in communities that they are sworn to serve and protect. That is why this amendment would require the States receiving funding from the Department of Justice's Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Program put academy students and law enforcement officers through sensitivity training on ethnic and racial bias, cultural diversity, and police interaction with the disabled, mentally ill, and new immigrants. As you know, DOJ's Byrne JAG Grant Program is the primary provider of Federal criminal justice funding to State and local jurisdictions supporting a wide range of law enforcement and court activities. Our law enforcement agencies and officers play a critical role in protecting the safety of our communities. We need them to work cooperatively and competently along with our community members if we want to protect the public safety and the integrity of our neighborhoods. This is a major issue in many congressional districts where many officers live outside of the communities they serve and do not have the training to deal with a diverse constituency. Madam Chairman, I know that we all agree that the status quo is simply unacceptable. Madam Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Clay), my colleague who has demonstrated incredible leadership on this issue and continues to work in a bipartisan fashion on this very commonsense policy.

Ms. LEE. Madam Chairman, I yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Fattah), our ranking member.

Ms. LEE. I want to thank the gentleman for yielding and for his leadership on this amendment. Mr. Chairman, of course, I rise in support of this bipartisan amendment. In States with medical marijuana laws, patients now face uncertainty regarding their treatment, and small-business owners, who have invested millions in creating jobs and revenue, have no assurances for the future. It is way past the time for the Justice Department to stop its unwarranted persecution of medical marijuana and to put its resources where they are truly needed. There is no way that Members of Congress should tell people who live in States where these laws have been passed that what their doctors prescribe, which could prevent pain, should not be allowed.

Ms. LEE

Ms. LEE. First, let me thank you, Congresswoman Kelly and Congressman Payne, for hosting this Special Order. Your leadership is so important for these critical discussions. We are trying in many ways under your leadership to really tell the truth and let the entire country know exactly what the economic status is, what the job opportunities and educational opportunities are in the African American community, and how those disparities continue to grow and, really, how we need to really do everything we can here to begin to close those gaps and disparities, so thank you very much once again. We stand here tonight to discuss economic opportunity--of course, I have to say the lack of opportunity in the Black community. In recent months, we have seen communities across this country--including Baltimore and my hometown of Oakland, California, in my congressional district--demand an end to the systemic and institutional racial biases that plague our society. People, especially young people, are calling for an end to centuries of oppression. They are fighting for equality of opportunity, the opportunity for every American to live the American Dream. Too many places in our Nation are tales of two cities. One city is bright, shiny, and new. It is home to new condominiums and fancy restaurants. The other city is left with boarded up stores, abandoned homes, and too many people without a job and without hope. I know Congresswoman Kelly, Congressman Payne, Congressman Jeffries, myself, all of us represent these cities, these two cities within one context, one environment, one framework, one boundary. We all know that the inequality of opportunity really is not a new phenomenon. We have lived with these structural injustices for centuries, but it wasn't until the race riots erupted in Watts, Chicago, and Detroit in 1968 that our government began to take some notice. After the riots, President Johnson convened the Kerner Commission to investigate the root causes of the unrest. The Kerner report clearly showed a nation moving towards two societies: one Black, one White-- separate and unequal. While the Kerner report identified the problem, our Nation failed to truly address it. There still is not liberty and justice for all. The Kerner report also called for better training for police, new investments in jobs and in housing, and the end of de facto segregation. Now, this report really could have been written last month. Sadly, nearly 50 years later, we still live in a country where the color of your skin and the ZIP Code in which you were born determines your future, but I am proud to be working with members of the Congressional Black Caucus to continue to address these persistent inequalities in our Nation by working on policies and programs to create economic growth, educational opportunities, and job opportunities. For example, we know that Black children are disadvantaged from day one. More than one in three Black children are born in poverty. That is one in three. In the world's richest and most powerful Nation, a third of all African American children are forced to grow up with the harsh reality of poverty, day in and day out. This is outrageous. It is unacceptable. The cycle of poverty continues in the school systems that institutionalize this discrimination. While Black students represent just 18 percent of preschool enrollment, they account for 42 percent of preschool student expulsions. Can you believe that? Preschool student expulsions--that is really a disgrace. We are talking about kids ages 2 to 5 years old. These kids don't even get a start, let alone a Head Start. What in the world are children that young doing being expelled from preschool? Then in high school, the graduation rate for Black students is 16 points lower than the rate for their White peers. Black students are far less likely than their White counterparts to obtain a 4-year college degree, and the crisis and inequality extends from education to the economy itself. Over the past four decades, the unemployment rate for Blacks has remained nearly double the rate for Whites. Today, the unemployment rate in the Black community stands at 10.1 percent; that is reported. Now, to put that into context, the current African American unemployment rate is higher than the national average was at the height of the Great Recession. In addition to higher unemployment rates, African Americans are also nearly completely locked out of some key economic sectors, especially the tech sector. Only 1 in 14 technical workers in Silicon Valley is African American or Latino. That is 1 in 14. That is why the CBC has launched the TECH 2020 initiative to work with the tech sector to increase workforce diversity and investments in STEM education and to expand market opportunities for businesses to ensure that the jobs of today and tomorrow are open to all. For African Americans in the workforce, our Nation's inequalities are also evident in their paychecks. Congressman Payne just laid out the statistics for women. While women earn 77 cents on the dollar that a man earns, it is just 64 cents for African American women. The median income for Blacks is a mere $34,000. That is nearly $24,000 less than the median income for Whites. Most Black families hold their wealth in home equity, so the Great Recession hit the Black community particularly hard. Too many families lost everything, and many more Black families are struggling as home prices fail to keep pace with the stock market. Of course, the net worth now of African American families is now 6 cents to the dollar for White families. The time for action is now. These communities, our communities, cannot wait any longer. We must come together like never before to address the inequalities in our Nation that leave Black families behind. In my role as co-chair of the CBC's Task Force on Poverty and the Economy and chair of the Democratic whip's Task Force on Poverty, Income Inequality, and Opportunity, we are working very hard to give Black families a fair shot. We are talking about all families, not leaving any family behind. I am proud to be working with more than 100 of my colleagues to advance policies that build pathways out of poverty into the middle class for everyone, for all Americans. Yes, Black lives, like all lives, do count. We have introduced the Half in Ten Act to develop a national strategy to cut poverty in half in the next decade. This bill would lift more than 22 million Americans out of poverty into the middle class in just the next 10 years by doubling down and coordinating proven antipoverty programs. The Congressional Black Caucus also took a stand on poverty in its alternative budget proposal. We called for robust investments in education, infrastructure, and affordable housing programs that would ensure opportunities for all. We must keep up this fight until Congress makes these long overdue investments. We need to strengthen the social safety net and invest in proven antipoverty programs such as the earned income tax credit and the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program. These were initiatives begun 50 years ago under President Lyndon Johnson's Great Society program, and they are working. We also need to raise the minimum wage and fight for a living wage. That is why we are cosponsors, and we are very proud to be cosponsors, of H.R. 122, the Original Living Wage Act, sponsored by Congressman Al Green, which starts by raising the minimum wage for Federal workers and building up to a living wage. And Congressman Bobby Scott's Raise the Wage Act, H.R. 2150, would increase the minimum wage to $12 by 2020. Thirty-five million Americans would benefit from this. Also we wrote a letter signed by 72 colleagues urging the President to adopt a fair chance hiring policy at the Federal level for individuals who have been previously incarcerated. A fair chance hiring policy would level the playing field and help stop the cycle of recidivism that is plaguing our communities. This is simply the right thing to do. The Federal Government should not put up barriers to work for those trying to rebuild their lives after making a mistake and having paid their dues to society. Finally, Mr. Speaker, I am saying tonight, and I think all of us are saying, that we need to give families the opportunity to build wealth and live the American Dream. We can end poverty not just in the African American community, but in the entire United States as a whole. So we have got to keep calling for action. As Dr. King said in his ``Two Americas'' speech that he gave on April 14, 1968, at Stanford University, 1968, he said: ``We must come to see that social progress never rolls in on the wheels of inevitability. It comes through the tireless efforts and persistent work of dedicated individuals.'' Mr. Speaker, we must be those dedicated individuals working for the social progress that is so desperately needed. When you look at the analysis of the economy, job opportunities and educational opportunities in the African American community, we must win this fight because the gaps and the disparities are too great. Only then will America be strong, because we have to remember that we are a country where everyone is equal under the law. In fact, when you have communities with such horrible statistics as we are laying out tonight, such horrible economic and educational gaps, our country is not as strong as it could be. And so we are saying that we want liberty and justice for everyone, that all lives matter, including Black lives.

Ms. LEE

Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Head Start, which President Johnson announced May 18, 1965. Head Start is our Nation's commitment that every child--regardless of their ZIP Code--has an opportunity to succeed. Since its creation, Head Start has prepared more than 30 million children for success in the classroom and beyond. My former district director, a brilliant African American man, was a Head Start graduate. His story and millions of others demonstrate just how important early childhood education programs are. Yet nearly 57,000 children across the country have lost access because of draconian sequester cuts, and the 2016 Republican budget makes it worse by removing another 35,000 children from the program, including 4,500 from my home State of California. Our children deserve better. How in the world will they compete with children throughout the world if we deny them an early start? Mr. Speaker, we know high-quality, early childhood education is one of the best investments we can make. So on the 50th anniversary of Head Start, I urge my colleagues to fully support this critical program and leave no child behind. I, too, want to commemorate and remember my dad, a veteran who served in two wars. And also, I want to commemorate and thank our veterans, our young men and women on duty, and those who have paid a very serious price on behalf of this country.

Ms. LEE

Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, I was not present for roll call votes 240 through 242. Had I been present, I would have voted yes on #240, yes on #241, and yes on #242.

Ms. LEE

Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to H.R. 2048, the USA Freedom Act. This bill makes important improvements to the PATRIOT Act, including to Section 2154, which is the underpinning of the National Security Agency's (NSA) nationwide bulk collection program. Yet a ruling last week by the Second Circuit found that the bulk collection of phone records under this section violated the law. The right to privacy is a fundamental American value. And it is clear that the practice of unconstitutional bulk data collection endangers that right. Last week's court decision underscores this--and makes clear that more robust surveillance reforms are needed. While the USA Freedom Act is a good step forward, it does not go far enough. And I recognize the hard work of my good friend and colleague, Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr., on this important bill. More than thirteen years after the passage of the PATRIOT Act, Congress must do more to balance our national security with the protection of our civil liberties. The USA Freedom Act should include more robust protections to prevent the surveillance of individuals with no nexus to terrorism or any specific investigation. This would ensure adequate protections against indiscriminate surveillance from the government and ensure that Section 215 cannot be used to collect Americans' records unrelated to any specific investigation. We should also be working for more robust minimization procedures to ensure that information collected under Section 215 is not stored in databases for years. This type of provision was included in a previous version of this bill and must be restored. We should also work to limit additional authorities outside of Section 215 that have been used to collect Americans' records in bulk. We know that the government has used other authorities--such as administrative subpoena laws--to collect Americans' records in bulk. And finally, H.R. 2048 should be amended to ensure that the government does not use authorities under Section 702 as a backdoor to conduct surveillance on Americans. Section 702 allows the government to intercept contents of Americans' electronic communications with individuals abroad--and stores them in a database--without a warrant. Reforms to Section 702 should be included in this bill. Mr. Speaker, I applaud my colleagues for working in bipartisan manner on this bill. Yet I believe that additional reforms were needed to adequately protect Americans' fundamental right to privacy. More than 13 years after the PATRIOT Act was first passed into law, it is time for Congress to let Section 215 expire and work toward serious and meaningful surveillance reform.

Ms. LEE

Ms. LEE. I claim the time in opposition, although I am not opposed to the amendment.

Ms. LEE. First, let me thank Mr. Burgess for his very diligent and hard work on this amendment. It is a pleasure to work with the gentleman to bring transparency and accountability to Pentagon spending so taxpayers know where their hard-earned dollars are going. I also want to thank Congresswoman Schakowsky for her support and work on this very important amendment. I am pleased to be working with Congressman Burgess and Congresswoman Schakowsky to build upon the work that we are doing with our bipartisan Audit the Pentagon Act, H.R. 942. Mr. Chairman, I have offered an Audit the Pentagon amendment since 2011, and this work continues now with Representatives Burgess and Schakowsky. This is a commonsense amendment to ensure audit-readiness at the Pentagon, something that Congress mandated I think it was 25 years ago; yet two-plus decades later, Pentagon officials continue to tell Congress that audit-readiness is still years away. This is simply unacceptable. So our amendment is simple. It would require a report ranking all military departments and Defense agencies in order of how advanced they are in achieving audit-readiness. Taxpayers deserve to know how and where their hard-earned dollars are being spent. Pentagon spending accounts for more than half of Federal discretionary spending and totals more than half a trillion dollars. The fact that any part of the government cannot pass an audit is unacceptable, let alone a department that spends more than $600 billion annually. That is, frankly, outrageous. I bet you the Department of Housing and Urban Development can't get away with this. Now, I am a former small-business owner, 11 years, and I can tell you one thing. I know the importance of having one's books in order. Whether it is in the private sector or the public sector, it is critical to success. In fact, we all demand that all individuals, families, organizations, and companies be able to pass an audit. Why in the world should the Pentagon be any different? Taxpayers deserve better than black-box budgeting and two decades of ``we will get on with this'' rhetoric, and they keep postponing and saying ``we will get to it later.'' That is unacceptable when it comes to ending waste, fraud, and abuse. I remember several years ago there were reports from The New York Times, and subsequently these reports were substantiated, that taxpayer dollars--cash money--in suitcases were being passed out in Afghanistan. What in the world are we doing? We have no clue where that money went or how much it was. It was cash money. So we need to take this action, and I thank Mr. Burgess and Ms. Schakowsky for this. If you ask me, I think we need to take bolder actions to address the Pentagon's failure to achieve audit-ready status and somehow at some point penalize them if they don't do that because we all would be penalized if in fact our books were not in order. So this amendment, I just have to say, is a major step in the right direction. Mr. Chairman, the American people deserve to know how the Pentagon is spending their hard-earned tax dollars. We must end waste, fraud, and abuse at the Pentagon. We need to achieve audit-readiness. Once again, none of us could get away with this, none, no Federal agency could get away with this. So we must begin this process for accountability and transparency. It is important that the public know exactly how their money is being spent. There is no way the Pentagon should get away with this. So, Mr. Chairman, I urge a ``yes'' vote on this amendment because unauditable is unacceptable. I thank Mr. Burgess, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Ms. LEE

Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the ``When Women Succeed, America Succeeds: An Economic Agenda for Women and Families.'' Let me first thank Leader Pelosi, of course, and Representatives Matsui and Frankel for their unwavering dedication to our Democratic Women's Working Group and for women and families all across the country. Mr. Speaker, this agenda is about improving the future of our families and the economic security of all women. It is about increasing access to child care, retirement security, and equal pay for equal work. It is simply unacceptable in 2015 that women are still being paid 78 cents for every dollar that a man makes. African American women and Latinas are being paid even less, at 64 cents and 56 cents respectively, despite doing the same work as men. This is wrong. It is an embarrassment. We must do more to advance the economic security of all women, like providing access to high quality and affordable child care. As a single mother who raised two amazing boys, I know what it is like to struggle to make ends meet. When I was a student at Mills College in Oakland, California, oftentimes I took my sons to class with me because I could not afford child care. Now, that was in the day. This is 2015, and women deserve better. So let's support this agenda and lift women up. When women succeed, America succeeds.

Ms. LEE

Ms. LEE. I thank the gentleman for yielding and also for his tremendous leadership on this very important issue. Also, I want to thank our ranking member, Mr. Engel, and Chairman Royce for their leadership on the Committee on Foreign Affairs and for all of the bipartisan work that you have done over the years together. The poison pills have been taken out of this bill by the other body, and I still have concerns about the timing and effect of considering this legislation, but the President believes that this legislation, as written, will not undermine the administration's efforts. All of us have the same goal, and that is to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. As negotiations over Iran's nuclear program enter a critical phase, Congress must give the President and our negotiators the space they need to succeed, and with the announcement of a framework agreement last month, we are closer to a strong and verifiable agreement between the P5+1 countries and Iran. H.R. 1191 would require that Congress be given an opportunity to review any final agreement on Iran's nuclear program before the President can waive or suspend any sanctions. Supporters of this bill argue that they simply want to ensure congressional oversight of any final international agreement, and of course we all believe that there is a role for that, but we know that since negotiations began, there have been countless initiatives by Congress to purposely and deliberately thwart the success of a final deal. Any efforts to undermine the negotiations or a final deal with Iran over its nuclear program will not make us safer, and it will not stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. In fact, it will do just the opposite. Negotiations with Iran have already led to a first-step agreement that has significantly reduced Iran's nuclear stockpile and their ability to create a nuclear weapon. Without these negotiations and the current framework agreement, Iran's nuclear program would be unmonitored and unrestrained. Continued negotiations remain the best route to ensuring national and regional security while preventing us from going back on the path to a confrontation with Iran. A deal with Iran has the support of the majority of the American people. An April ABC-Washington Post poll found that Americans by a nearly 2-1 margin support striking a deal with Iran that restricts the nation's nuclear program in exchange for loosening sanctions. We simply cannot afford the alternative to the negotiations, and the alternative to the negotiations, I believe, is war with Iran. Instead of taking actions to undermine our President and international negotiators as they work to secure a final deal, Congress should be working to ensure their success. Now, let's hope that this bill does that. I hope that this Congress does not use passage of this bill as a cynical ploy to set up a vote against any final deal should there be a deal, one that prevents Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. Simply put, diplomacy is the best way to cut off any potential pathway to an Iranian nuclear weapon.

Ms. LEE. I will conclude by just saying in 2013 I introduced legislation calling for an end to the no contact policy with Iran and calling for a diplomatic initiative. I am convinced that that is the only way to ensure regional stability. Let's hope that the President's legacy does include preventing a war with Iran. What a great legacy to leave for the world.

Ms. LEE

Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman for yielding but also for his tremendous leadership on the Committee on Rules and also just in terms of making sure that we, as Members of Congress, do our job. So thank you very much. I rise in strong opposition to this rule and to the bill. I offered three bipartisan amendments to H.R. 1735, the National Defense Authorization Act, and I am very disappointed to say that, once again, two of my amendments to address the Authorization for Use of Military Force were not made in order. The first, offered with Representative Walter Jones, would have repealed the 2001 blank check for endless war, which has been used more than 30 times, mind you, to justify military action around the world. The other, that I also offered with Representative Jones, would have removed the unnecessary 2002 Iraq Authorization for Use of Military Force that continues to be on the books. This is years after the White House has said they no longer needed it and encouraged Congress to repeal it. Mr. Speaker, it is past time for Congress to live up to its constitutional obligations in matters of war and peace. We need to rip up that 2001 blank check for endless war, and we need to repeal the unnecessary 2002 Iraq AUMF instead of leaving it on the books indefinitely. I do want to thank the committee for making in order a commonsense, bipartisan amendment offered by Representatives Burgess, Schakowsky, and myself that would require the DOD to rank all departments and defense agencies in order of how advanced they are in their audit readiness. As the only Federal agency that has yet to complete an audit, the Pentagon has never been held accountable for the potential loss of billions of dollars to waste, fraud, and abuse; so we need to bring vital congressional oversight and accountability to the Pentagon and to ensure that the Pentagon follows the law. Let me also just address a few more troubling provisions in this bill. This bill authorized $715 million to train and equip Iraqi forces and an additional $600 million for Syrian opposition forces. That is more than a billion dollars for the now 8-month-long war against ISIL.

Ms. LEE. Let me go back and remind you how much that is. That is more than a billion dollars for the now 8-month-long war against ISIL. That is a war that Congress has yet to debate and authorize. Again, I call on Speaker Boehner to make Congress do its job and to schedule this critical debate. I want to thank Congressman McGovern for offering a privileged resolution. It is really a shame that we must do this, but we must take our heads out of the sand here and be responsible to our constituents and our country. This bill also funnels $89 billion into the Pentagon slush fund known as the overseas contingency account; $38 billion of this would go back into the base budget to avoid the budget cuts. This is simply unacceptable. Instead of continuing to use budget gimmicks to further bloat the Pentagon budget, Congress should be working to ensure accountability and transparency by forcing an audit of the Pentagon. I urge my colleagues to support the Burgess-Schakowsky-Lee amendment and to oppose the underlying bill. It is time for Congress to stop the policy of endless war and to bring some accountability to the Pentagon.

Ms. LEE

Ms. LEE. Instead of passing yet another bill that attacks women, we should get back to the real work that American families desperately need, like eliminating poverty, instituting real criminal justice reform, and increasing job opportunities for all. For those who say that they support life, then why not support universal preschool, paid family medical leave, affordable child care, and support those life-affirming measures that we are trying to get passed here? So I urge a ``no'' vote on this outrageous attack on women.

Ms. LEE. I thank the gentleman for yielding and for his leadership. Madam Speaker, of course I rise in strong opposition to H.R. 36, which is nothing more than another ideological attack on women's reproductive rights. This bill would institute a nationwide ban on abortion after 20 weeks with no exceptions to protect women's health. It adds unnecessary burdens and obstacles to deny medical care to women in the most desperate of circumstances, including in the instance of rape, by requiring women to seek counseling or medical treatment prior to her medical procedure. I remember the days of back-alley abortions. Many women died, and more were permanently injured before Roe v. Wade. Madam Speaker, with this egregious bill, Republicans have once again decided to take us back there, to threaten physicians, for instance, with criminal prosecution. This bill is unconstitutional; it is dangerous; and it is wrong. No woman should have a politician interfering in her personal health decisions. They should always be kept private, period. And my faith is as deep as those using their faith, imposing their faith on women who must make these very difficult personal decisions.

Ms. LEE

Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise first to send my thoughts and prayers to the family of Freddie Gray and the entire city of Baltimore. Today, another family is grieving another young life needlessly cut short; and, again, a community is searching for answers in the face of tragedy and injustice. My own community knows this all too well. On New Year's Day 2009, Oscar Grant, a bright young man, was murdered on the Fruitvale Bay Area Rapid Transit platform in Oakland. Our community took to the streets demanding justice. Freddie Gray, Oscar Grant, Mike Brown, Tamir Rice, and Trayvon Martin and the list goes on, all lives cut short. Today, their stories compel us to come to the House floor to join millions of Americans around our Nation in saying that, like all lives, Black lives also do matter. Make no mistake, the issues rocking many communities are not a new phenomenon. These tragedies, yes, are a part of a dark legacy of injustice born in the sufferings of the Middle Passage, nurtured through slavery, and codified in Jim Crow. On April 14, 1967, at Stanford University, Dr. King described these issues in his ``Two Americas'' speech. He said, ``There are literally two Americas. One America is overflowing with the milk of prosperity and honey of opportunity. Tragically and unfortunately, there is another America. This other America has a daily ugliness about it that constantly transforms the ebulliency of hope into the fatigue of despair.'' The ugly fact is that two Americas still exist nearly five decades later. An African American male is killed by a security officer, police officer, or a self-proclaimed vigilante every 28 hours in the United States. One in three Black men will be arrested in their lifetime, a reason why men from communities of color, unfortunately, make up more than 70 percent of the United States prison population. Sadly, our laws have made having a criminal justice record a lifetime barrier to the ``honey of opportunity'' Dr. King described. A formerly incarcerated individual who has paid his or her dues to society and is out of jail is still denied access to Pell grants, closing off the opportunity for higher education and a better job. Ten States enforce lifetime bans on receiving food assistance, SNAP benefits, for drug- related felonies--only drug-related felonies. Mr. Speaker, these limitations are components of a system that continues to punish someone for life for having made a mistake. This system maintains cyclical and systemic barriers that keep generations of African Americans from building pathways out of poverty. Recently, the Joint Economic Committee, under the leadership of Ranking Member Carolyn B. Maloney, released a report with the Congressional Black Caucus on the economic state of Black America, which Congressman Butterfield laid out the bleak finding. I hope Members recognize this is a wake-up call. Children in African American households are nearly twice as likely to be raised in the bottom 20 percent of income distribution as children in White households; and, while African American students represent 18 percent of the overall preschool enrollment, they account for 42 percent of preschool student expulsion--these are kids ages 2 to 5 years old--expulsions. These children don't even get a start, let alone a head start. The link between the economic inequality and our broken criminal justice system and education is crystal clear, and Congress must do more to break down these systemic barriers. Our friend and our colleague, our chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, said in his inaugural speech when he was sworn in, ``America is not working for many African Americans, and we, as the Congressional Black Caucus, have an obligation to fight harder and smarter to help repair the damage.'' Mr. Speaker, we must come together as never before to address the systemic, structural, and rampant racial bias endemic in our institutions and criminal justice system. We have introduced the Half in Ten Act, H.R. 258, to create a national strategy to cut poverty in half in 10 years. By coordinating and empowering all Federal agencies, we can lift 22 million Americans out of poverty and into the middle class, but that is only one step. We must bring serious structural reforms to our broken criminal justice system. I am proud to be a cosponsor of the Stop Militarizing Law Enforcement Act, H.R. 1232, because war weapons don't belong on Main Street. We also need to pass the Police Accountability Act, H.R. 1102, and the Grand Jury Reform Act, H.R. 429, to ensure accountability and that deadly force cases are actually heard by a judge. We also need to stop the racial profiling that disproportionally affects African Americans. We need to pass the End Racial Profiling Act, H.R. 1933, because racial profiling has no place in a 21st century police force. It is also time to pass ``ban the box'' for Federal contractors and agencies. I am proud to be working with our colleagues on the Senate side, Senators Booker and Brown, to do just that. We can't stop with the criminal justice system. We have got to create job training, workforce training, and economic opportunities for people of color in marginalized communities who have been, unfortunately, impacted by generations of endemic barriers rooted in discrimination.

Ms. LEE

Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to insert my statement in the Record that the House should focus on real priorities like eliminating poverty instead of another attack on women's health care.

Ms. LEE. Thank you, Mr. McGovern, for your leadership and for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to this rule and to H.J. Res. 43. This bill would undermine the District's Reproductive Health Non-Discrimination Act, which would protect employees who work in the District from workplace discrimination based on the employee's personal reproductive healthcare decisions. For example, this includes prohibiting an employer from firing an employee for using in vitro fertilization or birth control. Simply put, this rule and bill is yet another Republican attack on women's access to health care and another battle in the war on women. And of course, as always, you target the women of the District of Columbia to set a standard for the rest of the country. What in the world is the connection between your private healthcare decisions and job performance? This is so cynical. It is so wrong. No woman should have an employer or a politician interfering in her personal health decisions. The D.C. government has a right to determine how they want to protect their workers. Employees should be evaluated at work based on their performance, not on their personal and private reproductive healthcare decisions. The District of Columbia seeks basic fairness for its women, and this rule and this resolution are outrageous. It is undemocratic and, once again, ignores the Home Rule Act. Yes, Congress should not be dictating any policy to the District of Columbia. This debate has been held. The Home Rule Act was passed in 1973. Instead of undermining the law that seeks to protect the citizens and women of D.C. from discrimination based on their private reproductive healthcare decisions, we should be getting back to the real business that Congress needs to address, like strengthening our economy, lifting families out of poverty, criminal justice reform, and creating job opportunities for all. So let's defeat this. Let's support the District of Columbia and its decisions. Let's respect them. Let's respect the women of the District of Columbia. They, too, have that right.

Ms. LEE

Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, let me thank Mr. Van Hollen for yielding. More importantly, I want to thank him for his tireless work as our ranking member on the Committee on the Budget. It is truly a pleasure to serve with him. A budget is a moral document, a document that really reflects our values as a nation. Unfortunately, this budget just does the opposite. Mr. Speaker, once again, this Congress is poised to take a huge step in the wrong direction. The budget agreement before us is truly a work hard, get less budget that uses accounting gimmicks to balance the budget, once again on the backs of the most vulnerable. It calls for cuts to nondefense discretionary programs totaling $496 billion below the already dismally low sequestered level. This means further draconian cuts to our education, our infrastructure, veterans, and health programs that have already been eviscerated by slash-and-burn Republican austerity plans. Today, more than 45 million of our fellow Americans are living in poverty. This agreement will push more people over the brink. With $300 billion in cuts to SNAP--that is our food assistance--$431 billion in cuts to Medicare, and a half trillion in cuts to Medicaid, struggling families will continue to fall further and further behind. We can't forget how these cuts disproportionately affect our communities of color, who are more likely to be living in poverty. What is more, this is the latest in the misguided Republican fixation on repealing the Affordable Care Act, which the House has already voted to repeal over 50 times. The number of uninsured Americans has gone down by 16 million since it was enacted. Why in the world do you want to take health care away from 16 million people? That is mean. This agreement continues to use the overseas contingency operation, OCO, account as a slush fund for overbudget Pentagon spending by including--I think it is--$38 billion over the President's request.

Ms. LEE. I introduced an amendment in committee to eliminate the OCO account increase of $36 billion that was included in the House Republican budget. Members on both sides of the aisle have criticized OCO as an affront to transparency and Congress' constitutionally mandated oversight responsibilities. Mr. Speaker, last month, we introduced our Democratic, Congressional Progressive Caucus, and Congressional Black Caucus alternative budgets. Those budgets reflect real solutions to lift Americans out of poverty and to support the middle class. I urge my colleagues to oppose this misguided and very cynical agreement that would put us on a path to a greater unequal America that provides less liberty and less justice for all. It doesn't reflect who we are as a nation.

Ms. LEE

Ms. LEE. Madam Chair, as the designee of the ranking member, I move to strike the last word.

Ms. LEE. Madam Chair, I am first seeking clarity from Chairman Dent on what the committee intends with the major construction account funding in this bill. Included in the committee report is language that the funding provided for major construction be used for hospital construction and seismic corrections. One of the projects in the request is the Alameda Clinic. This clinic would provide direct medical care to veterans in my district. Mr. Chairman, does the Alameda Clinic project meet the criteria for funding set by the committee in the report accompanying this bill?

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