Bob Menendez

Mr. MENENDEZ

Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank first of all my colleague on the Subcommittee on Africa, the gentleman from Florida [Mr. Hastings]. He has been an articulate and thoughtful member of the committee and has added much to our debates, and I want to commend him on bringing this resolution, as well as the chairman, for all of the work we have done this year in a very bipartisan way, and to his credit, we commend him for the manner in which he has run the committee. Mr. Speaker, Kenya is an important and strategic country in Africa, and it is unfortunate that our consideration of this resolution was prompted by the violence and political instability in Kenya. I am pleased to report that since the Subcommittee on Africa held hearings on the situation in Kenya in July, the situation has improved considerably. Just this past week President Moi made noted constitutional changes to allow more room for his political opposition, and just today the date for presidential and parliamentary elections was announced: December 29. It is crucial at this juncture that the international community insist on continued progress on constitutional and legal reforms, on improvements in human rights, and on free, fair, and democratic elections. We cannot allow this opening for reform to close without cementing substantive changes. President Moi needs to know that the United States and the international community will continue to watch his administration, even now that the violence has subsided, and that we will continue to press for real reforms which guarantee the Kenyan people access to and participation in their government. That is what we are doing in this resolution. We are sending a message to President Moi, and on behalf of the Kenyan people, we hope that he is listening. I congratulate the gentleman from Florida [Mr. Hastings].

Mr. MENENDEZ

Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. Speaker, during rollcall vote number 629 on House Resolution 319, I was unavoidably detained. Had I been present, I would have voted ``no.''

Mr. MENENDEZ

Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. (Mr. MENENDEZ asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of House Resolution 245, expressing the sense of the House in support of a free and fair referendum on self-determination for the people of Western Sahara. Mr. Speaker, I think we owe a great deal of gratitude to former Secretary of State James Baker for his service as Special Envoy. Clearly, it was his intervention which brought an end to the referendum impasse and which has allowed for an opportunity for peace in the region. For too long, the situation in the Western Sahara has been left unresolved, and for too long it has caused tension in the region and within the African continent. It is crucial at this juncture that the U.S. Government and the Congress put their weight behind the plan negotiated by former Secretary Baker. There is only a small window of opportunity to implement the agreement, which itself remains quite fragile. If we bypass this opportunity by our inattention or if we allow either side to renege on the commitments made in Houston, we will be responsible for foregoing an opportunity for long-term peace in the region. That is not a cost we can afford, and it is a small price to pay for peace and democracy. The Houston plan has at long last found a resolution which is acceptable to both the Moroccan Government and the Polisario Front. The referendum, which will be held next December, will grant the Sahrawi people their long-awaited right to self-determination, the same right enjoyed by free people throughout the world. Sahrawi President Abdelaziz has given his word that he will stand by and respect the people's decision regardless of the outcome as long as the referendum is free and fair and allows only Sahrawis to vote. The Sahrawi people have been left in limbo due to political considerations rather than any really legal dispute. In 1975, the International Court of Justice declared that there is no establishment of any legal ties of territorial sovereignty between the territory of Western Sahara and the Kingdom of Morocco. Now the Sahrawi people will have the opportunity to decide for themselves their political future, be it independence or incorporation into Morocco. It is their choice. I want to thank the gentleman from California [Mr. Royce] for his leadership in bringing the resolution before the House and for sponsoring it. I am proud to be an original cosponsor. And I also want to again congratulate former Secretary Baker for his tremendous efforts. He has been and we expect will continue to be crucial to the success of this ultimate endeavor. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Payne], a member of the Subcommittee on Africa.

Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to adopt the resolution, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. MENENDEZ

Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. Speaker, we simply cannot ignore the needs of our students any longer when it comes to the poor physical condition of our schools. We can see that many schools throughout America need assistance in continuing to educate our children. We cannot allow our schools to continue with inadequate buildings, inadequate building features, and unsatisfactory building conditions. We can't sit by and watch our schools crumble. Congress needs to recognize that the quality of their learning environment affects the education children receive. Our children need a strong foundation--better physical conditions--in the schools they attend. In some parts of the country the problems facing our schools' infrastructure have reached crisis proportions. Poor infrastructure is often a barrier to schools being wired to the Internet among other things. We need the proper school facilities to deal with the surge of enrollment that is occurring right now. In the next 10 years, many school districts will have to cope with the need for more space to accommodate 55.9 million students, a jump of 9.4 million since 1990. New Jersey public elementary and secondary schools will see an increase of 109,000 students in the next 10 years, requiring 4,360 additional classrooms. For all these reasons, I have introduced the Rebuilding American Schools Act of 1997, with Representative Rob Andrews. This legislation will assist local school districts finance the repair, renovation, alteration, and construction of public elementary and secondary school facilities. A General Accounting Office report last year drew alarms in Congress about the need to repair and upgrade school facilities across the country. The GAO study stated that one-third of schools, serving over 14 million students nationwide, reported needing extensive repair or replacement of at least one building and 60 percent of schools, many in otherwise decent condition, reported at least one major building feature, such as plumbing, in disrepair. In addition, about half the schools reported at least one unsatisfactory environmental condition, such as lighting problems or poor ventilation. According to the GAO, 19 percent of New Jersey schools reported one inadequate building, 53 percent reported at least one inadequate building feature, and 69 percent reported at least one unsatisfactory environmental factor. In total, 87 percent of New Jersey schools reported a need to upgrade or repair buildings to good overall condition. Local schools rely on property taxes to support our country's public elementary and secondary schools. But communities everywhere are finding it increasingly difficult to support their academic programs much less their school facilities with local property taxes. The Rebuilding American Schools Act of 1997 would help communities support the repair, renovation, alteration, and construction of our Nation's public elementary and secondary school facilities. States and local governments would continue to maintain full responsibility for determining their school construction needs and administering their infrastructure programs. This legislation authorizes $200 million in fiscal year 1999 to help States increase school construction and renovation targeting school districts that enroll the greatest numbers of children living in poverty. The loans and bond guarantees in the bill will apply to a wide range of improvement projects. It leverages additional spending on school construction and renovation. And it applies to a wide range of improvement projects, including construction of elementary and secondary facilities, renovation to ensure health and safety of students, improvements of the basic infrastructure, increases in energy efficiency, and construction that prepares facilities for installation of modern educational technology. This bill goes a long way to providing the proper infrastructural our children need to enter the 21st century. While many of the most desperate repairs and needed improvements are being met, these funds could help our schools meet additional needs. I look forward to the day when I can see the physical manifestation of this bill in better facilities for our children to learn and grow.

Mr. MENENDEZ

Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. Speaker, I move that the Committee do now rise.

Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. Chairman, I withdraw my request at this time.

Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote, and pending that, I make the point of order that a quorum is not present. Parliamentary Inquiry

Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. Chairman, I move that the Committee do now rise.

Mr. MENENDEZ

Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that a quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is not present.

Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.

Mr. MENENDEZ

Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. Speaker, 1 year after the election of the gentlewoman from California [Ms. Sanchez] to this House and her investigation continues by this House, we went from a witch hunt that started with a half a million questionable individuals, allegedly, to last night's revelation that we are down to 1,000 individuals and still counting downwards. Democrats welcome the opportunity of the U.S. attorney's investigation in California into the broader questions. We welcome that. We want to see what he has got to say. And we welcome any broader voter fraud question. But what we do not welcome is the continuous use of hundreds of thousands of taxpayers' dollars that our conservative friends on the Republican side are always wanting to save, and we agree with them. Why do they not want to save it in this case? The reason they do not want to save it is because they want to use taxpayer dollars to do what their history has done in their own State of California where they were fined $600,000 for voter suppression and voter intimidation. Stop abusing the taxpayers' money.

Mr. MENENDEZ

Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from New York [Ms. Slaughter] for yielding me the time. I rise to oppose this intent to create martial law in the greatest democratic institution in the world. Yesterday, unfortunately, history was made in a negative sense when the House, using the majority party's power to adjourn, ended all of the rights of those individuals of the Women's Caucus to seek to provoke a debate through privileged resolutions rising to the dignity and integrity of the House, and their rights were extinguished by having a motion to adjourn. I would say to the distinguished gentleman from New York [Mr. Solomon], chairman of the Committee on Rules, that the dignity and the integrity of the proceedings of the House are in question when they permit to spend hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars for an investigation that has yielded absolutely no fruit. And 1 year later, democracy in this House is not protected unless the rights of the minority are protected. And what Republicans are doing today is nothing less than turning their back on this principle by denying the minority an important tool we have to represent our communities and our constituents. The procedural tools of the House are not there to be used only so long as they are convenient for the majority's scheduling goals or that they benefit the majority's agenda. They are there to be used when they benefit the minority as well. The rights of Members are not here to be parcelled out and then abolished at the majority's whim. Make no mistake, by denying us justice and fairness today by taking away the protections afforded to the minority, my colleagues put in peril their own protections in the future. This is an unprecedented denial of privileged resolutions by Members of the House, and that is outrageous. Several of the resolutions, I know my own that I introduced yesterday, are materially different, they have different aspects to it. And maybe my colleagues did not read them. But mine is materially different. It is interesting to note, who do my colleagues seek to abolish the rights of, who presented the privileged resolutions yesterday? The members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. Is that not just a coincidence? Those of us whose families fled from persecution, from dictatorship, view this as nothing more than gestapo tactics. When we take away the right to oppose those in power, when we abolish the rights of the minority, when we take away those protections, that is the beginning of tyranny. And when no one in the majority speaks up to defend them, that is when they put their own rights at risk. Democracy is only safe when all views have a right to be heard. That is what the rules of the House are designed to allow. And they do not want any more privileged resolutions on the gentlewoman from California [Ms. Sanchez]. But what they are doing in the rule is, they are extinguishing the right of any Member to bring up a privileged resolution on any other matter, and that is outrageous. If I had the incident with Mr. Dornan that this House voted to suspend his rights to be able to come in here, if that happened during this time period, I would not be able to introduce that privileged resolution because they have extinguished my right to do so. And that would be wrong. My colleagues, do not turn your backs on the tradition of fairness, on the traditions of this institution, because you may find yourselves some day in the minority again. You are not just taking away a procedural tool, you are turning your back on a cherished principle of fairness. And while you may think you are just taking away our voices today, you are disenfranchising the voices of tens of millions of American citizens we represent. This, if it is permitted, would be a shameful day for the House and a shameful day for your party.

Mr. MENENDEZ

Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. Speaker, based upon the fact that it certainly seems like a gag rule, and as far as I know it is unprecedented to go ahead and stop a Member from pursuing a privileged resolution, I would have to object to the request.

Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. Speaker, continuing my reservation, my understanding of the unanimous-consent request is that they be voted and that there be a dispensation of the reading. The question is whether or not there would be an opportunity to debate what an individual Member has presented in their privileged resolution.

Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. Speaker, further reserving my right to object, can the parliamentarian through the Speaker tell me whether privileged resolutions, whether individuals have been denied the right to speak on a privileged resolution that they have offered before the House in previous Congresses?

Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. Speaker, reserving the right to object, is that my understanding that, therefore, there would be no debate on the individual privileged resolution that a Member who has submitted them in a timely fashion would have an opportunity to have a debate based on the unanimous-consent request?

Mr. MENENDEZ

Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. Speaker, the gentlewoman said she is lucky to be from a State that does not see voter fraud. I am unlucky to be from a State that has seen the Republican Party be part of voter suppression and intimidation that ended up in the Federal court decision that is still continuing in elections in New Jersey. The gentlewoman from California [Ms. Sanchez] is unlucky to be from a State where the Republican Party paid $600,000 to settle two voter intimidation lawsuits stemming from actions in 1988 and 1989 in which the Orange County Republican Party placed security guards and signs at the voting polls designed to scare Latino voters from voting. That is the fact. So when the gentleman before mentioned about transparency, transparency is that the history on the records, in the Federal court, has condemned their party for what they have done to my people. That is the reality of that transparency. I just listened to the gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Ehlers], who I have a personal respect for, but I listened to what he had to say. His facts and his figures, we have gone from 500,000 questionable voters to 1,000, in his final number there. What an incredible amount. And when we look at it, he keeps referring to Orange County voters. He fails to mention that there are six congressional districts in Orange County. The gentlewoman from California [Ms. Sanchez] is not the only congressional district in Orange County. They all fail to mention all of the Republic candidates that won, and they do not question their elections at the same time in which they allegedly received these votes. The fact of the matter is that for those Members who get upset about our concerns that what they are doing is clearly based on the question and to a large degree on ethnicity, I cannot wait for the names to be revealed. I want to say how many Thomases, how many Ehlers, how many Smiths are on that list. I can guarantee Members that when we see the list, when it finally shows the light of day, everything that we have said there will be very clear. That is why their party has been sanctioned, that is why the Federal courts have made them pay money, and that is why they are pursuing this case in the manner in which they have. They have gone from a half a million to a thousand, and they cannot even prove that will overturn the election. Yes, they have seated her, but they have bled her every day that she has been here, and we as a community will not tolerate it.

Mr. MENENDEZ

Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. MENENDEZ

Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to clause 2 of rule IX, I hereby give notice of my intention to offer a resolution which raises a question of the privileges of the House. The form of the resolution is as follows: Whereas, Loretta Sanchez was issued a certificate of election as the duly elected Member of Congress from the 46th District of California by the Secretary of the State of California and was seated by the U.S. House of Representatives on January 7, 1997; and Whereas A Notice of Contest of Election was filed with the Clerk of the House by Mr. Robert Dornan on December 26, 1996; and Whereas the allegations made by Mr. Robert Dornan have been largely found to be without merit, including his charges of improper voting from a business, rather than a resident address; underage voting; double voting; and charges of unusually large number of individuals voting from the same address. It was found that those accused of voting from the same address included a Marines barracks and the domicile of nuns, that business addresses were legal residences for the individuals, including the zoo keeper of the Santa Ana zoo, that duplicate voting was by different individuals and those accused of underage voting were of age; and Whereas the Committee on House Oversight has issued unprecedented subpoenas to the Immigration and Naturalization Service to compare their records with Orange County voter registration records, the first time in any election in the history of the United States that the INS has been asked by the Congress to verify the citizenship of voters; and Whereas the privacy rights of United States citizens have been violated by the Committee's improper use of those INS records; Whereas the INS itself has questioned the validity and accuracy of the Committee's use of INS documents; and has continued to question the validity and accuracy of the Committee's use of INS documents; and Whereas the INS has complied with the Committee's request and, at the Committee's request, has been doing a manual check of its paper files and providing worksheets containing supplemental information on that manual check to the Committee on House Oversight for over five months; and Whereas the Committee on House Oversight, subpoenaed the records seized by the District Attorney of Orange County on February 13, 1997 and has received and reviewed all records pertaining to registration efforts of that group; and Whereas some Members of the House Oversight Committee are now seeking a duplicate and dilatory review of materials already in the Committee's possession by the Secretary of State of California; and which review can not produce a different result than that which the Committee could produce, upon using the same documents; and Whereas the Task Force on the Contested Election in the 46th District of California and the Committee have been reviewing these materials and have all the information they need regarding who voted in the 46th District and all the information they need to make a judgment concerning those votes; and Whereas the Committee on House Oversight has after nine months of review and investigation failed to present credible evidence to change the outcome of the election of Congresswoman Sanchez and is now, in place of producing such credible evidence, pursuing never ending and unsubstantiated areas of review; and Whereas, Contestant Robert Dornan has after nearly one year not shown or provided credible evidence sufficient to demonstrate that the outcome of the election is other than Congresswoman Sanchez's election to the Congress; and Whereas, it is the contestant's proof of burden to do so; Whereas, the Committee on House Oversight should complete its review of this matter and bring this contest to an end: Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That unless the Committee on House Oversight has sooner reported a recommendation for its final disposition, the contest in the 46th District of California is dismissed upon the expiration of November 7, 1997.

Mr. MENENDEZ

Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the legislation, H.R. 2358, a bill that if our colleagues support, which we believe they will, puts Congress in concurrence with many of the conclusions of the Department of State in its 1996 human rights report with respect to the People's Republic of China, including the fact that China is an authoritarian State, that the Government of China has continued to commit widespread and well-documented human rights abuses; that abuses include torture and mistreatment of prisoners for its confessions and arbitrary and incommunicado detention, that the number of persons detained are believed to be in the thousands, and that overall, in 1996, the authorities stepped up efforts to cut off expressions of protest or criticism. But all dissent against the party and government was effectively silenced by intimidation, exile, the imposition of prison terms, administrative detention, or house arrest, and that as a result of those activities, no dissidents were known to be active at the end of 1996. So for all of those and many other reasons, it is fitting and appropriate that we in fact provide the resources to create the opportunity to fully monitor Chinese political repression. Mr. Speaker, I yield 4\1/2\ minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Hawaii [Mr. Abercrombie].

Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. (Mr. MENENDEZ asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)