Betty McCollum

Ms. McCOLLUM

Ms. McCOLLUM. Mr. Speaker, in the Minnesota State Legislature, I worked to secure health care for families, to fight against domestic violence, and to protect a woman's right to reproductive health choices. In the Minnesota State Legislature, we addressed the issue of violence against women in all stages of life--working with women, their families and doctors. I am particularly concerned about the legislation that we are considering today. It appears the intention of this legislation is to reverse the Supreme Court ruling of Roe versus Wade. Fundamentally, this legislation seeks to redefine when life begins. I support the landmark decision of Roe versus Wade in 1973 that establishes a woman's right to choose to terminate a pregnancy while also allowing individual States to determine the legality of such decisions as a pregnancy proceeds. H.R. 503 fails to recognize that injury to a pregnancy is first and foremost an injury to a woman. This bill ignores the pregnant woman entirely, and would do nothing to stem violence against women. Crimes of this nature are more appropriately addressed by enhancing penalties for termination of, or injury to, a pregnancy. H.R. 503 is said to be protection for pregnant women against a violent crime. But the words ``mother,'' ``women,'' or ``pregnant women'' are not even mentioned in the language of the bill. I would proudly support a bill to prevent and punish the violent crimes against women and especially pregnant women. This bill does not address where and when these crimes most often occur or how to stop them. This bill does not help the 37 percent of women who need to receive emergency help because of assault by their husband or boyfriend? Where is the legislation in maintaining a restraining order when a woman flees to another State because her life is in danger? If we want to protect women and their children from violence, let us debate funding for domestic violence shelters and hotlines that are overrun by women in danger to broadly address where violence occurs. I urge my colleagues to vote for the Lofgren substitute, which recognizes that when a violent crime is perpetrated against a pregnant woman and causes injury to or termination of her pregnancy, there is additional harm to that woman. Crimes committed against pregnant women are heinous and should be punished to the fullest extent. The Lofgren substitute actually provides harsher penalties on perpetrators of violent crimes against pregnant women than does H.R. 503. I strongly urge my colleagues not to jeopardize the decisions women can make about their own bodies and to vote no on H.R. 503 and yes on the Lofgren substitute.

Ms. McCOLLUM

Ms. McCOLLUM. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in recognition of, and to honor Minnesota Public Radio's highly regarded business and financial news program Marketplace \TM\, for their receipt of a prestigious Peabody Award for 2000. The George Foster Peabody Awards were established in 1940 to recognize distinguished achievement and meritorious service by radio and television networks, stations, producing organizations, cable television organizations and individuals. Marketplace will be honored during a May 21st awards ceremony in New York to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the George Foster Peabody Awards. Marketplace is public radio's only national program about business, the global economy and finance. It was the first, and is still the only, daily national business show originating from the West Coast. Its location in Los Angeles has provided Marketplace easier access to the Pacific Rim and has encouraged the staff to develop their own voice, one not overwhelmed by the traditionally Eastern-dominated media. With eight domestic bureaus (Boston, Ann Arbor/Detroit, Cleveland, New York, Philadelphia, Portland, San Francisco and Washington, DC) and two international bureaus (London and Tokyo), Marketplace is a truly global program using business and economics as its twin lenses to better view and understand the world. It distinguishes itself from general news programming by taking a broader view of business and exploring business and finance issues on a deeper more human, more engaging level. The program premiered in January 1989 from Long Beach, California. Over the years, it has been described as well informed, hip, irreverent, and the business show for the rest of us. Last year, Minnesota Public Radio, which is based in my home district of Saint Paul, Minnesota, acquired Marketplace from the University of Southern California. This added one more strong program to Minnesota Public Radio's already impressive resume of celebrated shows including A Prairie Home Companion and Saint Paul Sunday. Marketplace's future looks as bright as its past with Minnesota Public Radio building a state-of-the-art digital Marketplace was created by Jim Russell, an award-winning journalist and a former executive producer of All Things Considered, who has more than thirty years of broadcasting experience under his belt. In 1988, he envisioned a public radio business program that sounded smart, literate and witty; one that could appeal to an audience of non business types. Today, Marketplace is heard on more than 300 public radio stations across the United States with a national audience of nearly 4 million weekly listeners. The executive producer of Marketplace is J.J. Yore, who has been a reporter, editor and broadcast producer for nearly twenty years. As executive producer, he is the one responsible for setting the program's overall editorial direction and tone, which the Peabody Awards Committee described as, ``sophisticated, creative and accessible.'' David Brancaccio has been the show's senior host since 1993. He is a former foreign correspondent and broadcast reporter with a knack for telling a good story. His style has been described as lively and engaging. Before taking his current position with Marketplace, he served as the show's London bureau chief for three years. His international reporting experience and considerable travel overseas add to Marketplace's global perspective on business-related news. Praise for Marketplace abounds. Early in its history, it was named ``best business program'' in the U.S. by the prestigious Columbia Journalism Review. More recently, Marketplace received the 1997 Loeb Award in the radio category, the 1997 Clarion Award for ``Regular News'' and in January 1998, the highly coveted duPont-Columbia Award for ``Excellence in Overall Show.'' In 2000, Marketplace's Japan Bureau won the Overseas Press Club's Best Business Reporting in Broadcast Media Award. According to Washingtonian Magazine, Marketplace is in the top four most-listened-to programs by business leaders. The Station Resource Group reported that, according to industry leaders, Marketplace is one of five ``must-have'' programs for public radio stations. Marketplace's most recent honor, the Peabody Award, is one of the most competitive in the fields of broadcasting and cable. For the year 2000, Marketplace was one of only 34 award winners chosen from nearly 1,100 entries. The Peabody Award differs from other broadcast and cable awards because it is given solely on the basis of merit, rather than within designated categories. Judging is done by a fifteen-person national advisory board whose members include TV critics, broadcast and cable industry executives, scholars, and experts in culture and fine arts. Dr. Louise Benjamin, Interim Director of the Peabody Awards, said, ``The Peabody Board chose Marketplace because the program offers listeners a refreshing, perceptive account of the day's international economic news. It also gives its audience insight into how the global economy affects their communities and their lives.'' I congratulate Marketplace on their notable achievement as a 2000 recipient of the George Foster Peabody Award. The Peabody and Minnesota Public Radio's Marketplace belong together as they both represent the qualities we, here in the U.S. House of Representatives, applaud: excellence, distinguished achievement, and service.

Ms. McCOLLUM

Ms. McCOLLUM. Mr. Speaker, I submit to the Record my tribute to a wonderful man; an outstanding Member of this body for 24 years; my Congressman, my teacher, my mentor, and my dear friend--the late Bruce F. Vento. Because of his leadership the working families of Minnesota--of America--are stronger. Our land and our lakes, our rivers and our streams are cleaner; our air is better. He gave us, our children, and future generations the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, and the Minnesota National Wildlife Refuge--thousands and thousands of acres of pristine environment that will fill our lives with weekends where the only sounds we hear will be ``the sounds of the canoe paddle dipping, the winds wafting, and the birds singing . . .'' Bruce Vento gave a voice to those without one; a shelter for those without a home, at a time when it was not the popular thing to do so-- homeless people, after all, rarely vote. But because of the McKinney- Vento Homeless Assistance Act, families down on their luck, are given a second chance. Bruce welcomed and worked tenaciously to bring our newest neighbors fully into our community--the Lao-Hmong. Because he did so, St. Paul and our State is a richer, more tolerant, and more prosperous community. Bruce Vento was the very embodiment of public service; a civics lesson personified. Each day he rose without fanfare, ``to make people's lives better, to provide opportunity--to give them hope.'' When I first met Bruce, he was my Congressman. He quickly became a friend and a mentor to a young Mom who sought to make a difference in her community. Bruce taught by example, and his example was always to do the right thing. We shared a belief that strong communities begin with our families. The essence of Bruce Vento began with his family. His parents, Frank and Anne, to this day speak to their children, grandchildren, and the great grandchildren with the boundless love, caring, and compassion--of their Minnesota family values. Values that helped them raise their eight children to work hard and care deeply. Bruce always put our families, children, and seniors first. Those of us he represented weren't his constituents--we were his friends and neighbors. A weekend couldn't pass that you didn't run into him having morning coffee at Serlin's, or getting his hair cut at Falzone's--or maybe join him for lunch at Yarusso's. He always had time to listen, and--if you had the time--he would offer some friendly advice, or give some historical perspective. He was, always first, the teacher. As our career paths crossed, Bruce continued to teach and to mentor all he came in contact with. Even as his days grew shorter, he still chose to teach. He taught all of us what it means to be a truly good and decent man. It would have been so easy, and so understandable, for Bruce to turn inward and treasure his remaining time with his family. Bruce would have none of it. Instead, he recognized his challenge was but another lesson to be taught--this time in the lessons in living his final days with dignity and grace. As the accolades poured in for a life committed to public service, you could see the pride his son's, Michael, Peter, and John took in the adulation an appreciative community and country had for their father. The renaming of his boyhood Eastside school to the Bruce F. Vento Elementary School teaches our newest Eastsiders the value of public service. The Vento Trail, which meanders through the natural creekbed of a St. Paul gone by, affords all of us from the city and the suburbs a respite from our everyday lives. A scholarship fund established by Bruce, himself, will enable our young aspiring science teachers to realize their dreams--and share their knowledge with our future: our children. Perhaps the most meaningful tribute to this ``great man,'' who ``being a true Eastsider never told us he was,'' were the phone calls to the radio call-in shows that brought wishes of good health from his former students of thirty years ago. Each began, ``Mr. Vento, you may not remember me--but I was a student of yours, and I just want to tell you what a difference you made in my life . . .'' Those touched his heart, and told him to teach one more time the joys, the value, the necessity of giving of one's self--the essence of Bruce Vento, the public servant. I am deeply honored and humbled to stand here today as Bruce's successor. I am committed to represent as ably as this great man did the constituents of Minnesota's Fourth Congressional District. As I cast my votes here in this august Chamber, I do so with a clear and present knowledge that I do indeed have a guardian angel always and forever guiding me with his compassion, his wisdom and his strength. Forever teaching. Thank you, Bruce. I submit to you, Mr. Speaker, four items that capture the essence of Congressman Bruce F. Vento; a man who represented all of us from the Eastside of life who believe that hard work, family values, educational opportunity, and a commitment to a greater community are the keys to a happy and successful life. [From the Saint Paul Pioneer Press, June 30, 2000] Bruce Vento Just Another Guy From the East Side Who Went on To Do Great Things (By Garrison Kellor) There was a dinner in Washington, D.C., Tuesday night to honor a guy from St. Paul's East Side. The president dropped by and dozens of U.S. representatives, Republicans and Democrats. And at the end, when the guy from the East Side stood up to say his piece, he got a long, long standing ovation. You could have gone around the room and stolen everyone's dessert, they were so busy applauding him. U.S. Rep. Bruce Vento, a modest man and a hard worker, is stepping down after 24 years representing the 4th Congressional District, and I must admit I voted for him all these years because I'm a yellow-dog Democrat and he's a Democrat. So now I'm a little taken aback to see what a good man he is who I unthinkingly supported all these years. This isn't how our civics teachers taught us to exercise the franchise, but a person doesn't have oceans of time to study up on candidates. I sure don't. I heard Mr. Vento speak once years ago, speak very movingly about the problem of homelessness and about the importance of wilderness, and that was good enough for me. But if he had stood on his hind legs and barked, I still would have voted for him. Wilderness preservation and the plight of the homeless are not issues that pay a big political bonus. You become a wilderness advocate and you're going to be hung in effigy and yelled at by large men in plaid shirts. Homeless people tend not to turn out in numbers at the polls. But Mr. Vento applied himself to the issues he cared about, did his homework, made the round of his colleagues, carried the water, dug the ditches, fought the good fights, made the compromises, and wrote landmark legislation that became law and that made a real difference in the world. And I'm not sure how many of us in St. Paul are aware of this. There have been only three congressmen from St. Paul in my memory, and that covers 50 years. Gene McCarthy, Joe Karth, Bruce Vento--all DFLers, all good men and all of them got to Congress on the strength of yellow-dog Democrats like me. They got re-elected simply by doing their job, representing working people, speaking the conscience of the Democratic Party, and applying themselves to the nuts and bolts of Congress. A political party serves a big function that TV or newspapers can't. It pulls in idealistic young people, puts them to work in the cause, trains them, seasons them, and gives the talented and the diligent a chance to rise. If it can produce a Bruce Vento, then a party has reason to exist, and if it can't, then it doesn't. Simple as that. Then it fades, as the DFL has. People say it's inevitable for political parties to fade, part of the loss of the sense of community, blah blah blah, that people are cynical about politics and more interested in lifestyle and media and so forth, but we are poorer for the loss of parties and the devaluation of endorsement. Bruce Vento never could've gotten elected in a media-driven campaign, the sort in which high-priced consultants and media buyers spend 15 million bucks to make the candidate into a beautiful illusion. Mr. Vento is the wrong man for that kind of politics. His eyebrows are too big; he isn't cool enough. He is a modest and principled and hard-working guy, but you couldn't put this over in a 30-second commercial. He managed to get to Congress because there was a strong DFL Party that endorsed him, and so voters like me pulled the lever and gave Mr. Vento the wherewithal to be a great congressman. Which he, being a true East Sider, never told us he was. But which I now think he was. Unknowingly, we did something great in sending him there. And our partisan loyalty gave him the freedom to take on thankless tasks, like protecting wilderness and dealing with the homeless. I sat in the back at Mr. Vento's dinner and thought what a shock it is when you realize that the country is in the hands of people your own age. You go along for years thinking it's being run by jowly old guys in baggy suits and then you see that the jowly old guys are people you went to school with. Mr. Vento is about my age, and I feel for him. He is fighting lung cancer and it has taken its toll on him. He looks haggard but game. His three boys were at the dinner in Washington, and their wives, and the event felt like a real valedictory. If Mr. Vento had wanted to make us all cry into our pudding, it wouldn't have taken much. But he was upbeat and talking about the future and about national parks and the decoding of the human genome and saying, ``All we need to do is take this new knowledge and apply it to public policy,'' and thanking everybody and grinning, and you had to admire him for his command of the occasion. A man who is desperately ill and on his way out of public life stages a dinner that raises money for a scholarship fund for teachers. Bruce Vento is a man of great bravery and devotion and foresight who represented us nobly in Congress, whether we knew it or not.

Ms. McCOLLUM

Ms. McCOLLUM. Mr. Speaker, on March 23, 2001, I regrettably missed a recorded vote on Roll Call 60. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea.''

Ms. McCOLLUM

Ms. McCOLLUM. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to the rule and the resolution. I came to Congress to represent the working men and women of Minnesota's fourth district, and they deserve the right to be protected in the workplace. This resolution denies American workers the protection that they need from needless injuries. Repetitive motion injuries are painful and they are crippling. These injuries disproportionately impact women and workers in low wage jobs. The good news is that these injuries are preventable. My largest employer in the Fourth District, 3M, has reported that following the implementation of an ergonomics program, they reduced lost time injuries by 58 percent. The fact that the voices of millions of American workers have been restricted to 1 hour of debate is also an insult. This procedure not only repeals the ergonomic rule but will effectively prohibit OSHA from issuing workplace safety standards on this issue. That is the legacy of this resolution. As a result, millions of Americans will be needlessly injured.

Ms. McCOLLUM

Ms. McCOLLUM. Mr. Speaker, today, I am giving my first speech on the House floor. It is a great privilege to be here. I was sent to Congress to fight for equality and justice for Minnesota families and all American families. Today I am speaking out against the inequality and injustice that only can be corrected by the majority on the Committed on Education and the Workforce. Separating historically black colleges from other higher education institutions is a disgrace. Separating tribal colleges is unconscionable. Separating Hispanic-serving institutions is an injustice. We are one Nation. Separate but equal is not acceptable in America, and it must not be acceptable in Congress. I call upon the Republican leadership to unite all institutions of higher education into one subcommittee and treat all of our children with dignity and equality.