Charlie Rangel

Mr. RANGEL

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Florida (Mrs. Thurman), a member of the Committee on Ways and Means.

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Vermont (Mr. Sanders) in order to respond to the previous speaker.

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, we have a decision today either to vote for the political solution to this problem that has been offered by the majority, where they know, and it is guaranteed, it would be vetoed even though they do not promise relief for another 10 years, or to vote for the substitute that gives immediate relief and they know, as I do, that it will be signed into law. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Cardin), the senior member of the Committee on Ways and Means, who would explain more of this. (Mr. CARDIN asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I offer an amendment in the nature of a substitute.

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Rothman).

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Stenholm). (Mr. STENHOLM asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. RANGEL

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Tanner), a distinguished member of the Committee on Ways and Means. (Mr. TANNER asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Let me take this opportunity to thank the leadership on both sides of the aisle for the level of the debate which we will have. Truly, this is a very contentious issue. Members have deep-seated feelings. I do not remember anything being lobbied so hard by the administration, by the private sector, the Chamber of Commerce and unions, and certainly our constituents. But we have to appreciate the fact that no matter how Members vote, even though I rise in strong support of PNTR, that we have to respect the Members for believing what they are doing is in the best interests of their districts, as well as the country, and remember that we do our best work when we work in a bipartisan way. So at the end of the day, I do hope that we are able to say that regardless of the outcome of the vote, it was one of the finest hours of this honorable body. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Matsui), a senior member of the Committee on Ways and Means.

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Eddie Bernice Johnson).

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Levin), a member of the Committee on Ways and Means and a gentleman that has contributed so much to this debate. (Mr. LEVIN asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer). (Mr. HOYER asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Dicks).

Mr. RANGEL. So that it could very well be that we will have to have some speakers that have large amounts of time before that quorum call to call on several of their speakers?

Mr. RANGEL. It is my understanding, Mr. Speaker, that that order will be after a quorum call?

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I think at this time it might help to share with us the remaining time.

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Florida (Mrs. Thurman).

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Dooley), who worked so hard on this piece of legislation.

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Davis).

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Meehan).

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Becerra), a member of the Committee on Ways and Means.

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee). (Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Cardin), one of the outstanding members of the Committee on Ways and Means. (Mr. CARDIN asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. RANGEL

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, this has been, I think, one of my better days in this House; to be able to listen to the eloquent exchanges on such an important issue to our country and, indeed, the world; to be able to disagree and not be disagreeable; and for people from within and without to know that this will still be the House of Representatives and the true representatives of the people no matter how the vote turns out. Let me say this. Some 50 years ago, November 30, 1950, to be exact, I found myself a member of the Second Infantry Division, having fought from Pusan, entering in July, straight through up to North Korea sitting on the Yalu River. I was 20 years old at the time, waiting to go home, because we thought the war was over. We had beaten back the North Koreans. While we were there and General McArthur was having his fight with President Truman, hoards of Chinese, not the lovely Chinese that the distinguished majority leader was talking about, but hoards of Communist Chinese destroyed the entire Eighth Army, and we suffered 90 percent casualties. I do not take Communists lightly. But that was 50 years ago, and now the guy that was shot and was a high school dropout became a Member of this distinguished body, and now this United States is the most powerful country in the world, militarily and economically. And how did we get this way? It is because we do things better. We are better educated, we are better at producing. But in order for us to continue to prosper, we have to have economic growth. We have to find new marketplaces. Yet, all of a sudden, to my shock and surprise, with the exception of Cuba, communism is not the barrier. It is exchange, engagement, and find those marketplaces. How can we afford to ignore over a billion people, knowing that if we ignore them that the Asians and the Europeans will not? We come to the well here with an agreement where we are breaking down the barriers in China. Not in the United States. They have been down. This gives us an opportunity to go into those markets. And I have been throughout the United States. No one challenges me that farmers are begging to get into those markets. Silicon Valley in California, Silicon Alley in New York, farmers, pharmacists, manufacturers, the banking industry, the insurance industry are all asking us to allow them to get there and show how good Americans can really be. We say we would like to do that, but we have deep-seated concerns about the way China treats its people. Well, we do not want to eliminate those concerns. That is why we have locked into place, with the help of the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Levin) and the gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Bereuter), a commission and oversight that if this fails, we will not have. I ask those people that have this compassion and concern for their new-found Communist friends in China, what if these Chinese do everything that we hate for them to do, what do we do when it comes up next year if it is not permanent? Do my colleagues not understand that we would be the bad guys for putting in place an impediment to their getting into the World Trade Organization, but they will get in anyway? We will have no way, except barking at the Moon, to complain about the behavior that we dislike. But I tell my colleagues this. We cannot forget as Americans that we have blemishes on this human rights issue. We have descendants of slaves that sit in this body. We have people here as Members of Congress that 50 years ago could not eat in certain restaurants. We have people living in the United States without educations, without hope, without running water. Mr. Speaker, I have not leaned on one Member in asking them to vote for this bill. I would not think that I am more of an American than they are, but I want to share with my colleagues that when people in certain districts go to sleep dreaming about human rights, they are not thinking about Shanghai; they are thinking about an opportunity in this great country. We are blessed. Let us break down these barriers. Let us be able to go there to China. Let us maintain an annual report, yes; but daily we will monitor the conduct and let us give America an opportunity to be all that she can be. We will show them. Cutting off communication did not work with that Communist, Castro. He has outlived close to 10 Presidents. Do not let it happen in China.

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.