Charlie Rangel

Mr. RANGEL

Mr. RANGEL. Madam Speaker, being the senior member of the New York delegation is a great privilege, but one of the problems you have is that you have a responsibility to lead the tribute to say good-bye to so many New Yorkers who have served the delegation, the Congress, and the country so well. Of course, tonight is one of those nights where one of Congress' greatest Members, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Thomas Manton), has decided after 14 years that he will be going into the private sector. I think the gentleman from New York (Mr. Tom Manton) is the perfect type of New Yorker. He was born in New York, the son of an Irish immigrant family. He went to school in the city of New York and became an attorney. He also was a New York City policeman, and served in my own community in central Harlem, where he was walking the beats of Harlem while I was serving as a desk clerk in the Hotel Teresa. We both were going to law school at the time. He then went into public office, having served 15 years as a member of the New York City Council, and finally came some 14 years ago to join us in the Congress. Tom Manton serves on the Committee on Commerce, which is one of the most important committees in the Congress, but also one of the most important committees for the City of New York dealing with finance, energy environment, health, and a variety of other things that have been so important to our citizens of this city and of the State. In addition to that, he is one of the most powerful political figures. Even though he walks with a soft step and has a velvet glove, he did not epitomize what most people think would be the Democratic county leader. More, he has been pictured as one who has built bridges, made friendships, and as he has done it in the city and in our State, he has also done it in our national conventions and certainly here in the United States Congress. As we all look forward to peace throughout the world, and especially in Ireland, Tom Manton will know as a part of his legacy that he spent a lot of time in trying to reach a peace accord in the land of his forebearers. And so, Tom, it is with heavy heart that we are going to miss your friendship, your camaraderie, we are going to miss your strong support and your leadership that you have given us that serve on other committees, alerting us that matters were coming to the full committee or coming to the floor and working with the House leadership, both Republican and Democrat, to do the best for our country, our Congress, and the great City of New York. We are going to miss you, but fortunately you are not leaving our city. We look forward to working with you and your family. And your loved ones should know that we say thanks for a job that has been well done. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Ackerman) who took this time out for the delegation.

Mr. RANGEL

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, let me first congratulate all of the Members for taking out this special time to talk about the need for education. I was in my office, and just to listen to what the gentleman was saying, we would think this was a developing country where the poor were just begging for education and opportunity and access to job training. We never would think that this was the world leader in trade, or one on which all of the industrialized countries are depending. We would never think that we were the farthest out there in technology. We would think that what we are talking about would be a part of our national security, a part of what was necessary for the health of our great Nation to continue to provide the international leadership that we do, and improve the quality of life for our citizens. Yet I was thinking, if we were talking about increasing the Federal penalties for any crime, or the death penalty, or building more prisons, we would not have to be here late at night, because we would know that these things somehow our Republican friends believe is part of government, that it is a role that we should play, even though most crimes are delegated to the States. Yet, we find that almost every State type of crime is being federalized, until our Federal prisons are bursting at the seams. When we first saw this Contract With America, they were saying that the Federal Government ought to get out of everything: ought to get out of health care, ought to get out of Medicare, ought to get out of social security. Of course, education was not even there, because public education they truly believe we should not be involved in, just provide incentives for the private sector to work its will. I tell the Members this, as we look and see that this great Nation of ours has 1.5 million people locked up in jails, more than any other per capita of any Nation in history, and certainly today, and then we evaluate and get the profile of that prisoner, and see that he or she never really got an education, never had a firm foundation, never had the options for a decent job or a dream or to assimilate into society, and we take a look at the average drug addict or those kids that are getting pregnant, they are not the ones who have had the dreams and hopes that they would have an opportunity in this great Nation to become a part of the middle class system. This number continues to grow, and the prisons continue to be built, and always at the expense of our educational institutions. If we go into any State budget, we would see the relationship between the decrease in the money for education and the increase in the money for incarceration. It just seems to me that whether we are Republican or Democrat, that we should not have to say that we have to stay here until we get more teachers, that we have to stay here until we modernize our classrooms. It seems to me that we would say it is a part of the American dream. It does not have any label on it. We are all winners when people get a better chance to be more effective, more productive, pay more taxes, and have America to maintain its leadership in the world. If we have to stay here, how proud I am to be part of a party where we know how important it is to get elected, but we say that our kids are more important, because that is what we are here for. We are here not only to do for today, but we are here to provide a legacy. Whether we win or lose in November, if they say, why were you in Washington so long, when you should have been back home campaigning, say, we were doing it for the kids. They deserve better than they get. I am proud to be a Member of this House where people do not have to be in the majority in order to be heard. The gentleman is doing great work.

Mr. RANGEL

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to an extraordinary human being and a man who made an enormous contribution to the lives of the people of East Harlem, New York City and State, and the United States, the Reverend Lynn LeRoy Hageman. Reverend Hageman, who died last Saturday evening at the age of 67, was known in New York, the United States and around the world as a pioneer in the area of addict rehabilitation for his integrated, comprehensive approach to helping drug addicts. Reverend Hageman was born in 1931 in Lincoln, Nebraska. In 1956, he received a Bachelor of Divinity from the University of Chicago. Upon graduation, he worked with children in the Department of Welfare in Chicago and at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Chicago, the site of the first church-centered program for addict rehabilitation. In 1959, he moved with his wife Leola and their three children, Erika, Hans and Ivan, to East Harlem, where he began serving as an Evangelical United Brethren minister at the East Harlem Protestant Parish. In 1963, he founded an experimental narcotics program at Exodus House on 103rd Street, between Second Avenue and Third Avenue. There, Reverend Hageman developed a step-by-step approach to rehabilitation, involving total abstinence, spiritual guidance, group therapy and artisan training. The program served thousands of addicts with exceptional rates of success. As a result of his work, Reverend Hageman served on the Mayor's Committee on Narcotics Addiction and frequently appeared in professional journals, newspapers and on television. Reverend Hageman was an active participant in the fight for civil rights and spent time in an Albany, Georgia jail with Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. Even as he was carrying on his work, Reverend Hageman received a Doctor of Ministry from Drew Theological Seminary in 1976. Reverend Hageman was a man of rare courage, intelligence and dedication, whose energy, creativity and perseverance were without limit. His legacy is simple and powerful: he worked tirelessly to improve the lives of others, particularly those women and men who were working to overcome drug addiction. He helped thousands, but approached each as an individual, one by one, step by step. His legacy is also very much alive and can serve as an inspiration to all of us. It is alive in the lives of the thousands of individuals he was able to help, and who are living more fulfilling and productive lives today. It is also alive at Exodus House on 103rd Street. After Reverend Hageman suffered a stroke in 1981, and was unable to carry on his work as fully, his wife Leola reinvented Exodus House as an after- school program for the children of drug addicts. In 1991, his two sons, Hans and Ivan, transformed Exodus House into the East Harlem School, a highly successful middle-school now in its seventh year of operation. Mr. Speaker, the people of the 15th Congressional District, the City of New York and the United States owe Reverend Lynn Hageman a great debt of gratitude for his exceptional life of service to others. Through his work and energy and courage, his warmth and wonderful sense of humor, he was an enormous presence in our community. He will be sorely missed.

Mr. RANGEL

Mr. RANGEL. Madam Speaker, I have no speakers, so I reserve my time at this time.

Mr. RANGEL. No, Madam Speaker.

Mr. RANGEL

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

Mr. RANGEL. Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Michigan (Ms. Stabenow).

Mr. RANGEL. Madam Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Neal). (Mr. NEAl of Massachusetts asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. RANGEL. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Cardin).

Mr. RANGEL. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of the bill before us today. It should have been before this House a long time ago. Provisions such as the research tax credit and work opportunity tax credit should have been extended. A lot of people have depended on it. We Democrats have agreed not to offer any amendments because we believe to do so would have delayed the enactment of this very important legislation. However, in other circumstances there would have been several amendments that we would have proposed. On October 1st of this year, the temporary increase in the rum carry-over provision expired. Failure to extend that temporary increase will have adverse consequences to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. I am very disappointed that we are not able to extend that temporary increase in this bill. Extensions of my qualified zone academy zone program would have been a big step in addressing the large need of school construction and modernization. The provision previously adopted by the House that liberalized the arbitrage rules for school construction bond would do little to meet school construction needs. I am also disappointed that the bill does not extend the welfare to work credit. It expires at the end of April of next year, and realistically there is little prospect for enacting a timely extension next year. There is also broad bipartisan support on this committee for an increase in the low income housing tax credit program. There is no reason why we should not have been able to do that in the context of this legislation. Next year American families with children will be faced with extraordinary complex rules when claiming the child credit enacted last year. There is no justification for the complexity of those rules and this committee should have adopted the legislation of the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Neal) that would waive in tax year 1998 the minimum tax limitation on the child credit. I do not understand why reauthorization of the trade adjustment assistance program for workers and firms which terminated on September 3 was not included in this package. The Senate has a different version of this legislation, and I think the other body's version is far superior to what we have to today, but in particular I support the extension of trade adjustment assistance and the minimum tax waiver contained in the other body's version. I am hopeful that disagreements over the detail of this legislation will not endanger its enactment. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. RANGEL

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, as we approach the end of the 105th Congress, I want to recognize Kathleen Mary O'Connell who served on the Committee on Ways and Means staff from May of 1991--until her recent death from cancer on August 29, 1998. Kathleen's fine reputation and professional skills are well known to all. She was smart, dynamic, charming, quick, a fabulous staffer, an excellent economist, and, most important, a good friend. Our great sense of loss for Kathleen will continue each day. We always will remember Kathleen fondly. Kathleen was a graduate of Smith College, and received her master's degree in economics from Duke University. Thereafter, she worked for fifteen years for the Congressional Budget Office, and then for more than seven years for the Committee on Ways and Means. Kathleen cared about our Federal Government, its programs, and its policies. Most important, Kathleen wanted to make a difference and she did. Kathleen was key staff to all of the tax bills pending before the Committee during her tenure. She provided thorough and critical analyses of the economic, tax, and budgetary implications of legislation under consideration. She argued for fairness and policy decisions that benefitted the average American. Kathleen was a public servant who all of us are proud to have known. On behalf of the Members and staff of the Committee on Ways and Means, I want to say that we will miss you always, Kathleen.

Mr. RANGEL

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I had the privilege of serving on the Watergate Committee on the Judiciary. One difference then, as opposed to now, is that we worked together as Republicans and Democrats to search for the facts and to report to the House of Representatives for them to make a determination. Now, we do not have any question of trying to impeach the President of the United States or protecting the integrity of the Congress or the Constitution. The Republicans do not want to impeach, and would not touch it with a 10-foot political pole. They know at the end of this year that this Congress is over, and they even want to carry this over for the next 2 years, to attempt to hound this president, who has been elected twice, out of office. The reason for it is because it is the only thing they have to take to the American people before this election. What else are they going to take? Their legislative record? The fact that they have renamed National Airport after Ronald Reagan, that they have deep-sixed the tax code to the year 2002? On the question of social security, what have they done? Tried to rape the reserve. What have they done as it relates to minimum wage and providing jobs? What have they done for education? What have they done for the health of the people in this Nation? They are not just going to get elected by hounding the President of the United States, because as they judge the President of the United States, the voters will be judging them on November 3.

Mr. RANGEL

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, let me thank my colleagues for extending the time. I never would have forgiven myself if I had not been here to join with my colleagues to say thank you for the friendship that Jerry has extended to all of us in this Congress. It is great being an American. It is great being a Member of this august body. It is even better being a New Yorker type of an American, but for those people that have never been able to serve in the past, it was a different atmosphere than we have today, and the friendships that we made then have proven that no matter how testy the issue, no matter how partisan the House, it has never really affected the friendships that we have had over the years. In the Rules Committee, whether in the minority or as the chairman, the courtesy, the professionalism that has been extended even when you know that you are not going to get what you want, you leave knowing that you have been treated fairly. Certainly as the dean of the New York State delegation where we have political views from the left and the right, you have been the hub, Jerry, for all of us, because no matter how contentious the issue, you have always maintained a friendship, your smile, and your personality. I would just like to say in closing, however, that once you came to me and indicated that I had been in combat in Korea with the Marines and you were semper fi-ing and everything to me, and I wondered whether or not you really had the right guy and whether you were so friendly because you thought I was in the Marines and I had to tell you, that, no, it was my son that was in the Marines and I was in the Army, and I often wondered as to whether or not it made a difference. But I value your friendship. You have made a great contribution to this House, but more importantly in the lives of those of us who have been fortunate enough to serve, you have made a difference.

Mr. RANGEL

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to a woman whose commitment and unselfish devotion, has helped countless women and their children have a better life as well as a more promising outlook to the future. The woman with a heart of gold of whom I speak is Ruth Lubic. Ruth Lubic, who until recently made her home on Manhattan's Upper West Side, is a nurse-midwife who has come to the nation's capitol with a vision of opening a birthing center in one of the District's poorest neighborhoods. Her need, her aspiration of personally doing something about the city's high infant mortality rate, is evident in her drive, her tenacity, and in her faith in humanity. Allow me to share with you this article about Ruth which recently appeared in The Washington Post. It's a heartwarming story which speaks of how Ruth is truly ``fulfilling a dream.'' [From the Washington Post, Sept. 30, 1998] A Battle Won, a Center Born Nurse-Midwife to Open Birthing Facility for D.C.'s Poor (By Cindy Loose) To explain how she came at age 71 to be opening a birthing center in a poor District neighborhood, Ruth Lubic first has to tell about the things that have been bothering her for decades. The sickly babies she saw in tenement houses during a nurse-midwife career that began in 1961. The child sitting on the floor of a Mississippi sharecropper's cabin, covered with flies, her hair reddened by malnutrition. That visit to Mississippi was 30 years ago, but Lubic chokes on her words and actually cries when she quotes the state health official who told her not to worry so much, that ``some Negroes got red hair.'' When the phone call came five years ago telling her she'd won a MacArthur ``genius grant,'' she knew right away what she would do. She would come to the nation's capital and build a model of infant mortality prevention. Never mind that she was a white-haired grandmother from New York City, a carpetbagger without a building, or millions to run such an operation, or staff, or permits, or city connections. She did have her MacArthur grant of $75,000 a year for five years; she had the power of her convictions. And she's actually pulling it off. This month, the new nonprofit she formed began a $1.2 million renovation of an empty supermarket donated by John Hechinger Sr. and her family partnership. The D.C. Developing Families Center will open on Benning Road NE, across from the Hechinger Mall, in early spring. For the price of a hospital delivery, she and her partners can deliver a baby, offer a wealth of services to the mother and nurture the child for three years. Although it is a far commute from her life and home on Manhattan's Upper West Side, Washington was an easy choice for Lubic. The city's infant mortality rate of 14.4 per 1,000--double the national average--``has always been on my professional conscience,'' Lubic said. Besides a center here would be only a cab ride away from policymakers who might be persuaded to replicate the model nationwide. At a time of life when even the most driven type-A personalities are slowing down, Lubic took on one of her biggest projects ever. Those who have come into her path describe her as single-minded, forceful. She calls herself a ``stubborn old woman.'' Asked why she would take on what seemed an impossible task, she answered: ``People are used to the idea that Ruth is a little crazy. But I'm the age I am, I've had my career, I've been honored and all that. I have nothing to lose.'' Soon after being awarded the Mac-Arthur grant, Lubic quit her job as director of the Maternity Center Association in Manhattan. She and her husband took turns flying between cities for visits. She settled in an apartment in Southwest Washington and launched her assault. Hechinger still seems amazed that he let Lubic talk him out of the building and 1.2 acres of property--land he had planned to develop. He gave it up only after Lubic had badgered him and his real estate manager, Jim Garabaldi, for three solid years. ``We both told her over and over again it would never, never, ever happen,'' Garabaldi said. ``We explained this was our business entity, that as individuals we give charitable contributions, but this is our business here.'' But Lubic quite simply wore them down. ``She can soften you up because she's so intellectually and emotionally sure of the rightness of her cause,'' Hechinger said. ``When she's through with you, you have this guilt feeling. Plus you're shocked at the statistics which prove she's right.'' While she was working on Hechinger, Lubic also was banging on doors all over town. ``The women we'll reach have been put down and let down their whole lives,'' she would say. ``The doors of this building are going to be an escape hatch from despair.'' She haunted the hallways of the Department of Health and Human Services hoping for a chance encounter with Secretary Donna E. Shalala--a tactic that actually worked. Through a friend of a friend, she wrangled a meeting with former HHS secretary Louis W. Sullivan. Over breakfast, she turned him into a major fund-raiser who helped her match a $785,000 grant within a three-month deadline. She made city contacts from the bottom up. When a taxi driver protested that it was too dangerous to drive her to an evening community meeting in a tough neighborhood, she told him, ``If I can go, then you can go, so let's go.'' Over the course of the years, people mighty and small fell under the spell of her vision--or in some cases simply gave up trying to thwart her. As Hechinger put it, ``I personally was a victim of her strongest characteristic: tenacity. She's a bulldog who envelops you in the rightness of her cause.'' Thick wire cables dangled in the dark, empty shell boarded up with plywood. Glass crackled underfoot as fellow visionary Delores Farr walked a few paces and paused. ``I want you to know I'm standing in my office,'' she said. ``Your office is closer to that window, isn't it?'' Lubic asked, pointing toward a blank concrete wall. Down there on one end, where the store's dairy section once was located, will be the entrance for pregnant women coming for delivery or pre- or postnatal care. Women needing social services and day care will enter on the other side. High-risk patients will deliver at Howard University Hospital, where nurse-midwives will have admitting privileges. It's not surprising that Lubic and Farr can visualize in the dark shell a bright center bustling with patients and clients. Both could see it in their minds before they'd even identified a site. In 1994, a friend told Lubic that she should look up Farr, director of the Healthy Babies Project, a private nonprofit group. Farr and her workers walk the streets of tough neighborhoods. They visit crack houses, liquor stores, beauty shops--anywhere they might find a pregnant woman and persuade her to get prenatal care. They offer parenting classes, counseling, help with obtaining addiction treatment. Lubic's birthing center, Farr agreed, would be a perfect place to relocate. ``Meeting Ruth was like a dream come true,'' Farr said. ``We immediately saw eye to eye on the needs and issues. We've been joined at the hip ever since.'' There were so many obstacles--getting a place and raising millions of dollars was just the start. They needed all kinds of permits from D.C. health officials, building officials, zoning officials. They needed assurances of Medicaid reimbursement, legal help, partnership with a hospital. People told them it would never happen. You can't even get potholes around here fixed, they said. You'll never get a big, complicated project like this rising out of nothing. But they kept on pushing with the plan. They will get to pregnant women early through the Healthy Babies outreach. The birthing center, Lubic hopes, will give women more control over their pregnancies. And because birthing center deliveries cost 30 to 60 percent less than hospital deliveries, she said, the savings could help fund other services. Lubic managed to persuade city officials to designate her still-imaginary center as a future welfare-to-work site. Still, they would need day care for the clients for whom they found jobs. So in 1996, Lubic and Farr met with Travis Hardmon, of the National Child Day Care Association. At that point, the center lived only in their imaginations, but how would he feel, they asked, about organizing child care for infants and toddlers? ``His eyes lit up,'' Lubic said. ``Since then, he's been the answer to a maiden's prayer.'' And although Lubic had been told 100 times that she couldn't have the Hechinger property, that didn't stop anybody on the new team. ``Travis brought in Bill Davis, and things then really started coming together,'' Lubic said. Davis, a project manager with nonprofit development experience, couldn't get inside the building, but from outside the chain-link fence, he studied the property and pictured the renovations. And Lubic turned up the heat on Hechinger and Garibaldi. Initially, the property manager refused even to put her in touch with Hechinger. But she kept coming back, and coming back. ``One day, somehow, she got me to see her vision,'' Geribaldi said. He began to lobby members of Hechinger Enterprises, the family partnership, as did Lubic's new friends. ``Things were constantly cropping up where I'd say, `Oh no, Ruth Lubic again, ' '' Hechinger said. ``Donna Shalala called and said, `I'm really not in a position to tell you what to do with your property, but this is a tremendous thing Ruth Lubic is up to.' '' While the Hechinger family considered various proposals at quarterly meetings, Lubic handed planning grants from two national foundations and an anonymous donor. The first big breakthrough came about a year ago when city officials discovered that millions in unspent grants were about to revert to the federal government unless quickly allocated. ``We ran like crazy'' to put together a proposal, Lubic said. The city awarded $785,000 on the condition that the money be matched within a few months--a seemingly impossible goal. But Sullivan, the former HHS secretary, soon became the second answer to a maiden's prayer. Sullivan now president of the Morehouse School of Medicine, had agreed to a friend's request to meet with Lubic. ``I was immediately impressed and began introducing her to people I know,'' he said. He contacted a friend at Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., Dick Thompson, who secured a donation from his company. Thompson then got his friends at other drug companies to arrange corporate donations. Sullivan said a lawyer friend set up a meeting for him with Katharine Graham, chairman of the executive committee of The Washington Post Co. Two foundations set up in honor of her parents and husband donated a total of $100,000. Lubic's former employer in New York kicked in another $100,000, law firms helped and the match was made. Sullivan is still working on the case. ``A few days ago on Martha's Vineyard, I ran into a few people and asked for their help. [Del.] Eleanor Holmes Norton, for one, indicated she'd follow up.'' A $1.2 million grant awarded last month by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation will help with operating costs. The building donated by the Hechinger family came with a contingency clause--that Lubic would run the center for at least three years. ``I laughed when I heard the condition and answered, `God willing, Lubic said. Her son, Douglas, a New York lawyer said Hechinger can count on Lubic to presevere. ``The day she stops working for what she believes is right,'' he said. ``will be the day she dies.''

Mr. RANGEL

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to my dear friend, Eugene McCabe, who passed away September 29th at the age of 61. Fulfilling his commitment to the health needs of his community, Mr. McCabe, against all odds, conceived and built a first-class hospital in Harlem, in the center of my Congressional District. Friends have used words like ``dogged persistence'' to describe the passion that drove him. Above all, he was a man who loved his family, his people and his community, and was determined to do the best for them. I am proud to honor Mr. McCabe who made a difference in his life and has left a precious legacy for future generations. I commend to my colleagues the following tribute by Jack Newfield which appeared in the New York Post. [From the New York Post, Oct. 5, 1998] City Lost True Hero With Hospital Head's Death (By Jack Newfield) Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa are great, but they are not the only heroes in the world. There are quiet heroes on a smaller scale all over this city. It's just that their good works don't get on television and are not performed before 50,000 fans. One such hero of the city died the other day. His name is Gene McCabe, and the whole city should know his name, and know his story. I knew Gene McCabe for 15 years. He was a dignified healer in a vulgar time. He was a long-distance runner in a season of sprinters. McCabe founded and ran a great hospital called North General in Harlem, an institution that saved lives, created 2,000 jobs, revived a whole neighborhood, built housing and survived constant fiscal crises. In the plague years of AIDS, crack, and health-care budget cuts, McCabe's hospital provided the best possible care to the poor dependent on Medicare and Medicaid. You should know three things about Gene McCabe that made him tick. He was a Marine. He was a climber of mountains. And his role model was his own father, a respected civic leader in New Haven. Gene died at 61, in the hospital he created. When he was told his breast cancer was terminal, he asked to die in his own hospital, surrounded by his own employees. Gene could have been anything in Harlem. He was smart, efficient, honest and wonderful with people. Mayor Dinkins offered him a big job with a car and driver, but he said no, thanks. The Clinton administration wanted him to run the Harlem Empowerment Zone, but North General was his mission. He was the sort of inner-directed man who did not need the external validation of reading his name in the papers, or sitting on the dais of banquets honoring him. Creating a first-rate hospital in Harlem was Gene's dream nobody could defer. It was his flower in the sun he did not let dry up. A professionally managed, community-oriented hospital became Gene's dream in 1979, when the Hospital for Joint Diseases abandoned Harlem, and the city targeted Sydenham Hospital for closing. The dream came true only after repeated brushes, with extinction. The hospital didn't make financial sense on paper. But you can't quantify determination and sacrifice on paper. The hospital opened with no assets. It averted bankruptcy in 1988 with $150 million in state bonds, arranged by Mario Cuomo and the late David Axelrod. At one point the hospital couldn't maintain a bank account because there was a lien by the IRS. Gene had spent his last dollar for medicine and gurneys. At another point, Gene had to persuade Dennis Rivera, the militant leader of the hospital workers' union, to forgive a debt of $6 million to the union's pension fund, so the hospital could stay open. ``I loved Gene,'' Rivera said yesterday. ``I would not have done this for any other hospital CEO. Gene was so honest. He had no patronage at that hospital. It wasn't like Lincoln or Kings County.'' Recently, North General received a 98 percent rating for the quality of its care from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations. This put North General in the top 4 percent of 5,200 hospitals surveyed--amazing for an institution where 90 percent of patients are on Medicare or Medicaid. ``The morale of my members is so wonderful at North General,'' Rivera said. ``That's why we forgave the debt.'' Every day, Gene was the last person to leave the hospital. The women who changed the bedpans say Gene knew their names and asked about their family problems. They saw him mop up spills and pick up pieces of paper. North General had so many near-death experiences, the staff adopted the Motown song ``Ain't No Stopping Us Now'' as its theme song. The board of directors sang it after every rescue. Basil Paterson, the former deputy mayor, was Gene's best friend, and the lawyer for the hospital. ``It was Gene's competitiveness that saved the hospital,'' Paterson said yesterday. ``Gene was normally gentle and diplomatic,'' Paterson recalled, ``but I once saw him climb over a table to assault the executive of another hospital who was jeopardizing North General's chances for survival. ``He was so wise, and discreet, I told him all my secrets,'' the elder statesman of Harlem politics added, famous himself for secret-keeping and wisdom. ``Gene is irreplaceable,'' he added with a sad sigh. Yesterday I visited the spotless hospital with artworks in the lobby, and spoke to Gene's widow, Elsie Crum. She told me the story of how, years ago, Gene befriended a young woman he met bagging groceries at a local Harlem supermarket. Gene became her mentor, and now this woman is about to graduate from Harvard Medical School. She could work anywhere in the nation. But she is coming back to Harlem, to work at North General. That's the kind of hospital it is. That's the kind of human being Gene McCabe was.

Mr. RANGEL

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

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield the balance of my time to the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Gephardt) our Democratic leader.

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Moran).

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Minge).

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Price). (Mr. PRICE of North Carolina asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Ford).

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Bonior), our distinguished Democratic whip.

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Florida (Mrs. Thurman) from the Committee on Ways and Means.

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Edwards).

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Baesler).