Charlie Rangel

Mr. RANGEL

Mr. RANGEL. Once again, I want to thank Judge Congresswoman Fudge for taking the time out as well as our leader, Barbara Lee, for showing the depth of commitment that we in the Congressional Black Caucus have not only for our communities, which traditionally, historically have borne the blunt of historic economic setbacks, but for the entire country, because in my experience, it appears as though our great Nation's national security is at stake. We can talk about the terrorists, we can talk about those that are out to destroy our way of life, but we can destroy our own way of life because what made America great is not the bankers. It is those people that thought in this great country that they could aspire, that they could work hard and there would be no limits on what they can achieve. But unemployment is more than a statistic. Loss of a job means more than losing your house and losing your health care. It also means losing your dignity. And I cannot foresee how it's possible to have an economic recovery and have a jobless state of the economy. It seems to me that more important than the exchange of stock showing that America is willing to take risk is, what does America think about its hope, its future for its children? It seems to me that what makes America so great is what we think we can achieve. And whether you talk about current unemployment, you have to consider those people who had no hope before the setback. What happens to a person that is not included in the statistic? What happens to a person that knows there's no job at the unemployment office? What happens to a person that has given up hope? Even if the so-called economy recovers, where will their will be to exercise the skill that perhaps has been lost? And how do you regain hope once that is lost. And so what I hope that we understand as a Nation is that it is not just those who are suffering out there, who are losing sometimes their family as well as their jobs, but it happens to be something that's going to affect the well-off, because the more we expand those people who have no money to spend, the more our small business people have no reason to be in existence. And so we can talk about the stock market, but the world is not turning on our stock market; it's turning on the will of the American people. Internationally, if we begin to look, as we have in so many communities, as a developing nation, not having the will, not having the resources, not being able to feed our children, not being able to provide health care for our children, what is the difference in a mother or father's heart whether you are in a developing country, whether it's in the Middle East, whether it's in Africa; the love for your children has to be the same no matter what country you're in. If you can't feed your child, if you can't encourage your child, if you can't educate your child, if you can't point out how great your country is in terms of opportunity, then what makes us different as a great nation from those who are trying to achieve economic leverage? And so, even though the hour is late, and I am late in getting here, make no mistake about it that you will be hearing from the Congressional Black Caucus every day, whether it's going to be on the floor, whether it's going to be in our districts, because there is something that brings us here more than just our conscience; it's that most of us know exactly what unemployment and the pain of unemployment is, the loss of dignity of unemployment. And then we have our families, and then we have our communities. And so we really believe that for those people that believe that we don't understand, before this Congress ends, the President and this Congress, we truly understand that this is a threat to our national security, and as Americans, as patriots, and as those who advocate a strong economy and a strong workforce, we will be glad to let you know that we will be doing all and everything that we can, and we've got to get the job done. Thank you so much for yielding me this time. Madam Speaker, the recent November jobs report offers encouraging signs that the Recovery Act is indeed working and that the economy has started to grow. Over the last three months, job losses have come down to the lowest level in two years. But the report is also a sobering reminder of the need to continue to advance policies that stimulate job creation and support the needs of American families and businesses that are struggling. Nearly 16 million Americans are jobless, up 558,000 from last month. Unemployment is more than just a number--it's a measure of suffering. It's that many more children living in poverty. It's that many more families subsisting off of food stamps, which now feed 1 in every 8 Americans and nearly 1 in every 4 children. An economic recovery plan focused on salvaging Wall Street, credit- frozen banks, and slumping American automakers--while all right and good--is not a meaningful recovery if it does not help struggling families. That's why the Obama Administration, in addition to all of its great work in turning this economy around, hosted a jobs summit last week aimed at putting Americans back to work, and I am looking forward to working with the President to do just that. President Obama's Recovery Act has already resulted in as many as 1.6 million Americans gaining jobs. But unemployment remains at crisis levels. In New York City, the jobless rate for people 16 and over has increased over the past year by 73.7 percent. Half of the city's residents who are near poverty report experiencing three or more hardships at once, including falling behind on rent, not filling a prescription, or being unable to purchase enough food. The President's efforts to stave off depression and economic collapse have helped, but millions of Americans are saying, ``Tell that to my landlord.'' Rebounding economic statistics mean little when so many Americans are still struggling economically. Over the course of the next few weeks, creating jobs will be my first and foremost priority. I look forward to working with the President and my colleagues in Congress, including members of the Congress Black Caucus. African American and Latino families are among those that suffer the most from a recession because they are disproportionately impacted by a weak economy and do not have the safety net enjoyed by others. The unemployment rate for all African-Americans is about 50 percent higher than the nation as a whole, and more than 1 in 4 low-income Latinos in New York reported losing their jobs in the past year. We must offer fresh and bold solutions to cultivate an economy that works for us all. Not just the wealthy. Not just the politically connected. But all of us. Not only is America hurting; so are our kids. New York City has 200,000 disconnected youth on its streets, kids ages 16 to 24 not in school and without employment. New York houses more kids in state prisons than it does on college campuses. Nowadays, it isn't just high school dropouts who are out of work. Americans from all economic groups are falling prey to a shrinking workforce, whether it's the hospital worker laid off after toiling at the same job for decades, or the college graduate having a tough time finding a job. In fact, Black college graduates are having a tougher time finding employment than their White counterparts, both those with and without a degree. We are all vulnerable, and we all deserve a helping hand in pulling through these difficult times. There can be no excess of good ideas to combat this crisis sweeping our nation. One thing we can do, and do immediately, is extend unemployment insurance. It is urgent that we provide out-of-work Americans with instant relief. Additionally, the White House has committed itself to expanding green job opportunities through the Recovery through Retrofit program. These are good green jobs that can't be outsourced. We must enact aggressive measures aimed at employing our young people at this critical time. The Administration is launching its ``Educate to Innovate'' campaign to improve participation and performance in the sciences through partnerships with foundations, nonprofits, and science and engineering societies. National service programs must be well funded, and we must develop an ambitious strategy to urge our youth to participate in them. In the House, I am working with my Democratic colleagues on a jobs package that would include additional funding for infrastructure projects, like highway construction and renovation, bonds for building schools, and the expansion of the successful Build America Bonds program, already funding several infrastructure projects across the country. These projects are designed to put Americans immediately to work, all while making America safer and stronger. In an effort to boost small business creation and tackle credit- freeze, we are anticipating expanding small business loans, providing fixes for community banks, and extending small business and bonus depreciation provisions from the stimulus package. Even the creation of green empowerment zones--those areas where at least 50 percent of the population has an unemployment rate higher than the state average-- would provide tax incentives to businesses that hire individuals who live and work in those areas that are most suffering. We are in the midst of a national emergency, but as a unified people, looking after each other, we will get through this stronger and far more prosperous.

Mr. RANGEL

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 968, I want to make it clear, had I been here, I would have voted in the affirmative.

Mr. RANGEL

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 955, I call up the bill (H.R. 4213) to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to extend certain expiring provisions, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I ask that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous material in the Record.

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, this package of extensions of legislation that are about to expire represents the real need for tax reform in this country. I have talked with the Ways and Means Committee ranking member to see whether or not our leadership can agree that the taxpayer really deserves better than this and should be able to depend on some continuity in the law. To that extent, we will be sending to the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation all of these extenders that we hope will be supported overwhelmingly today to better advise us how we can get on with the tax reform to make certain that certain things like research and development and other great things that we have in this package would be made permanent, so that the taxpayers, corporate and private, would know what they can depend on, instead of just relying on the constant extensions which have passed this body before. So along with Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Camp, we ask that this committee take this up. And also we want to make it clear that the contents of this bill and the understandings of legislative intent is available on the Joint Committee's Web site, www.jct.gov. And it's listed under the document number JCX-60-09. This list of bills, as I said, concerns very important legislation, and our committee has worked very hard on this legislation. Mr. Speaker, I would like permission for the balance of my time to be turned over to Richard Neal, who heads up a special subcommittee on our Ways and Means Committee, who spent a great deal of time evaluating what we should do, along with Congressman Levin and other members of the Ways and Means Committee, and with your permission and the permission of the House, I'd like to yield the balance of the time that I have to Congressman Neal.

Mr. RANGEL. Yes, I will.

Mr. RANGEL. Yes, I yield to the gentleman.

Mr. RANGEL. The gentleman from Alaska is correct. I look forward to working with him on this important legislation for the Alaska Native community; and when the committee considered this and other provisions that have a later termination, all the other provisions we plan to take up with priority. And I thank you for bringing this to my attention.

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Neal for the fantastic job he has done, along with my good friend Mr. Levin, for presenting the position of the Ways and Means Committee, which, Republican or Democrat, we are so proud to be a part of. We have produced for this Congress $30 billion of benefits to the American people. Some may be critical because it's only for 1 year, but I think we have made it abundantly clear that because we are on the brink of reform of the entire system, as Mr. Levin said, we've got to study this to evaluate how we can better serve our teachers, our State and local governments in order to make certain that the things that everybody here is in support of can be made permanent so that they can plan and understand exactly where this Congress is coming from for the people of the United States. It's interesting to note that the opposition to this bill, nobody has criticized any of the benefits that are in this extender bill. Let me say this again. This is a very, very unique thing that would happen in the Halls of Congress. The bill that we are presenting and asking for an affirmative vote, H.R. 4213, there is no criticism of any provisions of the benefits that are in this legislation. I'm going to rest for a moment and let that sink in. The opposition to this bill, it appears to me from listening to the responses from my Republican friends, is that their problem is that we don't want to increase the deficit. Their problem is they just don't like the way we are indeed closing the loopholes. When we say, We're closing loopholes, they say, You are raising taxes. You bet your life we are. We are getting the resources that America deserves by fairness and equities in the tax system. There's no way to clean up the tax system without making those who should be paying taxes to pay it. So if indeed you have some criticism of the loopholes that we're closing, let's take a look at the loopholes. That sounds fair, because my friends have not been talking about the benefits in these bills. My friends on the other side are talking about taxes. If you want to make this a case of forgetting all of these good people that deserve and relied on the extension and make this a tax reform argument--which I really think should be at another time and another place. I really think that tax reform really deserves the study, the research, and the debate so at the end of the day we don't have a Democratic tax bill. This country deserves a bipartisan tax bill, because there's going to be pain in it; because every time we try to bring equity into it, if the other side is to say I don't have any tax reform, but you're raising taxes by cutting away a lot of benefits that we say people don't deserve, and you say that we're increasing taxes. Well, let's talk about it. A part of this good bill is being funded so that we don't have a deficit by making certain that, during this time of war, American taxpayers don't avoid their fair share of taxes and they get together in an unpatriotic way and pick foreign countries to determine how they can avoid American taxes and pick foreign countries to invest in and put foreign countries that really are not concerned with our need for jobs and equity but they're concerned with greed for their stockholders and corporations. Did one Republican get up and say this is a good thing? And I would yield to anyone on the other side who wants to say it is not a good thing to go after these people who are taking advantage of our law. So we can't reform it all at one time, but we can knock out these things where people are taking unfair advantage of our Tax Code. The other issue, which made me think in listening to the response to this extender bill where hardly anyone talked about the benefits, seemed to be centered around some tax provision that is commonly referred to as carried interest. It seems as though the minority is saying that there's a certain group of people that do work and they're entitled to get compensation for their work. For those who think this is a complicated issue, it is not. It means that we really think as a body that those people who take outstanding risk, who are not employees but are adventurous, creative people, that they be given 15 percent, a lower tax rate than 35 percent. And we're saying that those people who put capital in, who work in order to develop jobs in whatever they want to develop, if their money is in, they should get a 15 percent tax cut because they took risks. Anybody who doesn't put money in here that becomes a partnership and acts like they're taking risk should not be able to enjoy this benefit. So I do hope that you consider the weight of the debate and then vote accordingly.

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

Mr. RANGEL

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 941, I call up the bill (H.R. 4154) to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to repeal the new carryover basis rules in order to prevent tax increases and the imposition of compliance burdens on many more estates than would benefit from repeal, to retain the estate tax with a $3,500,000 exemption, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous material in the Record.

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I, along with Ways and Means Ranking Member David Camp, have asked the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation to make available to the public a technical explanation of the bill. The technical explanation expresses the committee's understanding and the legislative intent behind this important legislation. It is available on the Joint Committee's Web site at www.jct.gov and is listed under document No. JCX-57-09. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 4154, a bill that would provide permanent, responsible estate tax relief to taxpayers. This is a rough time for us in this great country in terms of joblessness, hopelessness. And the Congress has to work together as one unit with the President in order to restore confidence among the millions of people that today find themselves without jobs. In order to do this, we have to work at everything that we can to make certain that those that are in the position to create jobs that we give them the tools to work with so that we can get people off the unemployment lines and back into business. Members of Congress hear every day from their constituents how difficult it is to keep up with the current state of our tax laws as a result of the temporary nature of so many provisions in the Internal Revenue Code. So not only is there an argument in terms of what the rate should be in terms of estate tax relief, but there's an argument, for God's sake, do something. And that is why the Ways and Means Committee has agreed that we have to give a stable tax program that our business people can rely on and plan on so that we can bring stability to industry and get our people back to work. The majority of the provisions included in 2001 and 2003 were made temporary because there was an intent that we review the estate tax. And Members are familiar with the extending of expiring tax provisions, ultimately reducing them, and we are here to make certain that the doubts as to where we're going to go will be eliminated. So this week we have some certainty in our Tax Code as we enact a permanent extension of the 2009 estate tax exemption, and certainly people would see that it wasn't an easy decision to find what was compatible with most of the people in this House, but the work of Earl Pomeroy that he has done over the years and the suggestions that he's made, the people that he's talked with, allow us to say that we have made the best possible arrangement so that people would know what they should expect as it relates to estate tax. Mr. Speaker, I yield the balance of my time to the gentleman from North Dakota (Mr. Pomeroy) for him to be able to appoint Members as he sees fit.

Mr. RANGEL

Mr. RANGEL. Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize World AIDS Awareness Day. This awareness initiative started on December 1, 1988 with the purpose of raising money, increasing awareness, fighting prejudice, and improving education on HIV/AIDS topics. The World AIDS Day theme for 2009 is ``Universal Access and Human Rights,'' serving as an important reminder that HIV/AIDS has not gone away, and that there are many things still to be done. According to the United Nations Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS, there are 33.4 million cases of HIV/AIDS worldwide. Approximately 1.1 million of these cases are in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and there are more than 50,000 new HIV/ AIDS infections reported each year in America. Sadly, minority communities face the brunt of its reach. African American are the most affected, representing half of the total 1.1 million cases in the United States. Blacks are 8 times more likely to have AIDS than their White counterparts. The racial disparities are clear, with HIV being the main cause of death for both Black men and women between the ages of 25 to 44. It is of utmost importance that we take action and stand together to stop this pandemic from spreading further. Congress has played its part in trying to stop the HIV/AIDS epidemic. I applaud the House for passing the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act. The Ryan White program has been serving people with AIDS and HIV for nearly two decades. It provides care, treatment, and support services to nearly half a million people--most of whom are low- income. This bill increases the authorization level for each part of the Ryan White program by 5 percent a year for the next four years, making important investments in care and treatment services to ensure the highest quality of life for HIV/AIDS patients, while also funding prevention and outreach programs. I have myself introduced H.R. 1964, The National Black Clergy for the Elimination of HIV/AIDS Act of 2009, which seeks funds for the prevention, testing, education, treatment and care of HIV/AIDS. Although great efforts have been made to fight HIV/AIDS, much is left to be done by both, the government and citizens. World AIDS Awareness Day is about prevention, education, and increasing awareness of this pandemic that is affecting millions around the globe. This day will bring to many the education necessary to create the awareness necessary to prevent HIV/AIDS, as well as give us a moment to recognize and remember those who have suffered from this disease.

Mr. RANGEL

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 3961, and I feel so proud that the Ways and Means Committee was able to make a contribution with the other two committees, Education and Labor as well as Energy and Commerce, to bring the John Dingell medical reform bill before this House and before this country. What it does, really, is a new way to provide health care that is perfected in such a way that the patients are able to get medical care before they become patients, have preventative care, to provide for new doctors to be able to be made, and to get rid of a flawed physician payment system that, indeed, will strengthen the Medicare program. At the end of the day when you hear the opposition, most all of their comments are going to be negative and saying ``no.'' Even when we make our case as to why we should fulfill our obligation to the doctors, they will make some decisions here, procedure decisions, which my friend Mr. Barton gets fed up with, but I assume he will be leading the race and saying that there should be a way to resubmit this bill to the committees to do something all over again. If that is the case, I am certain that the American Medical Association as well as the older people and those people who need these doctors will not have to fear anything because their answer to this will be rejected, and once again we will be able to fulfill the promise that we made with the health bill by making certain they have doctors in order to support it. At this time, Mr. Speaker, I yield the balance of my time to Chairman Pete Stark, who has made such an important contribution over the years to reform our health system, and I ask unanimous consent that he be allowed to control that time.

Mr. RANGEL

Mr. RANGEL. Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize Breast Cancer Awareness Month. As the month draws to a close, it is important that we acknowledge the impact that breast cancer has had on both women and men in our country. This October marks the 25th anniversary of the inaugural National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, celebrating a quarter century of awareness, education, and empowerment. Each year, approximately 200,000 women and 1,700 men are diagnosed with breast cancer and more than 40,000 women and 450 men die from it. Breast cancer is sadly the most common cancer in women in the United States, but fortunately, there are about 2.5 million breast cancer survivors living in the United States today. This disease affects the lives of so many women and their loved ones, and it is of the utmost importance that the public is aware of current information and treatment options. I commend organizations like Susan G. Komen for the Cure, and others, for its dedication to educating the citizens of our community and keeping them updated on the status of relevant research. I appreciate its commitment to providing more opportunities for individuals to learn about the disease, by spreading the message of prevention and awareness to wider audiences. In order to prevent breast cancer, we must increase our awareness, which makes research, early detection, and treatment all the more important as a woman's best defenses in the fight against this deadly disease. In acknowledging and honoring Breast Cancer Awareness Month, doing so, we will educate our loved ones across the Nation--many mothers, sisters, and friends--on the importance of early detection, so that we may prevent as many women from dying as possible.

Mr. RANGEL

Mr. RANGEL. Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize the SLE Lupus Foundation and the Lupus Cooperatives of New York for their contributions to help people with lupus and for fighting gender and racial disparities in the treatment of lupus for almost 40 years. Systemic lupus erythematosus, SLE, commonly called lupus, is a chronic and potentially fatal autoimmune disorder. It is one of the Nation's least recognized major diseases, and it disproportionately affects women, particularly women of color. In lupus, the body's immune system forms antibodies that can attack virtually any healthy organ or tissue, from the kidneys to the brain, heart, lungs, skin, joints and blood. Lupus is a leading cause of cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, and stroke in young women. No major new treatments for lupus have been approved in 50 years. The SLE Lupus Foundation, headquartered in New York City with a West Coast division in Los Angeles, was founded in 1970. It is a nonprofit organization that provides direct patient services, education, public awareness, and funding for novel lupus research on the national level. The Foundation deals with the predominance and severity of such lupus complications as kidney and cardiac disease in Blacks, Hispanics, Asians and people of other racial and ethnic backgrounds. Madam Speaker, in 1998, the SLE Lupus Foundation opened the first Lupus Cooperative of New York in East Harlem. The Lupus Cooperative programs ensure that people of lupus receive the medical treatment, emotional care and practical assistance needed to live with this chronic disease, no matter their gender, or ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. Over the past decade, the Lupus Cooperatives have focused on communities characterized by high poverty rates, large numbers of uninsured residents, numerous single-parent families and a population at highrisk for lupus. They have worked actively to address gender and racial health disparities by demonstrating a collaborative model for the management of chronic illness among young, inner-city minority women. The SLE Lupus Foundation is a member organization of the Lupus Research Institute National Coalition, which has affiliate organizations nationwide. Through the Lupus Research Institute National Coalition, the SLE Lupus Foundation has created visibility for the needs of underserved populations through awareness-building, advocacy and direct education programs on a national, state and local level. Highlights of accomplishments include: ``Invisible No More'' forum on race and lupus at the Congressional Black Caucus Annual Legislative Conference in 2004; Educational panel on heart disease and lupus presented at the Congressional Black Caucus Annual Legislative Conference in 2005; Spanish language public awareness campaign to alert Hispanic women to the dangers of lupus in 2005; Congressional briefing on racial disparity in lupus to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus in 2006; Five-City series on the increased risk of heart disease in people with lupus, particularly young women and African-American women. That was presented in conjunction with the Association of Black Cardiologists in 2007. The series was held in New York City, San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Detroit; National Lupus Health Education for Physicians and Health Care Providers--in partnership with the Office of Minority Health and Human Services. Madam Speaker, the SLE Lupus Foundation has accomplished and will continue to accomplish great things for people with lupus. I am grateful to the SLE Foundation and the Lupus Cooperative of New York for the work that they do to help people with lupus nationwide.

Mr. RANGEL

Mr. RANGEL. Madam Speaker, I rise with great pride to join New York Democratic County Leader Keith L.T. Wright and the Harlem Council of Elders to pay tribute to Egyptologist and Pan-Africanist, Dr. Yosef A.A. Ben-Jochannan (Dr. Ben), Harlem's internationally renowned historian and educator of the African Diaspora. In 1918, Dr. Yosef A.A. Ben-Jochannan, affectionately known as Dr. Ben was born in Gondar, Ethiopia to Krstan ben Jochannan, a lawyer and diplomat, and Tulia Matta, a native of Puerto Rico, who was a homemaker and midwife. Dr. Ben's parents were both of the Jewish faith. His father was a member of the ``Falasha,'' or Beta Israel, and his mother was a descendent of Spanish Sephardic Jews. Krstan ben and Tulia met in Madrid, Spain, where she was attending college and he was working as a diplomatic attache. Soon after their marriage, they traveled from Spain to Ethiopia where their son, Yosef, was born. In Ethiopia, he spent the first five years of his life, later on moving to the Americas. He said in later interviews that, in the 1920s, the Ethiopian government sent his father to Brazil to help develop its coffee trade. They lived for about a year in Rio de Janeiro before a 1928 coup in Ethiopia saw the overthrow of Empress Zauditu and the consolidation of power under Emperor Haile Selassie. After the change in political leadership, the family decided not to return to Ethiopia but instead settled permanently in Puerto Rico. Yosef was raised primarily in the town of Fajardo, located on the eastern side of Puerto Rico, and the nearby islands of St. Croix and St. Thomas, where his mother had relatives. He was thus fluent in Spanish and English from an early age. Dr. Ben attended the University of Puerto Rico at Rio Piedras, where he first studied law, but later switched to civil engineering. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1939. In his senior year of college Dr. Ben wrote and self-published a booklet titled Nosotros los Hebreos Negros (We the Black Hebrews) about his experience growing up black and Jewish on a predominately Catholic island where at the time people of African ancestry were commonly viewed as inferior. Dr. Ben's father was fluent in several languages and often spoke with his son about the significance of Ethiopia's ancient past. However, at school and in the community, he frequently heard the view that Africa was a backward and wretched continent. In response to this, his father sent him to visit his grandparents in Ethiopia, where he stayed for several months. To get there, Dr. Ben traveled by ship to Egypt, then took a train through that country to Ethiopia, and thus began his lifelong fascination with Africa's 4,000-mile-long Nile Valley. Upon his return to Puerto Rico, he worked briefly as a lawyer and in 1941 moved to New York City with his maternal uncle, Casper Holstein, a self-made millionaire and philanthropist who had become rich from the Harlem ``numbers racket.'' Holstein was one of the largest contributors to Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association, and was also politically active in his native Virgin Islands. Dr. Ben gained a unique insight into the rich cultural milieu of black New York, including its lively street life, informal ``numbers'' lotteries, street-corner preachers, and politics. At the time, Harlem was the epicenter of African American activism in support of Ethiopia, which had been invaded and occupied by Italy under Benito Mussolini during World War II. Although the occupation ended the year he arrived in New York, Dr. Ben joined the Ethiopian World Federation and African Nationals in America. Ben Jochannan initially found work as a draftsman, but he was drawn to the study of Africa and its ancient history. He began to speak on Harlem street corners, mostly about African history, taking part in a tradition of public speechmaking that was one of the neighborhood's unique attributes, joining such noteworthy contemporaries as Arthur Reid, Carlos Cooks, and Wentworth Matthew. He then came to know several members of the Harlem History Club's leading intellectuals and historians such as John Henrik Clarke, J. A. Rogers, John G. Jackson, and Richard B. Moore. During the late 1940s, Dr. Ben met and befriended a young man known as ``Detroit Red,'' who used to hustle on the corner below his Harlem office. Their friendship deepened after ``Detroit Red'' joined the Nation of Islam in prison, returning to Harlem as Malcolm X. They remained close up until Malcolm's assassination in 1965. Through this early period of his life in the United States, Dr. Ben maintained the Jewish faith of his upbringing, attending Harlem's Commandment Keeper's Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation led by Rabbi Wentworth A. Matthew and other synagogues. In New York, he continued to struggle as he had in Puerto Rico, with the prevailing societal presumption that tended to question his identity as an African Jew; while at the same time, his study of ancient Egyptian history and spiritual practices was having an ever increasing impact on his thinking. He later wrote in several of his books, his differences with other Jews and his intense identification with the African American struggle eventually caused his complete break with Western man's Talmudic Judaism. In the 1950s, Dr. Ben worked as a researcher for UNESCO and with the Zanzibar mission to the United Nations until that country merged with Tanganyika to become Tanzania in 1961. He later began teaching as an adjunct professor in New York, mostly as a lecturer on African history at such schools as Marymount College at Tarrytown and at Columbia Teacher's College. In 1957, Dr. Ben led a group of nine African American educators to Egypt to show evidence of his contention that sites such as Abu Simbel, the temple of Isis at Philae Island, and the royal tombs of the Valley of the Kings were the remains of ancient black civilizations. He began a series of these trips over the years, and by his estimation led several thousand African Americans to Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia over the next four decades. The trips not only facilitated his own study and writing, but they came to be a major part of his legacy as a teacher and contributor. In 1960, Dr. Ben self- published his first work produced in the United States, entitled, ``Black Man of the Nile,'' which he sold for $5 a copy at Lewis Michaux's National Memorial African Bookstore on Lenox Avenue. In 1961, he married Gertrude England, of St. Croix. The couple would go on to have nine daughters and three sons. They also adopted six other children. Throughout his career as a writer and teacher, Dr. Ben remained a fixture of the Harlem community where he raised his family. When Harlem was engulfed by several days of social unrest during the summer of 1964, after the police slaying of a local teenager, Dr. Ben was one of several Harlem activists who met with New York Mayor Robert Wagner and, later, John Lindsay to address systemic problems facing the black community in New York. As a historian and anthropologist, Dr. Ben would return to the Nile Valley more than fifty times and self-publish forty-two books on African pre-history; the civilizations of Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia; and on religion. His work argued that the creators of ancient Egyptian civilization (the builders of the pyramids, the Sphinx, and cities and lodges) were Black Africans who first migrated north from the Central Rift Valley of present-day Tanzania and Uganda. He claimed that mainstream publishers refused to publish his work, saying that there was not sufficient public interest in them and that the publishers had no way to fact-check his claims. His books were known for their tendentious tone and crude presentation that included newspaper clippings, hand-drawn maps, and an informal, idiosyncratic writing style. However, these shortcomings did not reflect a disregard for academic standards such as citation, footnotes, and bibliography, which he supplied extensively. Dr. Ben chose to write in a manner that could be readily absorbed by both lay readers and researchers with little more than a middle-school education. He also steadfastly criticized the overall presentation of African history in American universities and museums. In the late 1960s, Dr. Ben worked briefly as a writer for a New York publishing company, W. H. Sadlier, where he wrote textbooks on African history such as Southern Lands. In 1973, he served as an adjunct professor of History and Egyptology at Cornell University's Africana Research Center, where his longtime friend and colleague John Henrik Clarke was teaching. Dr. Ben taught there for fifteen years, a period during which he also served as a visiting lecturer at the Faculty of Languages at Al Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt. In 1979, he traveled to the South Pacific where he lectured in Papua New Guinea about the native population's origins on the African continent. In 1984, he became one of six founding members of the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilization (ASCAC), an organization of black scholars focusing on the ancient African world. The other founders were John Henrik Clarke, Asa G. Hilliard III, Jacob H. Carruthers, Leonard Jeffries, and Maulana Karenga. Dr. Ben was a popular and sought-after lecturer on college campuses nationally and internationally, celebrated for his direct, polemical style and wit. In 1993, Mary Lefkowitz, a Wellesley classics professor, mentioned him prominently in a Wall Street Journal editorial that fueled an acerbic national debate about ``Afrocentrism'' in academia. Dr. Ben, a lifelong bibliophile had amassed a personal library of over 15,000 books chronicling African and African American history. Outside of academia, Dr. Ben's reputation remains high particularly among many African American laypeople. Today, he can be frequently spotted around Harlem where residents greet him warmly as Dr. Ben!

Mr. RANGEL

Mr. RANGEL. Madam Speaker, I rise with great pride to join New York Democratic County Leader Keith L.T. Wright and the Harlem Council of Elders to pay tribute to the Harlem Consumer Education Council's founder and president Florence M. Rice. Florence M. Rice was born on March 22, 1919, in Buffalo, New York. During her childhood, Rice spent several years in the Colored Orphan Asylum and in several foster homes in New York. Upon completion of the eighth grade, Rice left school for work as a domestic seamstress where she became a member of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union. Rice spoke out against the discriminatory practices against African American and Latino workers. She participated in a congressional hearing held by my predecessor Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., in 1962, which probed dressmaker union's policies. After testifying, Ms. Rice was blacklisted in that industry. In the 1960s, Rice founded the Harlem Consumer Education Council, waging a war against corporations who discriminated against African Americans and other minorities. The council organized many successful New York City boycotts and picket lines against grocery stories, furniture stores, and individuals found to be overcharging minorities. Rice's biggest victory was against the New York State Public Service Commission, forcing New York Telephone to stop charging low income residents pre-installation fees. The Harlem Consumer Education Council investigated over 100,000 complaints. During the 1970's, Florence was appointed Special Consultant to the Consumer Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve Board. She also taught consumer education at Malcolm-King College and has lectured to thousands at her workshops and seminars. In the 1990s, Rice was responsible for the Bell Atlantic Technology Center in Harlem. Today, the center, Verizon, is dedicated to educating business people, students, senior citizens and other customers about the latest advances in telecommunication technologies. She has lectured in several different countries, including South Africa, where she was named a delegate in the first World Consumer Congress. She has held a number of state, national and international positions. In 1975, Florence served as the Official Member of the United States Delegation to the World Congress of the International Women's Year in Berlin, and in 1976 she served as a representative to the United Nations Congress of Non- governmental Organizations. Florence Rice is the recipient of the Lane Bryant Award for Volunteer Service, the Sojourner Truth Award, and the Ophelia DeVore Award for Community Service, the National Urban League Frederick Douglass Award, the Consolidated Edison Better Business Award, the Josephine Shaw Lowell Award, the New York Consumer Assembly Prestigious Special Award and the Harold C. Burton Republican Club's 1977 Woman of the Year Award. On June 29, 2006, Florence Rice was interviewed by The HistoryMakers. Florence M. Rice is a very dear friend and indeed a National Treasure.

Mr. RANGEL

Mr. RANGEL. We have an expression in my community, ``God is good,'' and basically it means that it gives us all an opportunity in our lives to do some of the things that we had hoped and dreamed would be possible. Since God has been good to our country and to this Congress, it means that we have a responsibility to extend our power to make certain that people have access to health care. It's really surprising that the other side would believe that, as a party, their answer to this crisis that we face as a Nation in providing health care to so many millions of people that don't have it, that their answer is ``no'' and their vote will reflect ``no.'' But a short visit to history would see that every time we're talking about compassion--Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare--their answer is going to be ``no.'' I want to thank our President for recognizing that even though we have to carry this load alone, it is an honor to be working under the leadership of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, our chairmen, Chairman Waxman and Chairman Miller, and all of the wonderful people that have worked together under the caucus chair of Mr. Larson so that we all would understand that we only have this one chance to get it right; Mr. Clyburn, who brought our votes together so that we are able to be here on this Saturday to pass this. But to me, most of all, it would be the hardworking members of my committee, men and women who worked day and night to make certain that we got out our initial bill and we also found a way to pay for it. And not only to make certain that this great Nation of ours would not have a deficit but, indeed, would decrease the deficit of this country by $100 billion over 10 years. And the staff, of course, of the Ways and Means Committee that serviced not just our committee, but all of the committees in the House and every Member who needed to know just how can we get this thing right and to do the right thing. How proud we are that nobody is going to be denied health care because they had a preexisting condition before that. How proud we are that we don't have to select our jobs based on the health insurance that we have. And how proud we are that people who lose their jobs will not be losing their health coverage. It is a small thing for some people like Members of Congress that already have their insurance, but for those of us that have the compassion to understand what it's like not to be able to take care of your family or your dear friends, not to be able to have health insurance, and for a Nation to be able to say that we are competing with industrial countries all over the world and they provide education and health care for their children, and this great country of ours, with all of the wealth, have to shamefully say that we can't afford to take care of our own people. So, to those who don't understand what we're doing, this is going to be a historic day for you as well. Unfortunately, it won't be like it would be for us, because we can now have our names under Roosevelt's and under Obama's and under the right thing. God is certainly good.

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this time to recognize the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Wasserman Schultz) for 1 minute.

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize the distinguished gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Scott) for 1 minute.

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize my friend and colleague, the outspoken Member from New York, Mr. Nadler, for 1 minute. (Mr. NADLER of New York asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, for another view of health care in Texas, I yield 1 minute to Ms. Jackson-Lee. (Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I couldn't agree with the last speaker more. This is an historic moment, and I certainly hope you, your friends, and colleagues think this through for the American people. At this time, I have the pleasure to present to the body Mr. Lacy Clay, the gentleman from Missouri, and yield him 1 minute.