Charlie Rangel

Mr. RANGEL

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, today I rise today to recognize and honor the life of Reverend Dr. James E. Gunther, the well respected Pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, ecumenist and an elder among African American Lutheran Pastors. I am honored to acknowledge the life and contributions of one of Harlem's forward thinking religious leaders of the 21st century. On June 20th, at Harlem's historic Transfiguration Lutheran Church, the Harlem community gathers to memorialize Dr. Gunther. He devoted his life to enlightening African Americans and is noted for illuminating our spiritual enlargement to embrace a global unification and cultural learning. Reverend Dr. James E. Gunther served the Harlem community and was a man of purpose, passion and true conviction in service to others. Known as a ``Poor, Humble, Parish priest, he served for a brief time at Nativity Lutheran Church and Tabernacle Lutheran Church, Philadelphia, as part of the Center City Lutheran Parish, before moving on to Transfiguration Lutheran Church in Harlem where he served for 38 years, retiring in 1998. A year later he was named Pastor Emeritus. A life-long teacher, leader and visionary, he led a large parish with many Caribbean roots at the Transfiguration Lutheran Church. He was a member of the Governing Board of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA (NCC) representing the Lutheran Church of America (LCA). A Humanitarian, he served as a Board member of the National Committee of Black Churchmen. Focusing on Economic Justice Working Group, the Division of Overseas Ministry and the Committee on Research and Planning, he served as a Board member of the National Committee of Black Churchmen. Through Reverend Gunther, illustrious leadership, he founded and chaired the Harlem College Assistance Project from 1964-1977 sending more than 5,000 young black and Hispanic students to college. An inspiriting thought leader, he served on the Harlem Urban Development Corporation, the Board of the Roosevelt Island Corporation, the New York Urban Coalition and the Ministerial Interfaith Association. A man way ahead of his time, Dr. Gunther, was born on May 5, 1932 in Philadelphia, PA. Educated in Philadelphia Public Schools, he continued his collegiate journey attending the University of Pennsylvania. He holds degrees from Philadelphia College of the Bible, Houghton College, the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, and Harvard University with studies in Psychology, Religion, Theology and Church and Society. A worldwide global vanguard, Dr. Gunther served on the Executive council of the LCA and represented the church at the 1977 Sixth Assembly of the Lutheran World Federation in Dar es Salaam, East Africa, working on the Statement Human Rights and the Statement on South Africa. Dr. Gunther encouraged all that he met ``To Think Globally While Acting Locally''. In addition, Dr. Gunther served as Trustee of Susquehanna University, Selinsgrove, PA; Wagner College, Staten Island, NY and Muhlenberg University, Allentown, PA. He subsequently served as a Board Member of Augsburg Fortress Publishers, an Adjunct Professor at Christ Bible College, Malcolm King College (associated with Fordham University and Marymount-Manhattan College, and the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. Mr. Speaker, I ask that you and my distinguished colleagues join me in recognizing Reverend Dr. James E. Gunther, and his contributions and innovations that have positively impacted the quality of life for countless citizens across this Nation. His unwavering dedication, commitment, and spiritual guidance is worthy of our Nation's highest esteem.

Mr. RANGEL

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to celebrate the life, legacy, and work of my dear distinguished friend, Clemente Pugh who was affectionately known to all of as ``Clem''. As a strong believer in the power of knowledge, she demonstrated the importance of learning and expanding educational opportunities to women and African Americans throughout our great Nation. On June 20th, at Harlem's historic, The Riverside Church, family and community gathers to memorialize Clem's life and contributions to opening our minds to the importance of culture, honesty, and knowledge. On April 11, 1925, Clemente was born to Alberta and Otho High in Raleigh, North Carolina. She attended Shaw University where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree. She began her career as a psychiatric social worker, moving on to becoming a public school teacher and eventually, a professor at Hunter and Lehman Colleges of the City University of New York. After 20 years of service at Lehman College, she was awarded the title of Professor Emeritus Education. She went on to earn a Master of Social Work degree in 1949 from New York's Columbia University and a Doctorate in Education from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1982 where she was awarded the prestigious title of Professor Emeritus of Education for her teachings. Clem vividly strived for honesty and understanding. She made it her duty to present others with the awareness she obtained. Her tireless effort to engage, enjoy, and educate people touched the hearts of every person she met. A woman ahead of her time, Clemente Pugh tackled the many realms of ``isms'' including, racism, sexism and classism. Her life was devoted to acknowledging and improving how these infected opinions affect African American people. With her remarkable resilience, I am proud to have called Clemente and her husband, Douglas Pugh, my dear and very special friends. I know that her legacy will live on for many years to come. Mr. Speaker, I ask that you and my distinguished colleagues join me as we pay tribute to such a treasure to our community. I pledge to continue to carry out her tradition of provoking thought and feeling for all who have lost their way, or simply need to be reminded of who we are, what we come from, and how we can overcome any obstacle presented before us.

Mr. RANGEL

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. McGovern, Mr. Jones, Ms. Lee, I thought the House would be screaming at the opportunity to justify sending young men and women to a part of the world that we believe is of danger to the entire community. I am so amazed that people are saying that this resolution calls for the immediate withdrawal of our troops. I don't read it that way because I don't know of anything that justifies them being there, and this could be screaming for a reason why the administration and Members of Congress want these troops there. I have no clue as to why people believe that these people, who have been fighting each other for thousands of years, are a threat to my Nation's national security. I don't know of any of my constituents that go to sleep at night worried about ISIS invading their jobless community. I do know--because I am old enough to remember--that when the Japanese struck Pearl Harbor, immediately President Roosevelt called the Congress to declare war, and America, with pride, came out to support our Nation and our President. Now, I don't see the connection between ISIS and being struck by Japanese and Germans, but I know one thing: When an American dies, when they lose their lives, when we send them overseas, when they come back wounded or deranged, we have an obligation in this body to justify why we have done it. I may be wrong, but the reason I think we run away from this responsibility is because we don't really feel the pain of the people we are sending all over the world and exposing them to losing their lives. Why don't we feel it? Don't we say, ``Thank you for your service''? Do we thank the people who don't come back? Do we explain and go to the funerals that I go to as to why they were there? Do we explain that the President of the United States and the Members of this House believe it is important for them to be there? All you have to do is come here, declare war, or justify why the security of the United States is being threatened, and I then will be prepared to send somebody else's kids to fight this war to protect the rest of our country. We don't have a draft. We don't pay for the war.

Mr. RANGEL. I conclude by saying that, when issues are serious enough for us to draft other people's kids, when they are serious enough for us to say that we are not going to borrow money from Communist China to pay for these wars, then I can be convinced, even if I disagree, that when this Congress and this President believes my country is being threatened, you count me in. Until such time, we are waiting to hear about the threat to our national security so that we can make up our minds.

Mr. RANGEL

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I join with the gentleman from Texas in supporting H.R. 2570. Representative Diane Black and Representative Earl Blumenauer have worked hard on this issue. This legislation will allow the Secretary of HHS to conduct a demonstration, giving managed care organizations the ability to offer plans with a variety of benefit structures that would lower the cost sharing for high-value service. We think it makes a lot of sense, and I concur. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. RANGEL. I yield myself the balance of my time to close. Mr. Speaker, at this time I concur with the gentleman from Texas. Members have worked hard in perfecting these bills, and I support H.R. 2570. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. RANGEL

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I concur with the gentleman from Texas. My dear friend Mike Kelly and Congressman Ron Kind have worked together in trying to get more information for the Congress from our congressional districts to see exactly what the enrollments are in Medicare. It makes us better legislators so we can improve the bill. I think these bills are worthy of the support of the House of Representatives, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I concur with the objectives of this bill. I advocate a ``yes'' vote, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. RANGEL

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I want to thank the gentleman from Texas for bringing up this bill and also my colleague, Mr. Buchanan of Florida. There was some comment that CMS was making some mistakes that have not been transparent. It has been my understanding that they have had problems wrestling with this so-called star system themselves and have not enforced the law, that we are now saying that they will not enforce the law until after they study the complexities and report back to the Congress in an additional 3 years. In short, they have this star system and, as most people should recognize, that when you are dealing with old, fragile, sick, poor people, there are more complexities to performance than in ordinary programs that compete with Medicare Advantage. We have this population, and they have penalized some of the providers because they have had just more problems to deal with than just medical problems, and they haven't been able to resolve them. They haven't enforced this provision. Under this bill, which Mr. Buchanan and the other sponsors have agreed, it tells the CMS to go back and to find out a way that you can treat these recipients of health care in a fairer way. It also tells CMS to take into consideration that the problems that Medicare Advantage has still to come are far more severe and far more complex than in other areas. This is particularly true with our citizens in Puerto Rico that don't really have an option to anything except Medicare Advantage. Of course, as we all know, the economic conditions and the poverty that prevails there is extreme. I don't have any other requests for time, but I do want to thank my colleagues on the other side of the aisle for assisting to make certain that the Affordable Care program and other programs like it become more effective. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I would just like to say that this has been one of the most exciting recent legislative experiences I have had, where we are dealing with Americans who are not Republican and Democrat, but they are sick people; and, in this particular case, they are sick, and they are old, and they are fragile, and the government is not serving them. Both sides of the aisle have agreed that the administration has to do something to make certain that they study how we can be fair to the providers and, at the same time, provide the service to those people that need it. They, themselves, agree that, for 3 years, they have not been able to find an answer. What we have said jointly is you find that answer in 3 years. Until such time, don't you think about terminating these programs. It is with this cooperation that we both have a common sense of our obligation as legislators, and it has been really a legislative pleasure working with my colleagues on these suspensions this evening. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. RANGEL

Mr. RANGEL. Reclaiming my time, I am glad to hear that. I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer), and I thank him publicly for the great work that he has put into this issue, as well as all the important issues.

Mr. RANGEL. I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker and Members, this is more than just a trade bill. I want to thank Chairman Ryan for making certain that this did not come anywhere near the controversies that surround us in the trade area, which he could have done; but he made certain that this extension of AGOA, the support for Haiti, and also the GSP would not be surrounded with controversy but would move seamlessly. I want to thank, also, Ed Royce of the Committee on Foreign Affairs for being so cooperative in each stage of the way. It is a moving period for me because there hasn't been this type of cooperation between the House and the Senate or Republicans and Democrats in a long time, and it feels extremely good. I want to thank you for this and to realize that it is not just African countries, it is expansion of what I think our great country is all about, that it is not really just to exercise the economic power that we have, but to explore the potential that other countries have, especially in Africa that has been bypassed for so many, many decades. I want to thank Jim McDermott, who was one of the original authors; Phil Crane, who was the chairman of the committee; and, of course, then-Speaker Gingrich, who was the first witness that we had for this bill. With roots like that, it probably carried over so that we can have this extension so that investors and importers of Africa and the African people themselves will be able to have a better idea of not where they are today, but where they can go with the cooperation of developing countries so that we will have the true meaning of peace, and that is through prosperity. As far as Haiti is concerned, again, we have found throughout the world a general compassion for all of the things that we would want for other people that we enjoy ourselves, and by extending this through 2025, it gives them a better handle on what they can do in the future. GSP has been with us since the 1970s, and we hope that developing countries can graduate into being full-fledged partners. Again, as I said earlier, there has been no one like Dr. Jim McDermott, who brought his experiences from the Peace Corps, having served in these countries and feeling in the marrow of his bones what we had to do. I have already given my appreciation, but he just walked in at the right time, as he usually does, and I would like to thank him publicly once again. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the Senate AGOA Extension and Enhancement Act of 2015. Today is a proud day for those of us who are deeply concerned about doing what we can to promote growth in developing countries. We are preparing to vote on a bipartisan bill that would extend preferences not only for African countries, but for Haiti, and developing countries more generally. I want to thank Chairman Ryan for working so closely with us on this bill, which has been a high priority for me this Congress.

Mr. RANGEL. It is my understanding that the TAA complex pay-for has been taken care of under your leadership under the bill that is before us. My question was: Why in the world would you tie that up with TPA? When you accomplish one problem, it seems like you complicated that by not allowing the House to have two separate votes on two entirely separate issues.

Mr. RANGEL. I yield to the gentleman from Wisconsin.

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Washington (Mr. McDermott), one of the authors of the original AGOA, and the people in South Africa as well as the United States are deeply indebted. (Mr. McDERMOTT asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, after 45 years in the House, I would be less than honest to say that there is certain legislation that I have concern with in terms of what happens after I leave this Congress, but I am so pleased to say that the gentlewoman from California has taken this little baby and nursed it to make certain that she would be the mother of the extension and that it will continue to grow. I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Bass).

Mr. RANGEL. I yield the gentlewoman an additional 30 seconds.

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

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Kind), one of the House's most active supporters of free trade and fair trade and who has made an outstanding contribution to this legislation.

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I want to take this time to thank the chairman for changing the pay- for for the TAA. I just wondered, after that very difficult and complex negotiation, why in the world they would tie that up with TPA. That means that those votes now, it is my understanding, procedurally, it would be one vote, and you won't have a chance to vote for TPA and TAA separately. I yield to the gentleman from Wisconsin.

Mr. RANGEL. I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Meeks), my friend and distinguished member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, one of the most knowledgeable persons in the House on the issue of trade.

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

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, how much time do we have remaining?