Ileana Ros-Lehtinen

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the resolution now under consideration.

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 56) urging the appropriate representative of the United States to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights to introduce at the annual meeting of the Commission a resolution calling upon the People's Republic of China to end its human rights violations in China and Tibet, and for other purposes, as amended.

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, as a cosponsor of House Resolution 56, I rise in support of the manager's amendment and urge my colleagues to vote in favor of this important resolution, which urges the passage of a U.S.- sponsored resolution at the U.N. Commission on Human Rights which calls upon the Chinese Government to end its human rights violations in China and Tibet. During committee consideration, the chairman requested unanimous consent that the Chair be authorized to seek consideration of House Resolution 56 on the House suspension calendar. No objection was heard. The manager's amendment includes an amendment by the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos) updating the resolution to reflect the fact that the Bush administration has introduced a resolution at the Human Rights Commission in Geneva concerning the deplorable human rights condition in the People's Republic of China. The title will be amended to reflect the modifications made by the manager's amendment. This resolution is a statement of fact outlining that China is an authoritarian state which continues to systematically violate the human rights of everyone, and the civil and political liberties of all of its citizens. State security personnel are responsible for numerous abuses, such as political and other extrajudicial killings, lengthy incommunicado detentions, and the use of torture. National, racial, and ethnic minorities remain subject to intense persecution and discrimination. The authorities frequently launch campaigns to crack down on opposition and pro-democracy groups. Freedom of movement, speech, assembly, and association are severely restricted. The controls on religious worship have intensified, with harassment of church leaders and other faithful, including fines, detentions, physical abuse, and torture. Many houses of worship have been destroyed. Trafficking in persons, mainly women and children, for forced prostitution or illegal forced labor continues, placing this segment of the population in constant risk of slavery. Recently, we have seen how their blatant disregard for the universal rights and liberties of human beings extends to foreign visitors, as reflected by the detention of academics by the Chinese regime. Dr. Xu Zerong, a Ph.D. from Oxford University, was detained last fall; and to date the Chinese authorities have not offered any explanation for his continued detention. His family still does not know where he is being held. Professor Li Shaomin, a U.S. citizen who teaches business at the City University of Hong Kong, was arrested on February 25. The Chinese have yet to present any information regarding charges against him. There is the case of Dr. Gao Zhan, a research scholar based at American University, detained last month by Chinese authorities. Just today, Human Rights Watch's Academic Freedom Committee sent the letter to the Chinese leader to protest these detentions, and calling on the Chinese leadership to follow internationally recognized standards of due process to protect the lives and the rights of these scholars. Further, there is the grim situation that the U.S. is facing of protecting and securing the safe return of 25 Americans being held hostage by the PRC. This picture paints a profound and widespread violation of internationally recognized human rights norms. The People's Republic of China must be held accountable for its action. Constant pressure from the U.S. and the international community is vital if any improvements are to take place in China. The resolutions before us are an important part of that strategy. I am proud that the Bush administration has rejected the view that Beijing is our strategic partner and considers passage of the China human rights resolution one of its top priorities in Geneva. As the U.S. delegation works to ensure debate on human rights conditions in China and to secure the votes for a resolution calling on China to end its terrible human rights practices, let us show them our full support by voting in favor of the manager's amendment to House Resolution 56. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Madam Speaker, I yield 7 minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith), the vice chairman of our Committee on International Relations.

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Diaz-Balart), who will be in Geneva carrying forth the message of the United States for freedom for the Chinese people.

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Kirk), a longtime staffer of the Committee on International Relations and now a Member of our institution.

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Gilman), the chairman emeritus of our committee. (Mr. GILMAN asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. To close, Madam Speaker, I would like to remind my colleagues that the State Department has given us vote counts and cost sheets. They have come up to the Hill to ensure congressional support and help for the Bush administration's priorities in Geneva. When we talk to the State Department officials, they tell us what their directives have been from the President and the White House. We have been meeting with them for the last 3 months, and they clearly stated that the Secretary of State and the White House ask for daily briefings on the status of the China resolution in Geneva. Madam Speaker, if Congress does not speak today by voting in favor of the resolution before us, House Resolution 56, the Chinese regime will be able to prevent any discussion on its human rights record in Geneva. Year after year they intimidate members of the Human Rights Commission for a vote of no action on China, silencing the dissidents and the opposition further, removing one critical vehicle for the voices of the oppressed to be tortured in China, and they must be heard. Again, without U.S. leadership and the full weight of our U.S. Congress behind this resolution and behind the democratic forces in China, the PRC will once again manipulate the U.N. Commission on Human Rights in Geneva to continue its reign of subjugation and terror over the Chinese people. Let us force the PRC to abide by the covenants and the declarations it has signed. We must stand firm in the face of Chinese aggression against its own people, against foreign visitors and against American citizens. Madam Speaker, I ask my colleagues to please vote ``yes'' on the resolution before us. Madam Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 91) expressing the sense of the House of Representatives regarding the human rights situation in Cuba.

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Madam Speaker, I would inquire, then, as to the remaining time.

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Madam Speaker, I yield the remaining time to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Diaz-Balart).

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Madam Speaker, I yield myself the remaining time. In closing, I would like to quote directly from House Resolution 91 to indicate the importance of speaking out against these practices, and I am going to quote from two important figures from the Czech Republic and the Polish movement, two of the Republics that are helping us in passing the resolution and promoting it in Geneva next week. It reads, ``President Havel, an essential figure in the Czech Republic's transition to democracy, has counseled that we thus know that by voicing open criticism of undemocratic conditions in Cuba, we encourage all the brave Cubans who endure persecution and years of prison for their loyalty to the ideals of freedom and human dignity''; and ``former President Lech Walesa, leader of the Polish solidarity movement,'' who has urged the world to ``mobilize its resources, just as was done in support of the Polish solidarity movement and the Polish workers to express their support for Cuban workers and to monitor Cuban labor rights'' in Cuba. We thank these leaders for the human rights agenda in Geneva, and we hope that our colleagues will help us in passing House Resolution 91 today.

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the resolution under consideration.

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I rise to render my strong support for House Resolution 91, a resolution which documents and condemns the systematic repression of the Cuban people by Cuba's totalitarian regime and urges the member countries of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights to do the same. This resolution was passed with bipartisan support by the Committee on International Relations last Wednesday, March 29. We thank the leadership on both sides of the aisle for understanding the importance of moving this measure quickly through the House. H. Res. 91 gives the Cuban people a voice that has been denied to them by the tyrannical regime that represses them. It serves to empower those who are struggling to bring democracy to their island nation of Cuba. It also sends a clear signal to the world and specifically to the member countries of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights that the United States Congress stands firm in our commitment to human rights and freedom, that the U.S. supports the Cuban people and condemns the abhorrent behavior of the Cuban regime. It calls on the member countries of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights to adhere to the Geneva Convention which stipulates that the observance of human rights cannot be conditioned, that no external action can justify violations of the fundamental rights of every human being. As Mexico's foreign minister, Dr. Jorge Castaneda, stated on March 20 during his address to the commission in Geneva: ``The status of human rights in any nation is a legitimate concern of consequence to the international community as a whole. The task of promoting their enforcement and respect is an undertaking incumbent to all governments and to all peoples.'' My dear colleagues, how much we wish that there were no need for this resolution. How we wish that the Cuban people were free from the shackles of tyranny, able to exercise their rights endowed to them by our Creator. Unfortunately, that is still a dream. The crackdown on dissidents, the detentions, the harassments, intimidation, physical and psychological torture have intensified, not decreased. Pax Christi, Freedom House, the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and our own State Department all provide ample evidence of this grim reality. The intensification of abuses prompted Amnesty International to send a letter in February of this year to the Cuban authorities expressing its concerns at the serious escalation in the arrests and the harassment of political opponents inside the island. Amnesty's letter stated: ``The increasing number of people jailed for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression clearly demonstrates the level to which the government will go in order to weaken the political opposition and suppress dissidents.'' In just the first week of November of 2000, 27 independent journalists and dissident leaders were arrested. Over the weekend of December 8, 100 dissidents were arrested by Cuban state security to block activities coinciding with World Human Rights Day and with the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Thousands of others continue to languish in squalid jail cells, devoid of light, of food, and of medical attention. Jorge Luis Garcia Perez Antunez, an Afro-Cuban dissident and Amnesty International prisoner of conscience, has been in prison since March 1990. He has been beaten, tortured, his hands and feet bound to each other and attacked by dogs who have clawed into his flesh. He continues to protest the regime's human rights abuses from within his jail cell, conducting hunger strikes and writing testimonials which document the atrocities committed inside Cuba's prisons. Then there is the case of Maritza Lugo Fernandez, vice president of the democratic movement, ``30 de Noviembre-Frank Pais,'' and Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet of the Lawton Foundation of Human Rights, who continue to suffer ``tapiados'' in a small, humid cell, without windows, a solid steel door with excrement and urine on the floor. The recently released State Department Human Rights report underscores that prison conditions continue to be harsh and, indeed, life threatening. Prison guards and state security officials subject human rights and pro-democracy activists to beatings and threats of physical violence; to systematic and psychological intimidation; to lengthy periods of isolation, as well as to detention and imprisonment in cells with common and violent criminals; to sexually aggressive inmates and state security agents who are posing as prisoners. Religious persecution has intensified with the Ministry of Interior engaging in active efforts to control and monitor the country's religious institutions, including surveillance, raids, evictions, and harassment of religious worshipers. The regime maintained the strict censorship of news and information, both domestic and foreign, with accredited foreign media facing possible sentences up to 20 years in prison if the information is not acceptable to Castro's regime. Cuba's dictatorship has made it a priority to prevent the contact between Cuban pro-democracy advocates and the outside world. In the last year, it arrested and interrogated Latvian pro-democracy activists, Romanian, Polish, Swedish and French journalists, a Czech member of parliament, and a former finance minister, and countless others because they met with dissidents and opposition leaders. These foreign visitors did not allow themselves or their actions to be controlled by the dictatorship. They chose to shine the light of truth on Cuba, and today, Madam Speaker, we in Congress can do the same. I urge our colleagues to vote for this important measure and to do it for them. As the posters show on the well, the families of Cuba's political prisoners, do it for their sons, for their daughters, for their mothers, for their fathers, husbands and wives; for Cuba's dissidents and for their opposition. Vote for House Resolution 91 because it is right and because it is just. As the global leader, the United States has as our duty and obligation the responsibility to carry forth our message of freedom; and let us begin by voting yes on House Resolution 91. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Madam Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith), the vice chairman of our committee.

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and to include therein extraneous material on the subject of H. Con. Res. 66, the concurrent resolution just considered.

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. If the gentleman will continue to yield, Mr. Speaker, perhaps we could add a little amendment to the United States Constitution and make that change. I thank the gentleman.

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I would tell the gentleman from Maryland, she is 13.

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. As has been pointed out time and time again in our conversations, in 1989, the first time that this book was authorized to be printed as a House document, there were only 31 women serving in the Congress; 29 in the House, two in the Senate. Since that time, the number of women serving in each body has steadily increased, although not fast enough. As the gentlewoman from Maryland (Mrs. Morella) pointed out, 70 women have served in Congress throughout just the last 10 years, the last time that this book was published. But numbers alone do not adequately tell the story. That is why the printing of this book and this history is so important. It memorializes in detail and with illustrations the invaluable contributions women have made for many years as Members of Congress. Each in different and invaluable ways has made and continues to make a tremendous contribution to our country, and particularly to the constituents whom we serve. There is no question that each has made an everlasting difference to Congress as an institution, and to the many issues which they have advocated, and indeed, have arisen before this body and our Nation. I want to thank in particular the sponsors of the bill, including the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur), and additionally I would like to thank all of the cosponsors, including the members of the Committee on the House Administration, both on the majority, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ney), and the minority, the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), and their staffs, who have worked so hard to bring this bill to the floor today. Although I love and respect the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur), I would like to point out that the dean of the women in Congress is in fact the gentlewoman from New Jersey (Mrs. Roukema), a Republican. I hope that soon one of our newest members of the United States Congress is the one sitting right behind me, Patricia Lehtinen, my daughter, who I hope will serve in my district, and I hope that my constituents bring me back many years to come. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I am very proud to yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Maryland (Mrs. Morella). (Mrs. MORELLA asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, we have another speaker before I close, so I reserve the balance of my time because she has not arrived yet.

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to join the chairman of the committee as an original cosponsor of House Concurrent Resolution 66, and I am proud to speak in favor of its passage. This resolution authorizes the printing of a document which chronicles the contributions of women serving in this great body. It provides interesting facts about their backgrounds and their careers, which have inspired many, including me, to run for Congress and serve the American people. It talks about women, such as my predecessor, Ruth Bryan Owen. She was the first woman Member from Florida. I am proud to be the second woman Member from Florida. She served from 1929 to 1933; and she was, as this book points out, the daughter of the peerless leader, three- time Presidential nominee William Jennings Bryan. We have had women such as Corrine Clairborne Lindy Boggs, for which the Ladies' Reading Room is named, from the district of Louisiana, elected in March 1973, and honored this body with her presence for many years. When she was first elected to fill the seat of her late husband, she was thoroughly familiar with the world of Capitol Hill and Louisiana issues because she had worked side by side with her husband, a 14-term representative and a majority leader. Lindy Boggs used this experience to serve the people of Louisiana, and we are proud that the Ladies' Reading Room is under her name and that the administrator of that room, Susan Dean, very proudly is part of that women's history in Congress. There have also been trail blazers, Mr. Speaker, such as Edith Rogers. She was a representative from Massachusetts who served on the Committee of Veterans' Affairs in the 80th and 83rd Congress. She served with the American Red Cross in the care of disabled World War I veterans and served as the personal representative of President Harding and President Coolidge before disabled veterans; and interestingly, she checked herself into a Boston hospital under an assumed name to avoid the publicity of bad health, and she died while serving in this Chamber. She was actually reelected during that time on September 10, 1960. She remains to this day the longest serving woman Member in Congress, 17 terms after replacing her husband. Then there is the story that the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ney) talked about of Jeanette Rankin, Republican of Montana, the first woman Member of the House, who voted against U.S. involvement in World War I, was defeated after that vote, and then she came back, voted against U.S. involvement in World War II and was defeated again. Now, there is a very interesting history of women in Congress, Mr. Speaker, and without us having the authority to reprint ``The Women in Congress, 1917-1990,'' we will be missing a piece of our Nation's history.