Louise Slaughter

Ms. SLAUGHTER

Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms. Schakowsky).

Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey). (Ms. WOOLSEY asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume in response to the gentleman. Mr. Speaker, I know of no Federal law that prohibits a parent from being with a child; but if this law passes, a grandparent could certainly be prohibited from doing this. Fortunately, we know this legislation is not going anywhere. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Colorado (Ms. DeGette), a member of the Committee on the Judiciary.

Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Nadler).

Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee).

Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Scott), a member of the committee.

Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Harman).

Ms. SLAUGHTER

Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I am concerned. I am concerned that my district lost 12,400 jobs in the past year including 300 from Global Crossing. I am concerned that this jobless rate is an 18-year high. I am concerned that in the last decade, 41 percent of Rochester, New York citizens between the ages of 20 to 34 have left town. While my area has survived the wave after wave of layoffs over the last 20 years by the giant employers such as Kodak, the bankruptcy filing of Global Crossing in January was a shock. Global Crossing was seen as the wave of the future. Two outstanding labor leaders in the Rochester community summarized the thoughts of many workers in an essay which appeared in the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle on March 19, 2002. I have attached for the record a copy of this guest essay for my colleagues' consideration. Hold All Corporations Accountable, or Our Economy Will Not Improve (By James Bertolone and Gary Bonadonna--Guest Essayists) Recently, it's been reported that Monroe County has experienced a loss of 12,400 jobs during the last year. Unemployment also has risen to a 10-year high of 6.4 percent (story, March 6). We have also learned that over the last decade, 30,000 young people have left this area looking for better opportunities. These statistics may come as a surprise to people in Monroe County, especially those who have been following the predictions of a hopeful economic future from the Chamber of Commerce, the Industrial Management Council and the Center for Governmental Research the past few years. In a trend that started in the 1980s, Monroe County has endured an astonishing deindustrialization of its work force. Due to one-sided free trade deals, the rate of this deindustrialization has accelerated rapidly. Eastman Kodak Co., Bausch & Lomb Inc., Xerox Corp., Valeo Electric Systems Inc. and others have announced wave after wave of layoffs. Small manufacturing concerns, many of which sprung up to fill the gap as large corporations shed workers, are suffering also. The job loss at large manufacturing companies was, despite our instincts to the contrary, supposed to be good news. We were told by pro-corporate cheerleaders of the new economy that despite these layoffs, our local economy would still continue to grow jobs. We were merely an economy in transition, and the wonder of free trade and the dawning of a new Internet-based economy were supposed to lead these workers to a more modern workplace. So what exactly has this new economy brought us? Based on statistics, apparently a whole lot less than we bargained for. In this new world, we are supposed to get rich through investment in an ever-expanding stock market, not by punching a time clock. The old economy wouldn't be missed, although it served our community and generations before us so well. But the truth is unmistakable--12,400 jobs lost; 30,000 of our best and brightest seeking greener pastures elsewhere and the so-called experts at a loss to explain how this happened. Working people can no longer stand idle while the corporate elite strip away our future and while regulations that had been designed to protect us from corporate greed are being dismantled by highly paid, pro-corporate lobbyists. According to that wild-eyed radical Alan Greenspan, two-thirds of economic activity in the United States is based on consumer spending. If workers don't have decent paying jobs, they don't have money, and there goes two-thirds of the economy. It's time to recognize that our economy cannot improve without corporate accountability. Big business must be held accountable to their workers, to communities in which they operate and their investors. We must regulate and protect the right of workers to organize and bargain collectively because, like it or not, organized labor is the only protection we have against the unfettered power of corporate management. Organized labor's struggle to change labor standards, health and safety regulations and general social policy has become the greatest anti-poverty program in the history of the industrialized world.

Ms. SLAUGHTER

Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to celebrate Women's History Month by introducing an important new bill: the Votes for Women History Trail Act. I have the great privilege to represent in Congress the City of Rochester, New York, and its suburbs--a region considered by many to be the cradle of the women's rights movement. Rochester was the proud home of Susan B. Anthony; her close friends and fellow suffragists, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, lived nearby. Prominent civil rights activists like Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman, who also supported women's rights ardently, moved to the region and spent most of their adult lives there. In 1848, the First Women's Rights Convention was held in Seneca Falls, New York. Reflecting upon this remarkable event never fails to inspire me. After only a week of planning and notice, over three hundred men and women from all over the region converged on Seneca Falls for the ``Woman's Rights Convention.'' This event heralded the beginning of a movement that would yield to women the right to vote 72 years later, and signal an ongoing struggle for equity in the home, in the workplace, and before the law. Today, the site of the First Women's Rights Convention is the home of the Women's Rights National Historical Park, a respected unit of the National Park Service. Nearby are other important sites, such as the Hunt House, where the Declaration of Sentiments was drafted, and the M'Clintock House. Within an hour's drive, we find a host of other places important in women's history--the Harriet Tubman Home for the Aging in Auburn, the Matilda Joslyn Gage House in Fayetteville, and the Ontario County Courthouse in Canandaigua, where Susan B. Anthony was put on trial for the crime of voting. I am proud to introduce today legislation that would link all of these sites in a way that will benefit students, scholars, and visitors alike. The Votes for Women History Trail Act directs the National Park Service (NPS) to establish an auto route connecting these various sites. The trail would be established in accordance with the recommendations contained in an NPS feasibility report funded by Congress. This trail will allow tourists, educators, and others to connect the many sites and events critical to women's history and place them in context. It will also serve as a new tourist destination for the region, bolstering the flagging economy. Finally, it will give well- deserved prominence to the importance of women's history for our region and our nation as a whole. I am proud to sponsor this new initiative, and I hope my colleagues will join me in supporting the Votes for Women History Trail Act. I look forward to working with the Resources Committee to ensure its timely consideration and passage.

Ms. SLAUGHTER

Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Spratt).

Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, on that, I demand the yeas and nays.

Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that a quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is not present.

Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I move to reconsider the vote by which the previous question was ordered on the resolution. Motion to Table Motion to Reconsider

Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. Mr. Speaker, if the previous question is defeated, we will be calling a vote on it. I will offer an amendment to this unfair and undemocratic closed rule. Democrats are seeking to make in order two amendments to the budget resolution. The first is a trigger amendment offered by the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Moran), and the second is the Moore-Stenholm-Tanner- Matheson substitute that the majority on the Committee on Rules refused to make in order. The Moran trigger amendment prohibits the Congress from adopting any budget resolution next year if it does not project a surplus within 5 years. Democrats have offered a vehicle in this trigger amendment that can force the institution to face up to the facts. The majority has spent some time today complaining that no substitutes were offered in the Committee on Rules. I beg to differ. The gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Moore) and the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Stenholm), along with the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Tanner) and the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Matheson), offered a substitute that establishes a budget plan for fiscal discipline. Yet, the Committee on Rules failed to make it in order. Our amendment to the rule would correct this serious failing. Last year, Mr. Speaker, the President and every House Republican leader promised that every dollar of Social Security and Medicare trust funds would be saved for Social Security and Medicare. With this budget, that promise has been broken. We want to give the majority one last chance to do the right thing, Mr. Speaker. By defeating the previous question, we can restore honesty to the budget process and protect Social Security. The time for games has ended. Let us pass an honest budget, or at least a trigger amendment that protects Social Security. It is the right thing to do, and every Member knows it. I urge a no vote on the previous question. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the amendment be printed in the Record immediately before the vote on the previous question.

Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Kind). (Mr. KIND asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Gephardt), the minority leader of the House of Representatives. (Mr. GEPHARDT asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Moran).

Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Stenholm). (Mr. STENHOLM asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Holt).

Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Moore).

Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Israel).

Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Green).

Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Hastings) my colleague on the Committee on Rules.

Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Davis).

Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Frost).