Louise Slaughter

Ms. SLAUGHTER

Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Hastings) for yielding me the customary half-hour, and I yield myself such time as I may consume. (Ms. SLAUGHTER asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Ms. SLAUGHTER

Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Dicks) for yielding me this time. Mr. Chairman, this amendment is being offered for one purpose and one purpose only: to squash a fair and hard-fought victory that we had 4 hours ago to increase funds for the National Endowment for the Arts and other cultural agencies. Similar to our debate last year, some Members have resorted to last minute shenanigans to reverse support for arts funding and to wrongfully deny the NEA, a most worthy agency, from receiving the funds it justly deserves. At the last minute, without warning, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Stearns) has designed an amendment to eliminate the entire amount that we had granted the NEA, a modest boost of $10 million. The amendment is an obvious attempt to sabotage this, the first clean, overwhelming positive vote that we have had on NEA in years. Witnessing our amendment win fair and square, some Members have gotten nervous and put forth yet another cheap tactic to deny this agency the small pot of money that it deserves. With today's vote of 221 to 193 in favor of increasing funds for the cultural agencies, the House has taken its stand in support of them. It is ludicrous and unconscionable to consider this amendment on the heels of this victory and a great disservice to those Members and the constituents they represent to go back on their word. I urge a no vote.

Ms. SLAUGHTER. Would the gentleman yield?

Ms. SLAUGHTER

Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Chairman, I am proud to join my colleagues in expressing my strong support for an increase in Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program's (LIHEAP) emergency funding level and advance funding for fiscal year 2002. This advanced funding would allow LIHEAP recipients to purchase home heating oil and natural gas early--during the summertime--when home heating energy prices are lower. Thus, they would get more bang for their buck. If we have learned nothing over the past year, it should be that short-term thinking does not work. Last winter, I learned about a senior citizen in my district who lives on $515 a month from Social Security. In addition to heavy medical costs, 19.7 percent of her income has to go to paying her energy bills. Unfortunately, I am sure her situation is not unique. Currently, two-thirds of LIHEAP households have incomes of less than $8,000 per year and even with assistance, the average LIHEAP family already spends over 18 percent of its income on home energy costs, compared with 6.7 percent for all households. Only 19 percent of the households who are eligible receive LIHEAP assistance. At the same time, last winter in my state, forty percent more households were applying for Home Energy Assistance Program grants than the previous year. I am disappointed that Representative DeLauro's amendment was not made in order. This increase in LIHEAP would be a significant first step toward helping our residents pay for a basic necessity. Point of Order

Ms. SLAUGHTER

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 demand a recorded vote.

Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume; and I thank my colleague from Georgia (Mr. Linder) for yielding me the customary time. Mr. Speaker, this is a modified closed rule that will allow for the consideration of H.R. 1088, the Investor and Capital Markets Fee Relief Act. Under this restrictive rule, a Democratic substitute may be offered on the floor by the gentleman from New York (Mr. LaFalce). Unfortunately, no other amendments may be offered. The underlying bill reduces fees levied by the Securities and Exchange Commission for stock-related transactions. This will result in a loss of about $14 billion in Federal receipts between the years 2002 and 2011. This general budget effect is a large revenue depletion. In the year 2002 alone, CBO estimates this will be more than $1.3 billion. It is a drain on the treasury. The reduction of fees is motivated by an increase in collections, which is the result of greater stock market activity in the last few years. It makes perfect sense to reduce fees that might benefit individual investors. In fact, the Democratic substitute would do just that. However, given the uncertain future of financial markets and the unforeseeable need for regulation and enforcement, it seems imprudent to reduce revenues by such a large amount as this bill does. Moreover, minority members of the Committee on Financial Services warn that these cuts could ultimately result in cuts in important government programs like Head Start, medical research, and transportation and infrastructure improvements. A more sound approach would be to examine the long-term needs of the Securities and Exchange Commission as well as other government activities involved with protecting the securities markets, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation inquiries, Department of Justice criminal prosecutions, and any other Federal resources needed to prosecute securities cases. Only then would we have a sound basis for establishing an appropriate fee reduction. Mr. Speaker, for these reasons, I urge my colleagues to support the Democratic substitute at the proper time. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Maloney).

Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time; and I yield back the balance of my time.

Ms. SLAUGHTER

Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume, and I thank my colleague, the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Hastings), for yielding me the customary 30 minutes. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this open rule. I would note that the underlying bill is noncontroversial and has passed the Chamber twice. The measure authorizes the Secretary of Commerce to provide financial assistance to Alaska, California, Idaho, Oregon and Washington for salmon habitat restoration projects. Pacific salmon and steelhead trout are fish whose life cycle begins in freshwater, moves into the ocean and then returns to the freshwater when it is time to spawn. Along the way, dams, predators and commercial harvests all contribute to salmon mortality. Many salmon species are currently listed as endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The underlying bill would authorize appropriations of $200 million to restore and conserve these endangered fish. The measure moved through the committee by unanimous consent and was favorably reported to the House by voice vote. A bill such as this would be a perfect candidate for the suspension calendar and why it is being considered today under regular order is anybody's guess, but nevertheless I do support this rule and the underlying bill and urge its favorable consideration. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Ms. SLAUGHTER

Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, to my great dismay, John Sparks, Vice President of Public and Government Affairs, will soon conclude nine years of outstanding service to the American Symphony Orchestra League. While the League's membership includes more than 900 orchestras, and some 3,000 individuals, artist agencies, trustees, and volunteers, John's work has reached far beyond the music and arts community to benefit the nation at large. I would like to take a few moments to recognize the outstanding work that John has accomplished over almost a decade of service. In particular, John has distinguished himself as an advocate for the right of nonprofit organizations and individual citizens to voice their concerns about public policy. When some sought legislation to limit the ability of America's charities to communicate with legislators, John was instrumental in leading the effort that ultimately protected this basic right. With the publication of ``Best Defense: a Guide for Orchestra Advocates,'' he literally wrote the book on civic participation in arts policy. And, his regular contributions to SYMPHONY Magazine have provided readers nationwide with thoughtful inquiry and evenhanded analysis of emerging public policy, while persistently professing the responsibility of every individual to actively participate in the public sector. I would also like to recognize John's extraordinary contributions in the areas of nonprofit and arts policy. He has tirelessly defended federal support for the National Endowment for the Arts through years of challenges, and has expertly represented the concerns of orchestras and their audiences in an uncommonly diverse array of policy areas, ranging from postal rates to tax policy. John's tenacity, sincerity, political acumen, and keen sense of humor, are indeed rare qualities to be found in one person. I express my sincere thanks to John Sparks for his invaluable work on behalf of orchestras, the arts, non-profit organizations, and our country.

Ms. SLAUGHTER

Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I would like the U.S. House of Representatives to mark the passing of a man who did everything he could to make America a better place for all of its citizens: J. Wesley Watkins III. [From the Washington Post, June 6, 2001] J. Wesley Watkins III, 65, Dies; Civil Liberties Lawyer, Activist (By Bart Barnes) J. Wesley Watkins III, 65, a Washington-based lawyer who specialized in civil rights and civil liberties issues in a career that spanned almost 40 years, died of pneumonia June 4 at George Washington University Hopsital. He had cancer. At his death, Mr. Watkins was a senior fellow at the Center for Policy Alternatives and founding director of the Flemming Fellows Leadership Institute, a program that assists and trains state legislators on such issues as family and medical leave, community reinvestment and motor-voter registration. He was a former director of the American Civil Liberties Union of the National Capital Area, a Washington-based southern regional manager of Common Cause and a management consultant to various nonprofit organizations. In the later 1960s and the 1970s, he had a private law practice in Greenville, Miss. His cases included winning the right for African American leaders to speak to on-campus gatherings at previously all-white universities; the seating of a biracial Mississippi delegation at the 1968 Democratic National Convention and removal of various barriers and impediments to voting. Mr. Watkins, a resident of Washington, was born in Greenville and grew up in Inverness, Miss. He attended the U.S. Naval Academy, graduated from the University of Mississippi and served in the Navy at Pearl Harbor from 1957 to 1959. He graduated from the University of Mississippi Law School in 1962. During the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, he was a Justice Department lawyer and tried cases throughout the South. In 1967, he returned to Greenville as a partner in the law firm of Wynn and Watkins. Until 1975, he was the attorney for the Loyal Democrats, the movement to establish a biracial Democratic Party in a state where black residents had been effectively excluded from the political process for generations. The loyalists were seated at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago as the official Democratic Party of Mississippi. In the years after 1968, Mr. Watkins held negotiations with Mississippi's Old Guard Democrats that led to a unified Democratic Party by the national convention of 1976. Hodding Carter III, the former editor of Greenville's Delta Democrat Times newspaper and a Mississippi contemporary of Mr. Watkin's, described him as ``one of those southerners who loved this place so much that he had to change it. He had to do what he knew was the right and necessary thing in a very hard time. He had to break with so much that was basic to his past.'' Carter is president of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation in Miami. In 1975, Mr. Watkins returned to Washington and joined the Center for Policy Alternatives and helped found the Flemming Leadership Institute. There, Linda Tarr-Whelan, the organization's board chairman, called him a ``larger-than-life figure with a thick Mississippi accent, a magnetic personality and a gift for telling stories.'' He habitually wore cowboy boots and a ten-gallon hat. When chemotherapy treatments for his cancer caused some of his hair to fall out, Mr. Watkins simply shaved his head and started wearing an earring. In the 1980s, Mr. Watkins was task force director for the Commission on Administrative Review of the U.S. House of Representatives, which also was known as the Obey Commission. He was a former legislative assistant to Rep. Frank E. Smith (D-Miss.). He served on the boards of Common Cause, Americans for Democratic Action and Mid-Delta Head Start, and most recently he was a board member of Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington. He was a former vestryman and a teacher in the Christian education program of St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Washington. His marriage to Jane Magruder Watkins ended in divorce. Survivors include his companion, Anita F. Gottlieb of Washington; two children, Gordon Watkins of Parthenon, Ark., and Laurin Wittig of Williamsburg, two sisters, Mollye Lester of Inverness and Ann Stevens of Newark; a brother, William S. Watkins of Alexandria; and four grandchildren.

Ms. SLAUGHTER

Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me time. Mr. Speaker, a giant of a man has fallen; and I do not think this House will ever be the same. Joe Moakley was so deeply rooted in his beloved South Boston and grateful, to the moment of his death, that the people who lived there had entrusted him with the greatest thing that they could give, to let him represent them here in the House of Representatives. And represent them he did. On our way to the funeral, we drove by many works in process in the city of Boston that are a credit to Joe Moakley. Most of all, though, he was a human being, to his core. He told me a story that I think sort of summarized Joe, that when he was growing up, he was always big for his age, which was one of the reasons he was able to talk himself into the Navy at the age of 16. As they would be driving down the street, if they saw anybody being bullied or anything that did not look quite right to Joe's father, he would say, ``Well, Joe what are you going to do about that?'' He would park the car, and Joe would get out and fix it. And I think that trained him very well in that Joe was expected when he saw something wrong to do what he could to fix it. I think he was most proud, at least I am most proud, of what he did in Central America, because he stepped up against his own government to right a wrong, and all of us benefited from that. I considered him, I expect like most of you did, to be my very best friend. I know that Joe was the person I could always go to when I had anything in the world on my mind, say anything that I thought, and that was the end of it, and he always helped me out. I was his singing partner. We sang a lot of duets. He knew songs I had never heard of in my life, I am not even sure they were songs. I am pretty sure he made some of them up as he went along, like ``Come into the parlor if you are Irish.'' That was one that I had never heard. But, anyway, serving with him on the Committee on Rules from the time that I was appointed there was one of the greatest joys of my life. I had never seen anyone live with such joy and contentment, nor die with such courage. As has been mentioned, Joe had several physical infirmities that bothered him over the years, but none of them ever slowed him down. But the nicest thing for him, while he was not a publicity seeker, and maybe everybody in the country would not know who Joe Moakley was, everybody in the State of Massachusetts knew. And the wonderful things that happened to him, the courthouse that was named after him he told me was built on a piece of ground where he played as a child. And what a magnificent thing at that dedication, that Old Ironsides, the USS Constitution, gave him a 19 gun salute. I think that is the greatest gift you could give a son of Massachusetts or a son of the United States. And everybody showed him and had the opportunity to tell him how much he was beloved. I picked up a copy of the Boston Globe while we were in Boston on Friday at the service, and, as everybody else has said, it was a most remarkable event. The sailors who serve on Old Ironsides served as his pallbearers bringing the casket from the church. It said in the Globe, among other things about Joe, that he was so loved in his neighborhood and area that at one point he was asked if he would open up his house for Christmas for an open house as a fund- raiser, and he was kind of loath to do it, but he said okay, if you want me to, I shall do that. It went off very well, and they decided they would like to do that again, and they thought they would ask early. So the following August the group asked Joe if he would do it again, and Joe said, well, absolutely, I would be happy to; the Christmas tree is still up. Which was typical Joe again. But one of the things that I read in the paper too that struck me so was that nobody ever parked in front of Joe's house, out of respect for him. Nobody ever told anybody not to; it was just the feeling that they had that somebody special lived there. But with all of that, every inch of him was one of them. He was from the old school, I know that, and frankly I liked that old school, and I do not think that we will see his like again. But I personally am grateful for the years that I had an opportunity to work with and to get to know one of the most incredible human beings I have ever known, John Joseph Moakley.

Ms. SLAUGHTER

Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Gephardt). (Mr. GEPHARDT asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

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 yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Maloney).

Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield my remaining 1 minute to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi).

Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Fattah), and I know he will use it well.

Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Wu). (Mr. WU 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. Payne). (Mr. PAYNE 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. Andrews). (Mr. ANDREWS asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee). (Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

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.)