Bennie Thompson

Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi

Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from New Jersey (Mrs. Watson Coleman).

Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I yield 6 minutes to the gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms. Underwood), sponsor of this legislation.

Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi

Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on this measure.

Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, the Trump administration's cruel and inhumane approach to border and immigration enforcement has subjected DHS' frontline personnel and border communities to chaotic conditions. It has also hurt families and children. From the Remain in Mexico policy that puts children and families in harm's way indefinitely to family separation to metering, the Trump administration has haphazardly reshaped how people who seek safety in the U.S. are treated. It is essential that there be greater transparency and accountability regarding what DHS is doing along the border. More remains to be done, but H.R. 2203 includes several first steps. I urge my colleagues to support this measure, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I yield the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Escobar) an additional 1 minute.

Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Garcia).

Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee).

Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Escobar), the sponsor of this legislation.

Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee).

Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 577, I call up the bill (H.R. 2203) to increase transparency, accountability, and community engagement within the Department of Homeland Security, provide independent oversight of border security activities, improve training for agents and officers of U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 1 minute to the gentlewoman.

Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, H.R. 2203, the Homeland Security Improvement Act, as amended, seeks to enhance accountability for how the Department of Homeland Security carries out its border security and immigration enforcement activities. For years, the complaints process at DHS has been fragmented. While the inspector general of DHS reviews allegations of unlawful activity by Department personnel, other complaints must go through Customs and Border Protection or Immigration and Customs Enforcement first. Further, the process for filing a complaint can be complicated and confusing. Additionally, there is no central mechanism for residents of border communities to speak out about how DHS' operations affect their day-to-day lives or the environment around them. H.R. 2203, as we are considering it today, would establish a new ombudsman to carry out an independent, neutral, and confidential process to help resolve complaints with respect to the Department's border and immigration enforcement activities. The ombudsman would also note patterns in the types of complaints received to identify any systemic issues. The communities most directly impacted by DHS' border and immigration enforcement activities are those that are on our borders with Mexico and Canada. Under H.R. 2203, the ombudsman would appoint border community liaisons to serve in sectors along the northern and southern borders to foster better communication and meaningful engagement with these communities. The ombudsman is also required to stand up a border oversight panel to make recommendations on border and immigration policies and programs with attention to DHS activities that affect due process, property rights, and the safety of migrants and officers. H.R. 2203 is also intended to ensure greater oversight of the training that frontline personnel receive. Specifically, the ombudsman would annually evaluate the CBP and ICE agents and officers training, particularly on standards for professional and ethical conduct, and make recommendations on any needed improvements. Additionally, the bill directs the ombudsman to develop an implementation plan to require the use of body-worn cameras by Border Patrol agents and ICE officers while engaged in border security or immigration enforcement activities. While the current administration's activities in this area warrant heightened scrutiny, several issues, such as conditions in ICE detention or insufficient consultation with property owners by U.S. Border Patrol, have persisted for years. H.R. 2203 represents a step in the right direction to bring greater transparency and accountability to DHS. I urge my colleagues to support this legislation. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary, Washington, DC, July 18, 2019. Hon. Bennie G. Thompson, Chairman, Committee on Homeland Security, House of Representatives, Washington, DC. Dear Mr. Chairman: This is to advise you that the Committee on the Judiciary has now had an opportunity to review the provisions in H.R. 2203, the ``Homeland Security Improvement Act'' that fall with our Rule X jurisdiction. I appreciate your consulting with us on those provisions. The Judiciary Committee has no objection to your including them in the bill for consideration on the House floor, and to expedite that consideration is willing to waive sequential referral, with the understanding that we do not thereby waive any future jurisdictional claim over those provisions or their subject matters. In the event a House-Senate conference on this or similar legislation is convened, the Judiciary Committee reserves the right to request an appropriate number of conferees to address any concerns with these or similar provisions that may arise in conference. Please place this letter into the Congressional Record during consideration of the measure on the House floor. Thank you for the cooperative spirit in which you have worked regarding this matter and others between our committees. Sincerely, Jerrold Nadler, Chairman.

Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 1 minute to the gentlewoman.

Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi

Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Madam Speaker, I rise today to highlight remarkable historical activists, Fannie Lou Hamer, Annie Devine, and Victoria Gray. Coming on the heels of its historic challenge to the seating of the all-white Mississippi delegation at the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) moved to unseat Mississippi's all-white Congressional delegation the next year. The MFDP revealed how continued illegal discrimination led to the election of five white men to represent a state, where the population was nearly half African American. Through its Freedom Elections, open to anyone regardless of race, the MFDP proved that black voters would exercise their constitutional rights if given the chance and that their votes would undermine Jim Crow politics in America. The MFDP took its challenge all the way to the U.S. House of Representatives. In December 1964, MFDP attorneys not only rejected the seating of the men who comprised the Mississippi delegation ahead of the 1965 Congressional session but asserted that Fannie Lou Hamer, Annie Devine, and Victoria Gray should be seated in their stead in their own respective districts. These three black women were long-time civil rights activists and MFPD stalwarts and had attempted to run for Congress in the Fall of 1964. After they were denied a place on the official Mississippi ballot, Hamer, Devine, and Gray were elected through the MFDP Freedom Vote. Though it had no recognized legal standing, the Freedom Vote was the only true democratic election in Mississippi. Thus, the MFDP argued that these women were entitled to the state's Congressional seats in their districts as the only democratically elected officials from the state. On January 3, 1965, Hamer, Devine, Gray, and more than 600 other black Mississippians welcomed members of Congress to the Capitol in support of the MFDP challenge. When Speaker of the House John McCormack began the traditional roll call, Congressman William Fitts Ryan of New York objected to the seating of Mississippi's Thomas Abernethy. More than sixty U.S. Representatives joined Ryan in that dissent and forced McCormack to wait to seat the entire Mississippi delegation until the rest of Congress had been sworn in. Then, House Majority Leader Carl Albert of Oklahoma moved that the MFDP challenge be recognized as legitimate and that Mississippi's all-white delegation be seated until a full hearing could be conducted. Albert's Resolution passed the House by a vote of 276 to 149. With two-thirds of U.S. Congressmen supporting the right to a challenge, the Committee on House Administration prepared to hear the MFDP's arguments. The state's segregationist delegation employed an army of white attorneys, recruited at the behest of the Mississippi Bar Association, to mount their defense during the summer of 1965, but the MFDP organized dozens of volunteer lawyers from across the country to prepare its case. They issued subpoenas, conducted depositions, and gathered testimony from black voters about the discrimination they had encountered in the state for decades. Backed by hundreds of pages of documents in support of the challenge, the MFDP was prepared for a hearing to be held in the Fall of 1965. When the MFDP challenge was finally heard on September 13, 1965, Fannie Lou Hamer, Annie Devine, and Victoria Gray testified in front of the House Subcommittee on Elections that they had been denied access to the ballot because of their race and should be seated to represent the State of Mississippi in Congress. Three days later, their challenge came to the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives for a vote, and Congressman Ryan of New York, who had first stood to object to the seating of the all-white delegation in January, accompanied the three women to sit on the House floor with Congressional Democrats during the debate. Their presence made them the first black women on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives and the first black Mississippians there since Reconstruction. Undaunted by the vitriol they had faced, Annie Devine, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Victoria Gray sat nobly through the deliberations. Although a vote of 228-143 defeated the MFPD challenge, nearly 40 percent of Congressmen had gone on record in support of Hamer, Devine, and Gray. A month before their challenge was heard, the 1965 Voting Rights Act had passed, which many members of Congress believed had rectified the inequities that the MFDP described, and those Congressmen did not believe they should act on behalf of the MFDP in the name of past discrimination. Nevertheless, the heroic efforts of Hamer, Devine, Gray, and the MFDP proved that African Americans would not sit idly by but would demand their rights of American citizenship. These three women fought to throw open the doors that eventually saw Shirley Chisholm from New York elected as the first black woman to Congress in 1968, Mike Espy as the first black Mississippian since Reconstruction to serve in Congress in 1987, and the election of the first African American President of the United States, Barack Obama. We honor them for their courage and sacrifice. Madam Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing Jacqueline Hamer-Flakes, Pastor Cecil Gray, Julie Henderson, Reuben Adams, Nettsaanett Gray, Barbara Devine Reed, Tiffany Wilson, William Ryan, Mary Carroll (Mac) Ryan, and Elizabeth Ryan as we reflect on the contributions of Fannie Lou Hamer, Annie Devine, and Victoria Gray to their families, communities, and their driving passion to fight for Civil Rights.

Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi

Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize a distinguished public servant, Margot Bester, who, after nearly 25 years of dedicated service to the American people, is retiring from her position as Principal Deputy Chief Counsel at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Ms. Bester has served as second in command of the Office of Chief Counsel since the months following the creation of TSA, a component of the Department of Homeland Security created by Congress to ensure transportation security for our nation in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks which occurred 18 years ago today. In coordination with the Chief Counsel, Ms. Bester has overseen the legal work of the attorneys at TSA and has been primarily responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Office of Chief Counsel. Ms. Bester joined the TSA Office of Chief Counsel in April 2002. In August of that year, she was selected by Admiral James Loy, then Under Secretary of Transportation for Security, to represent TSA in its transition to DHS. She also served as the transportation security advisor to DHS Under Secretary Asa Hutchinson. In recognition of her service to the newly formed Department, Ms. Bester received the Department of Homeland Security ``Day One'' Award. Early in her career, she was Director of Regulatory Relations with the United States Telephone Association and an attorney with the Federal Communications Commission. A first-generation American, Ms. Bester was born in Buffalo, NY, to parents that had been granted asylum in our country after surviving the atrocities of the Second World War. Love of country and the importance of being an active, engaged citizen were ingrained at a young age. Ms. Bester has often spoken of the great honor of serving, protecting, and giving back to our nation, which provided opportunity and security for her family during dire circumstances. Her passion for public service is second only to her dedication to her family. Of her many accomplishments, Ms. Bester is most proud as a mother to her sons, Brian and Eric, and as grandmother to Chase and Ava. After spending a career protecting our Nation's transportation security, Ms. Bester now heads to an extremely well-deserved retirement from Federal service. I ask my colleagues to join me in sending the very best wishes and congratulations of the House as well as our thanks for her remarkable career and her notable service to our country.

Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi

Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Madam Speaker, I rise to honor Hillary A. Davis, Congressional Fellow with the Women's Congressional Policy Institute on Women and Public Policy. For the past 7 months, Ms. Davis has been working as a research and writing associate. Ms. Davis is a native of Tampa, Florida, and chose to follow in her godmother's footsteps and attend the historic Fisk University in Nashville, TN. There she majored in Political Science, and while at Fisk, Ms. Davis established herself as a servant leader by being elected to serve on the Student Government Association and as chapter president of Fisk's collegiate chapter of NAACP. Upon graduating from Fisk, she returned to Tampa and began a career as a human resource professional in the information technology industry. Ms. Davis also holds a Master of Public Administration from Southern University and A&M College in Baton Rouge, LA. Throughout her time on the Committee, Ms. Davis has displayed a high degree of professionalism and personal commitment to providing staff valuable insight and information. In all of this, Ms. Davis has demonstrated benevolence, vitality, and enthusiasm, which has helped all of us enormously. We thank Ms. Davis for her service to the Committee and our country and wish her the very best as she continues her outstanding professional journey.

Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi

Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Oregon for yielding me time. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 3409. I am glad to have worked with Chairman DeFazio to integrate major provisions from legislation I authored to drive long overdue reforms at the Coast Guard Academy. Our armed services should reflect the diverse fabric of this Nation. Unfortunately, the Coast Guard Academy has struggled to attract and retain a diverse student body and faculty. The absence of diverse voices at the Coast Guard Academy has contributed to what many acknowledge as a hostile environment for cadets and faculty with diverse backgrounds punctuated by hateful incidents. I have engaged with the Commandant regarding conditions at the academy and, to his credit, he is open to change. To that end, H.R. 3409 directs the Commandant to secure the services of outside experts to carry out an independent, top-to-bottom review of conditions at the academy with an eye to issuing recommendations to foster a more inclusive and supportive environment. Additionally, the independent body would be directed to assess the academy's admissions processes and consider the potential benefits of congressional nominations to increase diversity. The true test for the Coast Guard will come when recommendations are issued. At that point it will be clear if, as an organization, the Coast Guard is willing to abandon its historically insular ways and embrace real reform. Other noteworthy provisions of my legislation that are reflected here include requiring a Coast Guard strategy to increase the representation of cadets, faculty, and staff from diverse backgrounds, and authorizing both the Academy Minority Outreach Team Program and the College Student Pre-Commissioning Initiative. I am pleased that the bill also includes language authored by Congressman Richmond to enhance the Coast Guard's capacity to combat and defend against cyber threats. Before I close, I would like to thank Chairman DeFazio, Chairman Cummings and their staffs, particularly Dave Jansen on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee staff, for partnering with me and my staff to put the academy on a positive trajectory.

Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi

Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor a tenacious couple, Brian and Candi Crawford. Brian Crawford is a licensed and ordained Gospel Minister having served as a youth pastor, associate pastor and lead pastor before starting City Light Church. Brian and his wife Candi are natives and long-time residents of Vicksburg having a passion to share the Love and Gospel of Jesus Christ with the city they hold dear. Having felt a burden for Vicksburg for a long period of time God moved to allow Brian and Candi to move back to the area with the mission to shine the light of Christ in the city through the transformed lives of His people. Brian changed jobs and moved into the heart of the city to begin their journey. Brian and Candi were assessed through the 242 Church Planting Network and were deemed ready for the rigors of church planting. Brian also completed the Multiply church planting training through the network in May 2016. When he isn't doing the work of the ministry, you probably can find Brian coaching his boys, dating his wife, reading (by the truckload) or watching movies (any genre) and sports (any kind). Madam Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing Brian and Candi Crawford for their hard work, dedication and desire to spread the Gospel.

Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi

Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor a remarkable public servant, Mrs. Allie D. Foster Jackson. Allie was born August 4, 1927 in Kosciusko, Mississippi. Mrs. Jackson confessed Christ at an early age and joined Wesley United Methodist Church in Kosciusko, Mississippi and later became a lifelong member of Anderson United Methodist Church. While at Anderson, she served as the church pianist, organist, coordinator of the annual Christmas and Easter presentations. She graduated from Piney Woods High School and received her B.S. degree in Education from Jackson State College. She further attended Atlanta University and Indiana University to specialize in librarianship. Mrs. Jackson's teaching career spanned over 33 years and included English, band, choir and library science. After retiring from the Jackson Public School System, she volunteered at Tougaloo College in their College Library System where she received the Volunteer of the Year Award in 2001. She leaves to cherish her memory two siblings and three sister-in- laws: Mary Virginia Ukegbu Kosciusko, Mississippi and Charles (Faye) Foster, Jackson, Mississippi; Bessie L. Foster, Kosciusko, Mississippi and Betty Foster, Atlanta, Georgia; a son, Embra K. Jackson, Jr. (Rosia), Starkville, Mississippi; grandchildren: Keith Payne, Kevin (Sandy) Payne, and Krystal Payne, Embra K. Jackson, III (Suyapa), Ebony K. Nance (Chris), Emmanuel K. Jackson (Ashley) and Katelyn Jackson; 15 great grandchildren and 2 great-great grandchildren. Madam Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing the late Mrs. Allie D. Foster Jackson.

Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi

Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Madam Chair, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Madam Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Yes.

Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Madam Chair, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from California (Mr. Schiff).

Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Madam Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Chair, I rise to offer an amendment to title VI of H.R. 3494 titled Federal Efforts Against Domestic Terrorism. I am pleased to see that this title was significantly informed by my bill, H.R. 3106, the Domestic Terrorism DATA Act which the Homeland Security Committee will be considering tomorrow. I am glad to have the opportunity to work with Chairman Schiff and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on this text. My legislation, which requires the government to produce an annual domestic terrorism report, was the product of more than 5 months of engagement with outside stakeholders and experts. As a result of that consultation process, I included protections for civil rights, civil liberties, privacy, and data quality in my bill. These provisions made my bill stronger. My amendment to H.R. 3494 would require that these very protections are included. Madam Chair, my amendment also requires additional information be included in the government's domestic terrorism report. Requiring the date and location of each incident of terrorism or investigation of terrorism will help Congress and the public better understand the landscape of domestic terrorism. Madam Chair, I urge my colleagues to support my amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.