Marc Veasey

Mr. VEASEY

Mr. VEASEY. Absolutely. When I am back in the district in the Dallas- Fort Worth area--and Dallas and Fort Worth are the two most recognizable cities that I represent in the district, but there are other cities. We have Irving that is there, we have Grand Prairie, we have Arlington where the Cowboys stadium is located, and a lot of people are asking: When are we going to get these good jobs back? We want to see some of these good jobs come back. I have got to tell you, the President made a lot of promises when he was on the campaign trail about bringing some of these jobs back, and I want to see those jobs come back, too. I think that with everything going on right now, with the resignation of General Flynn and there being so much talk about campaign operatives on the Trump campaign talking to Russian intelligence officials, I think that he is going to be too distracted to help these workers. I think that Republicans are going to be too distracted to help these workers in the Rust Belt, to help these middle class, these blue-collar workers. I have got to tell you, during our retreat last week while we were in Baltimore, I opened up The Wall Street Journal first thing in the morning. I saw this article about how--and it was about jobs still pouring in to Mexico, and it was really one of the saddest things that I ever read. For some manufacturers, Mexico is still the best move. They specifically were talking about a corporation called the Rexnord Corporation. It really broke my heart when I was reading the articles about how they were asking the workers at this plant in America, in our country, to actually train individuals from foreign countries to replace them. They wanted them to train them for the jobs that they currently had here in our country and asking them to, you know, train these people so we can ship your job out of the country and you can be replaced. How demoralizing to go to work knowing that you are training someone next to you for your job to be sent overseas or sent out of the country, your livelihood, everything that you have known. For a lot of these little, small towns, these companies really are the face of the town. In Texas, and I am sure it is like this in Indiana and in other parts of the Rust Belt and other parts of blue-collar America, Friday night football is a really big deal, maybe the local high school basketball game is a really big deal, but also that ranks right up there with both of those two athletic activities in these towns, their identity is driven by their job. I thought that was such a sad commentary about where we are now. Again, with all of the executive orders, when you start talking about the travel ban on citizens from Muslim countries, when you start talking about the executive order to raise interest rates on first-time homeowners, no executive orders whatsoever to protect the American worker. We are a month into the administration. No executive order, no action, no comments on Davis-Bacon, nothing to reinforce the fact that we are with these guys, and it is really sad. I am sure that these workers out there, in America, in New Jersey, in other States, I bet you they are sitting back watching, saying: How in the world is this President going to help us with all of the distractions that are going on over there? When is he going to help us? He has done all these other things with the executive order, why not do something for the American worker?

Mr. VEASEY. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the subject of this Special Order.

Mr. VEASEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Norcross).

Mr. VEASEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Norcross). I really appreciate his heartfelt words. I thank him for telling us about his journey, employment, and how much electricians mean to this country, and other people that work with their hands. I think it is sad that in a lot of our public schools that type of work has been--quite frankly, there is no other way to say it--some of it has been put down. But those workers are important. We need to stop having people rank jobs and make sure that we know that all jobs in this country are important. Since 2000, the United States has lost about 4.8 million manufacturing jobs. That is a 29 percent decrease in jobs for blue- collar workers. Again, manufacturing jobs are good-paying jobs. Manufacturing jobs pay about 20 percent higher than service jobs do. So any manufacturing job that we lose in this country is bad. One of the saddest stories--and there are so many sad stories about these plants that have closed down, and so much of the focus has been on the Rust Belt, and rightfully so. And Marcy Kaptur may tell me if I am pronouncing the name of this city correctly. But there is a story about the closing of a Rubbermaid facility in a place called Wooster, W-O-O-S-T-E-R. They said that they were shutting down this Rubbermaid facility in Wooster, Ohio, but they were going to keep the big outlet mall open. And I thought to myself: How in the world can people afford to go to the outlet mall, or any shop, if the jobs are gone? It is just another sad story about how America is losing manufacturing jobs. Luckily, we have people like the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur), who fights for her State and fights for manufacturing jobs, and not just in her State, but for the entire country. Mr. Speaker, I thank Ms. Kaptur for her dedication to the working class men and women in this country and for all blue-collar workers. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur).

Mr. VEASEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Kaptur and everybody that has participated tonight. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. VEASEY

Mr. VEASEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Texas for sharing that great information and talking about some of the highlights that Black Americans have made toward our story when it comes to African American History Month this February. I now yield to the gentlewoman from the Virgin Islands, Stacy Plaskett, who is here tonight to also talk about contributions from the part of the world that she represents. I thank her for her efforts here tonight and for being part of this Special Order hour.

Mr. VEASEY. Mr. Speaker, I now yield to another distinguished member of the New York delegation, my colleague, the great Hakeem Jeffries, who has led this Special Order before and who I look to for guidance on how to continue the great work that he and Joyce Beatty did previously.

Mr. VEASEY. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include any extraneous material in the Record.

Mr. VEASEY. Mr. Speaker, W. E. B. Du Bois is quoted as saying: ``The cost of liberty is the less than the price of repression.'' And the cost of liberty has come at a steep price for members of the Black community. But despite this immense challenge the Black community has faced, our resiliency is what we celebrate every month during Black History Month. Every February, we get together to talk about it, highlight it, and share with school children, friends, and family the accomplishments of the men and women who changed the course of American history. We thank these pioneers for expanding what we believed possible and use them as an inspiration for the fight that remains. There have been so many African-American pioneers in every field, including medicine. Dr. James McCune Smith was the first African American to earn a medical degree and practice medicine in the U.S.; Dr. Daniel Hale Williams owned the first Black-owned hospital and is credited with the first successful heart surgery performed by an African American; Dr. Charles Drew--many have heard of him--renowned for his research during World War II which allowed for us to better understand blood plasma and its storage for transfusions. More recently, Dr. Regina Benjamin became the first Black woman elected to the American Medical Association Board of Trustees and was appointed the 18th surgeon general by President Barack Obama in 2009. Each of these medical pioneers broke barriers for the betterment of the community, and each worked to use tools of their profession to improve the health of each patient they treat and also for future generations. The Secretary of Health and Human Services shared similar responsibilities, but on a much, much wider scale, Mr. Speaker. The agency, as you know, of HHS is tasked with enhancing and protecting the health of all American citizens. However, the recent appointment of Dr. Tom Price as HHS Secretary threatens to roll back the progress pioneered by Black medical professions and the progress made under President Barack Obama. Dr. Price, as many of you know and as has been documented and seen on television on the cable news shows, was very hostile, extremely hostile, and openly hostile to the Affordable Care Act during the time that he was in Congress, despite the law ultimately extending health insurance for close to 20 million Americans who didn't have it before. That is what is so amazing that a doctor would take that view. Because of the ACA, 2.3 million African Americans between the ages of 18 and 64 gained coverage, and the uninsured rate, among African Americans, fell by nearly 7 percent. In the district that I represent, 47,000 more residents now have coverage thanks to the ACA. And for the district that I represent, that is pretty significant. People hear a lot about the Texas miracle and about all the jobs and the economic growth in the State of Texas. Despite living in Dallas- Fort Worth--one of the most vibrant economies in the entire world, quite frankly--it had the highest uninsured rate out of any congressional district in the country. It is a shame that, with that type of prosperity, we would have such a large group of people--over 1 million people collectively when you include people outside of the district that I represent--in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex who don't have insurance. It is really a shame. We cannot let the progress forged by African-American trailblazers be undermined by a Secretary of Health and Human Services who does not see how expanding healthcare access can help better health outcomes for African Americans. Similarly, in an area of history where we saw historic tenures of both Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch as Attorneys General, the recent confirmation of Jeff Sessions as Attorney General is very troubling and really a blatant reminder that we must remain vigilant for those who would like to turn back the clock on the civil rights progress that African Americans fought and died for, particularly when you start talking about voter fraud. It seems like right now what we are starting to see is the very beginning of people who are against the gains that have been made. They are trying to lay the groundwork so they can go in and do some really, really serious oppression. And that is absolutely scary just because that was a chapter in our country's history that we don't want to go back to. We want to know that the new Attorney General is going to be working for us and not trying to undermine us when it comes to people being able to exercise their suffrage. And in the Senate Chamber, a very esteemed colleague in Congress, Senator Warren, brought much attention to a letter that Coretta Scott King wrote opposing Senator Session's consideration for a Federal judgeship. This Chamber has yet to hear Mrs. King's words in a letter that she used to highlight the brutal harm Sessions could wreak on voting rights. And if you look at her letter, it simply states: ``Free exercise of voting rights is so fundamental to American democracy that we cannot tolerate any form of infringement of those rights. Of all the groups who have been disenfranchised in our nation's history, none has struggled longer or suffered more in the attempt to win the vote than black citizens. No group has had access to the ballot box denied so persistently and intently.'' And Mrs. King continued: ``The actions taken by Mr. Sessions in regards to the 1984 voting fraud prosecutions represent just one more technique used to intimidate black voters and thus deny them this most precious franchise. The investigations into the absentee voting process were conducted only in the black belt counties where blacks had finally achieved political power in local government. Whites had been using the absentee process to their advantage for years, without incident. Then, when blacks, realizing its strength, began to use it with success, criminal investigations were begun.'' Mrs. King went on to state: ``In fact, Mr. Sessions sought to punish older black civil rights activists, advisers and colleagues of my husband, who had been key figures in the civil rights movement in the 1960's. These were persons who, realizing the potential of the absentee vote among blacks, had learned to use the process within the bounds of legality and had taught others to do the same.'' And that is what I am talking about, Mr. Speaker, is that sort of attitude, that sort of hostility towards the African-American community when it comes to the right of suffrage, the right to vote that we hold so precious--that all of us are worried about. But Mrs. King went on to describe why she believes Jeff Sessions would do irreparable harm to her husband's civil rights legacy. ``The exercise of the franchise,'' she states, ``is an essential means by which our citizens ensure that those who are governing will be responsible. My husband called it the number one civil right. The denial of access to the ballot box ultimately results in the denial of other fundamental rights. For, it is only when the poor and disadvantaged are empowered that they are able to participate actively in the solutions to their own problems. ``We still have a long way to go before we can say that minorities no longer need be concerned about discrimination at the polls. Blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans and Asian Americans are grossly underrepresented at every level of government in America. If we are going to make our timeless dream of justice through democracy a reality, we must take every step possible to ensure that the spirit and intent of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the 15th Amendment to the Constitution is honored.'' And with that, Mr. Speaker, I yield to a Member of this body that is no stranger when it comes to civil rights, knew Mrs. King, knew many of the key players and figures, and was a key player and figure himself, and that is the gentleman from South Carolina. I would like to recognize our assistant leader, Jim Clyburn, to come and talk on this topic of Black History Month and some of the things that are so important to our community this month and why we are going to continue to talk about these issues.

Mr. VEASEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank our assistant leader for his comments. He has such a plethora of information when it comes to the civil rights movement. He knew Reverend Abernathy and a lot of figures that aren't as well known, like A. G. Gaston and James Farmer from my family's hometown in Marshall, Texas. He is able to bring all of that in today and tie it into the relevance of what we are working on here in Congress. I yield to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee), a friend here on the House floor from Houston. She is a fellow Texan that also knows about Black history just because so much of great Black history in our country has been made in Harris County, in Houston, Texas. I thank her for participating on this very important Special Order hour.

Mr. VEASEY. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentlewoman from the Virgin Islands (Ms. Plaskett) for offering that to me. There were several things that I heard that were deeply inspiring, yet deeply troubling at the same time. It is amazing how when you start talking about Black history, and you get ready to apply it to present day, you understand just how important it is that we do bridge those two things--the history, the future, and where we are at today. If you look at education, for instance, I know that Brenda Lawrence talked about the school desert phenomena and how there are some neighborhoods where there are no neighborhood schools. That is really sad. Because when you think about Brown v. Board of Education and some of the things that were brought out about people having to travel great distances just to be able to get an education, and now you start looking at today in modern-day America and there still are no neighborhood schools, there is still segregation in schools, and then you see a Secretary of Education who wants to try to implement plans that many say would resegregate the schools, would eliminate neighborhood schools, that is what brought us here. The neighborhood school is what brought us here. That is what allowed us to have so many great inventions when you start talking about the inventions in Black History Month, when you learn about medicine, when you start talking about science, almost all of those people mentioned, even during that time of some of the most awful segregation in our country. And I think about that in my own family. I have a high school invitation from the 1930s in a little town called Henderson in Rusk County. I think Louie Gohmert is the representative there. When you open up the high school invitation--it is from my grandmother's first cousin--and it says Henderson Negro High School, and the graduation will be held at the Henderson Negro High School auditorium. I like to bring that up because when people start asking: Well, why is there Black History Month--

Mr. VEASEY. So we don't forget. But before there was a Black History Month, people started putting those things--Black, Negro, colored, whatever it may happen to be for that time period--in front of schools. They didn't put White in front of there. There was no Henderson White High School. It was the Negro High School. I think the important thing in our trying to bridge all of that is we want to make sure that we don't go back. We don't want to take steps backwards when it comes particularly to education because all of those people, whether they went to the Henderson Negro High School, whether it be blood transfusions--whatever it may happen to be--they got there because of the investment that we made in this country in our public education system. The fact that someone in a position of importance would want to roll back those opportunities is absolutely scary. It is the same with health care, when you start talking about health care and so many people who don't have adequate health care. It is when we see the racial discrepancies and the life expectancy amongst African Americans. An African-American man, in particular, has the lowest life expectancy. And you want to remove people--20 million Americans--from having life insurance?

Mr. VEASEY. It is absolutely scary. I thank the gentlewoman for participating in this very timely conversation. We needed to have this conversation with the country.

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

Mr. VEASEY

Mr. VEASEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to celebrate the 60th birthday of my good friend, overseer Elvis L. Bowman, the senior pastor of the Greater Mt. Tabor Christian Center in my hometown of Fort Worth, Texas. Pastor Bowman was born February 23, 1957, and became a lifelong member of Greater Mt. Tabor Christian Center and their congregation; and the church was founded by his father, E.L. Bowman. Pastor Bowman graduated from the University of Texas in Arlington with a bachelor's degree in business and a minor in music. He has since used his education to serve the congregation in so many wonderful ways. An accomplished musician, Pastor Bowman served as a staff musician under his father before being appointed minister of music in 1974. He then served as the Church business manager before he was appointed pastor in 2002. He was later elevated to full gospel district overseer of Tarrant County in 2008. Pastor Bowman, I wish you happy birthday, my friend, on your 60th birthday. I wish you nothing but health and happiness. Please enjoy your special day.

Mr. VEASEY

Mr. VEASEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the Imperial Court de Fort Worth/Arlington (ICFWA) in celebration of its 37 years of service to the LGBTQ community in the 33rd Congressional District of Texas. In 1979, thirty founding members established the Fort Worth/Arlington chapter of the International Court System--one of the oldest and largest LGBTQ organizations in the world. ICFWA is a social-community service organization that sponsors fundraisers for charities in the community, advocates on behalf of the LGBTQ community, and provides a social support system for members of the LGBTQ community. The ICFWA has given to a number of organizations throughout its decades of service to Fort Worth and Arlington. ICFWA fundraisers have benefitted the Samaritan House, Cancer Care Services, Health Services of North Texas, Meals on Wheels, and the Aids Outreach Center. Throughout 2015 and 2016, the ICFWA gave over $21,000 to various causes and charities. The LGBTQ community has experienced discrimination at their places of employment and in general society. Due to the work of LGBTQ advocacy groups, such as the ICFWA, progress has been made to ensure that Americans of any sexual orientation are not treated differently under the law, have equal access to healthcare services, and that their rights are well protected. Members of the ICFWA have fiercely served the LGBTQ community by addressing the needs of those suffering from HIV/AIDS. The ICFWA helped form the Treehouse Commission, which is still active today, during the peak of the HIV/AIDS crisis to foster coordination among organizations aiding those affected by HIV/AIDS. Several ICFWA members sat on the founding committee of the Samaritan House, a home for persons with HIV/AIDS, in 1991. When the local AIDS Outreach Center lost grant funding, the ICFWA took on the responsibility of funding the food pantry so that clients would not go hungry. The ICFWA will honor the work of all of its members in March at its XXXVIII annual coronation in Fort Worth, Texas as the Court chooses a new Emperor and Empress. I honor the Imperial Court de Fort Worth and Arlington's ceaseless support and fearless advocacy for the LGBTQ community.

Mr. VEASEY

Mr. VEASEY. I thank the gentlewoman from Ohio, a State that knows a lot about voter suppression, also a very international State. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Bass) representing Los Angeles, one of our most international cities in the world that I am sure was impacted very greatly by what happened at airports this weekend.

Mr. VEASEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Illinois. I am now going to call someone who also has a really good understanding of civil rights, voting rights in the State of Virginia, but then also the plight of immigrants and has a deep level of empathy because the other part of his State is very much a diverse State with people made up from various parts of the world. I yield to the gentleman representing the Fourth Congressional District of Virginia, Representative Donald McEachin.

Mr. VEASEY. 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 the subject of this Special Order.

Mr. VEASEY. Mr. Speaker, this was a sad week for our country. We saw anger, despair, and chaos at American airports when people from all different types of backgrounds from the Middle East were banned from coming into the United States. We had individuals who were green card holders who were denied entry into the United States. We had individuals who were interpreters for our United States military, who kept them safe in the Middle East, who were denied the right to come into the country. It was a sad day in our country's history. This past weekend, I took my son to an exhibit at one of the synagogues in Fort Worth, Texas, where I live. It was an exhibit on Jews in baseball. There was a picture of Hank Greenberg and Joe DiMaggio. Joe DiMaggio, an American lexicon, is about as American as you get; but, in looking at the exhibit and at the caption that was next to it, it read, while Joe DiMaggio was fighting for our country in World War II, the United States Government listed his parents as ``enemy aliens.'' In revisiting that sort of sad chapter in our history, when individuals were treated that way in our country, I think it is very sad, Mr. Speaker. We have a lot of Members who would like to express their discontent at what happened. I yield to our chair, Mr. Cedric Richmond, from the State of Louisiana, to come and address us because what we have to talk about tonight is very serious.

Mr. VEASEY. I thank the chairman for his comments. Mr. Speaker, I did not mention that we are also talking about voting rights, which is very important on the eve of the President making the selection for the next Supreme Court Justice of the United States. I know, with Representative Plaskett's representing the Virgin Islands and understanding the importance of voting rights, that that is very significant. I yield to the gentlewoman and thank her for being a voice in terms of refugees, immigration rights, and on the very important issue of voting rights.

Mr. VEASEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from the Garden State of New Jersey, Mrs. Bonnie Watson Coleman, who will speak to this House on the issues that the Congressional Black Caucus is taking up this evening.

Mr. VEASEY. I thank the gentlewoman from New Jersey for her comments. Now I would like to yield to the gentlewoman from the State of Illinois (Ms. Kelly). I thank Ms. Kelly for all of her work on so many issues that are important. I know that voting rights is particularly important to her with her representing the Chicago suburbs and the city of Chicago itself.

Mr. VEASEY. I thank the gentleman for sharing that story about his constituent. Again, it is such a terrible and shameful time for our country, for the world to have seen that. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Columbus, Ohio (Mrs. Beatty).

Mr. VEASEY. I thank Representative Bass for her commentary representing the very international city of Los Angeles, again, a city with many immigrants, with many people who have contributed to the greatness and vibrancy of that city that we know as Los Angeles. I just really do appreciate all of her input on that. Mr. Speaker, I am going to call up to come and speak Mr. Dwight Evans. Mr. Evans, hailing from Pennsylvania's Second Congressional District, a State that also is very international, I am sure that your State was heavily impacted by the travel ban that was implemented by the Trump administration, and I believe the world needs to hear your remarks tonight, so thank you for being here tonight to speak. I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Evans).