Frank Wolf

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Chairman, to close, I yield the balance of my time to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Putnam), the chairman of the Committee on Government Reform's Subcommittee on Technology, Information Policy, Intergovernmental Relations and the Census.

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Maloney). (Mrs. MALONEY asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I rise in strong opposition to the gentleman's amendment. The amendment would strike all funds to conduct a short-form census. In spite of the unprecedented success, as the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Putnam) said, in 2000, the General Accounting Office concluded that Census 2000 was conducted at a high cost and great risk. As a result, the GAO recommended extensive and early planning and testing, including re-engineering of the process. We are already well under way in the planning for 2010 Census. This plan relies on the short-form-only census that fulfills the core constitutional requirement, a complete and accurate count of the population of our country. The Census Bureau's redesign distributes the cost of the decennial census throughout the decade, rather than lumping the entire cost during the decennial year. It ramps up. The gentleman's amendment would totally eliminate the funds for the short form. The cost of delaying or canceling the 2010 redesign and reverting to the old census method would result in higher costs for the taxpayer. The cost of returning to the old method would cost a total of $15 billion, $4 billion more than the current plan. The White House statement on the bill states clearly that the funding provided in this bill is the minimal amount viable for the 2010 census. So I urge rejection of the amendment. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent that the debate on this amendment and any amendments thereto be limited to 10 minutes, to be equally divided and controlled by the proponent and myself, the opponent, except that the chairman and ranking minority member may each offer one pro forma amendment for the purpose of debate.

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent that the remainder of the bill through page 47, line 5, be considered as read and printed in the Record and open to amendment at any point.

Mr. WOLF. I yield to the gentleman from Illinois.

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Chairman, if we can work with him and help him, we will be glad to do that. And I appreciate his bringing up the amendment too.

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Chairman, reclaiming my time, in the book of Jeremiah it talks about justice, and I think the people need justice, but it also talks about righteousness and we have to deal with those. And perhaps there is an opportunity for the Committee on the Judiciary or we would be glad to maybe sometime have a hearing on that issue because I agree with everything the gentleman has said. And I have learned most of this really through Chuck Colson. We cannot just open the gate, allow a man to walk out, and expect him to have the opportunity to make it because he goes back to the same neighborhood, the same environment; and they need training. So as we move along, if we can work with the gentleman and do that. And the Portman-Souder bill, is the gentleman on there?

Mr. WOLF. I yield to the gentleman from Illinois.

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word. Mr. Chairman, I agree with the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Davis) 100 percent. I was in a program called Man to Man with Charlie Harroway before I got elected to Congress. It was a prison reentry program helping men out of Lorton. And I completely agree with the gentleman. I have been a great fan of Chuck Colson in Prison Ministries for that very reason. And the night the President offered that, I applauded, although I might tell the gentleman I do not think there was an awful lot of applause when he made that comment. There is $10 million in here. We have a budget problem. There is money in Labor-H. There is also money in VA-HUD. I would urge the gentleman to also talk to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Portman). The gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Portman) and the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Souder) have a very good bill. He may very well be on it, talking about re-entry. And I think it is absolutely critical. Unfortunately, we are number one in the world in the number of people in prisons per capita, and we just cannot put people in prison for years and years, no rehabilitation and no training when they come out and expect them as they get out to come back and be productive. So I completely agree; and as we work through this process, anything I can do to help the gentleman. I just want to ask the gentleman one question: Why can they not cut hair and why can they not do those jobs that he mentioned?

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the gentleman's comments. The gentleman from North Carolina over the past year has demonstrated that the rules governing media ownership are of great importance to the American people. I agree that the FCC's new media consolidation proceedings should be as open and as inclusive as possible and should include full periods of public comment on proposed rules and full consideration of any relevant independent studies as part of the process.

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word. Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the gentleman not going through this because of the time. I thank the gentleman for that. I did not want there to be any misunderstanding. In the subcommittee mark, there is a $77 million increase over the current level. We also have gone out of our way to make sure there are earmarks. This is the largest increase provided to any State and local law enforcement program. It is a 44 percent increase. So I do not want the record to indicate that the committee has been slacking. We have really increased it quite dramatically, even more so particularly in a tight budget. But it is an important program, which I strongly support; and I know the gentleman from New York (Mr. Serrano) strongly supports it also.

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself the balance of my time. I thank the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer) for his comments. He is exactly right. Also, the COPS program is not authorized. It has not passed the Senate. And as the gentleman from New York (Mr. Serrano) said, the goal was to get 100,000 cops; and they are well beyond. I think the important points are the reduction, as the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Putnam) said, will actually debilitate the 2010 census, resulting in the worse census ever. If this amendment were to pass for 1 year, we would have arguments in the future about how this count is not right and Members would be up in arms. Secondly, once the cuts are made, there is no opportunity to restart the program. The impact of this cut in this amendment: 1,000 jobs would be lost, no catching up, stops the census and this wastes the $500 million already spent and adds another $1 billion to the cost to the census in 2010. I urge strong defeat of the amendment.

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer).

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. WOLF. Who gets to close?

Mr. WOLF. Would the Chairman tell us how much time is available for both sides?

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Chairman, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Serrano).

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Chairman, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Serrano).

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I would like to submit for the Record three new articles regarding the continuing crisis in Darfur, Sudan. I will continue to submit articles exposing the crimes occurring against the people of Darfur. I will not stop until the world takes notice and the unnecessary death of innocent civilians ends. [From the New York Times, June 23, 2004] Magboula's Brush With Genocide (By Nicholas D. Kristof) Along the Sudan-Chad Border--Meet Magboula Muhammad Khattar and her baby, Nada. I wrote about Ms. Khattar in my last two columns, recounting how the Janjaweed Arab militia burned her village, murdered her parents and finally tracked her family down in the mountains. Ms. Khattar hid, but the Janjaweed caught her husband and his brothers, only 4, 6 and 8 years old, and killed them all. Ms. Khattar decided that the only hope for saving her two daughters and her baby sister was to lead them by night to Chad. They had to avoid wells where the Janjaweed kept watch, but eight days later, half-dead with hunger and thirst, they staggered across the dry riverbed that marks the border with Chad. That's where I found Ms. Khattar. She is part of a wave of 1.2 million people left homeless by the genocide in Darfur. Among those I met was Haiga Ibrahim, a 16-year-old girl who said her father and three older brothers had been killed by the Janjaweed. So Haiga led her crippled mother and younger brothers and sisters to Chad. But the place they reached along the border, Bamina, was too remote to get help from overtaxed aid agencies. So when I found her, Haiga was leading her brothers and sisters 30 miles across the desert to the town of Bahai. ``My mother can't walk any more,'' she said wearily. ``First I'm taking my brother and sisters, and then I hope to go back and bring my mother.'' There is no childhood here. I saw a 4-year-old orphan girl, Nijah Ahmed, carrying her 13-month-old brother, Nibraz, on her back. Their parents and 15-year-old brother are missing in Sudan and presumed dead. As for Ms. Khattar, she is camping beneath a tree, sharing the shade with three other women also widowed by the Janjaweed. In some ways Ms. Khattar is lucky; her children all survived. Moreover, in some Sudanese tribes, widows must endure having their vaginas sewn shut to preserve their honor, but that is not true of her Zaghawa tribe. Ms. Khattar's children have nightmares, their screams at night mixing with the yelps of jackals, and she worries that she will lose them to hunger or disease. But her plight pales beside that of Hatum Atraman Bashir, a 35-year-old woman who is pregnant with the baby of one of the 20 Janjaweed raiders who murdered her husband and then gang-raped her. Ms. Bashir said that when the Janjaweed attacked her village, Kornei, she fled with her seven children. But when she and a few other mothers crept out to find food, the Janjaweed captured them and tied them on the ground, spread- eagled, then gang-raped them. ``They said, `You are black women, and you are our slaves,' and they also said other bad things that I cannot repeat,'' she said, crying softly. ``One of the women cried, and they killed her. Then they told me, `If you cry, we will kill you, too.''' Other women from Kornei confirm her story and say that another woman who was gang-raped at that time had her ears partly cut off as an added humiliation. One moment Ms. Bashir reviles the baby inside her. The next moment, she tearfully changes her mind. ``I will not kill the baby,'' she said. ``I will love it. This baby has no problem, except for his father.'' Ms. Khattar, the orphans, Ms. Bashir and countless more like them have gone through hell in the last few months, as we have all turned our backs--and the rainy season is starting to make their lives even more miserable. In my next column, I'll suggest what we can do to save them. For readers eager to act now, some options are at www.nytimes.com/ kristofresponds, Posting 479. [From the BBC News] From the Grim Times in Sudan (By Tamsin Walters) Food and water are scarce, women have been gang-raped, disease is rife. In the Darfur conflict, even an experienced aid worker can be taken aback by the hardships suffered--but will the rest of the world hear Sudan's pleas for help? Driving along the deserted, pot-holed roads towards southern Darfur, the unfolding scenes of devastation are marked by burnt-out village after burnt-out village. Mud walls are torn down or smashed, and straw roofs no longer exist. Discarded sandals litter the area, illustrating the speed with which the people have fled. This rapid flight has left hundreds of thousands of people with nothing. No clothes, no sleeping mats to lay over the bare earth, no cooking utensils. Any personal belongings are likely to be among the charred remains left behind in the villages. And attacks by the Janjaweed, the Arab militia blamed for perpetrating atrocities against African farmers, continue. Rather than a sense of security in the towns and camps to which the refugees have fled, the mood of fear is oppressive. The only people seen on the road are Janjaweed groups laden down with the animals they have looted and the goods they have taken. They wave happily as we drive by. Sex crimes. Security is the major problem facing the people of Darfur. I've spoken to women who have been repeatedly raped, and heard of girls as young as 11 who've been abducted. The women are effectively trapped, unable to venture outside the towns and camps to search for firewood and grass--items essential to their survival, either to sell in exchange for food or for their own use. As an aid worker specializing in health and nutrition, with experience in emergencies around the world, I came to Sudan prepared for a grim situation. But Darfur is by far one of the worst humanitarian crises I've witnessed. The aid agency's pleas haven't fallen on deaf ears, as more than K300,000 has already been donated. But Martha Clarke, the head of media for Cafod, says the press in the UK is very focused on domestic matters and admits there's a ``kind of fatigue'' when it comes to reporting on the crisis. ``It's a shame that there needs to be conflict to bring it to the media's attention,'' she says. Cafod and other agencies are doing what we can to alleviate people's suffering, concentrating on providing shelter, food, water and sanitation to the hundreds of thousands of people made homeless. But time is running out in which to reach them--our aim is to beat the rains which come in early July, and cut off many parts of this devastated region. Rainy season. These rains have to be seen to be believed. A thunderstorm broke while I was there. Tucked inside a local office, at least I had cement walls and a roof. Thousands of others crouched together under shelters hastily built from narrow poles covered in grain. The torrential rain soon flattened many. When the rains arrive, those without shelter face the new threat of acute respiratory infections and malaria. Without food, they will not have the strength to fight disease that stems from unclean water and lack of sanitation. Because of the severe water shortages, people queue for up to 10 hours at the few pumps--and this leaves them vulnerable to further attack. There is barely enough water to drink, let alone wash. And with few latrines and cramped conditions in the towns and camps, the health risks are enormous. Already many children have died from a measles epidemic, which is now under control. But the children are traumatized, and food shortages and disease have left the very young with severe malnutrition. The towns of the south are among the last places to be reached by aid organizations. So the people themselves do much of the work. Local communities have taken the displaced into their own homes, or helped them build shelters, as well as offering cooking utensils. With whole villages being emptied in one fell swoop following Janjaweed attacks, the displaced often include teachers and health workers, who are working hard for their communities. And our role is to help provide the tools they need to survive. [From the New York Times, June 23, 2004] Newsview: Sudan May Be Next for Genocide (By The Associated Press) Washington (AP).--Genocide has struck many victims over the past 65 years: European Jews during World War II, Cambodians in the late 1970s, Rwandans in 1994. There may be a new addition: The black African tribes of Darfur province in western Sudan have faced murder, displacement, pillage, razing of villages and other crimes committed by Arab militias known as janjaweed. The dictionary defines genocide as ``the systematic killing of a racial or cultural group.'' The U.S. government is reviewing whether Darfur qualifies for the designation. ``The janjaweed are the government's militia, and Khartoum has armed and empowered it to conduct `ethnic cleansing' in Darfur,'' says Human Rights Watch. The Brussels-based International Crisis Group says Darfur can ``easily become as deadly'' as the Rwanda genocide of 1994. Then, soldiers, militiamen and civilians of the Hutu majority killed more than 500,000 minority Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus in 100 days. All along, Sudan has denied allegations of complicity with the Arab militias and has blamed rebels for rights violations. In February 2003, the Zaghawa, Fur and Masalit black tribes rebelled against what they regarded as unjust treatment by the Sudanese government in their historic struggle over land and resources with their Arab countrymen. Countless thousands of tribesmen have died in a brutal counterinsurgency. The conflict has uprooted more than 1 million, and the Bush administration believes this many could die unless a peace settlement is reached and relief supply deliveries are greatly accelerated. Sudanese cooperation has been limited but is improving. The Muslim-vs.-Muslim conflict is separate from the 21-year war between ethnic Arab Muslim militants in northern Sudan and the black African non-Muslim south. That three-decade- long struggle may be ending thanks to peace accords signed last month. A U.S. interagency review is aimed at judging whether the Darfur tragedy qualifies as genocide under a 1946 international convention that outlaws the practice. ``I believe what is occurring in Sudan approaches the level of genocide,'' says Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee. He and several colleagues are pushing for $95 million in emergency assistance for Darfur's victims. Rabbi Marvin Hier, of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a group opposed to intolerance in all forms, says Washington could increase the pressure on the Sudanese government by issuing a ``stern warning'' that, in the U.S. view, it is ``close to if not bordering on genocide.'' This would greatly impact international public opinion, said Hier, founder and dean of the center. Mark Schneider, a vice president of the International Crisis Group, says Hier may have a point. He also cautions that a genocide designation by the United States could thrust the U.N. Security Council into prolonged debate, deflecting attention from Darfur's massive humanitarian needs. A role for the United Nations is made clear under Article 8 of the Genocide Convention: ``Any contracting party may call upon the competent organs of the U.N. to take such action under the Charter of the U.N. as they consider appropriate for the prevention and suppression of acts of genocide.'' U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he wasn't ready to describe the situation in Darfur ``as genocide or ethnic cleansing yet,'' but he called it ``a tragic humanitarian situation.'' For now, the U.S. administration seems to be tilting against the genocide label but is sticking with ethnic cleansing to describe the situation. With so many in Darfur at risk of dying, ``legal distinctions about genocide versus ethnic cleansing are going to seem rather hollow,'' says State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli. The focus, he says, should be on helping the needy. Humanitarian access remains a serious problem, the result of both government resistance and the remoteness of the Iraqi-sized province. The United States has been airlifting relief supplies to the region, a costly process. Over the weekend, Sudan President Omar el-Bashir vowed to disarm the militias. Also, peace talks between government and rebel leaders opened in Berlin on Tuesday. U.S. officials are wary about the Sudanese gestures, pointing out that Khartoum has routinely violated an April 8 cease-fire agreement.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Appropriations have until midnight Friday, July 2, 2004, to file a privileged report, making appropriations for the Departments of Commerce, Justice, and State, the Judiciary, and related agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2005, and for other purposes.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong opposition to this bill. Let me tell my colleagues what James Madison from Virginia said. James Madison, who is called the Father of the Constitution, devoted five Federalist papers to an explanation of how the executive, legislative and judicial branches were to be wholly independent of each other, yet this bill would enable the President to determine what this Congress does. Madison, the Father of the Constitution, said, ``The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judicial, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.'' Madison believed the preservation of liberty depends on the separation of powers. He said, ``Its several constituent parts may, by their mutual relations, be the means of keeping each other in their proper places.'' This bill does not keep each body in its proper place. This bill, in essence, says we will save the Congress from itself. Let us save us, and not have the President decide. Lastly, George Washington, the Father of our country in his Farewell Address, spoke of the ``love of power and the proneness to abuse which predominates in the human heart'' and warned of the ``necessity of reciprocal checks of political power, by dividing and distributing it into different depositories and constituting each the guardian against invasions by the others.'' This basically is an invasion of the executive branch. I love President Bush. I pray for President Bush every single night. I want President Bush to be successful, but we ought not give authority and power to any branch. This should be held by the Congress. For that reason, and for Madison, Monroe, Washington, and Jefferson, I ask for a no vote on this bill.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I would like to commend my co-chair of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus and ranking member of the House International Relations Committee, Tom Lantos, for introducing this important and timely legislation. I would also like to thank Chairman Hyde and Chairman Dreier for their leadership on this important issue. The strength of the United Nations has been declining in recent years. Corrupt dictatorships now hold many seats on the U.N. Human Rights Commission. It is incredible that the leading world body charged with protecting and exposing human rights has some of the worst human rights abusers sitting in judgment. I was extremely concerned when the United Nations Commission on Human Rights passed a watered down draft discussion on the slaughter occurring in Darfur, Sudan. I commend the administration for taking a stand on the importance on the commission passing strong resolution and applaud the U.S. delegation for walking out when the commission failed in its responsibility to expose and condemn the human rights abuses taking place in Darfur. It was unfathomable that on May 4 the commission allowed Sudan to renew its seat on the panel. Over one million people have now been displaced in Darfur. Thousands are dying. Women raped. Boys and men slaughtered. The rainy season has begun, and the roads will soon become impassable. Massive numbers face death while the Government of Sudan blocks humanitarian aid, continuing to worsen an already tragic situation. The Government of Sudan must be held accountable for what is occurring in Darfur. The United States must continue to take a leadership role in calling the world's attention to the human rights abuses occurring across the globe. The creation of a democracy caucus at the United Nations is a first step in reducing the power of abusive nations which sit at the United Nations. This caucus can help fill the seats on the Human Rights Commission with freedom loving democracies which respect and protect the human rights of their people.