Date: 2011-03-14
Speaker: JACKSON LEE (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

I would like to thank the gentlelady from the Virgin Islands for allowing usand being the lead on Monday after Mondayopportunities to be able to engage our constituents and speak on a number of very important issues. I thank you for your leadership. I have certainly been privileged to be part of this very important opportunity to speak on a number of challenging issues. Many of us have just arrived back into Washington. We have spent precious days with our constituents. and it is amazing the number of issues that we are encountering: individuals who are impacted by the broken and unfixed immigration laws. individuals who are in need of small business assistance or health care. These are the real issues of Americans. Or those who are gathering to join their allies and friends in Wisconsin as they are concerned and almost intimidated somewhat about the misdirected approach to budget cutting by cutting out rights of workers. many of whom are women. So I think speaking about women is crucial as we commemorate Womens History Month. because we know from the early founding of this great country. women were standing side by side with the Founders. Those of us who come from a slave history. we know the history of slave women who were the backbone of keeping families together. That if a slave woman was sold. she could turn to another slave woman and say. Would you take care of my children? I cant take them with me. Or if. tragically. she lost her life in the violence of slavery. the families of other slaves rallied around those children. I would think the same of Native Americans. Indian women. who were the backbone of their families. and pioneering women and women who came from places around the world. Irish women. women who came from Great Britain or Poland or from South and Central America or from the Caribbean. These are women who have come to the United States and were part of the founding. I speak of my grandmother. Olive Jackson. who came from Jamaica. West Indies. and with her husband. Albert Jackson. went to Panama and helped build in the teeming woods and forests of that era. fighting against malaria and mosquitoes and diseases and were part of building the Panama Canal. How my grandmother kept the family together and gave birth to her first son and survived to be able to make it here to the United States and had children born in South Carolina and made their way up. and then finally got to Brooklyn. New York. A part of the history of this country. She kept the family together. Let me just call a roll. if you dont mind. of some of the women from Texas. Please note that there are many others. Women like Mrs. Johnson. the wife of Lyndon Baines Johnson. who was so much involved in the beautification of Texas. Her daughter. Luci Baines Johnson. Her other daughter. Lynda Robb Johnson. The Honorable Barbara Jordan. who made a point in the 1974 Watergate hearings that she would not see the Constitution declined or diminished. and that she believed that even though it did not include her when we started. that this Constitution means We the People. Thats what Womens History Month means. Ann Richards. the former Governor. the late Governor of Texas. Mayor Kathy Whitmire. Beulah Shepard. the mayor of Acres Home. Ruby Mosley. who has been such a leader and a pioneer in changes in Acres Home. Jewel Houston. a great educator. Willie Belle Boone. a great political activist. Christia Adair. another great political activist. Esther Williams. a great early political activist and precinct judge. Irma of Irmas fabulous Mexican restaurant. a businesswoman who. with her children by her side. opened one of the famous restaurants in Houston. Representative Carol Alvarado. Representative Anna Hernandez. Commissioner Sylvia Garcia. Council Member Wanda Adams. Council Member Jolanda Jones. Doris Hubbard. The late Dorothy Hubbard. Mayor Annise Parker. Small businesswomen. The late Nancy Berkman. who was so pivotal in working on the Mickey Leland Kibbutzim program. Joyce Schechter. a premier advocate and supporter of Democratic policies. Parvin McVey. an outstanding humanitarian. The women and doctors at the March of Dimes that I work with. the sacrifice that they make. Former Councilwoman Robinson. the wife of the late Judson Robinson. the first council member to be elected. and once he passed. Council Member Robinson. his wife took his place. Jewel McGowan. another great educator. Teachers. nurses. Dr. Betty Lewis. a great nurse. Dr. Wanda Mott. a great doctor. Dr. Natalie Carroll. former president of the National Medical Association. And certainly Ling Lui. a Chinese American. Dr. Ahmed. an American from Bangladesh whos at Texas Southern University. My mother. Ivalita Jackson. My aunts: Aunt Valerie. Aunt Audrey. Aunt Vickie. Aunt Sybil. The reason why I just called their names is because they. along with the women of courage that we honored just a week or so ago with Secretary Hillary Clinton and Mrs. ObamaMichelle Obama. which I include in the greatness of how far women have comethey really make a statement. Congresswoman. that what were doing in the budget and what were doing in the CR really does not take into account all the sweat and toil of hardworking women. Can you tell me how we would ignore a health care reform that women no longer have to be subjected to preexisting condition as a means of getting insurance and therefore pregnancy now does not stifle a woman who is working on a job from getting insurance and bans insurance companies. again. from dropping the women when they get sick or become pregnant. For women in new plans. it provides precoverage of important lifesaving preventative services. Women who are sometimes a single head of household. older women who have chronic conditions. they can now be covered because of preventative care. bans insurance companies from reauthorization or referral for access to OB/GYN care. What an antiquated system that required women not to be able to go to a doctor for OB/GYN care. We have gotten rid of that. and the common practice of gender rating. meaning charging women substantially higher premiums. Yet this Affordable Health Care is on the chopping blocks. I cant understand it. Ensures children up to age 19 cannot be denied coverage for preexisting disease. Sometimes babies are born with asthma or sickle cell or juvenile diabetes. Those people cannot get insurance. Women would have to take off or quit or get on welfare just to be able to find some such basis of coverage or insurance. Greater access to insurance by women. And yet as we commemorate Womens History Month. we have a situation where our friends on the other side of the aisle are slashing and burning. In fact. they have already voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act. What does it say to the history of women in this country? Let me quickly move to some additional harms to women. Republicanproposed cuts that will harm women and their families. Title X family planning. This program has provided family planning services. breast and cervical cancer screening and other preventative health care to lowincome women. It has provided health centers that serve more than 5 million women. Can you imagine that healthy women. who make a difference in this countrythat is less hours of sick women. less children away from the home. less women able to bear children and then go out into the workplace. because they have suffered the lack of access to health care. Well. my friends. if you can imagine. this is where we are today. We had $300 million in a vote just by a Congressperson from Indiana. who won the vote 240185 to prevent any Federal funding to Planned Parenthood. By the way. Planned Parenthood reads. They understand. Their moneys are used for family planning. It is used to detect cervical cancer and breast cancer. Its used to provide preventative service to millions of women in health care dealing with HIV testing. breast exams. and. of course. contraception. But none of these dollars will be used for what I suppose this amendment was supposed to inhibitand thats abortion. They read. They get it. They have been following the law for years. In Womens History Month. what are we saying to our women? It cuts nutrition programs for pregnant women and children $747 million. special supplemental nutrition program. the WIC program. Can you believe it? Suggesting that its a waste of money. when most educators will tell you children that are not nourished in the early stages. they have a default in their ability to think and to be able to do well in school. Cut Head Start and child care. People approach me in my district. on the streets here in Washington. D.C. Cutting $1.1 from Head Start. $39 million from child care. I want you to know that Im dealing with a case. Congresswoman. in my district where Federal dollars were supporting a home child care. As you well know. those requirements are less than Head Start. And now do you know what we have? Four dead babies in this child care home care center where a fire consumed them. Unfortunately. because the caretaker made a mistake. This is what Im dealing with. And so my question is: youre cutting Head Start. youre cutting child care. People are standing in line to get child care. People are being turned away. They dont know what to do. Young mothers who are trying to do right. are trying to get a job. and they realize this is a problem. It cuts job training. Ive had young mothers in job training programs. $4 billion. Are they telling me it doesnt work? These job training programs are particularly important to women workers. many of them coming out of the home after theyve had children and they can place them in a school setting or Head Start. They can now get back to work. They can be contributing to the tax base and to the society and be able to teach their children about the work ethic because theyre young and they want to do so. Cutting that. cutting Pell Grants. When I went out to Lone Star College. what did I see? Young women. some of them young mothers. getting the opportunity of a second life. It halts funding for the implementation of the health care law. Ive already spoken about that. Maternal and child health. And then Social Security for women who are seniors. I just dont understand what we are trying to do. So I would just argue the point in this Womens History Month that there is a breakdown. Theres a mental block. Dont let me start talking about the minority womenowned businesses where theyre cutting MBDA $1.9 million. and denying minority workers skills training for the 21st century workforce. cutting $3 billion dollars. and leaving our American heroes out in cold. women who have been veterans. cutting them $75 million. who may be homeless. I have met women homeless veterans. I see them every day. And it has only been recently that weve acknowledged that these women have PTSD and other problems. Ive met them. They have begged for the programs to continue because they served their country as well. And then. lo and behold. weve just shut the doors on community health clinics. something that the Congressional Black Caucus worked so hard on. $1.3 billion. cutting 3.2 million patients where they can come out of their homes and go to a doctor and not wind up in the emergency room that pushes up the tax base or the tax cost by the public hospital system and the private hospital system. And yet we continue cutting these programs. So Im reminded of Barbara Jordans words about not being worried about being called a politician. She just said. I want to be called a darned good politician. Thats what we should be looking at here in this place as we honor women and Womens History Month. that we can all be good elected officials. good politicians that make a difference. We make a difference on behalf of all of the American people. No party affiliation. That we dont cut and jab into collective bargaining in States around this country when in fact collective bargaining is simply giving someone the opportunity to sit down at the bargaining table. nurses. many of them women. teachers. many of them women. clerical workers. many of them women. municipal workers. women who have come out of the household to support their family and may be the only bread winner. So let me thank you very much for giving us the opportunity to be able to salute women of all persuasions all over this country. Let me personally thank you for the nurturing that you have given the soldiers and sons that you have sent off to battles throughout the ages. to the Gold Star Mothers. to the Blue Star Mothers that I work with in my district. Thank you for the sacrifices that you have made. Thank you for nurturing those who are still mending and healing those who have been wounded in war. whether its the war of the ages or the wars that weve just encountered in Iraq and Afghanistan. And let me thank the mothers and the women of the Mid East. from Egypt to Tunisia to Bahrain to Yemen to Libyaand most of all to Libya. Let me thank the women who have gone into battle. Let me thank the women who have already lost children because they wanted freedom in battle. Let me thank the peace lovers. And all I would say. as we commemorate Womens History Month. the names that I have just called. they represent the strength and our history. And it is on their shoulders that I stand. It is on their shoulders that I pledge that I will never give up. as JOHN LEWIS said. never give out. and never give in. because women today are truly having as the wind beneath their wings all the women who have gone before. all the older women that stand alongside of them. Finally. Congresswoman. to the young women. let me say that the road is never as smooth as one would like. It is rocky. with mountains and valleys. but take the opportunity to learn and to build so that you can have wings as well. Womens History Month. I salute you and the women. I believe in your strength. and I believe in your spirit and your history.