Date: 2003-04-02
Speaker: EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Mr. Speaker. let me express my appreciation for our Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus for organizing this hour tonight. Mr. Speaker. sometimes when I hear the comments about the troops that we all strongly support. we forget that if they survive this war they will be veterans. and it is the veterans that we owe a great deal to for our freedom. but we really have left them behind in this budget. So I rise to express my opposition to the Bush budget. because despite President Bushs pledge to leave no one behind. the budget has proposed leaving out over half of African Americans and Hispanic families. and this really is not compassion with conservatism. conserving resources for a very. very few. Can my colleagues just imagine in less than 2 years. 2.5 million private jobs have been lost since January 20. 2001? The unemployment rate for African Americans has climbed 28 percent from 8.2 percent indicating really how African Americans will be disproportionately impacted by this budget. The employment rates for Hispanics is up by 33 percent. I am from Dallas. Texas. where we have lost many jobs because we are very high tech in our employment. For every job lost in the hightech field. there are three other jobs lost in lowincome jobs because they are hired for cleaning homes. doing the yards. keeping the children. and we have a record number of foreclosures. not of poor people. but working people because they have lost their Jobs. This budget does not help because it is cutting adult training programs. the dislocated workers programs and the employment service State grants by $60 million below the 2003 enacted level. while freezing funding for youth employment activities at the 2003 enacted level. That is leaving most of the American people. the workers. the real taxpayers behind. The budget leaves Americans behind on education. Vital programs like Head Staft are taking tremendous cuts. Many more children should be enrolled in Head Start because we have said over and over again that education is so important for the future. The proposed budget provides $9.7 billion less than the amount promised in Leave No Child Behind. The Bush budget proposes to cut the maximum Pell grant from $4.050 in 2003 to $4.000 in 2004. when he promised. in my presence. to some college presidents that the Pell grants are key to helping lowincome young people to get to college. In fact. more than 45 percent of the African Americans and 40 percent of Hispanic students in 4year public colleges and universities depend on Pell grants to make college affordable. The budget essentially freezes the funding for the historically black graduate institutions to $53 million. and for Hispanicserving institutions to $94 million at the 2003 enacted level. at a time when we encourage minority students. with everyone else. to get a better education. They have to get a better education in order to have a job. We are still the last hired and the first fired. So education really is essential. not just for jobs. but also to understand each other and to be able to relate to our diversity now. It leaves our seniors very vulnerable. exhausting the Social Security trust fund over the next 10 years to try to fill in for this deficit that is. I cannot believe that we went from almost over a $1 trillion surplus to over a $1 trillion deficit in less than 3 years. African American and Hispanic seniors are even more likely than others to rely solely on Social Security as their source of income upon retirement. The proposed budget does not even address Medicare increases for seniors. and yet I hear billions and billions being talked about. going out of the country. while we leave the American people at risk. I am not opposed to foreign aid. but I do think homeland security is very. very important. and this is a part of homeland security. The American people want to feel safe. and safety has a lot to do with employment and education. but this budget does not seem to understand that. Our college young people are coming home because parents have lost Jobs. and they have to drop out of college. and they get home and find that the house has been foreclosed as well. but the Presidents budget makes many cuts in public housing. even though these funds are critical to making it possible for 1.7 million lowincome families to have homes. and this is not all African Americans and all Hispanic. This is lowincome Americans. More than 45 percent of these residents are African American. and nearly 20 percent are Hispanic. and it is growing. So that is according to HUDs multifamily characteristics report. The proposed budget eliminates funding for the HOPE VI program which replaces distressed lowincome housing with new strong community housing. That also provides opportunities for homeownership. All of us know that when one invests in a home it brings about pride. It brings about new wealth. and it also brings about a good deal of safety because crime goes down. children are stable in homes. When they are using rental property. some young people. some kids. change schools three times in one school year. They cannot be caught up because every time somebody offers a month of free rent. the parents move to get that one month of free rent. but they are dislocating children. inconveniencing and handicapping our teachers. and disproportionately burdening our school systems because they cannot plan when we have a moving population at all times. So. sadly. in a democratic Nation. we have also witnessed Americans being left behind with a vote. We worked from January 2001 until November last year. 2002. trying to get some kind of election reform so we can be sure of who we elect to office. The proposed budget offers $500 million in funding for election reform. undercutting the Help America Vote Act authorized. at the level of $1.5 billion. That is how we distinguish what a democracy is. It is whether someone can speak out for whom they want as their leaders and make sure it is counted. The Help America Vote Act must be fully funded to ensure that every citizens right to vote is protected. Every citizen. every citizen. In fact. the Civil Rights Commission found that minorities. particularly African Americans. were the Americans most impacted by the loss of voting rights. They were the ones who were not counted well in Florida. If they had been. we might have a better economy. because it sure would not be the President that is over there now. It would have been the President that got elected. and unfortunately. this Bush budget does not address any of these concerns. So homeland security involves a lot of things. but most importantly. it also involves our first responders. Firefighters. police. emergency medical personnel. all are in jeopardy because the Bush budget includes $4 billion less than what is required for them to do their jobs adequately. We are in dismal shape in this country and everyone should be feeling it. and if they have not felt it yet. they will. We cannot afford to leave the Americans and their agenda without adequate security through education. housing. and a means to economically sustain themselves and their families. As lawmakers. we have the responsibility to ensure that all Americans. including minorities. are able to move ahead to achieve the American dream: life. liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We must reject this budget. It is clear that if the Presidents budget office has given out negative information about this budget. we know that others see it. feel it. and will never forget it.