Date: 2013-10-14
Speaker: JACKSON LEE (democrat)
Chamber: H

Let me thank the gentleman for his courtesies and look at this in a somewhat unique fashion to speak to the pending crisis and to join with my colleagues. and particularly in following the chairwoman. Congresswoman FUDGE. and thanking her for setting the tone of the interests of the Congressional Black Caucus to be collaborative and to be problem solvers. Let me thank the distinguished gentleman from New York for his timeliness in bringing us to the floor tonight and the gentleman from Nevada for recognizing the vital importance of speaking to the American people and certainly to our colleagues. I do want to offer to my colleagues a legislative initiative that I hope all of my friendsRepublicans and Democratswill join in sponsoring. H. Res. 375. which commits this House to refraining from conditioning the resolution of fiscal and budgetary disputes on the taking of action related to nongermane legislative matters. As I listened to my friends on the other side of the aisle. one person sought to refute the representation that all of us have made. which is that we have never been in a position to hold hostage the whole budgeting process through the idea of a legislative fight. and I would beg to differ on the interpretation of my Republican friends that that has occurred. It did not occur during the shutdown dealing with President Clinton and the Speaker of the House. thenSpeaker Gingrich. and. in fact. we had passed a number of appropriation bills that had already been passed. So even though the government was shut down. there was not this dire. complete collapse of the government that we are facing now. In addition. there is a representation that we have passed any number of pointed appropriations during this shutdown. Mr. Speaker. those were only political votes. The reason why they were ineffective and members of our party voted against them was because they were political votes. They were meant entirely to get Democrats on the record for halffunding Health and Human Services. halffunding Indian Services. halffunding Homeland Security. halffunding any number of departments that. in fact. did not make sense. So let me give you the real cost. if you will. of where we are today and give it from the perspective of my committee. and that is. the Judiciary Committee. And one of our major agencies. the FBI. that clearly has focused on the security. domestic security of this Nation. very vital work of field agents that I work with every day. just about 72 hours ago. FBI agents joined with my local officials in Houston and busted a heinous and horrific human trafficking operation. little girls sexually used and abused and manipulated. if you willthe FBI. Well. here is a quote from the FBI: The impact of sequestration. which is part of the budgeting process. puts us further behind enemies and criminals that pose threats to national security and public safety. And they list a whole litany of issues that are impacted. Let me just read a few: undermining counterterrorism investigations. exposing vulnerable populations to greater risk. halting counterintelligence cases. closing white collar cases has been delayed. limiting mortgage and financial fraud cases. constraining use of official vehicles. losing informants. impeding surveillance. harming local cooperation. reducing field time. increasing retirements. All of this impacts on the very basic responsibilities that we give to them. and it seems sad that we are putting these individuals who are putting themselves on the front lines of criminal enforcement. that we are. in fact. causing that to be halted. Lastly. on the FBI. Quantico. we all know. is a training ground for agents and others all across America: Quantico is quiet. I have no new agent classes going through there. I cant afford it. There are any number of other issues. of course. that we could comment on. but let me continue by moving to my State. the State of Texas. But before I do that. here is a document from the administrative Office of the United States Courts. Again. something that the Judiciary has concern for. And we are told. as of tomorrow. possibly. that judicial matters may be shut down. may be stopped because of the restraints on our article III judges. and that is shameful. That means justice is stopping. That means public defenders are not being paid. Although all of those folks are continuing to come. in some instances. there may be major impacts in the court system. But I would like to turn our attention to the discourse that is occurring here. and as I do that. let me make mention for my friends of one answer to why we should not be holding ObamaCare and the American people hostage. First I want to say. coming from my district. I met with over 40 navigators. They have concerns. We all want to make sure this works right. which is what I wished my Republican friends would do. But they had smiles on their faces because what they are saying is the people are eager. They are eager in Texas. a State where we have denied the expanded Medicaid. We dont have our State exchange. We have done damage to those who need insurance. It is a shame what we have done in Texas. But those who have been assigned to get an outreach are smiling. not because they get paid a whole lot of money. but because they are reaching people who are desperate and who want to be insured. And so I will put in the RECORD an article called. "ObamaCare Saved My Family From Financial Ruin." It talks about a young boy with a brain tumor and leading up to the point of losing all of his insurance. He might have been born with this tumor. but he was only diagnosed at about 6 years old. Mason is his name. He played basketball and did a lot of things until they determined in later yearsI think he was age 14that he had this horrific brain tumor. It is only because of ObamaCare that his life now will have the kind of coverage of insurance that we are all desirous of. But I want to sort of finish my remarks. There is a lot I can say about Texas. and I may offer one point if I might. Mr. JEFFRIES. to make sure that I have that in the RECORD. We all are concerned about our individual States. And so for my friends back home. this is a State that has some 36 Members of Congress. two Senators. and I am on the floor fighting against this shutdown. The reason that Texans need to be aware that it is important that you fight against this shutdown and put out a clean CR is that this will cost 582.829 Texas residents who took out a home mortgage or refinanced an existing mortgage last year $36.000 over the life of a typical 30year loan. And I am jumping to if we go into default over the next 2 days. The Republican debt default will put at risk the retirement plans of 4.473 million Texans. and 300.000 vets would have a concern about their disability compensation for November 1. and 24.000 or 25.000 poor and disabled vets would be questionable about the pension they live on. But I want to close with something that has disturbed me as we have watched the rhetoric. I have pages and pages. We all are emotional. We all have the talent of rhetoric. We all have. if you will. the affection for the use of wordshyperbole. metaphors. using examples. and making our point. Mr. Speaker. I respect that. I am not a thinskinned person. I am as much engaged in the debate on this floor as many of my friends. but all of us should be sensitive to the words that suggest that we have other motives. So I come to the floor today to raise issue with what is perceived in many communities of the different treatment of Barack Obama. You can read between the words why he is treated so differently and why he is cast about with such utterly ugly and demeaning suggestions. And in demeaning him. you are demeaning a whole body of other folks. I take issue with that. And so let me see if maybe Larry Klayman of Freedom Watch will call us back and give us a response to his words uttered yesterday that I find totally out of order. Protected by the First Amendment. absolutelyI have no quarrel with that. But I believe it is important to put this in the RECORD as we talk about this government shutdown because if we are going to get where we need to go. we need to all realize that we have a greater causeand that is Americas cause. So I finish on these words. Apparently. he was moved yesterday in front of the Vietnam Veterans Memorialwhich many in the Million Vets movement denounced yesterday. and he said: We are ruled by a President that bows down to Allah. I am already insulted because I believe in the freedom of religion. I respect the dignity of all religions. He is not a President of we the people. says Mr. Klayman of Freedom Watch. but a President of his people. I dont know who that is. All I know is that the President was elected to be President of all of the people of the United States of America. He goes on to say: We should wage a nonviolent revolution. I have never been ashamed of the nonviolent civil rights movement. We didnt call it a revolution. We called it a movement to give dignity to people and move them from secondclass citizenship. But he says: We should wage a nonviolent revolution. This President should get the Koran out of his hands. This is denigrating a religion that I believe is absolutely appalling. Get off his kneesIs there some documentation about the Presidents private prayer allegiances or responsibilities or desires that this gentleman knows what he is talking about? -and get out of town. That is. I believe. one of the most appalling statements that we have heard charged against a President of the United States in a time of crisis. when the American people are looking for hope. looking for serious response. I would hope that there will be Members of the Republican Conference that will come to the floor tomorrow and join in with the solution that may be offered as it is being discussed in the Senate. and I hope they will denounce these words. as I am denouncing them tonight. For we will never get a solution to move this Nation forward if we are to denounce religions that are respected and given the privilege of being worshipped by those who worshipby the First Amendmentand to try to denigrate a President by denigrating a religion and going in the circle of diminishing all of us. I want to thank the gentleman for giving me this opportunity. I may ask for some more time if I am able to stay around. as we go forward. because there is a long list of what I think we are being deprived of. But I do want to let everyone know that when I was home in the district for the short period I was. I know that those in Texas who are suffering are happy about Barack Obama. They want us to get it together right like we did with Medicare part D. which did not work when it was first put in place. but they are happy. I would hope that. as I indicated these words on the floor. that we would take the words of Chaplain Barry Black and "stop sowing in the wind" and stop. in essence. doing things that undermine our very leadership. Thank you. Chaplain Black. for giving us these words of inspiration. Maybe we will take notice. And when words are said that are ugly. inappropriate. and without any truth. I am looking for my friends tomorrow to come on the floor and denounce these ugly words that were said by this gentleman that have no bearing in truth and have the audacity to denigrate faiths that are. in essence. respected and show their love for a higher power. We should all be grateful that the different faiths we grant in this Nation under the First Amendment of freedom of religion can pray to their Godpray to Godand ask for the blessings of God on this Nation. With that. I thank the gentleman for his courtesies. [From the Washington Post. Oct. 9. 2013]