macleginn/stanford_congress_record_longer_speeches huggingface dataset:
Date: 1999-03-10
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Chairman. I move to strike the requisite number of words. Mr. Chairman. I rise in support of the Holt amendment to the Ehlers amendment. I must say that I am somewhat surprised that this amendment would not be accepted by the majority to the legislation. because. one. I think it is quite consistent with the legislation. It is also quite consistent with the priority that this Congress has spoken to with respect to math and science. education and professional development. If you read the underlying statute in the Eisenhower program. the first monies appropriated go to math and science because we have obviously recognized and continue to recognize that this Nation has a problem with respect to math and science education and also to the development of qualified teachers to teach math and science. If I remember right. when Governor Ridge was before our committee testifying on this legislation. and many of the changes he has made in the State of Pennsylvania. many leading the Nation with respect to teacher development. he suggested that with respect Hi103 to math and science. if I remember his testimony correctly. that he essentially felt that Pennsylvania has basically done a very good job in preparing math and science teachers and now he would like to move on to other areas of professional development within that area. There is nothing in this amendment that would prevent the governor from so doing. When he prepares the plan or the superintendent of schools. public instruction. prepares a plan for submission. they would -simply recite how they are doing with respect to this. how they have met it or are meeting the professional development. If he feels he has accomplished this for the time being and he wants to use the resources otherwise. he is fully free to do that under the Holt amendment. I think that is the important thing about the Holt amendment. it merges with the intent of this legislation. It does not contradict that. Let us understand something else about this. Some day we will have a hearing about professional development. and I suspect if we go into schools and talk to schoolteachers and others we will find out there are a lot of interesting courses being given that are federally funded about professional development that have very little to do with the real development of teachers. They are there because somebody needs so many units or so many hours of whatever. We find some people taking language courses before they are going off for the summer on a trip. and all other kinds of problems. We ought to make sure that the resources for math and science professional development. to make these teachers qualified. to help them become qualified. that it is not a casualty of flexibility. I think that is the goal of the gentleman from Michigan
Date: 1999-03-10
Speaker: EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Mr. Chairman. I rise in support of the Holt amendment. I think what we are trying to say is that we do need accountability with this flexibility. As we look at what is going on now in our schools. in 1991. the secondary schools in this country. students were less likely to have a qualified teacher in math than in any core subject. Twentyseven percent of the students had a teacher without at least a minor in math. and for science 32 percent of the students in the seventh grade had a teacher without at least a minor in science. Large variations in teacher skills exist among especially low poverty versus high poverty schools. Seventeen percent of the secondary students in low poverty schools were taught by math teachers without at least a minor in math. versus 26 percent in the high poverty schools. For physics. 57 percent of the students in low poverty schools. versus 71 percent in the high poverty schools. have poorly trained teachers. What we are asking for is for every student to be included. For chemistry. 23 percent of the students in low poverty schools. versus 37 percent in high poverty schools. have poorly trained teachers. We must ensure that all of our students have an opportunity for a quality education. especially in the area that I represent. We must have people that can fill these jobs. We are one of the locations that had to lift the caps to bring people from other countries to take the jobs we have available.
Date: 1999-03-10
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Chairman. I want. to respond to what the gentlewoman says because she makes a very important point. Again. going back to accountability. going back to public accountability. most parents would be shocked at the qualifications of the people who are teaching their children science and math. As just was found here. in good school districts there is a less than one in four chance that that math and science teacher is properly qualified to teach that subject. In poor schools within those districts. the odds get much worse. Most parents believe that the teacher that is standing in front of their child is. in fact. qualified. Unfortunately. especially in this field. that is simply not the case. That is why I think it is important that when we provide for this waiver. that the person responsible for preparing the waiver is prepared to publicly state how it is they are doing and what they are doing to meet the requirements for teacher professionalism in math and science. because the gentlewoman from Texas makes a very important point. and it would be shocking to most parents but it is simply a dirty little secret about the qualifications of people teaching math and science in the United States.
Date: 1999-03-10
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Chairman. if we continue to allow people to have interim assessments and then they can change the assessments. then we do not know how they are doing year to year. how they are doing test to test. we are right back in the same old muddle we were in before. I am all for the flexibility side. I think it is a place we ought to go. But I think we should be hardheaded about the accountability side. This is not an insignificant amount of money. It may be an insignificant amount of money or some people suggest it is with respect to all educational dollars. It is still $50 billion. Maybe it is only going to be 45 after the budget fights. but it is a lot of money in anybodys realm. I think these are the questions. Finally let me say this. This is our only chance to find out how all students in America are doing. be they poor. be they African American. be they Hispanic. be they Asian. This is our only opportunity to do that. That is what we said we wanted to do. We said we want results. You cannot get the results necessary with the underlying legislation without this amendment on accountability. I would urge my colleagues to support the MillerKildee amendment.
Date: 1999-03-10
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Chairman. I thank the gentleman from Missouri for yielding. I would just say that I would follow on to what the gentleman from Pennsylvania has said. We ought to learn from the 30 years. For 30 years. the Federal Government has been enabling very sloppy tactics. a lack of accountability. We have simply evaporated on accountability. We ought to do it right this time. because we are making a dramatic change in direction with respect to flexibility. I think it is the right change to make. but we ought to be able to look our constituents and parents and teachers and students in the eye and say that we have in here public accountability. to try to assure that. in fact. we do it right. because we have not done it right in the past. I only wish that so many people who spoke against this amendment would have in fact read the amendment because they characterized it in so many ways it has nothing to do with what this amendment does. I would ask. for the first time. to put teeth into accountability. Let us find out how all of our children are not doing. it is not just some of the children. and vote for the MillerKildee amendment. I urge the passage of this amendment.
Date: 1999-03-17
Speaker: JACKSON LEE (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Mr. Speaker. let me say first of all happy St. Patricks Day to all of us. And let me thank the gentleman from Indiana
Date: 1999-03-17
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Speaker. I rise in strong support of H.R. 975 to protect American jobs from unfair trade and ensure that the U.S. steel industry remains strong. I would like to thank the Congressional Steel Caucus. the Steelworkers union. and leaders of the steel industry for the hard work they have done to bring this bill to the House floor for a vote. The U.S. steel industry. which underwent a painful restructuring and reinvestment process in the 1980s to reemerge as a world leader. has been severely harmed by unfairly dumped steel. During the first 10 months of 1998. United States imports of steel grew to record levels as the global financial crisis led Japan. Russia. Brazil and other countries to dump their steel on the United States market. As a result of the flood of imports. three U.S. steel companies flied for bankruptcy. and nearly 10.000 steelworkers lost their jobs. In my district. USS POSCO has lostmillions of dollars in revenue and has imposed a hiring freeze. In December. USS POSCO was forced to furlough its employees for one week because of the import surge. Steelworkers and steel companies are suffering not because they cant compete. but because of unfair foreign trade tactics. H.R. 975. the Steel Import Reduction Act. is an important step to ensure that American workers and companies do not continue to bear the brunt of unfair trade practices. The bill directs the president to take the necessary steps. including imposing quotas. to cap steel imports at precrisis levels. The bill also requires the administration to establish a steel import notification and monitoring program. so that we can quickly respond to any dumping in the future. The administration has begun to take some small steps in the right direction. but more needs to be done. The Commerce Department recently issued trade case rulings against Japan. Brazil. and Russia and found that all three had dumped steel. Steel imports have now slowed. but not nearly enough. We need a global. comprehensive approach to end the crisis. one that addresses all nations and all steel product lines. The administrations piecemeal. onenationatatime approach forces us to spend our time putting out one fire after another and simply will not work. For these reasons I urge my colleagues in the House to join me in voting for this bill and challenge the administration to protect U.S. steelworkers and support H.R. 975.
Date: 1999-03-24
Speaker: EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Mr. Speaker. I rise today in salute of African American women. African American women have a unique place in the history of our country. Fighting against racial and gender discrimination. we have had to fight two battles often at odds with each other. However. many African American women have not let race and gender prevent them from fighting for equality. These womens heroic efforts have forever changed American history. Women like Harriet Tubman who helped slaves escape via her underground railroad. Without Ms. Tubman many future African American doctors. politicians. lawyers. and teachers would not be alive. Mr. Speaker so many African American women have been a part of our history: Sojourner truth. Coretta Scott King. Ida B. Wells to name a few. Today I would like to acknowledge one of those great African American female leadersJuanita Shanks Croft. Dallas native Juanita Craft fought for desegregation in Dallas and all over Texas. This onetime hotel worker. use the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to fight legalized racism. She helped desegregate the University of Texas Law School. North Texas State University and the State Fair of Texas. She also helped desegregate many Dallas lunch counters. theaters and restaurants. She worked with Christian Adair. who helped found the Houston chapter of the NAACP. to end segregation and promote African Americans. Because of their efforts. Hattie Mae White became the first black women elected to the Houston school boards in 1958. This also paved the way for the late Barbara Jordan to become the first African American woman and also the first African American since reconstruction elected to the Texas state Senate. Ms. Craft served 25 years as the Dallas NAACP precinct chairperson. She helped found more than 100 chapters of the NAACP and helped Thurgood Marshall work on the U.S. Supreme Court case Smith vs. Allwright. which gave African Americans the right to vote in the Texas Democratic primaries in 1944. Ms. Craft was the first AfricanAmerican woman to vote in Dallas and was elected to the Dallas City Council in 1975 at the age of 73. Ms. Craft was a civil rights teacher to the young opening her home to anyone who wanted to learn about making change. Many of those young students today are teachers. lobbyists. community and civil rights activists and city officials. Today her home in Dallas is a civil rights historic landmark where President Lyndon B. Johnson and Martin Luther King Jr. were once visitors. I salute Juanita Crafts courage to fight for equality for African Americans. I salute her courage to teach others how to work for change. Through her legacy. we can see the battles which have been fought and can be proud of the progress our sisters have made so that we can attend any university. sit at any lunch counter. walk into any store and speak of this floor.
Date: 1999-03-25
Speaker: EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Mr. Speaker. every day I rise. come in and listen to people come to the well and talk about how they support the troops. Well. I think that every surviving troop becomes a veteran and that is not acknowledged in this bill. Regardless of what is being said. even the veterans have read this bill and they understand that they have not been treated well. We have homeless veterans. we have dwindling health care being offered to the veterans. It is unconscionable that we present a budget like this that treats our veterans in the fashion in which they have been treated in this budget. There is no real future for America that is reflected in this budget. you see. because education has been cheated. Medicare has not been addressed. We have got a lock box that has a trap door. The guardians of the privilege. they are doing well in this budget. They are taking care. of the rich in this budget but they are ignoring the working people of this country. This is Robin Hood in reverse. I ask everyone to vote against this rule.
Date: 1999-03-25
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Chairman. I thank the gentleman for yielding this time to me. Mr. Chairman. in his opening remarks the chairman of the Committee on the Budget got up and said that this was about risk taking. this was about a budget that would allow people to take risks to keep more of their money and to take risk. Unfortunately. the people that are at risk in this budget are the people who seek a better education for their children. veterans who seek better health care. communities that seek to lower class sizes. the elderly that want to make sure that Medicare is secure. Those are the people who are taking the risk in the Republican budget. They want to pretend as though. if they give back a tax cut. that everything will happen and everything will turn out all right. and that is the risk. is giving back the tax cut. No. the risk for America is in paying for that tax cut because. as we see in this budget. student loans for higher education. Pell grants for higher education all need to be cut to make room for that. The hundred thousand teachers to try to lower class sizes needs to be cut to make room for that. In fact. what we see is an acrosstheboard cut in education at a time when the people in this country are telling us that they recognize the kind of reinvestment that this Nation. our States. our local communities need to make in education so that our young people can compete in a worldwide economy. Those arethe people at risk. Once again what the Republicans have done is shifted the risk of their budget priorities to those who can least afford it. those who have the least ability to make up for their mistakes. those who are trying to the best of their ability to move forward in American society. in American economy. That is where the risk is in their budget. those are. the programs that are targeted. those are the programs that are cut. those are the programs that are reduced. all to make way for a tax cut that they hope for people who have simply none of the worries. none of these everyday worries. that American families have on a daily basis about themselves. their jobs and their childrens education.
Date: 1999-04-20
Speaker: EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Mr. Speaker. I rise today in tribute to Rosa Parks and in support of a bill introduced by Congresswoman JULIA CARSON of Indiana to authorize President Clinton to award the Congressional Gold Medal to Rosa Parks. Rosa Parks was the spark that lit the fire in the civil rights rights movement. In 1955. in Montgomery. Alabama Ms. Parks refused to give up her bus seat to a white man. She was arrested and ordered to pay $14. Her actions led other civil rights leaders to protest bus desegregation creating a citywide boycott. Martin Luther King. Jr. became a household name when he became involved in the boycott by preaching to others about the injustice of the bus segregation policy. Ms. Parks continued to be a national civil rights leader even after the success of the bus boycott. She lectured about the civil rights movement and attended demonstrations. She worked for Congressman JOHN CONYERS of Detroit. Michigan until 1988. Congress should recognize Ms. Parks for her actions that defied the policies of separation and humilitation. Through this legislation. Congress should salute Ms. Parks for her current work in combating racism at the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute of Self Development which teaches young people about the legacy of the civil rights movement. Because of Rosa Parks courage. I stand before you here today. Because of her courage. America is a stronger nation. I am proud to be an original cosponsor of this legislation. I am proud to serve in a Congress that recognizes the importance of the civil rights movement and is willing to honor a woman who ushered in the movement. Our past should not be forgotten and our heroines should be honored. I hope that this legislation will serve to bring America together. That is Ms. Parks legacy.
Date: 1999-04-21
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Speaker. I clearly want to recognize the hard work that the subcommittee chair. the gentleman from Delaware . and the gentleman from Indiana put into this legislation. and I clearly want to state that I strongly support the concept of increased flexibility to improve educational programs at the local level. and I have voted for the original legislation. Goals 2000. which was to establish the EdFlex program. but I must say. after viewing the conference report. that I come at it from a different direction with respect to accountability. I think it is time that the Federal Government. in its use of the taxpayers money to fund the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. .start to hold the States and local districts accountable for the education of all children. We all know that public officials today are talking about holding people accountable but rarely do we. in fact. do it. Most recently. as we have started a program of high standards and assessment of how students are doing on those standards. we now see we are plagued with school districts all over the country that are taking poor performing students out of the testing pool so that it will look like they are doing better when they report to the parents in that school district. It will look like everybody achieved better. But what they did is they went around and took the tests of the kids that were not doing so well out of the pool. They rigged the results. and now they want to say that they are accountable. Just recently a prosecution was entered against a school district in Texas for tampering with the public evidence. That is why we need accountability. We need accountability because we must know how all of our children are doing. in rich school districts. in poor school districts. how minority children are doing. how poor children are doing. and others. Unfortunately. this legislation is weak on accountability. They have failed to require the States aggregate the data so that those States will be held responsible for all students. They give a passing notion that maybe they will look at it by groups. but even there the language has been weakened from what the House put in. In the committee and on the floor the gentleman from Michigan . the gentleman from New Jersey