Date: 2015-07-13
Speaker: JACKSON LEE (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Speaker. let me thank the managers of this very Special Order and my words to them and to this House. I want you to take note of the spirit in which these Members have come. If our constituents are seeing us and watching us. if those who agree with us are watching. no one has come with anger and a cry of hysteria. They have come with a reasoned request and pronouncement of the wrongness of the present situation in this House. Let me say that it was in 1864 that the States were given the call to send forward two statutes to come to represent their States in the United States Congress. In addition. we know that the United States Congress has a number of flags representing various States. This was to be the peoples House. and the peoples House would reflect the people of the United States of America. History should be something that grows with the Nation and reflects the goodness of the Nation. Yes. there is history that should be taught. such as the ugliness and violence of the slave history. but it is not to be honored. I join my colleagues today to be able to call for the taking down of signs of Confederacy in the United States Capitolin particular. as I am in the House of Representatives. in the peoples House. Let me give you a credible basis upon which to do so. why this Supreme Court decision has been so ignored. Let me cite it for my colleagues. Walker III v. Texas Division. Sons of Confederate Veterans. issued on June 18. 2015ironically. the day after the martyrdom of nine wonderful African Americans practicing their Christian faith. This particular decision indicates that the State of Texas was to be supported. This was a case that engaged many of our constituents in Texas. We organize and galvanize. I want to thank Dr. Clark. the president of the Missionary Baptist General Convention of Texas. and Reverend Max Miller. who came up as we argued this case. We were convincing. The Texas Department of Motor Vehicles board agreed that a Confederate license plate issued by the State of Texas would be offensive and would be considered. in essence. a public action or public speech. For those who want to raise the question of the First Amendment. this cry that we. as members of the Congressional Black Caucus. are making is perfectly constitutional and legitimate. We are talking about flags that are flown on State property or Federal property. This caucus should be congratulated. It is succinct in its argument. it is detailed in its argument. and no First Amendment opposition can be raised because the Supreme Court of the United States has said that we can deny utilizing the Confederate flag that may be considered State action as it is placed on Federal lands on the Federal property here. Our colleagues. in particular HAKEEM JEFFRIES and Mr. HUFFMAN and others. understood that when they acted last week. Now. the considerate thing to have done is there are amendments to stay in place. the Interior bill to be voted on. and the right thing would have been done because they argued the point that this was State or Federal action. We now come again to try and clarify for our colleagues that these flags should come down. In the privileged resolutions that have gone on last week. they made the point very clear that it was an insult to the dignity of the House. I have introduced H. Res. 342 that I hope will complement. and it is one that talks about the enhancement of unity in America and stands on the Walker decision and. in particular. makes it very clear that divisive symbolslicense plates. specialty license plates. replicas. and flagson public buildings or government property and symbols on State or Federal action. State public speechthat is a speech of those you representshould not be allowed. How divisive is that point of view? It is not. The divisiveness is those that stand on a false sense of history. yet want to offend those who likewise have great leadership. Let me make this point about the battle flag. this Confederate flag. Might I ask the question: Have southerners not fought in the War of 1812. in World War I. in World War II. in the Korean war. in the Hungarian war in the fifties. and in Vietnam and shed their blood under this flag. have they not been honored when they have shed their blood? Not only that. when Confederate soldiers died. they were honored appropriately in graves where those who desired to honor that shedding of the blood were allowed to do so. We did not run into the funerals of those Southern fallen soldiers and cast upon them and curse them and deny them. They were allowed to be honored appropriately. and they now go into the annals of history. When you understand what grounds they stood on. what their general stood on. such as Jefferson Davis. who called the individuals who were slaves as unprofitable savagesthat is what one general who has been honored has called them. "unprofitable savages"is that the history that we should be honoring? Is that what we should be lifting up? Is that what should be placed in the place of honor in the United States Congress? Is that engaged in the uplifting of the dignity of the House? Or is it insulting the dignity of the House? To my colleagues. I stand with you today to join in trying to create an understanding of the rightness of the work of our colleagues last week on the Interior bill. of the rightness of the Congressional Black Caucus going. as someone would say. on and on and on about this flag. and my good friend from New Jersey said it is symbols. and we need to bridge the gap of the inequity and wealth. we need education. we need jobs. Let me be very clear. Mr. Speaker. the Congressional Black Caucus and my colleagues and the Democratic Caucus and good will Republicans are fighting for jobsor should befighting for education. We are not languishing along the side highway of life. We fought to maintain the ObamaCare or the Affordable Care Act. We are not ignoring the other desires of our constituents. Let me close on this final point. and I am glad that my colleague from the District of Columbia raised it. and Congresswoman KELLY has been a leader. and Congresswoman KELLY. lets rise again. and that is the horror of gun violence. Let me say to Director Comey. since I am on the Judiciary Committee. thank you for your honesty. but let me make it very clear that we suffered this loophole because of the opposition to the sensibleness of the Brady antigun violence legislation. Imbedded in it was this nonsensical point that. if I dont hear from you. then I am going to sell it. Who is selling it? The gun store. I have no opposition to our fellow citizens who make their living and provide for their families by selling guns. I do have opposition to the evil and vile perpetrator who went into that Mother Emanuel Church and killed illegally with a gun that he should not have had. He did so because the 3day time had expired. because there was a time when the NICS was closedthat is the entity that the FBI relies uponand the 3 days expired. and the owner said. "I am going to sell the gun." This week I will be introducing a single piece of legislationand I ask my colleagues to join meI know there are many other billsto eliminate the 3day period of discretion. that no discretion will exist. They either answer the question that he or she is eligible or it is denied. So on the graves of these wonderful martyrs. I stand in honor of them. I mourn them. and I mourn for their families. I say to them: We will never forget. Once and for all. bring the flag down and remove these items in this place of honor that have denigrated and considered one race of people vile and unequal.