[Pages H11050-H11057]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

{time} 1945
CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS REPORT ON THE ANNUAL LEGISLATIVE CONFERENCE

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 18, 2007, the gentlewoman from Ohio (Mrs. Jones) is recognized
for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
Mrs. JONES of Ohio. Madam Speaker, it's so good to see you in the
Chair, especially on this occasion as we engage in the Congressional
Black Caucus message hour.
This evening it gives me great pleasure to spend some time talking
about the annual legislative conference that was this past weekend
right here in Washington, DC.
I am joined this evening by the cochair. The Chair of the
Congressional Black Caucus foundation is Kendrick Meek, but the
cochairs of this wonderful weekend this year are my good friends G.K.
Butterfield from North Carolina and my colleague and good friend Donna
Christensen from the Virgin Islands.
So I am going to begin by yielding to my colleague and good friend
from the great State of North Carolina, G.K. Butterfield.
Mr. BUTTERFIELD. I want to first of all thank the gentlelady from
Ohio for her leadership here in the Congress. One of the first Members
that I met when I came to Washington 3 years ago was Stephanie Tubbs
Jones. She is engaged all the time and is certainly representing the
constituents of her district. Thank you for giving me the opportunity
to share a few thoughts with you this evening.
We have just finished the 37th Annual Legislative Conference of the
Congressional Black Caucus Foundation.
I want to delineate between the Congressional Black Caucus and the
Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. Those are two separate entities.
So often people confuse those entities, but the Congressional Black
Caucus proper is simply an unofficial organization of the 43 CBC
members, African American Members who are serving in the Congress who
meet from time to time to discuss public policy issues. It is not a
foundation; it is simply an informal gathering of Members of Congress.
By contrast, the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation is a very
formal organization. It is a 501(c)3 tax-exempt foundation that has
been in existence for many years. I want to start off by making that
point abundantly clear.
The Congressional Black Caucus is composed of 43 members. We hear
that number from time to time. That's a very important number. It has
not always been 43 members. The African American representation here in
Congress has evolved over the years, and now it is at its highest point
in its history; 42 African Americans serve in the House. Of those 42,
40 are full voting Members of the House of Representatives. The other
two have the right to vote in committees and in the Committee of the
Whole, but not in the full House, because they represent the District
of Columbia and the Virgin Islands. Hopefully one day in the not too
distant future even those two Members will have a right to full
participation here in the Congress.
But having 42 African Americans in the House of Representatives is
significant. That is 17 percent of the House of Representatives, at
least the Democrats in the House of Representatives come from the
Congressional Black Caucus, and so that is very important.
So over the years, the Congressional Black Caucus has seen fit to
annually produce an annual legislative conference whereby African
American leaders from all across the country can come to Washington in
fellowship and interact and network with other people across the
country, and then we conclude the week by having a gala or an annual
dinner. We have just completed the 37th annual conference this past
week, and it was a smashing success.
I want to thank all of those persons who had a hand in making it
happen. Kendrick Meek from Miami, Dade County, Florida, is the leader
of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. We used to call him a
part of the 30-something club, but he has now passed that great 40-
year-old mark, but he is still young and energetic and dynamic.
Mrs. JONES of Ohio. Are you a member of the 30-something club?
Mr. BUTTERFIELD. No, ma'am, I am not. I am a member of the 60-
something.
But Kendrick Meek has led our organization, and we had a very, very
good conference last week. I am not going to go into all the details, I
am sure my colleague, Donna Christensen, who was also my cochair last
week may give you details about it, but it was a wonderful week.
We had brain trust on just about every topic that you can imagine. We
had a gospel extravaganza, and one of my choirs from North Carolina
came to Washington and really, really had a magnificent showing in that
extravaganza. Then we had a prayer breakfast. We are very close to
prayer in the Congressional Black Caucus, because we know it has been
our faith that has brought us thus far along the way. Then we concluded
on Saturday night with our gala. I don't know how many thousand people
were at that dinner.
Mrs. JONES of Ohio. More than 3,000.
Mr. BUTTERFIELD. Yes. There were more, more like 4, 5,000 people in
attendance at the dinner, and it was a great success.
I want to thank all of those persons who had a hand in making the
week the success that it was, particularly Dr. Elsie Scott and the
staff of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation.
You know, Congresswoman, I say in speeches all the time and I will
say here on the House floor today, you know, we get credit for a lot of
things that we really don't deserve, Members of Congress. We cut the
ribbons and take pictures and sit in meetings and engage in unnecessary
debate sometimes, but it is the staff that does the heavy lifting and
gets the job done. So kudos to the Congressional Black Caucus
Foundation staff.
Let me conclude by saying that since 1868 there has only been 122
African Americans who have served in the United States Congress. That
is an actual statistic. Our research shows that 19 African Americans
served in the House of Representatives during the Reconstruction. Four
of those were

[[Page H11051]]

from my district that I now represent, which is the northeastern corner
of North Carolina. Eight of those were from South Carolina, which is
the district that my good friend, the majority whip of this House,
Congressman Jim Clyburn, represents. But we have only had 122 African
Americans to serve in this body. We have come a long way to have 42
African Americans serving in the House and one in the Senate.
We have a lot of work to do, and I am going to close by simply saying
that we had a good week and a very successful week. I know it's self-
serving for me to say this, Congresswoman, but I think it's the best
conference that we have had in our 37 years. So many people deserve the
credit.
Mrs. JONES of Ohio. Before you leave, I want to congratulate you on
your choice of prayer breakfast speaker. Dr. Clifford Jones out of
North Carolina was a wonderful speaker, and his theme, ``Somebody Pray
for Me,'' I think hit right home with all of us, and we had a
wonderful, wonderful time in praise and worship Saturday morning. You
would have actually thought we turned the convention center into a
church on Saturday morning. It was a wonderful experience.
Mr. BUTTERFIELD. We had a southern missionary Baptist preacher who
came to Washington and delivered a powerful sermon. When I first
suggested Dr. Jones' name a few months ago, a few people were skeptical
because they had not heard of him before. When they came up with their
name, I had not heard of their name before.
So I thought it was time to have a southern minister. Dr. Clifford
Jones did a wonderful job, as did Rev. William Barber from Goldsboro,
North Carolina, who delivered the prayer for the Nation. Dr. Barber is
also the State president of the NAACP in North Carolina, and it was
just a wonderful occasion. You would have had to have been there to
really appreciate it, and hopefully persons who didn't come this year
may see fit to come next year.
Mrs. JONES of Ohio. I wasn't part of the choice, but I knew a
minister named Jones had to be a really good person. Thank you so much
for the choice.
Mr. BUTTERFIELD. Thank you, staff. Thank you all of you who had a
hand in making this happen, including the chairwoman of the
Congressional Black Caucus itself. I failed to mention the name of
Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick. Congresswoman Kilpatrick is leader of the
Congressional Black Caucus, and that's a tough job, leading 43 diverse
politicians. But she reconciles all of our differences, all of our
views and leads the Black Caucus with great distinction. Thank you as
well to Congresswoman Kilpatrick.
Mrs. JONES of Ohio. It gives me great pleasure to yield time to my
colleague and good friend, Congresswoman Donna Christensen. She
cochairs the brain trust for the Congressional Black Caucus. She
represents the Virgin Islands. She has done a great job and always been
a great friend since I have been in the Congress. This year, along with
G.K. Butterfield, she cochaired the annual conference for the
Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, ``Unleashing Our Power.''
Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Congresswoman Tubbs Jones, it's a pleasure to be
back with you on the floor this evening. We were here together last
week discussing SCHIP and the situation in Jena with the Jena 6 high
school students, which was also a part of our discussion, a very
integral part of our discussion at the annual legislative conference.
We were very fortunate that while we were there, Mychal Bell was
released from prison, and we were able to have the lead attorney, Lewis
Scott, come up and join us for a session.
Mrs. JONES of Ohio. Absolutely.
Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. But this was our 37th Annual Legislative
Conference, and our theme, as you heard, was ``Unleashing Our Power.''
That is also exactly what we here in the CBC and our constituents
across the country intend to do going forward, unleash our power.
I also want to join my cochair in thanking the Chair of the
Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Kendrick Meek, for his strong
and visionary leadership of the foundation and of the conference, and
to thank our CBC chairwoman, the Honorable Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick,
for her stellar guidance. As we have come into the majority, she has
coalesced and directed our power to influence the product of what I
think will be a historic 110th Congress.
I also, as you heard just a few minutes ago, had a great partner in
my cochair, Congressman G.K. Butterfield of North Carolina, whose
input, vision and hard work really helped to make this week a
successful and momentous one as it was.
Of course, as he said too, the ALC could not have been successful
without the work of our staff, his staff and my staff and the staff of
the foundation under the excellent and skilled leadership of Dr. Elsie
Scott, its president.
As this year's cochair, it was a special pleasure for me to welcome
Generation Now and other Virgin Islanders, including Neville Peter, who
sang at the prayer breakfast.
Mrs. JONES of Ohio. He was excellent. He was excellent. Wow.
Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Both singers were great, but it was really
inspiring. We were really pleased he was able to join us.
Mrs. JONES of Ohio. Why don't you tell us a little bit about Neville
Peter? Some people across the Nation may not know about him.
Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. He is a young man, born in my district in the U.S.
Virgin Islands. He started his musical career very early, at about 5,
mostly in the piano and one other instrument. But at about 12, he
pretty much lost all of his sight. He became blind at about age 12.
That didn't stop him, though. He went on to college at the University
of Miami and studied music there, actually specializing in jazz and
some other kinds of music. But in the recent years, he has turned his
talent to the service of the Lord, and he has been a gospel singer,
writer. He actually performed one of his original compositions, which,
as he said, was a testimony of his own life and finding God; it was
personal. Now it's personal.
Mrs. JONES of Ohio. Yes, now it's personal. We remarked, as we were
sitting at the table listening to him, that his look was much like a
Stevie Wonder look with the braids. When he turned to the side, the
profile was much like Stevie Wonder.
Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Yes, he has a great voice and a great talent. We
look for him to go to great places in the future.
So we have him and we have the Generation Now, and, of course, many
of us in the Congressional Black Caucus also had our emerging leaders
come up from our district that we sponsored; mine, attorney Mark Hodge
and Natalie Humphries, also of Generation Now, the last person. So that
was exciting.
Our opening session, of course, featured our Chairs, including my
colleague here, Mrs. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, Congresswoman Stephanie
Tubbs Jones, but also Chairman Rangel, Chairman Conyers, Chairman
Thompson, and of course, our whip, Jim Clyburn. That was a very, I
think, powerful way to start off a conference, a weekend that was all
about power.
It wasn't only about power in the Congress, but it was about a power
in our community that is still really untapped and unleashed. We could
really be agents of change for our community and our country if we were
to really come together and use the power that is ours.
Mrs. JONES of Ohio. I am with you.
Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. I wanted to focus the rest of my remarks on the
town hall, though, and on the health sessions that I was a part of.
There were many health sessions. There were many sessions, period, on a
number of issues, and all very informative.
The town hall, first, was a real powerful discussion on ways to
eliminate or reduce the factors that lead so many black men and now,
increasingly, black women into prison. We called it ``Disrupting the
Prison Pipeline'' because we wanted to focus on positive action to
really stop what was happening over the years.
Too, our session was attended by, I think, over 1,000 people who were
at that town hall that morning. And we discussed the disparities in
education, health, including mental health and substance abuse, how
poverty and unemployment in the criminal justice system, the
disparities in those areas create a pathway to incarceration rather
than college for so many in the African-American community.

[[Page H11052]]

We had wonderful speakers. We had Reggie Weaver, the president of the
National Education Association; Dr. Marian Wright Edelman, the
president of the Children's Defense Fund; Dr. Beny Primm was a drug
addiction expert from New York; Dr. Debra Prothrow Stith, a public
health expert who focuses on violence prevention; attorney Rhonda
Stewart from North Carolina, an expert on child and family judicial
issues; Janks Morton, who is a writer in D.C. representing the media;
and several ex-offenders who have made a dramatic turnaround in their
lives.

{time} 2000

We want to thank them, as well as our moderator, Leon Harris, and the
Members of Congress who participated; Congressman Bobby Scott, who
chairs the Crime Subcommittee of the Judiciary and has turned that
into, has begun to focus that committee on prevention, which we have
long looked forward to doing; Danny Davis, who heads a subcommittee
himself on health under the Government Reform Committee. But primarily
he was there as the leader of the State of the Black Male Initiative
that the CBC and the CBC Foundation have been working on and, of
course, Chairman Rangel, who brought the economic opportunity piece to
that discussion. They brought their expertise, they brought the work
that they're engaged in, both inside and out of Congress to help
disrupt the prison pipeline.
What's clear is that there's too many communities where a young black
male in this country has no alternative opportunities, nor is he
provided with adequate opportunities to be able to succeed on the path
to college. And the two unfortunate recent examples are the Jena high
school students and Genarlo Wilson who is still in prison in Georgia.
What we will do from here, though, Madam Speaker and colleagues, is to
issue a report that incorporates the date, the key points of the
discussion, and legislative recommendations, which would be a blueprint
for the Congressional Black Caucus, as well as other elected leadership
on State and local levels.
What we've heard from our panelists and the audience was a compelling
call to action to indeed disrupt that prison pipeline.
The first health session, which I co-chair every year with
Congresswoman Barbara Lee on HIV and AIDS, global HIV and AIDS focus on
the growing role and the influence of the faith community in combating
the HIV/AIDS crisis in the African American community. Ten years ago we
called for a state of emergency and a minority AIDS initiative for our
community and other communities of color. This administration has taken
it far away from the original intent of building the local capacity in
our communities to address this epidemic. And the consensus in that
conference was that we need a national plan, as we discussed with the
Black AIDS Institute on the Hill last week; and it's time to reissue
that call for the state of emergency and reclaim our minority AIDS
initiative.
Also, on Thursday afternoon there was a great discussion on bringing
corporate, State, and union leaders into the disparity elimination
partnership. With the ongoing need for corporations to provide health
care and the extreme pressures of its rising costs, they will be
looking for ways to cut those costs. The health coverage will continue
to be a major cause of contention as unions negotiate contracts, and
States are beginning to take coverage for all of their residents into
their own hands.
We called on business, union and State leaders, we called them
together for this dialogue because we want to make sure that as all of
this begins to take some kind of shape into a health care reform
initiative, that closing the gaps in health care and in health status
that's faced by racial and ethnic minorities and rural residents in
this country, that those issues would be at the center of that reform;
and we intend for that to be an ongoing dialogue.
The last session that I'm going to mention is the Friday session on
demanding opportunity and justice for African American health care
providers. It spoke to challenges that are almost as disturbing as
those we discussed in the prison pipeline discussion. Our keynote
speaker, Dr. Sullivan, gave us an update on the still low
representation of African Americans and other minorities in health
professions schools and in practice, far below our representation in
the Nation and woefully inadequate to meet the needs of our diverse
society. We heard from hospital administrators, doctors, dentists and
others, including students, about the barriers to getting into the
health profession school and staying there. Those stories were bad
enough. But there was more. We then heard from African American doctors
and other health providers, those in practice, about the difficulties
they face in staying in practice, given exclusions from certain
facilities, faculties and organizations, unfair investigations and
sanctions that hold them to a far higher standard than other providers,
and also disparities in reimbursement.
What we heard signals a looming crisis that must be prevented if we
are ever to eliminate health disparities, if we're ever to improve
health care for everyone in this country, and if we're ever to stop the
skyrocketing rise in health care costs. Those are just three of the
many outstanding issue forums and brain trusts that informed, inspired,
and invoked action on the part of the black community.
As I close, I want to thank all of my CBC colleagues, including you,
Madam Speaker, for your support. Because of your hard work and that of
your staff, we had one of the best annual legislative conferences ever
and I want to thank all of the speakers, the exhibitors, and all who
attended from all over the country, and even some from beyond and
outside of our country, from the Caribbean, from Africa and other areas
of the world. Because of the input that you brought, and the support
that you gave to the conference, we, as a community, stand more ready
than ever to unleash our power.
Mrs. JONES of Ohio. Thank you, Madam Chair, Donna Christensen, the
Delegate from the Virgin Islands, one of the co-chairs for the ALC
Conference.
It gives me great pleasure at this time to yield 5 minutes to my
colleague and good friend, Diane Watson from California, our former
ambassador to Micronesia.
Ms. WATSON. Thank you, Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones; and thank
you, Madam Speaker.
I want to congratulate Congressman Meek, Chair of the Congressional
Black Caucus Foundation, and Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick for putting
together a most excellent Congressional Black Caucus annual legislative
week. The event was very well attended, and the many issue forums were
informative and enlightening.
I held three issue forums, one on African American entrepreneurship
in South Africa, and one on African American celebrities and their too
often unreported commitment to social issues.
And my third panel, entitled ``Finding Justice for the Black Cherokee
Indian Freedmen,'' looked at the current Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma's
efforts to expel its black Cherokee citizens. I was pleased to have a
number of Cherokee citizens, including Joe Byrd, the former principal
chief of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, Jon Velie, attorney for the
Freedmen, and Marilyn Vann, president of the Freedmen Descendants
Association.
In the year 2000, the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma attempted to
disenfranchise its Freedmen descendants. The circumstances were nearly
identical to the current efforts of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma to
rid itself of descendants of the Freedmen who are rightfully citizens
of Cherokee Nation. The Bureau of Indian Affairs took a proactive
stance against the Seminoles, cutting off their funding for nearly 2
years and also suspending their franchise to conduct gaming.
Interestingly, the Bureau of Indian Affairs first declared the
Cherokee Freedmen situation identical to that of the Seminole Freedmen.
Then the bureau did a 180-degree flip flop, taking a hands-off approach
to Cherokee Freedmen. The BIA chose to shirk its fiduciary
responsibility, even as the Freedmen's rights were obviously being
trampled on by the Cherokee leadership.

In March of 2007, the Cherokee Nation held an election to expel the
Cherokee Freedmen, in violation of the 1866 treaty which granted full
citizenship

[[Page H11053]]

rights to Cherokee Freedmen shortly after the Civil War. That is when
the plight of the Cherokee Freedmen first came to my attention.
I immediately wrote a letter to Assistant Secretary Artman of the
Bureau of Indian Affairs requesting an interpretation of the vote. The
letter was signed by 25 of my congressional colleagues. The response I
received from Secretary Artman almost a month later was unsatisfactory.
In effect, the Secretary said that the bureau had not taken any
administrative action and would continue its careful evaluation of all
facets of this matter. In effect, I was told that the BIA would
continue to monitor a situation that didn't need further monitoring,
but immediate action.
It is only when I discovered that the BIA would not move proactively,
that it would not forcibly and vigorously stand up for and protect the
rights of Cherokee Freedmen as it had done for the Seminole Freedmen, I
introduced H.R. 2824 to sever the United States relations with the
Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma until such time that it restores full
citizenship rights to Cherokee Freedmen.
My legislation has been characterized by Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma
as a termination bill, which is blatantly false. There is not one
sentence in the legislation that addresses terminating the Cherokee
Nation's Federal recognition status.
The Cherokee Nation has made the argument that Congress should not
intervene until the courts have resolved the matter. It made this point
the center piece of its public relations campaign to disenfranchise the
Freedmen descendents. But the past actions of the Cherokee Nation belie
its commitment to the rule of law. After the Cherokee Nation's tribal
courts ruled in favor of Lucy Allen, a Freedmen descendant who sued for
citizenship, the Cherokee Nation's leadership chose to dissolve the
court and packed the newly constituted court with cronies who proceeded
to approve a referendum to disenfranchise the Freedmen.
The Cherokee Nation's leadership states that funding cuts will hurt
many Cherokees who depend on Federal funding. This past Friday,
coinciding with the day of my issue forum, the Cherokee Nation took out
a full page ad in Roll Call and in the Hill making this claim. What the
Cherokee Nation doesn't tell you is that it has already spent $2.7
million or more lobbying against Freedmen and that the Cherokee Tribal
Council recently debated allocating $4 million to lobby against the
Freedmen. What they don't tell you is that a lot of this money has gone
and will go to pay for services of high-priced public relations firms.
It's too bad that the Cherokee Nation will not use its money to help
those in its tribe who really need assistance, but instead will use
millions of dollars to launch a hateful and vitriolic attack against
African descendents of the Cherokee Nation who form a minority of its,
there are only 2,800, they're a minority among its 270,000 thousand
Members.
And finally, my legislation was not an attack on Indian sovereignty
or the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma's sovereignty.
The Cherokee Nation receives roughly $300 million a year from the
Federal Government. It also conducts highly lucrative gaming operations
with a Federal gaming charter. The sovereign right to discriminate with
our taxpayers' dollars is not a right at all. It's illegal.
The Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma argues that it should be treated like
other tribes and have the exclusive right to determine its citizenship.
Because the Cherokees signed a treaty with the Confederate States of
America and fought against the United States to defend slavery, the
conditions of the treaty of 1866 and reconstituting the relationship
with the United States was that the former slaves and their
descendents, called the Freedmen, would be citizens with full rights.
My legislation only seeks redress for the Cherokee Nation for the
restoration of their treaty rights that entitle them to citizenship, to
vote, to hold office and to have equal rights with other Cherokee
citizens.
Madam Speaker and Representative Stephanie Tubbs Jones, I appreciate
the time you have given us, and I think we were very successful this
weekend in gathering information and enlightening our public who
attended from across the country and around our Nation. Thank you very
much.

General Leave

Mrs. JONES of Ohio. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all
Members have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their
remarks on the subject of this Special Order today, the annual
legislative conference of the Congressional Black Caucus.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentlewoman from Ohio?
There was no objection.
Mrs. JONES of Ohio. At this time it gives me great pleasure to have
the opportunity to yield 5 minutes to my colleague and good friend from
the great State of North Carolina, the immediate past Chair of the
Congressional Black Caucus, Mr. Mel Watt.
Mr. WATT. Thank you, Madam Speaker, and I thank my colleague,
Stephanie Tubbs Jones from Ohio, for yielding time. I don't think it
will take me 5 minutes to do this, but I did want to spend a little bit
of time talking about the annual legislative conference that was
conducted by the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation this past
weekend.
I heard the comments of my colleague from California, Ms. Diane
Watson, and I was fortunate to be able to sit in on one of her issues
forums related to the Cherokee Freedmen, and I thought it was a very
balanced and productive session, and very informative.
I've been privileged to be a part of the Congressional Black Caucus
Foundation's annual legislative weekend for all 15 years that I have
served in Congress. And I would have to say that the first 13 of those
years I did my piece of the conference by conducting a discussion and
issues forum on the Voting Rights Act, access to the vote, and I
participated in various issues related to the Judiciary Committee. But
last year and the year before last, I was honored to serve as the Chair
of the Congressional Black Caucus, and I took a different perspective
during those 2 years because it gave me an opportunity, as Chair of the
caucus, not only to do my own issues forum, but it was part of, I
viewed it as part of my responsibility to drop in on all of the issues
forums and brain trust discussions that were going on.
And I can tell you firsthand that there was nowhere in the world that
there were more thoughtful provocative discussions going on about the
state of black America, our role in the United States, our role in
education, justice, our role internationally, than take place at the
Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's annual legislative conference.
That is the place to be to discuss the issues that impact our
community, and I saw it firsthand, from issues related to the hip hop
generation to the confidence of our African American youth, to the
prison pipeline that, unfortunately, has been created, to the
disparities that exist in health care and education and even in our
international foreign policy.
So I'm honored to have been able to have viewed the weekend from a
different perspective for the last 2 years.
But I will tell you, Madam Speaker, and my colleague, Representative
Tubbs Jones, that I was honored to get back to being able to do just my
thing again this year. And we had a delightful discussion about the
Voting Rights Act in my issues forum.

{time} 2015

Last year we had just passed the 25-year reauthorization of the
Voting Rights Act, and so we took that year to kind of pat ourselves on
the back and talk about what we had just accomplished. But we knew the
onslaught would be coming immediately. And within that 1-year period,
there has been a concerted effort, litigation has been filed, which is
a direct frontal attack on the Voting Rights Act and its
reauthorization.
So the first part of my issues related to that legal attack, which
had just been argued in a court of appeals about 2 weeks ago, and I had
the lawyer from the NAACP Legal Defense Fund there at my brain trust to
talk about that attack and its likelihood for success. And I'm happy to
report that we do not believe it is a serious attack, although there
will certainly be others to come.

[[Page H11054]]

That presentation was followed by a presentation by Donna Brazile on
the various methods that have been used throughout the country to
discourage minority participation in the voting process and what we
plan to do about it in the 2007 election and, more importantly perhaps,
in the 2008 Presidential election cycle, some of the strategies that we
plan to follow to combat those efforts to diminish and reduce minority
participation in the voting process.
And then our third panelist was a director of a board of elections in
Florida who talked about the desirability of creating a paper trail so
that people who do show up and vote at the polls can reliably be
certain that their vote will be counted and properly assessed.
So we just had three panelists. They did outstanding jobs. We had
ample time for discussion and participation by the attendees at the
conference and at our issues forum. It was a delightful experience and
one that I look forward to being around next year at this time to
replicate.
I again applaud you for convening this Special Order tonight to allow
us the opportunity to talk about not only the fun things that happened
at the foundation's annual legislative conference but, more
importantly, the wonderful substantive discussions that take place
around every issue that impact our community.
With that I will thank our convener this evening.
Mrs. JONES of Ohio. I had a recent discussion with our colleague
Keith Ellison from Minnesota, and he was telling me that in the seventh
circuit that it had been granted to go to the Supreme Court on a voter
ID. That will be an interesting case to watch as it goes forward as
well.
Mr. WATT. We did talk about that, and we are watching that case very
carefully, as well as another case out of North Carolina, which is an
attack on whether the Voting Rights Act protects congressional
districts that are not majority minority, such as the one I represent,
which is only 40 percent or so African American, and the ones that are
represented by most of the members of the Congressional Black Caucus
today.
Mrs. JONES of Ohio. Madam Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman for
his leadership on getting the Voting Rights Act reauthorized,
Congressman Mel Watt of North Carolina.
It gives me great pleasure at this time to yield to my colleague and
good friend, a former judge from the great State of Texas,
Congresswoman Sheila Jackson-Lee.
Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Madam Speaker, let me thank my
distinguished colleague and friend, chairwoman of the Ethics Committee
from Ohio Stephanie Tubbs Jones, for more than this one night. I think
that we are back in the saddle again, and I applaud the fact that the
Congressional Black Caucus, the conscience of the Congress, is now
reporting the ions and pages and, if you will, thousands upon thousands
of items that we work on and solve on a daily basis here in the United
States Congress. So I want to thank her for guiding this for a period
of time, and I want to then acknowledge the chairpersons of the 37th
Annual Legislative Conference, the Honorable Donna Christensen and G.K.
Butterfield, who did an outstanding job. And as well might I
acknowledge and thank, and I know that he will be speaking soon, the
chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Chairman
Kendrick Meek, and thank him for his leadership and also for the
opportunity to now journey on the foundation board as a new member. As
I am a new member of the foundation board, I am delighted to be able to
collaborate with him on some of the many, many issues that the board
will tackle.
Success; inspirational; exciting; fun; learned; and, of course,
message giving. That was the 37th annual legislative session that we
just finished here in Washington, D.C.
Allow me to acknowledge the importance of the Voting Rights session
that Mel Watt and I, having served on the Judiciary Committee, worked
on as we moved to reauthorize the Voting Rights legislation in the last
session.
And just to bring to the attention of my colleagues, the reason why
that is so important is because it seems that race again is becoming a
dividing issue in America. And I just want to remind my colleagues, or
maybe bring it to your attention, I am going to sort of merge it into
the review of the particular sessions that I had, but I just want to
announce to my colleagues that Ward Connelly has managed to get the
question of affirmative action on the ballot of nine States. My
understanding is that that question which revolves around race will be
on the Presidential-year elections. It is my understanding that it will
be on the ballot in November of 2008. I am going to investigate that
issue, but I wanted to just bring that to the table because a number of
our sessions had to do with trying to grapple with this question of
race. And certainly the Voting Rights Act and the interpretations that
the Supreme Court will make on additional cases involving race really
emphasize that.
And I must say that I enjoyed co-hosting a series of sessions with
Bobby Scott. There was a session that, although I was detained, I was
able to get in for a brief moment, but I want to compliment him and
acknowledge that one of the aspects that was spoken about was the
recent decision dealing with race in schools on the Supreme Court. So
you can imagine if there are ballot issues dealing with affirmative
action, it just converges on a number of these issues. And that session
really emphasized the wrongness of the decision as it relates to the
results, meaning that Brown versus Board of Education might be
challenged under that decision. Something for us to be concerned about.
So I enjoyed participating in that one and thought it was a very
important, instructive session, as well as cochairing the child welfare
section with Danny Davis. And the one point I want to mention that came
out of that that really cries out for legislation is the fact that
foster children age out of protection, age out of a home at age 18. And
for those of us who have children that know that we are still mothering
them at 21, 22, 23, 24, and they have a home, our children can come
back to a home or have a roof over their head that we may have, but
foster children get out of the system. There is no obligation to
provide them with housing or schooling or anything. What a tragedy,
which is why you see that many foster children are homeless, many
foster children can't finish college. They get no stipend, and it is a
crisis. And it was an outstanding series with Historically Black
Colleges.
Let me then indicate that the series that I had involved the energy
brain trust, which was historic. And let me quickly say that we had
representatives from Shell and CAMAC energy and the CEO of CITGO; from
Venezuela, the Venezuelan ambassador; the ambassador from Algeria;
Milton Scott, who owns a very important African American energy
company; Steve Hightower, African American, owner of an energy company;
George Person; Lisa Jackson; Gary Heminger; Hugh Depland from BP; Gary
from Marathon; Frank Stewart from the American Association of Blacks in
Energy; Willie Trotty. And the key element, high gasoline prices and
high utility costs, building bridges. We have a commitment to convene
the energy brain trust at the OTC, the Offshore Technology Conference,
in Houston, but the main thing we have a commitment to is getting
African Americans in the ownership wealth part of energy and making
sure that there are African Americans in the corporate aspects of these
major Fortune 500 companies and, as well, increasing more ownership.

{time} 2030

Lastly, we did a provocative session on hip hop, ``The Culture of a
People, the Language of a People,'' and it actually got people talking.
Julianne Malveaux, the president of Bennett College. Azim Rashid,
senior VP of operations at Warner Music. J. Xavier, 350-time performer,
15-year-old clean hip hop artist. An Tun Muhammad, the president of The
Real Hip Hop Network. Asha Jenning, Igniting Media Accountability.
Madhatter of the Box Station in Houston, and JMAC. And then Reverend
Ben Chavis and Charles LeBoef.
Let me conclude by saying that we opened up the door of communication
to understand hip hop from both perspectives in art, but also
accountability. I look forward to continuing those sessions.

[[Page H11055]]

But more importantly let me thank the convener, because we were able
to say it was vital, it was important, and there was so much learning
going on. Now we're going forward with the legislative initiative for
the CBC legislative weekend.
I yield back to the distinguished gentlelady. Thank you for the time.
The issue of energy is one of the most important national security
issues which face our nation due to our increasing dependence on
foreign sources of energy, often times from volatile parts of the
world. My braintrust seeks to highlight and remedy the lack of adequate
outreach to and participation by the African American community in
America's energy industry, which is exacerbated by the inherent
barriers present in the energy industry to African American students,
workers, entrepreneurs, and investors along with the disparate impact
the energy industry has on minority populations, consumers and
neighborhoods, both in terms of prices and environmental justice.
There is no issue more integral to our nation's economic and national
security than energy independence. This Energy Braintrust, which is
comprised of some of the most prominent members of America's energy
industry, is designed to be a clarion call to action, in order to build
bridges and synergies between the African-American community and
America's energy industry.
The purpose of this Braintrust will not only be the discussion of,
but more importantly, the transformation of dialogue into action and
legislation to address and bolster the relationships between the energy
industry and African American consumers, entrepreneurs, investors,
workers, and students. My hope and expectation is that six months from
now each of today's presenters will join me to collectively and
individually issue a plan of benchmarks, goals, and pathways to build
concrete and coherent bridges and synergies between the African
American community and America's energy industry. Moreover, part of
this plan will be a formal mechanism such as a progress report to
measure how each of today's prominent panelists and the companies they
represent implement and achieve the benchmarks they helped to develop.
This will ensure that we transform today's substantive discussion into
pragmatic action.
Energy is the lifeblood of every economy, especially ours. Producing
more of it leads to more good jobs, cheaper goods, lower fuel prices,
and greater economic and national security. However, the U.S. is more
than 60 percent dependent on foreign sources of energy, twice as
dependent today as we were just 30 years ago. America's growing and
dangerous energy dependence has resulted in the loss of hundreds of
thousands of good American jobs, skyrocketing consumer prices, and
vulnerabilities in our national security.

Energy imports now make up one-third of America's trade deficit.
America must improve the supply-demand imbalance, lower consumer
prices, and increase jobs by producing more of its own energy
resources. With my district of Houston being the energy capital of the
world, the energy industry in Houston exemplifies the stakeholders who
must be instrumental in devising a pragmatic strategy for resolving our
national energy crisis.
At this point in history, the energy industry is at a critical
turning point where we can become active agents of change in our
collective futures. America's dependence of foreign oil has led us to
precarious position in terms of foreign policy and national security,
while the youth of our nation have not received sufficient means to
move to us a new direction.
Because I represent the city of Houston, the energy capital of the
world, I realize that many oil and gas companies provide many jobs for
many of my constituents and serve a valuable need. The energy industry
in Houston exemplifies the stakeholders who must be instrumental in
devising a pragmatic strategy for resolving our national energy crisis.
It is crucial that while seeking solutions to secure more energy
independence within this country, we strike a balance that will still
support an environment for continued growth in the oil and gas
industry, which I might add, creates millions of jobs across the entire
country.
We have many more miles to go before we achieve energy independence.
Consequently, I am willing, able, and eager to continue working with
Houston's and our nation's energy industry to ensure that we are moving
expeditiously on the path to crafting an environmentally sound and
economically viable energy policy. Furthermore, I think it is
imperative that part of this policy includes increased involvement by
small, minority and women owned businesses, and independent energy
companies in this process because they represent some of the hard
working Americans and Houstonians who are on the forefront of energy
efficient strategies to achieving energy independence.
I will conclude by also emphasizing that renewable and alternate
sources of energy must be part of our energy future in order to achieve
energy independence. Replacing oil imports with domestic alternatives
such as traditional and cellulosic ethanol can not only help reduce the
$180 billion that oil contributes to our annual trade deficit, it can
end our addiction to foreign oil. According to the Department of
Agriculture, biomass can displace 30 percent of our Nation's petroleum
consumption.
Along with traditional production of ethanol from corn, cellulosic
ethanol can be produced domestically from a variety of feedstocks,
including switchgrass, corn stalks and municipal solid wastes, which
are available throughout our nation. Cellulosic ethanol also relies on
its own byproducts to fuel the refining process, yielding a positive
energy balance. Whereas the potential production of traditional corn-
based ethanol is about 10 billion gallons per year, the potential
production of cellulosic ethanol is estimated to be 60 billion gallons
per year.
I will close by emphasizing that we must be balanced and prudent in
our approach to address our energy needs. By ensuring access to the
African-American community and investing in renewable energy, I believe
we can be partners with the responsible members of America's energy
producing community present today to achieve our collective goal of
reaching energy independence and increased inclusion of the African-
American community.

Children's Issues Forum: Hip Hop: The Culture of a People

The Annual Legislative Conference is an opportunity for us to discuss
and engage with some of the difficult issues that face us as a
community and as a nation, This year, it was my honor and pleasure to
host a Children's Issues Forum entitled ``The Language of Hip Hop: The
Culture of a People,'' This timely and thought-provoking discussion and
examination of the impact, both positive and negative, of hip hop on
our community featured panelists from the hip hop industry, as well as
activists and academics.
As a Member of the Congressional Black Caucus, Chairwoman of the
Congressional Children's Caucus, and most importantly a mother, it is
my priority to address issues relating to the health and well-being of
African American youth in this country. I recognize that Hip Hop
culture has had a tremendous influence on the artistic and musical
expression of America's youth today. However, many view the culture of
Hip Hop as a negative and provocative phenomenon due to some of the
negative images and harsh lyrics that some artists use to express
themselves. I believe that before we condemn Hip Hop, we must first try
to understand it. The Children's Braintrust sought to reach such
understanding.
Throughout history, music originating from America's Black
communities has always had an accompanying subculture reflective of the
political, social and economic conditions of the time. Rap is no
different. The history of our music often exemplifies a deeper
reflection of the goings on in society--from Billie Holiday's solemn
song characterizing those who were lynched as ``Strange Fruit'' to Nina
Simone's musical commentary in ``Mississippi G----D----'' expressing
her disdain for the rampant killings in the South, to Tupac's
expression of sincere compassion for poor black women, whom he urged to
``keep your head up'' despite the fact that society has turned its back
on you.
Hip hop is the culture from which rap emerged. Hip hop is a lifestyle
with its own language, style of dress, music and mind set that is
continuously evolving. We have seen hip hop go from competitive
freestyling to breakdancing battles to East Coast-West Coast rivalry.
Surely, we lost two extremely talented individuals in Tupac and Biggie,
much too soon. We all know their lives did not have to end so
violently. But knowing this, we must ask ourselves, why does the
violence continue to take so many of our youth?
My Children's Issues Forum was an opportunity to talk with each
other, rather than at each other. Panelists and participants came
together to discuss solutions, and to look for a way forward that
embraces the hip hop artists in their quest to fulfill their dreams but
rejects the lethal language that often lends itself to less than
desirable outcomes for our children. More and more, we see some of the
negative messages affecting the way young people make decisions about
engaging in sexual activity, drug use and using violence as a means to
resolve conflict. The self esteem and desire of many young listeners to
achieve greatness are being deflated by stereotypes and explicit lyrics
in some Hip Hop lyrics.

While I uphold America's fundamental right to freedom of speech and
believe that artists have a right to creative expression, a middle
ground needs to be sought in order to allow artists to create music
without demeaning and degrading others. It is difficult to progress as
a community if we never take the time to carefully dissect the
influence of Hip Hop on our children.
During my forum, panelists examined whether Hip Hop language is
culture, creativity

[[Page H11056]]

or crisis, and explored the ``Stop Snitchin'' phenomenon that has had a
negative impact on communities across the nation. This important Issues
Forum was a substantial first step toward reaching a solution. The ALC
is about fostering positive and creative change, and the Children's
Braintrust made great strides toward making our communities safer for
our children.
Mrs. JONES of Ohio. It gives me great pleasure at this time to yield
3 minutes to the Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation,
and my great friend and son in the House of Representatives,
Congressman Kendrick Meek, from the great State of Florida, Miami,
Florida.
Mr. MEEK of Florida. Thank you so much, Madam Chair. And thank you,
Ms. Lee, for saying thank you and showing your appreciation.
I know we have some Members that want to speak, and Madam Chair, I'm
going to have to leave the floor soon, so I just want to mention two or
three things.
One, I want to thank those great Americans that participated in our
conference. And I think that some of the brain trusts that were held,
from what I'm hearing from e-mails and telephone calls, were some of
the best that we've had. That means hats off to those that put on those
brain trusts and issue forums; that means one of the 43 members of the
Congressional Black Caucus, individually they were able to do it.
And we were also able to shed light on ``Unleashing Our Power.'' It
wasn't just a title of members of the Congressional Black Caucus. It
was for those participants, black, white, male and female, that
attended the conference, to leave empowered to go back to their State,
back to their local community, and even in their own home, and unleash
their power as it relates to education, health care, so on and so on.
One thing that I can tell you that was very, very good this year, and
we were able to work very hard, is making a lot of young people feel
welcome with our Emerging Leaders Initiative. Our apprenticeship
program has been a really successful program. We had a lot of people
that participated. We had high school students that participated; we
had college and recent graduates that came to this conference. And I
look forward, Madam Chair, to future years where we can be able to
continue to have a successful weekend. This was obviously a large fund-
raiser for our scholarship program, for our internship program. These
are kids that wouldn't ordinarily have an opportunity to be a part of
anything here in Washington, D.C., to serve as interns in Members'
offices or committees.
So everything happened the way that it should. There are always
things that we can work on to make it better next year. But as it
relates to the substance, Madam Chair, I am so pleased that people
walked away with more knowledge than when they walked in and were
inspired by what they heard. And I took the opportunity to go into Mr.
Payne's Africa brain trust. Very powerful. He had heads of state come
in to address people who needed to know more about the African
countries that are there.
So with that, Madam Chair, thank you. I want to thank you. We co-
sponsored the ALC a couple of years ago together, co-chaired it. I want
to thank you for your leadership, and thank you for hosting this hour.
Mrs. JONES of Ohio. I thank you, Mr. Chair. It is always great
working with you.
At this time, I would like to yield 4 minutes to my colleague and
good friend from the great State of Virginia, Congressman Bobby Scott,
who has been a leader in and around so many issues. It is great to
yield to you.
Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. I would like to thank the lady from Ohio for
convening this Special Order so that we can talk about the great
weekend that we had.
The gentleman from Florida, Kendrick Meek, did a tremendous job as
chairman of the foundation. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick from Michigan did
a great job as chairman of the caucus; Donna Christensen from the
Virgin Islands and G.K. Butterfield of North Carolina leading the
legislative weekend.
We had dozens of important legislative seminars, foreign affairs,
armed services and veterans, transportation, health care, education,
housing, social services, financial issues, civil rights, voting
rights. Every aspect of legislation that you can imagine, we had the
nationally recognized experts. They were open to the public, the public
had an opportunity for questions and answers and input. These were
great workshops. I participated in four of them. The town hall forum
entitled ``The Cradle to Prison Pipeline'' that talked about the
unfortunate situation where so many of our young people start off and
gradually, slowly but surely, get in trouble, drop out of school and
end up in prison, and how with appropriate investments, strategic
investments we can change that pipeline to a cradle-to-college
pipeline, which is so much better for humanity, so much better for our
communities, and that we could do that in a cost effective way.
I participated in a budget forum where we had budget experts talk
about the fact that in 1993 we began eliminating the deficit. By the
year 2000 we had gone into surplus. And, in fact, in 2001, we had a
projected $5.5 trillion surplus over 10 years, and how, unfortunately,
over the last few years we have converted that $5.5 trillion surplus to
a $3 trillion deficit, a swing of $8.5 trillion. And how, with
appropriate changes and some of the changes we're trying to make in
Congress today, we can change that back to where we have the surplus
and save Social Security, invest in health care, education and other
important investments.
We had a great workshop on education with the education brain trust.
We had one session on desegregation of schools and how, notwithstanding
the Seattle and Louisville cases, we can still, with a little hard
work, make sure those schools are desegregated.
We focused on the importance of early childhood education and the
elementary and secondary education and Higher Education Act. We were
able to make sure that we invested appropriately in education to make
sure that we have a better community.
We also had another workshop on the judiciary, juvenile justice and
the importance of making the choice between reducing crime and playing
politics. We need to make sure that we reduce crime. You were very
active in law school admissions, to make sure that law schools'
admissions policy was not discriminatory.
Great workshops, judiciary, education, budget. The other important
workshops. It was a great educational weekend.
Madam Chair, I would like to thank you for your hard work and
leadership and also the ability to bring us together so that we could
discuss the great work that was done over the weekend.
Thank you very much, and I yield back.
Mrs. JONES of Ohio. Thank you to the gentleman from Virginia for his
comments.
It gives me great pleasure at this time to have the opportunity to
yield 3\1/2\ minutes to my colleague and good friend from the great
State of New Jersey, who serves on the International Relations
Committee and is just a leader in the international arena, my colleague
and good friend, Donald Payne.
Mr. PAYNE. Let me thank you again for your great work, Congresswoman
Jones, she does a fantastic job, and for all of the leaders that you
have heard mentioned. And I would like to commend Dr. Elsie Scott for
really bringing the foundation forward. Of course, our chairperson
Meeks and Kilpatrick and G.K. Butterfield and Christensen.
Let me also commend our speaker pro tempore this evening for the
great work that Yvette Clarke, a new Member from Brooklyn, who has come
into this House and has brought vitality and excitement. And we know
that she will do an outstanding job as she moves that district forward.
It's a great pleasure to have you with us.
Let me just say that I dealt with three areas, Bobby Scott, Danny
Davis and our brain trust on education. Then I had the Head Start part.
Then we had two other workshops and brain trusts, one, ``We Don't Do
February.'' And that is about integrating African American history into
the regular curriculum so that when we hear about Patrick Henry and
Nathan Hale, we will hear about Crispus Attucks and Peter Salem. When
we hear about the Rough Riders, we will know about the

[[Page H11057]]

Buffalo Soldiers. So the Amistad Committee of New Jersey is integrating
African history into the regular textbooks.
Then, of course, as you all know, we deal with the Africa brain
trust, the theme, ``The New Africa: Opportunities and Challenges,''
President Wade of Senegal and former President Obasanjo of Nigeria, and
Under Secretary Henrietta Fore, Ambassador Ali, AU Ambassador to the
U.S. And we had Dr. Adasena, who was representing Kofi Annan's new
group on the ``Greening of Africa.'' And Ambassador Lyman, former
Ambassador from the U.S. to South Africa and Nigeria. And Dr. Juma from
Harvard talking about education.
So we really had standing room only. I recall 19 years ago, when I
started the brain trust, we had a difficult time. We used to run in the
halls and just drag people, beg them to come in. Now, unless you're
there before 9 o'clock, you're not going to get a seat. So it shows
that the Congressional Black Caucus, the constituency for Africa has
grown very strong, and the members of the caucus are so supportive of
the efforts we're doing, not only in Africa but in the Caribbean. And
in Latin America, where Afro-Latinos are saying we want our share, too.
We have, in Brazil now, an affirmative action program where in their
colleges, they will have to admit the qualified blacks who've been
ignored, and in Columbia.
So we have seen in the ``hands across the ocean,'' as I often say,
that the blood that connects us is much thicker than the water that
separates us.
So with that, I will yield back the balance of my time.
Mrs. JONES of Ohio. Thank you, Congressman Payne, from the great
State of New Jersey.
I am going to close out this hour and take these last couple minutes.
One of the things that you make a mistake about when you leave a
Special Order is you yield to everybody, and you forget to talk about
your own workshops. So very quickly, I am going to talk about the two
workshops that I did. The first one was ``African American Athletes:
Roles, Representation, and Expectations.'' It was a wonderful
opportunity where I had the opportunity to host Jim Brown, the former
Cleveland Browns player, renowned athlete, to talk about things he has
been doing around outreach and mentoring. I had Keven Davis, a partner
at Garvey, Schubert & Barer, who provided an overview of how African
American athletes are represented in financial transactions. Carlos
Flemming, a VP of IMG, who represents Venus and Serena Williams.
Everett Glenn, the president and CEO of Entertainment & Sports Plus,
who is an agent. Ken Harvey, president and CEO of JAKA Consulting, a
former NFL player and a representative. Jacquelyn Nance, who is the
executive director of the LeBron James Family Foundation. And finally,
William Rhoden, who is the author of ``Forty Million Dollar Slaves,''
and is a sportswriter for the New York Times. And I particularly want
to thank him for taking care of the workshop while I was required to be
here on the floor voting on some other issues. It was a great
opportunity, and we talked about a lot of issues around African
American athletes.
My second forum was focused on the declining enrollment of African
Americans in law schools across the Nation. My panel consisted of
Christopher Johnson of General Motors; Vanita Banks, the president-
elect of the National Bar Association; John Nussbaumer, associate dean
of Thomas Cooley Law School; Dwayne Murray, the Grand Polemarch of
Kappa Alpha Psi; John Brittain, a lawyer from the Lawyers Committee for
Civil Rights; Karen Weaver, associate dean for academic affairs and
diversity; and Pauline Schneider, on behalf of the ABA. She's at Orrick
& Harrington.
And the quick issue around law schools is that African Americans do
have a decline in enrollment and that ABA is responsible for
accreditation.
So with that, Madam Speaker, I want to yield back my time and say
thank you to Speaker Pelosi for giving the CBC this Special Order to
focus on the ALC weekend. It's not a party; it's a legislative
conference with great import for all people across the country.
Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas. Madam Speaker, last week the
Congressional Black Caucus Foundation held its 2007 Annual Legislative
Conference.
Each year, I have convened the Science and Technology Braintrust. The
Braintrust is a discussion forum aimed at bringing together America's
brightest minds to share idea on how to diversify our science and
technology workforce.
I have remained committed to hosting this Braintrust each year,
because I believe that engaging young people in the fields of science
and technology is one of the most important things we can do for the
future success of America.
With India and China producing more than five times the number of
engineers, computer scientists and information technology professions
in 2005 than we did, our nation is losing its competitive edge.
The Sciene Committee ushered through a $33.6 billion package of
Innovation policies that are designed to help early career researchers,
better train math and science teachers, and encourage industry and
universities to partner with local high schools to improve science
instruction.
Having a dialogue with students and with the science education
community is another way to exchange ideas and assess the needs of our
population.
My Braintrust consisted of two panels. The first panel consisted of
high-level individuals who have risen to great heights in technology
and engineering fields. They provided an executive perspective of the
educational experiences that are needed for tomorrow's high-tech
graduate to be globally competitive.
Panel 2 featured bright, innovative minds from individuals who work
with technology in unique ways. The goal was to convince everyone here
that a career in math, science or engineering can be fulfilling,
challenging and fun.
Madam Speaker, more than 150 local, African American high school
students attended my Braintrust, and many of them participated in the
discussion by interacting directly with the panelists.
It is my feeling that a few hearts and minds were changed that day,
in the Science Committee hearing room. If only one student was
influenced toward a career in science, technology, engineering or
mathematics, I will be satisfied. This focus has been a major goal of
my work as an elected official.
In the 1990s, we responded to the digital age with breakthroughs in
computer science and information technology.
Tomorrow's greatest challenge will be to meet the needs of the
Innovation Age. We must compete at a global level.

Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson's Science and Technology
Braintrust--Education and Skills Needed for the Digital to Innovation
Age

Panel One

Education and Skills for Tomorrow's High-Tech Graduate:

The Executive Perspective

Moderator: Sam Ford, Reporter, ABC7/WJLA-TV
Panelists: Dr. Samuel Metters, CEO, Metter Industries, Inc.
Mr. Scott Mills, President, BET Networks. Dr. Cheryl Shavers,
CEO, Global Smarts, Inc. Mr. John Thompson, Sr. VP and
General Manager, BestBuy.com.

Panel Two

Innovators at the Cutting Edge

Moderator: Derek Lloyd, Professor and Senior Network
Systems Engineer, Howard University.
Panelists: Ms. Lyn Stanfield, Strategic Relations Manager,
Apple Inc. Mr. Darrell Davis, Director, DEA South Central
Laboratory. Mr. Rob Garza and Mr. Eric Hilton, Thievery
Corporation band. Dr. Anna McGowan, Manager, NASA Langley.

____________________