Congressional Black Caucus' Hour of Power

Floor Speech

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Mr. JEFFRIES. Mr. Speaker, I stand before you today, along with the distinguished gentleman from the Silver State, my good friend, Representative Horsford, proudly coanchoring the CBC Special Order, what we have termed throughout the year as our ``hour of power.'' With these 60 minutes, we have an opportunity to speak directly to the American people about issues of great significance that affect the folks back home in our congressional districts and that, in many instances, impact the entire Nation.

Today, we have gathered here to look back at the issues that members of the CBC have tackled individually and collectively throughout the year on behalf of the American people, but we look back in order to look forward as we anticipate the challenges that we confront in the next year on a whole variety of issues. Throughout the year, we have come to the floor every Monday that we have been in session in order to address a great many issues of significance to the American people.

We came to the floor in early February to deal with comprehensive immigration reform. Then we addressed the need to preserve section 5 of the Voting Rights Act during the week in which the Supreme Court was holding oral argument. We confronted the challenges in and around sequestration. We presented the CBC's people's budget, which sets forth a more progressive way forward in order to deal with the economic challenges that we confront in this country. We addressed health care disparities, the student loan crisis, poverty and income inequality in America, entrepreneurship. We had the opportunity to reflect and to celebrate the life and the legacy of a former distinguished Member of this august body, Representative Bill Gray, from the great State of Pennsylvania. We reviewed economic security through the labor movement. We stood up, of course, for the Affordable Care Act. We addressed the debt ceiling and

the need not to hold the American economy hostage. We confronted hunger in America and the absolute moral imperative to stop the more than $39 billion in cuts that our friends on the other side of the aisle would like to make to the SNAP program.

These are the issues that, throughout this year, we have taken to the floor of the House of Representatives to talk directly to the American people about the issues that we are working on on their behalf.

Today, I am pleased that so many distinguished members of the CBC have come to join us, including the distinguished chairperson, who has led us admirably and with great courage and intelligence and clarity throughout the entire year. I am now pleased to be able to yield to the distinguished gentlelady from Ohio, the chairperson of the Congressional Black Caucus, Representative Marcia Fudge.

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Mr. JEFFRIES. I thank the distinguished chairperson of the CBC for her thoughtful and eloquent remarks and, certainly, for making the point that we as members of the CBC have come to Washington to try and make a difference on behalf of the people whom we represent back home and throughout the entire Nation. We have come to work together to try and find common ground, to promote solutions for the American people in the face of the difficult challenges that we have confronted. We didn't come to deal with a government shutdown that cost $24 billion in lost economic productivity or to deal with this constant obsession with the Affordable Care Act and the consistent effort to delay, defund, or destroy the opportunity to give tens of millions of otherwise uninsured Americans access to health care.

Hopefully, as the first session of the 113th Congress winds to a close and as we move toward the opportunity to get some things done next year, we can find our way toward a more productive second half of the 113th Congress.

I am pleased that we have been joined by the distinguished architect of the Congressional Black Caucus' budget as well as by a member of the Judiciary Committee, who has worked hard on issues of social and economic justice. He is here today to share with the American people the work that the CBC has done in putting forth a more progressive, inclusionary budget that works for working families, middle class Americans, and seniors.

I yield now to Representative Bobby Scott from Virginia.

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Mr. JEFFRIES. I want to thank the distinguished gentleman from Virginia for his very thoughtful exposition and explanation about the CBC budget and the fact that there really are two different visions that have been set forth when comparing the CBC budget and the Republican budget.

The CBC budget, of course, is designed to promote progress for the many. The budget presented by the House majority is designed to promote, in our view, prosperity for the few. The CBC budget creates a balanced approach to deficit reduction that invests in the economy, protects important social safety net programs like Social Security and Medicare. The House GOP budget balances itself on the backs of working families, the poor, the most vulnerable Americans in our society. That, I believe, is the wrong approach to take as it relates to the well-being of the American people.

I thank the distinguished gentleman for his thoughts and his work on that progressive document that the CBC has put forth.

It is now my honor to yield to our distinguished co-anchor for the CBC Special Order, who has been with us throughout the year anchoring, articulating, putting forth the CBC vision on a vast array of issues important to our districts and to the American people.

Today, I believe he is going to speak to us about the work that he has led in partnership with other members of the CBC and folks on our side of the aisle for fair, racially inclusive, and equitable America.

Let me yield to my good friend, Representative Steven Horsford.

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Mr. JEFFRIES. I thank the distinguished gentleman from the Silver
State for his observations and for his look forward as it relates to the issues that we all hope this Congress will decide to tackle as we close out the first half of the 113th Congress and move toward calendar year 2014.

This has been a year of lost opportunities, of obstruction, of delay, of distraction, and a failure to meaningfully address the issues of importance to the American people. This has been a very schizophrenic economic recovery. We have come a long way since the collapse of the economy in 2008, but we still have a long way to go.

As members of the CBC have consistently pointed out from the floor of the House of Representatives, there are people who have been left behind, and the American people deserve this Congress putting aside issues of partisan bickering and to attempt to find common ground to solve their problems.

The stock market is way up. Corporate profits are way up. Productivity of the American people, way up. CEO compensation is way up, yet unemployment still remains stubbornly high. There are Americans who have been left behind, and we have failed to take up a jobs bill from the floor of the House of Representatives at any point this year.

As my colleague from Nevada also pointed out, we have a very broken immigration system. There is almost uniform agreement across the aisle about that fact. Yet there has been a failure to bring a meaningful piece of immigration reform legislation to the floor of the House of Representatives, despite the overwhelming demand for action by the American people.

Now, we all agree, as the CBC indicated earlier this year in February when we took to the floor to talk about the need to address the issue of the broken immigration system, that something needs to be done. And there really only are three possible options:

One, we have mass deportation of the 11 million undocumented individuals who are in this country. That is option number one;

Option number two is the status quo; just leave the broken immigration system in place;

Option number three is meaningful, comprehensive immigration reform with a tough but fair pathway towards citizenship.

Mass deportation is impractical; the status quo, unacceptable. Comprehensive immigration reform is the right thing to do for this country, for the economy, and for the American people.

I am hopeful, as my colleague from Nevada indicated, that that is the direction that we will go in as we speed to a close this year and attempt to restart the Congress after the end of the first half of this session.

I am pleased that we have been joined by the distinguished gentlelady from Texas who is a member of both the House Judiciary Committee and the Homeland Security Committee. She has worked on many issues. She is a leader within the Congressional Black Caucus and is a leader within the Congress on the issues of social and economic justice. It is now my honor and privilege to yield to her, Representative Sheila Jackson Lee.

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Mr. JEFFRIES. I thank the distinguished gentlewoman from Texas for her leadership on a wide variety of issues important to the social and economic justice landscape, and, of course, for laying out a very significant roadmap, a blueprint for the future in terms of what this Congress should confront as we close out this first session of the 113th Congress and move toward the second session.

We are pleased that we have also been joined by my neighbor back home in Brooklyn, the distinguished gentlewoman from the Ninth Congressional District, a woman who is one of the CBC cochairs on the task force related to comprehensive immigration reform. She has been a leader on that issue, as she has on many others. She is a member of the Small Business Committee, as well as the Homeland Security Committee. She represents one of the most diverse districts anywhere in this Nation and has made us all proud to call her a colleague. I yield now to Congresswoman Yvette Clarke.

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Mr. JEFFRIES. One of the things that the CBC has attempted to work on, as my distinguished colleague from New York has indicated, is to deal with comprehensive immigration reform in a manner that fixes a broken system for all involved, and we certainly are thankful for the distinguished gentlewoman's work as a member and leader of the CBC task force on immigration reform.

We both proudly represent districts that are incredibly diverse. Back at home in the Eighth Congressional District in Brooklyn and parts of Queens, I represent African Americans, Caribbean Americans, South Asians, Russian-speaking Eastern European Jewish immigrants, Latinos, Chinese Americans, the gorgeous mosaic of the American people. What I found--and this has been the history and the experience, in fact, in New York City--is that immigrants are hardworking, entrepreneurial, spiritual, family-oriented, community-centered individuals. America would be strengthened, of course, by fixing our broken immigration system.

Let me now yield back to my distinguished colleague from New York.

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Mr. JEFFRIES. I thank the distinguished gentlelady from New York for her leadership on this issue, for the progress that has already been made, and her continued commitment.

The CBC, as I close, Mr. Speaker, will continue to take its role seriously as the conscience of the Congress, a voice for the voiceless, and the guardian of the integrity of the democratic process.

And I am just hopeful, as we move forward, that our friends on the other side of the aisle will end the obfuscation, end the obstruction, end the obsession with the Affordable Care Act, and we can find common ground to advance an agenda for the benefit of the American people.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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