Congressional Black Caucus: Wealth Creation and the Opportunity Gap

Floor Speech

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3, 2013, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Jeffries) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.

GENERAL LEAVE

Mr. JEFFRIES. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks.

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from New York?

There was no objection.

Mr. JEFFRIES. Mr. Speaker, it is an honor and a privilege to once again have this opportunity to stand on the House floor as part of the Congressional Black Caucus' Special Order hour.

For the next 60 minutes we will have an opportunity to speak directly to the American people about an issue of great significance: the growing wealth gap in America that is stratified along racial lines. It is a wealth gap that should concern all of us here in the House of Representatives, and certainly people who are concerned about the well-being of this country in its entirety should be alarmed by any segment of this country being left behind across any measure of economic status.

We will get into that throughout the duration of this CBC Special Order. Certainly, I am glad to be joined by the distinguished gentleman from Nevada, my good friend, the coanchor of this CBC Special Order, Representative Horsford.

I will just begin by making the observation that it has often been stated that when Wall Street catches a cold, communities of color get the flu.

We know that in 2008, when the economy collapsed and plunged us into the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, Wall Street had a high fever; and as a result, as one might expect, communities of color all across the country have been suffering from economic pneumonia. In fact, a study that was prepared by the Center for Global Policy Solutions illustrates the point that communities of color were hurt the worst by the Great Recession and have benefited the least as a result of our recovery.

And so the wealth gap, broadly defined across measures such as home ownership and access to good-paying jobs, retirement savings, has gotten worse, exacerbated by the shock of the Great Recession and the disproportionate lack of certain communities benefiting from the recovery that has taken place. So these are some of the topics that we are going to explore during this Special Order.

I am pleased that we have been joined by a very distinguished member of the freshman class, my good friend, the gentleman from New Jersey, one of the best-dressed Members of the House of Representatives. I am surprised today that I do not see him with his classic bow tie. He is the ranking member of the CBC freshman class, but I believe he arrived here a little bit earlier.

I am pleased to yield to my good friend, Representative Payne.

Mr. PAYNE. I would like to thank the gentleman from New York for that kind introduction.

I want to also say that we are here tonight on a very serious issue in tonight's Special Order. As so aptly put by the gentleman from New York, it feels like pneumonia in a lot of communities that we represent. I would dare to say that we might even need to call it an epidemic, because it has risen to epidemic proportions.

Mr. Speaker, this Nation is supposed to be the land of opportunity, the land of equality. We are a Nation that says that if you work hard and you do the things you are supposed to do and you do everything that we ask you to do, you too can be successful and provide a better life for you and yours. That is the promise of America.

Unfortunately, for too many in this country, this promise has been broken.

Generation after generation, millions continue to experience generational poverty in this country--and this is especially true for people of color.

Too many of the people in the district I represent in New Jersey have worked their entire lives. They have endured hard labor. They have worked two or three jobs. They have made minimum wage their entire lives. Yet they are still in poverty. The same is true for their parents before them and their grandparents and their great-grandparents.

Unfortunately, for too many people of color, the opportunities to succeed and move beyond circumstances of poverty are too little and far between. This leads to the wealth gap we see today. That wealth gap, Mr. Speaker, is unconscionable.

In the 21st century, African Americans own just 5 cents for every dollar of wealth Whites own. More than 62 percent of African American households do not have assets in a retirement account. The median income of an African American is just over $33,000, barely above the poverty line. And African Americans are less likely to own homes, with just 44 percent of African Americans owning homes compared to 74 percent of Whites.

In New Jersey alone, the poverty rate has grown to a staggering 28 percent. Many economists believe that this is an underestimate of the number of people falling into poverty in New Jersey.

How can those who are clawing just to get by even begin to think about creating wealth for their children or future generations? How can a single mother who works 40 or more hours a week still find herself in poverty? How does she begin to dream about saving for her children's college education or to save for a home or to plan for her retirement? The simple answer is they can't. And the racial wealth gap will continue to grow even wider.

Mr. Speaker, there is so much Congress can do to change the course of this country and to help those who are working hard and playing by the rules.

The priorities we place within our national budget determine whether we strengthen our economy and grow our middle class or whether we create a greater wealth gap between the haves and the have-nots.

This Nation has a clear choice, Mr. Speaker. The Ryan Republican budget cuts hundreds of millions of dollars in vital education investments, ends the Medicare guarantee for seniors, and it will cost this country more than 1 million jobs next year alone. And if that is not bad enough, the Ryan Republican budget asks working and middle-class Americans to pay for the thousands of dollars in tax breaks given to the wealthiest among us. That is why, in good conscience, I cannot support such a budget.

At a time when too many people are still desperately struggling to make ends meet, I know that the people in my home State of New Jersey deserve better. I believe that all Americans should demand better as well.

In contrast, the budgets that the Democrats and the Congressional Black Caucus have proposed recognize the dangerous course this country is on and work to move us forward rather than divide us deeper.

The Democratic budget builds ladders of opportunities to grow our middle class by investing in education, strengthening Social Security and Medicare, and protecting the 8 million people who, for the first time, now have access to affordable, lifesaving healthcare.

The proposals within the Democratic budget would restore the American promise that if you work hard, you can succeed. And not only can you succeed for yourself, but you can generate wealth and create a better life for your children and your grandchildren.

That is the choice that each Member in this Congress has to make, and it is a choice every American has to make. This choice will determine the direction of this country, not only for this generation, but for generations to come.

Mr. Speaker, it is not a zero-sum game. We all can be winners with the right kind of focus and investment; and in doing so, we will strengthen this country for future generations.

As I stated and made clear, we are talking about people that have played by the rules and have worked hard, working 40 hours-plus, and yet still find themselves on the margins. We are not even talking about the hundreds of thousands of citizens that I represent that we don't even want to help with programs such as SNAP anymore.

I am not even talking about the needy in this country, Mr. Speaker. I am talking about the people that play by the rules and that are doing everything that they have been asked to do in this great Nation and still find themselves on the margin.

So we will continue to raise these issues. We will continue to talk to the American people and get them to understand that we cannot continue down the path that we are headed. It is bleak. It is grim. It is a total U-turn in where this country has gone.

I can only think of the statements that have been made by several individuals in this country that are distasteful and disgusting over the past several weeks. We need to keep the American Dream alive for everyone.

Mr. JEFFRIES. I thank my good friend and the distinguished gentleman from New Jersey for his very thoughtful and eloquent remarks and observations, and for pointing out that, while we can have disagreements, of course, here in this Chamber on matters of policy, we should all share the same objective as it relates to making sure that every American has got a robust, full, complete access to the opportunity to robustly pursue the American Dream.

As this report and the Color of Wealth Summit will illustrate later on this week, that is not necessarily the case right now in America, where you have such a disparate reality between the wealth in certain communities where the dividing line is race.

It is a wonderful thing that this great country is becoming increasingly diverse. I think our diversity is one of our great strengths.

But the reality of the situation is that if certain communities, the African American community, the Latino community, other communities of color, find themselves left behind, locked out, unable to advance economically in the numbers that they should because of barriers, institutional and historical, that have existed or been erected that we have yet to tear down, that is something that should alarm all of us because it relates to the ability of America to fulfill its promise as we move forward.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased that we have been joined by a very distinguished Member of the Congress, someone who has been a champion on issues of fairness and equality and justice for all Americans, and certainly for the district that he represents in Baltimore and in Maryland.

Let me now yield to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Cummings).

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Mr. JEFFRIES. I thank the distinguished gentleman from Maryland for his very thoughtful remarks and observations, and for pointing out that if we can find a way to make sure that, collectively, the African American community is uplifted, the Latino community is uplifted, that we can close the racial wealth gap that exists in America across these different measurements, whether that is home ownership or access to good-paying jobs or retirement security, savings accounts, whatever the case may be, that if we can close this gap that exists, that America, overall, benefits, particularly as we become a more diverse country.

Now, 50 years ago our President, Lyndon Baines Johnson, came to this very floor and, before a joint session of Congress, declared a war on poverty. As a result of this legislative effort, there were several things that were put into place that have benefited Americans over time. Medicare, Medicaid, Head Start, the school breakfast program, the Food Stamp Act, Job Corps, minimum wage enhancement, college work study--all of these programs were part of the effort to create a great society.

Over the last 50 years, as a result of the war on poverty, significant progress has been made. Tens of millions of Americans have been lifted out of an impoverished condition and set on a pathway toward the middle class. But we know that there is still a long way to go.

In fact, the middle class, broadly defined, has taken a huge hit in the aftermath of the collapse of the economy, and that hit has disproportionately and adversely impacted communities of color, and the African community in particular.

We are here to illuminate the fact that, in our humble opinion, that is bad for America as a whole.

I am pleased that my good friend, and the coanchor of this CBC Special Order, has joined us today, the distinguished gentleman from the Silver State, who has worked incredibly hard on behalf of the district that he represents.

Let me now yield to the gentleman from Nevada (Mr. Horsford).

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Mr. JEFFRIES. I thank my good friend for that very comprehensive presentation and, in particular, for focusing in on the importance and the significance of investing in education in order to create a bright future for everybody.

Certainly, we cannot continue to allow so many people across this country to find themselves trapped in a dysfunctional public school system that essentially dooms them to life sentences of disadvantage and despair and fails to adequately prepare them for the challenges of a 21st century economy.

Now, we are here today talking about the racial wealth gap in America; and invariably, there will be some commentator who is going to make the observation: There they go again, members of the Congressional Black Caucus taking to the House floor, speaking about race.

Actually, it is not that frequent an occurrence, but we are compelled to do so today; and then, as my good friend made the observation: Who should we allow to talk about race in America? Should we just leave it to Paula Deen to talk about race in America? Does that reflect positively on this great country?

Should we just allow Cliven Bundy to talk about race in America? Does that paint our country in the best possible light? Or should we just leave it to Donald Sterling to talk about race in America? Does that reflect the views of the great many good-hearted people across this country? Of course we shouldn't. And so we are here today to illuminate a problem that we think America should deal with for the good of the country--not just the African American community, because there is a significant gap in terms of wealth generation, creation, and maintenance that threatens the economic security of this country.

Let me just briefly highlight a few points along this spectrum, one, in terms of the unemployment rate is a significant difference. The White unemployment rate is 5.8 percent in this country, as this chart illustrates. The Latino unemployment rate is 7.9 percent, and the African American unemployment rate is 12.4 percent.

In terms of annual median income, you see the same type of disparity. The average median income for White Americans is $57,009. The average median income for African Americans is $33,321. And in terms of overall wealth, for White families, $113,149, but for African American families in this great country, the average collective wealth is $5,677. That means for every $100 in a White household, a similarly situated African American household only has $5. That is a problem for America that we should all feel compelled to confront, and that is why the Congressional Black Caucus wants to invest in education and job training, invest in transportation and infrastructure, invest in research and development, invest in technology and innovation, and invest in preserving the social safety net so that you can lift up communities left behind by the recession, but also collectively lift up America for the good of everyone.

It is now my honor and my privilege to yield to the very distinguished gentleman from New York, a prominent member of the Ways and Means Committee, someone who has given so much of his life to public service and made such a difference for so many people in Harlem, in New York City, in the country, and, in fact, across the globe, the Lion of Lenox Avenue. I am proud to now yield to Congressman Charlie Rangel.

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Mr. JEFFRIES. I thank the distinguished gentleman from New York for his incredibly eloquent, thoughtful, and insightful presentation and analysis.

We have now been joined by a senior member of the Judiciary Committee and the Homeland Security Committee, a voice for the voiceless, someone who has fought to promote justice and equality across a wide spectrum of issues but certainly in the economic arena in such a compelling way during her career in the House and throughout her entire career in public service. Let me now yield to the distinguished gentlelady from Texas, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee.

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