The Events In Baltimore

Floor Speech

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Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, I want to join my friend and chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, G.K. BUTTERFIELD, in offering condolences to the parents and family members of Freddie Gray.

I also want to say to Ms. Toya Graham that I feel and can appreciate her anguish and the pain that she showed the world a few days ago.

I want to say to her son, Michael that I have also felt his pain and anguish, having been on the receiving end of such discipline from my mother. But I want to say to him that he can rest assured that the love of his mother, her passion for his future, will pay great dividends if he continues to show the deference to her love and affection and her concern that he showed several days ago when he was the object of her frustrations.

Mr. Speaker, responding to the situation in Baltimore several days ago, President Obama said: ``We can't just leave this to the police. I think there are Police Departments that have to do some soul-searching. I think there are some communities that have to do some soul-searching.''

But, he went on to say: ``I think we, as a country, have to do some soul-searching.'' I want to join President Obama in calling for the country to do some soul-searching.

Let's take a look at just a few of the institutions of learning in the Baltimore Community.

I would like to call attention to one school, Frederick Douglass High School, a school that lists among its graduates the likes of Cab Calloway, Thurgood Marshall, and as I understand it the school the father of the current mayor of Baltimore also attended.

I understand there are 789 students at Frederick Douglass High School today. Eighty-three percent of them are listed in U.S News & World Report's index as economically disadvantaged, and only 53 percent of them are listed as proficient in English, only 44 percent proficient in algebra.

I understand that Carver Vocational Technical High is 100 percent minority, with 79 percent of the students economically disadvantaged. Coppin Academy, 100 percent minority, with 77 percent economically disadvantaged.

Now, as we listen to all of the pundits, editorial writers reflect on what is taking place or has taken place in Baltimore, I would like to call attention to the lack of soul-searching that is taking place here in this body as we represent the people of America. We have just seen the conference report, or the budget, being proposed by the House Republicans. That conference agreement guts strategic investments in education, workforce training, public health, scientific research, advanced manufacturing, and public safety. It does nothing to help those Americans who are looking for jobs. It does nothing to boost paychecks of working Americans. It disinvests in America.

The Republicans' budget disinvests in America by slashing the nation's commitments to education, research, infrastructure, and other crucial drivers of economic prosperity. It pulls away from the ladders of opportunity that helps hard-working Americans get ahead.

In Education, the Republican Budget kicks 46,000 children out of Head Start, cuts $1.2 billion in Title I education funding (enough for 17,000 teachers and aides serving 1.9 million students); cuts $347 million in funding through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, (enough for 6,000 special education teachers, paraprofessionals, and related staff);

The Republican Budget also decimates job creation. It eliminates job training & employment services for more than 2.4 million workers; and eliminates the Manufacturing Extension Partnerships, which serve 30,000 small manufacturers that contribute to the creation of middle-class jobs and economic growth;

In the area of Housing, the Republican budget takes Housing Choice Vouchers away from 133,000 families and eliminates affordable housing assistance for another 20,000 families in rural America;

The Republican budget shreds the social safety net. It cuts $300 billion from Agriculture Committee programs. The House budget cut roughly $200 billion. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is the largest spending program in this committee's jurisdiction and appears to be the primary target of this cut (despite the fact that 80% of SNAP beneficiaries are children, elderly, disabled, someone caring for a child or disabled person, or are working);

My Republican friends underfund veterans' programs. They are proposing $20 billion below the President's request over the next ten years.

They also increase taxes on hardworking families while giving massive tax cuts to the ultra-wealthy. They increase taxes on a typical working family by $2,000, while giving millionaires an average tax cut of more than $200,000; and let the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), and the Child Tax Credit expire.

Their budget puts college out of reach for millions of students. It freezes the maximum Pell grant and eliminates $89 billion in congressionally approved Pell grant increases; and cuts total overall support for higher education by more than $220 billion in the next decade.

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