CONGRESSIONAL RECORD—HOUSE
H1307
February 12, 2009
as countrymen again. Sure, from theperspective of African Americans andas an African American, I have a lot of misgivings about how national rec-onciliation during that period was han-dled. If the northerners fought the warto save the union, they never had toacknowledge the underlying moralcause of the war—slavery. So it’s notabout freeing African Americans. Andmany northerners fought the war tosave the union, not to free the slaves.Southerners, many of them argue theyweren’t fighting to preserve the insti-tution of slavery, they were protectingtheir way of life down here, that biggovernment doesn’t have a right tocome down here and tell us what to do,a very different principle. And so at theend of the war, the northerners can for-give the southerners because, well,we’ve settled it on a battlefield. Exceptthe central issue for which the war isfought, the issue of slavery from anorthern perspective and the issue of slavery from the southern perspective,the people for whom the war is beingfought over are never brought into thereconciliation: When are we going toget the right to vote? When are wegoing to get housing? When are wegoing to get equality? When are wegoing to help the nation live up to thetrue meaning of its creed? And thatprocess would begin immediately afterthe Civil War during reconstruction—Iwish the House of Representativeswould let me line up the rest of mycharts—through reconstruction andthen through Jim Crow and the strug-gle by the NAACP which the House of Representatives passed legislationcommemorating the 100 years of theirexistence because many of the prom-ises of reconstruction had never cometo fruition for all Americans andwomen were still struggling for equal-ity in our country beyond the war. Butit was Abraham Lincoln who ordainedthe human rights movements thatwould allow us to come to Washington,Mr. Speaker, and begin to argue ourcase that this nation must live up tothe truest and the highest means bywhich it was founded.And so there sits Abraham Lincoln,and just a few steps down from Abra-ham Lincoln would stand Martin Lu-ther King in August of 1963.
b
2045‘‘Today we stand in the shadow of aman who, 100 years ago, set the slavesfree,’’ that 100 years later, Martin Lu-ther King, Jr., would say, 100 yearslater, that is 1963, we would still findourselves trapped in segregation withGovernors using words like ‘‘interposi-tion’’ and ‘‘nullification,’’ that if Con-gress passes a law to extend people’scivil rights or if the Supreme Courtwould render a decision that might ex-pand people’s human rights in 1963, itis hard to imagine that we still hadGovernors using words like ‘‘interposi-tion’’ and ‘‘nullification’’ meaning thattheir State had the right to ignore adecision of Congress or a decision of the Supreme Court of the UnitedStates. Because in 1963, some of ourleadership was showing more adherenceto their State than they were to thatUnion, to that Flag, to that one coun-try for which those men in a battlefieldin Gettysburg had already paid theprice for us not to have to revisitagain. We already paid the price thatwe are going to be one Nation, not mul-tiple nations, not 50 different States,all separate and all unequal.Oh, the problems for PresidentObama are even more complex today.Because our system is still separateand unequal. Yes, we have a Federalsystem. And yes, we have respect forour State system. Some States are insurplus. Some are in deficit spending.Most are in deficit spending. And indeficit spending, it is very difficult toprovide a high quality education forevery single child in every single coun-ty. Even before the economy was in thecondition that it was in, we had prob-lems. And the problems now are onlymore exacerbated by the fact, any ad-herence to dogma that doesn’t allowthe Federal Government and the Statesto work cooperatively to bring relief tothe American people should be seen asproblematic by any side of the aisle.Why are we adhering to old dogmaabout what the States can do andabout what the Federal Governmentisn’t supposed to do? The Americanpeople at this hour are asking of us todo something for them. But the factthat President Barack Obama can evensay that our problems today are smallby comparison to the problems thatMr. Lincoln confronted is a statementabout the magnitude of the problemsthat Abraham Lincoln, our 16th Presi-dent, confronted.And so, Mr. Speaker, even as wecome to the floor and I stand here asthe 91st African American to ever havethe privilege of serving in a Congresswhere more than 12,000 people haveserved, and I’m just the 91st, I owe myservice in the Congress to the unsungheroes, to the men and women, thesheroes and the heroes, who fought toadvance the idea that all men are cre-ated equal, to Medgar Evers andSchwerner, Goodman and Chaney, twoJews and a black, to Viola Liuzzo, tothose martyrs, to those champions of equality and equal rights. But all of usowe a tremendous debt of gratitude tothe 16th President who allowed ourgeneration and those succeeding gen-erations to fight for what is right, tohave the right to agree to agree andagree to disagree in the context of ourmagnificent Republic. And so, Mr.President, Mr. Speaker, on the 200thanniversary of the greatest Americanwho ever lived, and on behalf of theAmerican people, we say thank you.And we say happy birthday.I yield back the balance of my time.
f
RECESSThe SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursu-ant to clause 12(a) of rule I, the Chairdeclares the House in recess subject tothe call of the Chair.Accordingly (at 8 o’clock and 49 min-utes p.m.), the House stood in recesssubject to the call of the Chair.
f
b
2225AFTER RECESSThe recess having expired, the Housewas called to order by the Speaker protempore (Mr. P
ERLMUTTER
) at 10o’clock and 25 minutes p.m.
f
CONFERENCE REPORT ON H.R. 1,AMERICAN RECOVERY AND REIN-VESTMENT ACT OF 2009Mr. OBEY submitted the followingconference report and statement on thebill (H.R. 1) making supplemental ap-propriations for job preservation andcreation, infrastructure investment,energy efficiency and science, assist-ance to the unemployed, and State andlocal fiscal stabilization, for the fiscalyear ending September 30, 2009, and forother purposes:
C
ONFERENCE
R
EPORT
(H. R
EPT
. 111–16)The committee of conference on the dis-agreeing votes of the two Houses on theamendment of the Senate to the bill (H.R. 1)‘‘making supplemental appropriations forjob preservation and creation, infrastructureinvestment, energy efficiency and science,assistance to the unemployed, and State andlocal fiscal stabilization, for the fiscal yearending September 30, 2009, and for other pur-poses’’, having met, after full and free con-ference, have agreed to recommend and dorecommend to their respective Houses as fol-lows:That the House recede from its disagree-ment to the amendment of the Senate, andagree to the same with an amendment, asfollows:In lieu of the matter stricken and insertedby said amendment, insert:
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘AmericanRecovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009’’.
SEC. 2. TABLE OF CONTENTS.
The table of contents for this Act is as fol-lows:
DIVISION A—APPROPRIATIONS PROVISIONS TITLE I—AGRICULTURE, RURAL DEVELOP-MENT, FOOD AND DRUG AD-MINISTRATION, AND RE-LATED AGENCIES TITLE II—COMMERCE, JUSTICE, SCIENCE,AND RELATED AGENCIES TITLE III—DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE TITLE IV—ENERGY AND WATER DEVELOP-MENT TITLE V—FINANCIAL SERVICES AND GEN-ERAL GOVERNMENT TITLE VI—DEPARTMENT OF HOMELANDSECURITY TITLE VII—INTERIOR, ENVIRONMENT, ANDRELATED AGENCIES TITLE VIII—DEPARTMENTS OF LABOR,HEALTH AND HUMAN SERV-ICES, AND EDUCATION, ANDRELATED AGENCIES TITLE IX—LEGISLATIVE BRANCH TITLE X—MILITARY CONSTRUCTION ANDVETERANS AFFAIRS AND RE-LATED AGENCIES TITLE XI—STATE, FOREIGN OPERATIONS,AND RELATED PROGRAMS
VerDate Nov 24 2008 06:27 Feb 13, 2009Jkt 079060PO 00000Frm 00057Fmt 7634Sfmt 6343E:\CR\FM\K12FE7.099H12FEPT1
r f r e d e r i c k o n P R O D 1 P C 6 7 w i t h H O U S E
GovernorsLibrary.org
Leave a Comment