Patricia Schroeder: “the State Department is indeed under new management. I mean, how often does a Member take the floor and thank the State…”

“the State Department is indeed under new management. I mean, how often does a Member take the floor and thank the State Department. But for the first time in the history of this country, the State Department came out with its new human rights survey, and women have been declared human. That is incredible, that we had to wait until 1994 to finally have that happen. But thank them, because for the first time in our human rights survey, we look at the countries who have denied women their rights, who have abused women, repressed women, and done all sorts of things from allowing the selling of young women into slavery, bridge burnings, genital mutilation of women, and denying them basic property and family rights. Now we must follow through. We, as American women who pay taxes equally, are really horrified at the long record of neglect on this issue. We salute how they have closed it this year, and now let us follow through and put pressure on those countries to also recognize women as human.”