Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I rise to join my colleague, Congressman Joaquin Castro, to urge the majority to finally allow the House to strike a destructive political provision that has made its way into the Legislative Branch Appropriations bill. If those listening are wondering why we are talking about the pejorative term ``illegal aliens'' on the bill that funds the legislative branch, then you are not alone. This legislation's accompanying report includes language that would have the Library continue to use the term ``illegal aliens,'' ``to the extent practicable''--even though the Library itself has said that there is no practicable means to continue to use the term ``illegal aliens.'' The Library changes thousands of subject headings each year without interference from Congress. Why this one? Why now? The Library once used the subject heading ``Negro,'' then moved to ``Afro-American,'' and now ``African American.'' They didn't wait until the entire U.S. Code was free of the pejorative term ``Negro'' before they changed their subject heading. As a matter of fact, Congress only recently removed the last vestiges of the terms ``Negro'' and ``Oriental'' from the U.S. Code in May of 2016. That bill passed with a unanimous vote, including the ``yes'' vote of the chairman of the Legislative Branch Subcommittee. If we removed ``Negro'' and ``Oriental'' in the subject headings of the Library of Congress before we changed the U.S.…”