Elijah Lewis

the outside counsel, James Cole, has prepared an extensive 100-page report on the Speaker's ethical violation. The American people deserve the right to know what is in that report.

the American public has paid $500,000 for this report and deserves the right to know what is in it. This weekend the Speaker himself said: ``I am totally in favor of releasing the report. The Speaker of the House is second in line to be…

I can clearly understand that the gentlemen from Pennsylvania and Georgia desire to silence us on this issue, but this issue will not go away. Mr. Speaker, if I might continue. The outside counsel, James Cole, has submitted an extensive…

if the committee refuses to release the report, the American people can only assume a coverup of massive proportions. Release this report. Release it now, Mr. Speaker.

this morning the Associated Press reported that the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Bill Archer, has sent an intimidating letter to the Internal Revenue Service concerning an investigation the IRS has launched into a…

Yesterday I attended the reopening of the Olympic Centennial Park in Atlanta. Tens of thousands of people, from all over the country and the world, turned out for a memorial service in honor of those killed and injured in the bomb blast…

I think as politicians, as elected officials, we should not only follow but we must lead, lead our districts, not put our fingers into the wind to see which way the air is blowing but be leaders. Mr. Chairman, this is a mean bill. It is…

if a Member of this House was involved in a $6 million tax fraud scheme and the Ethics Committee knew and did nothing, what would that be? If a Member of this House set up and used tax exempt organizations for partisan political purposes…

I rise to pay tribute and honor to the memory of a good man, a special man, Congressman Bill Emerson. Bill was a good Congressman, a good friend and more than anything else a good human being. He was a man who truly cared about his fellow…

The church has long been the heartbeat, the very soul of the black community. In the 1960's, those who opposed the civil rights movement recognized that strength. Our churches were burned, looted and burned. Our holy places were no longer…

I read with disbelief an article in the Washington Post this morning. It reported that the Speaker of this House has made baseless, unsubstantiated allegations about our late Secretary of Commerce, Ron Brown. Ron Brown died in service to…

this debate today was supposed to be about raising the minimum wage--about raising the minimum wage-- about giving hardworking people at the bottom of the economic ladder a little bit more in their paycheck each week. But it is not. The…

how can these mean-spirited Republicans, too cheap to pay a worker $5.15 an hour, claim they care about American workers? This is not a Third World country. We do not tolerate sweatshops in America. We do not have slave labor, starvation…

Newt Gingrich and Bob Dole oppose an increase in the minimum wage. The Republican leader has said he will fight the minimum wage with every fiber in his being and the Republican whip has said in regard to families living on the minimum…

I rise against this election-year gimmick; 4.3 cents has nothing to do with the price of gasoline and everything to do with trying to buy an election, but the American people will not be fooled. Not one voter, but not one voter from the…

Mr. Chairman, could the gentlewoman from Washington tell us what she means about the liberals, the so-called liberals having a distorted sense of compassion? Maybe being from Georgia, I do not quite really understand what ``distortion''…

this morning the Democrats in the House will once again attempt to bring a minimum wage bill to the floor for a vote. I urge my colleagues, Democrats and Republicans, to support bringing this bill to the floor. Raising the minimum wage is…

I believe that designating the route from Selma to Montgomery as a National Historic Trail is very fitting and appropriate. The march from Selma to Montgomery was a turning point in the journey to the Voting Rights Act of 1965. It was a…

Mother's Day is almost here, and I have some bad news for my mother and many others. The Republicans have a new budget, and they still cut Medicare. They still want Medicare to wither on the vine. There they go again, Mr. Speaker. In the…

the time is always right to do right. And raising the minimum wage is the right thing to do. This is not just an economic issue, Mr. Speaker, this is a moral issue. Hard working people deserve the right to earn a livable wage. The minimum…

the Speaker of the House has reportedly said that the House can ``no longer duck'' a vote on the minimum wage. It's about time, Mr. Speaker. Why have you been ducking for so long. The minimum wage is at a near 40-year low in real terms…

Saturday is Earth Day, a day to celebrate our environment--our Earth--our home. We must protect it; we have no other place to go. We have a responsibility to make our world a little greener and a little cleaner--to make it safer for our…

this amendment is the essence of nonsense. Just look at it--read it. But we are not here because this is a well-written, well-reasoned amendment. this amendment isn't even a good idea. We are here because it is April 15, tax day--it is…

there is a Member of this Congress, a Republican, who has told one of his colleagues that he ``trusts Hamas more than he trusts our own Government.'' That is an outrageous and morally repugnant statement, Mr. Speaker. Hamas is a terrorist…

I am appalled. We knew that the extreme Republicans made promises to their special interest friends. We knew that the NRA has too much influence over this Republican Congress. But I could not believe that it was this bad. I could not…