John Conyers

I think it gives us a direction for where we really must go in the next Congress. This is a good start, but it is only that. I hope that the gentlewoman will join in the dialogue that I have just begun today with members of the committee…

I have been discussing with the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lofgren) about how, in the next term, if we are fortunate enough to come back to Congress elected by our constituents, that we really begin to work on a larger plan that…

This comprehensive law sends a clear message across the Nation: violence against women is a crime, and punishment for this crime will be enforced. While the Violence Against Women Act has had a positive impact on communities across the…

This measure continues the great struggle for equal justice of all Americans that started in the 1930s with the anti-lynch laws. It has been refined, it has been expanded, it has had a constitutional basis that has been very deeply rooted…

Mr. Speaker, this is a Republican theme tonight, how dare we bring up this bill that they bring up. The gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Hutchinson) has said that the bill has not been through committee, no hearings. The author of the bill was…

I want to ask the gentlewoman, the author of the amendment, would she find that hearings and markups in the regular process would be helpful in developing an understanding around her motive and purpose for introducing this bill?

I do not believe that human life should be taken, whether it is human life within the womb or whether it is human life after the womb, and so I oppose the principle and practice of abortion on demand. I also strongly oppose the death…

I fully respect the gentlewoman from Florida who has introduced this measure. I point out to her that normally, there is some Federal jurisdictional requirement that is cited in a bill of this kind that applies to a State, and that there…

Mr. Chairman, all I am suggesting, we are in agreement we want to move Haiti forward, but we should not be acting punitively before the election results are resolved. That is all I am saying is let us wait.

It is so instructive that the previous speaker is from California and is talking about preventing negotiations over the quality of health care. In California, pediatricians receive as little as $10 per month for each patient, while the…

My colleagues, this bill is so incredibly important that enough Members are cosponsors that could normally pass the bill, 220 Members. We have a rule that is laden with poison pills. Solution: defeat the previous question and vote ``no.''…

I cannot understand why it has only 5 minutes on each side. But we are trying to make an improvement on the registry by which the government recognizes that it makes sense to allow a long-time resident, deeply rooted immigrant who is here…

I am the author of the Hate Crimes Prevention Act. We have 191 cosponsors. Today is the day that marks the senseless death, lynching of James Byrd, Jr. in Jasper, Texas, when he was dragged for miles over a country road, chained by the…

My motion would extend the present moratorium on Internet access taxes and multiple discriminatory taxes for 2 years, from 2001 to 2003, but would eliminate the grandfathering of State access taxes, unlike that which was in the Delahunt…

We have long struggled as mothers and grandmothers in seeing so many children being killed at the touch of a gun, a gun that a trigger lock can be placed on and perhaps prevent the killings of over 13 children per day. Yes, I have…

Mr. Conyers moves to instruct conferees on the part of the House that the conferees on the part of the House on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses on the bill, H.R. 1501, be instructed to insist that the committee on conference meet…

Mr. Speaker, this is a general description that is being used, and the ban would, as the gentleman said, have the effect of prohibiting any abortion in which a child was partially delivered.

Of course they would. Criminal sales of guns to felons would be caught by the protective provisions supposedly going to protect small businesses, mom and pop stores. We have heard mom and pop all day. These gun manufacturers are not mom…

Well, maybe some of them do, but the fact of the matter is that as this measure stands now, we are going to eliminate joint and several liability for non-economic damages, and this is going to have a very harmful effect on the victims. You…

I say that we do not cut off the right of a person to sue under those circumstances. In many other cases, I would be inclined to agree with my colleague from the Committee on the Judiciary about the time that we need to cut off and limit…

We assure the gentleman that there is nothing but fairness exuding from this side of the aisle, no underhanded motives, and the impact study of the legislation, nothing could be more neutral than that.

Let me comfort the gentleman by saying that I am sure that the Attorney General has one or two or three people who could conduct a study here that would be negligible in the budget of the Department of Justice. I think cost would be no…

Mr. Chairman, what we are trying to do is suggest that there be a study, an impact study on the legislation if and when it is passed. I do not think that will hurt anybody pro or con. It should be very helpful to us, particularly on the…

I was wondering over here on our side, if we strike out the not taking effect for 90 days and make this a straight study, would that meet the objections and then the approval of the leadership on that side?

I wanted to just thank the gentlewoman for her persistence in trying to connect at a Federal level the relationship between gun safety, the shipment of firearms, and the shipment of alcoholic beverages. There is nothing illogical or…