Watson Coleman

if I may, in contrast to the very partisan tone of the Estrada filibuster and this partisan divide that is stopping us from moving forward, I want to spend a few minutes talking about an issue in which we come together and perhaps which…

I hope they are listening. They should be listening. These are important times. What my colleagues on the other side are doing by engaging in this filibuster is really changing the constitutional standard. And we love this Constitution. It…

These are difficult times, with the prospect of dealing with a brutal dictator in Iraq, a dictator who has used weapons of mass destruction against his own people, has shown no hesitation to use poison gas, chemicals, and biological…

I was an urban mayor of a vibrant, diverse community, including Chicanos, Salvadorans, and Puerto Ricans. Is it true that Miguel Estrada was attacked by Democratic Hispanic Members of the House as being Hispanic in name only?

Is it true that Miguel Estrada--we have heard this before--came here as a teenager, learned to speak English, overcame a disability, graduated with honors in college, graduated with honors magna cum laude in law school, was editor of the…

this morning the distinguished Senator from New York made some statements about the Senate's constitutional advice and consent responsibility. I would like now to respond to those statements because some of her views of the Senate's…

it was my sad privilege to attend the memorial service for our great astronauts in Houston yesterday. As best I could, I carried the love and prayers of Minnesotans to that solemn occasion. It was heartbreaking; yet it was awe inspiring at…

I know it is late, but I did want to say a few words about Paul and Sheila Wellstone before we left today. I am deeply gratified one of the first subjects that brings me to my feet in this Chamber is the memory of Paul and Sheila…

I only want to point out to the House that part of our responsibility in this committee is to see to it that, indeed, we understand and recognize our role in dealing with the issue of the hiring, the retention, the promotion of minorities…

Answer the question: How much does this bill cost? ... It is a fake and it is a fraud to tell the American people you have an antiterrorism bill. All this stuff is all a sham.

I rise in support of the Serrano amendment and of course in opposition to that embarrassing legislation known as ``English only.''

I need to say, however, to my colleagues that it is not enough to play the politics with welfare reform that we are attempting to do today. I certainly do not intend to support welfare reform and then go home and applaud myself and tell…

Reclaiming my time, let me only suggest that in any event, should the Committee of the whole make a determination that we wanted to shift $1 million from one account to another, I think all of us would agree that the goal of the House of…

I only wanted to say to my colleagues, the gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Wolf] has done what he should have done with NTSB. He has agreed to their reprogramming requests. Let me tell all of my colleagues why this amendment is important. The…

let me just close, if I might, and let me say that I think in terms of dealing with the issue of undocumented persons in America, the issue of dealing with the robberies, the crime that occurs, whether it be from undocumented persons who…

If I might, reclaiming my time, Mr. Chairman, only add that I think it is time for all of us to wake up and recognize that a good deal of the downsizing that went down at NASA went on long before the new majority became the new majority in…

the issue before us today is one of the perennial budget questions of our time--whether to unravel the unified budget methods that have worked well since the 1960s and consider the Transportation Trust Funds off budget. Like my…

I certainly had a question with respect to the amendment with respect to a statement that I had read before. It said that before arresting individuals who had been reported as having been here illegally, State and local law enforcement…

I must tell the gentleman that some communities will be unable to come up with those kinds of funds that are necessary, I think, for some of these additional costs, unless they are budgeted in some way; that there is some provision made at…

I think it should come as no surprise to anyone when the gentleman says there are two classes of children. We have two classes of women in the bill: the rich, who can afford an abortion for a young teenager, and the poor, who, of course…

The reality is that what we are doing here is picking and choosing and leaving all the rest of the children in the public school, and I know that is the goal of the Republican agenda. I am not too worried, I will tell the gentleman from…

reclaiming my time, then why in the world, I understand when you pass authorization bills, but I understand, though, that you have frozen some of the programs or made cuts in some of the programs for bilingual education? True or false?

I want to ask the chairman of my committee, I have served on the Committee on Appropriations now for a dozen years, I will tell Members, I have never seen a procedure or process like this, and I want to ask, who in the world was…

Let me tell you what I understood happened: that you froze the new grant activities for support services for bilingual education.

I think it is important for my colleague, the gentleman from New Mexico [Mr. Schiff], to understand of course that while it is easy to sit here and just say it is the President's fault, where have all my colleagues been? We are 9 weeks…