Charles Rangel: “When I came to the Congress, I had just been working for the State Department and traveled all over Africa. I had been…”

“When I came to the Congress, I had just been working for the State Department and traveled all over Africa. I had been in 21 of the countries of Africa. I knew what the conditions were there. When I saw the GATT legislation, I asked my staff, what does this do for Africa? They said nothing. We have no policy toward Africa. So we put an amendment in the GATT legislation in 1994 saying that the United States should have a policy toward Africa. That is really where this started. It would not have happened just with me. Without the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Crane), who took the idea and embellished it, and the gentleman from New York (Mr. Rangel), and the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Jefferson), and the gentleman from New York (Mr. Houghton), and the gentleman from California (Mr. Royce), a whole group of people, including the Speaker, have played an important role in putting this policy together.”