Burgess Owens

today was a historic day; and I join my colleagues on the other side in celebrating the passage of the Senior Citizens' Freedom to Work Act. It is a great achievement. We all should be quite proud of it. I congratulate my colleagues. It…

the polls are showing in New York State that the overwhelming majority of the citizens of New York think that there was a miscarriage of justice in the verdict on the Amadou Diallo killing trial. Black and white together are demonstrating…

I want to repeat that the fact that we are talking about the verdict that the majority of New York City and New York State citizens consider to be a miscarriage of justice. We are talking about the fact that 10 reasonable demands that have…

No race, no ethnic or religious group, has suffered so much over so long a span as blacks have, and do still, at the hands of those who benefited, with the connivance of the United States Government, from slavery and the century of…

Mr. Speaker, let me just indicate what it proposes to deal with. Congress finds the following: Dr. Carter G. Woodson, cognizant of the widespread ignorance and scanty information concerning the history of African Americans, founded on…

the remarks of the gentlewoman from Texas, (Ms. Jackson-Lee), of course, were pertinent in every way in terms of the three items that I have put forth here tonight. The gentlewoman has mentioned the juvenile justice and law enforcement…

we passed a bill today which deals with black history. Black history is being featured this month, the month of February. A number of my colleagues said they might join me to go further in the exploration of important aspects of black…

I think that we are in danger of making a great blunder if we do not use this great window of opportunity to do something dramatic to improve education in America. There is a need for a greater commitment from the Federal Government which…

it would be good to have a few facts on the record. I think it is important to take another section from the President's veto message where he states that the administration agreed to the inclusion of funding for this study based on a…

the following informational items can contribute greatly to the lifting of the veil of confusion being promulgated by the Republican majority. I am also submitting examples of victims of ergonomic disorders and examples of business owners…

Why are we obsessed with Haiti? If there is going to be a standard for spreading our generosity, and we are the indispensable Nation, we are the last superpower, I think it is important that we should help out wherever we can in crises…

the working families of this Nation are still being trampled on by this 106th Congress. They are being grossly mistreated in two basic ways: One is indifference and neglect on certain key issues, and the other is active oppression in…

I think the gentlewoman will sympathize with me when I say any country which is earning in its stock markets $13 trillion in 1999 versus $3 trillion in 1989, has seen a $10 trillion increase over a 10-year period, why are they worried…

as soon as the tax abatement run out for many of these companies, they are going to leave the gentlewoman's State and go to Mexico or somewhere else. This is a great argument; of course, I do not like to see the Federal Government be…

So large profits are reaped by somebody, and that is where the $13 trillion has been accumulated, a $10 trillion increase over the last 10 years. That is obscene when we look at the fact that 40 million people are not covered with any kind…

I want to call it ``Overwhelming Neglect: The Arithmetic of Federal Aid to Education.'' I am going to talk about the simple arithmetic of Federal aid to education, no higher mathematics, no logarithms, no differential equations and…

We need some additional time to discuss it. Why, when the American people have stated that education is one of the highest priorities, do we have only 5 hours in the United States Congress to discuss an important education bill? It must be…

could the gentleman give us one example of what he means by the Federal Government interfering with one's ability to be flexible with parents and run the schools?

Public School 91 has been falling down around the 1,100 students and 50 teachers who learn and work there. Students every day have had to navigate a treacherous path around jagged holes, falling plaster, contaminated water, exposed pipes…

Public School 91 in my district was evacuated last Friday as a result of conditions that were deemed unsafe for children. You have got lead poisoning, a coal-burning furnace, everything you can imagine in that building which was built in…

When Europe needed to be rebuilt after World War II, we came forward with a massive Marshall Plan, $20 billion to start and much more afterwards. When we needed to educate our GIs coming home from World War II, we passed a massive GI Bill…

everybody loses in this bill. This is not a bill to invest in American education, the kind of new investment we need. This is a bill to move money around. This is a Houdini bill. This is a swindle. This is a con game brought to us by the…

without excessive repetition, I would like to join my colleagues in the House to pay tribute to Officer J.J. Chestnut and Detective John Gibson who gave their lives dutifully protecting this hallowed institution. It is important that we…

I rise to oppose H.R. 4250, the Republican so-called Patient Protection Act and to voice my enthusiastic support for H.R. 3605, the Patients' Bill of Rights Act. H.R. 4250 was conceived in the back room of the Speaker's special 15-member…

The Republicans have had a very clever strategy this year. We have spent a lot of time in recess and very little time in deliberations. That is not by accident, it is a way to guarantee that important things are done rapidly, that there is…