An Hour of Power

Floor Speech

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Ms. BASS. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Congresswoman Beatty. I want to congratulate her for her leadership that she has displayed since day one of coming to the House of Representatives, and knowing of her leadership in the State of Ohio, serving as the leader of the legislature in Ohio.

I want to acknowledge my colleague Hakeem Jeffries. I have always appreciated his leadership in the committees as well as his leadership within the House. I am glad that he is very much a part of our Caucus.

I know our theme today is: ``The State of Our Union: Have We Achieved Dr. King's Dream?'' I have to say that the state of our union is a mixed bag. Have we achieved Dr. King's dream? As a nation, we haven't, but if we look at the success of individuals, many individuals have achieved remarkable levels of success.

While the success of individuals should rightfully be celebrated, until the richest nation on the planet in the history of the world has figured out how to address poverty, income inequality, and provide opportunity for everyone to succeed in our Nation, Dr. King's dream is a dream deferred.

Dr. King would have been so proud to have been at the inauguration of the first African American President, but he would have been horrified to see a man achieve that level of success, becoming the most powerful man in the world, and still be subjected to doubters who ask to see his birth certificate, questioning if he was actually an American, obviously code for ``he might be the President, but he is still not one of us''; asking to see his college transcripts, questioning if his academic success was legitimate.

Dr. King would be horrified to learn the number of hate groups. White supremacist organizations exploded after the election of the first African American President of the United States. He would have been shocked to hear that leaders in our country actually publicly stated that they would do everything they could, including hurting the national economy, to ensure that the Nation's first African American President did not serve a second term.

Dr. King would have been overjoyed when this President was reelected to a second term, so that no one could say the first time was an aberration. Dr. King would have been so proud of the millions of people who withstood attempts to block their right to vote and to know that thousands were willing to stand for hours to make sure they voted and reelected President Obama.

Dr. King would have celebrated the creation of a program to provide health coverage for the majority of people in the Nation. He would have celebrated the fact that this was accomplished in the first term of President Obama's administration.

Dr. King would have celebrated the fact that when the law was signed by President Obama, for the first time, insurance companies could no longer refuse to provide coverage for people if they had an illness or a preexisting condition.

Just think for a minute. Prior to the Affordable Care Act, insurance companies excluded you from coverage if you had a preexisting condition. There were examples of babies born prematurely that were excluded from coverage because their premature birth and the associated complications were considered a preexisting condition.

And, frankly, almost everyone after a certain age has one preexisting condition or another--hypertension, high cholesterol, et cetera. Prior to passage of healthcare reform, aging, essentially, was a reason to exclude individuals from coverage.

While Dr. King would have celebrated this victory, he would have been shocked to know Congress has voted over 60 times to take health care away from people and to reverse this advance. If the Affordable Care Act was repealed, then the parents of the premature baby and the adult over 60 with high blood pressure would not have health care.

On another subject, Dr. King would wonder: How on Earth did his country end up incarcerating more people than any other nation in the world? And how is it that the majority of people incarcerated in the United States are poor and are people of color?

As a man of faith, as a teacher of the Bible, he would wonder what happened to the concept of redemption in our society. How did we become a society that punished people forever? What happened to the belief that, if you offended society and then paid your debt to society, you were expected and accepted to reenter society with your full rights?

How did we evolve into a nation that basically said we will punish you for your entire life? Because even though 85 percent of people incarcerated are eventually released, we can strip away your right to vote. You cannot live in public housing; and if your family lives in public housing, then you can't go home.

If you were in prison and you owed child support, well, we just kept the clock running on what you owed even though you were in prison and, of course, could not work to pay child support. You owed the money anyway.

And, of course, when you were released, you are then behind in child support. And because you are behind because you could not work while incarcerated, we will not give you a driver's license. And if you are from Los Angeles and cannot drive, you can forget about having a decent-paying job, because those jobs certainly don't exist in your neighborhood.

Furthermore, if you don't find a job, we just might violate your parole and put you back in prison, because a condition of your parole is that you have a job. But then, since you are a felon, we will not allow you to work anyway.

In California, until we changed the law, there were 56 occupations you could not participate in if you were a felon. One of those occupations we even trained you for while you were in prison. We have a school that trains prisoners to be barbers. But when you were released, we didn't allow ex-offenders to have a license in the very occupation we trained you for--until we changed the law.

I think Dr. King would be thoroughly confused by the contradictions he would see in America today. We have amazingly successful individuals, thousands of African Americans and other people of color in elected office or in other major positions of authority. They are CEOs of companies, astronauts, athletes, college presidents, entertainers on every level, actors, producers, directors.

In every area in society, there are successful individuals. There are 48 African American Members of Congress. The year before his death, there were only five African Americans in Congress.

But Dr. King would wonder what is holding our Nation back from making sure every American has access to the American Dream. With all the technological advances, advances in science and education, how can it be that people are hungry in America, that too many children continue to go to poor, segregated schools, and that there are homeless encampments that exist in most major cities?

Although his dream for our Nation is only partially realized, I believe now it is our responsibility to continue the work and to continue the struggle until there is no such thing as homelessness in the richest nation on the planet, until all children have access to a 21st century education, until poverty is eliminated and the safety net is strong enough that no one in our Nation slips through the cracks.

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