CONYERS Says 'Goodbye' To His Friend & Colleague Charlie Rangel From Congress

Yesterday, I spoke to my colleague, my dear friend, my brother Charles Rangel off the House floor as we said our goodbyes. This was truly a bittersweet moment. Charlie and I began our careers in public service as veterans of the Korean War, fighting to defend democracy. After serving in the first truly integrated armed forces, we began on this journey tackling the injustice and inequality plaguing Detroit and New York City. For the last four decades, we have worked together in the U.S. House of Representatives.

As the last two founding members of the Congressional Black Caucus serving in Congress, we have seen our world change, we have seen our country change. I don't want to see him go, but I am encouraged knowing that he will be leaving behind a lasting legacy, decades of great memories, and will be embarking on a new journey in life. Charlie, my friend, your dedication and service to NYC and to this country is unwavering and I will miss you dearly.

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CONYERS, RANGEL, JOHNSON Introduce Resolution To Recover POW/MIA Remains From North Korea

Washington D.C. – Marking the 66^th anniversary of the start of the Korean War on June 25, 1950, the three remaining Korean War veterans in Congress, Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-NY), joined by Reps. John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI), and Sam Johnson (R-TX), introduced House Resolution 799 that calls on the U.S. government to resume talks with North Korea to account for thousands of American men and women from the Korean War (1950-1953). Between 1954 and 2005, joint U.S.-North Korea teams successfully conducted recovery missions that identified and returned thousands of Americans. Yet these efforts were suspended in 2005, despite the fact that the remains of 5,300 out of 8,000 total number of unaccounted Korean War veterans are estimated to be in North Korea.

Dean of the U,S. House
of Representatives
John Conyers, Jr.

“More than five thousand brave American soldiers who fought in the Korean Conflict for our country remain unaccounted for.  That is simply unacceptable.  As a veteran of the Korean Conflict, I feel honor bound to ensure we do everything we can to bring their remains home.  After all our fighting men in Korea sacrificed, it is our duty to make sure we do everything to provide them and their families some measure of peace.  I am proud to join with my fellow veterans of the Korean Conflict in ensuring the United States reengages the North Korean government on this issue,” said Conyers, who served in the National Guard and the United States Army Corps of Engineers during the Korean War.

“I am grateful to my colleagues and fellow Korean War veterans for working together to ensure that we bring these veterans home. This resolution would ensure that the heroic service members of the Korean War are identified and brought back to their loved ones in the United States, where they belong. We have a responsibility to our veterans to make sure we do not forget their sacrifices made to defend the freedoms we enjoy. Their families deserve peace,”said Rangel, a decorated veteran, who has been awarded both a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star. 

  

“With the 66th Anniversary of the beginning of the Korean War around the corner, it is important we remember those American forces who remain unaccounted for from this war. As a Korean War veteran and former Prisoner of War, I believe we owe our fallen brothers in arms every last effort to provide a proper and dignified return to home. I'm proud to join my fellow Korean War veterans, Congressman Rangel and Congressman Conyers, in this noble cause,” said Rep. Johnson, a decorated war hero, who spent his 29-year career in the U.S. Air Force, during which he flew combat missions in both the Korean and Vietnam Wars. Johnson endured nearly seven years as a Prisoner of War in Hanoi, including 42 months in solitary confinement.

“The lifetime hope for thousands of Americans is to bring home their loved one still missing in North Korea. It is a wound that never healed. The path to finding that closure will open only when North Korean and U.S. leaders decide to pursue this humanitarian mission other than their political differences. It can be done. It has been done. It is time to do so again. Thank you to Representatives Rangel, Conyers and Johnson, who are keeping the mission alive to help fulfill the promise that no one's father, husband, brother, uncle, cousin or comrade in arms is left behind in war," said Rick Downes, President of the Coalition of Families of Korean & Cold War POW/MIAs, and son of Hal Downes, who went missing in action in North Korea in 1952.

As recently as this year, North Korea has reported uncovering the remains of American veterans- but the fate of these remains is unknown due to construction and development. H.Res 799 calls on the U.S. Government to resume talks with North Korea regarding the research, investigation, recovery, and identification of missing and unaccounted Korean War veterans.

“While we will never be able to fully end the lingering pain of the families, we must try to bring closure,” said Rangel,“We will keep fighting to bring home our comrades in arms.”

Rangel, Johnson, and Conyers have previously worked together to introduce and pass legislation that supports veterans of the Korean War, including H.Res.384 - Calling for a formal end of the Korean War; H.Con.Res 91, Encouraging reunions of divided Korean American families; H.Con.Res.41 - Encouraging peace and reunification on the Korean Peninsula (Passed in 2013); H.Res. 618 - Expressing support for designation of 2012-2013 as the "Year of the Korean War Veteran" (Passed in 2012); H. Res 376 - Calling for Repatriation of POW/MIAs and Abductees in North Korea (Passed in 2011); H.J.Res.86 - Recognizing the 60th anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War and Reaffirming U.S.-Korea Alliance (Passed in 2010); and the Korean War Veterans Recognition Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-41).

Below is the full text of H.Res 799 calling for U.S. Government to resume talks with North Korea on Korean War POW/MIAs:

Calling on the United States Government to resume talks with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea regarding the research, investigation, recovery, and identification of missing and unaccounted members of the United States Armed Forces from the Korean War.

Whereas more than 36,000 members of the United States Armed Forces died and nearly 103,000 were wounded during the Korean War, which began on June 25, 1950;

Whereas of the approximately 8,000 members of the United States Armed Forces who remain unaccounted for from the Korean War, the remains of at least 5,300 Americans are believed to be in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (in this resolution referred to as “North Korea”);

Whereas the United States and North Korea have a precedent of working together on issues related to American prisoners of war/missing in action (POW/MIAs) from the Korean War;

Whereas North Korea has intermittently returned the remains of deceased members of the United States Armed Forces found in North Korea, including several thousand sets of remains in 1954, and varying numbers of remains in 1990, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001, and 2003;

Whereas United States operations in North Korea to recover the remains of deceased members of the United States Armed Forces were suspended in 2005;

Whereas the remains of deceased members of the United States Armed Forces in North Korea are being lost due to construction and development, the passing of North Korean observers of United States plane crashes, and inclement weather conditions;

Whereas North Korea has reported uncovering the remains of deceased members of the United States Armed Forces in North Korea through agriculture and construction projects as recently as 2016;

Whereas not all of the remains of Korean War veterans located at the National Memorial Cemetery in Hawaii (The Punch Bowl) have been identified;

Whereas members of the Coalition of Families of Korean & Cold War POW/MIAs, the National League of POW/MIA Families, the National Alliance of Families, Rolling Thunder, the Korean War Veterans Association, the American Legion, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and thousands of families and veterans are yearning and advocating for the accounting of their loved ones and comrades in arms of the Korean War; and

Whereas the mission of the United States Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) is to provide the fullest possible accounting of missing United States personnel;

Now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That the House of Representatives calls upon the United States Government to resume talks with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to make substantial progress in the research, investigation, recovery and identification of missing and unaccounted members of the United States Armed Forces from the Korean War.

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CONYERS and RANGEL: Trump’s Bigotry Reminds Us of Strom Thurmond

By John Conyers, Jr. & Charlie Rangel

'As veterans who have fought for our country abroad and then at home, we simply cannot stay silent while un-American attacks on other minority groups are given voice'

Dean of the U.S. House
of Representatives
John Conyers, Jr.

Some six decades ago, we left our homes in Detroit and New York City to serve in the Korean War. We were both young men in our early 20s, afraid but resolute. We would both be decorated for our service, and Charlie would be severely wounded in the Battle of Kunu-ri. We would both fight to defend democracy on the Korean Peninsula.

In Korea, we fought as part of the first truly integrated armed forces our nation had ever known. The near defeat of U.S.-led forces in the early days of the conflict led to rapid integration after three years of delaying implementation of President Harry Truman’s 1948 order to desegregate our Army and Navy. This led to a certain level of meritocracy: Charlie would rise to Staff Sergeant, and John would serve as an officer.

However, when we returned home we were quickly reminded that we were not just veterans—we were black veterans. Commendation medals did not mean we could sit in the front of the bus in Alabama, and a Purple Heart did not protect black veterans from racist landlords, employers, businesses or police. Our service didn’t trump our race.

Today, Donald Trump is fomenting a movement to bring back that shameful period in time by alienating groups who have fought and died for our freedoms. In the “Great America” that Donald Trump talks about, people of Mexican descent are not soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines—or judges—they are drug dealers, rapists and thieves. To Trump, Muslim immigrants are not allies who had to flee persecution because their assistance to U.S. forces endangered their lives—every single one is a potential terrorist who should be subject to special police laws. Both groups of citizens—Hispanics and Muslims—are clearly unfit to serve as judges in Trump’s America. Like the segregationists of our youth, no amount of national service seems to overcome Trump’s belief that a person’s race and religion make him or her less American.

As we have said, Trump’s hair-brained bigotry is nothing original. Indeed, his sort of prejudiced campaign does not even predate our service to our country. In 1948, the year we both put on U.S. Army uniforms, Strom Thurmond won 39 electoral votes as the nominee of the Dixiecrats. But Trump’s dangerous provocations—the forced expulsion of 11 million people and the creation of secret police and special religious ghettos for Muslims—represent crimes that we simply did not travel half a world a way to defend.

That Trump has never served in uniform—his boarding school experience excepted—is painfully obvious when he speaks. And we are not just referring to his shameful comments about Senator John McCain and prisoners of war. He has clearly never had to put his life at risk for our nation. If he had, he would know the same thing we learned from bullets and bombs as young men—on the battlefield, one’s skin color or the name of his God is the last thing that matters.

A Commander-in-Chief is responsible for the lives of all our fighting men and women: 158,000 of those soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen identify as Hispanic or Latino, and more than 5,000 of them are Muslim. Trump simply cannot fulfill the constitutional duties of the presidential office by questioning the patriotism, integrity and devotion of one out of eight U.S. service men and women. Nor should a man who wants to build a wall between the United States and Mexico, our military ally—a nation with whom we last fought an armed conflict in 1919—receive command of a military that has been through enough unnecessary dust and bloodshed.

Unfortunately, Congressional Republicans are starting to take their cues from their nominee, with all but 20 of them voting last week to end enlistment programs that grants citizenship status to undocumented immigrants who came here as children, who already have legal residency in the United States, and who simply want to serve in our Armed Forces. This trend is disturbing. It is one thing for a fringe political candidate who won a plurality of G.O.P. voters to suggest such dangerous polices; it is another for Congressional Republicans to pick up and carry that flag in the House.

As veterans who have fought for our country abroad and then at home, we simply cannot stay silent while un-American attacks on other minority groups are given voice.

Sixty-six years to the day after our military went to fight a war as an integrated force for the first time, we hope the American people will stand up for those who are fighting on our behalf.

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Deans of the CBC—Honored for Their Work in Congress

The two longest-serving members of Congress were honored for their legislative work, ranging from the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday to divestment from apartheid South Africa

Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) (right) greets fellow Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) onstage during the Democratic National Convention in Denver Aug. 26, 2008. 

PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

The two most-senior members of the Congressional Black Caucus—Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), 85, and Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), 84—were honored at the CBC Foundation’s annual Avoice Heritage Celebration Dinner in Washington, D.C., Tuesday night.

Both were presented with the Distinguished Pioneer Award as founding members of the CBC. Conyers came to Congress in 1965 and Rangel in 1971—the two are now the most-senior members of the current Congress.

The work of their combined 94 years in the House of Representatives has contributed to the creation of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, the end of apartheid and $300 million in federal grants for Detroit in 2013 alone. Conyers has led a continuous push against racial profiling and overincarceration, as well as for criminal-justice reform.

Both Rangel and Conyers were two of only 11 black members who voted against the Clinton crime bill in 1994, legislation that would lead to a spike in incarceration rates—particularly in black communities.

Conyers and Rangel arrived in Washington at a time when there were only 13 black members of Congress. There are now 48, the most in U.S. history.

In a place where seniority is king and longevity means power, Conyers and Rangel have been able to navigate the complexities of moving legislation. In a gridlocked Congress where little gets done, that skill is even more valuable.

As a member of the Ways and Means Committee in the 1980s, Rangel pushed through the low-income-housing tax credit, increasing affordable-housing opportunities, and passed the “Rangel Amendment,” ending tax breaks for corporations that did business with South Africa—a policy that would help bring down the country’s apartheid regime.

Last year Rangel was named by TrackBill as the most-productive member of Congress in terms of the number of bills passed, passing 31 pieces of legislation (pdf) he sponsored.

But Rangel didn’t talk about legislative work when he took the CBC Foundation stage to accept his award. He talked of only one person: his wife, Alma.

“When we talk about not having a bad day since, it’s because all of my life has been spent cherishing the moment, knowing a person over 57 years—and I’ve been married to her for over 50 years. Whatever praise I was able to receive, she was able to pick a guy in law school who didn’t have a job,” Rangel said of his wife, seated in the first row.

“My wife and I have been so blessed by being partners, you can’t do these things without the support and someone to guide you,” he added.

“I’ve been moved by just a few people. The first one is Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He moved me to a depth that I never dreamed of before,” said Conyers, who introduced legislation to make King’s birthday a holiday on April 8, 1968, four days after he was killed. Conyers spoke of the people he and Rangel had seen “come and go” over four decades in politics, and focused on three: Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks and Nelson Mandela.

Another civil rights icon, Parks, worked on Conyers’ first congressional campaign in 1964. She would be Conyers’ first staff hire and worked in his office until 1988, when she retired.

Many speculate that Rangel is serious about retiring from Congress at the end of 2016. But for now their colleagues are continuing to enjoy the institutional knowledge of both of the two oldest members of the caucus.

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Conyers & Congressional Advocates Announce Creation of Full Employment Caucus

(WASHINGTON) – Today, in response to the ongoing jobs crisis in America, Representatives John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.), Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.), Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), José Serrano (D-N.Y.), and Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) announced the creation of a Congressional Full Employment Caucus. To end the unacceptably high rate of unemployment and underemployment in the United States - and achieve a truly full employment society - more than 24 million jobs need to be created. The Congressional Full Employment Caucus will serve as a platform and working group for Members dedicated to identifying solutions to our current unemployment crisis and advocating for legislative action. Ultimately, the goal of the Caucus is to realize the dream of a society in which every American who wants to work has the right to some form of employment. After the establishment of the Congressional Full Employment Caucus was finalized, the Representatives in attendance issued the following statement:

Congressman John Conyers, Jr. and Congresswoman Frederica Wilson, joined by their colleagues Congressman Charles Rangel and Congresswoman Barbara Lee, announcing the creation of a Congressional Full Employment Caucus.

Congressman John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.): “For far too long, the plight of the unemployed and underemployed in the United States has been - at best - ignored by Congress, or encouraged - at worst - by callous austerity-minded policies. When more than 24 million of our family members, friends, and neighbors are out of work, we cannot allow this to continue or become the new normal in America. It is for this reason that I have come together with a coalition of concerned Representatives from all corners of the country to form the Congressional Full Employment Caucus. Together, we will craft legislative responses to address the jobless crisis - like my ‘Humphrey Hawkins Full Employment and Training Act’ - and serve as advocates, working towards a society in which employment is recognized as a fundamental human right. As Congress shifts its attention to legitimate concerns over gaping income inequality in the United States, we must not forget about the millions of Americans who lack an income to begin with through no fault of their own. Our work with the Congressional Full Employment Caucus will ensure that the unemployment crisis never leaves Congress’s radar until millions of hardworking Americans are able to find work once again.”

Congresswoman Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.): “With nearly 30 million Americans unemployed or underemployed, Congress has a moral obligation to make full employment a reality.  We’ve formed this caucus to fight for a 21^st Century New Deal. This means making sure there are no more collapsed bridges, contaminated water, or falling positions in global education rankings.  It also means restoring the dignity of work for millions of people.”

Congressman Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.): "In America, if you work hard and play by the rules, you should have the opportunity to succeed. When thousands of men and women work full time but need food stamps to put food on their tables, when they can't get health benefits, when they can't get paid sick days, then we must do whatever we can to stand up for them. In his State of the Union Address, the President has reminded the country that, with optimism for the future and action on all of our parts, we can expand economic opportunities for everyone in America. I look forward to work with Members of the Full Employment Caucus to advancing the set of concrete, practical proposals he has laid out to help more Americans find work, and more workers find the economic security they deserve."

Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-Calif.): “As Congressional leaders, we must focus on long-term strategies that put every American back to work. Our country’s economic recovery will not be complete until we eradicate the chronic unemployment that plagues each and every one of our communities. Collectively, this caucus will work hard to ensure that all Americans are fully employed and set on a sustained path to economic prosperity.”

Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-Calif.): “The creation of this Caucus provides a crucial platform for our colleagues in Congress and builds on the great efforts of the Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment Act of 1977, that I had the honor of working on as a Congressional staffer decades ago. This Caucus will continue that call to justice by working with advocates and job creators, to take an active role in creating the 24 million new jobs needed to end unemployment and underemployment, to reach full employment, and ultimately to grow an economy that works for all and eliminates poverty in America. We all know that the best way to tackle the deficit is full employment, and the best way to lift folks out of poverty is a good paying job. This Caucus will join with other caucuses in Congress, the Out of Poverty Caucus, the Progressive Caucus, and others, to reignite the American dream.”

Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas): “Nearly 1.3 million long-term unemployed workers, including the 64,000 Texas residents, lost their unemployment insurance when benefits expired on December 28. I am proud to be a Member of the Congressional Full Employment Caucus – a Caucus that will work diligently and effectively to find solutions to our current unemployment crisis while advocating for any and all legislative strategies to combat the issue at hand.”

Congressman José Serrano (D-N.Y.): “I was proud to join the Full Employment Caucus, to focus on creating and sustaining good jobs. In too many of our communities – particularly the Hispanic and black communities – unemployment is at levels not seen in the rest of the nation since the Great Depression. We cannot rest until people in all communities have access to good jobs as well as the training and skills they need get them. Our nation is stronger when everyone is employed.”

Congressman Mike Quigley (D-Ill.): “Even as America’s economy is steadily improving, American workers are being left behind. Congress has a responsibility to change that, which is why I’m proud to join this effort and work towards meaningful legislation that will create jobs, grow our economy and strengthen the middle class.”

Congressman John Conyers, Jr. and Congresswoman Frederica Wilson, joined by their colleagues Congressman Charles Rangel and Congresswoman Barbara Lee, announcing the creation of a Congressional Full Employment Caucus.

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