Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2013

Floor Speech

Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. Madam Chair, I rise to strike the last word in support of the Ellison amendment.

I would also like to respond to what my colleague from Minnesota (Congressman Ellison) spoke about in terms of the amendment that he was going to offer which he decided not to offer, but it would have imposed a 20 percent penalty to Byrne/JAG grants for States with shoot first laws. Shoot first laws are also known as ``stand your ground'' laws.

In 2005, Florida passed the first State law explicitly expanding an armed person's right to use deadly force against an unarmed person in ``any place where he has a right to be,'' even if the confrontation could be safely avoided. Florida's law, like so many similar laws in other States, was the result of collusion by some of the Nation's wealthiest corporations, along with the National Rifle Association, through a secretive organization called the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC.

ALEC promotes model legislation written by its corporate members and disseminated to conservative State lawmakers around the country. In fact, about 60 percent of all State legislators are members of ALEC. The Florida stand your ground law was written by an NRA lobbyist. After the law passed in 2005, the NRA presented the bill to ALEC's Criminal Justice Task Force and boasted that the presentation was well received. The corporations and State legislators on the task force voted unanimously to approve the bill as an ALEC model. And as a result, more guns are being sold.

Now 24 States have similar sweeping laws like Florida. Membership fees are not public, but reports do show that the NRA was a cochair of a recent seminar that ALEC held. This is a group that will do anything to help corporate sponsors accomplish their legislative objectives regardless of the value that it has towards regular citizens. They are just interested in profits. So ALEC, along with NRA, has supported these shoot to kill laws, and they are something that needs to be avoided.

And so with that, I will end my remarks, ask for passage of the pending amendment, and yield back the balance of my time.

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Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. Madam Chair, our country is emerging from the worst recession in generations. Million of Americans, our neighbors, friends and constituents, are still out of work. Millions of those we represent have been out of work for more than 99 weeks. It's difficult for anyone who has not experienced long-term unemployment to fully understand the economic and emotional hardship caused by long-term unemployment.

We all agree that we must help these Americans who are too often unemployed due to no fault of their own. That's why I have serious concerns regarding the recent news reports about blatant discrimination against the unemployed. According to news reports, employers are posting job advertisements stating ``must be currently employed'' or ``no unemployed candidates will be considered at all.''

This, Madam Speaker, is unacceptable. A policy where employers discriminate against the unemployed is unfair, unreasonable, and callously ignores the effects of the recession on millions of highly qualified workers who are unemployed through no fault of their own. Such a policy also disproportionately hurts minorities, as we suffer from higher unemployment rates.

If this trend of employers discriminating against the unemployed continues, it will only prolong the suffering of people victimized by the unemployment crisis. Discriminating against the unemployed will not help America on its path to economic recovery.

My amendment is simple. It will increase funding for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to the President's budget request level so the commission can adequately investigate discrimination against the unemployed and other victims of discriminatory hiring practices. My amendment is supported by the National Employment Law Project, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the American Federation of Government Employees, the Asian American Justice Center, the American Association of University Women, the National Employment Lawyers Association, and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

This amendment is just common sense, and I ask all of my colleagues to support this amendment. With these funds, the commission will be able to more effectively fight discriminatory hiring practices.

We can and will debate the value of different job-creation proposals, but ending discrimination against the unemployed is beyond debate. Being unemployed is a status that should not disqualify anyone from a job.

I urge my colleagues to support this amendment to provide a needed boost to millions of Americans, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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