Forty years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote in his letter from the Birmingham jail that, "Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed." More than any American in our nation's history, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. would have understood how our freedoms have come under increasing attack since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

The Bush administration's heavy-handed policies have threatened our freedom of movement, our freedom to be secure in conducting our private affairs, and our freedom to speak out and associate with others. In the name of "anti-terrorism," the Bush administration has steadied its gaze on law-abiding American people through a series of constitutionally dubious actions that place the Executive branch in the untenable role of legislator, prosecutor, judge, and jury. The administration's hurried passage of the USA Patriot Act in the wake of the 9-11 attacks, initiated numerous unilateral actions, and now floats a second draft of a more intrusive Patriot Act II.

The policies of the Bush administration have sent a wave of fear through our immigrant communities and targeted of our Arab and Muslim neighbors. Many of the Justice Department's actions have been based on institutionalized racial, ethnic, and religious profiling, despite the fact that both the President and the Attorney General have stated publicly that they are against such practices. Not only has the Administration elected to discriminate in granting visas to men from middle eastern countries, and singled out Arab immigrants for speedy deportation based solely on their national origin, the Administration has also instituted a series of dragnet operations to find and question nearly 60,000 men, most of whom hail from Middle Eastern countries.

In the two most recent examples of racial, ethnic and religious profiling, the Immigration Naturalization Service (INS) implemented a new policy requiring male foreign nationals, age 16 and older, from more than two dozen counties, most of them predominantly Muslim, to be registered, interviewed, fingerprinted, and photographed by the INS. The program created mass confusion among Muslims who were legally visiting the U.S. and resulted in hundreds of unnecessary arrests. A recent report revealed that nearly 12 % (7,300) of the men who have registered under this program have been charged with violations that could result in their deportation.

This administration is secretly engaged in a covert war on our fundamental civil rights and liberties. A recent Senate report found that the FBI and the Justice Department were guilty of excessive secrecy, inadequate training, weak information analysis and the stifling of internal dissent in their efforts to fight the "war on terrorism." Even the Justice Department Office of Inspector General has found numerous civil rights issues in the prosecution of our domestic war against terror. And, to no one's surprise, the government has failed miserably in its unconstitutional attempts at domestic spying. To date there have been no convictions and no suspects uncovered by these constitutionally dubious activities.

As Ranking Democrat On the House Judiciary Committee, I have said on many occasions that government investigatory power should be limited to specific terrorist activity or threats of terrorism and not targeted at ordinary, law-abiding American citizens. In the name of "counter-terrorism" the administration has perpetrated a pattern of abuse and oppression. Certainly, we stand together as a nation in our collective outrage over the September 11 terrorist attack. However, we do nothing to win the battle against terrorism by sacrificing our freedom. We cannot stand idly by while the administration continues its ongoing program of oppression.

The 1954 landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision commenced an era that opened up educational opportunities for millions of minorities and women through desegregation and affirmative action. Throughout his career in Congress, he has been in the vanguard of protecting equal opportunity and has had the privilege of working for the passage of a broad range of civil rights legislation. Our nation's stride toward full equality for all, however, has come under constant attack from the right wing of the Republican party. Soon after taking control of the House in 1994, Republicans attempted to pass legislation that would have ended affirmative action by the federal government and effectively halted more than 30 years of bipartisan progress and cooperation concerning civil rights.

Mr. Conyers led the fight in the Judiciary Committee that defeated the Republican attack on federal affirmative action programs. That legislative victory, however, did not end attacks on equal opportunity programs. Most recently, attacks on affirmative action have focused legal challenges to higher education and the programs at the University of Michigan. This latest assault was a call to action to defend affirmative action, not just for the state, but the entire nation. As a legislator who is charged with the duty to protect the access to public institutions and programs, especially public schools and institutions of higher education, he could not sit idle and watch the Supreme Court proceedings. Mr. Conyers was joined by more than 100 colleagues in filing an amicus brief in support of the University of Michigan. This response was all the more heartening, given the fact that attempts to engage the majority - letters to Solicitor General Ted Olsen and Speaker Hastert - went without any response whatsoever.

While affirmative action in education was preserved by a 5-4 victory in the University of Michigan Law School case, we must remain diligent in our efforts to protect equal opportunity. The Bush administration is on a drive to appoint a crop conservative judges who would read the Constitution in a manner that is out of touch with the social reality of our nation. Although the Trent Lott debacle put them on the defensive, the true face of the Republican party was shown in the debate over affirmative action in education. Despite reports that moderates were tying to soften the usual hardline, anti-affirmative action crusaders like Solicitor General Ted Olson continued setting the agenda.

Since the advent of Republican control of the White House and Congress, they have made it clear that they are not serious about any commitment to equal opportunity -- in fact, it is safe to say they have no commitment to equal opportunity. They have taken every opportunity to roll back protections for women and minorities, to create a society in which women and minorities are once again relegated to second-class status.

Despite our increasingly diverse society, data shows that Americans of different racial and ethnic groups live largely separate lives. Consequently, the most important social issue we face in this new century is how a highly diverse social people -- a people that will have no majority race by the middle of the century -- can coexist and prosper together. As a party, Democrats embody the ideals of our new century. We literally look like the new America and see diversity as our strength, not weakness. To protect out commitment to equal opportunity, we must rededicate ourselves to the task of taking back our government. Every community must meet the challenge to take up the fight for affirmative action and equal opportunity- the rich diversity of America depends on it.

The rash of corporate scandals have established beyond a shadow of a doubt that white collar fraud can be incredibly damaging, in many cases wiping away life savings and costing innocent Americans billions of dollars of their hard earned money. Innocent consumers, investors and employees depend on their personal investments to help purchase a home, to finance their children's education and to fund their retirement.

What's needed most are laws that impose tough criminal and civil penalties on corporate wrongdoers. These laws will help protect employees and shareholders from future acts of corporate fraud and abuse. Likewise, we also need to make it abundantly clear that when these laws are broken, corporate wrongdoers will be caught and punished.

An example of a law that will accomplish these objectives is the "Corporate and Criminal Fraud Accountability Act of 2002", legislation Mr. Conyers introduced on April 9, 2002 and was later incorporated in Title 8 of the recently enacted Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Among other things, the bill creates a new 10-year felony for defrauding shareholders of publicly-traded companies; clarifies current criminal laws relating to the destruction or fabrication of evidence; extends the statute of limitations governing securities fraud claims; limits the ability of corporate wrongdoers to discharge debts incurred in violation of securities fraud laws; and provides whistleblower protections to employees of publicly-traded companies.

Enron's collapse and the wave of recent accounting scandals have become a symbol of a corporate culture where greed has been inflated and accountability devalued. And even though we can not legislate against greed, we can prevent greed from succeeding.

Mr. Conyers believes that quality education should be a right for all American children. Education is a non-partisan issue, and Congress and the Bush Administration must work in a non-partisan way to find a solution to the problems facing our schools. Unfortunately, this Congress has been engaged in a bitter battle over Head Start- the most successful anti-poverty program born out of the Civil Rights Movement. Opposed by virtually every early childhood education organization in the country, the Republican sponsored Head Start Reauthorization Bill passed in the House by a one-vote margin in July 2003. Representative Conyers believes that this bill will completely dismantle and destroy the comprehensive Head Start program in 8 states and weaken the program in 42 states.

Further, Rep. Conyers does not support a federal voucher system. The recently passed FY04 District of Columbia Appropriations Bill sets a dangerous precedent by mandating the use of taxpayer funds for private and religious schools. He does not agree that investing in quality education means abandoning our nation's cash-strapped public schools. Representative Conyers also believes that affordable Higher Education is critical in fostering strong leadership for the future. Mr. Conyers recently cosponsored the Student Loan Fairness Act that allows borrowers to refinance student loans.

In order to improve our schools, Mr. Conyers believes that Congress must focus its efforts on increasing funding for school construction, hiring, training and retaining quality teachers, reducing class size, and providing high quality technology-based educational tools. It is his hope that we will build world-class schools for all of our children and encourage higher education for all of our future leaders.

In 2000, our nation was faced with an election contest that threatened our sense of democracy. American citizens were deprived of their most basic right, the right to vote, and as a result we suffered through two months of uncertainty and confusion. To make certain this would never happen again, Congressman John Conyers and Senator Chris Dodd introduced, "The Equal Protection of Voting Rights Act," which established uniform and nondiscriminatory mandatory requirements for Federal elections. This legislation received more cosponsors than any other election reform bill.

To some, in the wake of September 11, the urgency to pass election reform has lapsed and questions about the legitimacy of President Bush's election have passed. But to the elderly, language minorities and African-Americans who were disenfranchised and intimidated, the cause lived on. As a result, "Help American Vote Act (HAVA)," was introduced in the House of Representatives. This legislation included the mandatory requirements of the "Equal Protection of Voting Rights Act" and provided for immediate funds to replace outdated punch card machines. HAVA passed the House, 362-63 and the conference report passed the House and Senate. On October 29, 2002, President Bush signed the legislation into law.

Thus far, the General Services Administration has disbursed money for election administration improvements and for replacement of punch card and lever machine systems to states in June 2003. All states received payment for election administration improvements and those state that applied received replacement of punch card and lever voting systems. In total, $649.5 million was disbursed.

HAVA also established a new federal agency, the Election Assistance Commission, to carry out the grant programs, providing for testing and certification of voting systems, studying election issues, and issuing voluntary guidelines for voting systems and the requirements in the Act. The Democrats and Republican were given equal slots for commissioners. Presently, the Democratic leaders are waiting for confirmation of their nominees. On June 6, President Bush announced his nominees to the Republican Slots. The White House is reviewing the recommendations at this time.

HAVA is by no means a perfect piece of legislation. Specifically, the slow establishment of the Election Assistance Commission has delayed the disbursement of grant money to the states. In addition, there are still problems in the law concerning registration and enforcement that have not yet been addressed. Mr. Conyers is resolved to continue working on these and other essential voting rights issues in order to fulfill the promise of the most fundamental right of citizenship, the right to vote, to all citizens.

Throughout his career, Mr. Conyers have stood fast to the belief that we can be both secure and free. It is a red herring to say we must sacrifice our precious civil rights and civil liberties in order to keep our nation safe from domestic and international terrorism; in fact, the very purpose of our war on terrorism should be to safeguard our freedoms. He could not imagine a more hollow victory than to win the war on terrorism and to lose our democracy at the same time.

In the weeks after the September 11 attacks, Mr. Conyers believed that our anti-terrorism laws did not provide the government with enough authority to learn of and prevent attacks before they happened as opposed to investigating them after they occurred. That is why he worked diligently with his Republican colleagues on the U.S. House Judiciary Committee and with the Justice Department to do a thorough review of the laws that needed to be updated. After weeks of bipartisan and diligent discussions, he crafted a compromise bill that ultimately was voted out of the Judiciary Committee by an unprecedented, unanimous vote of 36-0.

Unfortunately, the Bush Administration was not satisfied with a bill that gave it everything it needed; it sacrificed his good faith negotiations and bipartisanship for a bill that had everything it wanted. What the Administration wanted was the ability to conduct secret searches of suspects (also known as "sneak-and-peek" searches), to monitor our reading habits by getting records from libraries and bookstores, and to detain non-citizens indefinitely. To accomplish this, the Administration and the House Republican leadership threw away the bipartisan bill from the Committee and wrote a new one in secret; the new bill, known as the USA PATRIOT Act, was given to the Congress the very morning it was voted on and was not disclosed to the public until much later. The secrecy in which it was written and the extreme provisions it contained were what called for Mr. Conyers to vote against the frightfully-named USA PATRIOT Act.

Unfortunately, the Administration's war on terrorism proved that his vote was the right one. When Mr. Conyers asked the Justice Department how it has used its sneak-and-peek authority, it cannot tell of one act of terrorism that has been prevented. When Mr. Conyers asked the Department how often it has sought patron records from libraries and bookstores, it responds by saying the very number of times is classified so that the information cannot be disclosed to the public.

The Administration's assault on our civil liberties did not stop with the USA PATRIOT Act, however. Without consulting with Congress or hearing from the American people, the Justice Department began closing deportation hearings to family members, the public, and the press in violation of the U.S. Constitution. Mr. Conyers joined with civil liberties and civil rights groups in suing the Department to open the hearings. In ruling in his favor, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit said "Democracies die behind closed doors." This was an important victory for all of us, as it placed checks on the government's ability to act in secret. As a result of this decision, the Department is reconsidering its blanket decision to hold secret hearings.

These are just a few of the examples of how Mr. Conyers has used his time in Congress to protect the precious rights that all of us cherish as Americans.

As the ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, Representative Conyers has demonstrated an ongoing commitment to finding positive solutions to the difficult questions posed by our immigration policies. Mr. Conyers has introduced the "Fairness in Immigration Act" in the past two congresses, which restores our nations's long standing compassion for individuals seeking to build a better life and reunite with their families. The bill restores fairness to the immigration process by making sure that each person has a chance to have their case heard by a fair and impartial decision maker.

As a co-chair of the Congressional Refugee Caucus, Rep. Conyers has worked with members from both sides of the aisle to ensure that our Nation maintains its vital role as a haven for people of the world fleeing religious, racial, and social persecution. The refugee caucus continues to pressure the current Administration to restore the level of refugee admissions to what it was before new security concerns shut down the program after September 11^th.

In addition, Mr. Conyers has a long standing and ongoing commitment to the Haitian people. He has worked tirelessly to improve the political, economic, and health conditions for the Haitian people and has been an outspoken opponent of the recent Department of Justice policy of mandatory detentions of Haitians. Congressman Conyers has most recently worked with other Members of Congress to raise awareness about the injustice of the Haitian detention policy, holding multiple press conferences, speaking at rallies, and writing letters challenging the Department of Justice's Haitian detention policy and urging improvement of the conditions under which detainees are held.

Congressman Conyers has served as the co-chair of the Congressional Black Caucus Haiti Task Force and has visited Haiti multiple times to witness first hand the challenges facing Haitians today. He has also visited the facilities in South Florida where Haitians are being detained and most recently met with INS directors in 2002.

Some of the most important employment protections for working families today are part of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which sets minimum standards for wages and overtime compensation. Under the FLSA's overtime rules, nearly 80 million workers must now be paid time-and-a-half for more than 40 hours of work a week. The FLSA sets out overtime pay requirements so employees cannot be required to work overtime without any additional pay.

Five bills have been proposed by Republican Members of Congress and the Administration has also sought rule changes that seek to gut those laws.

Under the Bush Administration's proposal, workers, including police officers, nurses, store supervisors and many others, could face unpredictable work schedules and reduced pay because of an increased demand for extra hours for which employers would not have to compensate workers. The administration is pushing to issue final regulations before the end of the year and has even threatened to veto important appropriation legislation if they include protections for these workers.

Since taking office in 2001, the Bush Administration has attempted to roll back the rights of federal employees. The Administration began their attack by announcing they planned to "shrink" the size of government by privatizing 850,000 federal jobs, eliminating these jobs by contracting them to the private sector. Last year, during the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, the Administration demanded and won legislation that eliminated the collective bargaining rights of 170,000 current federal workers. Early this year, the Administration eliminated the collective bargaining rights of baggage screeners as they came under the jurisdiction of the new Transportation Security Administration. In January 2002, the Administration revoked union representation for over 500 Department of Justice employees, days before the Assistant U.S. Attorneys in Miami were scheduled to vote on unionization. This Administration is also attempting to privatize Air Traffic Control at numerous airports around the country, something has not worked at all when it has been tried in Europe.

The Bush Administration's anti-labor actions are examples of bad governance resulting bad government. This Administration doesn't understand the concept of inherent government functions. Their heavy emphasis on privatization is partly to blame for the Columbia tragedy. Privatizing inherently government functions leads to shortcuts, which endangers both astronauts and the public at large. In Iraq, the Administration has awarded no bid contracts to Halliburton, the company which Vice president Cheney was the CEO of before assuming office, worth nearly $1.7 billion dollars, to house and feed soldiers, to deliver mail, and provide other military logistics. These are inherently government functions which should be handled by the US military. Contracting these services to private companies may eliminate short term manpower issues, but they serve to highlight the case that the military does not have the manpower to fulfill its mission independently. Contracting government functions to private companies just doesn't get the job done.

Nearly 2.4 million jobs have been lost since Bush assumed power. His agenda can be summed up in two words, bankrupt government. The President has pushed numerous tax cuts through the Republican controlled House and Senate, turning a $1.7 trillion dollar surplus under the Clinton Administration into a $1.7 trillion dollar deficit in a little over two years. Cutting government revenue while ever increasing deficit spending is a formula for disaster.  The President has recently requested another $87 billion dollars for rebuilding Iraq. Last month the American Society fo Civil Engineers estimated that the United States needs nearly $1.6 trillion dollars in order to modernize America's existing infrastructure (schools, roads, bridges, power grid, sewers, and drinking water). Investing in America's infrastructure would assure good America jobs for years to come.

Since Bush took office in 2001, the United States economy has lost over 2.4 million jobs. In Michigan, we have lost one in every six manufacturing jobs. In an effort to get our economy back on track, Congressman Conyers and the Michigan Democratic Delegation, sent a 14 point proposal to President Bush and Governor Granholm, detailing steps they believe are necessary to stem the flood of job loses in the manufacturing sector. These include addressing the legacy costs of our manufacturing industries by reforming our pension system, ensuring that workers receive the benefits they have worked for, and enacting a real prescription drug benefit for retirees. The delegation also asked the Administration to help to level the international business field, by enforcing existing trade laws, opening markets like Japan and China which block our exports, addressing currency manipulation, and creating a manufacturing tax credit. President Bush recently declared he would create a new position to focus on the manufacturing sector. Michigan's manufacturing industry needs real resources and real action from the federal government, not rhetorical flourishes and the re-arranging of bureaucratic titles.

Recently we have learned some pretty alarming details about the National Security Agency's (NSA) illegal domestic spying. A May 11th USA Today story revealed that the warrantless wiretapping program is far broader in scope than the President has previously claimed. Tens of millions of Americans' phone records have been compiled into the largest known database in the world.

As reported in the USA Today story, this in direct violation of the Telecommunications Act. Section 222 of this Act prohibits telephone companies from revealing information about their customers' call history including who is called and how frequently. Inbound and outbound calls, wireline and wireless services are covered by this Act.

Underscoring the seriousness of these privacy protections, the Federal Communications Commission has the authority to levy fines up to $130,000 per day per violation. While this is capped at $1.325 million per violation, these penalties are intended to deter phone companies from revealing private consumer data.

The day that this news came out was also the day we learned that the Department of Justice abruptly cancelled its investigation of the NSA warrantless wiretapping.

Now with former NSA Director Bobby Ray Inman publicly declaring that "this [NSA] activity is not authorized," it is all too clear that we must take every means possible to halt this assault on the privacy of Americans.

To halt this illegal warrantless wiretapping, 71 Democratic Members of Congress joined me in filing an amicus brief in support of two lawsuits against the government. We made very clear in our brief that warrantless wiretapping is covered by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The NSA itself helped promote the passage of that bill in 1978 seeking to recover from the devastating revelations that the agency had been conducting surveillance on U.S. citizens for decades. The FISA Act provides the comprehensive and sole authority under which Americans may be wiretapped in the fight against terrorism.

The two cases for which these amicus briefs were filed, ACLU v. NSA and CCR v. Bush, are pending in Detroit and New York respectively. The plaintiffs in both cases are seeking to halt the program immediately through summary judgment and an injunction. The government is due to file its responses at the close of next week.

In January of 1989, Mr. Conyers first introduced the bill H.R. 40, the Commission to Study Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act. He has reintroduced H.R. 40 every Congress since 1989, and will continue to do so until it's passed into law.

One of the biggest challenges in discussing the issue of reparations in a political context, is deciding how to have a national discussion without allowing the issue to polarize our party or our nation. The approach Mr. Conyers has advocated for over a decade, has been for the federal government to undertake an official study of the social, political, and economic impact of slavery on our nation.

Over 4 million Africans and their descendants were enslaved in the United States and its colonies from 1619 to 1865, and as a result, the United States was able to become the most prosperous country in the free world. It is undisputed that African slaves were not compensated for their labor. More unclear however, is what the effects and remnants of this relationship have had on African-Americans and our nation from the time of emancipation through today.

Mr. Conyers has requested the number of the bill, 40, as a symbol of the forty acres and a mule that the United States initially promised freed slaves. This unfulfilled promise and the serious devastation that slavery had on African-American lives has never been officially recognized by the United States Government.

Mr. Conyers legislation does four things: (1) acknowledges the fundamental injustice and inhumanity of slavery; (2) establishes a commission to study slavery and its subsequent racial and economic discrimination against freed slaves; (3) studies the impact of those forces on today's living Africa Americans; and (4) would allow the commission to make recommendations to Congress on appropriate remedies to redress the harm inflicted on living African-Americans.

H.R. 40 has strong grass roots support within the African-American community, as well as major civil rights organizations, religious organizations, and academic and civic groups from across the country. This support is very similar to the strong grassroots movement that proceeded another major legislative initiative, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday bill. It took 15 years for this legislation to pass. It was introduced during the Spring of 1968 and was finally enacted during the Fall of 1983. Throughout most of those 15 years, the idea of a federal holiday honoring an African-American civil rights leader was considered radical.

Like the King Holiday bill, Mr. Conyers has seen the support for H.R. 40 increase each year. There are currently 37 co-sponsors. Support also extends outside of the Congress as various city councils and other local jurisdictions have supported his bill. The city councils in Detroit, Cleveland, Chicago, Dallas, Washington, DC, and Atlanta have passed bills supporting H.R. 40.

It is a fact that slavery flourished in the United States and constituted an immoral and inhumane deprivation of African slaves' lives, liberty, and cultural heritage. As a result, millions of African-Americans today continue to suffer great injustices. Our country can no longer afford to leave slavery in the past and the issue of reparations for African-Americans must be resolved.

Congressman Conyers has taken a key leadership role in opposing the Riverview Trenton Railroad Company's (RTRR) efforts to operate and establish an intermodal transportation terminal involving rail, motor and possibly barge traffic in the towns of Riverview and Trenton in Wayne County, Michigan.

Congressman Conyers firmly believes that the decision to permit RTRR to conduct its operations on the lower Detroit River could have significant homeland security implications and could have a severe negative impact on the local environment.

Many experts on port security issues have already written about the inherent risks associated with intermodal transportation terminals. Indeed, a recent National Cargo Security Council report warned of the potential dangers associated with such terminals by pointing out that individuals often are able to "exploit the complexity of the intermodal system" because the system provides an "almost infinite number of ways to conceal contraband."

Congressman Conyers shares these concerns. He also believes that the RTRR facility could provide additional opportunities for would-be terrorists to gain access to America from Canada due to lax rail security. It has already been widely reported that on numerous occasions in the past, suspected terrorists, such as Abu Mezer and Ahmed Ressam, have attempted to enter this country by crossing the Canadian border.

The impact of RTRR's operation on the Downriver community's local waterways is also a major concern of Congressman Conyers. A recent report released by the Environmental Protection Agency entitled, "Evaluating Ecosystem Results of Polychlorinated Biphenyl (PCB) Control Measures within the Detroit River - Western Lake Erie Basin," has already detected significant levels of PCBs in the Trenton Channel and Black Lagoon. Experts believe that any additional increase in PCB levels could have a harsh impact on the community's local waterways, namely "walleye" fishing in the Detroit River.

Congressman Conyers' efforts to resolve this ongoing issue include writing a letter to Homeland Security Department Under Secretary for Border and Transportation Security, Asa Hutchison asking him to evaluate the homeland security implications concerning RTRR and Mr. Conyers' organized a town hall meeting in the downriver community in August 2003.

Congressman Conyers has taken a leading role in fighting against unfair tort reform proposals. Regarding medical malpractice, the Congressman has worked tirelessly to champion patients' rights while addressing the rising costs of medical malpractice insurance premium.

Congressman Conyers held a medical malpractice victims forum on malpractice issues in early 2003. During this forum, House Democrats heard powerful testimony from dozens of victims of medical malpractice from every area of the country, every political persuasion, and every walk of life. Every victim testified resoundingly that the President's medical malpractice insurance company giveaway would be a disaster to victims of malpractice.

As a result of the shocking testimony from the victims forum and from the Judiciary Committee hearing, Congressman Conyers, along with Congressman Dingell, introduced legislation to respond to the real problems in the medical malpractice insurance market - namely, higher prices driven by lack of competition and investment losses by insurers leading to a boom bust cycle. Specifically, this bill responds to concerns that medical malpractice is not available in parts of the country and to the complaint that medical malpractice insurance premiums are being driven higher as a result of frivolous complaints.

Congressman Conyers has also continuously fought the Republican efforts to push class action reform and bar ordinary Americans from holding powerful defendants accountable. The bill passed by the House would apply retroactively to pending cases, disrupting legitimate cases where thousands upon thousands of legal hours may have been expended. Addition, the House bill will also make it far more difficult to pursue civil rights class actions because it does not permit the lead class representative to regain a job loss resulting from discrimination. The Congressman proposed a democratic substitute that was substantially better than H.R. 1115 because it respected the sovereignty of state courts and provided substantial protection to consumers and other class action plaintiffs against practices that could result in unfair settlements. Although the substitute did not pass the House, it gained substantial support by the Democratic caucus.

Whether you live in the suburbs, the inner city, or in rural areas, the new environmental crisis of the 21^st century is toxic mold. It is one of the fastest growing environmental health epidemics in the country. Toxic mold grows in homes, apartments, and buildings and is caused from water leaks on surfaces. There have been hundreds of thousands of toxic mold victims in the United States. It can cause severe and debilitating health impacts and millions of dollars in property damage. In order to substantively address this crisis, Rep. Conyers has introduced landmark legislation, H.R. 1268, "The United States Toxic Mold Safety & Protection Act."

Black mold is the most dangerous of the mold strains. If "Micotoxins," the spores released into the air from black mold, is inhaled by humans, they can cause debilitating health problems that include memory loss, severe allergies, lethargy, chronic pain, headaches, and other serious health problems.

Toxic mold has caused millions of dollars in property loss, bankrupted families, made families homeless, caused hundreds of thousands of school children to become sick, or permanently disabled adults.

Unfortunately; neither local, city, or the federal government has established guidelines to protect the public from toxic mold, nor does the federal government have programs to help victims of toxic mold with cleaning it up, obtaining health care, finding new housing, and being provided other living necessities after a family or individual have been victims of toxic mold.

Furthermore, most homeowners insurance policies will not cover damages to one's home due to toxic mold infestation. It often costs thousands of dollars to remediate, or clean up toxic mold in buildings and homes-unaffordable for the majority of toxic mold victims. Homeowners are often forced to vacate the premises for this reason, resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost assets, and lost dreams.

For over thirty-seven years, Rep. John Conyers has been one of the most vocal advocates for universal health care in the United States Congress. He has introduced two critically important pieces of legislation, the "United States National Health Insurance Act," H.R. 676, which has the support of over 9000 physicians; and H. Con. Res. 99; which calls on Congress to pass universal health legislation by 2005.

Both bills have served as critically important organizing tools for hundreds of organizations across the country who are part of a newly energized national movement for universal health care. Through Rep. Conyers' leadership, the Congressional Black Caucus has declared universal health care its number one legislative priority of the 108^th Congress, and has launched a campaign for universal health care and the elimination of minority health disparities.

Mr. Conyers was also instrumental in shaping the House Democratic alternative Medicare prescription drug proposal that was defeated by the Republican-dominated House. Working through the Congressional Black Caucus and the Progressive Caucus, Mr. Conyers helped to persuade ranking Democratic House leaders to introduce legislation that would provide seniors with an effective prescription drug coverage under the traditional Medicare program that would truly help seniors afford the skyrocketing costs of prescription drugs by covering 80% of their prescription drug bills.

Rep. Conyers has helped secure approximately 10 million dollars of federal funds for the Detroit Medical Center over the last three years. These funds went to strengthen health care services at Detroit Medical Center for pregnant women, the disabled, children, veterans, and the uninsured.

Mr. Conyers recently lead efforts to get desperately needed federal funds to keep the Detroit Medical Center from closing their doors. He facilitated several meetings with DMC officials, Secretary of Health & Human Services Tommy Thompson's office, senior lobbyists of the Bush Administration, Governor Granholm, Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, and Detroit City Council Members in order to find common ground, federal funding, and a workable long term solution to the Detroit Hospital crisis.

Through these meetings, Rep. Conyers provided the necessary leadership and awareness of the severity of the DMC hospital crisis, that ultimately help pave the way for a short term infusion of federal funds government and Governor Granholm.

Rep. Conyers has been an outspoken supporter of improving the working conditions for nurses. Most nurses are often forced to work unreasonably long hours, and are in charge of too many patients, as cash strapped hospitals claim to be unable to hire more nurses.

Studies by the Institute of Medicine have revealed that unreasonable nursing shortages, mandatory over-time, and low nurse to patient ratios have created a national shortage of nurses because the profession is no longer viewed as an attractive one to go into.

Rep. Conyers has been an original co-sponsor of legislation to improve working conditions for nurses, including the Nursing Reinvestment Act, legislation that would allow those interested in becoming nurses to receive more scholarships and low interest nursing school loans, and legislation introduced by Senator Kennedy that would ban mandatory over time for nurses.

Congressman Conyers is dedicated to combating violence against women and protecting a woman's right to choose.

Congressman Conyers recognizes that domestic violence affects every citizen in every community and that it is an equal opportunity crime. Domestic violence happens in the inner cities as well as in suburban neighborhoods. It happens to people regardless of race, age, and income. Statistics show that domestic violence occurs at a startling frequency. 1.5 million women will likely be raped or physically assaulted by an intimate partner this year. Every 12 to 15 minutes there is a beating. And approximately every 27 minutes a murder occurs. Such crimes not only have devastating consequences for the victims, but also for their families and society as a whole.

Congressman Conyers has been a key player in increasing funding, resources and awareness about violence against women and enacting tougher domestic violence laws. In the 106^th Congress, Congressman Conyers played a central role in re-authorizing the Violence Against Women Act and was a primary sponsor of H.R. 1248, which continued funding for programs such as law enforcement and prosecution grants to combat violence against women, the National Domestic Violence Hotline, battered women's shelters and services, education and training for judges and court personnel, and rural domestic violence and child abuse enforcement programs.

Although re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act and the enactment of a law to create an independent Violence Against Women Office have raised awareness of the issue of domestic violence, it was only one step toward the elimination of violence in our society. In the 108^th Congress, Congressman Conyers continues to fight on Capitol Hill for more protections for women. For example, he has introduced the the Violence Against Women Civil Rights Restoration Act of 2003, which will restore the ability of victims of gender-motivated violence to seek justice in federal court.

Congressman Conyers also has consistently fought Republican efforts to turn back the clock on Roe v. Wade and a woman's right to choose. He has vehemently opposed anti choice bills, such as the so-called "partial birth" abortion ban, which puts politics before the health of women, and the Child Custody Protection Act, which requires young women to carry the burden of their state's parental consent laws with them across state lines.

Congressman Conyers has also opposed the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, which fails to protect women from violence, but seeks to change the legal status of embryos and fetuses by recognizing them as victims of a federal crime, separate from the woman. Congressman Conyers has cosponsored a substitute bill with Congresswoman Lofgren that would actually protect pregnant women by creating a new, separate offense for violative or assaultive conduct against a pregnant woman that interrupts or terminates her pregnancy. The Conyers-Lofgren substitute does not conflict with Roe v. Wade because it recognized the woman as the primary victim of an assault and does not create new and separate rights for the fetus. However, this substitute has been defeated by anti-choice members in every Congress in which it has been offered.