next up congressman john conyers. the house sponsor of the end racial profiling act. ranking member of the house judiciary committee. serving in the house of representatives since 1965, john conyers is the second-longest serving member. i think second to another member from michigan, if i'm not mistaken. congressman conyers testified at both previous senate hearings on racial profiling in 2000 and 2001. congressman, we are honored to have you here as a witness and the floor is yours. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and to your colleague, who is another former house member if i remember correctly, and senator ben cardin, as well. all of you are working in the backdrop of a huge discussion that has been going on for quite some time. when i came to the congress and asked to go on the judiciary committee in the house, and that was granted, emmanuel seller was then the chairman who did such landmark work in the civil rights act of 1964. and then we followed up with the voter rights act of 1965. and from that time on, a group of scholars, activists organizations, civil rights p

congressman conyers pointed out in the beginning that this is not to impede the proper investigation of a crime. the identification of the potential perpetrator needs to be fully explores. that is not the intention of this legislation at all. the intent is to prevent the random selection of individuals because of their race or ethnic background. i think the fundamental issue, there should not be much disagreement in this congress. i am an optimist. i am in the senate, you have to be an optimist. yes? >> you said you hope it would include never watch. does the line which already include that? >> i believe it is already included cash and the need to be clarified we will clarify it. the language makes it clear that law enforcement includes neighborhood watch groups and they are working under the direct partnership with local police. they need to take responsibility for those actions. yes? last question -- >> there was a suggestion that one of -- from one of the witnesses that this would create new causes of action against police officers. do you think your legislation would do that? >>

i want to give a commendation to senator carden and particularly to john conyers who has been consistent in ringing the alarm across the country about the deficit and this scathing gap that racial profiling is doing in america. my mind goes back to 1995 breaking into the cannes film festival was a small underdiscovered film that many people didn't think was going to go far. it was coined and named after one line from casablanca. that film was entitled the usual suspects. it talks about a motley crue of criminals that were found. as the film begins to develop they find the person that they thought did it is not the person who did it. they thought it was going to be a con man. and they figured out it was somebody they would have never expected. whenever we participate in rash profiling it is in fact the usual suspects. who it is that the media has portrayed criminality in america is supposed to look like. any person who has any breath of memory will remember when it is that dukakis ran for president. his failure was raising up the portrait of criminality was a black man. you don't have to

today congressman john conyers and i are sending a letter, signed by 13 senators and 53 members of the house asking attorney general holder to close the loopholes in the justice department's racial profiling guidance. congress should also pass the end racial profiling act that i welcome the attendance of my colleague and former member of the committee, senator cardin of maryland, who has taken up this cause from our colleague, senator feingold, and he's here today to testify. let's be clear, i want to say this and stret it. the overwhelming majority of law enforcement officers perform their jobs admirably, honestly and courageously. they put their lives on the line to protect us every single day. but the inappropriate actions of a few who engage in racial profiling create mistrust and suspicion that hurt all police officers. we'll hear testimony to what has been done in a positive way to deal with this issue by superintendent of police. that's why so many law enforcement leaders strongly oppose racial profiling. racial profiling undermines the rule of law and strikes at the core of our

john conyers. >> thank you, chairman bobby scott. i would ask everyone to give you a round of applause. as a matter of fact, this is a forum. let's thank chairman bobby scott of virginia for all that he's doing. [ applause ] and with the tragic loss of one young man in our country, travon martin, which electrified the nation, here comes chairman bobby scott with a forum on the youth promise act. that's worth another round of applause because it's right on time. [ applause ] what this bill does is it makes us safer, and on top of it, it's cost effective and it brings greater hope and justice for our youth. as chairman scott said, we incarcerate more people than any other country on earth. and it's way too many and i celebrate what we're doing here today. i close with this observation. hill harper was late coming to this forum, wasn't he. and attorneys bobby vasser and attorney carol is thshadra and e trying to determine if we should issue a warrant or a subpoena to bring him here one way or the other. i'm glad we don't have to do that

commerce and conyers has cited both previous senate hearings in 2,002,001. congressman conyers, were honored to have either as a witness on the floor is yours. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and to your colleague, who is another former house member if i remember correctly and senator ben cardin as well, all of you are working in the back drop is a huge discussion that has been going on for quite some time. when i came to congress a nice to go on the judiciary committee in the house and that was granted, an annual salary was the chairman who did such landmark work in the civil rights act of 1964. and then we followed up with the voter rights act of 1965. and from that time on, a group of scholars, activist organizations, civil rights people and americans of goodwill have all began examining what brings us here today and accounts for the incredible long line but is waiting to get into this in the holding room today. i come here proud of the fact that there is support growing in this area. only yesterday we had a memorial service for john peyton, known by most of

next up congressman john conyers. the house sponsor of the end racial profiling act. serving in the house of representatives since 1965, john conyers is the second-longest serving member. i think second to another member from michigan, if i'm not mistaken. congressman conyers testified at both previous senate hearings on racial profiling in 2000 and 2001. we're honored to have you here as a witness. the floor is yours. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and to your colleague, who is another former house member if i remember correctly, and senator ben cardin, as well. all of you are working in the backdrop of a huge discussion that has been going on for quite some time. when i came to the congress and asked to go on the judiciary committee in the house, and that was granted, emmanuel seller was then the chairman who did such landmark work in the civil rights act of 1964. and then we followed up with the voter rights act of 1965. and from that time on, a group of scholars, activists organizations, civil rights people, and americans of good will have all began examining what br

next up congressman john conyers. the house sponsor of the end racial profiling act. serving in the house of representatives since 1965, john conyers is the second-longest serving member. i think second to another member from michigan, if i'm not mistaken. congressman conyers testified at both previous senate hearings on racial profiling in 2000 and 2001. we're honored to have you here as a witness. the floor is yours. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and to your colleague, who is another former house member if i remember correctly, and senator ben cardin, as well. all of you are working in the backdrop of a huge discussion that has been going on for quite some time. when i came to the congress and asked to go on the judiciary committee in the house, and that was granted, emmanuel seller was then the chairman who did such landmark work in the civil rights act of 1964. and then we followed up with the voter rights act of 1965. and from that time on, a group of scholars, activists organizations, civil rights people, and americans of good will have all began examining what br

of view of the substance of the legislation, i don't know of any specific concern as congressman conyers pointed out from the beginning, this is not to impede the proper investigation of a crime. specific crime. where the identification of the -- of the potential perpetrator needs to be fully explored. that's not the intentions of this legislation at all. what the intent is, is to prevent the random selection of individuals because of their race, their ethnic background, et cetera. and i think that fundamental issue, there shouldn't be much disagreement in this congress. but i'm an optimism mist. i'm in the senate. you got to be an optimist to be in the senate. yes? >> you hoped it would include never botch -- do you think the language already does that or is that something you hope to fold in later? >> i believe it's already included in the language. if that needs clarified we will clarify it. the language makes it clear law enforcement, these neighborhood watch groups, are working under the direct partnership with local police. so they need to take responsibility for those actions. yes

. >> in addition to our congressional champions, senator cardin, congressman conyers and, of course, senator durbin, we're very grateful to the other members of congress who testified this morning, congressman ellison, congresswoman judy chu, congressman guuni gutierrez and congresswoman wilson. we appreciate they took the time to testify. unfortunately, they couldn't come back for the press conference. but i believe all of our speakers are willing to take any questions if there are any from the media. thank you. and if not we thank you so much for your time. people are available for personal interviews if you want to come up and we hope you'll join us in the fight to pass the end racial profiling act. thank you. >>> now, a look at money and politics. c-sp c-span's washington classroom is a partnership with the washington center and george mason university. this week, the class learns about the federal election commission from commissioner cynthia bauerly. she joined the class to discuss the role money plays in political races and the duties of the regulatory agency she heads. this c

from the bench, headed to nashville after the american drug policy coalition and like congressman conyers, we have urged and indeed supported senator webb's bill that would go into the issue of the medical consequences of the use of drugs and to what extent would the use of drugs explode or not explode to a point where we would have the dimensions of the problems we have with alcoholism and the automobile accidents and the injuries and the medical consequences and the concerns that the congressman talked about about increasing the use of drugs. indeed, we see now some evidence that some studies and reports in california where medical marijuana has been authorized, where there's been a serious uptick in the last two or three years of the use of drugs on the basis that it's no more harmful than smoking tobacco. i think we need scientific medical evidence and not just popular beliefs on what the actual realities would be with reference to the use of all of these type of drugs. and i have been supported in fighting that battle both in the senate side and the house judiciary committee. now for

congressman conyers ohio. to make his report on what had gone wrong in the old four presidential election he's one of the most respected men congress is the democratic leader of the judiciary committee and they do great job of what happened in ohio since the corruption very great skill. and mr blackwell secretary of state of ohio does anybody here think that john kerry should become the president but i have yet to see any proof. that anything is counted incorrectly i initially started my blog because the corporate mainstream media frankly was not doing their job i was seeing things that needed to pee reported and talked about i talked about them and people started to take notice including the main stream media washington post and so forth that would link to me and report on what i was reporting but wouldn't do it themselves and still are not doing it themselves. will there be a realistic investigation of the two thousand and four election because if this point the votes in ohio have not been counted not even o

and as representative conyers has suggested that you do, everyone should contact their members of congress to see that they can show support for the youth promise act. anything more? if not, the briefing is adjourned. >>> starting shortly, live on our companion network, cspan, war correspondents from the associated press, cbs, and the "new york times" talk about what it's like to cover war. they're participating in the american society of news editors conference here in washington. live coverage of the discussion begins at 3:45 eastern. canadian prime minister harper is in washington today for meetings with president obama and the president of mexico and mr. harper will also address the wilson international center for scholars this afternoon to talk about issues between the u.s. and canada, and you can watch that live, his remarks, at 4:00 eastern on c-span 2. and each night this week, watch american history tv primetime here on c-span 3. tonight, the 34th president, dwight david eisenhower. at 8:00 eastern, the architect who designed the proposed eisenhower monument followed by eisenhower

john conyers offered the reparations bill. these issues that are brought up here we don't have the time to deal with all of them, but with that we need to do a million angry black women marched to chicago to the oprah winfrey studio because rosie o'donnell needs to be in there and now wants to but maria shriver and there where we have these issues that are still not resolved, so i want to work with you all to make that happen. and as an angry black woman march. >> i will do one other. i will ask you to work with mother blakely that has worked long and hard in the reparations movement, and the two of you can come and bring some suggestions. some get you know professor ogletree is deeply involved in the reparations. >> that's right, and has been doing the case out of tulsa. this is last but by no means least three islamic time for the move organization. [applause] we had a great civil rights victory in the release of death row, and the victory isn't over because they think we are going to compromise by having them removed from d

conyers: extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. conyers: ladies and gentlemen of the house, it's time for a real jobs plan to get our americans back to work in every district. and since the conservatives have taken over the house more than a year ago, they have refused to move forward with a real plan to create jobs to get our people back to work. a whole year and no comprehensive jobs plan when americans needed it most. now, in my bill h.r. 870, the humphrey-hawkins unemployment act revised is a way to bring unemployment down to zero percent. there is no reason why everybody that wants a job in america can't be put in a position or trained for a position. and yet although most of the people in the country treat jobs as the number one priority, we still haven't got movement in the house. it is a shame and i think somebody's going to pay for it. i yield back my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from kentucky seek recognition? mr. yarmuth: request permission to addres

john conyers, reparations. why do we keep avoiding that issue? his number is 2022256126. i do not see anyone writing it down. his office of reparations bill, the issues that are brought up here, we do not have the time to deal with all of them. but with that, we need to do a million angry black woman marched to the oprah winfrey studio because rosie o'donnell does not need to be in there, now she wants to put maria shriver in there while we have these issues that are still unresolved and not televised. i want to work with you all to make that happen. an angry black woman march. >> i got you. i will do one other. i will ask you to work with queen mother blakely, who has worked for a long time in the reparations movement. you too can bring suggestions. >> professor, is deeply -- a professor is deeply involved in preparations. >> that is right. he has been doing the cases out of tulsa. this is last, but by no means least. >> -pam, and i work for the move organization. we had a great civil rights victory with the release of [unintelligible] off of death row. the victory is no

. >> let's tell you a little bit about michelle williams once known as michelle conyers, several run-insshe had been arrested on charges of aggravated assault with a handgun to fraudulent use of personal information, fraudulent use of a credit card, two counts of forgery and exploitation of an elderly person. she entered guilty pleas to several charges and was sentenced to restitution and probation which she completed successfully. >> but you have to ask the question, where is the attorney general eric holder on this? when you hear that kind of language, i mean, do you open an investigation, then into the new black panther party and what they're saying? that sounds like pretty vial language to me and it's kind of scary, it really is kind of scary. >> he had a chance to investigated the new black panthers party after the voter intimidation in pennsylvania after the last election but he chose to pass on it. >> all right. 13 minutes after the hour. coming up, though, the list of the 10 worst jobs in the country, e-mail us, should yours be on the list? >> let us know if you're a lumberjack.

can about it because people like congresswoman like -- like congresswoman maxine waters and john conyersd you have to do something about police abuse in the los angeles police department, because the rodney king incident kicked off an investigation of police practices. they discover that the federal government did not have enough authority. in 1994, that provision that billy is talking about would not have become law had not members of congress said we have got to give the federal government more authority. it is very, very powerful, and it is giving his attorney general the ability to investigate those departments. i think we owe a lot of credit to maxine waters for that particular provision. also, black students are being pushed out of school. before they even get into the criminal justice system, they are being affected by suspensions and expulsions at a much higher rate. i would just give you the statistics. these are recently released statistics from the department of education. although black students make up only 18% of those enrolled in the school samples, they account for 35 per