Obama to Host Forum
Congressional Black Caucus Convenes with New Vision and Promise

By Zenitha Prince

Washington Bureau Chief

(September 17, 2008) - Saddened by the deaths of three of its members, burdened by scandal within its ranks but buoyed by the prospect of one of its members in the White House, the Congressional Black Caucus will hold its 38^th Annual Legislative Conference Sept. 24-27 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in the nation’s capital.

Though half of the Caucus was late in joining Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign bandwagon, its members are now unified behind the Democratic candidate.

“What was once thought to be beyond our grasp is now at our fingertips.”

“What was once thought to be beyond our grasp is now at our fingertips,” said Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Chair Rep. Kendrick Meek, D-Fla., in a statement. “For the first time in years, we have a renewed energy and sense of purpose [and] we must harness this wave of possibility.”

How to harness those possibilities into real-time solutions to the challenges facing their constituents will be part of the discussions during the conference, which convenes under the theme “Embracing the Promise, Realizing the Vision.”

The event allows CBC members to liaise with Black leaders from across the country, learn what’s happening on the ground, devise solutions and, thus, tailor their action plan to fit the needs of African Americans.

Such discussions usually take the form of 85 braintrusts and issue forums, one of which will be hosted this year by Obama. The forums will include topics such as improving academic performance among Black males, environmental justice, decreasing HIV/AIDS among Blacks, health and health disparities, strengthening minority businesses, voting rights protection, access to credit and capital and much more.

“This year’s ALC will offer a clear vision of what the icons of the civil rights movement promised – a nation full of equal opportunities for all of its citizens,” said Elsie L. Scott, CBCF’s president and CEO. “The conference will be filled with dynamic social and policy content [and] everyone will leave the conference better informed and motivated to make a difference back in their communities.”

The conference also allows CBC members to show off their policy accomplishments to the estimated 18,000 attendees, said Ronald Walters, distinguished scholar of political science at the University of Maryland, College Park and an expert in Black politics.  “There are a lot of people who say they don’t know what the Caucus is doing,” he said. “But the Caucus members are hardly covered by the press so this gives them a chance to show what they’ve been doing.”

The ability of the Caucus to do anything in the 111^th Congress, which begins early next year, will largely depend on the outcome of the Nov. 4 elections, in which a new president and members of Congress will be elected.  “If they’re (Democrats) able to get at least six more seats in the Senate they will create a veto-proof majority,” which is two-thirds of the Senate, Walters said.  

“And if there is a Democratic president, it will be even easier to get bills pushed through Congress and signed. If it’s a Republican president, they will be vetoed—that’s what happened under George Bush and it’s what would happen under John McCain.”

The Caucus members will run for re-election even as a couple of its members fight for their political lives under a cloud of scandal.  The case of Louisiana Democrat Rep. William Jefferson, who was stripped of his seat on the House Ways and Means Committee and indicted on federal bribery charges in 2007 after authorities found $90,000 in his freezer, is already public fodder. Re-elected in 2006 at the height of the imbroglio, Jefferson is running again this year.

More recently, the spotlight has been on Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y. The Harlem congressman’s chairmanship of the all-powerful House Ways and Means Committee is up in the air now, after he admitted he neglected to pay an unspecified amount in federal taxes during the past five years on a rental villa he owns in the Dominican Republic.

That Rangel heads the House committee responsible for writing the tax code makes his negligence particularly significant. And Republican congressional leaders have been clamoring for his replacement as chairman even as the ethics committee investigates his failure to declare the rental income in his tax returns and on his congressional financial disclosure form.

Walters said he doubts the Caucus has been or will be adversely affected.

“These are people of seniority here [who have] tremendous support from the CBC itself,” he said.  Nor will it be politically affected by the deaths of three of its members this session, he added.

Though the loss of Reps. Julia Carson, D-Ind.; Juanita Millender-McDonald, D-Calif., then-chairwoman of the House Administration Committee and Stephanie Tubbs-Jones, D-Ohio, then-chairwoman of the House Ethics Committee sadden CBC members, it doesn’t diminish the body’s strength, Walters said. Both Carson’s and Millender-McDonald’s seats were filled by Blacks.  “It used to be that it was a relatively small group and when you lost one member it was a big deal, but now (with 43 members) they’re much bigger and stronger.”

For more information about the conference or to register, please visit www.alc2008.org.