(February 27, 2008) Washington, D.C. – The League of United Latin American Citizens honors Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard (CA-34) with its 2008 LULAC President’s Award at its 11th Annual National Legislative Awards Gala held at the J.W. Marriott in Washington, D.C.

LULAC National President Rosa Rosales (pictured on right) and Angel Luevano, LULAC’s National V.P. for Far West (pictured on left) presented the congresswoman (pictured center) with the award. During the presentation, Rosa Rosales said, “I am delighted to help recognize Rep. Roybal-Allard for her tremendous contributions to strengthening America’s Latino community. We are particularly grateful for her leadership on education, immigration and housing issues. We also want to commend her for her efforts to address underage drinking, violence against women and child labor. Congresswoman, for your outstanding commitment and service to the Latino community and your belief that every human being has value and potential, we present to you the 2008 LULAC President’s Award.”

The League of United Latin American Citizens, the oldest and largest Hispanic membership organization in the country, advances the economic conditions, educational attainment, political influence, health and civil rights of Hispanic Americans through community-based programs operating at more than 700 LULAC councils nationwide.

Other award recipients included: Rep. Joe Baca (Leadership Award for his service as Chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus); and Reps. Rubén Hinojosa (TX-15) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (FL-18) (a Legislative Award each for their efforts to champion the cause of Hispanic education in Congress as well as their leadership on immigration, education and the environment.)

The congresswoman made the following acceptance speech at the event:

“Thank you Rosa. I am honored to receive LULAC’s President’s Award.

The fact that it comes from you, one our most prominent and distinguished grassroots activists and leaders in the Latino community, makes it all the more special.

It is also a privilege to share this evening with three of my outstanding congressional colleagues: Ileana Ros-Lehtinen; Rubén Hinojosa and our Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chairman, Joe Baca.

LULAC is to be commended for its history of grassroots activism which has helped lay the foundation upon which we in Congress, in partnership with LULAC and our other outstanding Latino organizations, continue our fight to provide equal opportunity and fairness for our ever growing Latino population.

The socio-economic conditions, health problems, anti-immigrant sentiment, and educational underachievement facing our communities must be addressed if present and future generations are to realize their full potential.

Towards that goal, I am proud to be a part of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus whose members work diligently every day to address the critical issues facing our Latino communities and our American society as a whole.

I have been asked to briefly highlight some of my personal priorities for this legislative year.

As in past years, my personal legislative agenda focuses on our children.

As you know, the lack of affordable health care is a critical problem facing our Latino population.

Yet, as we continue to fight for universal access and affordability, there are simple preventative actions that can be taken to ensure our children have a healthy start in life.

One is to reduce the incidence of birth defects, which now impact one in three newborns.

Last year I introduced The Newborn Screening Saves Lives Act to establish national newborn screening guidelines to promote detection of many genetic disorders. Early detection can prevent long-term damage and even death.

The bill also funds an educational outreach program, which is crucial to increasing awareness about newborn screening and the important role folic acid plays in preventing neural tube birth defects.

Educating our communities about folic acid is especially important to Latinas who continue to have the lowest reported folic acid consumption of any racial or ethnic group and up to twice the risk of having a baby with a neural tube defect than non-Hispanic whites.

As important as bringing healthy babies into this world, we must also do everything we can to ensure their safety and security once they are here.

When we talk about abusive child labor, many people think of children in far-off corners of the world being subjected to long hours and hazardous working conditions.

What many Americans don’t realize is that our own labor laws deny 500,000 child farmworkers, some as young as 12 years old, the same protections given children who work in other occupations.

To address this unjust double standard, I will be re-introducing The Children’s Act for Responsible Employment, better known as the CARE Act.

The bill would bring the age and work hour standards for children working in agriculture up to the standards set for all other forms of child labor, and I look forward to your help in advocating for its passage.

Finally, I want to highlight the important role we can play to help ensure our children receive the education and training that will enable them to succeed in our highly technical and global economy.

If we hope to create the next generation of Hispanic activists and leaders, we must integrate 21st Century skills into the classroom. This means we must invest in classroom technology and train teachers to use that technology for their core academic courses.

This is a legislative goal I share with my colleague Rubin Hinojosa who I am so pleased is also being honored this evening.

From his seat on the Education and Labor Committee, he is a great champion for so many vital education programs.

Together we have introduced The Achievement Though Technology and Innovation – or “ATTAIN” – Act of 2007.

The Attain Act would:

Invest in professional development for teachers;
Improve the delivery of funds to the neediest schools – particularly those with a high percentage of English Language Learners;
and establish the goal of a technologically literate student body by the eighth grade.

Rubin and I were very pleased that the ATTAIN Act has been included in the House and Senate draft discussion bills to reauthorize the No Child Left Behind Act, and we will continue to work toward its passage.

In closing, I once again thank Rosa for this great honor and I thank LULAC for all it does on behalf of our Latino communities.

Together I am confident that we will help our community, and especially Latino children, meet the challenges of the 21st Century with pride in themselves, their families, and their heritage.

I thank LULAC for their inspirational role in that mission.

Thank you President Rosa Rosales, once again, for this award and I look forward to continuing our partnership to achieve these critical goals.”