Recognizing the importance of establishing a national memorial at the World Trade Center site to commemorate and mourn the events of February 26, 1993, and September 11, 2001.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

This bill recognizes the importance of establishing a national memorial at the World Trade Center site as the highest honor the Nation can confer to commemorate and mourn the attacks on this Nation on September 11, 2001, and also the first attack, on February 26, 1993; and supports the efforts of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation to build a permanent memorial at the World Trade Center site.

By supporting a national memorial commemorating the attacks on the World Trade Center, we can help establish a place where all Americans can remember and learn from the tragedy of 9/11. Thousands of people from across the country and around the world visit the Trade Center site every day, and millions more will come when the memorial opens, hopefully in 2009. This bill gives us, Members of the people's House, the chance to voice our support for this substantial effort.

Mr. Speaker, on September 11, 2001, I was here in Washington when I saw on television the attack on the World Trade Center, and I immediately went home to be with my constituents, my friends, and family in New York. Normally, when I go to New York from Washington by train, I look out the window and usually the first thing I would see about 20 miles away from New York would be the World Trade Center, the Twin Towers, and when I saw them, I knew I was almost home. That awful day, I didn't see the twin towers. I didn't see the World Trade Center. I saw only a huge plume of smoke stretching all the way down to the New Jersey shore, and it felt like my guts were being torn out.

This was a bill I wish were not needed, but we need to remember. We need to remember the charred debris, the families torn apart, the ash that made New York look like a nuclear winter, and the smell of the smoke, like death itself. We need to remember the attack on our country and the motives behind it. We also need to remember the heroism of those who rushed into burning buildings to help and the selflessness of those who from all around the country came to volunteer their services, those who donated supplies and who lined up to donate their blood all around this country, and even in foreign countries.

It is our collective responsibility never to forget what happened and to honor the lives lost by building this memorial. That is what this resolution, this bill is about. There is a broad and deep consensus that has emerged in the United States that this is a sacred site that must not be forgotten and must be honored and that this site requires the highest form of national recognition.

The memorial's design competition became the largest in history, with designs submitted by over 5,200 participants, more than 5,000 submissions from 63 nations and 49 of these United States. On January 6, 2004, a distinguished 13-member jury announced the winning memorial design, ``Reflecting Absence,'' by architect Michael Arad and landscape architect Peter Walker. Work on the memorial began less than a month ago on August 17.

The World Trade Center Memorial Foundation has been established to manage the fund-raising and construction processes. The Memorial Foundation has a private fund-raising goal of $300 million, of which more than $133 million has already been raised from more than 20,000 donors from every State and from 11 foreign countries. I would like to encourage those who want to help or learn more to visit the Web site of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation.

I would like to thank the entire New York delegation to this House, who joined me as original cosponsors and who have united behind the effort to establish a national memorial on the World Trade Center site in my district, as well as the additional cosponsors of this legislation.

I would also like to acknowledge the positive role played by the Governor of New York, George Pataki, and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who have both lent their support.

I also have to thank Ranking Member Rahall for his efforts in getting

this bill out of committee, and also our distinguished minority whip, Steny Hoyer, for his help in getting the bill to the floor of the House.

The establishment of a national memorial permanently commemorating the events at the World Trade Center on 9/11 will serve as a testament to the heroism of the people of New York and the people of the United States of America. It will help us all as a Nation to remember the indomitable strength of our citizens and the sacrifices made by so many, and it will serve as a continuing reminder of our ongoing obligation to provide proper care and assistance to the victims of the 9/11 attack, not only the families of those who died on 9/11 but also the first responders, the rescue and recovery workers who came from all over the country and the residents of the surrounding area who continue to suffer the health effects of that tragic day and its aftermath.

I congratulate the members of the Memorial Foundation on their efforts raising funds thus far and pledge our continued support as they begin their work on this enormous task, and I urge all my colleagues to vote for this resolution.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

(Mr. RAHALL asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. Speaker, we are not here today to determine whether the events of September 11, 2001 should be memorialized. That process began immediately after that tragic day in truly American fashion, as spontaneous free expressions of grief and unity.

Ribbons were pinned on chests. Old Glory was hung from every post. Shared moments of silence, neighbors gathering on front stoops by candlelight, families and friends and total strangers joining hands, churches and football fields ringing of spacious skies and amber waves of grain.

Over the last 5 years, States and cities, organizations and individuals throughout our great Nation have chosen to commemorate that day, the sorrow and the heroism, in different tangible ways, with art and statues and structures that will long stand as reminders of our shared experience.

Now, national efforts are underway, with congressional support, in Pennsylvania and at the Pentagon. The specific purpose of House Resolution 175 is to place the Congress on record supporting a memorial in New York City that will also be a memorial conceived, designed, and interpreted for our Nation as a whole.

It is appropriate that we do this. The brutal attack upon our Nation was intended to be national in scope by its perpetrators. Ground Zero, the Pentagon, and Shanksville, Pennsylvania, were scarred by an attack aimed at the whole of America. And so our national memorials will allow the American people to remember and honor and heal in the manner in which we were attacked, as one.

Further, this memorial should be national in scope because we have responded to these attacks, and we have overcome them, as one Nation. Mighty challenges persist, but we are meeting them, and today our liberty has remained intact. Our Nation is scarred, but our Nation prevails.

This was not always assured. As the Civil War raged on, Abraham Lincoln publicly contemplated the possibility that a nation conceived such as ours might not long endure. We have often heard our country described as an experiment, the outcome of which is uncertain.

But through world wars and a Great Depression, through painful social upheaval and a Cold War, and now through the attacks of September 11, 2001, our Nation has indeed survived. A free people, free to believe as we wish, free to speak our minds, free to raise our children as we see fit, will, make no mistake about it, endure. A resilient people cherishing liberty and equality and the rule of law will endure.

Tyrannies can be powerful, but they are brittle. They derive power from the denial of freedom. It is a power founded in the suppression of human potential, and it cannot be sustained. America, 5 years after this brutal attack, is testament that a Nation conceived in liberty and equality will endure. It is a triumph of millions of Americans but it is also the triumph of an idea larger than any one person, larger than any one nation.

A memorial in New York should speak to this larger triumph, and so we urge our colleagues to support this resolution.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to our distinguished colleague that represents the World Trade Center area, Mr. Nadler.

Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, today I am pleased to be joined by my colleagues from Virginia, Maryland, D.C., Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey to introduce legislation recognizing the importance of a national memorial at the Pentagon to commemorate and mourn the terrorist attack against the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.

This legislation is modeled after a resolution (H. Res. 175) my friend and colleague from New York introduced earlier this year in support of efforts to create a September 11, 2001 memorial at the site of World Trade Center.

Mr. Speaker, as we approach the 4th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, it is appropriate that we establish memorials at the sites of these attacks to honor the victims.

On that fateful day four years ago, the 59 victims of American Airlines Flight 77 and 125 military personnel and Defense Department employees at the Pentagon died and scores more were injured in a dastardly and unprovoked attack against the American people.

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, have joined the pantheon of national tragedies and become a defining moment in United States history.

These attacks of September 11, 2001 affected all Americans, not only for the tragic loss of life, but also for its emotional toll on our public conscience. Two-thirds of Americans report that the attacks had a great emotional impact on them, and virtually all Americans can recall precisely where they were and what they were doing when they learned of the attacks.

And while all of us were beset by the tragic loss of life and untold suffering, we found solace in the inspiring and heroic actions taken by the crew and passengers of Flight 93 and by the firefighters, police officers, rescue workers, military personnel and ordinary citizens who raced to the scene of these attacks and saved lives, keeping the attacks from taking an even greater toll.

It was a tragic day, but a defining moment in our nation's history.

I applaud the efforts of those who have worked to build the memorials to honor and

commemorate the fallen and to acknowledge the impact the horrific attacks have had on all of us.

I encourage my colleagues and those listening to support these memorials and urge my colleagues to support this resolution.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H. Res. 175, a resolution recognizing the importance of establishing a national memorial at the World Trade Center site and supporting the efforts of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation to build a permanent memorial at the site.

Five years ago, we lost 2,976 lives in a coordinated attack on our soil, 81 of whom were residents of the 17 towns now in the Fourth District. On the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, we remember each one of those men and women who lost their lives, and their family and friends who still mourn their loss today.

But this is a tragedy that we will not and cannot forget in another five, 15 or 50 years. We must never forget.

For that reason, I support the creation of a national memorial at the World Trade Center site.

A national memorial is a way to honor the Americans who lost their lives on September 11. It would be a place of gathering for their loved ones to come and remember those they lost. And it would be a tool to help teach future generations about the tragedy of that day, the history of the attacks and the importance of protecting ourselves against future acts of terrorism.

I am grateful for the work of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation and support their efforts for a permanent memorial at the site.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 175) recognizing the importance of establishing a national memorial at the World Trade Center site to commemorate and mourn the events of February 26, 1993, and September 11, 2001.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the resolution now under consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

House Resolution 175, introduced by Congressman Nadler of New York, declares that the House of Representatives stands shoulder to shoulder with the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation, the citizens of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, and indeed the Nation, who were struck twice by terrorist attacks, by supporting a national memorial at the World Trade Center site to commemorate and mourn the tremendous loss of life that followed the attacks of February 26, 1993, and September 11, 2001. I urge adoption of this resolution.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I have no additional requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.