Central Texas Water Recycling Act of 2007

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on August 1, 2007, at 9:30 a.m., to mark up S. 1677, the Currency Reform and Financial Markets Access Act of 2007; S. 1518, the Community Partnership to End Homelessness Act of 2007; an original bill entitled the FHA Modernization Act of 2007; an original bill entitled the Housing Assistance Authorization Act of 2007; an original bill entitled the Private Student Loan Transparency and Improvement Act of 2007; and an original bill entitled the Commission on National Catastrophe Risk Management and Insurance Act of 2007.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation be authorized to hold a hearing during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, August 1, 2007, at 2:30 p.m., in room 253 of the Russell Senate Office Building.

The U.S. Department of Commerce and its component bureaus are responsible for the stewardship, protection, and scientific understanding of our ocean environment and its resources, effective use and growth of the Nation's technological resources, and promoting U.S. trade and tourism. The oversight hearing will examine the Department's effectiveness in implementing these goals.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources be authorized to hold a hearing during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, August 1, 2007, at 9:30 a.m. in room SD-366 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

The purpose of this hearing is to receive testimony on recent advances in clean coal technology, including the prospects for deploying these technologies at a commercial scale in the near future.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Foreign Relations be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, August 1, 2007, at 9:30 a.m. to hold a hearing on Africa.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions be authorized to meet in executive session during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, August 1, 2007 at 10 a.m. in the LBJ Room, S-211, of the Capitol building. We will be considering the following:

1. S. 625, Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act

2. S. 1183, Christopher and Dana Reeve Paralysis Act

3. S. 579, Breast Cancer and Environmental Research Act of 2007

4. S. 898, Alzheimer's Breakthrough Act of 2007

5. S. 1858, Newborn Screening Saves Lives Act of 2007

6. The Following Nominations: Diane Auer Jones, of Maryland, to be Assistant Secretary for Postsecondary Education, Department of Education; David C. Geary, of Missouri, to be a member of the Board of Directors of the National Board for Education Sciences; Miguel Campaneria, of Puerto Rico, to be a member of the National Council on the Arts; and any nominations ready for action.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs be authorized to meet on Wednesday, August 1, 2007, at 10 a.m. in order to conduct business meeting to consider pending committee business.

Agenda

Nominations: The Honorable James A. Nussle to be Director, Office of Management and Budget; Dennis R. Schrader to be Deputy Administrator for National Preparedness, Federal Emergency Management Agency, U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Legislation: S. 680, Accountability in Government Contracting Act of 2007; H.R. 1254, Presidential Library Donation Reform Act of 2007; S. __, an original bill to provide for the flexibility of certain disaster relief funds, and for improved evacuation and sheltering during disasters and catastrophes; S. 1000, Telework Enhancement Act of 2007; S. 1446, National Capital Transportation Amendments Act of 2007; S. 547, Effective Homeland Security Management Act of 2007; S. 1245, a bill to reform mutual aid agreements for the National Capital Region; S. 597, a bill to extend the special postage stamp for breast cancer research for 2 years.

Post Office Naming Bills: H.R. 2570/S. 1732, a bill to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 301 Boardwalk Drive in Fort Collins, Colorado, as the ``Dr. Karl E. Carson Post Office Building''; S. 1772, a bill to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 127 South Elm Street in Gardner, Kansas, as the ``Private First Class Shane R. Austin Post Office''; S. 1781, a bill to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 118 Minner Avenue in Bakersfield, California, as the ``Buck Owens Post Office''; H.R. 2127, a bill to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 408 West 6th Street in Chelsea, Oklahoma, as the ``Clem Rogers McSpadden Post Office Building''; H.R. 2563/S. 1539, a bill to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 309 East Linn Street in Marshalltown, Iowa, as the ``Major Scott Nisely Post Office''; S. 1596, a bill to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 103 South Getty Street in Uvalde, Texas, as the ``Dolph S. Briscoe, Jr., Post Office Building''; H.R. 1722, a bill to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 601 Banyan Trail in Boca Raton, Florida, as the ``Leonard W. Herman Post Office''; H.R. 1425, a bill to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 4551 East 52nd Street in Odessa, Texas, as the ``Staff Sergeant Marvin `Rex' Young Post Office Building''; H.R. 2078, a bill to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 14536 State Route 136 in Cherry Fork, Ohio, as the ``Staff Sergeant Omer `O.T.' Hawkins Post Office''; H.R. 2077, a bill to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 20805 State Route 125 in Blue Creek, Ohio, as the ``George B. Lewis Post Office Building''; H.R. 1617, a bill to designate the facility of the United States Postal service located at 561 Kingsland Avenue in University City, Missouri, as the ``Harriet F. Woods Post Office Building''; H.R. 2025, a bill to designate the facility of the United States Postal service located at 11033 South State Street in Chicago, Illinois, as the ``Willye B. White Post Office Building''; H.R. 1335, a bill to designate the facility of the United States Postal service located at 508 East Main Street in Seneca, South Carolina, as the ``S/Sgt Lewis G. Watkins Post Office Building''; H.R. 1260, a bill to designate the facility of the United States Postal service located at 6301 Highway 58 in Harrison, Tennessee, as the ``Claude Ramsey Post Office''; H.R. 1434, a bill to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 896 Pittsburgh Street in Springdale, Pennsylvania, as the ``Rachel Carson Post Office Building.''

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate in order to conduct a roundtable entitled ``Reauthorization of the Small Business Innovation Research Programs: National Academies' Findings and Recommendations,'' on August 1, 2007, at 10 a.m. in room 428A of the Russell Senate Office Building.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Select Committee on Intelligence be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on August 1, 2007, at 2:30 p.m. to hold an open hearing.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs' Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia be authorized to meet on Wednesday, August 1, 2007, at 2:30 p.m. in order to conduct a hearing entitled Building a Stronger American Diplomatic.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Subcommittee on Water and Power of the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources be authorized to hold a hearing during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, August 1, 2007, at 2:30 p.m. in room SD-366 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

The purpose of the hearing is to receive testimony on the following bills: S. 1054 and H.R. 122, to amend the Reclamation Wastewater and Groundwater Study and Facilities Act to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to participate in the Inland Empire regional recycling project and in the Cucamonga Valley Water District recycling project; S. 1472, to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to create a Bureau of Reclamation partnership with the North Bay Water Reuse Authority and other regional partners to achieve objectives relating to water supply, water quality, and environmental restoration; S. 1475 and H.R. 1526, to amend the Reclamation Wastewater and Groundwater Study and Facilities Act to authorize the Bay Area Regional Water Recycling Program, and for other purposes; H.R. 30, to amend the Reclamation Wastewater and Groundwater Study and Facilities Act to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to participate in the Eastern Municipal Water District Recycled Water

System Pressurization and Expansion Project; H.R. 609, to amend the Reclamation Wastewater and Groundwater Study and Facilities Act to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to participate in the Central Texas Recycling and Reuse Project, and for other purposes; and H.R. 1175, to amend the Reclamation Wastewater and Groundwater Study and Facilities Act to increase the ceiling on the Federal share of the costs of phase I of the Orange County, California, Regional Water Reclamation Project.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 3927) to temporarily extend the programs under the Higher Education Act of 1965, and for other purposes.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 3927, a bill to extend the Higher Education Act through April 30, 2008. This bill is very straightforward. It simply extends the current programs authorized under the Higher Education Act until April 30, 2008, giving us the time to fully consider and complete the reauthorization.

Mr. Speaker, we are making progress. With bipartisan support and the President's signature, we are making a historic investment in student financial aid in the College Cost Reduction and Access Act. We have also laid the groundwork to reauthorize the other core higher education programs, including teacher preparation, developing and strengthening institutions, college readiness and outreach programs, international education programs, graduate education, and many others.

The Higher Education Act was due to be reauthorized during the 108th Congress. It was not completed. The 109th Congress also failed to reauthorize this act. Given the length of time that has elapsed between when the Higher Education Act should have been reauthorized and today, we believed that it was critical that the 110th Congress and the stakeholders in the higher education community take a fresh look at the law and the recommendations to improve it.

We have held a series of congressional hearings covering the core issues of access, affordability, college preparation, teacher preparation, and institutional capacity. We put out a call for recommendations and received over 85 responses from individuals and organizations from across the Nation. I am looking forward to working with all my colleagues to produce a strong reauthorization that will earn broad support.

Mr. Speaker, I would also like to thank Congressman McKeon, the ranking member of the full committee. I would like to thank Congressman Ric Keller, the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Higher Education, Lifelong Learning and Competitiveness. Also, I wish to thank Chairman George Miller for working together with all of us to expedite this extension. I urge all my colleagues to support this legislation, H.R. 3927.

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

Mr. Speaker, as my colleague Ric Keller pointed out, the last reauthorization took place back in 1998. If we are able to get it done this year, it will have been almost 10 since that reauthorization. For me, having served 11 years in Congress, I have had quite a learning curve. I have learned the importance by listening to presidents and chancellors of many of the institutions of higher learning and realize the importance of us getting this job done this session.

Mr. Speaker, it is extremely important because we are trying to raise the number of students who will be college ready. We must have programs that are going to fill the need that we have in our country for teachers, for scientists, for mathematicians, for all of the different fields that are necessary for our country to enjoy its prosperity.

I am working hard with my colleague Ric Keller so that the Higher Education Act is completed on a timely basis, and one that is going to serve us for the next 6 years.

With that, I reserve the balance of my time and would like to ask the gentleman from Florida if he has some other speakers.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 3927, a measure to extend programs under the Higher Education Act, which are set to expire at the end of this month, for an additional 6 months. This is a clean extension. This will simply change the date required to reauthorize this law from October 31, 2007, until April 30, 2008. I thank my committee colleagues, Chairman Miller, Chairman Hinojosa, and Ranking Member McKeon, for their work on this bill, as well as their consistent efforts on behalf of our Nation's college students and their families.

Mr. Speaker, while I support the extension of the Higher Education Act, I also believe that we need to get on with it at this point and reauthorize this important law. The last time this law was authorized was when President Bill Clinton was in office back in 1998, and it expired in 2004.

We need to work in a bipartisan way to finally reauthorize the Higher Education Act. Republicans on the House Education Committee recently took a positive step in this direction by introducing H.R. 3746, The College Access and Opportunity Act of 2007. This bill is an updated version of H.R. 609, the Higher Education reauthorization bill that passed the House last Congress but was not taken up by the Senate. H.R. 3746 would strengthen the Pell Grant program by providing for year- round Pell Grants, and it would address college affordability by providing transparency in college costs, among other things.

I hope that we will move forward with the Higher Education Act reauthorization in a bipartisan and thoughtful manner. I look forward to working with Ranking Member McKeon and Chairmen Miller and Hinojosa and all of my colleagues on the Education and Labor Committee in completing our work in the coming months. In the meantime, however, I urge my colleagues to join with me in supporting this extension.

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

Mr. Speaker, I have no other speakers and I am prepared to close at this time.

Mr. Speaker, I just want to urge all of my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on H.R. 3927. We believe that a college education opportunity is the passport out of poverty for so many worthy young people. I urge my colleagues to support this extension and then later to work together in a bipartisan manner to reauthorize the Higher Education Act.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to address an inequity facing America's men and women in uniform who seek an education in return for their military service.

For years, the Montgomery GI Bill (MGIB) has allowed thousands of men and women in uniform attend college or to receive vocational training to prepare for a new career after the military.

It is an excellent program and one we must preserve.

However, Madam Speaker, I would like to remedy an inequity that exists in this program with legislation I am introducing today.

To receive the benefits of the Montgomery GI Bill, our service members must pay into the program at the beginning of their military service.

A $100 is deducted each month from their military pay for the first 12 months.

With the legislation I offer today, our service members would still make the initial contribution. However, this contribution would no longer count against them later on when they apply for federal student aid.

In many cases, Madam Speaker, the Montgomery GI Bill alone does not cover the cost for college or job training. Our service members must also apply for federal student aid to cover tuition and other expenses.

The Department of Education considers their benefits from the Montgomery GI Bill as ``income''-- thereby reducing the amount they are eligible to receive from federal student aid programs.

This legislation goes back to the $1,200 out-of-pocket contribution that a service member made to become eligible for the Montgomery GI Bill.

It is not fair to ask our service members to pay the original amount out of their own pocket and then penalize them for it later on.

This bill would simply exempt the original contribution that came from their own pocket from the Department of Education's income consideration.

This legislation does not present significant cost to the federal government but would go a long way to help America's individual service members afford college.

During the last Congress, I offered the provisions contained in this legislation as part of the College Access and Opportunity Act (H.R. 609) when it was on the House floor.

Unfortunately, the amendment was not accepted, but I plan to pursue the issue until we correct this inequity.

Madam Speaker, thank you for the opportunity to offer legislation benefiting America's military service members and helping them to attend college or receive job training.

Mr. President, I would like to announce for the information of the Senate and the public that a hearing has been scheduled before the Subcommittee on Water and Power of the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. The hearing will be held on August 1, 2007, at 2:30 p.m., in room 366 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, DC.

The purpose of the hearing is to receive testimony on the following bills: S. 1054 and H.R. 122, to amend the Reclamation Wastewater and Groundwater Study and Facilities Act to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to participate in the Inland Empire regional recycling project and in the Cucamonga Valley Water District recycling project; S. 1472, to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to create a Bureau of Reclamation partnership with the North Bay Water Reuse Authority and other regional partners to achieve objectives relating to water supply, water quality, and environmental restoration; S. 1475 and H.R. 1526, to amend the Reclamation Wastewater and Groundwater Study and Facilities Act to authorize the Bay Area Regional Water Recycling Program, and for other purposes; H.R. 30, to amend the Reclamation Wastewater and Groundwater Study and Facilities Act

to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to participate in the Eastern Municipal Water District Recycled Water System Pressurization and Expansion Project; H.R. 609, to amend the Reclamation Wastewater and Groundwater Study and Facilities Act to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to participate in the Central Texas Water Recycling and Reuse Project, and for other purposes; and H.R. 1175, to amend the Reclamation Wastewater and Groundwater Study and Facilities Act to the ceiling on the Federal share of the costs of phase I of the Orange County, California, Regional Water Reclamation Project.

Because of the limited time available for the hearing, witnesses may testify by invitation only. However, those wishing to submit written testimony for the hearing record should send it to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, United States Senate, Washington, DC 20510-6150, or by email to: Gina [email protected].

For further information, please contact Michael Connor at (202) 224- 5479 or Gina Weinstock at (202) 224-5684.