Supporting the goals and ideals of Peace Officers Memorial Day.

Madam Speaker, it's an honor and a privilege for me to be a servant of the people in the House of Representatives.

I came to this office through a rather unusual route. My first career was in law enforcement. And we are here tonight to recognize National Police Week, and especially National Police Memorial Day on Thursday.

My 33-year career in law enforcement started in 1972. I was a 21- year-old police officer, a sheriff's deputy with the King County Sheriff's Office. I worked patrol for 5 years. I worked as a property crimes detective. I worked as a homicide detective. And I've worked as a lead detective on a serial murder case. I've worked as a patrol sergeant, SWAT commander, a hostage negotiator--just about every aspect of law enforcement that you can think of I've been fortunate enough to experience--and finally, my last 8 years as first elected Sheriff in King County in almost 30 years. And here I stand today, in my second term in the House of Representatives, to talk about law enforcement.

I feel I have, as you might guess, some knowledge about what police officers do and what dangers they might face. And this week especially is an important week to stop and think about what police officers across this Nation do. I think that sometimes we take them for granted, the brave men and women who serve all across this Nation to protect us each and every day.

If you think about your life, think about my life and what we do each day by getting up in the morning, preparing breakfast, going to work, going to school, feeling safe, coming home from work, picking up your children from school, we sort of take those police cars for granted that we see patrolling our neighborhood. And Sunday, this past Sunday we celebrated Mother's Day, an opportunity for families to get together with their children and grandchildren, as I did on Sunday with my three--actually, two of my children showed up, and some of my grandchildren were there, but an opportunity for us to come together and celebrate the contribution that mothers make to this Nation. And we did it safely in our home.

But at the same time, I remember, as I was sitting there this Sunday, and most holidays, really, reflect back on my career and think about those days I was in a police car, as I drove around the neighborhoods that I was patrolling and recognizing that all of these families were together on this special day, Thanksgiving, New Year's, Christmas, Mother's Day, Father's Day, all those days that bring families together that I was driving around in my patrol car in those communities, all the cars parked at these homes, it was my job, and my partner's job on either side of me in the districts that they patrolled, to keep them safe while they enjoyed that day. We take that for granted. I think we take our freedom for granted.

I once spoke at the University of Washington not too long after taking this office and I was talking to a group of students, 400, 500 students or so, and really was emphasizing the importance of freedom and how much that we need to embrace our freedom and recognize that freedom isn't free, not just the men and women who are serving here as police officers in our country, protecting us each day here at home, but those men and women who are protecting our freedom all around the world in our armed services.

And as I was a little bit passionate about freedom and about how important it is for us to recognize that if we don't guard freedom it will slip through our fingertips, a young lady in the class raised her hand and said--and they still call me Sheriff, by the way--Sheriff, I don't understand why you're talking about freedom so much. We have been a free country for years, and we're going to continue to be free. That really struck me, that one comment by that young college student, because she really pointed out what I had believed for a long time, that people in this country are taking our freedom for granted.

Success in our world today, success in our communities today, it really depends upon what our police officers do. Remember your police officers out there who are balancing, protecting your neighborhoods every day. I was the sheriff during WTO. We had 40 to 50 thousand people who were rioting in the streets of Seattle in 1999.

Now, there is a great balance that had to take place there as we tried to bring peace to the city of Seattle during those riots. Before the riots began, people were saying, let's go to Seattle and listen to people speak and express their freedom of speech. And then as people arrived and some decided to create havoc, people were a little bit nervous because crimes were being committed, the rights of other people were being trampled upon by those who felt that their freedom of speech was more important than others who were trying to express their freedom by going to work, coming home, leaving and going and moving and shopping and doing the things that we do every day.

So at one point what we had to do in WTO during those days was to shut the city down. Certain segments of the city of Seattle were cordoned off. There was a curfew placed on the city of Seattle on the citizens. So freedom was lost. If you think about freedom on a continuum, you have the ``freedom to'' and the ``freedom from.'' ``Freedom to'' is the police officers that raise their right hand and say, I swear that I will uphold the Constitution of the United States, that I will protect your rights provided to each and every citizen of the United States of America. And on the other end of the continuum you have the

``freedom from.'' We promise that we will do our best to keep you from becoming victims of crime. Well, in WTO you saw that balance sway. Freedom was being expressed, people were expressing their freedom more vocally than they should have. It got out of control. Chaos ensued. Police came in. Freedom was taken away. The balance in the continuum of freedom was unbalanced.

But in America and in Seattle, as peace was restored to the city, the curfew was removed and certain areas of the city that were closed off were now open once again for people to move about the city. This is America, where we recognize that we can't keep people from moving where they want to move and go where they want to go. It's a free country.

So the police have a tough job. Imagine being a police officer, 50,000 people rioting in the streets and you're one of the police officers standing in line trying to protect America, protect the citizens of Seattle. And I saw this happen. One of the police officers, the sheriff's deputies standing his post shoulder to shoulder with the rest, as I was standing behind him, was standing stoically in the face of thousands of people screaming and yelling and protesting. And one had a stick in his hand and reached over and hit the police officer, the sheriff's deputy over the head with that stick. And the sheriff's deputy didn't move, just stood there. And they moved the crowd along. It's a tough job to balance freedom and protection of America, but our police officers do it every day.

Let's take a moment to talk about and think about National Police Week. This is a week where we celebrate and appreciate and remember the efforts that all of our police officers put forth each and every day. And boy, I could tell you some stories, I would be here all night, about my experiences on patrol and some of the things that police officers see and the dangers that they face.

More than 56,000 police officers are assaulted every year. Every 53 hours a police officer is killed in the line of duty here in the United States. I've lost some friends over my 33-year career. I want to share their stories briefly. And as you can tell, it's emotional, memories that come bubbling up as I remember those days.

My best friend by the name of Sam Hicks, he and I were working homicide together. We were tracking down a killer. He went out one night with another friend of mine because they got a tip on where this killer was. And as they went out in search of this killer, they found him. They began to follow him. And the killer and his brother ambushed my partner and shot him in the chest with a .308 Winchester rifle and took his life. He left behind a wife and five children. That was June 1982.

Two years later, a good friend of mine who was a classmate in the academy--in fact, we rode together every day to the police academy in 1973--Mike Rayburn, a great public servant, excellent police officer, dedicated, committed to his job and his family and his community, was working a special unit in Seattle. He knocked on a door, the door opened, the man opened the door and thrust a World War II sword through the crack of the door and into Detective Rayburn's body. He fell and died.

These are only two stories of two special friends. There are many people who are touched by the loss of a police officer, mothers and fathers, sisters, brothers, spouses, sons and daughters, grandparents, neighbors and friends. It's a job we should respect, we should thank them for, praise them for, not take for granted, and always remember them.

I'd like to pause in my presentation for a moment and yield some time to my good friend who is a judge from Texas, Congressman Ted Poe.

I thank my good friend from Texas, and it's good to have others in Congress who understand the role that law enforcement officers across this country play and the important work that they do to keep us all safe. And the judges were a great partner for us in keeping our communities and neighborhoods safe.

I want to thank you for your years of service in law enforcement and thank you for being here tonight to share some of your thoughts with us on National Police Week.

Some of the things that you mentioned I want to touch on.

We, as Americans, cannot really talk about success and freedom in America and being free in America until we know our children are safe and we know our children and family are secure. One of the things that I think is important is to have people in Congress who understand law enforcement. And for those police officers out there listening, I assure you that there are people here who understand and appreciate so much what you do. Some of us have been there.

The judge touched on a number of police officers injured in the line of duty. I was one of those in a domestic violence call in the mid- 1970s, back when I was much younger and had dark brown hair. But in the middle of trying to save the wife of a deranged person, her husband, I was in the battle for my life. This man had a butcher knife and was trying to slit the throat of his wife, and I was able to grab her and push her out a bedroom window but suffered butcher knife wounds to the side of my neck.

I also understand the need for support, for the community to come around us and support us and be there for us when we need them to stand up and tell elected officials: We need more police officers. We need technology. We need more help. We need you to be there for us and support us with budget increases, not budget cuts. We need you to make strong laws in your local communities, your cities, and your States and your counties that help us do our job, that help us protect American citizens from criminals, from being victims, and also to protect our rights.

The United States has some serious problems that we need to address, and I don't think they're being addressed the way they should be. People know that we have a gang problem. People know that we have a drug problem. People know that we have child predators on the Internet, sexual predators on the Internet, preying on our children.

I want to share a few facts with you. Gangs are increasing. We used to think about gang problems, drug problems, and those sorts of things as inner-city problems, inner-city crimes. These crime activities now are spread across the Nation, as you can see by this map. This is an indication of the gang problem across our country. The white dots you see are where gang activity exists today, and it's pretty much maintained the same level over a number of years. The red dots indicate increases in gang activity. The blue dots, which you don't see many of, indicate a decrease. Now, if you can't see this fully on your TV screen at home, please feel free to go to our Web site and check your neighborhood, check your city, check your State to see what condition your neighborhood is in as far as increase in gang activity and drug activity.

Today there are 25,000 gangs operating in more than 3,000 jurisdictions in the United States. Gang membership has escalated to 850,000 members.

Even more alarming, gangs are increasingly targeting our young kids. They're not recruiting kids from college, young men and women from college. Yes, they are, but this isn't their target age. They're not just recruiting kids from high school. They're not just recruiting kids from junior high school or middle schools. But they're also targeting our kids who are in elementary schools. The average age of a gang recruit today is seventh grade. That's an 11- or 12-year-old child being recruited into a gang in some city across the United States of America now, today, tomorrow, and the day after.

What are we doing? According to a 2001 Department of Justice survey, 20 percent of students age 12 through 18 reported that street gangs had been present at their school during the previous 6 months. More than one-quarter of the students in urban schools reported a street gang presence. Eighteen percent of students in suburban schools and 13 percent in rural schools reported the presence of street gangs. This is not just an inner city problem. This is a problem that is spread across this country. It is in suburban schools. And

it is in the suburban neighborhood that I live in in Washington State.

Gangs threaten the freedom and security of our communities in many ways. They are directly linked to the narcotics trade, human trafficking, ID theft, assault, murder and a host of other crimes. There were over 631 gang-related homicides in the United States in 2001. Gangs readily employ violence to control and expand their drug trade.

Now I have personal experience too, of course, with that but more on a personal level rather than a professional level as a police officer. I want to talk about the impact of drugs on children and families. I am the proud grandfather of six grandchildren. Two of my grandchildren are adopted. They were foster grandchildren, foster children of my daughter and her husband, who were drug-addicted babies. They came into my daughter's home and her husband's home when they were about 2\1/2\ months old. Little Briar is 6 years old and doing fine. He was 2\1/2\ pounds when he was born, a little meth-addicted baby. Little Emma is 5 years old. She was a crack cocaine, heroin, meth and alcohol-addicted baby.

Think about that for a minute. Drug-addicted babies. Gang members who are promoting drugs and selling drugs to young teenage girls on our streets who then become pregnant and give birth to drug-addicted babies.

I hope that everyone watching understands the impact of what I just said. Do you know what happens when a meth baby is born? Have you ever thought about the pain they go through? When they are born, they have no idea they are hungry. In fact, they don't know how to eat. They don't know how to suck on a bottle. The poison from the meth escapes through their bottom. So they put the babies on their belly in a fetal position with a warming light over the top of them. The poison, as I said, escapes through their bottom. But you can't put any ointment on them because it holds the poison against the skin. You can't use baby powder. It does the same thing. It creates more pain.

So what do you do with a meth-addicted baby? You let the baby suffer for 2 or 3 weeks and let the drug escape through the bottom while the baby feels intense burning and pain during that period of time. Briar went through that. Emma, as a crack cocaine, heroin and meth-addicted baby had additional issues to deal with. Today these children are in a good home. They have a chance at a good life and to be productive citizens in this country.

But ladies and gentlemen, those are the kids that we need to protect. Those are the kids that our police officers are out there every day trying to prevent them from becoming drug-addicted babies, trying to prevent those young girls that we see out there from becoming mothers of drug-addicted babies, trying to prevent those young men out there from becoming fathers of drug-addicted babies and then disappearing into the streets.

So we have to say enough is enough. We have a crisis on our hands. Gangs, drugs, sexual predators, Internet sexual predators, gangs on the rise, organized gangs, 850,000 gang members. Congress needs to stop talking about these issues and needs to act. We need to act today. And during this Congress, the majority has been silent on this issue. And as I said, I understand as a sheriff, as a police officer in a uniform driving a police car, and as a detective, I needed the tools then to do my job. I know there was a fight in the battle in the budget arena at the county council level, at the State level and at the Federal level to find us the tools that we needed. But every day we went out and we did our job with the tools that we had.

One of the things I wanted to point out today is that we have, as Republicans, presented over 103 pieces of legislation to help police officers get the job done. I have to tell you that as a cop, because I still see myself as a cop trying to be a legislator, trying to find the way to stop the craziness and the violence in this country, where are the people of the United States who need to push their representative, who need to call their representative, who need to e-mail their representative, who need to be pounding on the front door and demanding that we do something about gang violence in this country, that we do something about stopping the recruitment of our grade school kids and junior high school kids into gangs?

Of the only six bills that we have out of the 103 that the Democrats have agreed to accept, and they have actually passed, three of those are resolutions. While we support resolutions and the statements that they make in support of police officers, in support of stopping crime and protecting our citizens, we need real action.

To address the gang epidemic in our suburban communities, I have introduced legislation, H.R. 367, the Gang Elimination Act, that would identify and target the three international gangs that present the greatest threat to the United States and create a gang most-wanted list and develop a national strategy to eliminate the gang epidemic plaguing our neighborhood. This bill has not seen the light of day. I even testified in front of the committee. That bill has not even seen the light of day.

Why not? Is it because it is a Republican bill? Is it because the majority doesn't support the job that police officers are out there trying to do every day? Why are we not providing the tools that our cops need? I ask that question every day when I come to work in this body.

Crime is on the increase. Violent crime is on the increase. Gang activity is on the increase. Drug addiction is on the increase. More drug-addicted babies are being born. The pediatric interim care center that Briar and Emma were taken to and treated and foster cared out and finally adopted by my family has increased their capacity to now nearly 45 babies that they can hold within that facility. And it's not enough. They need more space.

So I would ask the majority, please consider the other 103 bills. Let's bring the Gang Elimination Act to the floor. Let's bring these other 103 bills to the floor. Let's act on these today. Let's help the police officers out there in our country that need our help today. Let's not wait another minute. I demand that we have action here in Congress in helping our police officers.

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

I want to thank the gentleman for yielding.

I appreciate your service in the House but also in your other career as a sheriff. I'm sure, based upon the information we know about you, Sheriff, when you left the State of Washington and came to the House of Representatives, the criminals were probably cheering that you had left town and you were coming to Washington, DC. But I want to thank you and the other several individuals in the House of Representatives who served in law enforcement prior to coming to the House of Representatives.

This week is Police Week, May 11 through the 17th. I am proud to be the author of House Resolution 1132 to designate May 15 of this year as Peace Officers Memorial Day so that we can honor all Federal, State, and local peace officers killed in the line of duty or disabled in the line of duty.

As you have mentioned, Sheriff, thousands of local, State, and Federal law enforcement officers across the country are injured every year. Almost 60,000 a year are injured in the line of duty. Many others are also killed in the line of duty.

Peace officers selflessly protect our communities and our property regardless of the dangers they face. Every day when they get up, they pin that badge or star on, and they go on patrol throughout this country, they always put their life on the line for the rest of us. There are almost 1 million sworn peace officers in the United States today.

When I came to Congress, I was the author and founder of the Victims' Rights Caucus. This bipartisan group advocates not only on behalf of crime victims but peace officers as well, to give bipartisan support for the work that peace officers do because many of them also become victims of crime.

You mentioned that you spent 33 years in law enforcement. I saw it probably from the other position. You used to catch them and I used to prosecute them, so to speak. I spent 8 years prosecuting criminals in Houston, Texas, and left the District Attorney's office and became a judge in Houston for 22 more years, hearing only criminal cases, hearing some 25,000 cases during that period of time. And I saw firsthand how police officers became victims of crime. During my years as a prosecutor, I knew several peace officers that were injured or killed in the line of duty. And since the first recorded police death in 1792, there have been almost 20,000 officers killed in the line of duty in the United States. Of course, the deadliest day in law enforcement history was September 11, 2001, when 72 officers were killed responding to international criminal attacks against the United States. Last year 181 officers were killed. That's 30 more than in 2006.

Law enforcement officers are also frequently the victims of assault. They continue to be assaulted day in and day out. And it's not part of their duty and job to be victims of assault. But as you mentioned, many times they take it because that's what they do.

Here in Washington, DC., we have the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial. This memorial lists the names of brave men and women who have died in the line of duty, and every year more names are added to that memorial, and every year more families suffer the rest of their lives for being a victim of crime and the loss of their loved one.

This year, in 2008, Texas has the highest number of law enforcement officers that have been killed, with Georgia being second. Ranking in the States, California has lost the most, Texas the second most, and New York the third most since we have been recording the number of officers killed. This week allows us an opportunity to pay tribute to these brave men and women who are no longer with us because they protected our communities.

Texas has a high number of officers who have been killed because of the unique problem we have with illegal trespassers and that epidemic that is occurring on our southern border. You can open a newspaper almost every week in Texas and read about some illegal trespasser committing a crime, and too often that crime is against a peace officer. Right now, as we are here tonight, down in Houston, Texas, an illegal trespasser by the name of Juan Leonardo Quintero-Perez, who had already been deported from this country once for child molesting, came back into the United States and was arrested by Houston Police Officer Rodney Johnson for a routine traffic stop. But Officer Johnson was the victim of a crime because this illegal criminal shot Officer Johnson four times in the back of the head. His wife was also a Houston police officer. Now they mourn his loss while the killer is on trial for capital murder, too often a

scenario that occurs here in the United States.

This week also there is another group that is meeting, and the name of this organization is Concerns of Police Survivors, or COPS, as it's called. They have their National Police Survivors' Conference this week, and it's an organization of 15,000 families of law enforcement officers that were killed in the line of duty, and they are meeting this week to honor the loss of their loved ones and peace officers throughout the United States.

It is important that we in Congress recognize the work that peace officers throughout the United States do on a daily basis. They don't get much recognition, and it's our responsibility to make sure that we are their advocate and we're their voice.

When I was growing up in Texas, before we moved to Houston, we lived in a small town called Heidenheimer. You've never heard of it, Sheriff. But occasionally we would go to the biggest town in our area, Temple, Texas. And once I was there with my dad watching a parade, and I noticed that there was an individual standing on the side at the curb not involved in the parade, just watching the parade. And, of course, that was a local Temple police officer. And back in those days, they didn't wear uniforms. They just wore a cowboy hat and a white shirt and a star, as some of them still do. And I was 5 or 6 years of age. And I remember my father told me, because he noticed I was watching this individual, he said, ``If you are ever in trouble, if you ever need help, go to the person who wears the badge because they are a cut above the rest of us.''

Now, those words were true many, many years ago when I was a kid, but they are true today as well. People still, when they're in trouble, when they need someone to help them, they go to peace officers, those individuals who wear the badge, because they are the last strand of wire between the law and the lawless, and they protect us from those who wish to commit crimes against our community. They are all that separate us from the barbarians, if you will. And we honor them for wearing the badge of an American peace officer.

When September 11, 2001, occurred, all Americans remember what they were doing that morning. I was driving my jeep to the courthouse, and I was listening to the radio, and it was interrupted, and we heard about an airplane that crashed into the World Trade Center. And as I continued driving to the courthouse, we heard about a second plane that crashed into the World Trade Center, the second tower. And then another plane crashing in Pennsylvania because of some heroes on that plane, and the fourth plane crashing not far from here, into the Pentagon.

And later that evening, as most Americans were watching television, as I was, while peace officers like yourself, Sheriff, were out doing your duty on patrol, I noticed that there were thousands and thousands of people. When those planes hit the World Trade Center, thousands of people were running as hard as they could to get away from that crime in the skies.

But there was another group, not near as many, but they were there anyway, a small group, that when those planes hit the World Trade Center, they were running as hard as they could to get to that crime scene. Who were they? Emergency medical technicians, firefighters, and peace officers. And 72 of those peace officers gave their lives that day.

And while it's important that we remember the 3,000 that were killed on 9/11, it's equally important we remember those that lived because peace officers and other first responders gave their lives so they could live and are living today.

So it's important that we honor our peace officers because they are, as my dad said many, many years ago, ``a cut above the rest of us.''

And that's just the way it is.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this resolution. I had the opportunity to vote it out of our committee week before last. We did so with full expectation that it would be on the floor last week, as has been traditional when law enforcement leaders come from around the country for our peace officers gathering.

It's with great trepidation that I support this, but also note that the partisan nature of our body, which has always caused this bill, in the past, to be up for that week so that the men and women could sit in the gallery and observe our recognition of the important work they do, did not happen. I would hope this is the last time that resolutions like this are held because, quote, we wouldn't get to them with all the recorded votes. The men and women, the 56,000-plus who are assaulted every year, the 181 who died last year, up from 151 the year before, they deserve our recognition in a timely fashion. They deserve our constant support. They deserve not to be part of partisan infighting.

I believe that, in fact, most of us in the Congress, including the gentlelady from California, shares with me the nonpartisan support for our law enforcement people.

I might additionally recognize at this time, that law enforcement is not only around the country, but it's also right here in the Capitol. We in the Congress could not do our business in an orderly fashion if it wasn't for the Capitol Hill Police who stand vigilantly with large weapons against an attack and, on a daily basis, ensure that the tens of thousands of people who come to see the Capitol are able to do so without interfering with the operations of this body.

So in the jobs large and small I would like to join with the gentlelady in asking for this bill to be passed, but I'd also like to recognize the men and women of the Capitol Hill Police.

H. Res. 1132 supports the goals and ideals of Peace Officers Memorial Day to honor federal, state, and local law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty, and encourages the citizens of the United States to observe the day with appropriate ceremonies and respect.

Law enforcement officers face dangers on the job every single day while fighting crime, violence and terrorism. On May 17, 1792, New York City's Deputy Sheriff, Isaac Smith, became the first police officer to be recorded as killed in the line of duty. Today, more than 56,000 officers are assaulted each year and just this past year, in 2007, 181 officers were killed while serving the American people.

Last year was one of the deadliest years for U.S. law enforcement in nearly two decades. The number of officers killed in the line of duty last year increased nearly 20 percent from 2006, when there were 151 officer deaths.

There is a quote by President George H.W. Bush engraved on the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial, located at Judiciary Square here in D.C. that summarizes the mission of the 900,000 current sworn law enforcement officers in the United States. It states that it is their daily ``quest to preserve both democracy and decency, and to protect a national treasure that we call the American dream.''

May 15 was Peace Officers Memorial Day, a holiday created in 1961, by Congress to pay homage to the fallen law enforcement officers who have dedicated their lives to protecting this country and its citizens. On this day the flag is flown at half-staff and thousands of people visit the National Law Enforcement Memorial, which currently has 18,274 names engraved on its surface.

Each of these names is evidence of the sacrifices these brave law enforcement officers have made to keep American citizens safe.

With gratitude for our law enforcement officers' devotion and dedication, I ask all members to join me in supporting H. Res. 1132.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that a quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is not present.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H. Res. 1132, Supporting the goals and ideals of Peace Officers Memorial Day, introduced by my distinguished colleague from Texas, Representative Ted Poe.

Peace officers, the sworn, public-sector officers entrusted with law enforcement authority and the power of arrest, risk their lives daily to protect our Nation. These individuals, who are responsible for safeguarding the rights and freedoms we enjoy as Americans, are true heroes.

Peace Officers Memorial Day honors those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for the safety and security of their communities and our Nation. Created by Public Law 87-726, signed by President Kennedy in 1962, this day gives us the opportunity to acknowledge and pay our respects to those who, through their courageous deeds, have fallen in the line of duty.

Mr. Speaker, on thursday, May 15, 2008, our Nation will come together to honor, remember and record those law enforcement officers who were killed in the line of duty during the year of 2007. Mr. Speaker, one of the names of the fallen heroes added to the list last year was Officer Rodney J. Johnson of the Houston Police Department. Officer Johnson, a 12-year veteran of the Houston Police Department, was killed September 21, 2006, while taking a suspect in custody during a traffic stop. He leaves to honor his memory his beloved wife, Houston Police Department Officer Joslyn Johnson, and five teen-aged children; three daughters and two sons, ages 14 to 19.

Officer Rodney Johnson was born in Houston and served in the U.S. Army as a military police officer until being honorably discharged in 1990. He then went to work as a corrections officer for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and then as a jail attendant. He graduated from the Houston police academy in 1994.

As a member of the department's Southeast Gang Task Force, Officer Rodney Johnson earned two Lifesaving Awards and one Medal of Valor from the State of Texas. In January 1998, Officer Rodney Johnson rescued a physically challenged driver trapped in rising floodwaters, and later that year he rescued mentally challenged people trapped inside of a burning house.

Officer Rodney Johnson, who stood 6 feet 5 inches tall and weighed nearly 300 pounds, served on his union's board of directors. As Hans Marticiuc, the president of Officer Johnson's union stated, ``he was big and he was intimidating-looking, but he was as gentle as a baby bear.''

Although the number of officers killed in the line of duty has declined in recent years, the

fact that one officer is killed every 2\1/2\ days in our country is a sober reminder that protecting our communities and safeguarding our democracy come at a heavy price.

Last year, the total number of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty was represented by 17,917 names engraved on the Memorial, representing officers from all 50 States, the District of Columbia, U.S. territories, and Federal law enforcement and military police agencies.

This resolution supports the goals and ideals of National Peace Officer Memorial Day, which honors Federal, State, and local peace officers killed or disabled in the line of duty. This service will honor the 181 law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty during 2007, as well as the 900,000 officers who continue to serve in Federal, State and local law enforcement agencies nationwide.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this important resolution:

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 1132) supporting the goals and ideals of Peace Officers Memorial Day.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks.

Mr. Speaker, as a member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, I'm pleased to join my colleagues in the consideration of H. Res. 1132, which seeks to commemorate the selfless men and women who serve as law enforcement officers around our country. Their service is crucial to the protection of Americans everywhere, and their daily sacrifice is what helps to guarantee our right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

H. Res. 1132 was introduced by Ted Poe of Texas on April 22, 2008, and was considered by and reported from the Oversight Committee on May 1, 2008 by voice vote. This legislative measure has the support of over 65 Members of Congress, and its principal purpose is to show our appreciation for the risk that 900,000-plus sworn law enforcement officers face daily in their service to communities throughout the United States.

In this past year alone, our country has lost over 180 law enforcement officers in the line of duty, and while just last week many of their fellow officers descended upon our Nation's Capital for National Police Week in remembrance of these fallen heroes, today, we, in the Congress also take a moment to express our gratitude for these courageous Americans by recognizing Peace Officers Memorial Day.

Therefore, it is with humble gratitude that we salute and we thank our country's peace officers, as well as remember those officers who gave their life in service and protection of ours.

Mr. Speaker, I urge the swift passage of H. Res. 1132 and reserve the balance of my time.

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