To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 46-02 21st Street in Long Island City, New York, as the "Geraldine Ferraro Post Office Building".

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 774) to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 46-02 21st Street in Long Island City, New York, as the ``Geraldine Ferraro Post Office Building''.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, as chairman of the House subcommittee with jurisdiction over the United States Postal Service, and as we commend the dedicated service of our Nation's public servants during Public Service Recognition Week, I am pleased to present H.R. 774 for consideration.

This legislation would designate the United States postal facility located at 46-02 21st Street in Long Island City, New York, as the Geraldine Ferraro Post Office Building in honor of an exceptional public servant who has dedicated over 30 years of life to serving our country.

Introduced by my colleague, Representative Carolyn Maloney of New York, on January 28, 2009, and reported out of the Oversight Committee on March 18, 2009, by unanimous consent, H.R. 774 enjoys the strong support of the New York House delegation.

Born in the city of Newburgh, New York, to her father Dominick, an Italian immigrant restaurant owner, and her mother Antonetta, a first generation Italian American seamstress, Geraldine Ferraro stands as a living testament to an often-cited passage from her historic address to the 1984 Democratic convention: ``America's history is about doors being opened, doors of opportunity for everyone, no matter who you are, as long as you are willing to earn it.'' Ms. Ferraro spoke these words upon her introduction as the first female and Italian American major party candidate for the Vice Presidency of the United States.

Ms. Ferraro graduated from the Marymount High School in Manhattan in 1952. She was awarded a scholarship to Marymount Manhattan College, and in 1956 earned her bachelor of arts degree, becoming the first woman in her family to receive a college education.

In her subsequent service as a public elementary school teacher in Astoria, Queens, Ms. Ferraro attended Fordham University School of Law at night. She courageously ignored an admission officer's admonition that she would be taking ``a man's place'' in the class. In 1960, she received her juris doctorate as one of only two women in her graduating class of 179 students.

Following her admission to the New York State bar in 1961, Ms. Ferraro practiced law part time in the private sector while raising her family. In 1974, she was appointed to serve as an assistant district attorney for Queens County. In 1977, she was chosen to head the recently established Queens County Special Victims Bureau, where she specialized in cases involving abused women and children.

Ms. Ferraro was elected to the United States Congress in 1978, and honorably represented New York State's Ninth Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1979 to 1985. Throughout her tenure in Congress, Ms. Ferraro devoted much of her legislative attention to women's rights and human rights advocacy. To this end, she admirably sought passage of measures such as the Equal Rights Amendment and the Women's Economic Equity Act.

In 1984, Ms. Ferraro became the first woman and the first Italian American to be nominated to the Vice Presidency of the United States by a major American political party when she was chosen by Democratic Presidential candidate Walter Mondale to join the 1984 national ticket. Her historic nomination continues to stand as evidence that, as Ms. Ferraro proclaimed in her acceptance address, ``America is the land where dreams can come true for all of us.''

Following her remarkable Vice Presidential run, Ms. Ferraro remained active in public and community service. In 1993, she was appointed by President Bill Clinton as Ambassador to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. As noted by President Clinton, Ms. Ferraro's appointment came in recognition of her longstanding dedication to international women's rights issues. Ms. Ferraro continues to serve the Nation through a variety of public and private sector efforts, specifically as a widely regarded author and political commentator. She keeps the American public well informed regarding issues of public policy.

Through her nonprofit organizational work, she continues her commitment to creating educational and professional opportunities for women, as well as addressing wage and training disparities in the workplace. Furthermore, as a cancer survivor, Ms. Ferraro admirably and successfully advocates in support of increasing much needed funding for cancer research.

Mr. Speaker, let us honor a dedicated public servant through the passage of H.R. 774, and by designating the 21st Street postal facility in Long Island City in honor of Geraldine Ferraro. I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 774.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the lead sponsor of this resolution, the gentlelady from New York (Mrs. Maloney).

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman's support for the naming of this Post Office Building on behalf of Geraldine Ferraro.

At this point, I would like to yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Lowey) who is also in her own right a champion of women's rights. So it is appropriate that she speak on this bill as well.

Mr. Speaker, I ask all Members to support both Member Carolyn Maloney, the lead sponsor of this measure, and Mrs. Lowey, who also spoke on behalf of this measure, in naming this post office after Geraldine Ferraro.

I yield back the balance of our time.

I thank the gentleman for the time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this resolution to name the U.S. Post Office located on 21st Street in Long Island, New York, as the Geraldine Ferraro Post Office Building.

I served in this body with Geraldine Ferraro, a former Queens County district attorney, and I join my colleagues in congratulating her and her family in a well-deserved honor and wish her well.

As we deal with this issue, though, Mr. Speaker, I feel there is a pressing matter of national security which directly affects the welfare of the American people which is not being addressed, and the American people deserve to know what is happening.

Geraldine Ferraro represented the people of New York City, a city which was forever changed on a sunny September morning when two planes slammed into the World Trade Center killing thousands and awakening our country to the murderous aims of the terrorist network globally. Thirty people from my congressional district lost their lives that day.

Countless books have been written since, which highlight miscalculations and missed opportunities on the part of the policymakers in the intelligence community who failed to recognize the severity of the threat our country is facing leading up to 9/11. We can no longer say we do not know the threat, and yet this administration is on the precipice of making a decision which, given what we know, is unthinkable.

Press reports and other information I receive indicates that President Obama's decision regarding the release into the United States of a number of Uyghur detainees held at Guantanamo Bay since 2002 is imminent. The detainees are trained terrorists. They were held at a facility which was home to Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the mastermind of 9/ 11 who took pleasure in beheading Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.

There have been published reports that these detainees were members of the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement, a designated terrorist organization affiliated with al Qaeda.

Now, just this April, the U.S. Treasury froze the assets of Abdul Haq, the leader of this group, the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Party, known as ETIM. This is the same group that the detainees are reportedly affiliated with. The Treasury Department targeted Haq as part of their efforts to shut down the al Qaeda support network. Upon making the designation, Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence said, and I quote what our Treasury Department said: ``Adbul Haq commands a terror group that sought to sow violence and fracture international unity at the 2008 Olympic Games in China.''

Few have been more critical of the Chinese Government than I have. But terrorism is terrorism. American citizens were present at the Olympic Games. Terrorism knows no boundaries. It must not be tolerated anywhere. American career government officials risked their lives to capture these people. What if they had not been captured? Would they have then left this terrorist training camp and gone off to wreak terrorism somewhere in China killing innocent men, women and children of China?

Yet the U.S. Congress and the American people are left utterly, and I'm increasingly concerned, in the dark. The administration will not allow any career person from the FBI, from the CIA, or from the Department of Homeland Security to come up and tell the Congress about these detainees. The American people, Mr. Speaker, the American people deserve more. After learning that this decision was imminent, I requested briefings from a number of relevant agencies. But all have told me that Eric Holder, our Attorney General of the Department of Justice, is preventing them from speaking out, speaking to me or other Members, if you will, on this issue.

Why, Mr. Speaker, is the Department of Justice withholding this information from the American people? Why is proper congressional oversight, which American people expect of their elected representatives, now being thwarted? This is not the time to play games. The stakes are too high, not just with regard to this specific group of detainees; but speaking more broadly, our enemy is empowered by perceived weakness. What message are we sending when one branch of government stonewalls another on a matter with undeniable national security implications?

Again, I call on the Justice Department to declassify and release all information regarding the capture, detention and threats posed by these detainees or others that they may consider releasing into the U.S. Any intelligence assessment of these Uyghurs must take into account not only their previous training at terrorist training camps, but their potential subsequent exposure and radicalization while they were at Guantanamo Bay.

Andrew McCarthy, a former Federal prosecutor who led the 1995 prosecution against Sheik Omar Adbel Rahman who was found guilty of planning the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, wrote just today that the administration is playing ``fast and loose with the declassification of information.''

Mr. Speaker, this information ought to be released to the American people before any decision is made. And with that I thank the Chair.

I thank the gentleman for yielding and for his leadership on this and so many other things.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 774, legislation to name the Long Island City Main Post Office after former Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro. The main post office is located at 4602 21st Street in Long Island City, Queens, in the district Ferraro represented with distinction in the U.S. House of Representatives for 6 years. It is also located in the district that I am honored to represent. It is a grand building and a fitting building for an extraordinary woman.

A trailblazer, role model, leader, Ferraro has been a pivotal figure in American history. When Walter Mondale selected her in 1984 to be the first female Vice Presidential candidate on a national party ticket, she became an icon. The night she was nominated--and I was there with great excitement to see the first woman on a national party ticket--she took to the microphone and told the crowd, ``American history is about doors being opened, doors of opportunity for everyone, no matter who you are, as long as you are willing to earn it.''

And although doors have continued to open for women, the marble ceiling remains intact. It took more than two decades for another woman to be given a similar opportunity, and none have won. Geraldine Ferraro continues to symbolize the hope and expectation that one day a woman will be elected to the White House. Ferraro has spent her entire career opening doors, breaking down barriers, and helping others to follow her. She was one of only two women in her law school class. She was appointed assistant district attorney for Queens County, New York, at a time when women prosecutors were extremely rare.

When she entered Congress in 1979, she was one of only 13 women in the House. Nonetheless, she quickly earned the respect of her colleagues and was elected to the secretary of the House Democratic Caucus for the 97th and 98th Congresses. Granting her a seat on the influential Steering and Policy Committee, Ferraro served on the Post Office and Civil Services Committee, the Public Works and Transportation Committee, the Select Committee on Aging, and in 1983 was appointed to the Budget Committee.

In her work on the Post Office and Civil Services Committee, the newly elected Ferraro helped enact a widely demanded local ZIP Code that gave the Queens neighborhoods of Ridgewood and Glendale a Queens- based code, 11385. Previously, Glendale and parts of Ridgewood were serviced under 11227, Bushwick's ZIP Code in Brooklyn. But when the 1977 blackout plunged Bushwick into riots, her constituents noticed that insurance companies and banks were raising premiums and rates in the entire ZIP Code even though Queens remained largely balanced and unscathed by the violence and looting. Although the Postmaster General told Ferraro that a ZIP Code change like this had never been done before, he would go forward if the Congresswoman could collect some 50,000 signatures. And that is what she did.

In January of 1993, President Clinton appointed Ferraro as a member of the U.S. delegation to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. She attended the June 1993 World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna as the alternate U.S. delegate. In October of 1993, Clinton promoted her to be head of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights Delegation, with the rank of United States Ambassador. She was vice- Chair of the U.S. delegation to the landmark September 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, and I accompanied her as a representative for this body at that historic conference.

Ferraro has written three books, cohosted a political talk show, cofounded a consulting management company to help corporations train women leaders, and worked on the boards of dozens of organizations. Today, she is of counsel at the law firm of Blank Rome, where she advises clients on a wide range of public policy issues. And whatever her many accomplishments have been in the area of Queens that Ferraro once represented, people remember her as their good friend, their neighbor, and their Congresswoman, a tenacious fighter who represented them and their interests. She never forgot them and they have never forgotten her. Thousands of her former constituents use the Main Post Office every week, and they will be delighted to have this important neighborhood institution named in her honor.

So I am thrilled to be the sponsor of this important legislation.

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

I rise today in support of H.R. 774, to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 4602 21st Street in Long Island City, New York, as the Geraldine Ferraro Post Office Building.

Geraldine Ferraro has spent her life advocating and achieving on behalf of women across the globe. She was born on August 26, 1935, in Newburgh, New York, the daughter of a first-generation Italian American mother and an Italian immigrant father. After high school, she worked her way through Marymount Manhattan College, at times holding three jobs simultaneously. She was the first woman in her family to attain a college degree, and she subsequently became a licensed New York City school teacher.

While still teaching the second grade, Congresswoman Ferraro earned her law degree, attending Fordham law school at night. She was one of only two women in her graduating class of 179, and was admitted to the New York State bar in 1961. She managed to raise three children while working part time as an attorney in her husband's real estate firm. In 1970, she was elected president of the Queens County Women's Bar Association, and in 1974 she was appointed Assistant District Attorney for Queens County, New York, at a time when female prosecutors were rare in

New York City. During her time in the district attorney's office, she became a strong advocate for abused children, and rose through the ranks to head the Special Victims Bureau, which prosecuted rape, and child and domestic abuse cases.

In 1978, she won election to the United States House of Representatives from New York's Ninth Congressional District in Queens. She labeled herself a ``tough Democrat'' and ran on law and order issues.

Upon entering Congress, Congresswoman Ferraro made an immediate impression on her party's leadership and quickly rose through the leadership ranks. She established a reputation in Congress as an advocate for women's rights and gender equality. Then, in the 1984 Presidential election, Walter Mondale chose her as his running mate, making her the first ever female to run on a major party national ticket. Her historical nomination was the culmination of a lifetime of firsts for this lawyer from Queens.

Her accomplishments also include her appointment by President Clinton to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights. President Clinton eventually chose her to be the United States Ambassador to the Commission, stating that she was ``a highly effective voice for the human rights of women around the world.'' She has spent a lifetime breaking barriers and shattering glass ceilings. I urge my colleagues to support this bill to honor the many achievements and tireless advocacy of Geraldine Ferraro.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, at this time I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Wolf).

At this time, I will urge my colleagues to support this legislation. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, today I rise in strong support of naming the United States Postal Service building located at 46-02 21st Street in Long Island City, New York, the ``Geraldine Ferraro Post Office Building,'' after former United States Representative Geraldine Ferraro.

It is with great pleasure that I support this designation, which commemorates the life of one of New York's most remarkable women. Geraldine Ferraro has had a distinguished career marked with many achievements. She began her career as a New York public school teacher, while simultaneously earning her law degree from Fordham University at night. She worked as an attorney the Queens New York District Attorney's office, where she helped establish the Special Victims Bureau. In 1978 she ran a successful campaign to represent New York's Ninth District in the United States House of Representatives. Throughout her six years in Congress, she rose quickly through the ranks to become a notable leader in her party. As a result of her success, it is no surprise that in 1984 Walter Mondale selected her as his running mate on the Democratic ticket, making her the first female vice presidential candidate.

Although she did not win the election, she undoubtedly reshaped politics as we know it and paved the way for future women leaders. She has since authored several books and has overcome a battle with multiple myeloma, a dangerous form of blood cancer. She now remains active in politics, weighing in on the issues and candidates that influence and shape our country.

A daughter of Italian immigrants, Geraldine Ferraro has been a trailblazer and role model, not just for women, but for all Americans in search of living the American dream. From congresswoman to vice presidential candidate to author to cancer survivor, Geraldine Ferraro is a true inspiration and deserves to be honored for her achievements through this designation.