Congratulating the 2009-2010 University of Maryland Men's Basketball Team, Greivis Vasquez, and Coach Gary Williams on an outstanding season.

I thank the gentlewoman for yielding. Go Terps! And they did. I'm a graduate of the University of Maryland. Like so many others, I am very proud of my alma mater. I went there many, many years ago. I have owned a number of homes throughout my life, but one of them was three doors from Gary Williams. I've known Gary Williams for all the time he's been at the University of Maryland, which is now over 20 years. Gary Williams is an extraordinary individual, an extraordinary coach, and has

had great success at every school he's coached at throughout this country. He's been at Maryland for, as I said, over two decades. He's the most winning coach in Maryland history. Lefty Driesell was his predecessor--not immediate predecessor, but in terms of holding that record. Lefty did a great job at the University of Maryland.

Maryland was picked very low in the ACC standings at the beginning of this season. The expectations were not high. The University of Maryland team had a freshman strong forward. So it was perceived that inside, they wouldn't have the kind of game they needed to compete in a conference like the Atlantic Coast Conference, which we, of course, in the ACC believe is the best conference in the United States, although I want to observe, it may not have been the best conference this year in the United States; but over the years, it certainly has been. But there were some very strong conferences. Not to forget to mention the Big East, it is pretty strong itself. But in any event, we weren't picked very high.

The reason Gary Williams has been chosen appropriately for the honor of being Coach of the Year in the ACC, which has some extraordinary coaches, like Coach Krzyzewski, Coach Roy Williams at the University of North Carolina, and other great coaches, is because he took a team that did not have high expectations from the public and took it to a tie with Duke, one of the great teams in this country, to lead the ACC. They both finished 13-3, I believe, in the ACC.

Wake Forest, a great team as well. I want to thank the gentlelady from Maryland, Donna Edwards, who shares Prince George's County in which University of Maryland College Park is located, for her gracious congratulations. She gives me a hard time. Wake beat us this year, and I don't know whether we'll meet again this year, probably not. But notwithstanding that, I appreciate her gracious support of this resolution.

I want to tell you that we have a young player. He is a senior. His name is Greivis Vasquez. Greivis Vasquez is a real personality on the court. Greivis Vasquez was the high scorer, picked as Player of the Year in the ACC, and was an extraordinary leader of our team on the floor. He was the spark plug of our team.

And when our team was down and needed to get up, needed to be inspired, it was Greivis Vasquez who, along with some other extraordinary players--and we had nine or 10 players who could have started at some other teams, frankly, wonderful players. Some, Jordan Williams, our new freshman who is going to be an extraordinary sophomore, and hopefully we may even keep him until his junior year.

But that is why we prevailed in the ACC. That's why we're going to prevail in the NCAA. We play Houston, as you've heard. I'm sure I will talk to the Representatives from the Houston area about this game, coming up Friday at 9:50 p.m. We will focus on that game, and we'll talk to you a little bit about what you think and what we think. But it's going to be an excellent year.

But notwithstanding that, I was in Atlanta when the University of Maryland won the national championship. We played Indiana that year. I want to personally congratulate my friend Gary Williams on the great coaching job he did this year. I want to congratulate the entire team for the great job they did, and I want to wish them the very best of luck in the NCAA tournament.

I thank the gentlelady, and I thank the gentleman for bringing this resolution to the floor to appropriately recognize a great year for a great team, a great coach and a great ACC player of the year.

I thank the gentleman from Kentucky for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I stand in opposition to this resolution. I don't mean to cast any aspersions on the gentleman's alma mater, nor on any Terp fans or anything like that. But we're having a discussion this week, a lot about health care. And there's a lot of discussion on the government-run health care bill about fairness and equity in the process.

I would like to point out a little bit about the fairness and equity of the process of this resolution. Back last October, I authored a similar resolution--we all often do these things--for a university in my district, the University of California at Irvine, also known as UCI, whose men's volleyball team won the championship. They didn't just make the playoffs. They won the national championship. And the majority leader, whose bill this is, pulled that resolution from the floor. So he did not allow that resolution last October to be heard. Therefore, those kids who won that national championship were not able to get the same recognition that apparently today these players for Maryland, who are just in the playoffs, are going to receive.

Second of all, Mr. Speaker, in the past, we have done these for teams that win national championships. This is for a team that's making the playoffs, one of 65. Now, there are a lot of people out there, Mr. Speaker, who believe that we're wasting the taxpayers' money and the taxpayers' time by doing these sorts of resolutions. There's an argument for that. There is also an argument to be made that it's a great thing for the kids who win these to have these additional resolutions to put in their trophy case.

But the one thing I do believe is that we shouldn't descend into doing everyone that wins that gets into a playoff. That would be 65 teams just here in men's basketball. And think of all the men's and women's sports that are out there and how many teams that would include if we begin to do that as well.

Finally, Mr. Speaker, I have here the sports section from today's Washington Post. I will read from the front page where it says that according to a study, Maryland had the lowest graduation rate, 8 percent, among the 65 NCAA tournament teams. Given that this is being put forth in the Education and Labor Committee, if we were going to look at all the 65 teams in the NCAA championships, should we be considering the academics of the teams that are in or not in?

Mr. Speaker, and to the majority leader, I don't like doing this. I can see the banter going on. These things are usually fun. They're usually easy. But it seems like in this House recently, we have lost a sense of equity and fairness in the process. It seems like if a school is represented by someone from the minority party, they don't get a recognition, whereas, perhaps if they're from the majority, they do. It seems like there are different thresholds, different standards, different ways that things happen in this House rather than a simple equity and fairness.

So for that reason, Mr. Speaker, I oppose this resolution, and I would encourage my colleagues to oppose it, again, not to cast any aspersions on the University of Maryland but to send a message that process matters and that the way fairness and equity matters, and little things like this aren't nearly as important as big things like the government-run health care bill that we're doing this week. But the fact is that this little bit is endemic of what is going on in the bigger bills in this House in the way it operates and the way it has, unfortunately, in this Congress.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to support this resolution congratulating Greivis Vasquez and Coach Gary Williams on an outstanding season for the University of Maryland Men's Basketball Team. Their home is in Prince Georges County--my home county--and I congratulate the Terrapins men's basketball team on a season that came to a close just last week, ending the season with monumental victories, including a double overtime game win against the Virginia Tech Hokies. The season-ending victory over the University of Virginia placed the Terrapins as the number two seed going into the Atlantic Coast Conference Quarter-Finals.

The Terrapins completed their regular 2009-2010 Atlantic Coast Conference season with an impressive 13 wins and 3 losses, earning first place honors, along with the top-ranked Duke University Blue Devils. I'd like to point out as a point of personal privilege and note that one of the three losses that Maryland faced this year was to the Demon Deacons of Wake Forest University, my alma mater, but I stand here nonetheless in support of our hometown Maryland Terrapins.

The season got off to a promising start with star player Greivis Vasquez electing to forgo the National Basketball Association draft and play his senior year with the Terrapins. It proved to be a wise decision for him because Greivis went on to average 19.6 points per game during the season. He even scored a career-high 41 points in a single game. That was a rare feat for any basketball star. I know I was a fan. Throughout the season, Vasquez received the Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Week honor four times and was unanimously selected first team All-ACC by the Atlantic Coast Sports Media Association. He led his team into the quarter-finals of the ACC tournament as the honored Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year, which he was named on March 9, 2010.

In 1967, while attending the University of Maryland, Coach Gary Williams played for the Terrapins--he wasn't coach then--and served as team captain. He returned to the University in 1989 to coach for the same team he once played for. It's been an honor to watch him, as Coach Williams has led his alma mater from a period of troubled times to an era of national prominence. He helped bring 13 NCAA tournament berths in the last 16 seasons, seven Sweet Sixteen appearances, and in 2002, led the Terrapins to win the national title in the National Collegiate Athletic Association Championship. I know I, along with other Maryland Terrapin fans, followed that season and all the others, watching Gary Williams and sitting through the nail-biters in the stands. The opening of the 2009-2010 college basketball season marked the 21st season as head coach with the University of Maryland for Gary Williams. As a member of the University of Maryland's Alumni Hall of Fame, Coach Williams was named Atlantic Coast Conference Coach of the Year for the second time in his career, on March 9, 2010.

I wish to heartily congratulate Greivis Vasquez on being named the 2010 ACC Player of the Year; Coach Gary Williams on being named the 2010 ACC Coach of the Year; and the entire University of Maryland men's basketball team on a truly outstanding season. I wish them and my other favorite team, Wake Forest University, great success in the 2010 NCAA Tournament--the University of Maryland facing the University of Houston, and another Texas team, Texas, facing Wake Forest University. We all look forward to that, and we'll be cheering them on their way.

Again, congratulations to Coach Gary Williams and to Player of the Year Greivis Vasquez. Go Terps!

Madam Speaker, unfortunately, I missed the following recorded votes on the House floor the week of Monday, March 15, 2010.

For Monday, March 15, 2010, had I been present I would have voted ``aye'' on rollcall vote No. 112 (on motion to suspend the rules and agree to H. Res. 1145), ``aye'' on rollcall vote No. 113 (on motion to suspend the rules and agree to H. Res. 1170), ``aye'' on rollcall vote No. 114 (on motion to suspend the rules and agree to H. Res. 1163), ``aye'' on rollcall vote No. 115 (on motion to suspend the rules and agree to H. Res. 267).

For Tuesday, March 16, 2010, had I been present I would have voted ``aye'' on rollcall vote No. 116 (on motion to suspend the rules and agree to H.R. 4628), ``aye'' on rollcall vote No. 117 (on motion to suspend the rules and agree to H. Res. 311), ``aye'' on rollcall vote No. 118 (on motion to suspend the rules and agree to H. Res. 605), ``aye'' on rollcall vote No. 119 (on motion to suspend the rules and agree to H. Res. 1128).

For Wednesday, March 17, 2010, had I been present I would have voted ``aye'' on rollcall vote No. 120 (on motion to suspend the rules and agree to H. Res. 1089), ``aye'' on rollcall vote No. 121 (on motion to suspend the rules and agree to H. Res. 1167), ``no'' on rollcall vote No. 122 (on motion to suspend the rules and agree to H. Res. 1184), ``aye'' on rollcall vote No. 123 (on motion to suspend the rules and agree to H. Res. 1141), ``aye'' on rollcall vote No. 124 (on motion to suspend the rules and agree to S. 1147), ``aye'' on rollcall vote No. 125 (on motion to suspend the rules and agree to H.R. 3954), ``aye'' on rollcall vote No. 126 (on motion to suspend the rules and agree to H.R. 946), ``aye'' on rollcall vote No. 127 (on motion to suspend the rules and agree to H.R. 4825).

For Thursday, March 18, 2010, had I been present I would have voted ``aye'' on rollcall vote No. 131 (on motion to refer H. Res. 1193, raising a question of the privileges of the House), ``no'' on rollcall vote No. 132 (on motion to table H. Res. 1193, raising a question of the privileges of the House), ``aye'' on rollcall vote No. 133 (on motion to suspend the rules and agree to H.R. 3542), ``aye'' on rollcall vote No. 134 (on motion to suspend the rules and agree to H.R. 3509), ``aye'' on rollcall vote No. 135 (on motion to suspend the rules and agree to H. Res. 1173).

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

I rise today in support of House Resolution 1184, congratulating the 2009-2010 University of Maryland Men's Basketball Team, Greivis Vasquez, and Coach Gary Williams on an outstanding season. The University of Maryland Terrapins have had an outstanding season. The Terrapins completed the regular season with a 23-7 record and completed the Atlantic Coast Conference season with a 13-3 record. This year will mark its 24th tournament appearance, and I extend my congratulations to the University of Maryland; Head Coach Gary Williams and his staff; the hardworking players, especially Greivis Vasquez; and the fans. I wish them all well and wish them continued success, except there are several Kentucky teams that will be playing, so I obviously have to support my team.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield as much time as he may consume to the gentleman from California (Mr. Campbell).

I yield back the balance of my time.