Rural Energy Equity Act of 2011

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

I thank the chairman very much for his kind words and for his generosity in allowing us to have this time on the floor this evening to both remember the 26 individuals who were brutally murdered on Friday morning in the village of Sandy Hook in the town of Newtown, Connecticut, but also to start to paint a pathway forward. Right now, Newtown, Connecticut, is grieving deeply. It's going to be grieving for a long time because, frankly, we are just in the process of figuring out what to think about this, never mind understanding how to recover. This morning, at the first of what will be far too many funerals, you could start to see through the darkness a glimmer of how we figure a way out of this.

Little Noah Pozner was buried this morning by his parents and by his family. Noah was an amazing little 6-year-old. Not unlike most other precocious 6-year-olds, he loved role-playing; he was mischievous; he was as smart as a whip. He always talked about what he wanted to do in life, what he wanted to be. One day, he'd say he wanted to be a doctor. On another day, he'd say he wanted to be a police officer. On most days, his mom said he wanted to be a taco store owner. He loved tacos. That was his dream in life.

What we've seen on TV and in newspapers are these faces, the beautiful, gleaming, pure faces of these 20 first graders who perished; and while all of our hearts are just sick with grief, we know that their purity and their love is going to be the inspiration for the little community of Newtown and, frankly, for this whole country and this whole world to figure out how to recover.

I've been there on the ground since Friday afternoon almost nonstop, and Newtown is asking itself lots of questions about why it happened to us. What could we have done? Why did this guy do it? As I just said on the House floor, those questions are going to stick around for a while; but what you see in Newtown today is just this over-abundant love. I mean, within hours, the fire station was filled with counselors, filled with public safety personnel, filled with food, filled with everything that could possibly support these families. Those offers of help and those offers of support have just kept on coming and kept on coming.

What has also emerged are the stories of what happened that day. Certainly, the tragedy and the horror is first and foremost; but underneath that is heroism, only the beginnings of which we know right now. This is a great school, first of all. This was the best school in Newtown, one of the best in the entire State, and it's because of a principal named Dawn Hochsprung.

Dawn was a great principal right to the end. She was in a meeting when it happened. She told the people in the meeting to run the other way so that she could run directly to the shooter to try to disarm him. A young teacher, Victoria Soto, had the soundness of

mind to tell her kids to hide in the closet. She told the shooter that the students were in the gymnasium, somewhere else in the building.

She didn't survive, but many of her students did because of what she did.

When you start to hear more snippets of teachers who got their colleagues out the window, of kindergarten teachers who huddled their kids, kept them quiet, hummed to them, read them quiet stories so they wouldn't be overheard, you start to know what kind of community Newtown is, and you start to understand how Newtown survives.

I feel like I've done a lot of talking the last 4 days, both publicly and to families and to community members, and so I want to make sure that this is an hour where those who have been grieving all across the country can come and share their thoughts as well.

We've offered a resolution tonight which expresses both our outrage at what happened that day, but also our great sympathy. It does help to know that people from all around the country, from every congressional district and from every country around the world are grieving with us. Only bits and pieces of that seeps through that wall of misery that surrounds Newtown now; but when it does pierce that veil, it helps.

We're going to have a lot of time over the next few days and weeks to talk about what we do next, and I'm sure we'll have some of that discussion tonight. I'll join that conversation when it's right, and I don't begrudge anybody that has it today. It's important to talk about how we move forward and how we make sure this never ever happens again. For those of us in Newtown, we remember those 20 kids and those six adults--Charlotte Bacon, Daniel Barden, Rachel D'Avino, Olivia Rose Engel, Josephine Gay, Dawn Hochsprung, Dylan Hockley, Madeleine Hsu, Catherine Hubbard, Chase Kowalski, Jesse Lewis, Ana Grace Marquez- Greene, James Mattioli, Grace McDonnell, Anne Marie Murphy, Emilie Parker, Jack Pinto, Noah Pozner, Caroline Previdi, Jessica Rekos, Avielle Richman, Lauren Rousseau, Mary Sherlach, Victoria Soto, Benjamin Wheeler, and Allison Wyatt.

I'm going to remember those people for a long time in Newtown. I'm going to grieve with them and their families. We're also going to take their memories, the beauty of those kids, the heroism of those adults, and let it point us, let it point the strong, close-knit community of Newtown, Connecticut, let it point us to a way we can survive.

With that, I'd like to yield 5 minutes to my friend from the Third Congressional District of Connecticut, Rosa DeLauro.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H. Res. 833.

At this time I would yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Larson).

I yield the gentleman an additional 30 seconds.

At this point, I would yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Courtney).

I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Himes).

May I inquire as to the time remaining?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

We've got a number of speakers, so we'll try to give 1\1/2\ minutes to as many as we can.

I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlelady from Colorado (Ms. DeGette).

I yield the gentlelady 30 additional seconds.

At this time I yield 1 minute to the gentlelady from Illinois (Ms. Schakowsky).

Mr. Speaker, at this point I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlelady from New York (Mrs. McCarthy).

I thank the gentlelady.

At this point I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Pennsylvania (Ms. Schwartz).

I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlelady from Maryland (Ms. Edwards).

Mr. Speaker, at this point, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Engel).

At this point, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Eshoo).

I thank the gentlewoman.

At this time, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlelady from California (Ms. Chu).

I thank the gentlewoman.

At this point, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Matsui).

I thank the gentlewoman.

At this time, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Deutch).

I thank the gentleman.

I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Rhode Island (Mr. Cicilline).

I thank the gentleman.

I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Curson).

I thank the gentleman.

At this point, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Scott).

Mr. Speaker, I inquire as to how much time I have remaining.

Mr. Speaker, at this point, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Clarke).

I thank the gentleman.

At this point, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlelady from California (Mrs. Davis).

At this point, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlelady from New York (Mrs. Maloney).

I thank the gentlelady for those words.

I am so pleased to have joining us on the floor the Democratic leader. I yield the customary 1 minute to the gentlelady from California (Ms. Pelosi).

I thank the Leader very much. I thank very much my delegation. And I thank all who have come down this evening to publicly express their support for the families of Newtown to help paint us a path forward; and thank you very much, everyone, for your private words as well.

I'll leave everyone with just two final thoughts. First, a thought about Newtown itself.

Newtown is a small town. It's a small town that is very close-knit. As I've said a number of times over the past few days, the pride of Newtown is the Labor Day parade. It's the biggest Labor Day parade in the State, and people from all over the State come to Newtown on Labor Day. Everybody in town spends half the year getting their float or their marching contingent ready--the school groups, the churches, the community and civic groups. It's a slice of Americana out of a Norman Rockwell painting. And that's Newtown. That's particularly Sandy Hook. And the closeness of this community, it makes the grief even deeper because everybody knows everybody. When a school, a community school has this many lost lives, it touches a little bit deeper.

But I think it also paints the path forward to recovery because people are so close, because you don't have to go too far to have somebody be able to reach out and grab your shoulder in order to give you a little bit of a boost, a pathway back. The closeness of Newtown makes it hurt more, but the closeness of Newtown will also make us heal as well.

We've got great leaders as well. Governor Malloy was on the ground within hours, and he basically has not left and has not slept. Pat Llodra, the first selectwoman, has been just an inspiration. The superintendent of schools, the police chief, and the all-volunteer fire department, these men and women

in the fire department, none of them are getting paid, and they've been down at the firehouse, out at the site, in the community almost without end since this incident.

And this final thought. On Sunday morning, Senator Blumenthal and I went to the church service at the local Congregational Church, and a guy grabbed us as we were walking out, gripped our arms tight and said, ``Make sure this never, ever happens again.''

You know, the honest truth is we can't make sure it never happens again, but we certainly can make it much less likely; and we can certainly find ways to make sure that if someone does slip through the cracks and they set themselves on a path of destruction, the path of destruction is nowhere near the scale we saw in Newtown.

We're grieving right now, and we're going to join this process of figuring out where we go from here very soon, but it helps to know that we have the support and the love and the sympathy and the thoughts of the United States House of Representatives. It will help me to be able to bring back this resolution to the people of Newtown and the people of Connecticut. And we know that very shortly we will join you, we will join the President in figuring out a way to make sure that, within our power, this doesn't happen again.

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

Mr. Speaker, today I rise to join my colleagues in honoring and remembering all of the victims of the tragic shootings at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, CT. My condolences and prayers go to the families and loved ones of the women and children who lost their lives in this senseless tragedy.

I also recognize and applaud the heroic efforts made by the teachers, administrators, and law enforcement officials who acted quickly to secure and protect the lives of the children who survived this deadly encounter.

As the founder and Co-Chair of the Congressional Children's Caucus and a senior Member of the Judiciary Committee, I have listened to the tragic testimony of individuals who have survived or lost loved ones as a result of gun violence.

The parents and grandparents who dropped off their children and grandchildren in the early morning hours of December 14, 2012, could never have imagined that by 10 a.m. on that morning they would to have face this tragedy.

This moment will be etched in our memories and will forever remind us of other moments like those of Aurora and Columbine. Moments when lives are needlessly lost due to gun violence.

As we unite in grief, it is time for us to unite in finding a solution. Newtown, CT by all accounts is a small close-knit town. Everyone in Newtown was in some way connected to the students, parents, teachers, and administrators from Sandy Hook Elementary School. And if asked, they would all agree that things like this sad occurrence just do not happen in Newtown.

We must join together in recognizing that things like this can happen in any community and we must immediately begin to address the underlying problems that would lead a young man to take up arms against defenseless women and children.

If we act now and work together, we can work towards preventing these types of tragedies. At around the same time that the children in Newtown, CT faced a deranged gun man, thousands of miles away in China, another man also attacked a group of school children. Again, a tragedy that no one in the community could have anticipated; however, because the man in China was armed only with a knife, he wounded instead of killed 20 children. The lives of 20 children in China were spared because their attacker did not have in his possession a gun.

I believe the solution to these acts of violence can be found by taking a multifaceted approach. There are those who will say that ``guns don't kill people, people kill people.'' The statistics for the harm that people are capable of doing with guns to themselves and others is alarming. People are indeed killing people, with guns. We need to reform how we view guns in this country and also how we address mental health challenges in our communities.

We must act now. This is the right moment to demonstrate that the safety of our children is one of our most sacred priorities. It is imperative that this Congress brings to the House for immediate consideration the following gun safety laws.

First, there must be an immediate ban on all assault weapons.

Second, we must close gun show loopholes which allow for the sale of weapons without a background check.

Third, we must reform our current mental health system to provide support for families to enable them to get immediate assistance for mental health issues. In addition, there should be pathways for families who are facing these challenges to gain emergency access to publicly funded or private counseling services.

Fourth, we must look at the design of primary and secondary schools in which these schools may need to have reinforced bullet proof window and reinforced secure entrances.

Lastly, we must expand current state laws to hold adults accountable and responsible for the security their weapons. We can help to prevent tragedies like this one from happening again.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, gun violence, claims the lives of over 30,000 people For every person who dies from a gunshot wound, two others are wounded. Every year, approximately 100,000 Americans are victims of gun violence.

In addition to those who are killed or injured, there are countless others whose lives are forever changed by the deaths of and injuries to their loved ones.

In 2010, guns took the lives of 31,076 Americans in homicides, suicides and unintentional shootings. This is the equivalent of more than 85 deaths each day and more than three deaths each hour.

There were 73,505 Americans treated in hospital emergency departments for non-fatal gunshot wounds in 2010.

Firearms were the third-leading cause of injury-related deaths nationwide in 2010, following poisoning and motor vehicle accidents.

Between 1955 and 1975, the Vietnam War killed over 58,000 American soldiers--less than the number of civilians killed with guns in the U.S. in an average two-year period.

In the first seven years of the U.S.-Iraq War, over 4,400 American soldiers were killed. Almost as many civilians are killed with guns here in the U.S. over the course of 7 weeks rather than 7 years.

Homicide

U.S. homicide rates are 6.9 times higher than rates in 22 other populous high-income countries combined, despite similar non-lethal crime and violence rates. The firearm homicide rate in the U.S. is 19.5 times higher Guns were used in 11,078 homicides in the U.S. in 2010, comprising almost 35% of all gun deaths, and over 68% of all homicides.

Over a million people have been killed with guns in the United States since 1968, when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated.

On average, 33 gun homicides were committed each day for the years 2005-2010.

Regions and states with higher rates of gun ownership have significantly higher rates of homicide than states with lower rates of gun ownership.

Where guns are prevalent, there are significantly more homicides, particularly gun homicides.

Suicide

Firearms were used in 19,392 suicides in the U.S. in 2010, constituting almost 62% of all gun deaths.

Over 50% of all suicides are committed with a firearm.

On average, 49 gun suicides were committed each day for the years 2005-2010.

White males, about 40% of the U.S. population, accounted for over 80% of firearm suicides in 2010.

A study of California handgun purchasers found that in the first year after the purchase of a handgun, suicide was the leading cause of death among the purchasers.

Firearms were used in nearly 44% of suicide deaths among persons under age 25 in 2010.

More than 75% of guns used in suicide attempts and unintentional injuries of 0-19 year-olds were stored in the residence of the victim, a relative, or a friend.

The risk of suicide increases in homes where guns are kept loaded and/or unlocked.

Unintentional Deaths and Injuries

In 2010, unintentional firearm injuries caused the deaths of 606 people.

From 2005-2010, almost 3,800 people in the U.S. died from unintentional shootings.

Over 1,300 victims of unintentional shootings for the period 2005- 2010 were under 25 years of age.

People of all age groups are significantly more likely to die from unintentional firearm injuries when they live in states with more guns, relative to states with fewer guns. On average, states with the highest gun levels had nine times the rate of unintentional firearms deaths compared to states with the lowest gun levels.

A federal government study of unintentional shootings found that 8% of such shooting deaths resulted from shots fired by children under the age of six.

The U.S. General Accounting Office has estimated that 31% of unintentional deaths caused by firearms might be prevented by the addition of two devices: a child-proof safety lock (8%) and a loading indicator (23%).

For years, I have introduced and reintroduced gun safety legislation and supported the efforts of my colleagues who have also worked diligently to protect the lives of our nation's children through adequate gun safety.

I re-introduced H.R. 277 the Child Gun Safety And Gun Access Prevention Act of 2011. This legislation would prevent anyone under the age of 21 from being eligible to own a handgun and would prohibit youth from possessing semiautomatic assault weapons.

Under this legislation parents and supervising adults will be held accountable if a juvenile is able to gain possession of dangerous firearms that are located in their household.

The statistics are clear, firearms in a household must be properly and adequately stored.

A gun in the home is 22 times more likely to be used in a completed or attempted suicide (11x), criminal assault or homicide (7x), or unintentional shooting death or injury (4x) than to be used in a self- defense shooting.

Higher household gun ownership correlates with higher rates of homicides, suicides, and unintentional shootings.

Keeping a firearm in the home increases the risk of suicide by a factor of 3 to 5 and increases the risk of suicide with a firearm by a factor of 17.

Keeping a firearm in the home increases the risk of homicide by a factor of 3.

A 2009 study found that people in possession of a gun are 4.5 times more likely to be shot in an assault.

My legislation also requires a parent to accompany a minor when attending a gun show.

Our focus should also be on the owners of guns. Parents need to keep guns and ammunition out of the reach of teenagers. Parents should be responsible for securing from their minor children access to dangerous firearms.

Further, my bill is a preventative measure, my legislation encourages school districts to proved or participate in firearm safety programs.

It also addresses the underlying concerns related to violence and suicide. It amends the Public Health Service Act to direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to support programs to promote mental health services among all children and their families and to provide early intervention services to ameliorate identified mental health problems in children and adolescents. This is a multifaceted approach to address this multifaceted issue.

As in years past, I once again will join Senator Dianne Feinstein in advocating for additional gun safety laws. I support Senator Feinstein's bill which she intends to introduce once again in the 113th Congress to ban the sale of automatic assault weapons and ban the sale of big clips, drums or strips of more than 10 bullets. I appreciate Senator Feinstein's leaderships and will continue to join her in advocating to pass this legislation in the 113th Congress.

Mr. Speaker, it is our responsibility to do all that we can do to reverse this level of gun violence. We must pass common sense gun safety.

The previous question was ordered.

I thank the gentleman for yielding.

I rise in support of his very important resolution--to condemn the acts of a lone gunman in Newtown, Connecticut, and to offer condolences to the families and members of the community.

I join him in the words of this resolution of saluting the courage of the teachers and administrators who gave their lives to save the children in their care and to thank the first responders who arrived on the scene to not only get survivors to safety but to end the succession of killings that were happening. Those first responders, Mr. Speaker, leave their homes every day knowing they're going to face danger, and they did that day as well; but in the face of it, they were heroic, as were the teachers and a counselor and the principal of the school.

This has all been made very clear to us by our colleagues: Congresswoman DeLauro for whom children and the prevention of violence has been a priority for her; of course, Congressman Murphy, Senator- elect Murphy, who represents this district with such distinction and such compassion; Congressman Courtney; Congressman John Larson; and Congressman Jim Himes. All of them spoke with such beauty at our service earlier, at the candlelight service. It was so moving to hear their connections to the people there. Their words were universal.

As the President said last night, this could have been happening any place. We can't tolerate this anymore, he said. These tragedies must end, and to end them we must change.

To change our Nation is already beginning--to reassess the options before us. Leaders from both parties have

stepped forward to put forth a series of steps on the table--from restoring the ban on assault weapons and assault magazines to strengthening the system of background checks. Again, we must address the challenge of mental health and keep weapons out of the hands of those in danger so as not to do harm to themselves and to others.

The voices of reason cannot be silent. Through administrative and legislative action, we must limit the proliferation of weapons ammunitions that have no other purpose than to kill citizens. Our colleagues through the course of the evening--and Congresswoman Maloney just before me--talked about legislation that we could pass immediately, that which the American people expect us to do, and that is to ban assault magazines. Of course, we want to ban assault weapons but also ban assault magazines. proliferation of weapons ammunitions that have no other purpose than to kill citizens. Our colleagues through the course of the evening--and Congresswoman Maloney just before me--talked about legislation that we could pass immediately, that which the American people expect us to do, and that is to ban assault magazines. Of course, we want to ban assault weapons but also ban assault magazines.

Why is it that somebody needs a magazine with 20 shots in it and could have two of those, and then 40 lives are at risk? Why is it? I'm not even asking that rhetorically. I'm asking it of those who are advocating that we shouldn't make this change. Haven't we crossed a threshold when children in school are not safe, when people who go to the theater in Aurora have someone come in and just kill them? I mean, just to use those words is very hard.

I don't know what words we could ever use to comfort the families of Newtown, Connecticut. As a mother and a grandmother, I find it--you said ``unfathomable,'' Congresswoman Maloney--unspeakable, unthinkable, just impossible to imagine how they go forward; but hopefully, God will give them the strength and the courage to do so.

It reminded me of a time before I was in Congress. I had the invitation of President Carter to visit Italy with a delegation--with Geraldine Ferraro, Italian American Members of Congress, Mario Cuomo, etc. We went there to deliver assistance from the United States Government after an earthquake in southern Italy. In one of the villages we visited, there was a rehearsal for first communion going on in the church, so just about every 7-year-old in the village was in church, practicing for first holy communion. When the earthquake hit, the roof came down, and every 7-year-old in the village was gone. It was impossible to console the people there. Not only had they individually lost their children, which is unthinkable, but the whole town had lost that class--their future, their new growth, their hopes, their babies.

So I really transform my thinking about how fragile life is. This was a natural disaster. What happened in Newtown, Connecticut, was a personal decision about someone whose judgment was thoroughly impaired. How could he do it? Because he had his own problems. How could he do this? Because he had the guns. He had the assault magazines to do it. That's how he could do it.

So let's at least try to mitigate, for circumstances that we may not be able to control entirely, the mental condition of someone, but at least limit the capacity to kill that that person has.

Just hearing the reaction to the expressions of sympathy to the families, to see the President read the names and hear the sobbing, this is something that will scar our country. If we can do something to prevent it from happening again to this extent, maybe we can't prevent it all from happening, but if we're going to take care of our people, we have to take care of them in many ways--address the issue of violence, address the issue of mental health, address the issue of where mental health and assault magazines comes together.

Some people are calling them high capacity or whatever. They're assault magazines. They make every weapon an assault weapon that they are compatible with, whether it's a pistol or rifle or whatever it is. So yes, we want to ban assault weapons, but these assault magazines make every weapon that they are compatible with an assault weapon.

It doesn't take a whole lot to figure out what we need to do immediately, and then maybe do more later. But wouldn't that be a comfort to these families to know that although they lost their babies, their little angels, their precious darlings gone to heaven, that something would come of it to prevent this from happening to others.

I always wondered in the Bible when Christ says:

Suffer little children, and come unto me. Suffer little

children, and come unto me.

I guess it was an interpretation of the word ``suffer,'' allow little children to come unto me. But Christ was calling children to Him. He used the word ``suffer.''

These children, their lives are gone. Their families are suffering. The other children in the school, in the neighborhood, children who just have heard about this, they're suffering, too; suffering about what it feels like to go to school and not be sure you're safe, staying up at night being sleepless in terms of being scared of what could happen.

Let's stop the suffering of our children, whether it's taking their lives, scaring them from going to school or keeping them up at night, giving them nightmares over their safety. These little children did suffer, and they did go on to heaven, a better place. It's the timing we have a problem with. Far too soon, far too many, for a reason that we can do something about.

So I commend my colleagues for how they came together, led by the community coming together, the community of Newtown and Sandy Hook, such an inspiration to the country, so strong, so courageous, so sad. Let's show them that not only do we offer words, we offer action, and that action will take the form of passing this legislation to ban assault magazines, to do so in a timely fashion, so that in a non- untimely fashion we won't lose any more lives.

Again, I want to commend the President for his beautiful words, mostly to the families last night and to the community, and the source of strength and inspiration he was. He challenged us to act. Let me just say it again: ``We can't tolerate this any more,'' he said. ``These tragedies must end; and to end them, we must change.''

Thank you, Mr. Murphy, for your leadership.

I thank the gentleman, and I thank him for the depth of his feeling and the work he has done over the last several days, to help to bring some solace and peace to families who have been so struck by the devastation in Newtown, Connecticut.

I strongly support this resolution and condemn, as my colleagues do, the vicious attack at the Sandy Hook Elementary School and commemorate our children and the teachers who were struck down in this terrible tragedy.

It is overwhelming. I think all of us at the memorial service last night were overwhelmed. It was a slaughter of the innocent. Every parent and grandparent sees in the eyes and the smiles and the looks on those children's faces who we lost their own children and their grandchildren, knowing that there for the grace of God go I.

What happened in Newtown is unthinkable. A normal Friday morning in the midst of a holiday season, Sandy Hook Elementary School, a place where children should be safe to learn, to grow, suddenly without warning became a place of senseless violence. Within minutes, the actions of a young and mentally ill man devastated a small town community, broke the hearts of millions across the country, and murdered six teachers and administrators and 20 innocent children, all of them between 6 and 7 years old.

They're that big. They are that big.

Such an unspeakable crime seems impossible to make sense of. How could this young man kill so many innocent? How could so many beautiful little angels with their whole lives ahead of them be taken from their families? They were just babies. They were just babies. It's hard to witness such a senseless and evil act and similar acts that some of my colleagues in this Chamber have faced. In Aurora and Portland, Oakland, Tucson, Blacksburg, Littleton, you can't help but feel a despairing of the soul.

We in this institution cannot afford that luxury. We need to be strong for the families of the fallen in Newtown and for the families of children all over America. To the Newtown community and to all of the Connecticut families and parents and siblings who have been touched by what happened on Friday, our thoughts and our prayers are with you. What you are going through is indescribable. We can be sympathetic. We can be empathetic. We do not know that sense of despair that you feel, but you must know that our Nation shares and mourns your loss. mourns your loss.

I, too, as did my colleague, Chris Murphy, acknowledge the tremendous heroism of the adults who were killed on Friday. Individuals like Principal Dawn Hochsprung who ran at the assassin, told people to run away from him in order to protect her kids and the school. The schoolteacher Vicki Soto of Stratford, Connecticut, and I represent Stratford, Connecticut, who in the heat of a terrible moment gave her life to protect her students. She hid them. She hid them, and lost her life in doing so.

They all died in the line of duty. They are heroes and heroines. They gave their lives to protect those children that they deal with every day, that they educate, that they care for, and that they love as if they were their own.

To the first responders who put their lives on the line to stop the senseless killing in Sandy Hook, we say thank you for your courage and for preventing more young lives from being lost, for they too ran into a building not knowing what they were going to face.

Moving forward, we in this institution have to take commonsense, constructive steps that will help to ensure these types of tragedies will not happen again; and they include ensuring better access to quality mental health care, strengthening programs so communities will have the necessary mental health resources.

We've heard so much in the last several days about how we need to secure the physical plant of the school; and, yes, we need to do that. They need to be secure, but we cannot turn them into prisons for these young people. I wish and hope that at the same time we're talking about those kinds of efforts, that we talk about putting a mental health professional in our schools. That is security, as well as stationing police cruisers in front of our schools.

It means doing everything in our power to prevent guns from falling into the hands of violent criminals, and giving law enforcement officials the tools they need.

The President said last night that caring for our children must be our first task, and we can no longer tolerate these tragedies, and we must change. He asked if we are doing what we can to protect our children, and he said that answer must be no, and we need to protect them.

At a more fundamental level, we cannot let this terrible tragedy harden our hearts against our fellow men and women. In the words of Dr. Martin Luther King:

Darkness cannot drive out darkness. Only light can do that.

Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that.

So let us honor the fallen in Newtown by doing everything that we can to prevent these tragedies in the future. Let us follow the example of those heroes and innocents who perished. Let's commit to one another to rekindling our faith and love, compassion and community. Let's hold our children and our grandchildren close. Love them and tell them that you love them as many times as you are able.

General Leave

Mr. Speaker, again I want to just begin by saluting my colleague from Connecticut, Chris Murphy, who over the last 72 hours has been the voice of the community of western Connecticut, and Newtown in particular. He has handled his role in that capacity with poise and good decorum and taste. It really is something that I think we should all, in this Chamber, be so proud of.

I would also want to mention that he did it as a father of someone who has a 4-year-old son, Owen, who I'm sure was seeing all around him the events that were unfolding, the unspeakable horror again in the eyes of a parent of a child really of the same age group. Again, we are just so lucky to have had his amazing leadership over the last 3 or 4 days.

The President last night opened his remarks about how the town of Newtown is really like many communities in America. To a point, it's true. It's 29,000, tight-knit, a very small town. But it is a town that, frankly, is above average in many instances.

It is a school system that scores at the absolute top of the Mastery Test in the State of Connecticut. And that doesn't happen by accident. It's because it has parents and staff that, year in and year out, have been so committed to making sure the children succeed and excel, and it has been a model for the State of Connecticut and for our country when education really still is, I think, probably one of the most important challenges that we need to succeed in as a country.

For this event to happen at Sandy Hook Elementary School, a school that, when I was sitting with the Board of Education last night during the interfaith vigil, all of them were talking about their kids who'd gone through Sandy Hook and now were successfully pursuing careers in New York and the west coast and in Connecticut, it really just tore the heart out of this community. It's a community where they've had one act of homicide over the last 10 years. And to see those police officers come down the aisle after having to respond to this unspeakable horror and to see the looks on their face and the emotional drain that took place, it really was just something that was just so out of any norm for any community, but certainly, in particular, for the town of Newtown.

As Chris said, in every instance, whether it was the principal, the teachers, the parents, the first responders, the caregivers, they rose to the challenge. They did their job.

Victoria Soto, the teacher who shielded and literally saved the lives of at least half a dozen students, was in the middle of a lesson when this person burst into her classroom, 10 minutes from beginning to end. Since this debate has started, the event had already reached its conclusion, just in the time that we've been here on the floor. For her to think so quickly and to react so courageously is an act of human excellence that I think all of us will wonder whether or not we ourselves could have possibly done the same.

Her example, the example of the police and the EMS, the example of the doctors and nurses who responded so quickly, frankly, I see that as a challenge to this Congress. They acted. They did what they were supposed to do. And as the President said last night, if you believe that the measure of a society is how we protect our children, if you're honest, you have to answer that we really are not doing all that we can do, and, frankly, it is time for us to follow the example of the Victoria Sotos and to act. This resolution tonight is so important to begin that first step. But the fact of the matter is that there is much more that needs to be done.

This morning, as I was driving to the airport on the back roads of Connecticut, I went by a number of elementary schools. At every single one of them, there was a police cruiser at the entrance. Again, the State police and the local police departments, I think, were being very thoughtful. They wanted to make sure that when the parents and kids were going to school, they felt safe, and that after all they had seen on the TV over the weekend, it was okay to go in the entrance of their schools. But that is not an answer. To say that we are going to turn our schools into fortresses is not where we should be as a Nation. We need to go deeper in terms of solving this problem of mass killings and of violence that now, again, is striking at the most innocent in our society.

I look forward to working with the gentleman from the Fifth District over

the next few days, and when he takes his new duties as the new Senator from the State of Connecticut, to make sure that the people in that room last night who were listening to the President, the people in our State, the people in our country, the people in the world that are now watching us, that we make sure that we deliver, just like the brave people of the town of Newtown did over this past weekend.