To award posthumously a Congressional Gold Medal to Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley to commemorate the lives they lost 50 years ago in the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, where these 4 little Black girls' ultimate sacrifice served as a catalyst for the Civil Rights Movement.

Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I call up House Resolution 175 and ask for its immediate consideration.

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

Mr. Speaker, for the purpose of debate only, I yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentlelady from New York (Ms. Slaughter), pending which I yield myself such time as I may consume. During consideration of this resolution, all time yielded is for the purpose of debate only.

House Resolution 175 provides for a structured rule for consideration of H.R. 1549. The rule provides for 1 hour of general debate equally divided by the chair and the ranking member of the Committee on Energy and Commerce.

The rule makes in order two amendments, one Republican, one Democratic, with 10 minutes of debate for each. Further, the rule provides for one motion to recommit with or without instructions.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the rule and the underlying bill. The underlying legislation is a needed piece of relief for the hundreds of thousands of Americans who were promised by their President that they would be covered under the Affordable Care Act's Preexisting Condition Insurance Plan and then were told, as of February 1 of this year, Sorry, we're closed. This is one of the many promises the President made that he has failed to uphold.

In response to the President's failed promise, Chairman Joe Pitts introduced H.R. 1549, the Helping Sick Americans Act, to continue to provide insurance for those Americans who are most in need of immediate care. And to pay to give those most vulnerable patients insurance and care, we use the Prevention and Public Health Fund, an allocation of money that should be going to help patients, but it's instead being used for administrative costs to set up the exchanges that won't be online for some time now and for glossy brochures to extol their virtues. The money could be used to help people now, and that's why Republicans are here today.

The Affordable Care Act created the new Preexisting Condition Insurance Plan, which was, arguably, duplicative of actions taken by 35 States prior to 2010 that were operating risk pools, that were operating re-insurance programs and served over 200,000 Americans.

It has been shown that State-based programs play an important role in lowering costs across markets and then providing coverage options for those with preexisting conditions. In some States, those plans merged with the Federal plan into an existing high-risk pool. In other States, like Texas, the Federal plan operates in parallel to the State's pool.

But whether the States merged their pools, adopted a State- administered preexisting plan, or whether the Federal preexisting plan is the only option, this program is the only answer for those who have found themselves unable to purchase insurance on their own because of a medical condition.

Shortly after the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the chief actuary for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services estimated that the creation of this program would result in roughly 375,000 gaining coverage in 2010. However, to date, only 107,000 individuals were enrolled in the program as of January 1 of this year.

On February 15 of this year, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced to States that the agency was suspending enrollment in the Preexisting Condition Insurance Program. Very little was said of the fact that this program was intended to help individuals with preexisting conditions through the 1st of January of 2014.

Despite lower than expected enrollment, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced that it will no longer enroll new individuals in the program, and it will bar States from accepting new applications because of their financial constraints.

According to a report from The Washington Post:

Tens of thousands of Americans who cannot get health

insurance because of preexisting medical problems will be

blocked from the program that was actually designed to help

them.

On March 5, along with Republican leadership and the leadership from the Energy and Commerce Committee, we wrote to the President. We let him know that this was not right. We let him know that, while we may have designed the preexisting pool differently, Republicans have supported risk pools, and that he could easily use funds from other accounts in the Affordable Care Act like the Prevention and Public Health Fund. But so far, the response to our letter from the President is zero.

I support prevention activities. As a doctor, I know it's better to keep a person well than to treat an illness; and to anyone across the aisle, we've demonstrated this in the past. If we want to modernize government programs where they have fallen behind private insurers and employers in avoiding disease and getting people more involved in their health care, we're here to talk.

But the prevention fund has been used in a haphazard way, with no unified vision and in many ways that are quite questionable, with the mere hope, with the mere aspiration that 10 years from now we can look back and think that we've made a difference. But it's really something I cannot support when we are $17 trillion in debt and sick Americans are being turned away from an insurance coverage that they were promised by the President.

As a physician, ensuring those with preexisting conditions have access to quality and affordable health insurance is a priority. As much as I believe that the Affordable Care Act stretched the bounds of constitutionality--and I still do--I was concerned that if the Supreme Court had invalidated the law last summer, those who were in this new Federal preexisting pool would have had the rug pulled out from under them and they could have been barred from merging into their States' pool because of the previously provided coverage.

That's why, to ensure that that did not happen, I was prepared to answer that challenge, had it arisen, by introducing legislation prior to the Court's decision to provide States with the financial backing to decide how best to provide coverage for this population through some type of risk pool, reinsurance, or other innovative method.

I will also note that unlike many of the complaints that the Preexisting Condition Insurance Program has faced, that bill, as well as the bill that we are considering today, did not require those with preexisting conditions to jump through hoops or to remain uninsured for 6 months before being eligible for coverage. On the other hand, instead of making sick Americans a priority, the administration is telling them to just give us 10 more months. Well, what a striking comparison.

There are always stories of those who have done the right thing and insured themselves and then, for whatever reason--falling on bad luck or hard times--have fallen out of the system, usually because of a job loss, they get a medical diagnosis, and when their employment status changes, they find themselves forever locked out of coverage. Those were the stories that people thought of when they did say they wanted something done about this issue.

I might add that when the Affordable Care Act was passed, the administration and congressional Democrats vastly oversold this concept. We were told time and again there were 8 to 12 to 15 million people wandering the country with some type of preexisting condition that were excluded from coverage. It's interesting that now, here we are 3 years later, spending $5 billion and they've enrolled a hundred thousand people in the program. But it's a hundred thousand people with a very compelling story.

We were told by the American people they wanted us to fix this problem, they didn't want us to screw up the rest of the country's health care, and they wanted some help on cost. But, unfortunately, we failed on every one of those counts.

Since the administration has cut off enrollment, how many people have signed into or aged into the 6-month exclusion that would otherwise be able to sign up? The fact is we don't know. But we had a hearing 4 weeks ago where we heard from some of these people. They do have compelling stories. How many were awaiting coverage but are now told, especially in States where the Federal preexisting program is the only option, you just wait until 2014. So do the best you can with what you've got between now and then.

I will admit that many of the current State-based programs are underfunded and lacking the ability to meet their needs. It is costly to deal with this population of patients. I was prepared in the bill that I offered last summer to authorize $30 billion to provide coverage. House Republicans supported $25 billion in our substitute to the Affordable Care Act back in November of 2009.

H.R. 1549 will redirect $3.5 billion from the Prevention and Public Health Fund and then eliminate the fund in 2016. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that, unlike the authors of the Affordable Care Act, we have provided enough funding to meet the needs

of the program through the end of the year, while ultimately reducing the deficit. Furthermore, once the ``train wreck'' of failed implementation occurs, the amendment that Mr. Pitts plans to offer would provide an escape valve for Americans with a preexisting condition by providing States with a block grant to fund State high- risk pools.

The majority is serious about funding these programs and dealing with the issue, and those cost are a drop in the bucket as to what the Affordable Care Act will cost our country in the future. But those efforts recognize that for those who do need insurance and are truly uninsurable in the market, it will be costly but we will make the decisions that set our priorities straight.

Where the President's response was to tell the people tough luck, not to prepare for needing more money or transfer funds out of other parts of the Affordable Care Act or to look for efficiencies or mismanagement in the preexisting condition program or even approach Congress for funding, dead silence from the administration. Well, here Republicans will lead and ensure that we help sick Americans now.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Rothfus).

(Mr. ROTHFUS asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

I yield myself 1 minute.

You know, on the subject of wasting time, it was 6 or 7 weeks ago that Chairman Pitts sent a letter to the President saying: What are you proposing to do about this? This was not something that was in the plan. You promised something that was different. What are we to tell people who are now calling our committee and asking us how you're going to respond to this?

The President chose not to respond to that letter--it's been 6 or 7 weeks--but, boy, it didn't take him 24 hours to turn around a Statement of Administration Policy that said they would veto this bill should it pass the House. That's another reason for me to be for it.

But, look, in this Statement of Administration Policy, it says: The Affordable Care Act forces most insurance companies to play by the rules. Well, I think this House has an opportunity today to say to the administration: Play by the rules.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself 1 minute.

It takes me back to when the Affordable Care Act passed this House and the tumultuous time in March of 2010. I had 18 amendments in the Rules Committee the night before that. The ranking member may remember that. None of those amendments were made in order. Look, if that's the yardstick by which we're going to measure, we've got a long way to go.

But I need to respond to something that was said by the minority whip. He referenced the Appalachian train wreck. These are not my words. These are words that were used by a senior Democratic committee chairman about this bill. And then just today, breaking news, I'm handed an article from Politico, another senior Democrat, chairman of the Health Committee over on the Senate side, is putting a hold on the administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services nomination.

And why is that hold being placed? An aide said that the Senator objected because CMS was using Prevention and Public Health Funds to pay for the health law implementation; the very reason we're here today.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself 1 minute.

There's nothing that has been more damaging to job creation in this country than the first 2 years of the first Obama term. During that time, with vast majorities in both the House and the Senate, the anti- employment, the outright hostility to the productive sector of American society, was palpable. People responded to that in very predictable ways, so they hunkered down.

And then you come throw the wet blanket of the Affordable Care Act. What did that do to job creation? It killed it in this country, and it is killing it today.

If you want job creation in this country, you will provide some stability, some sanity, to allow those people who are still in that hunkered-down modality that they've been in since the first Obama administration was sworn in, allow them a chance for real economic recovery. That's why it's important to divert those funds from the Prevention and Public Health Fund, help those people with preexisting conditions, and, yes, we may get some sanity out of the administration on the implementation of the health care law if we do that.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself 1 minute.

The last Congress we had this debate over and over again, which obviously culminated with the significant findings in our Committee on Energy and Commerce on what happened with the energy company called Solyndra. The moneys that were pushed out the door by the Department of Energy in the first 4 years of the Obama administration, those moneys were poorly spent and unwisely invested. And what did we get for that investment? More debt.

Here we are faced with a condition in the Prevention Fund where these dollars are going to be pushed out the door hiring navigators. Remember, part of the Affordable Care Act was to absolutely remove insurance agents and brokers from the environment, and now we're going to populate the environment with these navigators that are going to help sell people health insurance, and they're going to be paid for out of the Department of Health and Human Services with the prevention fund. It doesn't sound like prevention to me. I think we ought to prevent that from happening.

I reserve the balance of my time.

I yield myself 1 minute.

Since the gentleman wasn't here in the spring of 2010 when the Affordable Care Act passed, he probably didn't hear the utterance of the then-Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, who famously, from that chair, stood up and said, ``We've got to pass this law to find out what's in it.''

Here we are a little over 3 years later, and we're still finding out what's in it. Yes, the law is the law--the law has passed; the law is signed--but what has happened since that time is this torrent of regulations that has come out of the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of the Treasury, the Office of Personnel Management--all of those Federal agencies charged with implementing this failed product. Now, we can argue all we want about settled law being settled law, but rulemaking is going on even as we speak. New rules are coming out. New rules are being promulgated.

Look at the Essential Health Benefit Rule. Why did the administration hide the ball on that one until 2 days after election day? Because they were afraid of what the public's response would be when they saw what that rule actually said. It turns out that most of the Nation's Governors said, We don't want any part of this.

I reserve the balance of my time.

I yield myself 1 minute.

I think it's important for Members of this body to understand one of the things we're talking about today. It's section 4002 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. In my copy, it's found on page 466. This delineates the outline of the Prevention and Public Health Fund.

Section A: The purpose is to establish a Prevention and Public Health Fund.

That all sounds good. It's to be administered through the Office of the Secretary to provide for the expanded and sustained national investment in the maintaining of public health. All good as it sounds.

Then the funding section. The funding section is important because it's unlike other sections of law. Yes, it started small with literally a half billion dollars in fiscal year 2010. It escalated from there, and by next year, this fund will be up to $2 billion a year. That's self-replenishing in perpetuity. That's until the Earth cools another time or the Second Coming. It's $2 billion a year forever.

Now, the use of the fund is the next section. That is telling because there is broad authority for the Secretary of Health and Human Services to transfer these dollars to other areas she wants. That is what leads to the problem. That is what leads to the difficulty with this section.

I reserve the balance of my time.

I will go as long as the gentlelady wants, but I guess I have no more speakers other than myself.

I yield myself the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, as the gentlelady mentioned, we've heard a lot today.

I think I've said over and over again how I, unequivocally, oppose the Affordable Care Act and would like to see it forever dismantled and thrown on the dustbin of history. Guilty as charged. That is what I would like to see, but that's actually not what we're talking about today.

We're here today to talk about the President's promise to help people with preexisting conditions obtain health insurance, and it has been one of the few areas of agreement between Republicans and Democrats over the last several years. House Republicans have urged the President to work with us on a solution to this issue, but all we've heard from the White House has been silence. So, today, we are offering a solution:

The bill transfers funds from an unnecessary slush fund and, instead, prioritizes the Nation's most sick and vulnerable who have been denied coverage and who have been the victims of the Affordable Care Act's broken promises. This bill does not provide more money to government health care programs, but instead it helps those who are in desperate need have access to privately run health insurance. Instead of continuing to use the Prevention and Public Health Fund to prop up the Affordable Care Act's flailing exchanges, we would use the money allocated for public health to actually help sick Americans.

If we do not act, the administration will continue to spend this money on heaven knows what: neutering programs, pickle ball--whatever the heck that is--and programs that are rife with potential for fraud and abuse to support their own failing implementation plans. Instead of further increasing this Nation's $17 trillion deficit, we can pass this bill that will provide health care to the sick and will reduce the deficit at the same time.

In the end, it's not about the money. It's about America's patients. The President should be embarrassed. His political bait-and-switch is not working. Instead of putting the care of the sick first, you tell them, Sorry, Sister, we're closed. Come back in 10 months.

Ten months, a week, a day may be the amount of time some of these patients have to get treatment or else face the consequences of the progression of their illnesses.

America's doctors and hospitals will be there, and they'll always be there. But why deny them the means to get their services paid for with insurance coverage?

Mr. President, your health bill fails this country, and, most importantly, you have failed the thousands of sick Americans who can't get health coverage because you think implementing the health care law is more important than taking care of the people who you promised to take care of.

So today we can end the use of the slush fund and use it to actually help people. A vote for this bill is a vote to help sick Americans now.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the rule and support the passage of H.R. 1549.

With that, Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time, and I move the previous question on the resolution.

I thank the gentleman for yielding me the customary 30 minutes, and I yield myself such time as I may consume.

We begin this week the way we've begun every week since January: spinning our wheels.

As we speak, sequestration is hitting communities across our country. Flight delays have started, Head Start programs are turning away children, and unemployment benefits are being curtailed. Despite the calls from me and all my Democratic colleagues to stop the sequestration, the majority refuses to act. In fact, the ranking member of the Budget Committee, Representative Van Hollen, has come four times to the Rules Committee with an amendment that would repeal sequestration, but the majority has rejected it every single time.

The majority has also left the job of passing a budget unfinished. With budgets passed by both the Senate and the House, it is now time to finish the job, and for the majority that constantly calls for regular order and concerns itself with no Senate budget, they now refuse to appoint the conferees. And they must, if we're going to get the budget.

Instead of taking meaningful action on these two important issues, the majority is proposing a bill that is nothing more than a political gimmick. As everyone knows, there's no chance that the Senate will consider this bill. Even if it did, the President's senior advisers have stated that they will recommend the President veto the bill.

In the short history of the 113th Congress, I have been repeatedly dismayed that the leadership of this Chamber has refused to bring forth meaningful legislation that has any chance of becoming law; and today is a telling example of the majority's failure to lead.

In news reports earlier this morning, we were told that today's bill, dubbed by reporters as ``CantorCare,'' may even be pulled before it gets a vote. One Member of the majority was purported to say that today's bill does nothing but shift money from a program he doesn't support to another program he doesn't support. And, indeed, given the fact that not a single Republican voted for the Affordable Care Act, it seems incongruous to me that they are now here today with great bleeding-heart concerns about the people with previous conditions that keep them from being insured.

So given the multiple reports of dissent within the majority, I have to ask, If no one supports this bill, then what are we doing this afternoon except, as I pointed out earlier, what we do every week? Even if we continue to move forward on the bill, it is already clear the legislation is solely designed for political gain. For while the majority claims that they want to strengthen the Affordable Care Act, their intent is clear: they want to repeal the law.

Last week, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius testified before the Senate Finance Committee where she was criticized by GOP Senators for using her legal authority to fund the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. As Secretary Sebelius replied in her testimony, Congress' failure to pass a budget has forced her to take the independent action, which she's allowed to do, in order to fund the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. It's as simple as that. In the face of an unproductive Congress, Secretary Sebelius has done everything she can to provide the lifesaving health care to the American people.

While reporting on Secretary Sebelius' testimony, Washington Post columnist Ezra Klein explained the majority's approach towards the Affordable Health Care Act. In part, Mr. Klein wrote:

``Insofar as the Republican Party has a strategy on ObamaCare, it goes like this: The law needs to be implemented. The GOP can try and keep the implementation from being done effectively, in part, by refusing to authorize the needed funds,'' as they did in this case. I think it was $1.5 billion.

``Then they can capitalize on the problems they create to weaken the law, or at least weaken Democrats up for reelection in 2014. In other words, step one: create problems for ObamaCare. Step two: blame ObamaCare care for the problems. Step three: political profit.''

The legislation before us is little more than a continuation of these games.

If the majority were making a serious attempt to expand health care coverage, they wouldn't be funding their proposal with money from a different program in the Affordable Care Act. Specifically, the majority wouldn't be removing $4 billion from the Prevention and Public Health Fund. This is a fund that is already helping States research ways to reduce instances of cancer, obesity, and heart disease.

Preventive health measures are vital to reducing the cost of health care in the United States because we know it is always cheaper to prevent disease than to treat it. In an age where more than 33 percent of our population is overweight or obese, when heart disease is the number one cause of death and the number of diabetes cases continue to grow, including children, gutting our Nation's only Federal preventive health program is not a responsible budget decision; it is simply an underhanded attack to dismantle the Affordable Care Act one program at a time.

Finally, the majority's newfound concern for people who are uninsured because of preexisting conditions might be more believable if they had allowed one of the numerous commonsense amendments presented to the Rules Committee to come to the floor. Among the amendments were responsible proposals to cover Americans with preexisting conditions by ending tax breaks for Big Oil, ending subsidies for owners of corporate jets, increasing taxes on cigarettes--a preventive health measure in its own right. Proposals like these would expand health care to those who need it while protecting the preventive health measures included in the Affordable Care Act. It is truly unfortunate that, in yet another restrictive process executed by the majority, these amendments were denied a vote on the House floor.

The majority and the press have made it clear that today's bill is not a serious effort, but a political gimmick that has no chance of becoming law. I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on today's rule and the underlying legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, we will be doing, as I said, a previous question amendment to this rule to hold a vote on the Put America Back to Work Act, and I would like to yield now 3 minutes to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), the Democratic whip.

(Mr. HOYER asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

I yield 1 additional minute to the gentleman from Maryland.

Madam Speaker, I'm pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Nevada (Mr. Horsford), a member of the Committee on Natural Resources.

Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Connolly).

Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlelady from California (Ms. Matsui).

Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Takano).

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as it takes me to read this message. It needs to be answered, and I want everybody in America to listen up. You've been told it's a job-killing bill and that it has caused all this grief. Let me say:

Since the passage of the Affordable Care Act, the United

States has added more than 6 million private sector jobs. The

health care industry alone, which many opponents of the law

predicted would face job-killing new regulation, has added

more than 750,000 jobs.

I now yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Hahn).

Madam Speaker, may I inquire if my colleague has more requests for time? I have none, and I am prepared to close.

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

First, at the end of my remarks I will insert in the Record the Democratic amendments that were disallowed last night from the Rules Committee.

In closing, Madam Speaker, we've heard a lot today, but I think probably one of the most important things for America to know--because you hear constantly how many jobs this bill is going to be killing--is the fact that we have produced 6 million new jobs, 750,000 in health care alone.

So the most important thing we can do for Americans with preexisting conditions, which is the subject today, and for every American seeking quality and affordable health care is to support the full implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Unfortunately, the proposal put forward by the majority today is an attempt to dismantle a crucial part of that important law.

Summary of Democratic Amendments Not Made In Order by the Rules

Committee for H.R. 1549--Helping Sick Americans Now Act

(Summaries derived from information provided by sponsors)

Listed in Alphabetical Order--Prepared April 24, 2013

Amendment #4

Sponsor: Capps (CA)

Description: Removes the public health and prevention trust

fund as a pay-for and instead pays for the bill by ending the

section 199 domestic manufacturing deduction for oil and gas

production.

Amendment #5

Sponsor: Green, Gene (TX)

Description: Makes the same changes to the PCIP program

that the underlying bill does, but is paid for by requiring a

minimum term and a remainder interest greater than zero for

new Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts (GRATs)

Amendment #10

Sponsor: Horsford, Steven (NV)

Description: Requires the HHS Secretary to transfer all of

the monies in the Fund for the next four fiscal years to the

PCIP program except those monies from the fund that are used

for reducing health disparities among minority populations.

Amendment #1

Sponsor: Pallone (NJ)

Description: Makes the same changes to the PCIP program

that the underlying bill does, but is paid for through a 4

cent per pack increase in the tax on cigarettes.

Amendment #2

Sponsor: Pallone (NJ)

Description: Makes the same changes to the PCIP program

that the underlying bill does, but is paid for by continuing

the solvency of the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund by

increasing the per-barrel amount that oil companies are

required to pay into the fund by four cents.

Amendment #3

Sponsor: Schakowsky (IL)

Description: Extends funding for reopening enrollment under

the Preexisting Condition Insurance Program (PCIP)

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to insert the text of the amendment in the Record, along with extraneous material, immediately prior to the vote on the previous question.

I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' and defeat the previous question, and I urge a ``no'' vote on the rule.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 5 minutes.

Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to join my colleague, Spencer Bachus, as we begin consideration of our bill, H.R. 360. I am proud to have had the entire Alabama delegation, Representatives Bonner, Aderholt, Rogers, Roby, and Brooks, as well as Alabama natives Representatives Lewis and Bishop, join me as original cosponsors on this legislation. I am also thankful for the leadership of both parties, Speaker Boehner, Leader Pelosi, Majority Leader Cantor, Whips Hoyer and McCarthy, as well as Financial Services Committee Chairman Hensarling and Ranking Member Waters, for their support and leadership. I also want to thank the more than 296 Members of Congress who cosponsored this bill.

H.R. 360 requests that Congress bestow its highest civilian honor, the Congressional Gold Medal, to Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley, who tragically lost their lives during the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in 1963. These beautiful girls never got a chance to live out their promise, but their lives were not in vain. As Dr. King said at their funeral, ``They are the martyred heroines of a holy crusade for freedom and human dignity.''

At 10:23 on Sunday, September 15, 1963, amid high racial tensions, a bomb went off in the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church as people gathered to worship for Sunday. The explosion killed four little girls who were in the basement bathroom preparing to return for Sunday school. Twenty- two people were injured by the blast, including the younger sister of Addie Mae Collins, Sarah, who survived but lost her eye.

The senseless deaths of four little girls shocked the Nation and became a galvanizing force for the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. But, Mr. Speaker, justice was long delayed because it wasn't until 37 years later, on May 18, 2000, that all four Ku Klux Klan members who planted the bomb were finally brought to justice for their crimes.

These innocent girls lost their lives much too young. Addie Mae Collins, 14, was a reserved and sweet little girl. She liked for people to be at peace around her, they said.

Denise McNair, 11 years old, was a loving and friendly child who already exhibited a take-charge and generous spirit, helping others as she went along the way.

Carole Robertson, 14, was a vivacious young girl who was an avid reader and played the clarinet in the band.

Cynthia Wesley, 14, was an honor student who enjoyed playing the saxophone in her school band. That fateful Sunday was going to be her first day serving as an usher in church.

Although there are many individuals and events of the civil rights movement that rightfully are worthy of recognition, the selection of the four little girls was emblematic of so many who sacrificed and lost their lives for the cause of freedom.

Medgar Evers, Emmett Till, Jimmy Lee Jackson, as well as Virgil Ware and James Johnny Robinson--who was also killed within hours of the 1963 bombing--they were all martyrs for justice whom we should never forget. It was their blood which was shed for the bounty that so many of us now enjoy.

While we recognize that this medal cannot in any way replace the lives lost nor the injuries suffered as a result of the horrific bombing, I hope this medal serves as a powerful reminder of the importance of the many sacrifices made and the great achievements obtained so that this Nation could live up to its ideals of equality and justice for all.

This Nation should never forget those who marched, those who prayed and died in the pursuit of civil rights and social change. It is my sincere hope that their families will receive this highest civilian honor in the humble spirit in which it was intended.

I am delighted today to be joined by the sisters of Denise McNair and Carole Robertson, and the president of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, who are all in the gallery as witnesses to this debate today.

Mr. Speaker, I want to urge my colleagues to vote in favor of this legislation in honoring the lives of these four girls as we pay tribute to their families and recognize the enormous progress that we as a Nation have obtained.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 1 additional minute.

This recognition is long overdue, and I am grateful to this body for its consideration during this 50th anniversary year.

Dr. King offered the best rationale for granting this Gold Medal in the eulogy that he made at their funerals. He poignantly acknowledged:

History has proven over and over again that unmerited

suffering is redemptive. The innocent blood of these girls

may well have served as a redemptive force that will bring

new light to this dark city. The Holy Scripture says, ``A

little child shall lead them.'' The death of these little

children may lead our whole Southland from the low road of

man's inhumanity to man to the high road of peace and

brotherhood.

I urge my colleagues to support this Gold Medal bill so that this country can finally recognize the redemptive force that the deaths of these four girls made in bringing light to a dark Nation.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Waters).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Clyburn), my mentor and a great leader.

I yield the gentleman an additional 30 seconds.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished leader of the Democratic Party, the gentlelady from California (Ms. Pelosi).

Mr. Speaker, I now yield 2 minutes to the distinguished Democratic whip, my dear friend, the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the dean of the House, the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Dingell).

(Mr. DINGELL asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from Alabama. It has been a pleasure to not only represent Jefferson County with him, but to serve in this body with him. And I thank you for yielding me that time.

I now yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis); and while he may represent Georgia, we claim him as Alabama's native.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to another native of Alabama who happens to represent Georgia, the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Bishop).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Cleaver).

I again thank the gentleman from Alabama. It is indeed an honor to be able to manage the floor with you on this bill and cosponsor it with you, and I thank you for your generosity.

At this time I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the distinguished gentlelady from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee).

I yield an additional 30 seconds to the gentlelady.

I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Danny K. Davis).

(Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Eddie Bernice Johnson).

Mr. Speaker, I want to conclude by thanking all of my colleagues, especially my colleagues from Alabama, and all of my colleagues who have participated in today's debate. It is indeed an honor and a privilege for me, a native of Selma, Alabama, a 30-year member of Brown Chapel AME Church, to have the humble honor to be a sponsor of this bill.

I know that I drink deep from wells that I didn't dig, my whole generation does. It is a long time overdue, but I just want to say humbly, Thank you, and I urge all of my colleagues to support H.R. 360. And again, I thank the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Bachus). It has been an honor to serve with you and to share this time with you.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise today with a sense of indignation, sadness, and deep and abiding pride in the memory of four little girls from Alabama who were callously murdered by the bomb of a homegrown terrorist.

Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robinson, Cynthia Wesley and Denise McNair did not get a chance to celebrate any more birthdays, run through the fields of Alabama, go to the prom, dance at a wedding, or simply grow up and enjoy life as Americans.

As was reflected in the prayer given last week in this Chamber by world-renowned soul and gospel singer Yolanda Adams we have been taught to embrace God's grace and mercy, and for those who will listen, to stand in the sunlight of joy as one looks toward the hopefulness of the future, while standing tall as a Black woman in the memory of my four little girls, your girls--these little girls were America's children, and bore the brunt of a very ugly side during a very nasty, ugly, vicious, cruel, and inexorably painful era in the history of the United States.

Mr. Speaker, on August 27, 1963, at the March on Washington, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered the speech that both challenged and inspired a nation. ``I have a dream,'' he said, that ``one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.''

Nineteen days later, on September 15, 1963, the nation learned that there was still a long path to travel before it realized Dr. King's dream. For on that day 50 years ago, the nation was shocked--and the City of Birmingham was rocked--by an explosion at the 16th Street Baptist Church that severely damaged the church, injured 22 people, and claimed the lives of four beautiful and innocent little girls: Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robinson, Cynthia Wesley and Denise McNair.

But the horror and heartbreak of that tragedy galvanized a nation to act. Less than two years later, the nation responded to one of the worst and cowardly acts of hatred with two great acts of justice that have changed America for the better and still stand today as monuments to what can be achieved when challenged to live up to the true meaning of its creed.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 are a part of the legacy of Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robinson, Cynthia Wesley and Denise McNair.

Today we celebrate their lives--lives cut down as they should have been learning to bake cakes, play hopscotch, and learn the violin, instead they were murdered in a place which should have been a safe haven, a sanctuary. The death of the four girls drew national attention to the fight for civil rights and is credited with creating a surge of momentum for the civil rights movement.

It is also important that we pass on the lessons learned through this deep tragedy so that we do not repeat it. Little girls and little boys around this great nation should hold hands and walk together regardless of race, color, religion, or creed.

This bill simply directs the Speaker of the House and the president pro tempore of the Senate to arrange for the posthumous award of a Congressional Gold Medal to commemorate the lives of Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robinson and Cynthia Wesley in recognition of the historical significance of the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church. But this bill is more than that. It is a reckoning.

This legislation, which I am proud to co-sponsor and strongly support, is intended to complete some of the nation's most important unfinished business. And that is to address one of the most depraved acts of violence against school-aged girls belonging to a racial group which was vulnerable, politically powerless, and innocent, and against those persons who risked life and limb to help them secure the rights promised in the Declaration of Independence and made real in the Constitution.

The Congressional Gold Medal recognizing the 50th Anniversary of 16th Street Baptist Church bombing is long overdue. I thank my CBC colleague who hails from Alabama, Congresswoman Terri Sewell of Birmingham, who sponsored this legislation, and Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama, who leads the Senate effort for this special recognition as America comes to terms with its rich and often painful history.

Mr. Speaker, in 1989 the Civil Rights Memorial was dedicated in Montgomery, Alabama, the birthplace of the modern Civil Rights Movement. The Memorial honors the lives and memories of 40 civil rights martyrs who gave their lives in the struggle for justice and equality. But we know that many more people lost their lives to racial violence during that era. In honoring the four little girls of Birmingham today, let us resolve to remain steadfast in the quest to obtain justice for these other heroes.

Mr. Speaker, fifty years later we have made much progress from the dark days of Birmingham. In those days there simply was no justice for African Americans because the criminal justice system--from the police, to the prosecutors, to the juries, and to the judges--was perverted by racial bigotry.

Inspired by the sacrifice of four little girls in Birmingham, Americans of good will and of all races and creeds, worked to hasten the day when all would be treated equally before the law and every person would be judged by the content of their character.

It is, of course, fitting and proper that H.R. 360 bears the names of Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robinson, Cynthia Wesley and Denise McNair. Although forever linked together in history, we must not forget that each of them was an individual. Each had her own hopes and dreams for the future. Sadly, they were robbed of that future by the cowardly act of persons motivated by racial hatred. But in sacrificing their futures, Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robinson, Cynthia Wesley, and Denise McNair helped to transform America into a place where little girls and little boys today can know that their dreams can come true and their futures will be bright and that racial hatred is no longer an insuperable barrier to realizing the American Dream.

Mr. Speaker, nearly 50 years ago, on June 11, 1963, President John F. Kennedy addressed the nation from the Oval Office on the state of race relations and civil rights in America. In his historic speech to the nation President Kennedy said:

We are confronted primarily with a moral issue. It is as

old as the scriptures and is as clear as the American

Constitution. . . .

[T]his Nation, for all its hopes and all its boasts, will

not be fully free until all its citizens are free.

H.R. 360 is intended to help bring justice to those whom justice has been delayed for more than two generations. In doing so, this legislation will help this Nation fulfill its hopes and justify its boast that in America all persons live in freedom.

And Mr. Speaker, let us also remember young Virgil Lamar Ware, a thirteen-year-old black boy who was killed by segregationists while riding on the handlebars of his brother's bicycle. His killers had just attended a segregationist rally held in the aftermath of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing.

It is a sad but unfortunately not uncommon occurrence that it is innocent children who suffer when adults give in to hate. But as the scriptures teach us, unearned suffering is redemptive. And the blood of the innocents--Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robinson, Cynthia Wesley and Denise McNair--helped to redeem our country and make it better.

I urge all Members to join me in supporting this fitting tribute to their heroism and sacrifice by voting to pass H.R. 360.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 360) to award posthumously a Congressional Gold Medal to Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley to commemorate the lives they lost 50 years ago in the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, where these 4 little Black girls' ultimate sacrifice served as a catalyst for the Civil Rights Movement, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and submit extraneous materials for the Record on this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 4 minutes.

Mr. Speaker, it's an honor to manage this bill and to have worked with my colleague and the sponsor of this legislation, Congresswoman Terri Sewell, who is the driving force behind this legislation. She's worked tirelessly to bring this bill to the floor, and it has come to the floor with bipartisan support. Through her work, and those of many Members on both sides, including the Alabama delegation, we're proud that this bill has 296 Members as cosponsors.

The bill, as the title reflects, posthumously awards a Congressional Gold Medal that recognizes these four little African American girls. Their pictures are on the floor of the House. You can see their very tender age. Their lives were cut short by a bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham on September 15, 1953. Many trace this decisive and heinous act to an impetus for a passage of the historical Civil Rights Act of 1964. There was a national revulsion caused by the deaths of these innocent lives, the calculated bombing in a place of worship. It was, indeed, a sad day for the entire country.

It can correctly be said that 50 years ago my hometown found itself the epicenter of the civil rights movement. The images of conflicts and violence from Birmingham that flickered nationally on what were still predominantly black-and-white TV screens shocked the conscience of the Nation and, I believe, most citizens of Alabama.

During the recent Faith and Politics Congressional Civil Rights Pilgrimage to Alabama, a large bipartisan delegation of Members viewed some of the historic sites in Birmingham. We were led on the pilgrimage by my friend and Congresswoman Sewell's friend, Congressman John Lewis, who, from personal experience, spoke authoritatively about those years. As we know, he was beaten many times himself.

The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church is still a vibrant place of worship. Just a few months ago, we stood in a moment of silence in remembrance of the haunting act of evil that occurred there a half century ago.

Churchgoers gathered peacefully on that beautiful fall morning, as they faithfully did every Sunday, to praise, pray, and worship. In fact, 26 children were making their way to the downstairs assembly room to prepare for a sermon, entitled, ``The Love That Forgives,'' when the bomb went off. The four little girls, whose pictures are on the floor of the House--Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley--were almost instantly killed.

Looking at those faces now, they speak as strongly to me on the House floor today as they did to newspaper readers and television viewers at the time of the bombing. As a Congress and

a country, our eyes were opened and we were shocked enough to finally pass civil rights legislation affirming that the rights and protections of the U.S. Constitution do not depend on what color your skin happens to be.

The civil rights struggle was long and hard, filled with both sorrow and joy. There's a special place in history and in our hearts for all of those who were killed and injured in Birmingham.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I now yield 2 minutes to my friend, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Schock).

Mr. Speaker, I now yield 1 minute to the distinguished majority leader, the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Cantor).

Mr. Speaker, I now yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Bonner).

Mr. Speaker, I now yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Aderholt).

I yield the gentleman an additional 2 minutes.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to acknowledge and thank Mr. Hoyer for his recognition of my father's role, of our family's. I am very proud of my father and the courage he showed.

At this time, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the esteemed chairman of the Financial Services Committee, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Hensarling).

Mr. Speaker, I now yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Fitzpatrick), who has visited the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church with us, and I thank him for doing that.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that 4 minutes of my time be given to Ms. Sewell to manage, and I reserve the balance of my time. I do that in acknowledgement of her fine work on this legislation and those of her colleagues who visited the church.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 1 minute.

What we need to fully realize is that the civil rights victories were achieved with the guiding principle of nonviolence. There are many regions and nations of the world that have been trapped in endless cycles of ethnic and political violence across multiple generations that have torn the fabric of their societies and families. We always like to think that could never happen here. It did not happen during the civil rights movement because of the principle of nonviolence.

I journeyed, at John Lewis' invitation, to India where we retraced the steps of Martin Luther King as he retraced the journey of Ghandi. Dr. King took his own religious convictions, affirmed and strengthened by those of Ghandi, and brought back a powerful nonviolent movement which overcame police dogs, water hoses, brutal beatings, bombs, bullets, and acts of violence in a nonviolent way. And love carried the day against hate. That was a proud moment for our country, and it is a model as we go forward.

We in America have the right to petition our government in a peaceful way. Let us use that example and that tradition.

With that, Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to yield the balance of my time to the gentlewoman from Alabama to manage as she sees fit and give her the right to close, which I think should be her honor.

(Mr. Speaker, it is important to remember that the 4 men suspected of the bombing, Bobby Frank Cherry, Herman Cash, Thomas Blanton, and Robert Chambliss, were not immediately prosecuted because authorities believed it impossible to obtain a conviction in the heated racial climate of the mid-1960s. Alabama Attorney General Bill Baxley successfully prosecuted Robert Chambliss 13 years after the bombing. After the indictment and conviction of Robert Chambliss the bombing investigation was closed. The investigation was reopened in 1995 due to the efforts of Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Rob Langford and local African-American leaders. In 2001 and 2002 a joint Federal and State task force, under the supervision of United States Attorney Douglas Jones and Alabama Attorney General William Pryor, successfully prosecuted Thomas Blanton and Bobby Frank Cherry with the assistance of State and local law enforcement personnel. We in Alabama and the Nation Owe a Debt of Gratitude for the tireless efforts of then Attorney General Bill Baxley, FBI Special Agent Rob Langford, Local African-American leaders, United States Attorney Douglas Jones, and Alabama Attorney General William Pryor as well as those state and local law enforcement personnel who brought these perpetrators to justice.