Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of my newly-introduced

resolution which recognizes today as the 66th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the celebration of Human Rights Day.

Sixty-six years ago today, the world spoke for the first time with one voice to proclaim the fundamental rights and freedoms of all people. Today, it is our duty to continue to speak out for human rights for all people. Imprisoned bloggers in Vietnam, LGBT activists in Russia, and murdered students in Mexico all have shown us that there is still a great amount of work left to do.

Mr. Speaker, I urge the House to take up my resolution and encourage my colleagues to set aside today to recognize Human Rights Day in honor of all those who are struggling to reclaim their fundamental rights.

I thank the gentlewoman from San Jose for yielding to me.

Mr. Speaker, I am really humbled to have a chance just to say a few words about George Miller and Henry Waxman. As a new Member, I have had the wonderful experience of spending my first 2 years as both Mr. Waxman and Mr. Miller kind of conclude a great career.

A little bit first about George Miller: as we pointed out, he is a progressive, he has fought for the environment, he has protected it, he has been a leader in the Natural Resources Committee, and he has fought to protect public lands such as in the 1994 California Desert Protection Act and created Death Valley National Park and Joshua Tree. He was the chief sponsor of the Central Valley Project Improvement Act of 1992, also to protect the fish and wildlife.

I came also to the legislature, to the Congress, after chairing education in California, and George Miller was a champion and a leader here, and we all looked up to him. As was pointed out already, he did great work on helping to draft the No Child Left Behind Act, and he was a great supporter of school modernization and community colleges-- finally, about George, passion, humor, respected by all, and a zest for political combat.

On the other hand, let's see what people say about my good friend Henry Waxman. Like myself, Henry's grandparents were Jewish immigrants. We both served in the legislature. The Washington Post said that Henry Waxman is to Congress what Ted Williams was to baseball: a natural.

Ralph Nader once said that Henry Waxman is the only argument against term limits. Senator Alan Simpson once said that Henry Waxman is tougher than a boiled owl, and The Los Angeles Times describes Representative Henry Waxman's tenacity as legendary.

We all know his work on the environment, I am just going to point that out, is legendary not only in terms of the Clean Air Act amendments, but he is also known for the Safe Drinking Water Act amendments; laws reducing childhood lead exposure; the Formaldehyde Standards for Composite Wood Products Act; reduction of greenhouse gases; and taking on, as we all know, the tobacco industry.

In keeping with his role as the defender of the environment, Mr. Waxman has served as the chair of the House Safe Climate Caucus. It was a distinct honor for this new Member to serve with him, Henry Waxman, and a greater honor to be selected as the next chairperson of the Safe Climate Caucus.

Mr. Speaker, I only hope that I and every Member of this body can live up to the amazing legacies of public service that George Miller and Henry Waxman have left this Congress.

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

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 4924 would approve a water rights settlement agreement in the Bill Williams River Basin and settle a longstanding water rights dispute between the Hualapai Tribe and the Freeport- McMoRan Minerals Company.

Under this agreement, the Hualapai Tribe will confirm its water rights claims in the Bill Williams River Basin, receive protections for culturally significant springs, and secure a non-Federal contribution to enable future settlement of its water rights claims in the other river basins. The Freeport Company will also receive greater water certainty at one of its sites.

This legislation approves a fair settlement in the Bill Williams River Basin without requiring any new spending authorization. I support adoption of H.R. 4924 and urge my colleagues to support this legislation as well.

I reserve the balance of my time.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 5050 would repeal the Act of May 31, 1918, and give the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes of the Fort Hall Indian Reservation the exclusive right of first refusal to purchase, at fair market value, any land within the Fort Hall town-site which is offered for sale.

By repealing the 1918 Act, more land within the reservation's boundaries would be available to the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes and the Secretary would be prevented from possibly selling land within the designated town-site area. This bill would not affect current landowners and provides the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes only with the right of first refusal for any future transactions involving the lands.

Mr. Speaker, I support adoption of H.R. 5050 and urge my colleagues to support this legislation. I reserve the balance of my time.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, S. 2040 would resolve border changes to the Fort Hall Reservation after the realignment of the Blackfoot River by the Army Corps of Engineers in 1964. This bill settles boundary disputes for the tribes of the Fort Hall Reservation and directs the Secretary of the Interior to transfer the Indian land to the Blackfoot River Flood Control District Number 7 for use or sale and requires that the non- Indian land be held in trust for the tribes.

The bill allows the local flood control district to compensate non- Indian landowners at fair market value. The disposition of the remaining lands, after the sale of the lands, is left to the discretion of the Flood Control District Number 7.

Mr. Speaker, I support passage of this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 2455 would convey approximately 275 acres of Bureau of

Land Management-administered land to Elko County, Nevada, at fair market value. The bill requires the land conveyed, the Elko motocross, to be used specifically as a motocross, bicycle, off-highway vehicle, or stock car racing area.

If the land is not used for these specific purposes, then it may be used for any other public purposes consistent with the Recreation and Public Purposes Act.

The bill would also transfer several thousand acres of BLM- administered land to seven Nevada tribes in trust: the Te-Moak Tribe of Western Shoshone Indians, Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone Tribe, Shoshone-Paiute Tribes of the Duck Valley Indian Reservation, Summit Lake Paiute Tribe, Reno-Sparks Indian Colony, and the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe.

This bill was amended by subcommittee chairman, the gentleman from Alaska (Mr. Young), to address among other things the administration's concerns about sage grouse habitat.

I thank my colleagues, Representative Mark Amodei and Representative Don Young, for their efforts to address these concerns. I support the passage of this bill.

I reserve the balance of my time.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, the Coastal Barrier Resources Act, or CBRA, requires the identification of hazardous areas on the Atlantic and gulf coasts and makes Federal subsidies off-limits to people who choose to develop those lands. Particularly in this time of rising sea levels and increased storm surge brought on by global warming, CBRA is critical to helping protect American taxpayers and sensitive coastal ecosystems.

H.R. 3572 would adjust the boundaries of several Coastal Barrier Resources System units in North Carolina, South Carolina, Rhode Island, and Florida. I am particularly pleased that long overdue remedies for the constituents of my friends, the gentleman from Rhode Island (Mr. Cicilline) and the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. McIntyre), are included in this package.

These changes have been carefully mapped by the Fish and Wildlife Service and reflect improvements in technology that have allowed us to show with great accuracy which parcels of land do and do not constitute ``coastal barrier resources'' under the law.

As a result, numerous properties that were originally included by mistake will be removed, and other properties that have been identified as at-risk will be included. These changes to the Coastal Barrier Resources System are protective of private property rights, the environment, and the taxpayers. I support passage of this bill.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Rhode Island (Mr. Cicilline).

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

Mr. Speaker, I inadvertently voted on rollcall 509, H.J. Res. 124. I intended to vote ``yes'' on rollcall 509, H.J. Res. 124.

Mr. Speaker, I am concerned about working families, and I will be talking about the minimum wage.

I just want to preface that it was an honor to listen to Congressman Rangel really talk about what is probably the most important issue before us in terms of how we as a deliberative body deal with issues of war and peace and where our Nation is going. I, too, hope that we have, as this goes on, a really thoughtful discussion as you have laid out for us tonight. And I hope that we follow up with what the President says later on tonight and that, when we reconvene, we do talk about this in a very, very thoughtful, thoughtful way.

But I am also concerned about how working families and individuals are struggling to make a living on our current minimum wage of $7.25. That is why I think Congressman Pocan and my colleagues and I are discussing this issue. It is a key component of raising this minimum wage, of closing the opportunity gap and building an economy that works for our working families.

We spend a lot of time in this body talking about building the economy. We spend time discussing tax breaks for large corporations. But really what we should be about is: How do we rebuild the middle class? How do we give people an opportunity to join the middle class? Raising the minimum wage is a critical component.

By raising it from $7.25 to $10.10 an hour, we would lift 900,000 Americans out of poverty. Do we raise it into wealth? No. We just take the first step. And this is a minimum step. It would raise it for 28 million people, including more than--in my home State, 2.7 million Californians live below the poverty level, working Californians, we are talking about, live below.

Who are they? Seventy percent of them are women. The average age is not as it is often told to us, young people, 18 to 25. We are talking about the average age of a person on minimum wage is 35 years of age. That is a significant year.

I think I meant to say 1.3 million Californians in my State. It is going to raise it for 2.7 million, and of those, almost a million and a half are women who would be impacted by an increase.

This is a bill we are talking about that is a bill that was put forth by Senator Tom Harkin and Congressman George Miller, and it is going to go have a tremendous impact upon job growth. Sometimes we hear, well, if you raise the minimum wage, we are going to lose jobs. But if we really get through the scare tactics, we will listen to what people who are experts and who have studied the issue have said, that a recent analysis by the Economic Policy Institute has calculated that a higher minimum wage within 3 years creates 85,000 new jobs and it has a boost of almost $22 billion into the economy.

So, when we raise the minimum wage, we are talking about protecting families, protecting individuals. We as a Congress have, I think, a responsibility to support those families who are the foundation of our workforce. And now is not time to turn our backs on the people who are raising the next generation. We are talking about working families. We need to help the men, women, and children who provide the foundation for our economy and our country, who are raising the next generation.

If we cannot provide an adequate wage for Americans who are living in poverty and working, why are we here? What is our role? Our role, I think, is to listen to those working Americans who are desperately trying to make ends meet, who work two and three jobs, and say: We hear you; it makes economic sense for the Nation; we will support you. And we should not leave this Congress until we take the first

step, and that is to raise the minimum wage to at least $10.10 an hour.

It is a minimum raise of the minimum wage.

So with that, I thank you for providing me this opportunity to speak.

Yes.

Absolutely would I sign a discharge petition, one of the most important things that we can do.

All we are asking for is a right to vote.

I still remember when the President came, in his State of the Union speech, and it was really just after--in my first year here in the Congress and he was talking about the horrible episode that happened at Sandy Hook and said, ``Give the people the vote. Just give us a vote.''

That is all we are asking our Republican colleagues. Let us vote on raising the minimum wage. That is all. That is the democratic way and ``democratic'' with a small D. That is the American way. Give the people a vote.

Thank you very, very much.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, this bill would provide an exemption to the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, the MBTA, for the sale of Alaskan Native handicrafts that seems consistent with exemptions provided to Alaska Natives in other important conservation laws, like the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

However, the MBTA is distinct from these other laws because it actually implements four separate treaties between the United States and Canada, Mexico, Japan, and Russia; and it remains unclear if amending the MBTA, as proposed by Mr. Young's bill, would violate our treaty obligations to the other implementing nations.

During our legislative hearing on this bill, the committee heard testimony from the Fish and Wildlife Service that the State Department should be consulted on any proposed amendments to the MBTA. However, we have not heard from the Fish and Wildlife Service or the State Department since that time.

I support the rights of Alaskan Natives to create and sell traditional handicrafts. So while I feel it is important that we consider the impact that this bill may have on other existing treaty obligations, I will support this bill.

With that, I yield back the balance of my time.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, the lodge at Smith Gulch is located within the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness in the State of Idaho. It is a popular destination for visitors and offers recreational opportunities for people in a spectacular natural setting.

H.R. 4283 will allow the lodge owners to carry out very specific maintenance activities necessary to keep the lodge operating. I support this legislation.

With that, I reserve the balance of my time.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, the town of Tremont, Maine, was granted a parcel of Federal land to build a school in 1950. The town, which is adjacent to Acadia National Park, no longer needs the parcel for school purposes and would like to be able to consider other uses.

H.R. 4527 will remove the restrictions on the parcel, and its passage is a priority for the town and the bill's sponsor, Mr. Michaud of Maine. I would like to thank and congratulate my colleague from Maine for his work on this bill on behalf of his constituents.

With that, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield as much time as he may consume to the gentleman from Maine (Mr. Michaud), the sponsor of the legislation.

With that, I yield back the balance of my time also.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 4751 changes the name of Bainbridge Island Japanese American Memorial in Washington State to the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial.

The addition of the word ``exclusion'' is significant, as it acknowledges the true purpose of the memorial: to recognize and honor the 276 Japanese Americans living on the island who were relocated and interned after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

When Congress adjusted the boundary of the Minidoka National Historic Site to include the site, the name Congress used was the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Memorial. At the request of the Bainbridge Island community and owners of the memorial, H.R. 4751 amends the name to reflect the memorial's official name.

I would like to thank Representative Kilmer for sponsoring this bill and working to get it through the committee process. This name change is important for the Bainbridge Island community and the integrity of the memorial.

With that, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield as much time as he may consume to the gentleman from Washington State (Mr. Kilmer), the sponsor of the legislation.

I just also want to thank Representative Kilmer for bringing forth this very important bill. Hopefully, this will be another step towards closure in this very--as Representative Young mentioned, this tremendous injustice that occurred in this Nation.

With that, I yield back the balance of my time.

I yield myself such time as I may consume.

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

Mr. Speaker, Washington, D.C., and The National Mall are where we honor our Nation's heroes and commemorate our most significant achievements. An important chapter in our history which has yet to be fully recognized is the contribution and the sacrifice of the over 5,000 slaves and free Black persons who fought to free the Colonies in our Nation's War of Independence. These brave, selfless men must not be forgotten and are certainly deserving of our lasting recognition. That is why in 2003 after years of

debate and effort, Congress authorized the National Liberty Memorial.

The National Liberty Memorial will serve as an important remembrance. I am very pleased that we are able to consider this bill today. When Congress authorizes the establishment of a memorial in Washington, D.C., it then takes years of planning to select a design and location. Fortunately, for the Liberty Memorial, a site has been selected. One of the last hurdles is approval from Congress, and with the adoption of H.J. Res. 120, that is why and what we are here to do today.

Getting this far would not have been possible without the hard work and dedication of the bill's sponsor, Representative Butterfield from North Carolina. I would like to thank him and congratulate him for his work and look forward to soon visiting the new National Liberty Memorial.

We support this legislation and thank the majority for bringing it up for consideration. With that, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield as much time as he may consume to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Butterfield), the sponsor of the legislation.

Mr. Speaker, again, I want to thank Representative Butterfield from North Carolina for helping us get this across the finish line.

We are really going to honor these brave Americans, both slaves and free blacks, who fought for American independence, and I think this is a wonderful bill.

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

Mr. Speaker, this is just my first term, but during my time here I have seen some truly low moments.

But this is the saddest day so far.

We just voted to send children back to unspeakable violence, and now we are considering deporting young people brought to this country through no fault of their own.

It reminded me of the words of Pastor Martin Niemoller. Words that I have hanging in my office:

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak

out--

Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak

out--

Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out--

Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me--and there was no one left to speak

for me.

I ask you Mr. Speaker--who will speak for the unaccompanied children, for the Dreamers, if not us?