Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and concur in the Senate amendments to the bill (H.R. 2453) to require the Secretary of the Treasury to mint coins in commemoration of Mark Twain.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and to add extraneous material to this bill.

I yield myself such time as I may consume, and I rise in support of the Senate amendment to H.R. 2453, the Mark Twain Commemorative Coin Act.

The underlying legislation, which passed the House by a vote of 408-4 on April 18 and the Senate by unanimous consent in September, will allow the U.S. Treasury to mint $1 and $5 commemorative coins in 2016, which will promote the important legacy of Mark Twain and benefit four institutions that bear his name: the Mark Twain House & Museum in Hartford, Connecticut; the University of California Berkeley; Elmira College in New York; and in my congressional district, the Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum in Hannibal, Missouri.

I want to remind my colleagues that this bill will cost the American taxpayers nothing. In fact, the Senate has included language that specifically ensures that the minting and issuing of coins under this act will not result in any net cost to the United States Government and that no funds can be disbursed to the recipients until the total cost of designing and issuing all coins is first recovered by the U.S. Treasury.

I would like to thank my colleague, Mr. Larson of Connecticut, for his leadership on this legislation.

I also would like to acknowledge Hannibal's Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum executive director Dr. Cindy Lovell and the museum's curator Henry Sweets, as well as their dedicated staff, for their incredible work to promote awareness and appreciation of the life and works of Mark Twain.

The bill we consider today honors the legacy of a great American and will greatly help to educate the public of his great accomplishments and contributions to society. I urge my colleagues to join me in passing this legislation.

And with that, Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I just want to close by inviting my colleague from New York to come to the district to see the landmarks that inspired Mark Twain to write about Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer. And you can see from those landmarks where he got the inspiration to do what he did and the type of people that he was around to see how he came up with his ideas. It's really a neat place to visit, and I certainly welcome and encourage you to come.

With that, Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to ask my colleagues to join me in congratulating the Eldon FFA knowledge team of Eldon FFA Chapter for winning the National FFA Knowledge Career Development Event.

This team and their advisor should be commended for all of their hard work throughout this past year and for bringing home the national title to their chapter and their community.

I ask you to join me in recognizing the Eldon FFA knowledge team for a job well done!

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to ask my colleagues to join me in congratulating the Centralia Lady Panthers softball team of Centralia High School for winning the Class 3 Missouri State Softball Championship.

The Centralia Lady Panthers and their coaches should be commended for all of their hard work throughout the regular season and for bringing home the state title in Class 3 to their school and their community. This is their second straight state title.

I ask that you join me in recognizing the Centralia Lady Panthers softball team for a job well done!

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to ask my colleagues to join me in congratulating Dr. Anthony Allen as the 17th President of Hannibal-LaGrange University.

Dr. Allen, a native of North Carolina, attended Duke University where he played football for four years while studying history and religion. He earned both a Master of Divinity and Master of Theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and then went on to earn his doctorate in higher education administration at North Carolina State University. Dr. Allen, his wife Stacy, and their five children currently reside in Kansas City, where he is Senior Vice President of Administration at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Dr. Allen's dedication to Christian higher education and the shared values of Hannibal-LaGrange University, or HLGU, make him an ideal candidate for the position.

I am proud to represent HLGU, a 4-year liberal arts school situated in ``America's Hometown,'' Hannibal, Missouri. HLGU is known for its Christian commitment that has been preserved since its founding in 1858. Dr. Allen shares this commitment and is dedicated to leading HLGU into the future while preserving its Christian heritage. I am confident he will be an outstanding leader both at HGLU and in the greater Hannibal area.

Please join me in congratulating Dr. Allen on his appointment as HLGU's new president and welcoming him and his family to the Hannibal community.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express some concerns regarding S. 2039, introduced by Sen. Hoeven, and sent to this body after unanimous consent in the Senate. I am concerned that this language, though well intentioned, is vague and could potentially result in negative consequences downstream, should this language be signed into law.

I remain concerned that the language could be applied to rivers beyond the Souris and the Red, without explicit Congressional intent. There is potential, although small, for levee construction to take place up and down the stretch of Missouri River that runs through North Dakota, resulting in negative consequences throughout the Missouri River basin.

I am comforted by the fact that there seems to be a rigorous FEMA review and approval process for construction of these levees, and I trust that the author's intentions are to allow for construction of new levees along only the Souris River and the Red River at specified locations. I appreciate the steps taken by the gentleman from North Dakota, Mr. Berg, to address these concerns and to make very clear for future reference that Congressional intent is to show that this legislation is intended to apply only to locations along the Souris and Red Rivers.

Mr. Speaker, our nation has gone too long without improving our levee systems. I do applaud the efforts to allow municipalities to take into their own hands efforts to rehabilitate systems. At the same time, it is important that they meet all necessary guidelines and do not injure other states and communities along a river bank.

I look forward to continuing this important conversation with the gentlemen from North Dakota.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 4367) to amend the Electronic Fund Transfer Act to limit the fee disclosure requirement for an automatic teller machine to the screen of that machine.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and to add extraneous material to this bill.

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

Today, we are considering one of the most commonsense bills seen in some time. This bill provides a real solution to a real problem that is impacting banks, credit unions, and merchants nationwide.

Regulation E currently mandates that ATM fee disclosures appear both in physical placard or in sticker form on the machines as well as through an on-screen electronic notification. Unfortunately, some individuals have seen the potential to make a quick buck off a frivolous claim and have begun to remove stickers from ATMs across the country, thereby placing financial institutions and merchants out of compliance. This is exactly what has happened to some small financial institutions in my district and throughout Missouri. Someone was traveling through the State, removing stickers from ATM machines, and then was offering to settle with the banks for several thousands of dollars per machine or the banks would face lawsuits.

The premise of this bill is simple: to eliminate an outdated and unnecessary regulatory burden facing merchants and financial institutions while continuing to ensure consumer protections for all ATM users through required on-screen fee disclosures.

It is important to recognize that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has also expressed interest in eliminating this duplicative fee disclosure requirement. In December of 2011, the CFPB asked the public to comment on the elimination of this requirement. However, during the public comment period, the CFPB admitted that it may not be able to remove the duplicative disclosure requirement and that it would be up to Congress to take action.

Today, Mr. Speaker, it is time for us to take action.

H.R. 4367 is supported by the National Association of Federal Credit Unions, the Credit Union National Association, the American Bankers Association, the Independent Community Bankers of America, the United States Chamber of Commerce, the Electronic Funds Transfer Association, the Consumer Bankers Association, The Clearing House, the Food Marketing Institute, the Financial Services Roundtable, the National Association of Convenience Stores, the American Gaming Association, and the ATM Industry Association as well.

This legislation has broad bipartisan support from its 145 cosponsors. Among them is the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Scott), who has been a great partner on this initiative, and I thank him for his efforts.

Again, I want to remind my colleagues that this bill does not in any way alter the mandate for on-screen fee disclosures, meaning that customers will have a clear understanding of what they will be charged before they complete their ATM transactions.

It is time to put an end to these frivolous lawsuits. I thank my colleagues for the sponsorship of this legislation, and I ask all Members to support this bill today.

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

Mr. Speaker, it is now my distinct honor to yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Bachus) to

speak on the bill, our distinguished chairman on the Financial Services Committee.

Mr. Speaker, again, I want to thank Mr. Scott from Georgia for helping this bill along. As he articulated, Georgia has had an inordinate number of banks this past year, 2 or 3 years, that have suffered and have gone out of business.

This is just another situation here where this bill may not be a very big bill in the light of things, but it certainly is going to relieve some stress on some of our institutions, also some exposure for some of our merchants. I think, as our distinguished chairman articulated, it's time to put some of these folks out of business as well.

I have had, unfortunately, some of these things go on in my district, and this is how it was brought to my attention. But I think we have come together as a group, and we had a great meeting the other day in Financial Services and had strong bipartisan support. We have the support in the Senate.

With that, I will close and ask for the support of the body.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. Chairman, last year the United States was pummeled by severe weather that destroyed land, homes, businesses, and even lives. Families living along the Missouri River endured another year of significant flooding that left them physically and economically underwater.

In the first half of 2012 alone, millions of American tax dollars have gone toward environmental restoration and recovery programs, while maintenance of our Nation's infrastructure has been neglected.

President Obama, in his fiscal year 2013 budget, requested more than $90 million for the Missouri River Recovery Program, which would primarily go toward the funding of environmental restoration studies and projects.

This figure should alarm all of my colleagues.

In fiscal year 2012, the President requested $70 million for this program. These are staggering increases from the $50 million request that was seen in fiscal year 2008, and the Corps has little to show for its increased spending. Moreover, the fiscal year 2013 request dwarfs the insufficient $7.8 million requested for the entire Bank Stabilization and Navigation Program from Sioux City to the mouth of the Missouri.

I do not take for granted the importance of river ecosystems. I grew up along the Missouri River, as did so many of the people I represent. Yet, we have reached a point in our Nation at which we value the welfare of fish and birds more than the welfare of our fellow human beings. Our priorities are backwards, Mr. Chairman.

This exact amendment passed by voice vote during the fiscal year 2012 appropriations consideration. It is supported by the American Waterways Operators, the Coalition to Protect the Missouri River, the Missouri and Illinois Farm Bureaus, and the Missouri and Iowa Corn Growers Associations, which propose a prohibition of funding

for the Missouri River Ecosystem Restoration Plan, or MRERP.

By the way, the end of the study will in no way jeopardize the Corps' ability to meet the requirements of the Endangered Species Act. MRERP is one of no fewer than 70 environmental and ecological studies focused on the Missouri River. The people who have had to foot the bill for these studies, many which take years to complete and are ultimately inconclusive, are the very people who last year lost their farms, their businesses, and their homes.

This amendment will eliminate a study that has become little more than a tool of the administration's and environmentalists for the promotion of the return of the river to its most natural state with little regard for flood control, navigation, trade, power generation, or the people who depend on the Missouri River for their livelihoods.

Our vote today will also show our constituents that this Congress is aware of the gross disparity between the funding for environmental efforts and the funding for the protection of our citizens. During the debate on fiscal year 2012 appropriations, the House passed by voice vote this exact language, which was ultimately signed into law by President Obama.

It is time for Congress to take a serious look at water development funding priorities, and it is time to send a message to the Federal entities that manage our waterways. I urge my colleagues to support this amendment and to support our Nation's river communities.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. Chairman, last year, parts of the Missouri River basin faced some of the worst flooding in history. This devastation, combined with our dire financial climate and the aging waterways infrastructure, means that now, more than ever, we must be deliberative, focused, and responsible with taxpayer-funded projects and studies.

My amendment would prohibit funding for the duplicative Missouri River Authorized Purposes Study, also known as MRAPS. This amendment was passed by the House during both fiscal year 2011 and 2012 debates. MRAPS is a $25 million earmark study that comes on the heels of a comprehensive $35 million 17-year study completed in 2004.

Some may say that we need MRAPS to examine the causes and impacts of the 2011 flooding. That simply isn't the case. First and foremost, every member of the Missouri River basin is on record as supporting flood control as the most important authorized purpose. It's something that we take very seriously. The last thing we need is another 17-year, highly litigious study to tell us that flood control is important.

Thousands of Missouri River basin residents who lost their homes and businesses deserve action, not distraction. What we need to do is take legitimate steps that focus on protecting life and property and improving the safety and soundness of our flood-control system. It is also important to note that there are many commercial advantages

provided by our inland waterway system. The Missouri River plays an integral part in both domestic and international trade. MRAPS puts the uses of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers in jeopardy, which could result in devastating consequences for navigation along both. That's why the Missouri waterways operators, the Coalition to Protect the Missouri River, the Missouri and Iowa Corn Growers Associations, and the Missouri and Illinois Farm Bureaus support this amendment.

This study is duplicative and wasteful of taxpayer dollars. On this exact issue, we've already spent 17 years and $35 million on hundreds of public meetings and extensive litigation. Again, I offered identical language to the fiscal year 2011 continuing resolution. That amendment passed by a vote of 245 to 176. In the fiscal year 2012 debate, this exact amendment passed by a voice vote and was ultimately included in a package signed by the President. I appreciate my colleagues who offered their support and hope to have their support once again.

Mr. Chairman, there is no doubt in my mind that water resources receive too little funding. It is time for the Federal Government to refocus and reprioritize to create safer, more efficient infrastructure for our inland waterways and stop spending hard-earned taxpayer dollars unnecessarily.

I ask for my colleagues' support of this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, on Rollcall No. 229, I voted incorrectly. I am recorded as a ``no.'' My intent and purpose was to vote ``aye,'' but I voted mistakenly.

Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 254, due to a constituent meeting that went long, I wasn't able to make this vote.

Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea.''

Mr. Speaker, Ma Ying-jeou will be sworn in for a second term on May 20, 2012, as Taiwan's president. It's worth saluting President Ma on this special occasion, as the United States has a no better friend or ally than Taiwan. For decades, Taiwan has been of significant security, economic and political interest to the United States. Today, Taiwan's 23 million people enjoy self-governance with free elections, and Taiwan's economy is the 17th largest in the world-- and growing. Taiwan is the ninth-largest U.S. trading partner, including the sixth-largest market for U.S. agricultural exports, a significant economic consideration for my district.

Going back to the onset of the Cold War, Taiwan and the United States have stood beside one another in some of our countries' darkest hours and most challenging times. Taiwan was an indispensable link in America's Korean War effort. U.S. General Douglas MacArthur rightly labeled Taiwan ``an unsinkable aircraft carrier in the Pacific'' when speaking of the joint U.S.-Taiwan Korean War effort. Taiwan ground troops fought side by side with U.S. forces in the fierce battles at, below and above the 38th Parallel. The Washington-Taipei alliance was later institutionalized in the Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty and Formosa Resolution of 1955. Taiwan was also a key base, and intelligence-gathering source, for U.S. forces in the Vietnam War. Under President Ma's leadership, our relationship has remained strong, as he has sought U.S. support for his policies, including U.S. arms sales, to ensure Taiwan is in a strong position to continue cross- strait talks.

The United States has stood by Taiwan as it has faced challenges from across the strait over the last 62 years. And while travel, trade and investment flourish across the strait today, threats remain, as Beijing refuses to renounce its right to use force against Taiwan. And yet, Taiwan has shown that a strong democracy can thrive even in the face of continued threats.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all my colleagues to join me in congratulating President Ma on his second inauguration. I also would ask my colleagues to remain mindful of the promise we made to the people of Taiwan almost 33 years ago under the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) of 1979, the cornerstone of our two nations' bilateral relationship. Ties or tension across the Taiwan Strait affect global peace and stability, and a more stable East Asia is not only in the best interest of Taiwan, but also in the best interest of the United States.

Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 252, due to other representational obligations in Hannibal, Missouri, I had to miss this vote.

Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea.''

Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 251, due to other representational obligations in Hannibal, Missouri, I had to miss this vote.

Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea.''

Mr. Speaker, on roll call No. 250, due to other representational obligations in Hannibal, Missouri, I had to miss this vote.

Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea.''

Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in congratulating Downtown Washington, Inc. On April 2, 2012, Downtown Washington was named a recipient of The Great American Main Street Award. The winners of this award are recognized for their exceptional accomplishments in revitalizing the nations' historic Main Street commercial district by using the National Trust's Main Street Four- Point Approach.

I ask that you join me in recognizing Downtown Washington, Inc. for its work to nurture and enhance its downtown area. A key part of Downtown Washington's success is due to the dedication and determination of Downtown Washington, Inc.'s board of directors and staff. With its outstanding leadership, the board of directors and staff have spearheaded the renovation of several historic buildings that have and will continue to attract fellow residents and visitors to the downtown area for years to come.

In addition, one of their top priorities is business retention, and Downtown Washington, Inc. works to make sure business owners have the latest information on grants and other incentives. Through their partnerships with the local chamber of commerce and city government, Downtown Washington, Inc. organizes many public events throughout the year, which truly help showcase the city's success.

In closing, I ask all my colleagues to join me in wishing the members Downtown Washington, Inc. congratulations on receiving this award.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Sergeant Christopher Osborne of Labadie, Missouri, who was awarded the Purple Heart due to injuries he sustained while serving in Afghanistan. I am honored to recognize Sergeant Osborne for his service to our nation.

Sergeant Osborne was presented the Purple Heart medal on December 29, 2011, at Bagram Airfield by Major General Stephen L. Danner, adjutant general of the Missouri National Guard. The Purple Heart is awarded in the name of the President of the United States to any member of the Armed Forces of the United States who has been wounded or killed.

Sergeant Osborne serves in the 1138th Transportation Company, a medium truck unit headquartered at Jefferson Barracks in south St. Louis County. The 1138th has been performing convoy operations, delivering supplies to coalition forces throughout Afghanistan. On a night mission in October 2011 while serving as a Scout truck commander, Sergeant Osborne and his convoy came under attack from an improvised explosive device (IED). The IED heavily damaged Sergeant Osborne's vehicle, but he and his three fellow crew members survived the assault. Sergeant Osborne returned to full duty within a few weeks of the attack.

He is a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom and is currently serving in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.

In closing, Mr. Speaker, I ask all my colleagues to join me in honoring Sergeant Christopher Osborne and thanking him for his continued service to our county.