Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak about a very important bill that I just introduced, the Save Our Border Communities Act (H.R. 717). The bill would reimburse police, firefighters and other first responders for services associated with U.S. Ports of Entry.

Local law enforcement and first responders are bearing the brunt of protecting our borders. The Federal Government has not reimbursed border towns for border-related incidents and its drain on local police, firefighters and first responders is increasingly unbearable.

In Imperial County, California, the already strained local police department has announced that due to the high volume of border-related requests, it will no longer respond to most calls from the U.S.-Mexico Port of Entry. The local police department stated they cannot afford to process and transport the numerous individuals with out-of-county misdemeanor warrants to the local jail. Now, instead of being brought to justice, these individuals are set free.

It is about time the Federal Government pays its fair share! I urge my colleagues to join me in ensuring all our border communities are fully reimbursed for protecting our nation's borders by supporting the Save Our Border Communities Act.

Mr. Speaker, I recently introduced a private bill (H.R. 730) on behalf of a Vietnam War veteran, Fernando Javier Cervantes.

Mr. Cervantes legally entered the United States when he was only 7 years old and has not lived anywhere else since. He has been a legal resident for over 48 years and is married with two children. In 1972, Mr. Cervantes voluntarily enlisted into the United States Army and honorably served during the Vietnam War, earning a National Defense Service Medal. At the time of enlisting and throughout his service, Fernando was told that he would become a U.S. citizen by serving in the Armed Forces. In July 2008 he was surprised to hear that this was not the case and immediately applied for citizenship. Unfortunately, Femando's application was denied due to a minor drug possession charge that he received during his difficult readjustment period after returning from Vietnam.

Today, Mr. Cervantes is drug-free and is committed to recovery. If deported to Mexico, Mr. Cervantes would not have any familial or community support to recover from his addiction. His entire family resides in the United States as either legal permanent residents or United States citizens. Mr. Cervantes demonstrated permanent allegiance to the United States by voluntarily enlisting into the United States Army and putting his life on the line to make sure we have our freedom. We must

allow him the freedom to live in the country he served.

Mr. Speaker, I recently introduced a private bill (H.R. 731) on behalf of two extraordinary young women, Alusia and Ledia Zace.

Alusia and Ledia were brought here from Albania by their parents in 1996 when they were 8 and 9 years old. Their fathers' legal bid for political asylum was denied in 2004 due to the incompetence of their lawyer and was deported in 2007. This injustice forced the girls and their mother to care for themselves. With no legal representation, the girls face deportation.

The sisters have excelled academically in the U.S. and are attending university in San Diego. They can neither read nor write their native language and would most certainly be condemned to a life without opportunity should they be forced to return to Albania. The U.S. is their home and they should be given an opportunity to finish college and contribute to the only community they know.

Mr. Speaker, I recently introduced the Huntington's Disease Parity Act of 2011 (H.R. 718), which would direct the Social Security Administration (SSA) to revise outdated, medically inaccurate criteria for determining Social Security Disability and waive the Medicare two-year waiting period for people disabled by Huntington's Disease (HD).

HD is a devastating, hereditary degenerative brain disorder that causes total physical and mental deterioration. Eventually, every person affected by HD becomes completely dependent on others for care. Today, 30,000 Americans are known to have HD and an additional 200,000 have a fifty percent chance of inheriting the disease from an affected parent. The debilitating symptoms make it challenging, if not impossible, for the person with HD to remain employed, resulting in a loss of income and employer-sponsored health insurance benefits.

Revise Outdated Criteria to Improve Access to Disability Benefits

Due to the SSA's dependence on outdated medical guidelines, individuals experience long delays and multiple denials of critical Social Security benefits, forcing patients to wait years for benefits while HD's destructive cognitive, behavioral and physical symptoms rob the person of their ability to work and live independently. The HD Parity Act directs the Commissioner of SSA, in collaboration with the National Institutes of Health and HD experts, to update the agency's guidelines.

Eliminate Medicare Waiting Period Rather than Accepting Impasse

Access to critical health care is often denied in the early stages of disease due to an individual's inability to work, thereby causing the loss of their employer-based insurance. During the required Medicare two year waiting period, individuals with HD see their physical and mental health deteriorate rapidly necessitating more costly care later.

Passing the Huntington's Disease Parity Act of 2011 will direct the SSA to revise the medically inaccurate criteria used to determine Social Security Disability and eliminate the Medicare two-year waiting period. These two critical reforms will directly impact the welfare and lives of individuals and their families impacted by this rare and devastating disease.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce H.R. 541, the Pay for All Your Undocumented Procedures (PAY UP!) Act. This bill will provide payments for emergency services provided to undocumented aliens.

The costs of uncompensated emergency care for undocumented immigrants are sky high and border area hospitals, physicians, and ambulance providers are choking on the costs that they have to eat. My bill, the Pay for All Your Undocumented Procedures (PAY UP!) Act, is the first step to solving this problem which is well known in border communities.

Undocumented aliens receive emergency services in a hospital and yet that hospital is not reimbursed for these services. My bill will ensure that the healthcare providers are reimbursed for the emergency services they provide.

My bill makes permanent a provision of the Medicare Modernization Act that provided payments to eligible providers for procedures for undocumented aliens. The bill authorizes $250 million a year to reimburse eligible providers for this care. Two-thirds of the funds are divided among the 50 states and the District of Columbia based on their relative percentages of undocumented aliens, the last third is divided among the 6 states with the largest number of undocumented aliens.

Madam Chair, I move to strike the last word.

I'm a little disappointed in the amendment by my friend from Arizona. This is our biggest deficit hawk in the House. He wants to cut $18 million from the Defense budget. Did I get that number right, Mr. Flake, $18 million? I mean, we've got a $612 billion Defense budget. What are you, .000001 percent of the budget? Not good for a Senator from Arizona, Mr. Flake.

I would say let's really get at this. Man, you want to cut the budget? Republican President and Republican Congress funded a whole two wars off the budget. We're talking about trillions of dollars added to our deficit. You don't go after those, Mr. Flake. We need you to go after those. We will gladly support you. Eighteen million out of a $612 billion budget? I'll vote for the amendment, and you know, whenever I vote for one, you win.

But let's go after some real stuff in that Pentagon budget, and let's not go after jobs as this underlying bill does. Come on. You know, you talked about jobs the whole campaign. I haven't seen a pro-job bill yet from the Republicans in this Congress, and yet this bill, H.R. 1, cuts millions of jobs.

I am on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Mr. Flake. I don't know if you know about it, but the cuts to the clean water moneys--

Announcement by the Acting Chair

Madam Chair, did you know that the bill cuts millions of jobs from our economy, the cuts to the Clean Water Act, the cuts to the High-Speed Intercity Passenger Rail Program, and other infrastructure cuts? In my State of California, we are losing, just on this bill, almost 50,000 jobs; the total jobs around the country, almost 300,000. Come on. This is not a way to both cut the deficit and keep our economy going.

I happen to represent a border district. I represent the whole Mexican border with California. Madam Chair, I'm sure Mr. Flake knows very well the border in Arizona, and he knows that in this bill, the GSA construction and acquisition funding line has been eliminated-- eliminated--$894 million worth.

I don't know about in the State that Mr. Flake represents, but I'll tell you, in California, you are eliminating the several-hundred- million-dollar modernization of two of the biggest border crossings in our country and the biggest one in the world.

In my district, 300,000 people cross the border every day legally-- legally--and they're crossing mainly for jobs and for shopping. We all know we need to make that far more efficient, that crossing, so people can spend money in our country and create jobs. You have eliminated the whole modernization moneys out of this budget, and I'm sure it affects Arizona.

The Otay Mesa crossing where we have all the commercial crossings in California, gone. The biggest border crossing in the world in San Ysidro, gone. Another big one in my district, Calexico, California, gone.

We are leaving billions of dollars on the table, Madam Chair, for jobs in our economy. If we don't have efficient border crossings, we don't have trade. We don't have shopping. We don't have the crossings that are legal that we all want to encourage. These modernization programs went directly at that, not only in California but in Texas, in New Mexico, and I'm sure in Arizona. And yet all those jobs that are created by more efficient crossings are now thrown away.

So the gentleman from Arizona who wants to give up efficient border crossings in his State, you might tell him, Madam Chairman, I don't think that's a good way to run for the Senate. Taking $18 million out of a defense budget of $612 billion is pretty miserly stuff. It's not even a good symbol for a guy running for Senate in the United States.

We should really go after what the Republicans said they are going after. Let's end the war in Afghanistan, save trillions of dollars off the deficit. But more importantly, the cuts that we have seen in infrastructure in this country, the cuts we have seen in GSA are costing hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of jobs. This is a job buster. It should be defeated.

I yield back the balance of my time, Madam Chair.

Offered By: Mr. Filner

Amendment No. 464: At the end of the bill (before the short

title), insert the following:

Mr. Speaker, I recently introduced H.R. 542, the Consumer Protection Act. This bill will repeal the Learned Intermediary Doctrine and allow the American consumer to sue a drug manufacturer directly.

Medications are meant to heal us, but sometimes, something goes horribly wrong, and the medicine that was supposed to make us better, only makes us sicker. When this happens, Americans should be able to hold the drug manufacturers responsible.

However, because of a court precedent called the Learned Intermediary Doctrine, Americans are not able to sue the manufacturers of the drug that harmed them. According to the Learned Intermediary Doctrine, a patient cannot sue the drug manufacturer on the grounds that their doctor (the Learned Intermediary) should be able to warn them about the possible negative side effects.

However, in this day of direct to consumer advertising, so often Americans get their information about medication from the manufacturer's advertising, or off the internet. H.R. 542, the Consumer Protection Act, will repeal the Learned Intermediary Doctrine, allowing the consumer to sue the drug manufacturer directly. If drug manufacturers are able to advertise directly to the consumer, then they must be held responsible when something goes wrong.

Mr. Speaker, I recently introduced H.R. 543, legislation to include certain Department of Homeland Security facilities, such as ports of entry, under the Payments in Lieu of Taxes, PILT, program.

Since 1976, communities have received payments from the Interior Department's PILT program to help offset losses in property taxes due to nontaxable Federal lands administered by the BLM, the National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the U.S. Forest Service.

However, all along our Border, communities are not reimbursed for land that the Department of Homeland Security uses for ports of entry. The community often provides resources and services to these facilities without reimbursement from the government. My bill, H.R. 543 provides support for these communities.

H.R. 543 amends existing law to include certain Department of Homeland Security facilities, such as ports of entry, under the PILT program. Providing access to these payments will help these communities with the important work they provide along our borders.

Mr. Speaker, I recently reintroduced The Law Enforcement Officers Equity Act (H.R. 327). The purpose of this bill is simply to give law enforcement status to all federal law enforcement officers.

Many federal officials--for example, the Border Patrol--are classified as ``law enforcement officers,'' for the purposes of determining salary and retirement benefits. But many other officers-- such Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Inspectors, Veterans' Affairs Police Officers, U.S. Mint Police Officers, Internal Revenue Officers, Customs and Border Protection Seized Property Specialists, and police officers in about two dozen other agencies--do not have equal pay and benefits status.

The tragic irony is that the only time these officers are classified as law enforcement officers is when they are killed in the line of duty. Then their names are inscribed on the wall of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial right here in Washington.

Let me say that again. It is only when they are killed that they are called law enforcement officers, and that is a tragic irony.

My district encompasses the entire California-Mexico border and is home to two of the busiest border crossings in the entire world, so I am very familiar with the work of our nation's border inspectors. They wear bulletproof vests, they carry firearms, and, unfortunately, have to use them. Most importantly, these inspectors are subject to the same risks as other officers with whom they serve side-by-side. However, they are not eligible for early retirement and other benefits, which are designed to maintain a young and vigorous law enforcement workforce that we need to combat those who pose life-threatening risks to our society.

The Law Enforcement Officers Equity Act will provide well-deserved pay and retirement benefits to the officers protecting our borders, our ports of entry, our military and veterans' installations and other sensitive government buildings. The costs of these benefits would likely be off-set by savings in training costs and increased revenue collection. The bill will also reduce turnover, increase yield, decrease recruitment and development costs and enhance the retention of a well-trained and experienced workforce.

The simple fact is that these officers have dangerous jobs and deserve to be recognized as law enforcement officers, just like others with whom they serve, side by side, and who share the same level of risk. I encourage my colleagues to join me in supporting the Law Enforcement Officers Equity Act. The valiant officers who protect us deserve no less.

Mr. Speaker, I have introduced the Mobile Home Protection Act, H.R. 326. The purpose of this bill is to provide Section 8 assistance to low-income owners of mobile homes.

Owning one's home is a central part of the American Dream. For many low-income Americans, mobile homes provide the opportunity to achieve this goal of homeownership.

However, in many cases, while the family owns their home, they do not own the land on which the home sits. In some cases, the landlord will not accept Section 8 vouchers for the land on which the mobile home sits.

I have introduced the Mobile Home Protection Act to correct this problem. This bill would provide this Section 8 assistance directly to the homeowners to apply toward their rent costs for the land on which their homes sit.

Many mobile home owners have invested their life savings into buying their mobile homes. As mobile home park rents increase, these low- income homeowners are not able to keep up with this cost. This legislation will help keep these homeowners in their homes and maintain these established communities.

Mr. Speaker, I have introduced the Foreign Air Impact Regulation (FAIR) Air Act (H.R. 325). The purpose of this bill is to combat air pollution along our borders and to ensure that our communities are not unfairly penalized.

Our border communities are being besieged by toxic pollutants from neighboring countries. This is making the air quality along our border worse than ever--and leaves our communities with little recourse to improve the situation.

The FAIR AIR Act says that if pollution from another country causes non-attainment of air pollution regulations, then the EPA and the Secretary of State should work together to lower it. Furthermore, the effective date of reclassification should be delayed until the Secretary of State and local leaders develop a plan with the neighboring country to improve the air quality.

We cannot put this international problem on the backs of those who simply happen to live along the border. There truly needs to be a bi- national cooperative solution to address this important issue. We all breathe the same air and it is only with bi-national cooperation and working together to achieve better air quality standards for all.

Mr. Speaker, I have introduced the Military Environmental Responsibility Act (H.R. 332). The purpose of this bill is to require the Department of Defense to fully comply with Federal and State environmental laws.

Military exemptions from requirements and enforcement provisions under environment, public safety, and worker protection laws harm the environment and human health. Our constituents who border military bases should have the same protections as other municipalities.

This bill will not compromise military readiness. Environmental laws currently include exemptions for the military in the event of ``paramount interest of the United States''. These exemptions have only been used a handful of times, and the President would retain that authority over this legislation.

Americans believe that their government should be accountable to them and play by the same rules that they have to follow. Much of the cynicism and apathy of recent years can be traced directly to public perception that government officials and agencies are not accountable to anyone. We can only begin to restore faith in government and participation in democracy by ensuring that the federal government works under the same laws and regulations as private businesses and individuals.

Mr. Speaker, I recently introduced a private bill (H.R. 355) on behalf of two extraordinary individuals, Pablo Perrone and Cristina Lemos.

In 1987, Pablo and Cristina, labor union leaders in Uruguay, were persecuted by the radical socialist group, the Tupamaros. After receiving multiple death threats for refusing to join forces with the group, they fled to the United States and immediately claimed asylum after entry. Due to an incompetent lawyer, the judge denied their asylum cases. An appeal was made but was mishandled by the lawyer and eventually lost by the Department of Justice for 10 years. As a result of this injustice, Pablo and Cristina were never given an opportunity to state their case, a case that if heard, would have granted them lawful presence in the United States.

Now, over 20 years later, the same party that persecuted Pablo and Cristina is now in power. Pablo and Cristina have two U.S. citizen daughters, Loredana and Victoria, who speak limited Spanish and have lived in San Diego, California all their lives as excellent students. As contributing members of their community, Pablo and Cristina pay taxes every year and devote countless hours to community service. Pablo and Cristina have no living family members in Uruguay. If deported, they will be forced to take their two U.S. citizen daughters with them, to a country where they risk persecution, and face exceptional economic, educational, and emotional hardship.

Mr. Speaker, I recently introduced a private bill (H.R. 356) on behalf of an exceptional woman, Flavia Maboloc Cahoon.

Over 18 years ago, Flavia legally immigrated to the United States from the Philippines. She was accompanied by her four-year-old daughter, Jane Drury, now serving in the U.S. Navy on the USS Bunker Hill. In 2005, after several failed appeals were made to correct a mistake she made on her original naturalization application, Flavia was taken from her home in January and was subjected to inhumane conditions at an over-crowded detention facility near the U.S.-Mexico border for two weeks. Flavia is a hardworking, law-abiding woman who has lived her life being of service as a nurse and volunteer. If deported, Flavia will most certainly face economic and emotional hardship without family or financial support.