Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, on rollcall 305, I was unable to vote because of pressing business with my constituents in my home district. Had I been present, I would have voted ``no.''

Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the survivors of the Armenian Genocide and their descendants. This year marks the 93rd anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.

The genocide of the Armenian people by the Ottoman Empire during World War I represents a major tragedy of the modern age. Carried out between 1915 and 1923, the Armenian Genocide was a systematic and deliberate campaign by the Turkish Ottoman Empire to destroy its Armenian minority. While there is no consensus as to how many Armenians lost their lives, there is general agreement among western scholars that between 500,000 and 1,500,000 Armenians died and that nearly all Armenians were exiled from their homeland.

The date of the onset of the genocide is conventionally held to be April 24, 1915, the day that Ottoman authorities arrested some 250 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Istanbul. These Armenian political, religious, educational, and intellectual leaders were arrested, deported, and mercilessly put to death. Over the next few years, many Armenians were murdered outright or were deported via forced marches under such agonizing conditions that they died from exhaustion or starvation before they reached their destination.

At that time, the word ``genocide'' had not yet been coined. Nonetheless, many governments decried the mass murder of the Armenians as extermination of a people, a crime against humanity, and the murder of a nation.

We must honor the truth of the past because denial makes it more likely that genocide will happen again. We must recognize and condemn the atrocities that took place against the Armenian people. The time has come to pass the Armenian Genocide Resolution. I urge my colleagues to support this important piece of legislation and give the Armenian people the respect and recognition they deserve.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 444) supporting the goals and ideals of National Aviation Maintenance Technician Day, honoring the invaluable contributions of Charles Edward Taylor, regarded as the father of aviation maintenance, and recognizing the essential role of aviation maintenance technicians in ensuring the safety and security of civil and military aircraft.

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

I thank the Speaker and I thank our House Speaker for bringing this to the floor today, H. Res. 444, a resolution which supports the goals and ideals of National Aviation Maintenance Technician Day, honoring the invaluable contributions of Charles Edward Taylor, regarded as the father of aviation maintenance, and recognizing the essential role of aviation maintenance technicians in ensuring the safety and security of civil and military aircraft.

With all the concerns, Mr. Speaker, today about safety and airlines, it is the men and women who actually do the maintenance that we depend on so greatly.

It was Charles Edward Taylor who built and maintained the engine that was used to power the Wright brothers' first controlled aircraft, the Flyer, and he was born in 1868. He is widely regarded as the father of aviation maintenance, and was a vital contributor of mechanical skills in the building and maintaining of early Wright brothers engines and airplanes. Taylor also built the wind tunnel used by the Wrights to test their early designs. He became a leading mechanic in the Wright Aircraft Company when it was formed in 1909. In fact, when Calbraith Perry Rodgers made his famous cross-country trip in a Wright brothers aircraft, he paid Charles Edward Taylor $70 a week, a pretty large sum at the time, to be his mechanic. Taylor followed the flight by train, making required repairs and preparing the aircraft for the next day's flight throughout the cross-country trip from Long Island to California.

Although Taylor was largely ignored by history, it is important to note that the Wright brothers were very close friends with him, and remained in close contact with him throughout their lives.

Charles Edward Taylor saved enough money from his ventures to buy several hundred acres of farmland near the Salton Sea, which is located in my district. However, the economic climate of the time eventually brought him to poverty, and he died penniless in 1956 at the age of 87. He was buried at the Portal of Folded Wings Shrine to Aviation in Burbank, California.

Mr. Speaker, the humble beginnings of the aviation maintenance profession belies the fact that all of us in the Congress and our constituents rely on the work that these technicians do every day. They play an invaluable role not only in ensuring the safety of commercial aircraft, but also ensuring that our men and women in uniform have safe, reliable planes and helicopters while in their combat and training. Thanks to these dedicated, well-trained professionals, the United States has by far the safest air transportation system in the world. We owe aircraft mechanics a debt of gratitude for their service to the flying public.

We are hearing a lot today about consolidations in the airline industry, and some airlines have already been outsourcing aviation maintenance abroad to cut their costs. I urge everyone in this Chamber to remember how critical it is for our own safety to have a well- trained U.S.-based workforce to fix and maintain our aircraft. As the airline industry seeks to cut costs and merge, it is very important for all of us to keep a watchful eye on the impact of these consolidations on aviation maintenance technicians. We cannot afford to cut corners when it comes to safety.

Mr. Speaker, 45 U.S. States have already declared May 24 to be Aviation Maintenance Technician Day within their jurisdictions. My resolution is intended to support these efforts and honor aviation maintenance technicians, including the first, Charles Edward Taylor. I urge all my colleagues to vote for H. Res. 444.

I reserve the balance of my time.

I yield back the balance of my time.

I thank the gentlewoman for her leadership on many issues, especially in these special orders, and tonight a very important one, the effect of deployment on our families, our military families.

You know, this is a war that has gone on the second longest in our history. There are over 4,000 young men and women who have been killed. There have been at least 30,000 casualties that we account for of Americans, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. That 30,000 official figure, by the way, compare that with the following statistic: Over 800,000 veterans have already returned from this war in Iraq.

Over 300,000 of them have filed claims for injuries, whether physical or psychological, while in battle, 300,000. Compare that with the official figure of 30,000. It is a factor of ten. Something is not being told to the American people here.

But then, think of all the families involved of those who have been killed, the best and brightest of our young men and women, the casualties that we admit, the hundreds of thousands of casualties when they come home. Not only do they have to deal with fatality or grave injury, they have to deal with income problems. A spouse may have to take care of her husband and lose two incomes.

What about the children? Over 1 million children of those deployed or were deployed or will be deployed, how do they take daddy coming home, or not coming home, dealing with violence that is a symptom of PTSD, posttraumatic stress disorder, dealing with an amputated father or mother, dealing with brain injuries?

This is something that we as a society have got to deal with. It is part of the cost of war, and the cost of war that we have been asked to take on doesn't cover this. We have to fight for every penny for veterans and their families.

The President says support our troops, support our troops, support our troops. But when they come home, who supports the troops, and who is looking after the families? And that is what we are dealing with tonight.

Let me focus, if I may, Ms. Wasserman Schultz, on the children. And children have to deal again with dad or mom away for extended periods. You mentioned the Lopez family. Or the problems may really begin when dad or mom come comes back, amputated legs, spinal cord injuries, posttraumatic stress disorder.

Now, this is something that our VA or DOD or administration ought to be worried about, and yet it was left to the private sector to figure out, what do we tell our children? How do we answer something at an age-appropriate level?

And I want to thank the Sesame Street Workshop who produces Sesame Street, the nonprofit educational organization, for its leadership. As you mentioned, there are hundreds and thousands of children of military families who are impacted every day by the deployment of one or both of their parents. They responded to this 2 years ago by making an outreach tool to help families and their young children cope with the challenges of deployment: A DVD featuring Elmo who struggles with military deployment of his father, and urges his viewers to share their emotions and fears directly with their parents. After watching this video together, families have found a new opportunity to talk with their children and communicate together as a family.

Here is the first DVD that Sesame Street did under a Talk, Listen, and Connect series, Helping Families During Military Deployment; and also in Spanish, Partides Militares Bienvenidos Cambios. And that was distributed with the help of the military and the help of the VA to hundreds of thousands of young people.

Just yesterday, Sesame Street launched a new DVD, a new series called Deployments, Homecoming, and Changes. And that addresses the level of anxiety children may experience after multiple deployments, as well as to help young children gain an age-appropriate understanding of a parent's combat-related health condition so the family can heal together. The DVD features again Elmo and Rosita, and intersperses the Muppets with real families like the Lopez family that you showed us earlier. They are meant for children, but spouses and friends and relatives facing a complicated transition of multiple deployments or the physical and psychological wounds.

I invite, by the way, all Members of the House of Representatives to meet Elmo and the Cookie Monster next Wednesday on May 7, at 4:00, at HC-5. Sesame Street will bring Elmo and the Cookie Monster. You can take pictures with him or her, I am not sure, and pick up a copy of this DVD. It will be distributed free to military families all over the Nation.

I hope every one of our colleagues picks up a copy, watches it, and helps distribute it in their own districts. This is an important tool that was produced for us by people who care about what is going on.

And I will tell you, we are now in the Month of the Military Child. We want to honor the children of military families. But we have now a tool to reach children. This is aimed at very young children below the age of five. And if they watch what is going on, again, I have seen some of the previews. One of the children of a parent with a prosthetic leg was shown bringing the leg to dad to try to make that situation sort of natural and a part of life and not something to be ashamed of or to fear. And so Sesame Street uses the power of video to connect with soldiers and their families and of course the children.

You can watch the video yourself. Go to sesameworkshop.org/tlc for Talk, Listen, and Connect; Hablen, Escuchen, Conecten, at sesameworkshop.org/tlc, and you can see that and watch it for yourself.

I would just like to say to my colleague from San Antonio, who is a psychologist and has dealt with children in his professional life and is a great aid on our veterans committee for issues of mental health and the issues we are talking about today, we thank you for your leadership, Mr. Rodriguez.

Mr. Speaker, let me also thank Ms. Wasserman Schultz for her steadfast support of America's children and her interest in the needs of veterans' families.

Every day the men and women of our armed forces sacrifice to protect and preserve our way of life, whether by putting themselves in harm's way, or by enduring time away from their loved ones at home.

I would like to recognize Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization behind Sesame Street, for its leadership in serving the most vulnerable population of the Armed Services--the thousands of young children in military families who are impacted every day by issues related to deployment.

Sesame Workshop has responded to the needs of the 700,000 children under the age of 5 who have a parent in the military. In August 2006, Sesame Workshop launched a critically needed outreach tool to help families and their young children cope with the challenges of deployment.

In this video, Elmo struggles with the military deployment of his father and urges his viewers to share their emotions and fears directly with their parents.

After watching this video together, families have found a new opportunity to talk with their children and communicate together as a family.

Just yesterday, Sesame Workshop launched its second phase of its Talk, Listen, Connect series of videos for military children.

This newest resource kit is titled, ``Deployments, Homecomings, Changes'' and it addresses the level of anxiety children may experience after multiple deployments as well as help young children gain an age- appropriate understanding of a parent's combat-related health condition so the family can heal together.

These new outreach materials are meant for spouses, friends, and relatives of military parents and children who are facing the complicated transitions of multiple deployments or who have returned home with combat-related health injuries, both physical and psychological.

Elmo is again filling an unmet need for developmentally appropriate resources for young children.

This project has garnered overwhelming support from the military community, with nearly 400,000 of the original kits requested from active duty, National Guard, and reserve families to help build a sense of stability and resiliency during times of separation and change.

April is the ``Month of the Military Child.'' Today, we are taking the time to honor the children in military families and acknowledging the personal sacrifices they make and the challenges they overcome.

I applaud the critical work of organizations like Sesame Workshop whose project, Talk, Listen, Connect, has the sole purpose of helping make the lives of these children and their families a little easier during some of the most difficult of times.

I commend Sesame Workshop for its work to help empower children and adults alike, as well as help families overcome adversity together in order to bring hope for the future.

Sesame Workshop uses the power of video to connect with soldiers and their families during these difficult times. The video honestly addresses the sadness, confusion and anxiety

with sensitivity and clarity for the 700,000 pre-school kids in this country whose parents serve lengthy and frequent deployments.

This video is available to watch on the internet. Just search for Sesame Workshop and TLC.

You can also order a kit on the web site--for your neighbor, your co- worker, or even your own child--that might be struggling with the extended deployment of a parent, or adapting to a parent that has returned home but is suffering from visible or invisible wounds.

As a Nation, we must do more than simply say we support our service members and their families. We must follow through with true deeds and bold action that will ultimately assist our military families as they make the transition into civilian life.

I urge you to learn more about Sesame Workshop and share these extraordinary resources with military families you know.

This video will begin to build a dialogue between children and parents, as well as this country and our Nation's military families. America cares for our military families and this Sesame Workshop film shares this message of support.

We need to make sure the fabric of our society is strong enough to ensure the well-being of the military family and I want to thank Sesame Workshop and the many organizations that contributed to this project.

Again, my thanks to Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz for your leadership on this issue.

Mr. Chairman, on rollcall No, 201, I was unavoidably detained with urgeant constiuent business. Had I been present, I would have voted ``aye.''

Madam Speaker and colleagues, I rise today to honor a great friend and outstanding contributor to the robust life and rich culture of my 51st Congressional District, Eloisa Carrasco Baca. Eloisa passed away on April 2, 2008.

Eloisa was born on May 16. 1916 in the little farming community of Los Lentes, New Mexico. She had one brother Nicolas (deceased), and was the eldest child of Thomas and Rosalia (Montoya) Carrasco. In 1941, Eloisa married her husband of 57 years, Nicolas Baca. Shortly after marriage, husband Nick began serving a very distinguished military tour in World War II, and as a Ranger scout with the Second Ranger Battalion, scaled the cliffs of Pointe du Hoc on the Normandy coast of France to destroy enemy hunkers in June of 1944. He also served honorably at the historic ``Battle of the Bulge'' where after being taken a prisoner of war behind enemy lines, he escaped, finished his service to his Country, and triumphantly returned back home to his beloved Eloisa.

Nick and Eloisa moved to California in 1952 and resided in National City, California for 53 years. Eloisa led a wonderful life and contributed fully to her family and community. She was the loving mother of 6 children, Tommy, George, Jose, Robert, Rosalie, and Herman. In fact her son, Herman Baca, is a very prominent Mexican-American activist in San Diego County. She was also the proud grandmother of 19 grandchildren, 14 great-grandchildren, and 1 great-great grandchild.

In a lasting tribute to Eloisa, her son Herman stated on behalf of family and friends. ``Your children, grandchildren, family and many friends thank God for granting you 91 years of life, and blessing all of us with your presence and love.''

Eloisa Carrasco Baca will be truly missed by all who were touched by her spirit, her energy and love for life.

Descanse en paz.

Mr. Chairman, on rollcall 182, I was unable to vote because of pressing business with my constituents in my home district. Had I been present, I would have voted ``no.''

Personal Explanation

Madam Speaker and colleagues, last month news agencies around the world reported that more than 160 square miles of the Wilkins Shelf had broken away from the Antarctic coast. Americans are concerned that climate change may be happening faster than previously thought. We are growing increasingly concerned as we see before us the direct connection between climate change and our health.

It is now indisputable that there is a direct connection between climate change and health. The scientific community has decisively stated that human beings are responsible for climate change and that the impacts of climate change will worsen as emissions continue to rise. We must support and promote policies that strengthen public health leadership and work force capacity to ensure the infrastructure is in place and ready to handle our future needs.

The time has come to accept responsibility for how our lifestyles have contributed to climate change and vow to be part of the solution. We must work to learn more about how what happens in our home, community and workplace has global impact.

There are many little things we all can do to make a big difference. We can: Prepare for climate change-related emergencies and be informed about the health impacts of climate change and regional climate change issues facing our community. Leave the car at home and use public transportation, carpool,

walk, bike, or telecommute. Eat less meat and buy local produce from our community farmers market. Use recycled paper, print less, use energy saving computer settings and green our office. Seal and insulate our homes, reduce, reuse, recycle and use water efficiently. We should know that we are all in this together. For over a decade, the first full week in April has been National Public Health Week. 50,000 members of the American Public Health Association and its affiliates, across the Nation are speaking out this week on climate change and health. That's because when it comes to climate change, our health is in the balance.

Madam Speaker and colleagues, 20 years ago, on March 16, 1988, Saddam Hussein launched the largest chemical weapons attack ever used against civilians in the Kurdish town of Halabja. The deadly cocktail killed an estimated 5,000 residents. Saddam's regime held the gruesome distinction of being the first in history to attack its own population with poison gas.

The brutal attack on Halabja was part of a larger campaign, Anfal, which means ``the Spoils,'' to annihilate the Kurds of Iraq. It has been estimated that between 50,000 and 200,000 Kurds were killed during Anfal. Many died in mass executions; thousands more were simply ``disappeared'' by the regime.

Halabja symbolizes the suffering of the Kurdish people. The plight of Halabja's survivors continues today because of a lack of remediation. Little or no decontamination has been done and the health consequences of exposure to chemicals including mustard gas, sarin, tabun and VX continue to bring death and destruction to Halabja and surrounding villages. Children are born with deformities and cancers, and other diseases caused by genetic mutations are occurring at much higher rates than in other areas.

The world has historically failed to recognize what happened at Halabja. As we reflect on the tragedy of Halabja, it is important to look to the future, and we must honor Halabja's victims and stand in solidarity with those who survive.

Madam Chairman, we have an administration that says support the troops, support the troops, support the troops. Then they give us the budget that cuts support for veterans over the next 5 years, year by year by year, and with a modest increase for health care that barely covers inflation. It cut every single account in the veterans budget, including

construction, including research, all of the way through. So we restore, if I'm correct, Mr. Edwards, we restore all of those cuts.

And for the seventh year in a row, the President said, Let's increase enrollment fees. Let's double the pharmaceutical copays, and we, for the seventh year in a row are saying ``no.'' But not only did they increase the fees, they made a calculation that several hundred thousand veterans would not be able to pay those fees and be thrown out of the health care system. That, in a time of war where we got our troops fighting, they're going to throw veterans out of the VA health care system. That is disgraceful, and we said ``no'' to that.

And I thank the gentleman for making sure that we respected these warriors. It's part of the cost of war to treat the veterans correctly. Mr. Edwards and Mr. Spratt, you provided for those veterans. The whole country thanks you.

Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 32, I was away from the Capitol attending a function in my capacity as Chairman of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee. Had I been present, I would have voted `'yea.''

Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 33, I was away from the Capitol attending a function in my capacity as Chairman of the House

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

Stated against:

Madam Speaker, on rollcall No. 34, I was away from the Capitol attending a function in my capacity as Chairman of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea.''

Madam Speaker, on rollcall No. 29, I was away from the Capitol attending a function in my capacity as Chairman of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea.''

Madam Speaker, on rollcall No. 30, I was away from the Capitol attending a function in my capacity as Chairman of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea.''

Madam Speaker, on rollcall No. 31, I was away from the Capitol attending a function in my capacity as Chairman of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea.''