Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, today I join my colleagues, Representatives Weiner,

Cummings, Barbara Lee, Gutierrez, George Miller, Woolsey, Lofgren, Gonzales, Sanders, and Linda Sanchez in introducing the Hate Crimes Statistics Improvement Act.

The Hate Crimes Statistics Improvement Act will ensure that hate crimes motivated by gender are accounted for by the FBI and local law enforcement agencies. With accurate data, local communities can identify gender-based hate crimes in their area and chart their progress toward eliminating them. Moreover, the inclusion of gender will send a strong message that gender-based hate crimes will not be tolerated.

In states with gender-based hate crimes laws, prosecutors typically must present concrete evidence that the criminal act was committed due to gender bias. Obviously, not all crimes against women are gender- based crimes, and prosecutors should have discretion in identifying what constitutes a gender-based hate crime. The process of discussing these differences will improve the understanding of all hate crimes by law enforcement personnel and will improve reporting of these tragic crimes.

I urge my colleagues to support this important legislation that will help reduce hate crimes against women.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to my friend and former colleague Representative Tillie Fowler.

Tillie, who was sometimes called the ``Steel Magnolia,'' represented her district in Florida from 1992 until 2000 and was a champion for the issues important to her constituents. As a member of the House Armed Services Committee, she fought to keep military bases in her congressional district. During her tenure on the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, she investigated the inadequacies in the country's preparedness for a domestic terrorist attack and was able to identify many of the shortcomings that contributed to our lack of preparedness on September 11, 2001. She also served as vice chairwoman of the House Republican Conference and was the fifth-highest member of the House leadership when she left Congress.

In 1997, she served on a congressional task force created to investigate the incidences of sexual harassment and abuse in the U.S. military, an issue on which she and I worked closely together. Two years ago, she was appointed by Secretary Rumsfeld to lead a

seven-member panel created by Congress to review sexual misconduct allegations at the U.S. Air Force Academy. The panel's findings detailed much that we already knew including a failure of leadership and command and a lack of support for the victim. I strongly believe that we owe much of the progress we are now making on this issue to the efforts made by Tillie Fowler during the past ten years.

Tillie is survived by her husband Buck and her two daughters Tillie and Elizabeth. I join with my colleagues in expressing my deepest condolences. Tillie will certainly be missed.

Mr. Speaker, today I am introducing a bill that will help thousands of women, children, and families who have suffered since the horrific tsunami hit Asia on December 26, 2004. This bill, the Women, Children, and Infant Tsunami Victim Relief Act of 2005, authorizes $3 million to the United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA, to provide severely needed urgent medical and health care to tsunami victims in Indonesia, the Maldives, and Sri Lanka.

UNFPA has made an urgent appeal to donor nations to raise $27.5 million to provide relief to women in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives. Due to its extensive experience responding to emergencies, UNFPA was one of the first respondents in the tsunami-affected areas helping women.

More than 150,000 women are currently pregnant in the tsunami- affected areas, including 50,000 anticipated to give birth during the next 3 months. UNFPA is determined to enhance the likelihood of deliveries occurring in safe and clean conditions by providing emergency care, basic supplies, and helping to rebuild health care facilities.

Disasters put pregnant women at greater than normal risk because of the sudden loss of medical support, compounded in many cases by trauma, malnutrition, disease, or exposure to violence. In times of high stress, pregnant women are more prone to miscarriage or to premature labor, both of which require medical care.

UNFPA works to reduce maternal deaths and illnesses by providing prenatal care, delivery assistance, access to emergency obstetric care, and post-natal care. It provides services to avoid malnutrition, which frequently occurs after natural disasters when food supplies are unavailable or uneven. Vitamin and iron deficiencies, especially anemia, can be fatal for pregnant women and their babies. Nursing women require supplemental funding to ensure their health and that of their baby.

For example, in Sri Lanka, the UNFPA-supported maternal hospital was being flooded, and staff was able to move all patients but one premature infant to safety and it has set up a temporary facility to provide critical health services.

This bill specifies that the funds included can only be used by UNFPA to provide safe delivery kits--soap, plastic sheeting, razor

blades, string and gloves--personal hygiene kits--sanitary napkins, soap, laundry detergent, dental supplies--reestablish maternal health services, prevent and treat cases of violence against women and youth, offer psychological support and counseling, and promote access of unaccompanied women to vital services. Each of these issues is a serious problem in the region and will go a long way toward helping save the lives of thousands of women and their children.

These people have suffered enough. We must do everything we can to help them. This is why I ask support from my colleagues for the Women, Children, and Infant Tsunami Victim Relief Act of 2005.

Mr. Speaker, I'd like to thank my Democratic colleagues on the Ways and Means Committee and the Democratic Women's Caucus for organizing this Special Order on this critical topic.

As I have said before the Administration's proposal to cut Social Security in half is bad for every American and is particularly bad for women.

Today, 24 million women get Social Security. Because women tend to live longer and earn less than men, they tend to rely more on Social Security for financial security in their old age.

Women are 60 percent of all recipients at retirement and 75 percent-- three quarters of recipients over age 85.

There remains a real wage gap between women and men in this country and that translates into a real pension gap.

According to the Social Security Administration the median earnings of women working full time are only 75 percent of those of men.

The wage gap is much bigger when one looks at it over a working lifetime. Over a 15 year span, women only earn 38 percent of what men earn.

Social Security reduces the poverty rate among women by about 80 percent and is the only source of income for almost 30 percent of retired unmarried women.

For all unmarried women and widows, Social Security makes up over half of their income whereas for unmarried men and couples Social Security only makes up a bit more than a third of their retirement income.

In addition, women rely more than men on spousal benefits, survivor benefits, and disability benefits. Over 80 percent of those receiving disability or survivor benefits are women and children.

Private accounts would hurt women more because of the huge benefit cuts that they entail and because women have less earnings to put in private accounts than men do.

Effectively, private accounts erase the benefits of Social Security in providing financial dignity to older women and would take us back to a time when the majority of widows and orphans lived below the poverty line.

The Administration refuses to show us the numbers on how its proposal would cut benefits to retirees. But we know these cuts are built in.

The Administration's privatization plan cuts benefits more than 40 percent to future generations.

The cuts to spouses, survivors, and recipients of disabled worker benfits would be even deeper. And workers who become disabled or die young would not have worked long enough to build up a private account to help support them or their surviving spouse and children.

In the Town Hall meetings that I held during the recess women were particularly concerned

over the loss of benefits that the Administration's proposal would entail. They were right to be concerned. Women have more to lose here.

But we can fight back. We are making progress. Just today, the distinguished Majority Leader of the other body suggested that the Administration might not be able to get a vote on this this year and might have to drop private accounts from any proposal.

This is no time to rest. We must speak out in Special Orders Town Hall meetings and otherwise to make sure Social Security is protected or our mothers for our daughters--and for every American.

Thank you again for organizing this Special Order.

Mr. Speaker, as proud member of the Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues, and the representative of a large and vibrant community of Armenian Americans, I rise today to extend my congratulations to the people of Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh) on the 17th anniversary of the Nagorno Karabakh Freedom Movement. On February 20, 1988, the people of Nagorno Karabakh officially petitioned the Soviet government to correct the historical injustices of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin by reuniting the area with Armenia. Six days later, one million people demonstrated in Yerevan's Opera Square.

Unfortunately, the central Soviet and Azerbaijani leadership violently reacted to this peaceful and legal request by engaging in full military aggression against Nagorno Karabakh. The people of Nagorno Karabakh courageously defended their right to live freely on their ancestral land.

Today, Nagorno Karabakh continues to strengthen its statehood with a democratically elected government, a court system, an independent foreign policy, and a commitment to educating its citizens. I will continue to join with my colleagues in supporting assistance to Nagorno Karabakh, which has a vital role in achieving a peaceful and stable South Caucasus region. On this anniversary, I reiterate my unwavering support to Nagorno Karabakh's freedom, democracy, and economic development.

Mr. Speaker, today, I, along with Representatives Charles Rangel, Charles Gonzalez, Juanita Millender-McDonald, and Robert Wexler, introduce legislation, the ``Prevention of Trafficking of Tsunami Orphans Act,'' which would authorize critical assistance to the Department of State and the U.S. Agency for International Development to support programs that are being carried out by nongovernmental organizations to protect children who are homeless or orphaned as a result of the Indian Ocean tsunamis in December 2004.

According to the June 2004 Trafficking in Persons Report released by the Department of State, approximately 600,000 to 800,000 men, women, and children are trafficked across international borders each year. Instead of dreams of better jobs and better lives, they are trapped into a nightmare of coercion, violence, and disease. This legislation will help to prevent the children left orphaned or homeless by the Indian Ocean tsunamis from suffering a similar fate.

Mr. Speaker, today, along with my colleague Representative Deborah Pryce, I have introduced a bill that makes women's health a priority. On September 17, 2002, the House passed the Women's Health Office Act, legislation that would provide statutory authority to five federal women's health offices. Unfortunately, the other body did not consider this legislation before the end of the 107th Congress so it was never signed into law.

Currently, only two women's health offices are federally authorized and protected by law: the Office of Research on Women's Health (ORWH) at the National Institutes of Health, and the Office for Women's Services at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). These offices provide critical health research services to the women of this country.

Statutory authorization is not provided for the federal offices and positions residing in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). I believe it is important to give statutory authority to these offices.

Enactment of the Women's Health Office Act will ensure that the needs and gaps in research, policy, programs, and education and training in women's health will continue to receive the attention they require in the 21st century.

Mr. Speaker, today, I introduce legislation, along with Representative

Peter King (R-NY), which would ensure that members of the National Guard who served in the counties declared federal disaster areas because of the 9/11 terrorist attacks receive military retirement credit for that service. Many of the soldiers of the 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry Division of the New York Army National Guard, which is located in my district, served at Ground Zero and in the surrounding counties after the terrorist attacks for almost a year to assist with security, reconstruction, and recovery efforts. These soldiers were serving under state active duty rather than federal active duty. As a result, those days of service currently are not being counted toward their military retirement credit. However, other Companies in the 1st Battalion were activated under federal duty and served at West Point for a similar length of time to help with its security.

This legislation will correct this inequity. Because all of these National Guard members clearly aided in the federal response to the 9/ 11 attacks, I strongly believe that they should have those days counted toward their military retirement credit. The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, were an unprecedented event in American history. We should show our gratitude to these brave men and women by giving them the retirement benefits to which they are entitled.

Mr. Speaker, today, I, along with 12 of my bipartisan colleagues, including Chairmen Davis and Hoekstra and Ranking Members Waxman, Harman, and Conyers, introduce a bill that will extend the term of the Nazi War Crimes Interagency Working Group by 2 years. This is the companion bill of S. 384, a bill introduced by Senator DeWine and passed in the Senate today. Mr. Speaker, I am very proud of the history and the impact of this legislation. I would like to thank Senator DeWine and his staff for their tireless work and for the energy they have put forth to ensure that we know as much as we can about our Government's past involvement with Nazi War criminals.

In 1998, Congress passed the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act, a law that was enacted to explain the relationship between the U.S. Government and former Nazis. The act required the release of all previously classified information on the topic to the Interagency Working Group on Nazi War Crimes, IWG. The documents provided thus far to the IWG have revealed that there was a closer relationship between the U.S. Government and Nazi war criminals than previously known, a revelation that is crucial to the understanding of history. This significant knowledge would not have been possible without the cooperation of many agencies including the Department of Justice, Department of Defense, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Until recently, the CIA had not complied with the law and did not release the documents needed to complete the IWG's task, as defined by law. Fortunately, after discussions with Senator DeWine and myself and under the leadership of Director Porter Goss, the CIA agreed to release the requisite documents. With the term of the IWG set to expire at the end of March 2005, we are now at a critical juncture.

This bill is simple. It extends the term of the IWG so that it can complete its work, write a comprehensive report, and send it to Congress. We hope to move this quickly in the House, as they did in the Senate, to avoid a lapse in this important work. History, and the memory of the millions who perished in the Holocaust, deserve nothing less than full disclosure.

Mr. Speaker, this administration has repeatedly set records for debts and deficits and the latest is for our enormous trade deficit. We have raised the debt ceiling three times to cover their deficit spending, over $470 billion. That comes out to over $26,000 owed by every man, woman, and child in America.

Their newest record is an all-time high in a trade deficit, nearly $618 billion, the highest in our history. This is a huge burden for our economy because we are borrowing from foreign countries to pay for our imports. We should never build our economic system on a foundation of debts, deficit, and foreign loans. Any day that foundation could become a house of cards.

Mr. Speaker, today I am reintroducing the Consumer Checking Account Fairness Act. This bill solves a pressing consumer banking problem. Under the Check 21 Act that we passed last year, money will leave consumers' accounts faster, but become available at the same old pace. Current check hold times, combined with the speeding up of check processing, create real problems for consumers.

The new Check 21 law facilitates the electronic clearing of checks, which means that checks consumers write will clear sooner. However, banks are still allowed to place the same long check holds on consumers' deposits.

For example: Jane Doe gets paid on Friday, deposits her paycheck Friday evening, and writes a check at the grocery store the next day. The check to the grocery store on Saturday clears on Sunday or Monday, but because Jane's bank puts a hold on her deposit, her paycheck funds cannot be used to cover her checks until the next Wednesday--even if the paycheck has in fact already cleared. If Jane's employer uses a non-local bank to issue her paycheck, Jane's bank can make her wait till the next Monday--ten calendar days--before her pay is available to cover the checks she writes.

Even if Jane's paycheck actually clears within a day or two, her bank does not have to lift the hold. Instead, Jane's bank can: bounce her check and charge her a ``non-sufficient funds'', NSF fee of$20 to $35. The grocery store may also charge a returned check fee or clear the check but charge a $20 to $35 ``bounce protection'' fee, and possibly a per day fee as well for each day before deposited funds are available to cover the check. Bounce protection may be a service she has never requested--and it may be invoked by the bank even though Jane had made a deposit to cover the check before writing the check.

This is patently unfair to consumers. Check hold times should be shortened, so consumers can use their deposits to cover the checks they write after making a deposit.

Check 21 only required that the Federal Reserve Board study check hold times, and gave the Federal Reserve Board until March 2007 to finish that study.

The ``Consumer Checking Account Fairness Act'' solves this problem. The bill:

Reduces check hold times by a day for deposits up to $7,500.

Counts Saturday as a business day toward the check hold period if the bank takes money out of consumer accounts on Saturdays.

Requires banks to process credits before debits: i.e. add deposits before deducting checks.

Prevents banks from charging bounced check fees when the deposit to cover the check has actually cleared but the hold period has not yet been completed.

Increases the ``small check'' amount, for which there is faster funds availability, from $100 to $500.

Requires banks that wish to charge for so-called ``bounce protection'' to get the consumer to request this feature before charging fees to the consumer for it.

Clarifies that deposits at proprietary ATMS are cleared as fast as deposits at a teller.

Requires that banks who charge a fee for a ``substitute check'' under Check 21 cannot insist that the consumer get a substitute check in order to have the bank put funds missing due to a processing error back into the consumer's account within ten business days.

The Consumer Checking Account Fairness Act is balanced and sensible. It preserves the ability of banks to prevent fraud. For example, it leaves in place the ability of a bank to impose a longer hold period for special circumstances, such as a new account or a recent history of bounced checks on an account.

Also, the bill does not require banks to issue ``substitute checks'' under the Check 21 law without any fee; instead it simply says that if the bank decides to charge for the substitute check, then the bank cannot insist that the consumer get that document in order to exercise the consumer's right to a ten business day timeframe to get back funds lost due to a check processing problem, such as a check being paid twice.

Banks benefit from faster check-processing facilitated by Check 21. They should also have to give their customers faster credit for deposits.

Mr. Speaker, today, I, along with Representative William Lacy Clay (D-MO), introduce legislation that requires the annual poverty estimate and the National Assessment of Educational Progress to be subject to certain guidelines on the release of the information to the public. I am deeply concerned at what appears to be the politicization of data by the Bush Administration on important issues ranging from worker safety to the dangers of lead paint to emergency contraceptives. Because data regarding poverty and educational progress are essential to lawmakers at all levels of government to implement policies addressing these issues, it is critical that this information is disseminated in an open and timely process.

Two years ago, the Census Bureau decided to break with tradition by releasing its annual poverty estimates on a Friday in Suitland, Maryland, rather than during the middle of the week at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Because that report was expected to announce the loss of millions of jobs, the questionable circumstances regarding the release of those statistics led myself and Representative Clay to seek an investigation by the General Accounting Office (GAO) as to why the Census Bureau made its decision. We should not be playing politics with science, which is why I believe this legislation is so important.

Mr. Speaker, today I introduce a bill of great public importance to women in the workforce across the United States. The U.S. Justice Department estimated that from 2000 to 2002, the percentage of rapes and sexual assaults occurring at the workplace jumped from 2 percent to 10 percent of the total number of rapes and sexual assaults occurring in the United States yearly. Yet, many of these victims are told their only remedy is workers' compensation. When rape occurs on the job, employers should not be able to hide behind a system designed to compensate for job-related accidents. My bill sends a clear message: Rape is not all in a day's work.

This bill gives victims of workplace violence across the Nation a remedy outside the workers' compensation system. It does this by creating a Federal civil rights cause of action, under certain conditions, for employees who have been the victims of gender-motivated violence at work. This bill will not result in numerous and unwarranted lawsuits against small businesses. In fact, the legislation outlines very strict requirements regarding whether a case would fall under the purview of this bill. Workers' compensation is a great system--it has created an American workplace safe from industrial accidents. But the job isn't done. This bill will encourage employers to create a job environment free of violent sexual assault and rape, because it is a terribly sad day in America when rape is considered all in a day's work.

Mr. Speaker, today I am introducing the ``Remember 9/11 Health Act'' with Representatives Shays, Nadler, Owens, Ron Kind, McDermott, McCarthy, and Hinchey.

During the days following September 11, 2001, tens of thousands of people rushed to the World Trade Center to assist in the rescue and recovery efforts. Their mission was clear--to help the people suffering from the attack. Now, more than 3 years after the attacks, rescue and recovery workers remain sick and out of work as a direct result of their exposure to Ground Zero. To make matters worse, many sick rescue and recovery workers no longer have health care insurance due to their long-term unemployment. Despite this public health emergency, there is still no one in charge, there is no money for treatment, there is no research into its cause, the monitoring program established by Congress can only screen a fraction of those exposed to Ground Zero and it only has been funded for a 5-year period, not the 20 years suggested by the medical community.

To remedy this problem we are reintroducing the ``Remember 9/11 Health Act'' (H.R. 4059 in the 108th Congress).

The ``Remember 9/11 Health Act'' contains four main points: Treatment, Expanded Monitoring, Research and Coordination.

I. Providing Treatment.--Modeled after a program that provides health insurance for injured volunteer forest firefighters, this bill provides federal health insurance to individuals suffering injuries and/or health problem as a result of the September 11th Terrorist Attacks. Recipients do not pay for any health care expenses, including prescription drugs and co-payments. This program also includes mental health coverage.

II. Expanding Health Monitoring.--Maintains current monitoring program that is screening a limited number of rescue and recovery workers, including the separate program for the Fire Department, while expanding it to a level recommended by the public health community.

III. Research.--Directs the National Institutes of Health to conduct or support diagnostic and treatment research for health conditions that are associated with the exposure to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

IV. Coordination.--Establishes the 9/11 Health Emergency Coordinating Council under the direction of the Department of Health and Human Services for the purpose of discussing, examining, and formulating recommendations for the adequacy and coordination of the Federal Government, State government and local governments response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

Providing a coordinated federal response that includes not only monitoring, but treatment and research is the right thing to do. We need to send a message to rescue and recovery workers everywhere that if you are there for us when we need you, we will also be there when you need us. Anything short of that is unfair and could jeopardize the rescue and recovery response to future national emergency.

Mr. Speaker, today I along with Representatives Nadler, Bishop, Owens, McCarthy and Serrano are introducing the ``Victims Compensation Fund Extension Act.''

In the immediate aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks the Congress created the Victims Compensation Fund (VCF) to provide compensation for victims of 9/11. This fund provided aid to the families of 9/11 victims and to individuals who suffered personal injury. Among other things, aid from the fund pays for medical expenses and lost wages. In return for accepting these funds, recipients relinquished rights to any future litigation. The fund had a deadline for applicants of December 22, 2003.

At the deadline, close to 100 percent of the families who lost a loved one had filed with the fund, but many individuals who were injured as a direct result of 9/11 had not. After the filing, many of the injured were denied benefits, despite a clear need.

The main reasons for not filing applications included people who did not know they were eligible as well as others whose injuries were late- onset. There are literally hundreds of individuals who are now just developing career-ending injuries--such as pulmonary and respiratory ailments--but are not eligible to receive assistance because they developed their symptoms after the deadline.

Largely as a result of the VCF's restrictions on applicants, 1,755 of the 4,430 personal injury claims considered were denied. While there was some leeway, the rules required workers to have arrived at Ground Zero within 96 hours of the attack and would have needed to seek medical treatment within 72 hours. This is reasonable for rescue workers who suffered immediate injuries, but leaves no recourse for individuals with late-onset injuries or who arrived after September 15, 2001 to assist in the recovery effort and are now suffering from injuries.

In order to care for the individuals who are now just developing physical injuries and to provide an opportunity for injured individuals who did not know they were eligible, we are re-introducing the Victims Compensation Fund Extension Act (H.R. 5076 in the 108th Congress).

This bill would:

Amend eligibility rules so that responders to the 9/11 attacks who arrived later than the first 96 hours could be eligible if they experienced illness or injury from their work at the site.

Amend eligibility rules so that those who did not seek immediate medical verification for their illness or injury from the disaster, but who have since obtained medical evidence, would be eligible.

Extend the deadline for applications to allow those with either late- onset illness from the disaster or those who were never informed of their eligibility for the Victim Compensation Fund to consider applying.