Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, those who support the GOP medical bill have forgotten one of the main and first principles of medical care: Do no harm.

They said repeatedly that they would protect preexisting conditions. They said that they would protect accessible and affordable healthcare and premiums. But they must have been crossing their fingers when they said it because nothing is further from the truth.

Under their latest bill, premiums will soar, particularly for the elderly. Women would have to, once again, worry about preexisting conditions, such as pregnancy.

The defunding of Planned Parenthood would hurt many women, particularly low-income women.

And the cuts to Medicare in the bill would be devastating to millions of women, seniors, children, and the disabled.

In addition, the diminished subsidies could mean that more people than the 22 million in the last bill who were removed from healthcare under the bill will lose their healthcare.

Vote ``no'' on this disastrous bill.

Mr. Speaker, once again, tomorrow, Senate Republicans will take another shot at passing the most widely hated and totally disastrous bill in modern American history-- their bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

Once again, 22 million Americans will stand to lose their health insurance. Once again, Republicans will propose to send premiums and out-of-pocket costs soaring. Once again, Republicans would allow insurance companies to discriminate against the sick. Once again, they will try to pass a law that hurts children, veterans, seniors, and Americans with disabilities.

They seem desperately determined to pass something instead of doing the right thing--which would be working on a bill that treats healthcare as a fundamental American right--and that is as wrong as wrong can be.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague and friend for yielding, and I thank her for her extraordinary leadership. I would like to be associated with her comments describing this horrific crime.

Human trafficking outpaces drugs and guns as the world's fastest growing and most prosperous criminal activity. But unlike guns and drugs, which can only be sold once, in trafficking, the human body is sold over and over and over again until it kills the person.

I very strongly support the ending of this modern-day slavery through the Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act. I have worked closely with Representative Smith since 1995,

Representative Poe, Representative Wagner, and others, to combat this despicable crime.

This legislation, first passed in 2000, revolutionized U.S. efforts against trafficking here and abroad. It included language I offered targeting traffic on the demand side, which is very important and key to punishing the real criminals here: pimps, johns, and traffickers who buy and sell their victims.

This legislation makes improvements to programs and policies that combat trafficking here and around the world. It helps law enforcement in their efforts to prosecute, which is growing. It improves professional training to identify potential trafficking victims and provides services to enable survivors to rebuild their lives with dignity.

Perpetrators of modern-day slavery are profiting to the tune of $150 billion a year. We need a coordinated, comprehensive approach to stop it.

I urge all of my colleagues to vote ``yes.'' This bill saves lives. It is important. I am thrilled to be part of the effort to combat human trafficking in our world.

Mr. Speaker, some of my friends and colleagues on the other side of the aisle continue to claim that, under the Senate's healthcare plan, women will be protected from discrimination. They won't be charged more for their healthcare than men. However, the facts show that nothing could be further from the truth.

The Senate bill actually targets women for the cruelest cuts of all. It does so by allowing States to do away with guaranteed access to essential health services, now available under the Affordable Care Act. They are services like maternity care, no-cost birth control, and mammogram screening.

But the Senate plan would allow States to completely waive any guarantee of service. States could, once again, allow insurers to consider preexisting conditions, like pregnancy, in setting fees and allow them to charge more. Plus, $800 billion in Medicaid cuts and defunding Planned Parenthood disproportionately harms women.

Mr. Speaker, no matter how many times they say otherwise, they are marching back to the bad old days for women.

Mr. Speaker, another Republican healthcare bill that the nonpartisan, bipartisan Congressional Budget Office tells us will rip away healthcare from 22 million Americans, raise premiums--especially on older Americans--and cut Medicaid by roughly $800 billion.

The Senate Republican's plan is especially cruel for New York City. Not only will millions lose coverage, but sharp Medicaid cuts will cost hospitals over $5 billion, and fewer seniors will be able to afford nursing homes and home care providers.

But the bill saves its worst for women. It cuts Federal funding for a year for Planned Parenthood clinics that provide essential healthcare to millions of American women. It allows States to easily waive guaranteed coverage for benefits like maternity. In short, women will have to pay more for essential healthcare because we are women, and women will have less access to healthcare because we are women.

Mr. Speaker, I urge the Senate to reject this cruel and merciless bill.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to my dear friend and longtime staff member Edward Babor, as he steps down from his twenty-six year tenure as the president of the Taminent Regular Democratic Club.

The Taminent Regular Democratic Club (the Taminent) was founded in 1933 in the Astoria neighborhood of Queens County. Today, the members of the Taminent work tirelessly to advocate for Astoria residents on issues affecting the community. I have attended countless events hosted by the Taminent and I am extraordinarily grateful to Ed Babor for his

leadership as club president and the extraordinary number of hours he has volunteered to ensure the club continues to thrive in the 21st century. In fact the only thing that might be more apparent than Ed's dedication to the Taminent is the universal respect and admiration that the club's members show for Ed. While Ed Babor may be stepping down as president, I am confident that he will always be a proud member of the Taminent. For decades, Ed has offered his advice and mentorship to younger generations of Western Queens advocates including incoming Taminent president, Loren Amor.

Ed Babor serves on a host of civic, political, cultural, and service organizations in the Astoria and Long Island City neighborhoods. Along with his work with the Taminent, Ed is on the board of the Powhatan and Pocahontas Regular Democratic Club, another Astoria political organization. He has been an active member of Queens Community Board Number 1 for over a decade, and is currently the Executive Secretary. Ed also serves on the boards of the Astoria Civic Association, which advocates for the needs of Astoria residents and runs the successful Judge Charles J. Vallone Scholarship Fund, and SHAREing and CAREing, a nonprofit dedicated to working with cancer patients and their families without regard to insurance status to provide education on prevention and wellness, links to cancer treatment and practical needs, and on- going cancer support.

In his career, Ed Babor has demonstrated the same commitment to community and public service. Ed Babor worked for the New York Department of Motor Vehicles for over thirty years. Ed has been an invaluable addition to my staff for over eight years. He has an encyclopedic knowledge about the neighborhoods of Western Queens and the issues which they face. This institutional knowledge comes both from the fact that Ed is at every meeting that takes place in Western Queens and from his sincere interest in the neighborhoods' well-being, because Ed truly loves Queens.

Ed lives in Astoria with his wife Patricia Babor, to whom he has been married for 39 years. Ed and Pat are active parishioners at Immaculate Conception Church in Astoria. Ed has been actively involved with Catholic War-Veterans Post No. 1, having served with the National Guard. Proud of his Czech heritage, Ed is involved with several cultural organizations including the Czech Catholic Union and the Bohemian Historical Society.

Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing the many accomplishments of Edward Babor. His hard work, character, and love for his community and the people who live there, make him an outstanding leader and an incredible friend.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition to H.R. 10, the ``Wrong'' CHOICE Act.

This bill would take us back to the regulatory stone age and would be a disaster for our entire financial system. It would actually increase risk in the financial system because, under this bill, any bank that meets an arbitrary new 10 percent leverage ratio would be exempted from all other capital and liquidity requirements. The problem with the leverage ratio is that it treats all assets equally risky. Under the leverage ratio, a subprime mortgage-backed security is considered just as risky as a U.S. Treasury bond.

As a result, many banking regulators have pointed out that relying solely on the leverage ratio would give banks an incentive to get rid of their safest assets, like U.S. treasuries, and load up on riskier assets.

Incentives matter, Mr. Speaker, and this bill gives banks a huge incentive to load up on risk. We know what risk is like. Eleven million people lost their homes, and many lost their jobs. Let's not remove the safety net that was put in place with the Dodd-Frank bill.

I oppose the ``Wrong'' CHOICE Act. It is bad for America, bad for people, and the wrong direction. I urge a strong ``no'' vote.

I thank the gentlewoman for her leadership and for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition to H.R. 10, the ``Wrong'' CHOICE Act.

This bill will take us back to the regulatory stone age and would be a disaster for the entire financial system.

Let us remember why we passed Dodd-Frank: we confronted the worst financial crisis, caused by mismanagement from the financial industry, that cost this country $18 trillion in household wealth, millions lost their homes, millions lost their jobs, and the suffering was deep and strong.

First, this bill, the ``Wrong'' CHOICE Act, would repeal the orderly liquidation authority, which is the only tool that would allow large financial institutions like Lehman Brothers or AIG to be wound down safely, without requiring a taxpayer bailout or causing a financial panic, like Lehman.

We had two choices in the crisis: either bail them out--a bad choice--or let them fail--another bad choice.

The liquidation authority is helpful, yet the majority claims that the liquidation authority codifies taxpayer bailouts. Nothing could be further from the truth. Under the liquidation authority, the FDIC wipes out the firm's shareholders, imposes losses on the firm's creditors, fires the firm's management, and completely liquidates the entire firm. The only people who are guaranteed not to suffer losses are the taxpayers.

So if we wipe out this protection to the taxpayers, we are putting the taxpayers in harm's way yet again.

This bill would also devastate investors by rolling back decades of investor protections and trampling on the property rights of shareholders by making it virtually impossible for them to influence the management of the companies that they own.

Finally, the bill would completely gut the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which has been an incredible, effective watchdog for consumers and has protected the consumers who were often not thought about first of all or second of all--or not thought about at all. This agency protects them. If we would have had it, we would not have had the financial crisis we suffered. This would just make it easier for banks like Wells Fargo to rip off consumers and would protect them from being punished if they are caught.

So I want to point out that the Republican ``Wrong'' CHOICE Act puts Wall Street ahead of Main Street, leads to taxpayer bailouts for big banks, guts consumer protections for seniors and their families, and brings back risky practices that caused the 2008 financial crisis. It is the wrong direction, it is a wrong vote, and I caution my friends on the other side of the aisle the voters are going to remember this vote. Don't turn us back to the Stone Age of regulation.

I urge a very strong ``no'' vote on this wrongly directed ``Bad'' CHOICE Act.

Mr. Speaker, there are an estimated 8 million constituents scattered across the world who promote our culture and values while strengthening our nation's global influence as they live and work abroad. For years, I have worked to ensure that overseas Americans can fully exercise their rights as U.S. citizens by having their voices heard loud and clear by Congress. Eight years ago, I formed the Congressional Americans Abroad Caucus because I wanted to bring awareness and focus to the concerns of those residing abroad. U.S. citizens remain just that, citizens, regardless of where they choose to live and should not be ignored by virtue of residence.

Our constituents living and working abroad have consistently voiced concerns about the impact federal policies have on them like voting, immigration, access to financial institutions, and taxation. The time has come to comprehensively study and address the effects of federal policies on Americans living overseas.

That is why today I am reintroducing the Commission on Americans Living Abroad Act, which creates an Executive Commission with the main purpose of examining those concerns. The Commission creates a 10 member panel to examine the impact of federal policymaking on U.S. citizens abroad. The resulting study would then be used by Congress and the Executive Branch when considering the best steps we can take to engage the abroad community and ensure their voices are heard. This process will bring clearer awareness of the federal issues impacting Americans abroad and will open a path for coordination with those communities towards more robust representation.

Each of our constituents has a right to have their interests represented and to have a role in the political process. The Commission on Americans Living Abroad would establish a foundation from which we can work to better serve the needs of our global constituents. I welcome and urge my colleagues to lend their support to this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce the sense of the House of Representatives that the Senate should give its advice and consent to the ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

CEDAW is a landmark international agreement that calls on governments to take appropriate measures to end discrimination against women in all areas of life. The Convention seeks to develop women's equality in legal status, human rights, political participation, employment, education and healthcare, while committing countries to change or eradicate discriminatory laws, customs, and practices.

Despite 189 countries ratifying CEDAW, the United States is the only industrialized country in the world that has not ratified the treaty, even though its fundamental principles of equality and nondiscrimination are paramount to the ideals of our nation. Other nations that have not ratified CEDAW include Somalia and Iran.

CEDAW is not self-executing, but would be a powerful statement uniting the U.S. with most of the world in its commitment to women's rights and equality. Any legislation the United States might adopt to comply with the treaty would have to go through the normal Congressional process.

Ratification of CEDAW would continue our nation's proud bipartisan tradition of promoting and protecting human rights. Senate action in favor of ratification of CEDAW would strengthen our standing as a global leader for the rights of women and girls. I hope my colleagues will cosponsor this important resolution that will benefit women in the U.S. and around the world.

Mr. Speaker, today I am reintroducing legislation with my colleague, Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr., which would simply allow Christian Indonesian citizens who arrived in the United States between January 1, 1997 and November 30, 2002 fleeing religious persecution, the opportunity to reopen their claims for asylum within two years of the bill's enactment. The bill would only apply to individuals who were denied asylum solely for missing filing deadline which closes one year after arrival.

Beginning in 1997, when extreme violence and destruction of churches in Indonesia was at its height, many Indonesian Christians were driven from their homes. These individuals came to the United States, seeking refuge from persecution for their religious beliefs, but were either unable to file before the one-year deadline or were unaware any deadline existed. They deserve the opportunity to have their claims heard.

The United States has a long history of taking in refugees fleeing persecution and providing a process to fairly consider their claims. This bill does not automatically grant asylum, but merely removes a procedural barrier to their claims being considered. These individuals seeking asylum deserve a second chance to avoid the persecution they have fled and remain united with their families.

I urge my colleagues to support this important legislation.

Mr. Speaker, currently a panel of Republican Senators are deciding the fate of millions of American women's healthcare. Tragically, their starting point is the House- passed bill that would force new moms on Medicaid to return to work right after birth, reduce women's access to copays for contraception, weaken protections for preexisting conditions like pregnancy, and eliminate the guarantee of essential health benefits that provides services like mammograms and cervical cancer screenings, services that save lives.

All of these measures hurt women--and only women--and will do enormous harm to the health and well-being of women from childhood to old age. It is an outrage and a gross injustice when women are treated so unequally with such gross disparity and such total disregard for their lives and well-being.

It is one more powerful reason why this Congress should pass and send to the States to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, declaring in no uncertain terms that women are entitled to equal rights, equal justice, equal treatment, equal protection under the law, and that means equal treatment in healthcare. In this country, it is time, at long last, for equal to mean just that, equal.

Mr. Speaker, today, I rise to reintroduce the Stop Deceptive Advertising for Women's Healthcare Services Act to make sure that women receive honest information about family planning services.

Expecting mothers should never be misled about critical health information and services. Yet that is exactly what is happening today all across the country. Commonly called crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs), these centers often have an anti-choice agenda and deliberately misinform or mislead pregnant women seeking information about family planning services, including abortion. CPC's masquerade as sources of unbiased pregnancy counseling or even abortion providers, yet they often have no medical professionals on staff. CPC's use deceptive propaganda to dissuade women from considering comprehensive birth control options or legal abortion. These fake reproductive health clinics entice women with unintended pregnancies through their doors under the pretense of providing the full range of reproductive options and services. Instead, they pedal scientifically unfounded information claiming that abortion leads to adverse health outcomes or can affect chances of pregnancy in the future. CPCs should be held accountable if they deliberately mislead women who are seeking legitimate medical assistance and advice.

The Stop Deceptive Advertising for Women's Healthcare Services Act directs the Federal Trade Commission to promulgate rules under the Federal Trade Commission Act, declaring it an unfair or deceptive act for an entity, such as a crisis pregnancy center, to advertise as a provider of abortion services if the entity does not provide abortion services.

I thank my friend Rep. Suzanne Bonamici for leading this critical effort with me. During National Women's Health Week, I hope you will join us in cosponsoring this legislation that demands that crisis pregnancy centers, some of which receive federal funds, are prohibited from making false advertising claims that intimidate and harm women who are looking for help and honest medical advice.

Mr. Speaker, this is a picture of the committee our Republican colleagues in the Senate have put together and tasked with crafting a healthcare bill that will affect the healthcare of tens of millions of American women.

And just a quick glance at his poster tells you that there is not one person on this committee who will ever bear a child or need maternity care. There is no one on this committee that will ever need a mammogram. No one on this committee will ever have to worry about having their access to affordable contraceptives or prenatal care taken away from them.

Yet, the House bill that was delivered to the Senate callously would make healthcare services and insurance coverage either unaffordable or unavailable to millions of struggling hardworking women.

So, once again, we find that our Republican colleagues are making life-altering decisions without a single woman at the table, ignoring the very real, very cruel effects of the House-passed bill on American women and families.

So, once again, Mr. Speaker, we ask: Where are the women?

Mr. Speaker, I rise to introduce a Concurrent Resolution expressing the sense of Congress that the Parthenon Marbles, currently held in the British Museum, should be returned to Greece. Approximately 200 years ago, while Greece was under Ottoman rule, the British nobleman Thomas Bruce, seventh Earl of Elgin, removed over 100 pieces of sculptures known as the Parthenon Marbles and transported them to the United Kingdom. The Marbles were part of a frieze that adorned the Temple of Athena. In 1816, the British Parliament voted to purchase the Marbles from Lord Elgin and they now reside in the British Museum. The other half of the Marbles that comprise the frieze are in the New Acropolis Museum in Athens alongside plaster replicas of the Marbles that were taken. Despite years of good faith efforts by the Greek Government to retain the Marbles, it has been unable to negotiate an agreement with its British counterparts to return the Marbles to Greece.

I am pleased that several Members of the British Parliament have recently expressed support for transferring ownership of the Marbles back to Greece and return these cherished artifacts to their rightful home. The Parthenon marbles are some of Greece's greatest examples of artistic expression and beauty, and should be on display in their country of origin. They are vital pieces of Greek history that belong to the Greek people. This resolution calls upon the two countries to come to an agreement to finally return these treasures to their rightful home.

I want to thank Rep. Gus Bilirakis, with whom I co-chair the Congressional Caucus on Hellenic Issues, and Rep. Donald Payne, Jr. for joining me as co-sponsors on this important resolution. Rep. Payne's father and our former colleague, the late Rep. Donald Payne Sr., was a great champion in this effort to return the Parthenon Marbles to Greece. I am proud to continue to call for an agreement that will put an end to this centuries-old dispute, and I urge my colleagues to support this resolution.