Floor Statements

Mr. Chair, I rise today to oppose yet another attempt at rolling back workers' rights, H.R. 3094, the Election Prevention Act. This assault on union employees is anti-democratic and harmful to the American middle class. Instead of legislation to create jobs and to grow the American workforce, the House Majority is attempting to undermine worker protections and put workers at risk.

It is a strength of our democracy that employees have the freedom and the federal statutory right to choose whether or not to be represented by a union. However, this legislation would effectively end collective bargaining rights by putting power exclusively in the hands of employers. It gives employers the ability to delay indefinitely a union election, allowing for intimidation and harassment of employees. It does nothing to protect workers who are fired, threatened, or interrogated for exercising their right to form a union. It also prevents individuals to choose the coworkers with whom they wish to seek representation. Furthermore, this legislation incentivizes wasteful litigation prior to union elections and would increase taxpayer costs by creating a backlog of required findings on superfluous issues.

Unions have helped to improve the wages and working conditions of all Americans and to grow the American middle class. This war on union employees that is being waged in states across the country and here on Capitol Hill must not continue. It is time for us to turn our efforts to strengthening protections for American working men and women as well as to helping those outside the workforce to find good jobs. I urge my colleagues to vote ``no.''

Mr. Speaker, last year, when I was chair of the Joint Economic Committee, we held a hearing on the pivotal role of government investment in basic research. We found that basic research spurs exactly the kind of innovations that business leaders, academics and policymakers have all identified as critical for our Nation's economic growth.

But we also found that the private sector tends to underfund basic research because it is undertaken with no specific commercial applications in mind. Businesses, understandably, concentrate their research and development spending on the development of products and processes that may have direct commercial value.

A report produced by the Joint Economic Committee showed that the Federal Government funds almost 60 percent of basic research in the U.S. and highlighted one study that estimated that actual R&D expenditures in the United States may be less than half of what the optimal levels would be.

We are now engaged in an important national debate about how much and where to cut Federal spending. And I wish to make the case for how reckless and shortsighted it would be to cut into the budget lines that fund the kind of vital, basic research that led to discovery, innovation, and economic growth, because doing so would be, as that bit of old folk wisdom goes, like cutting off our nose to spite our face.

Take the budget for the National Institutes of Health, for example. The NIH strongly supports the kind of basic scientific research that may not be directly useful in creating practical products yet, but it's precisely this kind of research that can lead to the future development of new and undreamed of biotech and pharmaceutical advances. It is work that can lead to the kind of advances that will allow the establishment of new products, grow new businesses, and produce private sector jobs.

Studies have shown that the money we spend supporting such scientific research is one of the best investments our country can make. For instance, out in Los Angeles, UCLA generates almost $15 in economic activity for every taxpayer dollar that it invests, resulting in a $9.33 billion, with a B, impact on the Los Angeles region.

In Houston, Texas, the estimated economic impact of Baylor is more than $358 million, generating more than 3,000 jobs.

In my own district in New York, Dr. Samie Jaffrey, a pharmacologist and faculty member at Weill Cornell Medical College, has just recently developed a promising new technology for studying RNA in cells and has just started a biotech company, all with NIH support.

Time and time again, basic research has been a game changer and an economic incubator. Take the biotechnology company Genentech as an example. It was founded on discoveries that were made within our universities, and those discoveries were made with financial support of grants from the National Institutes of Health. And those Federal funds proved to be a very good investment.

Genentech has created over 11,000 jobs, and the company created products that have had major effects on the health and economic well- being of our Nation. Genentech developed drugs that treat certain leukemias and arthritis and breast cancer.

NIH-funded research has also had a major impact on the lives of those suffering from multiple sclerosis. MS is a painful, painful disease that often strikes young women with children. Thanks to NIH research, drugs have been developed that are now in the marketplace that mean MS patients now live longer and have higher quality lives.

Since 1970, over 150 new FDA-approved drugs and vaccines or new indications for existing drugs have been discovered in university laboratories, most funded by NIH. And millions of Americans are hoping that somewhere, just over the horizon, there will be new discoveries and new breakthroughs leading to more effective treatments

for cancer, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, AIDS, autism, bacteria, ADHA, schizophrenia, depression and much more.

But treating these and other diseases will depend on discoveries yet to be made. Discoveries of basic science. Discoveries that can only be made with Federal funding and the work of agencies like the NIH. I suspect that to some this might just sound like pie in the sky.

But just think back into our not too distant past. Think back to the polio of the 1950s, to the children who were crippled and to the patients in iron lungs. Think about 30 years ago, when almost all the children who were diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma were not expected to live more than 5 years. Think back to the time when AIDS was the equivalent of a death sentence. Polio is now eradicated. The 5- year survival rate for NHL is over 84 percent, and AIDS is treatable, survivable.

This is all because of basic research, much of which was funded by the NIH. Because of the basic research we have funded and made possible. Because of our past investments in our Nation's future. The Founding Fathers had the wisdom and the foresight to write into the Constitution a role for the Federal Government in promoting the progress of science and useful arts. If we are to remain competitive in the global economy, if we hope to remain a leader in biotechnology, if we hope to continue to advance the world's understanding and treatment of diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer's disease, we must continue to invest in the basic research and in the dedicated young scientists who make it all possible.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Will the gentleman yield?

I would like to thank you for that very kind statement, and I look forward to finding common ground on things we can agree on and work to help the economy and growth of this great Nation, and I hope you can help and support the funding of NIH and basic research which has been so helpful to your great State and your great universities and scientists.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the 145th anniversary of the founding of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), which has been headquartered for the last 60 years on the East Side of Manhattan in my congressional district. Founded by Henry Bergh in 1866, the ASPCA provides effective means for the prevention of cruelty to animals in New York City and throughout the United States.

The ASPCA was the first humane society in North America. Throughout its 145-year history, the ASPCA has operated under the belief that animals are entitled to be treated kindly and respectfully by humans and to be protected by the law. Last year, thousands of pets were adopted from its Onyx and Breezy Shefts Adoption Center and over 37,000 free or low-cost spay and neuter surgeries were provided to needy pet parents across the five boroughs. The ASPCA's Bergh Memorial Animal Hospital has been providing affordable, quality veterinary care in the New York metropolitan area since 1912.

Although the ASPCA was founded to help protect working horses and other animals in New York City, its services and outreach now stretch to animals and communities throughout the United States. From shelter and rescue grants, to veterinarian care and training, to cruelty response and humane law enforcement, the ASPCA is a national leader in animal cruelty prevention. In 2010, its Animal Poison Control Center handled over 167,000 cases. The ASPCA's disaster response team has cared for animals during emergencies nationwide, including after animal fighting raids, and recently in Joplin, Missouri, and in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene.

Henry Bergh stated, ``mercy to animals means mercy to mankind.'' He knew compassion for animals leads to a better human heart and society. I am proud to congratulate the ASPCA and its over one million supporters on its 145th anniversary. They continue to be the voice of those unable to speak for themselves.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor Renee and Robert Belfer for their foresight and generosity in advancing medical research and countless other worthwhile charitable and non-profit causes. Partners in marriage and philanthropy for more than half a century, Renee and Robert Belfer are being honored this month by the internationally renowned Weill Cornell Medical College for more than two decades of leadership at the Medical College and at an affiliated institution, New York-Presbyterian Hospital.

This month, a groundbreaking ceremony is being held for the new Belfer Research Building of the internationally renowned Weill Cornell College of Medicine. Its construction was made possible by an extraordinarily generous $100 million donation by Renee and Robert Belfer. The Belfer Research Building will be a state-of-the-art 18- story facility on Manhattan's East Side that will more than double the Weill Cornell College of Medicine's existing research space and enhance its position at the cutting edge of new medical research and discoveries.

The remarkable record of support provided by Renee and Robert Belfer and their family has helped medical researchers and doctors develop enduring solutions to some of today's most pressing and prevalent health problems. In 1980, Arthur Belfer, the father of Robert Belfer, established the R.A. Rees Pritchett

Professorship of Microbiology at Weill Cornell Medical College with a gift of $1 million. In 1991, Robert and Renee Belfer and his two sisters and their husbands, Selma and Lawrence Ruben and Anita and Jack Saltz, donated $1.5 million to endow the Rochelle Belfer Professorship in Medicine at the College, and seven years later, the families contributed $4 million to endow the College's Arthur B. Belfer Professorship in Genetic Medicine and provide funding for its Arthur and Rochelle Belfer Gene Therapy Core Facility. With an $8 million gift to the College of Medicine in 2005, Robert and Renee Belfer established The Arthur and Rochelle Belfer Institute of Hematology and Medical Oncology, named in honor of his parents. The Institute is advancing critical research in fields such as solid tumor biology, cancer genomics and proteomics. Renee and Robert Belfer have also devoted financial support to programs in women's health, and in 2003 donated $1 million to create the Anti-Bioterrorism Project.

Renee and Robert Belfer have truly distinguished themselves on a multitude of fronts. A graduate of Vassar College, Mrs. Belfer is devoted to education and the arts, serving on the Board of Trustees of the Metropolitan Museum of Art; as a Director of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts; as an Overseer of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine; an Executive Board Member of the American Friends of the Israel Museum; and a Member of the Chairman's Circle of the Central Park Conservancy, among the numerous illustrious non-profit institutions she and her husband have supported vigorously over the years. A graduate of Columbia College and Harvard Law School, Robert Belfer is a titan in the world of business, enjoying a long career at the Belco Petroleum Corporation, where he rose to become Chairman, and currently serving as Chairman of Belfer Management LLC, a private firm specializing in the energy, real estate and financial services sectors. He has been an extraordinary supporter of a wide variety of renowned educational and non-profit institutions, serving as a Member of the Board of Overseers and the Executive Committee of the Weill Cornell Medical College; on the Visiting Committee of Harvard University's Kennedy School; a Trustee of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute; a Member of the Board of Governors of the American Jewish Committee and the Weizmann Institute of Science; and former Chair and current Member of the Board of Trustees and Executive Committee of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Together, he and his wife established the Robert and Renee Belfer Family Foundation, which has unstintingly bestowed generous support on worthwhile institutions like the Weill Cornell College of Medicine. They raised children, Rachelle (Malkin), Laurence, and Elizabeth, and have five grandchildren.

Mr. Speaker, I request that my esteemed colleagues join me in paying tribute to Renee and Robert Belfer for their significant and enduring contributions to the civic life of our nation.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce the Incorporation Transparency and Law Enforcement Assistance Act. The bill would require the states to obtain information about the true ownership of the corporation, when incorporation papers are filed with the state.

As some have put it, this bill is a ``no-brainer.'' And it is fairly straightforward: it would require that the person creating the corporation state the ``beneficial owner'' of the corporation and provide some form of identification.

Although this is as straightforward as it sounds, the implications for law enforcement are broad reaching. Criminal organizations are infamous for using shell corporations, both foreign and domestic to open bank accounts, launder money, perpetrate fraud, and finance terrorism. And it isn't difficult for them to do. Virtually no states require people applying to create corporations to provide the identity of the corporate owner. In fact, 48 of 50 states, except for Alabama and Alaska, allow for the unfettered creation of an anonymous corporate entity. As a result, just about anyone can easily manipulate the system to fund criminal activity.

Here is an example from an investigation in New York by the Manhattan District Attorney. The office announced investigations involving the movement of funds through banks in New York by entities controlled by the Iranian Military. In at least two cases, domestic shell companies were opened in two different states to further secret Iranian interests. Through a New York shell company, individuals working on behalf of the government of Iran were able to move funds to secret accounts held in offshore jurisdictions. Shockingly, the offshore government was able to give the Manhattan DA more information about the ownership of the New York entity than the state of New York could.

Although the DA does not contend that requiring a declaration of beneficial ownership would have stopped this activity, it would have at least been a piece of evidence to go on. And if the declaration of beneficial ownership had been required but falsified, it would have been an extra tool for law enforcement to shut down the entity and prosecute the perpetrators.

The bill I am introducing today will provide the kind of transparency that law enforcement needs to investigate financial crimes. However, it is narrowly drafted so that it is not overly burdensome on either states or incorporating entities. In fact, most corporations would be exempt from the bill's requirements including companies that are already regulated by federal banking regulators and companies that are over 20 employees and $10 million in revenue.

This bill is meant to capture beneficial ownership information from companies that are able to escape regulation and oversight through other federal entities.

Senator Levin has already introduced a similar bill in the Senate, and President Obama was the lead sponsor when he was a U.S. Senator.

In a recent CNN editorial, Global Witness stated, ``Setting a standard for collecting information about the true owner of a company would level the playing field between the states while preventing terrorists, drug traffickers and kleptocrats from hiding behind corporate secrecy.''

The bill is supported by numerous law enforcement associations, including the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, the Fraternal Order of Police, the National Association of Assistant United States Attorneys, the National Narcotic Officers' Associations Coalition, the United States Marshals Service Association, and the Association of Former ATF Agents.

I urge my colleagues to support this important legislation.

I thank the gentleman for his leadership, not only on the committee but in so many ways in this Congress, and for yielding me time.

Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 674 and of the President's veterans jobs bill.

The 3 percent withholding repeal is very important on its own. This was an important bill that will help small business contractors who would have experienced significant cash flow problems for day-to-day operations had the withholding tax gone into effect. It also provides important tax credits to encourage more employers to hire our veterans who are out of work. Well over 12 percent of our returning veterans are out of work. This bill provides additional education and job training for veterans to gain additional skills and to be successful in an increasingly competitive job market, and it takes important steps to help ease the transition between military service and the civilian workforce.

I am pleased that we are working together to repeal this tax burden and help our veterans in a comprehensive way during these tough economic times. I am pleased that this portion of the President's jobs bill is being enacted today. I thank all who are supporting it.

Mr. Speaker, today, along with my friends Raul Grijalva, Edward Markey and 25 other Members, I am reintroducing the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act (NREPA), legislation that will protect one of our nation's greatest natural resources, the Wild Rockies. With Americans vacationing closer to home, our national parks have seen an increase in visitors in the last few years--a clear indication of America's love for our wild national treasures. We must do everything possible to preserve our pristine wilderness areas so they can be enjoyed by future generations. In addition, a healthy habitat helps to create jobs including those related to restoration, construction, engineering, recreation, tourism, and retail.

NREPA uses sound science to protect the health of whole ecosystems, including the animals that graze, the native plants and forests that grow, and the watersheds that run through the Northern Rockies. With that goal in mind, this legislation will protect 23 million acres by designating all of the inventoried roadless areas in the Northern Rockies as wilderness, including wild and scenic rivers and streams. The bill also includes a process for States and tribal governments to negotiate a management plan for migratory and biological corridors. NREPA will safeguard only federal public lands--lands owned by all Americans--in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Oregon and Washington, and does not affect private landowners. It also allows for historic uses such as hunting, fishing and firewood gathering.

NREPA designations are based on ecological and watershed features-- not political boundaries. As we all know, rivers don't stay within one Congressional District, animals don't know when they've crossed a political boundary, and forests span millions of miles with no regard for state-lines. I urge my colleagues to take this essential step toward preserving precious wildlife habitat and whole functioning ecosystems in the Wild Rockies.

I thank my good friend and the ranking member on the subcommittee, the gentlewoman from California, for her leadership on this bill and her amendment and her efforts to make a good product an even better one. And I thank our ranking member, Mr. Frank, for all of his leadership on Dodd-Frank and in the committee now, and also Chairman Bachus, Chairman Garrett, and Representative McCarthy.

This was a bipartisan effort. So in a Congress that everyone says we're not working together, this is one example where we work together in the best sense of the word to bring this bill to the floor.

I rise in strong support of the Access to Capital for Job Creators Act because I believe that it will help businesses in our country raise money they need to create jobs and help our economy recover.

This was an important bill for businesses across our country, but it is particularly important to New York City. New York City is the home of many innovators, innovation. Entrepreneurs come there from across the country, and this bill will help them raise money and grow the American Dream and help them go up that ladder of success in providing jobs and helping our economy.

Under our current system, companies seeking to raise capital by selling shares are barred from many types of advertising and solicitations. In effect, our current system tells businesses: Go out and create jobs, but don't tell people who might want to invest in your company or invest in your idea or invest in America, don't tell them anything.

So this message is contradictory at best and patently unfair at worst, and it is bad for businesses at a time when we are asking businesses across this country to lead our economic recovery and to create jobs.

This bill before us today would end this contradiction by removing the restrictions on general solicitation and advertising for certain private securities offerings. It will help companies attract potential investors and raise the capital that they need to be successful. This bill accomplishes this task in a balanced way.

During the committee markup and work on this bill, we incorporated numerous ideas from both sides of the aisle, including a provision requiring that issuers verify that an investor is actually eligible to purchase the offered securities. The Waters amendment made sure that the investors were credible and accredited.

Today, as it stands, investors only self-certify that they have a million in assets or make $200,000 a year to qualify to purchase the private security. Now, with this bill, we will have additional safeguards in place to make sure that investors are qualified and that these financial transactions are safer.

I support this bill today. I urge my colleagues to join in supporting it. And I feel that this is really an investment in the American Dream.

I hope that we can likewise work together to pass the American Jobs Act in a bipartisan way. We are not going to cut our way to prosperity. We need to invest and grow our economy. This bill helps us to do that. The American Jobs Act does, too. I hope our colleagues will join us in supporting that important job-creator initiative also.

So this is a vote for the American Dream. I'm proud to support it.

I thank the gentleman for yielding and for his outstanding work on this bill and so many others.

I, first of all, want to thank Ranking Member Waters and Ranking Member Frank for their hard work on this bill, and to commend Ranking Member Frank for his outstanding leadership on the Dodd-Frank regulatory reform bill.

I also applaud the leadership of Chairman Bachus and Chairman Garrett and my colleague Mr. McHenry from the great State of North Carolina for his work on this really new idea in capital formation, and for working so well and being so open to Democratic ideas and working in a very professional way with the Democratic staff and Members' staffs and Members and literally, in some form or another, accepting every Democratic amendment, which I think is a first. So we are grateful for that.

Crowdfunding is a way for small startups to raise capital through the Internet. Investors use these Web sites to come together, and on the Internet they are able to raise lower dollar amounts to help enterprises get off the ground.

Crowdfunding is a new way of raising capital. It's a new idea, and it helps small businesses. In this time of economic hardship, we have repeatedly heard from our constituents about the need to help small businesses. We have heard from small businesses about the need to have more liquidity and more loans.

We really need to make sure that America's innovators and entrepreneurs and researchers have the resources necessary to drive economic recovery and to turn their ideas into the reality of a company that will create jobs and grow our economy.

By passing this bill, we will make it easier to provide different avenues for startups and smaller businesses to access the capital they need to move our economy forward, and it will not only help small businesses raise capital, but thanks to the changes and amendments we agreed upon in committee, it contains much stronger investor protections as well.

During the committee markup, I offered an amendment that was accepted which will require the issuers to provide notice to the SEC that they intend to engage in crowdfunding. The SEC must then make that notice available to the State's securities regulators. And with that knowledge, the States can ensure and better protect investors, and it's strengthening, really, investor protection and, really, enforcement.

The manager's amendment agreed to in the committee will empower the SEC with additional safeguards to make crowdfunding safer for investors. It was literally a joint Democratic and Republican amendment, and I am very glad we were able to work together to make this a better bill.

I'm really happy about this bill because New York is a center for innovators, and many people come from all around the world to build their ideas. And this bill will help them do it.

It was done in a joint effort. And I hope that my friends on the other side of the aisle will join us in passing the American Jobs Act, which will also put Americans to work and help grow our economy.

We are not going to cut our way to prosperity. We need to invest in growth. The American Jobs Act invests in our infrastructure, in our workers, in innovation. It helps build the American Dream. So I hope my colleagues will join with us in passing that important bill, too.

I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 674, a bill that repeals the Internal Revenue Code provision requiring federal, state, and local governments to withhold 3 percent on payments made to government contractors.

This is an onerous requirement that I have been working with my bipartisan colleagues to repeal.

I have heard from a number of government contractors who have told me that the problem for them include:

Most construction contracts average less than 3 percent profit.

Tightened cash flow will restrict bonding capacity.

Enforcement of current laws would ensure tax obligations are met.

The law places an undue burden on S Corps and joint ventures.

It is widely believed that this is misguided public policy.

I am pleased that we are working together to repeal this burden and help American businesses during tough economic times.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to the Honorable Jonathan Bing, an outstanding public servant and my good friend. The Special Deputy Superintendent of the New York State Department of Financial Services and a revered and respected former Member of the New York State Assembly who represented Manhattan's East Side for nearly a decade, Mr. Bing is being honored this month at a special dinner hosted by Manhattan Community Board 6 and its officers and members.

Jonathan Bing was appointed to the executive branch of New York State government by Governor Andrew Cuomo earlier this year. The Governor's elevation of Mr. Bing is an apt reflection of Mr. Bing's distinguished record as a remarkably effective State legislator representing New York's 73rd Assembly District. As an elected official, Mr. Bing distinguished himself as a dynamic and forceful leader and advocate for New York City. A resident of Manhattan's East Side for over two decades, Mr. Bing has devoted himself in service to others throughout his career.

During his service in the New York State Assembly, Mr. Bing was a prolific and accomplished legislator, authoring and securing passage of 36 bills that were signed into law. Among his signal legislative achievements are: New York State's no-fault divorce law; a law extending the statute of limitations for workers' compensation claims made by 9/11 rescue and recovery workers, allowing countless American heroes to receive the benefits that they deserve; a law enhancing criminal and civil penalties against those who would falsify construction records or illegally assist people with government licensing examinations, a measure he introduced following the East Side crane collapse in 2008; and the 2010 adoption of the UPMIFA statute providing cultural and higher education institutions more flexibility in managing their endowments and assets.

Earlier this year, Mr. Bing accepted a gubernatorial appointment to serve as the Special Deputy Superintendent of the New York Department of Financial Services' Liquidation Bureau, serving as that agency's chief executive officer. In that capacity, he oversees the Bureau's effort to safeguard the interests of customers holding policies issued by insurance companies that became insolvent. Though his

agency receives no taxpayer funding, it employs 260 individuals as it fulfills its important mission.

A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and the New York University School of Law, Mr. Bing served as a clerk to U.S. District Court Judge Bruce Van Sickle, and authored an award-winning legal article on protecting mentally retarded defendants from the death penalty. Prior to his election to office, he was an accomplished attorney in private practice in Manhattan. After the terrorist attacks of 9/11, he was named New York Coordinator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency/American Bar Association's Disaster Legal Services program, where he oversaw more than 250 attorneys providing free, comprehensive legal assistance to those affected by the attacks. Mr. Bing is a proud resident of Manhattan's Turtle Bay neighborhood where he lives with his wife, Meredith Ballew, an executive at the Vanderbilt YMCA in Turtle Bay, and their daughter, Charlotte.

Mr. Speaker, I ask that my distinguished colleagues join me recognizing the enormous contributions to our civic and political life made by Jonathan Bing, an extraordinarily distinguished and effective public servant.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor Mr. Rodney P. Hunt, the President and Chief Executive Officer of RPH Enterprise International and the founder of RS Information Systems, Inc. (RSIS), an extraordinarily successful business that became a leader in the fields of data technology, systems engineering, and telecommunications. Mr. Hunt has distinguished himself in the world of business and in his dedication to serving others. In recognition of his leadership and his commitment to supporting numerous worthwhile causes, I am pleased to join with members of the Euro-American Women's Council in honoring Mr. Hunt with its prestigious ``Artemis Award'' this month.

Rodney P. Hunt launched his career as an entrepreneur while still a teenager, and according to the periodical Minority Business Entrepreneur, he had earned his first million dollars at age 16. He co- founded RSIS almost two decades ago, and then successfully guided the firm through a period of uninterrupted expansion, realizing hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenues as it became a preeminent leader in information technology and government contracting. A majority owner of the company, by the time he sold it in 2008, its professional staff numbered around 2,000 persons and it held approximately 100 prime contracts with civilian and defense agencies of the federal government. Under his leadership, and in all his business endeavors, Mr. Hunt has fostered a culture of civic responsibility, encouraging his enterprises and employees to donate financial support and volunteer activity around the country to the communities in which they were based. It was his dedication to serving others that inspired him to establish the Rodney P. Hunt Family Foundation.

A strong believer in education, Mr. Hunt earned dual bachelor of science degrees in operations research and industrial engineering from Cornell and George Washington universities. He credits his beloved mother for inspiring his dedication to excelling in his studies, an inspiration that led him to establish a Rodney P. Hunt Family Foundation fellowship at his alma mater, Cornell University, and to support other worthwhile educational causes.

Mr. Hunt has distinguished himself as an accomplished leader in the world of business, a respected civic activist, and a dedicated and generous philanthropist who is unstinting in his efforts to serve others. I am proud to join in the EAWC ceremony honoring him this month.

Mr. Speaker, I request that my esteemed colleagues join me in paying tribute to Mr. Rodney P. Hunt for his significant and enduring contributions to the civic life of our nation.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to the Honorable C. Virginia Fields, an outstanding public servant who served as Manhattan Borough President, a Member of the New York City Council, and Chair of Manhattan's Community Board 10 in Harlem. In recognition of her many contributions to the civic life of our nation's greatest city, and specifically toward preserving and improving the quality of healthcare provided at Harlem Hospital, she is being honored this month by its Auxiliary on the occasion of the Hospital's centennial celebration occurring this month at the Alhambra Ballroom in upper Manhattan.

After her election in 1997 as Borough President of Manhattan, C. Virginia Fields became the chief executive officer of New York County, whose population then numbered more than a million and a half residents and grew significantly during her eight-year tenure. She became the highest ranking African-American elected official in New York City municipal government and just the third woman to assume the Manhattan Borough presidency, following in the footsteps of two great and distinguished women leaders, Constance Baker Motley and Ruth Messinger.

As Borough President, Virginia Fields focused on housing and education issues while helping to meet her constituents' needs on a broad range of concerns. She established a Manhattan Parents Convention; offered an eloquent and forceful voice for improving hospital care for Manhattan residents, particularly those living in underserved communities; and helped create a more favorable environment for small business owners and workers. As Borough President, C. Virginia Fields also literally helped pave the way for the second Harlem Renaissance, providing new opportunities for residents, businesses, and tourists alike and spearheading the restoration of Frederick Douglass Boulevard, which she dubbed ``the backbone of Harlem.'' Throughout her tenure as Borough President, in the City Council, and on the Community Board,

she championed public libraries and schools, job training programs, quality health care, services for senior citizens, the environment, public parks, cultural institutions, and economic development, securing tens of millions of dollars in funding in all of these critical spheres of urban life.

Born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1946, C. Virginia Fields was the youngest of five children. Her mother was a seamstress who worked hard to support the family, particularly after her father, a steelworker, died when Virginia was just 12 years old. She developed her devotion to the pursuit of social justice in no small part thanks to the inspirational example of her mother, who was active in the local Baptist church where the late Reverend Fred L. Shuttlesworth, an associate of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil rights struggles of the 1950s and 1960s, served as pastor.

C. Virginia Fields earned her Bachelor of Arts degree at Knoxville College and a Masters of Social Work degree at Indiana University before beginning her professional career as a social worker. Today, she remains universally admired by the people of the Borough of Manhattan, a remarkable feat in one of the most diverse and high-pressured political environments anywhere in America. She has been a leader of uncommon grace, energy, and devotion to those she serves.

Mr. Speaker, I ask that my distinguished colleagues join me recognizing the enormous contributions to our civic and political life made by C. Virginia Fields, who has worked tirelessly and diligently throughout her career on behalf of the people of New York City and our nation.

Mr. Speaker, as we honor and thank all who bravely served in the United States Armed Forces on Veterans Day, we also must ensure that our returning veterans can fully use programs that aid veterans' homeownership. Across the U.S., there are more than 1.2 million families of all income levels in homes owned and operated through cooperative associations. In New York City, co-ops make up about one-third of the housing stock and are often a less expensive option than condo units.

In 2006, Congress passed legislation I authored allowing veterans to use the Veterans Affairs' (VA) Home Loan Guaranty Program to purchase cooperative housing using their low interest loan benefits. These loan benefits allow veterans to buy homes with no down payment and limited closing costs. However, the program to allow loans for co-op housing will sunset at the end of 2011. In order to allow our nation's veterans to use the VA loan for all forms of home ownership, I am reintroducing legislation that would permanently extend the co-op program. To ensure that veterans are aware they can utilize the loans for co-op housing units, we have added a provision so that the Secretary of the VA can advertise the program to eligible veterans, participating lenders, and interested realtors.

By permanently extending these VA loan benefits to include co-ops, we can honor and thank all who bravely served in our Armed Forces by giving them the tools and resources they need to pursue their dreams of homeownership wherever they live.

Thank you to original cosponsors Reps. Edolphus Towns, Laura Richardson, Charles Rangel, Jerrold Nadler, and Jesse Jackson, Jr.