Floor Statements

I thank my colleague from California.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 998, the Civil Rights Oral History Project. I want to thank Chairman Brady and Ranking Member Ehlers and the Committee on House Administration for moving to the floor on this bill.

I also want to thank my lead cosponsor of the bill, Congressman John Lewis of Georgia, himself a civil rights hero, for all of his help in developing and generating support for this bill.

Mr. Lewis was at the forefront of the battle to end segregation, and his contribution to ensuring equality in our country cannot be overstated. I know I speak for all of my colleagues when I say that we are honored to serve with him, and grateful for all he has done and continues to do for all Americans as a steward of justice and equal rights.

We are fortunate to serve in Congress with several other influential civil rights leaders, and I would like to extend a heartfelt thank you for their sacrifices and commitment to the cause of freedom.

The fight for civil rights was one of the most significant social and cultural movements in our Nation's history. The will of a generation to right centuries of injustice changed the world we live in forever.

The leaders of the civil rights movement displayed tremendous courage and persistence to ensure that all Americans were treated equally, with dignity, regardless of their ethnic background, race or origins. Many leaders from all walks of life put their lives on the line to make it possible for all people to live freely and have the same fundamental rights.

We can never overstate the contributions of our Nation's civil rights leaders. Without their efforts, many of the things we take for granted every day would not have come to pass. It is vital that future generations know and understand the struggles and the challenges of those that paved the way for us to live in this Nation free.

These brave Americans' stories must continue to be told to not only inspire future generations, but to remind people what is possible in America and how far we have come. Unfortunately, with each passing year, our Nation loses more and more of the people that played major roles in the struggles to secure equal rights for all Americans. In recent years we have lost great leaders like Mrs. Coretta Scott King and Mrs. Rosa Parks. Thankfully, their stories have been well documented in the historical record, but there are many others who have already passed or whose memories are fading.

While we know so much about the lives of the leaders of the civil rights movement, such as Dr. Martin Luther King; our colleague, Congressman John Lewis; and Thurgood Marshall, it's important that we learn about the everyday people of all races who took a stand during a pivotal time in our Nation's history.

There were so many people who were crucial to the civil rights movement but have not had as much recorded about their experiences for the public record. These were the people, in many cases, that were part of some of the most significant battles in the fight for equality. The workers in Memphis that went on strike and marched in protest with Dr. King, the students that held sit-ins at lunch counters in the South, the thousands of people that marched on Washington and witnessed the ``I Have a Dream Speech,'' and the millions of Americans that stood up and worked in their own ways to make our country a better place for all people. These people are heroes of the civil rights movement, and we need to make sure that their stories are woven into the fabric of the American story.

That's why I have introduced the Civil Rights Oral History bill. The purpose of the Civil Rights Oral History bill is to catalogue and preserve the stories and experiences of the people who were involved in the civil rights movement.

This legislation stresses the importance of capturing the memories and the deeds of the civil rights generation and will give us a unique insight into the experiences of the people that we rely on in the front lines of the civil rights movement.

This bill will create a joint effort between the future National Museum of African American History and Culture and the Library of Congress to collect oral histories of the people that were involved in the civil rights movement and preserve their stories for future generations. I urge my colleagues to support this bill and to take the time to acknowledge the contributions of these great Americans who fought to make our Nation a more fair and just place.

Mr. Speaker, we have been going for a number of years working with our veterans across this Nation to get the history from them, an oral history, that has been going to the Library of Congress. That's where this idea came from.

When you think that we are really a very young country, and hopefully, we're going to be around for centuries to come, and I think it's important that future generations actually know how we became a great country, but also the struggles that many Americans went through. This bill will help preserve that.

I hope my colleagues will support this bill. This is for the future of America; it's for the future of the generations to see the history.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize Congressman Michael McNulty on the occasion of his retirement from Congress and also to wish him a happy birthday. For 20 years, Mike has represented New York in the House of Representatives, now in the 21st District. For nearly 40 years, Mike has served in public office at the local, state, and national level. This Congress, Mike announced that he would not seek an 11th term in the House.

Mike has had an impressive career. He first served as Town Supervisor of Green Island, New York at only 22 years old. He was subsequently elected Mayor of Green Island and then to the New York State Assembly. Mike was elected to Congress in 1988 and has been known for his honesty and integrity. He has served on a number of important committees, including the Armed Services Committee, the Executive Committee of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, and the Ways and Means Committee, where he is the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Social Security. He has traveled to all seven continents.

While Mike's service to his community and nation has been meritorious and incredibly valuable, what I have always admired most about him it the way he has gone about doing his job here in Congress. Among his colleagues, Mike has often been referred to as ``the Quiet Gentleman'' due to the manner in which he does business. Mike has managed to be an effective and fair legislator while treating people with respect and acting with dignity, which is no small feat in Washington. Mike has always stayed above the fray and shunned the kind of partisan bickering that is far too often associated with the work of Congress.

Mike is universally admired by his colleagues on both sides of the aisle and has served this body with distinction and I know that I speak for all Members the U.S. House of Representatives when I say that we are honored to have served with him.

I want to join Mike's wife Nancy, his family, friends, and colleagues in congratulating him today on his impressive career and wishing him well. The United States of America owes a debt of gratitude to Michael McNulty for the public service he provided. We will miss him from the New York delegation and from the Congress as a whole. We wish him good luck in his retirement.

I thank the gentleman for the time.

Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to the Childers substitute amendment to H.R. 6842, the National Capitol Security and Safety Act, that would get in the way of the democratic process currently underway to reform the District of Columbia's gun laws and dictate to the district what all gun laws must be.

When the Supreme Court came up, in one way I was very happy because I think almost all of us have agreed in one way or the other, that people have the right to own a gun. But now I'm disappointed to see that we're actually overturning what the Supreme Court had said. They basically said the Court ruled that the second amendment right is not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose. That's a quote, unquote from their wording.

We have an obligation to keep our communities safe from gun violence. I believe that the Heller decision actually allows us to move ahead to create commonsense gun laws that do not hinder the right to gun ownership but rather keep guns out of the wrong hands and keep communities and individuals safe from gun violence.

My colleague from the other side basically said, D.C. doesn't even have gun stores so the residents can't buy guns. That's not true. There is a gun store in the D.C. area, and I'm sure within a year we'll see many other gun stores there.

Heller paved the way for Congress to move forward on passing the kind of laws that will protect our communities and where we work and certainly in the D.C. area.

The District of Columbia is fully committed to appropriate response to Heller and reform its gun laws in a manner that is consistent with the rulings in the decision.

Make no mistake. This is not a battle, again, about is there a right to own a gun. The courts have put that out. D.C. is applying to that.

The District enacted temporary legislation in response to Heller, the Firearms Emergency Amendment Act of 2008 on July 16, 2008, which will only remain in effect for 90 days as the District is currently drafting permanent laws that would fully comply with Heller.

Why are we doing this? What is the rush?

You know, we, unfortunately, have seen D.C. go under some terrible times. But, again, I will say to you that again changing our laws or having this Congress dictate to D.C. is not the right way to go. The Mayor and the City Council are tasked to make sure that this occurs.

Unfortunately, some Members of Congress want to circumvent the democratic process underway in the District of Columbia.

The Heller decision clearly states that local governments can enact their own appropriate restrictions on gun ownership. Let me say that again. The States and local governments can enact their own appropriate restrictions on gun ownership.

However, the substitute amendment, based largely on H.R. 6691, would dictate to the District of Columbia what gun laws it must be.

H.R. 6691 will repeal the District's ban on most semi-automatic weapons, preempting many of the District's regulations on gun possession, including gun registrations.

Let me say this. We have a battle with the NRA. The battle has always been the right to own a gun. I'm not arguing that. The Court has stated that. The District has the right to write their own laws.

Madam Speaker, I rise in honor of James Ketelsen, the founder of Project GRAD, an education reform model that is transforming the hopes of tens of thousands of students and families across the country. Mr. Ketelsen has announced his intention of resigning as chair of the Project GRAD USA board of directors, and will become chair emeritus later this fall.

Mr. Ketelsen is the former CEO and chairman of Tenneco. Under Mr. Ketelsen's leadership, in 1988 Tenneco began to fund a 4-year

scholarship program for eligible graduates of Davis High School, at the time Houston's lowest-performing high school. By 1992, the number of Davis graduates entering college had more than quadrupled. Still, Mr. Ketelsen was not satisfied because high school graduation rates and college matriculation rates continued to fall short of his expectations. He knew, given the right investments and the right commitment, that Davis students--and all students from economically disadvantaged communities--were capable of much more. As Mr. Ketelsen is inclined to insist, ``It's not the kids!'' Armed with that belief, Mr. Ketelsen has dedicated the last two decades to making an enormous difference for America's highest needs students.

I have been a longtime supporter of Project GRAD in Congress and was pleased to be able to get a provision into the recently-enacted Higher Education Opportunity Act to expand Project GRAD so that more low- income and minority students can attend college and earn degrees. Today, Project GRAD has expanded to 13 communities and reaches more than 120,000 students and families from California to New York, Alaska to Georgia. In the longest-served group of schools, GRAD scholars are completing college at a rate 92 percent above the national average for students from similar demographic backgrounds. A statistically significant sample of GRAD scholarship recipients who have completed college shows that the proportion who graduated with majors in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics--concentrations of dire need for the national economy and national security--exceeded the national average for minority students by 71 percent. In the coming academic year, more than 7,500 students will be in college, funded by a Project GRAD scholarship. GRAD has already sent high school graduates to more than 100 institutions of higher education, including many of the most highly selective colleges and universities in the Nation. At the beginning of high school, many Project GRAD students would never have dreamed of attending Harvard, Yale, MIT, Cornell, Emory, Georgetown, Rice, Texas, Virginia, or Amherst, yet because of Mr. Ketelsen's vision, determination, and remarkable leadership, Project GRAD has altogether altered those expectations.

I am honored to know James Ketelsen personally and I am grateful for the tenacity and passion with which he has served America's children and families. I ask my colleagues to join me in expressing the gratitude of the U.S. Congress for the extensive contributions to education and our society that he made during his lifetime.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the conference report to the Higher Education Opportunity Act, H.R. 4137.

First, let me start out by thanking Chairman Miller and Ranking Member McKeon. I also want to thank the staff for their professionalism and their courtesy and their work for getting this bill to where it is, and my own staff, Kim Becknell and Phil Putter.

The passage of this bill will help millions of Americans make the dream of a college education a reality. In particular, I'm proud to see that many of my provisions are in the bill, including student loan forgiveness for nursing students; incentives for nurses to become instructors, helping to end our nursing shortage; tuition forgiveness for teachers working in New York's BOCES schools; making career and professional schools more affordable; expanding the availability of guaranteed student loans or Stafford loans to more nursing and professional schools; expanding the Graduate Assistance Areas of National Need Program, and expanding Project GRAD U.S.A.; also monitoring our Nation's most expensive schools' tuition rates and offering students and families a tool for an education.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the conference report to the Higher Education Opportunity Act, H.R. 4137.

Let me first start out by thanking the Chairman, Ranking Member, and hardworking staff on the Committee on Education and Labor for their efforts and professionalism in passing one of the most comprehensive education bills in years.

The passage of this bill will help millions of Americans make the dream of a college education a reality.

In particular, I am proud to see that many of my provisions are in the bill including:

Student loan forgiveness for nursing students;

Incentives for nurses to become instructors, helping to end our Nation's nursing shortage;

Tuition forgiveness for teachers working in New York's BOCES schools;

Making career and professional schools more affordable;

Expanding the availability of Guaranteed Student Loans or Stafford Loans to more nursing and professional schools;

Ensuring that degrees earned from rabbinical schools will continue to be recognized as the equivalent of bachelor's degrees;

Expanding the Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need program;

Expanding Project GRAD USA;

Monitoring our Nation's most expensive schools' tuition rates and offering students and families a tool to estimate increased costs over the course of a college education;

Studying the ability of teachers to meet the needs of students with dyslexia.

I am especially pleased that the bill addresses the need for colleges and universities to have policies in place to immediately warn their campus communities when a serious crime or other emergency threatens the safety of students or employees on campus.

These provisions are similar to those in my ``Virginia Tech Victims Campus Emergency Response Policy and Notification Act'' or VTV Act,

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank Chairman Frank for his hard work on this housing package.

What began with a housing bubble, predatory and subprime lending, and loose regulatory enforcement has resulted in a record number of foreclosures across the country, the failure of financial institutions, a reduction in tax revenue for states and local government, a credit crunch, and a lack of confidence in our market that is affecting millions of individuals and families both directly and indirectly.

Families reliant on the continuously increasing housing market entered into loans they could never afford or adjustable-rate mortgages with the assumption they could refinance at a later date.

Loose regulatory enforcement allowed mortgage lenders and originators to engage in predatory lending practices and the housing bubble provided an incentive for lenders to reduce underwriting standards to encourage the creation of new loans.

Furthermore, the failure on the part of the regulators allowed financial institutions to package and sell these risky new loans on the secondary market with the highest ratings from the rating agencies.

All these events contributed to what we are now facing: increased foreclosure rates, large write-downs by financial institutions that hold a large number of mortgage-backed securities, vacant, foreclosed homes across the country, reduced tax revenue for states and local governments, and a lack of confidence in our financial and housing markets.

This bill, H.R. 3221, the American Housing Rescue and Foreclosure Prevention Act, will address the causes of our current crisis through reform and attempt to assist communities dealing with the current crisis.

Although there are many provisions in this package that are worth noting, I would like to highlight several provisions that are absolutely necessary to ensure the success of this package.

This bill increases the high-cost loan limits for the Federal Housing Administration, FHA, and conforming loan limits for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. These increases will allow those in high-cost areas such as my district, the Fourth Congressional District of New York, to take advantage of the FHA home loans program. Although many of us would prefer a larger increase in these limits, I believe the limits in this bill reflect a compromise that will make eligible middle-income families in high-cost areas who are currently precluded from taking advantage of the FHA home loan program. I thank Chairman Frank and would like to recognize him for working with those of us who represent high-cost areas to ensure that our constituents are not left out.

This bill also allows Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac the flexibility to hold or sell jumbo loans on the secondary market. This flexibility will ensure Fannie and Freddie are not unnecessarily restricted in how they choose to deal with jumbo loans, and will ensure that loans will continue to be available to moderate-income families in high-cost areas.

Although reform is necessary to prevent another subprime crisis, we must also act to limit the effect that this crisis is having on our communities. Over half of the people who lose their homes stop communicating with their lenders within 30-60 days of missing a payment. This may happen for a number of reasons, including the fact that many homeowners are embarrassed or do not know their rights when they are unable to make their mortgage payments.

For these reasons, it is so important that organizations willing to reach out to borrowers at risk of foreclosure utilize in-person counseling and outreach. This is the only way to guarantee that families who need assistance are aware that assistance is available. Consequently, it only makes sense to provide organizations engaging in practices, such as in-person counseling, that are proven to be effective the resources they need to continue to provide these services.

I thank Mr. Baca and Mr. Mahoney for working with me to ensure that language to this effect is included in this bill.

I also strongly support the almost $4 billion in this bill for state and local governments for the purchase and re-development of vacant, foreclosed homes.

It has been estimated that a home decreases in value by almost one percent if a home within one city block has been foreclosed. This figure is even higher when more than one home in the area has been foreclosed. In my home district, a home price would result in more than a $4,000 decrease in value if one home is foreclosed.

Additionally, tax revenue is severely affected when homes are left vacant or there is a decrease in their assessed value. The vacancy or home value decrease results in a decrease in tax revenue which burdens the budgets of state and local governments. In many cases, this shortfall then results in cuts in services to those most in need, including our children and seniors.

Again, I would like to thank the Chairman of the Financial Services Committee and the many individuals who have worked to ensure that this bill reforms FHA and the GSEs, and tackles the increase in the rate of foreclosures and the devastating effects that vacant, foreclosed homes have on our communities.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H. Res. 1288, supporting the goals and ideals of National Campus Safety Awareness Month.

Each year since 2005 the national non-profit organization Security On Campus, Inc. has designated September as National Campus Safety Awareness Month.

Security On Campus partners with colleges and universities across the country each year to offer important campus safety programming during National Campus Safety Awareness Month in September.

I am pleased to have worked with Security on Campus on a provision in the Higher Education bill dealing with timely safety notifications on college campuses.

This year 350 campuses will formally partner with Security on Campus to offer campus safety activities as a part of National Campus Safety Awareness Month.

This programming covers critical issues including sexual assault, high risk drinking, and hazing, which are among the most serious safety issues facing our Nation's campuses.

September, at the beginning of the new school-year, is an ideal time to reach out to new and returning students, many of whom are on their own for the first time.

I applaud Security on Campus as a leading voice on behalf of students and parents for safer college and university campuses, and their partners for offering this life-saving program.

As a proud cosponsor of H. Res. 1288, I would also like to thank Congressman Sestak for introducing the resolution.

I encourage my colleagues to support this measure.

Madam Speaker, last winter our Nation experienced record high heating bills, and this summer's cooling bills are expected to follow suit. LIHEAP is authorized at $5.1 billion, and the program has never been fully funded. Concerns are high across the Nation that LIHEAP will not be able to help those people that need the most help because it is set to run out of money before the most intense periods of the heating and cooling seasons start.

Congress and the President can act by fully funding LIHEAP through authorizing the spending of $3.12 billion in the second economic stimulus package. With this action, Congress and the President would send a clear message to the Nation: We do care about those that are most vulnerable. LIHEAP works not only to protect our Nation's vulnerable, low-income populations but also to stimulate the economy so that those families can spend money more fully for other things.

Fully funding LIHEAP should be a top priority for this Congress, and we should fully fund the program in the second stimulus package. We have an opportunity to help those that are having a hard time to get by during these times.

Madam Speaker, yesterday I missed one vote, and on Rollcall No. 447 on suspending the rules and passing H.R. 6327, the Federal Aviation Administration Extension Act of 2008, I would have voted ``yea.''

Madam Chairman, I want to start by saying congratulations to Chairman Miller on this important day and thank him for his strong leadership over the many years that this has been an issue for him.

I also want to thank Chairman Miller and the committee staff for working with me on this important legislation. When we started working on this issue in the committee, I became outraged over the testimony we heard. You see, children are dying.

I cannot forget the testimony of Bob Bacon, father of Aaron Bacon. Bob and his wife Sally were seeking the best alternative for their son, Aaron, who was struggling. They talked with therapists, counselors, pastors, and doctors, and were referred by friends to a particular program. They read, and I quote, in their very compelling brochure, spoke with the office on the phone, and met with the owners for a personal interview and chose this particular program for their son. They felt that the owners were caring people who had experience in counseling kids who were struggling with drugs and peer pressure.

He continued on in his testimony to our committee: ``Of course, being normal, trusting, and honest people ourselves, we assumed we were being told the truth.'' They were not.

I will never forget the pain in the father's eyes when he told us that he regretted being talked into using the program's escort service, and here is why: At 5 a.m., Bob's son, Aaron, was taken from his bed under the threat of physical force if he resisted. Aaron was not permitted to speak to Bob or Sally, his mother, or father. His parents managed to hug him and tell him that it was for the best. The van backed out of the driveway, and Bob told us the pleading eyes of his son which begged them not to send him away haunt them today. They never spoke again.

Aaron died in the wilderness with the program's staff claiming he was faking the entire time. Aaron begged to be seen by a doctor. The criminal investigation illuminated 21 days, 21 days of physical and psychological abuse and neglect that Aaron experienced. There is no excuse for this.

This and many other stories are the cause of my outrage, and we should all

be outraged. There were many stories and testimony from parents that came to our committee and talked to us, but here is the bottom line. There are some good residential programs out there that are for the treatment of our young people that have problems. But the majority, I have to say, they go from State to State to State. When they close down in one State, they open up in another State, and they use their same abusive practices.

This is America. These are our most vulnerable children. And yes, as far as I'm concerned, it is a Federal duty to protect these children because these camps do go from State to State. And we should at least be able to give the parents the tools that they need to make sure that their children are getting the treatment and the care that they were promised.

I hope that this bill passes. I hope that those in Congress understand because only because we never know if that's going to happen to one of our children in our families or our grandchildren, and we want to make sure that we have the information that is out there to make sure that our children get the treatment that they need.

Chairman Miller, I thank you for bringing this forward. I hope this goes forward. I hope we can protect the children of this country. I hope that we can set standards for the many camps around this country that unfortunately do not do what they say to help the children.

Madam Speaker, I thank the Rules Committee and I stand in support of the rule. I want to say thank you to Chairman Miller and the committee staff for working with me on this important legislation, and for Mr. Miller's personal leadership on this issue over the years.

When we started working on this issue in committee, I became outraged over the testimony that I was hearing. You see, children in this country are dying. In fact, the Government Accountability Office report found thousands of cases of abuse and neglect at residential programs for teens. The abuses include staff members forcing children to remain in so-called ``stress'' positions for hours at a time and to undergo extreme physical exertion without food, water or rest.

Sadly, in a number of cases this abuse has led to the deaths of children at the hands of the very people entrusted with their care.

These are basic human rights being denied to our children, children who are already struggling to find their way in this world, children who might suffer from mental disorders or other conditions that make daily living in society much more challenging than for other kids their own age, children whose parents love them and want the best for them and need help in addressing the needs of these vulnerable youth.

Parents, often desperate for help, feeling vulnerable as well, are sending their children to facilities that are sold as safe and responsible facilities.

The GAO's investigative work is showing that a number of programs use deceptive marketing practices to appeal to parents. In fact, it uncovered deception, fraud, and conflicts of interest. In one scheme, a husband owns a referral service and the wife owned a residential treatment facility. It was revealed that her location received more referrals from her husband's service than any other providers.

Parents are sold a bill of goods about the facilities and are enticed by advertising schemes portraying these programs as safe, with a professional staff, and high-quality environments for their children.

Yet it is too often not true, and tragically, at times, the end result is the death of a child.

That's why it is absolutely crucial that we make sure that children are kept safe when they are in these facilities by setting minimum safety standards. Minimum; why are we even setting them at minimum?

You know, it seems like every week I am up here on the floor talking about how we need to protect our children. That's why it is absolutely crucial that we establish standards and stop ``boot camps'' from using the kind of deceptive marketing that has drawn in so many parents.

I am pleased that the bill contains some aspects to address all deceptive marketing tactics employed by some owners or operators of residential treatment facilities.

One section requires that all printed material from the facility include a link to a Web site that has a database about past incidents and violations. We do that with our college students so parents can actually look to see how safe that particular college is. And yet we are having a hard time trying to do this for children who need our help immensely, and the parents. The parents

are facing difficult choices to do whatever they can to help their child. And yet they are given false information.

Another section specifies that a new Web site include not just the name and location of each facility, but also the owner and operator of the facility so the parents can watch out for the bad operators.

Furthermore, even though we did not include language requiring all promotional and informational materials distributed by the facilities be subject to appropriate guidelines, such as those specified by the Federal Trade Commission Act due to jurisdictional issues, we will continue to monitor the deceptive marketing practices on these programs.

Madam Speaker, we need minimum safety standards for these public and private residential treatment facilities. It is past time to bring these programs to a level of basic safety which protects children and prevents further abuse from happening.

I promise--and I am positive that Chairman Miller will, too--we will continue to work on this. But as with a lot of things that come through our committee, we have to work with both sides so we can get a bill through and passed and on its way to the President. But I have to say in cases like this, I wish we could have gone further to protect the children, to protect the parents. I urge passage of this rule.

Madam Speaker, earlier today I missed one vote. On rollcall No. 407 on ordering the previous question on H. Res. 1265, I would have voted ``yea.''

I have an amendment at the desk made in order under the rule.

I would like to thank Chairman Oberstar, Ranking Member Mica, Chairwoman Brown and Ranking Member Shuster for their work on this bill.

My district is located in a densely populated area on Long Island, New York. We are fortunate to have the comfort and convenience of rail transportation to New York City and around Long Island by the Long Island Railroad.

The Long Island Railroad moves safely through the Fourth Congressional District with the use of horns at train crossings. Although train horns are necessary to ensure the safety at railroad crossings, the noise can significantly affect families and communities surrounding these railroad crossings.

While we can still all agree that train horns are necessary to ensure the safety of residents at railroad stations and crossings, the sounding of train horns day and night seriously impacts the quality of life of many in my communities in Long Island.

I support the Federal Railroad Administration and its primary goal of ensuring the safety of railroads and trains across the country and in the Fourth Congressional District in New York. I do not, and will not support any measure that will reduce the safety of railroads and trains moving through our communities.

With that in mind, I also understand the effect that locomotive horn noise has on the quality of life of my constituents. Over the years, I have been contacted by constituents who have complained that the volume of the train noise is so severe that many of them lose their sleep, even with earplugs.

Trains on Long Island can run literally around the clock. Residents complain of several minutes of constant horn noise as the train travels through many of my communities such as Valley Stream, East Rockaway and Cedarhurst, Long Island.

When trains are nearby, the volume is so high that people are forced to stop their conversations, and teachers at nearby schools are forced to stop teaching their students.

Rail traffic through many communities in this country is an unavoidable reality as to the use of train horns. However, we have an obligation to ensure that we do everything possible to maintain the quality of life for communities near railroad tracks.

That is why I've introduced an amendment to ask that the Secretary research the development and use of train horn technology with an emphasis on reducing train horn noise and its effect on a community. This will ensure that, as we move forward and continue to expand our railroad infrastructure in this country, we will also continue to address the concerns of the communities surrounding the infrastructure.

Thank you, Chairman Oberstar, for continuing to work with me on this issue that is so important to my constituents.

I urge my colleagues to support the passage of this amendment.

I reserve the balance of my time.

I just want to thank Chairman Oberstar and Ranking Member Shuster for their support on this amendment. I too can hear the train whistle in the late of the night, and to me it is a nice sound. But for my constituents who are right along those tracks and near, it is a problem.

I hope that my colleagues will support me on this amendment.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in full support of H.R. 5524, The Reconnecting Homeless Youth Act.

This bill reauthorizes the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act, which is under the jurisdiction of the subcommittee which I chair, the Healthy Families and Communities Subcommittee of the Committee on Education and Labor. Mr. Yarmuth, the bill's sponsor, is on my subcommittee and it was a pleasure to work with him on this reauthorization. Each

member of my subcommittee is both passionate and committed to improving the lives of our Nation's children. In this case, Mr. Yarmuth is seeking to assist some of our Nation's most vulnerable youth, those who run away from home or who have no home.

It is a travesty that this situation exists in our Nation--that children find themselves in situations where they need to leave their home for any number of reasons--they are thrown out, have been abused, and face other challenges at home. Worse yet, too many of our Nation's foster care youth find themselves released from the system at or around age 18 and are left to fend for themselves without guidance or little to no assistance, and they become part of the over one million runaway or homeless youth in our Nation. These resilient youth seek caring adults, stability, and the ability to see their future as different from their present situation.

This reauthorization improves the basic central programs, street outreach programs, and the transitional living program. As we heard in a hearing in my subcommittee, it is just too easy to look away and dismiss the problem or accept that it is inevitable that there will be homeless youth. We see it, acknowledge it, and do nothing about it. However, if we dismiss or tolerate the problem of runaway and homeless youth, I think that we can easily expect that we will see these youth in other social systems where they may stay for the rest of their lives. Helping these youth in the here and now is both intervention and prevention. We must maintain a long-term vision for our Nation's youth. Investing in all children at an early age is clearly necessary, but we also must attend to our older youth who face challenges that neither you nor I have experienced as teenagers and young people.

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Yarmuth has worked very hard with the community that works with runaway and homeless youth to create a strong reauthorization of these programs. He has included the development and implementation of performance standards to be used in the grant making process, to better allow the Family and Youth Services Bureau of the Department of Health and Human Services to evaluate each program and fund the best of the best. You see, these programs are good, and the competition is strong for any funding that is available.

I urge my colleagues to vote yes on H.R. 5524, the Reconnecting Homeless Youth Act today. It is an investment in our Nation's most vulnerable youth and in all of America's young people. They seek caring adults and opportunities to improve their lives at home and their futures. If we help these youth now, we prevent them from entering into child welfare and juvenile justice systems, each path fraught with challenges. I think that we can all come together to change the lives of children for the better.

Madam Chairman, I think there are obviously many of us that support H.R. 3021, the 21st Century Green High-Performing Public School Facilities Act. In listening to the debate, I can only talk about a number of the schools that are in my district. I'm certainly someone who supports school funding for IDEA, but if I have my children in the classrooms--or most of them are actually being taught in the hallways because they don't have the facilities to be able to do the teaching that they need to do. I know a number of my schools--if that was a business, you wouldn't be able to get anybody to work into that particular business.

What we're trying to do--and you have to look at things holistically. If we don't have good school facilities, how do we expect our teachers and certainly our students to learn, and what kind of message are we sending that we don't care enough about our children that we give them safe environments?

I can go into my schools in my district during the winter, and every window is wide open because the way the energy for the heating system is, it makes the classrooms too hot. The children can't concentrate. You go into one of my schools during the summertime when they're taking their final exams, and the classrooms are 110 degrees. How are our students supposed to be able to pass those tests and concentrate? None of us would work under those conditions. And yet we are asking our children to survive under those conditions.

We must look at how we're going to work to be able to educate our children for the global economy that we're looking forward to. But I believe very, very strongly we have to have a clean, safe environment. Go into our city schools. Come into my schools. Look at the amount of children that have asthma because the quality of the air is subnormal. A number of my schools in the last year had to be closed. So now we're putting our children in little trailers.

I don't understand this debate. This is something that many of our schools need, and as far as having Davis-Bacon, why should not we have prevailing wage for those that work in the community, pay the wages, and also have good construction done?

With that, I hope that we pass overwhelmingly this bill.