Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, on November 18, 2004, I missed rollcall vote No. 534 due to surgery. Rollcall vote 534 was on ordering the previous question on H. Res. 856.

Had I been present I would have voted ``no'' on rollcall vote 534.

Mr. Speaker, on November 17, 2004, I missed rollcall vote No. 533. Rollcall vote 533 was on S. 2302, to improve access to physicians in medically underserved areas.

Had I been present I would have voted ``yea'' on rollcall vote 533.

Mr. Speaker, on November 17, 2004, I missed rollcall vote No. 532. Rollcall vote 532 was on H.R. 1417, the Copyright Royalty and Distribution Reform Act of 2004.

Had I been present I would have voted ``yea'' on rollcall vote 532.

Mr. Speaker, on November 16, 2004, I missed rollcall vote No. 531. Rollcall vote 531 was on recognizing the 60th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge during World War II.

Had I been present I would have voted ``yea'' on rollcall vote 531.

Mr. Speaker, on November 19, 2004, I missed rollcall vote No. 537 due to surgery. Rollcall vote 537 was on final passage of the conference report on H.R. 1350, the Individuals with Disabilities Education (IDEA) Improvement Act. Had I been present I would have voted ``yes'' on rollcall vote 537.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today on behalf of the people of the 4th Congressional District to recognize Henry Kuczinski of New Hyde Park, New York.

I am extremely honored to congratulate Mr. Kuczinski as he celebrates fifty years of dedicated service to the New Hyde Park Fire Department. Such an achievement is testament to his impressive record of five decades of commitment to the department and the local community.

Henry began his service to the country as a young man in the U.S. Army, receiving an Honorable Discharge in 1951. He continued to serve others by becoming a member of the New Hyde Park Fire Department in November 1954. Through the years he has gained the admiration and respect of the entire department by responding to emergency calls with the greatest diligence and speed. His most outstanding accomplishment came in 1967, when he performed an extremely difficult rescue during the collapse of a building's foundation, garnering both the praise of his colleagues and a formal department honor.

Henry let his actions speak for him and became a leader and a role model within the department. Because of his outstanding achievements in fire service and his exemplary record of service to the community, Henry has been named New Hyde Park's Fireman of the Year five times in the past fifty years. During Henry's tenure at the New Hyde Park Fire Department, he has held the offices of Second Lieutenant, First Lieutenant, and Captain.

Today, Henry is a member of the Fire-Police unit and has earned the title of Honorary Department Chief. He also has been a leader on the Department's Memorial Committee since the very beginning of his career as a firefighter. No matter what capacity he has served in over the past fifty years, Henry has always performed with distinction and inspired others to achieve their full potential.

Mr. Kuczinski's tireless commitment to his job has made a difference in the lives of many. Once again, I would like to offer my congratulations to him on this well-deserved recognition and wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today on behalf of the people of the 4th Congressional District to recognize Don Dreyer of Rockville Centre, NY.

I am extremely honored to congratulate Mr. Dreyer upon being named by Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson as one of the eight people nationwide to receive the prestigious Secretary Recognition Award. Receipt of such an honor is testament to Don's impressive record of over thirty years of work on behalf of disabled persons.

Born with brittle bone disease, Don Dreyer was homebound until the age of 15. He has never let the fact that he is in a wheelchair be a handicap. Instead, he has spent much of his life seeing to it that the twenty percent of our nation's population who are disabled do not see themselves as handicapped either.

Don began his crusade for the disabled in 1971 when he served as Director of Media and Public Relations at the National Center for Disability Services. Among his duties was the planning of foundation fund-raisers, including the Center's Annual Celebrity Sports Night Dinner. Don was also responsible for securing corporate and foundation grants for the education of young children with severe disabilities.

For over 25 years, Don has served as Director of the Nassau County Office for the Physically Challenged where he has always exhibited consummate diligence and tireless effort. In this capacity, he has worked to enact State and Federal legislation to enhance the lives of both disabled children and adults. The pinnacle of Don's career was in 1990 when his efforts led to the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Today, he continues to support civil rights policies for the inclusion of disabled persons in the workplace, commerce, transportation, education, and health care.

During October, which is Disability Employment Awareness Month, the Department of Health and Human Services seeks to recognize the efforts of those who have made a contribution to the disabled in both the public and private sectors. Although Don has received numerous distinctions in the past, this award distinguishes the national impact that he has had over the past three decades.

Mr. Dreyer's tireless commitment to his job has made a difference in the lives of many. Once again, I would like to offer my congratulations to him on this well-deserved national recognition and wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today on behalf of the people of the 4th Congressional District to recognize John DaVanzo of Mineola, New York.

I am extremely honored to congratulate Mr. DaVanzo as he was recently named the 2004 National Volunteer Fire Council's Volunteer Firefighter of the Year. Receipt of such an honor is testament to his impressive record of nearly sixty years of dedicated service to the Mineola Fire Department.

John DaVanzo is a man who has spent most of his life to serving the people of Long Island. He began his career with the Mineola Fire Department in 1947, eventually becoming captain. John later became a member of the department's Fire Council and was a delegate to the Southern New York and Nassau County Firemen's Associations.

In addition to his work with the fire department, John served as Deputy Mayor of the Village of Mineola and as a North Hempstead Councilman. For seventeen years, he was North Hempstead's Town Clerk and was honored as the New York State Clerk of the Year for 1986-87. He has also volunteered with worthy organizations like the American Cancer Society, Catholic Charities, and the Boy Scouts of America. In all of the undertakings that he has pursued, John has always been a leader, exhibiting consummate diligence and tireless effort.

Since 1978, the National Volunteer Fire Council has awarded those individuals who have made outstanding achievements in fire service and maintain an exemplary record of community service. This prestigious title is one of only two awards that the Council distributes each year and it is no surprise that John is one of the recipients.

Mr. Davanzo's tireless commitment to service has made a difference in the lives of many. Once again, I would like to offer my congratulations to him on this well-deserved national recognition and wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors.

Mr. Speaker, when I listen to this debate and I hear everyone talking about giving the people of D.C. the right to protect themselves, we have seen crime deterred here in the D.C. area. We are seeing less gun violence here in the D.C. area. But, again, last night in the Committee on Rules, we tried to at least ban assault weapons in the D.C. area, large-capacity clips, killer bullets. Unfortunately, all those amendments were turned down.

We heard earlier from the other side of the aisle that we have all the security of the Capitol Hill Police. We do, and we are very lucky on that. And now, we are going to put them all at risk because they are going to be allowed to have the guns back in the D.C. area.

This is absolutely crazy. Assault weapons coming into the D.C. area when our men out there and our women out there are there to protect us.

And, by the way, I happen to think by reducing gun violence there has to be several approaches: Enforce the laws on the books; make it harder for criminals to be able to get the guns; and why in God's name are we cutting out the COPS Program? We have seen, going on across this Nation and here in D.C., that it works. And yet we are going to take that program away. The people of D.C. have the right for home rule. They do not want the guns. I think they know better than those Members here in Congress who are not living in the D.C. area.

So, with that, I hope that we can defeat H.R. 3193. And it is not fair. This is not democracy, and reducing gun violence can happen. Over 30,000 people a year die on that. It costs this Nation a billion dollars in health care. We can do a better job.

Two weeks ago, this House stood idly as the federal ban on assault weapons expired. The House ignored two- thirds of the public, over half of gun-owners, and nearly every law enforcement organization in America in favor of the NRA's leadership's extreme agenda against common sense.

Fortunately, I live in a state that enforces its own assault weapons ban. While the state ban is not as effective a tool as the federal ban was to keep personal weapons of mass destruction out of the hand of criminals and terrorists, it does make it more difficult for them to acquire assault weapons.

However, this week the House leadership, which pretends to be a friend of the sovereignty of state and local governments, will allow a vote on a bill keeping popularly elected officials form banning assault weapons and other guns from their jurisdictions.

This week the House will vote on legislation introduced by a member from Indiana ending the ban on firearms in the District of Columbia. The popularly elected Mayor, City Council, and U.S. Delegate to the House all oppose ending the ban. Federal courts have upheld the constitutionality of the DC ban. In fact, the only support for ending the DC gun ban comes from politicians that do not represent the District.

The District will go from having the toughest gun laws in America, to becoming the subject of a twisted social experiment brought to us by the NRA. Those listed on terrorist watch lists prohibited form boarding planes at Reagan National Airport will be able to purchase a handgun, AK-47, or TEC-9 only blocks away from the White House or Capitol Building. Just today, I received a letter from the House Sergeant at Arms detailing the new security recommendations put in place to keep our offices safe. Passage of this legislation cannot be viewed as anything other than counterproductive to these efforts.

Proponents of this legislation say the DC ban has not been effective, citing the District's crime rates, which are not unlike many other large urban communities in the United State. However, the homicide rate in the District is at an all time low, thanks to the Metropolitan Police Department's efforts to get guns off the streets. The DC ban has been a valuable took in these efforts, but once again House leadership refuses to listen to those most effected by the ban's end.

Granted, the DC gun ban's effectiveness has been hampered by the District's proximity to gun dealers in Virginia and Maryland, but that is no excuse to make it easier for criminals and terrorists to purchase guns in DC.

And while the House leadership's grasp of basic economic principles has been questionable throughout the 108th Congress, one must acknowledge that once the supply of guns is increased, the prices of these weapons will decrease.

Thanks to this legislation, gang members who could only afford to purchase one gun will most likely be able to get two thanks to increased supply and lower prices.

It it only a matter of time before the first crimes are committed with a gun purchased legally in our nation's capital. When that time occurs, the House Leadership must be prepared to explain to the victims of these crimes

why it is so important that the NRA's twisted worldview must come before DC residents' wishes and safety.

Mr. Speaker, I rise on behalf of the 4th Congressional district of New York in remembrance of First Lieutenant Ronald Winchester, from Rockville Center, of the United States Marine Corps. I would like to extend my heartfelt sympathy and condolences to Robert's friends and family, especially his parents Ronald and Marianna. Lt. Winchester was killed in the line of duty while heroically serving his country during Operation Iraqi freedom.

Ronald graduated from Chaminade High School in Mineola where he was a star on the football team. That did not change upon his arrival at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. He was a star offensive lineman during the 1999 and 2000 seasons when he had some memorable games against Army and his friend Doug Larsen.

Ronald had a profound love and dedication for his family and country. People could see this and were drawn to Ronald's outgoing nature. Ronald had an infectious personality and was a natural leader. It was easy for his peers, whether on the football field or the battlefield, to respect and admire him.

It is always sad when a person, such as Ronald, is taken from us. He will be missed but not forgotten. I ask people to remember Ronald and all of the other men and women we have lost. We must also pray for those still fighting for the ideals, rights and freedoms Ronald held deeply.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today on behalf of the people of the 4th Congressional District to remember the thousands of American lives lost on September 11, 2001.

Although 3 years has passed, I continue to remember all the people in the towers, at the Pentagon, and on United Flight 93. I would especially like to recognize the people from Long Island who were killed. Also in my thoughts are the families who live everyday with the terrible loss of their loved ones.

I commend all of the firefighters, police, and health care workers who were helping on the front lines. I would also like to thank the thousands of Long Islanders who mobilized to do what they could to help. Finally, as a representative from New York, my constituents and I appreciate the generosity extended to us by the rest of the country during a time of such terrible grief.

While September 11 was a shocking day for all Americans, the Nation united in an extraordinary fashion to take action against the tragedy inflicted upon us. Today we must unite once more to implement the suggestions made by the 9/11 Commission Report, which I fully endorse. I believe that the 9/11 Commission should be extended so that it can fully support and monitor the bipartisan enacting of its recommendations until most have been made into law. I will continue to work to ensure that the commission's report is implemented quickly and with proper congressional oversight. We owe it to the thousands of victims' families to respond quickly and effectively to this terrible disaster.

We now know we were not as safe as we could have been on September 11. We need to find Osama bin Laden and finish the job we began in Afghanistan. We need to make sweeping changes to the Department of Homeland Security and ensure funding is increased for law enforcement agencies to handle new security threats. We must realize that state and local budgets are already stretched too thin and allocate federal funding to tighten security.

In keeping with the tremendous spirit of the Nation during the weeks following 9/11, I encourage everyone to do something this September 11 that shows the world what it means to be an American. You can donate blood, write a letter to someone in the military, or volunteer at a women's shelter. Make the anniversary about more than just remembering those we lost.

Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the requisite number of words.

Mr. Chairman, with its proposed overtime rules, the administration continues its assault on working Americans. Do not be fooled when some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle say this will give overtime to more workers; they are using fuzzy math. This will give an inflation adjustment to low-income workers which is much needed and much deserved.

But a July 2004 study by the Economic Policy Institute shows that new regulations will cut the pay and lengthen the hours for at least 6 million workers making as little as $23,000 a year. Basically, what the regulations do is permit employers to reclassify people making between $23,000 and $100,000 so they are exempt from overtime pay.

One of the reasons for enacting the Fair Labor Standards Act back in 1938 was to give incentive to employers to create more jobs. This ensures that employers will not overwork their employees by making them do the work of two or more people.

Since 2001, we all know that millions of jobs have been lost, including 285,000 in New York. These final regulations will enable employers to cut overtime for employees who presently do get overtime. This means longer hours for the same pay. It also means that employers will have no incentive to hire new people even though we have an unemployed workforce of over 600,000 in New York alone.

It boggles the mind that this is what the administration focuses on since it has the worst job-creation record since the time of the Great Depression. And after the final regulations were announced in April 2004, we held only one single hearing in the Committee on Education and the Workforce.

In May 2004, I voted for amendments on the House floor which would have stalled the Department of Labor's regulations, but unfortunately none of the amendments passed. If Congress had acted, we could have prevented the new regulations from going into effect.

The new regs would have included up to half a million of our Nation's heroic first responders such as police, firefighters, EMTs, and nurses who are directly engaged in homeland security efforts. Losing overtime is not much of an incentive to people in these fields, and we desperately need to keep them safe and healthy.

Another bad effect the regulations will have is to cause confusion in the legal system. Right now, although the system is not perfect, there are plenty of laws on the books developed over many years that guide overtime cases. The new regs will simply result in new fighting about how to implement these rules and will waste time.

I oppose taking overtime pay away from millions of workers and urge my colleagues to support the Obey amendment.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor Thomas Van Buskirk, the Mayor of Bellerose Village and a person I am pleased to call a friend. After serving the village for almost 20 years, the last 11 as Mayor, he is taking a well deserved retirement. I thank him for his dedicated and loyal service.

Tom moved to Bellerose Village with his family, wife Roberta and their two sons Tom Jr. and Christian, in 1985 and immediately immersed himself into the town. He became a member of the fire department in 1986 and within six years was the Second Deputy Chief. In 1988, he was appointed to the Village's Board of Trustees as well as Recreation Commissioner. In 1991, in his election victory for the Board, Tom received more votes than any other candidate in the history of Bellerose Village.

By revitalizing the Recreation Commission, Tom was able to improve the community by providing residents with opportunities to enjoy leisure activities. He also installed the first children's play area in the recreation area. Maintaining his focus on energizing the community, Tom, along with Roberta, instituted the Annual Food Drive to help the less fortunate in the surrounding areas. They also started the Village Bellerose Summer Children's Program in 1989, which gives children and teenagers a place to participate in sports and arts and crafts for two summer weeks. One of Tom's major successes has been the revamping of Bellerose Village Day, one of the town's best attended functions, which culminates in a barbecue for over 400 people.

Elected as Mayor in 1993, Tom put his energy into moving the Village forward into the new millennium. He renovated Village Hall, upgraded the fire departments and first responders, repaired the drainage system, and on and on. As Mayor, Tom has always taken pride in his relationship with the residents of Bellerose. He has taken the time to quickly help resolve peoples' issues.

As for all Americans, particularly New Yorkers, 9/11 was, and is still a difficult day. Although he was hurting, Tom led the town through the difficult time by bringing everyone together and honoring those lost and supporting our country. On the first anniversary of 9/ 11, he orchestrated the development of a Memorial Garden to the victims of 9/11 and dedicated the garden and a monument to those lost.

In Tom's tenure as Mayor he has revitalized the infrastructure of the Village and the spirit of the residents. Through hard work, dedication and his love for his hometown, Tom has made Bellerose Village's slogan come to life, ``Bellerose Village . . . an American Beauty.'' I am happy Tom and his family have no plans of leaving Bellerose because although he is no longer Mayor, I know he will be active in his community. Once again Tom, thank you.

Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the gentleman from Wisconsin yielding me this time, and I rise in support of the Labor-HHS bill today. While I feel the bill falls short in many areas, particularly in education, I will support the final bill. However, I would also like to rise today and speak to an issue that has great personal meaning to me and has been ignored by our House leadership.

While my amendments reauthorizing the assault weapons ban have been found nongermane, I will still be speaking to it, because so few opportunities remain to do anything about it before it expires on Monday.

One week from today, I will be able to purchase an assault weapon from any number of Web sites and from our local gun stores, which means our gangs and our police officers, and I just came back from a press conference with the police chiefs and the rank-and-file officers, and, unfortunately, many victims, all calling on our President to make some calls over here to the House so that we can bring the bill up for a vote.

A poll released this weekend by the National Annenberg Election Survey says two-thirds of Americans support keeping the assault weapons bill in place. And, in fact, 57 percent of gun owners support the ban, putting to rest the notion the ban is somewhat a threat to our second amendment.

Not one sportsman has missed a day in any hunting season due to the ban on assault weapons. President Bush says he supports the ban, but so far he has been doing the talk, but he has given us no action on it. The ball is in the President's court. He needs to pick up the phone and put renewing the ban on to the House floor. Only President Bush can stay the assault weapons ban execution.

Almost every law enforcement agency in the country supports renewing the ban. That is all the evidence I need to be convinced the ban is working. The most immediate challenge relating to the ban expiring is our police departments, who are saying they are not ready for this to expire. It is basically our police officers who are out there protecting us against terrorists and gangs, who protect our lives every day on the front lines that will be facing these assault weapons when they come back on the streets.

Since assault-style weapons do not need to be aimed, are designed to be moved back and forth in a sweeping

fashion in order to rain bullets on an area instead of a specific target, gang violence will become more reckless, with many more innocent bystanders caught in crossfires.

Police departments will have to re-outfit their squad cars, purchase new bulletproof vests, and make other expensive preparations for the ban's expiration.

Many currently banned weapons have multiple-capacity clips, holding up to 30 rounds of ammunition. Many State laws, including my State of New York, limit our hunters to six rounds in a clip. Deer are given a better chance of surviving than our police officers.

With the Bush budget intent on slashing grants to local police departments and its reluctance to push for extending the ban, the administration is depriving our police officers of the support that we need.

Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word.

I am sorry that my colleague has withdrawn the amendment, and I hope they are going to be able to work this out further down the road.

But with that I also want to bring up what health care costs are because of assault weapons. Unfortunately, I have not been allowed to bring up the bill for a vote on assault weapons, but I just want to give the Members some health care costs.

Death and injuries caused by firearms cost the U.S. about $100 billion a year. If we keep assault weapons off the streets, we can bring that down and use the money for our community centers in those areas that need it. This includes hospitalization, other medical care costs, rehabilitation, and lost productivity.

I hope that we can, before this week is over, bring up the assault weapons bill so that we can have the bill and reduce health care costs in this country.

Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the requisite number of words.

Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of the Jackson-Lee amendment. This amendment would increase funds for the National Center for Health Statistics surveys and for the National Center For Minority Health and Health Disparities.

The cost of health care for minorities is completely disproportionate. Nowhere is this truer than when it comes to the cost of gun violence. Although African Americans and Hispanics make up only 12.1 and 12.5 percent of the U.S. population respectively, these groups suffered 37 percent of all firearm deaths in 2000.

In 2000, homicide with firearms took the lives of 5,699 African Americans. In 2000, homicide with firearms took the lives of 1,958 Hispanics.

In 2000, the death rate for firearm injuries was two times higher for the African American population than the Caucasian population. In 2000, firearms homicide was the leading cause of death for African Americans age 15 to 34.

The assault weapons ban expires September 13, and we are not allowed to bring it up on the floor. This is something that could go into our communities, save lives and keep down health costs.

I yield to the gentlewoman from Texas.

I yield to the gentleman from Wisconsin.

Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the requisite number of words.

Mr. Chairman, I support the Jackson-Lee amendment on hepatitis C. I spent over 30 years as a nurse before I came to Congress; and, unfortunately, hepatitis C a number of times, when it is diagnosed, it is far too late for so many of the patients. Unfortunately, the signs do not show up until the disease is very advanced, and because we are in a global world now and it is becoming a communicable disease, it is spreading more rapidly. Much more research needs to be done to see how we can stop this.

But I know one of the ways that we can have more money so we have the money for research is to try and stop the amount of money that is being spent every single year because of gun violence. And with the assault weapons ban expiring on September 13, we are going to see more violence on our streets; we are going to see more of these patients in our trauma hospitals, which is going to drive up the cost of health care all the way around. That is a shame. That is preventable. We need, certainly, the administration to back the police around this country and to back the health care providers around this country who all want to see the ban put in place.

If we do that, we can keep down health care costs because of the gun violence and have money go into research for hepatitis C and for so many other issues that all of us here care about.

I yield to the gentlewoman from Texas.

I yield to the gentleman from Ohio.

I yield to the gentlewoman from Texas.

Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word.

I rise in support of the Sanders-Simmons-McCarthy amendment and am honored to be a cosponsor.

This vital amendment would increase funding for the Low Income Energy Assistance Program and Weatherization Assistance Program by $26 million.

Recent predictions indicate that this winter may be one of the harshest in many years in the Northeast, and the Energy Information Administration is predicting the price of heating oil, natural gas and propane will skyrocket. By the way, those prices have already skyrocketed.

LIHEAP provides the needed warmth for our most vulnerable communities, the poor, the elderly and the disabled. These disadvantaged communities are also, unfortunately, the most affected by gun violence.

When we have seen over the last several months that unemployment has gone up in certain areas of our country, our seniors are facing higher medical costs, higher prescription drug costs, now a 17 percent increase on their Medicare. Adding any little bit, amount, as far as increases on heating is going to be a problem for them.

As my colleague from Vermont has said, there is no one in this country that should be cold, but also another thing that happens, unfortunately, in this poorest of the poor communities is the gun violence we see on a daily basis. I could speak about that in my own district of Long Island. I know they say the suburban areas do not have gun violence. Well, unfortunately, after September 13 we are probably going to start seeing an increase of that because we are not allowed to bring up the assault weapons bill here on the House floor.

It is a shame that our seniors and our most vulnerable, who are our children and the poor that live in the communities, will be facing these guns again. It is a shame that our police officers who patrol these areas will also be facing these problems again.

I am sorry that we are not allowed to bring up the assault weapons bill that will expire on September 13. I hope that the leadership will change its mind.

Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word.

Mr. Chairman, when I hear my colleagues from both sides of the aisle offering all of these amendments obviously to help our constituents from all over the country, and I thank my chairman and the ranking member for working so hard to bring us everything we need. I think more of us as Members should sit here instead of trying to watch this on television. I know that we are working very hard to keep the people of the United States comfortable, to make sure they have heat and do research to keep them healthy, and yet we have a program in place that is going to expire on September 13, which is the assault weapons bill. Yet we are not allowed to bring it up on the floor to talk about it. That is a shame. This is something that is working, does not cost any money, and yet as Members of Congress we are not allowed to bring the bill up for a vote, and the American people want it.

I thank the committee and subcommittee chairmen for doing the hard work they are doing, but I wish we could debate the assault weapons ban. The police officers on the street want to keep this ban in place. The health care professionals want to keep this ban in place. Every help organization wants to keep this ban in place. All of the different organizations which represent children want to keep the ban in place. I do not understand why we do not bring that issue to the floor for a vote. I hope by Monday, September 13, the White House will heed our call. I hope that the Speaker of the House will heed our call and answer to the American people.

Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the requisite number of words.

Mr. Chairman, I want to thank the chairman for accepting this amendment. It is extremely important for someone that has spent so much time in a rehab unit taking care of patients, even to the point of taking care of my son going back a number of years ago.

Medical technology and the science of taking care of those that never had a chance to learn how to walk again or possibly feed themselves again is now possible. It is mainly because of rehab. I know a lot of people think that they used to lay around the hospital after a hip operation. Today you have a hip operation, and you go to a rehab unit. It actually saves money, mainly because the patient is getting the rehab that they need so they can get up and walk and have a quality-of- life issue. On the other end of it, unfortunately going back not that many years ago, even for a simple hip operation, especially with the elderly, they ended up getting pneumonia and unfortunately needed more long-term care.

With that being said, the majority of our rehab hospitals and rehab units in an awful lot of our larger cities are filled, unfortunately, with patients because of gun violence in this country. On September 13, we are going to see the assault weapons bill expire unless this Congress, the Speaker of the House, the President of the United States get involved and allow us to debate this. We can save billions of dollars just on health care costs if we can bring down gun violence. We have seen a 60 percent drop since the assault weapons bill was passed on the use of those guns on our officers in our communities.

Large capacity clips, we are going to have them back out on the streets again. These are the large capacity clips that we see our men and women using that are serving this country so well over in the war in Iraq. We saw yesterday in the paper where someone with a gun had a large capacity clip that had 50 rounds. This is what we are going to go back to unless we stop by September 13, on Monday, to be able to renew the ban on assault weapons, to protect our communities, protect our police officers and to a very, very large extent, make more room in the emergency rooms, make more room in the trauma centers, make more room in the rehab units, because today because

of medical technology, thank goodness, people like my son are surviving these horrific wounds. A lot of our police officers are surviving their horrific wounds. But unfortunately the rehab, the expense to get those victims back on their feet certainly is extremely expensive.

Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the requisite number of words.

Listening to my two colleagues, I appreciate this amendment they have put forward. Obviously, with the medical technology that we have today and with the medicines that are out there, I sometimes sit when I am watching the TV shows and I am watching them advertise all of these particular drugs, I hope everybody also listens to see what the side effects are going to be. They better listen carefully, because some of these side effects are very serious.

There are many drugs on the market that are over 10 to 15 years old that work just as well. People have to realize that. Unfortunately, even our doctors now, they are given information, thinking, wow, if this can help my patient. Let us hope that is what they are thinking. But we have to reevaluate this whole thing. It used to be you went to your doctor, the doctor knew which particular drug would work for you for whatever ailment you had, and you took it. Now we see TV, the doctors tell me, they want this drug, they want this drug, they want this drug.

Aspirin still works very, very well. Ibuprofen when I was working, gosh, a long time ago, that was a prescription drug. It is now over the counter. But there are still many prescription drugs that work just as well. Obviously, sometimes they are not going to work for the patient. That is when we should try a new drug. The research and development and the research that is needed to see what these actual new drugs do, I think, is extremely important.

With that being said, also, September 13, the assault weapons bill is going to expire. The reason I bring it up towards the health care section is mainly because how much health care money is expended on, unfortunately, these horrific wounds that we see. We also know with a lot of these types of assault weapons, there are head injuries. People do not realize when you have a head injury, a lot of times these patients have to be on an awful lot of different drugs that might even put the patient to the point of where they think they might be schizophrenic. It does fit and tie in with these bills.

The important thing is the assault weapons bill costs absolutely no money. We can renew it. It does not cost anybody anything except saving lives, saving health care costs; and I hope that the President of the United States will ask the Speaker of the House to allow this bill to come up on the floor for a vote.

Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word.

I thank my colleague for bringing up this very important issue, preventative medicine and the research that needs to go into it. Any of us that have ever been in the health care field know preventative care and having the best techniques is the best thing that we can all offer anyone. There are so many things that we can do today to prevent, unfortunately, diseases that certainly could cost us as people and human beings in quality of life and, of course, the health care system millions and billions of dollars every single year.

With that being said, preventative care is what we should be looking at--how are we going to stop gun violence in this country. The first step that we can take is making sure the assault weapons ban is renewed by September 13. That alone will save so much money every single year. Our police officers, our children, and even those that live in the poorest communities where some of these health care communities are being closed down because of a lack of funds, people do not realize on the mental end the stress of living in these communities, what it costs.

I am hoping that we in time will have enough money to run the programs that we need; but to be honest, we can save money by cutting down on gun violence. We can save emotional stress

by cutting down on gun violence. We certainly can protect our police officers in this country by making sure the assault weapons ban comes up for a vote, passes here in the House. It has already been passed in the Senate, and the President said he would sign the bill if it gets on his desk.

Amendment Offered by Ms. Bordallo

Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word.

I rise in support of the Maloney-Woolsey-Sanchez amendment. This amendment would provide funds for the Patsy Mink Women's Educational Equity Act program. This is an important program promoted and named after our dearly missed colleague Patsy Mink, who I served with on the Committee on Education and the Workforce.

It is designed to promote gender equality in providing counseling and guidance, physical education and the development of the classroom materials.

A lot of people in Title IX kind of made fun of us women, and yet when you look at the women in the Olympics, these programs work. So we have to make sure that we keep them going.

I understand that I am lucky. I work in Congress. With that being said, I get equal pay. But an awful lot of my colleagues that are my friends that are working on the outside world doing the hard work right next to their male colleagues, they do not get the same pay. So women are disadvantaged in many parts of our society, and equal education offers them the opportunity to grow.

Our women also are living, unfortunately, sometimes in a violent society, especially those in the low-income areas. Think about all the women that right now possibly will be losing their husbands either from the war in Iraq or even from September 11, where we need to and we still continue the trend of educating them so they can educate themselves and have a job. But the majority of firearm homicides are the result of intimate partner violence.

With that being said, on September 13 the assault weapons bill will expire in this country. We know it has saved lives. We know that basically it has certainly put women at less risk, especially those that are in low-income areas and their children.

I do not understand why we cannot bring up the bill for a vote. I do not understand why. The President of the United States has said that he would sign the bill if it got onto his desk.

Well, we are the ones here who are holding it up. He is going to sign the bill. That is a good sign. So I think that we should move forward between today and Monday afternoon and be able to get this vote done so we can continue something that works. A program like this works. We have seen equal education getting better and better. Why are we even looking at a program to either cut it back or to see it expire when a program works?

Police chiefs from all over the country were here today. The rank- and-file were here today. Unfortunately, victims were here today too. I mentioned them many times today. We can cut down on health care costs; we can cut down on those who are in rehab hospitals, some who never leave. We can cut down on the amount of people who are unfortunately injured because of large-capacity clips and assault weapons. The bottom line is, why did we have an assault weapons ban in the beginning? Because too many of our police officers were being mowed down. We are putting that risk right back on the streets again. We are putting that risk to our police officers today, when things are actually even worse than they were 10 years ago.

This is when we should be renewing this ban. This is when we should be making sure our police officers who are protecting us because terrorists are in this country. This is what we should be doing. The American people care about this issue. They count on us, we in Congress, our leaders, our President, to take a lead on this. And we are letting them down, unless somebody has a change of heart. Do not think this is going to go away, because it is not. It will not, unfortunately, because one day we will be standing here and people will be saying, why did we not do something about it, and that is going to be, unfortunately, when we have a tragedy in our school or our police officers are mowed down, and people say, why did you not do something.

Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the requisite number of words.

Mr. Chairman, all day today we have been hearing so many different issues coming up onto the floor that are concerning so many people, and I thank the ranking member, and I thank the chairman, and I thank the ranking minority ranking member on the Committee on Education and the Workforce for bringing these issues up.

I am here because I am not allowed to bring up the assault weapons bill onto the floor. With that, I will continue for the rest of the evening and all day tomorrow and all day Monday to talk about how we need to get the President involved to be able to make some phone calls to the Speaker of the House. I know that he supposedly is going to be meeting with all the police officers and chiefs that we met this morning to try and convince them that this is what the American people want, this is what our police officers want.

It comes down to a safety issue. There are so many things that we have to handle here, and we actually, in my opinion, have wasted an awful lot of time this year. We have done more politicking than we have done actual work, and that is too bad, because the only one that suffers is the American people.

If the assault weapons ban is not renewed, the American people in the end will suffer, our children will suffer, our communities will suffer, our health care system will suffer.

This is a bill that is already in place. They say enforce the law. Well, let us continue enforcing the law. Let us make sure the assault weapons bill stays in place. It saves lives. It does not cost us a penny.

I just heard that one of the large gun manufacturers, with every assault weapons gun that they buy, they will get a free large-capacity clip. Is that not terrific? It is much easier to mow down our own citizens.