Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay homage to Coretta Scott King, a great leader in the movement for civil and human rights on the occasion of her passing.

Known first as the wife of Dr. Martin Luther King, Mrs. King's commitment to the struggle for all people continued throughout her life. Attending Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, Coretta Scott King earned a Bachelor's Degree in music and education, skills she used to organize Freedom Concerts to benefit the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Serving as a delegate from Women Strike for Peace at a 1962 Disarmament Conference in Geneva, Switzerland, Mrs. King demonstrated her commitment to working for peace and justice worldwide.

Following the tragic murder of her husband, Coretta Scott King committed herself to promoting Dr. King's principles of nonviolence and social justice. First, in establishing the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change, which has trained tens of thousands of people in the philosophy and methods of Dr. King, she has been able to preserve and further his legacy. Second, she served as chair of the Martin Luther King Jr. Federal Holiday Commission and worked for the national recognition of Dr. King's birthday.

In addition to working for the recognition of her husband's legacy, Mrs. King was always a tireless advocate for the abolition of Apartheid in South Africa, women and children's rights, gay and lesbian dignity, full employment and ecological sanity. In recognition of this work, Coretta Scott King has lead goodwill missions across the globe consulting with world leaders. In addition, the American Library Association has awarded Coretta Scott King Awards to more than 175 books written or illustrated by African Americans that promote understanding and appreciation for all cultures and demonstrate commitment to equality and justice.

Surely the passing of Coretta Scott King is a great loss to this Nation and the world. Mrs. King demonstrated a resilience and commitment to the ideals of equality and justice that has been matched by few and we all owe her a debt of gratitude.

Mr. Speaker, let me thank the ranking member, the gentlewoman from New York, for her cooperation in yielding me this time.

I want to rise just to say that it has been a pleasure to work on this bill. There is a lot of good in it, and I want to highlight a particular part thereof and thank the ranking member and the chairman and the staffs of the two sides for working with me on an initiative to work to clean up the blood supply in sub-Saharan Africa where millions of people have contracted HIV through tainted blood transfusions.

We have an initiative in the report that accompanies the bill that would provide millions to focus in on pediatrics, transfusions first and foremost, but also to require a group of entities and agencies, including the World Health Organization, the CDC and the National Institutes of Health, to develop a nonincremental approach and plan within 180 days to clean up the blood supply throughout sub-Saharan Africa and put an appropriate emphasis on saving millions of lives that needlessly are being lost through HIV because of blood transfusions that otherwise could be safe.

So I just want to thank the leadership of the subcommittee, the chair and ranking member and staff, for their cooperation.

There are other important initiatives in the bill in terms of clean water programs in Africa, some $15 million; and there are other things that are not, I think, given appropriate notice because of some of the larger items in the bill; but I think that these are very, very important. I just want the record to be clear that I thank the ranking member and the chair for their cooperation and will continue to want to build on these efforts because we can save millions of lives.

Mr. Speaker, it is never easy to lose an esteemed friend and colleague such as Dr. C. Delores Tucker. A valiant warrior in the fight for freedom and equality, she

selfishly committed herself to the work of serving others.

Dr. C. Delores Tucker was the first African American woman in the nation to serve as the Common Wealth of Pennslvania Secretary of State. During this time, she instituted the first Commission on the Status of Women in Pennsylvania. In her term, Dr. Tucker was responsible for the governor's appointment of more women and African Americans to judgeships and commissions in the history of the Commonwealth. She also led the effort to make Pennsylvania one of the first states to pass the Equal Rights Amendment. As Chief of Elections of Pennsylvania, she was a leader in instituting a voter registration by mail and reducing the voting age from 21 to 18 years of age.

Dr. Tucker was founder and president of the Bethune-DuBois Institute, Inc., which she established in 1991 to aid African American youth through scholarships and educational programs. Dr. Tucker launched and served as the publisher of the renowned publication, Vital Issues: The Journal of African American Speeches. This endeavor caught the attention of then Congressman William H. Gray and was submitted into the Congressional Record.

Dr. Tucker has received awards from numerous organizations and institutions including the NAACP, the Philadelphia Urban League, the Salvation Army, Lincoln University, the National Association for Equal Opportunity, Higher Education, Women for Good Government, the Alliance of Black Women Attorneys, the National Black Caucus of State Legislators, the Opportunities Industrialization Center, B'nai B'rith, the National Newspaper Publishers Association, the Feminist Majority Foundation, Berean Institute, and the National Association for Sickle Cell Disease. Dr. Tucker was also selected as a People magazine 1996 Yearbook Honoree and was featured in the inaugural issue of John F. Kennedy, Jr.'s George magazine for her crusade against gangster/porno rap. In addition, she has been acknowledged for her deep concern for children by First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton in the book ``It Takes a Village.'' The National Women's Political Caucus and Redbook Magazine also named Dr. Tucker as the woman best qualified to be ambassador to the United Nations.

Her tireless and passionate pursuits have generated many discussions over the concerns of equality and justice. Her efforts will never be lost in the hearts of those she touched and the world she labored to change. Our hearts are bowed in reverence of her memory. Please join me in honoring the legacy that is C. Delores Tucker.

Mr. Speaker, a prior commitment kept me from voting on H.R. 3824, the Threatened and Endangered Species Recovery Act of 2005. If present, I would have voted ``yea'' for the Democratic amendment offered by Miller, Dingell, Dicks, Tauscher, Boehlert, Gilchrest, and Saxton. Please let the record reflect that I would voted ``nay'' on final passage of H.R. 3824.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize the fact that Americans have, through their private contributions, given more in terms of responding to this disaster than any other disaster in the country's history, well over $500 million to date.

I recognize the sobering work of our committee in coming to grips with this supplemental and putting forth tens of billions of dollars to respond to this crisis. I agree with my colleague from Louisiana that there will be a need for us to do more, and I, for one, know that our committee is prepared to stand and to respond to this crisis.

It is unfortunate that our response was not as it should have been. As the President said, the results were inadequate. But I think it is appropriate that the Congress today take this action, and I want to thank the chairman and the ranking member for their ability to work together to bring this bill to the floor and to move it so expeditiously in this process.

Even though imperfect, I hope it will be made more perfect as we go forward.

Mr. Chairman, I rise to thank the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Kolbe) and the ranking member, the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Lowey). In working on this bill, we found agreement on an initiative that is very important to me, and I think important to our efforts in Africa in terms of combating some of the difficulties there, particularly related to HIV and the growing threat of AIDS.

We have report language that accompanies this bill that the chairman and his staff were willing to agree to that would bring together a number of our more capable agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control, the USAID and others, and have them develop a plan to take a nonincremental approach at creating a healthier blood supply in Africa. In Africa, millions of people who have contracted AIDS have done so through tainted blood transfusions, particularly pediatric AIDS cases. The ranking member and the chairman and the staff have helped us move forward an initiative to focus on this problem. I rise to thank them.

Secondly, the bill also talks about creating a more coordinated and comprehensive effort on infectious diseases and health challenges on the continent of Africa, particularly in the sub-Saharan region.

Also, I have had a chance to speak to the gentleman from California (Mr. Lewis) and his top staffer, Frank Cushing, on this matter; and I really appreciate the majority's willingness to look anew at some of these issues and think through how we can approach this matter in a creative way. I thank the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Kolbe) and his staff and the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Lowey) and her staff.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the West Philadelphia High School for taking top honors in the Technology Competition at the National 2005 Tour de Sol.

The National 2005 Tour de Sol, a nationwide competition, allows students and entrepreneurs to showcase their efforts to design vehicles that approach zero carbon emissions and use renewable fuels. The Tour de Sol highlights the largest innovations in alternative-energy technology and advanced fuel vehicles, showcasing the future of the clean-energy and transportation industry. The cars are put through rigorous tests to assess emissions, fuel economy, and other technical standards.

The Tour de Sol provides a key platform for vehicle manufacturers, students, and entrepreneurs to demonstrate future designs and current products that aim to reduce oil and carbon emissions to zero. This year, over a dozen teams from all over the United States and Canada participated in the Tour de Sol Championship, which began in 1989. The competition aims to inspire students and businesses to design, build, showcase, and use concept vehicles that push the envelope and work toward the ultimate goal of the event.

The winner of the coveted ``Greenest Vehicle'' was awarded to one of the only high school teams to enter the competition, West Philadelphia High School, for their electric car called The Saturn. The team beat university and private teams from around the country for developing a vehicle that demonstrates high energy efficiency. The Saturn ran the equivalent of 280 miles per gallon of gasoline, with a greenhouse gas reduction of nearly 80 percent.

I salute the students, faculty and team sponsors who worked tirelessly over the past two years to construct a hybrid vehicle that uses biodiesel fuel instead of gas to create a cleaner environment. I applaud your efforts and congratulate you on a winning design that makes all Philadelphians proud.

Mr. Speaker, I inadvertently voted against the Motion to Instruct Conferees on H.R. 3, which instructs conferees to increase funding for the Transportation/Highway bill. The motion would increase the minimum guaranteed rate of return to 92 percent, while ensuring that each state receives no less than what is provided under the bill.

I request that the record reflect that I support the motion and I intended to vote for it.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I would like to thank the majority chairman of this committee. He has done extraordinary work in bringing to the floor a bill that has, I think, almost unanimous support in this House, not because it is a perfect bill but because it has been a perfect process, that is, a process that has been inclusive and that has been driven by the determined and public-spirited leadership of the chairman.

There are initiatives like the $6 million school library initiative and other initiatives that have the personal trademark of the chairman to try to improve the life chances of young people in this District. There are others that I will refer to momentarily.

I just want to thank the chairman for his extraordinary leadership and a process that has been perfect in terms of making sure that all of the issues that are important here in the District have been listened to and responded to. There has been a complete hearing process. I would like to thank the staff both on the Democratic side and on the majority side. Joel Kaplan has led the committee's work. Martha Foley. I would like to thank, obviously, Michelle Anderson on my staff and Rob Nabors for his excellent leadership and guidance as we have moved through this on the minority appropriations staff.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton).

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Let me thank the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia for her comments and her insight and assistance as we move through.

Let me conclude my remarks, and I will be prepared to yield back the balance of my time. But let me just state, there is a lot that I could talk about that is in this bill in terms of help and assistance and innovation and creativity, but I think that a lot has already been said about the advances in the District's fiscal health and a lot of work that has been done.

I want to highlight just the college assistance program, the resident tuition program, which I was one of the original cosponsors of with the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Tom Davis) and the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton) some 5 years ago. It is an amazing program. It has been very successful.

And I want to return to what I was saying about the chairman of this committee. He has visited schools and committees, been out in neighborhoods and at the waterfront in the District. He has been active and aggressive in terms of trying to have the insight necessary to make some of the decisions that have to be made in this process; and I want to publicly thank him for his leadership on the subcommittee. It has been a pleasure to work with him this year on this process.

And I want to thank, again, the staff.

Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding me time.

Mr. Speaker, you would not know by today's discussions that the President, the other candidate for President, Senator Kerry, and all of the Nation's leaders have been telling us that we are at war, that we are in this war on terrorism, because there has been no discussion about that today, even though on the front page yesterday of one of the Washington newspapers it says that our number one enemy, al Qaeda, is meeting with and making arrangements with local criminal gangs here in D.C., for whatever purposes.

You would not know that we are at war. You would not know this was on the front page of the papers yesterday. You would not know that because of all of this discussion here today about allowing people to have arms.

I am just trying to imagine the Inaugural parade next year here in the District, as people have now had this ability to go arm themselves to the teeth, even people who might have purposes that are untoward in terms of our activities.

I am going to just say that this is a new type of cowboy, where they take the stage coach, they get themselves in a gun-restricted area, and let the women and children and the God-fearing people of this city stay off.

Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

(Mr. FATTAH asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. Chairman, I thank the chairman of the subcommittee, who has done a yeoman's job in working and providing leadership to the Congress on the critical issues facing the District. A great Nation indeed requires us to have a capital that is responsive in both substance and symbol to the Nation and to the world, and the chairman has worked long and hard with his staff on this bill. I would accept his comments as my own opening comments on the bill, because I think it puts into perspective the approach that he has taken, which is that we have worked in a bipartisan fashion; and I think we have a product that is worthy of unanimous support here in the House as we move this bill through the process.

I join with him again, although I will not name them all, in complimenting the staff who have really done a great job. This would not have been possible without the help and advice and counsel of the delegate, the person elected by the residents here in the District to represent their interests; and the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton) has been invaluable to both the chairman and me as we have worked through this process.

Mr. Chairman, I reserve the remainder of my time.

Mr. Chairman, consuming whatever time I may, just to make a few brief remarks before I yield to the delegate, the District operates unlike any other city in our country, because it has the responsibility to be the home of the Nation's Federal Government. There are no problems that exist in the District that have been solved elsewhere in the country. Whatever problems exist in this city exist other places. But the District has, in a unique way, been able to tackle its fiscal problems far better than any other city in the country: a 7-year balanced budget, bond ratings that have been elevated by all three of the rating agencies, and a cash reserve, I say to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Young), that any city would be the envy of. The city's leaders, I would say, deserve all of the credit; that is, the Mayor, the city council, and the civic leadership here have worked so very hard.

The gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Tom Davis) and I and others, like our chairman, have been involved in important ways, whether it is the financial relief bill or the college access program, the chairman's initiative on libraries that he has allowed me to join with him on; but it is really his initiative to make sure that in our elementary schools here in the District that there is real access to material that will help inspire reading as a lifelong activity of the young people here.

All of that is important, but the District has had to operate without the benefit of a State government. It has had to operate with the increased cost of being the home of the Nation's Capital, and again, its own leadership has brought it to this moment when I think we can have a bill come to the floor without controversy and move through, because it is out of respect for their hard work.

Mr. Chairman, I yield 7 minutes to the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton).

Mr. Chairman, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Chairman, I wanted to say that I would like to commend the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Hefley) for his great service to the House as chairman of the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct. I served with him for many years on the committee. I cannot find a way to support his amendment today; but if he were to offer, for instance, to reduce by even a greater percent the reconstruction dollars of 20 billion we sent to Iraq, I would be prepared to vote to cut those dollars. But here in the Nation's Capital I believe that there are too many needs to be met.

I still have great respect for my colleague. Colorado has a warm place in my heart. My wife is from Colorado; but I would oppose this amendment.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding me this time.

If the American people want to buy more of what we just heard, they are going to get a chance in November. But if they want to really think about the fiscal future of this country, then think about how we have moved from hundreds of billions of surpluses to hundreds of billions of deficits. Think about what Treasury Secretary O'Neill said in his book when he raised the concern about this deficit spending by the majority and by the Republican party.

He said that Vice President Cheney said, oh, do not worry about deficits. It did not hamper Reagan, when we quadrupled the national debt. Now we are raising the debt limit 3 times, up to $8 trillion, so that our children and our grandchildren will have to pay for the cost of our expenditures.

And he said well, we do not want to have PAYGO affect tax cuts, we just want it on the spending side because it is philosophical. Well, it was philosophical about whether the earth was flat or not, or round. The facts are stubborn things, Reagan said, and I remember that. Because when we think about the real facts: 44 million Americans without health insurance, millions without jobs, a 50-year high on mortgage foreclosures, an historic high the third year in a row on personal bankruptcies.

This majority has controlled spending and tax cuts for the last 10 years. They come on the floor and want to blame it on what they affectionately refer to as ``the other side.'' Where is the willingness to be accountable, to take responsibility for their own actions?

The majority has decided to take this country on a course of fiscal irresponsibility. What we need to really think about now is whether we want to continue to go in that direction, whether we want to continue to have future generations having to pay for the choices we are making today, or whether we are prepared to pay for our own choices.

Mr. Speaker, let me thank the ranking member for yielding me time.

Mr. Speaker, the majority started this country on a ride a few years ago, and the signposts along the way are fairly clear. We have a record-high deficit, hundreds of billions of dollars; we have a record trade deficit; we have a 50-year high on mortgage foreclosures; we have 3 years in a row of historic highs in personal bankruptcies. And yet, they suggest that we should operate on the same forecast that they were operating on when they started out on this trip, when they said we had 10 years of surpluses coming our way, trillions of dollars; and we can afford to give the wealthiest among us a tax break.

So they did that, and they do not see the other signposts: $200 billion for a war in Iraq. They do not look at the other signposts along the road that show that we have lost millions of jobs.

Now we have replaced 1 million-or-so of those jobs that we lost, and they want to say that we have created new jobs. They are a long way off from creating a new job that is a net new job, but they do not want to talk about that. They do not want to look at these signposts. They want to keep going down this road.

What the Obey resolution suggests is we should take a different course. We should say to millionaire taxpayers that rather than take $124,000 in tax cuts, take $24,000. Let us pay our way for this war. Let us pay our way in terms of investing in the needed resources of our country.

Albert Einstein said a long time ago that we have to have a different level of thinking to solve problems than the level of the thinking that we used when we created these problems.

This program that the Republican majority has taken us toward as a country is leading us to fiscal bankruptcy. This majority has to understand that we have to take into account that we live in a different forecast now, with dark clouds on the horizon. We are at war. We should pay the costs now, and we should do it by saying a little less tax cut for those who are doing very, very well. That is what the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) does. I ask that this resolution be supported.

Mr. Speaker, I give notice to the House today that I have offered a piece of legislation that would have the Department of the Treasury analyze a proposal to transform our system of taxation and to move us away from this very complicated, burdensome form of taxation that now raises the revenues necessary for governmental purposes, to a transaction fee in which we would utilize the great power of our economy to tap into economic resources in a way in which we could transform our country, respond to the needs of all of our people in a responsible way, but to do it without the necessity to pry into the private lives of our citizens or to audit their financial behavior.

This proposal as we present it would have the Treasury prepare a study of this idea. It is offered after a great deal of research and effort. We hope that it will find in the workings of the House the kind of urgency that should be there, given our failure to respond to this problem in any real way for a very, very long time. It is the 90th birthday of the income tax in our country. It started at 2 pages, it is now tens of thousands of pages. Today we can begin not just to curse the darkness but, as has been said, light a candle.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition to the conference agreement of H.R. 1, the Medicare and Prescription Drug bill.

This conference agreement provides limited benefit to vulnerable low income senior citizens and people with disabilities. In fact, the plan prohibits Medicaid from filling in the gaps in the new Medicare drug benefit, as Medicaid does now for other benefits. Given the ongoing state budget crises, up to 6.4 million low-income seniors and people with disabilities could receive less help with their prescription drug costs than they do now.

The proposed plan bows to drug industry pressure and prevents Medicare from negotiating better prices. It also adopts a policy that will prevent access to lower-cost drugs available in other countries, allowing drug companies profits to skyrocket at the expense of patients. Millions of Medicare beneficiaries will be forced to pay more for Medicare if they don't give up their doctor and join an HMO. Although the bill's proponents claim it will be limited, as many as 7 million seniors could be forced to participate.

Finally, the conference agreement proposes the creation of Health Security Accounts, which are tax shelters for the wealthy. This creates an unprecedented tax loophole that would undermine existing employer coverage and add to the ever-growing number of uninsured. These funds should be used to prevent employers from dropping coverage or to improve the drug benefit.

I urge my colleagues to vote against this bill.