Floor Statements

Madam Chair, I move to strike the last word.

I just wanted to come to the floor. I have had the opportunity to serve on this subcommittee under the leadership of my great friend from Texas and our ranking member, Congressman Bishop from Georgia.

The focus of the work is in a bipartisan process to come up with the best possible set of proposals to move our country forward to respond to our needs in terms of military construction.

I rise today, in particular, to thank the two leaders of the subcommittee, and in particular, the chairman for his great leadership on veterans benefits. I had breakfast with General Shinseki, and the staff of the VA I think has been clearly moved by the ranking member and the chairman's insistence that we deal with the challenges around the backlog.

I want to particularly note the great work in this bill on neuroscience and brain disorders. The chairman and I began some work together in the CJS appropriations process a year and a half ago, which has moved our country, I think, forward in terms of dealing with some 600 different brain diseases and disorders in a much more aggressive fashion, and we compliment the President on the brain initiative. Right here in this VA bill there are actual concrete steps being taken to deal with posttraumatic stress, to deal with traumatic brain injury. And I had a Nobel Prize laureate, who has done work on TV, really come just to say that the focus we put on this has been so important because some 40 percent of our injured veterans have some type of traumatic brain injury or posttraumatic stress challenges that they face. I visited the Intrepid Center.

So I didn't want this moment to pass without thanking the two leaders of the subcommittee for their work. I could go on and on about the Epilepsy Centers of Excellence, but I know I only have a few minutes, so I'll cease here. I want to thank them, because it won't necessarily be recorded. But in the lives of tens of thousands of our veterans and servicemen, differences in their life circumstances will be made for the positive because of what's in this bill. So thank you, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Let me thank the ranking member and let me thank the gentleman, Mr. Sensenbrenner, who brought this bill before us. I rise in support of the bill, and I wanted to use this occasion to make some additional comments.

We recognize that the proliferation of nuclear weapons is the greatest threat that our country faces. I took a trip with Chairman Young to visit the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, Austria, looking at the weapons development program in Iran. This is a big issue that the Congress has got to pay a lot of attention to.

But I also wanted to take a minute as a member of the Energy Appropriations Subcommittee to talk about the administration's request on both nonproliferation and modernization. The nonproliferation request is flatlined. The weapons modernization, which is important as relates to our obligations and agreements relative to the START treaty, is well funded. But we think there are some gaps in terms of the planning. And we need to understand more fully, in terms of both the B- 61 and the W-76, where we're headed in terms of the long-term package.

So this bill is important because it deals with terrorism threats in terms of nuclear weapons. Part of dealing with that is to make sure that we continue the work of Senators Nunn and Lugar in nonproliferation. It's also important for our country to modernize our weapons, and to do that with a full understanding that we cannot do that on a year-to-year basis. We have to have a long-term plan and understand the entire package.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to offer words of appreciation for a departing member of my staff, Ron Goldwyn. Ron will be retiring after 7 years in my Philadelphia office as Press Secretary to enjoy the Philadelphia Mummers, baseball, the Southwest and lots of quality time with his family. I have no doubt that Ron will also continue to follow the workings of this body from a more distant place. His connection to the House began long before joining my team. In fact, when his wife Carol first came to Washington to meet his family, he brought her to sit in the House gallery!

Ron came to my office as a second career following years of success as a journalist. His stellar career began as editor of the ``Family News'' at age 10. It then took him to Woodrow Wilson High School's Beacon, the Washington Daily News Scholastic Sports Association, Fort Dix, the Dayton Journal Herald, Philadelphia Bulletin and the Philadelphia Daily News. In my office he has served as a drafter of press releases and proclamations, a photographer around town and resident comedian.

Ron is a proud (retired) member of Local 10 of the Newspaper Guild (now part of Communications Workers of America). He is former president of the Pen and Pencil Club, the journalists' after hours club. He is a founding member of Mishkan Shalom synagogue in Roxborough, Pennsylvania where he has held several lay leadership positions. Ron still plays on the Pen and Pencil softball team and for several years was the commissioner of the Center City softball league. He is currently the President of the Blue Bell Hill Civic Association.

From the first time he saw the parade in January, 1975, Ron has adored Philadelphia's Mummers Parade, even though many of the Mummers are a notoriously prickly and feuding bunch. For a few years, he and his wife were only spectators. Then, in 1980 or so, Ron began providing the Mummers research ``book'' to Larry Kane who anchored the Parade broadcast. From 1984 to 1994, a motley crew of family and friends dressed up as kazoos and marched as a group in the Comic Division of the parade. Known as the King Kazoo New Year Association--Ron was ``King Kazoo,'' of course--the group finished as high as fourth in the division several times. About 17 years ago, Ron took on a new role, becoming the color commentator for the comic division part of Parade broadcast until this year, which was his first as a ``marshall'' with the Pennsport String Band.

Ron's absence will be deeply felt in my office. My staff and I have come to rely on his strong writing, attention to detail, knowledge of Philadelphia history and commitment to public engagement. While we celebrate his transition into retirement, we look forward to his visits and updates from The Land of Enchantment. I ask my colleagues to join me in thanking Ron for his service here and wish him well in his next adventure.

I rise in support of this amendment.

As our ranking member has said, this information is already provided. But I also rise in support of the Simpson-Bowles proposal. I voted for it on the floor of the House, one of only three dozen who support it, but hopefully many more will support it.

We need to get our fiscal house in order. The majority party has this kind of selective amnesia, however, about this. When the President was sworn in, we were $11 trillion in debt at that moment. We had a $1 trillion deficit for that fiscal year the day he was sworn in. Your party seems to run away from any responsibility for this.

And then you passed a budget the last couple years that doesn't balance until 40 years from now, and now this rush to the floor that we must have balance, we must have transparency. But that's okay. Whatever brings you to the party. It's like in my church. If you come and you find a belief, a shared belief that a fellowship of faith has, that's great.

So if you're joining this party that we want to get our fiscal house in order and that deficits do matter and that the debt matters, then we welcome that. If this is a political charade, then you should be concerned about your credibility.

I thank the gentleman, my good friend from New Jersey.

I want to say that this amendment would do serious damage to our efforts in terms of the National Weather Service.

In the mark of the House and the Senate appropriation bills for FY13, we had this $13 million. It improves our forecasting. What does that mean on the ground? What it means on the ground, all across our country, when there is a severe weather incident, it means that we will have better information for evacuation purposes, if needed. It's about $1 million a mile to evacuate. It's about saving lives.

So when the gentleman, who is the maker of this amendment, said that he wished we could do this faster and he's not opposed to us having better information, then I join with him in part, in that part, because this is about providing necessary information to the American public about severe weather incidents and saving lives. This is money that both the House and the Senate intended to provide, but in the 112th we were unable to complete our work.

This is vitally important to every single Member in this House in their districts, the businesses and families alike, that the National Weather Service and the satellite system be upgraded as quickly as possible.

We've had the greatest series of severe weather events--over $1 billion each--that we've ever had in our history. It is not time for the greatest country and the wealthiest country in the world to retreat or to equivocate in making sure that we have the very best weather service information, and this satellite system is critically important thereto.

So I thank the gentleman for yielding. I would hope that the gentleman who is seeking waste find waste in some other area, because this is not waste. This is lifesaving information and important throughout our country that the National Weather Service has this upgrade. It's something we would have passed anyway in the normal appropriations process.

It's a new year. For my youngest children, both will grow 1 year older this year. My daughter Chandler will turn 10, and my teenager, Cameron, will turn 15. Today, we know the birthday of the Emancipation Proclamation as we celebrate it here in Washington. Our country, hopefully, gains maturity as we go forward.

We were reminded a long time ago that a House divided would not stand. We have to come together, and we should put away some of the nonsense of attacking the President for spending when our Founders when writing the Constitution gave the Congress control over the spending. In article I, section 9, clause 7, we control the spending. So if we want to back away from spending, we need to look in the mirror. In terms of this agreement, rather than curse the darkness, we should look at those who have lit the candle. When we can have a bipartisan vote of 89 Senators start this year off and move our country forward, we should rally behind them.

I ask my colleagues to vote in favor of the agreement in order to move away from the cliff and continue to move our country towards greatness.

I want to thank the gentleman for yielding.

I know that people may be confused by some of this debate, so I just want to bring some common sense to it.

In every instance, A is the preferable option. Whether you get your ticket to heaven or you get to go free or you get the present you want under the Christmas tree, when somebody suggests to you option B, it's something less than the best.

We have the very best country on the face of the Earth. We're the wealthiest, strongest, most powerful nation in the world. And what they're asking us to do is to choose, rather than a grand bargain to put our fiscal house in order, they want us to go with Plan B.

I hope that the House would reject Plan B. Doing something less than our best as a Nation is not worthy of this House. It's not even worthy of the majority to bring this here today, because they know it's not going anywhere. We know it's not going anywhere. And if we want to move our country forward, which is what the American people voted for on the last Election Day, we need to choose the A option rather than Plan B.

Plan B is not the way to go unless we're trying to get in second place to countries like China and others. If we want to stay in the lead, we need to get our fiscal House in order and reject this Plan B.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize and thank a tireless advocate for all of America's children, Russlynn Ali, Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, United States Department of Education. Ms. Ali has recently transitioned from the Department into a new role and I would like to take the opportunity to share with this body the impressive accomplishments of the Office for Civil Rights under her leadership.

First and foremost, I would like to thank Ms. Ali for all that she has done to see the Equity and Excellence Commission draft a final report. I am confident that this document will provide a useful framework for policymakers, advocates and families at every level to create a more equitable and excellent system of public education that draws on the skills and talents of every American child. The Commission's success is because of the hard work of Russlynn Ali.

While revitalizing an underutilized federal office, Ms. Ali has led the Office for Civil Rights in an impressive direction, supporting states, school districts and schools in providing the equal access to education every child deserves. During her tenure, the Office launched over 100 compliance reviews many of which addressed first-of-their-kind issues and all of which were innovative in their comprehensiveness, scope, and approach. They entered into hundreds of robust resolution agreements that, with aggressive monitoring, will truly eradicate discrimination at its roots. They revamped technical assistance-- conducting an average of 315 activities a year over the last four years, up from about 185 in 2008. They released 10 comprehensive Dear Colleagues and guidance documents, all dealing with urgent issues, and revamped them to include detailed application sections--guidances that advocates, superintendents and college presidents have referred to as ``landmark'' and ``historic.'' The Office for Civil Rights made the opportunity gap data come alive with the transformed Civil Rights Data Collection. Now the CRDC site gets about 9,900 visits every month.

I ask this body to join me in thanking Russlynn Ali for all that she has done for America's young people and wishing her well on her next endeavor.

I want to thank the gentleman for his great work on this legislation; and also my colleague, who will be leaving us, the chairman of the Rules Committee, who's done some great work over his many years.

I rise in support of this legislation. I think it is important to see, as this continuum moves, our relationship with Russia change and now moving into a circumstance of additional trade and enhanced trade.

I'm one that's very focused on improving manufacturing here in the United States, and this is going to open up tremendous opportunities for our manufacturers. So I want to commend those who've worked together on this and the Obama administration for their continuing efforts to open up trade opportunities so that we can make it here and sell it everywhere, which I think should be our focus.

In addition to that, I think it shows how, over time, old wounds can be healed and new relationships can be built.

I spoke earlier today with the consulate general for the State of Israel in Philadelphia, offering my support and concern for the unfortunate circumstances that are taking place in the Middle East now, in which hundreds of bombs or rockets have been shot at Israel, some of its largest cities as the targets. This is a matter for obviously much higher levels in our government. There have been communications and the assurance that Israel has the right to defend itself.

But I think that we can see in this Russia trade agreement that if we can get to the point where there can be relationships that are built on self-interest and economic development, that we can put the weapons aside and move toward a circumstance in which people are focused on economic activity.

So we see in this crisis a circumstance that we hope will resolve itself. Obviously, we stand with our ally, but we also hope for a day in which peace will reign, and economic opportunities, I agree with David Dreier, really is the way in which eventually we can create a circumstance in which people will not have the necessity to resort to violence.

So I thank the gentleman for yielding me the time, and I thank the House. And I hope that we will favorably pass this bill.

I will be glad to yield to the gentleman.

Mr. Speaker, last week the nation celebrated National GEAR UP Week. Communities across the country committed themselves to a brighter future for their students and families and emphasized the important role college plays in future success. I would like to draw the attention of my colleagues to a few of these celebrations. Governors in Arizona, Hawaii, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Washington, Wisconsin and North Carolina received proclamations from their governors. In Santa Ana and Sacramento, California and Roswell, New Mexico, they received proclamations from their mayors.

Our colleagues Mr. Lungren and Ms. Matsui issued proclamations celebrating the GEAR UP work in their Districts. In San Marcos, California they hosted an inaugural GEAR UP partnership reception with their local Chamber of Commerce and presented certificates of recognition to Congressman Hunter and State Senator Mark Wyland. In Waterbury, Connecticut they held a middle school parent evening and were joined by special guest NBA star, Ryan Gomes. Congressman Hanna issued a proclamation and Congressman Reyes presented a letter to the GEAR UP community in Deep South Texas. Congressman Cuellar spoke to students in Laredo, Texas along with Debra Saunders-White from the US Department of Education.

Many other GEAR UP partnership and state grantees conducted college scavenger hunts, created Dream Walls, discussed the college experience of school faculty and staff and engaged parents and partners.

I'm proud of the hard work of our students, their parents, and GEAR UP program staff and I know I speak for this body when I say congratulations on what you have accomplished so far and best of luck in the school year ahead!

Mr. Speaker, I proudly cast a ``yea'' vote in support of H.R. 733, the Pancreatic Cancer Research and Education Act, with the memory of Elmer Chenault in mind. This important legislation will address the high mortality rate associated with Pancreatic Cancer. Mr. Chenault, my father-in-law, was a senior management officer and federal compliance official of the Environmental Protection Agency, Army veteran of the Korean War and a devoted family man. Elmer spent his working career in the scientific and environmental fields and was one of the first officials of the EPA, joining it shortly after it was founded in 1970 under President Richard M. Nixon. He grew up in Wyoming, Ohio, a suburb of Cincinnati. Joining the EPA in the early '70s, Elmer became a tireless advocate for environmental justice for communities of color and the economically disadvantaged.

His passing was a trying time for my family, an experience too many know too well when confronting this terrible disease, and his loss continues to be felt by many in Philadelphia. I thank my colleague from California for her stalwart support for this legislation and look forward to a time when no family must face the scourge of Pancreatic Cancer.

I thank the gentleman.

I'm opposed to the rule, I'm opposed to the bill, but I'm really opposed to the thinking behind this.

This is like a Back to the Future or the Flat Earth Society or something. I don't know how we would have a space program if one failure stopped the whole show. I don't know how--we would never. I mean, Michael Jordan was kicked off his high school basketball team, but he eventually learned how to put the ball in the basket.

The notion that, as the greatest Nation on Earth, we're going to cede to others alternative energy programs, that somehow we're unwilling to go through what is necessary to be successful in this field, doesn't make any sense.

Now, President Bush signed this into law. It's a great program. In fact, James Rogers, who's the CEO of Duke Energy, said just a few days ago that, in terms of energy, America is so much better off because of this administration's all-of-the-above strategy. For the first time in 30 years, we've got nuclear plants that have been licensed. We have natural gas. We've got oil. We have renewables.

I've supported these loan guarantee programs. And like any loan program,

you might have some loans that perform and some loans that don't perform. The vast majority of these loans perform very, very well, and America is better off for it.

I was at the Israeli Embassy last night speaking to a group of scientists. They've been so far ahead of us on renewable energy it's a shame. We have seen what Germany's done on wind.

This party that is in the majority here, that wants to do away with the wind energy credit, I don't know what the notion here is that somehow we, as a country, are not prepared to pay the price for progress. We have not won every battle in wars that we've been in, but we've won the war.

And so this a company in which things, the numbers didn't add up for us. It's like one of our rockets or satellites not performing properly. But the head of NASA says that we're not in a business in which we cannot take risks. We have to take risks. And when it comes to energy, our country has to be prepared to take risks.

Now, it was Albert Einstein who said we cannot use the same level of thinking to solve problems that we used to create these problems.

This country and our status as the leading Nation in the world requires us to take risks. And if this majority is so unimpressed with the ability of Americans and Americans to innovate and to compete in the renewable sector like others around the world who are also getting help from their governments, that is unfortunate. But, for me, I believe that America has to take risks. We're going to lose, we're going to win, but at the end of the day, as we learn and go forward, it will allow us to continue to be number one.

I thank the gentleman.

I served for many years on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee. I've been involved in a lot of these investigations over time. I served for many years on the House Ethics Committee.

The Congress should be embarrassed about the conduct of this investigation and the charade that brings us to the floor today. The Attorney General can't provide these documents. The President has protected them under executive order, executive privilege, which means that the person who works for the President can't provide them to the Congress. We all know that. So to take a decent man who's served his country in almost every capacity--as a military veteran, as a U.S. attorney here in D.C., as a judge--and to drag his name wrongfully before this House, this majority, which clearly has lost its way--in their pursuit of power, they have lost all sense of principle--this is a disgraceful act.

But we will get through it. We are a big country, and the American people will recognize the disservice that the Republican majority brings to this floor today.

I wouldn't be surprised, at the end of the day, whether we couldn't even find this Congress held in more contempt than it is now. I think we're at a 9 percent approval rate. That's because of the actions of this majority. And the public will have to take account of that as we go forward.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Leadership Alliance. The Leadership Alliance, established in 1992, is a national academic consortium of leading research universities and minority serving institutions with the mission to develop underrepresented students into outstanding leaders and role models in academia, business and the public sector.

Through an organized program of research, networking and mentorship at critical transitions along the entire academic training pathway, the Leadership Alliance prepares young scientists and scholars from underrepresented and underserved populations for graduate training and professional apprenticeships. Leadership Alliance faculty mentors provide high quality, cutting-edge research experiences in all academic disciplines at the nation's most competitive graduate training institutions and share insights into the nature of academic careers.

In the 20 years since its establishment, the Leadership Alliance has mentored over 2,000 undergraduates who have participated in the Summer Research Early Identification Program and over 200 alumni who have obtained their PhD (215) or MD PhD (19) degrees as Leadership Alliance Doctoral Scholars.

More than 53 percent of Leadership Alliance early identification students enroll into a graduate level program versus the national rate of 40 percent enrollment into graduate programs. Of this 53 percent, 42 percent enrolled into or completed PhD programs. Of the 42 percent of students enrolling into doctoral training programs, 46 percent completed PhD programs and more than half of those were in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. Leadership Alliance institutions graduated approximately 25 percent of all biomedical sciences PhD degrees to underrepresented minority students in a five year time period (2004 2008), making it a leading consortium grantor of PhD degrees in the biomedical sciences in the United States.

In my district, over the past 18 summers, the University of Pennsylvania has hosted 210 undergraduates who were mentored by faculty and had an in-depth research experience designed to provide them with theoretical knowledge and practical training in research and scientific experimentation and other scholarly investigations.

Leadership Alliance Doctoral Scholars are diversifying the academy with 58 percent of them at research-intensive institutions. Doctoral Scholars also are engaging in career positions in government and industry. The Leadership Alliance has demonstrated its effectiveness as a model for identifying, training and mentoring underrepresented minorities who are poised to expand and diversify the base of the 21st century workforce.

I am pleased today to recognize the importance of sustaining efforts to invest in programs that identify, train and mentor talented underrepresented and underserved students; recognize the continued dedication of institutional leaders, faculty members, administrators and students across the United States and support their roles in the continued training and mentoring of underrepresented students along the academic pathway; and to congratulate and commend the Leadership Alliance, including the University of Pennsylvania, for 20 years of mentoring a diverse and competitive research and scholarly workforce.

I thank the gentlelady.

I want to commend Steny Hoyer and Eric Cantor, the majority leader, for their work on this.

I rise as a long-time supporter of the Ex-Im Bank, and particularly in the last few months they've done over $17 billion in sales, financed with some $14 billion. And no tax dollars involved. I would like to commend the work particularly of the first vice president, Wanda Felton, who is a graduate of my alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania, and also a graduate of Harvard Business School, helping to lead this agency.

They're doing tens of millions of transactions with companies in my district and they're doing billions throughout the country, with 129,000 jobs just in the last 11 months supported through this agency.

This is an important vote. I thank the bipartisan leadership of the Congress for bringing this agreement to move forward and reauthorize the Ex-Im Bank.