Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express appreciation to my colleagues for passing H. Res. 315 on September 10, 2003. Most will recall this legislation as recognizing the outstanding feat of Rafael Palmeiro, an alumnus of Mississippi State University (MSU), who hit his 500th homerun as a major leaguer at Arlington Park, Texas, on May 11, 2003.

Also, I want to extend a personal thanks to my good friend Representative Pete Sessions for introducing and sponsoring this legislation.

As most of you know, MSU is the flagship university in Mississippi's Third Congressional District. Located in Starkville, it is known throughout the country for its great baseball tradition under legendary Coach Ron Polk, who began his 30th season in 2002 with an 1165-558-1 career record. He is ranked 8th among active NCAA Division I baseball coaches.

It is with pride in the University, pride in Coach Polk, and pride in Rafael, better known to the MSU family as ``Raffy'' that I present these remarks to identify, and further amplify, the many achievements of this great athlete during his college career.

In addition to the achievements specified in H. Res. 315, ``Raffy's'' college career highlights include:

Three-year starter in left field for MSU.

Set MSU & SEC career record for home runs (67), runs batted in (239) and total bases (530).

Led SEC and ranked second nationally with 29 home runs in 1984.

Led SEC and ranked third nationally with 94 RBI in 1984.

In 1984 became the SEC's first Triple Crown winner, leading the league in batting average (415), home runs (29) and RBI (94).

Named Baseball America's Freshmen of the Year in 1983.

Became SEC's first three-time All American in Baseball.

Helped lead MSU to its highest national finish in baseball (tied for 3rd in 1985).

Named to 1983 SEC All-Tournament Team.

Named to NCAA regional all-tournament teams in 1984 and 1985.

First round draft pick (22nd overall) of the Chicago Cubs (June 1985).

Named All-American in 1983, 1984, and 1985.

Mr. Speaker, there is no doubt in my mind that one day in the near future Rafael Palmeiro will be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame at Cooperstown, New York. He is a super star par excellence that we all can relate to. He has proved himself as a great athlete, a great and caring American, a great role model among Cuban-American, and an inspiration to all those seeking the American Dream. Because of his love for baseball, his MSU family, and his country, it gives me great pleasure to join with the full House in congratulating Rafael Palmeiro for hitting his 500th homerun and his outstanding baseball career.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor and pay tribute to Colonel James H. Rosenblatt who, after more than 30 years of service with the U.S. Army, will retire from active military duty in September and return to his home state to be Dean of the Mississippi College of Law.

Hailing from the small town of Fort Adams, Mississippi, Colonel Rosenblatt entered active duty with the Army's Judge Advocate General's Corps in 1973 and, as a Captain, provided legal support in contract law, administrative law, and defense counsel work at the newly created U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, Fort Monroe, Virginia. His last assignment in a long and distinguished Army career poetically ends with a duty assignment as The Staff Judge Advocate, U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, having served Army-wide between them. Colonel Rosenblatt attended The Judge Advocate General's School in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 1977 and remained at the School to teach contract law, fiscal law, communications, and legislative drafting. After a tour in the Pentagon, where he was responsible for new accessions into the Army and the Funded Legal Education Program, he served with the 25th Infantry Division in Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, and with the 32nd Army Air Defense Command in Darmstadt, Federal Republic of Germany. Other assignments and advanced training took him to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas; Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri; Fort Meade, Maryland; and Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania.

James and Lauren Rosenblatt and their four sons, Franklin, John, Andrew, and Paul, are truly an Army family, with two of their sons also serving in the U.S. Army: Franklin is a Lieutenant stationed at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, and John is a Sergeant stationed at Fort Meade. Son Andrew is attending Virginia Commonwealth University and Paul is a High School student at Tabb High School in Tabb, Virginia.

I, as I know my colleagues do, commend Colonel Rosenblatt on more than 30 years of dedicated, honorable service to the Nation and the U. S. Army, and on behalf of the entire Mississippi Congressional Delegation, I welcome him back home.

Mr. Chairman, on rollcall No. 405 I inadvertently voted ``no.'' I intended to vote ``yea.''

Announcement by the Chairman

Mr. Speaker, during the debate on the Labor and Health and Human Services Appropriations Bill (H.R. 2660) I erroneously voted against the Toomey Amendment. I was under the impression the bill restricted general funding for the National Institutes of Health which provides needed funds for medical research in my district. I would have voted for the amendment and fully support the efforts to stop the NIH from funding the highly inappropriate programs itemized in the amendment.

Mr. Speaker, yesterday, July 8, 2003, a horrible tragedy occurred in my congressional district which caused me to miss the evening's votes, most noteworthy the Department of Defense Appropriation Act for 2004.

A gunman entered the Lockheed Martin plant in Meridian, MS, and conducted a thoughtless and sickening shooting spree, wounding nine people and killing five. I felt it important that I be with the victims of this senseless tragedy to offer support and comfort.

The families and friends of these victims are undergoing tremendous heartache and confusion as a result of this terrible act of violence. I would request the thoughts and prayers from the members of this body as we struggle to cope with this tragic incident.

While I regret missing these votes, my duties required that I be with my constituents. Had I been present, I would have voted ``aye'' on rollcall votes 334, 335, and 336.

Mr. Speaker, I come before the House to remember one of Mississippi's native sons who paid the ultimate sacrifice during the Vietnam War, and returns to us just this year for his proper internment at Arlington National Cemetery.

This week, the brothers and sisters of Michael L. Roberts, a U.S. Navy Petty Officer from Purvis, Mississippi, will travel to Washington, DC to lay their missing brother to rest. He and eight of his colleagues on a secret reconnaissance mission in 1968 crashed and died in the Laotian jungle. Their mission had been to drop sensors designed to detect enemy movements in our struggle with communist North Vietnam.

Their Navy OP-2E Neptune aircraft took off from Thailand on January 11, 1968, but never returned. Two weeks later an Air Force air crew photographed what appeared to be the crash site, but enemy activity in the area prevented a recovery operation. Between 1993 and 2002, six US- Laotian investigation teams interviewed villagers in the surrounding area, gathered aircraft debris and surveyed the purported crash site scattered on two ledges of Phou Louang Mountain in Khammouan Province.

Then during a 1996 visit, team members recovered identification cards for several crew members as well as human remains. Recovery missions in 2001 and 2002 yielded additional remains, as well as identification of other crew members.

Michael Roberts was a graduate of Purvis High School and Pearl River Junior College. Out of college, he enlisted in the Navy. He was twenty- four years old when his mission went missing.

In addition to Michael Roberts, his eight friends and companions were Navy Commander Delbert Olson of Casselton, North Dakota; Lieutenants Denis Anderson of Hope, Kansas, Arthur Buck of Sandusky, Ohio, and Philip Stevens of Twin Lake, Michigan; and Petty Officers Richard Mancini of Amsterdam, New York, Donald Thoresen and Kenneth Widon of Detroit, Michigan and Gale Siow of Huntington Park, California.

More than 1,900 Americans are still missing in action from the Vietnam War. While we mourn their losses, there is some joy that the families of these nine men can finally experience closure of this thirty-five year old wound.

For over two centuries, the Territory and State of Mississippi has paid the price of freedom with the blood of our sons and daughters. Whether their sacrifice still remains hidden in a foreign land, or they rest in a small country churchyard, or they are honored in our country's national cemetery, we will always remember them--we will always honor them--we will continue to fight for the dreams they gave their very lives to secure for us and future generations. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I come before the House as a proud cosponsor of this resolution to commend Medgar Wiley Evers and his widow, Myrlie Evers. I had the great privilege of coming from Arlington Cemetery where we gathered with people from all across the country, all across my State to remember the life and the legacy of Medgar Evers today. The gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Thompson), who is the lead sponsor of this resolution, will soon join us.

It was 40 years ago that Mississippi lost one of her bright stars. His flame was extinguished by ignorance and hatred, yet his light shines on. Today, we do not mourn; we celebrate his life. We celebrate his courage; we celebrate his commitment for equal justice, equal protection, equality of opportunity, equality of education, and equal political rights.

And when we look at his legacy today, I am a son of Mississippi. I am 40 years old this year. In 2 months, I celebrate my 40th birthday. My first grade class was integrated. I had the great privilege of attending public schools that were integrated. Political rights came about not only through Medgar Evers but many others who struggled during that time so that Mississippi now, in many ways, is making progress, with the highest number of African American elected officials in the land.

So educationally, economically, and politically Medgar Evers' legacy lives on. My colleague asked the question, did he make a difference? Can one man make a difference? Today, I watched as Myrlie Evers, with her, her daughter, her children, her grandchildren, talked about the rich legacy of their father, her husband, of making a difference in my home State of Mississippi and across this country.

We from Mississippi love our State. We love our people. We want to overcome the sins and the struggles of the past. We want to find common ground. We want to find a dialogue. We want to find common values and a common purpose to move our State forward. Today, in remembrance of Medgar Evers and finding ways to reconcile the differences of the present, to overcome the wrong, we now look to the future of how we can come together as a State and as a people to honor Medgar Evers and the principles for which he stood: for freedom, for courage, from overcoming fear, to finding equal opportunity and equal rights.

I yield to the gentleman from Mississippi, my good friend and colleague, who is the lead sponsor of this; and I am glad that we could come to the floor and work together and remember a great Mississippian, Medgar Evers.

Mr. Speaker, how much time is remaining on our side?

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

Mr. Speaker, let me thank the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Thompson) for his leadership on the resolution today, for asking me to join with him, as we at the Arlington Cemetery joined together today not only with the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Thompson), but Senator Cochran, who led this resolution in the Senate last week, and Senator Lott, who was present at the cemetery today, shows that not only does an idea live on, but the example of courage and also the attitude of wanting not only to love all people, to find a way that not only did we demand the equality and the freedom that God gives us, but then we find a way to work together and come together. I think the message from Myrlie Evers today and from the other speakers, from the gentleman from California (Mr. Thompson), is in the best sense not only the best example from Mississippi, but one of the best examples for our Nation as we try to heal the wounds and reconcile and work together, and to continue the work and the commitment of equal opportunity for all of our people and all of our citizens.

I am proud to represent the home of Edgar Evers in east central Mississippi, Newton County and Decatur. Last week, Mississippians from all over the State joined to celebrate his birthplace and to commemorate his life and his death 40 years ago, but it was in one of the regions that some of the most violent and hateful struggles, and now 40 years later, all races, all backgrounds, all political parties coming to pay tribute to Medgar Wiley Evers and his family. It is a tribute and example of what our Nation has become and what our State has become and is becoming, but it reminds us that we still have much to do, and that the commitment of Medgar Evers who has harassed, intimidated, beaten and who was eventually killed, that that example, that life lived, makes us all recommit and renew and hope for the great idea, the great ideal and the redemption and the potential and the promise of this country.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Thompson) for his leadership on this issue, and thank all of the Evers family for what they have meant to our home State and to our Nation.

Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 246, I was unavoidably detained. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea.''

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in order to bring attention to a problem faced by livestock and food animal producers, animal and pet owners, zoo and wildlife biologists, and the animals themselves, which unfortunately goes largely unnoticed except by those who are directly affected.

There currently exists a severe shortage of approved animal drugs for use in minor animal species. These minor animal species include animals other than cattle, horses, chickens, turkeys, dogs, and cats. In addition, there also exists a similar shortage of drugs and medicines for major animal species for diseases that occur infrequently or which occur in limited geographic areas. Due to the lack of availability of these minor use drugs, millions of animals go either untreated or treatment is delayed. This results not only in unnecessary animal physical and human emotional suffering but may threaten human health as well.

Without access to these necessary pharmaceutical tools, farmers and ranchers also suffer. A diseased animal left untreated can quickly spread disease throughout an entire herd of its fellow species. The result is economic hardship to farmers and ranchers who are already struggling to make their operations' cash flow. For example, the sheep industry lost nearly $42 million worth of livestock alone in 2002. The industry estimates that if it had access to effective drugs to treat disease, production costs for their animals would be cut by 15 percent. In addition, feedlot deaths would be cut by up to 2 percent. Perhaps that seems like an insignificant loss, but it translates into $8 million in revenue to the industry.

The catfish industry is by far the largest livestock industry in my home state of Mississippi. It provides jobs for ten of thousands of Mississippians and is a key component of my state's economy. The industry attributes $60 million per year in losses to diseases for which drugs are not available. Of the entire food and ornamental fish industry, only 6 drugs are approved and available for treating the hundreds of aquaculture diseases which affect it. The losses associated with the lack of necessary pharmaceutical tools can be crippling to anyone involved in the industry.

Because of limited market opportunities, low returns, and enormous capital investment required, it is generally not economically feasible for drug manufacturers to pursue research and development, and then approval, for drugs used in treating minor species and infrequent conditions and diseases. Mr. Speaker, with a number of our colleagues from both sides of the aisle who recognize the urgency of this matter, Mr. John and I are today introducing legislation to help mitigate the shortage of minor species drugs. The Minor Use and Minor Species Animal Health Act of 2003 will provide manufacturers the opportunity to develop and approve minor use drugs which are vitally needed by a plethora of animal industries.

Our legislation incorporates the major proposals of the Food and Drug Administration's

(FDA) Center for Veterinary Medicine to increase the availability of drugs for minor animal species and rare diseases in all animals. The Animal Drug Availability Act of 1996 required the FDA to provide Congress with a report, describing administrative and legislative proposals to improve and enhance the animal drug approval process for minor uses and minor species of new animal drugs. This report by FDA, delivered to Congress in December 1998, laid out nine proposals. Eight of FDA's proposals required statutory changes. The bill my colleagues and I are introducing today reflects the changes called for in FDA's minor species/minor use report while maintaining and ensuring public health.

The MUMS legislation outlines two new ways to lawfully market new animal drugs:

(1) It establishes a conditional approval mechanism for new animal drugs for minor uses and minor species. Conditionally approved new animal drugs must meet the same safety requirements as new animal drugs approved under Section 512 in that a `reasonable expectation of effectiveness' as opposed to `substantial evidence of effectiveness' must be demonstrated. If conditional approval is granted by the Food and Drug Administration, the approval will be effective for one year and renewable for a maximum of four additional years. This process will allow drug sponsors to recapture some development costs through marketing the product prior to full, unconditional approval.

(2) MUMS establishes an index of legally marketed unapproved new animal drugs for non-food minor species. The index will provide a mechanism to lawfully market minor species drugs for which there is unlikely to be sufficient financial incentives to seek full or conditional approvals. If the FDA determines that a new drug is eligible for an index listing, it will be included in the index if benefits outweigh perceived risks. Additionally, the harm caused by the absence of an approved or conditionally approved drug will be taken into account when making this determination. An independent expert panel will be largely responsible for determining whether or not the drug may be allowed to be included in the index.

None of the provisions outlined in the Minor Use and Minor Species Animal Health Act will weaken the FDA's responsibilities of ensuring the safety of animal drugs to the public. The FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine currently evaluates new animal drug products prior to approval and use. The rigorous review and testing process provides consumers with the confidence that animal drugs are safe for animals and consumers of products derived from those animals. Currently, FDA guidelines include requirements to prevent harmful residues and evaluations to examine the potential for the selection of resistant pathogens. Any animal drug considered for approval under this legislation will be subject to the same requirements.

The Minor Use and Minor Species Animal Health Act is supported by the Food and Drug Administration, the American Farm Bureau Federation, the Animal Health Institute, the American Veterinary Medical Association, and virtually every organization representing all genres of minor animal species. Mr. Speaker, this is vital legislation which is needed now. This Act will alleviate much animal suffering, it will promote the health of minor animal species while protecting and promoting human health, it will benefit pets and promote the emotional security of their owners, benefit various endangered species of aquatic animals, and will reduce economic risks and hardships to farmers and ranchers.

This is common-sense legislation which will benefit millions of Americans from farmers and ranchers to pet owners and wildlife biologists, in addition to the animals themselves. I call on all my colleagues in the House to support the Minor Use and Minor Species Animal Health Act of 2003.

Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 146 I was inadvertently detained. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yeas.''

Mr. Speaker, Mississippi lost a research treasure last week with the passing of Dr. Arthur C. Guyton. His is a legacy of medical excellence going beyond Mississippi and beyond America to be recognized internationally for his gifts to science and education.

He began his life in Oxford, Mississippi, on September 8, 1919, born to the late Dr. and Mrs. Billy S. Guyton. His father--an eye, ear, nose and throat specialist--was also dean of the two-year medical school on the Oxford campus. His mother, Kate, had taught mathematics and physics as a missionary in China.

He graduated from University High School with the highest academic average in his class and entered Ole Miss in 1936, completed his undergraduate work in three years, and again graduated at the top of his class.

As a medical student at Harvard, his idea of creating a way to measure and differentiate ions in solutions resulted in a professor turning over an entire lab to the promising young scientist. His senior year in medical school, he and his future wife Ruth Weigle began a serious courtship which culminated in marriage on June 12, 1943.

He began a surgical internship at Massachusetts General Hospital shortly after his marriage. His training was interrupted by a call to serve in the US Navy at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda and later at Camp Detrick, Maryland, where his work earned him an Army Commendation Citation.

After World War II ended, he returned to Massachusetts General to complete his residency. Less than a year later, he was stricken with polio which would leave his right leg and shoulder paralyzed.

During a nine-month recovery at Warm Springs, Georgia, he designed a special leg brace, a hoist for moving patients from bed to chair to bathtub, and a motorized wheelchair controlled by an electric ``joy stick.'' For these devices, he later received the U.S. Presidential Citation for the Development of Aids for the Handicapped in 1956.

In 1947, the Guytons moved back to Oxford where he taught pharmacology in the two year medical school. In 1948, he was named chairman of the Department of Physiology and Biophysics.

Modern research on and treatments of hypertension stand on the early work of Dr. Guyton. In the 50s, he described the ``permissive'' heart to explain cardiac output. The heart would pump only what was delivered to it through the veins. When body tissues need extra blood flow to carry required oxygen and other nutrients, the blood vessels in those tissues expand or dilate, to allow increased flow. The control of cardiac output, he decided, was vested in the periphery. This completely overturned the conventional wisdom that the heart itself controlled cardiac output.

A little later, he succeeded in measuring the pressure of the interstitium, the fluid between cells which makes up about one-sixth of the body. No one had been able to measure it before, and few scientists were ready to accept Dr. Guyton's finding of a negative, or subatmospheric, pressure. In 1966, an early computer model gave Dr. Guyton the answer to the question he'd been asking since he was a medical student. He wanted to show the effect of an increase in fluid volume and had predicted that the extra volume would cause an initial rise in pressure which would then fall back part way toward normal. That didn't happen. The pressure fell all the way back to normal. This led to the ``infinite gain'' theory which said that fluid volume control by the kidney can be so powerful as a longterm regulator of blood pressure that other systems can only regulate pressure short-term and will eventually be overpowered by the key controller. These revolutionary theories flew in the face of conventional wisdom, but time and the research of thousands, has vindicated Dr. Guyton.

His now famous and widely used textbook, Textbook of Medical Physiology, had its beginnings in Oxford. He decided that the text the students were using was unsatisfactory, and he began reading in diverse areas of physiology. In summarizing his reading, he wrote handouts for each section of the course and realized he had the core of a complete textbook. In the decades since, it has become the best selling physiology text in the world and quite possibly the most widely used medical textbook of any kind. In addition he has published hundreds of papers sharing the results of his research. And yet he always had time for students--for the medical students who had trouble understanding a portion of their lecture and for the graduate students who came from all over the world to study with the famous Dr. Guyton.

The legacy of Arthur Guyton goes beyond his contributions to science and mankind. He

and his wife reared ten children, all doctors: Dr. David L. Guyton, Professor of Ophthalmology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine; Dr. Robert A. Guyton, Professor of Surgery and Chief of the Cardiothoracic Division, Emory University, School of Medicine; Dr. John R. Guyton, Associate Professor of Medicine, Duke University; Dr. Steven W. Guyton, cardiothoracic surgeon at Virginia Mason Clinic, Seattle; Dr. Cathy Greenberger, internist in Boston, Massachusetts; Dr. Jean Gispen, rheumatologist in Oxford, Mississippi; Dr. Douglas C. Guyton, anesthesiologist in Phoenix, Arizona; Dr. James L. Guyton, orthopedic surgeon at Campbell's Clinic in Memphis, Tennessee; Dr. Thomas S. Guyton, Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology, University of Florida School of Medicine, Gainesville; and Dr. Gregory P. Guyton, resident in orthopedics at University of Iowa School of Medicine.

Over the past six decades, medical science has recognized the contributions of Arthur C. Guyton. Today, we mourn his passing but salute his many accomplishments. He is a Mississippi success story: born and educated in Mississippi, he returned to the Magnolia State to teach and research. The impact of Dr. Guyton's work on the present and future of Mississippi's health care community is immeasurable. Arthur Guyton was a blessing to Mississippi. He will be missed; but he will be remembered.

Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to the Dingell substitute.

First, H.R. 6 appropriately targets and creates, effectively, authority and punishment for those who engage in fraud and manipulation. We have already seen the FERC act aggressively to enforce any type of misconduct by those companies such as Enron in market manipulation and fraud. Just as we responded to other corporate scandals, we have in this act and in the FERC appropriated authority and action to punish wrong-doers. But what we do not want to do is to needlessly expand FERC authority to rural co-ops and communities, to give courts sweeping authority that is unnecessary, unwarranted and unwise and the way that we can target wrongdoing effectively, while not creating new bureaucracy and new sweeping court authority.

For that reason, for the rural co-ops and for the others that do not need to be necessarily targeted by the FERC jurisdiction, I oppose the Dingell substitution.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to introduce a bill today to help America's energy consumers by repealing an outdated law that serves as a barrier to competition in the energy marketplace. I am pleased to be joined by the Gentleman from New York, Mr. Towns in introducing this important legislation. This bill, which is nearly identical to legislation I introduced in the last Congress and very similar to legislation approved by the Senate in the last Congress, would repeal a New Deal Law, the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 (PUHCA).

This legislation is a bipartisan initiative. The current Republican and previous Democratic Administrations have called for the repeal of PUHCA. Further, the bill would implement the recommendations of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) made in 1995 following an extensive study by the SEC of the effects of this outdated law on today's energy markets.

PUHCA is a law that has long outlived its usefulness. It imposes unnecessary costs on consumers and directly undermines the intent of current federal and state policies designed to bring more competition to America's energy market.

PUHCA was enacted in 1935 to address abuses arising out of pyramid corporate structures at a time when electric utility regulation was just starting at both the federal and state level. PUHCA's primary purpose was to dismantle more than 100 complex utility holding company structures that, in many cases, took advantage of weak federal and state regulations to pursue inappropriate business practices. There are now 28 top electric and gas utility holding companies that are required by PUHCA to operate under arbitrary investment caps that preclude them from investing in areas of need. Other utility companies are exempt from PUHCA's caps, but must operate primarily within one state in order to maintain their exemptions. Our nation's gas and electric utility companies, therefore, must operate principally within certain geographic ``boxes.'' This stifles innovation, hinders competition, and undermines the development of regional electricity markets. Moreover, such a circumstance inhibits the very competition that Congress has sought to foster in our national energy policy.

More specifically, PUHCA delays or, in some cases, prevents registered companies from offering new products and services to their consumers. As a barrier to entry for gas and electric utilities in all states, PUHCA limits investment and growth opportunities on a nationwide basis in the gas and electric industries. PUHCA also unnecessarily restricts the flow of capital into all states thereby inhibiting the development of new transmission and generation capacity. PUHCA stands in the way of the efforts by our nation's utility industry to serve consumers in a more competitive manner.

Interestingly enough, the financial collapse of Enron underscored the need to encourage--not discourage--the entry of stable, regulated, asset-backed energy companies into the marketplace. Ironically, it is just these types of companies that are effectively barred from investing in new markets by PUHCA. Enron was opposed to PUHCA repeal because its continued existence imposed competitive handicaps on well- established, asset-backed energy companies in emerging competitive markets.

The counterproductive restrictions that PUHCA places on the natural gas and electric power industries are based on historical assumptions that are no longer valid. The factors that existed when PUHCA was enacted in 1935 no longer exist today. Federal and state laws at that time were inadequate to protect consumers and investors. Today, federal and state regulations have become much more comprehensive and sensitive to market conditions. PUHCA, however, remains an economic drag on America's energy industry.

The ability of State commissions to regulate holding company systems and, together with the development of regulation under the Federal Power Act of 1935 and the Natural Gas Act of 1938, have eliminated the regulatory ``gaps'' that existed in 1935 with respect to wholesale transactions in interstate commerce. The expanded ability of State commissions and the FERC to regulate inter-affiliate transactions have further rendered the 1935 Act unnecessary. In addition, important market power issues will continue to be reviewed by FERC, DoJ and the

Mr. Speaker, I come before the House today to introduce legislation creating a Constitutional Amendment to protect the Pledge of Allegiance and the National Motto.

Last month, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals let stand the ruling of a San Francisco Federal Court which proclaimed the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional. There have been reports that the next victim of the left's crusade against the historic heritage of our nation could be to challenge the use of our National Motto, ``In God We Trust,'' on our currency.

These are unfortunate assaults on America's tradition of recognizing the role of God in our country's life, and as the foundation of our liberties. Unfortunately, there has been a trend in our courts that has sought to remove every vestige of God from our country, while child pornography is protected.

When our Founding Fathers sought the monumental break between the American people and the British King, they wrote in the Declaration of Independence that they appealed ``to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions.'' They appealed to God to judge their moral condition, their uprightness and righteousness in forming our nation. Today, we can forget making any such appeal, for our judges have declared that the mere acknowledgement of God violates our highest national law. My colleagues, those who led our country in years past would be outraged. Those who gave their lives for our independence would be outraged. Those who gave their lives that we might realize the most American dream, that ``ail men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,'' those leaders too would be outraged. Americans who gave their lives to secure our freedoms would be outraged. Americans, who this very day face a war to secure our freedoms and liberate Iraq, are outraged. And friends, I am outraged, too.

The time for action has come. Today, I am introducing legislation that would provide for a Constitutional Amendment to protect the Pledge of Allegiance and the National Motto, ``In God We Trust.''

Amending the Constitution is never taken lightly, nor should it be. Yet Congress can no longer sit idly while the courts rewrite our nation's history and traditions. This amendment is very clean, clear, concise, and unobtrusive as possible. However, it is very effective and the only way to ensure that the Pledge of Allegiance and the National Motto are protected and preserved.

I urge my colleagues to cosponsor this bill and hope that we can begin the process to move it forward.

Mr. Speaker, for the past 41 years, Wilson Terrell has coached basketball for the Laurel City School District, influencing the lives of many of the young men within the community of Laurel, Mississippi. While some people remember him as a coach, I remember him as someone who enjoyed mentoring and teaching students as much as he loved the game of basketball.

Since the beginning of his coaching career in 1962, he has been a role model for many young men. He taught them how to respect others, how to take responsibility for their actions, and a discipline of hard work and accountability. He has been a strong asset to the Laurel City School District and the community.

During his time as coach he led the Laurel Tornadoes to several District Championships and to the State playoffs. Coach Terrell loved to win at basketball, but more importantly, he loved to see his students succeed in life. Wilson Terrell is truly a man of incredible character. As a former student in the Laurel public schools, I am honored to join with the entire community, and his former and current students and players, to wish him well in his retirement and to thank him for his invaluable service.