Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, just a little while ago, we voted to suspend the acquisition of petroleum for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and for other purposes, a bill, H.R. 6022, which is going to take about 70,000 barrels of oil a day that would be going into the petroleum reserve and put it into the market for Americans to use in gasoline and other products.

It sounded very good and I voted for it because it is one small step, if you can call it a small step, in the right direction, but it's really not going to solve the problem.

The problem we have is that the United States is not energy independent. We have been talking about energy independence for the last 35 to 40 years, and we haven't done anything about it.

This House, and primarily the Democrat party, is being held hostage by the environmental lobby that won't allow us to drill in places like the ANWR in Alaska. Alaska is three-and-a-half times the size of Texas. It's huge. I've been up to Alaska. Drilling up there in the ANWR isn't going to hurt anybody or anything. And I cannot understand why we can't get 1 million to 2 million barrels of oil a day out of there that would help the American people see the price of their gasoline and other fuel products reduced dramatically.

We can't drill off the continental shelf, even 100 miles out, because of the environmental lobby, and yet Fidel Castro, and his brother Raul Castro, 90 miles off of the Florida shore, can drill within 45 miles or 50 miles of the United States of America and actually drill into oil reserves that we have down in that area. In other words, taking our oil reserves and pumping them out of that area and into their coffers, and they're selling that under contract to China, our oil reserves that we could drill for down in the area between us and Cuba.

We also have such dependency on the Middle East it isn't even funny. We have dependency on Venezuela. One of our chief adversaries now is the President of Venezuela, and he controls in large part the price of oil and gasoline in this country, as do the people in the Middle East that have great oil reserves and are pumping it.

And it's extremely important, in my opinion, that we do something about becoming energy independent. We talk about it all the time. We talk about moving toward other forms of energy and I'm for that, but it's going to take time for that transition to take place. And in the meantime, the environmental lobby is blocking us from drilling in the ANWR, drilling offshore on the continental shelf, and allowing our enemies to make a huge profit at our expense.

The gasoline prices that the American people are paying today is a direct result of us caving in this country to the environmental lobby year after year after year. We could move dramatically toward energy independence if we could just pass an energy bill that would allow us to use our resources.

And we come to this floor and talk about it all the time, and the American people are getting a steady diet that President Bush is responsible for the high gas prices. That's absolutely absurd. The reason the gas prices are as high as they are today is because we can't drill the oil out of our country and get our reserves to the market so that the gas prices can be reduced.

We can't do it because the Democratic party primarily is caving in after year after year to the environmental lobby, and we can extract oil out of the ANWR and off the continental shelf in an environmentally safe way. So, if the people of this country are really concerned about gas prices, they ought to find where the fault really lies, and that is with this Congress and the liberals who are controlled by the environmental lobby and will not allow us to drill to get the oil reserves that we have in our country and off the continental shelf.

It's a tragic shame, and I just wish the American people could get the information and the drive-by media, as Mr. Limbaugh calls it, would report the facts as they are. We have the ability to move toward energy independence, and we don't do it year after year after year, and we continue to be dependent on foreign oil. That's one of the main reasons why the price of gasoline is approaching $4 a gallon.

Madam Speaker, on May 10, 2008 the people of Azerbaijan

commemorate the 85th Jubilee of the birth of their late President Heydar Aliyev. A larger than life personality and a man of enormous political skill and stature, Heydar Aliyev worked tirelessly for more than 30 years--first as part of the Soviet Union, and later as President of a free and independent Azerbaijan--to build a strong, vibrant, healthy and prosperous nation.

When Azerbaijan regained its independence in 1991, the political and economic vacuum caused by the collapse of the Soviet Union, domestic tensions fueled by competing forces at home and the disastrous war in Nagorno-Karabakh--which resulted in the military occupation of 20 percent of Azerbaijan, and nearly one million refugees and internally displaced people--threatened to rip the country apart. Many Azerbaijanis were fearful that their first experience as the short- lived first Republic in the Muslim world (1918-1920), would be repeated; and that a free and independent Azerbaijan would be nothing but a footnote in history.

Heydar Aliyev, however, had a vision for Azerbaijan. He knew that Azerbaijan's future would be assured if countries around the world had a stake in its independence and he knew that the key to attracting international investment in Azerbaijan's rich resources was stability. In 1993, when Heydar Aliyev became President of the Republic, first by appointment under the constitution, then through direct popular election he moved quickly to implement his vision. First, he negotiated a cease-fire in the war with Armenia--which was implemented in 1994-- and next he pushed Parliament to begin enacting a series of laws to make the country friendlier to foreign investment and a member of the international market economy. President Aliyev opened up the country to investment from the United States, Western Europe, Russia, and Turkey and Azerbaijan soon became a pioneer in opening the Caspian Sea to international cooperation and oil and gas exploration. In fact, since the so-called ``Contract of the Century'' was signed in 1994, Azerbaijan has extensively developed its energy resources to help diversify western energy supplies. The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline, for example, which became fully operational in July 2006 and will soon provide one-third of the new oil flowing into the international market. In addition to the BTC pipeline, the Baku- Tbilisi-Erzurum gas pipeline is now functioning.

President Aliyev was also aggressive in asserting Azerbaijan's place on the international political stage. He became a great friend to the United States and one of the first international leaders to offer unconditional assistance to the U.S.-led fight against global terrorism after 9-11--and was also one of the few Muslim leaders to agree to send troops to Iraq and Afghanistan. The strong relations between our two nations are a monument to his determination and will not be forgotten.

Madam Speaker, despite foreign and domestic critics of President Aliyev's pro-western policies, most people acknowledge that President Heydar Aliyev represented security during those very dark early years of Azerbaijan's second independence; and most Azerbaijanis felt at the time that as long as Heydar Aliyev was at the helm, the ship of state would not sink. Today it's up to the youth of Azerbaijan to steer that ship and to carry on Heydar Aliyev's vision of a strong, vibrant, healthy and prosperous, and independent Azerbaijan. If they build upon the legacy President Aliyev left, I have no doubt they will succeed.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that my name be removed as a cosponsor of H.R. 5534.

Mr. Speaker, today the House of Representatives voted on H. Con. Res. 322, recognizing the 60th anniversary of the founding of the modem State of Israel and reaffirming the bonds of close friendship and cooperation between the people of the United States and the people of Israel. I am proud to be a cosponsor and strong supporter of this legislation because it pays appropriate honor and respect to our truest partner and defender of freedom and democracy in the Middle East, Israel.

Since its establishment 60 years ago, the people of Israel have turned a desert into a new nation, forged a new and dynamic society, and created a unique and vital economic, political, cultural, and intellectual life despite the heavy costs of seven wars, unrelenting terrorism, frequent international ostracism, and economic boycotts. Through it all, the people of Israel and the people of the United States have shared a special bond. Forged originally in Israel's fight for survival, for freedom and for democracy in a region dominated by authoritarian and military regimes; today that relationship encompasses broad, social, cultural and economic ties as well.

For 60 years, the United States and Israel have maintained a special relationship based on mutually shared democratic values, common strategic interests, and moral bonds of friendship and mutual respect; most importantly, the people of the United States have a special affinity for the people of Israel, and regard Israel as a strong and trusted ally and an important strategic partner. To our ally, our partner, and our friend, I offer my prayers for peace and my congratulations on your 60th birthday.

Mr. Speaker, occasionally things happen when you're in Congress that make you so angry that you can't hardly stand it.

I got a call this past week, Mr. Speaker, from a friend of mine from my childhood. And her brother is a veteran who was in the veterans hospital, and he was assigned to a community residential care program. That's where they put one of these veterans into a home in a neighborhood with other veterans, and they're supposed to be cared for.

She told me that the place where he was being kept was not clean and that the room he was in had a window that was sealed shut. He took oxygen, and there were no signs or anything that dealt with the oxygen that he was taking. A dog in the house came into his room and chewed through his oxygen tube. He had to keep his door shut, so it virtually made him a prisoner in this house.

There were four veterans in this house. And the attitude of the person who ran this home was not anything that you would call conducive to good care. The two sisters of his were very, very upset and they thought that he shouldn't be kept in this place, and they asked me if I would check into it. So I called the caseworker, a lady named Pat Erp, and she told me that everything out there was fine. I said I wanted to see for myself. So I went out to the house. By the time I had arrived, they had contacted the woman who owned the house, and she was very hostile and said she wouldn't allow me, even though I was a Member of Congress, to take a look at the circumstances under which Mr. English was living, that's my buddy from childhood, Paul English. I didn't want to press the case, so I called the director of the Roudebush Hospital in Indianapolis. He wasn't in, but I did get his assistant director, who was very nice, and he agreed to have somebody come out there and take a look at the situation.

He came out with two ladies who were nurses there. And my childhood friend's sister went into the house with him to try to get his clothes and everything out of there so they could take him to her house until they found another place for him to be kept.

They were hostile, the two nurses from the Roudebush Hospital were hostile. They evidently changed the cord on his oxygen equipment, and they said that nothing like that happened, and yet his sister saw that it happened and they were very upset.

The room in the house was not clean. He had two towels in his room, both of which had holes in them, obviously older. And on the weekends, the caseworker said that the woman who took care of these veterans who were in her care would leave for the weekend and left a pot of food on the stove.

This isn't the way that our veterans ought to be taken care of when they're in a community residential care program, so I decided to pursue it further.

And I got a call today and I returned the call of a lady named Phyllis Beamon, who is the head of the Extended Care Unit at the Indianapolis Veterans Affairs Medical Center, the Roudebush Hospital today. And she indicated that everything was fine and that they've used this house and this caregiver since 1983. And I could only imagine what other veterans had to live with who lived in this house since 1983 and were given this kind of ``care.''

I can't tell you how this affected me. I served on the Veterans Affairs Committee for 10 years. And I had heard stories like this before, but I always felt that the veterans were getting the quality of care that we were paying for as taxpayers, and they were being taken care of. And yet my friend from my childhood was being mistreated, in my opinion.

His sister finally got him out of there and took him to her house. And the day after she took him to her house, because of the stress he was under, he had a heart attack. He went to the hospital and they put two stints in him and he did survive.

Don't misunderstand, Mr. Speaker, I think the people that serve in our veterans hospitals for the most part do an outstanding job. The nurses and the doctors who serve our veterans do a good job, but there are occasions when the care is not just less than adequate, it's almost criminally inadequate.

And this is one of the cases that really bothers me. And I'm going to call for a complete investigation of the Community Residential Care program and the people who provide it at the Indianapolis Roudebush Hospital, not because I don't think that most of the people who work at the hospital do a good job, because I think they do, but I think there's a dereliction of responsibility in this Community Residential Care program that needs to be corrected and it needs to be corrected very, very quickly.

We shouldn't have a veteran in a room in a house with the windows sealed so he can't get out in the event of an emergency. We shouldn't have him taking oxygen with a dog that's going to come in the room and chew on his oxygen tube. We shouldn't have people that are leaving the premises unattended with four veterans in there on a weekend and telling their relatives, well, you ought to take him someplace else because there won't be anybody here, and if they are here, they leave the food on the stove so they can get their own food. And these people, many of them, are mentally challenged, like my friend is. He's had some psychological problems.

Let me just say in closing, Mr. Speaker, this is something that needs to be addressed. There needs to be an investigation of the Community Residential Care program in Indianapolis, and if it's like this in other parts of the country, we need to have a national investigation.

Madam Speaker, since 1993 HVAF (Helping Homeless Veterans and Families) of Indiana, Inc. has been committed to assisting our Nation's veterans overcome the challenges of homelessness. I rise today to honor this remarkable organization, and it's most recent initiative, Operation Heartland, which has dedicated itself to taking care of the needs of our heroes.

HVAF has successfully organized projects such as small-scale supportive housing units for homeless vets and the Veteran's Service Center where homeless veterans can obtain food, clothing, hygiene products, IndyGo bus tickets, and use shower facilities; but Operation Heartland is perhaps HVAF's most ambitious project to date. The goal of Operation Heartland is to raise funds to furnish a 40 unit apartment building as the Donald W. Moreau, Sr. Veterans House. Hopefully by August of this year the Moreau House will be up and running and able to accommodate 40 homeless veterans, many of whom have substance abuse or mental health issues. While staying at the Moreau house, homeless veterans will have the opportunity to receive counseling and other rehabilitative services from HVAF staff, in hopes of returning to society as productive citizens.

In a vote of confidence that HVAF would be successful, Oprah Winfrey's Big Give program recently gave $5,000 to help Operation Heartland get off the ground. Since then, the outpouring of support for Operation Heartland generated by Hoosiers has been substantial. Many of the donors who have already committed to the program include the Indianapolis Colts, FedEx Corporation, and Cathedral High School. One individual donor personally committed to provide over 15 percent of Operation Heartland's entire goal, and a local mom, who couldn't provide funding, committed her quilting group to provide quilts for the Moreau House.

Caring for our veterans--the men and women who have provided such an incredible service to our country--is one of the most important things we can do. Operation Heartland will help to get our veterans off the streets and into safe homes and satisfying jobs. Our homeless veterans, who have served our country with the utmost courage, honor and dignity, especially deserve the kind of second chance that Operation Heartland and similar initiatives can provide. Madam Speaker, organizations like HVAF of Indiana are working hard to repay the debt we all owe to all the men and women who ever served in our Armed Forces. They deserve our support, our respect and our profound thanks; and I ask all of my colleagues to join me in recognizing the exemplary efforts of HVAF of Indiana.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life and legacy of a dear friend and respected colleague of mine, Representative Julia Carson, and strongly support the underlying bill, H.R. 5472, ``To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 2650 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street, Indianapolis, IN, as the ``Julia M. Carson Post Office Building.''

Born in poverty and racial segregation to a teenage single mother in 1938, Julia Porter Carson worked her way up through politics to become one of the most influential people in central Indiana. Julia Carson had a long career as a public servant.

In 1965, while working as a secretary at UAW Local 550, she was hired away by newly elected congressman Andy Jacobs to do casework in his Indianapolis office. When his own electoral prospects looked dim in 1972, he encouraged Carson to run for the Indiana State House of Representatives, which she did; she was elected in 1972, serving as a member for 4 years. In 1976, she successfully ran for the Indiana State Senate.

In 1990, she was elected as a trustee for Center Township that covers downtown Indianapolis, and was responsible for running welfare programs in central Indianapolis. Carson served 6 years as a trustee, creating a $6-million surplus from the office's $20-million debt. Carson employed an aggressive workfare program and anti-fraud procedures to quickly erase the enormous debt, while still providing much needed emergency services to the poor of Indianapolis. Her budget-balancing feat earned compliments from both sides of the political spectrum, including that of republican county auditor John Von Arx, who said, ``Julia Carson wrestled that monster to the ground.''

In 1996, Julia Carson made history by becoming the first African- American woman Indiana has ever sent to Congress. Despite all her accomplishments and success, she never forgot her roots; she always remained true to herself and her beliefs. With all her success and accomplishments, she could have moved to a better neighborhood but chose not to. To the day she died, Julia Carson's home telephone number was in the Indianapolis phone book.

In all my years in Congress, I am not sure I can remember anyone as dedicated to their constituents as Julia was. She reached out to senior citizens, mothers of men and women serving in Iraq, crime victims and those struggling to pay the rent. She sent cards and routinely showed up at funerals and hospitals and front doors. She worked to find work for young men who were coming out of prison. She helped crime victims who were seeking justice.

While I didn't always agree with Julia politically, I always enjoyed working with her and her welcoming smile. She was a great woman and a dedicated public servant. While I was lucky to serve with her in this body, I was luckier to call her my friend. It is right that we honor her in the community that she served by naming this post office in her memory.

Madam Speaker, on April 1st, the House of Representatives approved an important piece of legislation, H. Res. 185, expressing the sense of the House of Representatives regarding the creation of refugee populations in the Middle East, North Africa, and the Persian Gulf region. I was proud to support the passage of this legislation because it recognized all those who have suffered during this long-standing conflict. For the first time in my memory, the House of Representatives has gone on record to say that the refugee population in the Middle East is not simply comprised of Palestinians, it is also the 850,000 Jews who have been displaced from Arab countries since the declaration of the State of Israel in 1948. The U.S.-led roadmap to peace specifically calls for an ``agreed, just, fair, and realistic solution to the refugee issue;'' and in my opinion, and in the unanimous and united opinion of this House, that means Jewish and non-Jewish refugees alike.

Throughout my tenure in the United States Congress, I have seen the U.S. act as a stalwart champion of human rights, and I have seen this House stand up and voice concerns about the treatment of refugees and minorities, as well as concerns on violations of basic human rights throughout the Middle East and elsewhere. As the U.S. continues to play a pivotal role in seeking an end to the Arab-Israeli conflict in the Middle East, I urge my colleagues to continue to speak out and remind the world that we must not overlook the Jewish refugee problem in our enthusiasm for peace.

I look forward to working with my colleagues to further this important effort.

Mr. Speaker, one of the things that's made the United States and the world healthier than at any period of the world has been vaccinations. Vaccinations have stopped so many dreaded diseases from killing hundreds of thousands, millions of people, it's not even funny.

But while vaccines have saved so many lives, there have also been some shortcomings in vaccines. When I was chairman of the Government Reform and Oversight Committee, I held hearings on autism; and we have gone from 1 in 10,000 children who are autistic to 1 in 150. We have an absolute epidemic of autism in this country, and hundreds of thousands of families have been affected and they have nowhere to turn.

Because of that, we passed in the 1980s what was called the Vaccine Injury Compensation Fund, and it was supposed to take care of families and people who were injured by vaccines and had nowhere to turn. Well, that was supposed to be a nonconfrontational system. But unfortunately, there has been nobody, up until recently, who has been paid out of the vaccine compensation fund. And one of the reasons is because Health and Human Services and the Food and Drug Administration have said that the mercury in vaccines, 50 percent of it is a preservative called thimerosal. The mercury in vaccines did not cause autism, and there have been a lot of studies that have come out saying the mercury in the vaccines was not a root cause of the autism crisis that we have in this country.

In fact, in 2004, there was a report that said categorically that the thimerosal, the mercury in the vaccines, was not a cause of autism. And yet, just recently, in the Journal of Child Neurology, an article published by Drs. DeSoto and Hiltlan, both doctors, reexamined that study and they said it was in error and that there was no doubt that the mercury in the vaccinations was a contributing factor to the epidemic of autism that we have in this country.

As a result of that and other information, some of the test cases that have been raised and are in progress right now have come before the special master. And just recently, a young

lady who was damaged by vaccinations, a young lady from Georgia, Hannah Poling, her case went before the special master, and the Justice Department had five attorneys who said that this young lady was not damaged in part by the mercury in the vaccinations. This young lady got five vaccinations in one day, most of which contained thimerosal, which is 50 percent ethyl-mercury. Shortly thereafter, she became autistic.

The same thing happened to my grandson. He got nine shots in one day, and within a short time, he became autistic. I won't go into all of the details of what happens when you become autistic, but it is certainly a tremendous change in the lives of not only the child but the entire family.

But anyhow, this case went before the special master along with two others. And just recently, a decision was made in that case by the special master; and in spite of the evidence that was presented by the Health and Human Services, the FDA, and the Justice Department, the special master awarded damages to this family and said that this girl was damaged by the vaccination. And the case was brought because this young lady took several shots, five in one day, that had mercury in them. So this is the first case that shows, in my opinion, that the mercury in vaccines is a contributing factor to the epidemic of autism that we have in this country.

The reason I come before the floor tonight to talk about this is it's time that we got mercury out of all vaccinations. We've been able to get it out of most of the children's vaccinations, but it's still in some. I think it is in three or four now. It needs to be out of all children's vaccinations.

We have had an increase in the cases of Alzheimer's in this country, and that's because in part, in my opinion, because mercury is in almost all of the adult vaccinations. When you get a flu shot or almost any kind of a shot, you're getting ethyl-mercury injected into your body. Now if we eat fish, they tell us to be careful because there's mercury in the fish and it may cause neurological damage. Yet, we are injecting it into ourselves and into our children through vaccinations.

It's high time that the Food and Drug Administration, Health and Human Services, and the pharmaceutical industry decides we want vaccinations because they give us a better quality of life and makes us live longer and prevents us from getting diseases, but we have to get mercury out of all vaccinations out of anything that goes into the human body; and until we do that, the problems with autism and other neurological diseases will continue to rise.

So I would like to say to my colleagues, I hope you will pay attention to this special order tonight. We have to get mercury out of all vaccinations. We can do it with single-shot vials that will not require that preservative; and once we do that, I think we will have a much better quality of life, and people will be able to get vaccinations without worrying about becoming autistic.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to remove my name as a cosponsor of H. Res. 865.

Madam Speaker, I know Julia Carson, who was a beloved Member of all of us in this body, is looking down from heaven today and is very, very proud of Andre. He was the apple of her eye, her grandson, and if there was one thing she wanted, she wanted him to succeed her in the Congress of the United States. I am sure she is very, very happy today.

Andre has a background in law enforcement. He worked with the State police, he worked with Homeland Security in the area of terrorism watching and controlling. He is a past member of the City-County Council of Indianapolis, and I presume they are going to have to pick somebody else to fill your seat now.

He will be a welcome Member of this body. We congratulate you on your election and we look forward to working with you.

Madam Speaker, I yield to my colleague from Indiana (Mr. Buyer).

Andre's wife, I presume, is here with him today, Mariama. They are the proud parents of a 1-year-old daughter, Salimah. I am sure when she is a little older, she will be very proud as well.

I yield to the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Visclosky).

Madam Speaker, I yield to our new Member of Congress.

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

I would like to submit my whole statement for the Record and be a little more brief.

Mrs. Margaret Truman Daniel, as has been stated, was the daughter of Harry Truman, who was one of the fighting Presidents of the United States, and his daughter, Margaret, was also a very strong young lady. As has been mentioned, she became a vocalist, had her own television show. She went to George Washington University, and in 1944, the same year her father was elected Vice President, she earned her first degree. In 1946, one year after her father was sworn in as President of the United States, Margaret graduated with her bachelors in history. At the age of 16, she became a singer, taking voice lessons from a friend in Independence, and after graduating from GW, she pursued her career as a vocalist.

She was a very outstanding young lady, accomplished a great deal, and was a credit to not only her mother and father but her country. She was highly regarded. She married a gentleman from the New York Times, and they, I think, had four children and three or four grandchildren. She was a very fine lady, and I think it's appropriate we honor her today with this.

I rise today to urge passage of this resolution honoring one of the great first-daughters of American history, Mrs. Margaret Truman Daniel.

Born to Harry and Bess Truman on February 17, 1924, in Independence, Missouri, Margaret Truman spent the majority of her childhood in her hometown until, in 1934, her father was elected to the United States Senate.

Through the remainder of her primary school years, she split her education between Independence and Washington before graduating in 1942.

That year she enrolled in George Washington University and in 1944, the same year her father was elected Vice President, she earned her associates of art. In 1946, one year after her father was sworn in as President of the United States, Margaret graduated with her bachelors in history.

At the age of 16 Margaret began taking voice lessons from a friend in Independence and after graduating from GW, she actively pursued her career as a vocalist.

Making her concert debut in 1947 with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Margaret Truman embarked on a career that included several national tours and appearances at Constitution Hall and Carnegie Hall.

Never shirking her duties as first-daughter, she always made time to break from her blossoming career to help her father, including frequent trips with him during his successful 1948 ``Whistlestop'' reelection campaign.

After her father left the White House in 1953, Margaret took her vocal talents to New York City, where she spent a number of years working in both radio and television. While in New York, Miss Truman met Clifton Daniel, an assistant editor for the New York Times, and the two were wed in 1956 in Independence. The Daniels were the proud parents of four boys and grandparents of five.

Beyond singing, Margaret Truman enjoyed a successful career as a writer. Completing her first book in 1956, she is probably best known for her Capital crime series novels, most of which took place in Washington, DC. She also published a number of biographies and non- fiction books relating to her parents and her time in the White House.

After her husband's retirement in 1977, Margaret spent the remainder of her years in New York.

She maintained her deep commitment to public service until the time of her death, serving on the board of trustees of the Truman Scholarship Foundation and as a member of the board of directors of the Truman Library Institute, among other worthy bodies. In 1984, she was the recipient of the Harry S. Truman Public Service Award.

On January 29, 2008, at the age of 83, Margaret Truman Daniels passed away in Chicago.

She will live on in the hearts of this country not only as a dedicated first-daughter and public servant, but also as a passionate vocalist, talented writer, and loving mother and grandmother. Let us honor this tremendous American with swift and unanimous passage of this resolution.

Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in supporting this fitting tribute.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the remainder of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to my colleague from Texas (Mr. Smith), the sponsor of the bill, such time as he may consume.

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

I rise today to urge passage of this bill honoring a tremendous citizen of the great State of Texas for her continued dedication to improving her region, state, and country--the Honorable Cyndi Taylor Krier.

A native of Texas, Cyndi Krier has proudly followed in the footsteps of a long line of public servants. Her grandfather served as the postmaster in Dinero, Texas, until his death in 1956 and was succeeded by his wife, Cyndi's grandmother, who served as postmaster for an additional 20 years. Additionally, Cyndi's own mother served the USPS in Beeville, Texas, for more than 30 years.

Earning both her bachelor's and law degrees from the University of Texas, Austin, Mrs. Krier was elected to the State Senate in 1984 and went on to serve two terms, until 1992.

In 1992, Mrs. Krier became the first woman and first Republican ever elected as Bexar County Judge. In this capacity she worked to ``Build a Better Bexar County.''

Throughout her career as judge, she focused on youth education programs, broad-based ethics reform, recycling and conservation, competition for country and contracts and controlling government spending. She was successfully reelected twice in 1994 and 1998.

In 2001, Governor Rick Perry appointed her to a six-year term on the University of Texas System Board of Regents. She served in various capacities on the board including as vice chairman and as Chairman of the Academic Affairs Committee.

Throughout her career, Mrs. Krier has remained active in the community outside of her professional duties. Whether through her work with the United Way, serving as Chairman of the UT Austin Ex-Student Association or the number of statewide task forces helping to plan for the future of Texas, Judge Krier has consistently demonstrated her commitment to improving others' lives.

I urge swift passage of this bill designating the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 10250 John Saunders Road in San Antonio, Texas, as the ``Cyndi Taylor Krier Post Office Building,'' to honor this dedicated, passionate, and tireless public servant.

Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in supporting this fitting tribute.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

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

Mr. Speaker, I would just like to ask of the bill's sponsor if he would mind adding my name as a cosponsor of the bill.

Mr. Speaker, the reason I want to do that is because I remember ``Big Cat.'' When I was a boy, I remember when he broke into the NBA, and he was an outstanding basketball player.

The prejudice that occurred back in those days was unbelievable. I played sports at Shortridge High School, and we used to go down to a place called St. Andrews and we played against some really great basketball players who understood how the game was to be played.

Big Cat said, and I just read his biography, his background here, said it was tougher playing basketball on the grass courts and the asphalt courts than it was when he went into college and the NBA, and I can attest to the fact that that was pretty rough basketball.

We played against a guy, he probably doesn't remember me very well, but we played against a guy named Oscar Robertson back in the fifties who was a pretty good basketball player from Indiana. And ``Biscuit'' Williams and Herschel Turner and some of the other guys that had to endure the prejudices of that time were really outstanding basketball players. You have to give an awful lot of credit to people who were willing to fight and overcome the racial prejudice and barriers that existed at that time.

So Big Cat gets my vote, along with Oscar Robertson and all these other guys. I really admire them for what they went through, and I also admire them for their basketball ability. I am telling you, some of those guys were unbelievable. Oscar Robertson was the only guy I ever saw play basketball who could go in five different directions at once and hit a shot without touching the rim. He was unbelievable. And Big Cat was in that league as well.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H. Con. Res. 286, honoring the accomplishments of Lloyd, the first African-American man to play in the NBA.

How strange it must seem to young people that a league now 80 percent populated by African-American players once didn't allow them.

But before Earl Lloyd signed with the Washington Capitols in 1950, that wasn't the case.

Mr. Speaker, I don't want to take away anything from the well- chronicled accomplishments of Jackie Robinson. But in some ways, it must have been more difficult to do what Earl Lloyd did.

Baseball is played on a big field, and the players are rarely close enough to the fans to hear their comments.

Basketball is played in a room--sometimes not all that big of a room. Players wear what amounts to glorified underwear. In basketball, players hear the comments that get directed at them.

But Earl Lloyd was used to that. Raised in Alexandria, Virginia, Lloyd honed his skills on the tough playgrounds of this very city, Mr. Speaker. He once said college and even pro basketball were easy after the education he'd received on the Banneker and Parkview playgrounds in Washington, DC.

Mr. Speaker, Earl Lloyd did not accomplish what he did because of his skin color. And how did he do it? He helped his teams win. At West Virginia State, he led his team to two conference championships and one runner-up finish. In the pros, after being drafted by Washington, he played six seasons with the Syracuse Nationals.

In 1955, the Nationals won the NBA title, making Lloyd the first African-American man to own an NBA championship ring.

Today, he works in community relations for the Bing Group, which was founded by another D.C. basketball legend--Dave Bing.

He continues to contribute and make his community proud.

Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in supporting this fitting tribute.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I will submit the majority of my remarks for the Record.

I would just like to say that after reading about this gentleman, Mr. Chin, I think it is a great honor for him to receive having his name put on this post office. But he earned it. He really earned it. When you read about his exploits, as my colleague just mentioned, you can see why people like this deserve recognition.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the memory of a great American, Arthur Chin, who passed away in 1997 at the age of 85.

Angered by the Japanese invasion of China's northeastern provinces, Mr. Chin sailed to China along with other Chinese-American flyers to volunteer for the Chinese Air Force in 1932. After enlisting in the Chinese Air Force, Mr. Chin fought in many aerial battles against the more experienced Japanese.

Mr. Chin excelled in his military career and rose through the ranks to become a major in 1939. By this time, he had been shot down and wounded three times, and was severely burned when his Gloster Gladiator was hit by enemy fire at 3,000 feet and exploded.

Amazingly, he survived but he spent five years recovering in hospitals all over the world. Despite the extensive healing process, Mr. Chin valiantly flew again.

He transported supplies from India to China over the Himalayas until the end of the war.

After the war, Mr. Chin briefly flew for China National Airways Corporation in China until the Communists took over in 1949.

Upon returning to the United States, Mr. Chin settled back in his hometown of Portland, Oregon where he took a job with the United States Postal Service.

Because of his outstanding military service, he was awarded numerous medals, including the prestigious Distinguished Flying Cross. Soon after his death, Mr. Chin was also honored as one of the first American aviators inducted into the American Combat Airmen's Hall of Fame.

In recognition of his years of selfless public service to his State and country, I believe it is fitting to name a post office in Beaverton, Oregon, in Mr. Chin's honor.

I yield back the balance of my time.