Floor Statements

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

I rise in support of the Inslee-Van Hollen amendment, and I do so because the basic rights and freedoms that we are attempting to guarantee for these civilian labor forces in DOD are those rights for which our military has fought and continues to fight.

The real reason that we are involved in Iraq and in other places throughout the world is to guarantee rights and freedoms for individuals. We simply want to guarantee those same rights and freedoms for our workforce.

I was heartened to hear the gentleman from California (Mr. Lewis) suggest that perhaps there is a window of opportunity for continuous discussion, for continuous interaction. I was pleased to hear the ranking member suggest that this is the last minute; and, hopefully, we can have continuous discussions over an extended period of time to make sure that we can guarantee for our civilian workforce those rights and privileges for which our military fights throughout the world.

So I support this amendment.

Mr. Speaker, I take this opportunity to commend and congratulate Dr. Shaffdeen Amuwo on a very meaningful and successful career as he approaches retirement. Teaching to me has always been one of the noblest and most rewarding of all the professions. I take this position because to me, when you teach you give a part of yourself to others who are attempting to move from one level of being to another.

Dr. Shaffdeen Amuwo migrated to this country from his native Nigeria to attend school in an effort to improve his own life and to be in a position to make life better for others,, Never one to shirk responsibility or to miss opportunities, he worked at a number of odd jobs while attending school and eventually earned both Ph.D. and MPH degrees.

Dr. Amuwo understood that education requires more than just activity with the classroom. He took his knowledge and skills out into the community sharing with common and ordinary people. He became a prolific proposal writer and raised substantial sums of money for programs and instructional activities. Through his efforts and as a result of his serious understanding of what public health should really do, Dr. Amuwo helped to open up new vistas of understanding and was indeed a bridge builder between the school and the community as well as between his native African brothers and sisters and the traditional African American community of Chicago.

Although you are retiring in a formal way, we expect to see you at all of the meetings and will continue to make use of your vast knowledge, skill, and commitment. And as you go, in the words of an Irish Proverb, ``May the Road rise up to meet you, may the wind always be at your back, may the Sun shine warmly upon your face and until we meet again, may the good Lord hold you in the hollow of his hand.''

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of and as a cosponsor of H.R. 1811, the Family Opportunity Act. By passing this legislation we are giving the States the opportunity of allowing families of disabled children to purchase Medicaid coverage for them as well as providing treatment of inpatient psychiatric hospital services for individuals under age 21 under waivers allowing for payment of part or all of the cost of home or community-based services.

This is a great first step of fixing the bias of institutional care in Medicaid compared to home or community-based services. Parents will no longer have to drive hours to visit their child but instead opt to have them remain at home or live close by in a community setting and still receive their Medicaid dollars. Another great aspect in this legislation is establishing family-to-family health information centers. Sometimes just talking or listening to another person, another family that actually understands what one family is experiencing can settle nerves and make one feel more comfortable with the future challenges they may face. I commend my colleague from Texas, Mr. Sessions for sponsoring this legislation.

I hope we can continue to work together to enforce the Olmstead decision and develop more opportunities for individuals with disabilities over the age of 21 through more accessible systems of cost-effective community-based services. I am proud to have introduced H.R. 2032, the Medicaid Attendant Services and Supports Act also known as MiCASSA with my friend from Illinois, Mr. Shimkus. MiCASSA as the Family Opportunity Act would change the system of long-term care as we know it today. Nationally, approximately 70 percent of the Federal and State spending still goes to institutions instead of home or community settings. Our colleagues in the Senate held a hearing on MiCASSA, S. 1394, Money Follows the Person, and the President's New Freedom initiative earlier in the year. I urge my colleagues in the House to hold a similar hearing.

Mr. Speaker, as I have stated, I support H.R. 1811 and believe it is a great step towards Olmstead. But it is wrong to provide such great services to individuals with disabilities that only end once they become adults. I urge my colleagues to support this bill and support continuing services for individuals with disabilities beyond the age of 21.

Madam Speaker, it is startling when one in three children are raised ``fatherless'', but it is part of our reality. Numerous studies have shown the devastating effects on children when fathers did not play an active role in their child's life. For these reasons, although, it is important to discuss the interactions of mother and child, we cannot forget the interactions of the whole family and the inclusion of fathers.

As the Committee on Education and the Workforce discussed the reauthorization of Head Start, I was able to have A Fatherhood Initiative amendment incorporated into the bill. The initiative is intended to strengthen the role of fathers in families, in their child's life, and allow them to play an interactive role in their child's development and education. By getting fathers involved during their child's early years, we hope it will set the precedent for a lifetime of bonding and positive interaction between the two. Within this initiative and after the general outreach to father, the fathers will be included in home visits and targeted for more participation.

Although we would hope that all fathers would take part in their child's life, it is not always the case. This is why my amendment extends the father initiative to father figures as well to make sure that the male role model is firm in a child's life, whether it is an older brother, uncle, grandfather or step-parent.

Madam Speaker, as we get ready to celebrate Father's Day on Sunday, we hope that more fathers will step up to their important role as a parent. Yet, it is also a day to give great praise, support and to celebrate the fathers in our Nation that never gave up, never backed down and have always been fathers and daddies to their children. Overall, our focus should be on the child--and to fully bring awareness of the best well-being of a child, we must put our efforts on strengthening the whole family.

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

Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong support of the Slaughter-Shays-Dicks- Leach amendment to increase funding for the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. It seems to me that budgets reflect a lot of different things. They reflect priorities. They reflect opportunities to eradicate and spend down deficits. They reflect opportunities to go more deeply in debt. But they also reflect hopes, aspirations and ways of life.

I represent a very diverse and pluralistic district. As a matter of fact, I always say it is the most fantastic, fascinating district in all of America. Downtown Chicago, the Gold Coast, Magnificent Mile, Old Town, Greek Town, China Town, Ukrainian Village, Soulville. Lots of different people with different ideas about things. The arts and the humanities are a way of binding people from different communities together just as they reflect opportunities to bind people from different areas of the country and different walks of life.

Yes, I understand that there are deficits. I understand that the economy is not what we would hope for it to be. I also understand the need to invest in

fighting terrorism. We have a war to finance, a war that I had hoped we would not have to have. But notwithstanding all of that, we also have the opportunity to continue our commitment to life and to bind the Nation more closely together. I cannot think of any better way to do that than to provide these meager grants, I call it a minor investment, for which we get tremendous returns.

And so again I commend the gentlewoman from New York, the gentleman from Connecticut, the gentleman from Washington and the gentleman from Iowa for offering this amendment which gives all of us an opportunity to help make America become that Nation that it has the potential of being and yet has not been. I urge passage of this amendment.

Mr. Speaker, tonight I pay tribute to the angel of soul in music Mr. Ray Charles the piano man with the soulful voice who reshaped American music for a half century. He brought the essence of soul to country, jazz, rock, and every other style of music that you can think of he had an influence on it.

Mr. Charles died at the age of 73 of an acute liver disease at his Beverly Hills home at 11:35 a.m. on Thursday, June 10, 2004 surrounded by family and friends. As a singer, pianist and composer, Charles broke racial and musical barriers as an African American, blind by the age of 7 and an orphan at 15, he spent the rest of his life blending rhythm and blues into various musical art forms that earned him 12 Grammy Awards and immense fame for five decades.

Ray Charles ``The Genius'' produced many hit songs like ``What'd I Say?'' which featured the Raelettes, was his first million selling song. Next came a classic version of Hoagy Carmichael's 1930 song ``Georgia on My Mind.'' Charles version became the official state song of Georgia. Due to some objections by recording executives at the label company, Charles made ``Modern Sounds in Country and Western music'' in 1962, an album that produced a million-seller with songs like ``I Can't Stop Loving You'' and the popular hit ``Hit the Road, Jack'' and ``Let the Good Times Roll.'' At the 1960 Grammy Awards, he took home four awards across all genres, including best vocal performance by a pop artist (``Georgia on My Mind''), best vocal performance album (``The Genius of Ray Charles'') and best R&B performance (``Let the Good Times Roll'').

He later won Grammy Awards for ``Busted'' in 1963 and ``Crying Time'' in 1966 and other songs like ``Let's Go Get Stoned.'' In all, Mr. Charles made more than 60 albums and his influence has resonated through generations of country, pop, R&B and gospel singers.

Mr. Charles began involving himself in music at a very early age. In his autobiography, Charles said, ``as long as I can remember, music has always been something extraordinary in my life. It's always been something that completely captured my attention--from the time I was three, when Mr. Pitman was showing me these little melodies. My first love was the music I heard in the community: blues, church gospel music, and country and western. My mom would let me stay up to listen to the Grand Old Opry on Saturday night. That's the only time I got to stay up late. I heard the blues played by Muddy Waters and Blind Boy Philips and Tampa Red and Big Boy Crudup. And of course every night if you listened to the right station, you might pick up a little Duke Ellington or Count Basie. But the bulk of what I heard of blues in those days was called ``race music,'' which became rhythm and blues, and rhythm and blues later was called soul music.''

Mr. Charles learned to read and write music in Braille, scored for big bands and played instruments like the trumpet, clarinet, organ, alto sax and the piano. This experience in reading Braille and playing by ear helped Charles develop a superb memory where he could sit at his desk and write a complete arrangement in his head and not touch a musical instrument and the music would come out exactly the way it sounded in his head.

Mr. Charles thank you for being the angel of soul, you will be missed.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 4061. This bill is a step forward in giving hope to orphans and defenseless children in developing countries. In 2001 it was reported that there were over 110 million orphans in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.

Many of these children become orphans due to the loss of their parents to HIV/AIDS. By the end of 2001 an estimated 14 million children under the age of 15 had lost one or both parents to AIDS. This number is expected to increase to approximately 30 million children by 2010, due to the increase of HIV cases in sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean. Many of these orphans who loose their parents to HIV/AIDS are also at risk of being infected with the disease and ultimately die due to lack of access to health care. It is estimated that one-third of the children born from HIV-infected mothers develop HIV/AIDS. In 2001 more than 11.8 million young people ages 15 to 24 were living with HIV/ AIDS. Every day another 2,000 children under the age of 15 will be infected with HIV in these areas. Approximately more than 4 million children have died from AIDS primarily through mother-to-child transmission.

A lot of these orphans at a very young age become head of households with the burden of providing for their young siblings and sometimes grandparents who were dependent on their parents before they die. Due to this, many of these orphans are subject to working in commercial agriculture, domestic service industry, commercial sex industry, as street vendors or in industries that violate internationally recognized rights of children. Most of the orphans who have to work are young women and girls who usually end up in commercial sex industries, making them at risk of being infected with various diseases especially HIV/ AIDS. It is estimated that more than 70 percent of new HIV cases among young orphans ages 15 to 24 in sub-Saharan Africa are young women and girls.

Many of these children are malnourished due to lack of food, which enhances their risk for illness and infection to diseases. Due to lack of health access, many of these children will die of these illnesses or diseases. In 2004 more than 8 million children in sub-Saharan Africa are underweight compared to 1994. A lot of these children lack education because they have to work to fend for their families instead of going to school, they are not physically fit due to hunger and malnutrition, and they do not have the financial resources to go to school. Approximately 125 million children do not attend school and the majority of these children are young girls.

Mr. Speaker, this resolution will provide the funds needed for the basic care, health care, mental care and educational opportunities for these orphans and vulnerable children in order for them to survive in the world. Our children are our future. We need to give these children a chance to be the future of their countries and the world. I urge strong support of this resolution.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the ranking member of the Committee on Government Reform for yielding me the time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to join with my colleagues as we pay tribute to the life and legacy of President Reagan. A bigger-than-life screen actor and television personality, Ronald Reagan moved from being Governor of California in the 1960s to President of the United States and dominating American politics in the 1980s. He was the first President to be reelected to a second term since Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Media-made and media-presented, President Reagan got millions of Americans to feel proud of their Nation. America's 40-year Cold War with the Soviet Union cooled considerably and perhaps actually ended during Reagan's Presidency. Many Americans credit him with having achieved that significant outcome.

Born the son of a shoe salesman in small-town Illinois, President Reagan's impoverished but loving parents instilled in him a sense of optimism that carried him through college as an average student. After graduation, he worked for a few years as a sports broadcaster in Midwestern radio before landing a film contract with Warner Brothers, which took him to Hollywood in 1936.

Over the next 30 years, President Reagan made scores of films, including Army films produced during World War II. He hosted two popular television series and was actively engaged in politics as president of the Screen Actors Guild.

In the 1950s, President Reagan changed from being a Roosevelt New Deal Democrat to a conservative Republican. In 1966, he became Governor of California and was reelected in 1970. Using his popularity in California, he unsuccessfully challenged President Gerald Ford for the Republican nomination in 1976. He tried again and won the nomination in 1980 and thereafter defeated the incumbent Democrat Jimmy Carter. With his 1984 reelection victory, President Reagan became the most politically successful Republican President since President Eisenhower.

In the last 7 years, as President Reagan battled Alzheimer's disease, our Nation went from having zero drugs for this devastating disease to today having five new prescriptive drugs to help manage and treat the progression of Alzheimer's. Today it is

even possible to diagnose Alzheimer's with more than 90 percent accuracy. It is clear that Alzheimer's does not discriminate on whom it affects, regardless of gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, political ideology or if one worked the fields, in the factories or in the Oval Office.

With now more than 4.5 million people suffering from this disease, the upsetting effects of Alzheimer's is growing faster than modern medicine can manage. This is only likely to become more complicated with the aging of the baby boomers, boosting the number of Alzheimer's patients to an astounding 11 to 16 million people by the middle of the century.

As a way to honor President Reagan, let us make the greatest commitment that we can to real investment in research for Alzheimer's disease and follow through with clinical trials to translate the research into treatments. We must now act to make the lives of all Alzheimer's patients more comfortable with a better quality of life, while hopefully being able to prevent this disease in the future.

Mr. President, as one might say in a western movie, you had a good ride and our country is proud to say, ``Much obliged.''

Mr. Speaker, Auxiliary Bishop Bennie Allison, pastor of Corinthian Temple Church of God in Christ in Chicago, passed away last week.

Bishop Allison had a long and distinguished career as both a religious leader and a civic leader. In addition to his religious duties, he was chairman of the Garfield Organization and founder of the Allison Foundation for Better Living, which provided social services and job development opportunities for residents of the West Garfield community.

I extend condolences to his wife and family and urge them to continue his great work.

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

Mr. Speaker, it is often asked, what makes a person a hero? Working with others to improve one's community, I believe, is the act of a hero. In 1967, a riot left metropolitan Detroit sharply divided along racial lines. By early 1968, shock had deepened into bitterness and hostility.

Among all of this chaos and confusion, two members of the Detroit community, Father William T. Cunningham and Eleanor M. Josaitis, joined together to make a difference. Soon, Focus: HOPE was born, and out of it came a tightly-knit movement of like-minded people who are committed to intelligent and practical action to overcome racism, poverty and injustice.

Over the last 37 years, Focus: HOPE has participated in countless projects that have improved the quality of life for thousands of America's neediest people. In 1971, after gathering scientific evidence of the effects of hunger and malnutrition on the critical early development of infants, Focus: HOPE designed a supplemental food program for children up to age 6 and for pregnant and postpartum women. The program, which was later expanded to include senior citizens, was the first and remains one of the largest Commodity Supplemental Food Programs in the country. Food for this program has been provided to as many as 43,000 women, children, and senior citizens each month in the Detroit metropolitan area.

Focus: HOPE's contributions are not limited to its food program. When years of negligence turned one of Detroit's oldest neighborhoods into a canyon of vacant and dilapidated homes, Focus: HOPE took the initiative and revitalized several blocks of the once prosperous neighborhood by redeveloping outdated buildings, improving the landscape of Oakman Boulevard, developing parks and rebuilding homes. In addition, over the past 2 years alone, Focus: HOPE has helped raise $10 million to complete renovations of an old industrial building that is to house its own Machinists Training Institute.

Today, we stand united in this Chamber to pay homage to Focus: HOPE for its remarkable commitment and contributions to Detroit, the State of Michigan, and the United States. Americans who possess the vision and generosity of Eleanor M. Josaitis and the late Father William T. Cunningham are truly American heroes, and Focus: HOPE is a tribute to their legacy.

Mr. Speaker, I commend the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Conyers) for introducing this legislation, and I urge its support.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to join with my colleague from Michigan in consideration of H. Res. 612, recognizing and honoring firefighters, police, public servants, civilians, and private businesses who responded to the devastating fire in Richmond, Virginia, on March 26, 2004.

Mr. Speaker, far too often we, as Americans, overlook or take for granted the truly courageous risks that the men and women of our police and fire departments take to save the lives of others. I am pleased that we take time today to recognize and to honor the firefighters and police, as well as the public servants, civilians, and private businesses, who responded in the face of grave danger to a devastating fire in Richmond, Virginia, on March 26, 2004.

On March 26, 2004, a series of fires, fueled by strong winds, erupted in downtown Richmond. This potentially deadly blaze forced hundreds of students at Virginia Commonwealth University from their dorm rooms and prompted city officials to declare the region a disaster area. By the time the fire was extinguished, it had destroyed six buildings and had seriously damaged 12 others.

Despite the enormity of this threat, no serious injuries were reported. This was due in large part to the quick reaction of the fire and police departments, as well as local public servants, civilians, and private businesses which all worked together to control the dangerous blaze. According to the City of Richmond's Assistant Fire Marshal, the fire could have been much worse. However, the selfless actions of the police and fire department and others turned a life- threatening disaster into a miracle.

Again, Mr. Speaker, I commend all of those who joined together in this great spirit of cooperation to save not only property but countless lives. I commend the gentleman for introducing this legislation and urge its passage.

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

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Nevada (Mr. Porter) for introducing this legislation.

It just happens that yesterday I spent part of the morning with several former, and one is never a former Tuskegee Airman, with several Tuskegee Airmen as we gathered, as we do every Memorial Day, at the Oakwood Cemetery in Chicago, to pay tribute to veterans and especially to our former mayor, Harold Washington. Of course, we got wet in the rain because these guys would never quit until they accomplished what they set out to do.

All African Americans that I know take great pride in Tuskegee Institute, the institution founded by Booker Washington; but they take even greater pride in the exploits of this group of airmen who learned to fly, many of whom had no idea as they were growing up that they would get an opportunity to sail like a bird across the sky.

I have been fortunate to interact with the Dodo Chapter, and one of my most prized possessions is a jacket that they gave me one year that I still have, because every year we also honor African American women who pioneered in aviation. I am also fortunate because every year I have a picnic and parade for kids to go back to school, and the Tuskegee Airmen always fly a formation across the site of our picnic. So I say thanks to them on a very personal basis.

My good friend Roy Chappell was president of the Dodo Chapter for a number of years; Mr. Rufus Hunt is their historian; and, yes, they have created and provide a great legacy; and they teach young African American children how to fly.

I have been able to send a large number of youngsters, and they take them, and they used to use Meigs Field until it was closed, and now they use the airport in Gary, Indiana, and they take these young inner- city children for their first ride in an airplane. So I salute their past exploits, but I also commend them for what they are doing today to continue this great legacy and this great tradition.

Mr. Chairman, I rise in favor of the en bloc amendment, and especially my amendment dealing with the Comp Demo.

Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the opportunity to briefly review my proposed amendment to H.R. 4200.

My amendment is a simple, highly targeted, and non-controversial effort to better balance the way that small business set aside, SBSA, goals are met by Federal agencies, including the Department of Defense. Presently, these goals are unevenly distributed with some product and service sectors experiencing a disproportionate rate of small business set aside while other small businesses in other product or service sectors see little in small business set-aside contracts come their way, despite the fact that there are capable small businesses involved in those industries. This can obviously work to deny a large number of small businesses the benefits of the small business set aside program that Congress has long supported.

My amendment would address this problem through a small, targeted improvement of an existing Federal law called the Competitiveness Demonstration Program (P.L. 100-656), also known as the ``Comp Demo'' law.

The legislative history of Comp Demo shows that it was enacted to prevent disproportionate assignment of small business set aside goals into a small, unrepresentative number of NAICS codes. It began when Congress took major steps to enhance competition

and diversity in small business procurement opportunities by enacting section 921 of P.L. 99-661, which requires that small businesses receive a ``fair proportion'' of Government contracts in each industry.

That effort later led to the enactment of the Comp Demo law. Essentially, Comp Demo recognized that in certain NAICS codes, work was being disproportionately set aside, even though overall small business participation in the open market-place in these industries was high. While these industries had too much work set aside, many more industries have seen little or no set-aside contracts come their way, despite representation of capable small firms in those other industries.

My amendment would build on the existing Comp Demo law by adding the NAICS codes for landscaping services and exterminating & pest control services to the existing Comp Demo list. These two NAICS codes would be added to the existing Comp Demo list which presently includes the NAICS codes for: (1) construction, (2) refuse systems and related services; (3) architectural and engineering services, and (4) non-nuclear ship repair.

Under the Comp Demo law, Federal agencies may not set aside procurements for small businesses in these designated NAICS codes, provided small businesses otherwise win 40 percent of all prime contract awards in that NAICS code. This means that small businesses are required to win a minimum of 40 percent of the prime contract awards. If they do not win that minimum amount, small business set- aside for that NAICS code would be automatically reimposed.

The effective result of both the current Comp Demo law and my amendment is to assure that small business set aside awards are more evenly distributed across all NAICS codes and benefit the greatest number of small businesses in the largest number of product and service sectors possible.

Indeed, the existing Comp Demo law has shown that small businesses in the four NAICS codes on the current Comp Demo list compete for, and win, large numbers of contracts, though on an unrestricted basis. The intent of the Comp Demo program is to ensure that each agency balances its procurement needs so that set aside contracting opportunities for small businesses are as widely distributed as possible across as many industries as possible.

Also important is the fact that the Comp Demo amendment does not affect 8(a) or HUB Zone set asides. They are not impacted by either the current Comp Demo program or my amendment's proposed improvement of the current law.

It is also worthy to note that my proposed amendment of the Comp Demo law has no budgetary impact--that is, amending the program to include landscape services and exterminating and pest control services will not increase the federal deficit.

In sum, Mr. Chairman, the existing Comp Demo program and my amendment to it will require a more even distribution of small business set asides across a larger number of NAICS codes. It does not change or reduce the size of agency small business aside goals; it just makes the programs benefits available to a greater number of small businesses across a larger number of industries.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to announce to my colleagues that the Medical Library Association will hold its Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. on May 22-May 26. Headquartered in my congressional district in Chicago, MLA is a nonprofit, educational organization of more than 900 institutions and 3,600 individual members in the health sciences information field, committed to educating health information professionals, supporting health information research, promoting access to the world's health information, and working to ensure that the best health information is available to all.

The advancement of information technology holds great promise for dramatically increasing the delivery of health care to underserved communities across the country and throughout the world. Medical librarians and health information professionals play a key role in the delivery of quality health care services by facilitating access to web- based health care information and telemedicine services. Despite the value of electronic-based health information, a recent needs assessment survey conducted by Loyola University Health System, the Loyola University Health Sciences Library and their Pediatric Mobile Health Unit highlighted the fact that 60 percent of respondents in the predominately minority communities of Bellwood, Maywood and Cicero, IL had not used the Internet to access health care information. Moreover, 80 percent of respondents had never consulted a librarian to help them find health related information.

In response to these findings, the Loyola University Health System, Loyola University Health Sciences Library, and Loyola University Health System Mobile Health Unit have developed a project designed to strengthen and enhance access to health information among underserved and under-represented populations in Maywood, Bellwood and Cicero. The E-REACH (Electronic Realtime Education Aiding Community Health) initiative will provide ``on demand'' health information to patients and families served by the Loyola University Health System Mobile Health Unit and Loyola Children's Center. The program will focus on expanding electronic access to health information at the point of patient care, promoting the use of health information by physicians and other health workers involved in the project, increasing patient awareness of health insurance programs and other health information resources, and increasing awareness of electronic health care information for individuals with Internet access.

The E-REACH initiative is partially funded by a grant from the National Library of Medicine (NLM) and is an excellent example of how the NLM has taken a leadership role in promoting educational outreach to underserved populations as part of an ongoing effort to reduce health disparities among large sections of the American public. NLM currently funds over 280 outreach projects, with at least one such project in every state.

I congratulate all those involved in this promising new initiative, including the project director, Dr. Logan Ludwig, Associate Dean of Library Services and Telemedicine at the Loyola University Health Sciences Library. It is my hope that the E-REACH program will serve as a model for other communities seeking to expose the benefits of health information services to medically underserved and minority populations.

Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in welcoming the Medical Library Association to Washington for their Annual Meeting, and recognize the invaluable contribution that health information professionals make to our nation's health care system.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the ranking member of the Committee on International Relations for yielding me time and also for his strong and eloquent statement in support of this resolution.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H. Con. Res. 403. This bill sounds the alarm once again on genocide in Sudan. Since 1983, more than 2 million black civilians died during the civil war in the south of Sudan. That struggle was especially brutal for the civilian population: slave raids resulting in the enslavement of women and children, gang rape, ethnic cleansing, and the imposition of famine conditions for hundreds of thousands.

The people of Sudan are facing the same catastrophic situation once again. Since early 2003, conflict between the forces of the government of the Republic of Sudan and rebel forces in the impoverished Darfur region of western Sudan has resulted in attacks by Sudanese Government ground and air forces against innocent civilians and undefended villages in the region. This has led to the Sudanese Government forces engaging in the use of rape as a weapon of war, the abduction of children, the destruction of food and water sources, and the deliberate and systematic manipulation and denial of humanitarian assistance for the people of the Darfur region.

The United Nations and other aid agencies trying to provide essential humanitarian assistance have been able to reach only 15 percent of the people in need, denying nearly 3 million people in need. More than 100,000 Sudanese have fled the region and are now refugees in neighboring Chad.

These acts are clear violations of the Genocide Convention and are grave crimes against humanity. We cannot sit back and do nothing. We must speak out and act against these actions. We cannot afford to repeat the mistakes of the genocide in Rwanda where more than 800,000 Rwandans died while we along with the world watched and did little or nothing.

Mr. Speaker, we need to act now. The more time wasted by doing nothing, the more Sudanese people in the Darfur region will suffer, die, and be displaced from their homes.

I commend the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Wolf) for introducing this resolution. I urge my colleagues to support it.