Floor Statements

I thank the gentleman from New Jersey for yielding.

H.R. 1173 would eliminate the potential for many of our citizens to be able to afford long-term care that provides services and other supports. This effort to remove support services is not the solution, but instead a faulty and irresponsible policy initiative which would burden people in our health systems. Regardless of when individuals may need these services, there is a lack of financing options to help them pay for the services they need to maintain their health, independence, and dignity when they lose the capacity to perform basic daily activities without assistance.

Medicare does provide limited pay for long-term care services. Medicaid does cover, but pays only for services for people with very limited means. Many private long-term care insurance plans are costly and difficult to acquire. I say that the real answer is to retain services that we are currently poised to provide.

I oppose H.R. 1173.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased that the House of Representatives this week passed legislation to continue vital aviation and surface transportation programs while Congress completes a comprehensive, long-term reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Act. Importantly, the temporary extension contains no negative policy provisions, reductions in funding, or political grandstanding. Rather, it is a clean extension until mid-February.

Aviation and surface transportation programs represent critical elements of our economy. The current extension avoids another Republican-led shut down, as occurred last summer--a shutdown that jeopardized the jobs of tens of thousands of workers and resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue. I also am very pleased that the House of Representatives appointed conferees so that Congress can complete the long-term reauthorization of the important programs related to the Federal Aviation Administration. Our nation enjoys one of the best and strongest aviation systems in the world; Congress must do our part to update and strengthen our aviation laws in a permanent way to provide economic and workforce security and safety related to air transportation. A full reauthorization will improve the safety, efficiency and competitiveness of our aviation system.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to recognize and celebrate the beginning of the Chinese New Year. On January 23, 2012, we marked year 4710 of the lunisolar Chinese calendar. In my Congressional District, in the windy city of Chicago, there are well over 68,000 Chicagoans with Chinese heritage. We are very proud that Chicago boasts one of the largest populations of Chinese Americans, with the second largest Chinatown in the nation. Many of these Chicagoans reside or work in the historical neighborhood of Chinatown just south of the loop area. Chicago was one of the first cities that Chinese immigrants called home, with the first immigrants arriving during the 1870s. Since then, the Chinese community in Chicago has flourished and greatly enriched the culture and heritage of our city.

This New Year is the Year of the Dragon, the most powerful of all the animals--an animal whose power and strength are admired. The Chinese New Year is a chance for a new beginning and a chance for all of us to reflect on our blessings, such as family, friends, opportunities and cherished moments. The New Year also provides an opportunity for us to settle our disputes with loved ones and to help people less fortunate than we are. I am blessed with having many close friends within the Chinese-American community. I have shared many important moments with these friends, both in Chinatown and at my house on the West Side. Through these relationships, I have developed a profound appreciation for Chinese culture, including the Chinese New Year celebration.

I recognize the new beginning brought by the spring festival, and I wish the Chinese community in Chicago and in the United States a memorable and prosperous New Year. I look forward to celebrating the Year of the Dragon on January 29 with the annual Chinese New Year parade. Aside from this incredible celebration, there are multiple opportunities throughout the year to experience the history and culture of the Chinese-American community, be it the dragon boat races, the concerts in Ping Tom Park, or the tours of our historic China Town. I wish all a Gong Hei Fat Choy.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to take the opportunity to recognize January as National Glaucoma Awareness Month. Glaucoma is an insidious class of diseases that robs hundreds of thousands of Americans of their sight. The Glaucoma Research Foundation reports that over 2.2 million Americans have glaucoma, with approximately 120,000 Americans being blind as a result of the disorder.

Glaucoma is the leading cause of preventable blindness and accounts for between 9 percent to 12 percent of all cases of blindness. Glaucoma affects people of all ages but is more common among people who are middle-aged or elderly. As with many health problems, glaucoma disproportionately affects people of color, with glaucoma representing the leading cause of blindness for African American and Latino individuals. Research indicates that this group of eye diseases is 6 to 8 times more common in African Americans than Caucasian Americans. Those who are diabetic or severely nearsighted are further at heightened risk for developing glaucoma.

Glaucoma presents few if any symptoms of its onset; those affected can lose as much as 40 percent of their vision prior to noticing the vision loss. Unfortunately, there is no cure for glaucoma; however, amazing advances are occurring to prevent further visual loss. Medications that slow the progression are critical and steps toward optic nerve cell regeneration are being made. I am proud that many skilled researchers in Chicago are working to advance the prevention and treatment of glaucoma, including experts at Rush University Medical Center, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and Northwestern University Medical School.

National Glaucoma Awareness Month is designed to raise awareness of this group of eye diseases and to encourage individuals to get tested. Given the lack of cure for glaucoma, early detection is incredibly important. Thus, I lend my voice to the cause of raising awareness of glaucoma and encouraging Americans to get regular eye exams to identify early any potential visual problems.

Mr. Speaker, yesterday, January 17, Muhammad Ali became 70 years old, so I rise to salute the champ and to wish him a happy birthday.

Ali has taken a lot of hard licks during his lifetime, but has always gotten up and has always maintained his dignity. Ali lived in and spent a great deal of time in Chicago. He attended events, went to meetings, and was part of community life. Therefore, I got to know him quite well.

A few years ago, after he had become ill with Parkinson's Syndrome, I sat next to Ali at a community banquet, and he was having difficulty holding on to his food and eating. The person on the other side of him was trying to help. Ali was becoming more and more irritated and finally, in a polite but firm manner, said, Thanks, but please leave me alone, I can do this, and he did. And I think that's characteristic of his life.

Born Cassius Clay, Ali converted to Islam, became a Muslim, and changed his name. Ali took hits from individuals and fans who disagreed with this position.

Initially categorized as not qualified to serve in the military because of poor performance on a Selective Service exam, Ali is then reclassified. But in April of 1967, he refused induction into the Army. He is tagged a draft dodger and stripped of his championship and barred from boxing. He is ultimately permitted to return.

As he worked his way toward the title shot at Sonny Liston, there are rumors that the fight might be canceled because of his emerging relationship with Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam. However, the fight does take place. Cassius Clay wins, and a month later, the honorable Elijah Muhammad gives Clay a new name: Muhammad Ali.

Ernie Terrell, a friend of mine, who graduated from high school with my wife and was a heavyweight champion, refused to address Ali by his new name, and Ali whipped him soundly and taunted him by asking him continuously, ``What's my name? What's my name?''

Muhammad Ali is known as ``The Greatest'' to most people for his electrifying style in the boxing ring. But others might call him ``The Greatest'' for his continued humanitarian efforts outside the world of boxing. Since his retirement in 1981, he has gone on to do great things to help out the less fortunate and disenfranchised people throughout the world.

In 1991, he traveled to Iraq during the Gulf War and met with Saddam Hussein in an effort to negotiate the release of American hostages. On January 8, 2005, Muhammad Ali was presented with the Presidential Citizens Medal by President George W. Bush. He has received the Spirit of America Award calling him the most recognized American in the world. He has also been to Afghanistan as a U.N. Messenger of Peace.

One of his most recent accomplishments has been the creation of the $60 million nonprofit Muhammad Ali Center opened in downtown Louisville. This center was opened to reflect Mr. Ali's core values of peace, social responsibility, respect, and personal growth. These are the values that have made Muhammad Ali the great man he is today, and it's those values that should not be forgotten. Instead, they should be passed down to future generations.

So I say: Happy birthday, Mr. Champ, and thanks for what you have meant and continue to mean to millions of people throughout the world.

I want to thank the gentleman from Texas for yielding.

I rise in support of the extension of this legislative activity, and I want to be associated as closely as possible with the comments made by my colleague from Texas, who seems to have his hand on the pulse of where we need to go, what we need to do, and the unfortunate delays that we have experienced. So I thank Mr. Doggett for his leadership. I am in favor of extending this legislation.

This weekend I attended a senior citizen party and we had a dance contest, and two people would hold a stick and others would try to go under it. And the disk jockey would ask the question: How low can you go? Can you go to the floor?

And I submit that if we refuse to provide unemployment tax extensions, I'd have to ask the Congress: How low can you go? Can you go to the floor?

I want to thank the gentlewoman from Wisconsin for yielding.

I rise in strong support of her opposition to this amendment. I rise in strong support of the passage of the underlying bill.

This resolution fails to recognize that there are disproportionate opportunities and a lack of opportunities for members of some groups, such as minority groups who are African American and who are Hispanics. There is no consideration given to these facts. Therefore, I must be in opposition to the rule and to the bill.

I thank the gentleman from Massachusetts for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to the rule and to the underlying bill. This rule rejected all attempts to amend the bill, limits the general debate time, and contains egregious provisions which allow States to apply measures such as drug testing; you've got to have a high school diploma or be enrolled in a GED program. Well, I can tell you, Mr. Speaker, that people who are addicted to drugs don't need testing. What they need is treatment. People who are sick need health care. People who are unemployed need a job and the opportunity to work, or they need benefits until such time as they can receive it.

This bill goes in the wrong direction. I strongly oppose it.

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to clause 2(a), paragraph 1 of rule IX, I rise to give notice of my intention to offer a resolution to raise a question of the privileges of the House.

The form of the resolution is as follows:

Yes, I do.

I do.

Mr. Speaker, in order to qualify as a question of the privileges of the House under rule IX, the resolution must address ``the rights of the House collectively, its safety, dignity, and the integrity of its proceedings.''

The resolution I offer seeks to express the position of the House that the Republican proposal to address the unemployment crisis facing our Nation and the procedures used to bring it to the floor tarnish the dignity and integrity of the House proceedings and the integrity of the legislative process.

All Members of the House of Representatives have a responsibility to protect Americans and our country from physical and economic harm, especially during times of national crisis. Yet, contrary to this mandate, the Republican proposal to address the unemployment crisis threatens to damage our national economy as well as the well-being of millions of Americans.

By drastically cutting benefits--especially for employees and States hardest hit by unemployment--by 40 weeks and imposing punitive restrictions on access to benefits, the Republican proposal will almost certainly harm millions of Americans and our Nation's economic well- being.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.

Given the unemployment crisis that does in fact exist in our country, and given the great needs that exist for people to feel a sense of comfort and security, given the fact that older Americans, low-income Americans, Americans from racial and ethnic minority groups, and Americans with----

Mr. Speaker, it is my position and my belief that the Republican proposal tarnishes the legislative process by making substantial permanent changes to Federal unemployment benefits, and that, when passed--if passed--that the country will have experienced difficulties that could have been avoided.

Mr. Speaker, let me thank you for your comments. Actually, I am at the end of my comments, and I would yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I submit for your consideration opposition to drug testing and screening of unemployment insurance recipients and applicants as proposed in H.R. 3630 Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2011. Never before has there been a greater need to ease the pain of millions of Americans attempting to make ends meet post economic/financial crisis and anemic jobs market. Daily, we are reminded of the rippling effects of these man-made disasters. Indeed, today's headline ``America's Youngest Outcasts'' shines the light on 1.6 million (one and 45 children) children homeless in 2010, a 38% spike from 2007. Yesterday's headline connected to dots and charted a direct correlation between the percentage of children living in poverty and unemployment rate. What will tomorrow's headline read with proposed unemployment insurance drug testing and screening?

Mandatory drug testing falls into the category of ill-conceived barriers. Implementing laws requiring mandatory ``suspicionless'' drug testing and screening for families is punitive and is not premised on any reasonable rationale. Such random testing is not only reckless and based on insidious stereotypes but mostly a costly and an inefficient way of identifying recipients in need of drug and substance abuse treatment. Additionally, imposing further sanctions on unemployment insurance recipients and applicants who've depleted savings or assets and at risk or in foreclosure will have harsh effects on children.

Our children's wellbeing is a measurement of our Nation's wellbeing. Lest anyone get carried away with the notion that unemployment insurance is a means of funding the purchase and usage of drugs, the fact is unemployment insurance promotes opportunity for the next generation.

The unrelenting partisan campaign to impose drug testing and screening requirements on the unemployed will be devastating. Beyond the toll on individuals, creating barriers to much needed unemployment insurance will have huge fiscal and social consequences. Congress can ill-afford to take a passive approach to helping millions of Americans waiting along the sidelines uncertain about employment opportunities. In these trying times we must hold fast to the words of James Madison, The Father of the Constitution, charging us to ``promote the general Welfare. . . . to ourselves and posterity.'' To do so otherwise is not only a disservice to our Constitution, but also a disservice to all Americans.

I want to thank the gentleman from Virginia for yielding.

I rise in opposition to the proposed multistate mortgage settlement currently being negotiated between the country's major mortgage servicers and the State attorney generals.

Before we haphazardly rush into a settlement, we need to pause for what I call station identification, so to speak.

I'm speaking on the wrong bill.

But I also rise in opposition to the synthetic drug bill. I think there is not enough research. I think there's information still needed. I don't think that we are in a position to allow this action to take place, and so I join in opposition to passage of this legislation.

Let me thank the gentleman from Michigan for yielding, but I also want to commend him for his many years of excellent service to this body that we know as the United States House of Representatives. And I want to commend him for the tremendous leadership that he provides as the ranking member of the Ways and Means Committee.

Mr. Speaker, it is December 7, and Republicans still have not enacted legislation to protect the millions of Americans hardest hit by one of the worst economic crises in our Nation's history. The well-being of 6 million Americans, including 100,000 from my home State of Illinois, hangs in the balance. Our Nation is in an unemployment crisis, and we must act now to help our citizens.

At this time last year, Republicans emphasized that the economy was so horrible that the wealthiest Americans needed 2 years of tax cuts, yet they only saw the need to help the unemployed for 1 year of emergency assistance. Now, 1 year later, as the emergency assistance runs out, Republicans remain comfortable with the $180 billion in tax breaks for the wealthiest 3 percent of Americans, but they cannot support $50 billion in 2012 to help millions of the neediest Americans--and never mind any consideration of helping the millions of Americans who have exhausted their Federal benefits and still can't find a job.

Our Nation, yes, is indeed in an unemployment crisis. Over 45 percent of all unemployed workers--more than 6 million people--have been out of work for more than 6 months. There are approximately 6.4 million fewer jobs now than at the beginning of the Great Depression. The Department of Labor data showed that there are over 4.2 unemployed Americans for every one job. Even if every job were filled, 8.9 million citizens would remain unemployed.

During this protracted storm of economic hardship, unemployment benefits are a critical lifeline for our citizens and for our economy. Unemployment benefits have kept 3.2 million Americans--including nearly 1 million children--from falling into poverty in 2010 alone. New research shows that the current Federal unemployment programs provide $2 in economic stimulus for every $1 in unemployment benefits circulating in the economy. The Federal unemployment programs saved or created 1.1 million jobs as of the fourth quarter of 2009 alone. And the Economic Policy Institute estimates that preventing unemployment benefits from expiring could prevent the loss of over 500,000 jobs.

Our Nation is indeed in an unemployment crisis, and we must act now to help our citizens. We cannot protect the wealthy while ignoring the millions of Americans hardest hit by one of the worst economic crises in our Nation's history. We cannot deliver a windfall to the privileged and deny the poor. Such a position is not responsible leadership, and such a position is not consistent with American values.

So I join with my colleagues in urging the Republican leadership to protect vulnerable Americans by extending the unemployment benefits.

I want to thank you, Mr. Levin, again for the opportunity to participate.

Mr. Speaker, the fight to arrest HIV-AIDS must continue.

Today is December 1, World Aids Day and in Chicago at the Ruth Rothstein Core Center at 2020 West Harrison St., Chicago, Governor Pat Quinn, and a group of AIDS professionals activists organized by Benny Montgomery, a retired member of my Congressional staff are holding a press conference as we do every year to kick off a day of awareness raising and action to help in the fight against HIV and AIDS. I am generally able to be with this group. However, my duties as a Member of Congress have kept me here in Washington, DC. Nevertheless, I am pleased to be represented by my assistant Ms. Cherita Logan, our Deputy District Director, who is a long time aids activist and education program director herself.

We recognize that although some programs has been made, as a matter of fact much progress has been made, but we still have much further to go; therefore I urge each one of us to do as much individually and collectively as we can to fight this dreadful disease.

Mr. Speaker, I have known Mr. Tom Hosea since the late 1960s and early 1970s. When I first met Tom, he was an executive with the American Hospital Association; many of us who met and ran together at that time were health activists. I say ran together because we attended so many meetings until it seemed as a natural thing to do. Although there were many emerging groups, Tom was actively involved with the Chicago chapter of the National Association of Health Services Executives. As a matter of fact, Tom was the highest ranking African-American, or Black person, that we knew who worked for the American Hospital Association at that time.

Tom got the community action bug and the next thing I knew he was working with Dr. Levy, a Black Hebrew Israelite down East of Ashland on Roosevelt Road in an area called the Valley where the Westside organization operated with Chester Robinson, Thursty Darden, Rev. Archie Hargraves, Rev. John Crawford, and others in its leadership. Later on, Tom got involved in the Austin community and worked with Mary Volpe as Assistant Director of the Northeast Austin Community Organization and after Sam Flowers died, Tom became the Executive Director of HICA which he has struggled to keep alive.

When I first knew Tom his name was Hozier; he also got involved with the entertainment business spinning records and putting on events; next thing I knew, I along with everyone else that I knew was calling him Hosea. Tom has passed away, but he led a very active life and had a very meaningful and colorful career.

To his wife and family, we express our condolences and know that the value of his work will go on and on.

On Monday, November 28, 2011, the City of Chicago laid to rest the wife of Chicago's longest serving mayor, Mayor Richard M. Daley.

While Maggie Daley was known as the mayor's wife, she was, indeed, a well-known, well-liked and revered personality in her own right. Maggie Daley played the role of matriarch. She was warm, graceful, elegant, eloquent, and easy to like. She was a patron of the arts and was fully steeped in the cultural affairs of our city.

While Mrs. Daley has received accolades for many of her activities, the one which strikes me the most is her involvement in a program called After School Matters. I think that anyone who knows anything about education and youth development knows that, yes, after school does, indeed, matter. When discussing this program, you could see Maggie Daley's eyes light up, and you could feel her passion. She seemed to know everything there was to know about the program. She knew program sites, personnel, special features and activities, benefits and successes. After a session of listening to Mrs. Daley explain and advocate for this program, I would often smile and say to myself, How could anyone not be in support of this great program?

So I say thanks to a great lady--a lady of grace, a lady of dignity, a lady of passion, a lady of faith, and a lady of action.

My family and I and residents of the Seventh Congressional District of Illinois express condolences to Mayor Richard M. Daley and to all of Maggie Daley's family. She was a great first lady of our city and performed her role to perfection. After school does matter. It mattered to Mrs. Maggie Daley, and it matters to all of America.