Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, as a strong proponent of the American Heart Association's GO-Red campaign aimed at educating women about heart disease and stroke, I am proud to be a cosponsor of the Stroke Treatment and Ongoing Prevention Act.

This legislation will help reduce the 150,000 deaths that occur each year from stroke. Every 3 minutes someone dies of a stroke according to the American Heart Association. To a stroke victim, delay means more dead brain cells. The most common type of strokes kills 1.9 million brain cells every minute. One study estimated that for every 12 minutes a stroke victim delays treatment, a pea-sized portion of the brain dies.

Fortunately, educating people about when to seek treatment makes a difference. And I want to tell a story about a friend of mine. About 6 months ago, young woman, she happened to have another friend visiting her. And she woke up one morning and said, I don't feel very good. I can hardly lift my arm. And her friend that was visiting said, we are going straight to the hospital. She is doing very well in recovery, not only because she is a very determined person, but she can also thank her friend for recognizing what was happening and getting her to a hospital immediately.

By educating people about stroke symptoms and strengthening training programs for physicians, this legislation will save lives and limit the damage to stroke survivors.

I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 477.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the life of a fallen American hero. Last Saturday, Lance Corporal Nathan Windsor made his final sacrifice on behalf of a grateful nation while on patrol in the Anbar province of Iraq.

Nathan understood that citizenship meant responsibility and that great sacrifices would be required in order to secure our freedoms and to serve our country in its time of need.

Well aware of the danger and more than willing to endure the risks, Nathan selflessly charged into chaos to help the people of Iraq secure a peace and work toward a self-governing society.

It saddens me, Madam Speaker, to come before you again to ask that my colleagues join in mourning the loss of yet another young American who has made the ultimate sacrifice.

Nathan gave his all before fully experiencing the many freedoms for which he fought. His aspirations to become a movie producer will never be realized because his life and dreams were tragically cut short.

Words alone cannot express the anger, frustration and pain felt by the thousands whose lives he touched, but we have an obligation to ensure that future generations of Americans inherit a land worthy of his sacrifice.

We are all indebted to Nathan's spirit and sacrifice. It is now, and will be forever, our turn to repay the debt. Let us recommit ourselves in this chamber to work even harder and to do our part to make sound decisions about matters of peace and war.

I join all Oregonians, and all Americans, in expressing my deepest condolences to the family of Nathan Windsor for their loss. Our community is greater because of Nathan's short presence and we are certainly lessened by his passing.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor and pay tribute to Oregon's last World War I veteran, Mr. Howard V. Ramsey. On February 22, 2007, our country lost one of our bravest, one of our favorite sons.

Howard V. Ramsey was born in 1898 in Rico, Colorado. As a student at Washington High in Portland, Oregon, Mr. Ramsey enrolled in the Oregon Naval Militia. After a failed attempt to enroll in the United States Army because he was underweight, Mr. Ramsey's perseverance and dedication to serve showed true as he was accepted later that year.

Mr. Ramsey served as an Army corporal in France. Armed with the highly sought-after skill of driving, Mr. Ramsey was charged with providing transportation for officers, providing water for soldiers on the front lines and returning the bodies of soldiers killed in combat.

After completing his service, Mr. Ramsey returned to Portland, Oregon, around 1920 and worked for Hudson-Essex, which later became Hudson Motor Car Company. In 1922 he went to work for Western Electric, which later became AT&T, and retired in 1963 at the age of 65.

I join all Oregonians, and all Americans, in expressing my sincere condolences to the family of Howard V. Ramsey for their loss. Our state, and our nation, is greater because of Mr. Ramsey's presence and we are lessened by his passing.

It is a true honor and privilege to be here today to remember one of the last World War I veterans. Madam Speaker, our country is honored by his service and thankful for all that he gave to ensure our freedom.

Madam Speaker, today I rise to praise the courage, dedication, and selflessness of the following 116th Air Control Squadron volunteers.

The ``Fighting Longracks'' from Camp Rilea, Warrenton, Oregon answered the call of service and stood up, so their active duty counterparts could temporarily stand down for the holidays.

From September 2006 through January 2007 the Oregon Air National Guard in association with citizen-airmen from Air National Guard units from Hawaii, Ohio, Puerto Rico, and Wisconsin provided tactical command and control for all combat assets within Afghanistan.

Unfortunately, too often we stand here in this chamber to publicly acknowledge the contribution of our military and their families after a tragedy--we honor our fallen--and often forget the living, our veterans.

Lieutenant Colonel Timothy Olson, Lieutenant Colonel Jim Gregory, Major Paul Evans, Major Keith Townsend, Captain Leon McGuire, Captain Bryan Habas, Captain Victoria Habas, Senior Master Sergeant Robert Birman, Senior Master Sergeant Ralph Lehman, Senior Master Sergeant Leslie Wright, Master Sergeant William Baer, Master Sergeant Randy Dickenson, Master Sergeant Donald Hillgaertner, Master Sergeant Gary Gudge, Master Sergeant Cory Jackson, Master Sergeant Albert Luquette, Master Sergeant Adam Melerski, Master Sergeant Troy Mitchell, Master Sergeant Richard Murren, Technical Sergeant Ann Chancey, Technical Sergeant Edwin Corcoran, Technical Sergeant Carl Domingo, Technical Robert Foreman, Technical Sergeant Bryan Garret, Technical Sergeant Matthew Gudge, Technical Sergeant George McMahan, Staff Sergeant Michelle Nelson, and Staff Sergeant Laurence Rose raised their hands, willingly accepted duties in war-torn Afghanistan, and served us with honor.

These airmen worked with our allies in the region to provide command and control that sustained complex, time critical air sovereignty missions in support of Intemational Stabilization Assistance Force (ISAF) priorities. Their contributions cannot be overstated, nor in truth measured.

As a Congresswoman from Oregon, I am proud of what these citizen- airmen accomplished, and humbled by their continued willingness to answer the call of a nation that is in need far more often than anyone expected.

I ask this chamber to recognize and applaud these airmen who like hundreds of thousands of their peers ask for little, give everything they can, and believe our America is worth the sacrifice.

Thank you for standing a post that few even know exists.

Madam Speaker, today I rise to praise the courage, dedication, and selflessness of the following 116th Air Control Squadron volunteers.

The ``Fighting Longracks'' from Camp Rilea, Warrenton, Oregon answered the call of service and stood up, so their active duty counterparts could temporarily stand down for the holidays.

From September 2006 through January 2007 the Oregon Air National Guard in association with citizen-airmen from Air National Guard units from Hawaii, Ohio, Puerto Rico, and Wisconsin provided tactical command and control for all combat assets within Afghanistan.

Unfortunately, too often we stand here in this chamber to publicly acknowledge the contribution of our military and their families after a tragedy--we honor our fallen--and often forget the living, our veterans.

Lieutenant Colonel Timothy Olson, Lieutenant Colonel Jim Gregory, Major Paul Evans,

Major Keith Townsend, Captain Leon McGuire, Captain Bryan Habas, Captain Victoria Habas, Senior Master Sergeant Robert Birman, Senior Master Sergeant Ralph Lehman, Senior Master Sergeant Leslie Wright, Master Sergeant William Baer, Master Sergeant Randy Dickenson, Master Sergeant Donald Hillgaertner, Master Sergeant Gary Gudge, Master Sergeant Cory Jackson, Master Sergeant Albert Luquette, Master Sergeant Adam Melerski, Master Sergeant Troy Mitchell, Master Sergeant Richard Murren, Technical Sergeant Ann Chancey, Technical Sergeant Edwin Corcoran, Technical Sergeant Carl Domingo, Technical Sergeant Robert Foreman, Technical Sergeant Bryan Garret, Technical Sergeant Matthew Gudge, Technical Sergeant George McMahan, Staff Sergeant Michelle Nelson, and Staff Sergeant Laurence Rose raised their hands, willingly accepted duties in wartorn Afghanistan, and served us with honor.

These airmen worked with our allies in the region to provide command and control that sustained complex, time critical air sovereignty missions in support of International Stabilization Assistance Force (ISAF) priorities. Their contributions cannot be overstated, nor in truth measured.

As a Congresswoman from Oregon, I am proud of what these citizen- airmen accomplished, and humbled by their continued willingness to answer the call of a nation that is in need far more often than anyone expected.

I ask this chamber to recognize and applaud these airmen who like hundreds of thousands of their peers ask for little, give everything they can, and believe our America is worth the sacrifice.

Thank you for standing a post that few even know exists.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to join the discussion on Iraq that is taking place in this Chamber, across this country, in classrooms, coffee shops, living rooms and across back fences. This resolution asks whether the House of Representatives believes with regard to the war in Iraq that doing more of the same is a correct strategy to adopt.

Since this war began, 3,125 American soldiers have died and 23,417 have been wounded. There have been over 100,000 Iraqi casualties and nearly $500 billion has been spent. We have tried troop surges before in this war and we have seen the results. In November of 2004, the United States increased the troop levels by approximately 18,000. And guess what happened? Insurgent attacks went up by 17 percent. Did that surge work? No.

In June of 2005, we increased troop levels again, this time by 21,500 troops. Guess what happened? Insurgent attacks went up 29 percent. Did that surge work? No.

If we allow to surge troop levels again, by how much can we expect insurgent attacks to rise this time? Einstein once suggested that insanity is doing something over and over and over again and expecting different results.

Mr. Speaker, I voted against going to war in Iraq, but ever since the President committed our first soldier, I have done everything in my power to support our troops and give them equipment to keep them safe. Our warrior soldiers have done everything we have asked of them and more, and I remain committed to our troops until the very last soldier leaves Iraq, and I will do whatever it takes to protect our soldiers. But putting an additional 37,000 American troops in harm's way when there hasn't been a change in strategy is not how we as a country support our troops.

Last November, the American people spoke loud and clear. They said that the current tactics in Iraq weren't working and they don't support more of the same. An escalation of troops will not quell the violence, but will lead to increased violence, more American casualties and a further destabilized Iraq.

There is a moment when wisdom requires change, and I believe that the time has come to say enough is enough. America's military involvement in Iraq needs to draw to a close and it is time for the Iraqi people to assume control over their own country.

I strongly urge my colleagues to join me in voting ``yes'' on this resolution.

I thank my colleague for yielding. I just want to talk a little bit about the commitment the Federal Government made. We made this commitment, as one of my colleagues said, almost 100 years ago, that we were going to help those counties that had a lot of timber. I used to be a county commissioner. Over 50 percent of the Clackamas County was in Federal forest land, which means we didn't get revenue from it.

When we first started this program, when we cut the timber, then we got revenue sharing. It was in lieu of taxes because this was land we couldn't tax, couldn't develop, couldn't tax. Then when the forest land came along, obviously those numbers were cut.

The rural counties had a double whammy. They lost good-paying jobs and they lost that revenue sharing. Almost 7 years ago, when we reauthorized this program to say we are going to help our rural communities, they are really important. I mean, rural communities, I think, are what keeps us the kind of country we are. I mean, that is where so many of our values were started.

We said we were going to help them, and we were going to help with roads,

and they have just the number of miles a rural county has, we are going to help with roads. We would help with those rural schools so that all of our children had a chance to go to school and have a good education. We said we would help with law enforcement, so we were trying to help those counties make sure they could keep going.

I want to tell you every county in my district is very frugal. I do not see programs that are wasteful. They spend every dollar they have as well as they can spend it.

If this, if we do not get the money for this program, let me talk a little bit about what is going to happen to some of my counties. One of my counties is Polk County. It is a small rural farming community. It is not as big as one of the counties you were talking about. It only has 740 square miles.

The county will essentially go down to five deputies from 18 now; six of those are paid by the Grand Ronde Tribe, and they can only patrol a small portion, but they will lose at least seven deputies. They have started a wonderful program to go after meth and drugs. They have been very successful. That program is going to be gone.

The county jail is going to lose two positions, and let me tell you something, they are already at the State minimum on county positions. I don't know what they are going to do when they lose two more. I don't know how they operate. They have a small district attorney's office. They are going to lose a secretary, and they are going to lose a DA, but this is just typical of what is happening in every county.

Now, I know you put up this chart, and I want to put it up one more time, because I think it is really important; and this is a chart that is what has happened to Federal timber receipts. All you have to do is look since 1994, you can see in 1990, it was the highest, or 1988, and then it has gone down and down and down. So the counties are no longer getting money from the timber receipts.

The only way we can keep these counties going is through this program that allows us to make sure that we can continue our rural communities and that we can continue our schools, that we can continue law enforcement. You talked a little bit about search and rescue. A couple of my counties have had huge cases this year where, and, again, you talked about loss of life with the climbers on Mount Hood, we talked about the Kim family.

Search and rescue, when you have a county that has a lot of wilderness, you get people that are lost. We all feel badly when someone is lost, and none of us will hesitate to go look for that person, but it means it takes resources, it takes money to make that happen. So the loss of money for these rural counties is just devastating to them. We made a promise, and I don't know about you guys, but I grew up in a family that said, if you make a promise, you keep that promise. We need to keep our promises to our counties.

They go on almost daily. I just want to mention another county. Tillamook County, which is a small coastal community. It is county that has struggled. And they struggle with high-paying jobs. They have had a terrible year with floods and wind storms. About everything bad that can happen to a county has happened to Tillamook County especially in this year.

But they are having to layoff anywhere from 25 to 60 employees, they do not know yet. But literally they will reduce their county road fund by half. Again, it is a county that has struggled with floods. They have had a lot of repairs. I tried to get into Tillamook County to go look at the damage from floods.

I found out, well, actually I couldn't get in from the north, I couldn't get in from the east, you had to go clear around and come in going south to north to actually get to Tillamook County. So many of their roads were just wiped out, and yet they are going to lose a good percentage of their county road fund.

I am sure you could

I just want to remind people too in trying to get our colleagues to understand, this is not an Oregon problem, it is not just a Washington problem, it is not just a northern California problem, this is a problem across the United States. We are hit specifically very hard because of the amount of Federal forests that we have in our State. But this cuts across, I think it is 4,400 different school districts benefit from this program. It is absolutely critical.

Well, this is a program that has worked well over the last 6 years. It has helped bridge that budget gap created due to the lack of timber harvested from our forest. And, again, I want to remind people this is distributed to over 42 States; 4,400 rural school districts receive funding.

If we want to support our rural communities, if we want to make sure that we have roads to drive on, if we believe law enforcement is important to every part of our State, then we have to figure out how to solve this problem.

And I thank you and Representative DeFazio for all the work that you have done. But we have a full blown crisis on our hands. That is what this is. This is a crisis. And it will take support from our colleagues from both sides of the aisle to help our rural communities that are, frankly, in dire straits. This is not just a little problem. This is a great big huge problem for our rural communities.

So I would urge my friends to join us in our effort to reauthorize this program and pass a 1-year extension to give us a chance to work through these difficult issues.

And, again, I thank you for all the work that you have done on it.

It is hard to have a house boat in the ocean.

I just want to add to the whole, when you are talking about drug problems and meth problems, we were one of the States that had, the west coast was hit the hardest with meth. It has now moved east. But I was just going to say, it is the rural counties that are hit more by meth than are the urban counties because they can go out in the forest, they can make meth, cook meth out in the forestlands, grow marijuana. But we spend a lot of our time out there looking for drug problems, and it is a huge issue in all of our rural counties.

Mr. Speaker, and Mr. Chairman, thank you so much for all of your leadership on this issue. I applaud you.

In my three decades of public service, I don't think I have ever seen a problem as pervasive or as damaging as the methamphetamine epidemic that is sweeping our country. Meth is a serious threat to public health and safety, not only because of the highly addictive nature of the drug and what it does to the user, but also the ease of production and the danger of toxic chemicals used to manufacture it.

These toxic chemicals cause significant property damage from residue contamination in the floors and the walls of the house, to fires, even deadly explosions. Chemicals used to make meth are highly flammable and toxic. It is estimated, for every pound of meth produced, we have 6 to 7 pounds of toxic waste.

And meth addicts don't care where the toxic chemicals end up, often dumping the waste down the drain or onto the ground, leaving it to contaminate the community's water supply and their soil.

In conversations with local health officials in my district, they have stressed to me the harmful health effects that living not only in the former meth houses but even next door to one can have on people, particularly children and the elderly.

Because the meth epidemic began in the west coast before moving east, Oregon has long been a leader in the fight against meth and the destruction it brings to our communities. We have been a leader in developing standards for the cleanup of meth labs, setting standards for decontamination and certifying that a property has been cleaned by a State-licensed contractor before it is sold or rented. Oregon's standards have been seen as the highest in the Nation. I would encourage the EPA to look at Oregon as they develop national standards. But we need a consistent Federal standard that is based on research and best practices.

When the cost to clean up a small, single family home can easily reach $15,000, we need to make sure that we are spending our money wisely by using the best possible remediation methods. This bill will help us do this.

I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 365.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to urge my colleagues to support the EDUCATE Act that Congressman Van Hollen introduced today on behalf of myself and Congressman Mike Ferguson. I believe that this bill is one of the most important pieces of legislation that will be introduced in this chamber this year because it speaks to the Federal Government keeping a promise to children.

When Congress passed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 1975, we made a commitment to our country's special education students. By providing only half of the promised funding in recent years, the Federal Government has passed on another unfunded mandate to States and local school districts and failed to honor our promise that students with special education needs deserve the best education possible.

Despite the fact that current law requires the Federal Government to match State IDEA costs at 40 percent, the President's budget in recent years has included funding for less than half of the Federal Government's IDEA obligation. Budgeting shortfalls at the federal level and the rising cost of special education have forced local school districts to assume a larger percentage of the funding burden. As a result, they have had to seek out alternative funding sources such as higher taxes or diverting monies from other educational initiatives in order to comply with IDEA requirements.

Now I know that many of my colleagues have been angered with the funding that IDEA has received in the past few years, and a few of them have introduced their own legislation to correct this funding shortfall. But I believe that the EDUCATE Act is the most fiscally responsible funding solution that has been offered. In the current fiscal climate and with the PAYGO requirements that have been put in place, this legislation offers the most responsible means of achieving our goals. It will do no good if we succeed in providing these children with a quality education and then leave them a country in financial ruin.

I am proud to have been involved in the crafting of this legislation and I hope that my colleagues will support it.

Madam Speaker, I am here today in this hallowed hall with a heavy heart and troubled spirit.

Here, but a few hours ago, we assembled in keeping with an annual ritual that proclaimed our Union to be strong, our nation to be sound.

Sadly, I must contest that notion.

We are not as strong as we could be, as we should be, we are not what we would be without Private First Class Ryan Hill.

For this past week, Private Hill was killed in Baghdad, Iraq. As a member of the 1st Infantry Division, he and his unit were performing duties in keeping with our efforts to foster peace and stability.

America lost someone special when we lost Ryan. He represented the better angels of our nature, he was the kind of young American we need more, not less.

Immediately following high school, Private First Class Hill joined the military to fight for his country, his community--to fight for his family and friends.

Far too often we find ourselves standing here, recognizing the loss of heroes.

Private Hill died while on patrol. Using an improvised explosive device--a weapon without honor, without conscience--our enemies stole from us the America that would have been.

Right now, the community of Keizer, Oregon is seeking comfort in the life and noble sacrifice of Ryan Hill.

This we must do; he answered the call of service voluntarily and fulfilled his duty without hesitation, without complaint.

Private First Class Hill was a model soldier, he was the kind of young man that made everyone around him better.

In correspondence home, he recognized the dangers--he knew well the price of freedom--and yet he soldiered on despite his situation.

His enthusiasm and compassion made Ryan a beacon of hope for his comrades in arms in the shadow of the loss of several friends just a short time ago.

That shadow is now a little denser, a little darker--it reaches farther than before. And this shadow makes the future, our future, less than what it would have been.

I am here today asking us all to consider well the choices before us. We have an opportunity to ensure the life and death of Private Ryan Hill are not forgotten, that his sacrifice endures within our memory.

Let us recommit ourselves to making this Nation a place worthy of the gift Ryan Hill has given us; let us commit ourselves anew.

Thank you, Mr. Miller, for yielding time. Americans have always seen access to higher education as one way to help them live out the American dream. Starting with the Greatest Generation and the GI Bill, our Nation's citizens have been able to pursue an education beyond high school because of Federal assistance.

Today's job market is increasingly knowledge driven, and people are deciding they need skills beyond what is taught in high school. Whether it is 2 years, 4 years, public, private or community based, students are realizing there are economic benefits to expanding their skill set beyond a high school education. An educated workforce will also stem the flight of jobs overseas.

When I meet with the college students in my district, one of their biggest worries is, how am I going to pay off my student loans. I was talking to one young woman who had a great job. She said, I have to find a new job. She said, there is no way I can keep this job and still pay off my student loans.

As college tuition continues to skyrocket, more and more students are turning to loans to help meet the costs. In my State, the average debt for students coming out of a 4-year school is $15,000. This legislation will save those students, on average, $4,400 over the life of the loan.

I applaud Chairman Miller and his committee for the work they have done on behalf of American students and recent college graduates. They have done the work necessary to prevent higher education from again becoming a luxury of just the wealthy.

Mr. Speaker, last year I held over a dozen town hall meetings throughout Oregon about the new Medicare prescription drug program. And what I heard is it is overly complex and too expensive. But it doesn't need to be.

Lifting the ban that prevents the Department of Health and Human Services from negotiating lower drug prices on behalf of Medicare beneficiaries is one simple fix that would make medicine a whole lot more reasonable for seniors and taxpayers.

Almost every store in the Nation will offer you savings if you buy in bulk; but the Medicare program, one of the largest purchasers of prescription drugs in the Nation, is currently prevented from negotiating a bulk discount.

What is the cost of this inefficiency? Zocor helps lower cholesterol and is one of the most common drugs prescribed to seniors. At the VA where they can negotiate, you can get a year's supply for $130. Under Medicare, it will cost $1,200, a 900 percent price difference. No reasonable person would pay $23 for a gallon of milk when you can buy it at Safeway for $2.65.

The State of Oregon has bulk purchasing power to negotiate for lower prescription drug prices from pharmaceutical companies for thousands of low-income and uninsured Oregonians. We know the practice works, allowing more people to be covered, enhancing lives and using taxpayer dollars wisely.

In the last Congress, I started a petition that would force the House leadership to consider giving Medicare the ability to negotiate for lower prices because we knew if we could get the issue on the floor, it would pass.

Well, we have a new Congress, a new majority. We will finally overturn that ban on negotiations and defeat the forces that have prevented fiscal responsibility. I ask my colleagues to join me in supporting H.R. 4, commonsense cost-saving legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to support H.R. 1, Implementing the 9/11 Commission Recommendations Act of 2007. With this legislation we finally have a real opportunity to address the unfulfilled recommendations of the bipartisan 9/11 Commission on improving homeland security, preventing terrorists from acquiring WMD, and developing strategies for preventing the spread of Islamic terrorism.

While I support H.R. 1, there is one area of concern that I believe we could do more to improve and that involves security improvements to our ports and incoming containers. Certainly, screening containers is important but it isn't enough. We have to start with the basics.

The idea of screening 100 percent of all cargo containers is a formidable task that is expensive and extremely time consuming. I believe we should strive to meet these goals, however, this could take many years and cost billions of dollars before we achieve that objective. In the meantime, there are many inexpensive basic steps that we can take to make our ports and containers more secure. Tampering of containers in route to the United States is a genuine threat. Today, containers are only protected by a simple bolt seal. All it takes to defeat our current container security is bolt cutter. Fortunately better technology is available. For over 3 years, the Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Patrol have been developing a Container Security Device or a CSD.

The job of a CSD is simple. It attaches to the inside of a cargo container, protected from the elements and anybody who might want to remove or disable it. It monitors and records door openings--authorized and unauthorized. The CSD can then report those breaches to port or customs authorities. It sounds simple and it is simple. These devices are currently being used by the private sector--companies like Starbucks--to safeguard their shipments worldwide. But unbelievably, despite extensive evaluation by DHS, CBP and commercial entities, it still has not been deployed in even a pilot program in the supply chain.

Today, we don't know where a container has been, whether someone has opened the

doors or who actually stuffed it. CSD technology that is available today can provide critical security information. It is also important to note that the CSD program is available at little cost to the Federal Government and to shippers. At less than $20 per shipment, we have a chance to make a real difference in port security. The administration should move to deploy CSD technology and do it at soon as possible.

Mr. Speaker, I am honored to recognize Mr. William Benedetto, who was recently the first Oregonian to be awarded the 2006 U.S. Maritime Literature Award for his book Sailing Into the Abyss.

Mr. Benedetto's service to this country began when he enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard after finishing high school in Maine in 1946. During his time with the Coast Guard, Mr. Benedetto served on every coast in the areas of search and rescue, port security and with the U.S. Merchant Marine. He was commended by the Coast Guard for performing rescue operations when Hurricane Betsy hit New Orleans in 1965.

Mr. Benedetto retired from the Coast Guard in 1974 after moving to Oregon and beginning his college career. He graduated from Portland State University in 1977 and from the University of Oregon Law School in 1980. After practicing law for 20 years, Mr. Benedetto retired and completed his longtime goal of writing a book. Sailing Into the Abyss was published in 2005 and was awarded the 2006 U.S. Maritime Literature Award in June of this year.

I believe I speak for the great State of Oregon when I say we are proud to call Mr. Benedetto a writer, a serviceman, and an honorable citizen of our State and country.

Congratulations Mr. Benedetto.

Mr. Speaker, I want to take this opportunity to publicly thank Chairman Boehlert for the kind of job he does every single day on committee, which is working across the aisle and trying to make this world a better place for people, a little safer, and to really look at the future. He cares very much about the future. And I thank the gentleman from Oregon for all of his work on this legislation and for yielding me this time.

Mr. Speaker, I join my colleagues not only from the west coast but across the country in support of this legislation.

I know that the impetus for this bill was the horrible destruction and loss of life that occurred in Southeast Asia in December of 2004. But one only has to look at last month's news and the tsunami warnings issued along the west coast after an earthquake in Japan to understand that the threat is very real and very important.

In the last 2 years, I have made a lot of trips to the Oregon coast, and talked with many constituents about the possibility of a tsunami of similar size and destructive force striking somewhere along Oregon, Washington or the northern California coast.

I have spoken with State geologists, tsunami researchers at many universities, and emergency management planners, and they all agree it is not a question of if but when the next big tsunami will strike the west coast.

While this legislation or any legislation will not guarantee total protection, I do think that the funding in this bill for education and mitigation programs will go a long way towards making our Nation's citizens more aware of the dangers posed by tsunamis and more prepared to act and ultimately safer. This is truly a bill that will save lives.

I am also pleased there is money included in the legislation that will improve international coordination for detection and warnings, particularly in vulnerable regions like the Indian Ocean. It is in the best interest of the United States to assist in detection and monitoring of seismic events and tsunamis around the world because a large tsunami generated in Japan has a potential to do major damage to many places along the western coastline.

It is for these reasons that I am proud to be a cosponsor of this legislation and urge my colleagues in the House and the other Chamber to quickly pass this legislation and to begin to provide support for our communities and our citizens.