Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, the people of the State of Washington are in a state of shock once again. They are in disbelief at the news that yet another police officer has been shot and killed in the line of duty. That makes six in the last 2 months in western Washington.

As a former cop myself, I will never forget the devastating time that we have gone through in the last couple months in losing these cops.

Last week, I attended the memorial for Pierce County Deputy Kent Mundell. He was 44 years old, and he died after being shot in the line of duty. He was able to kill the suspect, save other family members, his partner Sergeant Nick Hauser, and the community he had sworn to serve and protect. He paid the ultimate price.

Visiting at the hospital and attending his service and memorial, it is clear that Deputy Mundell had a heart full of life. He was willing and ready to serve. He was full of compassion for other human beings. And, now, that heart is silenced, and we all mourn this profound loss.

Deputy Mundell leaves behind his mom, his wife, his son and daughter, his partner, his entire law enforcement community, countless friends and loved ones. I ask this body, please, to keep them all in your prayers.

Deputy Kent Mundell, out of service, gone, but not forgotten.

Madam Speaker, as indicated in the Leave of Absence request granted by the House of Representatives, I was not in attendance for votes on Tuesday, December 8, 2009, so that I could support my constituents, the law enforcement community, and the residents of the Pacific northwest at a memorial service to mourn the tragic loss of four Lakewood Police officers.

Were I in attendance, I would have voted in favor of the Motion to Instruct Conferees on H.R. 3288, rollcall Vote No. 931; H. Con. Res. 199, rollcall Vote No. 932; H. Con. Res. 206, rollcall Vote No. 933; H. Res. 940, rollcall Vote No. 934; H. Res. 845, rollcall Vote No. 935; H.R. 2278, rollcall Vote No. 936; H. Res. 915, rollcall Vote No. 937; and H. Res. 907, rollcall Vote No. 938.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to applaud a phenomenal high school football program in my District--the 8th of Washington--for winning another State Championship--their seventh in nine years.

The Bellevue Wolverines have an illustrious history of football success in the State of Washington, and they continued the trend on Saturday, December 5, defeating the Liberty Patriots, 23-17, to secure another 3A title. Head Coach Butch Goncharoff and his assistants provide some of the best coaching and vision in the country and the program--well known for their great on-the-field success--often makes positive impacts in the community as well.

I congratulate every member of the roster for their continued and storied success on the field. I thank coach Goncharoff, his assistants, Athletic Director Brian Hercules and Principal David Wellington for creating an environment that allows student-athletes to thrive on the field, in the classroom and in their community. Once again, congratulations and I wish the Wolverines all possible success in the future.

Madam Speaker, today I rise in recognition of a high school football program located in my District--the 8th of Washington-- that won the 4A State title on Saturday, December 5, their third in a row.

The Skyline Spartans (12-2), located in Sammamish, Washington--and competing in the KingCo 4A League, Crest Division--defeated the Ferris Saxons, 45-21 at the Tacoma Dome to win the 2009 State 4A Championship. The win marked the third straight State title win for Skyline. I offer my congratulations to the entire team and team captains Anthony De Matteo, Cooper Pelluer, Jake Heaps, Jase Butorac and Tommy Aarts.

I also want to thank head coach Mat Taylor and his assistant coaches, Steve Chmiel, Tom Collins, Jeff Johnson, Bruce Hasson, Kyle Snell, Ryan Thorsen, Brett VanVoorhis and Evan Flay for providing wonderful examples for their players and dedicating many hours to the teaching and training of a group of talented young athletes. Our communities and our young people are better off with the influence you provide. Thank you for your service.

Congratulations and thanks also go out to Principal Lisa Hechtman, Athletic Director Kevin Rohrich and all the teachers at Skyline. Enjoy another football championship and know that your community, your students and your student-athletes all appreciate your efforts and sacrifices. Go Spartans!

I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Madam Speaker, I rise today also in support of this legislation to extend our trade preference programs.

Trade is vital to creating jobs, growing our economy, and strengthening ties with key partners around the world. Preferences are a bridge for developing countries to enter the global market, to grow, and to achieve permanent trade relationships with America.

Look no further than South Korea and Colombia for great examples of preferences done right. Through successful preference programs, both allies now stand ready to enter into permanent trade agreements with the United States.

The failure to pass pending free trade agreements like those with Korea and Colombia is costing America thousands of jobs and billions of dollars. President Obama did recently speak about how growing exports creates jobs, and I hope the Congress will soon prepare these agreements for consideration, because not only do these agreements create jobs, but also business relationships and partnerships and friendships.

It creates opportunities for cultural exchanges and the opportunities to help our friends across the globe educate each other and educate us. It also even affects our national security and our environment.

While I am disappointed that we could not extend these preference programs beyond just 1 year, they are too important to our partner countries to let them expire. I urge all of my colleagues to support this extension of our preference programs.

I thank the gentleman.

Madam Chair, the choice is simple here. We can create a new, massive government bureaucracy, empower yet another czar to oversee our entire financial system, which will cost taxpayers millions more of their hard-earned money, or we can pass this amendment so that experienced regulators can better enforce the laws to protect our consumers from abuse while using existing resources. The choice is clear. Support this bipartisan, commonsense amendment that modernizes our regulatory system and helps Americans thrive in the 21st century.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in honor of the co-founder of an organization that provided comfort and support for thousands upon thousands of our brave service men and women.

For nearly eight years, Nadine Gulit has freely given nearly all her time to support and run ``Operation Support our Troops.'' Whenever I hold Veterans Fair's in my district, the 8th of Washington, or attend veterans or service member rallies, Nadine is always present. Providing aid and comfort to our brave soldiers was the work of her heart and soul and she poured 100 percent of both into ``Operation Support Our Troops.''

As the story goes, Operation Support Our Troops started after Nadine's daughter Sheryl Sheaffer received a message from her son Scott serving in Iraq. At that point, Nadine and Sheryl were active in a grassroots organization called ``Operation Home Front,'' a support our troops grassroots effort. But after receiving Scott's call, Sheryl and Nadine took supporting our troops to a new level.

``Operation Support Our Troops'' has held many, many rallies in support of service members around Western Washington and is in regular contact with thousands of military supporters around the State. ``Operation Support Our Troops'' has sent care packages to tens of thousands of our soldiers at a time and has touched the lives of many more.

Nadine's family has a long history of service to this country and a deep respect for the work our soldiers do at home and abroad. Nadine and her group have been honored and recognized for their tireless efforts before, and I felt strongly I needed to add my name to the list. Their contributions will be missed but they have provided a blueprint for patriotic Americans to follow.

On November 5, Specialist Aaron Aamot--a 22-year-old soldier from Custer, Washington--was killed in Afghanistan by an IED. His father Mark, reflecting on his son's death and the outpouring of support from his community and country, quoted 19th century French historian Alexis de Tocqueville: ``America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great.'' Madam Speaker, Nadine is the kind of American de Tocqueville was talking about. She is good and people like her continue to make America great.

I thank the judge for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I know that most of the people in Washington, D.C., don't know these families that we're talking about today. The people here in Washington, D.C., don't know the children that these officers will no longer be able to parent.

But we do know police officers in Washington, D.C. We do know police officers here, the Capitol Hill Police Department and the D.C. Police Department, and we recognize the job they do every day to protect us.

Sometimes it's hard to make that connection between the men and women who wear the uniform and the sacrifices they make until it happens in your neighborhood, until it happens in your communities, until it happens to one of your neighborhood police officers, until it happens to your mother, your father, one minute sitting having coffee at a coffee shop, the next minute gone. Three fathers and a mother coming to work to protect all of us. It happens every day on the streets of America. They put on the uniform. They know the risk.

So with this resolution today, I think it's right that we pause and think about the sacrifices that our men and women in uniform make here serving our police departments in our communities across this country, to honor the service of Mark Renninger, Tina Griswold, Ronald Owens, and Gregory Richards. We should also mention Timothy Brenton, who was killed 30 days before this event, before this tragedy. He was also assassinated in the city of Seattle and he was sitting in his police car. This can happen at any time, at any moment, to any police officer across this country.

So pausing to honor and to mourn the loss of these four Lakewood, Washington, police officers who were brutally murdered Sunday morning just after Thanksgiving, spending the week with their family, I think it's just and right that all of us here today extend our deepest sympathy, to stand in solidarity and in grief with the families, their fellow officers, their friends, and their community. The entire Nation mourns and our hearts are broken.

To those involved in the hunt for the suspect, we commend you for your hard work and your bravery. Your thorough and effective work saved the lives of other citizens and other officers from harm.

Moving forward, I hope all of you understand how hard this will be for the families. I, unfortunately, have had the duty to notify family members of their loved ones lost. It's pain and emotion that you can't imagine. These families are devastated. So, please, I would ask all of us to remember the families, and don't forget they need your support, your help, your prayers, and your love.

I thank the gentleman for yielding. I know sometimes it's hard to pause for just a second in the busy lives that we lead here in the Capitol of this great country, but today we must. We must stop and pause and think about, first of all, how safe we are, and why. Because men and women who are wearing the uniform across this country sacrifice their lives for us. And on Sunday morning, 2 days ago, three police officers and their sergeant went to work. Went to work. They paused for a moment at a coffee shop, had their laptops out, talking about the day that they were just about to begin. Somebody walked in and took their lives away--all four.

In total, they left behind nine children. This was just 1 month after a Seattle police officer by the name of Timothy Brenton was ambushed and murdered, leaving behind two more children.

All I can say is that we thank them for their service. When you see somebody in uniform, pause, thank them for what they do, express sympathy for the loss of their partners and loved ones. And please, I ask that you keep their families in your thoughts and prayers.

I raise my voice loudly today on behalf of more than 22,000 Boeing workers in my district and all those thousands of workers across the State of Washington. The Department of Defense has pledged a fair and transparent process when it comes to awarding a new tanker contract for the Air Force. It must take a long, hard look at every angle when dealing with these decisions about the manufacturing of critical military equipment.

Billions of dollars of European ``launch aid'' subsidizes Airbus and gives them a grossly unfair competitive advantage in the global marketplace. This must not be ignored in awarding a tanker contract.

This is about fairness, it's about common sense, and has serious implications for our economy and our national security. Boeing workers produce the best planes in the world. They represent a long tradition of excellence and innovation. Let's give America a fair shake. Let's let the people of Boeing build this airplane.

I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, we have heard yesterday's announcement: unemployment eclipses 10 percent. Yet today we are considering a health care bill that will cost even more jobs and will raise taxes on families, on small businesses, on seniors, and takes away freedom.

This bill especially hurts our seniors, our greatest generation, by cutting their benefits, raising their premiums, and, on top of that, taxing wheelchairs, taxing pacemakers, taxing hearing aids.

This bill is not right for America, it is not right for families, it is not right for small businesses, and it is not right for seniors. We need real solutions.

Let's focus on reducing the costs maybe, offer tax incentives, enact medical liability reform, allow people to buy insurance across State lines. These solutions bring lower costs and bring health care to those who really need it.

Mr. Speaker, the most troubling aspect, though, of this bill is that it takes away freedom, and this freedom came through great sacrifice, the sacrifice of men and women throughout the history of this great Nation so that we could choose and live a free life. This bill takes away that freedom, the freedom to choose the health care that is right for you and your family. This bill takes away that freedom, requiring every American to purchase a government-approved health plan, pay a tax, or even go to jail. This bill takes away the freedom of patients to consult with their doctors without government interference. And this bill takes away that freedom, the freedom of our seniors to choose their own health care plan.

So, Mr. Speaker, this is not only a job-killing bill. Mr. Speaker, sad to say, this is a freedom-killing bill.

Thank you.

This motion was and will protect seniors from drastic cuts to Medicare and stop expensive lawsuits that increase the costs of health care for every American. We've heard, If you like it, you can keep it, but the bill before us is a direct assault on America's seniors, cutting $500 billion from Medicare.

Under this bill, one out of every five seniors will lose the Medicare health plan they chose. Because of regional payment disparities in many parts of this country, Medicare Advantage plans are the only way seniors can receive needed care. It's the only way that seniors can choose their doctors, and it's the only way that seniors can choose the preventive treatment they need.

This motion is about choice. It's about living in a free country. It's about having freedom. Mr. Speaker, this commonsense motion will protect seniors' health care, lower health care costs, and preserve freedom.

Mr. Speaker, isn't it ironic that as many Americans are celebrating the freedom to choose by casting votes across America on this election day, the House will begin consideration of a bill that threatens the freedom to choose their own health care plans.

The Pelosi bill will allow government takeover, raises taxes on hardworking Americans and small businesses, and get this, takes away half a trillion dollars worth of health care from our seniors. It includes a tax on wheelchairs, hearing aids, and pacemakers.

This is not the right solution to improve our health care system. What we need is real improvement, and that is let's lower the costs; real medical malpractice reform; lower the risk pools by allowing small businesses to band together; allow people to purchase insurance across State lines; allow States to create high-risk pools that lower the cost and provide coverage for uninsured and underinsured.

We must work together to get this done for the good of Americans across this country.

I stand here today, Mr. Speaker, as a former sheriff. I also stand here today as a former member of the law enforcement community for 33 years. This is a new world for me, and it's a proud moment for me to be here to introduce this bill and to have the support that we have here today from both sides of the aisle.

I know from firsthand experience the challenges associated with our communities and with keeping them safe. The truth is that safety and security are the business of every citizen. We all have to work together to make this country safe, to make our communities safe, to keep our neighborhoods safe. We always have to remain vigilant, and we always have to watch out for our neighbors' homes and for our own homes to keep them safe. Together, we will raise awareness about crime prevention and about what we can do to keep our own homes safe and our entire communities safe.

So I am pleased today to support my resolution to designate the first week of October as Celebrate Safe Communities Week and recognize October as Crime Prevention Month.

I want to thank my colleagues from across the aisle--Mr. Stupak from Michigan--for joining me in sponsoring this important effort.

Crime affects everyday decisions--where we go in public, where we travel,

what neighborhoods we visit, and where we might stop to shop for services or goods. Although the national crime rate has gone down in recent years, many cities and communities have actually seen a rise in crime rates over the past year or so. I've seen the devastation that even perceived crimes can cause and the harmful effects on our communities, especially for our children.

Children sometimes will feel threatened even going to school, and we've had to pass laws for school safety and school violence. It's a sad state of affairs today when we recognize that our children are sometimes not even safe on the school grounds or on the playgrounds of our schools across the country. Sometimes it causes them to even turn inward and to feel insecure and unsafe, and their schoolwork even suffers. They, themselves, may even turn to crime.

People of all ages and of all walks of life can be affected by crime. As we know, increases in crime can harm the economy. Residents can stay away from local businesses in certain neighborhoods because they might feel it's unsafe to shop there and to do business there.

Crime also affects the comfort and willingness of residents to work with law enforcement on community safety initiatives. Sometimes community policing efforts in working with a community will suffer if we don't all engage in ensuring our communities are safe. By engaging with communities in efforts such as Celebrate Safe Communities Week and Crime Prevention Month, connections to deter and to prevent violence can be made between members of law enforcement and their communities in order to serve and protect the public.

This initiative spotlights communities' crime prevention efforts; it enhances public awareness of violent crime prevention and safety messages; and it recruits year-round support for ongoing prevention activities that help keep neighborhoods safe from crime. Crime Prevention Month highlights the positive effects that prevention efforts have on a community through community efforts events, public service organizations, public service announcements, and other coordinated activities.

I am pleased that the House has chosen to recognize these important community efforts while respecting the work of our law enforcement officers in their responding without hesitation to every call that comes over the radio. We'd rather receive fewer calls and see less violence in our communities. It all starts with prevention.

I urge my colleagues to support this resolution.

Mr. Speaker, so much is at stake, and the well-being of Americans is on the line. And it's clear that we need health care reform, but that reform must protect and strengthen the health care of all Americans.

The current overhaul bill would make $500 billion in cuts to Medicare, $156 billion in cuts to Medicare health plans and would affect 14 million Americans across this Nation. This is not the kind of reform we need.

Also, Mr. Speaker and seniors, pay close attention to this: There is an unusual advocate for these massive cuts to seniors' health care. It's AARP, who receives nearly 40 percent of its revenue from selling health insurance products. Why would AARP support a bill cutting benefits for its members? Are they truly looking out for the best interests of seniors? Could it be that AARP has a hidden profit agenda?

This morning's Washington Post explores this issue in an article entitled, AARP: Reform Advocate and Insurance Salesman. I urge people to read it. I do believe there is a conflict of interest here, Mr. Speaker, and I will continue asking the questions necessary to ensure we protect our seniors' health care.

Madam Speaker, the month of October is recognized around this country as ``Domestic Violence Awareness Month'' and

I rise today to urge this House to continue advocating for victims of domestic violence and to continue the fight against domestic violence.

According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, a non- profit organization working tirelessly and cooperatively against the scourge of domestic violence, an estimated 1.3 million women are victims of physical assault by an intimate partner each year. One in four women will experience domestic violence in her lifetime and, at this point, one in six have already experienced an attempted or completed rape. I spent 33 years of my life in law enforcement, often on the front lines combating acts of domestic violence. During that time, I saw many horrific things. I have seen lives end, communities shattered and families torn apart due to domestic violence. The human cost of domestic violence in this country is astronomical. It touches lives in big cities, small towns and everywhere in between. Domestic violence knows no boundaries.

Violence is often a destructive cycle. A boy who witnesses acts of violence between parents or caretakers is twice as likely to become a perpetrator of domestic violence as an adult. Even worse, children who witness abuse and are themselves abused are even more prone to acts of domestic violence in adulthood. Generations of Americans have failed to break this terrible cycle of violence and even more alarmingly, many of those same Americans refuse to properly identify acts of domestic violence and seek help or protection. I ask the members of this House to remember these facts throughout this month and to please do everything in their power to combat domestic violence in congressional districts across the country. Support the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence and other like minded organizations. Support local law enforcement. Support community organizations like the Boys & Girls Club and churches. Urge your constituents to be mindful of the devastating effects of domestic violence.

Domestic violence is debilitating to families, communities and the United States as a whole and is entirely preventable. Every day, we have the opportunity to remind our constituents and our families to work together to rid our communities of domestic violence. As we make progress and fight against this injustice within, we must stay vigilant.