Floor Statements

I yield myself as much time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of House Resolution 811, expressing support for the designation of October 2009 as National Principals Month.

The role of principals has been redefined in the 21st century. Gone are the days when principals spent most of their time with bus schedules, fire drills and general curriculum. Today's school leaders must keep abreast of State and Federal goals, the latest technologies and teaching practices, as well as learning to use data to spot gaps in learning among all students. It should come as no surprise that principals, like other organizational leaders, set the tone for high achievement in their schools.

Regardless of location, racial or socioeconomic demographics, communities demand that principals lead the instructional and academic performances in their schools. Leadership is an important factor in the creation of good schools. Influenced by the academic standards movement, which focuses on equity and instruction, school leaders are thinking anew about how to define quality in our schools and about how to create and manage the environments that support them.

Principals lead schools, and they tie the daily operations to school and student learning goals that are set by parents, staff, and the community. They also set high expectations for the academic and social development of all students, teachers and staff; and they ensure the resources to meet these high standards.

Principals are also charged with hiring and retaining high-quality teachers and with holding them responsible for student learning. Today's school leadership also connects professional development to school learning goals, and it provides opportunities for teachers to work, plan, and to think together.

Principals are among the hardest working, yet often the least recognized, individuals in education. These unsung heroes deserve to be recognized for the essential role they play in preparing today's students for the challenges of tomorrow, and I ask my colleagues to support this resolution.

I also would like to comment about my principal at Clarksville High School, Mr. Thompson, who is a retired sergeant in the Marine Corps. He had a hard time keeping us in between the white lines. I think part of my success today is due to Mr. Thompson, my principal, who kept a lot of young boys out of trouble and who pointed them in the right direction education-wise. Many principals across this Nation and probably most of us in this room could acknowledge that.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I concur with the gentlewoman, and I would urge the passage of this resolution; and I yield back the balance of my time.

I yield myself as much time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of House Resolution 837, recognizing Kentucky Wesleyan College for over 150 years of service as an institution of higher education.

Kentucky Wesleyan College, in partnership with the United Methodist Church, fosters a liberal arts education that nourishes, stimulates and prepares future leaders intellectually, spiritually and physically to achieve success in life.

Founded in 1858, Kentucky Wesleyan College was originally located in Millersburg. Classes began in 1866, and the first commencement took place in 1868. At first, it was a training school for preachers; but soon, business classes and liberal arts classes were added to the curriculum. In 1890, the school moved to Winchester, and soon after, women began to be admitted to the school for the first time. In 1951, the school moved to its present location in Kentucky's third largest city, Owensboro.

Kentucky Wesleyan secured full accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools in 1947. Increasingly, Kentucky Wesleyan graduates were making their mark in the graduate and professional schools of the region. The strong curriculum in business and liberal arts was expanded to include major programs in preprofessional areas. Kentucky Wesleyan earned an enviable reputation for the many students being sent to medical, dental, law, and graduate schools.

Kentucky Wesleyan gained national recognition in athletics when its men's basketball team won men's championships in 1966, 1968, 1969, 1973, 1987, 1990 and 1999. No Division II school has ever surpassed this record.

In the 1990s, Kentucky Wesleyan College revised its mission statement to focus on preparing leaders for the 21st century. The college reaffirmed its commitment to the liberal arts and modified the general education program toward fulfilling the new mission statement. Offering 27 majors in 10 preprofessional curriculums, Kentucky Wesleyan College has a 15:1 student-faculty ratio.

Superb teaching from a global perspective provides a rich classroom experience at Kentucky Wesleyan College. Students sharpen their skills,

their critical thinking, by learning how to find, use and defend worthwhile information. In addition, students are encouraged to serve in anticipation of a lifetime of service to others. Kentucky Wesleyan's students meet the needs of others and positively impact the world around them.

Congratulations to President Dr. Cheryl King, the Kentucky Wesleyan students, faculty, and staff on over 150 years of service as an institution of higher education.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield as much time as he may consume to Mr. Guthrie of Kentucky.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of House Resolution 660, recognizing the distinguished history of the Laurinburg Normal Industrial Institute founded in 1904 by Emmanuel McDuffie and his wife, Tinny. Laurinburg Institute is the oldest of only four historically African American boarding schools still in existence in the United States. It was founded to help provide suitable education and training in the common pursuits of life for African Americans in the Laurinburg, North Carolina, area.

At the turn of the century, Laurinburg Institute instructed African American teachers and youth in various academic branches of study and in the best methods of theoretical and practical industrial applications for agriculture and the mechanical arts. In 1956, the Laurinburg Institute built a new campus, integrated its faculty and student body, and expanded its foreign student program, which consisted of students from Russia, Africa, South America, and the Caribbean. It also further solidified its nationally and internationally recognized athletic and music programs. The Laurinburg Institute has graduated over 50,000 students.

Today, we recognize the distinguished history of the Laurinburg Institute and acknowledge its remarkable contribution to the education of African Americans. I commend the dedication of the McDuffie family in creating and sustaining the legacy of Emmanuel and Tinny McDuffie. Congratulations to its third-generation administrators, president and CEO, Frank McDuffie, and his daughter, Frances McDuffie, who serves as vice president and chief operating officer, as well as the faculty, staffs and students of Laurinburg Institute.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, just to dovetail, I do remember, I believe Charlie Scott played in the old ABA for the Virginia Squires. I have seen him play many times, a great athlete and a great human being.

As my colleague Mr. Kissell from North Carolina clearly stated, an education doesn't just affect one person. It affects a family, it affects a community, it affects a nation. So this family that has had this commitment to education for over a century is to be commended.

I urge my colleagues to support this resolution.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I may consume, and I rise today in support of House Resolution 836, expressing support for Teen Read Week.

More than 20 percent of adults read below a fifth-grade level, which is well below the reading level needed to earn a minimum wage. Almost 44 million adults in the United States don't read well enough to read a short story to their child. It is estimated that illiteracy costs U.S. taxpayers more than $20 billion per year. More than three our of four of those on welfare and 68 percent of people arrested are illiterate. In U.S. prisons, three out of five inmates cannot read.

The ability to read proficiently is one of the most important skills children and adolescents can acquire. This skill is important to people of all ages, from children just entering school to adults in the prime of their careers. Teen Read Week highlights the importance of encouraging teenagers to read.

Research has shown that children and teens who are proficient readers perform better in almost all school subjects. Therefore, it follows that teens who struggle to read are more likely to drop out of high school than those who do not. In addition, research indicates that there's a strong link between teens who are juvenile offenders and the inability to read at grade level.

Teen Read Week takes place October 18 through 24, 2009. It was first recognized in 1998 and has taken place the third week of every October since that time.

Teen Read Week encourages teens to read for fun. Reading for fun highlights the importance and enjoyment of reading for teens and adolescents. Research has shown that teens who read for fun are more likely to succeed in the workforce than those who do not. The theme for Teen Read Week 2009 is ``Read Beyond Reality.''

By recognizing Teen Read Week, we show our support for promoting teen literacy and encouraging teens to read. I am honored to support this resolution, and I ask my colleagues to join me.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I have just one comment. I have been the mayor of a city, Johnson City, Tennessee. A lot of information for the school system comes through us. And I was at a meeting one day, and one of the school board members was very exuberant about how we could use computers, and computers are the most important thing. I held my hand up, and I said, Look, I don't have a clue how a computer works, but I can read. So I read the manual, and in 30 minutes or 20 minutes' time, I'm online.

Reading changes lives. The statistics in this country are staggering. When you look at the amount of people in prisons and on welfare who cannot read, it is basically enslavement. We must in our education system--and I have thought of this many times--a good education where you can read may help solve the health care crisis, because people who can read can get a good job and provide for themselves.

So I would encourage my colleagues to support this and encourage the schools to help teach and encourage teen reading.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of S. 1818, a bill that amends the Morris K. Udall Scholarship and Excellence in Environmental Policy Act.

The Morris K. Udall Foundation was created by Congress in 1992 to honor Mr. Udall and help educate new generations to protect the environment. The foundation works to increase the awareness of our Nation's natural resources, foster a greater recognition and understanding of the role of the environment in the development of our Nation, and, through the U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution, provide mediation and other services to resolve environmental disputes involving Federal agencies. Finally, the foundation also supports several educational programs that help students in environmental programs in undergraduate and graduate school.

As previously noted when we took up the House version of this bill, the legislation before us honors Stewart L. Udall's service to the Nation by adding his name to the foundation, making it the Morris K. Udall and Stewart L. Udall Foundation. Mr. Udall served in Congress and in the administration and then continued his work for the environment in the private sector.

I thank the gentlelady from California, and I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Well, Dr. Broun, we have. Let me say I was here this morning early, and I came to this Congress, I practiced medicine, OB-GYN, delivered almost 5,000 babies, and I came to this Congress with a nonpartisan background as the mayor of Johnson City, Tennessee. That was my political background. So I came here to try to help be part of this great health care debate.

How I started my time off was I brought every think tank that I could find--Brookings Institute, which is a left-leaning think tank, Heritage Foundation, Cato, AEI--into my office and sat down and listened to them and said, What is the problem? How do we define the problem of our country right now as far as health care is concerned?

One of them was escalating costs. How do we deal with that? How do we deal with the uninsured and how do we deal with preexisting conditions?

I think the thing that troubles most of us out there, and me as an individual, quite frankly, is if you lose your job, you lose your health care. That is something that everyone in this country fears, and certainly in a bad job market. So I thought about that at great length and brought some basic principles which we have, and I stood on the House floor this morning and heard three different individuals say that there were no other plans out there.

That is absolutely false.

Well, Dr. Broun, if you'll yield back.

And I heard my good friends, Dr. Fleming from Louisiana and Dr. Cassidy, both mention this. But I looked at it, and I thought How can we make insurance portable? How do you affect preexisting conditions? If you have a large group market, you don't have a problem with preexisting conditions.

For instance, in our city, where I was mayor, it didn't matter. How did we handle a preexisting condition? We took everyone in. Everyone paid the same rate, and we bought catastrophic coverage in case someone had a leukemia or a cancer or a severe heart problem and covered that issue.

We also used prevention and wellness. And I can tell you there are four organizations in my community, in my area, that have had minimal health care increases in the last 4 to 5 years. How do they do that? Well, they change the incentives from consumption to wellness. And let's say you

came in and you were hypertensive and you had diabetes and you smoked and you were overweight. Well, we would penalize you financially for that. These organizations--and there are businesses there that have been able to hold their costs down--but if you changed and modified your behavior, we rewarded you for that and you would actually earn money by changing your behavior.

And guess what that's done? That's empowered the patient to be in charge of their own health care. And we hear all the time about insurance companies. And I can tell you right now, I'm not sitting here defending an insurance company. And you and I--I'm a surgeon, and I've spent as much time on the phone trying to get an insurance company to approve care than I actually do in the cases. But in our own practice we have about close to 300 people who get their care from our group, 70 providers, 300 or so employees.

What we did, and what I've done, is use this as a health savings account card. And what Dr. Cassidy was talking about, so people understand how this empowers the individual, is this: so much money, whether it's $2,000 or $3,000 and you go buy first dollar. You're going to shop. I do. If I go get a scan, I want the best price. At the end of that year, if I don't spend that money, it goes into an account, as Doctor Fleming said. Now, how many people in our group chose to use this? Eighty-four percent, instead of traditional accounts, they used a health savings account.

Yes.

Dr. Broun, what happened was exactly as you point out. In 1993, we were spending $2.6 billion. We had a lot in the State of Tennessee on our Medicaid plan. We changed to a plan called TennCare. By the year 2004, it was a $7.5 to $8.5 billion plan. It tripled the cost. Forty-five percent of the people who got on the plan had private health insurance and dropped it--exactly what's going to happen in the public option. And how did the governor, a Democratic governor, rein in costs? He cut the rolls. He rationed care in that way. And that is exactly what will happen in a public option that we're talking about. We'll go into it in more detail.

Let me take 30 seconds and tell you if we could agree on this and pass a meaningful health care bill, this is all you have to do. Eliminate State lines so you can form association health plans; give tax credits for low-income people to buy affordable health care; have a tax deduction for individuals. Last year I was an individual when I ran for Congress, and I couldn't deduct my health care premiums. It made them 30 percent higher.

Number four, let young people who don't have a job when they get out of high school or college, let them stay on their parents' health care until they're 25, 26 years old. It costs the government a big fat zero. You can cover 7 million young people doing that.

Tort reform and SGR fix. Those are not terribly expensive things to do. I think we can all agree on them. And I believe we can get a meaningful health care plan that doesn't blow up a system that's working for 80 or 85 percent of the people right now.

Yes.

Madam Speaker, as a doctor, I see the health care reform debate a little differently than many of my colleagues. When people talk about cost savings and different health care plans, they are really talking about access to care for my patients. There is an immediate and long-term problem for patients' access under the Democrats' plan.

In the near term, 20 percent of our seniors will see reduced benefits. It's not credible to say that we are not cutting Medicare benefits when, in fact, we are. These so-called reforms seem incredibly short-sighted to me in light of the fact that they will decrease access to care.

Over the longer term, H.R. 3200 will force further cutbacks in care as cost savings fail to materialize. Why am I so confident of this outcome? Because I heard the same promises, the same predictions to my patients under TennCare, our State's Medicaid experiment that failed spectacularly. Care was rationed and enrollment for the program was closed, and that hurt our patients. We simply cannot allow these cutbacks to harm patient care.

I urge all Members to go back to their districts and talk to their doctors and patients. I think they will hear a different story and remedy for our health care system than the one the Democrats are trying to prescribe.

Well, I think the mantra that you hear is we want affordable, accessible, quality health care. Just to speak to what Dr. Boozman was saying there briefly, if you look at the next 10 years, and you take 400, $500 billion out of the Medicare system, and you add 3 to 3\1/2\ million people to the Medicare system, each year, and then in the Baucus bill after year 2 you cut providers by 24 percent, you do the math.

I mean, how can you provide more quality care to 30 million people with $500 billion less money? You do the math, it's impossible.

We have done--there are two plans out there that have had beautiful experiments in the States. That's Tennessee and Massachusetts.

What happened in Tennessee, in the early 1990s, we had managed care come along and the health care costs were escalating. We have a lot of uninsured Tennesseans. It was a noble goal to try to cover as many Tennesseans as we could. So we started a plan with eight different managed care plans to compete for business.

What happened between 1993 and 2004, budget years, 10 budget years, 11 budget cycles, is that the cost on spending, on Medicaid, which is TennCare, our exemption from the Medicaid system, went from 2.5 or $2.6 billion a year to $8.5 billion a year, over triple in cost.

Now, what do we get for that? Well, we got more people covered; and we found in this public option that 45 percent of the people who had the public option dropped private health insurance and went on the government plan. Well, that was fine for the person who got the care at that time.

But what happened, to make your point, is that the Medicaid system in our State pays less than 60 percent of the cost of actually providing the care. Medicare pays somewhere between 80 and 90 percent of the costs, the uninsured somewhere in between, and the rest of it has shifted to private health insurance companies.

I can tell you exactly what happened in our State is that they almost broke the State. The Governor, who is a Democrat and who is doing a fine job, as is the legislature that's Republican, are working together to try to solve this problem.

How did they do it? How did they ration care? What they did was they cut 200,000 people from the rolls because the State could not afford it.

What also is going to happen is our governor, and I have a letter from the governor right here, is extremely worried about the Bachus plan, and he has already scored that because he knows the next governor is going to have to deal with it. What he is looking at is at least $735 million over 5 years. And if this were to happen, if the State were to sue Medicaid, which Washington State and California have done, to freeze the rates so that you couldn't lower the Medicare and Medicaid rates, that could be as much as $1 billion more for the State in an unfunded mandate.

Right now our State has no way to pay for it. We just don't have it in Tennessee. And to show you we don't, the governor and the legislature have had to cut off enrollment in the SCHIP plan, in our State it is called Cover Kids, because we don't have the money for even our matching part right now.

Look, just to get some more time, if you look at this, there is no way on this Earth, and I said when I came here I was worried, very worried, about our children and grandchildren, my grandchildren, how they were going to do in this system. I am now very worried about our seniors, because I am afraid when you decrease the amount of resources, the amount of dollars, and add more people and cut the costs, cut the amount of money you are going to pay to providers, you will decrease access and you will decrease quality. It has to happen. Or, thirdly, our seniors are going to pay a whole lot more money for their health care, which they cannot afford.

In our area where I live in the First District of Tennessee, it is not an affluent area; it is a mountainous area of the State, and so many patients that I saw every year, a lot of widows that I saw lived on a fixed income, a small Social Security check, $500, $600, $700 a month and maybe a $100-a-month pension. They cannot afford any more for their health care right now.

There are millions of Americans, our seniors, who no longer can go out into the workforce. They can't hold a job at Wal-Mart as a greeter or at McDonald's or whatever. They are just physically not able. What are we going to do for those folks?

Well, I appreciate that.

There's no question in our area we've had four different small businesses, including Johnson City, Tennessee, where I was mayor before I came here, that have actually flattened their premium increases by doing exactly what Congressman Murphy was talking about. You change the incentives.

BAE Corporation, Holston Munitions, they make C-4 and plastic explosives and so forth, and that company has 700 or 800 employees. They have not had a premium increase in 5 years in that company. How'd they do that? Well, they changed the incentives. If you were hypertensive and obese and smoked, it would cost you more for your insurance. If you got on their plan, their wellness program, and you stopped smoking, you exercised, and you lost weight, they would reward you financially. And guess what? They have kept their premiums down. Free Will Baptist Ministries, a small 150-person group has done exactly the same thing.

I've had a health savings account, and let me explain that to people out there who are scared away with this. In our practice, we have almost 300 employees who get insurance through our company, through our business, our medical practice, and 84 percent of them have a health savings account.

What that is is this: You manage the first dollars. The first dollars may be $3,000. Mine was $5,000. So I paid the first dollar for any health care, but it made me a great consumer. It also incentivized me to stay healthy, exercise, eat right. If you don't spend that money, guess what happens? You get to keep it, roll it over into next year like an IRA, and you can spend that on your health care the next year. And if you're healthy over a number of years, then you're able to keep this money and buy long-term care with it or whatever you want to spend it on health care-wise. If anything over $5,000, I had a catastrophic policy, so if I had a cancer or a car accident or some severe illness, it covered 100 percent. So basically what I was doing was I'm the insurance company. I'm managing my own care and my own dollars. It works extremely well. Under this plan, it does not work.

And before I stop, I wanted to pass along something that I found very fascinating in Massachusetts. In Massachusetts, they've done a great job of trying to cover their citizens there. They have about 97 percent covered, but they're running into the same issue that we did in Tennessee. From 2006 until now, State spending on health care is up 70 percent. And in that State, you cannot be denied coverage and you have a mandate to buy insurance as an individual. So you have to purchase this insurance.

Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, from 2008 until 2009, found this out, that 40 percent of their new enrollees were enrolled for less than 5 months, and during that 5-month period of time, they averaged spending $2,400 a month on those folks. For the folks like the rest of us that just go out and pay our premiums, it was $350 a month. So what these people were doing is they were waiting till they got sick, then they bought the health insurance, and when they got well, they dropped it. So they paid the fee or the tax. Look, people will do what's in their own best interest. They're smart, and they'll figure out what to do. So I don't know how you make people or force people to do it.

Guess what happened in Massachusetts? The rest of us, the rest of the folks up there who got insurance subsidized those people greatly. So I think you have to put the onus back on, and we have several plans out there that can do that, that incentivize people to look after their own health care. I mean, some very simple things to do.

Tort reform. Very simple. You can save billions of dollars. Take away State lines. Allow co-ops or association health plans to be formed. Subsidize State high-risk pools. So if a patient of mine who came in and said, Dr. Roe, I was diagnosed with breast cancer 5 years ago and I'm uninsurable, make sure that patient, that woman can get affordable health insurance. Those are simple things we can do that everybody in this Chamber ought to be able to agree on.

Dr. Cassidy, you know this, that if I had a patient that was a pregnant diabetic and she came to me, I can tell her what to do, but unless she's empowered to take care of her own blood sugar calculations, she's not going to have a successful outcome. So we absolutely have to engage our patients in solving these problems. There's no doubt about it.

Well, there's no question that the American people are the greatest shoppers in the world. I mean, how many of us haven't driven over five lanes of interstate to get gas 2 cents a gallon cheaper. I mean, we've all done that. Admit it. We are good shoppers and consumers, and health care ought to be the same way.

Would the gentleman yield?

When I go in, and I had a procedure done on myself a couple of years ago. I take this card right here, which is my health savings account, and it's a debit card. And that day they get paid. I said, I want your best price. I want the lowest price you can give me right here when I pay you because you get your money, no insurance company involved, no anything. I'm paying today cash out of my health savings account.

Thank you. Let me just give you a little historical trip.

These crises, legal crises have occurred throughout various States in the Union, and it occurred in Tennessee in the mid seventies. All the companies who provided malpractice insurance left the State. So the doctors got together and formed a mutual insurance company, State Volunteer Mutual Insurance Company, where what we don't pay out in premiums--I mean in charges and costs. We keep and it comes back as lower. When I got my first malpractice premium in the seventies, it was $4,000 a year. The young physician who replaced me was $74,000.

Yes. And I spoke to a neurosurgeon just yesterday who is over $100,000 a year just in Tennessee. What happened in our State was the following: since the inception of that company, since the mid-seventies until now, that's 35 years, over half the premium dollars we've paid have gone to attorneys, less than 40 cents have gone to the injured party, and 10 cents go back for reserves and running the company.

What we have in America is a terrible system to actually pay for injured parties. If we have injured someone in a medical malpractice event, we have no good way except through the legal system, in which most of the money goes to the attorneys, both defense and plaintiff attorneys. We can't actually pay for the injured party.

That is what's wrong. And I would suggest that the attorneys have to come and help us get a system that better helps the injured party, to compensate them. If we hurt someone, let's compensate that person. Right now in

our State we have a terrible system to do that.

Yes.

Madam Speaker, October is Domestic Violence Awareness month, and great organizations such as CHIPS Family Violence Center in Erwin, Tennessee are educating the community on the dynamics of domestic violence.

This exceptional organization has an important mission to provide shelter and service to victims of domestic violence and their children, ultimately, enabling them to begin and maintain a life free of violence.

This month, CHIPS Family Violence Center in Erwin is holding their third annual candle light service. This event will not only educate the community, it will also honor victims and bring attention to their struggle.

Madam Speaker, the help, opportunity and encouragement provided by CHIPS Family Violence Center is helping families throughout

Tennessee. I want to thank the shelter, the volunteers and our law enforcement for working together towards a safer and healthier community each day.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I may consume. I rise today in support of H.R. 1035, a bill that amends the Morris K. Udall Scholarship and Excellence in National Environmental Policy Act. The Morris K. Udall Foundation was created by Congress in 1992 to honor Mr. Udall's 30 years of public service. The Foundation was created to help educate new generations to protect the environment. The Foundation works to increase the awareness of our Nation's natural resources, foster a greater recognition and understanding of the role of the environment and the development of our Nation, and through the U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution, provide for mediation and other services to resolve environmental disputes involving Federal agencies.

The Foundation operates several educational programs. The Morris K. Udall scholarship program awards approximately 80 merit-based scholarships of about $5,000 each year. It also supports about 12 Native Americans or Alaskan natives every summer for a 10-week bipartisan congressional internship program.

Finally, the foundation supports two fellows every year in a doctoral program whose research focuses on environmental policy.

As we noted when this passed the House this summer, the legislation before us honors Stewart L. Udall's service to the Nation by adding his name to the foundation, making it the Morris K. Udall and Stewart L. Udall Foundation. Mr. Udall served in Congress and the administration, and then continued his work for the environment in the private sector. I would like to point out that there is one difference between this bill and the version passed by the House in July. The other body removed the authorization level of ``such sums,'' thereby leaving the authorization of these programs at $40 million, which is current law.

Finally, I would like to note this bill is being amended by the House to include the Travel Promotion Act, which creates a corporation to promote travel in the United States. My colleague from Missouri, Mr. Blunt, a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, will speak to these provisions. But let me just say that I'm glad that we are acting to promote tourism in this economic downturn. Attractions like the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the most visited park in America, Dollywood, Jonesboro, the oldest town in Tennessee, and Sycamore Shoals historic site in my district stand to benefit greatly from increased tourism. The Senate amendment to the underlying Udall scholarship bill

makes this legislation better. I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I yield the balance of my time to the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Blunt) and ask unanimous consent that he be allowed to control that time.

Madam Speaker, I want to congratulate the Smoky Mountain Children's Home for their long heritage as residential care center and an adoption placement agency.

I was honored to nominate the Smoky Mountain Children's Home for the 2009 Angels in AdoptionTM program. The Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute, which orchestrates the Angels in AdoptionTM program, presented an award to The Smoky Mountain Children's Home along with more than 190 Angels from across the Nation.

Madam Speaker, the Smoky Mountain Children's Home's philosophy comes from a basic faith based belief that every child deserves a family.

I am thankful for the important work that is being done at the Smoky Mountain Children's Home. They are working each day toward one of the most noble causes imaginable--to improve the life of a child by bringing him or her together with a loving family.

I am grateful for programs such as Angels in AdoptionTM who recognize the good work done by great organizations like the Smoky Mountain Children's Home.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I might consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of House Resolution 517, congratulating the University of Washington women's softball team for winning the 2009 Women's College World Series.

The University of Washington is a public research university founded in 1861. It is one of the oldest State-supported institutions of higher education on the west coast. UW is located in Seattle, Washington, and the university has two additional branch campuses in Tacoma and Bothell, Washington. The university offers over 250 degrees within 150 departments, programs across 18 colleges and schools and employs over 4,100 full-time equivalent faculty members. UW operates and manages two major medical centers, UW Medical Center and Harborview Medical Center.

The university receives more Federal research funding than any other public university in the country, and the second most Federal research funding of all the universities in the country.

The University of Washington's long history of excellence is reflected in its academic and athletic rankings and accomplishments. The university is considered a ``public ivy,'' and the U.S. News and World Report ranked UW 41st out of 130 tier 1 national universities. The university has 20 graduate programs ranked in the top 20 by U.S. News and World Report. And in 2008, the school placed 16th in the world's top universities, according to the Academic Ranking of World Universities.

University of Washington's excellence and success extend to their athletics, as well as their academics. UW is a NCAA Division I-A school, and recent national championships include the softball team, the men's rowing team, NCAA Division I women's cross-country team, and the women's volleyball team.

This year, led by National Player of the Year Danielle Lawrie, a member of the 2008 Canadian Olympic team, Washington's women's softball team advanced to the NCAA finals for the third time in school history. The number three Huskies rallied from two runs down in the top of the first inning to sweep top-ranked Florida in the best-of-three NCAA championship series. Washington ended the championship with a 3-2 victory against the University of Florida.

I'm honored today to congratulate and recognize the University of Washington's women's softball team for their victory as national champions in the 2009 Women's College World Series.

I ask my colleagues to support this resolution, and I reserve the balance of my time.

A job well done, the University of Washington women's softball team, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of House Resolution 769, a resolution recognizing the benefits of service-learning as a strategy to effectively engage youth in the classroom and community and expressing support for the goals of the Learn and Serve Challenge.

The National Learn and Serve Challenge is an annual event that takes place from October 5 to 11 and highlights the importance of engaging young people in community service. Through service-learning, students conduct community service projects which teachers then use to teach academic lessons in the classroom.

The challenge encourages young people to participate in special events and community outreach projects. It also encourages young people to develop and launch their own service-learning activities. These projects also help students see the real-life relevance of what they are learning in the classroom and apply their new knowledge in a practical manner.

I recognize the value of engaging youth in service in the community, and I honor the goals of the National Learn and Serve Challenge. I urge my colleagues to support this resolution, and also, Mr. Speaker, I think that young people learn to give back to their community and leave their community a little bit better than they found it through this project.

I yield the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of House Resolution 487, a resolution to recognize the 100th anniversary of The State News, the campus newspaper at Michigan State University.

The State News was actually founded as the Holcad in 1909 when Michigan State University was still Michigan Agricultural College. It became the Michigan State News in 1925 when the college was renamed Michigan State University. In 1971, the paper separated from the university to become an independent, nonprofit organization.

Since that time, the paper has received many awards. It has won the Associated Collegiate Press Pacemaker award, an award that is considered the Pulitzer Prize of college journalism, 16 times. It has been ranked as one of the Nation's best daily college newspapers by the Society of Professional Journalists and the Associated College Press. And it was ranked number 11 on a list of the best college newspapers in the country by the Princeton Review in 2008.

The paper has a number of noted alumni, including Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Jim Mitzelfeld and Jerry ter Horst, President Gerald Ford's press secretary.

I would like to commend The State News on the occasion of its 100th anniversary and congratulate all of the students and former students that have dedicated their time to making this paper great.

I urge my colleagues to support this resolution.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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

I rise in support of House Resolution 90, a resolution supporting the goals and ideals of National Campus Safety Month. I would like to thank my colleague, Representative Sestak, for introducing this important resolution recognizing the importance of safety on college campuses and the efforts of outside organizations to dedicate September to promoting greater public awareness of campus safety issues.

Unfortunately, over the past few years, we have seen how important it is to pay attention to our students' safety on campus. Sadly, college campuses are faced with the same crimes that plague many of our country's cities. Whether it be situations involving one individual, like the tragic murder of Annie Le at Yale University, or situations that involve the whole campus, like what occurred several years ago at Virginia Tech, colleges should continue to take steps to make sure the campus community is aware of activities on campus. A more informed population is often a safer population.

To that end, Congress took several steps in the Higher Education Opportunity Act last year to encourage institutions to update their campus security plans and ensure that they have steps in place to deal with all different types of emergencies.

Mr. Speaker, this resolution is especially timely this week as millions of students have left their homes and begun their fall semesters at colleges around the country. And I am pleased to support this resolution and urge my colleagues to do the same. And just as a sidebar--this didn't occur on a college campus--but one of the most distressing things that I have seen in my recent memory was the death of this young honor student in Chicago. And I think this just goes to safety on all campuses. I pray for that family and for that city with this terrible tragedy.

I reserve the balance of my time.

I yield back the balance of my time. I thank my colleagues on the other side of the aisle for this resolution.