Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise in joyful remembrance of the life and work of David ``Doovy'' Kirschenbaum, an extraordinary man whose life was dedicated to family, friends and community. Mr. Kirschenbaum exemplified the purest meaning of the word ``father,'' and his caring, nurturing, dedication and commitment to others enriched the lives of countless individuals.

Doovy was a successful attorney and a staunch advocate for those who could not defend themselves. He built a large law practice with the daily assistance of members of his family. As his life touched the lives of more and more individuals, his influence widened. His wisdom and advice was soon sought after by officials from every rank and branch of government. Doovy's reputation became that of a kind, wise man, who, with just a twinkling of his eye could provide down-to-earth, practical advice. His possessed a philosophic mind, understood deeply the human condition, and always communicated great optimism and love. His commitment to and participation in Cleveland's Jewish community was central to his passion for social and economic justice.

Doovy pushed himself in all of his endeavors. He was constantly building his physical strength. He was an excellent skier and golfer, but a gentle competitor, who understood that life, like sports, was played not just to win but for the love of the game. His enthusiasm and joy for living were contagious. His friendship was consistently sought after by others, as his magnetic character easily drew people to him. His interest in public service led him to an appointment on the Cleveland Port Authority, where he presided over the growth of the great ports along the Great Lakes. His business interests also included health care, where he took pride in helping many families extend the quality of life of their loved ones in superior nursing facilities.

Doovy's greatest achievement in life was always his family. He was a loving father, grandfather and great-grandfather, who with his beloved wife Elise, took great pride in the lives, growth and accomplishments of each of their six children. Together, Doovy and Elise built a family and a life of love that touched the lives of countless people in numerous and permanent ways.

When Doovy reached his 70th birthday, hundreds of his friends traveled to Cleveland from all around America to celebrate his diamond year. When they entered the Kirschenbaum home, Doovy presented them with a small booklet of his philosophical observations entitled: ``It's Still All About Nothing.'' Today, in honoring his memory, we understand why his life meant everything to so many people. We know why this wise man, this advocate of the people, this gentle loving soul will be missed long into the future, not only by those in his large, extended family who shared his life, but by everyone whose life he ever touched.

Mr. Speaker and colleagues, please join me in honor and remembrance of my dear friend, David ``Doovy'' Kirschenbaum. Please also join me as I offer my deepest condolences to his wife Elise; to his daughters, Amy, Lynn, and Jo; to his son Dan; to the memory of his daughters, Susan and Gail; to his 22 grandchildren; to his 3 great-grandchildren, and to his extended family members and many friends. Although he will be greatly missed, his life was lived with great joy and love that he freely extended to his family, friends and to our community. Doovy's limitless kindness, generosity, humor and love consistently framed his life and embraced the lives of others, and his spirit live on within the hearts of his family and friends, today, and for all time, and he will never be forgotten.

Mr. Speaker, out of deference to our ranking member, I didn't claim time in opposition, but I am opposed to this bill, and I want to state why.

H.R. 5228 does change the law significantly with respect to United States policy towards countries designated as state sponsors of terrorism; but moreover, with respect to executive branch scrutiny over the schedules chosen by Members of Congress. More about that in a moment.

Under current law, the Foreign Agents Registration Act, FARA, requires that agents from foreign countries have to report on their activities to the Attorney General, but there is an exemption for all diplomatic officials recognized by the State Department.

This bill would change that. It would remove the exemption for diplomats from governments designated as state sponsors of terrorism: Cuba, Iran, Syria, Sudan and North Korea. These countries already have limited diplomatic channels in the United States. While Syria and Sudan have embassies, Iran and North Korea do not have embassies in the United States, and Iranian and North Korean diplomats don't have meetings in the halls of Congress.

Thanks to President Carter, we do have a Cuban Interest Section in the United States and a U.S. Interest Section in Havana. Meetings between Members of Congress and Cuban, Sudanese and Syrian diplomats are important, as they are with all diplomats. They offer channels for expressing ideas, improving relations, and expressing concerns.

Currently, Cuban, Sudanese and Syrian diplomats don't report on their meetings with Members of Congress and staff, just as all other diplomats do not. But this bill would require these diplomats to now report all of their meetings with Congress to the Justice Department.

Moreover, it would most directly impact the Cuban Interest Section, which has frequent meetings with Members of Congress. Furthermore, there are more Cuba-related bills and amendments per year than there are for Sudan and Syria. This bill is, therefore, a step backwards for diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Cuba, whose relations are already strained.

Moreover, this bill increases executive branch scrutiny over the scheduling books of Members of Congress, but only for Members and staff who meet with the Cuban Interest Section, the Embassy of Sudan and the Embassy of Syria.

I want to state this again. This bill increases executive branch scrutiny over the scheduling books of Members of Congress.

Now, in the last month, there has been a significant debate in this country and in this Congress over questions of separation of power, over the very speech and debate clause of the United States Constitution which gives me the ability to stand on this floor and basically state anything that I think is in the interest of my constituents or the American people. And I can say it with impunity. This is a privilege that is given Members of Congress, that sets our role apart from the rest of the people in this country. No one outside this Chamber can make statements that would be free from being subject to attack by libel laws. Here we can say anything we want. We have a special role. This bill takes away the ability that Congress has to be able to meet independently without having to report to the executive branch or being reported on to the executive branch with respect to discussions with representatives of other countries.

I want Members of Congress to hear me loud and clear. The doctrine of separation of powers is at stake here. Our constitutional ability under speech and debate, which has been under attack by the Executive, is at risk when the Attorney General now will be collecting information from other countries based on contacts made with them by Members of Congress.

I want Members of Congress to think about this. We are a coequal branch of government, and we are a separate branch of government. Members of Congress, this is a power grab by the Executive over the legislative branch, and specifically targets Members of Congress who believe in engagement over isolation and believe that diplomacy is an important tool to achieve peaceful resolution to conflicts.

Ironically, this power grab by the Executive has been initiated by the legislative branch. Why are we so ready to give up our constitutional prerogative?

Why are we asking for countries whose representatives we meet with to report on us to the Attorney General?

What could possibly be the motivation for that, to set the stage for Members of Congress for being accused of being disloyal to the United States? How absurd can that be? Yet this is exactly what this legislation sets the stage for.

Over the last month, we have had a debate over whether the administration has the right to go into any congressional office and grab the papers of a Member of Congress. That debate focuses on the speech and debate clause of the Constitution. This debate also should, and the fact that this has been put on the suspension calendar doesn't give it the right to waive critical inspection and demand that it meet the constitutional test. This does not meet the constitutional test. This is unconstitutional. It is an abrogation of our obligations as Members of Congress to assert a check and balance to the administration exercise of power.

We ought to remember where we came from. Our power comes from the people. Congress was created specifically to be spokespersons for the people of the United States. We should not and cannot give that away.

Vote against H.R. 5228. Reassert congressional authority to be a coequal branch of government to assert checks and balances over the administration. I do not, and I insist on not having to have my schedule open to the Attorney General or to anyone else when I am pursuing the interests of this country.

Mr. Speaker, I will repeat the title of this bill: ``To require representatives of government designated as state sponsors of terrorism to disclose to the Attorney General lobbying contacts with legislative branch officials.''

This bill would require diplomats, Cuban, Sudanese, Syrian and perhaps

others, to now report their meetings with Congress to the Justice Department. Now, this is a two-way street. Once they do that, then the Attorney General has the ability to go back to Members of Congress and begin to inquire what was that meeting about. They don't have any business doing that. We are a coequal branch of government. We are a separate branch of government.

Since the Justice Department now feels that they can go into our offices and grab our papers, what is the difference between doing that and having another government say they met with Members of Congress and then the Justice Department coming back and saying what was that meeting about.

We don't have to answer to the Justice Department. I wasn't elected by the Attorney General. I was elected by the people of Ohio's 10th Congressional District.

This bill opens the door for the destruction of our constitutional right to speech and debate of the separation of powers. Not everything that we do here in this Congress poses an undermining of our role as Members of Congress. And I assert that this does. So I appreciate the gentlewoman's indulgence, and I appreciate the attention of Members of Congress who are also concerned with this issue of speech and debate and of our separation of powers.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word.

I rise in support of the Hinchey-Kucinich amendment, which would prohibit funds from being used in this bill to fund Pentagon contracts with the Lincoln Group.

The Lincoln Group is a controversial PR firm that has been awarded major Pentagon contracts, worth over $100 million, to help the Pentagon covertly place dozens of pro-U.S. stories, written by U.S. military ``information operations'' troops in Iraqi news outlets. Lincoln would help write and translate these stories and then have them placed in Iraqi newspapers, without revealing the Pentagon's role. Staff for the Lincoln Group would even at times pose as freelance reporters or advertising executives when delivering propaganda stories to Iraqi media outlets. That is according to the L.A. Times of November 30, 2005.

There has been much controversy over the Pentagon's dissemination of propaganda to foreign media outlets. We appear hypocritical when on one hand we advocate democracy and freedom in Iraq, including freedom of the press, and on the other hand, we manipulate the Iraqi press to achieve our own aims. This hypocrisy not only damages the United States' reputation abroad, but it places our soldiers in greater harm's way when we come to believe our own propaganda.

Yet the contract with Lincoln also goes beyond this controversy and is symptomatic of the familiar problems with the Pentagon's use of private contractors in the war: waste, fraud, and abuse.

The Lincoln Group earned its Pentagon contracts partially by misrepresenting its contacts to the Pentagon. The group has claimed to have partnerships with major media and advertising companies, former government officials and former military officers. According to the New York Times, some of those companies and individuals say their associations were fleeting or even nonexistent. For example, Lincoln Group said that it worked with the ad conglomerate Omnicom Group, but Omnicom has no knowledge of such a relationship.

The Lincoln Group has also run into problems delivering on work for the Pentagon. After earning a contract in 2004 to get Iraqi publications to run articles written by the U.S. military, Lincoln admitted to the Pentagon that it had not yet fully staffed and had not yet acquired necessary media monitoring software.

According to a former strategic adviser for the Lincoln Group, they, and this is a quote, ``The Lincoln Group appear very professional on the surface; then you dig a little deeper and you find that they are pretty amateurish.''

Well, not only has this amateurish work come to this country, it has come at a not-so-amateurish price of $100 million. It is also likely that the Lincoln Group's contract is in violation of a Pentagon directive and maybe even in violation of U.S. law.

A recently classified Pentagon directive, signed by Secretary Rumsfeld on October 30, 2003, prohibited U.S. troops from conducting psychological operations targeting the news media. According to one senior Pentagon official, based on the language of the 2003 directive, the Lincoln Group operation seemed to violate Pentagon policy. That from the L.A. Times, January 7, 2006.

While the Pentagon has initiated two investigations into the Lincoln Group's work in relation to this directive, the group's contract, get this, has not even been temporarily suspended. Moreover, if the Pentagon's dissemination of propaganda for Iraqi media is picked up by other foreign news organizations, like Reuters, for example, it could then

easily be picked up by American news organizations. Yet U.S. law has banned the Pentagon from propaganda activities in the United States since the mid-1970s. The Lincoln Group's work could be in violation of this law.

Now, this is a question of tens of million of dollars being misspent. It is also a question of official deception, of a real effort to try to fool the American people, to try to fool the people of Iraq, to try to fool the foreign press.

Our soldiers know what is going on in Iraq. They know when they read these stories or the stories come to them of a totally different situation than what they are living with. They know it is a lie.

We should make our decisions in this Congress based on the truth, not on fiction written by individuals who never have to deal with the real reality. Think of how unconscionable this is. They reveal a garden in the Iraqi media while our soldiers are in a desert of hell. How wrong that is.

That is why the Hinchey-Kucinich amendment is important. That is why we must prohibit funds in this bill from going to the Lincoln Group.

Mr. Speaker, in 2 weeks, we will be observing the 230th anniversary of our Declaration of Independence, and I think it was on June 21, in 1788, that the State of New Hampshire was actually the ninth State to ratify the Constitution of the United States.

When the United States was founded, there was a search for a national motto, and the first motto of our country, e pluribus unum, Latin, translates to, out of many, we are one.

The very words, United States, speaks to the unity, not just of colonies and then States, but really speaks to a deeper meaning of human unity. Out of many, we are one. It is not simply unity in this country. It is the unity of people all over the world.

This year, in our 230th year since we declared our independence, we find ourselves gripped by a type of thinking which separates us from the rest of humanity, which causes the United States to be locked into dichotomized thinking of us versus them, whoever they are.

With that comes a very heavy price. It comes a separation which has led us to war. It comes a separation that has separated us from the ambitions of people all over the world who are hoping for a rising standard of living through having guarantees for workers rights, human rights, environmental quality principles, which they had hoped that the United States would stand for.

We separate ourselves from human unity by not participating in a wide range of international agreements, and yet we are the United States. Our very name speaks to unity.

How then can we find ourselves again as a Nation? How can we come to reconnect with the deeper meaning of who we are? How can we step away from this experience which since 9/11 has taken us into a blind alley?

If there was ever a time when this country needed a period of truth and reconciliation, this is it. We find so many of our fellow countrymen and women still believe that Iraq had something to do with 9/11. It did not. But at

a time when 9/11 gave us an opportunity to start a whole new national discussion about who we are and how we can reconnect with the world, decisions were made which further separated us. We went down a blind alley, and in that blind alley we remain, unaware of the truth behind 9/11, not with respect to who did it, but with respect to what is our role in the world, what is America's position in the world.

This, the 230th year of our experience of declaring independence, is a perfect time for us to recommit ourselves to perhaps call for a declaration of interdependence, accompanied by a vision which sees the world as one, which sees the world as being interconnected and interdependent, which understands that when we build nuclear weapons, we, the United States, threaten the world; that we have a responsibility to lead with nuclear non-proliferation; that we have the responsibility to lead with the biological weapons convention, fully participating in that, and the chemical weapons convention and the small arms treaty and the land mine treaty, to join the International Criminal Court, to sign the Kyoto climate change treaty, to truly participate the entire world.

We are independent, but we are also interdependent, and there is no paradox there. It is a fact that both of those modalities can and must exist simultaneously in order for our Nation to be healthy, in order for us to grow.

Mr. Speaker, although I didn't really agree with many of his policies, one of the President's I admired the most was Ronald Reagan, because I saw him as being connected to the optimistic nature of America. One of the casualties of 9/11 has been our optimism, our courage.

This Nation has the capacity to be much more than it is today, and whether we are Democrats or Republicans, we need to try to search for a deeper meaning of who we are. We need to reach for a deeper meaning of who we are in the world and we need to confirm that our purpose is human unity, not just the unity of 50 States.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time, and thank you for your legislation, the Fair Minimum Wage Act.

In 2004, 37 million Americans lived below the poverty line, a 1.1 million increase from the year before. In 2004, 13 million children in America lived below the poverty line, and one in six children was poor. Yet here in the richest country on Earth, there is no guarantee that a full-time job will lift a family out of a situation of dire poverty and need.

That is because the full-time minimum wage earnings of $5.15 an hour leaves a family of three 31 percent below the poverty line. As a matter of fact, Mr. Miller, if the minimum wage growth had kept pace with the increase in the pay levels of CEOs, the minimum wage today would be closer to $16. So this is a major issue of social and economic justice.

I am pleased to stand here with my colleagues in support of Congressman Miller's legislation, the Fair Minimum Wage Act. It is time that we raise the minimum wage for 7 million Americans. It is time that we recognize their right to fully participate in the economic life of this Nation.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in honor and recognition of Linda T. Hardwick, Ph.D., as we celebrate her exemplary career as an educator, leader and visionary that spans nearly forty years within the Cleveland Public School System.

Dr. Hardwick was born and raised in Cleveland, and is a product of the Cleveland Public Schools. After graduating from John Marshall High School, she enrolled at Central State University and earned an undergraduate degree in just 3 short years. She was awarded a full scholarship to Case Western Reserve University, and completed her Master's Degree in only 18 months. She began her teaching career at Hicks Elementary School, and then was assigned to teach at Harvey Rice Elementary School, where she spent the majority of her teaching career.

Her wisdom, intellect, and obvious joy for teaching gently inspired countless children who were fortunate to have learned from her instruction. Dr. Hardwick set a foundation for students to become lifelong learners by instructing them in various aspects of continuing education, serving as a role model herself. She completed her doctoral studies in education administration at the University of Akron, and soon began serving as assistant principal at Bolton Elementary School. She later became acting principal at Forest Hill Parkway School, where she is currently completing her 15th year as principal. Forest Hill Parkway School was identified by the Ohio Education Trust as one of the highest poverty schools, yet highest performing schools in the State.

Mr. Speaker and colleagues, please join me in honor and celebration of Linda T. Hardwick, upon her retirement as a brilliant educator and leader for 37 years within the Cleveland Public School System. Dr. Hardwick's legacy in education is framed by integrity, accomplishment and unwavering dedication to her vocation. The immeasurable impact she's had during her tenure will remain imprinted upon the minds, hearts and lives of her students--especially upon those young minds she has guided down the road of hope by guiding dreams into reality through educational achievement, and her exceptional service will be remembered always.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in honor and recognition of the employees, volunteers, and medical staff of St. John West Shore Hospital, as members and leaders celebrate 25 years of physical healing, community involvement, and compassionate care throughout Cleveland's west side.

Throughout the past quarter century, St. John West Shore has served as a facility that provides regionally and nationally recognized medical care to the community of Westlake. Along with tending to physical ailments, St. John West Shore promotes and nurtures emotional well being, recognizing the interdependence of body and mind.

St. John West Shore opened its doors in 1981 as a community hospital. It has continuously expanded from its original facility, recently adding a Sleep Disorder Clinic and a Pain Management unit. Since 2004, the hospital has renovated and supplemented its Emergency Department and upgraded both the Emergency Department and Nursery. Services have been extended beyond the original hospital to the West Shore Primary Care Center, assisting patients in Avon. St. John West Shore not only cares for its patients, but also its staff, being recognized by the Employers Resource Council as one of the ``Top 99 Best Places to Work'' in northeast Ohio.

Mr. Speaker and Colleagues, please join me in honor and recognition of every past and current staff member and volunteer of St. John West Shore Hospital. Through a gentle spirit and state-of-the-art facilities, St. John West Shore Hospital continues to provide a haven of physical and emotional renewal for hundreds of families and individuals, on the west side of Cleveland and far beyond.

Mr. Speaker, on the evening of June 19, 2006, I was unavoidably detained and missed the rollcall votes for the following measures: H.R. 5540, the Sergeant Jacob Dan Dones Post Office Designation Act, H.R. 5504, the Larry Winn, Jr. Post Office Building Designation Act and H. Res. 826, Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that a National Youth Sports Week should be established.

My flight from Cleveland was rerouted to Dulles Airport due to thunderstorms in the Washington area. Had I been present for those votes I would have voted ``yea'' on H.R. 5540, ``yea'' on H.R. 5504, and ``yea'' on H. Res. 826.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in honor and recognition of Mrs. Wynne Antonio, upon her retirement after 35 years of dedicated service in the Cleveland Municipal School District.

For 35 years, Mrs. Wynne Antonio has loved, nurtured and taught Cleveland's school children with all her heart. She has worked collaboratively with parents to involve them in both decision-making as well as supportive roles. Mrs. Antonio went beyond the call of duty to expose her students to the arts, culture and government of Ohio to prove that a child's education goes beyond the classroom.

In addition to her dedication to her students, Mrs. Antonio has been an active leader in the Cleveland Teachers Union as a building chair, a member of many internal committees, and the chair of Community Relations for the Cleveland Teachers Union Executive Board. On a political level, Mrs. Antonio has been active in local, state and national political campaigns. It is also not uncommon to find this distinguished educator at street rallies for peace, human rights and economic justice. Just this past spring, my office had the privilege of giving her and the students of Carl F. Shuler Middle School a tour of the Capitol building during their visit to Washington DC.

Mr. Speaker and Colleagues, please join me in honor, recognition and gratitude of Mrs. Wynne Antonio for commitment to education in Northeast Ohio. Mrs. Antonio's dedication to her work serves as a model to her colleagues and an inspiration to us all. I wish Mrs. Antonio many blessed years of happiness and am sure that while her professional career has

come to an end, she will continue to have an affect on us all.

While soldiers are killing insurgents, insurgents are killing our soldiers. Iraq's Prime Minister is said to have considered amnesty for the growing number of insurgents, quote, as long as their hands weren't stained by Iraqi blood.

This kind of talk will only encourage more aggression against U.S. troops, more U.S. casualties, more U.S. deaths. Our soldiers are sitting ducks in a shooting gallery. If we really cared about them, we would bring them home.

Iraq's leaders will ultimately seek peace and reconciliation with its diverse armed groups through renouncing U.S. presence. Yet we are building permanent bases there.

It is time for our Nation to seek truth and reconciliation over 9/11 and

the war in Iraq. Otherwise our national agenda will continue to be held captive in Iraq.

The Bible says, ``Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free''. The truth is, Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11, did not have weapons of mass destruction. The truth is that in the name of fighting terrorism, we are creating more terrorists.

``Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.'' We must free ourselves from this war. We must reconcile with those who wrongly took us into Iraq. We must seek the truth.

Mr. Speaker, I made the attached statement in opposition to drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge on May 25, 2006:

Here we go again. For decades, this Congress has rejected

attempts to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in

recognition of the fact that American working families do not

want it. It is bad for our economy and it is a violation of

human rights.

The effect on our economy of choosing a path of yesterday

over a positive vision of a renewable energy future is stark.

A report by researchers at the University of California at

Berkeley found that ``Across a broad range of scenarios, the

renewable energy sector generates more jobs per average

megawatt of power installed, and per unit of energy produced,

than the fossil fuel-based energy sector.''

Drilling in the Arctic Refuge is also a violation of the

international human rights of the native Gwich'in people. It

threatens the Porcupine Caribou Herd on which the Gwich'in

depend for subsistence, culture and religion. We have no

right to threaten their culture and livelihood in order to

prop up an archaic energy policy.

I urge my colleagues to oppose this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I gave the attached statement, in support of the OCS Drilling Ban Amendment to the FY2007 Interior Appropriations Bill, H.R. 5386 on May 18, 2006:

I rise in strong support of this amendment to preserve the

popular and longstanding ban on drilling off our coasts.

First, let's be clear that there is no such thing as drilling

for gas only. Even the Administration and the energy industry

have dismissed the idea as unworkable. So this is nothing

more than a fig leaf.

But it's a fig leaf that will bring toxic contamination to

our marine environment merely three miles off our coasts. And

it could open the door to drilling in the Great Lakes, which

is also opposed by Great Lakes residents.

We cannot forget that new drilling will have no effect on

energy prices for years. In contrast, we have technologies to

reduce our addiction to oil and natural gas that are ready to

go today. The problem is that we're subsidizing unsustainable

energy production like drilling for natural gas and oil while

failing to fund real renewable solutions. I

urge my colleagues to vote for the amendment.

Mr. Chairman, the misclassification of employees as independent contractors is a significant problem that annually leads to billions of dollars in lost Federal tax revenue. Employers who misclassify workers as independent contractors do not pay payroll and other taxes on those workers. The employers also gain an unfair advantage over their competitors by eliminating a piece of their labor costs. In the construction industry, for example, a contractor who chose to misclassify his workers as independent contractors would be able to easily underbid other construction companies who followed the law. Misclassification hurts workers and fair employers and has a significant monetary impact on government revenues.

The misclassification of employees as independent contractors is not a new problem. Over the past several decades, the IRS and Congress have periodically investigated the issue of misclassification. In 1984, in an estimate of the extent of misclassification for 5.2 million businesses, the IRS found employers had misclassified 3.4 million employees. Approximately 750,000 employers had misclassified employees as independent contractors. More recent estimates in the 1990s have estimated that the percentage of employer misclassifying employees has grown even beyond the 15 percent found in 1984. An independent study issued by Harvard Law School's Labor and Worklife Program, found abuses of the term ``independent contractor'' led up to 19 percent of workers across all industries being misclassified in the State of Massachusetts. Clearly, this problem is not going away on its own.

This misclassification is not merely a problem for workers who can unfairly be left without workers compensation or unemployment insurance. It also impacts local, State and Federal government revenue streams. In 1984, an IRS review found at least $1.6 billion in Federal tax revenue was lost due to misclassification in that year alone. A 2005 study on the issue in Maine also found a significant loss of State income tax revenue. While the statewide study of misclassification in Maine did not estimate the loss of Federal income tax revenue, it is evident the misclassification issue continues to negatively impact the revenues of the Federal Government as well.

We cannot, in good conscience, continue to ignore the problem of misclassification and its impact on Federal revenues. In a budget climate where many good and necessary programs are shortchanged, we cannot afford to continue losing billions of dollars each year to a problem for which there is no excuse and that we all can agree needs to be fixed.

Mr. Speaker, we must get out of Iraq. But getting out of Iraq is not enough, because the same thinking that led us to Iraq, the addiction to war and fear, the misunderstanding of the nature of power, the belief that might makes right can lead us into Iran, into Syria, and put us at odds with Russia and China.

The war on terror has become a war of error. We attacked a nation that did not attack us. By pursuing policies based on lies, we have separated ourselves from the world. We must reconnect with the world with our hearts as well as our heads, with the intention of preserving not only our security, but future of all humanity.

Getting out of Iraq is not enough. This is a call for a new role for America in the world, a call for America to put aside unilateralism and interventionism, a call for an America which practices cooperation instead of confrontation.

There is a place for American leadership. Leading the way in diplomacy instead of armaments, leading the way in nuclear abolition and climate protection. The world is waiting for an America which leads by example instead of reaction. The world is waiting for an America to rise up with a new commitment to truth and justice, to truth and reconciliation, to truth and compassion.

Thank you, Mr. Murtha, and the Out of Iraq Caucus.

The President will not bring an end to this war. He says it is a decision for the next President. But he is building permanent bases in Iraq, and he is determined to keep 50,000 troops in Iraq into the distant future.

This Congress may not bring an end to this war because the real power to end the war is in a cutoff of funds. Congress keeps appropriating funds in the name of the troops, and the troops will stay in Iraq instead of coming home. Only the American people can bring an end to this war as they brought an end to the Vietnam War. Let this be a time of stirring of civic soul.

It is a time for a reawakening of civic conscience. There were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, but there are WMDs in D.C. Lies are weapons of mass destruction. 2,500 soldiers dead. Over 10,000 Iraqis, innocent Iraqis have died. It is time for an end to our national sleepwalk to the graveyard of the Iraq war.

It is a time for truth, a time for clarity, a time for action, a time for teach-ins, for meet-ups, for marches, for rallies about the war to begin at college campuses, at churches, at labor halls, at libraries. It is time to gather in civic centers, in town halls, to discuss the truth about this war and to plan civic action to end it, time for the American people to exercise their first amendment right to stand up and speak out, time to redirect the policies of this country, time to learn and practice peaceful, nonviolent conflict resolution, time to believe in our capacity to evolve beyond war, to believe and act under the belief that war is not inevitable and peace is inevitable if we are ready to commit to the daily work of peace building everywhere.

The global war on terror has become a global war of error: attacking or threatening countries which did not attack us, bombing neighborhoods to save neighborhoods, committing atrocities in the name of stopping atrocities, losing our vision, losing our way in the world, sacrificing our children and their future, giving up their future resources for education, for health care, for housing, piling it all high on the altar of war and worshipping a false god of destruction.

When we begin these proceedings with this remembrance, Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, we are not talking about any nation. We are talking about a force which is above all of us. The world is not ours to conquer. There is no glory in the abuse of power. This President will not bring an end to this war after the Murtha resolution, this Congress may not bring an end to this war, but the American people certainly will bring an end to this war. They will do it in the streets, and they will do it at the ballot box, and the American people will become the Out of Iraq Caucus.