Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in honor of Ignacy Jan Paderewski--the second Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland, a highly acclaimed musician and humanitarian.

In 1919, after Poland had officially become an independent nation, Mr. Paderewski became its first Prime Minister. He was also the chief framer of the Polish Constitution. Mr. Paderewski also served as the Polish representative in the League Nations as well as Poland's Minister of Foreign Affairs.

As a philanthropist, Mr. Paderewski used his personal home in Switzerland as a safe place for refugees from various countries during WWII. A popular pianist and composer, Mr. Paderewski was also known to be a strong supporter of the arts. He made substantial contributions to improving the lives of unemployed musicians and playwrights and he worked toward the construction of many concert halls and monuments.

A bust of Ignacy Jan Paderewski will be honored on July 16, 2011 at the Cleveland Cultural Gardens with a dedication speech by Poland's current Ambassador to the U.S., Mr. Robert Kupiecki, as well as a concert.

Mr. Speaker and colleagues, please join me remembering the life and accomplishments of Ignacy Jan Paderewski. His dedication to his native country has been an integral part of Poland's history.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in recognition of Buna Vestire Romanian Orthodox Cathedral as it celebrates 75 years of service to the Cleveland orthodox community this September.

The original Buna Vestire Orthodox Cathedral was founded on September 2, 1936 on Detroit Avenue in Cleveland. Since then, the church has relocated several times and today it is located on Wooster Road in Rocky River. Throughout the past 75 years the congregation has been deeply involved in the community. Parishioners have organized festivals, picnics, and bake sales to help promote and celebrate Romanian culture and traditions including traditional food and Romanian folk dance. Since its inception, the Church has celebrated both its Orthodox traditions and Romanian heritage. Additionally, the Church and its priests have actively promoted a ``good Faith relationship'' amongst pastors and communities of other denominations.

On September 10 and 11, 2011, Buna Vestire Romanian Orthodox Cathedral will celebrate its 75th anniversary of service to the orthodox community of the greater Cleveland area. Recently, the church has experienced an increase in attendance and has plans to build a new church and Romanian Cultural Center in Olmsted Township. The Church intends to continue to promote and enhance their mission amongst the community.

Mr. Speaker and colleagues, please join me in honoring Buna Vestire Romanian Orthodox Church as it celebrates 75 years of service. I extend my sincere congratulations to all members of the Buna Vestire congregation.

The huffing and puffing over the debt crisis is reminiscent of Washington's tumult over the Wall Street bailout: Panic the public with claims the sky is falling and then start to drop things from the sky. In this case threats that Social Security checks will not be sent out.

We must avoid default, but Social Security didn't cause the debt crisis. Social Security has nothing to do with the debt crisis. Withholding Social Security checks or cutting Social Security benefits would represent a default

to the American people and an abandonment of the principles of the economic justice that created Social Security.

The White House wants a big deal, a $4 trillion debt deal. But that deal must not come from cuts to Social Security--or Medicare, for that matter. Millions of senior citizens, who in their lifetime built this country, who fought for this country, who depend on their Social Security check as an economic lifeline want to see if their concerns are a big deal to us.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Frank Zolar on the occasion of his ninetieth birthday.

Mr. Zolar was born on July 15, 1921 in Pickens, West Virginia. After spending his early life working in sawmills and coal mines, Frank enlisted in the U.S. Army only six days after the attack on Pearl Harbor. He fought with the 1st Infantry Division, also known as the ``Big Red One,'' as a rifleman in the invasion of Africa.

Following the war, Frank moved to Cleveland, Ohio in 1946 and spent the next twenty-one years working at the Fairbanks-Morse Company. While living in Cleveland, Frank met and married Lois, who would be his wife of more than 50 years. The two moved to North Olmsted, Ohio in 1959 where they raised their three daughters, Theresa, Kathy and Karen.

Frank has been an active member of his community and serves as a Sergeant-at-Arms for the North Olmsted Democratic Club. Recently, Mr. Zolar visited Washington, D.C., for the first time in his life with Honor Flight Cleveland, a nonprofit organization which flies veterans to see the memorials on the National Mall.

Mr. Speaker and colleagues, please join me in honoring the ninetieth birthday of Mr. Frank Zolar.

The rancorous debate over the debt belies a fundamental truth of our economy: that it is run for the few at the expense of the many, that our entire government has been turned into a machine which takes the wealth of the mass of Americans and accelerates it into the hands of a few. Let me give you some examples.

Take war. War takes the money from the American people and puts it into the hands of arms manufacturers, of war profiteers, of private armies. The war in Iraq, based on lies, $3 trillion will be the cost of that war, at least. The war in Afghanistan, based on a misreading of history, half a trillion dollars in expenses already. The war against Libya will be $1 billion by September. Fifty percent of our discretionary spending goes for the Pentagon. A massive transfer of wealth into the hands of a few while the American people lack sufficient jobs, health care, housing, retirement security.

Our energy policies take the wealth from the American people and put it into the hands of the oil companies. We could be looking at $150 a barrel for oil in the near future.

Our environmental policy takes the wealth of the people, clean air, clean water, and puts it in the hands of the polluters. It's a transfer of wealth not only from the present but from future generations, as our environment is ruined.

Insurance companies, what do they do? They take the wealth from the American people, in terms of what they charge people for health insurance, and they put it into the hands of the few.

We have to realize what this country's economy has become. Our monetary policy, through the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, privatized the money supply, gathers the wealth and puts it in the hands of the few while the Federal Reserve can keep creating money out of nothing, give it to banks to park at the Fed, and our small businesses are starved for capital.

Mark my words: Wall Street cashes in whether we have a default or not. And the same type of thinking that created billions in bailouts for Wall Street and more than $1 trillion in giveaways by the Federal Reserve today leaves 26 million Americans either underemployed or unemployed. And 9 out of 10 Americans over the age of 65 are facing cuts in their Social Security in order to pay for a debt which grew from tax cuts for the rich and from endless wars.

There is a massive transfer of wealth from the American people to the hands of the few, and it's going on right now as America's eyes are misdirected to the political theater of these histrionic debt negotiations: threats to shut down the government, a willingness to make the most vulnerable Americans pay dearly for debts they did not create. These are symptoms of a government which has lost its way, and they are a challenge to the legitimacy of the two-party system.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in remembrance of Mrs. Anna Alice Omilanowski who passed away on July 9, 2011.

Mrs. Omilanowski was the daughter of Joseph and Bernice Lewanski, who emigrated from Poland and passed through Ellis Island. She was the oldest of nine children, and grew up on East 40th Street and Superior Avenue.

Anna was a hard worker and took great pride in her work, especially when she worked in a factory that assembled torpedoes during World War II. Later, she applied her strong work ethic to a variety of other positions, including washing dishes at Pete's Wayside Inn, cleaning Parma Schools and working for Broadview Savings and Loan.

She married, Chester, a concentration camp survivor, on June 14, 1958 at St. Casimir Church in Cleveland. Together they raised five children. Mrs. Omilanowski always felt that her most important achievement was having her children by her side.

Anna was involved in her children's activities and was an avid bowler and card player. I had the pleasure of meeting Mrs. Omilanowski during the 1970s on more than one occasion at card parties and was always moved by her kindness.

Mr. Speaker and colleagues, please join me in honoring Mrs. Anna Alice Omilanowski, a woman whose fun-loving personality, fighting spirit, incredible work ethic, and undying compassion for those around her will be sorely missed.

Madam Speaker, 3 months ago, 276 experts on Social Security, the Federal budget or the economy wrote to President Obama ``to correct a commonly held misconception that Social Security somehow contributes to the Federal Government's deficit.''

Despite the fact that Social Security has a $2.6 trillion surplus and can pay 100 percent of its benefits through 2037 without any cuts or tax increases, President Obama declared yesterday that Social Security checks may not go out after August 2, presumably unless there is a deal on the Federal deficit, which has nothing to do with Social Security.

According to today's Washington Post, 15 years ago, Congress passed laws which stated Social Security did not count against the debt limit and gave Treasury clear authority to use Social Security trust funds to pay benefits and administration expenses in the event a debt ceiling is reached.

A fake Social Security crisis will do nothing to solve a real debt crisis, will undermine the public's faith in government, and will create unnecessary anxiety among our elderly. Stop playing political games with Social Security.

Mr. Chair, I rise in strong opposition to H.R. 2018, which would be more appropriately titled the ``Giveaway to Developer and Coal Company CEOs Act.''

This bill removes protections for our nation's waters that were absolutely essential to the progress we have shown so far in cleaning up Lake Erie and the rest of the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes comprise 21 percent of the world's fresh water supply. Lake Erie is the shallowest and smallest, and therefore the most vulnerable of the Great Lakes and it is our primary water source in Northeast Ohio. 'We cannot afford to go back to days when the Cuyahoga River caught fire because it was so polluted. Already, 77 percent of all stream-miles in the Lake Erie basin are unprotected.

Lake Erie is not only crucial to our health, but to our economy. It generates 10 billion dollars per year in revenue through travel, tourism, wildlife watching, boating, sport and commercial fishing and other activities. One out of every ten jobs in the state is connected to Lake Erie. This economic activity generates 676 million dollars in federal tax revenue, 410 million dollars in state tax revenue and 347 million dollars in local tax revenue annually. Lake Erie is our Golden Goose. We must protect it at all costs.

This bill also removes the EPA's ability to clamp down on the worst mountaintop removal polluters. These coal mines, which remove entire mountains to get at the coal, are on their way out. There is no room in this country's energy portfolio for coal. Coal is a major contributor to the environmental, national security, and economic problem that is global warming. It would be difficult to underestimate the urgency of shutting down coal power plants immediately for that reason alone. But coal also devastates communities with open toxic waste holding ponds and with air emissions that create or exacerbate asthma and respiratory disorders. Coal mines kill its miners and leave them with Black Lung. Mountaintop removal fills streams and destroys entire ecosystems, contaminating drinking water supplies with carcinogens and other toxic chemicals in the process. Coal is the single biggest reason that so many of the fish species that were an important part of the diet for billions of people are contaminated with mercury levels that are so high, they can cause IQ loss and birth defects. This bill will take the woefully inadequate environmental protections in place and weaken them.

Coal is not even defensible from an economic standpoint. More jobs are created by renewable energy creation, which is being explored in many mountaintop mining communities, than by coal-based energy.

If communities, workers, the health of families, the ecosystems on which we rely, drinking water and atmospheric stability do not benefit from this bill, who does?

Developers will be able to build in more areas that are critical for drinking water protection and protection from floods, even though we are now saddled with a surplus of housing and commercial unit availability because of the bursting of the housing bubble. And mountaintop removal mining companies will be able to spend even less on protecting the communities from which they siphon money, livelihoods, and health. Profits and shareholder returns, undoubtedly, will benefit handsomely.

Bills like these take the wealth of this country and funnel it upward. I urge my colleagues to reject this bill.

Social Security didn't create the deficit, but America's seniors are being presented with a fake Social Security crisis to try to trick them into accepting reduced benefits.

Social Security will be able to pay 100 percent of its benefits through 2037 without any changes whatsoever. So why the panic today? If seniors accept cuts in Social Security benefits today, a surplus cash flow will build in the Social Security Trust Fund. According to CRS, ``Social Security's cash surpluses are borrowed by the U.S. Treasury and can be used for tax cuts, spending, or repaying debt.''

So here's what's going on: Social Security benefit cuts or an increase in taxes paid to Social Security or extending the retirement age will give the government more money for tax cut spending or repaying the debt, except for one thing: Social Security money belongs to those who have paid into the fund. It's not the government's money to use, and it shouldn't be the government's money to play with.

Senior citizens should not have to accept a reduced standard of living to finance tax cuts for the rich.

We must take a stand for senior citizens and protect Social Security and protect future generations from this raid on Social Security funds.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in honor and recognition of Road Rage Awareness Week--a week created by Reaching Out Against Road Rage, Inc. to encourage safer driving practices and to prevent unnecessary violence on the roads.

Reaching Out Against Road Rage, Inc., or R.O.A.R.R. is a nonprofit organization located in Muskegon County, Michigan. R.O.A.R.R., was established by Kay Foster-Shabazz, two years after the death of her twenty year-old daughter, Diyamond, in a road rage related incident in 2002. Since its establishment, the mission of R.O.A.R.R. has been to prevent road rage, protect and support victims of road rage and to promote the saving of lives.

R.O.A.R.R. has been working to reduce the number of road rage related incidents by promoting awareness and providing educational tools. In addition, R.O.A.R.R. pledges to assist victims and their families throughout the recovery process by providing a multitude of resources.

Mr. Speaker and Colleagues, please join me in recognizing Road Rage Awareness Week, July 10-16, 2011. The hard work of Reaching Out Against Road Rage, Inc. has made the roads safer for everyone.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Ms. Doris O'Donnell on the occasion of her 90th birthday.

Ms. O'Donnell was born on July 10, 1921 and grew up in the Old Brooklyn neighborhood of Cleveland. Her family was heavily involved in the community; her father was a fireman, her mother was a Democratic ward leader, and her uncle was the county sheriff.

Her career in print journalism began in 1944, starting at the Cleveland News. She would go on to work at numerous newspapers, including the Lake County News-Herald, the Tribune-Review based in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, and the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Ms. O'Donnell was a pioneer for female journalism. Her career spanned over five decades, and she covered such topics as police, the court system, organized crime, and local politics. She was the first female reporter to reach ``superstar'' status in the Cleveland area, and she won more state and local journalism awards than any female journalist in history.

She was known as a big-story reporter, and was able to use her fearless and brass-knuckles reporting style to report on such items as the Kremlin, and the assassinations of John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. Ms. O'Donnell's late husband, former Cleveland News city editor, passed away in 1976. Ms. O'Donnell currently lives in suburban Cleveland and serves on the board of a charitable foundation.

Mr. Speaker and colleagues, please join me in honoring Ms. Doris O'Donnell, a woman whose relentless pursuit of the truth enabled her to rise to the top of Cleveland journalism, and whose brilliant career was a gift to the Cleveland community.

Congress is awakening to its constitutional obligations on matters of war and peace. In the past 2 months, we have sparked a great debate on war and on war powers, the implications of which will continue to be felt in this Nation and around the world.

Soon, the war in Libya and the ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq will go beyond foreign policy issues. They will become domestic issues, financial security issues. As we continue to wage these wars, more and more Americans

will become aware that this administration has decided that bombing bridges in other countries is more important than building bridges in America with our present and new foreign adventures.

America, under this administration, chooses war, not jobs and wealth building here in America; bombs, not books; financial instability, not Social Security; austerity, not prosperity.

This isn't about partisan politics. This is about an administration that is demonstrating more of an interest in nation building abroad than a rebuilding of America here at home.

It has time to change, but will it?

Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, before the House completes work on this important bill, I think that it is imperative that the House is provided with one more opportunity to clarify its position with respect to the Constitution and our power under article I, section 8, clause 11 of the Constitution, which reads as follows, that Congress has the power to declare war.

This amendment says none of the funds in this act may be used for military operations in or against Libya except under a declaration of war against Libya pursuant to clause 11 in section 8 of article I of the Constitution.

So what this amendment does is it recognizes Congress' power to appropriate and links it, in this case, to Congress' ability to declare war and enables this House to definitively--definitively--make a statement that it is our prerogative, our Constitutional right, to determine whether or not this Nation goes to war, and we are not going to see any war funded absent a declaration of war by this Congress.

It is imperative that we act, because by September, this administration will have spent $1 billion on the war without Congress having any say in that whatsoever. We will have gone to a war without any ability of Congress to have a voice.

Now, to its credit, this House has taken up numerous proposals relative to the war in Libya that have sought to limit the sphere of conduct of hostilities against Libya--no ground troops and no money to rebels. This amendment, however, gives the House one last opportunity within this bill to speak very clearly about article I, section 8, clause 11 and to do it in the context of an appropriations bill which says that we will not permit any funds to be spent unless this Congress moves forward with a declaration of war.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in honor of the 50th anniversary of H.E. Father Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann's ordination to the priesthood. Father d'Escoto has dedicated his life and ministry to peace, social justice, and solidarity.

Father d'Escoto was born in 1933 in Los Angeles, California, but spent a majority of his childhood in Nicaragua. After returning to the United States, he began studying at the Catholic seminary at Maryknoll in 1953. In 1961, Father d'Escoto Brockmann was ordained a priest of the Maryknoll Missionaries. Father d'Escoto earned his Master's of Science from Columbia University's School of Journalism in 1962.

Father d'Escoto has focused his ministry on helping the poor and disadvantaged populations of the world. In 1963, Father d'Escoto founded the National Institute of Research and Population Action in Chile. Through this organization, he sought to empower impoverished populations living in slum neighborhoods through community action in defense of labor rights. In 1970, while serving as Maryknoll's Social Communications Department, Father d'Escoto founded Orbis Books, the publishing arm of Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers. Orbis quickly became a leader in religious publishing, offering works on spirituality, theology, and current affairs, often from a Third World perspective. In the aftermath of a 1972 earthquake that devastated the capital city of Managua, Nicaragua, Father Brockmann mobilized assistance for the victims and established the Nicaraguan Foundation for Integral Community Development.

As a veteran statesman and political leader, Father d'Escoto served as the Republic of Nicaragua's Minister for Foreign Affairs from July 1979 until April 1990. During his tenure, he played a key role in the Contadora and Esquipulas peace processes to end internal armed conflicts in Central America in the 1980s. He was later elected as President of the 63rd Session of the United Nations General Assembly, and served in this role from September 2008 to September 2009. Father d'Escoto is currently a member of the UN Human Rights Council Advisory Committee.

Mr. Speaker and colleagues, please join me in honoring the 50th anniversary of H.E. Father Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann's ordination to the priesthood and his significant contributions to the global community.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in honor of Anne Feeney on the occasion of her 60th birthday. Anne is an exceptional person and a longtime political activist and musician. She has been called a ``union maid and hell raiser'' and has actively fought for social justice over the past four decades.

Anne was born in Charleroi, Pennsylvania on July 1, 1951. From an early age Anne's two great passions were politics and music. She was greatly influenced by the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights Movement, and her grandfather, William P. Feeney, a mineworkers' organizer and violinist.

Anne graduated from Fontbonne Academy in 1968. She spent the next year saving money until she had enough to purchase a Martin D-28 guitar in 1969. Anne played this guitar for over forty years at political rallies and festivals around the world until she recently retired it from use.

By 1972 Anne had co-founded the Pittsburgh Action Against Rape, which still provides services to rape victims in the Pittsburgh area. She graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 1974 and the University of Pittsburgh School of Law in 1978. She worked as a trial attorney for twelve years and served as president of the Pittsburgh Musicians' Union from 1997-1998. To date, Anne is the only woman elected to this prestigious position. Her political activism continues to this day. Currently, Anne is a member of the Industrial Workers of the World and the American Federation of Musicians.

Since 1991, Anne has toured around the world playing her music and participating in labor and political rallies. She has released several albums and her music has been covered by the band Peter, Paul, and Mary. Anne is a proud mother of two, a gifted musician, and a renowned political activist.

Mr. Speaker and Colleagues, please join me in extending warm wishes to Anne Feeney on her 60th birthday.