Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I proudly rise today in honor of the Reverend Jesse Jackson, Sr., and to recognize his landmark and barrier- breaking run for the Presidency of the United States of America 25 years ago. I was his campaign Chair in the U.S. Virgin Islands and a committed delegate during both campaigns and conventions.

Although I recall those days on the platform committee, fighting for every vote on the floor and the tears of admiration from people from every corner and segment of U.S. society when he spoke to us, what I remember most was his coming to the aid of an often cast-aside, forgotten or ignored, misunderstood territory of our great Nation in our time of need.

After the devastation of Hurricane Hugo in 1989 and the ensuing negative media portrayal that our community endured in its wake, I contacted him through my DNC Black Caucus Chair, Dr. C. Delores Tucker, and Rev. Jackson came to St. Croix with an entourage that included Cicely Tyson to bolster our spirits, inspire our recovery efforts, and stave off an ill-informed Presidential declaration of martial law.

Jesse, there is so much for which we are grateful to you, but for me and the people of the U.S. Virgin Islands, we love you for always coming to the aid of those whom many look upon as the ``least of these,'' God's people. You are doing God's work.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks in support of providing affordable coverage for the 39 percent of Latinos, 23 percent of African Americans, and 34 percent of Native Americans who are not insured.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Speaker, as a family physician who practiced for more than 20 years, a mother, a grandmother and an American, I am proud to stand here in support of the Affordable Health Care for America Act. This bill is for the many patients I know who put off health care until it was too late because they couldn't afford it and the tens of millions like them who will now have access to full health care.

This year and every year past, over 80,000 African Americans died, whose deaths were preventable, because they were unable to get health care. This bill is for all people of color, those in our rural areas, the territories and the poor, because beyond insurance, this bill will provide the services some of them never had.

H.R. 3962 will give young people for whom a health care professional is out of the reach the opportunity to help heal their communities. It will cover 36 million uninsured people, making insurance secure and affordable, strengthen prevention and public health, improve Medicare and Medicaid, help poor communities, create an environment that supports good health, and finally begin to eliminate health disparities.

Today we have the opportunity to vote for health and a better life for everyone in this country and for a better country where life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is truly a right for all.

Let's make history together. Vote ``yes'' for affordable health care for America.

Mr. Speaker, this House and our Nation are poised for a historic vote tomorrow. That vote will determine whether tens of millions of people who are uninsured and underinsured will finally have access to health care. But beyond that, it will begin to transform the current sick care system which is draining this country, not just of its finances, but of some of its brightest and best who, because they are not able to access the fantastic health care this country has to offer, are not as productive as they would or should be.

It will enable many, those in our rural areas and our territories, those in blighted urban areas and racial and ethnic minorities who have been left out of the health care mainstream to finally have access to wellness and more productive and fulfilling lives.

Our vote tomorrow will also determine how successfully we will compete in the global community where everyone is in a race to the top, whether or not we will, through reducing the highest health care in the worlds, set our country on a more sustainable economic footing, and whether we can regain our leadership in this world by raising our health indicators, like infant and maternal mortality, to levels that match or better the other industrialized nations we now lag behind.

To me, a vote against this bill is a vote against what is best for our country.

No one ever thought we would have had a perfect bill, but what we have in H.R. 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act, is as near a perfect bill as anyone could have conceived when we started out this process. I applaud the outstanding leadership of our Speaker, our leader, our whip, our caucus Chair and vice Chair, the chairmen

of the respective committees, and Chairman Emeritus John Dingell for the bill which will be before us tomorrow.

H.R. 3962 covers at least 36 million of the now uninsured, expands and improves Medicaid, strengthens Medicare, begins to close the doughnut hole, and makes it, as well as other insurance, more affordable. It will provide a robust benefits package, new prevention and wellness programs, with no copayments for preventive care. It ends insurance abuses that have led many families to bankruptcy or near bankruptcy--no exclusions for preexisting diseases, no dropping your coverage or putting limits on how much insurance will pay for you when you get sick.

It expands the health care workforce and especially supports the training of primary care physicians, nurses and physician assistants, as well as that of now underrepresented minorities. It provides community health centers and community health workers as well as programs that help communities to better prepare to take advantage of the new health care system. And it will strengthen our public health infrastructure and workforce. The bill is fully paid for, and will reduce the deficit over the 10 years.

What is not to vote for? I know that some of the hesitation is over abortion issues. I don't understand it because H.R. 3962 keeps the Hyde amendment in tact. It prohibits Federal funds from being spent on abortion. It excludes abortion from the basic benefits package. It prohibits discrimination against providers who do not perform abortions by insurance plans. It does not require any insurance plan in the exchange to cover abortion, and it provides that the exchange would have an insurance option that does not cover abortion.

I, like every Member of this body, I am sure, am deeply committed to life--to protecting lives, to saving lives, and to improving the quality of lives. Without passage of this bill, many will suffer the unnecessary loss of life that happens every day in this country of plenty to those who are uninsured and in people of color, whether they're insured or not.

In this 21st century, every year 88,000 African Americans alone, not counting American Indians, Latinos, Asians, or Pacific Islanders, 88,000 African Americans die who would not have if they were insured and if they had equal access to the services that this bill would now provide them, some of them for the very first time.

Have those who oppose this bill because of concerns of abortion considered that this bill would even reduce the need for abortion? Something everyone, no matter what side of the debate you are on, would want. It would do so by ensuring that everyone would have access to comprehensive health care and the kind of family-life counseling that is a part of it.

Tomorrow, we have the opportunity to save millions of lives. There is no more important reason to vote ``yes'' for the Affordable Health Care for America Act than that. Everyone should want to be on the right side of the historic vote that awaits us tomorrow. We need health care reform now.

Madam Speaker, today I rise to recognize the achievements of a Navy Lieutenant from my district, John R. Logan, who will be promoted to the rank of Lt. Commander in a ceremony that will be held this morning here in the Capitol Building. Presently serving as the Command Chaplain at the Marine Barracks here in Washington, D.C., Lt. Logan has been decorated with the Navy and

Marine Corps Commendation Medal and the Navy Achievement Medal.

A veteran of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, Lt. Logan was born in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. He received a B.A. in Theology from the Antillean Adventist University in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico in 1992. He was licensed by the North Caribbean Conference of Seventh Day Adventists and began pastoral duties on St. Croix and St. Maarten.

Lt. Logan graduated with his Master of Divinity Degree on August 8, 1998 from Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan. Two years later, he received a Masters in Social Work from the University of Michigan, with a clinical emphasis in children and Youth in Marriage and Family in Society. He subsequently served as a youth pastor, mental health therapist and marriage and family therapist in Michigan.

As a soldier, Lt. Logan served as Flotilla Chaplain of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary before coming on active duty in 2001, serving aboard the USS Belleau and deploying on WESTPAC 2002 in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. In January 2004, he was assigned as Squadron Chaplain to Marine Aircraft Group 16 and was later deployed to Al Asad, Iraq with MAG-16 Headquarters in support of Iraqi Freedom in May 2007. Earlier this year, he graduated from the U.S. Naval War College, Fleet Seminar Program, receiving a diploma from the College of Naval Command and Staff.

Madam Speaker, Lt. Logan, soon to become a Lt. Commander in the Navy has combined his call to serve others with distinguished service as a soldier, a counselor and a minister. He is one of our best, as he provides counsel to his fellows in the armed services and to civilians in need of his help. We are proud of his accomplishments and on behalf of my family, staff, and the people of the Virgin Islands I wish him well as he continues to serve his country and his community with distinction.

Mr. Speaker, I am sick and tired of all of the lines in the sand on health care reform. This is something that we have to do, something we cannot afford not to do. To quote Fannie Lou Hamer, on behalf of African Americans and all who are un- and underinsured, ``We are sick and tired of being sick and tired.''

This Congress has an obligation to end this, and those who continue to misrepresent the facts need to stop. The bills being put together will end insurance discrimination and the dropping of coverage when one needs it most. We will provide a public plan for those who choose to use it, and, if we do it right, we will reduce the high cost of insurance and will end those insurance horror stories.

With our bill, we will ensure security for our seniors, affordability for the middle class, access to quality health care for the poor and our responsibility to our children. We can do this without adding to the deficit.

So I think everyone needs to get up off of that hard line and come together around the most important thing we can do in our time here-- give every American the possibility of health, wellness, and a decent quality of life.

Thank you for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today--on behalf of the more than half million low-income Americans living with HIV/AIDS who rely on this program--in full support of the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act of 2009, particularly those in my community where we have the second highest incidence of AIDS in the country.

I applaud the leadership and hard work of Chairmen Pallone and Waxman and Ranking Members Barton and Deal, as well as those in the other body, for this bipartisan, bicameral bill.

The Ryan White program plays a pivotal role in addressing the unique health care challenges facing low-income Americans with HIV/AIDS and their families. I would have liked to have seen a more robust investment in this program to end the ADAP waiting lists and more support for the National Minority AIDS Education and Training Center at Howard University, especially when minorities are making up the vast majority of people with HIV/AIDS. But we have the opportunity today to provide assistance to large and midsize cities, States, and territories with high HIV/AIDS incidence and/or prevalence, and to expand access to care and support services for women, infants, children, and youth.

I am particularly pleased that we improve the Minority AIDS Initiative by going back to formula funding and by removing some of the barriers to funding that prevented many eligible entities from applying.

As a physician who cared for AIDS patients from the outset of the epidemic, I cannot express enough how today--how voting in full support of this bill--will mean so much to the hardworking Americans who deserve the opportunity, just like all of us here, to achieve their lives' potentials.

I thank you for yielding, and I want to rise also in strong support of H.R. 816, mourning the loss of life caused by the earthquake and tsunami that occurred on September 29, 2009, in American Samoa and Samoa, and to extend my thoughts and prayers and that of the people of the Virgin Islands to the victims of that 8.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami that devastated our brothers and sisters in the U.S. territory of American Samoa and the Nation of Western Samoa and to offer our condolences to those that lost loved ones as a result of that tragedy.

Like my colleague from California, I've been to American Samoa several times with the Congressman. We were there in early August and visited his own village of Leone--which we heard so much about in the wake of the earthquake and the tsunami because they were so hard hit-- and I remember how the people came out and welcomed us. They fed us. We had a joyous time with them. That evening they showered us with so many gifts, and we just hope that we can return those gifts to them in their time of greatest need.

As I speak to you, there is a young girl--and I wish I had her name with

me--who has started a drive at home for the people of American Samoa and Western Samoa. When I go back home on Saturday, I will join her at one of our shopping centers to continue to raise supplies and funds to help our neighbors.

I know as a Congresswoman from the U.S. Virgin Island, a community of islands that is also vulnerable to tropical disasters, I am very aware of the toll it can take on the people, infrastructure, and our time and resources. I know how hard it has been on our colleague, Mr. Faleomavaega to be home. I called him one morning, forgetting that it was 5 o'clock in the morning in American Samoa, but he was already up and preparing to go and visit just another area that had been devastated.

The people of my district, the U.S. Virgin Islands, have asked me to express their solidarity with the people of American Samoa at this time of their distress, and to extend our support to our colleague, Congressman Eni Faleomavaega, as they make and we make with them the necessary arrangements to mobilize and deploy urgently needed emergency assistance and to assure them that all of the American people, but especially those on the other off-shore territories, are ready to assist them.

In visiting American Samoa you cannot help but be struck by the strong community spirit that exists there and the strong faith, and I know that will bear them up through this difficult time, but they still need our support, and we're here for them.

Madam Speaker, I rise to join in the commemorations of Hispanic Heritage Month and as it is known in my district, as the Puerto Rico--Virgin Islands Friendship Celebration, to honor and commend a mover and shaker in my community, who has served our community, in particular its youth in an exceptional manner for many years. Celia Torres Garcia Maldonado, or Cielo, as she is affectionately known, has for the past thirty five years been the visionary behind an organization that has provided structure, creativity, and the opportunity to excel to young women and men on my home island, St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

In 1974, when her young daughter expressed interest in becoming a majorette, Cielo, finding that there were not any viable groups for her to join on St. Croix, took it upon herself, with the help of like minded friends to found the St. Croix Majorettes, an organization which has stood the test of time in providing a positive outlet for St. Croix's youth to develop their performing talent.

As the story is told, with the purchase of a baton and the help of her sister Mirta L. Martnez, it all began. The St. Croix Majorettes was organized in May 1974 with Celia T. Maldonado as director, and Mirta L. Martinez and Maria Cotto as co-directors. These ladies were assisted by the late Miguel Duchesne.

The local majorettes started with twenty girls practicing at the Canegata Ball Park. Within two months, and with the help of the Doc James Radio Talk Show, parents were encouraged to register their children and this led to an increase of 150 active participants. In 1975, the St. Croix Majorettes and Marching Band were officially inducted into the Majorettes and Band Federation of Puerto Rico. The organization grew and eventually, Cielo and the St. Croix Majorettes, was responsible for hosting the first Majorette festival on St. Croix. Seven groups came from Puerto Rico and one from St. Thomas to participate in the VIPR Friendship Day celebrations.

Under the leadership of Cielo, the St. Croix Majorettes have been invited and have participated in numerous festivities on the U.S. mainland and Caribbean islands representing St. Croix in a dignified and diligent manner.

After thirty three years, Celio T. Maldonado, director of the St. Croix Majorettes, has over 300 members who are still performing whenever they are called upon to do so. They continue to practice at their headquarters located in Est. Peter's Rest. All members and parents of the St. Croix Majorettes have become her most precious ``extended family''.

Her utmost satisfaction, pride and joy is when former members, who are now parents, bring their children to enroll. As she travels around and meets her ``extended family'', her proud remark is always, ``This is, or was one of my majorettes.''

Cielo's reach has been far and wide. For instance, one of my staffers, Attorney Angeline Muckle Jabbar, one of the original group of little girls who are now successful in their careers, was molded by Cielo and the St. Croix Majorettes.

Madam Speaker, today, I ask the Congress to join me in commending an outstanding Virgin Islander and American of Hispanic Heritage who continues to serve her community and its youth in an outstanding manner.

Mr. Speaker, as a member of Energy and Commerce and also a former Steering Committee Member of the Travel and Tourism

Caucus and a cosponsor of this bill, I too support its enactment with the understanding that its implementation will benefit the territories and not just the 50 States. So I want to thank Ms. Castor, Mr. Delahunt, Mr. Blunt and others for their work on the bill; thank them for the exchange of letters clarifying the application of the territories, and we look forward to working with you on the implementation of the bill.

Madam Speaker, I once again today rise to extend my thought and prayers to the victims of the 8.0 magnitude earthquake and the subsequent tsunami that devastated our brothers and sisters in the U.S. territory in the South Pacific, American Samoa and Western Samoa.

Any my heart and that of all Virgin Islanders go out with sympathy to those that have lost loved ones as a result of yesterday's tragedy.

As the Congresswoman from the U.S. Virgin Islands, a community of islands that are also vulnerable to tropical disasters, and former chair of the Subcommittee on Insular Affairs, I am well aware of the toll that it can take on people, on infrastructure, on our time and resources but most especially--individuals and families. And the emotional repercussions go on long after the physical recovery is done.

Having visited American Samoa on several occasions and Western Samoa once, I know of the many struggles especially faced by the people of American Samoa, but I also know of their close family and community ties, their strength of spirit and most importantly, their faith.

The people of my district, the U.S. Virgin Islands and I stand in solidarity with the people of American Samoa at this time of their great distress.

I extend my support of our colleagues and friend--the Dean of the territorial delegation--Congressman Eni Faleomavaega as we make the necessary arrangements to mobile and deploy the urgently needed emergency assistance that our President has directed, and assure them that the American people and the

people of the other offshore territories stand ready to assist them in their time of need.

As I said earlier, the people of American Samoa and Western Samoa are a strong and resilient people. I know that their faith and their strong cultural bonds and traditions will help; them meet this present challenge, as they have ones that have come before.

On behalf of myself, my staff and the people of the Virgin Islands, please know that you can count on us in your hour of need, but also as you move forward in recovery and then to address the other longstanding challenges that your leaders so clearly and passionately outlined for us when we were there last month.

Mr. Speaker, less than 2 months ago, Chairman Nick Rahall and many of us on the House Committee on Natural Resources were with the wonderful people of the village of Leone, which is the home and family village of our colleague, Eni Faleomavaega, who represents American Samoa in this body. Despite the severe economic challenges they face, they lavished us with gifts, song, food, and lots of love.

Today, villages all over American Samoa and other parts of the region are devastated not only by the damage from the tsunami but, most tragically, by the loss of loved ones. Among them, I am sure, are some who sang and danced and welcomed us so warmly. We thank the President for immediately declaring a disaster. I also pledge that my community will do what we can to help them recover. Many of their fellow Americans will do the same.

Nearby Independent Samoa, which I also visited at another time, was also affected and needs our help as well. Our hearts and prayers go out to the people of American Samoa, Samoa and the region. If anything good can come out of this terrible tragedy, very importantly right now, perhaps it will remind everyone that the people of American Samoa and the other territories are Americans and deserve equitable treatment in health care reform.

Madam Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to Judge Raymond Lawrence Finch, a Jurist extraordinaire, who has served the Virgin Islands legal and judicial communities with diligence, competence and unfailing dedication for 33 years from the Bench.

Raymond Finch is a true ``Native Son'', a product of two Crucian Virgin Islands families: Bough and Finch; whose family members have been making outstanding contributions to the Territory of the U. S. Virgin Islands for more than four generations.

Raymond Finch is a product of the Virgin Islands public school system and a graduate of the Christiansted High School in 1958. He completed, on schedule, his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, Minor in Economics, from Howard University in 1962; and his Juris Doctor Degree in 1965, from the Howard University School of Law.

Entering in the U. S. Army as a First Lieutenant in 1966, he served honorably for three years, adjudicating claims of U.S. personnel and Vietnamese nationals. He was also an Advocate before the Elimination Boards, Article 15 Hearings and in Article 32 investigations. His exemplary service was awarded with the Bronze Star Medal, the Army Commendation Medal, and a Certificate of Appreciation from General William C. Westmoreland and the Army Chief of Staff.

Having served previously as a Law Clerk in the Municipal Court of the Virgin Islands, he worked as a Law Clerk upon his return to the Territory, in the firm of Hodge and Sheen. He was admitted into the Virgin Islands Bar in 1970 and became a partner in the law firm of Hodge, Sheen, Finch and Ross in 1971. For more than a dozen years he was an instructor at the University of Virgin Islands and the American Banking Association.

In 1976, then Virgin Islands Governor, Cyril E. King, appointed him Judge of the Municipal Court of the Virgin Islands. On September 1, 1994, after being nominated by President Clinton, Raymond Finch took the oath of office as Judge of the District Court of the Virgin Islands, and became Chief Judge of the District Court in August, 1999.

Raymond Finch the Law Clerk, to retiring District Court Judge Finch, has seen the remarkable evolution of the Virgin Islands Judicial system. The Municipal Court that he first served as a Law Clerk was the same Court to which he was first appointed as a Judge. During his judicial tenure, the Municipal Court became the Territorial Court, where it achieved its jurisdictional autonomy and recognition as the highest local court in the Territory and it is now the Superior Court. During Judge Finch's District Court tenure, the Supreme Court of the Virgin Islands was established.

Accordingly, Finch's judicial career also evolved through his serving as Acting Presiding Judge, Territorial Court of the Virgin Islands; Judge, Appellate Division, U. S. District Court of the Virgin Islands; by Special Designation as Judge of the U. S. District Court of the Virgin Islands; U. S. District Court Judge and Chief District Court Judge for the Virgin Islands. During Judge Finch's tenure on the Bench, he was served by a group of Law Clerks, many of whom have gone on to distinguished and illustrious careers.

His demeanor has always been one of quiet reserve. He is one of those rare individuals that will listen attentively. There have been occasions where a court room participant miscalculated with uttering a statement, uncomfortably finding themselves in the vise of a first class mind. His tenure has produced excellent legal Opinions and Memorandums, along with Decisions that demonstrate inordinate wisdom and compassion. He has mastered the uncanny ability to clearly and concisely follow the dictates of law, weaving and intermingling, with the African West Indian derived customs, of Danish and American cultural and jurisprudential influence. No easy task. His pride and understanding of the Virgin Islands culture, heritage and its people, resulted in outstanding interpretations and implementations of law that appealed to all the adversaries.

His numerous community and professional involvements have been demonstrated through membership in the Virgin Islands Bar Association; Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit; American Law Institute; American Judges' Association; American Bar Association; National Bar Association, and the Virgin Islands Law Enforcement Planning Commission. His wise acumen was sought as or contributed to, the Task Force Member of the Criminal Code Revision Project; Committee on Model Criminal Jury Instructions, Third Court of Appeals; Supervisory Board of Juvenile Justice & Prevention of Delinquency Committee; the Democratic Party of the Virgin Islands; and Board of Directors of Boy's Club, St. Croix Division.

At the recent unveiling of his official District Court Judge portrait, he showed a profound sensitivity when he thanked all that had gathered.

Judge Finch has one son and two daughters. Through marriage, an additional son and daughter.

The Virgin Islands and its people have been privileged to witness the passing of one that touched many, thereby making the world a better place.

Mr. Speaker, today, I want to talk about something everyone, Republicans and Democrats, cares about: paying for health care reform.

There is so much evidence that prevention at the individual and community levels will produce hundreds of billions of dollars of savings. Trust for America's Health has shown, based on existing community prevention programs, that we could get a return of 5.6 to 6.2 times on every dollar spent. Private industry has also shown a similar savings in less than 10 years. Another report will show that we would save $652 billion over 10 years by getting healthier individuals to Medicare and by reducing advancing disease when they enter the system. This kind of prevention is in the bill.

The CBO will score prevention if we give them reliable data, and that would make the true cost of this bill much less than $1 trillion. So let's cover the Territories and not cut important programs out of the bill. Let's score prevention, and let's pass a bill that honors health care as a right and that reestablishes the United States as the leader we ought to be.

Mr. Speaker, we Democrats have been explaining the health care bill, but our colleagues on the other side of the aisle seem not to have heard. The truth about our bill is that it does not create a government-run health care system. Instead, there is one public plan. Individuals and families can keep the plan they have, or they are free to choose--free to choose--the public plan or one of the private plans in the exchange.

As a doctor, I support the bill, and I want it passed out of Energy and Commerce this week because it gives family doctors like me the support we need to spend time listening to our patients and managing their care. It actually removes the barriers between doctors and their patients.

For those in this country who have never had full access to quality and comprehensive care, we welcome the bill, even though we know it will cost a lot to begin to close the health care gaps that our dysfunctional system has created. We cannot afford not to do it. Lives are at stake. There are enough savings in this bill from prevention to help pay for it.

To everyone who is holding this bill hostage, please get out of the way and let us pass H.R. 3200 so that everyone in this country can have the health care they deserve and they need.