Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, more than 75 percent of Americans participate in active outdoor recreation each year, experiencing America's wild lands and outdoor spaces in ways large and small. In recognition of this group, I am introducing the ``United States Optimal Use of Trade to Develop Outerwear and Outdoor Recreation Act'' or the ``U.S. OUTDOOR Act''. This legislation will reduce the high tariffs on outdoor apparel and will invest in research to shrink the environmental footprint of the American textile industry while increasing its international competitiveness.

According to recent surveys, roughly 33 million Americans went fishing last year and 56 million went hiking. Through healthy outdoor activities like bird watching, ice climbing, hiking, and bass fishing, outdoor recreation contributes $730 billion and 6.5 million jobs to the U.S. economy.

Unfortunately, recreational performance outerwear--jackets and pants used for skiing and snowboarding, mountaineering, hunting, fishing and dozens of other outdoor activities--is assessed some of the highest duty rates applied to any products imported into the United States. While the average duty on imports is less than 2 percent, the rates on recreational performance outerwear average 17 percent, with some as high as 28 percent.

These disproportionately high tariffs were originally implemented to protect U.S. manufacturers from foreign competition, but now no longer serve that purpose. Instead, they stifle innovation and raise costs throughout our economy. In a recent report, the U.S. International Trade Commission recently found that there was no commercially viable production of recreational performance outerwear in the United States.

To better reflect this economic reality, the U.S. OUTDOOR Act will establish new tariff classifications for these products and will eliminate the disproportionately high tariffs assessed on them.

The legislation will also establish the Sustainable Textile and Apparel Research (STAR) Fund. Access to STAR Fund grants will be made available to certain non-profit organizations through a competitive process, with the overarching purpose of advancing U.S. competitiveness in lean manufacturing technologies and supply chain analysis. The STAR Fund will ultimately help the global textile and apparel industry in minimizing energy and water use, reducing waste and carbon emissions and incorporating sustainable practices into a product's entire life cycle.

Through these mechanisms, this legislation will support the outdoor industry, consumers of outdoor products, and environmental practices throughout the textile industry supply chain. I look forward to working with my colleagues to pass this important legislation.

I appreciate the gentlewoman's courtesy in permitting me to speak on this, as I appreciate her leadership in being able to advance a cause that's near and dear to both of our hearts.

Mr. Chairman, I will speak for 2 minutes. In the course of that time, about 10 children around the world will die needlessly from waterborne disease. We have been working, over the course of the last 5 years, for the United States to exercise its appropriate leadership to try to eliminate this tragedy.

I deeply appreciate the work that the subcommittee has done. Indeed, in the manager's amendment it takes an increase from last year and has a further increase of $25 million, meaning $335 million to help implement our Water for the Poor Act, dealing the world's number one public health problem.

Mr. Chairman, we have more than a billion people worldwide who lack access to both sanitation and clean drinking water, without which children cannot learn in school; the sick, including those with HIV/ AIDS, cannot take their medication; stable societies cannot be built; and millions needlessly continue to die. Entirely preventable tragedies trap countries in poverty and diminish our own development and security efforts. It's no coincidence that the Middle East and North Africa, the most water-stressed region in the world has some of the most complex security issues. The State Department has said securing fresh drinking water is a significant part of the Middle East peace process and one that brings people together rather than dividing them.

I deeply appreciate the chairwoman and her staff for working with me and my colleague Don Payne, who has been tireless in advancing this issue. I hope that the administration, with the leadership of Secretary Clinton, will join in this effort so that we can make the progress that poor people around the world deserve and that we all need.

Madam Speaker, U.S.-flag ships that compete in international trade face many disadvantages. The U.S. tax code should not be one of them. Today I am introducing legislation that will help smooth the seas for U.S.-flag shippers and increase their international competitiveness.

The version of the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 that passed both the House and Senate provided for the application of a ``tonnage tax'' based on the tonnage of a vessel, rather than taxing the U.S. vessel's international income at corporate tax rates. In the conference process on that legislation, however, new language was inserted which states that a U.S. vessel cannot use the tonnage tax on its income from international operations if that vessel also operates in U.S. domestic commerce for more than 30 days per year.

This 30-day limitation dramatically limits the availability of the tonnage tax for those U.S. ships that operate in both domestic and international trade and hinders their competitiveness in foreign commerce. It is important to recognize that ships operating in U.S. domestic trade already have significant cost disadvantages. The inability of domestic operators to use the tonnage tax for their international service is a further burden on their competitive position in foreign commerce. Foreign registered ships now carry 97 percent of the imports and exports moving in United States international trade. These foreign vessels are not held to the higher Coast Guard operating standards that apply to American-registered ships and foreign vessels are virtually untaxed.

Adding to the perversity of the provision, in December 2006, Congress repealed the 30-day limit on domestic trading for approximately 50 ships operating in the Great Lakes. There are 13 U.S.-flag vessels outside of these Great Lakes ships that remain caught in these tax provisions. In the interest of providing equity to these 13 vessels, this legislation would repeal the 30-day limit on domestic operations, enabling these vessels to also utilize the tonnage tax on their international income. Under this legislation, these ships will continue to pay the normal 35 percent U.S. corporate tax rate on their income for operations in domestic commerce.

Repeal of the tonnage tax's 30-day limit on domestic operations is a necessary step toward providing tax equity between U.S.-flag and foreign flag vessels. I look forward to working with my colleagues to pass this important legislation.

Madam Speaker, more than 2 million farms make up America's rural landscape. Ninety-eight percent of these farms are owned by individuals, family partnerships, and family corporations, producing about 86 percent of U.S. agricultural products sold.

The most significant asset held by many of these farmers is their land. In some cases, when the owner of the farm dies, surviving family members must sell portions of the farm to cover their estate tax costs. Today I am introducing legislation to help ensure that families are not forced to sell the farm and that their land resources are available for agricultural and conservation use by future generations.

In 1997, in order to encourage the conservation of sensitive lands and farms, Congress enacted an estate tax exclusion for land placed under a conservation easement. 26 USC 2031(c). That law caps the exclusion at $500,000. Given the significant rise in land values over the past decade, especially for agricultural regions near urbanizing areas, that cap is now too low to provide a meaningful incentive to many farmers.

My legislation updates and increases the exclusion to $5 million. By increasing the current cap on the property value that can be excluded from an estate when the land is protected by a conservation easement from $500,000 to $5,000,000 (and by raising the exclusion percentage from 40 percent to 50 percent, this bill will encourage significant additional protection of farmland across our country.

The voluntary placement of a conservation easement on private land is a very effective and successful tool for protecting and conserving our nation's open spaces and sensitive lands. As the American Farmland Trust has written, ``We strongly believe that the proper incentives are the most effective way of encouraging landowners to conserve land.'' This legislation provides strong land protection incentives and will result in the preservation of America's vital farm and ranchlands.

I appreciate the gentleman's courtesy.

For the last 2\1/2\ years, I have had the privilege of working with the Speaker's Select Committee on Global Warming, driving home the reality of climate change. Today we have a major opportunity to rebuild and renew America while protecting the planet.

I want to thank the Ways and Means Committee and the Commerce Committee for working with me to harness billions of dollars over the life of this bill to develop transportation that reduces carbon footprint for transit, bike, and pedestrian, development patterns, things that will make a difference for a country that emits more carbon with its transportation than China, India, and Europe combined. We have an opportunity to protect the planet, but unless you're prepared to lead, China and India will continue to pollute more and more.

This is the first step in this leadership, and I urge the courage to vote ``yes'' on this legislation today.

Madam Speaker, Chairman Waxman, I appreciate your courtesy as I appreciate your leadership.

It's strange that the debate boils down to our friends from the minority party being unable to access the Web site of the Rules Committee to print out the rule that has been available to any Member of the House. And I understand some of them were waving it earlier in the day talking about provisions that they didn't like. But I guess we shouldn't be surprised because this is the same leadership that continually misrepresents the MIT study, citing $3,000 of costs that has been refuted by the author of that report and asks the Republican leadership to stop misrepresenting his handiwork.

The CBO and the EPA have given estimates that are pennies a day, not thousands of dollars a year. And we're not talking about the long-term benefits of transitioning to an economy of the future.

I appreciate the leadership. On a recent trip to China with the Speaker, we saw the Chinese moving ahead. This legislation is an opportunity for us to keep pace and assume our rightful leadership within an economy for the future.

I appreciate the gentleman's courtesy as I appreciate his leadership in an area that has been of concern for me for a long time, the disappointing and widespread environmental legacy of the Department of Defense. In every State, communities must deal with former training grounds contaminated with live bombs, leftover shells, leaking chemicals.

I have a map here. Every single State, every territory of the United States--and it is an ongoing problem. In June, in Florida, fishermen hauled aboard a live guided missile. On May 22 a farmer plowing his field overturned a live rocket.

We need to be more serious about it, and I appreciate the committee's help, first of all, in focusing with the Department of Defense, requiring the Secretary to report clearly the funding levels requested for the program. We have a new administration. We hope there will be a new commitment to work on this. With additional transparency, we are much more likely to know at least where we are. It's also time for military to be proactive and reduce the amount of munitions generated in the first place.

I'm pleased that they have agreed to another amendment offered by my friend Ms. Brown-Waite from Florida to require the Department of Defense to think strategically about ways to lessen the long-term health and environmental consequences, specifically, development of lifecycle accounting for munitions, review of live-fire practicing, and recommending ways to reduce the costs and incidents of unexploded ordnance. Smarter procurement and testing will reduce the long-term impacts of munition, saving money, resources, having safer American lands and more successful operations abroad.

Just a few volleys of a standard rocket system with a 5 percent failure rate generates thousands of unexploded ordnance for training lands here at home, and it complicates our missions abroad. Consider the plight of civilian populations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the millions who will rebuild their lives amidst the munitions wreckage left over the last 6 years of combat.

This is a problem at home in the United States. This is a problem abroad. It is time for us to face up to it. I appreciate the committee's leadership in helping zero in on it. I hope we can do a better job because it will save money while it saves lives at home and abroad.

I enter into the Record a list of Munitions and Unexploded Ordnance, UXO, incidents and news for May and June 2009.

June 11, 2009 in Pachtua, MS, 20 Small Unexploded WWII

White Phosphorous Bombs Found During Pipeline Work

June 10, 2009. Long Hill, NJ, World War II vet finds

``souvenir'' and alerts bomb squad

June 9, 2009, Norwood, OH, Deactivated Explosives Found At

Park

June 9, 2009. Arden Hills, MN, Cleanup Costs Too Much for

Potential Developer

June 9, 2009. Arden Hills, MN, Cleanup Costs Too Much for

Potential Developer

June 8, 2009. Madiera Beach, FL, Fishing Boat Hauls Up

Guided Missile

June 8, 2009. Camp LeJeune, NC, U.S. Supreme Court Refuses

to Hear Case About Toxic Water at Camp Lejeune

June 8, 2009. California, MD, Ordnance Uncovered at

Landfill

June 4, 2009. Columbus, OH, Road Closed after Artillery

Shell Discovered

June 1, 2009. Turtlecreek Township, OH, Discarded Hand

Grenade Found

June 1, 2009. Nantahala National Forest, NC, Ordnance Found

Near Trail

May 22, 2009. Woolmarket, MS, Explosion Rocks Woolmarket

Neighborhood

Madam Speaker, today I am introducing a bill to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located as 630 Northeast Killingsworth Avenue in Northeast Portland, Oregon as the ``Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Post Office.'' This post office shall serve to remind us of the civil rights leader who inspired a nation and served as a catalyst for change. Our nation has come a long way since the days of the civil rights movement and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream of equality and brotherhood between all people continues to inspire.

In fact, this bill is a result of a community effort led by local letter carriers Jamie Partridge and Isham Harris. In 2007, Mr. Partridge and Mr. Harris collected employee signatures supporting this naming, as well as letters of support from the Piedmont and Concordia Neighborhood Associations, and the Sabin Community Association.

I am pleased to carry their effort forward and am proud that Representatives Wu, DeFazio, Walden, and Schrader, the full Oregon Congressional delegation, have joined as original cosponsors in the House. Senators Wyden and Merkley will soon introduce companion legislation in the Senate.

Naming one of our community's postal facilities after one of the century's most inspiring leaders is a personal reminder of Dr. King's achievements and the work that remains to be done. I look forward to working with my colleagues to ensure the swift passage and enactment of this bill.

Madam Speaker, today I am proud to introduce the Advance Care Planning and Compassionate Care Act of 2009. This important legislation will provide the tools and resources necessary to dramatically improve care at the end of life.

As we approach health care reform, there is no other area more vital for honest discussion and careful analysis than what happens at the end of a patient's life. For most of us, the majority of our lifetime health care will be administered in that last year. Indeed for some, the last few months is when we will use the most doctor care, the most medical procedures, and spend the most days in a hospital.

Advances in health care have led to an aging population facing increasingly complex end of life health care decisions. These strains make complicated decision-making regarding medical care incredibly difficult. Too often, decisions are avoided until a crisis occurs, resulting in inadequate planning, unknown patient preferences, and families left struggling with the burden of determining their loved ones' wishes. For both families and patients, this is a time of incredible stress, confusion, and pain.

This legislation will provide valuable resources to patients, their families, and health care providers to ensure that care at the end of life is aligned with patient wishes and values.

The Advance Planning and Compassionate Care Act of 2009 would:

Improve consumer information about advance care planning and end-of- life care. This legislation would provide critically needed information and assistance to consumers and their families in order to guarantee that an individual's final wishes for care are carried out.

Improve provider education and training about advance care planning and end-of-life care. This legislation would establish a National Geriatric and Palliative Care Service Corps modeled after the National Health Service Corps.

Require portability of advance directives. The legislation would improve the portability of advance directives from one state to another, and require any existing advance directives to be prominently placed in a patient's medical record so they are easily visible.

Authorize funding for new and innovative approaches to advance care planning. Grants would be made available to states for development of electronic advance directive registries. Grants would also be made available to develop systems to identify that a person has an advance directive using driver's licenses, similar to how organ donor status is indicated.

Provide Medicare, Medicaid, and CHIP coverage for advance care planning consultations. This legislation provides Medicare, Medicaid, and CHIP coverage for advance care planning so that patients can routinely talk to their physicians about their wishes for end-of-life care.

Improve consumer access to hospice and palliative care. This legislation provides greater consumer information about hospice and palliative care, so the public is well informed of the care options available at the end of life.

Provide concurrent care for children. This legislation requires that concurrent care--the provision of both curative and hospice care at the same time--is available to children who qualify for hospice. This will make it possible for children to receive the palliative services they need from hospice while still pursuing potentially curative treatments.

Require the development of quality measures to assess end-of-life care. The Secretary of HHS, acting through the Director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, shall require specific end-of-life care quality measures for each relevant provider setting. The legislation would also develop and implement accreditation standards and processes for hospital-based palliative care teams.

Establish the National Center on Palliative and End-of-Life Care at the NIH. Biomedical and health services research is vital across all phases of life. A new National Center on Palliative and End-of-Life Care at the NIH will lead biomedical research on palliative and end of- life care.

Madam Speaker, for too long, the federal government has enabled the inefficiencies of our health care system. This is not only wasteful, but inequitable to taxpayers in efficient, low-spending regions such as Oregon, Washington, Wisconsin, North Dakota and Minnesota who are subsidizing high-spending regions of the country.

Medicare beneficiaries living in Miami, Las Vegas, New York and Houston receive approximately 60% more services than those living in low-spending regions. This higher spending has not produced higher quality of care or superior outcomes. In fact, research shows that health care outcomes and patient satisfaction are often greater in regions that spend less.

We cannot afford to ignore this problem any longer. The June 2008 Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) report stated

that ``. . . our health care system is not delivering value for its stakeholders . . . if current spending and utilization trends continue, the Medicare program is fiscally unsustainable.''

Today I am introducing two bills to address this looming problem. The first would change the financial incentives in our health care system to reward low-spending Medicare regions through a 5% bonus payment. Currently, there is no financial incentive for high-spending regions to reign in spending. This would create that incentive and reward regions that have made a concerted effort to efficiently use health resources.

The second would lay the foundation for better, more accurate research for Congress to use in analyzing Medicare policy recommendations. The legislation will change MedPAC's statutory mandate to include an annual report to examine each Medicare region, evaluating access to care, quality of care, increases or decreases in volume of services, and the potential effects of other policy recommendations under consideration. This new report will provide critical data and result in more accurate and targeted policy recommendations that take into effect geographic variations and recognize that distinctly different delivery systems should be treated differently.

These strategic investments in Medicare will lay the groundwork for future improvements and refinements to the program as we promote efficiency and quality in all regions of the country.

Forty-nine years ago, the 1960 October Harpers Magazine cover story was ``The Crisis in American Medicine.'' Well, we are still in crisis, but change is in the air.

The facts are clear: High costs, more procedures, tests, and hospitalization is not better care; it is a symptom of poor care. Every major Nation spends less, and most have better outcomes than the United States.

Getting 50 million Americans health insurance and giving the rest of Americans with insurance, stability, will cost more, but about half of this cost can be achieved by reforming the system, and having the government pay the balance will cost far less for business and people with insurance over the next 10 years than business as usual.

With a President who gets it, a Congress listening to what the people want and a public plan to keep the system honest, it means that there won't be a cover story 50 years from now about American medicine still in crisis.

I rise, Mr. Chairman, and urge that clean water and sanitation be addressed at the highest level at the State Department and USAID. The lack of safe water and sanitation is an ongoing threat to global security. It remains the world's preventable health problem, accounting for 2 million deaths a year, a child dying every 15 seconds and half the illness in the developing world.

We simply cannot meet our goals to deal with poverty, health and development without addressing this crisis. On Earth day, I introduced the bipartisan Paul Simon Water For the World Act with the goal to provide a hundred billion of the world's poorest with first-time access to safe drinking water and sanitation.

I would like to work with you, Mr. Chairman, to assure that clean water and sanitation are adequately funded and represented at the highest level of our diplomatic and development efforts.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, I appreciate your attention to this critical issue and am looking forward to working with you under your leadership.

Madam Speaker, today I am proud to introduce the Medicare Transition Care Act of 2009.

When people leave the hospital after an operation or illness, they are often overwhelmed by a complicated and risky road to recovery. Patients frequently report difficulty remembering clinical instructions, confusion over medications, and, in cases where multiple providers are involved, often get conflicting instructions from different providers. Providing a transitional care benefit within Medicare will help coordinate care, develop a care plan for patients and their caregivers, identify potential health risks, and prevent unnecessary hospitalizations.

This bipartisan legislation gets to the heart of improving quality while reducing costs. A study published in April 2009 in the New England Journal of Medicine found that almost one-third of Medicare beneficiaries studied who were discharged from a hospital were re- hospitalized within 90 days. Additionally, one-half of the individuals re-hospitalized had not visited a physician since their discharge, indicating a lack of follow-up care. The study estimated that Medicare spent $17.4 billion in 2004 on unplanned re-hospitalizations.

The Medicare Transition Care Act will directly address continuity of care problems by increasing support to patients as they move from the hospital to their new care setting and ensuring that appropriate follow-up care is provided during this vulnerable period. The benefit would be phased-in, initially targeting just the most at-risk individuals by providing evidence-based transitional care services tailored to their specific needs.

I am proud to partner with Congressman Boustany, a cardiothoracic surgeon, on this commonsense legislation that will improve the quality and efficiency of our health care system.

Madam Speaker, as one-fifth of the world's population relies on freshwater that is either polluted or significantly overdrawn, the lack of safe water and sanitation is an ongoing threat to global security and remains the world's greatest health problem, accounting for 2 million deaths a year and half of the illness in the developing world. Before I finish speaking, 15 more children will die needlessly from waterborne disease.

To address this slow-motion disaster, I worked with the then Chair and ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Henry Hyde and Tom Lantos, and the Senate majority and minority leaders, Bill Frist and Harry Reid, to enact the Paul Simon Water for the Poor Act of 2005. This landmark, bipartisan legislation established investment in safe and affordable water for the world's poorest as a major goal of United States foreign assistance. But, sadly, with the last administration, we were slow to implement, and until last year, slow to fund it. We are more than halfway to the 2015 Millennium Development goal with mixed results, and we must redouble our effort.

A special concern is Sub-Saharan Africa that lags so far behind that we will miss our modest goal to cut the people without safe drinking water and sanitation by one-half by 2015, that Sub-Saharan Africa will miss that target date by 25 years for water and sanitation by 61 years. And these are not just numbers; these are millions of people's lives.

Some progress is being made through innovative partnerships between the United States, NGOs, businesses, and local partners. But the stark truth remains: Nearly 900 million people worldwide still lack access to safe drinking water, and two out of five people on the planet lack basic sanitation services. And this is going to become more of a challenge in the future. Because of climate change and rapid population growth, there will be further stress on water resources. By 2025, 2.8 billion people in more than 48 countries will face devastating water shortages.

To help accelerate the progress, on Earth Day I introduced bipartisan legislation, the Paul Simon Water for the World Act of 2009, along with Representatives Payne, Rohrabacher, Jesse Jackson Jr., Zach Wamp, Welch, Boozman, Burton, George Miller, and Fortenberry. The purpose of this act is to empower the U.S. Government to respond to the pressing poverty, security, and environmental threats presented by the dire mismanagement and shortage of global freshwater. The goal for the Water for the World Act is for the United States to provide 100 million people of the world's poorest first-time access to safe drinking water and sanitation on a sustainable basis by 2015. To accomplish this goal, the legislation builds on the Water for the Poor framework for investment, expands U.S. foreign assistance capacity, and recognizes sustainable water and sanitation policy as vital to the long-term diplomatic and development efforts of the United States.

I applaud the leadership of Senators Durbin, Corker, and Murray, who have introduced companion bipartisan legislation in the Senate. This legislation will help the United States focus its efforts and fully implement a smart and efficient global water strategy that meets our commitment to extend safe drinking water and sanitation to over a billion people in need.

I urge every Member of Congress to make water policy and funding a priority, to save the life of a child every 15 seconds who dies needlessly from waterborne disease.

I appreciate the gentleman's courtesy as I appreciate the chairman's leadership.

I rise in a colloquy to discuss with you the TSA revised list of prohibited items on airplanes.

In 2005, they revised rules to allow items up to 7 inches--knitting needles, scissors, screwdrivers--but they continue to prohibit tiny pen knives under 2.5 inches. I find it frustrating for the traveling public who can't understand the distinctions between these items, and it has had a significant commercial impact.

This little Leatherman tool, which is very popular, is manufactured in my district. It is certainly less dangerous, one would think, than the items that they're already letting in the air. Since they have made those rules, it has had a significant impact on the sales because consumers don't think about this when they go through airport security lines and lose the items.

I wonder if it's possible to work with you, Mr. Chairman, to encourage the TSA to conduct periodic comprehensive reviews of this prohibited items list to ensure that it reflects the most current risk- based assessment?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate your words of encouragement as I appreciate your leadership, and I look forward to working with you.

Madam Speaker, having just returned from a week in China with Speaker Pelosi, I am glad to more fully appreciate the country's tremendous scope, population, the vast and varied landscape, and its rich history. Although the focus was on global warming and the environment and the impressive progress China has made to adjust its policies, the subject of human rights was never far from the surface.

In Tiananmen Square I was taken back to the monumental events of 20 years ago and their tragic conclusion. It is sobering to understand how intensely the Chinese government suppresses any mention or image of the Tiananmen Square massacre. So much so that today there is virtually no knowledge of these events on the part of the young.

That is why it is so important for Congress to mark this observance: to give knowledge to those with no memory and to give hope to those that do remember. It is critical that those who risked so much, those who died or who were persecuted, are celebrated for their courage. It is my hope that one day the Chinese people will have the freedom they deserve.