Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, a centerpiece of any community can usually be found in a neighborhood religious institution. In Riverdale one such institution is the Riverdale Temple which is celebrating its 65th year as a liberal Jewish congregation.

In February 1947 a small group met in the Riverdale Neighborhood House to discuss the establishment of a new temple. By September, the charter establishing it was signed and 67 families founded the Riverdale Temple, the first Jewish congregation in Riverdale. The Honorable Francis J. Bloustein was named first president and a dynamic rabbi infused with enthusiasm for the new project, Charles E. Shulman, was recruited from Chicago to become the first rabbi of the ``liberal congregation.''

The new Riverdale Temple initially met at the Arrowhead Inn and a Religious School, Sisterhood, and Youth Group were formed. In 1952, the building was demolished and the Riverdale Temple was homeless. These difficult times drew the congregants closer and services were conducted first at Christ Church, then at Riverdale Presbyterian Church, and Religious School classes moved from the Riverdale Country School to the Fieldston School. Yom Kippur services were held in Horace Mann School. In June 1953, the cornerstone for the new Riverdale Temple was laid, in March 1954, the new building was opened and, in September 1954, the building was formally dedicated.

All are welcome at the Riverdale Temple no matter what their approach to Judaism or degree of Jewish literacy. The temple is founded on the principals of faith, mitzvot and tikkun olam and offers communal support. It has a beautiful sanctuary with a rich and evolving musical tradition.

I congratulate the Riverdale Temple on 65 years of giving unstintingly to the community and in its tradition of welcoming everyone. I have visited the Temple many times and have felt its inspiration and its warmth. It has truly brought the Riverdale and surrounding communities closer together.

Mr. Speaker, Susan Schwartz has performed an almost endless array of services for Conservative Synagogue Adath Israel of Riverdale since she first visited the Synagogue in 1984 pregnant with twins.

Initially Susan enrolled in a learners' service that met on Shabbat. Later she was a liaison from the Parents Association to the Board of Trustees, which led to her serving four years as Chair of the Education Board. Afterwards she served on the Board of Trustees and on the Mission Statement Committee.

She has served as a member of the Search Committees for Rabbi, Cantor, Assistant Rabbi, Education Director, and, twice, for an Executive Director. She served as President of CSAIR for five years during which time $1.2 million was raised in a capital campaign to redesign the Sanctuary, Social Hall and main synagogue entrance. Accessibility--both spiritual and physical--was an important aspect of the work that was accomplished during the renovation.

After stepping down as President, Susan spent two years with a wonderful, engaging group of women, studying together for their bat mitzvah, which they celebrated together in 2010. Susan has spent more than 10 years as a member of, or the chair of, the High Holiday honors committee and has had the honor of giving honors and of assisting on the bimah on Shabbat and on the high holidays. She is currently Chair of the Ritual and Religious Life Committee.

Susan is a learning disability specialist and a dedicated advocate for children with special needs. She has specific expertise in child development, reading and literacy, learning disorders, and the development of language skills and higher-level reasoning skills in children and adolescents. She is a significant public voice on learning accommodations and special education services in our schools.

Susan spent 13 years as the Clinical Director of the Institute for Learning and Academic Achievement at the NYU Child Study Center then for two years the Clinical Director of the Learning and Diagnostics Center at the Child Mind Institute. She is currently one of two learning specialists in the Lower School at Friends Seminary in Manhattan.

She hails from a large, close-knit multi-generational family spanning in age from newborn to age 93.

It is a joy and pleasure to join with Conservative Synagogue Adath Israel of Riverdale in honoring Susan Schwartz for her many and myriad accomplishments for the synagogue and, ultimately for her community. We are all better off for her being among us.

Mr. Speaker, Eric Mesch has been involved in adult Jewish education programming at Conservative Synagogue Adath Israel of Riverdale where he teaches on topics of interest, and for several years, organized the all-night learning program on Shavuot. Last year, Eric organized an event in memory of Matt Fenster z''1, in which members of many different Jewish communities came together to mark the completion of the study of the Mishnah. Eric is also a member of the Board of Directors of Mechon Hadar.

For as long as he can remember, Eric's connection to Jewish study has been intense, complex and defining. He grew up on Staten Island in a Conservative Jewish home and synagogue, but attended the Orthodox Yeshivah of Flatbush in Brooklyn from third grade through high school. Later, as an undergraduate at Yale College, Eric majored in religious studies and also spent a semester at Yeshivat Hamivtar in Israel. After college, Eric attended Columbia Law School, graduating with his J.D. in 1995.

Eric met his wife Rachel while they were undergraduates at Yale but they didn't start dating until his senior and her junior year. Their relationship blossomed over good coffee, something that is still important to them. They married in 1995 and in their first year of married life they lived in Jerusalem where Eric was a law clerk to the Supreme Court of Israel and Rachel continued her graduate work at Hebrew University. They have three children, Abby, Eliza and Sam.

Eric is a partner with the law firm of Dickstein Shapiro LLP, focusing on bankruptcy-related and other complex commercial litigation while Rachel is a professor of French literature and chair of the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures at Yeshiva University.

I congratulate Eric for all the good work he is doing at the Conservative Synagogue Adath Israel of Riverdale. He had made CSAIR and the Riverdale community a better place.

Mr. Speaker, Rabbi Judith S. Lewis became the rabbi of Riverdale Temple in the summer of 2006, after celebrating her 25th year in the rabbinate in 2005. She was part of the first generation of women rabbis, becoming ordained at a time when there were fewer than a dozen women in the Reform rabbinate. She was awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from the Hebrew Union College--Jewish Institute of Religion, where she was ordained in 1980. Her undergraduate degree was in Philosophy, from Oberlin College in Ohio.

Rabbi Lewis was born and raised in Rochester, New York where her extended family participated in every congregation of every denomination. A favorite recollection from childhood is the successive observance of Jewish holidays at each congregation. After services ended at her family's Reform synagogue, they would often go to join her grandparents in their Conservative congregation, and finally join aunts and uncles at the Orthodox synagogue to finish the celebration of the holiday.

Otto Kucera was born and raised in Astoria, Queens, above his family's funeral home. After graduating from American Academy McAllister Institute he joined the family business. Aside from several years in Boston, as a family owner of several independent funeral homes, he has been with Riverside Funeral Chapels and their associates for over 40 years.

The diversity and proximity of the Jewish population in Riverdale is both familiar and welcome to Rabbi Lewis who believes that a Reform congregation has a vital role to play in the ongoing creativity of modern Jewish life. As the oldest Jewish institution in Riverdale, this congregation has a rich and noteworthy heritage of involvement with the community which she looks forward to promoting and sustaining.

Otto and his wife, Isabell, had three children, Peter, Jennifer, and Veronica. Peter is a funeral director in Schenectady, New York. Jenny was a production manager for Penguin Publications after graduating from Rutgers University and married her husband Joel. They live in Massachusetts with their two children.

Rabbi Lewis introduced the Tot Shabbat, adult bnei mitzvah classes, and she and Otto conduct congregational trips to Israel. Her willingness to try new modes of worship and her spirit of experimentation are attracting new young families to the congregation.

Otto and Rabbi Lewis got to know each other outside of their respective professional roles 12 years ago, when introducing their son and daughter to each other. Instead, they married each other four years later.

I offer my congratulations to Rabbi Lewis and Otto for all they have accomplished for the Temple, both individually and together. They are an example of all that can be done when working together.

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

On May 24, 2011, President Obama issued a Memorandum on Federal Fleet Performance that requires all new light-duty vehicles in the Federal fleet to be alternate fuel vehicles, such as hybrid, electric, natural gas, or biofuel, by December 31, 2015. My amendment echoes the Presidential Memorandum by prohibiting funds in the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act from being used to lease or purchase new light-duty vehicles, except in accord with the President's Memorandum.

Our transportation sector is by far the biggest reason we send $600 billion per year to hostile nations to pay for oil at ever-increasing costs. But America does not need to be dependent on foreign sources of oil for transportation fuel. Alternative technologies exist today that, when implemented broadly, will allow any alternative fuel to be used in America's automotive fleet. The Federal Government operates the largest fleet of light-duty vehicles in America. According to GSA, there are over 660,000 vehicles in the Federal fleet, with over 14,000 being used by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

By supporting a diverse array of vehicle technologies in our Federal fleet, we will encourage development of domestic energy resources, including biomass, natural gas, agricultural waste, hydrogen, renewable electricity, methanol, and ethanol. Expanding the role these energy sources play in our transportation economy will help break the leverage over Americans held by foreign government-controlled oil companies and will increase our Nation's domestic security and protect consumers from price spikes and shortages in the world oil markets.

Let me say that the gentlewoman from Florida, Congresswoman Ros- Lehtinen, and I have a bill that would mandate that by a certain date all vehicles made in America would be flex-fuel vehicles. It would cost $100 or even less to make each vehicle flex-fuel. Other countries have it. America should not be behind other countries. We will be introducing this legislation shortly.

So I ask that my colleagues support the Engel amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Offered by: Mr. Engel

Amendment No. 13: At the end of the bill (before the short

title), insert the following:

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express my support for the Iranian Baha'i community, Iran's largest minority religion, and in commemoration of the five year anniversary of the unlawful imprisonment of its leadership, known as the Yaran-i-Iran, or ``friends of Iran.''

In 2008 the Iranian regime arrested seven members of the Yaran-i-Iran on several trumped up charges including espionage, propaganda activities against the Islamic order, the establishment of an illegal administration, cooperating with Israel, sending secret documents outside the country, acting against the security of the country, and ``corruption on earth.'' Fariba Kamalabadi, Jamaloddin Khanjani, Afif Naeimi, Saeid Rezaie, Mahvash Sabet, Behrouz Tavakkoli, and Vahid Tizfahm were ``tried'' in a series of closed-door sessions from January to August 2010, during which they were denied meaningful access to their lawyers.

Shirin Ebadi, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and a member of the group's legal team, has said that there is no evidence against them to sustain the charges. Nonetheless, all seven were sentenced to 20 years in prison--the longest of all prisoners of conscience in Iran. The conditions within the prison where they are being held are appalling. Their unfortunate circumstance reminds us of the intolerant character and brutality of the current Iranian regime, not only towards the Baha'i, but also the Iranian population as a whole.

In conclusion, I want to reiterate my support for the Baha'i community in calling for the immediate release of the Yaran-i-Iran members, as well as the release of all Iranian prisoners of conscience. I will continue to monitor this situation and hold Iran accountable for its abuse of its citizens.

Mr. Speaker, here we are again voting for the 37th time to repeal the Affordable Care Act, a law the Supreme Court has deemed constitutional. This is nothing more than a feel-good moment for new Members of the GOP who didn't get to vote on repeal in the last Congress.

If the new standard for scheduling votes is to provide wish fulfillment for Members of Congress, then I have a few requests:

If we are going to vote almost 40 times to repeal health care coverage for millions of Americans, I would like to have the chance to vote against the Defense of Marriage Act 40 more times. I had the pleasure to vote against it in 1996. I am sure there is a new generation of Members who would like to vote against it, and I would like to do it again.

Furthermore, I regret being a teenager when the Civil Rights Act was voted on. I would like a chance to lend my support to that landmark law.

To be able to cast a vote to go to war against Nazi Germany would be very satisfying to me.

I have contributed to Social Security my whole life; and since my father was not a Member of Congress in 1932, I would like to vote on his behalf to support the creation of Social Security.

I was a student of history in my youth, and I feel very strongly that the Compromise of 1850 was the point of no return leading to the Civil War. I would like a chance to vote against it.

I ask that the Republican leadership add all of these to the agenda in the weeks to come.

Clearly, we have plenty of time available for wish fulfillment, rather than substantive measures such as the economy, immigration reform, and putting people back to work.

So I would like an opportunity to vote again on many different things as well.

Mr. Speaker, I have just come back from a bipartisan trip to Israel where we met with top officials and really celebrated the alliance between the U.S. and Israel. Israel obviously is in a very dangerous neighborhood, and they were absolutely justified to carry out the bombing strikes in Syria where Hezbollah terrorists were attempting to get arms from Iran.

What happens is Iran sends the weapons, the missiles through Syria into Lebanon to arm the Hezbollah terrorists. No nation would put up with having terrorists prepared to attack them without striking back. So I think it is very, very important that we support Israel in its quest to rid itself of the scourge of terrorism.

Peace in the Middle East will come about when both sides recognize the other's right to exist. The problem has been that many of the Arab nations do not recognize Israel's right to exist as a Jewish State, and I think that really needs to change. I am glad President Obama said that he supports Israel in doing whatever it needs to do for its own self-defense, and I'm pleased that talks are being started with the help of Secretary Kerry to try to get peace talks online again. But again, in my estimation, peace will only happen when the Arab nations recognize the Jewish State of Israel.

Mr. Speaker, yesterday marked the ninety-eighth anniversary of the onset of the Armenian Genocide, one of the ugliest chapters in the bloodiest century in recorded human history. Over the course of the Genocide, 1.5 million innocent Armenians were slaughtered; those Ottoman Armenians that survived were the tiny and miraculous remnant of a forced march conducted by the Ottomans under the most savage of conditions.

Those murders were not only a tragedy for the Armenian people, who bear its scars to this day. The barbarity inflicted on the Armenians also opened the floodgates on a century of genocide and ethnic- cleansing. We've all seen Hitler's sneering statement ``Who after all speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?'' That statement makes clear the link between indifference to the Armenians and the murder of six million Jews. And it expresses the mindset of so many thuggish leaders after Hitler, leaders convinced that their nationalist aims could easily be achieved through a policy of murder that carried no punishment. The victims of this mindset have spanned the globe, as we know too well.

``Who after all speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?'' Mr. Speaker, I want to affirm today that we do remember, and we remember with reverence. We recall with sorrow the massive loss of life as the result of a deliberate policy of murder. We also know that we owe it to humanity and history to remember, if only to help erect a deterrent against future such tragedies. And let me add that Turkey owes it to the Armenians to acknowledge and come to terms with what its forbears perpetrated--and, at a minimum, to apologize.

Turkey also owes that to itself, too, for Turkish society will be stronger for having ended the charade of denying what the whole world knows to be true.

Mr. Speaker, to the Armenian people, including the very few remaining survivors, I want to express my great sorrow and deepest condolences. And I say to them, as we say regarding the Holocaust, ``Never again.''

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in recognition of the National Day of Silence and introduced a National Day of Silence resolution earlier today. This is the day in which students from around the country rise to show their solidarity with gay, lesbian, transgender, and bisexual students who suffer abuse and harassment and are bullied solely because of their sexual orientation and gender identity.

I will use this 1-minute speech to observe a moment of silence to let all of those children know that I stand with them, that they are not alone, and that it gets better.

Mr. Speaker, last night I received a phone call from our former colleague and my good friend, Jean Schmidt of Ohio. As you know, Jean is an avid runner, and she has participated in many, many marathons.

She was at the Boston Marathon yesterday; and 13 minutes after she crossed the finish line, she heard the bombs go off and saw debris and people running and things were falling all over the place, and called me to tell me that she was okay. She was waiting for her sister to finish when this happened.

You know, when tragedy like this happens, you think, there, but for the grace of God, go I; and that was clearly the case with Jean and so many others.

I just wanted to take this opportunity to pause for a moment and reflect on what happened in Boston yesterday, and pour my heart out to the injured and to those that were killed and their families, including an 8-year-old boy we heard about today.

Whoever would do such a horrible thing to take innocent lives and cause terror amongst the population has to just be horrible people and people who care nothing about their fellow human beings.

I want to take this opportunity to let the people who are injured and families of those who are injured and the families of those who perished know that we, in the Congress, are thinking about them, that we care about them, that we will reflect on what they went through. And we won't stop until those who committed the crimes will be brought to justice.

I thank the gentlewoman from Florida.

Let me say, as the ranking member on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, I really want everyone to know what a valued member of our committee the gentlewoman from Florida is. She is a new Member of Congress, but we value her opinions and thoughts and hard work on our committee. I know she has got a very bright future on our committee and in Congress, and I thank her for inviting me to participate in this very important Special Order.

As we've heard, Mr. Speaker, from so many of our colleagues who have spoken, the United States and Israel have much in common. Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East. The United States, of course, is the oldest democracy in the world. We have similar values. The standard of living of citizens in both our countries is higher than in most of the world, and Israel and the United States share common concerns.

Israel is celebrating its 65th birthday, a celebration of the holiday of

Yom Ha'Atzmaut, and I think all Americans want to congratulate the people of Israel for persevering in a very, very dangerous neighborhood and in a very, very dangerous environment.

Earlier today, we had a terrible tragedy in the United States, in Boston, in which lives were lost, in what seems to be a bombing, or a potential terrorist attack. I don't want to jump to conclusions, but that's the way it appears. As a New Yorker who lived through September 11, 2001, terrorism is something that, whenever it raises, or rears, its ugly head, all people of goodwill must condemn it. The people of Israel have lived through that--have lived through bombings of busses and bombings of pizza shops and bombings of weddings and just random bombings of people who care not about life but who care about death. So we pause, of course, for the loss of life in Boston today, and we understand that, when Israel has gone through terrorist attacks, there has been a similar crying out of wanton acts of terror.

I just came back a few weeks ago from Israel. I had the honor of traveling there with President Obama, and the President, of course, is working feverishly to try to move towards a two-state solution, which all of us believe is the best thing that could happen--a Palestinian state and an Israel Jewish state. Certainly, the United States will always stand by its ally Israel. I'll be going back to the region in a couple of weeks, visiting Israel again with senior members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and of the other relevant committees because we realize how important it is to continue to keep the relationship between the U.S. and Israel.

It has been a very strong partnership, and it has been a good partnership. Israel is one of the greatest supporters of the United States in the United Nations and elsewhere, and of course the United States is one of the greatest supporters of Israel. Iron Dome, which is saving countless Israeli civilian lives, has been funded for and provided for by the United States, and the United States has stood by the people of Israel in its constant fight against terrorism.

I am just so happy that we are celebrating Israel's 65th birthday. I guess that makes Israel a senior citizen these days. Israel is obviously a very new country but of people in a very, very old land. Israel is the ancient Jewish homeland, and the rebirth of the Jewish state in 1948 is a miracle for all to behold.

So I am very, very proud of the relationship that we in the United States have with the State of Israel and the people of Israel. I am very proud that we have strong supporters of Israel on both sides of the aisle. Israel, as Ms. Schakowsky said before, is a bipartisan or a nonpartisan issue in that people, Democrats and Republicans, understand that Israel's fight for democracy, against terrorism and for its people is really the same fight that we have here in the United States.

Again, I want to thank the gentlewoman from Florida for including me in this, and I look forward to continuing to work with her on the Foreign Affairs Committee and in Congress on this issue and on so many other issues of importance to the people of the United States.

The sequester looms. Programs are going to be cut, and people are going to suffer--and what has this House done today under the Republican leadership? We've passed three bills. We've brought up three bills, one of which is a motion to adjourn, and the other one is a vote on the Journal. What a shame and what a disgrace.

I didn't vote for the sequester law. I thought it was not a good idea--but we have it. The only way we're going to get away from it is if we have a combination of cutting spending and raising revenues.

The President has been fair. He wants to sit down with Republicans and have a balanced bill and close the tax loopholes for Big Oil and other people who have these loopholes but who don't need them. Let the people who can afford to pay more pay a little more. It has got to be a combination.

The American people want us to reach out and meet in the middle. Unfortunately, the Republicans have refused to budge. This is not good for the American people. This is not something that we should be doing. Close the tax loopholes on Big Oil. The American people want to see a compromise.

I ask unanimous consent to bring up H.R. 699, a balanced bill to replace the sequester with spending cuts and revenues.

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

I rise in strong support of H. Res. 65, as amended. I would like to thank our chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Mr. Royce, for his leadership in addressing the threat posed by North Korea. I'm proud to be the lead Democratic cosponsor of this resolution. I believe it's very important for the House to speak with a strong bipartisan voice in condemning North Korea's recent nuclear test.

This test was an unnecessary provocation that raises tensions in northeast Asia and poses a threat to the national security of the United States and our allies in the region. The test also violates numerous U.N. Security Council resolutions, and I urge the Security Council to promptly pass a new resolution with additional sanctions to punish the North Korean regime.

In particular, I call on China and Russia to work constructively with other members of the Security Council to show the world that the world is united in opposing North Korea's unacceptable behavior. I recently traveled to Asia with Chairman Royce, and this is one of the key issues we discussed with senior Chinese leaders. China must do more. They're the ones that can rein in North Korea. They must do so, and they must do so immediately.

The North Korean regime must understand that the development of ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons will never make it a strong and prosperous nation. Instead of wasting millions of dollars on these weapons of mass destruction, it should focus on feeding its own impoverished people.

I have visited North Korea, the capital of North Korea, Pyongyang, on two occasions, and I can tell you that the North Korean regime would do better to help its own people, give them the things that they deserve, rather than spend its time and money on exploding nuclear devices in violation of what the international community believes. The new young dictator of North Korea, Kim Jong Un, must understand that the United States and our allies will not stand idly by and allow them to continuously violate what the international community thinks is acceptable.

I agree with Chairman Royce that for too long they have played this game. They have talked and talked and gone on and gone on and nothing has really been done, and they continue to violate international law. Unfortunately, Iran is playing the same game, and we cannot allow that to happen either--Iran getting a nuclear weapon.

So given the threat posed by North Korea, the United States must remain vigilant and further strengthen cooperation with our allies of South Korea and Japan. As the chairman said, we were in South Korea just a few days ago and we saw the evidence of provocation, of North Korea torpedoing a ship from South Korea, killing 50-some-odd members of the military of South Korea in an unprovoked attack. This is an outlaw regime, and it really must be handled properly.

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

Mr. Speaker, in closing, I just want to say that we can hear that Members on both sides of the aisle are speaking with one voice in unison, and I urge, again, the Congress to speak on a bipartisan basis to say that this is not acceptable and that we condemn in the strongest possible terms what North Korea has done.

I yield back the balance of my time.