Floor Statements

I rise in strong support of this legislation.

Under no circumstances should Iran be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon. This is a dangerous regime which supports terrorism and calls for the destruction of Israel. And every day they're getting closer to weaponizing a stockpile of enriched uranium.

No amount of naivete or wishful thinking will get the Iranian regime to back down. They are liars, and diplomacy hasn't worked and won't work. They'll only play for time.

We heard the same arguments about not putting the sanctions on the apartheid regime in South Africa. Now we hear that oil is going to go sky high.

Well, you know what? I think morality is more important than the price of oil. I think morality says that this terrible regime should not be allowed to have nuclear weapons, should not be allowed to wipe Israel off the face of the Earth, should not be allowed to do the horrible things that it does.

This important bill imposes tough sanctions on Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and against the Central Bank of Iran, and the Iranians have to know our sanctions will only be increased if they don't back off soon.

We have bipartisan support here. People say Congress doesn't work together. We worked together on this. This is important. We need to pass this bill.

I thank my friend for yielding time to me.

I rise in strong support of H.R. 2105, the Iran, North Korea, and Syria Nonproliferation Reform and Modernization Act of 2011.

Madam Chair, many years ago we sponsored legislation to slap sanctions on Syria. I'm sorry to say we were clairvoyant, but here it is nearly 10 years later, and some things never change. So here we are back again when Syria is murdering its own people, saying that we were right back in 2003 and 2004, and sanctions are what is necessary in order to prevent this regime from murdering its own people and threatening others with destruction. And so I'm happy to join with you and Mr. Berman in doing this.

When nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons get in the hand of regimes which lead these rogue states, it's not only a danger to the U.S., it is a danger to all our allies in the Middle East, Asia, and around the world.

What this important bill does is it strengthens existing U.S. sanctions against foreign entities that provide nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons components to Iran, North Korea, and Syria. When Israel destroyed a

Syrian facility, we found that that facility was planned and arranged and done by North Korea. So there is this collusion of these rogue regimes all throughout the world.

Importantly, for the first time, this bill imposes sanctions on foreign entities that provide to or acquire from these countries any goods or technology that could be used for military applications. So I, therefore, strongly support this bill in the hope that we can prevent Iran, Syria, and North Korea from getting their hands on more unconventional weapons.

And I say again, people say Republicans and Democrats can't agree on anything. This is something that we agree on because we understand that it is not only a threat to the United States, but it's a threat to the entire world when these rogue regimes have these kinds of weapons of mass destruction.

I thank the gentleman from California and also the gentleman from Kentucky for yielding to me.

I rise in support of the resolution.

Mr. Speaker, I have become increasingly concerned with the direction of Turkey in the past few years. It has elected an Islamist government which has pushed the country toward Iran and into conflict with Israel. While I am relieved that Ankara is now taking a strong stand against the repression in Syria, finally, much needs to change in Turkey. In particular, Turkey, which has such a profound connection with the birth and growth of Christianity, has today expropriated church properties, harassed worshipers, and refused to grant full legal status to some Christian groups.

In fact, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom placed Turkey on its watch list for the third straight year, and concluded that ``the Turkish Government continues to impose serious limitations on freedom of religion or belief, thereby threatening the continued vitality and survival of religious communities in Turkey.''

I, therefore, rise in strong support of H. Res. 306, which urges Turkey to return stolen Christian churches to the Armenian, Greek, Assyrian and Syriac communities and to end discrimination against surviving Christians.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express my strong support of H. Res. 440 which congratulates H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III and the Honorable Ben Gilman for winning the 2010 World Peace Prize.

Recently, I introduced this resolution to highlight the awarding of the World Peace Prize to both H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III and Congressman Gilman. The World Peace Prize is a very distinguished honor granted by the World Peace Council in recognition of individuals who exemplify selflessness in their devotion to humanity.

I commend H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III and the Honorable Ben Gilman for their multiple contributions to our society and urge my colleagues to support H. Res. 440.

Mr. Speaker, today is the second anniversary of the unfair and brutal incarceration by the Cuban regime of Alan Gross, an American citizen; and I urge his immediate release.

Alan Gross is 62 years old and, in a trumped-up trial, was given 15 years in prison. Alan Gross has worked in international development in over 50 countries through the past several years and was in Cuba to aid the tiny Jewish community with telecommunications and Internet services when he was arrested and accused of being an American spy. This is a new low even for the Cuban regime. This is a new low even for the Castro brothers.

Alan Gross's wife and family need him. His mother was just diagnosed with inoperable cancer, and his daughter was also diagnosed with cancer. They need him back.

We demand him back. He is an American citizen, and we are watching and the whole world is watching. Alan Gross should not be incarcerated for doing nothing except trying to help a very tiny community in Cuba. And I demand his immediate release.

I thank my friend from New York.

I rise in strong opposition to this piece of legislation.

With all due respect, I always enjoy listening to my Republican friends lecture us about fiscal responsibility. May I remind them that when Bill Clinton left office we had record surpluses, and in 8 years of George Bush, record deficits. And may I remind my Republican friends that for 6 of those 8 years, during the Bush years, Republicans controlled both Houses of the Congress. So if we were going to do the right thing and attempt to balance our budget, we could have done so then. But what did we do then? We fought two wars on the credit card; we had tax cuts for the wealthy, which we're now paying for in terms of our deficits now; a prescription drug program unpaid for. And so it seems to me that if we have the resolve to do it--you know, I love people who have newfound religion, but when they controlled the place, we went from massive surpluses to massive deficits.

Now, this Congress needs to work with the President in passing a jobs bill. This Congress should be passing a robust transportation bill. This Congress should get out of the business of attacking our labor, attacking seniors, and attacking women, and do what the American people want us to do: Put people back to work.

A balanced budget amendment will ultimately lead to either draconian cuts in the social safety net for some of our Nation's most cherished programs

like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, or significant tax hikes on the Nation's middle class. This is nothing more than a gimmick to garner headlines while avoiding the tough decisions that the people have asked us to make. You know, there may be times in the future when we need to run a surplus, there may be times when we need to run a deficit to stimulate the economy. This amendment handcuffs us and puts us in a straitjacket where we have nowhere to move.

I care and my constituents care very much about preserving Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. I think that if we're going to get our budget to balance, it's not only cuts in programs that we need, although my friends on the other side of the aisle fret about defense cuts. We need to cut spending, yes. We also need to raise taxes on those who can most afford to do it, the 1 percent. I think that's something we should consider.

So while we think this is one size fits all, and we can all go home and say, well, we tried to save the Republic, what I think this does is handcuff us for generations to come, makes it impossible for us to stimulate the economy, and makes it impossible for us to continue those social service programs that the American people have come to rely on-- Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. I think we need to meet in a sensible center, not have something like this that's draconian.

Let me finally say, what's truly absurd is that we require only a simple majority to send our men and women in uniform into harm's way, and yet the Republican majority would require a supermajority to raise the Nation's debt ceiling. We all saw how close our economy came to disaster with only a simple majority vote to raise the debt ceiling the last time.

So I would say to my colleagues, vote ``no.'' Let's do the job that we were elected to do. Let's make the tough choices. We don't need a balanced budget amendment.

Mr. Speaker, this year marks the 45th year of Mr. Stephen Jerome's work as president of Monroe College, who has given four and a half decades to providing service to the faculty, staff, and students. Mr. Jerome's efforts have been truly outstanding. Because of his work, Monroe has become a regionally-accredited college that provides a core value of unmatched personal and professional service to more than ten thousand students. He achieves this by providing an environment that solidifies the fullest potential of each student.

As President, Mr. Jerome has fostered many new applications to the university. These new programs include the introduction of the college's championship-caliber athletic programs and a unique foundation that can only be described as an excellent work environment; this has lead to the college becoming the number one provider of undergraduate degrees to minority students in New York State. As well as supporting award-winning student academic organizations, Mr. Jerome is thoroughly involved in the community. He has helped to provide lighting, security, street cleaning, and holiday parties for children. Mr. Jerome also provides entrepreneurial assistance to the local neighborhood residents and businesses. In accordance with his community efforts, Mr. Jerome has offered college-level classes at the high school level, through the Jumpstart program, to encourage young students to attend college.

Even as the active President of Monroe College, Mr. Jerome continues to assume many leadership roles. He is currently the President of the New York State Association of Proprietary Colleges and has held this position for over two decades. He also holds a position as a Trustee of the Bronx Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Jerome has formerly been a member of the College Presidents' Council for the Governor's office on New York State Financial Aid and been the former Commissioner of the Accrediting Commission of the Association of Independent Colleges and Schools. As a former member of the New York State Education Commissioner's Advisory Council on Higher Education and the former President of the Fordham Road Area Development corporation, it is apparent that no amount of work can deter Mr. Jerome's efforts in providing for the community and improving many systems of education.

With all of the years of service Mr. Jerome has given, and all of the leadership positions that he has taken upon himself, he still remains a family man. With his wife Leslie, he instills the importance of hard work and education to their three children: Marc, Evan, and Laura, who pass along his teachings to his 9 young grandchildren. Stephen Jerome has gone above and beyond for Monroe College and the community. This 45th anniversary of his time at the college can act as a reminder to all who were ever inspired, given an opportunity, or thrived within the higher standards he implemented that these effects came from the hard work and drive of one man, the President of Monroe College, The Leader of many institutions, the family man, Mr. Stephen Jerome.

Mr. Speaker, neighborhoods become true communities when people band together for their common good. In Riverdale this happened when the Riverdale Community Center, a non-profit, grass roots, multi- cultural, multi-service agency was founded in 1972 by the Parents' Association and principal of MS/HS 141, Riverdale Kingsbridge Academy, the school where it is located.

Since then the RCC has provided cultural, recreational, academic and developmental activities for area residents and students with many youth programs provided at no cost through the generosity of state and city government agencies, private foundations, individual donors and elected officials. Each year, more than 1,000 children, teens, adults and seniors enjoy activities at the Center.

Among the programs offered are an adult and youth education center with classes in wellness, languages, life skills, leisure activities, and arts and music among many others; after school programs for middle schools, including a comprehensive, holistic program that focuses on the whole child and assists young people in developing a sense of competence, usefulness, belonging, and empowerment; and for high school they have programs designed to help teens stay in school and on track towards graduation; a teen theater, teen action programs offering young people the opportunity to make a difference in their school and their community; and a career readiness workshop teaching valuable life skills that help students identify careers interests.

RCC's primary mission today is the same as when it was founded: To provide within the community cultural, recreational, and developmental activities and entertainment, instruction, athletics, sports and other wholesome activities for children and adults, under supervision and guidance in order to aide and maintain the physical and mental health of the people in the community, as a basis and preventative means of combating delinquency and as a means of bringing people together under proper supervision in appropriate surroundings.

The RCC is hugely successful in fulfilling its mission by contributing so much for so long to the community. I enthusiastically join in congratulating this fine organization on its fortieth anniversary for the many and varied contributions it has made to the community, and wish it many more years of success.

Mr. Speaker, our communities thrive when their citizens contribute to the common good and general betterment of their home towns, serving for the love of their community. Phil Tisi is such a man. He has held, with distinction, many positions in the educational field as a leader, an educator, administrator and college adjunct instructor. After serving for 38 years in the school system and in various capacities at the high school and the Ramapo Central School District, he recently retired as Chairman of the Suffern High School Social Studies Department. In addition, for over a decade he has served as Deputy Supervisor, Interim Supervisor, and Assistant to the Supervisor in the Town of Ramapo.

When organizations are successful quite often it's because of one person making a difference, and in many cases in Ramapo that person is Phil Tisi. He has helped many communities and their leaders in the Town of Ramapo, as well as individuals, and non-profit agencies throughout Rockland County.

He is an integral part of successful patriotic and community events and town programs in general. He is especially helpful to veterans organizations, including, and perhaps especially, the Fred Hecht Post of the Jewish War Veterans, who are honoring him.

He has served as Co-Chair of all of their past thirteen concert programs of the Support the Troops and Salute to the Veterans. With his help, more than $550,000 was raised to ship gift-paks and GI travel/ hygiene kits to our troops overseas in the Middle East and our Wounded Warriors in military hospitals. Phil Tisi has been commended 33 times for his good work with veteran groups, civic organizations and government agencies.

He was born in Dobbs Ferry and he and his wife, Alicia Cameron Tisi, a retired Registered Nurse, have three sons and a daughter.

I am proud to join in recognizing Phil Tisi for being an outstanding citizen and civic leader who has worked for his community and for our brave men and women serving in our Armed Forces. He is a shining example of what a citizen can accomplish for his community.

Mr. Speaker, the education of our children is one of our most important tasks, preparing them for adulthood. At the Riverdale Temple the staff has been enormously helped by Rabbinic Intern Steven Altarescu, who has taught 3rd through 5th grades as well as an adult education course on Relationship in the Torah--Love, Sex and Violence; Parents and Children, Husbands and Wives, Siblings, Lovers, Us and God. The course is so popular that the congregants look forward to him returning next year to teach it.

He lives in Riverdale and is in his fourth year of rabbinical school at the Academy for Jewish Religion, a pluralistic seminary in Riverdale. He has also taught fourth, fifth and second grades at Temple Beth Shalom in neighboring Hastings-on-Hudson for thirteen years.

He is married and the father of two grown daughters, three stepdaughters and one stepson.

Steven brings a passion for Jewish spirituality, prayer and Torah study to our Temple and has contributed to a successful year in ways far beyond his actual responsibilities as our Rabbinic Intern. Steven has participated in worship services, preached, chanted Torah, and-- behind the scenes--been the most generous, gracious and always available member of our synagogue staff.

The Riversdale Temple is grateful and proud to publicly acknowledge Steven's many, many contributions to the congregation, and to wish him every success in the rest of his rabbinic education, and in his future service to the Jewish community. I am proud to join the Riverdale Temple in this recognition and in the knowledge that his presence as a member of the rabbinate is a source of strength.

Mr. Speaker, Deaconess Mattie Lee Dixon Davis didn't arrive in New York City until she was 39 but still she has lived here for 61 years and is celebrating her 100th birthday today.

She was born in Alabama on April 11, 1911 to Willie and Elar Dixon who had a farm in McWilliams. After graduating from Conecuh County Training School she married the Reverend Albert A. Davis, II who was pastor to many of the leading African Methodist Episcopal Churches. He served as Presiding Elder of Troy and then joined the larger Ozark District where Mrs. Dixon served as District Adviser of the Women's Missionary for nine years.

She worked as a substitute teacher in public schools and thanks to her earlier training she was seamstress and hairdresser to her family, her church family, and to her friends and neighbors.

In May, 1950, Rev. Dixon came to the St. Luke A.M.E. Church in New York City's Sugar Hill neighborhood where for 16 years Mrs. Dixon served as Advisor to the Missionary Society and President of the Women's Club. The Missionary Society became so large that she reorganized it into five `circles,' a structure that continues to this day.

Missionary work was always her main interest and she held several statewide offices in the New York Conference Branch Missionary Society including Second Vice President for three years, and Treasurer for eight years. She also served as President of the New York A.M.E. Ministers Wives and Widowers Alliance and Secretary of the Interdenominational Ministers Wives and Widows Alliance.

She and the Rev. Dixon moved to St. Steven Community A.M.E. Church where the Rev. Dixon served until he died 16 years later.

Her ambition was always to become a nurse, but raising their five children and missionary work made that impossible. But several years ago she helped a friend, a nurse, operate a `House of Love' where patients discharged from hospitals, but too ill to go home, stayed. Here she not only helped with the daily care and feeding of these gravely ill people, but learned how to give medications and to handle injections. She was finally nursing, helping people in this hospice precursor.

Around this time she was consecrated a Deaconess at the Allen Cathedral A.M.E. Church by Bishop Franklin Norris.

I join her community in honoring this wonderful woman who gave a century of love and good works to the world. We are blessed to have her.

Mr. Speaker, Professor Edmund W. Gordon is among the most distinguished behavioral pedagogical scientists in the United States and one of the very few in the world to hold two endowed Ivy League professorships at Columbia and Yale universities.

More directly related to my Congressional District, he is Senior Scholar in Residence at State University of New York Rockland Community College as well as at the College Board.

His distinguished career encompasses not only professorial practices but scholarship, clinical and counseling psychology, research, author, editor, and minister. Besides Columbia and Yale, he has held appointments at Howard and Harvard Universities.

He has written text books that are considered classics in their field, as well as more than 200 articles in scholarly journals and he is still going in his eighties. He and his wife, Dr. Susan Gordon, have lived in Rockland County for more than 55 years and with whom he co- founded CEJJES Institute and Conference Center in Pomona. Their four children attended the local Ramapo schools and both parents were very active in the PTA, school board elections, and other community matters.

Dr. Gordon is being honored by the Howard University Alumni Association for his seemingly unending contributions to society. As a former teacher I join with HUAA in congratulating Dr. Gordon for these contributions which have advanced education in our society over the course of generations.

Mr. Speaker, Dr. Susan S. Gordon has, for more than 50 years, lived and has been active in Pomona where she and her husband, Dr. Edmund W. Gordon, raised four children and where she was active in her school district, her community and as a pediatrician.

She graduated from the Howard University College of Medicine and is a Licentiate of the American Board of Pediatrics and a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics. She was also named an Associate Professor of Pediatrics, initially at New York Medical College and then at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons. From 1978 to 1981 she was a member of the National Panel on the Measurement of the Program Effects of Head Start.

For eight years she served on the Board of Education of the East Ramapo Central School District, where, for three years, she was also president. She also served, for 20 years, on the board of the Lexington School for the Deaf where the Health Center was named in her honor. She added to her humane service resume by travelling to West Africa for four summers to train workers in providing educational and health services and in Nicaragua she trained local people in family planning and child health maintenance.

Both she and her husband are in the Rockland County Hall of Fame. Dr. Gordon is being honored by the Howard University Alumni Association for their life's work and outstanding contributions to society. I join with HUAA in honoring Dr. Gordon for her outstanding record of accomplishment, in Rockland and Westchester and throughout the world.

Mr. Speaker, Social Security is such an integral part of so many lives in our communities that it is with some sadness that I congratulate William Gonzalez, the Operations Supervisor of the West Nyack office on his retirement after 35 years of exemplary service.

He has faithfully served the people in my district for those years, starting as a Claims Development Clerk in the Baychester district office in the Bronx. After a short time, he rose to Claims Representative. He later served as a Field Representative and became an Operations Supervisor in 1989. He was reassigned to the West Nyack, NY district office in 1996 and established himself, over many years, as a liaison for a number of community and social agencies such as the Department of Social Services, Housing and Urban Development and as a contact for law enforcement in Rockland County.

He received many performance awards throughout his career including recognition for his pivotal role in the Region's Bi-Lingual Interviewing Skills Training initiative and for his

participation in supervisory training for his peers.

He always managed to find time for many community service endeavors. He chaired the Suffern Community Development committee from 1998 through 2004. He was an original member of the Suffern Community Foundation and participates in the Friends of Sloatsburg organization. He currently serves as an elected member of the Ramapo Central School Board, coached little league for many years and, most recently, has coached the Suffern High School varsity bowling team.

Bill and his wife Ada have two children; Eric a graduate of Syracuse University, and Alexandra, attending Siena College.

I want to congratulate Bill Gonzalez for his great service over so long a period to the people of New York. He has truly earned a happy retirement.

Mr. Speaker, this month marks the 20th anniversary of the establishment of Illyria, the Albanian-American newspaper. Illyria has been in the forefront of supporting the aspirations of the Albanian people in The Balkans for 20 years.

As the Albanian people of Kosova in the former Yugoslavia emerged from the domination of Serbia, and Albania emerged from the shadow of communism in 1991, Albanian-Americans were in need of information about their homeland, and a common voice to bring their community together. In that time of great transition, Harry Bajraktari, an Albanian immigrant from Kosova who had built a successful real estate business from scratch in the Bronx, founded and published Illyria, and published it twice weekly in both English and Albanian.

From the beginning, Illyria provided a valuable bridge among Albanians in the U.S. and abroad, and our leaders in the United States. Through the dedication and passion of Mr. Bajraktari and his colleagues, Illyria championed the causes of human rights, democracy and freedom for the people of Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro and for a free and independent Republic of Kosova. During the Yugoslav wars and the struggles of Albanians in Kosova against the regime of Slobodon Milosevic, lllyria promoted peaceful solutions for Albanians and their neighbors. Diplomats at the United Nations, members of Congress, officials at the State Department, the White House and think tanks in Washington were among those who used Illyria as a resource.

Now in more peaceful times for Albanians, Illyria, true to its immigrant roots, continues to build ties between the Albanians and the United States, promoting friendship between our countries and highlighting the contributions of Albanian immigrants to the United States. The long list of distinguished Albanian-Americans introduced to readers by lllyria includes a Nobel-Prize winner, an engineer who oversaw the flight of the Apollo 11 mission to the moon, a former NASA astronaut who flew into space on the Space Shuttle Endeavour, famous actors, directors and TV personalities, and successful professionals of various fields.

The torch of owning and publishing Illyria was passed from Mr. Bajraktari to Ekrem Bardha, a successful Albanian-American businessmen from Michigan and then to Vehbi Bajrami, a dedicated publisher. Through two decades and three owners, Illyria has been a consistent voice for tolerance and truth. As lsmail Kadare, the internationally-renowned Albanian writer said, Illyria has kept ``only one passion as sacred: its dedication to the freedom and the happiness of the Albanian people.'' Mr. Speaker, these are two of the principles that have made this country the greatest democracy in the world, and which unite Albania and the United States in friendship today.

With thousands of readers from New York to Alaska, lllyria newspaper is truly an American institution--politically independent and true to the best values of American journalism. In short, Illyria embodies the American dream. I join with Harry Bajraktari and with Albanian- Americans in the United States and around the world, in wishing a happy 20th anniversary to Illyria newspaper.