Floor Statements

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

Mr. Chairman, last week, President Obama issued a Presidential Memorandum on Federal Fleet Performance, which would require 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 of 2015.

My amendment echos the Presidential Memorandum on Federal Fleet Performance by prohibiting funds in the DHS appropriation bill from being used to lease or purchase new light-duty vehicles except in accordance with the President's May 24 memorandum.

Our transportation sector is by far the biggest reason we send $600 billion per year to hostile nations, such as Venezuela and others, 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 the GSA, there are 662,154 vehicles in the Federal fleet with 54,972 belonging to the Department of Homeland Security.

By supporting the diverse array of vehicle technologies in our Federal fleet, we'll encourage development of domestic energy resources, including biomass, natural gas, coal, agricultural waste, hydrogen, and renewable electricity.

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, increasing our Nation's domestic security and protecting consumers from price spikes and shortages in the world oil markets. I have been pushing to use and have in America alternative fuels. Tomorrow I'm holding a press conference with Mr. Shimkus and Mr. Bartlett. Three of us are supporting a bill, and this goes in line with that.

So I would urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support and accept my amendment.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, Annie Klein was born on May 22, 1921 to Dora and Samuel Ratick in Maynard, Massachusetts. Her parents were both immigrants of Warsaw, Poland. She was born into a family of three sisters and four brothers and her mother still had another daughter, at the age of 50.

The family moved from small town Maynard to The Bronx in New York City. Early in her life, Annie lost her father to a heart attack, leaving her mother sole survivor and sole responsible parent for her 9 children.

Annie was a graduate of Morris High School in 1940. On December 7, 1941 she got engaged to David Klein, a soldier in the U.S. Army. They moved from The Bronx to Hereford, Texas. While there, they had a son, Sam, in August 1944. Even though they were offered a ``Hereford Cow'' every year while they stayed in Texas by a local rancher, they decided instead to move back to the South Bronx with Annie's mom.

While developing skills that would enable David to get a job, he developed health issues. At the age of 41, David had a massive heart attack that made him a 100 percent totally disabled veteran.

With David unable to work and the addition of her younger son, Les, Annie had to find a job. She worked for the Social Security Office for 5 years. After that, she found a job at City College of New York and worked as a College Office Assistant.

In 1968, her son Sammy married Sandy Desio. While tending to her husband David and son, Les, she managed to work, as well as help care for her mother who had become disabled with Parkinson's disease.

In 1972, her husband David passed away, leaving Annie to once again be the sole caregiver of Les. In 1980, Les married Gail Labita and Annie became a mother-in-law once again. Annie finally decided to retire in the early 1980s.

Annie became grandmother to Sammy and Sandy's children, David and Dena's as well as great-grandmother to David's son Jake and Dena's children Gia, Rocco and Sammi. She is also grandmother to Les and Gail's children Douglas and Allison.

Sadly in her lifetime she had had the misfortune of burying 7 of her brothers and sisters who meant the world to her. Above all, in 2007 Annie received the greatest blow of her life, when her son, Sam passed away. Most people would have crumbled and given up but Annie, with her customary grace and dignity raised her head high and with the help of her family, continued on.

Annie Klein is a Woman of Valor who has shown us all how to live with love and grace even through life's most challenging times. I join with her family and friends and thank her for her dignity and courage. As said in the Bible: ``Who can find a virtuous woman for her price is far above rubies?'' Well, that woman is Annie Klein.

Mr. Speaker, Rabbi Judith S. Lewis became the rabbi of Riverdale Temple in the summer of 2006, after having served for 14 years as the Senior Rabbi of Temple Israel of the City of New York. She began her tenure at Temple Israel as the Director of Education for six years.

In 2005 she earned an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from the Hebrew Union College--Jewish Institute of Religion, where she was ordained in 1980. She was part of the first generation of women rabbis, ordained at a time when there were fewer than a dozen women in the Reform rabbinate. 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 congregations of every denomination. A favored childhood recollection is the successive observance of Jewish holidays at each congregation. Once 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.

Rabbi Lewis says she has enjoyed directing the religious school this year calling the students are among the most delightful young people she has ever met. Jewish education has been a life-long passion for her and she has the rare ability to inculcate her students with that passion and enthusiasm.

Rabbi Lewis is being honored at the Riverdale Temple's Annual Student Scholarship breakfast. I join with the Temple in honoring this wonderful teacher as she completes her 30th year in the rabbinate, and thank her for her many contributions to the Temple, its students, and the community.

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, Monte Negro 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, Illyria 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 Illyria 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 Ismail 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, Illyria 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.

Mr. Speaker, the Riverdale Y's Teen Theater program was established in 1990 to provide education, entertainment and enrichment to teens across my district in the Bronx. The program gives kids age 13-18 a chance to study musical theater, to learn through music and to perform for their community. This year, they celebrate their 20th season of performances.

The Teen Theater program has long produced entertainment for residents of the Bronx, who come to see high-level productions worthy of praise in any context, but especially so considering that the performers are our community's young people. This talented troupe of performers recently broke their own attendance record during productions of Rent and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, and they plan more productions in the coming months.

Children who take part in the program learn music, dance, dramatic and literary skills and get the chance to perform for their friends, family and community. They are enriched through the arts, they learn important skills through the arduous rehearsal process, they build self-esteem and they make lifelong friends. The program has received numerous National Youth Theater Awards in recognition of their talented performers, including most recently for Rent, which won awards for Best Ensemble Performance, Best Lead Actor in a Musical and Best Lead Actress in a Musical.

On behalf of the many alumni of the program, the residents of the Bronx and the entire Seventeenth District, I want to recognize and honor the Riverdale Y's Teen Theater and their director, Laurie Walton, to thank them for their contributions to our community and to wish them the best of luck in the future.

Mr. Speaker, today I rise to express congratulations to Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou who is celebrating his third year as their leader on May 20th, 2011.

During President Ma's tenure, Taiwan has not only been a close friend of the United States, but it has reached out to countries all over the world. This was evident during Japan's recent tragedy in March resulting from the earthquakes and tsunami.

Due to the radiation emitting from the damaged nuclear plants, staff from the United States embassy in Japan needed to evacuate immediately. Taiwan was gracious enough to take them in. U.S. Embassy officials plus private United States citizens were flown in chartered planes from Japan to Taiwan.

Taiwan also donated supplies and money to Japan to help with their desperate situation. About 10 tons of supplies, including food and clothing, plus approximately $15 million dollars were generously donated by the Taiwanese people.

Once again, I congratulate President Ma for the start of his third year in office and thank the Taiwanese people for their charity towards the people of Japan.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the members of the intelligence community for their role in the mission that killed Osama bin Laden on May 1, 2011. I, too, am from New York; and, unfortunately, many of my constituents perished in the World Trade Center.

I just voted for an amendment by my colleague from New York to honor the members of the intelligence community; but, quite frankly, I find it lacking in one aspect. I want to honor the President of the United States who had the courage to make the call on getting Osama bin Laden. This was not something that was a slam dunk. This is something that could have gone very poorly, and I really want to say that I'm very sorry that my Republican friends on the other side of the aisle never seem to commend the President. You know that if the President had done something wrong, they would have been the first ones to jump in.

But I think all Americans, regardless of party, Republicans and Democrats, ought to say to President Barack Obama, thank you for a job well done. When we thank the intelligence community, and well we should, we also have to thank the President of the United States for making a difficult and courageous call.

Thank you, Mr. President.

I thank the gentlewoman for yielding.

I believe my friends on the other side of the aisle think that, if they repeat something again and again, people will begin to believe it. The fact of the matter is the Hyde Amendment already prohibits Federal funds from being used for abortions. This is not about Federal funds.

The other thing I don't understand is my Republican friends always claim that they want smaller government, that they don't want the government to intrude on people's lives. So here we are, about to pass a measure that expands government, that intrudes on people's lives, that penalizes small businesses, and impedes them from creating jobs.

I don't believe the government should be in the business of preventing people from accessing legal medical treatment. It surprises me and worries me that this Congress keeps proposing legislation that diminishes the right to access health care. Abortion is legal in this country. I understand how people feel on both sides of the aisle. It's a very personal decision. Yet Republicans seem intent on interfering with a woman's right to make her own decisions with her family and physicians, using her private money.

Abortion is a difficult choice, to be sure, and this extreme legislation makes the decision even harder. We need to provide women and their families with the support they need to make health decisions, not criminalize them. Vote ``no'' on this bill.

Mr. Speaker, we go to baseball games to relax, root for our heroes on the field, and enjoy the company of other fans. But on April 14, 2010, for John Stone it was a day to be a hero in the stands at Yankee Stadium when he saw a woman choking on a piece of food.

Mr. Stone, a staff sergeant and medic in the Connecticut National Guard who served in Iraq, was enjoying the game in his Don Mattingly jersey when he saw a crowd of people around a woman 15 rows away who was choking. It was Toby Weiss who came to root for the Yankees but was now choking on a piece of food.

Seeing the crowd, Sgt. Stone assumed all was well, but then he realized no one was able to help the terrified woman who was already turning blue. He ran to her and performed the Heimlich maneuver and jarred loose the food.

Mrs. Weiss, the wife of Rabbi Avi Weiss of the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, was checked out at the aid station at the stadium and was well enough to return to the game and to thank Sgt. Stone.

Rabbi Weiss said other people rushed to help his wife but they weren't able to help. ``Suddenly,'' he said, ``this kind of Elijah figure appeared from nowhere. He knew exactly what to do.'' Mrs. Weiss also insisted Sgt. Stone was heaven-sent. ``God sent me an angel,'' she said, noting that her unassuming hero blushed over the praise.

Following the scare, fans applauded, hugged and high-fived Sgt. Stone on his way back up to his seat. Stone, who lives in Montville, Connecticut, was at the Stadium with his brother Jamie, an Army infantry soldier on leave from duty in Afghanistan.

Sgt. Stone is being honored at Rabbi Weiss's Hebrew Institute of Riverdale and I want to join everyone there in congratulating him and thanking him for his heroic deed.

Jews have a saying that to save a life is to save the world. Sgt. John Stone has indeed saved a very large part of our world here in Riverdale. Sgt. Stone, from his service in Iraq treating our wounded to his saving Mrs. Weiss at Yankee Stadium, represents the true character of America. I am proud to join in thanking him for his heroic actions.

Mr. Speaker, public service done honestly and well is a boon to our citizens. For 37 years Rubye Windram has adhered to those principles, serving the people of New York at the Social Security Administration. Ms. Windram is now retiring with her numerous performance awards, including two Commissioner's Citations and three Regional Commissioner's Citations.

Ms. Windram started working for the people on September 10, 1973 as a Claims Representative in the Boro Hall Field Office in New York. Two months later she transferred uptown and in 1978 she was named Operations Analyst and after another 2 months she was promoted to Operations Supervisor in East Harlem. She was named Branch Manager of the West Farms office and 4 years later was named Assistant District Manager in the North Bronx.

She continued her ascent at SSA and in 2003 she joined the Regional Office staff, becoming Deputy Assistant Regional Commissioner for Management and Operations Support. Throughout her career Ms. Windram used her growing and extensive knowledge of field operations to serve the agency and the public.

In retirement, Ms. Windram plans to travel and spend more time with her family. She also plans to share her experience and knowledge by teaching. I join her colleagues in wishing her the very best in retirement and in thanking her for her years of serving the public so admirably and well.

I thank my friend for yielding to me, and I rise in strong opposition to this bill.

As Ronald Reagan used to say, There you go again.

And there my Republican colleagues go again.

We sat through days and days of this in the Health Subcommittee and in the Energy and Commerce full committee. This is--I don't know--the third or fourth or fifth or sixth bill on the floor which is trying to destroy the health care bill. I proudly support the health care bill, and I think it's time to stop scaring the American people. This is political theater. The Senate is not going to pass this, and the President certainly would veto it if it passes. So all we are having is, once again, another debate about health care on the House floor again and again and again.

I think my friends on the other side of the aisle have made their point. They oppose health care reform. Okay. Fine. How many times do we have to vote on it? It would repeal the Affordable Health Care Act, a bill which puts the American people back in charge of their health care by requiring insurance companies to be more transparent and accountable for their costs and actions, thus ending many of the worst abuses by the industry and improving the quality of care.

I urge my colleagues to vote against this bill.

I thank my friend for yielding to me.

You know, give me a break. I hear speaker after speaker on the Republican side saying we don't have the resources to do these things. It seems that we always have the resources to

give tax breaks for the rich. We don't worry so much about the budget deficit when it comes to protecting our rich friends.

The Republicans, 2 weeks ago, spent time passing bills putting Medicare and Medicaid in jeopardy, and now they would deny these community health centers.

The majority doesn't bring bills to help create jobs in this country. So, once again, here we are--God knows how many times--with a bill that's trying to kill the Affordable Health Care Act. Again, it's political theater. It's not going to pass the Senate. The President would veto it. Let's put our heads together and do something constructive instead of saying ``no'' to health care.

The value of school-based health centers is well-known. There are 1,900 in the country. They provide access to high-quality, comprehensive medical care to nearly 2 million children and adolescents. Services are provided regardless of a student's ability to pay, and are provided right where they are at school. In my district, these are very important. Even the high school from which I graduated has a wonderful center. It's the kind of program that we should be promoting and replicating; but instead, we are considering a bill that would repeal the funding for the construction of these centers.

The agency monitoring it is concerned about the sustainability of the health center. The Health Resources and Services Administration, or HRSA, is thinking of the sustained success of these programs, and it will only support those school-based health centers that are going to have long-term success.

So, Mr. Chairman, let's be honest. Today's debate is not on the sustainability of these centers or on mandatory spending. Today's theatrics are simply one more attempt by the Republicans to undermine the Affordable Health Care Act. We are wasting time in doing this again and again, and we should stop. The Affordable Health Care Act makes health care affordable for the middle class, and it helps prevent the steady rise in health costs that has led to much of our budgetary woes over the years.

I am for quality health care. We should vote ``no'' on H.R. 1214.

I thank the gentleman.

Mr. Chairman, as Ronald Reagan used to say, ``There you go again.''

My Republican friends want to repeal the 20th century. They want to use the budget deficit to kill and destroy every program they have hated all these years, including Medicare and Medicaid.

This budget would roll back 50 years of progress on Medicare and Medicaid and destroy these two programs, which are two of the most important social programs of the past century. It's unconscionable that we would take an ax to these programs to pay for tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires.

This budget shifts the burden from the wealthiest Americans and puts the burden on the poor and middle class. I understand that my Republican colleagues want to protect their rich friends, but on the Democratic side of the aisle, we care about working people, the middle class, poor people, seniors, and children.

The Republicans last year promised they'd focus on two things if they got the majority: jobs and spending. But all we have seen are repeated attacks on the middle class and lower-income people. We haven't seen a single jobs bill, and their idea of cutting spending is to kill Medicare and Medicaid. Instead of passing this budget, we would be more likely to create jobs by waving a magic wand and saying ``abracadabra.''

In this time of divided government, the American people want us to come together and compromise. But all the legislation we're seeing from the other side is extreme. We need to come together. We do have difficulty. We don't want our children to have a diminished standard of living. But this is not the way to do it, to try to balance the budget on the backs of poor people, on seniors, on children. We need to have a fair and balanced budget.

I urge a ``no'' vote.

Madam Chair, I rise in strong opposition to H.R. 1217. This irresponsible and short-sighted legislation would repeal the Prevention and Public Health Fund which is a fundamental component to the Affordable Care Act.

The Prevention and Public Health Fund is a critical investment in public health and demonstrates a historic commitment to changing our health system from one that focuses on treating the sick to one that focuses on keeping people healthy in the first place. We all agree that prevention is one of the most effective ways we can reduce health costs in the long run, rather than by simply cutting spending.

My friends on the other side of the aisle claim that eliminating the fund does not cut any specific prevention programs and that the reason they want to repeal the Prevention and Public Health Fund is to recoup the funding appropriated for it.

I would like to know from the Majority, are the short term cost savings from this bill worth the long term costs to our financial future and health? How do they plan to solve the public health problems of the future if they intend to gut programs like this one?

The Prevention and Public Health Fund is one of a number of Affordable Care Act initiatives that is already in place and producing positive results. Currently, all 50 states and the District of Columbia are receiving Fund support. These valuable dollars are being used to support community-based initiatives to reduce tobacco use and obesity, prevent HIV infection, build epidemiology and laboratory capacity to track and respond to disease outbreaks, and train the public health workforce.

Madam Chair, I know that we face difficult economic decisions, and I would be happy to have a discussion with my friends on the other side of the aisle on how we can reduce the deficit, but I feel that H.R. 1217 is the wrong approach.

Seventy-five percent of the two trillion dollars we spend in health care costs are spent on treatment of chronic diseases. Many of which can be prevented. Obesity alone costs us 147 billion dollars a year and chronic illness can cost us an additional 1 trillion dollars each year in lost productivity. In addition, studies have shown that proven community-based diabetes prevention programs can save as much as 191 billion dollars over 10 years. So the fact is prevention saves money.

Now, those are just the dollars and cents of the value that the Prevention and Public Health Fund bring. We know that prevention saves money, but what about the improvements to the health of our nation's citizens. Prevention saves lives, improves quality of life and is the most cost-effective way to spend our health care dollars. No matter what arguments the Majority may make, we cannot put price-tag on that.

I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on H.R. 1217.

Mr. Speaker, about a year ago, the United Nations passed the infamous Goldstone Report. Thankfully, this Congress on the floor of the House had a debate, and we rejected the Goldstone Report.

Well, guess what happened last week? Judge Goldstone said that his report was erroneous. What did the Goldstone Report say? The Goldstone Report said that Israel deliberately targeted civilians in Gaza.

That has now been proven not to be true. Of course, the people in the U.N. who bash Israel all the time will continue to pretend that Judge Goldstone didn't repudiate his own report, but the fact of the matter is he did.

The truth is that it is Hamas, the terrorist group, that took over the Gaza Strip. They target Israeli civilians all the time. Israel tries to protect its own citizens in going and destroying the terrorist nests, but the terrorists of Hamas build their nests and their rockets and their munitions in heavily populated areas. So, if civilians die, it is their fault.

The Goldstone Report is a lie. The United Nations should kill it once and for all, and we should be leading the way.