Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, Captain Joan R. Davis was awarded the Army Commendation Medal, the Iraq Campaign Medal, and the Army Achievement Medal, among other awards, for her accomplishments as Head Nurse in Camp Bucca, Iraq.

There she was responsible for the comprehensive health care needs and provision of health care to more than 8,600 detainees. To accomplish this she was responsible for the oversight of 10 officers and 75 enlisted personnel.

Among her many duties was the assessment, planning, and implementation and evaluation of detainees at the facility. She provided consultations with other members of the allied health care team on the highly complex comprehensive nursing care of the diabetic population.

She also served as liaison with forward Operating Base and Theater Internment Facilities.

We are fortunate to have such an individual with us here in the Bronx, as a Registered Nurse at Montefiore Medical Center. I congratulate her for her dedicated service to our country and for her equally dedicated service at MMC.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Wisconsin for yielding to me.

Madam Speaker, I wish to thank you for bringing up the ALS Registry Act of 2007 for a vote, H.R. 2295. This is truly a bipartisan measure, as well it should be. I introduced this bill with my colleague, Lee Terry of Nebraska, and we are proud to have the support of over 275 bipartisan members of Congress.

I know that the gentlewoman from Wisconsin who sat next to me on the committee was very concerned about this bill. I am glad that the gentleman from New York (Mr. Fossella) is here, as well, because I have a picture here of Lou Gehrig who, of course, puts a face on this disease. ALS is very often known as Lou Gehrig's disease, and we all remember the Yankee Clipper, Lou Gehrig. Mr. Fossella and I, both coming from New York, we know Lou Gehrig and his tradition very, very well.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, is a fatal, progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects motor nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. It is very similar to multiple sclerosis. While the great baseball player, Lou Gehrig, put a national face on ALS over 65 years ago, my own family was devastated by the death of my grandmother, Dora Engel, my father's mother, who is believed to have passed away as a result of ALS when she was about 58 years old.

Unfortunately, families across the Nation face challenges and experience the suffering associated with ALS every single day. As was mentioned before, 5,600 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with ALS each year. It is estimated that as many as 30,000 Americans have the disease at any given time. The average life expectancy for a person who is diagnosed with ALS is only 2 to 5 years from the time of diagnosis.

As was mentioned, the causes of ALS are not well understood and there is no known cure. We need to provide hope to change this tragedy today.

Surprisingly, a single national patient registry which collects and stores information on the prevalence and incidence of ALS does not currently exist in the United States today. The legislation I introduced with my colleague (Mr. Terry) would create an ALS registry at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and aid in the search for a cure from this devastating disease. The registry would collect key data, and information is determined by a newly created Federal Advisory Committee on the National ALS Registry.

The ALS Registry Act will also build upon a fiscal year 2006 and fiscal year 2007 congressional appropriation which directed the CDC to evaluate the science to guide the creation of a National ALS Registry.

I wish to express my gratitude to the staff of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and in particular to the ALS Association, who worked for months with me and my staff to improve the bill that we had introduced in the previous 109th Congress. I also want to thank Chairman Dingell, Ranking Member Barton, House Subcommittee Chairman Pallone and Ranking Member Deal for their support of the ALS Registry Act. Finally, I especially want to thank John Ford and William Garner of Chairman Dingell's staff and Katherine Martin of Ranking Member Barton's staff for shepherding this bill through the Energy and Commerce Committee. I want to thank Emily Gibbons of my own staff, my legislative director, who was also my health expert and really did more for this than anybody else I know.

The establishment of a registry will bring new hope to thousands of patients and their families that ALS will no longer be a death sentence. I thank my colleagues, and Madam Speaker, I urge the swift passage of the ALS Registry Act, H.R. 2295, today.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today strong support of my resolution--H. Res. 651--which recognizes the expanding strategic relationship between the United States and Brazil. This resolution also commends Brazil on successfully reducing its dependence on oil by finding alternative ways to satisfy its energy needs and recognizes the importance of the March 9, 2007 United States--Brazil Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on biofuels cooperation.

For years, Brazil has flown below the radar in the United States. We never paid much attention to what was happening in the largest country in South America. But I believe that we are reaching the end of this period of ignorance and neglect and that we, in America, are finally waking up not only to Brazil's importance, but also to how natural this relationship should be.

Brazil occupies almost half of the continent of South America and is the fifth most populous country in the world. Its economy is the eleventh largest in the world, the largest in Latin America, and one of the largest in the developing world. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has called Brazil ``the regional leader and our global partner.'' These are words we reserve for only a few countries--those where partnership is truly advantageous for both of us.

Brazil is also the right country with which to cooperate on alternative energy sources. Brazil and the United States are by far the world's largest ethanol producers. In 2006, the two countries together produced 69 percent of ethanol in the world. And Brazil has become a global leader on alternative energy. By the end of 2006, 80 percent of new car sales in Brazil were flex-fuel, meaning they can run on a mixture of ethanol and gasoline.

On March 9th, the U.S. and Brazil signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to promote greater cooperation on ethanol and biofuels in the Western Hemisphere. Our bilateral partnership is establishing both countries as leaders in the energy field in the hemisphere. I am particularly pleased by joint U.S.-Brazilian efforts to provide technical assistance to build biofuels industries in third countries, including the Dominican Republic, Haiti, El Salvador and St. Kitts and Nevis. This resolution commends these efforts and also encourages U.S. and Brazilian officials to quickly move to a second wave of countries to receive similar technical assistance.

Many argue that for too long, the U.S. has focused its agenda in the hemisphere on ``trade and drugs'' at the exclusion of other elements. The deepening of our energy cooperation with our friends in the hemisphere--particularly Brazil--is helping us to develop a positive agenda that I hope will continue to grow in the coming years.

I am also pleased to announce today that I will be leading a bipartisan congressional delegation to Brazil on November 25th and I encourage my colleagues to join me on this trip.

I want to close by noting that there is a cynical, old adage about Brazil that says, ``Brazil is the land of the future, and always will be.'' Brazil's leadership at home, in the Americas and throughout the world is proving this statement to be false. I truly believe that Brazil's time has come. As Western Hemisphere Subcommittee Chairman, I look forward to continuing to focus intensively on Brazil--a vital partner and friend.

I urge my colleagues to support House Resolution 651.

I thank my friend from California.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of my House Resolution 564, which brings attention to the serious and growing problem of violence in Central America.

I first want to thank my colleague and the ranking member on the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee, Dan Burton, for introducing this resolution with me. I also want to thank Chairman Lantos and Ranking Member Ros-Lehtinen for their support of this bill.

The February murder of three Salvadoran legislators in the Central American Parliament and the subsequent shocking murder in prison of the Guatemalan policeman linked to the crime illustrate the very real daily threat posed by violence in Central America. While this high-profile incident brought violence in Central America to a spotlight, it is, unfortunately, nothing new.

Homicide rates in El Salvador and Guatemala are higher today than they were in those countries' civil wars. According to government statistics, Guatemala's murder rate has doubled since 1999.

As chairman of the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, I focus intently on violence in Central America and the roots of this violence. At a recent hearing that I chaired on this topic, I was taken aback by the major role that drug trafficking plays in encouraging violence in the sub-region.

Ninety percent of the cocaine shipped from the Andean region to the United States flows through Central America. The sub-region's location between the highest drug-consuming and the highest drug-producing regions of the world make it particularly vulnerable. Unfortunately, we are the highest drug-consuming portion of that equation.

If drugs are the primary factor in this scourge of violence, youth gangs are a close second. The U.S. Southern Command has estimated that there are 70,000 gang members in Central America alone. Fortunately, we are beginning to address this crisis. The United States and Central American officials have started to work together to combat violence in Central America; but, obviously, much more needs to be done.

This resolution recognizes the recent progress that has been made in enhancing U.S.-Central American cooperation and combating violence in Central America. The seven countries of Central America, the Dominican Republic and the United States held its first-ever dialogue on democratic security in Guatemala City this July. That meeting was the first time in almost a quarter century that high-level officials from the United States and all of these countries met formally to discuss security issues.

At this meeting, Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Tom Shannon, announced that the U.S. strategy to combat criminal gangs from Central America and Mexico was beginning. The United States also pledged $4 million in assistance to help Central Americans begin to address this issue.

This resolution commends U.S. and Central American officials for their joint efforts to combat violence and encourages greater cooperation in the future. In the coming days, the Bush administration will present Congress with a plan to assist Mexico and Central America in dealing with issues of crime and violence, particularly as they relate to counternarcotics.

I look forward to working with my colleagues from the State Department and Central America as we begin to shape a future assistance package that will address violence in Central America.

Finally, I want to point to one area of progress that we have seen since this resolution was first introduced in July.

On August 1, Guatemala's legislature approved the international commission against impunity. This is a groundbreaking agreement between the Guatemalan Government and the United Nations to combat impunity in Guatemala. It is a major step for all of us who care so deeply about curbing violence in Central America, and I want to congratulate my colleagues in the Guatemalan Congress and the executive branch on this major accomplishment.

Let me say in closing that one of the things I have noticed as chairman is the feeling of neglect in the hemisphere that the other nations feel that the United States is not concentrating on this region, that we are looking elsewhere in the world. I think that this resolution and what we are doing goes a long way in combating that feeling.

I urge my colleagues to support House Resolution 564.

Mr. Speaker, I thank our distinguished chairman for yielding to me. I rise in strong support of this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, yesterday, I was in New York City, my hometown, where I spoke at a demonstration in front of the United Nations protesting Ahmadinejad's speaking at that world body. I also then went to Columbia University where I also participated in a protest outside of Columbia University.

Mr. Speaker, I want to be able to tell my children and my grandchildren that I did something when evil raised its ugly head. Perhaps if there had been more of this in the 1930s, Adolph Hitler might not have come to power. He said what he was going to do, as the gentleman from Illinois just said, and he carried it out. When Mr. Ahmadinejad says he wants to wipe Israel off the face of the Earth and do all kinds of other countless, horrific things, he means it.

This bill squeezes the Iranian regime where it counts the most, in the pockets, economically. No one could have

foreseen that the Soviet Union could have rotted from within. But the Iranian regime is rotting from within. They are now importing oil. There's an energy crunch in Iran. This is the way to topple that regime. I think that they are the biggest threat right now to the world.

The United Nations discredits itself. We will soon have a resolution condemning their so-called Human Rights Commission, which does nothing but attack Israel. We need to stand up and say that we were able to act when it counted. This is one of the most important things that the Congress can do by slapping sanctions on Iran.

We have the Syria Accountability Act which I introduced with the distinguished ranking member. We are going to have another bill. Syria and Iran, who represent threats to the region, need to be hit in the pocketbook, economically, in order for their regimes to collapse or for them to change their behavior.

Mr. Speaker, this bill does that. That is why everyone should support it today.

I thank the gentleman for yielding to me, and I rise in strong support of this resolution.

Yesterday, I was in front of the United Nations in demonstration of protesting Iranian President Ahmadinejad's speaking to the United Nations.

I have always been a strong believer in the United Nations because I think that it is a good hope for world peace; but, frankly, I must say, the U.N. discredits itself, and it discredits itself once again by having this so-called Human Rights Council and the way it operates. And the U.N. really discredits itself by focusing so much hatred on one tiny little country, Israel. Whether it's in the General Assembly or the Security Council or the so-called Human Rights Council, Israel has become about 40 percent of the resolutions in the United Nations totally.

It's absolutely outrageous that you have countries like Algeria, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, China, even Egypt and Russia participating when Israel has such a better record of human rights than any of these countries.

The problem inherent with the United Nations, unfortunately, is you have dictatorships basically running the show. And we try to have a democratic institution, but it's inherently not, because it's dictatorships that are now a majority there.

It is outrageous, the Israel-bashing that goes on at the United Nations, and I am proud of this Congress for standing up and saying that enough is enough. People are dying in Darfur. We don't hear the Human Rights Council be so concerned about that as they are about bashing Israel.

So I strongly support this resolution. I think that the Congress does itself proud by bringing truth to the American people and to the world. And the Human Rights Council is no better than the organization that preceded it. We need to change it, otherwise the U.N. will continue to be discredited.

Mr. Chairman, I stand today in strong support of this amendment.

This has been the worst year on record for air traffic delays. The New York area, which I represent, has three major airports with some of the worst delays in the Nation. Obviously, this situation must change. This amendment would commission a study to determine how best to fix these delays.

The FAA had a chance to commission such a study, but instead they decided to take a unilateral, misguided approach to redesign the airspace over thousands of residents in my Congressional District. The FAA did this without consulting the very people whose lives would be most affected.

A study should have been conducted years ago. I support reducing delays, but we should first know if the FAA's actions will improve air travel. It would be a mistake for the FAA to continue on this course without knowing whether the airspace redesign would even reduce delays.

I urge my colleagues to support this amendment because today we are affected, tomorrow you could be.

Mr. Chairman, I stand today in strong support of this amendment.

This has been the worst year on record for air traffic delays. The New York area, which I represent, has three major airports with some of the worst delays in the Nation. Obviously, this situation must change. This amendment would commission a study to determine how best to fix these delays.

The FAA had a chance to commission such a study, but instead they decided to take a unilateral, misguided approach to redesign the airspace over thousands of residents in my congressional district. The FAA did this without consulting the very people whose lives would be most affected.

A study should have been conducted years ago. I support reducing delays, but we should first know if the FAA's actions will improve air travel. It would be a mistake for the FAA to continue on this course without knowing whether the airspace redesign would even reduce delays.

I urge my colleagues to support this amendment because today we are affected, tomorrow you could be.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the League of Humane Voters of New York City (LOHV-NYC) for their support of animal rights and their efforts to hold elected officials accountable to their constituents on issues concerning animal welfare.

Since their conception in 2001, the League of Humane Voters of New York City has been mobilizing public concern for animal rights through the democratic process by campaigning for the election of humane candidates to public office. LOHV-NYC has become a driving force for the defense of animals in New York City by raising tens of thousands of dollars and campaigning for dozens of humane candidates at the local and State level. LOHV-NYC recognized that animal rights was a political issue as well as a moral issue and has worked with citizens, activists, political parties, candidates and elected representatives to create awareness for animal welfare issues.

In January 2006, the LOHV-NYC created and published the first ever humane scorecard for the New York City Council, which tracked Council members' votes and sponsorship of legislation relating to animal welfare issues. The scorecard was first published in Satya Magazine in 2006 and since then has received major media attention.

The members of the League of Humane Voters in New York City are leaders in the animal protection movement, experts in law and politics, and everyday citizens. I would like to congratulate them on their dedication and on educating countless people on animal rights' issues.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor Mr. John Phillips for his devotion and tireless efforts for the humane treatment and protection of animals.

As a longtime animal advocate, John Phillips was named the first ever Executive Director of the League of Humane Voters of New York City (LOHV-NYC) in 2004. Under his direction, LOHV-NYC has become a driving force for the defense of animals in New York City by raising tens of thousands of dollars and campaigning for dozens of humane candidates at the local and state level. He also helped organize the first ever humane lobby day, bringing dozens of animal advocates to City Hall to lobby their elected officials.

John Phillips' energy and passion for the creation of effective animal protection legislation at the local, state, and federal level has been a major force in fostering discussion of the issues most important to the LOHV-NYC.

His passion for the protection of animals and the education of people about the suffering of animals started at a young age, when he became a vegetarian at the age of 10 and a vegan at the age of 14. As well as becoming an animal activist, John Phillips has been involved with many other social justice groups, including those committed to the rights of the LGBT community, the homeless, and the environment.

In January 2007, John Phillips was awarded the In Defense of Animals' Companion Animal Guard for his work with LOHV-NYC. We should all take note of his devotion to the protection of animals and I would like to congratulate John Phillips on his many accomplishments.

Madam Speaker, the Atria Senior Living Group received the Platinum Community award from the National Assisted Living Nurses Association for 100 percent quality compliance in state surveys at 22 communities throughout the country.

With the number of elderly and disabled Americans dramatically increasing, I am proud to say that an Atria Assisted Living facility is located next to my office in Riverdale, where it is helping to care for this influx of elderly. I have visited many times since it opened.

I was proud to again visit the Atria Assisted Living Facility, this weekend as part of National Assisted Living Week which has the theme of ``Legacies of Love'' and highlights the value of passing on the legacies of our elders to the coming generations.

I urge everyone to visit friends and loved ones who may be at an assisted living facility to share in their love, care, and knowledge. Sadly, I recently lost my mother and value every moment I had with her.

We, all of us, should make every effort to learn more about these facilities and the people in them. Atria's Platinum Award demonstrates its determination to give quality care to these most valued citizens, care they have earned and deserve. I congratulate them for what they have done.

Mr. Speaker, six years have passed since America lost our innocence and terrorism struck at the root of our Nation's soil. I rise today in strong support of H. Res. 643, which recognizes September 11 as a day of remembrance.

Mr. Speaker, I am a New Yorker, born and bred. I love our city. I was in New York when this tragedy occurred. I would often say to my children when we were in New York, look at the skyline, look at the World Trade Center. It was so invigorating. It makes me feel so wonderful just to be in this city, the city I love, the city in which I was born.

We New Yorkers are a tough breed; but I have to tell my colleagues, six years ago when I drove over the George Washington Bridge to return to Washington and I took a look at the Manhattan skyline and saw the Twin Towers were not there, in its place I saw only smoke and fire and it deeply affected me.

Mr. Speaker, when I think of the victims, the men, women and children who lost their lives; the firemen, the policemen who went there to save people's lives, and lost their lives, I am saddened. People who went to work, like millions of people across our great country go to work to earn a living to support their families, they went to work and so many were killed by terrorists for simply going about their daily lives. Some of these were my constituents and their families continue to mourn this great loss.

Six years later we have far more to do. The terrorist ringleader, Osama bin Laden remains on the lam. We also know many of those brave individuals who sought to rescue and then recover the victims of this tragedy, are now becoming ill due to exposure to environmental toxins at Ground Zero. Today these brave volunteers, area residents and students still lack a comprehensive federal plan to provide treatment and monitoring of their ailments. This is unconscionable.

I am proud to join with my NY Colleagues this week to introduce the 9/11 Health and Compensation Act. This bill would ensure that everyone exposed to the Ground Zero toxins has a right to be medically monitored and all that are sick have a right to treatment. It would also rightfully provide compensation for loss by reopening the 9/11 Compensation Fund.

Today, I feel sorrow in our remembrance of the tragedy of 9/11. We will never forget what happened that day. But we must look forward and right the wrongs our nation has perpetuated against our own heroes and provide them with the care and compensation they so desperately deserve. Mr. Speaker, I urge all Americans to pause and reflect on the tremendous loss of life that day, and how so many sacrificed so much for their fellow Americans.

Mr. Speaker, the Federal Aviation Administration has come up with a proposal to redesign the airspace around New York, New Jersey and the Pennsylvania area. Despite all the opposition and all the concerns of the people affected, lo and behold, the FAA made no significant changes in their final proposal. Full steam ahead, business as usual, the public be damned.

So I stand today in strong opposition to the FAA proposal to redesign the airspace around New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia. Specifically, I am disturbed by their actions surrounding the proposal to route up to 600 airplanes a day over Rockland and West Chester Counties in New York, which I represent.

The FAA created that proposal with zero input from the people whose lives would be most harmed by this proposal. In fact, even when I brought this up to the FAA in a meeting in my office, it took over a week of urging before they would even agree to attend a public forum that I held in Rockland.

They also conducted this entire process over the course of several years without any kind of adequate notification. My constituents expected better and they deserved better.

Throughout this process, we have seen, time and time again, that the FAA would ignore the opinions and suggestions of myself and anyone else who would be affected by their proposal. Valid suggestions that would improve this proposal were written off without serious consideration.

The FAA is trying to push through a proposal that doesn't make sense, and they are refusing to accept any changes.

But the plan itself is not my only problem. The misleading tactics and the stonewalling by the FAA only add to this issue. Every effort I and my constituents and some of my colleagues have made has been met with bureaucratic resistance while, at the same time, the FAA has laid down strict deadlines for comments and changes.

Just as an example, I tried multiple times to get an answer for how loud it would be when an airplane flies over us. This is critical information since overflights will be happening up to 600 times a day. All the FAA would tell me were 24-hour noise averages, which tell me nothing. Noise averages mean nothing to us. A room could be silent for 23 hours and have a 140-decibel rock concert for an hour, and the noise average would be something around a whisper. This is just one example of the FAA providing incomplete or misleading information.

In addition, every document the FAA has sent to my office, from the original proposal to the record of decision, has been extremely complicated and vague. I've been living in New York my entire life, and I was unable to interpret the maps of where the planes would be flying over my district. If my staff and I, who are knowledgeable about the region, are unable to decipher the maps, how is the general public supposed to know where the airplanes will be flying over their homes? The answer is that they will not, and that's just what the FAA wants.

It would be easy for the FAA to publish good maps of the area. They could use maps that are labeled with names of cities, streets and bodies of water. They could draw lines of these maps signaling precisely where the planes would be flying and at what altitude, but they chose not to do so. They chose instead to provide strangely colored maps with very few labels, so it was nearly impossible to figure out where the planes would be routed. It is this type of complex and misleading information that makes me and my constituents distrust the FAA.

And finally, let me say the agency has deliberately manipulated information that it is giving out to be public. For example, my office sent in over 25 pages of comments from over 60 constituents. We also sent in a petition signed by nearly 100 local residents, and finally, we sent 237 pages of a transcript from a public town hall meeting I held in Rockland, which was attended by well over 1,000 people. Dozens of people spoke, not one of whom supported the plan. But the spokesperson for the FAA was quoted in the newspaper claiming they had only received five comments from affected people. Five. This is dishonest. This is unacceptable from an agency that is supposed to represent all of the people in the country.

Mr. Speaker, when the Transportation-HUD appropriations bill came to the House for a vote, I strongly supported an amendment to eliminate funding for this airspace redesign proposal. I did this, not only to express my dislike for the proposal, but also to send a message to the FAA that they cannot treat Americans this way. And I will continue fighting this.

And finally, let me say to my colleagues, this may only right now concern the northeast corridor, but if the FAA can get away with running roughshod over Members of Congress, over constituents, over Americans, they can do it in any region of the country. We need to fight this. This is wrong. If it can happen in the northeast, it will happen all over America. We must fight this plan, and I will continue to fight it.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to encourage my colleagues' strong support of a bill that I am introducing, which would protect calling card consumers from being scammed and stop prepaid calling card deception. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank my friend and colleague on the Energy and Commerce Committee, Congressman Mike Ferguson, who joins me as an original cosponsor of this bill.

As you may already be aware, calling cards allow one to purchase telephone talk time in advance and since the financial transaction occurs before card use, many companies have successfully hidden additional fees and terms that are then hard to appeal. Some consumers find that the calling card rates are higher than advertised or that they must pay surcharges or extra undisclosed taxes. In other cases, the calling card company automatically deducts minutes even if the consumer is unable to connect with the party they attempted to call. Even worse, many consumers find they are being scammed out of minutes and are being cut off in the middle of phone conversations.

To help combat some of the aforementioned issues that plague our constituents, Congressman Ferguson and I will be introducing the ``Calling Card Consumer Protection Act'' which requires disclosures related to terms and conditions on all advertising, cards or packaging. It would also require that the calling card service providers disclose a detailed description of any additional fees and the company's name

and contact information for consumers should a problem arise. Again, I urge my colleagues support and cosponsorship of this important consumer protection bill.

Madam Speaker, today is an exciting day as I join with you and Representative Ros-Lehtinen and over 50 bipartisan co-sponsors--27 Democrats and 27 Republicans to re-introduce the Early Treatment for HIV Act.

Today is just one day in a long journey to promoting common sense health care in the Medicaid program. Medicaid coverage for people living with HIV is contingent on two factors; qualifying as low income and meeting the Social Security definition of disability. What this means for uninsured HIV Positive people is that outside of the Ryan White CARE ACT, HIV positive people must wait for their health status to be compromised beyond repair, to deteriorate to full blown AIDS before they can get healthcare coverage under Medicaid. This defies logic as current Federal guidelines call for early access to medical care and treatment including the use of combination antiretroviral therapy.

The Early Treatment for HIV Act, ETHA, gives states the OPTION of amending their Medicaid eligibility requirements to include uninsured, pre-disabled low-income people living with HIV. ETHA is modeled after the successful Breast and Cervical Cancer Prevention and Treatment Act, BCCA, that allows States to provide early access to Medicaid to women with cancer. As with the BCCA, participating States would receive an enhanced Federal matching rate, the same that is provided through the breast and cervical cancer Medicaid project and SCHIP.

Earlier access to health care for people with HIV/AIDS is cost effective. It improves both the health and quality of life of many people living with HIV. By keeping people healthy, the government saves money on expensive medical interventions, such as emergency care or hospitalizations. Furthermore, new medications now allow people with HIV to remain in the workforce longer, and reduces the need for support from government income subsidy programs like SSI and SSDI.

Will the cost-savings be immediate? No. But after a number of years, when early, effective treatment will limit the number of people whose health status progresses to full-blown AIDS, health care costs will be minimized, and best of all there will be a 50 percent decrease in lives lost to this terrible disease.

As all of you know, I have been advocating for improving access to quality healthcare for those with HIV/AIDS for my entire career in public service.

I was deeply troubled 2 years ago when the Energy and Commerce Committee ``reformed'' Medicaid during the Deficit Reduction Act. I offered ETHA as an amendment during that mark up and secured the first ever vote on that bill. As I said to then Chairman Joe Barton ``if our committee is sincere about Medicaid reform outside of this budget driven reconciliation process, than we should seriously consider the huge improvements in health outcomes and long term cost-savings that will be realized over time through the Early Treatment to HIV.'' Unfortunately, the amendment was not agreed to.

In the past Congress, I was deeply involved in the negotiations of the Ryan White Care Act. Those initially writing the Reauthorization shifted huge numbers in funding away from the epicenters of the AIDS epidemic to other emerging communities and added language that would make it harder for providers to serve those most in need. A common sense approach would have been to just fund the bill at higher levels to keep states from being pit against each other for scarce funding. We righted some of the wrongs in that bill though, and will continue to work to strengthen the Ryan White program.

Madam Speaker, today is a new day though and a new Congress. With an equal number of Democrats and Republicans pushing for Early Treatment for HIV in the Medicaid program today, we have a new opportunity to enact common sense, life-saving treatment.

I thank the gentleman.

Mr. Speaker, the reauthorization of State Children's Health Insurance is unquestionably one of the most important bills we will pass this year. This bill will protect six million kids currently covered by SCHIP and provide coverage for an additional five million children.

This bill provides aggressive outreach to enroll children by simplifying enrollment procedures and awarding States bonuses for finding more children. This is important since two-thirds of the uninsured children in our Nation are actually eligible but not enrolled in Medicaid or SCHIP.

What is the response of our Republican friends? Block the bill from coming up in our committee; create phony issues because they're against insuring children. Illegal amnesty? Give me a break. No hearings? We've had seven hearings on this bill. Eligible for private insurance? 93.5 percent of the children we cover in this bill would have no private insurance without this bill.

What is the President's response? Under the President's plan, this program would see its funding cut from last year; and, worse, the amount allocated for its reauthorization would be less than half of the amount required to maintain coverage for current beneficiaries.

He says he will veto this bill because it covers too many children. This is unconscionable. Sixty-one national advocacy groups devoted to improving children's health request that we fund the SCHIP program at 60 billion additional dollars. The President countered with $4.8 billion. Clearly, there is a disconnect.

We are proud that, despite budgetary constraints, we will be able to reauthorize our SCHIP program at $50 billion. I am proud that we will be covering 11 million low-income children under this reauthorization, and I know our Nation will be better off for it.

This is an amazing feat. Passing bills like this is why we should all feel honored to be Members of Congress. I'm sorry that my Republican friends just continue to say no. We say yes, yes to 11 million children, yes to saying that our children ought to be insured, yes to saying that America's children need our help. Pass this bill. It is good for all our children.