Floor Statements

Mr. Chairman, I thank Mr. Berman for his hard work with me on this issue. I commend Chairman Hyde, for whom I have tremendous affection, for having this bill named after him.

Mr. Chairman, the amendment that Mr. Berman and I are offering is the single strongest step Congress can take to ensure that the civilian nuclear cooperation agreement with India does not lead to a nuclear arms race in South Asia.

Our amendment would allow exports of nuclear reactors and other technology to India, our good friend. But it would prevent the export of nuclear reactor fuel until India has ceased production of fissile material for use in nuclear weapons. The United States and the other original nuclear weapons states have all agreed to a voluntary moratorium on fissile material production.

But under the bill as currently written, India will receive all of the benefits of a nuclear state under the nonproliferation treaty without being obligated to halt the production of fissile material, without having to sign a comprehensive test ban treaty, or to take other steps toward disarmament.

Requiring that India commit to ceasing the production of bomb material, in exchange for all of the benefits of nuclear trade, without asking for it to take any other responsibilities of a nuclear power is the bare minimum we should require to improve United States' national security.

The bill before us makes drastic exceptions to established nonproliferation rules. Currently India's production of weapons-grade plutonium is constrained by the requirements of its nuclear power reactors and its limited supply of natural uranium. But the civil- military separation plan offered by India excludes from national international inspection military facilities and spent fuel.

This provides India with a substantial capability to increase its nuclear weapons arsenal. If the bill goes ahead as is, the foreign supply of nuclear fuel to India would free up their existing limited capacity of highly enriched uranium and plutonium for weapons.

It is therefore responsible and prudent for Congress to ensure through this legislation that as a simple price of having access to sensitive nuclear technology, India declare a moratorium on productions of fissile material, just as the U.S. and other nuclear powers have.

Mr. Chairman, I urge my colleagues to support this amendment.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize City of Fairfield resident Dr. (Colonel) Leroy Johnson, Pastor, for his dedication and commitment to his church and community.

Dr. Johnson, who was licensed to preach in 1952, has served the Missionary Temple C.M.E. Church since 1989. Prior to joining the C.M.E. Church, Dr. Johnson was president of Miles College, which has a proud history of producing teachers, preachers, community leaders and politicians, in Birmingham, AL.

In 1963, Dr. Johnson entered the U.S. Army Chaplain Corps where he held various assignments which included pastoring the largest Protestant military/civilian congregation in Western Europe.

During his pastorate in Kaiserslautern, West Germany, the gospel singers and services that exist on all American military posts, bases, stations, and ships today were created.

He was the first African American to receive a line officer's commission under the Navy Reserve Officer Candidate Program and had the distinction of being a member of the Navy's first atomic bomb testing team in the South Pacific Marshall Islands.

After serving in the U.S. Army and Navy during a career that included world conflicts such as the Korean War and Vietnam, Dr. Johnson retired with the rank of Colonel.

Included amongst his 25 military awards and decorations are the Legion of Merit, Bronze Star, Meritorious Service Medal, the Army Commendation Medal and the Navy Unit Citation.

Dr. Johnson holds a Ph.D. from Kansas State University and has attained three masters degrees from Chapman University.

As the officers and members of Missionary Temple C.M.E. Church pay tribute to Dr. Johnson during the ``This is your Life'' Celebration, I wish Dr. Johnson, his wife, Simmie Mae, and daughter, Leana, many more years of health and happiness.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize Alicia Hollowell, a Suisun City resident and Fairfield High School graduate for her outstanding performance as a pitcher for the Arizona Wildcats.

Ms. Hollowell was born on February 29, 1984 to Doug and Suzanne Hollowell of Suisun City.

On June 6, 2006, Ms. Hollowell struck out 13 batters, while pitching a complete game in Arizona's 5-0 victory over Northwestern giving Arizona the 2006 NCAA Women's Softball Championship. For her efforts she was named the College World Series Most Outstanding Player.

Arizona's championship caps off a stellar collegiate career. During Ms. Hollowell's 4 years at Arizona, she compiled a 144 win 23 loss record with a minuscule earned run average under 0.90. In addition she struck out over 1700 batters.

Success is nothing new for Ms. Hollowell. While attending Fairfield High School she received the Gatorade Player of the Year award which is considered by many as the most Prestigious High School Athletic Award.

She left Fairfield High as the recordholder for strikeouts in a season, strikeouts in a career, and most wins in a career. A true testament of her will to win was her 61 strikeout performance in a 30 inning game.

On June 19, 2006, another of Ms. Hollowell's goals was fulfilled when she was named for the second straight year to the USA Softball Women's National Team where she will be competing for her second straight International Softball Federation World Championship in China.

As Alicia moves to the next phase of her life I wish her continued success. I know she will continue to represent the United States well.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize the exceptional value of Charlie Beck's 36 years of dedicated service to the citizens of Fairfield.

After graduating from Sacramento State College in 1970, Charlie was hired by the City of Fairfield as a Junior Civil Engineer and in 1972 became the City's first Traffic Engineer.

Two years later Charlie moved to the Corporation Yard to become the Manager of Street, Drainage, Signs, Traffic Signals, and Equipment Maintenance Division.

In 1980 Mr. Beck became the City's first Assistant Public Works Director and in 1985 added City Engineer to his title. Under this position Charlie was responsible for the management of Development Review, Engineering Design, Capital Improvement Projects, Traffic Engineering, and Public Works and Building Inspections.

In 2000, Mr. Beck was appointed to the position of Director of Public Works for the City of Fairfield. Under his supervision, he managed 190 Public Works employees, including Engineers, Technicians, Inspectors, Maintenance Personnel, and Support Staff.

Mr. Beck's attitude of ``doing it right the first time'' and ``build it to stand the test of time'' has served the City of Fairfield well in the past and will serve the City well into the future. A long-term retired employee said it best when he referred to Charlie's knowledge of masonry which he learned from his father. He said that with every action Charlie took since he started employment with the city, he placed each brick and made sure it was level before moving on to the next one. With that approach, he built a great foundation for the city.

He is recognized by his co-workers as a model of integrity and a great mentor. Mr. Beck's wisdom and office presence will truly be missed.

Charlie Beck has spent his entire career working for his community and for the citizens of Fairfield. As he enters retirement I would like to wish Charlie, his wife Joyce, and his family many wonderful years of happiness, prosperity, and good health.

I thank the gentleman for yielding. I think many of us find ourselves deeply distressed that we are here to talk about a so- called week about the war on terrorism when we were promised months ago by the majority leader a debate on Iraq.

There is a convergence here of themes that have been deeply disappointing to me for well over the last 2 years, as I saw the administration begin to use terms like the ``global war on terror'' to begin to cover for what has clearly been a mistake in Iraq. I am here tonight because I believe it is high time for a change of direction in Iraq.

I honor the sacrifice of our fighting men and women and their families. With 2,498 American deaths in Iraq today since the beginning of the military operations, it is time that the Bush administration finally levels with the American people. I think we first have to go back to where, the beginning, to when, after the September 11 attacks and after this House, Democrats, Republicans, along with the Senate and the American people, agreed that we had to topple the government, the Taliban government in Afghanistan that had harbored the al Qaeda terrorists that had attacked us on September 11.

And after we took that government out and began to move that operation

toward, hopefully, a successful Afghanistan, we began to hear the drumbeat of talk out of the administration that Iraq was a big threat to us, that we had mushroom clouds in our future, that this was a country with a leader in Saddam Hussein who was an imminent threat to the United States. Many of us in the post-September 11 time believed that we had to do something more than just fly flights over Iraq and deal with those issues that we had to really move and to do things to create the kind of coalition of not only the willing but the capable that we had when George Bush's father went after Saddam Hussein in the first gulf war.

The real issue right now is what have we done in Iraq to make sure that we can actually succeed. And I think that what we have, unfortunately, has been a number of mistakes by the civilian leadership in the Pentagon. We have heard them all before. The litany is long and getting longer. It begins with not really understanding the context of Iraq. It begins with not really understanding that we needed more troops on the ground after we took Saddam Hussein's government down than we actually need to do the taking down of the government.

It began with not really understanding the context and the construct of those, the sects in Iraq and the enmity and the fear and the kind of reprisals that you would see if the Sunni minority that had been in power during the Saddam time actually had the Shiia come back into power and realized how badly they had been treated for 25 years. We have had multiple governments in Iraq, and this mission has morphed and constantly been redefined by the administration to fit the latest catastrophe.

What I really hope we can do over the next few days is have a Democratic position begin to emerge. Our friends on the other side like to talk about truth. And Daniel Patrick Moynihan did have that great saying about people can have their own opinion, but they can't have their own set of facts. Well, my grandmother from Ireland used to tell me that saying it doesn't make it so. And what is really clear is that we have to have a movement forward by this administration to not only admit the mistakes that have been made, but to be sure that we actually can bring our troops home sooner and safer. We want to honor the sacrifice of our troops, but at the same time we want to bring them home sooner and safer.

I am happy to yield to my colleague from New Jersey who is going to continue this conversation, Mr. Andrews.

Mr. Chairman, I would like to commend Mr. Hobson and Ranking Member Visclosky for offering a strong bill that ensures that the United States maintains a robust nuclear deterrent and modernizes the infrastructure to support it.

I am especially pleased that the bill continues the House's unwavering support for the National Ignition Facility, NIF at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory in my district with full funding.

As you know, NIF is one-of-a-kind world-class scientific effort that allows the United States to maintain its nuclear arsenal without resorting to underground testing.

Also NIF significantly advances the science of fusion as a potential alternate energy source.

I would like to also commend the chairman on a bill which fully funds the National Nuclear Security Administration's Advanced Simulation and Computing Program, ASC, which has developed the fastest computer in the world.

ASC is vital to the transformation of the Nation's nuclear infrastructure and its simulations will help assess new programs such as the Reliable Replacement Warhead Program, RRW.

Livermore Lab is at the forefront of this work and I welcome the continued investment in computational capabilities, like the Blue Gene L and Purple computers at Livermore Lab, and the unparalleled capabilities they provide.

Again I commend the chairman for a strong mark.

Mr. Speaker, I rise with my colleague, Representative George Miller, to pay tribute to County Connection, the public bus system provider that serves more than a dozen communities and unincorporated areas of central Contra Costa County in our two Congressional Districts.

County Connection was founded on March 27, 1980 under a Joint Exercise of Powers Agreement. After several years of careful planning, locally elected officials in Central Contra Costa recognized the need for a truly coordinated and integrated regional transit system.

County Connection began providing service with 12 buses, carrying 1,950,000 passengers, traveling 1,423,357 miles. In just its first ten years, the agency multiplied its fleet of buses ten fold. Today, the transportation agency maintains a current fleet of 131 buses and 56 LINK vans, makes nearly 5,000,000 fixed-route and paratransit trips throughout central Contra Costa and provides 4.5 million rides annually.

The system is now overseen by an 11-member Board of Directors, one representative from each jurisdiction and one representative for the unincorporated areas of Central County.

Since its establishment, County Connection has received numerous prestigious awards including; the American Public Transit Association (APTA) Minority & Women Advancement Award for its meritorious accomplishments in the employment, promotion and training of minorities and women in management positions, and this year, the California Water Environment Association recognized the agency with its ``Facility of the Year'' award in recognition for going above and beyond normal efforts to protect susceptible plant and wildlife that survive in local streams.

For 25 years, County Connection has provided vital transportation services to residents throughout Central Contra Costa. As the population of this County grows, the services provided by County Connection have never been needed more. Each day agency buses help people get to their work, return home, and in general provide a service that no other program in the community can. Today, we are proud to commend County Connection for the agency's service to the community and its lasting commitment to the people of Contra Costa County.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in celebration of National Peace Corps Week and to congratulate the 7,800 Peace Corp Volunteers-- including 31 of my constituents--who are serving their country today in 72 countries around the world.

More than 182,000 Peace Corps Volunteers have served in 138 countries since the organization's inception in 1961. Every year, thousands of selfless volunteers share their time and talents by serving as teachers, business advisors, information technology consultants, health and HIV/AIDS educators, and youth and agriculture workers.

In addition to serving countries around the globe, 272 Peace Corps' Crisis Corps Volunteers were deployed to the Gulf Coast in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita. These volunteers assisted the Federal Emergency Management Agency with hurricane response efforts. The deployment of Peace Corps' Volunteers within the United States was a historic first, and a great help in managing this national disaster.

I praise our nation's Peace Corps volunteers who serve their country and the world as humanitarians, devoting themselves to transferring life-changing knowledge and skills to the people of other nations.

Mr. Speaker, I salute the hundreds of thousands of men and women of this nation who have selflessly served abroad as Peace Corps Volunteers. On this 45th Anniversary of the Peace Corps, I am especially proud to represent 31 such volunteers and I offer them my sincere gratitude.

Mr. Speaker rise to recognize the exceptional value of Commander Kenneth S. Mosby's long and notable career. Kenneth has served Contra Costa County and the City of El Cerrito with great distinction and in retiring from his position as a Police Commander brings to close a career with local Law Enforcement Agencies Department that spans 29 years.

Kenneth S. Mosby began his law enforcement career with the Richmond Unified School District as a security officer in 1976. Four years later Kenneth joined the El Cerrito police

department where he has served with distinction. During his tenure, he married Cheryl and together they are raising their son, Kevin.

While with the El Cerrito Police department Kenneth served in a number of different roles. He worked as a Major Crime Scene Evidence Technician; a Field Training Officer and a Forgery Detective. He also served as a Narcotics/Intelligence Officer where he notably participated in the state wide marijuana eradication programs in the summers of 1984 and 1985. Having performed these duties with great technical competence, efficiency and distinction, Kenneth was promoted to the rank of Sergeant in 1991 and to Detective Sergeant in 1995.

After his many years of dedicated service, Kenneth was promoted to the rank of Commander in 1997. As Police Commander of the El Cerrito Police Department, Kenneth has served his community with great dedication and pride and upon the occasion of his retirement is deserving of special recognition and the highest commendation.

Mr. Speaker, I take great pride and pleasure in drawing special public attention to Commander Kenneth S. Mosby and extend to him sincere best wishes for continued success in his future endeavors.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to rise in strong support of my friend and ranking member Ike Skelton's motion to instruct conferees on the defense authorization bill of which I am a conferee.

Mr. Skelton's motion would ensure that the conference report keep a vital Senate provision that is in the bill on the Senate side which would require that the Director of National Intelligence report to Congress on what may be a covert CIA prison system.

While it is vital that the military be given the proper intelligence to fully prosecute the war on terror, I am deeply concerned, as are many Americans, that the administration and the CIA may be resorting to illegal and immoral tactics that are destroying our national credibility and threatening the safety of our own troops should they be captured by the enemy.

The war on terror is in large part a battle of ideas and accounts of prisoners being whisked away off European streets and elsewhere by the CIA to be interrogated at secret facilities, beyond being unconscionable, undermine our reputation and the spread of our democratic values.

If we had had a conference that actually met, and if we had actually been able to talk about this issue, I think we would have had the same kind of response that the Senate did, which was an overwhelming vote in favor of having these provisions included in the bill, but we did not have a conference. We still have not had a conference where we have all met.

What I find to be fascinating as a Member of Congress from California, there has been great discussion this evening about the prerogatives of the House and jurisdiction, and we have now a national park in California that has never had a hearing, that the Member of Congress from that district is deeply opposed to having it transferred to the military. Look, we are all for saving the deer and the elk, and we are certainly all for our veterans, but how about regular order? How about doing this the right way?

We would not have a provision, a shameful provision, in this bill that transfers Santa Rosa Island to the military for the purpose of private recreation that is inserted in the 11th hour.

Including this provision is an egregious abuse of power to please certain special interests and would certainly embarrass its proponents at a time when we should be using this bill only to support the young men and women who are fighting and dying in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The provision supported by Mr. Skelton's motion would restore Congressional oversight by providing vital information on the extent of these facilities, their location, the number of detainees currently being held there and the type of interrogations being conducted at these locations.

Separate but related to this bill I am deeply troubled by a shameful provision regarding the transfer of the Santa Rosa Island to the military for the purpose of private recreation that was inserted at the eleventh hour.

Including this provision is an egregious abuse of power to please certain special interests and should embarrass its proponents at a time when we should be using this bill only to support our young men and women in uniform fighting and dying in Iraq and Afghanistan.

This section was never reviewed by the committee and has no place in this bill and I urge its removal.

I urge my colleagues to support this motion to instruct.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to rise in strong support of my friend and colleague Representative Jack Murtha's motion to instruct conferees on the defense appropriations bill.

Mr. Murtha's effort would retain vital language prohibiting torture of prisoners in U.S. custody wherever they may be held.

Mr. Murtha's motion would ensure that the final version of the defense bill contains vital language offered by Senator John McCain and by Congresswoman Jane Harman and myself here in the House.

The McCain amendment would prohibit the Defense Department from using any interrogation practices other than those listed in the Army Field Manual on Intelligence and Interrogation, and would reinforce the long- standing ban on the Federal Government engaging in cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment throughout the world.

Such clarity in treatment of detainees is vitally needed as continuing revelations of abuse of prisoners in our custody damages the reputation of our Armed Forces abroad, undermines the trust of our allies, and threatens the lives of U. S. service men and women who might be captured by the enemy.

In addition to providing guidance to our troops, this language, by forbidding abuse wherever it may occur, gets at the heart of the issue of ghost detainees, prisoners kept and interrogated by the CIA in countries that have not signed on to the Geneva Conventions.

Major General Taguba called the CIA's practice of holding ghost detainees ``deceptive, contrary to Army doctrine and in violation of Army law.''

The recent effort led by Vice-President Cheney to eliminate language in the bill to constrain interrogations wherever they may occur is misguided and will endanger our troops.

I agree that our post-9/11 world will never be what it was previously, but that's no justification for turning our back on international commitments and undercutting our international credibility.

If our goal is, as I believe it should be, obtaining the best possible actionable intelligence from suspects, then torture is not the best tool in our arsenal.

Torture is immoral, illegal, and rarely yields necessarily credible intelligence.

We're all too familiar with the misleading testimony of a high level Al Qaeda member, who was rendered to Egypt, where he stated under duress that Saddam Hussein had offered to train Al Qaeda operatives in the use of ``chemical or biological weapons.''

Following his transfer to Guantanamo, this witness recanted and the 9/11 Commission confirmed that there was no working relationship between Saddam and Al Qaeda.

When we abuse prisoners and flout the Geneva Conventions, we are no better than some of the repressive regimes around the world whom we are trying to change.

While administration officials at the highest levels including Justice Department officials and Secretary Rumsfeld have argued for great flexibility in handling of prisoners, more junior enlisted men and women have been a true example to our Nation.

From Army Spc. Joseph M. Darby, who first reported that abuse was occurring at Abu Ghraib, to Army Captain Ian Fishback, who unsuccessfully called for clearer guidelines on interrogation, our men and women in uniform have been a moral compass to others who have lost their way at all levels of government and who have betrayed our nation's values.

We owe it to the rank and file who fight our Nation's wars and who defend our flag around the world to adopt the McCain/Harman language and to support Mr. Murtha's motion.

I call on all my colleagues to support this important motion.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the exceptional value of Skip Thomson's thirty plus years of dedicated service to the citizens of Solano County.

In 1976, Skip Thomson began his career by accepting a position as Appraiser Aide in the Assessor's Valuation Division. Shortly thereafter he and his high school sweetheart, Gail Woods, were married, and within ten years Skip and Gail Thomson were blessed with two sons. Their oldest son, Loren, is a First Lieutenant in the California National Guard and is currently serving our country in Iraq. Their second son, Brandon, is currently a sophomore at Sierra Junior College in Rocklin, California, and is pursuing a Liberal Arts Degree.

After 16 years of service in the Assessor's Valuation Division, Skip Thomson campaigned for and won a position as a member of the Solano County Board of Supervisors. Skip served three terms representing the Fifth District, which encompasses 52 percent of Solano County, including the cities of Dixon, Rio Vista, south Vacaville and Suisun City. While serving as a member of the Board, one of Skip's proudest achievements was ensuring Travis Air Force Base the ability to expand if and when necessary.

After leaving his county board position, Skip Thomson was elected County Assessor/Recorder. Under his direction, a plan was developed and implemented that finalized the recording process of a 38,000 document backlog that existed when he took office. For this accomplishment, Skip and his staff were recognized for their achievements in the County's Annual Report.

Skip Thomson has spent his entire career working for his community and for the citizens of Solano County. As he enters retirement, I would like to wish Skip, Gail, and their sons many wonderful years of happiness, prosperity, and good health.

Mr. Speaker, as Chair of the New Democrat Coalition, I rise today on behalf of the New Dem Co-Chairs, Ron Kind, Artur Davis, and Adam Smith, to voice support of the United States-Bahrain Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act.

Passage of this free trade agreement will help strengthen the United States' relationship with Bahrain and build a more secure and productive future for our countries and citizens.

We believe when instituted correctly and fairly, trade agreements open up foreign markets to U.S. goods, create new opportunities for companies and their employees, and lift the standard of living for the people in the countries with whom we are trading.

As our Nation leads the world into the 21st century, we should not shy away from opportunities to guide and expand global trade.

U.S. goods exported to Bahrain totaled $302 million in 2004, constituting .03 percent of total U.S. merchandise trade in 2004.

The U.S.-Bahrain FTA will provide substantial market access for U.S. services providers, including financial services.

One hundred percent of bilateral trade in consumer and industrial products will become duty-free immediately, and 98 percent of U.S. agricultural product exports to Bahrain would be immediately duty free.

Moreover, as Democrats who are strong on defense, we believe that securing an FTA with Bahrain is a positive foreign policy and national security step for the United States.

Bahrain has been a strong and stable state in the Persian Gulf region and a friend to the United States.

The U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet is based in Bahrain, and the United States has recognized the importance of our relationship with this country by establishing a joint U.S.-Bahrain Defense Cooperation Agreement and designing Bahrain as a ``Major Non-NATO ally.''

This FTA strengthens relations with one of our proven strategic allies in an unstable region.

Furthermore, Mr. Speaker, it is critically important that trade agreements are balanced and fair for workers.

We are pleased that Bahrain has agreed to take the additional steps necessary to comply with basic international labor standards that are integral to ensuring that the benefits of globalization are broadly shared among all people.

Bahrain has committed in writing and with a clear and immediate timetable to amend all provisions of its labor laws that are not consistent with basic International Labor Organization (ILO) standards.

The government will repeal its current laws that forbid the formation of more than one trade union within a single enterprise; allow foreign workers who have not been paid their wages to only change employers after wages have not been paid for more than 3 months; do not provide for the reinstatement of workers fired because of anti-union discrimination; and require that in order to conduct a legal strike, three-quarters of the union must approve and the union must give the employer and Ministry of Labor two weeks notice.

The Bahraini government will also reiterate its commitment to ensuring that penalties for anti-union discrimination are adequate to deter this activity and that workers are paid in a timely manner.

Bahrain remains committed to progress on these issues and recognizes the need to ensure its laws are consistent with international standards.

These changes are a major step forward in securing safe and fair working environments for all workers in Bahrain.

Mr. Speaker, my colleagues and I are happy to support this FTA today. It is in our best interest to engage Bahrain and complete this bilateral free trade agreement. We urge all Members to support H.R. 4340.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor my constituent Jennifer Ross, who has recently returned from two years of service in the Peace Corps.

Ms. Ross has followed in the footsteps of over 182,000 Americans who have served in 138 countries around the world since the Peace Corps' inception in 1961. Every year, thousands of selfless volunteers share their time and talents by serving as teachers, business advisors, information technology consultants, health and HIV/AIDS educators, and youth and agriculture workers.

Ms. Ross spent her time in the Peace Corps teaching students in Cotiujeni, Moldova, about health education and life skills, such as the development of self esteem and the value of friendship. In order to promote these lessons she used baseball as a teambuilding effort and as a means of creating a positive environment for her students.

Seeing the success of baseball in fostering sportsmanship and self confidence in her students, Jennifer worked to obtain a $65,700 grant from the Baseball for Tomorrow Fund. Using this grant, she set up a summer baseball camp in Moldova.

Although Ms. Ross's service in the Peace Corps has ended, she has made a lasting impression on lives of the children she worked with in Moldova. I am proud of Ms. Ross and all of my constituents who are serving and have served in the Peace Corps and I offer them my deepest gratitude.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commemorate The PMI Group's tenth anniversary as a publicly traded company. The PMI Group's company headquarters is located in Walnut Creek, California, which is in my district. Ten years ago when the company first went public it was the sixth-largest IPO in the New York Stock Exchange's history. In the past decade it has grown from one of the nation's leading providers of private mortgage insurance to a global provider of credit enhancement. PMI has helped to push homeownership rates to a historic high, while consistently providing a strong average return on shareholders' equity.

Founded over 30 years ago, The PMI Group, Inc., offers residential mortgage insurance and credit enhancement products that promote homeownership and facilitate mortgage transactions in domestic and international capital markets. Currently the company has over $5.2 billion in total assets, serves two million families worldwide and has been recognized as one of the best places to work in the Bay Area of California.

Under the leadership of Chairman and CEO Roger Haughton, The PMI Group's mission is to put people in homes--and keep them there. They have been integral in helping low and moderate income families become homeowners by developing affordable mortgage programs that help them to realize their dreams of homeownership. Now with operations in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Europe they have taken that commitment globally. The company's management is committed to the belief that homeownership helps build strong families, which in turn builds strong communities.

The company's commitment to facilitating homeownership goes beyond its fundamental business model to its relations with the communities in which it operates, exemplified in the generous spirit of their foundation. The PMI Foundation supports national and local organizations that create housing opportunities and revitalize neighborhoods. Most notably the company has been a part of building over 125 Habitat for Humanity homes worldwide. They have also led the business community in initiatives to reinvest in inner-city and rural communities. Most recently, PMI stepped up to the plate and contributed a $2 million relief package for the victims of the Gulf Coast hurricanes.

I greatly appreciate everything The PMI Group, Inc. has done for the citizens of my district, as well as our citizens nationwide. Facilitating homeownership is an admirable business, so I ask my fellow Members of Congress to join me in congratulating The PMI Group on a very successful 10 years as a publicly traded company and I wish them many successful years to come.