Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding time to me, and I thank my colleagues from the Committee on Ways and Means for allowing me to speak.

I rise in support of the effort to give out-of-work Americans more time to find a job before their benefits run out. In December of 2000, my hometown of Houston had one of the lowest unemployment rates in the Nation, 3.5 percent. The national average then was 4.2. Today we have unemployment of 6.7 percent in Houston. That is almost double what it was in December of 2000. Texas has lost 112,000 jobs since January of 2001. The country as a whole has lost over 2.5 million jobs since then.

Texans want to work, earn a living, and make homes for their families, but no one can survive for long on an unemployment check. People do not lose their jobs just to collect the unemployment check. It is almost laughable. It is only making the best of a terrible situation.

One hundred thirty-three thousand Texans are likely to run out of their regular unemployment without finding new work. We need to help these workers, and I am glad we are doing so today. But many will be left out, even as we act today. By the end of this month, there will be an estimated 69,000 Texans who have run out of their extended benefits and remain unemployed in this slow economy, even if we act today. Another 39,000 Texas workers will run out of benefits this summer. None of these numbers take into account the underemployed and the long-term unemployed.

Mr. Speaker, while I commend the leadership of both parties in bringing this legislation to the floor today, we need to realize it is only a Band-Aid. Texans and American workers need an extension of unemployment benefits, but they would rather have a job. But workers see Congress exporting good jobs and building up a massive Federal debt that slows down the economy and will have to be paid for by our children.

I urge support of the legislation, but it is a half a loaf, at best.

Mr. Speaker, Texans woke up to stories like this one in today's Houston Chronicle that reports on something that is just ``unbelievable.'' On Wednesday, May 14, one day before the Texas legislative Democrats started returning to Austin, the Texas Department of Public Safety, DPS, ordered all records and photos gathered in the search for them to be destroyed.

The order addressed to ``Captains'' states, ``Any notes, correspondence, photos, etc., that were obtained pursuant to the absconded House of Representatives members should be destroyed. No copies kept.''

Who originated this order, this destruction?

Yesterday, Secretary Ridge again refused to release a full transcript and tape of the discussions between our

DPS and the Department of Homeland Security.

What are they hiding? Why is a law enforcement agency in Texas destroying records and a Federal agency refusing to release them? Were there political efforts to involve Federal law enforcement for purely political and partisan reasons? What are these agencies trying to cover up?

It does not pass the smell test.

While we have new international terrorist threats, a new high alert yesterday, we were looking for Texas Democrats last week. Secretary Ridge and the Department of Homeland Security are needlessly suffering a credibility gap.

Mr. Speaker, if there is nothing incriminating or embarrassing on the tapes, then there is nothing to cover up. Release the tapes and all the records. Do not destroy them.

Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.

Mr. Chairman, I am offering an amendment not only

on my behalf but also the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Udall) and the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Vitter), from what I understand, to require the Secretary of Transportation to report to Congress, on my part of the amendment, and the NTSB on the status of any recommendation that the NTSB has made on railroad grade crossing safety.

I appreciate the gentleman from Alaska (Mr. Young) and the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Mica) on the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure agreeing to discuss the ways we can address this problem further in future legislation. I would also like to thank the ranking members, the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Oberstar) and the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio), for working with me so well on this amendment.

My community in Houston has a serious problem with railroad grade crossings; but it is a national problem, also. There are roughly 260,000 at-grade crossings in the U.S. In 4 years, from 1999 to 2002, over 1,600 people were killed in crossing accidents.

Thousands of these at-grade crossings have no protection devices at all, no lights, no barriers. Even in urban areas we have no protection.

I would like to enter into a colloquy with the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Mica).

I yield to the gentleman from Florida.

Mr. Chairman, again, I would be more than happy to cosponsor the Ride-21, and we know, while the STB does have jurisdiction over all rail lines and crossings of these lines, it is true that their ability to enforce safety considerations is unclear.

I suspect they choose not to use this authority, if they have it. If in fact they have no authority on grade crossing safety, that needs to be changed immediately, but I realize I will have to come back on the STB authorization bill, and I thank the Chairman for his commitment to address grade crossing safety issues that affect highway agencies in the highway bill.

Mr. Speaker, I am glad to follow my Waco, Texas, colleague. I come to the floor today to pay tribute, like my colleagues from Texas, to the very brave men and women of the legislature, those Texas heroes who have put their political lives on the line to ensure that the voting rights of all Texans will remain intact.

Again, I want to personally thank my State representatives, and of course there are 53 of them totally, but Rick Noriega, Jessica Farrar, Joe Moreno, Senfronia Thompson, Kevin Bailey, Scott Hochberg, and the other dozens of Texas heroes.

Yesterday, these Killer Ds, as they are now called, sent a letter to Texas Speaker Craddick, who I was honored to serve 13 years with in the statehouse. In this letter the members of the legislature said, ``During recent interviews, you indicated you were not willing to negotiate with us regarding the issue of congressional redistricting. You stated you were concerned if you negotiated with us on this issue, we would break a quorum every time we disagreed with you on other important issues of the day, such as our school finance, health care and homeowners insurance.

``We want to clarify this point so that your concern is addressed and no ambiguity remains. We are here because we strongly feel that congressional redistricting should only be taken up every 10 years, unless otherwise ordered to do so by the courts, and that it should not be a priority above other issues facing our State.

``If you are willing to assure us that congressional redistricting will not be taken up by the House during the remainder of this session and the special sessions to come, then we are willing to give you our word, through this letter, that we will not break a quorum on other issues during that same time, even when we disagree.''

And I am sure that there will be plenty of things to disagree about.

``We had no intention to break a quorum on issues following this one, and if you need this guarantee, then this letter provides it. In our system, negotiations and compromise are often the only way to make progress and improve our State. To that end and in that spirit, we respectfully ask you to accept our offer. We hope you will respond as soon as possible today, so we can return right away.''

And, again, this letter was sent yesterday.

``There is a lot of work we can do, and we would like to get that work done.''

During my 20-plus years as a State legislator, 13 as a State House member and 7 as a State Senator in Texas, the thing I treasured the most was the bipartisanship that existed in both our chambers. The problems occurring in the Texas Legislature now are not what is normal. I remember in my 20 years there that we had redistricting bills, and we fought them based on Democrats and Republicans. We had election code bills, and we fought based on Democrat and Republicans. But to have redistricting overshadow the important issues facing the State of Texas, or any State for that matter, I think is frustrating.

We see sometimes that Washington politics, the partisan nature of that, has invaded our State legislatures. In all honesty, my friends on the Republican side that I have served with in the Texas Legislature both say we should sit down and talk about problems without it being such a partisan issue. Maybe we can learn something from our legislators here that say, wait a minute, we will fight over redistricting, we will fight over election codes, but when we talk about school finance, insurance reform, health care, or the State budget, you will not see us try to break a quorum in Texas.

Today, this Fort Worth Star-Telegram said, and I quote, ``Once upon a time, Tom DeLay killed vermin and varmints and other disreputable critters for a living. Now he's trying to prove that he remembers how, by exterminating any remnants of bipartisanship in the Texas House.''

And continuing the quote, ``Little does DeLay, the U.S. House majority leader, care if he incites a blood feud in Austin; he'd just as soon suck the Democrats dry in his lust to make himself master of the universe. In his insatiable ambition to obliterate the two-party system, DeLay apparently expected the Texas House Dems to roll over on their backs like roaches on Raid and let his water boys roar undisturbed through the Capitol with a new congressional district map.

``When Texas Democratic House members hightailed it north of the Red River, it wasn't to avoid thorny problems still facing the State. It was out of exasperation that neither Mr. DeLay nor Texas House Speaker Tom Craddick would let earnest, hard-working lawmakers of both parties focus on the vital business that the legislature ought to be spending its energy on as this session winds down.''

Mr. Speaker, I served with Mr. DeLay as a State legislator. I served with a lot of Members on the Democratic and Republican side, and I would hope that we could get past this partisan issue and let those folks go back and deal with the problems we have in the State of Texas. Hopefully, we will learn something from them and develop a better bipartisan spirit up here.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce the Comprehensive Insurance Coverage of Childhood Immunizations Act of 2003. This important legislation will improve our nation's efforts to immunize all children against vaccine-preventable diseases.

Vaccines have made dramatic improvements in the lives of children and adults in the last century. Scourges such as polio and small pox have been eradicated thanks to advancements in vaccine research.

Childhood vaccinations prevent nine serious infectious diseases. Thanks to immunizations, children no longer have to suffer from the dangers of polio, measles, diptheria, mumps, pertussis (whooping cough), rubella (German measels), tetanus, hepatitis-B, or Hib (the most common cause of meningitis).

Immunizations are not only sound medicine, they're sound public health policy. More than $21 is saved for every dollar spent on the measles/mumps/rubella vaccine. Almost $30 is saved for every dollar spent on diptheria/tetanus/pertussis vaccine.

Unfortunately, many children do not have access to these life-saving vaccines. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), nationwide vaccination coverage levels decreased from 73.2 percent in 1999 to 72.8 percent in the year 2000. In fact, one third of two-year-old children are under-immunized, and in some cities and urban areas, more than 50 percent of children are not fully immunized.

Part of the problem is that health insurance coverage of immunization is spotty at best. According to the Institute of Medicine Report ``Calling the Shots,'' private health insurance immunization coverage varies widely by type of plan as well as by vaccine. Enrollment in a private plan does not guarantee that immunizations will be provided.

Although 28 states have enacted legislation that would require private plans to cover immunizations, plans governed by ERISA are not subject to these requirements. The IOM Report recommends that all health insurance plans, including ERISA self-insured plans, should offer first-dollar coverage for childhood vaccines recommended in the harmonized immunization schedule.

The Comprehensive Insurance Coverage of Childhood Immunization Act of 2003 would addresses this problem by requiring ERISA governed health plans and plans covered by the Public Health Services Act to cover vaccines for children under 18 years. Vaccines recommended by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Recommended Childhood Immunization Schedule must be covered.

The federal government provides this benefit for its own workers, and twenty-eight states have enacted laws to require state-regulated plans to cover vaccines. Unfortunately, ERISA plans do not have to comply with state laws. This legislation will ensure that all children, regardless of the type of insurance they have, will receive life-saving vaccines. I hope my colleagues will join me in supporting immunization coverage for all children.

Mr. Speaker, earlier this week, 53 Texas Democratic legislators exhibited real courage when they refused to participate in an unprecedented redistricting power grab. This is a Texas kind of courage like General Sam Houston, who marshaled his resources to win the Battle of San Jacinto. What Joe Moreno, Rick Noriega, Jessica Farrar, Kevin Bailey, and the rest of these heroes did was stand up to this charade.

In a statement delivered from Oklahoma, these Texas heroes said, ``We did not choose our path, Tom DeLay did. We are ready to stand on the House Floor and work day and night to deal with the real issues facing Texas families. At a time when we are told we do not have time to deal with school finance, and when we must still resolve issues like the State budget crisis and insurance reform, the fact that an outrageous partisan power grab sits at the top of the House calendar is unconscionable.''

But not all Texans consider them heroes. Yesterday the Associated Press reported that the gentleman from Texas (Mr. DeLay) was investigating whether or not the FBI and U.S. Marshals could be used to track down and arrest these Texas legislators.

We should not use Federal resources committed to the war on terrorism and protecting our homeland. Not since Richard Nixon have we seen such a Federal power grab.

Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure for me to follow my neighbor and colleague from Texas. I also served in the State House and the State Senate. To compare what is being done by those heroes in Oklahoma now to suicide bombers is outrageous. That is just overboard.

This is why we have the problems we have in Texas right now. They do not recognize the comity that has been traditional in the Texas legislature. We used to never fight over anything in a partisan manner except redistricting and election bills. Now we are going to have election and redistricting bills coming every 2 years because of our colleague, the gentleman from Texas, (Mr. DeLay).

This is unprecedented. In 50 years, no State has ever opened redistricting just for partisan purposes until now in Texas and Colorado. The Texas Attorney General, who is a Republican, issued an opinion within the last month that said, no, the legislature does not have to reopen the redistricting process. So we are having to bring it here to the floor of the House simply because my colleague from Houston, Fort Bend County, brought it to the legislature to eliminate 10 Members from Texas.

Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. Speaker, the gentleman and I are friends, and we have worked together on a lot of issues and I thank you for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I will have 5 minutes and this is a time we might be able to exchange some ideas because I was there in 1981 and 1991, and I would be glad to talk about it.

Mr. Speaker, I know my colleague and good friend, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Barton), was here a few minutes earlier. I was hoping to have a good exchange on either his time or my time on the issue of redistricting.

I know a lot of people nationwide, maybe even in Texas, wonder why it is such a big issue. I guess to start with this is the first time in 50 years that we know of, in at least 50 years, that there has been a reopening of redistricting based simply on partisan purposes after the census has come out. Typically, in my experience in the Texas legislature, in 1981 as a State legislator and in 1991 as a State Senator, we did not want restricting bills on the floor of the Senate or the House because it was so divisive. But again, here in 2003, we are getting ready to do it again in Texas.

This is setting a standard not only for Texas but for the Nation that I think we should take a step back and look at. I think it is wrong. Again, whether it is Democrats or Republicans doing it, I think it is wrong. It just happens that in Texas it is the Republicans that are reopening this in 2003. We could see the same things happening in States that are controlled by Democrats. I do not think it is good public policy.

The problem we have, particularly with what has happened in the State capital, is that there were no public hearings outside our State capital. In 1981 and 1991 in Texas we had redistricting hearings all over the State. I participated in them, particularly in 1991 as a State Senator because I was on the subcommittee of the committee of the whole of the State Senate to hear that testimony outside of the State capital; to hear from people in the neighborhoods who could not go to Austin. That helped to draw a plan, which I think has caused the problem with the one they are considering now and why we are seeing 53 members of the Texas House leave the State to break the quorum.

This plan divides communities, it divides an urban area in Harris County, City of Houston, and it spreads it almost throughout the State. It runs the district from Houston to Austin and Houston to east Texas, from Houston to Beaumont, Port Arthur. And maybe if they would have had these public hearings, they would have realized that you do not split those communities.

But I am here in support of those 50-plus Democratic members of the Texas House who I consider Texas heroes who have put their political lives on the line to ensure that the rights of all Texans remain intact. I want to personally thank the State representatives in my area, Rick Noriega, Jessica Farrar, Joe Moreno, Senfronia Thompson, and Kevin Bailey, along with many other State representatives, Pete Gallego from west Texas, Richard Raymond from south Texas, and too many that we cannot name here in 5 minutes.

Let me talk a little about the tradition of breaking a quorum in a legislative body. In Congress it is something

we do not do because our quorum requirements are a majority. But in State legislatures, particularly in Texas, it has been almost a tradition. In 1979, the State Senate broke the quorum because of an election bill that was being considered. In 1981, when I was a House member, we tried to break the quorum after midnight on a Saturday night on a congressional redistricting bill. We were not nearly as organized as these folks because we only slowed it down for about 3 hours and members of the Statehouse were found in closets and air vents and everything else in the State capital.

But breaking the quorum is not a new legislative tool. In fact, Abraham Lincoln participated in an attempt to break quorums in 1840 during one of his terms in Illinois' House of Representatives.

On one of those days, Democrats wanted a quorum, the Whigs at that time, the predecessors to our Republicans, did not, so the Democrats locked the doors to the House to keep the Members inside the Chamber. Lincoln and two of his fellow Whigs jumped out the window to avoid being locked inside, but their efforts failed, mainly for procedures, because it seemed they had already voted for a motion to adjourn, and in doing so they helped make that quorum which they were trying to break in their hasty departure. Even a former President and a Republican President tried to break a quorum in 1840, so that is a history.

These Members of the Texas Legislature, like I said, who are doing this have a tradition in Texas of using every legislative vehicle for their issues and their concerns. Obviously this redistricting map is the most god-awful-looking map I have ever seen, and, again, having been involved for many years as a State legislator.

In a letter to the Texas House Speaker Tom Craddick, these legislators who are currently living very high in a Holiday Inn and eating at Denny's in Oklahoma said, ``We love the house and take seriously our responsibility to serve our constituents and protect their best interests in the legislature. Our actions fall entirely within house rules. While disappointed that we were forced to break a quorum, our decision was driven by our solemn duty to fight for and protect the rights and interests of those who we were elected to serve in the legislature.''

Let me follow up to that line of questioning to my colleagues from Houston and Travis County. I think we all agree that we should not use Federal resources committed to the war on terrorism and to protecting our homeland to find people who have committed no Federal crime and no State crime. There is not a violation of the State penal code, and there is no Federal law violation. Not since Richard Nixon have we seen such an abuse of the law enforcement authority of the Federal Government.

As far as for most folks, as a Texan, I am proud of my State representatives for standing up for what they believe is right. I think that is what Texas was all about literally from 1836 to today. I am not the only one who thinks they are doing the right thing.

Monday the Houston Chronicle said, ``If they believe their principles are worth fighting for, and they have only one means to fight for them, it's difficult to fault them for it, particularly in a fight that was thrust upon them by Washington-driven partisan politics.''

Today the Houston Chronicle said, ``By thwarting DeLay's secretly drawn Washington redistricting plan, the House Democrats are preserving State prerogatives and doing all Texans a favor.''

Let me repeat that: ``Doing all Texans a favor.'' I think that is so true. That is why here tonight we see so many of us here on the floor at one time.

I want to thank my colleague from northeast Texas. We hope you will still be from northeast Texas and the legislature will go about their business to deal with school finance, deal with the $10 billion plus State deficit, and also with insurance reform, because I know our property and casualty insurance are the highest in the country. I thank the gentleman and thank all my colleagues for being here this evening.

Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of the resolution of my good friend, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Hall).

Human space flight is America's ultimate commitment to scientific exploration and research, and astronauts receive and deserve the most glory because they take the ultimate risk, as we know from the Columbia and the crew of Apollo 1, and the Challenger. They all made the ultimate sacrifice.

It is interesting, this resolution, because yesterday I had the opportunity in my district to visit three middle schools, Hambrick Middle School in Aldine ISP, Patrick Henry and Stevenson Middle Schools in the Houston Independent School District, with NASA astronaut Franklin Chang Diaz to encourage our young children to pursue careers in math and science and engineering so they can get great jobs and maybe even work for NASA one day. This is a great experience. I have been able to do that for a number of years with the astronauts in our community, because space exploration is not just the here and now, it is the future.

That is why this resolution, I think, is so important because it does look into the future. To get our Space Shuttles back into orbit, we need to know what went wrong and how to fix it. To do this, 30,000 people from local, State, and Federal agencies participated in the search for debris from the Columbia to try to piece together what happened. These efforts resulted in 82,000 pieces weighing 80,000 pounds, when workers covered 1.6 million acres on the ground and in the air. Importantly, many wing pieces, tiles, and the flight data box have been recovered and are being analyzed by NASA engineers right now.

Amazingly, with the tremendous efforts of the search parties, five of the nine experiments aboard Columbia have been recovered, including one experiment developing cancer treatment drugs.

I would like to close by noting that the Federal Emergency Management Agency is assuming most of the $300 million tab on this important operation; $1.2 million will reimburse Texas for the over-900 Texas National Guard personnel who participated.

I urge my colleagues to remember the expense needed for human space flight when we consider NASA's funding later this year. Shuttle maintenance and safety requirements are the highest priority. We need to take the lessons learned from the Columbia recovery search to heart and put them into practice. Again, I thank the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Hall) and the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Burgess) and urge my colleagues to suspend the rules and pass this resolution.

Mr. Speaker, on Thursday, May 1, 2003, I regret that I missed the vote for rollcall 158, the vote on final passage for H.R. 1258, the United States Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Act of 2003. I would like the record to reflect that, had I been present, I would have voted ``aye'' on this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this legislation. I think it is misguided and will not produce the economic stimulus that our Nation needs. The lesson we do not need to learn twice is that 2 years ago we enacted a tax cut that was heavily tilted toward the wealthy. It failed to stimulate our economy, and it wiped out every last bit of what budget surplus we had.

Mr. Speaker, it is high time we learn from our mistakes. We want to stimulate our economy. We need to get businesses investing in our customers and spending; but in cutting dividend and capital gains taxes, this bill is a long way from doing the job.

Mr. Speaker, in my home district, the 29th Congressional District of Texas, 94 percent of my taxpayers bring home less than $100,000.

How do these tax cuts affect them? The dividend tax cut will give them a whopping $39 in tax savings. Ninety-four percent will receive $39. That is not incentive. I have a district that consumes, they are people that work and they will spend the money, but let us give it to the folks that actually do that. Some 80 percent of my constituents do not report any capital gains or dividend income on their tax returns. Four out of five of my constituents see no tax relief from these cuts and that is not right.

Mr. Chairman, I thank our ranking member for yielding me this time, and I appreciate the recognition as alumni of the Committee on Education and the Workforce.

I rise in opposition to the legislation which hurts our unemployment assistance programs at the worst possible time. In my hometown in Texas, the unemployment rate is 6.7 percent as of March 2003, and probably is getting worse. Across the country, there are almost 10 million Americans who are officially unemployed and many who are not counted because they have dropped off the rolls. Our unemployment system needs to be stronger, not weaker. We need extended unemployment assistance in low income areas and we need stronger employment and retraining services.

The bill here today, H.R. 1261, actually reduces vital services through the old ``block grant and privatize'' game. I heard from my constituents working in the employment services field, and they report that privatization means unresponsive low bid contractors, overworked staff, and cutting corners.

Another concern I have is with the requirement that State vocational rehabilitation plants must describe how these services are better coordinated with services under IDEA. I do not mind coordination, but not if it is a cover for funding cuts, and that is what I am concerned about.

Under this bill, one-stop centers, which have been a success across the country and also in Houston would have to use more of their Federal funds to pay for infrastructure, not for services. That is a funding cut.

With over 3 million workers projected to lose their temporary unemployment assistance from now until the end of the year, without a new job, this bill makes no sense.

In my opposition, I would also point out that this reauthorization is opposed by major Hispanic groups, including the National Council of La Raza and the Hispanic Education Coalition, because it fails to help unemployed Hispanics in America to improve their English skills and job prospects. Again, from Texas and the Southwest we have a lot of skilled workers, but if our unemployment services provide English assistance, those people could get work and even better employment. If we want Hispanic folks in the labor market, we need to make a commitment that teaching English as a second language is important. This bill allows States to teach English, but makes no real commitment of resources.

Let me just touch on the religious concern I have. We had a job fair in our district last Monday that was coordinated in a Baptist church. We already have religious institutions involved if they want to be. We had many employers, and we had our workforce commission in Texas there that organized it. It was a great example of a religious community coming out and using their facilities, and that is happening right now, and they do not have to have discrimination. It happened to be a Baptist church, but they did not say we would only hire Baptists or let only Baptists come in here and apply for these jobs.

Mr. Chairman, I am concerned this bill goes in the wrong direction, and that is why I stand in opposition.

Mr. Chairman, I thank the chairman and the ranking member on our subcommittee, and I rise in support of the legislation.

Mr. Chairman, I rise today in support of H.R. 1298, the United States Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Act of 2003.

The global devastation caused by these three diseases cannot be understood. The HIV/AIDS pandemic has killed more than 25 million of the 65 million individuals affected by this disease worldwide.

More than 14 million children have been orphaned because of this awaful disease.

Tuberculosis, the leading killer of individuals with HIV/AIDS, is an equally serious threat. An estimated 2 billion persons--one third of the world's population--are infected with the bacteria that cause TB, and approximately 2 million persons die each year from TB.

This isn't just a problem overseas--after years of decline in the United States, the number of reported TB cases increased 20 percent during 1985-1992.

It is particularly problematic in my home State of Texas. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, we rank 5th in the country in TB case rates.

With approximately 264 million persons crossing the United States- Mexico border northbound annually, and 23 percent of all

U.S. foreign-born tuberculosis, TB, patients in the United States originating from Mexico, the implications are clear--we have to act on a global level if we are going to win the battle against this killer.

That is why I am pleased to support H.R. 1298, important legislation which will provide $3 billion annually for global AIDS, TB and malaria in 2004-2008.

The legislation provides up to $1 billion specifically for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria in 2004--a key multilateral mechanism for expanding prevention and treatment.

This bill also allows the U.S. share of total contributions to the Global Fund of up to 33 percent, which solidifies our commitment to eradicating these diseases worldwide.

This legislation is carefully crafted, bipartisan, and will be truly effective in our efforts to combat HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and oppose any efforts to weaken or amend it.