Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, I rise today to explain how I would have voted on rollcall votes cast on April 29, 2010. Due to prior commitments in Houston, I was returning home and was not able to make the last series of votes. Had I been present, I would have voted on the following:

``No,'' on rollcall vote #234, the Foxx of North Carolina Amendment;

``No,'' on rollcall vote #235, the Gutierrez of Illinois Amendment No. Two;

``No,'' on rollcall vote #236, the Gutierrez of Illinois Amendment No. Three;

``Yes,'' on rollcall vote #237, the Burton of Indiana Amendment;

``No,'' on rollcall vote #238, the Velazquez of New York Amendment No. Five;

``No,'' on rollcall vote #239, the Velazquez of New York Amendment No. Six;

``No,'' on rollcall vote #240, the Velazquez of New York Amendment No. Seven;

``No,'' on rollcall vote #241, the Motion to Recommit on H.R. 2499 the Puerto Rico Democracy Act;

``Yes,'' on rollcall vote #242, on passage of H.R. 2499 the Puerto Rico Democracy Act.

Madam Speaker, I am a cosponsor of H.R. 2499, and strongly supported its passage in a statement made last week. I am pleased this legislation has passed the House and hope to see it move forward in the Senate to give the people of Puerto Rico and opportunity to determine their future.

Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 242, final passage of H.R. 2499, had I been present, I would have voted ``yes.''

Stated against:

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H. Res. 1103--Celebrating the life of Sam Houston on the 217th anniversary of his birth. Sam Houston was born March 2, 1793, in Tiber Ridge, Virginia.

General Houston was an American statesman, politician, and soldier. He is a key figure in the history of Texas, including periods as the 1st and 3rd president of the Republic of Texas, as Senator after annexation, and finally as governor.

In his early life, he moved to Tennessee, where he served in the military during the War of 1812 and later had a successful career in Tennessee politics. A fight with a Congressman led to his move to Texas, where he soon became a leader of the Texas Revolution.

Houston attended the Convention of 1833, representing Nacogdoches, and supported independence from Mexico. He was made a Major General of the Texas Army in November 1835, then Commander-in-Chief in March 1836, at the convention where he signed the Texas Declaration of Independence.

At the Battle of San Jacinto on April 21, 1836, General Houston surprised General Santa Ana and the Mexican forces, and in less than 18 minutes, the battle was over. General Santa Ana was forced to sign the Treaty of Velasco, granting Texas independence. During the battle General Houston was shot, shattering his ankle.

The settlement of Houston was founded in August 1836 by the Allen brothers. It was named in Houston's honor and served as capital.

Houston was twice elected president of the Republic of Texas. He served from October 1836 to December 1838, and again from December 1841 to December 1844. While he initially sought annexation by the U.S., he dropped that hope during his first term.

After the annexation of Texas by the United States in 1845, Houston was elected to the U.S. Senate. He served from February 1846 until March 1859.

He twice ran for governor of Texas, unsuccessfully in 1857 and successfully in 1859.

Despite Houston's being a slave owner and against abolition, he opposed the secession of Texas from the Union.

Despite Houston's wishes, Texas seceded from the United States in February 1861 and joined the Confederate States of America in March 1861. This act was soon branded illegal by Houston, but the Texas legislature nevertheless upheld the legitimacy of secession. The political forces that brought about Texas's secession also were powerful enough to replace the state's Unionist governor.

To avoid bloodshed, Governor Houston chose not to resist, and instead retired to Huntsville, Texas, where he died before the end of the Civil War. Today, Governor Houston has a memorial museum, a U.S. Army base, a national forest, a historical park, a university, and the largest free- standing statue of an American figure, in his honor.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in strong support of House Resolution 1262, which honors the victims of the fire at the Tesoro Refinery in Anacortes, Washington and expresses condolences to their families, friends, and loved ones in the wake of this tragic incident.

On April 2, 2010, as a team of seven employees worked in the refinery's naphtha hydro-treater, a devastating fire broke out. While the fire was quickly brought under control by Tesoro's fire control team and local first responders, three of the employees died immediately in the fire, three more died of their injuries, and another remains in intensive care after suffering severe burns.

I would like to extend my deepest sympathies to the community of Anacortes and the entire state of Washington, including to Representative Rick Larsen who represents the affected community. Our district has five refineries that employ many of our constituents and we share in their unfortunate loss.

As we continue to deal with the devastating consequences of this episode, we must also direct our attention to preventing losses of life like this in the future. Ensuring the safety of our refineries must be a top priority to protect the security and wellbeing of our workers, their families, and communities.

Again, I would like to express my condolences to the families, friends, and loved ones of those killed in the fire and also offer my support and hope for a full recovery to the Anacortes community.

Mr. Speaker, on April 21, 1836, 174 years ago today, Texas forces led by General Sam Houston dealt a decisive blow to General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna and his oppressive government.

Several weeks after signing the Texas Declaration of Independence in March of 1836, roughly 900 members of the Texan army overpowered a much larger Mexican Army in a surprise attack. Some 700 Mexican soldiers were killed and 730 captured, while nine Texans died.

The Texas army quickly and silently moved toward Santa Anna's camp. They were able to get very close because General Santa Anna was still pleased with his victory at the Alamo and failed to post men to watch the Texans' actions. At close range, the ``Twin Sisters'' drawn by rawhide thongs, were wheeled into position to begin unloading shells at the napping Mexican Army. The cannons were gifts from the people of Cincinnati, Ohio.

Texas soldiers followed the bombardment and yelled and shouted ``Remember the Alamo'' and ``Remember Goliad'' stopping only a few yards from the Mexican solders to open fire in a surprise attack.

The Mexican soldiers were better trained than their Texas opponents. They were caught off guard. It was a bold attack in broad daylight.

Texas General Sam Houston, former Member of this Congress from Tennessee, future President of the Republic of Texas, future U.S. Senator and Governor of Texas, had two horses shot out from under him and was shot and his ankle was shattered.

Santa Anna was captured that day and held prisoner and signed peace treaties to give Texas independence.

The battle is memorialized along the San Jacinto River with a monument in our district in La Porte, Texas. A panel on the side of the monument states: ``Measured by its results, San Jacinto was one of the decisive battles of the world. The freedom of Texas from Mexico won here led to annexation and to the Mexican War, resulting in the acquisition by the United States of the States of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, California, Utah and parts of Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas and Oklahoma. Almost one-third of the present area of the American Nation, nearly one million square miles, changed sovereignty.''

That's what we're commemorating today.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition to the President's budget proposal to cancel our human space flight program. It's under the Constellation Program, which was authorized both by

Democrat and Republican Congresses respectively, that NASA is currently developing new launch vehicles capable of traveling to the moon, Mars, and other destinations.

Not only does canceling the Constellation Program jeopardize America's leadership role in human space exploration, but it will have a detrimental effect on our economy, projecting job losses of 30,000 nationally.

Given our current economic downturn, we can't take the possibility of losing these jobs lightly. Our government has already invested literally years and billions of dollars in this program. We should build on these investments and not abandon them, especially considering the private sector will not be able to build a better, faster, cheaper rocket before the Constellation Program is slated to be finished because the technologies NASA proposed to use do not exist yet, nor has any destination been chosen.

Constellation is our only hope to close the current 5-year gap in U.S. access to space, and I encourage my colleagues to join me in opposition to the proposal to close Constellation.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of H. Con. Res. 222--Recognizing the leadership and historical contributions of Dr. Hector P. Garcia to the Hispanic community and his remarkable efforts to combat racial and ethnic discrimination in the United States. Dr. Garcia was born in Mexico, in 1914, but his family fled the Mexican Revolution and immigrated to Mercedes, Texas. His is an inspirational story of the possibilities the American Dream holds for immigrants. Through hard work and perseverance, he became a surgeon and served his country in World War II Dr. Garcia's experiences after his return from the war led him to found the American GI Forum in Corpus Christi, Texas.

Dr. Garcia began helping Mexican-American veterans file claims with the Veterans' Administration, in response to the unacceptably slow treatment they were receiving. On March 26, 1948. he called a meeting to address the concerns of these veterans. This developed into the American GI Forum, which soon had chapters in 40 Texas cities and became the way by which Mexican-American veterans could express their frustration with the discrimination against-them.

And so it is with great pleasure that I recognize Dr. Hector P. Garcia, for his service to our country and to the Mexican-American community, and I support this resolution.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 1258, the Truth in Caller ID Act, an important bill, and one I have taken an interest in as we have worked on it over the last several Congresses in the Energy and Commerce Committee.

Caller ID is a great benefit to millions of Americans by giving them more control over their telephones and who and when they talk on the phone.

Like many technological advances, caller ID is a benefit, but bad actors can take advantage of it and turn the technology against the people it is supposed to help.

We want certain people to be able to mask caller ID information for good purposes, like protecting abused women and children or anonymous whistleblowers, but we do not want people to be able to do it for deceptive purposes.

Last Congress, I had some concern that the bill language did not go far enough to address an issue that arose in Texas with robocalls that were using misleading caller ID information, and I worked with Mr. Engel on an amendment to address that.

Every election year, there are reports of abusive or deceptive political robocalls and recently reports claim some of these calls are using deceptive caller ID information.

We don't want to limit anyone's political speech, but why should we allow someone to call voters with fake caller ID info claiming they are from the local Democratic or Republican Party when they are not?

We also do not want these automated calls to use innocent businesses' caller ID info which causes people to blame innocent businesses instead of the real source for the calls.

I applaud the bill's sponsor for strengthening the language to prevent this kind of deception during the Committee process.

I strongly support this bill, and I urge my colleagues to join me in voting for it.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize the importance of World TB Day. Tuberculosis is the second leading global infectious disease killer behind HIV/AIDS, claiming approximately 1.8 million lives each year. It is estimated that \1/3\ of the world's population is infected with TB. This disease kills people of all races and ages around the world.

The global TB pandemic and spread of drug resistant TB presents a persistent public health threat to the U.S. The WHO reports that 5 percent of all new TB cases are drug resistant, with estimates of up to 28 percent drug resistant reported in some parts of Russia. Of these numbers, it is estimated that only 7 percent are receiving treatment.

Although drugs, diagnostics and vaccines for TB exist, these technologies are antiquated and are increasingly inadequate for controlling the global epidemic. The most commonly used TB diagnostic in the world, sputum microscopy, is more than 100 years old and lacks sensitivity to detect TB in most HIV/AIDS patients and in children.

Drug susceptibility tests for drug resistant TB take 2-4 weeks to complete, during which time a drug resistant TB patient in a developing country may die. The TB vaccine, BCG, provides some protection to children, but has little or no efficacy in preventing pulmonary TB in adults. We will never be able to defeat TB without the introduction of new identification, treatment and prevention tools.

World TB Day provides us with an opportunity to celebrate the significant gains made in the fight against TB and reminds of us the challenges ahead. Since 1995, 36 million people around the world have successfully been treated for TB and 9 million lives have been saved.

Less than 2 years ago, this Congress passed two historic laws to combat TB. The Comprehensive TB Elimination Act authorizes the tools to put the U.S. on the path to TB elimination and the Lantos-Hyde Act, with multi-lateral commitment, aims to reduce the global TB burden by half within a decade.

Both of these laws would support an increased research investment to get us the new TB diagnostic, treatment and prevention tools that we urgently need. With enactment of these 2 laws, we have the power to combat TB effectively and reduce the human misery that this disease wreaks around the world.

I urge my colleagues to work with me and our colleagues on the Appropriations Committee to fully fund these measures.

Mr. Speaker, due to previous district commitments in Houston yesterday, I was not able to vote on rollcall votes taken during the evening of March 19 and March 20. I rise today to notify the House and the public on how I would have voted on those missed rollcall votes.

On House rollcall vote 144, ``yes'';

On House rollcall vote 145, ``yes'';

On House rollcall vote 146, ``yes'';

On House rollcall vote 147, ``yes'';

On House rollcall vote 148, ``no'';

On House rollcall vote 149, ``yes'';

On House rollcall vote 150, ``yes'';

On House rollcall vote 151, ``yes'';

On House rollcall vote 152, ``yes'';

On House rollcall vote 153, ``yes'';

On House rollcall vote 154, ``yes.''

Mr. Speaker, I do not take my voting responsibilities lightly. My voting percentage in the 111th Congress is over 96 percent. I rarely miss votes, but with the long week in Washington like all of us have had, I had previous commitments I could not miss in the district.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 3590 and also H.R. 4872.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 3590, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and H.R. 4872, the Reconciliation Act of 2010.

We are in desperate need of health care reform in the 29th District in Texas. We have one of the highest number of uninsured individuals in our country where nearly 43 percent of the residents are uninsured. If enacted, H.R. 3590 and H.R. 4872 would provide insurance coverage to 95 percent of all Americans and for 223,500 currently uninsured residents in the 29th district.

It will also improve the employer based coverage for 217,000 residents in my district. Also, approximately 177,000 families and 14.600 small businesses will receive tax credits and other assistance to help them afford health insurance coverage under these bills.

The legislation before us today will give all individuals the ability to access quality affordable health insurance, and approximately

34,500 residents in our district will no longer be denied coverage for preexisting conditions and their coverage cannot be capped or dropped when they get sick.

The legislation before us today also ensures no more co-pays for preventive care, no more yearly caps on what the insurance company will cover, and provides premium subsidies for those who need them.

We will also improve Medicare benefits for 56,000 seniors in our district by closing the Part D donut hole over time and immediately provide seniors who are in the donut hole with a $250 credit in 2010.

The legislation also improves seniors' benefits under Medicare by providing free preventive and wellness care, improving primary and coordinated care, and enhancing nursing home care. The bill also strengthens the Medicare Trust Fund, extending its solvency from 2017 to 2026.

H.R. 3590 and H.R. 4872 will rein in rising health costs for American families and small businesses--introducing competition that will drive premiums down, capping out-of-pocket spending.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, CBO, this legislation is fully paid for by eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and excessive profits for private insurers. Nationwide, these health reform bills will reduce the deficit by over $130 billion over the next 10 years and by about $1.2 trillion over the second decade.

Texas will also benefit from the legislation before us today. The Texas Department of Health and Human Services, TDHHS, released estimates that H.R. 3590 and H.R. 4872 will cost the State $24 billion over the next 10 years--this is inaccurate.

These estimates are incorrect because they do not include the federal expansion and 100 percent contribution of Medicaid payments until 2018. Right now Texas accounts for 7 percent of Medicaid spending nationally. If those levels stay the same after the State-based exchanges are set up, the cost to the State of Texas would be $1.4 billion and not $24 billion. Additionally, the bill will reduce the expenses related to uncompensated care in our State by $15 million annually.

Currently, there are 5.9 million uninsured individuals in Texas. Under H.R. 3590 and H.R. 4872 nearly all of those individuals will have health insurance and most of it will be funded at federal expense--not at the expense of Texas. In fact, given the size of the State it is entirely possible that Texas will receive the largest amount of federal investment of any other State and create many new jobs in the health care sector.

The time for health reform has come. Health insurance premiums are growing three times faster than wages and last year, more than half of Americans postponed medical care or skipped their medications because they couldn't afford it.

I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of the legislation today not only for my constituents, but for all Americans.

Madam Speaker, Members, we, as Members of Congress, this week have a choice. We have a choice between voting with the people who need health care or voting with the insurance corporations who have fouled this system up for decades.

The bill that we're going to deal with, the consumers select their insurance plan and their company. Consumers select their doctors. Consumers make treatment decisions with their doctors. Consumers will keep coverage they have if they change their jobs.

The insurance companies will have less control. Insurance companies will no longer be able to deny coverage or revoke coverage for preexisting conditions. Insurance companies will no longer be allowed to cap medical costs that people run into all the time for treatment. Insurance companies will no longer be allowed to drop coverage when you get sick. Insurance companies will have to compete for business.

That's why we have a choice. Whose side is your Member of Congress on, with the people who need health care or the ones who want to sell it?

Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor both my alma mater and hometown school, the University of Houston, and its men's basketball team, for being selected for the NCAA tournament for the first time in 18 years. The Cougars secured a bid to the tournament by winning the Conference USA championship game. Houston goes to the tournament with the Nation's leading scorer, Aubrey Coleman, and a solid team surrounding him. The team faces the University of Maryland on Friday in the opening round of the tournament.

While it's been some time since Houston has made an appearance in the NCAA tournament, we have a long history of success in the NCAA tournament, most notably in the early eighties. It was during this time, from 1982 to 1984, that Phi Slama Jama became the nickname of the University of Houston Cougars men's basketball team. The phrase was coined by a local sportswriter, Thomas Bonk, and the nickname was quickly adopted by the players and even appeared on team warm-up suits. Phi Slama Jama was coached by Guy Lewis and featured NBA Hall of Fame players Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler. ``Texas' Tallest Fraternity'' was known for its dunking and explosive, fast-breaking style of play. While the 2009-2010 team has a different style of play, they're exciting to watch, and we'll be rooting for an upset on the number four seed on Friday.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of House Resolution 1115, which honors the profound dedication and public service of Enrique ``Kiki'' Camarena on the 25th anniversary of his untimely death.

Mr. Camarena led an exemplary life of service to his community and his nation. As a member of the Marine Corps, fire fighter, police officer, and DEA special agent, he demonstrated an extreme passion for fighting crime and eliminating drugs to ensure the safety and well- being of our communities. He led a commendable 11-year career at the Drug Enforcement Administration earning him the distinguished Administrator's Award of Honor.

In February 1985, Mr. Camarena lost his life in the line of duty. I had the opportunity to attend a memorial for Mr. Camarena and witness the impact his sacrifice made and hear from some of the many lives he touched. I am glad that twenty-five years after this tragedy, his passion and spirit still live on. His commitment to fighting drugs inspired millions of people around the world to live drug-free lives. We must continue to honor this legacy by promoting drug-free communities and supporting healthy drug-free lifestyles.

Again, I would like to express my appreciation for the outstanding service Mr. Camarena provided for this nation and offer my support and deepest condolences to his wife, children, and to the entire family, friends, and former colleagues at the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition to the President's proposal to cancel the NASA Constellation Program, which covers the Orion Crew capsule, the Altair Lunar Lander, and the Ares I and Ares V rockets. These programs, which together comprise our human spaceflight program, were authorized in both 2005 and 2008 by Republican and Democratic Congresses.

It is under the Constellation Program that NASA is currently developing new launch vehicles and spacecraft capable of traveling to the Moon, Mars, and other destinations. Not only does canceling the Constellation Program jeopardize America's leadership role in human space exploration, but it will have detrimental effects on our economy.

The issue is it will take years for the commercial spaceflight industry to get up to speed to where the level of competence exists in NASA today. Our government has already invested literally years and billions of dollars in this program. We should build upon these investments and not abandon them.

Our country can support the commercial spaceflight industry, but not at the expense of our human spaceflight programs.

It is my hope, Madam Speaker, that this Congress will continue NASA's Constellation Program.