Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for yielding to me.

Mr. Speaker, this is Keystone Cops legislation. I fully expect to see the Marx Brothers, Larry, Curly and Moe, as Members of Congress here today.

Today, or tonight, we do not know if are going to vote on pension reform, associated health plans, repealing of the estate tax, tax extensions, or a minimum wage increase, or any combination or all of the above. It will be late on Friday night before we vote on any of these vital issues. Our constituents cannot be fooled by this late night flim-flam.

We should have an up-and-down vote on a minimum wage increase, not a vote on minimum wage increase and the estate tax at the same time or pension reform or whatever else the leadership feels convenient to add to this bill.

It is hard to hit a moving target, and rather than playing games, we should remember that there are people in this country who make $5.10 an hour. This is a real issue that impacts real people.

We have not raised the minimum wage since 1997. When adjusted for inflation, the minimum wage is the lowest it has been in 50 years. When it takes a full day's pay to fill up your gas tank, something is wrong.

A minimum wage earner makes only $10,700 a year. This is well below the poverty threshold for a family of three which is $16,600 a year.

We need to lift these hardworking Americans out of poverty and have a true vote on the minimum wage.

The estate tax may be part of the package. It is clear that my Republican colleagues do not really want to pass a minimum wage bill. The Senate has not been able to muster the 60 votes to pass the estate tax bill in years. I do not know why we want to create an illusion that we are passing the minimum wage law when we know that this law is going to fail in the Senate.

Let us stop playing games with people's lives. Let us have a straight up-and-down vote on the minimum wage so hardworking Americans can see who stands with them and who stands against them.

I urge my colleagues to vote against this martial law legislation, but also against any flim-flam or Larry, Curly and Moe legislation that they may want to bring up in the middle of the night.

Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to the Health Information Technology Promotion Act. Health IT, as we call it, has the potential to revolutionize our health care system by improving health outcomes through increased efficiency and accuracy. Despite the bill's title, however, this legislation would do little to actually promote the adoption of health IT among the providers who would most benefit from it.

Most importantly, the bill fails to include adequate funding to help providers invest in this promising technology. The $30 million in grant funding is only a drop in the bucket, so to speak, and will be stretched thin among the many providers who need financial assistance with health IT adoption.

Unfortunately, the Rules Committee failed to make in order either the Dingell/Rangel substitute or my amendment, which would have gone a long way to facilitating widespread health IT adoption. Specific to my amendment, which I submitted with my colleagues on our committee, Mr. Gonzalez and Mr. Rush, would authorize a Medicare add-on payment, a competitive grant and a State loan program to help providers invest in this technology.

If health IT is a priority of the Federal Government, then we need to put our money where our mouth is.

The bill is also sorely lacking in privacy protections. If patients are going to buy in to the benefits of health IT, we must ensure that personal health information is as secure as possible.

We already know from nationwide surveys that two-thirds of Americans are concerned about security of their personal health information.

The very nature of health IT is at risk of privacy breach; therefore, the proliferation of health IT must be accompanied by increased privacy protections.

Unfortunately the Rules Committee failed to allow the Markey/Capps amendment to be considered. That important amendment would have required patient consent before their health records were shared, as well as patient notification in the event of a privacy breach. This commonsense amendment would have closed a glaring loophole that we currently have in HIPAA.

In doing so, it would have given patients the privacy assurance they need to share important health information and to maximize the benefits of health IT to their personal health.

It is not often I advocate that the House should follow the Senate's lead, however, we should have better served our constituents if we take up the Senate bill.

Passed unanimously by the Senate, that bipartisan health IT bill will provide the necessary resources and pave the way for Americans to benefit from the promised health IT.

I encourage my colleagues to vote against this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I am a proud cosponsor of H.R. 5611. I serve on the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and I am glad our committee reported this bill to the floor.

It does basically two things: One, it creates these public-private partnerships so we can deal with the demand side. That benefits all Americans. I am honored to represent a district where we make a lot of gasoline that fuels our cars, but we also have to pay that high price at the pump. We can control our own destiny if we use public-private partnerships that this bill will allow between the Department of Energy and different groups. They will really help to show how we can lower our number of miles we need to drive and do a lot of other things, some of them are being done right now.

Making the Department of Energy more proactive with these private- public partnerships, will lower our demand side and hopefully lower our individual costs we have to pay for fuel. Also, if we lower demand, the price will come down. Because the reason we are paying over $3 a gallon, at least in my area and some areas of the country, is because of the high demand.

The other part of the bill I think is really good, and I am glad Mr. Conaway included it, the partnership on fuel supply for evacuations. I don't think there is any secret that in the Houston-Harris County area last year when Rita just barely missed us, it went to the east and hit both Congressman Ted Poe's district and Congressman Kevin Brady's, but we were concerned enough that we had almost 2 million people trying to evacuate, and the supply side for evacuations was not there.

The State of Texas and our local community is doing some planning now in anticipation. But, in hindsight, it really is the Department of Energy's responsibility to be able to look at this and make sure that in emergencies we have a plan in place for supply for evacuations but also after the fact.

In the Houston area, we have a number of refineries, and we actually shut those down because we thought Rita was going to be in the Houston Ship Channel and we were going to have 5 feet of water in those refineries. To get that refining capacity back up, we have to have some assistance; and I want the DOE to be a partner in that.

I support the bill and thank you, Mr. Conaway, for introducing it

Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 406, had I been present, I would have voted ``yea.''

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor one of my long-time friends, Dorothy Barker. Though not a native Houstonian, she has been here longer than most. She came here in 1939 and is a proud graduate of Milby High School.

Dorothy immediately went to work after graduation and moved around Texas with her husband, U.S. Army Air Force Sergeant Hugh Barker. In addition to being the mother of three children, Dorothy managed to have a variety of jobs to help support her family. She had a milk route in San Antonio, drove a city bus in Galveston, and was a ``motor pool'' employee at the Air Base in Dalhart, Texas.

Finally, her family settled down in Houston and she became an employee of Southwestern Bell Telephone Company in 1945 and joined the Communication Workers of America the same year. In 2 short years, she became a job steward and became a chief steward in 1962.

She was elected associate treasurer in 1972, which is when I met her and she has held that position ever since.

Dorothy helped bring the CWA into the State of Montana in 1970 and I know personally, she has worked tirelessly to help increase union membership, protect labor rights, and get those of us who believe in good wages and benefits elected to office.

Dorothy helped me the first time I ran for State representative and was elected in 1972. She has been a strong supporter ever since and I appreciate working with her over the last 32 years.

She has attended all the formal training schools offered by CWA. She has attended steward's training, local officer training schools, leadership and advanced leadership schools, and the AFL-CIO labor law and advanced labor law courses.

Her commitment to the CWA can never be questioned. She has served as a leader in all phases of local organizing drives, and all legislative and community service work. She has been a delegate to the last 18 CWA conventions and a delegate to the AFL-CIO Convention annually since 1976.

She was District 12 CWA Woman of the Year in 1981 and was CWA Woman of the Year for local 6222 in 1999.

She currently serves as local 6222 coordinating officer for the legislative committee, finance committee, election committee, and public relations committee.

She is vice-president of the Harris County AFL-CIO and chair of the trustees of the State AFL-CIO.

I thank Dorothy Barker for her service to the working people in the Houston area and in Texas over the last 60 years and congratulate her on her retirement.

Madam Speaker, yesterday the House of Representatives gave a victory to those hoping for cures for some of the most terrible illnesses of our time by defeating a fake bill on stem cell research.

Today, it is back to the calendar. The only reason we are considering this bill is to give our colleagues political cover when the President vetoes the bill that will provide real hope for cures, the Castle- DeGette embryonic stem cell legislation.

Let's make one thing clear this morning. A Presidential veto of the Castle-DeGette stem cell research bill will slow, if not stall, the real hope for cures and slam the door of hope right in the face of millions of Americans suffering from scores of incurable diseases.

The New Testament tells us that religious leaders in biblical times attacked Jesus for healing the sick on the Sabbath. We have religious leaders today who want to sit in judgment of today's healers.

Each of us on the floor today has a friend or family member who could benefit from increased embryonic stem cell research, whether they suffer from spinal cord injury, Alzheimer's or juvenile diabetes.

We must remember those who suffer and the compassion of the New Testament, not play political games with the hopes and prayers of the American people.

I thank my colleague for yielding.

Mr. Chairman, I rise today in support of H.R. 2389, the Protect the Pledge Act.

I strongly support the Pledge of Allegiance. In fact, in the 107th Congress I introduced H.J. Res. 103, an amendment to the Constitution that would affirm that the Pledge of Allegiance in no way violates the First Amendment.

Unfortunately, Congress did not pass the resolution before it adjourned for the 107th Congress.

As an original cosponsor of H.R. 2389, I believe it is necessary to protect the Pledge of Allegiance from unnecessary court battles, but without infringing on the rights of the people.

Article III of the Constitution states that Congress has the power to define jurisdiction of Federal district and appellate courts.

This bill still allows for our system of checks and balances to work as it has for over 200 years.

The Pledge of Allegiance is an important symbol of the privileges and rights that our Founding Fathers fought so desperately to preserve.

It deserves protection from those trying to remove the words ``under God.''

Mr. Speaker, the President's veto of embryonic stem cell legislation flies in the face of the American people's broad support for this bill. In vetoing this bill, the President has gone against more than 70 percent of Americans who support stem cell research using embryos that would otherwise be discarded.

Even worse, he has thumbed his nose at the millions of Americans suffering from incurable diseases. Americans have kept their hopes alive while this administration has played political games and thrown up roadblocks to the promising research that would offer them a cure.

As opposed to legislation we have passed to encourage research on cord blood and adult stem cells, only this bill, the Castle-DeGette bill, would expand research on the embryonic stem cells that have the unique ability to reproduce indefinitely and evolve into any cell type in our bodies.

I have personally seen the potential that this research holds and how it works. Last summer I visited the stem cell labs at the Baylor College of Medicine in my hometown of Houston, where researchers are looking at treatments for heart disease with just a few Federal lines. The message from the researchers I met with was clear. The current policy not only slows medical progress, but will force the world's brightest researchers to abandon the U.S. for countries without this restriction on lifesaving research.

My colleagues opposed to this bill have argued this on moral and religious grounds. They are absolutely right. Regardless of whether one practices Christianity, Judaism, or Islam, every religion in the world tells us to alleviate human suffering.

History has shown, however, that even the most devout have often strayed from this common religious and moral duty. According to the New Testament, religious leaders in Biblical times attacked Jesus for healing the sick on the Sabbath. History has apparently repeated itself, as we have religious leaders today casting similar judgments on the healers of our time. Just like the sick in Biblical times, American families suffering from incurable diseases do not have time for the Federal Government to restrict those who could heal them. To alleviate human suffering, that is the purpose of this bill, and that should be our purpose today.

Let us override this veto.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of House Resolution 921.

Throughout its history, Israel has had to defend itself from groups that want to wipe it off

the map. Hamas and Hezbollah do not want to negotiate a two-state solution, they want to go back to before 1948. That is not going to happen. The United States first recognized Israel and will continue to help Israel defend herself.

The recent attacks, murders and seizure of soldiers by Hezbollah and Hamas are no different, and this House must affirm its commitment to Israel and stand behind that nation's right to defend itself.

Less than three weeks after the June 25 abduction of Corporal Gilad Shalit by Hamas in undisputed Israeli territory, Hezbollah opened a second front against Israel by attacking, killing and abducting more Israeli soldiers in northern Israel.

Israel's response was no different than the U.S. response would have been if someone had attacked across our border.

Israel completely withdrew from southern Lebanon in accordance with United Nations Security Council Resolution 425.

Despite this move to facilitate the peace process in the region, and despite U.N. Security Council resolution 1559--which required Lebanon to take control of this region and to disarm and disband any militias in the country--Lebanon allowed Hezbollah to operate in southern Lebanon, and receive material and funding from Iran and Syria

Hezbollah launched four separate attacks earlier this year against Israel.

Israel has been forced to defend itself from these terrorist groups to protect its borders and its people which have been targeted by Hezbollah rockets.

Unlike Israel, which has carefully targeted Hezbollah members who hide and operate among the civilian populations, Hezbollah has indiscriminately fired rockets at northern Israeli civilian populations in cities like Haifa, Nazareth, and Nahariya.

Mr. Speaker, these attacks by the terrorist groups Hezbollah and Hamas on Israel's borders, military, and civilian population have forced Israel to respond.

I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this resolution reaffirming our support for Israel's right to defend itself.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to call attention to one of the most successful scholarship programs in the country. The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo has been known as the largest Rodeo in the world.

It attracts the best of the best in the rodeo and livestock industries but it also raises millions of dollars for Houston area children to go to college.

The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo awarded 315 scholarships totaling $3.78 million this year, and every year, the rodeo increases the number of awards given.

Forty students in our Congressional District received a $12,000 Rodeo scholarship bringing in almost $500,000 in scholarship money collectively.

Since 1957, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo has been helping students that demonstrate academic success, leadership, and need achieve their dream of going to college.

Next year will mark 50 years since the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo awarded their first scholarship and 75 years since the rodeo started.

In that time, over 20,0001 students have received over $100 million.

I was pleased to learn that students in our Congressional District have received almost $5.9 million in scholarship money since the Rodeo Scholarship Program has been in existence.

The area I represent has a large percentage of first-generation college students. I was especially pleased to learn that Milby High School, a school that is 90 percent Hispanic has received more Rodeo Scholarships than any other High School in the State.

Milby High School students have received 222 scholarships totaling $1.4 million. That's impressive for Milby and it's a statement to the commitment of the Rodeo to serve all communities in Texas.

I'm sure hundreds of more students will enjoy benefiting from this amazing program as it grows in the future.

I am proud to be a life member of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo and thank the thousands of volunteers that dedicate well over a million hours of service each year to make the rodeo and its scholarship program operate as smoothly as they do.

Their service to our community is greatly appreciated.

Mr. Speaker, I invite all my fellow Members to come down to Houston sometime to enjoy all the entertainment the Rodeo has to offer, and then join me in visiting some of our neediest schools so you can meet the students that benefit from the world's largest rodeo.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to H.J. Res. 88.

I believe that the institution of marriage should consist of one man and one woman and I voted for the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, but I cannot support this bill.

The Defense of Marriage Act has never been challenged in the Supreme Court and it seems like we are putting the cart before the horse.

We should allow our system of checks and balances to work as it has for over 200 years. Our founding fathers created three branches of government to work independently, but equally.

In Texas, we already have a law that states that the institution of marriage is between one man and one woman. We also have a law that states that Texas does not have to recognize marriages that were performed outside of the state of Texas.

Even if other states decide to change their standards for issuing marriage licenses. It will not change how marriage licenses are issued in Texas.

The Defense of Marriage Act supports our state laws. Marriage is a state issue and it should remain so. When my wife and I married 36 years ago we went to our county courthouse, not our federal courthouse.

We do not seek marriage licenses from the federal government.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of this resolution and to congratulate Magen David Adom Society for achieving full membership in the International Red Cross.

Magen David Adom (MDA), Israel's first-aid and disaster relief organization, was granted full membership into the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Society on June 21, 2006. The decision, which took place in Geneva, Switzerland at the 29th International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent voted to accept both the Palestinian Red Crescent and Magen David Adom. Both organizations are now full voting members, and received crucial funding to assist in their life- saving work.

Internationally, MDA has served in crisis spots around the world for 50 years alongside Red Cross, bringing emergency relief to victims of hurricanes, floods, and earthquakes. Earlier this year, MDA specialists flew to Romania to assist the local population with the disastrous flooding of the River Danube.

During the Katrina nightmare, MDA started ``United Brotherhood'' to collect donations, clothing and equipment in Israel to help meet the needs of the 400,000 homeless along the American gulf coast.

The relief effort after Southeast Asian tsunami found MDA running two emergency clinics in Sri Lanka and providing thousands of blood units. At every turn, the MDA has offered their help to nations in need.

Mr. Speaker, I applaud the International Red Cross for granting MDA full membership, and I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this resolution congratulating the Magen David Adom Society.

Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of the reauthorization and against all amendments

Mr. Chairman, I rise to take part in an ongoing historic dialog that unfortunately, we must continue to address in the United States Congress.

The issue before us today is whether we should reauthorize certain sections of the Voting Rights Act. I grew up in the fifties and sixties when we had segregated water fountains, schools, an restrictions on voting.

We are here to decide if we should continue mandating pre-clearance for any changes in election policy in jurisdictions that are known to have a history of disenfranchising the rights of minority voters.

My home state of Texas is included on that list.

Over the last forty years, the renewal of this Act on this Floor has embodied what we hope this country will be: a Country where regardless of race, religion, or political party, we come together to ensure that the core of our democracy continues to thrive.

The right to vote is the core of our democracy and we must protect this right for all Americans.

Recently, the Department of Justice failed to pre-clear an election plan for a bond election in the area I represent.

Polling places were few, and it was the opinion of many that putting polling places only in select areas for this election was a violation of the Voting Rights Act.

DOJ agreed and the election has been postponed until a better plan can be put in place.

This is but one recent example of how the Voting Rights Act ensures people have access to the polls so their voice can be heard.

As we support an emerging Democracy in Iraq and the success of the elections that were held there, we need to remember that this Country has also struggled to achieve Democracy and one that everyone can participate in.

Let us be an example to Iraq in the world that a true Democracy includes ALL Americans and that we are committed to preventing the discrimination that millions of Americans had to endure in the past.

I urge my colleagues to reauthorize these Sections of the Voting Rights Act and send a message that this Country is still the example of how representative government should work.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to condemn Hezbollah and Hamas for the recent kidnappings and killings of Israeli soldiers.

These acts of aggression have forced Israel to defend itself and its citizens and will have a damaging effect on the prospect of peace in the Middle East. If someone attacked across our borders and sent rockets into the United States and had killed or captured our own soldiers, you had better believe we would want to defend ourselves. Israel has the right to respond just like we would.

Israel fully withdrew from southern Lebanon in May of 2000 and from Gaza earlier this year only to suffer hundreds of unprovoked attacks from both areas since then. This is not the first time Hezbollah has taken action against Israeli soldiers. It also kidnapped and killed three soldiers in October of 2000.

These attacks are an attempt by Hezbollah to open a second front, so to speak, after the kidnappings in Gaza and their attack on Israel's sovereignty. Hezbollah's actions require Israel to defend itself, and Israel's actions to take out terrorist camps along its borders to prevent this from happening again are warranted and justified. Israel has to defend itself from these terrorist organizations that want to go back to pre-1948 before there was Israel. They don't want Israel on the map.

These countries with influence over Hezbollah must move quickly to bring the return of these soldiers.

Mr. Speaker, I condemn the acts of Hezbollah and Hamas and ask my colleagues to do so as well.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I would like to thank Ranking Member Dingell and our ranking member of the subcommittee, Sherrod Brown, for allowing me to manage the bill.

I rise in support of this legislation which the Energy and Commerce Committee reported out last month. This legislation makes minor changes in the National Foundation for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention so that it can have the flexibility it needs to build on its success to date.

First authorized by Congress in 1992, the CDC Foundation is an excellent example of a public-private partnership that can yield tremendous results with minimal taxpayer investment.

Specifically, the Foundation has utilized $500,000 in Federal funding to bring in approximately $15 million in private sector dollars each year. This amounts to a 30-to-1 return on CDC's annual investment in the Foundation.

With this funding, the CDC Foundation has implemented more than 100 health and safety programs in over 30 countries. These programs stretch across the world and reach all levels of society from corporate leaders and health care professionals to patients.

For example, the Foundation has addressed global health concerns with the Round Table on Global Health Threats, which brought global government and corporate leaders together to develop ways to better detect global health threats.

The Foundation has also been instrumental in the establishment of a health leadership academy that provides management training for midcareer health care professionals from local and State health departments.

The CDC Foundation has also improved the health of underserved women here at home through its mobile mammogram van. This partnership with Avon has put mobile vans on the ground in rural and underserved communities. There is no question that these vans have saved the lives of American women who face significant barriers to health care and whose cancer would have most likely gone undetected until it was too late.

What's more, the CDC has now assigned a scientist to the program to evaluate the program and determine the best practices for similar programs around the country.

This bill makes minor changes in the Foundation's authorization that will have a major impact on the Foundation's ability to leverage its resources and maximize the outcome. For example, the bill increases the authorization levels the CDC director can put toward the Foundation. This change will provide the CDC director with the flexibility to increase CDC's investment in the Foundation, but not at additional taxpayer expense, since the CDC's contribution to the Foundation is not appropriated, but comes from the director's budget.

The bill would also allow for better alignment of private fellowships and Foundation activities. Currently, fellows may be assigned to the Foundation program for 2 years, despite the program's duration of 3 to 4. This small change will allow fellows to remain throughout the program's duration, providing the program with invaluable institutional memory and increased efficiency, which will no doubt improve the outcomes.

This is a commonsense bill that will improve the public-private partnerships that are so important to the current success of the CDC Foundation.

I encourage my colleagues to join me in supporting this bill and ensure we build on this success in the future.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.