Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize Action in Community Through Service (ACTS) as an exceptional community organization, setting a high standard of service for individuals and organizations in Prince William County.

Established on November 1, 1969, ACTS is guided by the mission to alleviate hunger, homelessness, and domestic violence, and help people achieve self-support in the Prince William area. A small group of dedicated volunteers and clergymen founded ACTS in response to the need for coordinated community action. ACTS now serves over 45,000 people a year. The organization's growth is a testament to the effectiveness of its programs and ability of its staff and volunteers.

ACTS opened the area's first food bank and first dedicated homeless shelter. In 2008, two new facilities opened to accommodate the success of ACTS programs. The Eastern Prince William Safe House provides refuge for victims of domestic violence, and the new Family Services Center offers job counseling and life skills classes to women, children and families struggling with the hardships of homelessness. These facilities will help to restore hope and opportunity to those whom otherwise would endure pain and isolation.

ACTS continually receives top marks for program efficiency and delivers results that genuinely change lives. Citizens hoping to improve their community and the lives of their neighbors have a capable partner in ACTS.

Madam Speaker, I ask my esteemed colleagues to join me in expressing our gratitude for this organization's accomplishments and their steadfast commitment to charity.

As a new Member of this body, this is going to be one of the most important votes I cast. And to hear some of the rhetoric tonight from the other side makes one think of Charles Dickens. Are there no workhouses?

We are in the worst economic meltdown in 76 years. The middle class is crying for relief. We are on a precipice, and this body must act. I feel duty-bound to cast my vote in favor of this legislation because it is action. It is designed to spur infrastructure. It is designed to provide middle-class tax relief.

And when I hear language of special interest, I wonder if we mean by that our State and local governments that are hemorrhaging red ink and need the relief contained in this legislation. As someone who's just come from local government, I know firsthand how every State and every locality in this country is hurting.

I intend to support this legislation, especially the infrastructure provisions in it that will get people back to work and spur local economies.

Mr. Chair, if I understand the gentleman's question, first of all, I think his numbers are not correct, if I look at the Chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. I think it's considerably more than the number the gentleman has cited.

I also think the gentleman fails to recognize that there's cumulatively $120 billion of relief for State and local governments. I would also point out to him that every State and every locality virtually in this country is hemorrhaging red ink.

Mr. Chair, I don't believe that is the appropriate question.

Mr. Chairman, I think the opposite is true. I think the gentleman is fighting for policies that prove to be a failure.

Madam Speaker, this vote is about values. If you are an uninsured kid in America and you have appendicitis, the chance of death is five times that of a kid who is insured. This is about values. We are the only developed country in the world that does not extend full health insurance to its children. History has shown no nation can truly consider itself great without providing for the well- being of its most vulnerable.

I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.

Madam Speaker, I rise in support of the bill. It is clear that the Congress sees value in this critical investment in our Nation's children, having passed a similar measure not once but twice in its last session. Thankfully, we will now have a President who shares that same compassion and commitment to our low- and middle-income working families.

Given the ongoing economic crisis, the number of at-risk children will only continue to increase. The number of Americans who are now unemployed, and ostensibly now without health care, has increased by more than half in the past year, from 4.7 percent to 7.2 percent nationally. When you factor in the skyrocketing costs of health care, coupled with the economic pinch being placed on people's pocketbooks, today's American families are being bled dry and countless children are being left without health care. In that context, we are making a critical investment in the health of our Nation by adding these 4 million children to the 7 million already covered by SCHIP.

The long-term risk of not making this investment now will surely cost us more. Let me cite just one example: It is my understanding that an uninsured child diagnosed with appendicitis is 5 times more likely to die as a result of lack of access to medical attention than a child who is has been insured. By expanding access to more working families, we begin to lay the foundation for the principles by which we hope to overhaul our Nation's health care system.

As my colleagues may be aware, the United States is the only developed nation in the world that does not provide health care for all of its children. That is unconscionable. As history has proven, no nation can truly consider itself great without providing for the well- being of its most vulnerable.

I thank the distinguished chairman.

I rise for the purpose of a colloquy with the distinguished chairman. I know that he shares my concern with respect to the current state of the municipal bond market in the United States. Following the meltdown of last fall, investors fled from bond markets to U.S. Treasury notes. As a result, our State and local governments are experiencing limited access to the capital markets due to the liquidity crisis.

The double-whammy has effectively denied many of the municipal taxes and bond issuers across the country any ability with which to finance capital projects. As we already know, our partners in State and local governments are already facing tough financial choices, but if this particular issue is not addressed, it could lead to a contraction of the national economy to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars at precisely the time we are trying to stimulate it.

I would ask the distinguished chairman of the Financial Services Committee, is his understanding about the current state of the municipal bond market similar to that I just described?

I thank the chairman.

And I would ask for his consideration of a proposal to direct the Secretary of Treasury to establish a program to provide direct credit enhancements or insurance from municipal bonds to help State and local governments to move forward on their civil-ready projects now on hold.

Yes, sir.

I look forward to cooperating with the distinguished chairman, and I thank him for his consideration and time.

I thank my colleague from Texas, and I rise in support of the resolution today.

Mr. Speaker, I also rise to pay tribute to one of the most gifted and gracious legislators who has ever served in the United States Congress, a man whose life's work influenced education, culture and diplomacy for generations of Americans. He was also a man with whom I had the great pleasure of working during my 10 years serving on the staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Senator Claiborne de Borda Pell may best be known for his effort to create a national college tuition grant program, which now bears his name, but Senator Pell was also instrumental in establishing the National Endowment for the Arts and Humanities and pushing for critical new investments in our Nation's railroad system.

As my colleagues know, Senator Pell died early Friday, January 2, at his home in Newport, Rhode Island. He was first elected to the United States Senate in 1960 and served six terms, becoming the State's longest-serving Senator. Senator Pell came from a political family that had five members serve in the House or Senate, including his great- great-granduncle George M. Dallas, who was a Senator from Pennsylvania in the 1830s and Vice President under James K. Polk in the 1840s. Senator Pell's version of his family genealogy always insisted, when you visited his home, that Dallas, Texas, was named for this distinguished forebear.

Senator Pell's father, Herbert Claiborne Pell, served one term here in the House, representing a portion of New York. Ironically, he always opposed the Federal role in education, an idea with which Senator Claiborne Pell broke courageously when he came here to the United States Congress.

After being elected in 1960, Senator Pell sponsored the preparation of a statistical report that became the basis

for the bill creating the Basic Educational Opportunity Grant that eventually produced financial aid for 54 million low- and middle-income Americans to have the opportunity to attend college. That grants program, of course, was renamed in honor of Senator Pell in 1980.

In the early 1960s, Senator Pell also had a role in the North American passenger railroad renaissance. He foresaw the potential for a resurgence in the railroad system, which inspired him to draft the High Speed Ground Transportation Act of 1965, recommending that the Federal Government pump a half a billion dollars into rail transportation in the busy Northeast corridor between Boston and Washington, DC. He further accelerated that construction, realizing how important the magnitude of this project was, and increased the overall investment to $1 billion. It was from this initiative that the modern Amtrak system emerged.

Senator Pell also possessed a keen interest in the arts and was the author of the National Foundation of Arts and Humanities Act of 1965. That legislation paved the way for the National Endowment for the Arts, which makes Federal grants to artists and art organizations, and the National Endowment for the Humanities, which is federally funded and dedicated to supporting research, education, preservation, public programs in the humanities and projects exhibiting artistic excellence. Senator Pell's vision almost single-handedly revived the arts and humanities in myriad communities in the United States.

Finally, Mr. Speaker, on a personal note, I had the privilege of working with Senator Pell during his tenure as the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where I served on committee staff. Senator Pell was a gracious and thoughtful man. He met with any and all constituents who requested a meeting, and he did so always on time.

As a former Foreign Service Officer and Coast Guard serviceman, he was a strong and passionate voice for the men and women who serve our country abroad and in the Coast Guard all of his distinguished career. He had his eccentricities, but they did not characterize the man. What characterized Claiborne Pell, Mr. Speaker, was a sense of duty and his devotion to his country, his citizens, his high moral principles and, despite his wealth, his desire to spread opportunity to the average man and woman of this country.

His loss will be a source of grief for me personally and all who knew him.

I thank my colleague for giving me 30 seconds.

I think today we right a wrong, a wrong not only about discrimination, but, frankly, a wrong done in the Supreme Court of the United States. The convoluted logic employed by a majority on that Supreme Court is also an injustice we, today, need to overturn. And so I'm so pleased to cast one of my first votes today on behalf of my daughter and all of the daughters of America to right this wrong.