Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman.

Mr. Speaker, today the regulation of the surplus lines market is fragmented and very cumbersome. Insurers and brokers who want to provide insurance across State lines are subject to a myriad of different State tax and licensing requirements. Oftentimes these regulations will conflict, making it virtually impossible for one company to comply with all of them. This situation leaves policyholders underinsured and with little choice in providers.

Moreover, most of the policyholders who have purchased insurance in the nonadmitted market do so every day. These very sophisticated commercial entities have educated risk advisers on staff with a thorough understanding of the market and their risk exposure.

Yet most States require that these experts be denied coverage from multiple providers before they are allowed to purchase insurance in the nonadmitted market.

The reinsurance market faces additional obstacles because some State regulators are taking it upon themselves to throw out arbitration agreements between reinsurance providers and primary carriers. These are contractual agreements decided upon by sophisticated parties on both sides of the transaction to settle disputes without tying up the courts.

Accordingly, the bill that we have before us today, H.R. 5637, specifies that only the tax policies and licensing regulations of the State in which the policy holder is domiciled will govern the transaction. It also requires States within 2 years of the bill's passage to participate in the National Association of Insurance Commissioners National Insurance Producer Database and to adopt regulations under NAIC's Nonadmitted Insurance Model Act.

The bill allows sophisticated commercial entities direct access to the surplus lines market without going through the multiple denial process. It also prohibits States from voiding established contractual arbitration agreements between reinsurers and primary companies.

Policyholders in a number of States are facing skyrocketing rates. With these obstacles already impeding affordability, adding a quagmire of inefficient State rules certainly does not help. Additionally, with reinsurance rates rising at an alarming rate, companies should be encouraged to stay out of the courts and to follow their own voluntarily entered into arbitration agreements. This bill provides commonsense solutions to the nonadmitted and reinsurance market.

I want to thank certainly Chairman Oxley, who will be very much missed, not only by the committee, but by this entire body, certainly Representative Moore and the other Members who signed onto this very bipartisan bill, as well as Mr. Baker, for their leadership on this very important issue.

I urge members to vote in favor of H.R. 5637.

Mr. Speaker, when companies like WorldCom and Enron continued to enjoy high-rated bonds just days before they declared bankruptcy, something was wrong with the system. Congress has taken great strides in ensuring that the corporate scandals these companies precipitated will not happen again, and improving the agencies that rate them is yet another important step.

I was not in Congress when the Enron and WorldCom scandals erupted, but I still regularly hear from constituents who lost a great deal of their retirement packages because of these criminals.

Listen up America. If Congress cannot improve investor confidence in other corporations, many more constituents will have difficulty planning for their retirement as well. Let's kill the duopoly, and that is what this bill does.

I thank Mr. Fitzpatrick for his leadership on credit rating agency reform. Without his hard work, we could not go home to our districts with the confidence that we are doing what we can to protect our constituents' hard-earned savings.

I urge members to support S. 3850 to help ensure that the credit rating agencies are working as they should, providing reliable evaluations of corporations on which so many retirees rely.

Mr. Speaker, on September 19, 2006, my vote was not recorded for House Concurrent Resolution 415, a bill condemning the repression of the Iranian Baha'i community and calling for the emancipation of Iranian Baha'is. Had my vote been recorded, it would have been a ``yea.'

Mr. Speaker, this evening is the celebration of the Hernando County Philippine-American Association Incorporated's year-long efforts to promote the 2006 theme of ``Unity for a Better Tomorrow.''

Through both social and cultural outreach, the Association has proven to be a positive resource for the entire Filipino-American community. Its activities foster goodwill, friendship and camaraderie among the entire Filipino-American community. The support of HCPAA in socio- political activities has helped secure rights for Filipinos both here and abroad.

As a Member of Congress, I have the opportunity to work on many pieces of legislation that affect millions of Americans. Earlier this month, I was proud to support H. Res. 622, a resolution that recognized and honored the Filipino World War II veterans for their defense of democratic ideals and their important contribution to the outcome of World War II.

Members of the Hernando County Filipino community know that their family members played a vital role defeating the Axis powers during World War II. Like Vietnam veterans after them, Filipino veterans often went decades without a pat on the back or a note of congratulations from the United States government. I am proud to stand here this evening and tell you that I supported this legislation and recognize the important work that Filipino men and women performed in World War

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in very strong support of H.R. 2679, the Public Expression of Religion Protection Act. With this bill, we will close a loophole that has allowed liberal groups like the ACLU to prey on taxpayers for far too long.

Originally, Congress sought to protect underprivileged civil rights applicants by allowing them to collect attorneys fees if they won their suit.

Today, groups like ACLU scour the country looking to sue cities and States with any kind of religious display, regardless of how popular those religious displays are in those communities. If they sue and win, States and localities not only have to remove or remodel the historic items, but they also must pay the group's attorneys fees. In this backdoor way, the ACLU can collect taxpayer money to fuel even more lawsuits.

Tragically, citizens' precious symbols and monuments are being eroded with their own tax dollars. State seals in existence for hundreds of years have had to be redrawn. Many cities will not even fight in court for fear of paying costly attorneys fees, and some of them just capitulate at the first sign of a lawsuit.

We should not allow these liberal groups to fuel their agendas by exploiting hardworking Americans. The bill before us today removes that attorney fee provision from cases involving establishment of religion. This bill will stop the current taxpayer extortion once and for all.

I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

Mr. Speaker, the old saying, ``united we stand, divided we fall,'' is so true. Just as common language can unite a people, the lack of a unified national language can be enormously divisive. However, the Senate's immigration bill failed the American people by giving them a watered down, feel-good statement that does nothing.

New immigrants already have to learn English to become citizens. It is only common sense that we come together under one unified language by making English the official language of the United States. Listen up, America: enough is enough. United we stand, and English we speak.

Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, I am unable to be with you for the 80th anniversary celebration of the Historic Dade City Women's Club Building. I know that you have worked long and hard to make this a successful event, and today's ceremony is clear proof that your efforts were successful. Unfortunately, I am unable to attend the celebration because I have to vote in Congress in Washington, DC.

For nearly 100 years, the Women's Club has played a leading role in the Dade City community. From city beautification efforts, to educational seminars, to helping meet the needs of area residents during times of war, the Women's Club has many achievements of which to be proud.

This year marks the 80th anniversary of the construction of the current Women's Club historic building. Since 1926, the clubhouse has been a meeting place for thousands of Pasco County women. Today, the site is used as a community center for area residents, in addition to being the home of the Dade City Women's Club.

A building with so much history within its walls, in 1985 the clubhouse was designated as an historical site by the Pasco Historical Society. In 2003 was added to the prestigious National Register of Historic Places. Generations of Pasco County women have called this building home, and today's anniversary celebration is a fitting testament to its beauty, longevity and historic value to the entire Dade City Community.

Although I was unable to attend the 80th anniversary celebration, I appreciate the Women's Club's continued support and commitment to the residents of Dade City. Keep up the good work and know that you have my thanks for improving the lives and economy of Pasco County residents.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of the rule for H.R. 4830, the Border Tunnel Prevention Act. Our Nation's border security is essential to having effective homeland security. However, since September 11, 2001, foreigners have breached our borders with no less than 38 tunnels, and these are only the tunnels about which we know.

During July I was at a veterans' post in Florida in my district, and a gentleman had this shirt on. This, ladies and gentlemen, is what America wants. They want the borders closed. They want to make sure that people are not entering into our country illegally, either crossing the borders or via the tunnels.

We all know that coyotes use them to bring illegal aliens into the United States, bypassing our legal immigration system.

Listen up, America. Congress should not ignore these consistent breaches of our security.

And that is what the bill before us is all about. The bill before us will do just that. That is one reason why we absolutely need to pass this rule, because we need to make it a crime to build or finance an unauthorized tunnel into the United States.

I urge my colleagues to support the rule and the underlying bill.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the rule and the bill which will restore integrity to our election system.

It is outrageous and inexcusable that voters do not have to show proof of citizenship in order to vote in an election. Illegal immigrants are populating this country in an unprecedented number, and it is unjust and unfair to citizens of this country that noncitizens have had a hand in electing Federal officials.

The right to vote is the cornerstone of our democracy. It baffles me that there are no laws in place to protect this sacred practice from noncitizens.

H.R. 4844 has proper timelines and implementation guidelines in place for the proof of citizenship requirements, and if there are added costs to local governments, there certainly are a few appropriation years between now and 2008 for funding to be provided.

So listen up, America. Those who are in this country illegally want the same rights as United States citizens, without obeying the laws of our land. We should not let these criminals defraud our election system by allowing them to vote.

We have heard some pretty specious arguments here from the other side of the aisle on the impact of this bill. The Federal Election Integrity Act accomplishes a commonsense, much needed component in our election system. American citizens will proudly provide proof of citizenship, and illegals will realize the gig is up.

I urge my colleagues to vote for the rule and also for the underlying bill, H.R. 4844.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of this resolution. The Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 has proven itself instrumental in increasing adoption in every month of the year. The legislation made it easier to adopt children across State lines, and it also provided some financial incentives to States to improve their foster care systems.

Prior to adoption of the bill, the number of children in foster care and the length of time that they spent in foster care was rapidly increasing. In just two decades prior to the mid-1990s, the number of children in the foster care system more than doubled. The crisis was threatening to overwhelm various State social services departments. More importantly, it was brutally unfair to hundreds and thousands of children.

However, since passage of the bill in 1997, the number of children adopted out of foster care has actually increased by some 65 percent. In 1996, only 31,000 children were adopted. By 2004, that number rose to 51,000. It is a start. We certainly need to have more adoptive families out there.

Moreover, not only are more children being adopted, but they are also spending less time in the foster care system. However, this Congress must not forget that hundreds of thousands of children still remain in the foster care system and more still remains to be done. This year alone, those older foster care children, some 19,000, will age out of the foster care system. Additionally, one in five children will still languish in foster care for more than 5 years.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of the Secure Fence Act.

Americans want real border security now.

When I went to the border, the sheriffs along the border, the Border Patrol, they support the House bill, which we have now had to break up.

I heard over the August recess from about 25,000 constituents who almost unanimously opposed the Senate's amnesty bill. They want the border closed before we work on a guest worker program. Yet obviously the Senate refused to consider the whole package that the American public supports. Instead, they decide to play fast and loose with Americans' hard-earned benefits by agreeing to broad amnesty.

Though the Senate put us in a terrible logjam, Chairman King is showing with this bill that the House is serious about securing our borders.

Listen up, America. We agree that lax border security is a threat. Illegal aliens, criminals, and terrorists alike can too easily cross the gaps too long left unplugged. We are a Nation at war and cannot afford to play Russian roulette with border security.

I obviously urge my colleagues to support the Secure Fence Act, and I would like to briefly quote Robert Frost, who said, ``Good fences make good neighbors.'' And that is really what this is all about.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman of the committee who has worked very, very hard on these issues and trying to put together bipartisan agreement on many of the issues that come before our committee.

Five years later, the terrible events of September 11 are still fresh in the minds of Americans. On the same day we saw heroism and sorrow of so many, we saw the hatred and evil of a few. These events served as notice to our Nation that we were not as secure as we had thought.

In response, our country has made substantial progress towards securing our borders, infrastructure, and airlines. There is still a ways to go, but we are safer today than we were on September 10.

Despite chaos surrounding the events of September 11, America showed great, great strength. We witnessed an outpouring of goodwill, patriotism, and togetherness all across the country. In the face of such adversity, Americans came together under a unified front. Republicans and Democrats worked side by side to address the critical needs of those people devastated by terrorist attacks.

Listen up, America. Today, 5 years later, partisanship and political bickering have replaced the solidarity the entire world once witnessed.

This is the last thing that our country needs.

This past Monday, many of us were back in our districts attending events relating to the tragic events of 9/11. There are many first responders who previously, I admit, probably lived in the chairman's district and other areas around New York City who have since moved to Florida. Many of them retired after seeing the tragic events of 9/11, after working hard, very, very hard at the site of the World Trade Center. They moved to other States. Many of them also moved because they lost loved ones in 9/11, and they could not be there. They just could not be there every single day to see the hole where the World Trade Center once was.

Those are the people who gave so much, who lost their family members, that we should be consoling today, and certainly, this resolution does exactly that.

Mr. Speaker, in these trying times it is important that we remember that all Americans are in this fight against terrorism together. I ask that my colleagues find it within themselves to put aside their political differences and do what is best for the United States of America, and that is to vote for this resolution.

Mr. Speaker, 5 years removed from the tragedy of September 11, 2001, our Nation still feels the pain and sorrow from that fateful day. Like no other event in recent history, September 11 brought America together in a time of grief and an outpouring of emotion. Today, we remember the 3,000 innocent lives taken in the blink of an eye by these terrorist attacks.

I still remember watching the news that Tuesday morning and seeing footage of the planes hitting the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon. Like you, I sat and prayed for the men and women that were trapped in the smoking buildings. Everyone offered our thanks to those brave citizens of New York and Virginia who rushed into the burning wreckage, trying to rescue any possible survivors. And I wept when watching the towers collapse into the streets of New York. These are moments frozen in time that no American could ever forget.

On the anniversary of these horrible attacks, it is fitting for Americans to pause and reflect on the challenges our Nation now faces to defend our freedoms. A committed group of religious Islamic terrorists--fanatics who twist and pervert the teachings of the Koran to meet their extremist goals--are bent on destroying America and its allies in the global war on terror.

We have seen attacks in Britain, Spain and Indonesia that have killed hundreds of innocent civilians. Law enforcement officials have used innovative and modernized counterterrorism policies to help successfully thwart terrorist plots in the Netherlands, Britain, Canada and the United States; plots that may have killed thousands. The lesson learned from these experiences is that we must remain ever vigilant in the global war if we are to defend against this enemy.

Like December 7, 1941 before it, September 11 has become a day of remembrance. It is a time to remember the lives lost that day, as well as the sacrifices made by our brave soldiers deployed on the front lines. September 11 is also a reminder that there is work left to do. It is groups like al-Qaeda, Hezbollah and Hamas whose goal it is to destroy America and everything that defines our great Nation. They will continue to plot new and innovative terrorist attacks against our homeland and our people. It is up to the Congress and the President to work together to ensure that September 11 is never repeated again.

America must never forget the events of September 11, 2001. They shaped a generation of men and women across the country and thrust us squarely into the global war on terror. On the fifth anniversary of that day, the United States should pause to remember the thousands of innocent lives lost and the sacrifices of the military men and women who serve around the globe to protect our rights and freedoms.

Mr. Speaker, I Rise today to honor Gary Pitts of Inverness, Florida, an Army Specialist who served in Iraq and is currently based at Fort Carson, Colorado.

Born in Inverness, Florida, Specialist Pitts graduated from Citrus High School in 1993. Following the events of September 11, he felt a strong need to do his part to fight the global war on terror and joined the Army at the age of 26. Completing basic training in May 2002 at Fort Knox, Kentucky, he went on to advanced training at Fort Bliss, Texas.

Deployed to Iraq in February 2003 for a 5-month tour as a Patriot missile operator, Specialist Pitts returned to Fort Bliss following the completion of his duties. Having completed his initial commitment, on April 6, 2004, Specialist Pitts re-enlisted for another 3 years. Once again deployed to Iraq in March 2005, he served for a year in the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment as a radar operator and a turret gunner. While serving in Iraq, Specialist Pitts' missions included convoy security and elections security during Iraq's first elections.

Specialist Pitts received the Combat Action Badge for engaging the enemy in action following an IED explosion next to his vehicle. Currently based at Fort Carson, Specialist Pitts has approximately 8 more months to complete his 6 years of enlistment.

In addition to his military service, Specialist Pitts has a natural talent for art and creativity, winning numerous blue ribbons for his pastel artwork. He is now married and living in Colorado Springs and enjoys his visits home to see his parents, Mike and Anne, and brothers, Steven and Mike. He also visits his sister Michele and niece Tiffany who live in Colorado.

Mr. Speaker, it is soldiers like Gary Pitts who volunteer to protect the freedoms that all Americans hold dear to their hearts. He is to be commended for his service to our Nation and for his commitment to his family and loved ones. This Congress will never forget his sacrifices in battle.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Christopher Martell of Lakewood, Colorado, an Army 2nd Lieutenant currently serving in Iraq.

Lieutenant Martell served in the ROTC while at Gonzaga University, stating that his ROTC service was the most rewarding part of his entire college experience. Following his graduation with a bachelors degree in Communications, Lieutenant Martell reported to the Army's 82nd Airborne Division where he was assigned to military intelligence.

Lieutenant Martell has remarked that he has found a strong sense of patriotism and brotherhood in the Army. The history and camaraderie among his fellow soldiers is truly a sight

to behold and has made his experience a rewarding one.

Coming from a proud family history of military service, Lieutenant Martell's grandmother, Florence McCann, served in the U.S. Navy WAVES, or Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service, during World War II. Mrs. McCann currently resides in Inverness, Florida.

Mr. Speaker, it is soldiers like Christopher Martell who volunteered to protect the freedoms that all Americans hold dear to their hearts. While brave men and women like Christopher serve in the name of freedom and liberty, his family, friends and loved ones should know that this Congress will never forget his sacrifice and commitment.