Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, I rise to honor Officer Kevin Collopy who has retired from the Burlingame Police Department after 31 years of service.

He joined the force in 1978 and became one of the youngest police inspectors in department history. He has worked in many capacities throughout his law enforcement career, including that of Patrol Officer, Evidence Technician, Inspector and Acting Watch Commander.

He has consistently performed his duties in a professional manner while sharing his wisdom and work-ethic with all those who have been fortunate to work with him.

With retirement comes the opportunity for Kevin and his wife, Jenny, to share more time together and for Kevin to use his pilot's license to full advantage as he is bound to fly over the area he was once patrolled.

Madam Speaker, it is fitting that Officer Kevin Collopy will be honored at a retirement dinner and I ask that the members join me in saluting Officer Collopy for his 31 years of dedicated service to public safety.

Madam Speaker, it is with great pleasure that I rise to recognize the 5th anniversary of the Avalon Academy in Burlingame, California. This very special school was founded by Annie Noonan and Lynette Mullens, parents of children with cerebral palsy, and Kinga Czegeni, a special education teacher. The trio had a vision for a school that would teach academics and motor--skill development to children with movement disorders such as cerebral palsy. It should be noted that the students often have multiple disabilities, including cognitive impairment.

Avalon prides itself on its innovative intervention program inspired by the Anat Baniel Method, a cutting edge scientific approach to safely enhance movement and muscle coordination and to create new possibilities for children with cerebral palsy. This humanizing approach has created a non-competitive, vibrant and nurturing environment that benefits not only the students, but also their families and the staff at Avalon.

I would be remiss if I didn't praise Annie, Lynette, and Kinga for devoting their full energies to enhancing the lives of children with cerebral palsy. We can make donations, smile and understand, but it takes tireless effort to create a learning place that make a special life even better.

Madam Speaker, I can't take you inside Avalon today, but if I could, you would see a very special love that exists among the students and staff and a level of caring that has changed lives. So, I ask the Members to join me in celebrating a dream that thankfully has become a reality for dozens of children and families with special needs.

Madam Speaker, I rise to honor John and Marcia Goldman of San Francisco. They are civic volunteers of epic proportions who have long been active in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Since 1989, they have been ardent supporters of the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amFAR) which has invested over $9.5 million in more than 180 research projects in the Bay Area. They have generously supported many of San Francisco's other leading organizations in the fight against HIV/AIDS, including The Shanti Project, San Francisco AIDS Foundation, Haight Ashbury Free Clinics, National AIDS Memorial in Golden Gate Park, and FACE AIDS, which develops leadership skills for college students while supporting people with AIDS in Africa.

Additionally, through their foundation they have championed programs to help underprivileged children. Their caring knows no boundaries.

John has been president of the San Francisco Symphony since 2001 and is on the advisory boards for the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Trust for Public Land. He is also president of the Walter and Elise Haas Fund, which support arts, public education and Jewish organizations. He serves on the board of FACE AIDS as well as Building Future Now, which enables underprivileged children in East Palo Alto and East Menlo Park, California, to pursue a college education. His current commitments are dwarfed by prior service to such institutions as Swathmore College and various non-profit groups, including the Institute on Aging of Mt. Zion Health Systems.

Marcia co-founded the Learning Place Preschool in San Mateo which integrates special needs children with typical preschoolers. She also founded New Beginnings Family Workshop in San Carlos, a therapeutic- based program for autistic children and their families. She joined the Pacific Autism Center for Education as school director in 2002 and served as education director until June 2010. She

specializes in individualized curriculum development, parent and staff training and behavior planning.

Madam Speaker, it is only right and fitting that amFAR will present this remarkable couple with its Award of Courage on November 12 at its annual San Francisco Gala. Their substantial contributions have advanced AIDS research and the treatment and prevention of HIV. I ask that this house join me in thanking the Goldmans for their philanthropic efforts to better this world for those in need.

Madam Speaker, I rise to honor Officer Keith Tamura who has retired from the Burlingame Police Department after 26 years of service.

He joined the force in 1980 and has worked in many capacities throughout his law enforcement career, including that of Patrol Officer, Traffic Officer, K9 Handler and Police Inspector.

The Mayor of Burlingame has stated that Officer Tamura has served the community with ``integrity, honor and courage.''

Keith has pledged that in retirement he will spend more time enjoying life, including pursuing his love of motorcycles.

Madam Speaker, it is fitting that Officer Keith Tamura will be honored at a retirement dinner and I ask that the members join me in saluting Officer Tamura for his 26 years of dedicated service to public safety.

Madam Speaker, I rise to honor Bob and Bobby Petrini of San Bruno, California. The father-son-team saved the lives of five senior citizens in the midst of the PG&E natural gasoline explosion on September 9, 2010.

Bob Petrini and his family were enjoying a warm summer evening in their Rollingwood neighborhood home, about a quarter mile north of the Glenview neighborhood. Bob was opening the sliding door of the family room when he heard the explosion. His first thought was an earthquake. Then he saw giant flames leaping into the sky. He and his 25-year-old son Bobby looked at each other without saying a word, grabbed the household fire extinguisher, jumped into their Nissan Maxima and headed to the fire.

When they arrived at Glenview Drive, the entire street was engulfed in flames, so they headed to the next block, Vermont Way. They saw an elderly woman being rolled out into the

street in a wheel chair by a very distressed caretaker who was screaming for help. Bob put the elderly woman in the back seat of his car. Then he entered the house, at this point unaware it was an assisted living facility. He ran down a long hallway yelling ``Fire, fire, fire, is anybody here?'' He entered a room to the right of the hallway and saw a woman in her nineties on oxygen in a recliner, with her back to the window and headphones in her ears. Bob pulled the phones out of her ears, lifted her into a wheel chair, rolled her out into the street and then loaded her into his car. As Bobby saw this, he ran into the building and rescued another elderly woman.

At this point the fire was licking at the homes behind the facility-- the heat was intense. Firefighters and police officers were telling the Petrinis to leave, but Bob ran back into the building. In the very back he found a 96-year-old, deaf woman on oxygen, with a catheter, in a hospital bed. Racing against time, he rolled the hospital bed towards the door, only to find that it didn't fit through the frame. He ran outside for help. Bob, his son, a firefighter and a stranger who showed up out of nowhere lifted the woman from the hospital bed into a wheel chair, rolled her out to the street and put her into the car of a caretaker.

With three of the women in his car, Bob raced off to a hospital in South San Francisco while his son Bobby drove the caretaker's car with two of the seniors and the caretaker.

Bob delivered his three patients to the hospital and headed home. He didn't have a phone to tell his wife he was OK, he didn't know where his son was, and for the first time that evening, he was scared. ``There was a moment when I thought I was going to lose him,'' he said referring to his son. But as he pulled into his driveway, he saw his son by the caretaker's car.

The other patients, including the 96-year-old lady, were taken to the hospital.

The San Bruno natural gas explosion was a horrible disaster that claimed 8 lives and destroyed 37 homes, but it was also a tragedy that brought out the best in members of this community.

Madam Speaker, Bob and Bobby Petrini risked their own lives to save five strangers. I ask that this body join me in commending them for their extraordinary act of heroism.

Madam Speaker, I rise to honor the memory of Charles W. Meyers, a native San Franciscan, who passed away recently. He is survived by his beloved wife, Alene, and his daughters Charlene and Geraldine and his son, Charles ``Chip'' Meyers.

Charlie, who enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1942, served 20 years in the State Assembly where he admirably represented San Francisco. First elected at age 24, he was one of the youngest men to be seated in the State Legislature. He chaired several key committees and distinguished himself in his work on protecting water quality, especially in the Bay Area. He was a staunch opponent of filling in tidelands and he won key protections for the right of cities and counties to exercise control over the location of highways and freeways. He was a great consumer advocate, authoring laws to toughen penalties for product trademark counterfeiting while cracking down on unscrupulous car mechanics and tow truck operators.

He was a member of a wide variety of service organizations, including the Knights of Columbus, Native Sons of the Golden West Guadalupe Parlor, the San Francisco Friars Club, the Disabled American Veterans, the San Francisco Bay Area Emerald Society and he was a charter member of the United Irish Cultural Center. In 2006, he was honored as the San Franciscan of the year by the San Francisco Forum, and the following year the University of San Francisco recognized him for his many years of public service. He will be sorely missed as will his infectious smile and the ease at which he would break into laughter. Of course, his annual crab feed was legendary as were the phone calls he would make on behalf of the causes he supported.

Madam Speaker, I ask that this body join me in a moment of silence for a tireless public servant who has left us with fond memories of a life well lived.

Madam Speaker, I rise to honor Police Dispatcher Lori Riley for her 20 years of dedicated service to Burlingame Police Department.

She joined the department in 1990 after working for seven years as a communications operator with the California Highway Patrol. At the department, she was responsible for answering incoming emergency calls from the public and dispatching help to save both lives and property. She was a vital link to police officers, monitoring their activities by radio and providing them information while insuring their safety. She served as a Communications Training Officer, providing trainees with the knowledge and skills needed to effectively perform their duties.

Lori was recognized by the American Red Cross and the California State Assembly for her heroic efforts to save the life of a woman who had threatened to commit suicide.

Madam Speaker, I ask that the members join me in saluting Dispatcher Lori Riley for her 20 years of dedicated service to the Burlingame Police Department and that we extended our best wishes to Lori and her husband, Steve, for a healthy and happy retirement.

Mr. Speaker, on Thursday September 9, 2010, at a few minutes before 6:30, life changed forever in San Bruno, California. The first view from my district office led one of my staffers to believe a plane had crashed in the hills. After all, San Francisco International is in my district and airline jets fly over nearby San Francisco International Airport routinely passing over San Bruno every day.

The flames shot up over 100 feet in the air. But after 15 minutes, the flames didn't subside. It was as if a giant torch had been placed on what is normally a verdant hillside.

This was a distant view of the PG&E natural gas pipeline explosion. Closer up, the scene was horrific. Four confirmed dead. Scores of people hospitalized with second- and third-degree burns, some over 50 percent of their bodies. And 6 days after this tragedy, three people are still missing. Thirty-seven homes were completely destroyed-- nothing but concrete pads left, or a weeping chimney, indicating what once had been. Twelve homes were standing shells and another 10 were damaged.

We are at day six. The smoke has cleared. The ash has settled. And one thing is really very clear: the community of San Bruno rose together. Mayor Jim Ruane, City Manager Connie Jackson, Police Chief Neil Telford and Fire Chief Dennis Haag all showed extraordinary leadership and courage in bringing this community together and securing the flames within a box so that more homes were not destroyed and more lives destroyed as a result.

But on other fronts, questions remain--in fact they are multiplying-- about the causes of this immense pain and suffering that has been visited upon San Bruno and surrounding areas. But no question--I repeat no question--has been more penetrating to me than asked by Sue Bullis a day after the explosion. I walked into the center that was set up to establish relief and support for the families and sitting at a table by herself looking distant was this woman. She looked at me and said she couldn't locate her mother-in-law, she couldn't locate her husband, she couldn't locate her son. Six days later, they still have not been found.

The explosion was so hot that glass windshields on cars melted. Bones have been found. The blast epicenter functioned as a crematorium. And through it all, hour after hour, Sue Bullis, who lived at 1690 Claremont, is hoping and praying for an answer. She lost her house. All her documents. She has nothing but hope. And now that hope will have to be converted to inner strength if she is to go on.

I will help Sue get her documents, her insurance payments from PG&E, and I will try to ease her pain just as thousands of others are helping to ease the pain caused by this explosion. But nothing is going to relieve the pain that she has coping with the loss of three of her family members.

On Friday, we will bury Jacqueline and Janessa Grieg. Ironically, Jacqueline Grieg worked at the California Public Utilities Commission in the gas pipeline area. Her daughter Janessa was an eighth grader at St. Cecilia School in San Francisco. She was also the student body president of that grammar school. On Saturday, we will bury Jessica Morales, the fiancee of a young man who is now in intensive care with 50 percent of his body burned. Jessica was just coming into her own, finding her way, finding work and employment and opportunities at school. We have just found out that Elizabeth Torres, an 81-year-old mother who has two family members still in the burn unit, has passed away, and she too will be remembered as well.

People are anxious to return to their homes, to retrieve those belongings that remain. Some may want to rebuild. A few may not. We face months and months of hard work, but at this moment, this very moment, I bow my head in silence for the family of Sue Bullis, Jacqueline Grieg, Janessa Grieg, Jessica Morales, and Elizabeth Torres.

Madam Speaker, I rise to honor the heroic Flying Tigers of WWII. In 1941 a group of former soldiers, under the direction of General Clair Chennault, formed the First American Volunteer Group of the Chinese Air Force twelve days after Pearl Harbor. I would note that the initial flight of the Flying Tigers took place at Half Moon Bay Airport which is now in my district.

Funded at first as private contractors by the Chinese government, the Flying Tigers were absorbed into the 23rd Fighter Group on the Fourth of July, 1942. The Tigers' shark-faced planes remain among the most recognizable of any WWII aircraft.

Some 300 Americans were members of the Flying Tigers, with 24 either killed in action, in accidents, captured or unaccounted for during the war. Comprised of three squadrons of 20 aircraft each, the Flying Tigers are credited with destroying 115 enemy aircraft.

In 2006 Retired Major General James Whitehead asked Chinese authorities to consider restoring the Tigers' decommissioned air base built inside a cavern that now serves as a public park in Guilin, China. The Chinese Government was receptive to the project and now has plans to commit $23 million to a 300-acre resort that will include a museum, airfield and the original command cave used by General Chennault between 1941 and 1945. The Flying Tigers Organization has been asked to raise money for restoration of the command cave and construction of a museum that will inform visitors about the role of the Flying Tigers during WWII.

Madam Speaker, at a special dinner in San Francisco on October 26, 2010, the Flying Tigers Historical Organization will present Ambassador Gao, Consul General of the People's Republic of China, with Flying Tiger memorabilia to be placed in the museum in China. We should applaud this gesture and be supportive of this effort to restore a piece of American history in mainland China.

Madam Speaker, I rise to honor Randy Vogel in honor of his 40 years of service to Junipero Serra High School in my district. Essentially, he started as a math teacher in 1970 and never left, although his responsibilities and influence have spread well beyond the classes he has taught.

He is a life-long resident of San Carlos and a graduate of Santa Clara University. At Serra he is the Director of Admissions who still finds time to teach an honors algebra class which he says is the highlight of his day. He has served as baseball coach for 12 years, Director of Public Relations, Development Director, Rally Committee Moderator, Math Department Chair and the list goes on. He has taught eight fathers and sons, a testament to his longevity and skills in the classroom. In all he has worked for five principals and has seen more than 7,600 students graduate. He considers Serra to be like home and the school's spirit and sense of community to be extraordinary. Of this spirit Randy says, ``We can teach values, not to be afraid to pray and to recognize the impact of God in our lives without criticism.''

Madam Speaker, Randy Vogel is an inspiring educator, and it is fitting that the ground-breaking ceremony for the Serra High School's Center for the Arts and Sciences and Aquatic Center on August 23 include a special recognition of Randy Vogel's 40 years of service to the school.

Madam Speaker, I rise to honor Donald M. McCarthy, a 30- year veteran of the Daly City Police Department.

Officer McCarthy graduated from the Basic Police Academy at the College of the Redwoods in 1979 after earning a B.A. in sociology at San Francisco State University. He was appointed as a police officer on August 6, 1979, and was assigned to the Detective Division in 1982. He received numerous department commendations during his career. Of special note was the day a woman pointed a gun at him before fleeing to her house which she then set on fire. Sergeant McCarthy was fired upon when he entered the house--he returned fire, extinguished the flames, then put the woman in custody--just another day at the office!

Sergeant McCarthy has been a mentor to many recruits and he served bravely for many years on the Daly City Police Tactical Response Team. He was long recognized for his compassion, knowledge of the law, public relations skills and an undeniable ability to problem solve; in other words, he was a great investigator.

Madam Speaker, on September 10, 2010, members of the Daly City Police Benevolent Association will honor Sergeant Donald McCarthy at a special dinner and, as such, I ask that this body extends its thanks for a job well done.

Madam Speaker, I rise to honor Donald A. Griggs, a 29- year veteran of the Daly City Police Department.

Officer Griggs graduated from the Basic Police Academy at the College of the Redwoods in 1980 after earning an Associate Degree in Administration of Justice from the College of San Mateo. He was appointed as a Police Officer on March 10, 1980. He was a mentor to many recruits through his role as a Field Training Officer. In 1999 he was promoted to the rank of Sergeant. He served bravely for many years as a member of the Daly City Police Tactical Response Team. He also served on the board of directors for the Daly City Police Athletic League. He is a dedicated police officer who forged many friendships during his career.

Sergeant Griggs received numerous department commendations during his career. Of special note, in 2003 he rushed into a burning building and evacuated the residents. He suffered smoke inhalation and was rushed to the hospital for treatment. He risked his life to save people in need. In another instance he was recognized for his professionalism by the victim of a particularly brutal sexual assault case. His professional and compassionate efforts helped restore the woman's dignity. His actions serve as a source of pride for the entire police department.

Madam Speaker, on September 10, 2010, members of the Daly City Police Benevolent Association will honor Sergeant Donald Griggs at a special dinner and, as such, I ask that this body extends its thanks for a job well done.

Mr. Speaker, 3 years ago Professor Elizabeth Warren warned about the financial risks associated with subprime and no doc mortgages and the shell games that were being masked as risk-free investments.

She said that consumers can't buy a toaster that has a 1-in-5 chance of bursting into flames, but they can enter into a mortgage that has the same 1-in-5 chance of putting them out on the street. In the end, she told us what would happen, and it did.

But Professor Warren didn't just limit herself to warnings. She laid out the foundation of what would soon become the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. With the President's signing of the Wall Street reform today, the time has finally come to appoint a director to this new bureau. We need a proven fighter at the helm with a

strong record of being tireless, independent, and willing to speak out for consumers when others won't.

She is the best choice for the job. I urge the President to appoint Elizabeth Warren to the post.

Mr. Speaker, Thomas Currier and his family are my constituents, and they're suffering needlessly because Republicans are shamelessly blocking the extension of unemployment insurance. The Republicans argue that people like Thomas are lazy and would rather collect unemployment than work. Well, let me tell you about Thomas Currier.

He's 62. He's worked his entire life and at one time even owned his own business. After 25 years in the IT field, he was laid off in August of 2008, and last month he finally lost his unemployment insurance. His wife needs surgery they can't afford. His daughter dropped out of college because they can't pay her tuition. Not only has Mr. Currier lost his income, but as a result

of the GOP opposition, he's lost his dignity.

I urge my Republican colleagues in the Senate to drop their indefensible opposition to extending unemployment insurance immediately, and with it, provide needed relief to millions of people like Thomas Currier.

Mr. Speaker, our mission from the American people was simple: pass Wall Street Reform that puts consumers first, holds Wall Street and Big Banks accountable, and ends the era of taxpayer-funded bailouts and ``too-big-to-fail'' institutions. By passing this legislation, we have fulfilled that mission.

We ensure that taxpayers are never again on the hook for Wall Street's risky decisions. We enable regulators to shut down ``too big to fail'' banks before they take down the system. We impose tough new rules on the riskiest financial practices that were at the root cause of the crisis. We place a fiduciary duty on brokers to act in the best interests of their clients. We create a new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and end the reliance on credit rating agencies that gave triple-A ratings to risky mortgage-backed securities that they didn't understand or investigate.

To those who ask: will the Wall Street Reform we passed last night prevent another financial meltdown in the future-I answer with a firm and resounding yes.