Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2007. This bill would give new hope to millions of Americans with debilitating illnesses such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and cancer, and would do so under an ethically stringent framework. We owe it to our citizens living in pain to find cures for these terrible afflictions, and enable them to live out long, healthy lives. While I am aware of the ethical questions raised by stem cell research, I believe it represents one of the most promising medical opportunities in human history.

Unfortunately, research on embryonic cells is stagnating because it is currently restricted to the 78 stem cell lines that NIB held before August 9, 2001. Of those 78 lines, only 22 were in good enough condition to be used: Most lines were contaminated by mouse feeder cells and could have been deadly if transplanted into people. In order to make new progress in stem cell research, there is a dire need for researchers to have access to lines that are new and uncontaminated.

Mr. Speaker, I believe that the bill before us would be a strong step toward reclaiming our status as the world's scientific leader and finding cures for millions of Americans suffering from debilitating and often fatal diseases. We must support our medical and scientific communities in their efforts to extend and enhance human life. Doing anything less is a disservice to our country and our citizens.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor a lifetime commitment of service to the United States of America. On June 15th, 2007, MG Bennie E. Williams of Fredericksburg, Virginia will retire after 35 years of dedicated service in the United States Army.

General Williams was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Infantry after graduating from the Reserve Officers Training Corps program at Morgan State University, where he earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Education Administration and was designated a Distinguished Military Graduate. He received his Master's degree in Transportation Management from the Florida Institute of Technology, and military education includes courses at the Command and General Staff College, and the Army War College.

General Williams' initial assignments included a posting as Platoon Leader and Motor officer for the 2nd Armed Division at Fort Hood, Texas. In September 1975, he was Assistant Operations Officer and Commander of the Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment, 69th Transportation Battalion, Korea.

In July of 1992 he assumed command of the 169th Maintenance Battalion, 13th Corps Support Command, Fort Hood, Texas. From there he deployed with his unit to Somalia in Support of Operation Restore Hope.

Following a year of study at the Army War College, he transferred to Europe, and assumed command of the 16th Corps Support Group. From there he deployed with his unit to Bosnia in support of Operation Joint Endeavor. In July 1997, he assumed the duties of Chief of Staff for the 3rd Corps Support Command. In July 1998, he was transferred to Fort Belvoir, Virginia and assumed the duty of Chief of Staff Transportation Legislation at the Defense Logistics Agency, and was later named Chief of Staff for Defense Logistics Support Command for Defense Logistics Agency.

In September 2000, he was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General and again transferred overseas and was named Deputy Commanding General of the 21st Theater Support Command. He was later promoted to Major General and was later appointed Director of Logistics Operations and Readiness J-3/4, Defense Logistics Agency, in September of 2005, where he has been able to bring his wealth of experience and singular talents to bear on solving some of the most intricate sustainability and logistics challenges faced by our nation's Armed Services.

His tireless and selfless dedication to serving his country is represented by the many decorations he has earned including the Distinguished Service Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster, the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal with 4 Oak Leaf Clusters, the Army Commendation Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster, the Army Achievement Medal, the Superior Unit Award, and the Parachutist Badge.

In closing I wish to commend General Williams for his many years of distinguished service to our Nation, years spent protecting our freedoms of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I wish him and his wife, Lenora, Godspeed in his retirement.

Mr. Speaker, on Monday, military judges dismissed the cases against the only two men to have been charged with a crime still being held at Guantanamo Bay. This legal impasse creates an imperative for Congress to address the legal black hole that we have created at Guantanamo.

There have been almost 800 people sent to Guantanamo. There are 385 left; and, of those 385, only 80 will be charged and tried with a crime. Now, that means that 90 percent will not even be charged and tried, but it will take more than a decade even to try those 80 people, given the island's remote location. In fact, there's only one courtroom there.

Mr. Speaker, every day that we keep Guantanamo open, we damage our credibility and we lose ground in the global war on terror. Congress has an opportunity to change this wrong-headed policy, and we can do so by shutting the facility down and transferring the detainees to the U.S. military brig system. There they will still be under lock and key but also have the right to a fair and speedy trial.

The United States is a country that should stand for justice and be governed by the rule of law. Our policy should reflect our values. Guantanamo does not.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to commemorate National Hunger Awareness Day and to honor the Arlington Food Assistance Center (AFAC), which is located in my congressional district.

National Hunger Awareness Day was established to help inform individuals, communities, corporations and policy makers that hunger is a severe domestic issue and deserves our critical attention. It is part of a grassroots effort to raise awareness about the solvable problem of hunger in America.

AFAC's sole mission is to feed the hungry. AFAC obtains food at no cost from local bakeries, supermarkets, food drives and private donors. This important work allows their clients to make other necessary purchases, such as paying for rent and utilities, without having to sacrifice their health and nutritional needs.

Despite the fact that Arlington County is one of the wealthiest areas in the country, too many local residents do not have enough to eat. AFAC seeks to remedy this problem by distributing bread, vegetables, meat, milk, eggs and other food items to those families in Arlington who cannot afford these dietary. Volunteers at AFAC currently distribute groceries to nearly 700 families each week. Nearly half of the people getting food from AFAC are children.

I would like to commend the staff and volunteers of the Arlington Food Assistance Center who work hard to provide needy families in Arlington with groceries each week. I urge my constituents to donate food to AFAC through a food drive on June 5th.

Mr. Speaker, on December 30, 2006, Dr. Haleh Esfandiari, a prominent Iranian-American scholar, was in Iran to visit her sick 93-year-old mother when she was stopped by the Iranian authorities.

What followed was nearly 5 months of a series of intense interrogations and pressure tactics where she was harassed, threatened, and forced to make false statements against her employer, the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars. On May 8, she was again detained and imprisoned.

Her arrest and detention has angered analysts, human rights groups and lawmakers throughout the world. Yet still, the Iranian regime refuses to release her, claiming she is a spy who was plotting to overthrow the Iranian government.

I would like to submit a statement issued from the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars on May 21, 2007 for the record.

Mr. Speaker, these charges are a farce. Professor Esfandiari is an accomplished scholar of Persian literature, language and history who taught at Princeton University before becoming the Director of the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars Middle East Program. Her husband, Mr. Shaul Bakhash, is a professor at George Mason University of Fairfax, VA. The Woodrow Wilson Center is a non-profit, non-partisan organization whose work is to research and foster dialogue within the scholarly world on current and future public policy issues.

Dr. Esfandiari's tireless dedication to teaching and advocating on behalf of Iran is clear. She has focused on building bridges and opening doors for peace in the Middle East. She has sought to facilitate and strengthen Iranian-American relations through numerous seminars, lectures and workshops with educators, policymakers and groups from both countries and has pressed wider freedoms to communicate about our common bonds and negotiate over our disagreements.

Like thousands of other Iranians living abroad, Professor Esfandiari is an academic who took a personal trip to see her family. If she as one individual scholar threatens this regime so much that they have to interrogate her for almost five months and detain her in a notorious prison cell known for human rights abuses, then one has to assume this regime is desperate to retain whatever control it can.

Today, the Iranian leadership's lack of courage and conscience is as clear as it is disappointing.

It is evident that this regime is criminalizing scholarly work of any kind, despite the fact that Iran's very own history is filled with centuries of scholarly research and discovery. This regime's egregious decision to imprison Dr. Esfandiari reflects a deepening departure from the values and ideals the Iranian people have historically prided themselves on.

Iran's renowned nationalist Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh once said ``There is no better way to govern Iran than democracy and social justice!''

Professor Esfandiari should be released immediately. Every day she is so unjustly detained, Iran proves the case of its detractors and makes it all the more difficult for institutions like Dr. Esfandiari's Wilson Center to treat the Iranian people with the respect that should be afforded to ah historic civilization and citizenship of 70 million people.

Statement on the Arrest in Tehran of Esfandiari, Director of the

Woodrow Wilson Center's Middle East Program

Haleh Esfandiari, director of the Middle East Program at

the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and a

dual Iranian-American national, was arrested in

Tehran on May 8 and incarcerated in the Evin Prison.

The background to this entirely unjustified arrest is as

follows. Timeline of events:

December 21, 2006, Haleh Esfandiari, director of the Middle

East Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for

Scholars, and a dual Iranian-American national, traveled from

Washington D.C. to Tehran, Iran to visit her 93-year-old

mother for one week.

On December 30, 2006, on her way to the airport to catch a

flight back to Washington, the taxi in which Dr. Esfandiari

was riding was stopped by three masked, knife-wielding men.

They threatened to kill her, and they took away all of her

belongings, including her Iranian and American passports.

On January 3, when applying for replacement Iranian travel

documents at the passport office, Dr. Esfandiari was invited

to an ``interview'' by a man from Iran's Ministry of

Intelligence.

Beginning on January 4, she was subjected to a series of

interrogations that stretched out over the next six weeks,

sometimes continuing for as many as four days a week, and

sometimes stretching across seven and eight hours in a single

day. Dr. Esfandiari went home every evening, but the

interrogations were unpleasant and not free from intimidation

and threat.

The questioning focused almost entirely on the activities

and programs of the Middle East Program at the Wilson Center.

Dr. Esfandiari answered all questions fully; when she could

not remember details of programs stretching back five and

even eight years, the staff at the Wilson Center provided her

all the information requested. As a public organization, all

Wilson Center activities are on the public record. Repeatedly

during the interrogation, she was pressured to make a false

confession or to falsely implicate the Wilson Center in

activities in which it had no part, but she refused.

On Friday, January 15, in the third week of interrogations,

Dr. Esfandiari was told (misleadingly as it turned out) the

questioning was over. On January 18, the interrogator and

three other men showed up at Dr. Esfandiari's mother's

apartment. Dr. Esfandiari was taking a nap and was startled

to wake up and see the door to her bedroom open, her privacy

violated, and three strange men, one of them wielding a

video-camera, staring into her bedroom.

On February 14, the lengthy interrogations stopped.

On February 17, Haleh received one threatening phone call,

and then she did not hear anything from her interrogators for

ten weeks.

On February 20, Lee Hamilton, president and director of the

Wilson Center, wrote to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

asking that Dr. Esfandiari be allowed to travel. However,

President Ahmadinejad did not reply to the letter.

At the end of April or early May, she was telephoned once

again and invited to ``cooperate.'' In effect, she was being

asked to make a confession. She refused to make the false

statements.

On Monday, May 7 she was summoned to the Ministry of

Intelligence once again. When she arrived for her appointment

on Tuesday morning, May 8th, she was put into a car and taken

to Evin prison. She was incarcerated and was allowed only one

phone call to her mother.

On May 9 she called her mother asking her to bring her

clean clothes and her medicine. Her mother delivered the

small package at Evin Prison on May 10, but was not allowed

to see her.

On May 12, the hard-line daily ``Kayhan'' in an article

accused Dr. Esfandiari of working with the U.S. and Israeli

governments and with involvement in efforts to topple Iran's

Islamic regime.

On May 15, Iranian judiciary spokesman Ali Reza Jamshidi

said that Dr. Esfandiari was being investigated for crimes

against national security and that her case was being handled

by the Intelligence Ministry.

On May 15, Haleh made a brief telephone call to her mother.

On May 16, Haleh's family retained the legal services of

Nobel Peace Laureate Shirin Ebadi to represent her.

On May 17, in an interview with Washington Post Staff

Writer Robin Wright, Shirin Ebadi indicated that the Iranian

government has rejected her request to represent Dr.

Esfandiari. She also noted the court refused information on

the legal charges against Dr. Esfandiari, and denied her

legal team the ability to see Haleh.

On May 21 state-run television broadcasts in Iran indicated

that Haleh is being charged with seeking to topple the

government of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Our efforts to obtain Haleh's release will continue and

will be redoubled. She will be in our thoughts and prayers

every day.

Madam Speaker, there is no debate over whether the Federal Government is facing a workforce shortage crisis--it is. In 10 years, 90 percent of our nation's civil service federal executives will be over the age of 50 and many will be nearing retirement. This coming brain drain threatens the stability and functioning of essential government functions. At a time when the American people are demanding efficient and effective government--from the implementation of public programs to the oversight of the Iraq war--we are about to lose many of our dedicated and most knowledgeable professionals.

I am writing to ask for your support for a bill I will re-introduce that takes a step in the right direction. The FERS Redeposit Act would allow individuals who left the Federal Government, and received a refund of their Federal Employees Retirement System, FERS, contributions, to re-enter government service without losing their accrued annuity. Instead of forfeiting credit earned during their prior service, returning employees would be able to redeposit their cashed out annuity upon re-employment. This benefit is already available to federal employees who are registered under the older Civil Service Retirement System, CSRS.

I have received many letters of former federal employees who work for the private sector, but would like to return to civil service. Many of these well-qualified men and women are choosing to remain in the private workforce because the costs to reentering the federal workforce are too high. In an economy where people will change jobs many times over the course of their careers, a reinvestment option under FERS will make government service more competitive, incorporating the flexibility and mobility that are so common in the private sector businesses of the new economy.

As more and more FERS employees leave the Federal Government and later wish to re-enter federal service, a redeposit option would provide the incentive needed to bring these individuals back to government service.

Now is the time to act before the workforce shortage hits our civil service the hardest. I urge my colleagues to join me in this effort to make federal service more attractive by cosponsoring this important legislation.

Madam Speaker, on December 30,2006, Dr. Haleh Esfandieri, a prominent Iranian-American scholar, was in Iran to visit her sick 93-year-old mother when she was stopped by the Iranian authorities.

What followed was nearly 5 months of a series of intense interrogations and pressure tactics where she was harassed, threatened, and forced to make false statements against her employer, the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars. On May 8, she was again detained and imprisoned.

Her arrest and detention has angered analysts, human rights groups and lawmakers throughout the world. Yet still, the Iranian regime refuses to release her, claiming she is a spy who was plotting to overthrow the Iranian government.

I would like to submit a statement issued from the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars on May 21, 2007 for the record.

Madam Speaker, these charges are a farce. Professor Esfandieri is an accomplished scholar of Persian literature, language and history who taught at Princeton University before becoming the Director of the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars Middle East Program. Her husband, Mr. Shaul Bakhash, is a professor at George Mason University of Fairfax, VA. The Woodrow Wilson Center is a non-profit, non-partisan organization whose work is to research and foster dialogue within the scholarly world on current and future public policy issues.

Dr. Esfandieri's tireless dedication to teaching and advocating on behalf of Iran is clear. She has focused on building bridges and opening doors for peace in the Middle East. She has sought to facilitate and strengthen Iranian-American relations through numerous seminars, lectures and workshops with educators, policymakers and groups from both countries and has pressed wider freedoms to communicate about our common bonds and negotiate over our disagreements.

Like thousands of other Iranians living abroad, Professor Esfandieri is an academic who took a personal trip to see her family. If she as one individual scholar threatens this regime so much that they have to interrogate her for almost five months and detain her in a notorious prison cell known for human rights abuses, then one has to assume this regime is desperate to retain whatever control it can.

Today, the Iranian leadership's lack of courage and conscience is as clear as it is disappointing.

It is evident that this regime is criminalizing scholarly work of any kind, despite the fact that Iran's very own history is filled with centuries of scholarly research and discovery. This regime's egregious decision to imprison Dr. Esfandieri reflects a deepening departure from the values and ideals the Iranian people have historically prided themselves on.

Iran's renowned nationalist Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh once said ``There is no better way to govern Iran than democracy and social justice!''

Professor Esfandieri should be released immediately. Every day she is so unjustly detained, Iran proves the case of its detractors and makes it all the more difficult for institutions like Dr. Esfandieri's Wilson Center to treat the Iranian people with the respect that should be afforded to an historic civilization and citizenship of 70 million people.

Statement on the Arrest in Tehran of Haleh Esfandiari, Director of the

Woodrow Wilson Center's Middle East Program

Haleh Esfandiari, director of the Middle East Program at

the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and a

dual Iranian-American national, was arrested in Tehran on May

8 and incarcerated in the Evin Prison.

The background to this entirely unjustified arrest is as

follows:

time line of events

December 21, 2006, Haleh Esfandiari, director of the Middle

East Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for

Scholars, and a dual Iranian-American national, traveled from

Washington D.C. to Tehran, Iran to visit her 93-year-old

mother for one week.

On December 30, 2006, on her way to the airport to catch a

flight back to Washington, the taxi in which Dr. Esfandiari

was riding was stopped by three masked, knife-wielding men.

They threatened to kill her, and they took away all of her

belongings, including her Iranian and American passports.

On January 3, when applying for replacement Iranian travel

documents at the passport office, Dr. Esfandiari was invited

to an ``interview'' by a man from Iran's Ministry of

Intelligence.

Beginning on January 4, she was subjected to a series of

interrogations that stretched out over the next six weeks,

sometimes continuing for as many as four days a week, and

sometimes stretching across seven and eight hours in a single

day. Dr. Esfandiari went home every evening, but the

interrogations were unpleasant and not free from intimidation

and threat.

The questioning focused almost entirely on the activities

and programs of the Middle East Program at the Wilson Center.

Dr. Esfandiari answered all questions fully; when she could

not remember details of programs stretching back five and

even eight years, the staff at the Wilson Center provided her

all the information requested. As a public organization, all

Wilson Center activities are on the public record. Repeatedly

during the interrogation, she was pressured to make a false

confession or to falsely implicate the Wilson Center in

activities in which it had no part, but she refused.

On Friday, January 15, in the third week of interrogations,

Dr. Esfandiari was told (misleadingly as it turned out) the

questioning was over. On January 18, the interrogator and

three other men showed up at Dr. Esfandiari's mother's

apartment. Dr. Esfandiari was taking a nap and was startled

to wake up and see the door to her bedroom open, her privacy

violated, and three strange men, one of them wielding a

video-camera, staring into her bedroom.

On February 14, the lengthy interrogations stopped.

On February 17, Haleh received one threatening phone call,

and then she did not hear anything from her interrogators for

ten weeks.

On February 20, Lee Hamilton, president and director of the

Wilson Center, wrote to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

asking that Dr. Esfandiari be allowed to travel. However,

President Ahmadinejad did not reply to the letter.

At the end of April or early May, she was telephoned once

again and invited to ``cooperate.'' In effect, she was being

asked to make a confession. She refused to make the false

statements.

On Monday, May 7 she was summoned to the Ministry of

Intelligence once again. When she arrived for her appointment

on Tuesday morning, May 8th, she was put into a car and taken

to Evin prison. She was incarcerated and was allowed only one

phone call to her mother.

On May 9 she called her mother asking her to bring her

clean clothes and her medicine. Her mother delivered the

small package at Evin Prison on May 10, but was not allowed

to see her.

On May 12, the hard-line daily ``Kayhan'' in an article

accused Dr. Esfandiari of working with the U.S. and Israeli

governments and with involvement in efforts to topple Iran's

Islamic regime.

On May 15, Iranian judiciary spokesman Ali Reza Jamshidi

said that Dr. Esfandiari was being investigated for crimes

against national security and that her case was being handled

by the Intelligence Ministry.

On May 15, Haleh made a brief telephone call to her mother.

On May 16, Haleh's family retained the legal services of

Nobel Peace Laureate Shirin Ebadi to represent her.

On May 17, in an interview with Washington Post Staff

Writer Robin Wright, Shirin Ebadi indicated that the Iranian

government has rejected her request to represent Dr.

Esfandiari. She also noted the court refused information on

the legal charges against Dr. Esfandiari, and denied her

legal team the ability to see Haleh.

On May 21 state-run television broadcasts in Iran indicated

that Haleh is being charged with seeking to topple the

government of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Our efforts to obtain Haleh's release will continue and

will be redoubled. She will be in our thoughts and prayers

every day.

Mr. Speaker, the Republican Party and the President will make it clear today to the American people that they own this war; hook, line and sinker.

The President and his Republican colleagues will be successful today in continuing the Iraq war, but this is a pyrrhic victory at best. The Democratic leadership is allowing this bill to pass because, unlike the President, they will not leave our troops unprotected in battle. It is our troops and their families that are the only ones being asked to make any sacrifice in this war, and this President's policy is unworthy of their sacrifice.

The only sacrifice requested of the rest of us has been to go out and spend our tax cuts at the mall. Meanwhile, the Iraqi parliament is preparing to take the summer off, probably using some of the missing $9 billion to sunbathe along the Mediterranean. Our soldiers risk life and limb to secure their country, which is in the midst of a civil war, and they go on vacation. Ask yourself if you think this is a war worthy of our soldiers' sacrifice.

We Democrats will do everything, legally and legislatively, to bring our troops home as soon and as safely as possible. That is our pledge to the American people, and we will keep it.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize the fine work of Deborah Cohn, Deputy Commissioner for Trademark Operations at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), for her leadership in promoting government telework. As a result of her ingenuity and perseverance with this program, Ms. Cohn spearheaded the development of the USPTO's telework program at a time when telework was unconventional, and her efforts have paid off as the program is among the most successful telework programs within the Federal workforce.

This year, the Trademark Work at Home (TWAH) program is celebrating its 10th anniversary. Established in March of 1997, TWAH began as a pilot program with 18 telework volunteers. Today, TWAH is the most successful and progressive program in the Federal Government, involving 85 percent of eligible trademark examining attorneys, who work 4 days per week at home.

The USPTO, located in my congressional district in Alexandria, VA, has received many distinguished awards for opening doors to its telework program. These include the most recent 2007 Work-Life Innovative Excellence Award from the Alliance for Work-Life Progress-- the highest honor offered by the organization, which was created to showcase programs and policies that demonstrate excellence in promoting work-life effectiveness while achieving institutional goals. Other notable awards include those from the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, the Telework Exchange, the MidAtlantic Telework Advisory Council, and the International Telework Association and Council.

The Trademark telework program is a successful model for other governmental agencies. Combining management by objective with hoteling results in proven space and related cost savings for the agency. The program also demonstrates that flexibility of schedules and location enables employees to maximize their working efficiency, which is reflected in production gains by its participants and the Office. The extremely low attrition rate experienced by the TWAH participants shows that agencies facing recruitment and retention problems would be well- served by offering telecommuting options, similar to those of the USPTO, to attract and retain qualified workers.

I have been a longtime advocate of commuter friendly policies such as telecommuting. Proven benefits include helping to offset the high price of gasoline, continuity of operations in the case of a future threat or disaster, improved air quality, reduction in traffic congestion, increased employee productivity and work quality, improved employee morale, and employee cost savings. As the Nation's largest employer, the Federal Government should be the leader in telework policy. The USPTO serves as the gold standard for the Federal Government thanks to the efforts of Deborah Cohn.

Ms. Deborah Cohn is a graduate of The American University and George Mason University School of Law. She began her career at the USPTO in 1983 as a trademark examining attorney, was promoted to senior attorney and then managing attorney, and then joined the Senior Executive Service as a Trademark Law Office Director in 2001. Ms. Cohn was named Deputy Commissioner for Trademark Operations in 2005 whereby she currently oversees the examination and processing of applications throughout the trademark operation and works with other USPTO business units in achieving agency goals.

Throughout her legal career at the USPTO, Ms. Cohn has been involved in work-life improvement initiatives. She is a former Council of Excellence in Government fellow where she first began developing the TWAH program. Ms. Cohn is a sought after resource, speaker, and expert on the development and management of telework programs.

I ask my colleagues to join me in commemorating Ms. Cohn's efforts in making the USPTO's telework program the most successful program within the Federal Government. I also ask my colleagues to join me in celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Trademark Work at Home program.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize the accomplishments that Special Agent Ernest A. Simon has made to the safety and security of our Nation. Mr. Simon currently serves as the Executive Assistant Director for Criminal Investigations or the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS), and is a member of the Senior Executive Service. Special Agent Simon is retiring from federal service after an illustrious 31 year career in federal law enforcement.

Special Agent Simon began his career with the Naval Investigative Service (NIS) in October 1975 following his graduation from San Diego State University. From December 1978 to December 1980, Mr. Simon was assigned to the NCIS Office in Guam, after which served as Staff Assistant to the Regional Director for Operations of the NIS Regional Office New York. In 1982, Mr. Simon was appointed Assistant Special Agent in Charge (ASAC) of the NIS Newport, Rhode Island Office, and in 1984 he returned to New York City as ASAC of the NIS Office in New York.

In 1986, Mr. Simon transferred back to the West Coast as Special Agent in Charge (SAC) of the NIS Office in Miramar, California, and named SAC of the newly-formed San Diego Regional Fraud Unit, a highly specialized office that focuses on major procurement fraud investigations. In 1990, Mr. Simon transferred to NISHQ, as a Division Head of the Fraud Department, as part of the reorganization of NIS to NCIS; Mr. Simon was named Deputy Assistant Director for Fraud in the Criminal Investigations Directorate in 1993. In 1996, Mr. Simon was appointed Assistant Director for Government Liaison & Public Affairs and subsequently named Assistant Director for Criminal Investigations.

In July 2001, Mr. Simon was appointed to the Senior Executive Service as the Executive Assistant Director (EAD) for Pacific Operations, headquartered in San Diego, CA. In this capacity, he served as the primary focal point for major Navy and Marine Corps Commands on all force protection, investigations and operations affecting the Pacific region and supervised seven NCIS Field Offices. In April 2006, Mr. Simon was again transferred back to NCIS Headquarters to serve in his current position as EAD for Criminal Investigations.

By promoting results-oriented strategies, as well as focusing on those crime problems that are known to have a debilitating effect on operational readiness or, have the potential to precipitate a serious international political incident, Executive Assistant Director Simon has made the criminal investigations program as a model program for how federal law enforcement should operate in today's high impact and highly charged threat environment.

Mr. Simon's career has been marked by sustained progression, significant challenges and numerous successes. He has earned the reputation over the years of being a stellar investigator who steadfastly adheres to the highest ethical standards of the law enforcement profession, and most importantly, an accomplished and dedicated leader. He will long be remembered as a leader who was deliberate and always maintained a sense of compassion and understanding for the people of NCIS.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the achievements of Dr. Judith Jackson, principal of Franconia Elementary School in Fairfax County, Virginia, since 1996: and a dedicated public servant for nearly 3 decades. While Dr. Jackson is retiring, she will leave behind a lasting impression of her caring nature and tireless devotion to the school she served so well.

A graduate of Marygrove College, Dr. Jackson, earned her master's degree at the University of Michigan and her doctorate in education at Nova Southeastern University. She began her teaching career as an elementary school teacher in the Detroit Public School System, and has taught soldiers in Germany, where her husband, David Jackson, was stationed with the United States Army, and ex-offenders in Pennsylvania. She arrived in the Fairfax County School system in 1980, where she rose to the rank of Assistant Principal at Woodley Hills Elementary School. In 1996, she passed through a rigorous selection process to become principal of Franconia Elementary. Dr. Judith Jackson is also the mother of 3 wonderful children, Teresa, David, and Kevin.

Throughout her service as principal, she has been ever present in the halls and classrooms of Franconia Elementary. She knows every student by name, and is involved in every aspect of life at the school. Dr. Jackson never misses an opportunity to read to the children at school events, and is unmatched in her advocacy of the development of reading and writing skills at the elementary level. As one member of her staff put it, ``All she does, day after day, is tirelessly search for ways in which every student can achieve, and every student can experience the joy of learning''. Some of the innovative programs supported by Dr. Jackson to this end are the ``Reading Restaurant'', ``Literary Lunch'', ``Friday Night Prime Time'', and ``Partners in Print'', making learning, and reading in particular, fun for her students. In recognition of her efforts, the library at Franconia Elementary School has been renamed the ``Judith Jackson Library.''

A supporter of after-school programs, Dr. Jackson instituted Math and Science Nights, supported ``CETA (Changing Education Through the Arts)'', and regularly attended Parent-Teacher Association meetings that fostered dialogue with parents and teachers. She has also volunteered with the Red Cross, tutored members of the military at the United States Military Academy at West Point, and assisted with Koinonia's efforts to help the underprivileged.

The Franconia Mustangs will sorely miss her, but will not forget her any time soon. As the Ayoud triplets, second graders at Franconia put it, ``We'll just have to retire too, since Franconia won't be the same without Dr. Jackson.'' Something tells me she won't let them.

I commend Dr. Jackson on her distinguished career in education, and wish her and her family health and happiness in her well-earned, much deserved retirement.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to address America's legal black hole, known as Guantanamo Bay.

The administration would like us to believe that the 15 prisoners that were very recently sent to Guantanamo are typical of the other 772 that have been sent there over the last 4\1/2\ years. Many of them are still languishing 4\1/2\ years later, even though only four of those 772 have ever been charged with a crime. In fact, only 8 percent are alleged to have ever acted as a ``fighter'' against the United States. Only 5 percent were actually captured by American forces. The vast majority were turned in for bounties by Pakistani or other northern alliance Afghan forces.

That is why, Mr. Speaker, we need to shine the light of the law on this situation, to ask the administration what are they going to do about people who are being illegally detained there without charges and with no plans as to how to fix this situation, which continues to undermine America's reputation and credibility throughout the world.

I very much thank the Chair of the Armed Services Committee.

I also rise in opposition to this amendment. The United States are liberators, we are not occupiers. And yet, our enemy is propagandizing to the people that they are trying to convert to their cause that we are there permanently to take their oil, to control their government, to control their actions. And if we pass this amendment, we are confirming what our enemy is trying to suggest in generating more support against the American cause.

As I say, we have always gone in to liberate, not to occupy. And to suggest, which is what this amendment would do if it passed, that we are there permanently, with permanent bases, is exactly the opposite of the message that we need to send. And our military commanders have made it clear, we will not achieve a military victory. If we are going to be victorious, it has to be a political victory. And this is a key aspect of that political victory. So I strongly urge defeat of this amendment.

I only want to ask the author of the amendment, because I'm not sure I heard him correctly. Did he suggest that he thinks that the Iraqis have read this amendment?

I'm not entirely sure you would agree that all of our colleagues have read this amendment. But do you really think the Iraqis have read this amendment?

Yes, I yield to the gentleman from Iowa.

Reclaiming my time. My only point is that this is so much about the message we send, and I think the message that we want permanent bases is the wrong message.

Madam Chairman, I offer an amendment.

Madam Chairman, I first want to thank the chairman of the Armed Services Committee and his superb staff for helping redraft portions of this language so that it might be considered. The final language represents a common-sense agreement that I think we should all reach consensus on.

The amendment's purpose is to shed some light on what has become an increasingly invisible world down at Guantanamo Bay.

The first detainees were brought to Guantanamo in 2002 to bypass the U.S. legal system and avoid international conventions and public scrutiny. Since that time the detainment facility has become a blight on American ideals and principles.

We have captured, tortured and interminably held men that we call enemy combatants, some of whom are guilty of crimes against our Nation and should be punished. Others, however, are only guilty of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

We have created closed military tribunals that offer the false impression of justice, but they fall woefully short of what we should expect from our American system of justice.

Like Abu Ghraib, we've created an unnecessary rallying cry and recruitment tool for al Qaeda and militant Islamists throughout the world. I strongly believe that the continued operation of Guantanamo Bay puts Americans in harm's way and threatens the safety of any of our captured military and civilians abroad.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Rice have agreed that Guantanamo Bay represents a serious problem if we are to prevail in the global war on terror. They both advocated shuttering Guantanamo Bay's detention facilities. Even President Bush expressed a desire to see Guantanamo Bay closed.

This amendment offers a first step in giving the President, the Congress and the Department of Defense policy alternatives to Guantanamo Bay. This amendment will require the Department to develop a plan to transfer detainees from Guantanamo Bay.

The report must estimate how many detainees the Department will charge with a crime, how many will be subject to release or transfer, or how many will be held without being charged with a crime, but whom the Department feels that it must detain.

Lastly, the report would include a description of actions required by the Secretary and Congress to ensure that detainees who are scheduled for release are, in fact, released.

This last piece is particularly important, as the Department of Defense has scheduled release of 82 detainees. DOD and the State Department, however, face obstacles releasing these men to their home countries, and in some instances their home nations won't accept their return. In other instances, the State Department won't return detainees to their home nations for appropriate reasons. But we need to know what policy tools Congress can provide to expedite the release of innocent detainees.

All of this information is absolutely necessary for Congress and the administration to make informed decisions about what to do about Guantanamo Bay.

Whether you like it or not, whether you believe that Guantanamo Bay is a blight on our international standing, or whether or not you believe that these detainees should be held and tried in the United States, we should all agree that the policy options before the President and Congress should not be limited by a lack of information.

To opponents of shutting down Guantanamo Bay and my colleagues who believe its closure is a sign of weakness, I suggest that upholding our American principles of justice are not incongruent with our war against terror.

And in a speech before the Republican National Convention in 1992, I would remind my colleagues President Reagan emphasized that our greatest strength as a Nation comes not from our wealth or our power, but from our ideals.

I ask all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support this common-sense amendment, to move forward in our battle against anti- American sentiment, and to provide the President and Congress with real policy options for shutting down Guantanamo Bay.

Yes, I'd be happy to yield.

I thank the chairman. I will reiterate the comments I made at the beginning. I thank very much the chairman's leadership and his superb staff for bringing us to this point. And as you say, this is only a matter of acquiring information.

Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. Chairman, I thank my good friend for yielding.

First of all, I agree with you the people you described, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and the like, appear to be very dangerous people. These people, however, who were just transferred to Guantanamo, I think when Secretary Gates and the President spoke about Guantanamo, they were referring to the 772 that had been there over the period of 4 years now, rather than new arrivals.

But the point is, this is only a report; this does not mandate any action. It just presents information to the Congress. If the Congress was to transfer it, what would be the implication? So it is only a report, I would again remind the gentleman.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to remind my colleagues that June 3-9 is Molecular Imaging Week. This year, Molecular Imaging Week is coinciding with SNM's (formally known as the Society of Nuclear Medicine) 54th Annual Meeting, which is taking place here in Washington, D.C. Based in Reston Virginia, SNM, with over 3,900 professional attendees and 180 exhibiting companies, will hold the world's largest event focused exclusively on the fields of nuclear medicine and molecular imaging in Washington, D.C. this year.

Annually, more than 20 million men, women, and children need noninvasive molecular/nuclear medicine procedures. These safe, cost- effective procedures include positron emission tomography (PET) scans to diagnose and monitor treatment of cancer, diagnose neurological disease such as Alzheimer's and stroke, cardiac stress tests, bone scans and follow-up for breast and prostate cancer patients, and lung scans for blood clots.

Molecular imaging and therapy procedures provide safe, painless, and cost-effective techniques to image the body and treat disease. These procedures are crucial in the early diagnosis of cancer, renal disease, cardiac disease, and Alzheimer's. Imaging procedures often identify abnormalities very early in the progress of a disease--long before many medical problems are apparent with other diagnostic tests. The techniques that are used in molecular imaging include radiotracer imaging/nuclear medicine, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), optical imaging, the PET scan, ultrasound and others.

Molecular imaging offers unique insights that allow a more targeted approach to evaluation and management of heart disease. It also plays a pivotal role in guiding the management of cancer: diagnosis, staging (extent and location), assessing therapeutic targets, monitoring therapy, and evaluating prognosis; and is playing an increasingly significant role in conditions such as tumors, dementias (Alzheimer's and other), movement disorders, seizures disorders and psychiatric disorders.

Molecular imaging delivers on the promise of ``personalized medicine''--it can provide patient-specific information that allows tailored treatment of disease. It can show a precise (molecular) level of detail that provides new information for diagnosis. It is also key to the development of pharmaceuticals and genetic therapy. Molecular therapy can target molecules that deliver the therapeutic agent directly to the site of interest, bypassing normal tissue and avoiding the toxic side effects of many current therapies.

In 2005, SNM created the Molecular Imaging Center of Excellence, an organizational component within SNM, dedicated to all aspects of molecular imaging in the detection and management of disease.

I applaud SNM and its members for their efforts to educate others on this major healthcare innovation during Molecular Imaging Week (June 3- 9), and I urge my Colleagues to join me in supporting policies that will continue to keep our Nation on the cutting edge of molecular imaging research.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor my mother and all the women in my life. On behalf of these women, I demand answers to the question of what causes breast cancer. This disease has impacted virtually every American's life. More than three million women are currently living with breast cancer, and each year tens of thousands of women die from this disease.

A woman in the United States has a 1 in 7 chance of developing invasive breast cancer during her lifetime--this risk was 1 in 11 in 1975. Breast cancer remains the second leading cause of cancer death among women. While important advances have been made, we still do not know what causes this disease, or how to prevent it.

Scientific evidence about whether the environment plays a role in the development of breast cancer is scarce. There is a clear need for research on the potential relationship between environmental factors and breast cancer, and federal commitment is critical to the

overall, national strategy and to the long-term research investments needed for this effort to succeed.

To further this important research, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 1157, the Breast Cancer and Environmental Research Act. This bipartisan legislation was introduced again this Congress by Representatives Lowey, Myrick and Capps.

Madam Speaker, this bill would create a competitive, peer-reviewed research program at the National Institutes of Health to study the potential links between breast cancer and the environment. It is modeled after the successful peer-reviewed Breast Cancer Research Program at the Department of Defense. A key component of this bill is inclusion of consumer advocates in the peer review and programmatic review process.

Let's continue to fight the war on breast cancer, and invest in getting the answers to eradicating this disease, in honor of all our mothers. Pledge your support today, by joining me in co-sponsoring the Breast Cancer and Environmental Research Act, and in working towards enacting it this year.