Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize Career and Technical Education Month. I am proud to be able to work with my colleague, G.T. Thompson of Pennsylvania, as he and I cochair the Career and Technical Education Caucus.

In particular, Mr. Speaker, I would like to address the importance of the initiative that President Obama announced recently that supports partnerships between community colleges and expanding industry. It should be a bipartisan priority.

We've heard a lot about the skills gap that we're facing in this country, and businessowners repeatedly tell me that they cannot fill openings because the applicants lack the necessary skills. We need better collaboration between the companies doing the hiring and the educators who are preparing our students.

In my district, National Grid--the primary utility--and the Community College of Rhode Island offer a model program to prepare workers for available high-skilled jobs. Through coursework and hands-on training, students receive a certificate in Energy Utility Technology and can then become new employees.

Unfortunately, community colleges simply can't afford enough of these programs. The President's Community College to Career Fund is a small price to pay for the resulting benefit. It's a worthwhile program, and I believe that we need to support it.

Mr. Speaker, there are some partisan differences that this Congress, perhaps, cannot overcome, but the idea of multiplying this effort at our community colleges is a commonsense goal if our goal is, in fact, to put Americans back to work.

Madam Speaker, I rise in support of the House amendment to S. 2038, the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge, STOCK, Act, but I must share my deep disappointment with the House Republican leadership's move to weaken this legislation.

As a cosponsor of the House version of the STOCK Act that has 285 bipartisan cosponsors, I strongly believe we need to restore trust in our public officials and those who work closely with them by clarifying that the same insider trading rules that everyone else must follow apply to all three branches of our government as well. The STOCK Act will prohibit Members of Congress and employees of Congress from profiting from nonpublic information they obtain via their official positions. It will also require Members of Congress to report on their stock sales.

The Senate version added a provision that would require firms specializing in ``political intelligence,'' that may use information obtained from Congress to make financial transactions, to register with the House and Senate--just as lobbying firms are now required to do. House Republicans watered down this bill in the middle of the night by dropping this provision, even though it was unanimously approved by the House Judiciary Committee this past December.

The measure before us today is an important first step, but once it is passed, I call on my colleagues to conference with the Senate to strengthen this legislation. If we wish to restore confidence in our government, we must start by using fair and transparent legislative procedures.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that my name be removed as a cosponsor to H.R. 3784.

I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I find it thoroughly unconscionable that House Republicans are preventing Congress from working its will by stifling a vote to support a bipartisan Senate compromise to extend unemployment benefits and the middle class tax cut for 2 months. While I strongly believe the middle class tax cuts and other provisions within this bill deserve a full-year extension, the utter intransigence of Tea Party Republicans has made compromise without a self-imposed crisis practically impossible.

We could have spent the better part of a year working on this bill, and others like it, to buoy our economy and help Americans get back to work. Instead, the Republican majority spent most of the entire session considering multiple bills to repeal health reform, rescind environmental protections, and further deregulate the financial industry, none of which helps create jobs for my constituents back in Rhode Island.

Now my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have made a last- minute decision to derail a compromise on the one bill that economists agree would actually stimulate the economy. As a result, when families across Rhode Island come together to celebrate the holidays, they are going to face the possibility of paying higher taxes or seeing their unemployment benefits expire in the new year. This is unacceptable and it is unnecessary.

Mr. Speaker, Americans are weary of the political games and the broken promises that have brought us to this point. They want a Congress that can come together and legislate in their best interests. Instead, House Republicans are holding the middle class tax cuts hostage to further their political agenda, despite calls from members of their own party asking them to accept a bipartisan compromise which overwhelmingly passed the Senate 89-10.

I urge my Republican colleagues to stop risking the welfare of the American people for their political leverage. Give us the opportunity to pass a 2-month extension so that our constituents have some reassurance that they won't be worse off come New Year's Day. The interests of the American families deserve to be put before the interests of political partisanship. During this holiday season, I pray that this Congress can honor that.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to support the 2012 Intelligence Authorization Act. In particular, this bill includes funding to accelerate implementation of an insider threat detection program and requires best practices implemented in the Army to be reviewed for inclusion across the Intelligence Community. In addition, the bill supports critical resources for cybersecurity, a threat which demands the attention of national security specialists.

As the successful operation against Usama bin Ladin demonstrated earlier this year, the Intelligence Community has made significant strides towards working together to counter the most complex threats facing our nation. Productive cooperation and intelligence integration embodies the intent of congressional reforms made after the tragic events of 9/11. I am encouraged to see this progress, especially in the area of information sharing.

While the sharing of classified information is imperative to keep our country safe, technological advances have also increased the risks of this cooperation. As we saw last year with the damage of Wikileaks the threat from a malicious insider, with the ``keys to the kingdom,'' is real.

This bill requires the Director of National Intelligence to review improvements made to the Army's insider threat regulation and consider implementation across the Intelligence Community. The bill also accelerates other technical initiatives within the insider threat program. It is imperative that we ensure our security officers and network administrators have this capability in place to protect our most sensitive information.

Further, this bill helps secure our information and networks both from the insider and from outside actors by addressing the risks posed to our cyber networks. We must all work together to raise awareness of this threat and work with both public and private sector partners. I urge my colleagues to join me in support of this bill.

I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 1540, the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act.

I would like to begin by thanking Chairman McKeon, Ranking Member Smith, and my subcommittee chairman, Mr. Thornberry, for their leadership and commitment to keeping our Nation safe and protecting our servicemembers. As a conferee, I was proud to join them in signing the conference report Monday night, and I am even more proud of our excellent staff that completed a full conference in a record 1 week's time.

As ranking member of the Emerging Threats Subcommittee, I am especially pleased with the inclusion of significant funding for special operations forces, the full reauthorization of the SBIR program to support our job-creating small businesses, and also the inclusion of important cyberprotections to prevent future incidents similar to WikiLeaks.

This bill will also ensure the long-term strength of programs critical to our naval dominance and strategic posture, such as the purchase of two new Virginia class submarines, fully funding the development of the Ohio replacement submarine, and continuing work on the first Zumwalt DDG-1000 destroyer.

Further, the conference committee successfully removed damaging language that would have ended efforts by DOD to procure clean alternative fuel technology in order to break our dependence on foreign oil and reduce our carbon footprint, which DOD officials have stated are both high risks to our national security.

Finally, while I'm concerned that we were unable to remove some harmful measures requiring that terrorist detainees be held in military custody, provisions included in this bill help address concerns about potential detention of U.S. citizens in military custody and the flexibility of counterterrorism efforts by the FBI.

In closing, this legislation supports the incredible sacrifices that our brave men and women in uniform make for our country every day and provides critical resources to carry out vital national security projects.

With that, I am proud to serve on the House Armed Services Committee and to serve with Chairman McKeon and Ranking Member Smith. I commend them for the great work they have done in producing a good bill, and I appreciate the staff for their great work as well.

As a former secretary of state for the State of Rhode Island, and now a Member of the United States Congress, I have serious concerns about this bill.

Mr. Speaker, voter participation is the cornerstone of our democracy and a fundamental civic duty that empowers every citizen to effect change within our society. Unfortunately, many individuals with disabilities have been historically shut out of the voting process due to lack of accessibility. That's among my particular concerns with this bill.

We have made impressive strides in recent years to close that gap, and the Election Assistance Commission, established under the Help America Vote Act, was an important part of that effort. As a Member of Congress who lives with a disability, cofounded the bipartisan Disabilities Caucus, and has worked at both the State and Federal levels to modernize and make accessible our voting systems, I find it unconscionable that the Republican leadership is considering this bill to abolish the Election Assistance Commission, an agency whose fundamental mission is to promote security, accessibility, and trust in our electoral process.

Could the EAC use some reforms? Yes. But the Republican solution of eliminating an agency with such an important mission is unnecessary. Everyone, Mr. Speaker, should have full faith in our system of elections including seniors, military members, minorities, and people with disabilities, and that's exactly what the Election Assistance Commission seeks to provide.

Mr. Speaker, we have precious little time left before the end of this Congressional session. Instead of considering a bill that will only serve to erode America's faith in our democracy, our time would be far better spent rebuilding it by focusing on job creation, getting this economy back on track.

I urge my colleagues to oppose this bill and turn our attention to legislation that will extend tax relief for families and small businesses, reduce unemployment, and create greater economic stability. That is exactly what my constituents expect from me, and that's exactly what the American people expect from this Congress.

Madam Speaker, first of all, I want to join with my colleague from Rhode Island, Mr. Cicilline, in extending my condolences to the family of Julius Michaelson, former attorney general of Rhode Island, a dedicated public servant, someone who truly made a difference to the people of our State. He made a difference, and he will be greatly missed.

Madam Speaker, next week Americans will be celebrating Thanksgiving with their families. Unfortunately, far too many will be preoccupied with the uncertainty of being unemployed and finding ways just to put food on the table.

Our country currently has a 9 percent unemployment rate, and there are four unemployed workers for every open job right now. In my home State of Rhode Island, our unemployment rate continues to hold steady above the national average at 10.5 percent.

Madam Speaker, where is the urgency on job creation? The House just returned from its 11th scheduled recess of the year. With only 45 days left until the end of the year, the Republican-led House has failed to take any meaningful action to spur job creation this year.

Our constituents deserve better than this. The American people are demanding more than this. Congress must put partisan politics aside and focus on growing our economy and creating new job opportunities and getting this country back on track. It is our obligation to do this, and we need to do it now.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize October as the eighth annual National Cybersecurity Awareness Month. The National Cyber Security Alliance, the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center, the Department of Homeland Security, and other organizations developed the ``STOP. THINK. CONNECT.'' national awareness campaign to educate our citizens and help them stay safer online. It is vital that the public is engaged and aware of how to properly utilize security software in order to protect their social security numbers, financial information, health information, and other personal data. We must all work together and take responsibility for securing our own networks and computers to ensure that government systems, personal data and even critical infrastructure remain safe from attack.

Recently, Deputy Secretary of Defense William Lynn noted to Foreign Affairs magazine that our Nation is shifting its priorities in cyberspace, recognizing that attacks online can be as threatening as bullets and bombs. Additionally, the importance of cyber to not just our national security, but also our economic competitiveness, cannot be overstated. The vulnerabilities our Nation faces in cyberspace come from potential attacks against critical infrastructure, as described by Lee Hamilton in his post 9/11 report, as well as from damage to our military readiness, as Secretary of Defense Panetta testified earlier this year. But our vulnerabilities also include the intellectual property that is a critical driver of our economy.

Cyber threats to our intellectual property are growing more numerous, sophisticated, and successful. As noted by a recent report from the National Counter Intelligence Executive, vital intellectual property is targeted and stolen in cyberspace every day as these threats become more damaging and extensive. While the cost of a data breach can run well into the millions, even that loss is dwarfed by the long term damage to America's ability to remain the world leader in innovation, especially in our high tech and defense sectors.

All of this should tell us that the status quo is not good enough. We need to redouble our efforts and tap into our creative and innovative spirit to address not just the threats of today, but the challenges of tomorrow as well. This will require better education and action from both industry and government, as we come together to strengthen our public-private- partnership. But if we fail to leverage our own abilities and work through these challenges, our personal privacy, national security and economic competitiveness will be irreparably harmed.

I applaud the Department of Homeland Security for sponsoring this month of outreach. As a Co-Founder and Co-Chairman of the House Cybersecurity Caucus, I will continue to fight to deliver the latest tools and training to support both our national security infrastructure and the personal data of all Americans.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to H.R. 3078, the United States-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement Implementation Act, H.R. 3079, the United States-Panama Trade Promotion Agreement Implementation Act, and H.R. 3080, the United States-Korea Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act.

Trade opportunities are an important component of our nation's economic growth, but it is critical that our free trade agreements are fair and environmentally sound to ensure that American workers and companies can compete on a level playing field with our foreign trading partners. While I favor expanding global trade, I oppose trade agreements that lack key labor and environmental safeguards, thus allowing our trading partners to exploit regulations in their own countries that are far weaker than those in America.

These three trade agreements were negotiated under the Bush Administration, and I have long been skeptical of their potential impact on our workers, our environment and our domestic businesses. I am also concerned that grave and ongoing human rights violations against labor leaders and human rights workers in Colombia are not fully addressed in this legislation. While the current administration and my Ways and Means colleagues continued negotiations to revise these trade agreements by incorporating international labor standards and environmental agreement compliance, I remain unconvinced that these provisions will be meaningfully enforced. Unfortunately, I do not believe these trade agreements meet the minimum requirements necessary to protect our workers from increased job losses, safeguard our environment, or convince me this is the right step for our nation, and for these reasons, I voted against the three trade agreements.

I was pleased to vote for H.R. 2832, the Trade Adjustment Assistance and Generalized System of Preferences extension bill, which will extend the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program to assist workers laid off as a result of international trade by helping them retrain and acquire skills needed to compete in the global marketplace. TAA is a valuable program that provides unemployment benefits

and training programs for unemployed workers, as well as technical and financial assistance for employers.

I will continue to support trade agreements that include labor, human rights and environmental safeguards and that benefit all Rhode Islanders--businesses, workers and consumers.

I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the Child and Family Services Improvement and Innovation Act.

This bill includes a provision from the Foster Youth Financial Security Act that I introduced with my colleague from California (Mr. Stark) to address disturbingly high rates of identity theft among foster youth. I, along with many others, was absolutely outraged to find that foster children are disproportionately victims of identity theft since their personal information passes through so many hands.

Mr. Speaker, as I saw firsthand when my parents welcomed foster youth into our home over many years, they already faced tremendous obstacles without the increased threat of having their identity taken and their credit ruined, which prevents them from finding a place to live, accessing credit on their own, or obtaining other basic needs.

This bill would ensure that each foster youth over 16 years of age receives free credit checks before leaving the system and assistance clearing any inaccuracies that may have come to light. Reports have shown that if done effectively, the cost is minimal.

I want to thank, Mr. Speaker, the committee for their interest in this issue and the many advocates who have championed this cause. This is only the first step in providing foster youth the tools that they need and deserve to succeed, and I look forward to our continued work together on this issue.

As I pointed out so many times, the kids in foster care already face significant challenges of their own of a personal nature. It is a shame that their identity is stolen and they're further victimized. This bill would identify problems early on and clear up the inaccuracies so they can start their adult life with a fresh start with their credit intact.

I thank both gentlemen, the chair, and the ranking member for their outstanding support of this provision.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition to H.R. 2587, or the ``Outsourcers' Bill of Rights.'' This bill would encourage businesses to ship jobs overseas and weaken the rights of American workers. There's never a good time for this kind of misguided legislation, but it's hard to imagine a worse time than right now.

This bill would prohibit the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) from directing an employer or company to restore or reinstate work that has been unlawfully transferred, outsourced, or subcontracted away from workers in retaliation for exercising their rights, such as organizing a union.

Furthermore, it would apply retroactively to any complaint that has not been resolved by the time of enactment. Its impact is dangerous and wide-ranging. Simply put, this bill strips away the authority of the NLRB to effectively remedy unlawful practices against workers.

This ill-timed legislation would effectively encourage companies to outsource their jobs overseas. In 2000, the National Labor Relations Board was able to force a company to bring jobs back to the U.S. from Mexico, as the company was charged with shipping jobs to that country in retaliation against workers seeking to organize a union. If this bill passes, American workers would lose this critical protection.

For more than 75 years, federal law has provided Americans the right to join together in unions and bargain for fair wages and safe working conditions. As President Obama stated earlier this month, when it comes to labor relations, ``we shouldn't be in a race to the bottom . . . America should be in a race to the top.''

Mr. Speaker, the priority of Congress should be to raise the living standards of the middle class and working families in America. I urge my colleagues to vote against this bill and join the race to the top.

Madam Speaker, too many people in America are out of work, and as the President said in his speech last week, too many people are living day to day, paycheck to paycheck, struggling to find work. That is why we need to pass the American Jobs Act now.

A consequence of such high unemployment is poverty. Yesterday, the Census Bureau reported that our country's poverty rate last year was an astonishing 15.1 percent, the highest it has been in almost two decades. With 22 percent of our children living in poverty, this report makes clear who has borne the brunt of our country's economic woes.

I believe that all of my colleagues share a strong love of this Nation and its children, but in order for them to succeed, we must ensure that they have access to health care, housing, modern classrooms, and qualified teachers. We must also put their parents on a path back to work.

Madam Speaker, it is a travesty to have even one child living in poverty in this country, let alone one in five of our children. It is also unconscionable to allow our actions, or inactions, to affect their future prosperity. Let's work together in a bipartisan way now to pass the American Jobs Act today.

Let me just say how proud I am to support the FY 2012 Intelligence Authorization Act. I appreciate the leadership of both Chairman Rogers and Ranking Member Ruppersberger in crafting this bill. This has truly been a bipartisan effort of which I have been proud to be a part.

I am pleased that this bill includes funding to accelerate implementation of an insider threat detection program, and that's both on the cyber front but also in cases like the Hasan case that was tragically in the news and that occurred not long ago and cost many lives.

This bill basically requires best practices implemented within the Army to be reviewed for inclusion across the intelligence community. That's referring to their insider threat detection program.

In addition, the bill supports critical resources needed for cybersecurity, the broader cybersecurity threat, a threat which demands the attention of our national security specialists and the entire country.

As the successful operation against Osama bin Laden showed us earlier this year, the intelligence community has made significant strides toward working together to counter the most complex threats facing our Nation. This productive cooperation and integration embodies the intent of Congressional intelligence reforms made after the tragic events of 9/11, and I'm encouraged to see this progress in the area of information-sharing.

Yet while the sharing of classified information is imperative to keep our country safe, unrestrained and unregulated access can put our country at great risk. As we have seen from both the damage of WikiLeaks and historical espionage cases, the threat from a malicious insider with the keys to the kingdom is very real. We are far beyond the risk of paper documents being copied and carried out. Today the question is how much information can a potential leaker or spy fit on to a USB drive or a CD.

Although technological advances have strengthened the efforts of our intelligence community, they have also increased the risk.

Now, with this serious concern in mind, I'm proud that this bill requires the DNI to review improvements made by the Army's insider threat regulations and consider implementation of these practices across the entire intelligence community.

In addition, the bill accelerates other technical initiatives within the insider threat program. I believe it's imperative that we ensure that our security officers and network administrators have the capabilities in place to protect our most sensitive information.

Now, in view of the enormous resources spent on security clearances, protecting classified information, and securing networks across the globe, it also makes fiscal sense to protect our investment by taking advantage of the auditing software already available today. The access to classified information bears with it significant responsibilities, one that I know that I and my colleagues on the committee take very seriously.

The other serious threats which this bill addresses are the risks posed to our broader cyber networks. Now, I'm proud that it strengthens resources and it furthers the administration's efforts to address the threats of our critical infrastructure. I know that that is something that is also shared by my colleague, Congressman Ruppersberger.

While I applaud the administration's work, I think that we need to go further to raise awareness and work with both public and private sector partners to meet this threat. We cannot afford to continue operating with the massive digital vulnerabilities to not just our sensitive information but also our important intellectual property that makes up the foundation of our innovative economy. Addressing these threats must become a national priority, and we must work quickly to grow our current and future cyber workforce to fill the rising demand for cybersecurity information assurance.

This bill helps secure our sensitive information and vital networks to threats from malicious actors beyond our borders and on the inside because of these important provisions, along with the other merits cited by my colleagues today.

I thank again Chairman Rogers and Ranking Member Ruppersberger for the outstanding bipartisan cooperation we've seen in their leadership and also the other members of the committee. It's a committee that I'm proud to serve on. I thank them and the committee for their work.

I urge Members to support this bill.

Mr. Speaker, with six days left until we default on our national debt, there is simply no excuse for the partisan gridlock that has blocked all progress toward a fair and balanced agreement. This week, Congressional switchboards lit up and websites crashed under the sheer volume of outreach from citizens who wanted their voices heard in this debate. I hope my colleagues were listening. The resounding message I received from Rhode Islanders was that they are tired of political games. They want their leaders to work together to solve this problem in the best interests of the country. We have an opportunity to do that, and we literally can't afford to squander it with the usual Washington politics.

Our surest path to success includes a balanced approach of spending cuts and revenue increases that will reduce our budget deficit, stabilize our rising debt, reassure global markets and create greater economic certainty to bolster our fragile recovery. I will not support a plan that forces benefit cuts in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid or places the entire burden of deficit reduction on middle- class families, seniors, the disabled and others already struggling through the effects of a deep recession. We must all be willing to share in the sacrifice, and that includes multinational corporations and the richest 2 percent of income earners who received the lion's share of tax breaks under the Bush tax cuts. This approach has bipartisan support in the Senate, as well as from officials in previous Democratic and Republican Administrations.

However, my Republican colleagues in the House have opted to turn a deaf ear to reason, choosing instead to put forward ``The Budget Control Act,'' a politically motivated proposal that makes clear their willingness to drive our nation into default rather than compromise in the best interests of Americans. This short-term extension contains arbitrary spending caps and a Balanced Budget Amendment so conservative in nature that it would deem unconstitutional the fiscal policies of Presidents Reagan and Bush, as well as the budget passed by the Republican House earlier this year.

The most egregious part of this legislation is that it only offers a short-term fix that will force Congress to revisit this same debate in a few months, setting the stage for another partisan fight as lawmakers gear up for the next election. It's hard to imagine how things could get much worse in Washington, but I can promise you we will find out if we have to replay this battle again next year. Moreover, it is exactly the wrong message to be sending the American people and the world. A short-term extension would fail to establish economic certainty, reassure businesses or provide market confidence. In fact, ratings agencies have warned that under the Republican proposal, the U.S. credit rating could still be downgraded, leading to higher interest rates and a tax on all American families.

The Senate is considering legislation that, while imperfect, protects our most vulnerable citizens, cuts more than $2 trillion, and ensures we avoid a repeat of this dangerous game in a few months. While it may not represent my preferred approach of including both spending cuts and revenue increases, it at least offers a compromise that a majority of members should be able to accept. It is time for both parties to put their differences aside, if not for good, then for long enough to agree on a balanced approach to pay our nation's bills, reduce the deficit and give businesses and markets renewed confidence in the full faith and credit of the United States. They should never have had to doubt it in the first place.