Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Ten years ago, our nation experienced unimaginable tragedy when terrorists turned airplanes into weapons and killed thousands of Americans. Although a decade has passed since that horrible day, the wounds of September 11, 2001, are still fresh. We continue to grieve for the men and women who were killed in those brutal attacks. They are not forgotten, and our sincerest sympathies remain with their families and friends.

As Americans, that day has become a critical moment in our shared history. We all remember what we were doing on September 11, 2001; how our own lives paused in the face of national tragedy.

As we mark the tenth anniversary of 9/11, we also pay tribute to the brave public servants--firefighters, policemen, EMTs, and volunteers, who rushed to the scene of destruction that day, many of whom lost their own lives in their efforts to help others. Men and women who, instead of fleeing the danger, ran into the flaming buildings in hopes of aiding survivors. In the days and weeks that followed, men and women came from the Chicago area and other cities and towns across the country to assist in the recovery efforts. These courageous men and women, together with the countless more who have since worked to keep our nation safe, deserve our deepest gratitude.

They also deserve our support. Last December, I was proud to vote in favor of legislation to cover the cost of medical care for the thousands of 9/11 first responders and others who became sick from breathing in toxic fumes, dust, and smoke after their heroic rescue work. This July, the World Trade Center Health Program began providing full medical screening and treatment benefits to eligible World Trade Center responders, recovery and cleanup workers, building occupants, and residents who were directly impacted and adversely affected by the events of September 11, 2001.

And this year, we remember those who were killed that day with the knowledge that Osama bin Laden will never again be able to threaten American families with terror, thanks to the brave leadership of President Obama, the careful work of our intelligence community, and the extraordinary courage of a team of Navy Seals. We can celebrate that in the past decade, al Qaeda has been repeatedly thwarted in its attempts to perpetrate another 9/11-style attack on our American homeland. And while we remain vigilant in the face of ongoing global threats, we cannot and will not live our lives in fear.

In the hours and days that followed the horrific attacks, Americans from all different backgrounds came together in a remarkable display of unity in the face of unspeakable violence and hatred. In my own community of Chicago, hundreds of people of all faiths--Muslim, Hindu, Christian, Jewish, and Sikh--came together to walk down Devon Avenue. We stood shoulder to shoulder during this difficult time, to remember those who died and to pay tribute to the American values of freedom, equality, and tolerance. We stood together in solidarity, and stated that as a community that we would not allow terrorist attacks to turn us against each other.

Ten years later, we should aspire to rekindle this spirit of unity as Americans. Today, we come together to remember those who were killed, thank those who have served our communities and our nation, and celebrate the resilience of the American spirit.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the ground-breaking Women's Business Development Center and the two remarkable women who founded it.

In 1986, Hedy M. Ratner and S. Carol Dougal saw a need: the lack of support for women eager to participate in the business world. Then, through their vision and persistence, they worked to address that need by creating the Women's Business Development Center (WBDC). The goals they set were ambitious to say the least--to accelerate the growth of women-owned businesses and microenterprise ownership, to increase the economic impact of women business owners on families and communities, to build awareness of business ownership as a path to economic self- sufficiency, and to help stimulate policy and system changes to empower women in the economy. Today, 25 years later, the achievements of the WBDC are evident, even as it continues to be an innovative national leader in expanding opportunities for women.

The Center already has helped more than 65,000 women in the greater Chicago area start, improve and expand their small businesses. Its success has spurred the creation of 14 other centers in 6 states. The oldest and largest women's business assistance center in the country, the WBDC is constantly developing and implementing new approaches to help potential and current women business owners. The Center and its amazing staff give women the tools, the needed support and the confidence to know that they can become successful entrepreneurs.

Whether you are a woman with a glimmer of an idea for creating a business or an established woman business owner who wants to take advantage of new opportunities, the WBDC is there to help. The Center provides a full range of programs and services: financial literacy and entrepreneurial trainings, workshops, one-to-one counseling, and capacity building. Its programs include Women's Business Enterprise, Women's Business Finance, Procurement and Technical Assistance, Child Care Business Initiative, and Latina Business Development.

Hedy and Carol are recognized leaders who have advised business groups and public officials at all levels about ways to help women improve their families' well-being and our nation by creating new business opportunities. I am one of many who have been fortunate enough to receive their advice on ways to improve federal contracting and lending policies and to learn about the barriers that must be torn down so that more women can enter realm of business ownership.

I congratulate Hedy, Carol and the extraordinary staff of the Women's Business Development Center for 25 years of success. I know that they will help many, many more women become business owners and leaders in the years to come.

I thank the gentleman for yielding.

I rise also to support the effort of my colleague Mr. Garamendi to require that materials made in America be used to construct and renovate the charter schools that we're talking about in this legislation.

We have a serious issue in this country, in case the Republicans haven't noticed, that we need to create as many jobs as we can. And anybody who has made a speech about job creation these days, talking about making it in America is a definite applause line. I would just like to recommend that. Making it in America is something that really has resonated with people all around this country.

Why would we take taxpayer dollars, when we could spend it on products that are made right here, including the building materials that we need to upgrade, to create more schools in our country, and buy products that are made overseas and support jobs that are outside of our country?

The issue in this bill of creating more schools is so important. In the United States, schools on average are 40 years old and actually in need of an estimated $500 billion in repairs and upgrades.

I'm actually introducing a piece of legislation next week that would provide $100 billion dollars to repair, renovate, modernize America's schools

and would create 400,000 construction and 250,000 maintenance jobs alone.

But in addition, what we should be doing is rejecting this previous question that's up before us so that we can make a good bill even better. This is a bipartisan effort. We've heard from the other side of the aisle that these are good ideas. Let's make it better. Vote ``no'' and let's add the Garamendi amendment.

Mr. Speaker, many of our constituents come to Washington, D.C. to meet with their elected officials, to gather for conferences and to attend events. It's not always easy to do--they have to find the funds, take time off from work and often arrange alternative care-giving arrangements for family members. For people with disabilities, there is another obstacle--a transportation system that is often inaccessible because of inadequate infrastructure, poor design or breakdowns.

Today, I want to describe to my colleagues the experience of some Chicagoans who worked hard to surmount those barriers and to recognize Mr. Charles Idol, manager of Clyde's restaurant in Chinatown, who came to their rescue.

This spring, six Chicago residents traveled to Washington, D.C. to attend the National Paratransit Memorial Rally. It wasn't easy for them to get from Chicago to Washington but they were determined to be here to speak out for improved paratransit policies. Of the six persons, one is a volunteer from IMPRUVE (the Independent Movement of Paratransit Riders for Unity, Vehicles, Equality) and five are disabled. IMPRUVE is a national organization based in Chicago committed to meeting the transportation needs of people with disabilities. Dr. Ayo Maat, my constituent and President of IMPRUVE, organized the trip and arranged meetings with members of the Illinois delegation, including my office, to discuss paratransit solutions.

Once in Washington, those six Chicagoans were confronted by a situation that underscores the need for improved paratransit policies. The group decided to have dinner in Chinatown and wound up stranded after their meal because there was no accessible transportation back to their hotel. For over two and a half hours, the group tried to find accessible transportation. They called taxi services, Metro Access, the police department and 911 and no one could help them. Despite the fact that the three in wheelchairs could not ride in a regular taxi, their situation was not considered an emergency. One person needed insulin, another needed her epilepsy medicine, yet they were unable to get back to their hotel room because there was no available accessible transportation in our Nation's Capital.

Fortunately, they found Mr. Idol. Dr. Maat wrote to tell me of his generosity, ``Angels do exist and they walk among us as ordinary people with extremely big hearts and compassion and love.'' Mr. Idol worked to find a solution for these six stranded strangers in Chinatown, keeping his restaurant open to them while trying to find accessible transportation. When that attempt failed, he paid for a nearby hotel room for the three persons in wheelchairs who could not ride a regular taxi and sent those who could back to their original hotel so that they could retrieve needed wheelchair batteries and medicine. Meeting Mr. Idol helped avert a possible catastrophe.

But it is unacceptable that people with disabilities have to rely on the kindness of strangers instead of being able to depend on a safe, available and accessible transportation system. The D.C. metropolitan area has experienced paratransit ridership growth of more than 10 percent per year from 2006 through 2009, a trend that is expected to continue. Here in our Nation's Capital and throughout the country, we still have a long way to go to make sure that growing needs are met. We have to make improvements in the infrastructure and availability of paratransit so that people with disabilities are able to travel freely--to go to work and school, visit their friends, and come to Congress to make their voices heard.

Again, I want to thank Mr. Idol and I want to thank Dr. Maat and IMPRUVE for their leadership and commitment to paratransit.

There is absolutely no excuse for this reckless, unpatriotic behavior on the part of the Republicans. The looming default crisis could be resolved in 5 minutes by simply raising the debt ceiling, as was done 7 times under Bush and 18 times under Ronald Reagan. This is the exact opposite of fiscal responsibility. The Republicans, led by their Tea Party radicals, are determined to cripple government and destroy Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security while leaving untouched a hair on the head of millionaires and billionaires or corporations that pay zero in taxes.

I say to the Republicans, stop it. Seniors call sobbing about their Social Security checks. Our soldiers in Afghanistan repeatedly asked Admiral Mullen yesterday, Will we get paid? Will our families get our checks? Shame on the Republicans for making that happen. In battle, when you accidentally shoot your own, it's called ``friendly fire.'' When you deliberately shoot your own, it's called ``fragging.'' Republicans, stop fragging the American economy and the American people.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to discuss the catastrophic famine that continues to unfold in the Horn of Africa. Eastern Africa is currently in the grips of the worst drought in 60 years, affecting 11 million people in Somalia, Ethiopia, and Kenya. According to the U.N., Somalia now faces the highest malnutrition rates in the world, and some 3 million Somalis are in desperate need of immediate emergency aid.

The U.N. estimates that tens of thousands of Somalis have died of drought-related causes in the past few months, and acute malnutrition rates in the country's southern region now exceed 30 percent.

Thousands more are fleeing areas controlled by the al Qaeda- affiliated militant group, Al-Shabaab which, even in the face of such large-scale human suffering, refuses to allow major humanitarian groups to deliver aid. Some 50,000 Somalis have returned to the capital, despite continued violence and instability, in search of food and medicine.

Others have sought refuge from hunger and warfare in neighboring countries. Nearly 400,000 Somalis have crowded into Kenya's Dadaab refugee camp, a complex designed to house only 90,000 people. Another 9,000 arrive in the camp each week, and thousands of other Somalis continue to flee Ethiopia in search of food. Many, particularly children and the elderly, do not survive the harsh trek.

The warning signs of impending disaster have been visible for months, but the international community has been slow to respond. Aid is slowly now beginning to trickle in, however. The U.N.'s World Food Program has begun an emergency airlift of food. The first flight arrived in Mogadishu yesterday, bringing 10 tons of nutritional supplements for children. The World Food Program says that is enough to treat 3,500 malnourished children for 1 month. Clearly, the need is far greater. The World Food Program plans to increase its efforts in hope of reaching over 2 million people in Somalia's south.

Likewise, the United States has provided much assistance to 4.4 million drought-affected people in Eastern Africa. Since last October, our government has given $383 million in life-saving aid, including 348,000 metric tons of food.

Further, this week the Obama administration announced a further $28 million in emergency assistance for famine relief in Somalia. This aid is critical, and I commend the President for these steps. However, the scale of the current crisis requires a much greater response, as well as creative solutions tailored to the unique threats posed by Somalia's persistent instability and violence. For example, because al Shabaab is a terrorist organization, we continue to impose restrictions on aid organizations delivering assistance to the hard-hit regions under its control. We need to work with these humanitarian groups to ensure that, despite Somalia's continuing warfare and lack of governance, desperately needed aid can reach the most vulnerable men, women, and children.

Mr. Speaker, we need to act quickly to fight famine and save lives. We also need to address the long-term underlying causes that have left Somalia's people so vulnerable to drought and malnutrition. Even before the most recent crisis, Somalia was locked in a cycle of warfare, lawlessness, and bitter poverty. One expert recently called Somalia's current plight a catastrophic failure of all the systems that people rely on to survive. That's why part of our response must be an investment in resilience and food security; part of our response must be an effort to address the long-standing violent conflict that has torn Somalia apart; part of our response must go toward long-term economic development and capacity building.

We need to act immediately to ensure that humanitarian aid can reach the millions of eastern Africans who face imminent malnutrition and starvation that we're watching every day on television. I urge the United States and the international community to immediately scale up efforts to deliver urgent assistance to children and other vulnerable individuals.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today as a member of the Progressive Caucus to draw attention to the devastating effects that could be caused if the United States were to default on its debt. First, let's be clear that raising the debt ceiling will have no effect whatsoever on any new spending that the Congress might do. It's simply giving the government authority to pay its bills, to pay its bills for obligations that the Congress has already authorized.

Second, while Republicans have attempted time and time again to pin the current deficit on President Obama, the facts cannot be denied: It was the policies of the Bush years that got us here. It was just a decade ago that President Clinton left office not with just a balanced budget but a surplus, and the Congressional Budget Office declared in 2001, ``The outlook for the Federal budget over the next decade continues to be bright.'' That quote, of course, came before the 2001 Bush tax cuts were signed into law; two wars that weren't paid for, put on the credit card; two tax cuts that weren't paid for and that mainly benefited the wealthy; and a devastating recession that may have been prevented, had government regulators not turned a blind eye to Wall Street greed. The Bush policies ran up the bills. Those are the bills that our country is committed to pay, and those are the bills that need to be paid if the full faith and credit of the United States is to be protected.

So now this Republican-manufactured crisis could be solved in 5 minutes if we simply passed a clean debt ceiling increase, like we did seven, eight times during the Bush administration, 18 times under Ronald Reagan, and then turned our attention immediately to ways to put our fiscal house in order, focusing on the real crisis, which is the jobs crisis. Instead, Republicans are choosing to hold our Nation's financial standing hostage, with potentially devastating consequences.

Allowing a default on the debt would essentially be a tax on every American family. Interest rates on everything, from mortgages and auto loans to credit cards and small business loans, would immediately soar. A conservative estimate suggests that the effect of an increase in interest rates could cost a homeowner with a 30-year mortgage of $172,000 an additional $19,100 more over the life of the loan. A drop in the stock market would hit the savings and retirement accounts of middle class Americans, less available credit for small businesses and consumers, and lower economic growth that could cost hundreds of thousands of jobs.

In addition, if the country can't pay its bills, an unthinkable scenario becomes a reality, having to choose between what aspects of the government to fund and what bills to pay.

Seventy million checks are due to go out next Wednesday. Those include Social Security and veterans and our military families, and these checks are threatened. That is the threat the Republicans are willing to make, holding the full faith and credit of the United States hostage in order to push for extreme policies that would gut Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid and devastate the economy and the middle class in order to protect hedge fund managers and corporations that

ship our jobs overseas. That is what the Republicans are advocating, but they are not willing to ask for one penny more for millionaires and billionaires.

We need to deal with our fiscal challenges, and I have offered proposals for how to do that in a way that protects the social safety net and what is now the disappearing middle class.

First, we need to create jobs. Putting people back to work will raise revenues and bring down the deficit as a proportion of the economy.

Second, we need to eliminate spending we don't need, such as billions of dollars in waste spent by the Pentagon. But we need to protect spending on vital programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

And finally, we need to raise revenues in a fair way.

I've introduced the Fairness in Taxation Act, H.R. 1124, which would create new tax brackets beginning at 45 percent for income over $1 million a year and rising to 49 percent for income at $1 billion a year; and yes, there are Americans who make that. And according to an estimate by Citizens for Tax Justice, my legislation could raise as much as $800 billion over the next 10 years. Those are the types of proposals that should be considered so that we can achieve fiscal responsibility in a way that protects seniors and children and the middle class and all those who aspire to it.

Right now the American Dream itself is at stake. It is slipping through the hands of people that used to be middle class. We cannot tolerate that. We need to raise the debt ceiling.

Mr. Speaker, it's been 29 weeks since Republicans took control of the House, and yet they have failed to bring a single jobs bill to the floor. In fact, I just learned that their proposals are estimated to cost another

2 million lost jobs. Instead, they're wasting time pushing bills that will never become law but do make their position clear. Republicans are willing to hold the full faith and credit of the United States hostage in order to push for extreme policies that will gut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid and devastate the economy and the middle class while doing everything they can to protect millionaires and billionaires and companies that ship American jobs overseas.

We need to raise the debt ceiling and then turn our attention to the real crisis, the jobs crisis. We can revive the American Dream. We must.

I thank the gentleman for yielding to me.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 440, a bill to provide for the establishment of a special envoy to promote religious freedom of religious minorities in the Near East and South Central Asia. I want to thank my colleagues, Congressman Frank Wolf and Congresswoman Eshoo, for introducing this legislation and for their tireless leadership on this critical issue.

Ethno-religious minorities continue to face a crisis in Iraq, where attacks and violence against Christians continue. My district is home to a large and vibrant Assyrian population, and they regularly share with me the devastating stories of their friends and family members still living in Iraq who are facing threats because of their faith. In November 2010, over 1,500 protesters demonstrated in Chicago, sending a powerful message about the need to protect Iraqi minorities.

By creating a special envoy specifically focused on the rights of religious minorities in the region, this legislation is an important step toward ending the cycle of violence.

To date, the U.S. Government and the international community unfortunately have failed to provide security for Iraqi ethno-religious minorities. Iraqi Christians continue to fear for their physical safety, as well as for the survival of their communities and culture. Of a population that numbered 1.4 million people before the American- led invasion, there are now less than 500,000 Iraqi Christians in the country.

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 440 is a critical step toward addressing the threat against Iraqi ethno-religious minorities. I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this bill.

Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 637, had I been present, I would have voted ``nay.''

I move to strike the last word.

While our Nation stumbles toward a potential default, the Republican Party is wasting our time with consideration of a bill that will not move through the Senate and which the President has already threatened to veto. But even though this legislation is a futile effort, it does clearly articulate the philosophy of the Republicans in this House of Representatives. This is a bill that really makes one shake one's head. It is an astonishing effort to destroy hard-won, longstanding, and successful and popular laws. It cuts valuable health and environmental programs. It caps the responsibility of corporate polluters and balances minimal cost savings on the back of our most precious natural resources.

H.R. 2584, the funding bill for the Department of the Interior and Environmental Agencies, completely guts funding for public lands and public health programs that the American people care about and desperately need.

A 64 percent cut to the State and Tribal Wildlife Grants program and a 95 percent cut to the Cooperative Endangered Species Conservation Funds means we can expect a rapid increase in endangered and extinct species on Federal and non-Federal lands alike.

An 80 percent reduction in the Land and Water Conservation Fund means we should not expect adequate maintenance of landmarks, including Harpers Ferry, West Virginia; Yellowstone National Park; or California's Big Sur coast.

A 40 percent cut to the National Landscape Conservation System means 27 million acres of national monuments, wilderness areas, scenic rivers, and other treasures will be inadequately protected.

A 60 percent cut to the North American Wetlands Conservation Act means our birds, fish and wildlife resources will lose protections that keep these populations viable.

A 55 percent reduction to the Clean Water State Revolving Fund means less protection for water quality improvement projects in the United States.

And a prohibition of funding for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative means my home State of Illinois and the great Lake Michigan will lose millions of dollars in Federal assistance to promote good jobs and clean drinking water for millions of our citizens.

While this bill severely cuts these and other priorities, it provides handouts to corporate polluters in the form of policy riders. These riders would threaten the enforcement of the public health and environmental laws which have protected our country for decades.

One rider reverses a moratorium on uranium mining on the rim of the Grand Canyon, and would turn one of our Nation's most iconic landmarks into an eyesore. Another extends loopholes in the Clean Water Act, jeopardizing drinking water for 117 million Americans; and many others weaken the Clean Air Act and limit regulations against toxic air pollution, which saved an estimated 160,000 lives just last year.

The Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act have protected American health and welfare for 40 years, and have been the catalyst for green energy investment and job creation. More than 80 percent of the American people believe the EPA should not be prevented from performing its duties, and the Gallup Poll reports that four out of five Americans are personally concerned about the water they drink, as well they should.

Although this legislation is dead on arrival at the White House, it poses a fundamental debate about the type of country we want to hand over to our children and grandchildren. Do we want to be a Nation that oversees the disappearance of animal populations, wetlands and national parks because we aren't willing to ask for one penny more from millionaires and billionaires? Do we want to be a Nation that turns away from water treatment and infrastructure in the hopes that no one will notice? Do we want to be a Nation that values the profits of corporate polluters over the health of children?

The Republican majority has clearly stated its position. I oppose this bill. The funding cuts and destructive policy riders that riddle this bill turn back the clock on vital environmental and health policies. We owe it to our children and grandchildren to uphold our commitment to clean air, clean water and preserved natural resources.

This weekend, my granddaughter, who celebrated her 10th birthday, had her party on Lake Michigan and enjoyed the precious clean water. I urge my colleagues to vote against this attack on our American resources and our values.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Last year, John Carlson, a hedge fund manager, made about $5 billion and paid taxes at a lower rate than most Americans. Right now, the 400 richest Americans in our

country control as much wealth as 150 million other Americans. We have a crisis, all right, in our country, and it's called a disappearing middle class. The rich getting richer, the poor getting poorer, and the middle going into poverty.

We have a jobs crisis in our country. And poverty has taken an entirely new face as a result of the financial crisis, the recession, and our Nation's slow economic recovery. In Skokie, Illinois, a solid middle class suburb, now 40 percent of the kids who go to school there qualify for a reduced or free lunch. And the food pantry is bulging now with new people waiting in line. I went to a mortgage foreclosure workshop in suburban Des Plaines, Illinois, and I felt like I was watching the American Dream slip through the fingers of hardworking Americans. More than one in five children is now called ``food insecure,'' meaning they go to bed hungry some nights.

And what have the Republicans decided to do? They decided to cut the programs that will help those people. That's how they want to reduce the deficit. They passed a bill called the Cut, Cap, and Balance bill. And it cuts, and it caps, and it balances. It cuts Medicare. It caps Medicaid. And it balances the budget on the backs of the seniors, the poor, and the WIC program, taking food out of the mouths of hungry children. There is something very wrong and very un-American with the Republican proposal that makes it easier to cut Medicare than to cut subsidies for oil and gas companies; easier to cut Social Security than to ask for one penny more for the billionaires, like John Carlson, and easier to cut subsidies for food for little children than to cut subsidies for corporate jets.

I heard from a woman who lives on $1,023 a month. That's her Social Security. And she doesn't have enough money to make it through the month and often goes hungry. Is this right in the richest country in the world? We can reduce our debt, but not on the backs of the middle class that are becoming poor and those who are already poor.

Mr. Speaker, the Republican bill cuts, caps, and balances all right; cuts Medicare, caps Medicaid, and balances the budget on the backs of our seniors, people with disabilities, and the middle class.

When Willy Sutton was asked why do you rob banks, he said, because that's where the money is.

Asking the elderly and people with disabilities to shoulder the responsibility for our national debt--really? Nearly half of Medicare beneficiaries have income at or below 200 percent of poverty. The median income for seniors is just over $19,000 a year. The Republican proposal will end the Medicare guarantee, double out-of-pocket costs for seniors and people with disabilities, and send them an invoice for $6,000.

Of course we need to address our fiscal challenges, but not by ending Medicare in the process.

This Republican bill cuts, caps, and balances all right--cuts Medicare, caps Medicaid, balances the budget on the backs of seniors. And Republicans like to say that the public supports a balanced budget amendment. But when you ask them if they support balancing the budget by making cuts to Medicare and Social Security, by a 2-1 margin, the American people say ``no.'' And what liberal media outlet conducted that poll? Fox News.

There is something very, very wrong and un-American with the Republican proposal that makes it far easier to cut Medicare than to cut subsidies for oil and gas companies, easier to cut Social

Security than ask for one penny more from millionaires and billionaires.

Of course we need to address our economic challenges, but not by holding our country hostage and threatening to not pay our bills with catastrophic consequences that will hurt every American in order to push an extreme agenda that cuts Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

We have a jobs crisis. We have a disappearing middle class crisis. And this illogical bill, which has no chance of becoming law, will make things much worse.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express my ongoing concerns about human rights abuses in Colombia and to oppose any consideration of the pending United States-Colombia Free Trade Agreement until tangible and sustained progress is seen on the ground. Colombia has a longstanding legacy of serious and pervasive human rights violations. Trade unionists, members of indigenous groups, and human rights defenders have been particular targets for violence. Despite some positive rhetoric by the Santos administration about improving protection of human rights, serious abuses continue.

In one recent incident reported by Human Rights Watch, seven people were massacred in southern Colombia on July 2, reportedly by FARC guerrillas. On June 25, another eight people were killed also in the southern part of the country. In both cases, children were among those killed. According to Human Rights Watch, there were 17 such massacres between January and May, 2011, resulting in a total of 76 deaths--a 21 percent increase over the same time period in 2010.

Several members of indigenous groups have been targeted and killed in recent weeks as well, ranging from children to prominent community leaders. Human Rights Watch reports that 14 members of indigenous communities have been killed in 2011 in Antioquia Department alone. Other indigenous leaders have been threatened, and dozens of families have been displaced. The Colombian Government has to act immediately to ensure a thorough investigation into these horrific crimes and to finally end the cycle of impunity. Further, the government must take immediate steps to protect indigenous communities and other particularly vulnerable groups, as human rights groups have repeatedly demanded.

Labor leaders and trade unionists also continue to be victims of serious abuses. Though the recently agreed to Labor Action Plan commits the government, at least in writing, to take several important steps to prevent and punish these human rights violations, we have yet to see any sort of tangible progress on the ground. With recently published statistics showing that Colombia again led the world in trade unionist deaths in 2010, it is critical that we see a real reduction in violence before we even consider passing and implementing a trade deal.

The Labor Action Plan is not legally binding under the FTA before us. If violence and impunity continue, the United States will have no mechanism for delaying or halting implementation of the free trade agreement. The Labor Action Plan fails to require sustained, meaningful and measurable results. Once we enact the FTA, we lose any ability to force the Colombian Government to produce tangible change.

Mr. Speaker, I do not support the NAFTA-style trade model illustrated in the three pending Bush-negotiated free trade agreements because so- called free trade has proven destructive to the American economy and harmful to workers both in the United States and abroad. The Economic Policy Institute estimates that implementing the Colombia and South Korea free trade agreements would increase the U.S. trade deficit by $16.8 billion and eliminate or displace 214,000 U.S. jobs. Particularly at a time when we should be focused on job creation, I strongly oppose all three FTAs, which jeopardize more jobs.

Finally, I find it particularly concerning that we are considering implementing an FTA with Colombia in the absence of demonstrated progress on human rights and workers rights.

Mr. Speaker, we cannot turn a blind eye to ongoing abuses, and we should not consider the trade agreement until these issues are fully resolved.