Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to recognize Mr. Dixon Long on the occasion of his 80th birthday on June 21, 2013. Mr. Long's many contributions as a board member and donor of the Strybing Arboretum in San Francisco, supporter of the Holden Arboretum in Mentor, Ohio, and supporter of the Trust for Public Land, have been a great benefit to our Nation's environment.

In addition to his extensive involvement in these organizations, Dixon was also a professor of Political Science and dean of Western Reserve College, helping to educate the next generation of political thinkers and office holders. During his academic tenure, Mr. Long wrote extensively about the intersection of science, technology and public policy.

Dixon's passion for writing moved beyond academia. He published a number of novels, short stories, and travel guides since returning to Mann County. His love of learning, passion for teaching, commitments to public engagement, and preserving the environment are worthy of commendation.

Please join me in expressing deep appreciation to Mr. Dixon Long for his long and impressive career, and exceptional record of service.

Mr. Speaker, because of climate change, we're facing stronger and more destructive storms and natural disasters than at any other time in American history. And at the same time, the sequester is slashing funding for the agencies that are critical to helping our communities protect, adapt, and rebuild.

NOAA will lose $271 million in funding this year, and that includes $50 million for the geostationary weather satellite program. That's the program that provides continuous monitoring for severe weather.

So less than a year after Hurricane Sandy, a month after the devastating tornadoes in Oklahoma, we're cutting the agency responsible for forecasting and monitoring severe weather.

But it's not just severe weather disasters on our shores that threaten American communities. My congressional district has seen debris from the 2011 Japanese tsunami wash up on our shores, and our regional economy is inextricably linked to the health of our oceans, which are jeopardized by climate change.

Our planet is warming. We're beginning to feel major impacts, and it will only get worse unless we act to protect our climate.

Mr. Speaker, I rise with my colleague Representative Mike Thompson to recognize Dr. Carroll L. Estes, PhD, on the occasion of her 75th birthday on May 30, 2013. Dr. Estes's many contributions as a distinguished scholar, inspiring teacher, influential policy advisor, institution builder, and advocate for the most vulnerable in our community have benefitted many community members throughout the Second Congressional District, the State of California, and the Nation.

Over her 40 year career, Dr. Estes has been passionately devoted to improving the health and economic security of vulnerable and underserved populations, with special concern for women, older persons, and ethnic and racial minorities. Through research, teaching, and public service, she has steadfastly worked to advance the public good and the interests of America's most powerless and disenfranchised populations. Fittingly, Dr. Estes was recently honored at a symposium celebrating her 40 years of policy research and leadership in health and aging.

Dr. Estes's service extends far beyond academia. She is a long-time member of many advocacy organizations, including the Gray Panthers, Responsible Wealth, and the Older Women's League. In 2006, Dr. Estes received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, where she is currently vice chair. She is also a current member of the Sonoma County Council on Aging.

Please join us in expressing deep appreciation to Dr. Carroll Estes for her long and impressive career, and her exceptional record of service.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize John Records, who is transitioning from his position as Executive Director of the Committee on the Shelterless (COTS) after 21 years of tireless work providing services for the homeless and at-risk in Petaluma, California.

Since he joined the staff of COTS in 1998, John has provided the vision and management that has enabled COTS to serve more than 20,000 people with a wide range of services, including food, shelter, counseling and career coaching.

John is a national leader in taking a comprehensive approach to ending and preventing homelessness by providing services for the whole person. Through a partnership with the University of New York at Albany School of Social Welfare, John has enabled organizations across the country to learn from the COTS approach to serving its customers.

John has helped make Petaluma a welcoming community that supports its residents throughout times of need and crisis.

The residents of California's Second District are better off today thanks to the work of John Records. As he moves on, I want to express my deep appreciation for his dedication and contributions to the people of Sonoma County, and convey my best wishes for a long and happy future.

I thank the gentleman.

What a wonderful bill if you happen to be the Canadian oil company that reaps all the benefits, but it comes at the expense of the American economy and the global environment. We should reject this bill out of hand.

This sweetheart deal approves the northern route of the Keystone XL pipeline and exempts it from the rigorous public analysis and scientific standards that American companies are held to, including the National Environmental Policy Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, among others. Bear in mind that tar sands oil is already exempt from paying into the trust fund that covers oil spill cleanup.

So with this bill, my colleagues are saying we should have no front- end environmental protection for this project and no backstop funding for when things go wrong--and things will go wrong. You just have to look at what happened at the Mayflower, Arkansas, spill a month ago. When that happens, American taxpayers are going to be on the hook for cleanup, and where is the offset for that? Meanwhile, TransCanada, the Canadian corporation proposing to build this pipeline, is on record before the Canadian energy board as saying that this project will increase the price of oil in the United States.

So let's be very clear about what we are doing. This House is considering a bill to cut corners for a foreign corporation to transport dirty fuel and raise gas prices for Americans. Why would we spend our time on this? Well, we're told it's about jobs, but the fact is we don't even know how many jobs this pipeline project will create. The estimates are all over the map. You could believe Fox News, which says it will create a million jobs, or TransCanada, which says around 13,000 construction jobs, or the State Department, which says it will directly create fewer than 4,000 jobs, and fewer than three dozen of those will be permanent jobs.

We don't even know the massive security risks and security costs that this project will foist upon the American taxpayers. At a minimum, we should approve the Connolly amendment to, at the very least, generate a threat assessment if this bill is to move forward.

This bill, colleagues, is a betrayal of our priorities as Members of the United States Congress.

Mr. Speaker, we are in dangerous and uncharted territory. At 400 parts per million, there is now more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than at any time in the past 3 million years.

Now here in the United States, more than a quarter of our greenhouse gas

emissions come from the transportation sector, so it's urgent that we make our cars and trucks cleaner, but also that we invest in clean modes of transportation, such as rail.

Saturday was National Train Day, which celebrates the rail networks that efficiently move freight and passengers across our country and reduce the number of cars on our roads.

In California, we're building high-speed rail with renewable energy. When complete, it will move millions of people far more quickly, cleanly, and efficiently than we do today. And in the North Bay, we're connecting Sonoma and Marin Counties with 70 miles of rail, meaning 1.4 million fewer car trips along Highway 101.

Investments in rail at the national scale can increase efficiency, reduce traffic, and fight climate change. It's time for Congress to get ``all aboard'' with this climate solution.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to oppose the impossibly misnamed Full Faith and Credit Act, a bill which would actually make a mockery of our country's full faith and credit. It prepares our country for default by prioritizing payments to Wall Street and foreign governments over nearly every other national obligation.

We've seen the disastrous effects on our credit rating, our stock market, and our economic recovery when Congress plays political games with the debt ceiling, but here we go again.

Why would my colleagues across the aisle prioritize paying the Chinese Government over paying our troops in Afghanistan? What about air traffic controllers, FBI investigators, disabled veterans, small businesses who contract with the government, doctors who treat Medicare patients? This bill says it's okay to stiff all of them, as long as Chinese bondholders are paid in full.

Mr. Speaker, it's time to move forward with House-Senate negotiations on a final budget resolution that strengthens the economy and avoids default. That's what we've been asking Speaker Boehner to do. Instead of taking that responsible step, we are here today considering a bill that will take us closer to the brink of economic chaos.

For the sake of American workers and businesses, I urge my colleagues to reject this dangerous bill.

Mr. Speaker, on Friday, April 26, 2013, I was unavoidably detained and missed rollcall votes numbers 125-128.

Had I been present, I would have voted as follows:

Rollcall No. 125: ``yea'' (On motion to suspend the rules and pass H.R. 1765, Reducing Flight Delays Act), but we must do more to avert the sequester's impacts to all Americans.

Rollcall No. 126: ``nay'' (On Agreeing to the Amendment to H.R. 527, Dent of Pennsylvania amendment No. 2).

Rollcall No. 127: ``yea'' (On Motion to Recommit with Instructions, to amend the Helium Act to complete the privatization of the Federal helium reserve in a competitive market fashion that ensures stability in the helium markets while protecting the interests of American taxpayers, and for other purposes).

Rollcall No. 128: ``yea'' (On passage of H.R. 527, to amend the Helium Act to complete the privatization of the Federal helium reserve in a competitive market fashion that ensures stability in the helium markets while protecting the interests of American taxpayers, and for other purposes).

Mr. Speaker, across this country, we are seeing the ruinous effects of climate change, from more powerful storms in the East, to persistent drought and catastrophic wildfires in the West.

We are not powerless in the face of this threat. We know what we have to do: slow our emissions of greenhouse gases, deploy clean energy solutions.

But we also must do another thing. We must manage our forest lands to be part of the solution instead of part of the problem. Healthy forests can actually help remove carbon dioxide from the environment, from the atmosphere.

We sometimes hear about technologies that, in the future, may be able to do this, may be able to capture and store carbon dioxide; but we have natural infrastructure that can do it right now. And a great example of that is from my own district in California, the Pacific Forest Trust.

They've been working for over 20 years with landowners, as well as local, State and Federal officials, to conserve and manage forests to capture carbon. Their work with forest conservation easements is paying off for wildlife, for landowners, and also for our climate.

Their Van Eck forest in Humboldt County was the first forest emissions reduction project registered under California's climate change law.

Mr. Speaker, tonight many of my colleagues will be participating in a special order in observance of Yom Ha'atzmaut, Israel's Independence Day.

I want to join them in celebration and wish the Israeli people a very happy and blessed 65 years of independence.

The road traveled by the people of Israel required extraordinary and unimaginable sacrifice.

And still this struggle continues every day for Jewish people in countries across the world.

I am proud to stand with Israel and continue our nation's support of democracy and peace in the Middle East.

A personal hero of mine, President Truman, bonded our countries together when he made the United States the first nation to recognize the State of Israel.

Since that time we've worked together to promote peace in the region and stand up to threats and acts of aggression.

Today Israel faces new challenges and uncertainty. But by acting together the United States and Israel can--and will--overcome.

Again, I would like to offer my sincere congratulations to Israel on its 65th year of independence, and my hope that we will continue to strive towards a stable and peaceful Middle East and North Africa.

Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to recognize the 150th anniversary of Fireman's Fund Insurance Company, which was established in the city of San Francisco in 1863, and which is now headquartered in my Congressional District in Novato, California. A celebration of this important milestone will be taking place on April 4th at the Old San Francisco Mint.

Fireman's Fund has been one of the nation's premier insurance companies, protecting the future for individuals, families, and businesses. Its own history parallels that of both this state and country. Fireman's Fund has insured the construction of national landmarks including the Hoover Dam, the Golden Gate Bridge, and Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis.

It survived the Chicago Fire of 1871 and the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906, playing a critical role in rebuilding after the devastation. The company was also there when it mattered for many displaced people after the Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989.

This company is a true innovator--the first insurance provider to write a standing grain policy in the U.S., the first carrier to offer nationwide automobile insurance and standardized homeowners insurance, and the first company to add ''green'' insurance to their offerings for homes and businesses.

The Fireman's Fund name, which is heralded in California, emanates from the founder's arrangement to pay 10 percent of the company's profits to support the widows and orphans of firefighters who died in the line of duty. That tradition continues today through the company's Heritage Program ', providing fire departments throughout the nation with life-saving equipment and training. Working in combination with its employees, agents and brokers, the company has distributed more than $30 million to support firefighters for safer communities since 2004. The company has also been a benefactor of numerous charities in the San Francisco Bay Area and its generosity has added tremendously to the vitality of our communities.

More than 1,200 Californians work for Fireman's Fund, with the majority of them residing in my own Congressional District. They are not only dedicated professionals who partner with agents and brokers to provide high quality insurance services, but many spend countless hours engaged in volunteer work for a variety of causes.

I look forward to being at the 150th Anniversary Celebration of Fireman's Fund on April 4th. It is a great company with outstanding people and it remains one of California's most enduring financial institutions. Given the time of rapid change in which we live, it is comforting to know that companies like Fireman's Fund still endure, and I ask my colleagues to join me in wishing them well with the hope that they will still be with us for another 150 years.

I rise to oppose the Republican budget for a very fundamental reason: it would be devastating to the health and well- being of America's seniors.

This budget raises seniors' costs for preventive services; it reduces access to nursing home care; and it reopens the Medicare prescription drug doughnut hole, which means that, for seniors with high prescription drug costs, they could end up paying on average $13,000 more over the next 10 years. The Republican budget also tries, once again, to end the guarantee of affordable coverage under Medicare by converting that program into a private sector voucher that will not keep up with costs; and that's going to leave seniors, who are on fixed incomes, holding the bag.

The Republican study group budget is even worse. It forces chained CPI on Social Security. What ``chained CPI'' means is, quite simply, reduced benefits for seniors who've paid into the system, earned those benefits, need them, and are counting on them.

Mr. Chairman, I cannot vote for a budget that protects billions of dollars in special interest tax breaks for the wealthy and for the most powerful corporate interests while reducing benefits for seniors and shredding the social safety net.

My 83-year-old mom is like millions of seniors around this country. She did her part by working hard all her life, paying into the system, paying her taxes; and when she retired, she counted on a guarantee that her government would honor its end of the bargain. I intend to make sure that it does. We can reduce the deficit without forcing extra costs on the middle class, seniors and the most vulnerable in our society, and that's why I'm supporting the Democratic budget alternatives, which do four essential things:

One, they honor our commitment to seniors; two, they focus on jobs and economic growth, which is a far better way to balance our budget; three, they maintain our safety net; finally, fourth, they keep us on the path of health care reform, which is going to bend the costs that are creating these problems.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to congratulate Patricia Kendall, who was recently honored as the San Rafael Citizen of the Year, an award she richly deserves.

Patricia Kendall has been a longtime resident of San Rafael and well known for her community and civic involvement. She was trained as an emergency room nurse, and her community service began 35 years ago when she participated in the formation of Marin County's ``911 Paramedic Program.'' Through the years, Pat has continued to support this program as a member of the Emergency Medical Care Committee.

Pat has served on many boards and committees for non-profit organizations and special projects. She has been a leader in our community, including as board chair of the North Bay Leadership Council, board treasurer of the Marin Agricultural Institute, board vice-chair of Lifehouse, board member of the Marin County School-to- Career Program, and leadership posts with the San Rafael Chamber of Commerce and the Pickleweed Community Center.

One of the founding members of the Healthy Marin Partnership, Pat has been the driving force in shaping its upstream lifestyle model focusing on prevention of associated tobacco and high-risk alcohol use, unhealthy eating, and inactive lifestyles. This Partnership has served as an incubator for other community collaborations including the County's Wellness Collaboration, Canal Community Gardens, and Children's Health Initiative.

Mr. Speaker, Patricia Kendall's hard work and her leadership are felt throughout our region, and we thank her for her commitment to health initiatives and community service. I urge my colleagues to join me in extending our congratulations for her selection as San Rafael's Citizen of the Year.

Madam Speaker, last week, in a Friday afternoon announcement designed to bury the news, the State Department released a very troubling supplemental environmental document regarding the Keystone XL pipeline, a project that would undo the progress our country has been making in recent years in showing leadership on climate change, in reducing gas emissions and transitioning to a clean energy economy.

Unfortunately, environmental protection seems to be a ``foreign'' policy to our State Department. But even this pro-industry report cannot gloss over the fact that Keystone XL would unlock development of some of the dirtiest, most climate-damaging fuel on Earth, and it would lock the United States into deeper dependence on expensive tar sands fuel that would take this country in the wrong direction for our environment and our economy.

Just this morning in the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources, we heard about the enormous potential for wind energy to generate jobs and also cost-effectively improve energy independence. Other forms of clean energy hold the same promise.

Madam Speaker, it's time to get serious about climate change and clean energy job creation. Importing dirty, expensive tar sands fuel is the wrong way to do that.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express my grave concerns over the Republican substitute to the Senate-passed Violence Against Women Act. The Senate passed this bill with overwhelming bipartisan support, including a majority of Senate Republicans. But apparently, leadership in the House has decided that this law should protect only some women.

The substitute that we're being asked to vote on excludes LGBT victims. It weakens protections for women on college campuses, Native American women, and immigrants. As a father of a young daughter and a husband, I cannot begin to understand why we would gut commonsense protections for women or why we would pick and choose the type of women that we want to protect from violence.

A few minutes ago, we swore allegiance to this flag and to a Republic that stands for liberty and justice for all, not for some. In fact, Americans have long fought for equality for women and protecting all women from violence. The Violence Against Women Act has been an important part of that arc of our history. It's not something that should be politicized or used for political games. Let's vote against this substitute.