Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, on this last day of 2012, I want to take a moment to highlight the work of a number of hardworking Federal employees, people who serve with distinction, but often without the credit they deserve. All of us in the House have dedicated staff who, though unheralded, are committed to their country and the constituents they serve. Without them, we could never do our jobs, and I want to thank those who have worked for me over the past 6 years:

Susan and Ed Anfinson, Lin Banks, Mark Perkins, Noel Warren, and the great George Greenfield. They were all shared employees that we shared with other offices. Then we have our full-time employees: Ben Barasky, Olivia Benson, Evan Brennan, Mike Butler, Julie Cain, Richard Carbo, Jennifer Dale, Nick Demicheli, Michelle Dorothy, Serronn Emerson, Jim Ferruchie, Dori Friedberg, Jesse Haladay, Angela Hayden, Kathleen Janoski, Carolyn Kahler, Rachel Kaufman, Erik Komendant, Jennifer Kraus, Chris Lombardi, Cody Lundquist, Greg Malinak, Caitlin Mathis, Stephanie Bone, Tess Mullen, Beth Newman, Bennett Reed, Nathan Robinson, Emily Schmitt, Mariel Schwartz, Abby Silverman, Lee Slater, Shannon Smith, Christina Stacey, P.J. Tabit, Alexandra Taylor, Nikki Tesla, Randy Stapleford and John Galanski--the two best veteran constituent service reps you could ever want--Sharon Werner, Rachael Heisler, and Cara Toman.

Mr. Speaker, all of them were loyal to the district, and I read their names into the Record to thank them for their service and loyalty to me, but especially for their service to the district.

Recent reports have said this Congress is the most unproductive in modern times. Those studies compare the number of rollcall votes and bills passed to previous sessions. But the most important comparison is whether each Congress rose to the challenges they faced and were able to do big things on behalf of their constituents and the country. By that measure, there truly is no comparison.

Whether or not you supported the actions of previous Congresses, there can be no doubt that those congressional leaders took bold and decisive action to address crises both imminent and still to come. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said--yet--for this Congress, which has to this point failed to address a fiscal cliff that could easily be avoided before the clock strikes midnight tomorrow.

Mr. Speaker, there is still time to change the way history will judge the action--or inaction--of this Congress. With crisis comes opportunity. We still have time to finish the job, so let's not squander this opportunity to remove this Congress from the ranks of the most infamous in history.

Mr. Speaker, as we begin debate on this National Defense Authorization Act, it's critical that we understand just how important it is to our troops and to our country that we pass this legislation with a bipartisan vote. It's easy to get bogged down in partisanship on most issues, but this cannot be one of them. This legislation provides the men and women of our Armed Forces the necessary equipment and financial support to effectively carry out their duties while at the same time protecting all of our national security. Our troops have proven time and again that they are the most skilled forces in the world, but we must provide them with the necessary support to help them serve and protect our country.

Congress has an obligation to support the men and women who serve in the Armed Forces and who sacrifice so much for us every day. Our country owes them more than we can ever repay. And I strongly urge my colleagues to honor and respect our Armed Forces by passing this bill when it comes up later today and affording our troops the funding that they need and deserve.

Madam Speaker, today the House will consider the Medicare Identity Theft Prevention Act, and I urge my colleagues to support it this afternoon.

Despite actions taken by this House and Federal agencies, Medicare identity theft continues to be a problem. Medicare's own inspector general issued a report stating that more than a quarter-million Medicare beneficiaries are potential victims of identity theft. This is simply unacceptable.

The bill we will consider today makes a commonsense change to Medicare cards that most seniors carry. It will ensure that, in the future, Social Security numbers are not displayed or embedded on these cards, which are issued to every Medicare beneficiary.

Seniors spend their whole lives building financial security for their retirement years. They shouldn't have to worry about losing it if someone steals one's Medicare card.

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to clause 1, rule I, I demand a vote on agreeing to the Speaker's approval of the Journal.

Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that a quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is not present.

Mr. Speaker, as both parties continue to negotiate over the looming fiscal cliff, Congress is presented with a real opportunity to pass long-term, comprehensive deficit reduction plans. We cannot let this opportunity pass us by.

Of course, this is not the first time that Congress has tried to solve this challenge, but it is vital that we learn from our past failures. We have to check our partisan talking points at the door and put everything on the negotiating table.

This time, let's work from the middle out to build a bipartisan consensus, instead of searching for solutions at the ideological extremes. This time, let's listen to the vast majority of Americans who occupy the middle ground and who want Congress to enact a bipartisan solution, a bipartisan solution that would help restore the public's confidence in Congress while reassuring the nervous financial markets. And most importantly, it would secure a lasting economic future for our country. The American people deserve nothing less.

I thank the gentleman from California for his leadership on these issues and for his continued leadership in bringing these discussions to the American people. I also look forward to hearing my friend from New York in what he has to say.

We have talked time and again about the importance of what we are trying to accomplish in this House with regard to protecting the Medicare program. I represent a district, as the gentleman well knows, that has 135,000 Medicare beneficiaries. It has, actually, the fourth- most Medicare beneficiaries of any congressional district in the country. So the people I represent have a very strong interest, as does every Member of this House, in making sure that Medicare is preserved, that it's protected, that it's strengthened, and that it is always going to be there, not just for those 135,000 beneficiaries who participate in the Medicare program today but for generations to come.

We are not going to stand here as Democrats or Republicans or as any political affiliation and say that everything is working perfectly and that nothing needs to be altered. The fact is, with regard to Medicare, one-third of the people who qualify for Medicare today use every penny that they have paid into the system over the course of their entire lifetimes within the first year of qualifying for Medicare because they have extremely high health care costs. That is something that we need to address, but you don't address that issue by slashing the program, by gutting Medicare, by taking advantage of those same people we are trying to help.

The fiscal cliff we are talking about is, therefore, a reason because Congress had an inability to come to an agreement on a long-term, fiscally sustainable economic policy, so we put this deadline in place--the first of the year, 16 days from today--when we'll have the situation in which the rates of all of the so-called ``Bush tax cuts,'' which were extended 2 years ago under President Obama, expire at every level, not just at that top bracket that we are talking about in the House.

I do support making sure that that top bracket reverts back to where it was during the Clinton administration or whatever we can negotiate for that group of people. But in doing so, we can't allow that same bracket for all of the taxpayers in the country to revert back because, for example, the lowest income bracket, currently 10 percent--the people who are working hard and playing by the rules, working Americans, working every day for their families--that bracket would go back up to 15 percent, which would be a 50 percent tax increase for the people who can least afford it if we do nothing, and everyone in between would see their tax rates go up.

So, while we continue to have the debate and the discussion about ``what happens to that top bracket?'' we have to understand that all of those income brackets go up--similarly, the estate tax, the alternative minimum tax, the capital gains rate, the child income tax credit, the Making Work Pay tax credit that was put into place a few years ago--all of these things either go away or revert back to a much higher level than they were before.

That coincides with the cuts that we're talking about, the draconian, across-the-board, haphazard cuts that were put in place specifically to spur action. Because they are so ominous and make such devastating cuts in programs, in tandem with the Bush tax cuts expiring, Congress would in no way allow that to happen at the same time. That's what the fiscal cliff is. It's both sides--the spending and the revenue situation. Then with regard to Medicare, that can't be allowed to be swept up in the hysteria that we are facing here in Congress.

We're going to talk more about this, but just leading it off, that's the crux of the discussion. We're going to talk about tax rates. We're going to talk in this discussion about infrastructure spending and the other investments that we can make as a Nation in the future of the country. But in doing so, we can't allow the most vulnerable in this country--135,000 of them live in my district, but all across the country, 40 million Medicare beneficiaries and the generations to come--we can't allow them to be the ones who pick up the bill for the decisions that are made here in haste as we approach the first of the year.

I wanted to supplement my friend from New York's comments about structurally deficient bridges.

I always, when I would have town hall meetings and I talked with my constituents about this issue, I always use the example, because people think, you know, there's better ways to spend money. We're overspending ourselves. We're in great debt. Let's just not do anything this year. Let's wait till next year. Maybe let's wait till the year after that.

I always use the example of, there are certain things that you can put off. And if you're a family, you might say, times are tough, we need to tighten our belt. Maybe I can't go to the movies tonight. Maybe I'm going to have chicken instead of steak. Maybe we're going to have to drive a certain type of car instead of the luxury vehicle that we were hoping to buy--whatever it might be, whatever the family circumstance.

However, no matter what type of house you live in, large or small, if you get a leak in the roof, you have to fix it because if you ignore that leak, it's not going to fix itself. It's not going to remain where it is today. It's going to be worse tomorrow, and it's going to be worse next week, until the roof collapses and you have a catastrophe on your hand.

Well, that's the state of our infrastructure in this country, and I think people get that. And the gentleman talked about the State of New York and the structurally deficient bridges that he has in western New York.

Well, in 2007, I was here, I know the gentleman from New York was here, when we had the terrible disaster in Minnesota, when the interstate bridge collapsed and the loss of life that occurred. And the Secretary of Transportation at the time came to the Transportation Committee. I believe the gentleman served on the Transportation Committee at that time also, and Secretary Peters came and talked about the state of disrepair of our Nation's bridges.

Now, we can talk about locks and dams and our aviation system and the state of our airports and a variety of other infrastructure needs in this country which are just as critical; but just roads and bridges, we were all given a list of the structurally deficient bridges in our districts and in our States.

And I'm embarrassed to say to the gentleman, Pennsylvania is in even worse shape than what he described New York to be. We in Pennsylvania have 6,000 structurally deficient bridges. In western Pennsylvania it's 1,000. And in just the district I represent, currently one out of 19 districts in Pennsylvania, just my district, 300 structurally deficient bridges.

And the structural sufficiency rating, as my colleagues understand, Mr. Speaker, is based upon a zero to 100 scale, 100 being brand new, sturdy, as good and strong as they can possibly be, zero being the bottom.

Well, I had several bridges on that list that the Secretary gave me that were single digits. I had one that was a two, believe it or not.

And I remember asking the question in the hearing, I'm not an engineer, I've never been that great in math, but it seems to me if you have a bridge that's a two on a zero to 100 scale, that doesn't sound very good. And should I, as a driver, or any of my constituents be concerned when they drive across that bridge?

What would be the recommendation from the Department of Transportation?

And the response that I got, after they conferred on how to address this question, they literally said, well, not if you drive across it once. But if that's your daily commute, and you drive across that bridge twice a day every day, you might want to find a different route.

Well, Mr. Speaker, that is not a good answer; but, unfortunately, that's the right answer. And at minimum, we should alert the public to the state of disrepair that our bridges are in so they can make intelligent and informed decisions.

But in the long term, the clear remedy to that situation, the solution is to invest in our infrastructure, to fix our roads and bridges because, yes, it puts people back to work, which is critically important.

The business impact, we transport goods all over the country by truck and by rail. We can talk about the state of disrepair in other transportation sectors too, but we benefit as a country.

But when you see the safety consequences and you think about the fact that we have bridges all across this country that are in such disrepair that they are in the single digits in structural sufficiency, that is a big problem, and that's why we need to invest in our infrastructure.

I wasn't sure if the gentleman was planning to transition into another topic as he draws to a close.

Very quickly, and then I will yield to Mr. Tonko directly, if that's okay, afterwards.

I wanted to bring to the attention of my colleagues and the American people we're talking about what can happen if you ignore infrastructure needs, we're talking about past examples and the potential for future examples of infrastructure problems all across this country and, yes, it's an investment that we need to make. Our roads and bridges, our locks and dams, our rail system, our aviation system as we talked about, our waterways, commerce, there's hundreds of billions of dollars of need. But we're also trying to remain internationally competitive, and we can't be internationally competitive if we have substandard infrastructure. And that just doesn't mean infrastructure that's in disrepair; that means upgrading and improving to adapt to modern technology.

I know as one example, I visited the Port of Miami a year or two ago. They're undergoing a multibillion-dollar project to redredge the port-- one of the largest ports in the United States--to accommodate the larger ships that are going to be able to come through the Panama Canal when the Panama Canal project is completed. If we don't do that in this country, if we don't continue to modernize and upgrade our infrastructure--not just prevent disasters from occurring, economically and through the physics of infrastructure disrepair, but upgrade and modernize our port system and our aviation system to be able to continue to compete internationally with the other countries that have modernized their port infrastructure, we're going to continue to fall behind and we're going to lose jobs; we're going to lose the economic impact. That's what we have to consider when we discuss the fiscal cliff as we started this discussion.

So with that said, I would yield to my good friend, Mr. Tonko.

Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.

The motion was agreed to; accordingly (at 9 o'clock and 22 minutes p.m.), under its previous order, the House adjourned until tomorrow, Wednesday, December 19, 2012, at 10 a.m. for morning-hour debate.

Mr. Speaker, in 15 days, a misguided tax on America's medical device industry is scheduled to go into effect. The $30 billion medical device tax will negatively impact an industry that employs over 400,000 people in America, including many in my congressional district, and one industry in the country that has a net surplus with foreign trade.

In June, the House overwhelmingly passed legislation to repeal this ill-advised tax policy. Now, 18 Democratic Senators have sent a letter to Majority Leader Reid asking to delay the medical device tax before it can take effect at the start of the new year, providing that there is broad bipartisan and bicameral support to do away with the tax.

With just 2 weeks to go until the tax is scheduled to take effect, the medical technology industry has received little guidance about how to comply with the tax, causing significant uncertainty and confusion.

As discussions on the fiscal cliff and our Nation's economic future progress, a delay in the implementation of the medical device tax should strongly be considered.

I thank the gentleman, my good friend from New York.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Improvement Act, a bill that will help the Federal Government better protect taxpayer dollars against waste, fraud, and abuse.

According to the Government Accountability Office, as my friend from Utah just said, the Federal Government made $108 billion in improper payments during fiscal year 2012 alone, which is unacceptable. This bill will increase transparency while eliminating and recovering these improper payments through the creation of a government-wide do-not-pay list. This list will prevent improper payments, such as Social Security checks for deceased Americans, before that payment ever goes out.

The national deficit remains one of the biggest challenges facing this country, and I am proud to cosponsor this bill because it protects taxpayer dollars by forcing the Federal Government to scrutinize every dollar spent--just like every American family does. I urge my colleagues to support its passage.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Victor DiCarlo for receiving the National Order of the French Legion of Honor, the highest decoration that France bestows for meritorious service. I also want to commend Mr. DiCarlo for his unwavering service to his country during World War II. It's truly a privilege to be able to honor a constituent who so exemplifies patriotism and the American spirit.

Established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802, the National Order of the French Legion of Honor is a merit-based distinction awarded for exceptional civilian or military service. The Order's motto, ``Honor and Fatherland,'' reaffirms a celebration of patriotism and service for its recipients.

Victor DiCarlo was drafted into the Army 2 months after he graduated from Pittsburgh's Schenley High School in 1944. He arrived in France in 1945 and was assigned the responsibility of aiding the Allied Forces in reversing gains made by the German Army. He first saw combat in the Moselle region, helping the Allied Forces by breaking through the heavily fortified infamous Siegfried Line, a 390-mile defense system set up by the German Army along the country's western border that contained a series of tank traps and manned bunkers.

After successfully breaking through the Siegfried Line, Victor headed north in order to provide assistance to the undermanned and underequipped Allied Forces during the famous Battle of the Bulge. He also saw combat in the Rhineland region and all around central Europe throughout the duration of World War II. His division also helped to liberate two concentration camps, one in Austria and one in Germany.

Upon receiving an honorable discharge from the service, Victor was awarded the Bronze Star by the United States for his committed, meritorious service to his country during World War II, a fitting honor for a patriot of Victor's caliber. This year, on September 27, 2012, Victor added another decoration when he was awarded the French Legion of Honor during a ceremony here in Washington, D.C. at the French Embassy. He was given the honor for his military service in helping to secure the liberation of France.

The determination, bravery, and selflessness of Victor DiCarlo and so many like him is why we consider his generation the greatest. After the war, Victor returned home, earned an engineering degree from Tri-State College in Indiana, and worked as an engineer until

his retirement from Westinghouse in 1989. He and his wife have five children, 13 grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.

I ask my colleagues to join me in celebrating an individual who is emblematic of the greatest armed forces in the world. World War II is filled with stories of heroism, triumph, and patriotism; and it is truly an honor to share Victor's story with my colleagues today.

I again want to commend Victor DiCarlo for his commitment to his country and join with his family in congratulating him for being awarded the prestigious National Order of the French Legion of Honor.

I will not speak for nearly 60 minutes. I'm tempted to engage the gentleman, my good friend, Mr. Woodall, in debate. But I won't do that because I know he's still smarting from his Bulldogs' loss over the weekend. And I'll let him continue to think about that. I very much enjoy the friendship and camaraderie with Mr. Woodall, although we do have a difference of opinion on some of those issues.

Before we start, Madam Speaker, I would say to the individual who will be speaking following my presentation that I plan to only speak for about 5 minutes or less. This will not be an hour-long presentation. So the speaker who will follow me on the majority side, I recommend he hang near the floor because I will be wrapping up shortly.

Madam Speaker, I rise to commemorate the 50th anniversary of La Roche College. Founded in 1963 by the Sisters of Divine Providence in McCandless, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh, it was named in honor of Marie de la Roche, the first superior of the Congregation of the Sisters of Divine Providence. Originally a college for religious sisters, it now educates a diverse group of students from around the world, offering high-quality educational opportunities that continue to reflect its Catholic heritage.

Soon after its founding, La Roche experienced financial difficulties that threatened the school's existence. Due to the financial strain, the congregation at that time seriously considered permanently closing the college. However, because of the profound and positive impact the school made on the community in the short time its doors had been opened, the students, State officials, and the community leaders urged the congregation and the school's leadership to continue the mission of the school and to keep the school open.

Thankfully, due to the outpouring of support from the community, in 1970 the board amended its charter to establish La Roche College as an independent, coeducational Catholic institution, which it remains today. It also joined with the Art Institute of Pittsburgh and diversified its course offerings, expanding the areas of study the college would offer, including graphic and interior design programs that are among La Roche College's most popular programs today.

I was proud to serve on the Board of Trustees at La Roche College. It was during my time as a trustee that I had the wonderful opportunity to get to know the late Monsignor William Kerr, who served as La Roche's president for 12 years. It was during his tenure that the college established the Pacem in Terris Institute, a scholarship program for outstanding college-age men and women from conflict and post-conflict nations such as Rwanda and Bosnia. The institute allows students to receive an education at La Roche College to study leadership and diplomacy in return for their agreement to return to their home country after graduation to help engage in the peace process and rebuild their nations.

The institute successfully reflects the college's vision and mission to ``foster global citizenship.'' That program over the years has created a bond with some countries that is unlike any other institution of higher learning in America. It has had students go through the program that have gone back to their home countries and have very successfully become leaders in those countries. We are better off as a Nation and as a global community because of their work and because of that program which initiated and continues at La Roche College.

It was also during my time on the Board of Trustees in 2004 that La Roche College Board of Trustees appointed Sister Candace Introcaso as the college's seventh president. Sister Candace began her career in education at La Roche in the late 1980s, and it's under her leadership that the college has continued to expand its global footprint while placing a renewed focus on serving the needs of those in the Pittsburgh region. I had the privilege of working closely with Sister Candace during my time as a trustee and as the Congressman who now represents La Roche College. The future is bright for the college under her continued leadership.

La Roche College improves upon itself year after year. It continues to expand its academic offerings, with more than 50 undergraduate majors, 20 undergraduate minors, and three graduate programs. For six consecutive years, it has been named one of the Best Northeastern Colleges by the Princeton Review, and it fields 12 intercollegiate teams.

On many occasions my office used their facilities for workshops and town hall meetings. Over the years, La Roche students and faculty, as well as Sister Candace, came to visit my office on a number of occasions to discuss the importance of education to our country and their efforts to collaborate with the greater Pittsburgh and western Pennsylvania community for the betterment of our entire region.

Next year marks the 50th anniversary of La Roche College. Despite early financial troubles, the leadership of the college persevered, kept the doors open, and always stayed true to the

mission of the school. La Roche College is a tremendous asset to our community, and we look forward to many, many more years of continued success. I wish them nothing but the best, and congratulations on their 50th anniversary at La Roche College.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, one of the many challenges that Congress will face during the ongoing negotiations of the fiscal cliff is whether or not to renew the wind production tax credit, which expires at the end of this year. Investing in renewable energy is key to creating new jobs, reducing our dependence on foreign oil, and promoting economic growth.

In Pennsylvania, the wind industry supports 4,000 jobs and powers 180,000 homes, including in the Pittsburgh area. The uncertainty surrounding the looming deadline to renew the PTC has already forced some companies to lay off employees, and if we let it expire thousands more hardworking Americans will be out of work. Two wind farm projects in western Pennsylvania were already canceled this year.

This is an issue on which both sides can come together to do what is right for our country. Letting the PTC expire would damage the competitiveness of the United States and the global economy, so I urge my colleagues to extend this vital job-creating tax credit before it expires.

Mr. Speaker, recently I had the honor of attending a ceremony recognizing the Shaler North Hills Library for receiving the National Medal for Library and Museum Service. This is the highest Federal honor any museum or library can earn.

The Shaler North Hills Library serves over 50,000 families, providing assistance for everything from job searching to computer training. The library also presents outstanding programs for all ages, including showcasing local gardeners, art exhibits, and a speaker series. Their interactive science program, ``Discovery Kids,'' won a Pennsylvania Library Association Best Practices Award, recognizing the program as the best of the best for early learning. The Shaler North Hills Library truly sets the standard for all ages in library services. I congratulate them on this well-deserved honor.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I am pleased to join my colleagues in support of H.R. 5788, a bill to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service in Eatonville, Washington, as the National Park Ranger Margaret Anderson Post Office. In accordance with committee requirements, the bill is cosponsored by all members of the Washington delegation.

Margaret Anderson was born near Toronto, and she grew up in Connecticut and Westfield, New Jersey. She received her bachelor's degree in fisheries and wildlife sciences from Kansas State University in 1999, and she received her master's degree in biology from Fort Hays State University in Kansas.

She loved the outdoors and was said to be at peace in nature. Margaret Anderson was living her dream in working with her husband, Eric, at Mount Rainier National Park as a United States park ranger. Her duties were not confined to patrolling but ranged from the supervision of snow plow areas to medical coordination and instruction for her fellow staff members.

Anderson was described by her colleagues as ``a candid and honest coworker who could always bring a smile to your face.''

On New Year's Day, Anderson blocked the road with her patrol car to hinder the escape of a man who crashed through a checkpoint. Little did she know at that time that the man was a suspect in an earlier shooting that had wounded four people. The suspect shot at her while she was still blocking the road with her patrol car, and she was fatally wounded.

Mr. Speaker, National Park Ranger Margaret Anderson made the ultimate sacrifice in the line of duty. I urge the passage of this bill to honor her, which is on behalf of all of our colleagues in the House, especially the Washington delegation. The passage of this bill will be dedicated to her family and to the United States Park Service.

I urge the passage of H.R. 5788, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, we have no further speakers on our side.

I yield back the balance of my time.