Jim Matheson

Mr. Speaker, I rise today as Chairman of the Green Schools Caucus to highlight the important contributions of the Department of Education's Green Ribbon Schools Program and to congratulate all the schools recognized as 2014 Green Ribbon Schools. This program began in 2011, and seeks to encourage schools, school districts, and institutions of higher education to adopt practices focused on sustainability, health, and environmental education.

The Green Ribbon Schools Program offers awards for outstanding performance based on three categories of achievement. Schools and districts are first evaluated on the basis of success in reducing their overall environmental impact. The award also evaluates school and district strategies to improve the health and wellness of students and staff. Lastly, the Green Ribbon Schools Program examines the extent to which environmental education is offered, and whether those programs incorporate STEM subjects, civics, and green career counseling. All those recognized this year have made exceptional strides in each of these areas.

Those recognized are invited to Washington, DC each year to share their experiences and discuss best practices with other leaders in the field. This process of sharing information and highlighting the achievements of individual schools and districts offers an incentive for others to work toward a common goal of a more sustainable future. It also offers the chance for school officials to compare and contrast strategies for improving curriculums, engage on ways to implement these strategies, and share their successes with others.

At a time when we seek to reduce our carbon footprint, initiatives such as the Green Ribbon Schools Program are a valuable step toward lessening our impact on the environment and educating others as how best to maintain a healthy and sustainable environment. Our schools are well positioned to be leaders in the effort to combat climate change and I commend those schools and districts who have chosen to participate.

Congratulations again to those who have been recognized as 2014 Green Ribbon Schools.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague, Mr. Pallone, for yielding me the time.

H.R. 4290, the Wakefield Act, will reauthorize the Emergency Medical Services for Children program. For the past 30 years, the Emergency Medical Services for Children program has been the only Federal program focused solely on improving emergency medical care for children and adolescents.

In that time, emergency care has gone from treating critically injured children simply as ``little adults,'' to providing more appropriate and specialized care as children.

The program is focused on ensuring that proper emergency medical care is given to sick or injured children no matter where they live, attend school, or travel.

All States and the territories receive grant funding to educate and train medical professionals in trauma care for children. This funding and training has dramatically increased the quality of care at our Nation's emergency rooms and the quality that first providers provide, and in doing so, it has saved lives.

Allied to this, the program supports the coordination, collaboration, and data analysis of pediatric researchers across the country for the continued advancement of emergency pediatric care, a critical component of the program.

The Emergency Medical Services for Children program has long held bipartisan support in Congress throughout its 30-year history and is certainly worthy of being reauthorized because this is a Federal program that truly works, and it has data to back that up. It has dramatically helped improve the quality of emergency medical care for our children, and this bill will ensure that it continues to do so.

In closing, I want to thank both the minority and majority staffs on the Energy and Commerce Committee for working with my office on this legislation. I particularly want to thank my friend and colleague, Congressman Peter King, for introducing the bill with me.

I urge my colleagues to support this critical program by voting ``yes'' on H.R. 4290.

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

I rise today in support of H.R. 3670, the Anti-Spoofing Act. This is a bipartisan, pro-consumer bill that addresses the increasing problem of scam artists faking caller ID information to defraud consumers.

These bad actors scramble or spoof caller identification information for the purpose of impersonating legitimate individuals or institutions such as law enforcement officials or a bank. They then use these fraudulent identities to obtain sensitive personal information from unsuspecting consumers.

Vulnerable populations such as seniors, veterans, and recent immigrants have been especially targeted by these attacks.

The bill makes three important changes to strengthen existing law and protect consumers. First, it broadens current law to address spoofing in the context of international calls.

Second, it changes the definition of Internet Protocol-enabled voice services to cover new forms of technology criminals have employed making Internet-based calls.

Finally, the bill broadens the scope of the existing law to cover text message spoofing.

These changes will make the 2009 enacted Truth in Caller ID Act a more effective tool to combat caller ID spoofing and protect consumers.

Before reserving my time, I do want to commend Congresswoman Meng for her work on this issue. I want to commend Mr. Lance, and I want to also congratulate Congressman Barton for working together on this commonsense bill.

Not only does the legislation enjoy bipartisan support in the House, but the sponsors have also worked very closely with Federal agencies and industry stakeholders and consumer groups to develop true consensus around this proposed legislation. This is the way this institution ought to work.

I urge my colleagues to join me and support H.R. 3670, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I have one more speaker, and I yield as much time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Meng).

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.