Floor Statements

Mr. Chair, I rise today to introduce my amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2013 to encourage and strengthen information and data sharing between the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense related to environmental exposures of service members.

Attributing a medical diagnosis or set of symptoms to an environmental exposure can be challenging, especially exposures that occurred years or decades in the past. Of course, this is a big concern and source of frustration for service members, veterans and their families. We have seen this challenge time and again in our Nation's history, whether it is understanding Agent Orange exposures or the Gulf War Syndrome.

Today's service members may be exposed to hazards including air contamination resulting from burn pits, industrial toxic chemicals, chemical and biological warfare agents, toxic contaminants such those resulting from munitions containing depleted uranium, and others. The long-term health consequences of these hazardous environmental exposures remain uncertain.

A recent Government Accountability Office report looked at the Pentagon's policies regarding environmental exposures and identified a need for a comprehensive plan on environmental exposures of service members, including recommendations for what the Defense Department can do to identify and address possible health risks resulting from environmental exposures.

The NDAA for Fiscal Year 2013 under consideration by the House this week contains a provision requiring the Defense Department to develop a comprehensive plan on researching and documenting environmental exposure incidents to members of the Armed Forces. However, this provision does not explicitly connect this plan to the ongoing health information data sharing between the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

My amendment addresses this by having the Defense Department include in their plan a comprehensive status update on their sharing of environmental exposure data with the Secretary of Veterans Affairs. This information should be available to the VA to be examined over time, over decades even, to address exposure-related questions and identify possible origins and causes of disease. Data sharing should be done in a timely, ongoing, and updateable manner so that the Department of Veterans Affairs is alerted to hazardous exposure events and information on environmental exposure events can be updated when there is new information.

Mr. Chair, the goal of my amendment is to enhance interdepartmental coordination and collaboration so that active duty members of the armed forces and veterans exposed to harmful toxins as a result of their military service get the answers, attention and treatment they and their families need.

Mr. Speaker, today I am introducing a bill with the support of Congressman Reichert to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of our country's export promotion efforts. Over the next decade exports will be this country's biggest growth engine for jobs. Even though most everyone knows that, everyone also agrees the United States does not do a great job of promoting our exports. But with commonsense no-cost reforms, we can take big steps to change that--and create jobs faster and compete better with other countries.

There are about 20 agencies in the Federal Government working hard to promote our exports--and they're all overseen by an effort centered in the called the Trade Promotion Coordinating Committee, TPCC, created by President Clinton in 1993.

The fact that most people have never heard of it says a lot about why we're not succeeding. My bill would put more energy into their efforts.

First, this bill would make sure the TPCC and all the agencies it coordinates has a single plan every year, sets clear goals and ensures the export efforts of all of these agencies are coordinated and do not overlap.

Second, my bill would require an annual report to businesses and Congress that looks back on the government's efforts to promote exports, the private sector's progress, where the Federal Government's work succeeded and came up short, how we're competing with other countries and what our next steps are.

Finally, my bill gets businesses and the TPCC much better data so we actually know how we are doing. Right now our Services export and import numbers are up to 35 percent off because Congress does not let the statisticians in the Commerce Department see all the data they need. Businesses want accurate economic data and people who promote our exports have to have it too. This is a place where Congress is in the way and we should fix it.

More than 50 other countries promote their exports and most of those countries do a better job than we do. This bill would go a long way towards making us number one.

This bill would cost the American taxpayer nothing, but go a long way towards making our export efforts more efficient, more accountable, and would help us create more jobs here at home. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize a great epidemiologist and immunization champion Dr. William Foege and to celebrate his receipt of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. Dr. Foege's commitment to public health throughout his career--particularly in the area of promoting child survival and immunization worldwide--is nothing less than extraordinary.

In 1966, Dr. Foege served as a medical missionary in a remote part of Nigeria where he encountered the devastating disease of smallpox. He campaigned tirelessly for a more aggressive response to this terrible disease. In the absence of sufficient vaccine supply, Dr. Foege developed a strategy called ``surveillance and containment'' to combat the spread of smallpox. An innovative strategy, his focus on ``hot zones'' was remarkably successful and led to the global eradication of smallpox in 1979.

Dr. Foege's work led him to become the Chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Smallpox Eradication Program and in 1977 he was elevated to Director of the CDC where he remained an aggressive champion for childhood immunization and continued his leadership in the fight for the eradication of smallpox.

Dr. Foege's accomplishments and awards are many and span his long career. After leaving the CDC, he formed the Task Force for Global Health (1984), which continues today as a critical nexus for the establishment of international collaborations to promote child wellness and survival. The impact that Dr. Foege and the Task Force has had on the world through childhood immunizations to prevent polio, measles, river blindness, and many other diseases has been nothing short of astonishing.

In 1986, Dr. Foege joined the Carter Center in Georgia serving as their Executive Director until 1992. He is a professor emeritus at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University in Atlanta and an affiliate professor of epidemiology in my District at the University of Washington (UW), School of Public Health. In 1999, he became senior medical advisor to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation where he remains an emeritus fellow. With this record of accomplishment and service, it is clear why UW chose to name their Bioengineering-Genome Sciences building after Dr. Foege.

To this day, Dr. Foege continues to educate the world on domestic and international health policies through his writing and speaking engagements. His is a career defined by service and rooted in science. Dr. Foege's enthusiasm and talent for global health continues to generate and influence future generations of public health professionals. I am delighted that he has been awarded this honor.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the late Mr. Gordon Kiyoshi Hirabayashi and to celebrate his Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Nation's highest civilian honor. As a student at the University of Washington during the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Mr. Hirabayashi resisted the internment of Japanese Americans by refusing to board a bus to an internment camp and by questioning the constitutionality of an imposed curfew.

Mr. Hirabayashi challenged Executive Order 9066, which authorized the Japanese American internment during World War II. Along with Mr. Hirabayashi, Fred Korematsu and Minoru Yasui brought lawsuits before the Supreme Court. Though Mr. Hirabayashi lost his first case in 1943, he would go on to win in 1987 as the evidence proved there was no military reason for the exclusion order.

As Mr. Hirabayashi noted ``there was a time when I felt that the Constitution failed me, but with the reversal in the courts and in public statements from the government, I feel that our country has proven that the Constitution is worth upholding. The U.S. government admitted it made a mistake. A country that can do that is a strong country. I have more faith and allegiance to the Constitution than I ever had before.''

As the representative of Seattle, I am proud this high honor will be presented, albeit posthumously, to Mr. Hirabayashi. He had the bravery and strength to stand up for civil rights during a time when racism was widespread against Japanese and people of Japanese descent. I join many in honoring Mr. Hirabayashi for his courage.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to represent the most diverse Congressional District in Washington State--more than 100,000 Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders live in the 7th Congressional District. Fourteen percent of my constituents are of Asian American and Pacific Islander descent. Their contributions throughout Washington State and across our country have been integral to our Nation's success.

During this commemorative month, we also should remind ourselves of past treatment of these groups, which has been marred by discrimination and bigotry. This year marks the 70th year since the signing of Executive Order 9066, which authorized the Japanese American internment during World War II, and the 130th year since the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.

Only by learning and remembering our history can we hope to avoid repeating its difficult lessons. I applaud the efforts of organizations dedicated to telling the history of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Seattle's Wing Luke Asian Museum, the Seattle Asian Art Museum, the Filipino American National Historical Society, and the Japanese American Legacy Project are among those committed to preserving and narrating the stories of the Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders who helped to shape our common history.

I have been privileged to introduce numerous measures to honor the legacies of Asian Americans in my district including legislation to designate a federal courthouse in Seattle, the William Kenzo Nakamura United States Courthouse. Mr. Nakamura, a member of the storied 442nd Regimental Combat Team, posthumously received the Medal of Honor in recognition of his extraordinary bravery during World War II.

Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders long have made and continue to make very meaningful contributions to our country and to our society. This month, we honor them.

Mr. Speaker, we have spent months in this House watching the Republicans create an unstable business environment and hurt U.S. jobs while they delay the reauthorization of the Export- Import Bank. While the Export-Import Bank supports hundreds of thousands of American jobs every year at no cost and no risk to the taxpayer, the Republicans have been stuck between their radical tea- party ideology of pure free-markets on one side and the Republican Majority's relationship with Delta Airlines on the other. We now have a compromise that does not extend the Bank for as long as it needs to be or for as much as it needs to be long-term. We also have a real lack of understanding in the Congress and in the Public of what this Export- Import Bank does.

Over 50 countries have export-import banks and all of the them are growing right now. While they are competing and running faster, the Republicans have us sitting on our hands and unilaterally disarming. I could fill this chamber with the bipartisan, non-partisan, expert studies telling us for decades that we here in the United States don't do a good job promoting our exports.

My constituents, the port in my district and the huge number of exporting businesses in my district need the same kind of support from their government that all of their Chinese, and Indian, and European competitors are getting.

The current deal that's being worked on only reauthorizes the Export- Import Bank for a few years. My bill uses the same bipartisan framework that exists today and would authorize it for 10, through 2021.

Building on this bipartisan framework, my bill would also truly expand the Export-Import Bank's lending authorities, doubling it to $200 Billion. The Export-Import Bank makes money for the taxpayer, is virtually no risk, and the lending authority should be big enough so that it will actually keep up with our exports into the foreseeable future. This higher authority, along with the longer extension, will create the stability businesses and their workers need.

Finally, my bill asks the Government Accountability Office to study the Export-Import Bank and compare it to the Export-Import Banks its competing against in other countries around the world. How are we competing now that we have real stability and a cap that's responsible but doesn't constrain us? What can the ExIm Bank do better? This is the kind of forward analysis Congress needs to help our exporters.

Mr. Speaker, it's long past time for us to get the lobbyists out of the way of all other American businesses so that we can create jobs here at home.

Mr. Speaker, today I and my colleagues are introducing the ``Ensuring Child Care for Working Families Act of 2012.'' This bill creates an entitlement to the states to provide guaranteed child care assistance for children up to age 13 for low-income families with incomes up to 200 percent of the poverty level. In the context of growing poverty, declining incomes, and high unemployment, we must invest in child care.

Working families today are faced with the challenge of finding stable, high quality child care to enable them to work. This challenge is compounded for low-income working families who are severely impacted by federal and state cuts to child care assistance. These cuts have profound economic and social costs. Research is clear that child care assistance helps low-income mothers afford the reliable child care they need to get and keep a job. Child care helps children, families and communities prosper. It gives children the opportunity to learn and develop the skills they need to succeed in school and in life. It gives parents the support and peace of mind they need to be productive at work.

Yet today, only one in six children eligible for federal child care assistance receives help. Twenty-two states have waiting lists for child care assistance. Despite the importance of child care assistance, families in thirty-seven states were worse off in February 2011 than in February 2010 under one or more key child care assistance policies.

In 13 states, a family with an income above 150 percent of poverty cannot qualify for child care assistance. Yet in the majority of communities across the country, a family needs an income equal to at least 200 percent of poverty to meet its basic needs, including housing food, child care, transportation, health care, and other necessities, based on a study by the Economic Policy Institute. What we define as poverty no longer reflects what it really means to be poor in this country.

Reliable high quality child care makes the difference in the economic health and survival of families and in the educational development of children. Too many families are forced to find ways to pay for child care assistance while they struggle to put food on the table and pay their rent. Child care assistance enables us to have a stable work force, with fewer absences and more productivity. Yet, absent an increase in funding in 2013, as few as 1.4 million children might be served in 2013. This would result in the smallest number of children served since 1998.

According to the National Women's Law Center 8th annual review of key child care subsidy policies in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, families were worse off in 2011 than they were in 2010, but they are also worse off than they were a decade ago. Although the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provided an additional $2 billion for child care, states had used most of that money by the end of 2010 and were battling severe budget deficits.

Enacting the ``Ensuring Child Care for Working Families Act of 2012'' will help lessen the burden of struggling parents as it will:

Maintain state investments in child care prior to the enactment of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, including existing provisions relating to federal matching of state expenditures.

Provide federal grants to States and qualified Indian tribes and tribal organizations in amounts necessary to provide child care assistance to any family with a dependent child requiring such care in which: family income does not exceed 200 percent of the federal poverty line, and child care assistance will enable a family member to work or participate in an education or training program.

Require States and Indian tribes/tribal organizations receiving such grants to guarantee the provision of child care assistance to all families meeting the specified criteria.

Ensure that States continue to comply with the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 1990, including the requirement to set aside a minimum of 4 percent of funding for quality.

Direct the Secretary to promulgate regulations to implement the bill's provisions.

Provide that such amendments are effective on the first day of the first fiscal year that begins after the 12-month period beginning upon enactment.

This legislation is based on a 2007 paper presented at the Center for American Progress entitled ``Next Steps for Federal Child Care Policy.'' Our federal child care policy must catch up to the economic and social reality of the world in which we live. The number of families falling further into poverty, but don't yet qualify for child care assistance, is increasing. This costs our society billions in lost productivity and increased spending on health care. This bill helps ensure our society will be strong and prosperous well into the 21st century.

Ensuring Child Care for Working Families Act

Section-by-Section Summary

Section 1--Short Title. The ``Ensuring Child Care for

Working Families Act of 2012.''

Section 2--Child Care Funding. Amends Section 418 of the

Social Security Act to:

Maintain state investments in child care prior to the

enactment of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity

Reconciliation Act of 1996, including existing provisions

relating to federal matching of state expenditures.

Provide federal grants to States and qualified Indian

tribes and tribal organizations in amounts necessary to

provide child care assistance to any family with a dependent

child requiring such care in which: family income does not

exceed 200 percent of the federal poverty line, and child

care assistance will enable a family member to work or

participate in an education or training program.

Require States and Indian tribes/tribal organizations

receiving such grants to guarantee the provision of child

care assistance to all families meeting the specified

criteria.

Ensure that States continue to comply with the Child Care

and Development Block Grant Act of 1990, including the 4

percent quality set-aside.

Direct the Secretary to promulgate regulations to implement

the bill's provisions.

Provide that such amendments are effective on the first day

of the first fiscal year that begins after the 12-month

period beginning upon enactment.

Mr. Speaker, this week marks World Immunization Week, in which countries across the globe mobilize for a week of vaccination campaigns and public education about the value of immunization. I rise today to celebrate a major milestone in global health: the rollout of two new vaccines to protect infants from two of the biggest killers of children under the age of five--pneumonia and diarrhea--that is taking place today in Ghana.

Hundreds of Ghanaians have played a frontline role in making their country the first in Africa to simultaneously introduce both pneumococcal and rotavirus vaccines to their people. While the Government and the people of Ghana are to be congratulated for this unprecedented accomplishment, I also want to acknowledge the role U.S. taxpayers have played in making this moment possible.

The United States' commitment to the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI Alliance) has been instrumental in making these vaccines affordable and accessible for children in the world's poorest countries. Immunization is one of the most successful and cost- effective public health interventions. By supporting new vaccines, the GAVI Alliance is well within target to immunize more than 250 million children in the world's poorest countries by 2015, preventing more than 4 million premature deaths.

Seattle, which I represent, has made significant contributions toward the United States becoming a leader in global health innovation, including vaccination research. For example, earlier this year, promising preliminary results from the trial of a malaria vaccine known as RTS,S made headlines around the world when it showed that nearly fifty percent of children who received the vaccine were protected from malaria--a leading cause of death among children in developing countries. The Bill and

Melinda Gates Foundation and PATH, both based in Seattle, were at the forefront in developing this potentially life-saving vaccine.

I am proud to say that American research and technology in global health are at the forefront in making medicine accessible to the most remote corners of the world. But we cannot stop here.

U.S. bilateral support for maternal and child health provide critical infrastructure--including supply chains, trained health workers, and facilities--to deliver vaccines around the world, along with other essential and complementary interventions such as nutrition and clean water.

Immunization leads to significant economic benefits by protecting individuals not just against life-threatening illnesses but against long-term effects of that illness on their physical, emotional and cognitive development. With the introduction of these vaccines, mothers across Ghana will be able to provide their children hope for a brighter future.

On this day, while communities around the world are celebrating the power of lifesaving vaccines, we can be proud as Americans that our investments are making a durable impact on the prosperity and security of those who need it most.

Mr. Speaker, Members of the House, in 5 hours we're going to get on planes and go home, so we have to get the press releases ready to go. And that's what this is about.

This bill will be dead in the Senate the minute it hits the desk. It's not going anywhere. It is a press release, and it is the most wasteful bill of the season so far. Now, I'm sure that Mr. Cantor and others will find worse things to do down the way as we get closer to the election.

This week has been a disaster in here. We started on Tuesday by deeming the budget passed, here and in the Senate. It's a fiction. It never happened. That's how this week started.

Then we went to the Ways and Means Committee yesterday, and we cut $68 billion out of health, children's services, social services, foster care, in reconciliation to balance the budget.

And then we get up this morning and here we have a bill that borrows $46 billion from the Chinese, or whoever, to give it to small business. The fact is that 125,000 millionaires in this country will get an average tax cut of $58,000.

That's what this bill does. It does not create jobs. It's supposed to create jobs. In fact, the job creation is so small, as you heard, it's incalculable.

Now, that wouldn't satisfy the majority leader. He had to go and find an economist somewhere who'd give him a better number.

So he found Herman Cain's guy, the guy who had the 9 9-9 tax deal. Now, there's a solid citizen. He really knows what's going. Well, he comes up with 39,000 jobs will be created. 39,000 jobs. It sounds like quite a bit, doesn't it? Until you figure how many billions of dollars are going to create them. The figure is that each job will cost $1.1 million in tax cuts. This is to get one job. Do you think they're hiring somebody for $1.1 million? They're hiring them for $6 or $8 an hour.

This is not a job creation bill. It is simply a press release. The Republicans have not brought out a serious job creation bill. Yesterday was as close as we came when we finally did the highway bill so that we could at least keep highway infrastructure being created. Otherwise, there has been nothing solid that has gotten through the Congress. The highway bill will get through because everybody knows it creates jobs, but this kind of stuff is simply sinking us.

What's really interesting, though, is that, as I look at that $1.1 million per job, I remember when they came up with the phony claim-- never proven--that the Recovery Act would cost $278,000 for a job. This costs us four times as much, and it's from his own economist. Vote ``no'' on this bill.

Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of my friend Mr. Boustany's amendment. I think it's a good step forward. Spending all the money that's in the cash that we take in is in the best interest of maintaining our harbors. But I think we need to take another step. I hope I can get Mr. Boustany and others to help.

We need a solution that helps all our ports, like those on the west coast, those in Pennsylvania, those in Massachusetts that pay the tax. We collect $20 on every can that comes across the dock, and we don't get any money because we don't dredge. We've got a 70-foot draft, but we do have problems with our seawall. We have big infrastructure needs all across, and nearly half the money that's raised never is spent in the port where it is raised.

Now, we compete with international ports. We compete with Vancouver, and the Canadians are putting in a port at Prince Rupert, and we need to maintain our ports to be competitive in this very, very competitive industry.

We have a good geographic location. We're close to Asia, but they're going other places because they've got better ports. That's our issue, and we would like to have some money later on.

Thank you very much. I support the amendment.

Mr. Speaker, some of my distinguished colleagues claim that we must cut spending to protect the future of our country and our children. But what costs are we willing to incur with reckless cuts to a critical program that has helped 46 million Americans stay fed? If we cut SNAP, we will be throwing the baby out with the bath water.

Children make up nearly half of the Americans who rely on food stamps. SNAP continues to play an instrumental role in our nation's economic recovery, helping millions of struggling American families to feed their kids. With SNAP, students across the country can start each day well-fed and ready to learn.

There's no question that SNAP works. The best way to shrink the program is not through funding cuts, but by making the American dream a reality for all Americans once again. If we truly want to protect our children's future, we cannot steal food off their dinner tables. To protect our future, we must protect SNAP.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce the ``Justice for Wards Cove Workers Act'' in order to correct a grave injustice against thousands of Asian American workers that took place over a quarter century ago. In the 1970s, workers of Filipino, Samoan, Chinese, Japanese and Native American descent traveled north during the summer to work in the fish canneries in Alaska. Management at the Wards Cove Packing Company treated these migrant workers differently from white workers. They were forced to eat in separate dining halls, sleep in separate bunkhouses, and were unable to rise to top-paying positions in the company.

In 1973, two Seattle Filipino labor activists named Silme Domingo and Gene Viernes led several class-action lawsuits on behalf of these Asian American and Native American cannery workers alleging discrimination in the workplace. In 1989, the Supreme Court ruled against the Wards Cove workers, in Wards Cove Packing Co. v. Atonio, which became a major impetus for the civil rights community to reverse the tide against employee rights. The result was the Civil Rights Act of 1991, which became the most comprehensive civil rights legislation signed into law since the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

However, what most civil rights communities forgot was that in the final hours before passage of the Civil Rights Act, a highly unusual and narrow amendment was inserted by two Senators from Alaska that exempted the Wards Cove workers from the expansive protections against workplace discrimination outlined in the Civil Rights Act. They feared that the Civil Rights Act could be applied retroactively to the workers.

The Senators' amendment was inserted in Section 402(b) of the Civil Rights Act, and its sole target was the Wards Cove workers. To date, the Wards Cove workers remain the only people who have been denied the rights promulgated by the Civil Rights Act of 1991.

Mr. Speaker, while my bill cannot retroactively alter the Supreme Court's ruling or grant retroactive rights for the Wards Cove workers, it does remove Section 402(b) of the Civil Rights Act of 1991 as a symbolic measure to right the wrong.

This is a legislative fight that I started in 1991, when I first introduced this bill. Every time I introduced this bill, it received bipartisan support but was never voted on the House floor. In 1993, then-President Bill Clinton wrote a letter of support for my bill, stating, ``It is contrary to all of our ideas to exclude any American from the protection of our civil-rights laws.''

Too often, the struggles of Asian American and other ethnic minorities do not get the attention they deserve by policymakers and law enforcement officials. The savage beating and murder of Danny Vega, a Filipino-American resident of South Seattle, last November is one of many examples of the discrimination that minorities continue to face.

Mr. Speaker, I ask that my colleagues join me in honoring the Wards Cove workers by supporting this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce the Homeowners Tax Fairness Act. In February of this year, the 49 state attorneys general announced that they had completed negotiations with the country's five largest mortgage servicers to settle claims arising from mortgage fraud and wrongful foreclosures. The settlement, which amounts to over $25 billion is the largest settlement this country has seen since the 1998 Master Tobacco Settlement.

This historic settlement will allow hundreds of thousands of distressed homeowners to stay in their homes through enhanced loan modifications and principal reduction, and it will also provide payments to victims of unfair foreclosure practices. Unfortunately, under current law, those settlement payments would subject the homeowners and servicemembers who receive them to additional tax burdens. For instance, homeowners receiving relief in the form of mortgage debt forgiveness and direct cash payments for wrongful foreclosure could be subject to federal income tax. Moreover, additional tax would be owed on the payments made to servicemembers who were wrongfully foreclosed on while deployed overseas.

To prevent that injustice, the Homeowners Tax Fairness Act would extend the exclusion for debt forgiveness on a primary residence throughout the term of the settlement agreement, and exclude the relief payments from income for homeowners and servicemembers. This bill also considers the particularly egregious actions taken by the five largest banks in violation of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act. Over the past three years, the five largest servicers violated the law and wrongfully foreclosed or overcharged mortgage interest on servicemembers, many of whom were deployed overseas in combat zones. Accordingly, the Homeowners Tax Fairness Act not only excludes this relief from income to servicemembers, but denies these banks the ability to deduct these payments from their federal income taxes.

The estimated 1.7 million homeowners eligible to benefit from this settlement deserve to receive the full benefit of this relief--relief that was negotiated in good faith by the states, the banks, and the federal government. Collecting federal income tax on relief for struggling homeowners is not only bad policy, but is simply the wrong thing to do.

As we move forward from one of the worst recessions in American history, we must be vigilant and provide as much help to the American people as possible. This bill will do just that, and will ensure that our homeowners and servicemembers get every bit of relief they deserve.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to introduce the Republic of Georgia Democracy Act of 2012. This bill sheds light into the deteriorating political situation in the Republic of Georgia and makes clear to the Georgian Government that maintaining democratic institutions and regular free, fair and competitive elections are key priorities for a strong relationship between our two countries.

This bill will help to reverse the suppression that has been intensifying by showing the Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili the cost of these anti-democratic actions. I know Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle share my growing concern over the violent suppression of parties, nongovernmental organizations and workers in Georgia. I urge my colleagues to support this bill and stand up for democracy in Georgia.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to mark the 9th anniversary of the start of the Iraq War. Nine years ago this month, members of the U.S. Armed Forces invaded Iraq in what became one of the bloodiest and most protracted missions in our military's history. Today, our country is still paying the extraordinary price for the nine years in Iraq, both in terms of lives lost and trillions of dollars that could have gone toward nation building here at home.

For many veterans, coming home marks the beginning of another fight-- fight for treatment, care, and integration into civilian life. Invisible wounds of war, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, affect one in five veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Mr. Speaker, I also submit an article by Jon Soltz, a former Iraq War veteran, on the need for my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to own up to the promise to care for veterans instead of paying lip service. The title of his article, ``GOP Budget Doesn't Even Say The Word `Veteran,' '' speaks for itself.

[Published in the Huffington Post, Mar. 22, 2012]

GOP Budget Doesn't Even Say the Word ``Veteran''

(By Jon Soltz, Co-Founder of VoteVets.org and Iraq War veteran)

Do Republicans care about keeping our promise to veterans?

Looking at the recently released GOP budget, written by

Rep. Paul Ryan, it's hard to see how they do. In fact,

looking at the nearly 100 page document, the word ``veteran''

doesn't appear once. Not once.

Today is the 9th anniversary of the start of the Iraq War.

Last night, I spoke with someone who served with me in Iraq

during my first tour. And for the first time in almost nine

years, she wanted to talk to me about an incident where she

drove through an IED and a soldier was killed. It was a

profound moment that shows how war and sacrifice stay with

us, always. For those of us who served, in many ways,

yesterday is today. And today, we read that the GOP doesn't

even talk about veterans in their budget.

But, without saying the word ``veteran,'' the budget tells

us a lot about what they think about veterans. The budget

calls for across the board spending freezes and cuts. If

enacted, the Ryan GOP budget would cut $11 billion from

veterans spending, or 13 percent from what President Obama

proposes in his own plan.

It's unconscionable that they'd do this at a time when so

many Iraq veterans have just come home and rely on veterans

care. Over 45,000 US troops were wounded in Iraq and

Afghanistan, and more will come who will rely on VA services,

on top of veterans of other wars and eras who depend on the

VA. But, this shortsightedness isn't new.

Back in 2005, President Bush underfunded the Department of

Veterans Affairs by about a billion dollars, despite its

need. The result? Secretary Jim Nicholson was forced to crawl

before Congress and plead with it to pass emergency

supplemental spending, just so it could keep the doors open.

After that debacle, I have to admit, I never thought

Republicans would do the same thing again, if for no other

reason than that it just looks bad politically, leaving aside

the horrible effect it would have on veterans in need.

Additionally, after the backlash against ending Medicare

the last time Paul Ryan released a budget, they're at it

again. That, too, affects veterans. I was speaking with one

veteran in Missouri, who lost both of his legs in Iraq. His

entire primary care now relies on Medicare. It pays for all

of his primary care, as it does for so many veterans with 100

percent disability. So, no, I couldn't believe that Paul Ryan

and the GOP would again propose ending Medicare.

Yet, here we are. A budget from the GOP that short changes

veterans, horribly. And where does that money go? Not to

reducing the debt. The debt as a share of GDP would actually

increase under the Ryan plan. The money doesn't go towards

anything, really. But it does go towards some people. As in

$3 trillion in tax giveaways to the richest Americans and

corporations. People like Mitt Romney, who already pays a tax

rate lower than most of our troops.

That's the choice the Ryan plan presents to America--do we

want to fund the wealthiest Americans and corporations, or

keep our promise to our veterans? Ryan and the GOP say the

former. I can't believe that most Americans wouldn't say the

latter.