Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, the word ``nuclear'' holds special meaning in our world. It is a word that has become synonymous with chaos, total destruction and annihilation. Nuclear is the word that for the last half century has struck fear in the hearts and minds of people across the United States.

For the last 2 months, Republicans in the Senate have threatened the nuclear option, like destroying the world was something you planned for and even boasted about. Over and over, the Republican-controlled Senate threatened to go nuclear, as if they were shouting ``lock and load'' at some local gun club.

For far too long, the Senate majority leader has been a trigger happy gun slinger who set aside a Colt 45 and ordered up a thermal nuclear warhead in its place. Just imagine the outcome if he had been President staring down Nikita Khrushchev during the Cuban missile crisis.

Today, Senate Republicans released the nuclear warhead and the blast zone extends east or west, north to south, incinerating the rights of every American. It will be the first strike launched on behalf of the radical right aimed at annihilating the safety, security and freedom of every American.

This is not about politics. The real Republican target is the U.S. Supreme Court and the judiciary. The Republican leaders said so in the House, and

the Senate leaders said so in the Senate. No fallout shelter will keep us safe from the nuclear winter they plunge America into.

The radical Republican right has an agenda and they intend to use every weapon at their disposal to enforce their will upon the American people. The radical Republican right wants to dictate what a woman can and cannot do with her body. The radical Republican right wants to abolish women's rights one court decision at a time. Republicans just gave the radical extremist the right to abolish Roe v. Wade. Republicans just handed the radical right the keys to our democracy. Women's rights will be nuked.

Republican extremists will replace a woman's right to choose with a requirement to be subservient. The Republican Party intends to stack the Court and stack the deck against women.

They intend to violate the environment, too. Republican extremists want to stack the courts so their corporate lobbyists and special interests are shielded from liability, protected from acting responsibly, and given the right to foul the air, pollute the water, dump toxins on the ground, and spew carcinogens in the atmosphere.

Greed is God to these radicals who are attempting to subvert democracy with religious idolatry. Run for your lives, America, the Republicans are coming. Right wing extremists in the Republican Party control the House, the Senate, and the White House, and they want the new trophy, and it is called the Supreme Court.

They want to send their militants into your homes, into your lives, next to your death bed, to force their will upon you. The Republicans in charge today want to replace the Constitution with the Bible. The Republicans in charge today would like nothing better than to enforce a literal interpretation of the Bible in every American home, every American school, and every American mind.

The Republican majority leader from Tennessee wants America to return to 1925 when the Butler Act in his State told people what to think and what to believe. But before the Republicans shout their Hosannas on high, let me recite a passage from the Bible. It was used by the defense in the Scopes monkey trial.

Dayton, Tennessee, science teacher, 25 years old, John T. Scopes was persecuted and prosecuted for teaching science and not religion in the classroom. The great attorney, Clarence Darrow, who defended Scopes, called upon the Bible. ``A holy book, a good book, but not the only book,'' Darrow said, in defense of a man who was convicted but later acquitted by the Supreme Court of the United States.

And I recall his words today to remind the Senate majority leader and every Republican intimidated into hypocrisy to remember the Bible. Clarence Darrow quoted Proverbs, chapter 11, verse 29, and here is what the Bible says: ``He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind.''

Tonight we begin the ice age because the wind is going to be cold coming out of that Senate. Remember, ``He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind.''

Madam Speaker, today on behalf of 21 original Democratic co-sponsors, I am introducing the Depleted Uranium Munitions Study. The stakes could not be higher for U.S. soldiers and Iraqi civilians, and there is not a moment to lose, and I hope the Republican leadership will put it on the Suspension Calendar.

DU, as it is called, is a byproduct of the uranium enrichment process. It is toxic and has low-level radioactivity, and it is widely used by the United States military in Iraq.

There are countless stories of mysterious illnesses, higher rates of serious illnesses and even birth defects. We do not know what role, if any, DU plays in the medical tragedies in Iraq, but we must find out.

The Pentagon says there is no evidence that DU is harmful; yet the Pentagon also says soldiers should wear protective gear, including special clothing and a respirator, using DU. An Iraqi child has no protective gear. The Iraqi people have no respirators. If DU is so safe, why do American soldiers need to wear protective clothing in the first place?

We do not know if DU is safe or harmful; yet we have used 150 tons in the war so far.

Let the Pentagon prove that it is safe.

Mr. Speaker, yesterday in the interest of protecting Members of Congress, journalists and the general public, officers of the Capitol Police advised everyone to run for their lives, and we did.

Today, I wish that a Capitol Police officer would have been on hand at the Committee on Ways and Means hearing to shout the same warning.

Run for your lives is the very best nonpartisan advice that anyone can give the American people over the President's plan to create a private insecurity social system.

The President wants the American people to cut Social Security benefits. His proposal would devastate the program, break the promise and destroy the trust made between the government and the American people.

The President wants the American people to accept his word that privatizing Social Security is in the best interests of Main Street and not Wall Street.

The President, amid much bravado, said his plan is on the table and his plan stays on the table, take it or take it. Since the President will not take private insecurity off the table, let us look at what else the President put on the table with his plan.

It is the only guaranteed outcome of the President's plan: senior citizens retiring into poverty. We need only look back in history and revisit the dark and stark reality of our own past.

Americans by the thousands retired into poverty before Social Security was created by President Franklin Roosevelt. They retired into poverty because there was no way to protect them. There was no security, and that is exactly what the President wants again.

The President says he does not read newspapers. How about American history? Can someone in the White House please get him an American history book?

It did not work. He ought to know that. Americans who have worked a lifetime were forced to live in poverty because there was no Social Security. Millions of seniors did not have the money for food, clothing or shelter.

You want to revisit America in 1932? My mother still is alive, thank God, and she would be the first to tell you that 1932 was not good. It was economically and humanitarianly a disaster for America. Millions could not afford to eat. Millions had no home to call their own. Americans did not have a lifeline, much less a safety net. It was a dark and horrifying period of American history.

Why in the world does the President continue ignoring history? He proposes a plan; no, the President demands a private insecurity social system. He says he will listen to any idea as long as it is his.

So, today, the President's water is carried by the distinguished but misinformed chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means. I said it before and I say it again: The President's plan for a private insecurity social system is dead as disco. Nobody goes to discos anymore. It does not work. It does not even have those fancy twirling disco lights on the dance floor. The President's plan does not offer real benefits. It offers real cuts.

The President's plan reflects America in 1932, a place with little security and a lot of greed, a place at a time when Americans suffered and lost hope until a great leader renewed a trust with the American people.

A President, in the worst of times, created Social Security to provide every retired American with economic security, guaranteed, something this President wants to destroy.

President Roosevelt created a program that is not Republican or Democrat. It is not east or west. It is not north or south. He envisioned the Nation strong because it defended the weak, stalwart because it valued its people, mighty because it was humble enough to care for the sick and the aged. No one was left behind by President Roosevelt.

This President will leave tens of millions behind in a risky scheme that rewards the greed of Wall Street while it destroys the values of Main Street.

Americans will not be better off with the President's private insecurity social system. Americans will be as vulnerable again as they were at the darkest economic moment in our history. It will be back in the arms of Wall Street.

The President offers no plan and no choice. The President offers only a stark reality: Slash the benefits right now, and he put it right out there a couple of days ago in his news conference; and also cut your bond with the American people; cut the ties that bind us together; destroy the trust and certainty that senior citizens will not retire into poverty because we will not let them. They cannot, if Mr. Bush has his way.

There is only one course open to the Congress and the American people. If the President will not remove the private insecurity social system from the table, then the American people should remove the table. Throw it away before somebody gets hurt. Remove it from America's house because it does not belong there.

We are a Nation of people who want our children and grandchildren to have an opportunity for more than we had. We will be the first generation to expect our children to have less because we planned it that way.

The President wants to create a Nation of people wanting for the basics of food, clothing and shelter. We lived through that once. We do not need to live through it again.

FDR was right in 1935, and he is right in 2005.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to gratefully acknowledge and thank the National Association of Letter Carriers, the U.S. Postal Service (USPS), the AFL-CIO, America's Second Harvest, and the United Way of America for their extraordinary efforts in organizing and carrying out the largest single food drive in the world: the annual National Association of Letter Carriers National Food Drive.

The food drive will again take place on the second Saturday in May, which this year falls on May 14th. The timing of the drive is no coincidence; it comes at a time when most food banks are low on supplies, having exhausted their collections from the holiday season. Last year the food drive collected an incredible 71 million pounds of food for donation to food banks, pantries, and shelters across the country.

As you can imagine, it takes an army of volunteers to collect that amount of food. This year USPS, with help from the Campbell Soup Company and Valpak Direct Marketing Systems, is distributing more than 150 million mailings promoting the drive and encouraging donations. On May 14th, donations will be collected by letter carriers along their mail routes in all 50 states.

This year's food drive has an added urgency and importance. The food drive largely supplements the inadequate support the Federal government has provided to our nation's citizens facing financial difficulty. Families around the nation are struggling to get by--family wage jobs are scarce, energy prices are at record highs, and government support mechanisms are increasingly being axed by this Administration and this Congress.

When we think about letter carriers, first class comes to mind. From now on, we should think of letter carriers and everyone involved in this as world class, because that's what they are. Please join me in donating food on May 14th and acknowledging the spirit of America that will be carried from door to door. May this year's food drive be the safest and most abundant collection yet.

Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from Florida got up here and talked about the fact that we should work together as Democrats and Republicans. Let us have a little review of history, and I think the gentleman was here when it all happened.

In 1993 and 1994, President Clinton presented a health care plan for every American. The Republicans took the position that any plan run by the government was a bad one, and they took pride and bragged in the next election over the fact that they had killed the Clinton health care plan.

Now, 1994 is more than 10 years, and we have yet to see any proposal come out of the Republicans. Not a single member of the Republican caucus has been able to get a hearing or lay a bill before a committee. There are many of us who put bills before the Congress. The gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Kucinich) put one forward, I put one forward, as did the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Conyers) and the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Dingell).

Where are the Republican proposals to do anything about the American people's health care problem? It is the number one cause of bankruptcy. It is time.

Mr. Speaker, last night, the House passed House Resolution 193 as a suspension bill. For people who may not know, suspension bills are meant to be noncontroversial measures the House typically passes unanimously.

I voted no. Let me tell you why. Because it was a protest vote meant to encourage freedom and liberty for all Americans. Let us start with what it said.

H.R. 193 is a resolution that says in part, ``expressing support to the organizers and participants of the historic meeting of the Assembly to Promote the Civil Society in Cuba on 20 May 2005 in Havana. Whereas, Fidel Castro's terrorist regime has continued to repress all attempts by Cuban people to bring democratic change to Cuba and denies universally recognized liberties, including freedom of speech, association, movement and the press.''

I could go on but there is no need to. It is all right there in what I just read. We decry liberties denied Cubans while a Cuban-American in my city of Seattle is denied the right to go to Cuba to visit his son by the U.S. government.

Remember the grandstanding on Elian Gonzales? We wag our fingers at Fidel and shout about Cubans being denied liberty at every moment. Well, we are denying the right of an American to travel to Cuba for a few days to see his son. How hypocritical is that?

I am talking about the plight of Sergeant Carlos Lazo. He came to America from Cuba in the early 1990s floating on a raft in the ocean. He risked his life for a chance to come here. Talk about the quintessential story about risking everything to call America home. Carlos Lazo is the stuff of books and movies and news coverage. He wants none of it. He just wants to see his children in Cuba. And the United States government will not let him go.

Floating on the raft in the ocean, that is what Carlos Lazo did. That is about as courageous as it gets. So he arrives in America. He moves to the State of Washington. A man grateful to be alive, he determines to embrace his new country and do everything within his power to give back. He joins the Washington National Guard. Over a year ago, his unit dispatched to Iraq. Now Carlos serves his country in one of the most dangerous places in Iraq, Fallujah, as a medic. He serves on the ground in Iraq for a year.

When his duty is over, Carlos wants to go see his kids still in Cuba. Carlos goes to Miami, but he is denied the right to travel to Cuba. He is denied the right to board an airplane bound for Havana. He saw them in 2003, and he is told by the government: You cannot see them again until 2006. Three years.

Sergeant Lazo, who proudly served America, who risked his life to get here and risked his life to defend liberty, is now a man whose liberty has been denied. He cannot see his children in Cuba until the President lets him go.

When will Carlos be able to visit his children in Cuba? I ask that the Speaker, because the administration is in denial, call the White House. They want to perpetuate a bureaucracy and a failed policy, not assist an American who wants the sum total of what every parent wants, the right to see their kids.

The government has in place a policy which denies the basic liberties of an American hero, and we have not lifted one finger in this House to help Carlos Lazo. The Secretary of Defense is not interested in him. The White House is not interested in its citizen. The White House and this House are only interested in wagging fingers at Fidel Castro.

Carlos Lazo is a man who embodies everything Americans stand for, courage, determination, quiet thanks from a man grateful to have made a new life and a new home. And now Carlos is a man who cannot be united with his family. Carlos is a man who did not want to be anything but a quiet, grateful American and is forced to become a man in the spotlight, hoping someone will pay attention, hoping someone will let him see his kids.

H. Res. 193 is a suspension bill that would have us suspend disbelief. Carlos deserves the thanks of a grateful Nation and the immediate assistance of this administration and the Congress. We ought to add his name to H. Res. 193 so he can travel. We should do that and make a resolve that the United States of America, which sees itself as a beacon of liberty in the world, extend its support to Carlos Lazo and will facilitate his immediate travel to Cuba to be reunited with his kids.

Anything less than fighting and defending the liberty of Carlos Lazo from the State of Washington is the work of a Congress long on hyperbole and short on action in defense of liberty.

Mr. Speaker, call the Secretary of Defense before the day is out. I bet he is still in his office. Send Carlos Lazo to Cuba, to his sons in his former homeland, so he can be a free American.

If you want to make a real statement about what it means to be free, let one American be free, free to travel, free to be reunited with his children, free to show the people of Cuba, firsthand, what freedom means in this country.

Free to show Cubans firsthand that America does not have to prevent its citizens from leaving the country in order to keep them.

Mr. Speaker, use your office to intercede and let this House stand as a beacon of freedom and liberty for every American, not just some Americans.

So long as Carlos Lazo is forbidden from visiting his children in Cuba, America can only be known as the land where some are truly free and others are truly denied liberty.

Send Carlos Lazo to Cuba.

Mr. Speaker, today we have a very stark example of what is dysfunctional about the Republican's running of this House. We have done nothing about the livable wage that we all believe in. We have done nothing about providing health insurance for the people in this country. Forty-five million have nothing. We have done nothing about the housing prices and problems in this country. We have done nothing about cleaning up the environment. In fact, we continue to be addicted to oil and all we do is pass a bill that gives more money to oil and to coal.

Now, we are not dealing with the problems of the American people. Instead today what we are doing is continuing to pursue the Bush war of folly in Iraq. He has spent $200 billion of our money so far. He says, ``Please give me another 80. I don't know what I'm going to do with it, but I'm going to keep spending it over there.''

The electricity is not up in Iraq. The sewer system is not in up in Iraq. The telephone system is not up in Iraq. He cannot fix it there or here.

This is a bad bill, and it ought to be voted against.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor the contributions made by Asian Pacific Americans. May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month and a time when every American should acknowledge the important role of Asian Pacific Americans in building our great nation.

The 7th Congressional District in Washington State, which I represent, is home to more than 78,000 Asian Americans, the largest minority group in the district comprising over 13% of the population. Today, Seattle is home to a rich and ethnically diverse cultural weave of Japanese, Asian Indian, Korean, Chinese, Filipino, Cambodian, Laotian, Hmong, Vietnamese, Pacific Islanders and other Asian Americans.

The 1880 U.S. Census records the first resident of Japanese descent in the state of Washington. Over the next 150 years, Asian Americans contributed to our state and nation in many ways. In 1963, Wing Luke became the first Chinese American elected to the Seattle City Council, and today a museum is named in his honor. There were other triumphs: Ruby Chow was the first Chinese American woman elected locally and Gary Locke was the first Chinese American elected Governor. Many Asian Americans serve today in the Washington State Legislature, other local elected offices, key leadership roles in civic organizations, business and industry.

Asian American role models come from all walks of life. Like other ethnic populations, Asian Americans had to persevere against prejudice, racial injustice and discrimination. When they immigrated, they worked in the mines and Alaskan canneries, logged the forests, were the first non-Native fishermen, and farmed the land. Up until World War II, Japanese Americans supplied nearly three-quarters of western Washington's fruits and vegetables.

The war marked a turning point. Internment camps, including one near Seattle, were a stain on America's conscience and it took four decades before we acknowledged the mistake, and the suffering inflicted on thousands of innocent Asian Americans. We learned a lot during World War II, about the courage and patriotism of Asian Americans, and about our own shortcomings in letting fear overtake reason at a time of world conflict. In a small but important way, naming a federal courthouse in Seattle after William Nakamura, a Japanese American Medal of Honor winner, was a statement about America being stronger because of Asian Americans.

In Seattle, we proudly celebrate Asian Pacific American culture and heritage, from the Vietnamese Tet in Seattle Lunar New Year celebration to other local cultural festivals. We also honor Asian Pacific Americans by preserving the ethnic heritage of our citizens. Places like the Wing Luke Asian Museum, the Seattle Asian Art Museum, the Filipino American National Historical Society, and Densho: The Japanese American Legacy Project keep us in touch with the roots of our neighbors. These wonderful resources proudly recall the past and proudly inspire the future.

By celebrating Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, we honor the spirit of America as a nation of immigrants. By honoring Asian Pacific Americans, we honor Americans from every ethnic background. This celebration reminds us that America is a melting pot where we retain our ethnic heritage even as we assimilate the American experience. It is what makes America strong. It is what makes America the destination for people willing to risk their lives floating in rafts in the ocean to reach this great land. Celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.

Mr. Speaker, this is a big day. Gas is at $2.50 a gallon. The President's Social Security road show is a shambles. His numbers are falling in the polls. Iraq has more violence. The Japanese are loaning us $450 billion to cover our loans on our deficit. And the Rubber Stamp Congress is back in shape. They are all here with their stamp to give the President exactly what he needs.

Now, in about 40 minutes he is going to come on TV. This tells you how bad it is. The President is in such terrible shape he has got to go on TV and start his magic act. He has got to try to convince the people that the gasoline is not $2.50 a gallon or that we are not borrowing $450 billion from the Japanese.

That is the problem you have got with this budget. And what are you doing? You are rubber-stamping cutting the safety net in shreds. You are going after the poor, the sick, the elderly, anybody who cannot fight back.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in tribute to Jane Eaglen, among the foremost sopranos on the stages of international opera, renowned for her performances on concert platforms around the globe, and for her classical recordings.

Teachers in her native England encouraged her unique voice from a young age, and she was trained in the style of both Bellini and Wagner. From the time she joined the English National Opera, Ms. Eaglen garnered acclaim in a variety of roles until her breakthrough casting as Donna Anna in Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Scottish Opera.

In the two decades since then, she has achieved success in roles such as Isolde (for the Metropolitan Opera, Seattle Opera, Teatro Liceu Barcelona, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and in Puerto Rico). She has won worldwide applause for her rendition of Brunnhilde (performed in Seattle, Chicago, San Francisco, Milan, New York and the United Kingdom), and recently triumphed as Ariadne in Seattle.

Jane Eaglen is equally accomplished as a concert artist. She has worked with distinguished orchestras from Boston to Salzburg, and with the world's leading maestros including Daniel Barenboim, Zubin Mehta, Danielle Gatti and Claudio Abbado. Her performances with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Gerard Schwartz, have thrilled audiences. Her extensive discography of classical recordings has won over fans of the music of masters from Strauss to Beethoven to Mahler. Her recording of Tannhauser with Barenboim received a Grammy Award in 2003 for Best Opera Recording.

Mr. Speaker, Jane Eaglen has been a resident of my district for the past several years, and it is with pride that I note that Seattle's Rainier Club has named her Laureate for 2005-2006. She joins previous laureates author Jonathan Raban, glass artist Dale

Chihuly, jazz virtuoso Ernestine Anderson, Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist David Horsey, and playwright August Wilson. Her memorable performances with the Seattle Opera and the Seattle Symphony merit the Rainier Club adulation.

We look forward to future renditions of the world's great music by the versatile Jane Eaglen. I would invite you to Seattle to hear her in the complete Ring cycle this August, but the Seattle Opera says it's sold out.

Mr. Speaker, we heard the last speaker say ``God bless the troops.''

I want to tell you the story of a man named Carlos Lazo. He is a Cuban-American. He joined the military. He served honorably in the National Guard in the State of Washington. He spent a year in Iraq as a medic in Fallujah, the most violent area of Baghdad or all of Iraq.

When he came back he thought, Maybe I would like to go see my children. So he went and applied for a visa to Cuba, and he was told, Well, we are sorry, you went in 2003. You can't see your children until 2006.

Now, we are out here passing these ridiculous resolutions about how the Cubans act about travel. Why can Carlos Lazo not go and see his children?

I write a letter to OFAC up at the Department of Treasury. They do not even answer my letter. They give no justification for why a man who served cannot see his kids. And guess what? He is going back to Iraq. That is how much we respect the military in this country.

Somebody ought to act on his behalf. The Republicans have control of this Congress. They have control of the White House. And Carlos cannot see his kids. Some democracy you are selling in Iraq.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to claim the time of the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone).

Mr. Speaker, we passed the bankruptcy bill out of here the other day and I voted ``no,'' and I will show you what I got for my reward. I got two more credit cards in the mail the very same day I voted ``no.''

The credit card industry in this country is demonstrating what is anti-Christian about this body. A lot of people stand around and tell us, oh, we believe in the Judeo-Christian religion and that is the root of all our efforts and everything else. Well, let me tell you something: The Israelites went down into Egypt and they were slaves. God said, look, I am going to take you out of Egypt, I will put you in the promised land but you have got to develop a community where nobody is enslaved.

Now, that took us to several different points in the presentation. The first was the idea of the Sabbath. On the Sabbath day, everybody was supposed to rest; slave, worker, wife, husband, animals, everybody rested on the seventh day.

The second concept was of the Sabbath year. And here is what the Sabbath year was. And I read this, this is from Deuteronomy 15. If you do not know, that is the fifth book in the Jewish Bible and it is also the fifth book in the Christian Bible.

``Every seventh year you shall grant a remission of debts. And this is the manner of the remission: Every creditor shall remit the claim that is held against a neighbor, not exacting it of a neighbor who is a member of the community, because the Lord's remission has been proclaimed. When the Lord, your God, has blessed you as he has promised you, you will lend to other nations but you will not borrow.''

How do we explain $450 billion of borrowing?

``You will rule over other nations but they will not rule over you.'' And it goes on. ``If there is among you anyone in need, a member of your community in any of our towns within the land that the Lord, your God, is giving you, do not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted towards your needy neighbor. You should open your hand, willingly lend enough to meet the need, whatever it may be. Be careful you do not entertain a mean thought, thinking the seventh year, the year of remission is near, and therefore view your needy neighbor with hostility and give nothing. Your neighbor might cry to the Lord against you and you will incur guilt. Give liberally but be ungrudging when you do so, for on this account the Lord, your God, will bless you and all your work and all that you undertake.

``Since there will never cease to be some in need on the Earth, I therefore command you, open your hand to the poor and the needy neighbor in your land.''

Now we have stood out here and passed a bill that is in exact contradiction. This same idea goes right into the Christian faith. This is not a Jewish idea. It is not a Christian idea. It is the Judeo- Christian ethic under which we live.

The bankruptcy bill says, if you have taken more money and borrowed more money than you can pay off, we are going to get you. We are going to squeeze the last dime out of you.

In that bill that passed here the other day, we changed a basic principle in our bankruptcy law in this country; that if you are in bankruptcy the first draw on any money available is the wife and the children. Child support. That should be the first money that goes out to be paid. If there is nothing else left, that should be first.

What this bill said was, these credit card companies who are out there sending these cards out all over this country with absolutely no regulation whatsoever, they are hooking people and then we are going to squeeze the last dime. We will put the poor woman and her kids in court, arguing with attorneys from the credit card company about whether or not they are going to get any money. So the poor woman and the kids are going to spend their food money on a lawyer to fight these people. No protection whatsoever.

That is not what the book of Deuteronomy said. That is not what God commended us to do. Whether we are Christian or Arab or Muslim or whatever, that bill was an abomination. We ought to start paying attention to the base of the values that we say we submit to in this House.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to take the time of the gentleman from California (Mr. George Miller).

Mr. Speaker, the great unanswered question of the 21st century is, why do they hate us?

We have to find out. The answer relates directly to the safety and security of America and every American, wherever we live.

Why does the world not see us the way we see ourselves? Strong, generous, eager to share what makes us unique. ``We hold these truths to be self evident.''

Why? Why can they not perceive the America that we know?

Well, several incidents recently give us clues as to the riddle of why the world cannot except our raison d'etre.

A few weeks ago we strongly objected to the Japanese government's effort to establish a contract with Iran for much-needed energy. We told them do not do it.

This is the continuation of a quarter-of-a-century-old foreign policy initiative: isolate Iran; that will force them to bend to our will.

But Iran is rich in resources, and I think the conclusion follows naturally from these circumstances. When it comes to Iran, economic isolation equals nuclear proliferation.

Attempting to curb, stifle, or choke off the natural economic progress of a nation with supplies very much in demand is unlikely to be effective. It certainly has not worked for a quarter of a century, no matter which party has had the White House.

Iran is a nation rich in natural energy resources which some nations will seek to leverage regardless of what U.S. policy is.

Today, 14 percent of China's energy needs are met with energy resources from Iran. No one should doubt the obvious. This energy relationship will go on in coming years.

We lean on Japan, but that has no impact on China or Russia or others in the region. If anything, it is an incentive for Iran to deepen its economic and political ties elsewhere.

In attempting to isolate Iran, we may be, in the end, isolating ourselves from the seemingly unstoppable economic and geopolitical expansion in Asia and the Middle East.

A few days after we expressed our extreme concerns to Japan, something happened that did not receive widespread news coverage in the United States. Last year, Japan financed the equivalent of the entire U.S. deficit, $400 billion.

Now, some in Japan have expressed a preference for the Euro. Japan is our friend, a strong and close ally. It seems to me if our friends are struggling with our foreign policy decisions, imagine what our nonfriends are doing. They are using it to isolate the U.S. from the rest of the world.

Not long after our concerns were expressed to Japan, we showed the iron fist again when Iran, Pakistan, and India began to talk of a pipeline for South Asia across Pakistan to supply energy to starved West India.

The President has defined Iran as the Axis of Evil. The U.S., to put it diplomatically, prefers to end the religious government in Iran where we might change the rhetoric from the Axis of Evil to the access, A-C-C-E-S-S to natural resources.

Our vocal and public expressions against the Iranian Government were noticed. Iran's leaders took a page out of our playbook. We call them the Axis of Evil. They call us the Great Satan.

Lately, the administration has ramped up on the nuclear weapons of mass destruction rhetoric, leaving some to fear or speculate about whether the rhetoric is really the base case for a new preemptive action.

One hears Condoleezza Rice threatening sanctions against those who engage in commerce in Iran. It just so happened that entire nations like India and Pakistan fall into that rhetorical trap.

A proposal to build a pipeline from Iran through Pakistan to serve energy needs in India has been called a peace pipeline. It is the latest positive step between two great nations with a long history of tension and bloodshed.

If the IRA and Northern Ireland can resolve differences, surely there is hope for Kashmir. The signs of hope are there; but like a seed planted in fertile ground, the hope for lasting peace must be nurtured.

Instead, our one-size-fits-all foreign policy aimed at Iran hits India and Pakistan as well. We end up trying to punish Iran by undercutting India and Pakistan.

India's energy problems are real. The future of the nation depends on securing stable energy resources. Yet, U.S. foreign policy meant to punish Iran hurts America's friends and America's foreign policy.

We are telling India and Pakistan to abandon the peace pipeline because we do not like Iran. But we are saying there will be severe consequences for our friends if they do not follow our orders.

Why are we trying to prevent India from solving one of its most pressing energy problems, chronic energy shortage?

We have not isolated Iran. We have merely strongly encouraged Iran to build economic and political relationships everywhere else. We like to pretend our effort in Iran has been effective. I think it is time for us to admit we need a complete reassessment and overhaul of our failing foreign policy beginning in Iran.

In my judgment, it is time to put economic democracy on the table, and there is no place like starting with India and Pakistan.

Their destiny should be in the hands of Indians and Pakistanis. The Administration has been declaring veto power.

Iran, Cuba, and a host of other foreign policy initiatives have shown us that this approach does not work. And our intention to approve or veto the destiny of other nations will not last.

I worry about Iran as much as any Republican and Democrat leader.

But we cannot deny what we know to be true. Our current foreign policy--in philosophy and practice--has been most effective at isolating America.

It's time we revise our vision to something sustainable and tolerable.

We can start by encouraging regional cooperation in Central and South Asia. We can start by encouraging peace, perhaps symbolized by the so called peace pipeline. We have helped Iran win many friends in recent years.

Now it is time to envision a foreign policy which makes it more likely that Iran, the world's second largest holder of natural gas, will focus on developing natural gas instead of nuclear energy that could form the basis for a nuclear threat.

Surely, our experience in Iraq and its problems should have taught us something about the ultimate futility of trying to solve everything with a gun.