Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 2408) to amend the Fish and Wildlife Act of 1956 to reauthorize volunteer programs and community partnerships for national wildlife refuges, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks on H.R. 2408.

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

Mr. Speaker, I introduced the bill, H.R. 2408, to reauthorize the National Wildlife Refuge System Volunteer and Community Partnership Act, which I authored in 1998.

There is no question that volunteers play an invaluable role in the successful operation of hundreds of National Wildlife Refuges throughout the United States. Since 1982, the number of refuge volunteers has grown from about 4,200 individuals to over 39,000 people. In the past year alone, volunteers have contributed over 1.4 million man-hours of their own time to the refuge system. From operating a backhoe, assisting in the banding of birds or providing education to the public, to many other functions, volunteers can do it all.

At the hearing of the Subcommittee on Fisheries Conservation, Wildlife and Oceans held in June of this year, significant support for the volunteer program was very evident. A number of suggestions were made to improve the existing 1998 landmark law, and at the subcommittee markup these suggestions were incorporated into the bill. Included in these changes is the authority of the Secretary of the Interior to enter into cooperative agreements outside the Federal Grant and Cooperative Agreements Act of 1977 with academic institutions, State and local agencies, and partner organizations, like the ``Friends'' groups that exist at many refuges. The Cooperative Agreement Act has been a hindrance to the Secretary in entering into these agreements. H.R. 2408 would clarify that Congress intended to give the Secretary the same flexibility that the Secretary has to enter into these agreements under the North American Wetlands Conservation Act.

I urge all Members to support the Refuge Volunteer Program by voting yes on this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill

(H.R. 2489) to provide for the distribution of judgment funds to the Cowlitz Indian Tribe, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 2489.

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

Mr. Speaker, our colleague, the gentleman from the State of Washington (Mr. Baird), has introduced legislation to assist a tribe in his district that will finally receive funds they are owed by the Federal Government.

His legislation, H.R. 2489, will provide for the distribution of judgment funds awarded to the Cowlitz Indian Tribe. The Cowlitz Indian Tribe has lands in western Washington and the over 1,000 enrolled members are commonly divided into two groups, the Upper Cowlitz and the Lower Cowlitz.

In 1973, the Indian Claims Commission ruled in favor of the tribe, stating that their aboriginal title of the lands had been taken from them and they deserved compensation for the loss of those lands. H.R. 2489 provides for the distribution of the Commission's judgment.

The legislation is also particularly crafted so that the tribe will use the judgment funds in a manner that follows the Indian Tribal Judgment Funds Use or Distribution Act. Uses of the moneys will include programs administered by the Cowlitz Indian Tribe, bringing assistance to tribal elders and educating younger tribal members in the areas of culture and cultural significance.

Specifically, H.R. 2489 distributes moneys from the judgment fund into areas that plague many tribes and are of concern to the Cowlitz tribe as well. To address these issues, the tribe will be using the funding wisely; for example, they will disburse sums annually for tribal housing improvements and for other purposes.

Recognizing tribal health care needs, the Cowlitz Indian Tribe plans to set aside over 20 percent of the principal funding for various health care needs. This will allow the Tribe's Fir Complex in Longview, Washington, to provide more comprehensive health care to the tribal members.

Again, it is important to emphasize that the Cowlitz Indian Tribe will finally be able to use the moneys they are owed in a manner which best fits their needs and continues their sovereignty as well as their positive working relationship with the Federal Government.

The House can now move this legislation forward and help to strengthen the close relationship the Federal Government has with this tribe. Having been federally recognized in 2000, they can use this funding to more easily help their tribe to grow and become increasingly self-sufficient, while retaining their culture.

This legislation represents another step toward tribal government advancement through the many hours of work put in by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Indian Claims Commission and, of course, the Cowlitz Indian Tribe itself. The amendment in the nature of a substitute was supported at the committee level, and I appreciate the bipartisan work of the committee in acting quickly on this legislation.

Finally, I would also like to point out that H.R. 2489, as amended, was passed by the Committee on Resources by a voice vote on October 29, 2003. I hope we can now act in the same bipartisan fashion. I urge adoption of the bill.

Let me commend the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Baird) for his fine work in bringing this bill forward to us.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for yielding me the time.

Mr. Speaker, I have had the privilege of traveling to Iraq twice in the last few months to visit our troops and to thank them for the job they are doing, as well as to see firsthand the progress that is being made by both the Iraqis and the international coalition in providing security and growing stability to the Nation.

I was amazed to see and hear some of the very real and significant success stories that our forces are accomplishing. When one travels by air, for example, over Iraq, it is easy to realize that 65 percent of the Iraqi people live off the land. Many are accomplished farmers, but others are being aided by the efforts of the American soldiers and by American generosity.

In Iraq, the Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture once ran a 400-acre farm not far from where Saddam Hussein was captured. It was called Saddam Farm, and it produced a harvest that benefited only Saddam Hussein and his family. Today, the Army is helping Iraqis establish the nation's very first cooperative farm on that 400 acres. Iraqi farming families are also being helped by the generosity of the American citizens who have donated some $20,000 worth of seeds, and the Army has distributed them.

Throughout my travels in Iraq, I have found Iraqi children with smiles on their faces. It is remarkable to think that they are living in freedom for the first time. They know it and they like it. Like many children throughout the world, Iraqis enjoy the sport of soccer, and I have seen Iraqi children kicking soccer balls on the playing fields and vacant lots and empty streets. American troops have undertaken projects to give soccer balls to some of the poorer Iraqi children who may not be able to obtain for themselves. For example, the 501st Forward Support Battalion undertook one

project and gave away 150 soccer balls to kids in Baghdad. The 101st Airborne also distributed soccer balls in the north.

Perhaps the greatest and most noteworthy accomplishment that I have seen in Iraq, however, is the increase in the level of security and stability for the Iraqi people. Unfortunately, there are still those that want to see a free Iraq fail, but for our troops, many changes in the Iraqi lifestyle have been evident. In many other areas, security and stability are succeeding because of the efforts of the international coalition forces and the Iraqis themselves.

Iraq's security forces have grown tremendously in the last year since they were first created. The Iraqi Department of Border Enforcement now employs 80,000 Iraqis and 9,000 border enforcement agents, as well as to monitor the nation's 3600-kilometer border. More than 11,000 experienced policemen now patrol Iraq, and another several thousand Iraqi policemen will join their ranks by the end of this year.

There is still much to be done in Iraq, but the fact of the matter is that there are many success stories, many more than one reads in the morning newspaper or sees on daily television reports, and certainly many more than I have time to outline here.

The successes I spoke of and the countless others not only are helping Iraq to become more stable, but they are helping Iraqis to provide for that security and stability. Ultimately, the sooner Iraq is run and secured by Iraqis, the sooner our great troops will come home.

I am proud to stand here today and commend the Iraqi people for their courage and to say again thank you to our troops for a great job well done.

Mr. Speaker, those people who dedicate their lives to the protection of the environment are very special and deserve full recognition of their devotion, which is why I'm so pleased to be able to congratulate Ken Smith for being awarded the American Shore and Beach Preservation Association's Lifetime Achievement Award for 2004.

Ken has been a tireless, devoted advocate for not only New Jersey beaches but for beaches throughout the United States. Ken has spent twenty-five years as the ``Coastal Advocate;'' has spent more than seven years as a Vice President and as a Director of the American Shore and Beach Preservation; and is a co-founder of the Alliance for a Living Ocean, formed in response to the awful summer when garbage and other pollution was washing up on the Jersey shore in 1987. The Alliance for a Living Ocean won the Governor's Award for Volunteerism in 1999, and

last but not least, Ken won the American Shore and Beach Preservation Association's Morrough P. O'Brien Award in 1999.

Ken has led by example for many years, bringing an awareness to so many people about the importance of working together to preserve not only our beaches and oceans, but the environment and our natural resources as a whole. He has been tireless in his dedication to not only protecting the beaches but educating people on the importance of preservation. Even as he is fighting his own battle with cancer, his amazing drive and devotion to our shores has not wavered in the least.

Congratulations Ken, I look forward to working with you for many more years to come.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to be here today to introduce an important piece of conservation legislation, the Office of Ocean and Coastal Policy Creation Act of 2003. This bill establishes in the Executive Office of the President, an Office of Ocean and Coastal Policy. I believe this Office will serve as a valuable complement to the environmental offices and agencies that currently exist, and will provide a unique perspective on the direction we ought to be moving in with regard to comprehensive ocean policy.

An issue to which I have devoted a great deal of time and one that I feel is very important is the protection of the diverse range of fish stocks that inhabit our world's oceans, many of which are very close to disappearing forever. Given the recent release of two studies essentially stating that what I have been talking about is likely to happen, I am more convinced than ever that we need to take aggressive action immediately. Many of our oceans' fish stocks are now reportedly 90 percent depleted, meaning only 10 percent of the stocks that once existed remain. And many of these stocks are in grave danger of extinction if we proceed down the same path we are on now--that is, continue to study these stocks and do little to mitigate the damage that has already been done.

One of these two studies recently published was conducted by Dalhousie University, in Halifax, Canada, stating that the global ocean has lost over 90 percent of its large predatory fishes, such as tuna, swordfish and marlin. I have long known that the use of pelagic longline gear is one of the most, if not the most destructive, indiscriminate way to fish. A direct result of the use of this geartype, starting in the early 1960s, has provided for the almost complete disappearance of white marlin. Though not the target species of longline gear, marlin are a bycatch species, meaning that this geartype catches whatever eats the bait, and as the lines are left in the water overnight, any fish that bites onto a hook is more likely than not dead by the time the lines are pulled in, killing not only the target species, which is primarily swordfish, but also marlin or turtles or sharks or even small whales that happen to take the bait.

The U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy, created from my Oceans Act of 2000, has it's own report forthcoming on the status of our oceans, it will be interesting to see what conclusions they put forward.

The National Marine Fisheries Service, the agency tasked with the protection of these species has failed to do so. The United States is a world leader on so many important and complex issues; it is hard to understand why the issue of fisheries management, and enforcement of the regulations currently in place both domestically and internationally, seems impossible to accomplish.

We need to take immediate aggressive steps to prevent the disappearance of these fish species, before it's too late. These studies should be a wake-up call that the process through which our world's fisheries is managed is broken and needs to be fixed.

This is an issue that resonates with anyone who has ever been to the beach in states like New Jersey, or watched a television program involving the deep blue sea. And given that 50 percent of the population of the United States lives within 100 miles of a coast, there are many who are personally affected by this issue. We have a unique opportunity to do something amazing and I think we owe it these wonderful resources that are our oceans to do all we can to bring them back to a healthy and sustainable level, for future generations. I look forward to working with this

unique Office on Ocean Policy to preserve these magnificent resources.

Mr. Speaker, it is with a heavy heart that I rise today to pay tribute to one of my greatest friends and one of Ocean County's finest, Ocean County Freeholder and Long Beach Township Mayor James J. Mancini.

Upon hearing of his passing, I was deeply saddened, given the tremendous impact he had on my life and those he served in Ocean County. To say that Jim will be missed is an understatement; he touched the lives of so many around him and spent every day of his life helping others.

A champion for seniors and veterans, Mayor Mancini's dedication to his community and his genuine interest in reaching out to others was unparalleled. As one of Ocean County's best advocates for seniors, his commitment to providing retirees with quality health care was unwavering. Every chance he had, Jim worked to make life better for every senior who lived in Ocean County.

Additionally, as a Veteran of World War II, Mayor Mancini made it his top priority to work on behalf of our local veterans. In fact, as a result of his efforts, services to tens of thousands of veterans were increased and improved.

Many of us from south Jersey remember the two ``nor'easter'' storms in the early 1990's that severely damaged the beaches of Long Beach Island. As a result of the threat to property and lives, Mayor Mancini made it his mission to guarantee these beaches would be rebuilt.

After ten years of work--including securing 3 million federal dollars, 8 years of study and design, and overcoming hurdles that prevented new beach replenishment projects from starting--just yesterday we found out that Jim's long-sought after funding to begin replenishing Long Beach Island's beaches came to fruition. This funding was included in the House-passed final version of the 2004 Energy and Water Appropriations Bill.

How ironic. After more than a decade, the project was approved by the House of Representatives on the same day as Mayor Mancini's passing. Without his persistence, it likely would not have happened.

Beginning from his election as Mayor of Long Beach Township in 1964 to his serving as a State Assemblyman in the 1970s to his becoming an Ocean County Freeholder in the 1980's, Mayor Mancini lived his life to serve and help others, and his legacy will live on for many years to come.

Throughout my life, I have met few people as compassionate and as selfless as Jim Mancini; it was an honor and privilege to be his friend. I extend my deepest sympathies to Madeline Mancini and the rest of their family, and know we will remember this caring friend, wonderful father and grandfather, admired leader, and dedicated public servant for the rest of our lives.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to M. Dean Haines on the occasion of his retirement as clerk of Ocean County.

As one of the County's Constitutional Officers, he has been responsible for the administration of a wide range of services offered by the Office of the County Clerk for two decades.

Serving the community is the main focus of the Clerk's Office, including assisting residents in real estate transfers, obtaining passports, courtesy photo identification and Alcoholic Beverage Control Cards, and supervision of elections in the county. Dean's office has been recognized as the most technologically advanced County Clerk's Office in our State, thanks to his leadership and innovation.

Dean Haines' involvement in many community service organizations such as his membership on the Southern Ocean County Hospital Board of Trustees, the Southern Ocean

County Rotary, Jersey Shore Council Boy Scouts of America, Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Council of Ocean County, Barnegat Historical Society, and both Barnegat Fire Company Number One and the New Jersey State Fireman's Association is a demonstration of his commitment to the people of Ocean County.

I have always valued his friendship and support through the years. I hope Dean and his wife, Christine, will accept my congratulations and best wishes for a retirement filled with health, happiness, and dreams come true.

Mr. Speaker, let me begin by thanking and commending the chairman of the committee, the gentleman from California (Mr. Hunter), and the ranking member, the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Skelton), for the great bipartisan job that has occurred in bringing this bill to the floor.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 1588 and do so with a great deal of pride after a lengthy but productive conference. The conferees have hammered out an excellent bill that will go a long way in enhancing our national security and providing our troops and their families with the assets they need.

I have the honor of chairing, as the chairman said, the new Subcommittee on Terrorism, Unconventional Threats and Capabilities on the Committee on Armed Services. As many in this body know, I have worked for many years to stand up such a subcommittee, and with good reason, for there is much that is left to be done.

The subcommittee's ranking Democrat, the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Meehan), and I have worked hard together to explore a multitude of ways to provide the Department of Defense with the capabilities to defeat and defend against terrorists at home as well as abroad, and many of these ideas are contained in the conference report before you.

For example, the conference report includes many provisions that will prepare our Armed Forces and, in particular, the Special Operations Command, to combat terrorism worldwide as well as several items that will enhance homeland defense. In addition, the conference report establishes several programs addressing issues that arose in the recent war with Iraq and items that will speed the transformation of the military services.

It is critically important that all Members vote for this measure. There is much to applaud in many areas. I am proud to be a conferee and proud of the work that the chairman, and my good friend, the gentleman from California (Mr. Hunter), as I said before, and the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Skelton) did in this regard. They have set a standard for us, and this is a bill which must be passed, hopefully with a very good vote.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to Dick and Doris Alaimo, who have been chosen as this year's recipients of the Lloyd Ritter Community Service Award given by the Volunteer Center of Burlington County, NJ.

Dick and Doris are well-known throughout southern New Jersey for their outstanding history of community service and involvement in local organizations, and have been personal friends for many, many years, during which time we have worked together on many projects for the benefit of our community.

The Alaimos work in tandem with Memorial Hospital of Burlington County's Foundation, the Burlington County Chapter of the Boy Scouts of America and the Rancocas Valley Education Foundation. They also serve on the committee for Mount Holly Pro Day, an event which brings illustrious sports figures such as Mount Holly native Franco Harris into the limelight in effort to raise funds for local children in need, a cornerstone of much of their work through the years.

Successful in careers, business, and in life, Dick and Doris Alaimo have generously shared their success, time, money, energy and most importantly, care and concern with the community, always striving to make our hometown a better place to live and work.

It is for these reasons they have been selected to receive this prestigious award, and for these reasons I pay tribute to them today. May their legacy of volunteerism continue through their children, grandchildren, and the community they so love.

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the Senate bill (S. 470) to extend the authority for the construction of a memorial to Martin Luther King, Jr.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.

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

S. 470, introduced by my friend, Senator Paul Sarbanes of Maryland, would extend the authority for the construction of the memorial to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in the District of Columbia. S. 470 would simply extend to November 2006 the authorization given to the site's sponsor, Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, in the Omnibus Parks and Public Land Management Act of 1996 to raise the funds to build the memorial. The bill is strongly supported by the administration and both the majority and minority of the Committee on Resources. I urge my colleagues to support S. 470.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 268) expressing the sense of the Congress regarding the imposition of sanctions on nations that are undermining the effectiveness of conservation and management measures for Atlantic highly migratory species, including marlin, adopted by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas and that are threatening the continued viability of United States commercial and recreational fisheries, as amended.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on the concurrent resolution under consideration.

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

H. Con. Res. 268 is a resolution expressing the sense of Congress regarding the imposition of sanctions on nations that are undermining the effectiveness of conservation and management members for Atlantic highly migratory species.

Madam Speaker, the annual meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, known as ICCAT, will take place in a few weeks. The United States delegation must go into this meeting with a strong position that noncompliance by nations that are members of ICCAT is unacceptable. The U.S. has been a world leader in pushing for conservation measures at ICCAT. In addition, we have put restrictions on our fishermen, both recreational and commercial, to implement these international conservation measures.

Again and again, the U.S. has restricted our fishermen and then had to watch as foreign nations allowed their fishermen to break the internationally agreed upon rules.

Not only have our fishermen suffered as a result of noncompliance by other nations, but the fish themselves have suffered. Atlantic white marlin populations, in particular, are at approximately 12 percent of their historic levels. Blue marlin are at about 40 percent of their historic levels. This is totally unacceptable, and, I might add, unnecessary.

Despite playing by the rules and pushing for conservation, the U.S. fishermen were faced with a petition last year to list white marlin under the Endangered Species Act. Rebuilding plans for both white marlin and blue marlin have been put in place, but international fleets do not comply.

It is clear that U.S. conservation efforts are not enough. Our fishermen, both recreational and commercial, played by the rules and were still almost shut down because of international indifference.

We need to make sure that all nations that fish for Atlantic highly- migratory species play by the rules, or face the consequences. The U.S. is one of the biggest markets for these nations, and we should send a strong signal that we will not tolerate continued noncompliance.

This resolution urges the President to continue to work with our trading partners through the international fisheries management bodies to achieve conservation goals. In addition, the resolution calls on the President, when those international efforts do not work, to use all methods available, including trade sanctions against those countries which choose not to play by the internationally agreed upon rules.

This resolution sends the message to those nations that do not consider conservation to be important that there must be consequences to their actions. In addition, it sends the message to U.S. fishermen that their conservation efforts are consequential, and not for nothing.

I urge Members to support this resolution and to send the U.S. delegation to ICCAT with the task of warning other nations that they need to take conservation seriously.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Madam Speaker, I would just conclude by saying this, that in our country, many years ago when our country was young, our forefathers enjoyed a huge herd of buffalo in the Midwest States, and because we did not understand that they would not always just be there, we carried out practices that simply eliminated them.

Unfortunately, because of the international pressure that is being placed on these species by the international pelagic longline fleet and the lack of enforcement of agreed upon ICCAT regulations, the same process is currently under way with white marlin, blue marlin, swordfish, Atlantic tuna and other species.

This is a crime which, in my view, must stop, and I do not use the term ``crime'' unadvisedly.

I yield to the gentleman from American Samoa.

Madam Speaker, reclaiming my time, I thank the gentleman for making the eloquent point that he has.

The question is a very good one. That is what this piece of legislation, this resolution is about. It says that, in effect, if the parties who go to ICCAT and make an agreement on the amount, the number, or the amount of tonnage of fish to be taken do not comply with those agreements, then the President is urged to use trade sanctions with regard to fish or other commodities to enforce those agreements, or to provide a penalty against those who do not comply with the agreements that their countries make. It is a huge problem and one that I hope that this resolution will give the administration the necessary muscle that it needs to solve this problem.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from American Samoa for making the point so clearly.

Madam Speaker, I have no further speakers at this time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 3249) to extend the term of the Forest Counties Payments Committee.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.

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

Madam Speaker, this bill, H.R. 3249, simply changes the termination date of the Forest Counties Payments Committee that was created by Congress in the Interior Appropriations Act of 2001 to coincide with the expiration date in 2006 of the Secure Rural Schools and Communities Self-Determination Act of 2000.

The purpose of this committee is to develop recommendations for Congress concerning the Federal program of payments to States and counties and to evaluate the effectiveness of the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act that regulates those payments. While some of the work of the committee has been completed, the important job of evaluating the effectiveness of Public Law 106-393 is ongoing and will need to be continued in order to assist Congress as it reviews options for either reauthorization or the development of new legislation. These efforts are crucial if we hope to further our understanding and support for healthy communities and healthy forests.

Madam Speaker, I would like to thank the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Walden) for his thoughtful leadership on this issue and on this bill. I urge adoption of the bill.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1616) to authorize the exchange of certain lands within the Martin Luther King, Junior, National Historic Site for lands owned by the City of Atlanta, Georgia, and for other purposes.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.

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

Madam Speaker, H.R. 1616, introduced by my great friend, the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis), would authorize the Secretary of the Interior to exchange certain disposable lands within the boundaries of the Martin Luther King, Jr., National Historic Site in the City of Atlanta, Georgia for land owned by the City of Atlanta.

The acquisition of the city-owned property would accomplish two things: first, to enable the National Park Service to establish easy street access to the Historic Site Visitor Center; and, second, to provide emergency equipment and personnel easy access to the visitor center.

Madam Speaker, H.R. 1616 is supported by the administration and the majority and minority of the committee. I urge adoption of this bill and add my congratulations to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) for bringing this legislation forward.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to provide an explanation for the votes I missed on October 15 and 16, 2003. Due to a Congressional fact-finding trip to Iraq and other parts of the Middle East, I unfortunately missed several votes on the floor of the House on the evening of October 15. Additionally, I missed votes on October 16 because I had to attend a conference regarding information technology at the Department of Defense, an issue over which my Subcommittee on Terrorism and Unconventional Threats and Capabilities has sole jurisdiction.

Had I been present, I would have voted in the following fashion:

Rollcall vote 540: ``Aye'' (H.R. 6, On motion to instruct Conferees on the Energy Conservation, Research, and Development).

Rollcall vote 541: ``No'' (H.R. 1308, On motion to instruct Conferees on the Tax Relief, Simplification, and Equity Act).

Rollcall vote 542: ``No'' (H.R. 1, On motion to instruct Conferees on the Medicare Prescription Drug and Modernization Act).

Rollcall vote 543: ``Aye'' (H.R. 1828, On motion to suspend the rules and pass the Syria Accountability and Lebanese Restoration Act of 2003).

Rollcall vote 544: ``Aye'' (H. Res. 396, On ordering the previous question for providing for the Consideration of H.R. 3289: Emergency Supplemental Appropriations for Defense and for the Reconstruction of Iraq and Afghanistan for Fiscal Year 2004).

Rollcall vote 545: ``Aye'' (H. Res. 198, On agreeing to the resolution as amended which expressed the sense of the House of Representatives that France, Germany, and Russia, can initially best contribute to the reconstruction of Iraq by forgiveness of outstanding debt).

I would like to also note, that I am a cosponsor and strong supporter of the Syria Accountability and Lebanese Restoration Act of

2003 (H.R. 1828) because it holds Syria accountable for the serious international security problems it has caused in the Middle East. Specifically, H.R. 1828 calls on Syria to halt its support for terrorism, end its occupation of Lebanon, stop its development of weapons of mass destruction, and cease its illegal importation of Iraqi oil and illegal shipments of weapons and other military items to Iraq.

Knowing the importance of this bill, I have been a long-time supporter of H.R. 1828. As such, I would have voted in favor of its passage and will continue to work to ensure it is signed into law as soon as possible.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to E. Larry St. Laurent who is retiring after 15 years as Director of the Ocean County Veterans Service Bureau. Although still suffering injuries suffered during the Korean War, Mr. St. Laurent has devoted countless hours to Ocean County's veteran population. Those injuries have given him a special insight into the problems of veterans who are trying to navigate through the bureaucratic maze and receive the benefits they have earned and to which they are entitled.

Larry was a leader in the effort to raise $3 million to erect a memorial to the men and women from New Jersey who died during the Korean War. The New Jersey Korean War Memorial was dedicated in 2000, thanks in great part to his efforts.

A lifelong public servant, Larry has devoted his life to his fellow veterans, beginning in 1952 as Service Officer for Jackson VFW Post 4703. He has been an officer in several veterans organizations, including Disabled American Veterans and the Military Order of the Purple Heart, as well as his current position as Director of the Ocean County Veterans Service Bureau.

His understanding of the needs of our veterans has enabled him to provide veterans with the opportunity to improve their lives. I have enjoyed working with Mr. St. Laurent and his Veterans Service Bureau over the years, and I salute his commitment to Ocean County and its veterans, for whom he will continue to advocate even in retirement. His will be difficult shoes to fill.