Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, my constituents, like yours, paid over $3 a gallon for gas last year. Isn't that enough? Do they really need to be paying a second time with their tax dollars?

Last year, Big Oil saw higher profits than any industry in the history of the world, yet we are writing them welfare checks. The United States is 65 percent dependent on foreign oil, worse than we have ever been before, sending $800 million a day to the Middle East. This situation creates conflicts of interest in crucial matters of security and diplomacy whereby we, the United States of America, are beholden to nations who do not represent our best interests. Still, we are cutting a welfare check to Big Oil.

When we embrace the wave of the future and dedicate ourselves to developing alternative, renewable, clean more-affordable energy sources, America will create more than a quarter million new jobs, generate $30 billion in new worker wages, and finally stop funding both sides of the war on terror.

Despite all that, we are still using taxpayer dollars to hand a huge welfare check to billionaire oil companies. The CLEAN Energy Act takes the crucial first steps to ending this policy, and I urge my colleagues to support it.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Illinois, and I want to also thank the gentlewoman from Indiana for allowing me to become a sponsor on this important resolution, also a fellow native.

Mr. Speaker, boxing gloves are a symbol of fighting for sport; but these gloves, because of the man who once wore them, symbolize so much more: fighting for justice, fighting for equality, and fighting for one's convictions.

My home district of Louisville, Kentucky, is known for a lot of things; and when you say the greatest, and particularly the greatest of all time, there is no question who you are talking about.

Larger than life now and one of the most recognizable icons throughout the world, it is easy to forget that long before he took his place as the best, and, as he would tell you the prettiest, boxer the world has ever known, there was a young, loud-mouthed speedster named Cassius Marcellus Clay, who despite his slight frame and humble beginnings, had an overpowering cockiness that immediately let you know that, whether or not he was destined for greatness, he was absolutely consumed by the quest. That flare inspired a lore that traveled quickly throughout our hometown.

In track and field, they say he won the mile easily and regularly, each time wearing steel-toed boots and running the second half backward.

They say on his way to Central High School each day he would race the school bus, being sure to stop at every traffic light lest he gain an unfair advantage over the school bus.

And when he finally began to shake up the world, winning Olympic gold at the age of 18, they say Cassius Clay furiously flung his medal into the Ohio River after his newly attained hero status did nothing to alter his second-class status in the racist South.

Whether or not these tales are the stuff of legend, the integrity of the message holds true. He was the fastest, most dedicated, most confident we had ever seen. Yet even after he had defeated the invincible giant and became the heavyweight champion of the world, he constantly felt the pain of prejudice and the heartache of racial hate. He turned down the opportunity to merely escape the situation, instead determined to change it.

He introduced dazzling quick footwork that even today has never been seen in a heavyweight and lightning left jabs that sent opponent after opponent falling to the mat. But he felt that his was a higher calling, and he chose controversy over comfort.

He became Muhammad Ali, and he used his success and fame to speak passionately and eloquently against injustice, racism, crime, illiteracy and poverty, touching and inspiring millions around the world.

As he was just approaching his prime fighting years, he was faced with a choice, betray his opposition to war and fight in Vietnam or sacrifice his career and face 5 years in jail. Twenty-five-year-old Muhammad Ali remained firm and was stripped of the title he had defended brilliantly for more than 2 years.

He had been knocked down, but he would not accept defeat. For more than 3 years, the former champ defended his name and appealed the decision, while simultaneously touring the country and world speaking tirelessly in the name of peace, justice and equality, now champion in a whole new realm.

With his peak fighting years behind him, a unanimous Supreme Court finally overruled previous decisions, granting Ali his conscientious objector status, and affording him the return that most of us thought would never happen.

What followed was not merely a comeback but an epic resurgence that featured the Fight of the Century, the Thrilla in Manila, and the Rumble in the Jungle. Ali recaptured the title by reinventing his style with the rope-a-dope in 1974, and in 1978 took the belt an unprecedented third time.

In the last two decades, Muhammad Ali has battled the effects of Parkinson's disease, and while the disease has proven a worthy adversary, it is simply not possible to defeat the man who once remarked, ``I oughta be a postage stamp. That's the only way I'll ever get licked.'' Since his diagnosis, he has appeared at countless events to combat illiteracy, poverty, and disease. He famously lit the Olympic torch in Atlanta, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and was an honorary captain for the Louisville Cardinals in their Orange Bowl victory this year.

His mind remains sharp and his spirit strong. He is a hero. He is among the greatest icons the world has ever known, and I urge you to join me in commemorating his contributions to this country and the world on his 65th birthday.

I leave you with the words of the poet and Godfather of Rap, Muhammad Ali:

To make America the Greatest is my goal,

So I beat the Russian and I beat the Pole.

And for the USA won the medal of gold,

Italians said, ``You're greater than the Cassius of old.''

We like your name,

We like your game.

So make Rome your home if you will.

I said, I appreciate your hospitality,

But the USA is my country still.

'Cause they're waiting to welcome me in Louisville.

Madam Speaker, each year the number of jobs that require a college diploma grows. And with tuition swelling at the rate of 41 percent over the last 6 years, so does the number of capable and dedicated Americans for whom that training is simply unattainable.

H.R. 5 does more than save $4,000-plus for 5.5 million students annually; it offers a chance to those who deserve it most. These are students who have put in their work, have demonstrated the desire, and possess the intellect to go to college, but don't have the means. These are some of the best and brightest this country has to offer. These young people are the hope for America's future.

Opposing this legislation is to turn our backs on these bright young dedicated citizens, creating a young workforce that is saddled with unmanageable debt, and each year preventing 200,000 of them from going to college at all. By failing to make education affordable, we are telling them we aren't interested in them or what they have to offer.

The University of Louisville is among a handful of universities which have developed programs to help low income students who have demonstrated exemplary potential. Their cardinal covenant is an innovative and necessary initiative. Programs like these can be an excellent supplement to sound national policy but cannot substitute for our responsibility to ensure that the capable and dedicated are also educated.

We have the chance to act on behalf of our country and our young adults; therefore, I urge my colleagues to support this important measure.

Mr. Speaker, I used to spend weekends at my father's used car lot and among other things, I saw a lot of haggling. There was a sticker price, but that was just a starting point for negotiation. If you wanted to drive the price down really low, your family would buy two cars at once. Three cars would really sweetened the deal. If the neighborhood had been really smart, they would've all come in at once and bought up the whole lot.

I tell you this, Mr. Speaker, because Medicare Part D is buying up the whole lot of prescription drugs and still paying sticker price.

Last year, this institution offered a plan intended to save seniors from paying the exorbitant cost of prescription drugs. Now most of them feel cheated by an overly complicated system, many of them aren't saving any money, and a good number of them are actually paying higher prices than they were before. And because we aren't negotiating on their behalf, we can't even tell our struggling Americans that we're doing the best we can.

Medicare part D was written for drug companies, by drug companies, and it should be no surprise, it's benefiting drug companies. This policy has yielded windfall profits for big pharmaceuticals, at the expense of our older Americans.

We can do better. America expects better. And our seniors deserve better.

I urge my colleagues to pass this common sense measure.

I thank the gentlewoman.

Mr. Speaker, the progress that has been made of late in the area of adult and amniotic fluid stem cell research is astounding. In my own district, the University of Louisville is curing paralysis in lab animals using adult stem cells. But with each new discovery, the scientists say the same thing: none of these areas of research can replace the vast unique and still unchartered potential of embryonic stem cells.

Politics interfering with scientific advancement is nothing new. In Louisville, public controversy was a major obstacle before our pioneering doctors successfully implanted the first artificial heart and performed the first hand transplant. Had the politics of the day prevailed, additional lives would have been lost and incredible progress halted.

Today, again on the cusp of discoveries that could save lives, we find ourselves at a similar crossroads. Will we aid progress or impede it?

And none--not one of the embryos in question could ever grow into a human life. The researchers are speaking exclusively of embryos that would otherwise be discarded.

We can no longer afford to let politics stand in the way of science and allow America to fall behind the rest of the world's medical advances, especially now as the research being conducted with embryonic stem cells holds the unprecedented potential to revolutionize medicine. I urge my colleagues to pass H.R. 3.

Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore

Mr. Speaker, it is with great pride that I rise for the first time in this body in support of American working families.

Teddy Roosevelt first suggested that all hardworking Americans should earn what he called a living wage. Today, a century later, millions of Americans have been denied his great vision due to baseless fear tactics involving unemployment and a slowed economy. But America's minimum wage was raised regularly for 60 years, and the economy grew, in no small part due to those actions.

Raising the minimum wage never led to unemployment. It always forced higher wages across the board, and it helped to forge a healthy and vibrant economy.

In my district, 30,000 men and women go to work every day working for minimum wage and come home to a life of poverty. It is our responsibility, our moral obligation, indeed, our great opportunity to ensure that all hardworking Americans have the opportunity to provide for themselves and their families. We have the unique opportunity to approach Teddy Roosevelt's vision that, for an American who works hard, a living wage is the absolute minimum.

I urge my colleagues to supports the measure.