Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to offer my heartfelt congratulations and thanks to a fellow optometrist, a leader in our profession, Dr. William Cochran. For 24 years, he has led my alma mater, the Southern College of Optometry, and under his guidance the institution has flourished, turning out highly-trained optometrists and serving 60,000 patients a year. His commitment to his faculty, his patients and students are examples we can all follow here in the Nation's capital.

I congratulate Dr. Cochran on his retirement from the Southern College of Optometry and thank him for the example he has left for optometrists now and in the future. He has made a lasting, positive impact on hundreds of young students and continued to enhance and build a wonderful institution that I am very proud of, the Southern College of Optometry.

Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman from Texas for yielding me so much time.

In the interest of trying to curry favor with the gentleman from Massachusetts and the gentleman from Texas, I'll be very, very brief.

My amendment is a very common-sense amendment that ensures that any homeowner applying for or receiving assistance through the affordable housing funds are in the United States legally.

Not passing this amendment will only make it possible and probable, highly probable, that people residing in this country illegally will receive these benefits at the expense of U.S. taxpayers.

Offered By: Mr. Boozman

Amendment No. 3: Page 139, strike lines 22 through 25 and

insert the following:

``(D) is made available for purchase only by, or in the

case of assistance under this paragraph, is made available

only to, homebuyers who have, before purchase--

``(i) completed a program''.

Page 140, after line 3, insert the following:

``(ii) demonstrated, in accordance with regulations as the

Director shall issue setting forth requirements for

sufficient evidence, that they are lawfully present in the

United States; and''.

Madam Speaker, due to a funeral, I was unable to return in time to vote on Monday, April 23, 2007. Please find below a listing of my missed votes and a record of my votes, had I been present.

Rollcall #245 on H. Res. 179, I am not recorded because I was absent due to a funeral. Had I been present, I would have voted ``aye.''

Rollcall #246 on H.R. 1434, I am not recorded because I was absent due to a funeral. Had I been present, I would have voted ``aye.''

Rollcall #247 on H.R. 1402, I am not recorded because I was absent due to a funeral. Had I been present, I would have voted ``aye.''

Madam Speaker, I rise today to express my heartfelt congratulations and pride in a young man who makes a difference daily in the lives of Arkansas' children, Justin Minkel.

Justin is a second grade teacher at Harvey Jones Elementary School in Springdale, Arkansas. His school is 85 percent minority, 93 percent on free or reduced lunch. Seventeen of his 25 students were below grade level in reading. By the end of the year though, 14 of them had reached or surpassed expectation.

I am proud that Justin decided to return to his home district and teach, and do the hard work which truly leaves no child behind. I congratulate him on being named the Arkansas Teacher of the Year of 2007, and a National Teacher of the Year finalist.

Again, we appreciate the hard work of Justin Minkel and all that he represents in the teaching profession.

Madam Speaker, we do not have any more speakers. Can I ask the gentleman if he has any more?

Madam Speaker, I continue to reserve my time.

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

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

During last summer's war between Israel and Lebanon, which was initiated by Hezbollah jihadist militants breaching Israel's border and killing and kidnapping Israeli soldiers, Hezbollah extremists used Lebanese civilians as human shields to protect themselves from counterattacks by Israeli forces.

Hezbollah jihadists embedded their forces among innocent civilians in violation of international law.

According to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, ``Hezbollah and its sponsors have brought devastation upon the people of Lebanon, dragging them into a war that they did not choose, and exploiting them as human shields.''

To express deep concern over the use of civilians by Hezbollah and to condemn these actions, my distinguished colleagues, Congressman Ron Klein and Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, introduced this bill.

Among other things in the bill, it strongly condemns the use of innocent civilians as human shields, including Hezbollah's use of this savage and illegal tactic during last summer's war between Israel and Lebanon; calls on the international community to recognize and condemn these violations of international law; and calls on responsible nations and experts in the area of international humanitarian law to pay special attention on the use of human shields in violation of international humanitarian law and make further recommendations on the prevention of such violation in the future.

I urge my colleagues to support this very important legislation.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Issa).

(Mr. ISSA asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Wilson).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Weldon).

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

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

Mr. Speaker, today I rise in support of H. Res. 240 dealing with the Holocaust archives. I would like to thank my colleague, Congressman Hastings of Florida, for introducing this bill which urges member countries of the International Commission of the International Tracing Service to ratify, if they haven't yet done so already, the May 2006 amendments to the 1955 Bonn Accords Treaty to expedite the ratification process to allow for open access to the Holocaust archives located at Bad Arolsen, Germany.

The Holocaust stands as one of history's darkest moments. It is critical that we understand and educate future generations about what happened under the Nazi oppression and ensure that these atrocities are never repeated.

The ITS archives at Bad Arolsen are the largest closed Holocaust-era archives in the world, containing millions of records about the fate of over 17 million victims of Nazi Germany. Allowing open access to these records will provide researchers and scholars with materials necessary to enhance the public knowledge about the Holocaust as well as provide Holocaust survivors and their families with the information about their loved ones and help bring them closure.

Furthermore, creating open access to these documents will provide the information necessary to address issues of Holocaust compensation. In particular, many insurance companies have refused to honor Holocaust- era insurance policies brought about by Holocaust victims and survivors prior to and during World War II. These insurance companies have for over 60 years now refused to provide compensation under the insurance policies to Holocaust survivors or families of the Holocaust victims, arguing that Holocaust survivors and their families don't have the documentation, such as death certificates and insurance records. The concentration camps in which many of the Holocaust victims perished didn't issue death certificates and all assets and documents were confiscated from the Jews during that time by the Nazis. Many of these documents now remain closed in archives like Bad Arolsen.

Unfortunately, today, we cannot bring back those who have perished in

the Holocaust at the hands of Nazi Germany, nor can we erase the pain and suffering from the memories of those who survived these atrocities.

However, what we can do, and what H. Res. 240 aims to accomplish, is to make sure that the Holocaust-era archives are opened in an effort to bring long awaited justice and closure to Holocaust survivors and their families, as well as help ensure, through education, that atrocities committed during the Holocaust are never repeated.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Illinois, Congressman Kirk, as much time as he desires.

Mr. Speaker, we don't have any other speakers. I also, though, would like to thank the staffs of the Foreign Affairs Committee for their hard work, not only on this bill, but the other bills that have been presented today.

I yield back the balance of our time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the memory of a fallen Arkansas hero, in fact, a true American hero, SGT William W. Bushnell of Jasper, Arkansas.

Sergeant Bushnell was a member of the 1st Cavalry at Fort Bliss. Sadly, he died from his wounds this past Saturday after his vehicle was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade.

Sergeant Bushnell's father, Wesley, told the Associated Press, ``Billy served proudly in the airborne infantry. That's what he wanted to do when he joined and proud to do it. His shoulder was hurt a while back, and he went to a hospital in Kuwait. All he could think about was getting back in with his comrades in Baghdad.''

This is the type of commitment towards others we can be so very proud of, to his fellow soldiers and commitment to his country.

My prayers, the prayers of my family, and the prayers of Arkansas are with the Bushnell family. I humbly offer my thanks to Sergeant Bushnell for his selfless service to the security and well-being of all Americans.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the chairman for leading the charge on this important technical corrections bill. I want to voice my support for H.R. 1195, and I encourage my colleagues to do the same.

In the time that has passed since SAFETEA-LU was signed into law, we have heard from the Department of Transportation and several States regarding fixes to different programs and high-priority projects. H.R. 1195 addresses most of the areas that need correction.

It is important to note that this bill does not make substantial policy changes to SAFETEA-LU. Rather, this bill corrects provisions that were not workable in SAFETEA-LU. After we pass this bill, SAFETEA- LU will finally be able to accomplish what Congress voted to do 2 years ago.

The bulk of this bill is section 105, which makes changes to over 200 of the high-priority projects in section 1702 of SAFETEA-LU. These changes address surface transportation projects in the bill that were unable to be executed, clarifying recipients, and increasing certain project funding levels, and decreasing others to achieve budget neutrality.

The bill also makes a critical correction in the Transportation Research Program authorized in SAFETEA-LU. Errors were made in the research section of SAFETEA-LU that weakened the legacy research programs carried out by the Department of Transportation. This bill addresses that problem.

The bill also extends the reporting deadline for the National Surface Transportation Policy and Review Study Commission established in SAFETEA-LU. This important commission is tasked with recommending a new direction in funding and policy for our surface transportation programs, and we look forward to seeing their final report.

Again, thank you, Mr. Chairman, for revitalizing this technical corrections bill. I hope all of my colleagues will join me in supporting the bill.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may desire to the gentleman from Alaska (Mr. Young).

(Mr. YOUNG of Alaska asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. Speaker, in closing, I want to thank Mr. DeFazio, Mr. Duncan, Mr. Oberstar, and Mr. Mica, and certainly their staffs, for working so hard together to rectify the technical corrections that we are addressing in SAFETEA-LU. And I also want to thank our former chairman, the gentleman from Alaska (Mr. Young), for his hard work in providing the leadership that we had in the last Congress to get the SAFETEA-LU bill done.

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

Madam Speaker, I rise this morning to honor two exceptional people honored recently by the director of the United States Marshal Service. They are two of four honored nationwide.

Mike Blevins, the chief deputy marshal for the Western District of Arkansas, has been awarded the Meritorious Service Award, recognizing his exemplary service to the Marshal Service the last 31 years. Mike is a great example for all of us, and I greatly appreciate his service to community and country.

Trent Thompson, an Eagle Scout, was also named Citizen of the Year by the service. Thompson's Eagle Scout project was making wood memorial markers honoring deputy marshals from the Western District who fell in the line of duty since its inception. Trent is a fine young man, and I appreciate his leadership at such a young age.

I congratulate both of these people who by example indeed have done so much for the people of the Third District of Arkansas, and I congratulate them for their honors.

First of all, I would like to associate myself with the remarks that were said in the previous bill regarding the Suicide Prevention Act. Again, I just appreciate, being a member of the Veterans' Affairs Committee, I appreciate the hard work on that. It really does make us all proud.

Mr. Speaker, for years the VA has awarded service-connected disability ratings, including increased ratings for the loss of use for paired organs, such as hearing, when only one organ was affected by military service. The exception is the body's visual sensory organs and it is time to remove that inequity. This brings the VA in line with eye disability as done by everyone else in figuring eye disability.

As an optometrist and as an eye doctor I am very, very familiar with this and used to help figure these things all of the time, the loss of visual acuity in one eye on the other eye and the long-term effects of that stress. To me, ignoring any loss of visual acuity due to nonservice-connected causes just isn't rational.

I would like to thank Congresswoman Baldwin for her excellent work in bringing this forward to the full House, and for her advocacy. She has been a real bulldog, and I mean that in a very nice way, in just really staying after this. And due to her efforts, she has been instrumental in highlighting this problem. I have very much enjoyed working with her to improve the law to better serve veterans with visual impairments.

I am also pleased that the bill contains an amendment which was offered during the full committee markup to extend the VA work/study allowance benefits for 5 years. This is a follow-on to a short-term, 6- month extension we passed late last year, and will enable student veterans the ability to continue in a wide variety of work/study positions that directly benefit veterans while easing the workload on the Federal staff at VA and DOD.

Current law allows work/study participants to work up to 20 hours per week. Participants perform a variety of duties such as veteran-related paperwork at schools or VA offices. Some participants perform outreach services under the supervision of a VA employee. Others perform services at VA medical facilities or the offices of the National Cemetery Administration.

The VA work/study allowance is available to Americans training under many programs, such as the Montgomery GI bill, as well as the program for Vocational Training and Rehabilitation for Veterans with Service Connected Disabilities, and several other programs.

The work/study portion of H.R. 797 allows us to extend the work/study program without violating the PAYGO rules by using the offsets found elsewhere in the bill.

I really want to thank Chairman Filner and Chairman Buyer for working together. This was a difficult thing to get all of the needs crafted together so we could kill two birds with one stone and rectify the visual impairment part.

Mr. Speaker, this is an excellent bill. I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 797.

Mr. Speaker, I rise this afternoon to honor an exceptional group of teenagers from my home district, the Bentonville High School Chamber Choir.

The choir, comprised of juniors and seniors, is one of only four across the Nation chosen to go to Carnegie Hall next week for the National High School Choral Festival.

Under the direction of Terry Hicks, the choir has participated in many regional and national competitions, representing Arkansas and the Third District with class. We are privileged to have students such as the Bentonville Chamber Choir living in and representing the State of Arkansas, and I commend their success.

I wish them the best of luck on their performance at the world-famous Carnegie hall.

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

Mr. Speaker, we appreciate the gentlelady's work on this bill. The legislation before us today reauthorizes the Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy through fiscal year 2009. Unique among nations, the United States maintains a vast network of formal and informal contacts with the people of the world and conducts the world's only global foreign policy.

The purpose of public diplomacy is to provide this worldwide audience with information about the United States and to convey an accurate and positive image of our beloved country and our foreign policy objectives. To accomplish this mission, the United States Government has at its disposal a number of important tools, including education and cultural exchange programs, extensive and proactive public affairs programs centered in our embassies, and a network of radio and television services broadcasting accurate and objective programming to a world community.

With H.R. 1003, Congress is reauthorizing the advisory commission for another 2 years to continue its important work to study our public diplomacy programs and reach some useful conclusions about how our government can do a better job of creating a dialogue with foreign audiences.

I urge the commission during the next 2 years to step up its efforts to study in more detail our public diplomacy and broadcasting efforts and advise policymakers in the administration and in Congress on appropriate changes and reforms that will improve our outreach efforts to the people of the world.

Mr. Speaker, I would again emphasize the importance of my bill and urge all of my colleagues to vote in the affirmative.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, last July Israel's sovereign border was violated by terrorists linked to Hamas who shot and killed two Israeli soldiers and kidnapped Corporal Gilad Shalit.

Days later, terrorists linked to Hezbollah crossed into Israel and killed three and wounded two, and kidnapped soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev. All three have been held captive since without medical attention from humanitarian groups like the Red Cross. No information is known on the fate of these soldiers.

As proxies of the Iranian and Syrian regimes, Hezbollah and Hamas have continued to attack Israel despite Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000 and Gaza in 2005.

Rather than view Israel's withdrawal as an act of good faith to further the cause of peace, Hezbollah and Hamas viewed these measures as signs of weaknesses to exploit. Hamas and Hezbollah, which have representatives in the Palestinian and Lebanese cabinets, believe that terrorism, murder and kidnapping are appropriate means of achieving political objectives, and have proposed negotiations to exchange these hostages for convicted terrorists now serving time in Israeli jails.

I am proud to be a cosponsor of this resolution which declares that the House of Representatives stands with the State of Israel and its right to self-defense and against the barbarity perpetrated by Hezbollah, Hamas and other terrorist groups, and the rogue regimes that sponsor them.

This resolution demands that Hamas and Hezbollah immediately and unconditionally release Mr. Shalit, Mr. Goldwasser and Mr. Regev, and that they provide all three with access to medical attention.

The resolution also holds Iran and Syria accountable for making terrorist acts like these possible. We cannot afford to be complacent about those Islamist extremists who would seek to kill three people, violate borders with impunity and threaten the security of the Middle East and the world.

As Dr. Martin Luther King noted, ``Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.''

I thank Chairman Ackerman for introducing this resolution, his leadership in this area, and doing so much to advance the cause of the kidnapped Israeli soldiers. This resolution is about seeking what is needed most: Justice for the innocent and accountability for the guilty. I strongly urge my colleagues to support this resolution.

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

Yes. Again, I reiterate how important to my colleagues it is that we pass this resolution and support it wholeheartedly, and I thank the gentleman for his leadership in this area.

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