Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, it has been nearly 3 years since Las Vegas taxi driver Keith Goldberg was abducted, killed, and his body dumped in the Lake Mead Recreation Area.

When law enforcement searches for Keith's body were ended due to limited resources, the Goldberg family turned to Red Rock Search and Rescue, a nonprofit group of trained professionals, to continue the search.

They immediately hit a Federal regulatory roadblock. The team from Red Rock was told they needed to obtain a $1 million insurance policy for a special use permit to gain access to Federal lands.

It took 9 months for the group to raise the funds necessary to obtain the insurance. When they finally entered the park almost 1 year after Keith first went missing, it took the team all of 2 hours to locate Keith's remains.

Mr. Speaker, last Congress, I introduced legislation to allow Good Samaritan search groups to waive Federal liability and access public lands to conduct missing persons searches. It passed this House by an overwhelming bipartisan vote of 394-0. Unfortunately, time expired on the session before the Senate could take action.

I come to the floor today to announce that tomorrow I will, once again, introduce the Good Samaritan Search and Recovery Act. I urge the House to take swift action on this legislation because unnecessary red tape must not continue to get in the way of providing closure for families like the Goldbergs.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to thank the chairman, the gentleman from California (Mr. McKeon), for his years of service to the Nation and this body. He is a great leader, a great friend, and a great mentor. I wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors, and he should know he will truly be missed.

I also rise to urge my colleagues to support the Carl Levin and Howard P. ``Buck'' McKeon National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015. Passing this bill is critical to our national security and for ensuring that our men and women in uniform have the necessary resources to maintain a high state of readiness.

There are many important personnel-related provisions in this bill, including combating and preventing sexual assault in the military, decreasing the suicide rate within our ranks, and finally recognizing the victims of the 2009 Fort Hood shooting with the Purple Heart.

While I appreciate the continued efforts to prioritize the health and welfare of our servicemembers, I do want to express my frustration with the Senate's insistence on including administration proposals to increase pharmaceutical copays, decrease the housing allowance, and shortchange our troops on their pay increase. Although fiscal realities and constrained resources force us to make difficult decisions, now is not the time to make changes to personnel compensation and benefits.

In last year's NDAA, Congress established the Military Compensation and Retirement Modernization Commission to evaluate and analyze potential reforms to pay and benefits and then report back to Congress. The House bill did not include the administration's proposals because we reject piecemeal reforms that undermine the work of the Commission. Any attempts to change pay and benefits before we receive its report, expected in February of next year, are premature and ill-advised.

I applaud the chairman's successful efforts to prevent even larger benefit cuts. We can't continue to balance the budget on the backs of our servicemembers and their families.

My concerns notwithstanding, on the whole, passing the bill is critical to our national security and providing the authorizations needed for the Department of Defense to carry out its critical functions; therefore, I intend to support the bill, urge my colleagues to do the same, and look forward to addressing the personnel compensation issues in the next NDAA.

I thank the chairman for the time.

Mr. Speaker, over the course of the debate for the past 2 days, I think one thing that most will agree on is that ISIL poses a clear and grave danger to our Nation, our interests abroad, and our allies. And I agree with the President when he stated that we must degrade and destroy ISIL no matter where they exist. And I support many of the provisions that he outlined in the speech he gave just last week: arming the Peshmerga, bolstering the Iraqi security forces, expanding airstrikes, and disrupting the flow of finances and foreign fighters to

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5076) to amend the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act to increase knowledge concerning, and improve services for, runaway and homeless youth who are victims of trafficking.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 5076.

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

I rise today in support of H.R. 5076, the Enhancing Services for Runaway And Homeless Victims of Youth Trafficking Act, legislation I introduced to help better serve our most vulnerable youth who are the victims of extreme trafficking.

Mr. Speaker, trafficking is an issue that hits close to home for me. I represent parts of the city of Las Vegas and the surrounding suburbs. When people think of Las Vegas, they think of the lights, the magnificent hotels, shopping, fine dining, and nightlife. But the city's reputation as a national and international tourist destination, combined with the transient nature of the population, has made Las Vegas a prime target for human traffickers.

In fact, between 1994 and 2014, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department recovered 2,229 victims of sex trafficking. Just last year, Metro recovered 107 children victims of human trafficking.

All of us, Federal and State officials, law enforcement, the courts, all of us have a moral obligation to eradicate trafficking and support its victims. And it will take close coordination between all stakeholders to achieve the dual goals of ending the human trafficking epidemic and assisting the victims.

To help facilitate that coordination, I hosted representatives from Nevada's State government, law enforcement, the judiciary, and victims' rights groups for a roundtable discussion on ways to combat trafficking, and also offer more support to victims or potential victims.

At that roundtable I met Annie. She came to Las Vegas to make a better life for herself, and was, instead, ensnared in the sex industry. Thankfully, Annie got out.

This is how she described her life as a victim of human trafficking: ``I felt like a dirty, cheated, disrespected, violated, and worthless individual to society. I didn't know who Annie was anymore. I often wanted to end my own life.''

Now she is an advocate devoted to helping other victims of trafficking. One of the things that she and others at the roundtable talked about was the need for improved resources for victims' advocacy and support, especially for youth victims and at-risk youth.

To that end, I introduced H.R. 5076, the Enhancing Services for Runaway and Homeless Victims of Youth Trafficking Act. My bill amends the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act to enable the Secretary of Health and Human Services to apply existing grant resources to train staff on the effects of human trafficking on runaway and homeless youth victims, and for developing statewide strategies to reach such youth.

It also allows the Secretary to utilize the Street Outreach Program to provide street-based services for runaway and homeless youth who are victims of trafficking.

Our Nation's runaway and homeless youth deserve access to services that will help them escape a life of crime, abuse, and neglect. By passing this simple fix to the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act, we can help ensure that those suffering from the trauma of these deplorable acts will have access to the care and support they need.

I would like to thank Chairman Kline of the Education and the Workforce Committee, as well as my colleague from Virginia (Mr. Scott) for working with me on this important piece of legislation.

With that, Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the Enhancing Services for Runaway and Homeless Victims of Youth Trafficking Act, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield as much time as he may consume to the distinguished gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Kline), the chairman of the Committee on Education and the Workforce.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5081) to amend the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act to enable State child protective services systems to improve the identification and assessment of child victims of sex trafficking, and for other purposes.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 5081.

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

I rise today in support of H.R. 5081, the Strengthening Child Welfare Response to Trafficking Act of 2014. Mr. Speaker, human trafficking has reached epidemic proportions in the United States. Young people are being forced into manual labor or commercial sexual activity in what has become a $32 billion a year industry.

While we are fighting trafficking with every tool available, there is more that can be done. The fact remains that domestic child trafficking is a serious problem in the United States. Around 300,000 American youth are at risk of sexual commercial exploitation and trafficking per year.

Through my involvement with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, I have seen the exploitation and horrific abuses trafficking victims have to endure. As an emergency room physician, I have seen the physical, emotional, and psychological trauma inflicted on victims, and as a father, it sickens me to think that one of my children could become a victim.

As a Member of Congress, I have worked on legislation to help address this problem and held a local roundtable in Nevada with victims, advocacy, and law enforcement groups.

H.R. 5081, the Strengthening Child Welfare Response to Trafficking Act of 2014, will help protect child victims by improving practices within State child welfare systems to identify, assess, and document sex trafficking victims.

This legislation amends the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act to direct States to implement and maintain procedures to identify and assess reports involving children who are victims of sex trafficking.

Additionally, this bill requires that States train child protective services workers on how to identify these children and the services necessary to meet their needs, and it would improve reporting on the number of children identified as sex trafficking victims.

The bill also requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services to report on the type of prevalence of youth trafficking victims in the welfare system, provide a summit of State practices for serving youth trafficking victims, and report on any barriers in Federal law that prevents the identification and assessment of youth victims of trafficking.

Instead of properly identifying and assisting trafficked and exploited children, these children are often sent to the juvenile justice system, where they are labeled and treated as criminals. These innocent victims are victimized again by the very system that was designed to protect them.

This bill works towards a positive solution that ensures child welfare agencies have the appropriate systems in place to properly identify, assess, and document child victims of sex trafficking, instead of treating them as criminals.

It is imperative that we continue to pass legislation that helps victims of both labor and sex trafficking to ensure that victims receive the services they need to escape a life of abuse.

Again, I would like to thank Chairman Kline of the Education and the Workforce Committee, as well as the other original cosponsors of this legislation--Representatives Karen Bass, Michele Bachmann, Tom Marino, Jim McDermott, and Louise Slaughter--for their hard work on this bill.

With that, Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the Strengthening Child Welfare Response to Trafficking Act of 2014 and reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I now yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe).

Mr. Speaker, I now yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Marino), the cochair of the Foster Care Adoption Caucus.

Mr. Speaker, I now yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Farenthold).

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

I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, we have heard some compelling and moving stories this evening that underscore our moral obligation as a society to do all we can to combat this epidemic of child and human trafficking. I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 5081 and all of the related legislation that we will consider this evening.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, with Nevada continuing to have one of the highest unemployment rates in the country, my number one priority in Congress remains strengthening our economy and getting Nevadans back to work.

That is why I strongly support the bipartisan Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, which streamlines and strengthens local workforce investment boards and ensures they are training workers for the jobs of today and tomorrow, not the jobs of yesterday.

I proposed similar reforms as part of the local JOBS Act, which I introduced after hearing from countless employers that they were looking to hire, but unable to find workers with the skills they required. This bill will help solve that problem.

Madam Speaker, I want to thank Chairman Kline, Ranking Member Miller, and all those involved in this process for working with me to include these important changes that will help both unemployed and underemployed workers gain the skills and training they need to obtain a good-paying job and grow the middle class.

I urge support for this bill.

Mr. Chairman, I rise to thank the committee chairman, the gentleman from California, for his years of service to the Nation, this body, and for his mentorship, and also to voice my strong support for H.R. 4435, the National Defense Authorization Act of 2014.

The bill under consideration is the result of an open process that truly reflects the bipartisan nature of the

House Armed Services Committee and the bipartisan support of our military men and women.

Although fiscal realities and constrained resources have forced us to make difficult trade-offs, the committee maintained its commitment to those currently serving in uniform as well as to our veterans and their families.

In last year's NDAA, Congress established the Military Compensation and Retirement Commission to evaluate and analyze potential reforms to pay and benefits. This report, expected to be delivered in February of 2015, will inform the debate on the future of military and retiree compensation. As such, I am pleased that this bill rejects the Department's request to cut the pay and benefits of our troops, which would have included significant reforms to TRICARE and cuts to housing and commissary benefits.

Any attempts to change pay and benefits before Congress receives the commission's report are premature and ill-advised, and I applaud the committee for rejecting these proposals and for remaining steadfast in its support of our servicemembers, our veterans, and their families.

Mr. Chairman, H.R. 4435 also acknowledges the work that the Armed Services Committee has completed over the last year to address some of the deficiencies made evident by the tragedy in Benghazi. The Department of Defense has determined that being prepared for an uncertain, volatile, complex, and ambiguous security environment, especially at remote diplomatic outposts, is the new normal that confronts our Nation. This bill expresses concern that U.S. Africa Command does not have sufficient assigned military forces, including specialized military capabilities, which this new normal requires.

As such, this legislation requires the Secretary of Defense, in consultation with the Secretary of State and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to submit a report on how this evolving security environment has changed AFRICOM's force posture and force structure requirements. This provision will help ensure that AFRICOM receives the resources it needs to protect posts in high-risk, high-threat areas and the capability to respond to future crises.

Mr. Chairman, H.R. 4435 is an important bill that strikes the appropriate balance between priorities in a fiscally constrained environment. I urge my colleagues to support the Howard P. ``Buck'' McKeon National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015.

Mr. Speaker, I come to the floor today to mark the beginning of Nevada's journey to becoming the 36th State admitted to the Union.

Many know the story of the Nevada constitution being sent to Washington via the newly-invented telegraph machine to expedite our admission to the Union in late October of 1864. But a lesser known-- though not less important--event in our state's history will celebrate its 150th anniversary next week.

On March 21, 2014--next Friday--it will have been one hundred and fifty years since this body voted to allow the People of the Territory of Nevada to form a Constitution and State Government for the purpose of admission into the Union.

Nevada's constitutional convention began on the fourth of July, 1864.

Among the first words of our constitution were the absolute prohibition of slavery, freedom of religious worship, and one issue very near to the work of Nevada's current Congressional delegation, the ownership status of the land.

The convention adjourned July 28 having laid the foundation for Nevada's admission to the Union and our future governance.

Voters of the territory approved the Constitution the first week of September, paving the way for Abraham Lincoln to admit Nevada as the 36th State on October 31, 1864.

But all of these events were set in motion by a bill approved in this very Chamber, Mr. Speaker. Without this critical first step, the journey to statehood would not have been possible.

I'm proud to call the Battle Born State home and join with Nevadans from Elko to Laughlin in celebrating the sesquicentennial of March 21, 1864.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 4015. I have always stated that the number one threat to Medicare and seniors' access to health care is the flawed SGR formula. At no time prior have we been so close in a bipartisan, bicameral way to ensuring that our seniors have access to the health care providers of their choosing, and now when we are so close is not the time to derail the progress made by using controversial pay-fors.

I will vote in favor of H.R. 4015 today because of the policy changes it represents. I ask my friends on the other side of the aisle to vote ``aye'' so we can send this bill to the Senate, and I call on the Senate to pass legislation that includes the agreed-to policy provisions with the pay-for of their choosing. Then, let's go to conference and fix the SGR once and for all.

Providing stability and predictability to our health care providers will result in stability and predictability for our seniors. Passing SGR reform is the fiscally responsible thing to do. The longer we delay, the more it will cost.

Let's give seniors the peace of mind they deserve, so that they will be able to see the Medicare provider of their choice. Let's pass H.R. 4015.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the chairman and the ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee, as well as the chairman of the subcommittee, the gentleman from Arizona, and the gentleman from Utah for working with me in a bipartisan manner to bring H.R. 2166, the Good Samaritan Search and Recovery Act, to the floor.

H.R. 2166 tears down the bureaucratic roadblocks that are preventing families from receiving closure when their loved ones go missing on Federal land.

This issue was first brought to my attention by the separate, but similarly tragic, cases of Las Vegas taxi driver Keith Goldberg and Air Force Staff Sergeant Antonio Tucker.

Mr. Goldberg and Staff Sergeant Tucker were presumed dead, and their remains were believed to be missing somewhere within the Lake Mead National Recreation Area. In both cases, local, experienced search-and- recovery groups volunteered their time and resources to help locate the remains of these missing individuals.

Unfortunately, due to unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles from the Federal Government, the group volunteering to help locate and recover Mr. Goldberg's remains was denied access to Park Service land for over 15 months. The group volunteering to help locate the remains of Staff Sergeant Tucker was denied access for 10 months, needlessly delaying the closure both families deserved.

These stories are heart-wrenching, these actions are unacceptable, and they must change. Once these bureaucratic hurdles were finally cleared and these Good Samaritan search-and-recovery groups were allowed access to Park Service land, Mr. Goldberg's remains were recovered in less than 2 hours, and the remains of Staff Sergeant Tucker were recovered in less than 2 days.

As a former member of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department's Search and Rescue Team, I introduced this bill because unnecessary red tape simply must not continue to get in the way of providing closure for families faced with tragic circumstances.

After a hearing, this bill passed out of the House Natural Resources Committee with a unanimous vote, showing real bipartisan support for the measure, so I ask my colleagues to pass this bill so that other families won't have to needlessly suffer the way the families of Keith Goldberg and Antonio Tucker did.

Again, I want to thank the chairmen and the ranking members of the full committee and of the subcommittee for working diligently to bring this bill to the floor. I urge its passage.

Mr. Speaker, ``If you like your health care plan, you can keep it. Period. If you like your doctor, you can keep him. Period.''

We all remember when we heard those words. Here is an article from today's Las Vegas Review Journal. Nearly 25,000 Nevadans lose insurance plans under ObamaCare. That is roughly 27 percent of the individual market in that State.

One of those individuals is Janet. Janet is 55 years old and battling recurrent cancer. She has had the same insurance policy for 11 years. For 11 years that policy and those doctors have taken care of her and have kept her alive.

She is currently battling a recurrence, undergoing chemotherapy, and she received this letter from her insurer on September 25:

We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for

allowing us to be your health insurance carrier. We are

writing to advise you that, due to the passage of the Federal

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, effective

December 31, 2013, your standard or basic individual health

plan will be discontinued and terminated. You will no longer

be able to continue coverage under this benefit plan as of

this date.

As Janet valiantly battles her disease, the last thing she needs is the added stress of wondering about her insurance coverage.

Mr. President, it is time that Americans are allowed to keep their health care plan. Period.

I would like to thank my brother in uniform, the gentleman from Ohio, for organizing this very important Special Order to pay tribute to some very special people, America's veterans, America's heroes.

I want to tell a story that I think epitomizes the very sacrifice and dedication that our men and women in uniform have to this Nation. The date was February 21, 2008. The place was Al Asad, Anbar Province, Iraq. I was assigned as the chief of emergency services and aeromedical evacuation at a combat support hospital. A combat support hospital is similar to any inner city emergency department, with periods of hustle and bustle, kind of routine stuff, punctuated by moments of controlled chaos and sheer terror.

Such was that day on February 21. We were taking care of routine cases in the emergency services section when the radio crackled and we received a call from an incoming helicopter saying that they were bringing in a young Marine who had been shot in the chest. Of course we quickly focused on the task that would soon be at hand. As the chief, I was making assignments, making sure all our equipment was ready. We were ready to receive this casualty and make sure that we could return him home.

A couple of minutes later, the radio crackles again, and it is the helicopter calling in to tell us that the casualty was now unresponsive and that they have lost his pulse. A quiet fell over the resuscitation area. Everybody was singularly focused on what we were going to do for this young Marine when he arrived. The helicopter lands, we offload him, get him into the resuscitation suite, and we start doing what medical folks do, ripping off clothing, starting IVs, doing an assessment. It winds up that he received a single gunshot wound to the chest, just mere millimeters to the side of his trauma plate protecting his center of mass.

His eyes stared up at me lifeless as I was at the head of the bed. He was unresponsive. We quickly tried everything that we could to bring this young man back. We worked for over a half an hour doing things that in a civilian emergency department would be considered heroic, but we were going to do everything we possibly could. Alas, we were not successful. That young man was Lance Corporal Drew Weaver of St. Charles, Missouri, and he was 20 years old. He sacrificed and gave his last full measure of devotion to this country.

What happened next was even additionally awe-inspiring. My charge nurse, Lieutenant Colonel--now retired--Maria Tackett came into the room with a bucket of sudsy water and gingerly, carefully started to wash down Lance Corporal Weaver, wiping the dirt from his brow and his face, wiping off the now dried blood from his body. Just like a caring mother, she took care of this young 20-year-old Marine.

Just when I thought I couldn't see any other acts of compassion greater than that, two of my medics, young enlisted folks, came in with an American flag. I have no idea where they got it from. They might have taken it off the flagpole in front of the hospital. They carefully draped the flag over Lance Corporal Weaver, and then they both took up a position of parade rest at the foot of the bed. While we were waiting for Mortuary Affairs to come and retrieve Lance Corporal Weaver, they stood there and they stood there and they stood there.

I went in and said, ``Guys, you need a break? Take a break. Sit down.'' Their response to me was, ``Sir, never leave a fallen comrade.'' There they stood until Mortuary Affairs came to retrieve that young Marine.

Such is the story of those who sacrifice and of those who are dedicated to those who wear the uniform. I remember their names and I remember their faces to this day. I remember that day and the actions that those heroic men and women took, from Lance Corporal Weaver to the helicopter pilot to the medics in the back of that helicopter to my team and everything we tried to do. That is why we gather here tonight to pay tribute to these very special men and women.

May God bless our veterans, their families, their survivors, and may he continue to bless the greatest Nation on his Earth, the United States of America.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my brother veteran, the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Cotton), and my friend from the State of Delaware (Mr. Carney) for joining me in support of H.R. 1742, this bipartisan bill, the Vulnerable Veterans Housing Reform Act of 2013.

As has been stated, this bill would remove an unnecessary barrier that prevents our wartime veterans from receiving the housing assistance they so critically need. This body recognized the importance of this issue when it unanimously passed a substantially similar bill, H.R. 6361, the Vulnerable Veterans Housing Reform Act of 2012, which I introduced last year. Unfortunately, that legislation was not considered by the Senate prior to the conclusion of the 112th Congress.

Quite simply, H.R. 1742 prevents the Department of Housing and Urban Development from considering a veteran's ``aid and attendance benefits'' as income when calculating their need and eligibility for housing assistance.

The aid and attendance benefit is an enhanced pension provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs to our Nation's wartime veterans who are severely disabled and have little or no income. Veterans eligible for this benefit are those requiring the aid of another person in order to perform their activities of daily living.

In order to receive this benefit, a veteran must first establish his or her eligibility for a low-income pension, which requires an annual adjusted gross income of less than $12,256 for a single veteran with no dependents.

Once eligibility is determined, low-income disabled veterans can receive, roughly, an additional $8,000 in aid and attendance benefits annually to help defray the cost of their medical care. This is an important point: the aid and attendance benefit is for medical care; it is not discretionary income; it cannot be used for groceries, utilities, or transportation.

As you can imagine, these low-income veterans struggle daily to keep the lights on, put food on the table, and to keep a roof over their heads. Add to that the costs of paying for a personal care attendant and it becomes increasingly difficult for them to stay in their homes.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development operates a number of programs to assist these veterans. However, current regulations require that the aid and attendance benefit be counted as income when determining eligibility for housing assistance.

Mr. Speaker, this makes no sense. The VA provides this benefit to ensure that our low-income disabled wartime vets have the necessary resources to receive the medical care they need and that they have earned. While $8,000 per year may seem like a substantial amount of money, it doesn't fully cover the cost of a full-time aide, but it is much more cost effective than placing the veteran in a nursing home or assisted living facility.

Continuing to count the aid and attendance benefit as income does nothing more than to reduce the housing assistance available to our low-income disabled vets and jeopardizes their ability to live independently.

Mr. Speaker, it is its stated goal of both this House and this administration to reduce homelessness in our veteran population. The need for this legislative fix is just as strong today as it was last year. Most recent statistics estimate that approximately 63,000 veterans across America are homeless. Mr. Speaker, H.R. 1742 will go a long way toward preventing homelessness for our Nation's veterans.

I urge my colleagues to support this critical legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Frelinghuysen), for bringing this important measure to the floor.

Since the start of this partial shutdown 11 days ago, the House has focused on one of our core constitutional functions: funding key portions of the Federal Government.

We have come together in a bipartisan way several times over the past few days to pay our troops, provide benefits for the families of fallen soldiers, reopen the NIH, provide money

for disaster relief efforts, and fund other crucial governmental departments and operations.

These are the types of tough spending choices the American people, and people in my district, demand we make. When you are nearly $17 trillion in debt, you have to prioritize, just like any business or family does when funds are tight.

Today, Mr. Speaker, we turn our focus to a critical issue of national security and public safety. That is ensuring that the National Nuclear Security Administration has the funding it needs to secure our nuclear stockpile and materials.

Recent reports indicate that the Department of Energy may begin furloughing employees and contractors at the eight NNSA sites around the country starting October 21. Sites such as the Nevada National Security Site, which is home to approximately 2,500 employees and contractors, will reduce staffing to levels sufficient to maintain ``minimally safe operations.'' This situation presents a threat to national security, public safety, and our economy.

The Nevada National Security Site is charged with supporting our national stockpile. Additionally, the Security Site oversees the administration of training for first responders in the prevention of, protection from, and response to possible terrorist use of radiological or nuclear material. With critical functions such as these, ``minimally safe operations'' is simply not an option.

The same is true at NNSA sites around the country. The men and women who work at these sites not only have critical duties, but they are also critical to our local economies.

In fact, contractors at NNSA sites may reduce their workforce by as much as 80 to 90 percent. Such attrition would take a great deal of money out of the economy at a time when States like mine, with an unemployment rate of 9.5 percent, can ill-afford to lose jobs.

H.J. Res. 76 maintains our national security and prevents harm to our economy.

I urge my colleagues to support this important measure.

Mr. Speaker, I come to the floor today to recognize and wish a happy birthday to World War II veteran and Las Vegas Distinguished Flying Cross Chapter chairman Jack Mates, who will celebrate his 90th birthday on October 14.

Mr. Mates served in the United States Army Air Force during World War II and was a B-17 squadron leader based out of Italy. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for extraordinary achievement while participating in aerial flight against the enemy in the Mediterranean theater of operations. According to his award citation, Lieutenant Mates consistently displayed outstanding courage, aggressiveness, and intensive devotion to duty throughout all engagements.

With his aircraft frequently severely damaged by heavy enemy fire, Lieutenant Mates courageously remained at his station, battling his way through to his targets to aid materially in the utter destruction of vitally important enemy installations and supplies.

After his honorable discharge, Jack Mates worked closely with his father, learning the marketing business, and in 1959 was part of the group responsible for the introduction of Velcro to consumers across the United States. He later became president and chief executive officer of Velcro USA in 1980, upholding his central role while helping expand the brand until his retirement in 1986.

Mr. Mates helped found the Distinguished Flying Cross Society in 1996 in order to preserve the history and tradition of military aerial heroism. Since that time, he has remained an active participant in DFC society activities and served as Las Vegas chapter chairman.

According to friends and family, Jack truly lived the American Dream and embodies the reason we refer to his generation as our greatest. It is with great pleasure that I join Lieutenant Jack Mates' family and friends in wishing him a very happy 90th birthday.