Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, the British newspaper The Guardian has found that demand for child pornography through the use of file-sharing programs, like Kazaa, is leading to more abuse of children. The sale of peer-to-peer traffic in illegal images of children now dwarfs any other pedophile network they have found.

David Wilson, professor of criminology at Central England, said, ``Peer-to-peer facilitates the most extreme, aggressive and reprehensible types of behavior that the Internet will allow.'' Programs that are used by kids to find songs or pictures of cartoons are delivering our children right into the clutches of these predators.

And what are we doing about it? Nothing. Every day innocent kids are victimized on peer-to-peer file-trading software and our inaction allows them to walk right into the trap set by sexual predators. The time to act has come.

I urge my colleagues to cosponsor my bill, H.R. 2885, so that we can move forward in protecting our kids online.

Mr. Speaker, our companies that develop drugs that treat life-threatening illnesses must go through a rigorous process to ensure the safety and effectiveness of their drugs. Only after these FDA requirements are met, can the drug be put on the market. Under rare circumstances, medications can be approved through an accelerated process known as Subpart H which was adopted to streamline the approval of desperately needed drugs intended to treat serious and life- threatening illnesses.

RU-486, an abortion drug, was approved under this streamlined process.

Several weeks ago, Holly Patterson, a California teenager, died from an infection caused by fragments of her baby's corpse left in her uterus after she took RU-486 at a Planned Parenthood facility.

Mr. Speaker, the Food and Drug Administration should not have authorized this dangerous drug. Legislation is being introduced today that takes RU-

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to ask once again, what more must happen in order for the international community to take deliberative, decisive action against the ruthless military dictatorship in Burma? Why would any country befriend this savage dictatorship that has no qualms about engaging in slave labor, systematic rape of women, destruction of villages, and murder of many innocent civilians?

The U.N. Security Council should act, not only because of the regional security problems related to Burma, but also because of the regime's horrific human rights abuses. The abuses have caused a humanitarian disaster as hundreds of thousands of people have fled across Burma's borders in almost every direction.

The military's brutal campaigns have created between 600,000 and 1 million internally displaced people, innocent men, women and children who live hiding in the jungles of Burma as they fear further attacks.

Mr. Speaker, the U.S., the U.N. Security Council, the international community should act now to stop the atrocities. Oppose the blockage of humanitarian aid, bring an end to the suffering of the people of Burma, and address the regional security problems from this regime.

Mr. Speaker, this year, the Supreme Court will take up the case of whether children should be allowed to say the words ``under God'' in the Pledge of Allegiance. This cartoon captures an important point of this case: Does the first amendment allow porn but not God in public discourse?

The ACLU would like you to think so. Their challenge to our laws, which protect our kids from online porn predators, is ridiculous. They want to be this teacher in the cartoon holding up a computer in front of your child saying, ``You cannot pledge allegiance 'under God' but, here, look at some pornography.''

The fact that this case even made it so far as the courts is a travesty. Something is very wrong with our courts. They say child pornography on the computer is perfectly legal, but the pledge is so offensive that we have to get rid of the words ``under God.''

The ACLU is out to sacrifice religion on their own little altar of pornographic speech. This is wrong. The Court should do the right thing for this country, for our children: uphold the pledge and the freedom that is ours to pledge allegiance under God.

Mr. Speaker, death by dehydration is a painful, agonizing, and arduous process that takes 10 to 14 days. In addition to feeling the pangs of hunger and thirst, the skin, lips, and tongue crack, the nose bleeds because of the drying of the mucus membranes, heaving and vomiting may ensue because of the drying out of the stomach lining, and the victim may experience seizures.

Compared to starvation and dehydration, death by hanging, firing squad, or even the electric chair seems humane. But right now that death sentence is being carried out not against murderers, rapists, and child molesters, but on one of the most disabled in our midst.

Terri Schiavo is not on a respirator or any artificial life-support equipment. Any reasonable person who sees this woman reacting to her parents will realize she is not in a coma or, as is sometimes called, a persistent vegetative state.

Have we, as a Nation, become so callous that we have bought into the ``quality of life'' argument that some people simply are not worth the effort to protect and rehabilitate? I hope not.

Mr. Speaker, yesterday we considered H. Res. 234, condemning bigotry and violence against Arab Americans, Muslim Americans, South Asian Americans, and Sikh Americans.

After September 11, Arab American-owned businesses were boycotted simply because of the ethnicity of their owners. These men and women came to this country to escape this kind of intolerance, to build a new life, to worship freely, and to do business freely. They did not expect to be blamed and ridiculed for something they did not do. This is not what America is all about.

One such business was the Sunset Diner in Ephrata in my district. The diner is owned by Mike and Sam Mansour, two Egyptian-born brothers. Mike and Sam experienced significant

hardship after the terrorist attacks. Just as we should not single out anyone of German, Russian, or Japanese descent for what some of their countrymen may have done in the past, we should not single out people like Mike and Sam for what 18 men with similar ethnic backgrounds did on one terrible day. I am pleased that the House has considered this bill, and I hope our communities will all take this lesson to heart.

Mr. Speaker, the Caron Foundation is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to provide an enlightened and caring treatment community in which all those affected by alcoholism or other drug addiction may begin a new life.

The great work of this organization began when Richard J. Caron, an industrialist and recovering alcoholic from Reading, PA, and his wife Catherine, spent hours in their home ``chit chatting'' with people who came to them for help.

Dick published a newsletter, which he called Chit Chat, to reach out to others who needed support and an encouraging word. In 1957, after years of opening their home to those needing a guiding hand in recovery, they established a halfway house. Before long, this too proved to be inadequate to accommodate the many individuals who sought their counsel.

In 1959, the Carons purchased a historic resort hotel on South Mountain in Wernersville, PA, and opened Chit Chat Farms--a facility that has gained an international reputation for excellence as one of the first and foremost chemical dependency treatment centers in the United States.

Now in its fifth decade of providing quality services, Caron offers a full spectrum of gender-specific chemical dependency treatment programs to meet the needs of everyone--from adolescents to seniors. Today, the Caron Foundation, rooted in the ``Chit Chat'' tradition, stands as a beacon of hope to individuals and families whose lives have become unmanageable because of chemical dependency.

The Caron Foundation, one of the Nation's oldest and largest not-for- profit chemical dependency treatment providers, is located in a serene mountain setting in Berks County, PA. The Foundation is nearing completion of a 4-year $16 million master campus improvement and renovation project. This facility will enable Caron Foundation to continue to serve thousands in need of help.

On Sunday, October 19, 2003, the Foundation will host an official campus dedication ceremony, appropriately themed, A Celebration of Growth and Change. John Schwarzlose, President and CEO of the Betty Ford Center will be the keynote speaker; among the honored guests will be the well-known philanthropist, Mrs. Leonore Annenberg.

This celebration will allow Caron's Board of Directors and leaders to recognize the many donors whose generosity and support made this project possible.

It will also provide Caron with an opportunity to showcase the newly constructed buildings, as well as the beautifully restored historic buildings that have been part of Caron's history for more than 45 years.

It's time that we pay proper tribute to the people and organizations that make such a profound difference in the lives of people in desperate need to hope. The Caron Foundation has given so many the opportunities to make a new choice and start a new life.

Mr. Speaker, this truly is a historic moment in the House. I want to commend the chairman and the subcommittee chairman for their leadership on this issue.

The subcommittee chairman spoke about Brenda Pratt Shafer who, in 1993, a nurse with 13 years' experience, was assigned to an abortion clinic by her nursing agency. She was, quote, very pro-choice at the time. We have heard her actual words as she describes the procedure, what she saw. Ms. Shafer never returned to that clinic after witnessing that partial-birth abortion.

Those in favor of this procedure believe that Roe v. Wade is sacrosanct, that we should leave this pressing moral question to the whims of the unelected judges across the street. This type of abortion, partial-birth abortion, is more like a legal technicality. The baby must be delivered feet first so that the doctor actually forces the head to stay in the birth canal. Otherwise, he would be born and actually breathe. Most people would call this murder. But right now it is just a technicality.

There is no excuse for this procedure in a civilized nation. I urge my colleagues to vote for this conference report.

Mr. Speaker, good news on the fiscal front from Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania Secretary of Revenue Greg Fajt said this week that State revenues for September were up 6.4 percent, higher than expected. In fact, every revenue source has reported an increase for the fiscal year. Sales tax, corporate income tax, personal income tax and even the realty transfer tax and the inheritance tax have produced unexpected dollars for the State treasury. For the entire year, the cash has come in at 2.9 percent or $134.9 million over the estimate.

In addition, the Small Business Survival Committee has ranked Pennsylvania's tax code 17th in the Nation for its friendliness to small business. That ranking was based on being last in corporate income taxes, 10th in personal income, 21st in property taxes and 2nd lowest in bureaucrats per 100 residents.

I hope what is happening in Pennsylvania is symptomatic of what is happening in other States in our country as we seek to make Pennsylvania and America a better place to provide jobs and raise our families.

Mr. Speaker, a recent poll showed that two out of three residents in Baghdad believe that they are better off today than they were under Saddam Hussein. Less than 15 percent would rather live under repression. We are starting to hear more and more stories of Iraqis pointing us in the right direction in Iraq. A tip from an Iraqi led to a discovery of a priceless mask, thousands of years old. Another tip led to a buried cache of weapons. We do not hear much about these successes in the media, but Iraqi public opinion is with us.

This week, Congress will begin consideration of the Iraq supplemental. As we move forward, we should encourage Iraqis to step forward and take control of their own country. But we should not, as some in this body suggest, turn over full control of that country before democracy has taken root, before we can ensure that a new Iraq will not become a haven for terrorists and Saddam's murderous followers. Iraq's future and our safety hang in the balance.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to have my name removed as a cosponsor of H.R. 1078.

Mr. Speaker, the President this week made a courageous move at the U.N. He called on the world to act against trafficking. The U.N. should follow the President's lead and take action.

Human trafficking is one of the worst forms of human violations in the world today. Each year, over 800,000 men, women, and children are trafficked into prostitution or forced labor. It is modern-day slavery. It is absolutely vital that we act to remove these people from slavery and assist in their recovery, but it is also important that police and security forces around the

world root out the people who profit off of this special evil.

Many of these people are involved in organized crime. There are even reports that suggest profits from trafficking in persons are used to support terrorist activities.

Make no mistake about it, any government that tolerates trafficking, tolerates a form of slavery.

Mr. Speaker, the first amendment does not guarantee us freedom from religion in government or anywhere else, but freedom of religion. That is an important difference. It offers the people the ability to determine the role of religion that takes place in society.

But as the issue stands now, the courts, elected by no one, can determine the time, place and content of all religious displays at every level of government. They have even prevented a 4-year-old in New Jersey from giving his classmates pencils that happen to say ``Jesus loves the little children'' on them. The courts have embarked on a crusade to save us all from religion.

The sad thing is that this debate is over religion in public life and has moved away from what the Founders intended. The Founders understood that religion, like all other ideas, should be thoroughly debated and considered as part of representative government. It should not be used to impose a lifestyle on anyone, but should play a role in our discussion. That is democracy.

Congress can and should take action, before this country is ruled by judicial fiat instead of the consent of the people.

Mr. Speaker, as he stood on the beaches of Normandy, taking stock of what it cost to invade Europe, then-General Eisenhower asked, ``Where do we get such men?'' I think he would have asked a similar question last week. As Hurricane Isabel bore down on the east coast, Washington did what it often does: It panicked. We closed up the government and shut down the schools. But a different story was unfolding at Arlington National Cemetery.

That solemn ground is the resting place for 260,000 soldiers. It is a site of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, built to honor those who died for our

country, but whose remains were never identified. Members of the 3rd Infantry Regiment stand guard at the Tomb 24 hours a day. They are known as ``The Old Guard.'' When Hurricane Isabel hit the Washington, D.C., area, it packed winds up to 75 miles per hour and torrential rains.

Cemetery officials relieved The Old Guard of their duty until the storm passed, but The Old Guard refused to leave. Staff Sergeant Alfred Lanier said the Tomb is something ``we cherish.'' Sergeant Christopher Holmes said leaving the Tomb is ``never an option for us,'' saying he was prepared to die while guarding it. We can only join with President Eisenhower in asking, ``Where do we get such men?''

Mr. Speaker, on September 17, 1787, 216 years ago today, the final draft of the Constitution was signed in Philadelphia.

The day after a woman asked Benjamin Franklin what sort of government we have, he answered, ``A republic, if you can keep it.''

Beginning on December 7 of this year, five States, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, and Connecticut, ratified it in quick succession; but other States opposed the document saying it failed to provide basic protections like freedom of religion, speech and the press.

In February of 1788 a compromise was reached under which Massachusetts and the other States would agree to ratify the document with the assurance that the amendments would be immediately proposed: The Bill of Rights.

Nearly a year later the Constitution was ratified by the required 9 out of 13 States.

Mr. Speaker, today we celebrate the rule of law and the success of a great experiment, representative democracy, the core principles upon which this Nation was built, laid out in a single document: The Constitution, the oldest enduring written national Constitution in the world, the granddaddy of them all.