Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I want to take this time to thank Chairman Hyde and ranking member Lantos for being the driving force behind such an important bill, H.R. 1298, United States Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Act of 2003. I would also like to commend the President for his leadership on this issue. I hope that other countries and their leaders follow his leadership on HIV/AIDS. This bill embodies true leadership on the part of the United States, dramatically increasing the U.S. participation in addressing the pandemic that is ravaging whole regions and millions of people. This unprecedented bill acknowledges

our moral responsibility to address the pandemic that has already resulted in the deaths of millions. I am so proud to be a part of this legislation, this distinguished body and this country.

H.R. 1298 contains a provision of mine included in the committee markup which my good friend, the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Napolitano), offered for me as a member of that committee. While much attention is being paid to preventing mother-to-child transmission, we must turn to addressing the needs and rights of the child to grow up with parents so that millions more are not orphaned before he or she can even walk.

My language gives priority preference for Federal funds to groups that are currently administering a privately funded program to prevent mother-to-child transmission and provide lifelong care and treatment in family-centered programs so that children do not grow up as orphans. This would benefit programs by letting them hit the ground running, to treat immediately as many people as possible. My language benefits programs such as the MTCT-Plus Initiative, which is administered by Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. The MTCT-Plus Initiative is supported by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the First Ladies of Africa and has $50 million in funding from several private philanthropic foundations, including the Bill and Melinda Gates, the William and Flora Hewlett, the Robert Wood Johnson and other foundations.

Family survival programs like the MTCT-Plus Initiative are critical to address the issues of millions of children orphaned by HIV/AIDS on a scale unrivaled in history. In sub-Saharan Africa, family and societal structures are breaking down because of the deaths of a generation of parents. The number of children in the developing world who have been orphaned by the AIDS pandemic will nearly double from 13.4 million to 25.4 million by the end of this decade. Today, 5.5 million children in Africa have lost both parents, and in most cases at least one of them, to AIDS; and that number will rise to 7.9 million by 2010.

Again let me thank the chairman and the ranking member for their leadership.

Older women are also profoundly affected since the responsibility for caring for the supporting grandchildren orphaned by AIDS infected parents often falls on the shoulders of the elderly.

Thank you again, Chairman Hyde and Ranking Member Lantos, for agreeing to include my amendment, and thank you too, to Congresswoman Napolitano for offering my amendment during the Committee markup.

Mr. Speaker, I also offered an amendment on the floor which was accepted that concerns Section 314 which calls for a pilot program of assistance for children and families affected by HIV/AIDS. My amendment requires that pilot program to ensure the importance of inheritance rights of women, particularly women in African countries, are included in this program. The relationship of the denial of inheritance rights for women, increased HIV/AIDS infection in women and the resulting exponential growth in the numbers of young widows, orphaned girls, and grandmothers becoming heads of households needs to be further studied and documented. My language does just that.

This is necessary because a majority of those infected by HIV/AIDs in African are women of all classes, ethnic groups, and levels of education. Women with AIDS are condemned to an early death when their homes, lands, and other property are taken. They not only lose assets they could use for medical care, but also the shelter they need to endure this disease.

The failure to ensure equal property and inheritance rights upon separation or divorce discourages women from leaving violent marriages. HIV risk is especially high for women in situations of domestic violence, which often involves coercive sex, diminished ability to negotiate with partners for safer sex, and impeded women from seeking health information and treatment.

In some places, widows are forced to undergo sexual practices such as ``wife inheritance'' or ritual ``cleansing'' in order to keep their property. ``Wife inheritance'' occurs when a male relative of the dead husband takes over the widow as a wife, often in a polygamous environment. ``Cleansing'' usually involves sex with a social outcast who is paid by the dead husband's family, supposedly to cleanse the woman of her dead husband's evil spirits. In both of these rituals, safe sex is seldom practiced and sex is often forced. Such women are at increased risk of contracting and spreading HIV.

For example, there are areas of Kenya where the wife inheritance and cleansing practices have created an alarmingly high rate of HIV/AIDS infection. Fully 22 percent of the population between ages 15 and 49 in the Nyanza province are infected, and 35 percent of ante-natal women in one district within that province are infected. Girls and young women in the Nyanza province are infected at six times the rate of their male counterparts.

Finally, in the last Congress Representative Eva Clayton and I introduced H. Con. Res. 421, recognizing the importance of inheritance rights of women in Africa, and its relationship to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. I have also chaired two briefings on this issue. Our resolution was very strongly supported by this body. It had 90 original cosponsors with bipartisan support. My amendment today to the underlying bill includes the crux of H. Con. Res. 421, which I have reintroduced as H. Con. Res. 158.

Thank you so much for putting H.R. 1298 on a fast track to present to the President for his signature. I look forward to the next step of actually ensuring that H.R. 1298 receives funds in the appropriations process giving this authorizing bill the teeth it needs to prevent infection and provide real relief to those suffering under the HIV/AIDS pandemic abroad.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Cummings), our distinguished chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, so much, and I am happy to stand with him tonight as we embark upon the 50th anniversary of that extraordinary decision by the Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education.

Today I would like to add my voice to those of my fellow colleagues as we stand here to pay homage to the momentous Brown v. Board of Education decision.

Our Nation's history and, indeed, the history of African Americans and other traditionally underrepresented minorities was forever altered by this decision made on May 17, 1954. A group of 13 courageous parents took part in a class action suit filed against the Board of Education of Topeka Public Schools, and in doing so pledged to seek better educational opportunities for their children.

Parents today are still seeking those opportunities for their children. During this time in our Nation's history, public education was not as extensive as it is today in terms of curriculum content or even the length of the school year. Further, schooling for African- American children living in the South was particularly nonexistent and was even prohibited by law in some States. That is why the Brown decision reverberates so deeply throughout the South and, indeed, throughout the entire Nation. We must remember that the Brown decision finally moved away from Plessy v. Ferguson where the Supreme Court upheld racial segregation in schools and public places including schools as long as it was separate but equal. Those facilities were there and this is what happened given the Brown decision.

However, although the Brown decision was certainly one of the most critical Supreme Court decisions of the last century, it did not abolish school desegregation on its own. It took the dogged persistence of committed individuals and civil rights organizations to pressure school officials with the support of the Federal Government to force them to comply with the law. About 15 years passed after the Brown decision in 1954, before Southern schools were truly desegregated. And in my home State of California, the segregated educational system also remained for some time after the 1954 decision.

Following the Brown decision, many schools in the Upper South began the process of desegregating their schools, but in the Deep South resistance to change was strong. An opinion poll taken at the time showed that up to 80 percent of the Southern whites opposed desegregation efforts. The lack of a clear deadline for enforcing the desegregation of schools was an issue. And the Supreme Court mandated on May 31 of 1955 that school desegregation should proceed with all deliberate speed. However, such language was unclear, and it continued to frustrate African Americans and other civil rights supporters and caused opponents of desegregation to emerge in the form of the White Citizens Council and the Ku Klux Klan.

The resulting increase in violent attacks against African Americans was not enough to deter the young African-

American students like the Little Rock Nine from seeking access to a better education for themselves. We can look back on the struggles of these determined African-American students as a turning point, not only in expanding educational access for all but also as a defining moment in this Nation's civil rights movement, a moment that we do not wish to have turned away or taken off of the radar screen, Mr. Speaker.

We have made progress in terms of dismantling desegregation in our Nation, but we continue to face new challenges in terms of meeting the educational needs of our ever-changing population where minority students are still receiving unequal education.

I am gratified to have lived through the changes brought on by the Brown decision to our Nation's schools and, indeed, our way of life. But I am still dedicated and committed to ensuring that African- American students have quality education in our schools. I am deeply committed to ensuring that this peace that was brought on by the Supreme Court does not become a dismantled or even an eradicated piece of civil rights legislation and movement that this country certainly deserved to keep.

As we embark upon the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, the Congressional Black Caucus will be looking with great interest as to what this Supreme Court and, indeed, this deliberative body does for the African-American children of this country.

Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.

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

I thank the committee for the work that they have done on this act.

I am here today to offer my amendment to H.R. 1261. My concern is reflected in my amendment, and it is to ensure that all training and intensive services offered under the Workforce Investment Act continues to focus on displaced homemakers, single parents, and teen pregnant parents. It is imperative that displaced homemakers and other women in need are prepared for employment in nontraditional careers and that once they are employed they will be able to achieve a level of self- sufficiency. I have had first hand on this issue as I served as the director of Gender Equity in Los Angeles.

Men and women go to work because families depend more on women's income now more than ever before. Today's families with two full-time incomes are the least likely to live in poverty. Some women work because they are especially in need of economic independence that a job brings. Currently, there are 7 million displaced homemakers and 10 million single mothers living in the United States. And given the economic decline, I want to be certain that these individuals' needs continue to be met as they will be entering the workforce. As of 2001, working women were 40 percent more likely to be poor than working men and 6.6 percent of working women were living below the poverty line, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

What we have learned since the JTPA was replaced by the WIA is that under the former JTPA, 149,356 displaced workers received job training in 1998, while 42,426 dislocated workers completed job training under its replacement, the Workforce Investment Act, or WIA, through the end of 2000. However, these numbers are not reflective of the displaced homemakers, the single parents, and the teen parents, and these are the folks who are in dire need of job training. While 40,468 displaced and dislocated workers were participating in the WIA training service in 2000, and they were women, we still are not recruiting, Mr. Chairman, or identifying those classes of prospective workers who need the job training necessary for a productive work success.

Among the adults served by WIA through 2000, 60 percent were women, 78 percent of those whom we talk about were unemployed upon the registration and 11 percent of whom received the TANF, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. Fifty-eight percent of the adults participating in WIA in 2000 either held high school diplomas or had attained a higher level of education. About 40 percent of these adults received training services. While this is very important, it does not address those who are lacking a high school diploma or were unable to complete their education because of family matters.

Mr. Chairman, it should be noted that 121,000 fewer adults were trained under WIA in 2000 than received training under JTPA in 1998. These displaced homemakers and single parents are also greatly in need of the comprehensive job training services offered by WIA. We will be doing a great disservice to these women, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, if we fail to adequately expose and educate them to work in high technology and nontraditional jobs.

Given the statistics in how these women are underrepresented in job training, we can and must do more to assist these displaced homemakers, single parents, and teen parents who are seeking employment for the first time as well as those who need to acquire 21st century skills in order to become marketable and economically self-sufficient in the emerging 21st century workplace. They are our today and tomorrow workforce. We must prepare them through comprehensive training and intensive service for this new high tech work environment.

I yield to the gentleman from Ohio.

Mr. Chairman, I thank the distinguished chairman.

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

Mr. Speaker, Chairman Ney and Ranking Member Larson, I am pleased to offer my support today in favor of H. Res. 148 to fund committees of the House of Representatives during the 108th Congress.

As the Committee on House Administration moves forward with its mission of overseeing the functions of the House, I want to make sure that as opportunities arise for companies to do business with the House, African American, Women and other minority-owned firms are included in the awarding of contracts. With the construction of the Visitors Center offering up to $100 million in contracts for Sequence 1, and $125 million in contracts to be awarded for Sequence 2, it is imperative that African American, Women and minority owned businesses have as much opportunity to submit and win bids as do majority-owned firms. Along these lines, I sent a letter to the Architect of the Capitol Alan Hantman on April 16 stating my interest in being informed regarding the status of the House's outreach efforts to include eligible women and minority-owned firms in ongoing construction projects.

As of 2001, we know that according to the Small Business Administration, 259,143 contracts totaling $15.6 billion were awarded to small disadvantaged firms nationwide. Overall, small disadvantaged businesses won 7.12 percent of contracts awarded across the country in 2001 according to the Congressional Research Service. Given this information, we must do all we can to ensure that minority-owned firms, which frequently come under the heading of small disadvantaged businesses are able to bid on and win contracts awarded by the House. I have a keen interest in this matter, given that my home State of California is one of four states across the country accounting for 35 percent of all businesses owned by African Americans as documented by the U.S. Census Bureau. Right here, the District of Columbia is home to the nation's highest percentage of African American-owned firms at 24 percent, yet only 2.5 percent of the District's business receipts come from these companies as reported by the U.S. Census. Further, the State of Maryland ranks second with 12 percent of the country's African American-owned businesses which generate 1.4 percent of Maryland's business tax receipts. It is clear from these numbers that as Members of the House, we can do more to assure African American, Women and other minority-owned firms greater access to contracts under our jurisdiction.

I wholeheartedly support the bipartisan nature of the funding resolution put forth by this committee, and I applaud the Chairman and Ranking Member as they continue to make efforts to make contracting opportunities controlled by the House more available to minority business owners.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce the Filipino Veterans Fairness Act in commemoration of Corregidor Day, and all the Filipino veterans who fought against the Japanese Imperial Forces in defense of America.

Sixty-one years ago today, in the island fortress of Corregidor, Philippines, approximately 15,000 American and Filipino troops fought the four-months long resistance against the Japanese forces.

In the early days of World War II, these Filipinos fought alongside Americans as they were battered by constant shellfire and aerial bombardment.

Corregidor Day evokes memories of how these valiant soldiers disrupted the Japanese conquest of the South Pacific, allowing valuable time for the United States to recover from Japan's initial onslaught.

After the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor, they also attacked and defeated Hong Kong and Singapore, our allies in the war. The one bright spot in those dark days was in the Philippine Islands where Americans and Filipinos made a stand in Bataan, Corregidor and the southern islands of the Philippines.

At the conclusion of World War II, there were more than 400,000 Filipino veterans. Only 50,000 Filipino veterans are living today and approximately 13,000 of them reside in the United States.

I pay tribute to these magnificent Filipino soldiers, loyal and dedicated to the war effort, who distinguished themselves in the four months of combat. With their fiber helmets and canvas shoes, they were armed with little more than personal courage. These valiant men deserve no less than recognition of their military service and fairness under the law.

Proper recognition and honor of the military service of these Filipino veterans is long overdue. I ask my colleagues to remember Corregidor and to support the Filipino Veterans Fairness Act. My bill mirrors Senator Daniel Inouye's S. 68 and also guarantees Filipino veterans' representation in the Center for Minority Veterans, and ensures they receive the same social benefits like education, housing loans, vocational rehabilitation and job counseling as available to the American soldiers with whom they fought side by side in Corregidor.

Mr. Chairman, I want to take this time to thank Chairman Hyde and Ranking Member Lantos for being the driving force behind such an important bill, H.R. 1298, United States Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Act of 2003. This bill embodies true leadership on the part of the United States, dramatically increasing the U.S. participation in addressing the pandemic that is ravaging whole regions and millions upon millions of people. This unprecedented bill acknowledges our moral responsibility to address the pandemic that has already resulted in the deaths of millions. I am so proud to be a part of this legislation, this distinguished body and this country.

The bill as reported out of the International Relations Committee contains a provision of mine included in the Committee markup which my good friend, Congresswoman Napolitano, offered for me as a member of that Committee. While much attention is being paid to preventing mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of HIV/AIDS, we must turn to addressing the needs and rights of that child to grow up with parents, so that millions more are not orphaned before he or she can even walk. My language gives priority preference for federal funds to groups that are currently administering a program with non-federal funds to: prevent mother-to-child transmission; and provide life-long care and treatment in family-centered programs so that children do not grow up as orphans.

This would benefit programs such as the MTCT-Plus Initiative, which is supported by United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and the First Ladies of Africa, and which has $50 million in funding from several private philanthropic foundations including the Bill and Melinda Gates, the William and Flora Hewlett, the Robert Wood Johnson and other foundations. Such family-survival programs are critical to address the issues of millions of children orphaned by HIV/AIDS on a scale unrivaled in history. In sub-Saharan Africa, family and societal structures are breaking down because of the deaths of a generation of parents. The number of children in the developing world who have been orphaned by the AIDS pandemic will nearly double from 13.4 million to 25.4 million by the end of this decade. Today, 5.5 million children in Africa have lost both parents and in most cases, at least one of them to AIDS, and that number will rise to 7.9 million by 2010. Older women are also profoundly affected since the responsibility for caring for and supporting grandchildren orphaned by AIDS infected parents often falls on the shoulders of the elderly.

Thank you again, Chairman Hyde and Ranking Member Lantos, for agreeing to include my amendment in the bill as reported, and to Congresswoman Napolitano for agreeing to offer my amendment during the Committee markup.

Mr. Chairman, my amendment today concerns Section 314 which calls for a pilot program of assistance for children and families affected by HIV/AIDS. My amendment requires that pilot program to ensure the importance of inheritance rights of women, particularly women in African countries are included in this program. The relationship of the denial of inheritance rights for women, increased HIV/AIDS infection in women and the resulting exponential growth in the numbers of young widows, orphaned girls, and grandmothers becoming heads of households needs to be further studied and documented. My amendment does just that.

My amendment is necessary because a majority of those infected by HIV/AIDS in Africa are women of all classes, ethnic groups, and levels of education. Women with AIDS are condemned to an early death when their homes, lands, and other property are taken. They not only lose assets they could use for medical care, but also the shelter they need to endure this disease.

The failure to ensure equal property and inheritance rights upon separation or divorce discourages women from leaving violent marriages. HIV risk is especially high for women in situations of domestic violence, which often involves coercive sex, diminished ability to negotiate with partners for safer sex, and impede women from seeking health information and treatment.

In some places, widows are forced to undergo sexual practices such as ``wife inheritance'' or ritual ``cleansing'' in order to keep their property. ``Wife inheritance'' occurs when a male relative of the dead husband takes over the widow as a wife, often in a polygamous environment. ``Cleansing'' usually involves sex with a social outcast who is paid by the dead husband's family, supposedly to cleanse the women of her dead husband's evil spirits. In both of these rituals, safe sex is seldom practiced and often forced. Such women are at increased risk of contracting and spreading HIV.

For example, there are areas in Kenya where the wife inheritance and cleansing practices have created an alarmingly high rate of HIV/AIDS infection. Fully 22 percent of the population between ages 15 and 49 in the Nyanza province are infected, and 35 percent of ante-natal women in one district within that province are infected. Girls and young women in the Nyanza province are infected at six times the rate of their male counterparts.

The underlying bill calls for the President to report on this pilot program, as described under Section 314(c). My amendment calls for that report to include in it a description of activities undertaken to ensure that the inheritance rights of women as just described are part of this program.

Finally, in the last Congress, Rep. Eva Clayton and I introduced H. Con. Res. 421, recognizing the importance of inheritance rights of women in Africa, and its relationship to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. I have also chaired two briefings on this issue. Our resolution was very strongly supported by this body. It had 90 original cosponsors with bipartisan support. My amendment today to the underlying bill includes the crux of H. Con. Res. 421.

Thank you so much and I hope you support my amendment to H.R. 1298.

Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.

Mr. Chairman, I respectfully offer this amendment that calls for $8 of the $30 million provided for surface transportation security included in the supplemental bill to be used for transit security. This germane amendment provides $8 million which will provide our transit agencies and transit work force the much needed resources to support our Nation's increased transit security needs. This $8 million in transit security funding will do three important things: first, require the Secretary of Homeland Security to determine the percentage of frontline transit employees who are in need of receiving training in emergency preparedness and response training.

Secondly, to provide funding for training programs for frontline transit employees, ensuring that these employees who are the eyes and ears of transportation systems are prepared to respond to emergency situations.

Thirdly, provide funding for ongoing vulnerability assessments which will continuously build on information collected, allowing for easier implementation of new technologies that will assist in averting terrorist attacks on all modes of public transportation. It will also provide for transit agencies to purchase security enhancement equipment. In addition, this funding will be used for the development and implementation of local and regional emergency preparedness plans that fully utilize localities' transportation resources.

For year, governments around the world have recognized that public transportation is a major terrorist target. Until 9/11 the United States has been largely spared the kind of terrorist campaigns waged against public surface transportation. However, we cannot wait for another tragedy to happen to prompt us to address our vulnerabilities. We must act now.

An October 2001 study released by the Mineta Institute, ``Protecting Public Surface Transportation Against Terrorism and Serious Crime,'' an executive overview cites that between 1920 and 2000 there have been approximately 900 terrorist attacks and other significant criminal incidents involving public surface transportation systems. However, all but 14 of these attacks occurred after 1970, the year that marks the beginning of modern terrorism.

Attacks against transportation and transportation infrastructures accounted for 42 percent of all international terrorist attacks, according to the most recent statistics provided by the USDOT Office of Intelligence and Security of 1998.

Mr. Chairman, we must provide resources to our transit work force and our transit agencies to help prepare them and ensure that they are able to protect the communities in which they serve.

I yield to the gentleman from Florida.

I thank the Chairman.

Offered By: Ms. Millender-McDonald

Offered By: Ms. Millender-McDonald

Mr. Speaker, I stand today on behalf of a great majority of Americans who support Title IX.

Thirty years ago, my friend, The Late Rep. Patsy Mink of Hawaii, the first woman of color to be elected in Congress, unremittingly and dauntlessly challenged old stereotypes like a ``woman's place being in the home.''

Representative Mink was nationally recognized as a crusader for the rights of women, minorities and the poor. She co-authored the Women's Educational Equity Act, now known as Title IX, which prohibits gender discrimination by institutions receiving federal funding. Title IX is credited for helping push schools and universities to invest equally in women's athletics and educational programming. She envisioned the law to serve as a means to reduce and eventually eliminate gender discrimination.

USA Today, CNN and the Gallup Poll published on January 8, 2003, their survey results showing that 7 out of 10 adults familiar with Title IX think that the law should be strengthened or left alone.

Statistics will prove why our people support Title IX:

Women student athletes graduate at a significantly higher rate of 68% than women students in general who graduate at a rate of 59%.

80% of women identified as key leaders in Fortune 500 companies participated in sports as students.

82% of women business executives who played sports said that the lessons they learned on the playing field contributed to their success in business.

A Women's Sports Foundation study showed that teenage athletes are less likely to use marijuana, cocaine or other illicit drugs, less likely to be suicidal, less likely to smoke and are more likely to have a positive body image than female non-athletes.

Through the years, Title IX has diminished the inequity against women without depriving men of the same funds and opportunities.

In 2000, Division I educational institutions spent one dollar on women's sports for every two dollars spent on men's sports, and yet women increasingly continued to participate in sports activities.

From 1971-2001, women's college athletic participation increased by 403% and high school girls' athletic participation increased by a whopping 847%.

This proves that women's interest in sports follows opportunity.

Let us remember that the women of America comprise half of the population of this great country. We share the future with the men of America.

The landmark Title IX legislation is the lasting memory of how tenaciously Congresswoman Patsy Mink fought to improve the lives of girls for generations to come.

On behalf of many women and Asian American organizations, I submit my position on Title IX to the Congressional Record.

I support Title IX and all of its' opportunities for women and girls.

Protect Title IX and let it fulfill its mission.

Mr. Speaker, I rise this evening to offer my comments on an important issue: Access to affordable healthcare for all Americans.

This week has been designated as ``Cover the Uninsured Week.'' Three health foundations, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, The California Endowment, and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation sponsor ``Cover the Uninsured Week.'' A large number of national organizations have worked for the past three years to educate the public and national leaders about the uninsured. These organizations include: the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, AFL-CIO Service Employees International Union, and Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. I would like to submit a full list of these organizations for the Record.

Over 41 million Americans do not have health insurance. For a Nation that considers itself a superpower, and a beacon of democracy for the rest of the world, there is no reason for almost eight out of every ten Americans who are working families to be without healthcare coverage.

In my home State of California, 6.2 million State residents were uninsured for all or part of 2001 and Californians accounted for 16 percent of the Nation's uninsured.

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, between 2000 and 2001, the number of the uninsured increased by 1.4 million, and low income Americans (those who earn less than 200 percent of the Federal poverty level) run the highest risk of being uninsured.

For this reason, I introduced H.R. 1143, legislation that would amend Title XIX of the Social Security Act (SSA) to permit States to expand Medicaid eligibility to uninsured poor adults.

The eligibility is expanded through the creation of a new optional Medicaid eligibility group for individuals between the ages of 21 and 65 whose family income does not exceed a State-specified percentage of up to 200 percent of the applicable poverty line.

In this time of economic uncertainty, it is imperative that we, as legislators, ensure the health of all Americans. The ability to seek healthcare due to an illness or an injury should not, and cannot be dependent on where one fits on a relative scale of income.

Instead, the working poor should be confident that unfortunate incidents would not affect their ability to provide for their families while medical bills pile up.

Swift passage of my legislation will restore many Americans' faith in our fiscal policies designed to protect the health and welfare of citizens left vulnerable by the lack of Federal health care assistance available to them.

Mr. Chairman, there is indeed a health care crisis in the Nation, and while there is no simple solution, I urge all of my colleagues to take a moment to reflect on the state of the uninsured in this Nation, and support my legislation.

List of Organizations Participating in Cover the Uninsured Week

U.S. Chamber of Commerce, AFL-CIO, The Business Roundtable,

Service Employees International Union, Healthcare Leadership

Council, AFSCME, American Medical Association, American

Nurses Association, Health Insurance Association of America,

Families USA, Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association,

American Hospital Association, Federation of American

Hospitals, Catholic Health Association of the United States,

AARP and United Way of America.

Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman from South Carolina for his leadership on this budget. I rise in opposition to the Toomey amendment. But before I do that, Mr. Chairman, I would like to first offer my prayers and support for all of our brave soldiers currently serving in Iraq and the surrounding regions.

Mr. Chairman, the Toomey amendment would provide less discretionary spending than the Republican budget resolution, which means that his amendment would keep this Nation in deficit spending far past 2007. With respect to the underlying bill, our Nation is fighting an expensive war, the costs of which are yet unknown. Thus it is unconscionable that this body would take up a budget resolution that would propose cuts in key domestic programs.

According to the National Urban League, this budget resolution clearly shows how policy can affect the gap in black and white wealth accumulation. First, the biggest tax expenditure in the Federal Government is the deduction of health insurance. African Americans do not get access to this credit, as one third of African Americans get health insurance through Medicare. Thus this budget resolution on the House floor proposes to cut $300 billion out of minority communities through Medicare cuts. Over the next 10 years, this budget resolution would cut also as much as $470 billion in programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, education, and veterans benefits. In fact, the Republican Party's budget resolution drastically cuts domestic programs by $244 billion below the amount needed to maintain the FY 2003 funding levels.

I believe we owe the American people that we must take care of their affordable health care needs, and I believe the Democratic substitute amendment and budget offered by the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Spratt) does exactly that. My constituents want their benefits under Medicare and Medicaid protected. Therefore, Mr. Chairman, this budget resolution offered by the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Spratt) would increase the resources for homeland security and first responders.

I say vote for the Spratt amendment and vote ``no'' on the Republican budget.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize my friend and true legend, Dr. Roy Yanase, a nationally and internationally prominent prosthodonist. I have known Dr. Yanase for more than a decade and am honored to pay tribute to his professional accomplishments and his dynamic mentoring of hundreds of dental students throughout Southern California.

Dr. Yanase's energy is boundless, his smile matchless, and his compassion far-reaching. He graduated from the University of Southern California in 1969 and returned there for advanced training in a residency to obtain his Board Certification as a Prosthodontist in 1981. Dr. Yanase has been on the faculty of the University of Southern California School of Dentistry since 1969 and presently serves as a Clinical Professor of Continuing Education and Advanced Prosthodontic Education.

Over the past 25 years, Dr. Yanase has lectured internationally and throughout the United States. His writings on the specialty of prosthodonties have appeared in several publications as well as three major textbooks.

Dr. Yanase has held responsible positions in several national and regional organizations including serving as Founder, President and current Treasurer of the Osseointegration Study Club of Southern California; member of the Board of the American College of Prosthodontists and President of its California Section; Prosthodontic consultant for the California State Board of Dental Examiners; President of the Southern California Japanese-American Dental Society; and President of the Pacific Coast Society of Prosthodontists.

Dr. Yanase has been elected as a Fellow of the American College of Dentists, the International College of Dentists, the American College of Prosthodontists, the International College of Prosthodontists, the Pierre Fauchard Academy and the Academy of Dentistry International.

Besides his Fellowships, Dr. Yanase is an active member of the Pacific Coast Society of Prosthodontists, American Academy of Geriatric Dentistry, the Newport Harbor Academy of Dentistry, Omicron Kappa Upsilon and the Japanese American Dental Society.

Dr. Yanase and his wife Regina have been married for 33 years and live in Torrance.

Mr. Speaker, it is with tremendous pride that I recognize the exceptional life of Dr. Roy Yanase. I congratulate him for his many accomplishments and wish him and his family the best of luck in years to come.

Mr. Speaker, I stand before you today to offer my support of H.R. 13, the Museum and Library Services Act of 2003 authorizing our federal library and museum programs under the Institute of Museum and Library Services. As a former educator and life-long supporter of the arts, I fervently believe we must reauthorize the Museum and Library Services Act, and do much more to promote libraries and literacy, and to help art in all of its forms to continue to flourish.

We must do all we can to encourage the growth of such institutions, which help to enlighten us regarding our rich and diverse cultural heritage.

We have a strong tradition of providing our citizens with world-class library services and museums. Under H.R. 13, library services nationwide will be enhanced in order to better meet the needs of all Americans by: extending access to information for citizens in all types of libraries and thus increase citizens' knowledge, and assisting libraries in more effectively sharing resources to promote the streamlined delivery of services.

In my District, the County of Los Angeles Public Library offers CHIPS, a consumer health information program located in the City of Carson. This invaluable service offers my constituents information and referrals, responds to reference questions and circulates health materials to the community. Through CHIPS, constituents in my District can become better informed about the quality of their health by gaining up-to-date medical information. The State of California also offers through our libraries:

Working with Kids@Your Library, an internship program for undergraduate students tutoring children in the Summer Reading Program;

Live Homework Help, a program offering students grades 5-12 online access to tutors, or 20 minutes of one-on-one tutoring now available through the Long Beach Public Library; and

Grapes of Wrath Program in the Long Beach Public Library to promoting reading and discussion of John Steinbeck's Pulitzer-prize winning book.

Under H.R. 13, the Library Services and Technology section of the Act will provide almost $250 million in special funding to libraries and museums nationwide. In the past, my District received approximately $410,000 to fund vitally needed programs for libraries and museums, and continued funding is required in order for ongoing community needs to be met.

By providing additional grants to states, we can offer citizens:

Greater access to utilizing information electronically;

Facilitate electronic and other linkages between all kinds of libraries;

Create public and private partnerships with external community-based groups and other agencies;

Direct library services to people of distinct cultural, geographic and socioeconomic backgrounds, as well as to persons with disabilities, and those with limited literacy skills; and

Tailor library and information services to people experiencing difficulty using libraries, including children from low-income families, and individuals living in underserved urban and rural areas.

Under H.R. 13, our museums will be better able to continue their tradition of public service by integrating all of society to the natural, cultural, historic, artistic and scientific aspects of our heritage. In my District, I am a proud advocate of the Museum of Latin American Art in the City of Long Beach, which is distinguished as the only museum in the western United States to only feature contemporary Latin American art.

By passing H.R. 13, we will help our museums by: promoting the educational roles played by museums; and extending the exchange of resources and promoting partnerships among schools, libraries, museums, and other community groups.

Because we live in an era when life-long and distance learning are essential to increasing citizens' access to education and vocational opportunities, it is critical that we provide our libraries with the maximum support necessary for them to carry out their missions. At the same time, we must assist our museums so that they may keep raising our awareness and enrich our communities through art.

Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 47, I was detained by a group of women constituents speaking on a panel on Violence Against Women.'' Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea.''

Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 40, I was detained with constituents is the reason I missed the vote. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea.''