Floor Statements

Mr. Chairman, I rise to claim the time in opposition, though I am not opposed to the amendment.

I rise in support of the gentleman from California's amendment, which gives the HUD Secretary the option of prioritizing funding for HUD-certified housing counseling entities located in areas experiencing high foreclosure rates.

As was said, we really have to look at the resources that we have and make sure that they are going to be used in a very well-thought-out way. I support the amendment.

I would also like to thank Ranking Member Bachus for his earlier amendment to title IV, to dedicate housing counseling funds to help homeowners avoid fraudulent foreclosure rescue scams.

Both amendments strengthen title IV. As the author of title IV of the bill, which is the same as my bill, H.R. 47, I cannot emphasize enough the importance of housing counseling, especially when it comes to helping homeowners in trouble.

In my congressional district, HUD-certified housing counselors have the patience, expertise, and experience to help homeowners who are at the end of their rope. These counselors have been a lifeline to struggling families, often helping families get their budget in order, improve communications with the lender or servicer, and most importantly, help save their homes.

So many of the problems out there could have been avoided if consumers secured this kind of financial literacy before signing on the dotted line for a mortgage. They would be armed with the ability to make better decisions about a mortgage. However, many homeowners did not secure this advice and are in dire straits today.

Therefore, I ask my colleagues to support this amendment.

I yield back the balance of my time.

I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Chairman, I would like to thank Chairman Frank and my colleagues from both sides of the aisle for working with me on this bill to improve it.

Too many Americans are losing their homes. Some fell victim to unscrupulous practices and fraudsters. Some got into a loan they couldn't afford, and others are subject to traditional reasons for foreclosure. But this bill attempts to get at some of the root causes of these nontraditional reasons homeowners get into trouble, but by no means is it a finished product.

For example, regulators testified that they don't know how the risk retention or ``skin in the game'' provision would work, so I think this provision needs to be better understood before becoming law. Also needing work is a provision that classifies new kinds of mortgages as subprime and unnecessarily replicates the Federal Reserve's new regulations set to take effect in October.

And yet a third provision of this bill perhaps too narrowly defines which mortgages qualify for a safe harbor, which could result in an uptick in unfounded lawsuits and fewer options for creditworthy borrowers. It's important that we ``do no harm'' and carefully craft provisions that won't hamper our efforts to jump-start and restore our confidence to the housing market.

At the same time, this bill does have some good provisions. Identical to a housing bill I have, title 4 expands HUD's coordination and capacity to offer grants to States and local agencies, which are at the forefront of helping homeowners.

Section 106, which I authored with Congressman Hinojosa and Congressman Neugebauer, temporarily suspends HUD's new RESPA regulations and requires HUD to coordinate with the Fed to update mortgage disclosure regulations. Last August, HUD ignored a letter signed by 244 Members of this body requesting that the two agencies work together, so section 106 will require it.

One of the major actors undermining the housing market is appraisal fraud. Titles 5 and 6, which I worked on with Congressman Kanjorski, will improve the integrity.

I thank the gentleman for yielding and thank him for managing the bill. I would also like to thank Chairman Conyers, Ranking Member Smith and their staffs, in particular Caroline Lynch, Allison Hallataei, Zachary Somers, Rob Reed, and my designee for the Financial Services, Nicole Austin, for their work on this bill, Senate 386, the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act.

I urge my colleagues to support this amended version.

I was pleased to be an original co-sponsor of the House version of this bill, H.R. 1748, the Fight Fraud Act, which is the substitute language to the underlying bill. I am also pleased that the bill includes language from my bill, H.R. 78, the Stop Mortgage Fraud Act, to provide additional funds to the FBI and Department of Justice to investigate and prosecute mortgage fraud.

A couple of years ago, the Chicago Tribune published a series that revealed that gangs in the Chicago area

were increasingly turning toward mortgage fraud. They found it more lucrative than selling drugs. It turns out the gangs were not alone. Everyone, it seems, was in on the act.

In March, the U.S. Attorney in Chicago, Patrick Fitzgerald, brought mortgage fraud indictments against two dozen players. They are brokers, accountants, loan officers and processors and attorneys.

Mortgage fraud comes in all shapes and sizes. Scam artists inflated appraisals, flipped properties and lied about information, including income and identity, on loan applications. Some used the identity of deceased people to obtain mortgages. And other desperate thieves bilked out of their homes and home equity the most vulnerable homeowners and seniors in dire financial straits.

Let's face it: This is just the tip of the iceberg, which is why H.R. 1728, the mortgage reform bill, also under consideration today, is an important bill. And as we in Congress work to get the economy back on track and credit flowing again, we have to address what was the root of the mortgage meltdown in the first place, mortgage fraud.

Mortgage fraud continues to rise in record numbers. The FBI has reported that in 5 years, the mortgage fraud caseload increased 237 percent, and investigations more than doubled in 3 years, reaching over 63,000 reports in 2008. For the fifth year in a row, Illinois secured a spot, number three this year, on the top 10 list of States with the most severe and prevalent incidents of mortgage fraud.

As a former real estate attorney and member of the House Financial Services Committee, I have seen firsthand the devastating effect of mortgage fraud. It has plagued our financial system and economy. Most tragically, it has cost millions of Americans families their homes and required taxpayers to commit trillions of their hard-earned dollars to prop up the financial industry. It is not fair to the good actors in the industry and the 90 percent of homeowners who are paying their mortgages on time.

Congress can help to inject certainty and fairness into the mortgage system--to restore investor, homeowner, and public confidence in the American Dream and our financial system.

As we work to modernize financial laws and regulations, it is our duty to supply Federal law enforcement with the tools and resources it needs to rapidly tackle fraud, particularly mortgage fraud. Fighting fraud must play a central role in solving the underlying problems that have undermined economic recovery.

With that, I urge my colleagues to support this amended version of Senate 386.

I thank the gentleman and I am delighted to be here with Mr. Shimkus.

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Shimkus has done so much on energy for so long in the Energy and Commerce Committee and has really brought to the forefront so many innovations and ideas on how we can solve our problems, and also making sure that we do the right thing.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express my concern about our national energy and environmental future. I am really worried that Congress may soon consider the cap-and-trade legislation in an attempt to move America toward a clean energy economy and decrease our reliance on foreign oil sources.

That sounds good, doesn't it, and the act in its current form will do that, but it will do much worse, and I cannot support a cap-and-trade program that will unfairly penalize small business, industry and taxpayers across the country.

A lot of my constituents get this. I would like to read a short quote from one of my constituents. The gentleman is from Darien, Illinois, and he says: ``I am writing to ask you to vote ``no'' on any cap-and- trade bill that comes up for a vote this congressional session. Cap- and-trade is a huge tax on every American who flips on a light switch or puts gas in their car. Cap-and-trade would do nothing to affect global climate change, but would harm our economy and lead to job losses and higher taxes for all Americans.''

Many estimates exist on job losses and rising electricity prices under a cap-and-trade program. One recent and very conservative estimate suggests that Illinois would lose 48,000 manufacturing jobs by 2020 and see a $1.47 per kilowatt increase in their utility bills. Illinois is 50 percent reliant on nuclear power followed by coal.

For this reason, I think with record unemployment and foreclosures, how can we ask the American people to swallow a huge cost of living increase when they are already struggling to live?

In an apparent trend, the recently passed budget resolution slashed Yucca Mountain funding. This disturbs me. It effectively signaled lack of support for expanded nuclear production, closing the window of opportunity for a waste solution. Taxpayers have already put $16 billion into this mountain to take care of our waste. So this is welcome back to the Carter years when the reprocessing plants that were built here in the United States, six of them, were shut down before they even opened. I think one opened.

Mr. Speaker, there is no silver bullet solution for the future of our national energy supply, but we would be irresponsible to incentivize emission reductions without including supply increase solutions. I think that the U.S. can lead in the environmental performance and production with this policy. I just don't believe that cap-and-trade is an appropriate means of doing that.

We need a combination of technology and increased production of nuclear renewables and fossil fuels. Each have to be a part of the long-term plan for America's energy and environmental security.

I want to focus for a moment on the nuclear. As I said, Illinois is 50 percent nuclear, 20 percent in our country, and there are a lot of permits pending out there for increased nuclear plants. But we need reprocessing to deal with the waste. If you thought of nuclear energy as a log, and you cut 3 percent off this side and 3 percent off of that side of the log, and you put that log, the 3 percent plus the 3 percent and burned it, and then take the other part of the log, which is 94 percent, and put that into the ground as waste, that is what we are doing right now. So we can really increase the capabilities of nuclear and we can reduce the toxicity and we can reduce the longevity of the radioactivity. So this is a no-brainer. I can't understand the Secretary of Energy and the administration suddenly deciding that we put a hold on the recycling process when we have worked so hard and come so far on the research to be ready to do that without nuclear proliferation.

So I think we really have to look at doubling the amount of power generated from zero emission nuclear power by 2030; and, more importantly, we need to begin nuclear fuel recycling and incentivize interim storage to get us there. Recycling reduces the volume of that, and it is clean and it is safe. And then utilizing technology to transition to a low carbon transportation system is another way we can dramatically decrease petroleum use and reduce emissions.

Lithium batteries in fuel-cell technology, like those being developed in Illinois at Argonne National Lab in my district, will transform both the auto manufacturing sector and help America recapture the domestic battery manufacturing base.

I currently serve as the co-Chair of the High Performance Building Caucus, and each month we hear from a business or an association about the technology, a service that offers a solution for improving commercial and residential building efficiency. Forty percent of the emissions in this country come from existing building infrastructure. So retrofitting existing buildings or utilizing technology in new building construction can serve a variety of things. There are so many things that we can do. We need everything to cut out the CO2 and the other gas emissions that cause so many problems.

Illinois is almost exclusively dependent on nuclear power followed by coal, so we cannot afford the price spikes that would follow a cap-and- trade plan, especially without the increased power production.

I hope that leadership on both sides of the aisle remember to put their constituents first when it comes to considering climate legislation and allow

technology and the market to pave the way for emission reductions.

I thank the gentleman for holding this Special Order. I think it is a great benefit that we continue to discuss this issue. I hope that we can all work together to really solve this. Cap-and-trade will not do it.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor a man whose spirit and dedication to the world of science inspired him to give four decades, with more to come, of tireless service to the Nation as a scientist, teacher, mentor, administrator and leader.

This week Dr. Robert Rosner will step down as director of Argonne National Laboratory, a leading Department of Energy science laboratory located in my congressional district in Illinois. He plans to resume his career in research and teaching at the University of Chicago, where he is a world-renowned astrophysicist and the William Wrather Distinguished Service Professor in the university's Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics.

I have had the privilege to work closely with Dr. Rosner during, over the last 7 years during his tenure at Argonne, first when he was chief scientist and later when he became laboratory director. So I speak with personal knowledge and affection when I say that Bob has left an indelible stamp on Argonne, the quality of life in my district, the Department of Energy complex and the Nation.

There is no doubt that he has created a positive and lasting legacy, both nationally and internationally, and I would like to take this moment to pay tribute to his many achievements and to wish him well on his return to full-time university life.

Dr. Rosner's first significant interaction with Argonne came in 1992 when he led the collaboration between Argonne and the University of Chicago scientists who created the Center for Astrophysical Thermonuclear Flashes, which he directed from its founding in 1997.

In 2002, he joined Argonne's directorate as chief scientist and associate laboratory director for physical, biological and computing science.

Since his appointment as director of Argonne in 2005, he has served as a valuable national leader and spokesman on science policy and the value of translational science, science that puts basic knowledge to practical use.

During his term as Argonne director, Bob has strengthened Argonne intellectually, organizationally and physically. He strengthened and organized the laboratory's core capacities to make them more responsive to the Department of Energy's needs and helped forge stronger links between Argonne, the University of Chicago and other universities, especially in the Midwest.

He was instrumental in founding the Energy Department's National Laboratory Directors Council and served as its first chair. He also has worked to launch a number of new research programs and facilities, including the Computation Institute, the Leadership Computing Facility, the Sub-Angstrom Microscopy and Microanalysis Facility, the Center for Nanoscale Materials, and the Theory and Computational Sciences Building.

He has also created an atmosphere of open communication. Notably, he established a two-way dialogue between employees and senior management by becoming the first Argonne director to answer all questions in regular, informal meetings with employees from across the lab.

Madam Speaker, Dr. Robert Rosner has contributed greatly to the Energy Department laboratory complex, my district, the State of Illinois and the Nation. His commitment and dedicated efforts as a public servant provide an inspiration to us all. I know his presence at Argonne will be greatly missed, but I am confident that his abundant energy and zeal for science will continue to do great things in the scientific and university communities for years to come.

Today, I congratulate Dr. Rosner on his accomplishments at Argonne and wish him success in his many future endeavors.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 1913, the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009.

This legislation will include penalties in the federal code for crimes that are motivated by race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.

Further, H.R. 1913 allows the Department of Justice to make grants to support State and local programs designed to combat hate crimes, particularly those committed by juveniles. Finally, the bill supports programs to train local law enforcement officers in investigating, prosecuting, and preventing hate crimes. In this way, the bill empowers state and local officials to investigate and prosecute these crimes without limiting their jurisdiction or authority.

I have heard concerns from some of my constituents that this legislation could infringe on the right to free speech. I could never support a bill that does that. In fact, Section 10 of the bill contains a specific exemption that clarifies that speech, no matter how hateful, is not criminalized under this act. Only violent acts by those who willfully cause bodily injury are prohibited. I strongly oppose attempts to limit anyone's right to free speech or put one class of people above another.

While all acts of violence are deplorable, hate crimes are specifically meant to intimidate and frighten an entire group of people because of prejudice on the part of the perpetrator. Violent acts that are meant to terrorize American citizens should not go unpunished.

I urge you to support H.R. 1913.

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

I rise today as a cosponsor of House Resolution 357, which recognizes April as Financial Literacy Month, and I would strongly urge my colleagues to support it.

I would like to begin by thanking my good friend and fellow chair of the House Financial and Economic Literacy Caucus, Mr. Hinojosa, for his continuing efforts to improve financial literacy rates in America. I know he would have liked to have been here. He has been such an important force in financial literacy matters and will continue to be. I would like to thank my colleague from Kansas (Mr. Moore) for managing this bill on his behalf.

Our Financial and Economic Literacy Caucus has been at the forefront of this issue for several years, but we have much more work to do before us if we are going to help today's children become tomorrow's smart investors, entrepreneurs and business leaders, especially in tough economic times like this.

Mr. Speaker, efforts to stimulate the economy cannot succeed unless we equip Americans with the knowledge and resources they need to succeed in today's market.

According to the Jump$tart Coalition, high school seniors in 2008 answered only 48.3 percent of their organization's survey questions correctly on personal finance, a decline of 4.1 percent from 2006. And your average baby boomer still only has less than $50,000 in savings, and that savings continues to shrink as our economy continues to regain its momentum.

I know it's kind of odd to think about, but one of the few bright spots in the current economic climate is that savings rate has finally risen above the near zero level up to the 4 percent range. I think Americans are learning that a financial buffer is critical when times get unexpectedly tough.

So while we want to stimulate commerce in the short term, we must ensure that people do not forget the lessons of the past. We need to be prepared for tuition costs, a home, health care and retirement. We need a financial cushion against unexpected challenges like the death of a family member or a health condition, and we need the capital necessary for new entrepreneurs to launch the startups and open the small businesses that drive this economy.

Every American should have the opportunity and the know-how to fulfill each of these goals, and we must share these lessons with our children and our grandchildren through new, effective methods of teaching sound money management skills. That is why I urge my colleagues to support this resolution and show that financial literacy remains a top priority for Congress.

I would also like to encourage Members of the House and their staff to attend Friday's annual Financial Literacy Day Fair, which will be held from 12 noon to 4 p.m. in the afternoon in the Cannon Caucus Room, where you will be able to find a broad array of financial educational materials and ideas for reaching out to constituents on this important issue.

With that, I would urge support of this resolution and yield back the balance of my time.

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

As Sports Illustrated said in a 1994 story, ``All Arnold Daniel Palmer did was save golf. All he did was bring golf back to the truck drivers and the mailmen, whoever. Basically, he took a game that was a little too prissy, a little too clubby, a little too saturated with Ivy League men trying not to soil their cardigans and breathe sweet life into it.''

Every one of us, even nongolfers, can name a few men of the links-- Tiger Woods, of course, and perhaps Phil Mickelson of today's game; Gary Palmer, Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus from a couple of decades ago; and for those who have been playing for years, maybe Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson to whom we awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in the 109th Congress, but everyone would name Arnold Palmer.

Amazingly, for a man who won the 92 professional tournaments and who at one time was the highest paid professional athlete, earning more than $1 million a year, Arnold Palmer always seemed as someone who was an everyman. His swing looked pretty much like the guys' you would see on a course on a weekend. It definitely was not the picture perfect one of a pro, but it did matter. Arnold Palmer was a man who understood the history and continuity of the game.

Born in a steel town east of Pittsburgh, he moved to Latrobe, Pennsylvania with his parents when he was

young. His father was known as Deacon Palmer, who worked at the Latrobe Country Club for years, rising from a groundskeeper to a teaching pro. He started his son at the age of 3 with a set of golf clubs and, really, was Arnold Palmer's only teacher.

Years later, in 1960, Palmer began a successful crusade to resurrect the status of the British Open at the old course in St. Andrews, Scotland, becoming the first American of stature to play there since Ben Hogan.

Arnold Palmer put his good winnings to use, becoming so involved in business that some thought it detracted from his golf game, but he also worked tirelessly for various charities, spending 20 years as the honorary chairman of the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation and in spearheading the creation of the Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children and Women in Orlando, as well as raising funds for the Latrobe Area Hospital Charitable Foundation in his hometown.

You heard from Mr. Baca of many, many more things that he did, but as a Member of Congress from Illinois who has the most golf courses in her district in Illinois, I am honored to manage this bill.

With that, I urge Members to join me in support of H.R. 1243, introduced by the gentleman from California (Mr. Baca).

With that, I would reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Murphy).

Mr. Speaker, at this time I would yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Burton).

I have no further speakers and would yield back the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, as the author of H.R. 46, the Family Self-Sufficiency Act, I encourage all my colleagues to support this important legislation which will help more disadvantaged families gain independence from government assistance.

Thanks to the support of my colleague from California (Ms. Waters) last Congress as a part of the larger section 8 voucher reform package and as a stand-alone measure, twice the House passed the Family Self- Sufficiency Act. Today, we will again consider the same measure.

The Senate didn't act on section 8 reform legislation last Congress, which is why we are moving this legislation again. The Family Self- Sufficiency Program, also called FSS, is offered in connection with the Department of Housing and Urban Development Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program.

Local public housing authorities employ FSS coordinators and administer these programs. In addition to rental housing assistance, FSS programs connect families to housing counseling, job training, child care, education, and other services to help them reduce their dependence on public assistance. FSS also helps families save for homeownership.

The FSS program is well worth it. Let me give you a quick example of an FSS success story from my congressional district.

After 6 years of service, a Navy veteran and a single mom of two secured a part-time job, and thanks to the GI Bill, enrolled as a full- time student. Despite struggling to make ends meet, she received her degree and enrolled in the DuPage County Housing Authority Family Self- Sufficiency Program. This program connected her to a resume writing class at the University of Illinois' Employment Training Center. Within a week of posting her newly polished resume, she secured interviews and eventually a full-time job that doubled her salary. She also worked with a financial planner to improve her budgeting and management skills. Today, this single mother and veteran is an independent and self-sufficient homeowner, a long way from public housing.

So what is the problem? Well, in fiscal year 2004, HUD changed its FSS coordinator funding process, and the result, in a 20-month period: the number of FSS coordinators dropped by about two-thirds, and 4,000 fewer families participated in the program. HUD has attempted to fix the mistake, but without success. So that is why H.R. 46 is necessary, to ensure that public housing authorities have consistent coordinator funding necessary to administer the program and serve people who choose the FSS path to independence.

H.R. 46 establishes a minimum ratio of program coordinators to participants; ensures the Public Housing Authority gets funding for one coordinator for 25-plus families enrolled in its FSS program; with 75 or more families enrolled, funding for two coordinators; and with 125 or more families enrolled, funding for three coordinators. It also requires HUD to establish and implement performance measures, collect data on FSS programs, evaluate their effectiveness, and report to Congress on its findings. Finally, the bill provides some funding flexibility to reward innovative and successful programs.

FSS works. It is a helping hand, not a handout, to American families who are working to become independent of government assistance. With the challenges American families face in this economy, the Family Self- Sufficiency Program, and those like my constituent who have benefited from it, are a glimmer of hope. With this program, families can successfully make ends meet, raise children, get an education, secure a job, and achieve the dream of homeownership. It is a simple, bipartisan step that we can take now to ensure that a brief period of economic hardship doesn't turn into a lifetime of poverty and dependence for many of our Nation's most vulnerable families. It does so by addressing the lack of consistent Federal funding for administering FSS services.

Mr. Speaker, these are good, flexible programs that help put disadvantaged families on the path to independence. Public housing can be an important safety net, but it is not a permanent solution. Let's give these individuals all the support we can to help them stand on their own two feet.

As I conclude, I would like to thank everyone who made this bill possible, including John Day, president of the DuPage Housing Authority; Jeffrey Lubell, executive director of the Center for Housing Policy; and the folks at the American Association of Service Coordinators, the National Housing Conference, the New America Foundation, and the Corporation for Enterprise Development. And of course I would like to thank my constituent for her courage and willingness to let me share her success story with all of you today, and the gentleman from California (Mr. Baca) for managing this bill.

At this time, I would like to insert into the Record a 2008 letter from the American Association of Service Coordinators.

September 24, 2008.

Hon. Judy Biggert,

Ranking Member, Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit

Subcommittee of the House Financial Services Committee,

House of Representatives, Washington, DC.

Dear Ranking Member Biggert: On behalf of the undersigned

organizations, we write to thank you for the introduction of

the Family Self-Sufficiency Act of 2007 and for your support

of stabilized funding for the HUD Family Self-Sufficiency

program (FSS).

We appreciate your recognition of the importance of stable,

predictable funding for the FSS program. The improvements

prescribed in the FSS Act will enable agencies to run

effective FSS programs and ultimately provide more families

with the opportunity to build assets and work toward self-

sufficiency.

As you know, changes in the way Section 8 FSS funding has

been allocated for FSS coordinators in recent years has

caused many housing agencies to experience sudden funding

cut-offs and declining enrollment. Moreover, many

participants have been left without the necessary program

coordinators who are critical to their access to services and

support and mentorship for their progress toward self-

sufficiency.

The FSS Act of 2007 addresses this problem and places the

FSS program back on its original path as a proven approach

for helping families in the Housing Choice Voucher program

lift themselves out of poverty and achieve their dream of

education, entrepreneurship or homeownership in a safe,

viable way.

We also support the Section 8 Voucher Reform Act of 2007

(SEVRA), H.R. 1851, voucher reform legislation, that proposed

similar changes to the FSS administrative funding process and

also makes critical improvements to the overall Section 8

voucher program. By stabilizing funding for the Section 8

voucher program, SEVRA not only allows the voucher program to

run more efficiently and effectively but ensures that funding

is available for the asset-building escrow accounts provided

through FSS.

Together, the FSS Act and SEVRA can help restore the

strength to the Section 8 voucher program, the nation's

leading source of housing assistance for low-income people

and a critical base for the FSS program.

Again, we thank you for the introduction of the Family

Self-Sufficiency Act of 2007 and for your continued support

of the FSS program. We look forward to your continued

leadership in support of FSS and the Section 8 voucher

program.

Sincerely,

American Association of Service Coordinators.

Corporation for Enterprise Development.

National Housing Conference.

New America Foundation.

With that, I have no further speakers, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 1580.

Many of us, whether at home or in our offices, have leftover electronics that eventually find their way to a dark closet corner or basement.

If I took a poll of Members here, everyone would raise a hand to having an old computer, several old cell phones, and at least one old television. For those of us with children and grandchildren, that list probably grows to include first generation Nintendos, Gameboys, and Mp3 players.

Those of us that keep old electronics probably plan to give them away. Or, we buy the latest, most updated gadget without thinking of what to do with the old. We want to dump or donate the old PC, but we worry about what personal information may still be on its hard drive.

H.R. 1580 takes the first step to address all of those issues, and study the prospects and concerns for abandoned electronics and their components stream.

As we heard at our February 11th hearing, coordinated research and education efforts are needed to address disposal, product design, and in general, raise awareness of what opportunities consumers have to recycle un-used or what they consider ``obsolete'' equipment.

A witness at that hearing, and constituent of mine, is one of the first certified Microsoft refurbishers in the country. Thanks to his hard work, forty thousand computers have been refurbished and distributed to schools, non-profits, and homes of at-risk children throughout the Chicago area.

With the right research and development, and more business models like my constituent's, electronics recycling and refurbishment can be an integral part of our communities, decrease waste in our landfills, and offer budget-friendly alternatives for consumers. It is important to note that every dollar spent on refurbishment stays in the U.S.; every dollar spent on new products may not.

I would like to thank Chairman Gordon for working with the members of the committee to improve H.R. 1580. Thanks to his cooperation, we were able to include an important change

from the term ``waste'' to ``device'' in the underlying text. Doing so sets a tone of reuse instead of disposal and lessens the opportunity for regulatory or legal hurdles to stall the refurbishing and recycling process that we are trying to promote.

If we can institute new ways of tracking, sorting, recycling, and reusing electronics and make them less hazardous from the design stage, we can allow them to do less harm in the disposal stage. I think this legislation is a move in the right direction to address these concerns.

Although I endorse the concept behind H.R. 1580 and believe Congress should be encouraging better designs for electronic devices to increase their life-span and make them easier to recycle, there are aspects of this bill that concern me.

One such concern comes from an amendment offered in Committee requiring the Environmental Protection Agency to publish the results of research and development projects authorized by this bill on its website. The concern here is that the copyright protections of the research published on the website may not be preserved. We should ensure this is addressed prior to this bill being enacted into law.

Additionally, it is unclear from the bill language whether if there is more than one for-profit entity included in a consortium whether the total contribution from all for-profit entities is to be at least ten (10) percent, or if each for-profit member is to contribute at least ten (10) percent. I appreciate the efforts of the Chairman to clarify this in report language and hope that he would be willing to modify the legislative language, if necessary, to ensure this issue is addressed.

I believe this bill takes steps toward addressing a very important issue and I hope that moving forward we will continue to work together to ensure we produce the best law possible.

Madam Chair, I rise to voice my concern over this proposed budget. As many of my colleagues have said, it taxes too much, borrows too much and spends too much.

And it will raise taxes during a recession when we shouldn't even be discussing tax hikes. Why do they want to raise taxes? Not to pay down the deficit but instead to fund another massive expansion of government. This plan, as proposed by the Administration, would place an immense burden on middle-class families.

They want to raise taxes on homeowners by limiting the mortgage tax interest rate deduction. We're facing a wave of foreclosures and should be encouraging responsible homeownership. Instead, this tax will discourage homeownership and further weaken the economy by delaying housing recovery efforts.

The proposal also furthers the Administration's plan to raise taxes on charitable contributions, discouraging Americans from donating to charities and nonprofits. This comes at a time when these organizations are needed most by struggling families. We should be encouraging Americans to help one another, not the opposite.

Madam Chair, the budget also paves the way for higher taxes on small businesses by reversing cuts to the death tax, punishing thrift, discouraging entrepreneurship and devastating family-owned small businesses.

This is certainly change, and not for the better.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today deeply concerned about yesterday's reports regarding nearly 10,000 of our Nation's veterans who may have been exposed to HIV and other communicable diseases at Veteran's Administration hospitals. Like those veterans and their families, I'm shocked and appalled that this could have happened. Our veterans deserve better.

A couple of weeks ago I had the privilege of meeting with the new VA Secretary, Eric Shinseki, at the North Chicago VA Hospital to discuss improving care for our veterans. We've heard a lot about change in the past several months. Well, we have the duty to change our VA health system so reports of occurrences like we heard earlier this week never happen again. This means taking a serious look at every option to improve our veterans' care.

One option is right in my backyard. It is actually in my good friend from Illinois, Mrs. Halvorson's district. There's a hospital named Silver Cross that will be moving to a new location in 2012. The facility that they are leaving has an emergency room that was built in 2006 and a specialty care wing that is less than 7 years old.

Instead of being opportunistic and selling the facility to the highest bidder, the hospital formed a Healthy Community Commission, whose focus is to give back to the Will County community. Our veterans are at the top of their list, and I commend them for that.

I look forward to working with Secretary Shinseki, Congresswoman Halvorson and Members of both sides of the aisle to explore this and other options to make sure that our veterans never again have to put up with inadequate care.

And with that, Mr. Speaker, this Saturday, March 28, 2009, at 8:30 p.m. millions of people around the world will join together to turn off their lights for 1 hour, Earth Hour, to raise awareness about climate change. Communities, individuals, businesses and organizations will turn off non-essential lighting and cast a virtual vote for global education, awareness and action on this important issue.

Earth Hour began in 2007 in Sydney, Australia where more than 2.2 million people turned off their lights. Last year, World Wildlife Fund took Earth Hour global and more than 50 million

people in more than 400 cities, on all seven continents participated, darkening some of the world's most famous skylines and icons, including the Empire State Building, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Coliseum in Rome, and the Sears Tower in Chicago. Even Google's home page went dark for that day.

This year, more than 1,700 cities in some 80 countries already have signed up to participate, with more joining each day. The event itself will begin in Fiji, cascading across the world with Hawaii as the final stop. In my district, three municipalities, Aurora, Naperville and Homer Glen, and numerous businesses have signed up to participate.

We need to start addressing climate change now, and Earth Hour is one of the many steps that we can take to do just that. That's why I introduced House Resolution 268, with my good friend from Georgia, Mr. Barrow, to support these goals and ideas of Earth Hour. The resolution will help increase education, awareness and action on this important environmental issue.

I encourage my colleagues to cosponsor House Resolution 268 and join in this inspiring and historical event.

I will submit an article entitled, ``3,000 Vets Face HIV Risk After Unsterile Procedure,'' from the Associated Press, for the Record.

[From the Associated Press, Mar. 24, 2009]

3,000 Vets Face HIV Risk After Unsterile Procedure

A Veterans Affairs hospital here has notified thousands of

patients that their colonoscopies were performed with

improperly sterilized equipment, officials said Monday.

The hospital urged about 3,260 patients who had

colonoscopies between May 2004 and March 12 of this year to

get tests for HIV, hepatitis and other diseases.

The VA insisted the risk of infection was minimal, saying

the tubing that was improperly cleaned didn't make contact

with patients.

It was the second recent announcement of errors during

colonoscopies at VA facilities.

``The very notion that veterans have to contemplate this

new reality now before them and visit special care clinics to

undergo blood testing is stomach-turning,'' U.S. Rep.

Kendrick Meek, D-Fla., said in a letter Monday to the VA's

inspector general. ``This information is shocking.''

Meek urged a door-to-door campaign to alert veterans of the

error.

``Although there is minimal risk, we feel that even a

slight risk is unacceptable to the veterans we care for,''

said Susan Ward, a spokeswoman for the VA in Miami.

Last month, 6,378 patients at a clinic in Murfreesboro,

Tenn., were told they may have been exposed to infectious

body fluids during colonoscopies.

The VA said 1,800 veterans treated at an ear, nose and

throat clinic in Augusta, Ga., were also alerted they could

have been exposed to an infection due to improper

disinfection of an instrument, though officials said the risk

was ``extremely small.''

The VA hasn't said whether it expects more facilities to

announce similar problems. though Meek cautioned the number

of affected people ``could quickly expand to include a much

larger pool of people.''

``That, somehow, these standard protocols were not followed

will undoubtedly leave our veterans with serious misgivings

about our VA system,'' he said.

I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, let me be clear. We want the money back--the money that was used for executive bonuses.

But I rise today in opposition to this rule. Frankly, I find it incredibly disappointing how this Congress has handled the AIG situation. And now the majority is simply repeating the same mistakes that led us here.

As we all know, the 1,100-page stimulus package was made public in the dead of night, just hours before the vote. No one could have read it except those that crafted it behind closed doors. No committee hearings were held, no alternatives or amendments were permitted. And now we find another reason why the majority didn't want it exposed to close scrutiny.

Apparently the majority quietly stripped out language passed in the Senate that would have blocked these outrageous bonuses funded with taxpayer dollars.

And who is responsible? First, no one took responsibility or seemed to have any idea who did it. Then Senator Dodd admitted that he stripped out the language at the behest of the administration.

Now Congress is making the same bad mistake by passing another piece of rushed legislation introduced in one day, and hasn't had the proper scrutiny.

I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this resolution, for I think it's a sham and an attempt to rewrite history.

When I and many of my colleagues voted against the first TARP bailout, I did so because I thought there weren't enough taxpayer protections. Well, you know what? I was right. But now we find out, to make matters worse, the other side of the aisle made it even worse writing in--in secrecy in the dead of night--a provision that actually took away a provision that would protect the taxpayers from these obscene bonuses. Well, they got caught, and now they have no one to blame but themselves.

When they say to 178 Members on this side of the aisle, ``it's my way or the highway,'' this is what they get. But my taxpayers shouldn't have to pay for their mistakes or their arrogance. So maybe I will call their bluff and maybe I will vote for their flawed legislation, which is too little, too late, because I want our taxpayer's money back.

I urge my colleagues to oppose this resolution, and I worry about how we're going to solve this problem.

Mr. Chair, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 1338, the Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education, or GIVE Act.

This important legislation will reauthorize AmeriCorps and other programs under the Corporation for National and Community Service. I was particularly pleased by the addition of new performance measures that will ensure that AmeriCorps funds go to organizations that are efficient and effective with taxpayers' dollars. Also, by using fixed grants and eliminating costly bureaucratic red tape, the GIVE Act will ensure that small organizations have an equal opportunity to obtain federal service funds, without compromising the accountability of the program.

Finally, I would like to applaud the addition of a veterans corps, which will dedicate a specific funding stream to organizations that assist veterans and their families. These brave men and women have served our country honorably, and we have a responsibility to

help them in their transition back to civilian life.

I would like to thank Chairman Miller and Ranking Member McKeon for crafting a compromise bill that will receive broad, bipartisan support. It is my hope that this can be a model for cooperation on future legislation.

I urge my colleagues to support this bill.