Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Worldwide Marriage Encounter.

For over 40 years, Worldwide Marriage Encounter has strengthened countless marriages through a weekend workshop to improve a couple's communication. Worldwide Marriage Encounter is totally self-supporting, and no couple is turned away because they do not have the ability to pay. In 2009, over 10,000 couples attended the Worldwide Marriage Encounter weekends in the United States alone.

Marriage is a vital institution in the life of our society. Couples in good marriages live longer and happier lives. Worldwide Marriage Encounter is undertaking a project to recognize the longest married couple from every State, with special recognition to the longest married couple in the United States. As nearly 50 percent of marriages end in divorce, it is truly an inspiration to see how many couples have remained together for so long.

Mr. Speaker, I hope my colleagues will join me in congratulating Worldwide Marriage Encounter and all the volunteers and clergy for their efforts to strengthen marriages throughout our country.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor a great leader in Erie, Pennsylvania, Antoine Garibaldi, the sixth president of Gannon University.

Dr. Garibaldi has been a dynamic force in higher education and throughout the community. Since 2001, he has worked to ensure that Gannon remains a world-class university. Dr. Garibaldi's visionary leadership has helped Gannon's enrollment grow by more than 24 percent.

With his wife, Carol, Antoine has led revitalization efforts to make downtown Erie a vibrant, thriving area. The Garibaldis' work benefits not only the students of Gannon but the whole of the Erie community. I am grateful for their commitment to our city.

Antoine Garibaldi is a pillar in the Erie community, and it is with grateful hearts that we wish him the greatest of fortune as he takes on the role of president of the University of Detroit Mercy next year.

Dr. Garibaldi's service in the area will be greatly missed, and we thank him for all that he has done.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today with a heavy heart to honor the life of an entrepreneur, generous philanthropist, and loving husband, father, and grandfather from Sharon, Pennsylvania.

Jim Winner, the developer of The Club anti-theft device, was lost in an accident in September. He was a patriot, serving his country in Korea. He was an inventor who grew his ideas into successful businesses that created good jobs for his neighbors in the Shenango Valley. He was a philanthropist who gave much of his wealth back to his community. And he raised a beautiful family who share his values of hard work, patriotism, commitment to community, and compassion for those less fortunate.

Jim was a Renaissance man, and his dedication to charity reached so many in the Mercer community region.

Jim will be missed by all, and my heart goes out to Donna, his wife; to his family, his friends, and the community that continues to mourn his loss.

Madam Speaker, I want to thank the leadership of the House and, particularly, Chairman Gordon and Ranking Member Hall for allowing this bill to come forward. I think it is a very important piece of legislation for, certainly, the national defense and the economy of our country.

I ask: What would happen to our national defense if we could no longer build a jet engine, vehicle batteries or advanced targeting systems? What are the chances that our country would become energy independent if we could not produce hybrid cars, wind turbines or other alternative energy products? What would happen to our economy if the technologies we depend on to make business work were no longer available?

These are questions we would have to answer if China cut off our supply of rare earth materials--vital components to nearly every piece of advanced technology we use in our national defense and throughout business and industry.

For the past decade, the United States has been almost entirely dependent on China for its supply of rare earth materials despite the fact that we have an abundant reserve of these materials within our own borders. China currently accounts for as much as 90 percent of the world's available supply of rare earth materials, but they are reducing the amount of these materials going into the global market. Just this summer, China announced it would cut its rare earth exports for the second half of 2010 by 72 percent.

The bottom line is this: China is cornering the market on rare earth materials, and we, the United States, are falling behind. That is why we need to act now to begin the process of creating our own domestic supply of rare earth materials so the United States is never dependent on China or on any other country for crucial components for our national security.

My bill, H.R. 6160, the Rare Earths and Critical Materials Revitalization Act, is a bipartisan plan to jump-start U.S. research and development in rare earth materials to improve our ability to find, extract, process, and use rare earths to improve products. We want to ultimately create a robust domestic supply of rare earths.

My legislation will foster a strong rare earths industry here in the United

States. The scope of this bill spans the full supply chain from exploration to mining to manufacturing. It will reduce risks in financing new rare earth production facilities by guaranteeing loans to companies with new processing and refining technologies. My bill will also help create a U.S. minerals and materials policy so we are never without a plan of action if our supply of rare earths falls short.

China has stated clearly that foreign firms that move their manufacturing capacities onto Chinese soil will have no trouble procuring rare earth materials for their needs. That's just another way that American manufacturing jobs are being lured overseas. That has to stop. We need to make things right here in our country and to give those great manufacturing jobs to American men and women.

Madam Speaker, this bill cannot wait. Just last week, China reportedly cut off Japan's supply of rare earths in the wake of a territory conflict. This is a clear warning sign, and we would be foolish to ignore it. If China is willing to use its control of rare earths as leverage over other countries, we need to counter that advantage by jump-starting our domestic market of rare earths now. The GAO reports that it may take up to 15 years to rebuild the United States' rare earth supply chain. Delaying the seed money to begin this process only prolongs our dependency on China.

I urge my colleagues to support this bipartisan plan to promote U.S. global competitiveness and to ensure our national defense technology is made in America.

Madam Speaker, today is a great day for small businesses in the United States. The small Business Lending Act we are voting on today will give $12 billion in tax relief to small businesses and increase access to capital through community banks.

These $12 billion in tax cuts, including a 100 percent exclusion of capital gains tax on small business investments, saves entrepreneurs money that they can put right back into their businesses. This legislation creates a $30 billion small business lending fund to help community banks, not Wall Street banks, lend to our small businesses.

Access to capital is the biggest concern facing our small businesses today. That's why we included my plan to increase the cap on Small Business Administration express loans from $350,000 to $1 million.

More capital for business means that they can expand and create new jobs. Helping businesses grow is essential to our economic recovery and getting people back to work. As a small business owner, I am proud to support this plan to provide tax relief to businesses and give them access to capital they need.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor an exceptional organization in Erie, Pennsylvania on their 35th anniversary of service to our community.

SafeNet is an agency of dedicated professionals and volunteers working to end domestic violence against women, men, children and the elderly by providing shelter, counseling, legal advocacy and education. SafeNet helps victims find support through a wide range of programs, working closely with hospitals, schools, law enforcement and the courts to increase awareness and understanding of domestic violence.

For 35 years, SafeNet has brought hope and help to so many people in my region. Through their public education campaign, Unmasking the Faces, SafeNet is showing us all that victims of domestic violence can overcome their experiences and become strong survivors and active members of our community.

On behalf of all the families in my region, I extend my thanks and congratulations to SafeNet on their 35th anniversary and offer my support in their mission to put an end to domestic violence.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to applaud the exemplary health care institution in my district, Hamot Medical Center in Erie, Pennsylvania.

For more than 125 years, western Pennsylvanians have taken advantage of the excellent quality of care at Hamot Medical Center. This week, Hamot Medical Center is being recognized yet again for their high standards of quality and excellent patient care. U.S. News & World Report announced that Hamot Medical Center has been ranked among the top medical facilities in the Nation in the specialty of pulmonary medicine, which treats diseases of the lungs and respiratory tract. U.S. News & World Report's Best Hospitals 2010-11 includes rankings of 152 medical centers nationwide on tough standards of care and the number of patients served, among other factors.

I want to congratulate Hamot Medical Center for its commitment to its patients and to our community. Hamot is truly an asset to my district.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the 9/11 Health and Compensation Act tonight. I am from Pennsylvania, northwest Pennsylvania, almost 450 miles away from New York City.

During my first months in office, in 2009, I met with a constituent named Laura DiPasqua, the director of emergency services for the American Red Cross in Erie.

Laura was a healthy 41-year-old woman when she spent 5 weeks working at Ground Zero in the months following 9/11. Now she has an incurable cancer and two tumors. She has had numerous cancerous lesions removed from her mouth and her airways. She has undergone facial rebuilding four times as a result and can barely walk down the street due to her breathing problems. Her two sons say that the mother they knew died at Ground Zero.

This bill is the right thing to do for Laura and all the first responders who came to the aid of their fellow Americans from across this country and are now suffering these horrible consequences.

I urge my colleagues to stand with these brave Americans and support this bill.

Madam Speaker, I rise today with a parent's pride to honor the 100th anniversary of the United States Coast Guard Academy.

The long and proud heritage of the Coast Guard Academy began in 1910 in New London, Connecticut, and continues today in the academy's ongoing mission to promote the values of honor, respect, and devotion to duty.

The rigorous academic program of the Coast Guard Academy provides a holistic education that includes academics, physical fitness, character and leadership and that trains cadets in the many roles the Coast Guard takes in our national security.

On behalf of my district in western Pennsylvania, I offer my congratulations to the commandant of the Coast Guard and the superintendent of the United States Coast Guard Academy and its staff for 100 years of operation of the Coast Guard Academy.

I especially congratulate all the cadets and graduates of the academy, including my daughter Linden now serving in the Gulf of Mexico, for their incredible work and dedication to our country.

God bless the United States Coast Guard, Semper Paratus.

Mr. Speaker, most people understand that we have a real tangible need for the safety nets of Social Security and Medicare. The hard lessons of history compelled us to create protections for our seniors who have given us a lifetime of hard work and deserve security in their golden years.

But Washington Republicans just don't get it. They want to privatize Social Security and put seniors' retirement at the mercy of the stock market. They want to repeal the benefits we provided through Medicare. If Republicans had their way, they'd reopen the doughnut hole. They'd take away free, preventative health care under Medicare, and they'd play roulette with our seniors' retirement, their access to doctors, and their prescription drugs.

Washington Republicans have turned their backs on our seniors. I'm proud to stand by our seniors and make sure they have quality, affordable health care, safety and security in retirement, and peace of mind that these benefits are here to stay.

Madam Speaker, last week I attended the Big Butler Fair in Butler County and the Grange Fair in Mercer County in western Pennsylvania, and what was the number one question my constituents asked? ``What are you doing about the deficit?'' I visited senior centers in Hermitage and Erie, and what did our seniors say to me? ``Stop the unnecessary spending.''

Today I'm proud to tell my constituents that we are taking action. We are cutting wasteful, unnecessary government spending to the tune of $98 billion. That's how much Federal agencies spent in improper payments and overpayments in 2009; $98 billion is how

much we stand to gain with the Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act.

This bill will save taxpayer funds and increase transparency by making Federal agencies accountable for the money they spend. I'm telling my constituents right now, we are cutting wasteful spending, and we have a powerful new tool to do it.

Thank you so much. I appreciate the gentlewoman from Florida's leadership here. I want to reiterate my good friend from Tennessee brought up some of the important numbers that need be brought up. I'm from western Pennsylvania, as is my fellow colleague who has now made me not the junior Member. We have a manufacturing-based economy. And the numbers that my friend from Tennessee talked about are the numbers

that I have seen not in the past 2 years but over the last 12 or 15 years in terms of good manufacturing jobs lost in our region.

And what I find most exciting about this recovery that we are in is that we are making things again. And it's already been talked about tonight. But we are making things in America again. For the 11th consecutive month, the manufacturing sector has expanded in this country. We have got to depend on making things for our economic growth, not on the paper industry of Wall Street. And we have seen the problems with that, starting in 2007 and beyond.

I want to bring up a few highlights from an article from the Erie Daily Times today, an article that talked about Erie County, where my home is from: manufacturing employment rose in May for the third month in a row. Viking Plastic in Erie County had increased employment from a low of 65 workers to nearly 100. GE Transportation, which reduced payroll by 1,500 workers in 2009, has called back 200 permanent and temporary workers.

Economic growth is being seen throughout my district in the manufacturing sector. I visited a small electronics manufacturer, AMS Electronics, in Butler, Pennsylvania. They're performing well, despite the downturn, having increased their client base with the help of their local manufacturing extension partnership, a program that we fund through an act called the America COMPETES Act, which has recently been passed through the House.

So there is good news coming out of western Pennsylvania. Just even yesterday, I was at Donjon Shipping, a new manufacturer. We're building currently a tug boat; working on a barge next. Making things, permanent products that are going to be helping to improve the wealth of our Nation and bring great jobs here.

So I want to just reiterate what so many of my colleagues have said tonight, that there is good news. America is recovering. Not as fast as those out there need us to. Obviously, too many people still unemployed. But when you've lost 8 million jobs, 8 million jobs. We're on track this year to create more jobs than were created under 8 years of the Bush administration. I think that's important to remember.

So we are moving forward. We are creating jobs in this country. I just wanted to tell a little bit about the good news from western Pennsylvania. I want to thank everyone for their help tonight here with bringing this message to the American people--the message that we are continuing to recover. This summer we're going to see what we call the ``summer of stimulus,'' where we're going to see, I think, great numbers with highway projects that will increase by more than 600 percent from July of 2009 to this July.

Yes.

One of the great things about my part of Pennsylvania, and I really think Pennsylvania in general--I have to be a bit biased here--but we have a great ethic and we have people with great skills. We have been a manufacturing-based economy for a long time. So when businesses come there and they see the work ethic of the people, they want to stay, expand, and grow. And what we're doing is trying to provide that climate that will allow our businesses to grow and to provide those opportunities maybe for those new entrepreneurs that they have an opportunity to actually take that product that really could do great things in our country and do great things actually throughout the world. Because I see more and more of our businesses actually exporting also, and work that was going to Mexico and to China actually coming back, because we can make anything as well, if not better, than anybody else in the world. And we know that.

So we're working hard. As I mentioned, great numbers coming out of our district because there's new products, there's new clientele, there's expansion and creation going on throughout many different sectors of our manufacturing-based economy. And so whether we're talking about some of the tax credits and incentives we've been trying to do either through the recovery package or with other pieces of legislation, we are working hard to get back to that manufacturing base. At least from my part of the world, my part of the country, it's important. I know not so much in Florida, but in Pennsylvania it certainly is the backbone of our economy, along with agriculture.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of my bill, H.R. 5623, the Homebuyers Assistance and Improvement Act of 2010.

I particularly would like to thank the leader, Chairman Levin, for helping advance this legislation, which will extend tomorrow's closing deadline for those eligible for the home buyer tax credit.

The National Association of Realtors estimates that 180,000 families, including over 5,800 in my home State of Pennsylvania alone, signed contracts for new homes by the April 30 deadline, but have not yet finished their closings. One realtor in my district estimated that there are 20 of these such closings which have not been able to be completed yet. Due to the turmoil in the housing market and the overwhelming success of the tax credit, lenders and Federal programs have not been able to keep up with the demand, and that is what has created the backlog.

The Homebuyers Assistance and Improvement Act will provide time to clear this bottleneck and to make sure that these new homeowners are not punished for delays that are out of their control.

As our economy continues on a slow yet steady path toward recovery, we have a responsibility to promote policies that aid in that growth. The Homebuyers Assistance and Improvement Act will do just that, so I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 5623.

Madam Speaker, it is with a heavy heart that I rise today to honor the life of a fallen hero from Western Pennsylvania. Staff Sergeant Bryan Hoover of Lyndora, Pennsylvania was only 29 years old when he made the ultimate sacrifice defending our nation in Afghanistan.

On June 11th, a suicide bomber detonated an explosive near the Bullard Bazaar in Zabul Province in southern Afghanistan where Staff Sergeant Hoover and his fellow soldier, Sergeant First Class Robert Fike, also of Western Pennsylvania, were on foot patrol. Both these brave men were killed in the explosion. They were members of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard's Company C, 1st Battalion, 110th Infantry, based in Connellsville.

Staff Sergeant Hoover was passionate about his service to his country, and dreamt of joining the military even as a child. He enlisted in the Army National Guard in 2005 and previously served in the Marines. Bryan served a total of four tours overseas, two in Afghanistan, one in Iraq and one in Kuwait. He truly lived to serve our nation.

To his fellow soldiers, he was one of them, but to the students of Elizabeth Forward High School in Elizabeth, Pennsylvania, he was known as Coach Hoover. Bryan was the assistant cross country and track coach at his alma mater, where he graduated in 2000. Bryan loved sports, and was a talented athlete himself who particularly enjoyed hockey. He earned a degree in sports management from California University of Pennsylvania.

For his brave service and sacrifice, Staff Sergeant Bryan Hoover was awarded the Purple Heart.

Bryan is survived by his father, Melvin Hoover; his brothers, Richard and Ben; his sister, Samantha; his grandfather, Ray Bradford; his stepmother, Elaina Evans, and his fiance, Ashley Tack. His mother, Debra Jean, preceded Bryan in death.

It is my sad duty to enter the name of Staff Sergeant Bryan Hoover in the Record of the United States House of Representatives for service, sacrifice, commitment to his country and to our freedom.

While we struggle to express our sorrow over this loss, we can take pride in the example Bryan set as a soldier. Today and always, he will be remembered by family and friends as a true American hero, and we cherish the legacy of his service and his life.

As I search for words to do justice to this valiant fallen soldier, I recall President Abraham Lincoln's words as he addressed the families of soldiers who died at Gettysburg:

We cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.

May God grant strength and peace to those who mourn, and may God be with all of you, as I know He is with Bryan.