Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise to herald the achievements of Dottie Berger MacKinnon and to acknowledge her valuable contributions to the Tampa Bay community. Dottie is a community activist, child advocate, and former Hillsborough County Commissioner.

Dottie Berger MacKinnon is one of the founders of Joshua House, a safe haven for abused, abandoned, and neglected children, in Tampa and she has passionately supported the children served there since 1992. After founding the institution she helped the group establish a $1.2 million endowment through the Community Foundation of Tampa Bay in order to ensure that they can continue the work that she started there long into the future. This is one of the truly incredible philanthropic establishments in Tampa Bay. Joshua House continues to change the lives of the children who pass through its doors today.

In addition to her service as a founder of Joshua House, she also served the community as a Hillsborough County Commissioner from 1994- 1998. Her impressive service as a County Commissioner inspired those around her and on May 4, 2011 Dottie will be honored with the Ellsworth G. Simmons Good Government Award by the Hillsborough County Commissioners in recognition of the significant role that she played in improving government through leadership and vision.

Not finished with her incredible work for children yet, from 2005- 2009 she worked tirelessly to develop, create and co-found A Kid's Place, a residential care facility for foster siblings. Before A Kid's Place opened in 2009, kids who were taken away from abusive homes were often separated from their siblings. Rescued children now stay at comfortable houses at A Kid's Place for up to a month while officials work to find stable homes for groups of brothers and sisters. Her work with A Kid's Place continues to this day, as they just opened up a fifth residence hall due to her tireless work and fundraising.

The achievements of Dottie Berger MacKinnon are truly remarkable, heroic even. She has been recognized as a true difference maker in the lives of the children of Tampa Bay. Although she now battles cancer, she still works unrelentingly in her quest to improve the lives of children in the Tampa Bay area. I stand with the rest of the community in awe of the work she has done and continues to do for the children of Tampa Bay. I am honored to have been invited to the Hillsborough League of Women Voters 2011 Annual Award Luncheon where Mrs. Dottie Berger MacKinnon will be receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award. I can think of no better candidate to receive this honor than Dottie, she is truly an inspiration to everyone in the Tampa Bay community.

I thank my colleague from Colorado.

I rise in strong opposition to the rule and the underlying bill. In the State of Florida, we are still recovering from last year's BP oil blowout disaster. We're recovering economically and environmentally from the policies of the past that elevated oil company profits over safety.

To add insult to injury, every summer the price of gas goes up, and we see it in Florida because our economy is largely tied to tourism, and we see it and it pains us and consumers know that they are messing around with the American consumer. They understand that the Wall Street speculators are making a profit, maybe 20 percent in the price of gas, and that is not fair.

Why don't we start with a meaningful energy policy that addresses those speculators? Instead of continuing oil company giveaways, why don't we start with ending the taxpayer subsidies to the big oil companies? Just in the first quarter of this year, BP has made over $5 billion in profit. Exxon has made over $10 billion in profit. With the skyrocketing debt and deficit, why is it fair for the American taxpayer to be subsidizing the most profitable companies in the world? That is where we should begin this debate today, ending those oil company subsidies to bring down the price of gas and tackling the outrageous profits that go to the oil companies while the consumer is paying through the nose at the pump.

My Republican friends are on the wrong track when it comes to energy policy. We've got to prohibit Wall Street speculators from artificially inflating prices. We've got to adopt the oil spill commission's recommendations to make drilling safe before we charge ahead and open up new areas to drill. There are millions of acres to drill. Millions of acres. All we're asking is fairness and safety as they proceed in doing so so the American taxpayer will not have to pay any more.

Mr. Chairman, the vote on the Republican budget is one of the most important votes that I and my colleagues will cast as Members of Congress. The vote will tell the story of two distinct visions for America: how we reduce our debt, our economic future, and what we value as Americans.

The Republican plan to destroy Medicare, to replace it with a voucher system, and to saddle our older neighbors and hardworking families with nearly the entire burden of reducing the Federal deficit betrays our American values. Medicare has allowed our parents and grandparents and our older neighbors to live in dignity in their retirement years. Medicare has kept families out of poverty for decades. It has worked well. With the baby boomers coming, we need to be mindful of necessary reforms.

The Republicans should not use these difficult economic times as a reason to destroy Medicare. After all, the Republican plan will not save any money. It will simply shift the cost to older Americans and their families. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released an analysis, which reads: In 2022, with an increase of nearly $7,000 per year, the Republicans would double the cost per person. Not $1 of that increase in beneficiary cost goes to reducing the deficit. It all goes to cover the higher costs of private plans that the Republicans would force you to join.

The President said yesterday this debate over budgets and deficits is about more than just numbers on a page. It is about the kind of future that we want. It is about the kind of country that we believe in, and I agree. Each one of us deserves some basic measure of security and dignity. He said that we recognize no matter how responsibly we live our lives, hard times or bad luck or a crippling illness or a layoff may strike any one of us. There but for the grace of God go I.

And let me say, back home in Florida under this Republican plan to end Medicare, life will be very different. We need to reject this pessimistic Republican plan. On this most important vote, I urge my colleagues to save Medicare and keep the promise of health security and dignity for older Americans.

I have an amendment at the desk.

Madam Chair, my amendment requires a government accountability study within 90 days of enactment of the law to study the impact the Prevention and Public Health initiative has on preventing chronic diseases and promoting public health.

Madam Chair, prevention works. It's smart. It saves the taxpayers money. It saves families money. And it saves lives. The Prevention and Public Health initiative empowers communities all across this great Nation to focus on prevention and wellness and what works for them when it comes to reducing cancer cases, reducing heart disease, reducing strokes back in our own hometowns.

In Florida alone, there are over 10 million cases of the seven most common chronic diseases--cancer, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, stroke, mental disorders and pulmonary conditions. We all know our neighbors, friends, families, folks we go to church with, folks we see in the grocery store that suffer from these diseases. In a lot of these cases, if they had gotten early detection or if we had worked harder on prevention, they wouldn't have fallen into that trap of the disease and all that it brings for families and communities.

See, we have a better approach now. We are smarter in America. No longer should our health care system be focused only on taking care of folks in the hospital when they're sick or at the end stages. We're smarter. We can prevent a lot of this through education and being proactive and encouraging a healthier lifestyle.

And that's what the Prevention and Public Health Initiative does. State and local communities are able to decide what works best for them. This isn't Washington dictating what you should do. This is saying to our local hometowns and communities, What do you think works best for you?

So I would encourage all of my colleagues to take a look at the grants that are being made. How are your local communities making these investments work in your own districts to invest in the long term health of our neighbors and the economic prosperity of our communities?

For example, in my hometown in my district, the Pinellas County Health Department has brought together neighborhoods and all the nonprofits to determine--you know what's going to work best in Pinellas County is encouraging healthier lifestyles, because we have an obesity epidemic. So they want to build sidewalks, trails, bike lanes, better lighting to encourage people to exercise. They are going to make improvements to parks so children have the opportunity to get out and play after school instead of sitting in front of the television.

I also have a great public university, the University of South Florida, in my district. They are training the modern health care workforce in Florida. These are professionals fighting on the front lines of our communities, and yes, creating jobs. This is creating jobs to encourage the healthier lifestyles that work. USF is able to identify where the gaps in training might be, develop updated curricula to ensure the public health care workforce receives the most up-to-date research, and then they can spread the word throughout the churches, the grocery stores, and our neighborhoods.

The Florida Department of Health is also using these grants in checking on all of our strategies Statewide to determine what works. See, this is one of the important goals of the Affordable Care Act, to promote wellness and prevention, to ensure healthier outcomes for our families and neighbors. And the examples I have just shared with you are only a few of what's happening all across the country.

We are smarter, Madam Chair. Prevention works. It saves taxpayers money. It saves families money. It saves lives.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Chair, how much more time do I have?

Who has the right to close?

Madam Chair, what a waste of money it would be if we do not act on education and knowledge, because we know that prevention works in America. When you educate someone on healthier lifestyles, the likelihood is that they are going to live a healthier life. They can prevent disease. Maybe they get early detection of their cancer. And that would save them a lot of money. You know, it also would save the government a lot of money. So let's be smart about this. Prevention works.

It reminds me now of my friends across the aisle, their proposal to end Medicare as we know it, because that is not smart. Again, like prevention, Medicare works. It saves families money. And the plan to privatize Medicare and turn it into a voucher program is not going to save any money. Indeed, it will shift the costs to families. They will have to pay more. So let's do what's smart. Prevention works.

I urge adoption of my amendment.

Madam Chair, I demand a recorded vote.

Madam Chair, I have an amendment at the desk.

Madam Chair, my amendment requires a Government Accountability Office study within 90 days of enactment of this bill to examine the economic impact Prevention and Public Health grants have on States and local communities.

Now, I can tell you we don't really need a study to understand how important prevention is and how important it is to empower our hometowns, local governments, nonprofits, whoever can come together on a local level and make these decisions about encouraging healthier lifestyles.

The beauty of the Public Health and Prevention initiative is it's not Washington dictating all across the country a cookie-cutter approach, one size fits all. Instead, we empower our neighbors to make these decisions on what works best for them. I would say that what works best in my hometown back in Tampa probably would not work quite as well in Fargo or in Missouri.

Prevention of disease is smart. It saves families money, and it saves taxpayers money as well. Now, over time we have all gotten smarter about preventing chronic diseases. Much of this cost-saving and life- saving focus was brought to bear in the landmark Affordable Care Act and this Prevention and Public Health initiative, which is the most historic investment in public health of our communities in the history of our country.

Now, far from the extreme arguments against prevention from my colleagues across the aisle, the Prevention and Public Health initiative empowers States, hometowns, and local communities to determine what works best for them. The annual treatment cost of chronic diseases costs the United States over $270 billion. And our economy has lost over $1 trillion in lost productivity. In Florida alone, we have lost over $68 billion in lost productivity and economic costs due to chronic diseases like heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.

So not only does prevention help us reduce costs, it can be an economic boost to our communities. I can tell you back in Florida we need as many economic boosts as we can get. We still have a high unemployment rate. We have a large number of uninsured. So what could be smarter than targeting some of our communities and encouraging them on healthier lifestyles so they can get back to work?

We are creating jobs through doing this. For example, at the University of South Florida College of Public Health, they've received one of the Prevention and Public Health grants where they're hiring and training the modern public health workforce. These are the folks with the most updated knowledge that are able to go out through communities and encourage them and educate them on what it would mean if they didn't smoke, if they didn't drink. Oftentimes, these initiatives have a great impact. They can save us money, and they can save us lives.

In Pinellas County they are combating childhood obesity, and they are already making a big economic impact in the community. Richard Curtin is the program manager for the Communities Putting Prevention to Work-- Pinellas. He informed me they have created already 18 jobs as a direct result of this lifesaving work.

So I would encourage all of you to ask your folks back home what works best for them. Apply for these grants. We can make a difference all across America, save taxpayers money, save our families money, and save lives while we are at it.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Chair, we are spending our dollars wisely when we are investing in prevention and wellness because prevention works. Prevention saves money, it saves the taxpayers money, it saves families money and it saves lives.

Now, there has been a great debate all across America about health care over the past few years. I think we can all agree on that. Part of the importance of the health care debate was that our health care system for too long has focused and spent money at the end game on sickness, when people have cancer, and that's fine, but we can be smarter about it. We have a lot more knowledge and a lot of experts that have advised us all that if you invest in prevention to encourage folks not to smoke, not to drink, those easy things, very easy in lifestyle, but oftentimes they need a little extra help. Parents should turn off the TV and the kids should go out and play. They should exercise.

But sometimes it's that little extra push. And if we can make a dent in childhood obesity, diabetes, cancer, a stroke, because we have encouraged healthier lifestyles with this very modest investment, that will be a great accomplishment. And that's part of what the health care debate was about, taking this modest investment in public health and empowering our communities to make those decisions on what works for them. Prevention works. It's smart.

I urge the adoption of my amendment.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Chair, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to express my concern over my Republican colleagues' cheering the impending prospect of a government shutdown, as was reported in the press.

Then, this morning, we wake up to find out that the Republican proposal to address the deficit and debt is not to address major tax loopholes or tax earmarks, but it's to undermine Medicare and to end Medicare as we know it. Now, for decades and decades, we have had this wonderful Medicare program that ensured that our older neighbors live their retirement in dignity. They can see the doctor. If they have to go to the hospital, it is there for them. And a hospice benefit in their last days. This is all at risk now because the new Republican plan announced this morning will end Medicare as we know it by eliminating benefits.

We're not going to stand for it. We're going to stand on the side of our older neighbors to ensure that, yes, they can live their retirement years in dignity and financial security.

Mr. Speaker: I rise today to acknowledge the contributions of the nation's Area Health Education Centers (AHECs) and applaud the vitally important healthcare workforce programs they conduct to improve access to healthcare for medically under-served individuals.

AHECs, established by Congress in 1971 as one of the Title VII Health Professions Training programs, are the workforce development, training and education machine for the nation's healthcare safety net programs. Across the nation, 56 AHEC programs and more than 235 affiliated AHEC centers collaborate with over 120 medical schools and 600 nursing and allied health programs to improve the quality, geographic distribution and diversity of the primary care workforce.

Last year, AHECs facilitated the placement of more than 44,000 health professional students in 17,530 community-based practice settings nationwide including community health centers, rural health clinics, critical access hospitals, tribal clinics and public health departments. To address the growing shortage of health care professionals in America, over 33,000 received more than 20 hours of health career exposure, information, and academic enhancement to prepare them for health professions training programs.

The University of South Florida's AHEC Program connects students to careers, professionals to communities, and communities to better health. The USF AHEC Program inspires youth to choose a career in the health professions with its health career camps, mentoring programs, college preparatory courses and more. USF focuses on recruiting more minority and disadvantaged youth into health careers because as the nation's population becomes more diverse, it is important that the health care workforce reflects that diversity. AHECs in the Tampa Bay area are dedicated to community service and committed to enhancing the lives of Florida's most vulnerable populations who often go without health care due to geographic isolation and economic or social status. From 2000 to now, USF AHEC and its centers, Gulfcoast North AHEC and Gulfcoast South AHEC, have placed over 13,000 health professions students, residents and providers in medically underserved sites such as community health centers, county health departments and indigent care clinics within its service area; have increased access to healthcare at these sites with approximately 3 million patient encounters; and have guided more than 10,000 youth to careers in health through student enrichment and diversity programs. Most recently, USF AHEC and its centers have also provided tobacco cessation services to over 1,600 residents of the service area in an effort to combat the nation's leading cause of disease, disability and death--tobacco use.

Not only have AHECs supported the education of future professionals, but they have supported more than 482,000 health professionals caring for the medically under-served with programs designed to enhance their skills, knowledge, and quality of care. AHECs have awarded 1.1 million contact hours of continuing education programs to current health professionals. AHECs extend the academic resources of health professions training programs into rural and medically under-served communities throughout the United States by creating partnerships between the health science centers that train health professions students, residents, faculty, and practitioners and the local providers that care for our nation's increasing number of medically under-served citizens.

Mr. Speaker, through community-based interdisciplinary training programs, AHECs identify, inspire, recruit, educate, and retain a health care workforce committed to under-served populations. To that end, I would like to take this opportunity to officially recognize National AHEC Week, March 14 through March 18, 2011.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to urge my colleagues to continue to focus on creating jobs and the economic recovery. I am very concerned with the reckless GOP spending proposal that will slash jobs all across the United States of America, and I want to give two examples that were highlighted by my local Urban League that visited Washington yesterday from Pinellas County, or St. Petersburg, Florida.

They said the Republican spending proposal will actually cut 9,100 teachers, teachers' aides, and education jobs if it goes into effect. I think that's wrong. We shouldn't be slashing jobs. We should be fighting to create jobs. They also highlighted the fact that H.R. 1 will slash the Pell Grant for 9.4 million college students all across America. Their proposed cut is $845 per student. That is wrong.

We must remain invested in education, our teachers, our students. We've got to fight for each and every job in the face of the GOP reckless spending proposal and misguided priorities.

Madam Chair, I have en bloc amendments at the desk.

Madam Chair, my amendments are very simple. They say that 90 days after enactment of this bill, we will commence a Government Accountability study to determine the impact of Neighborhood Stabilization rounds 1, 2, and 3 on communities all across the country.

Now, I have to tell you, Madam Chair, I do not need a study to tell me that in my community Neighborhood Stabilization has provided terrific benefits. Neighborhood Stabilization in the Tampa Bay area in Florida, a community that was very hard hit by predatory lending, subprime mortgage, and the foreclosure crisis, Neighborhood Stabilization has given us the tools to create vital housing in the midst of this horrendous crisis and it has created jobs.

Things have been tough in my neck of the woods, and Neighborhood Stabilization has given communities in our neighborhoods and our nonprofit agencies a little bit of hope. Property values in the Tampa Bay area have plummeted by over 40 percent since 2007. Neighborhood Stabilization has helped us to stop the bleeding. Neighborhood Stabilization has helped us protect our property values. And Neighborhood Stabilization has turned some of the worst abandoned and foreclosed homes that were causing blight all across our community into rehabilitated properties. And here are just a few examples of what Neighborhood Stabilization has done in Tampa and in Hillsborough County.

First, with the help of our local nonprofit partners, in East Tampa we have taken an abandoned, dilapidated residential property and we are turning it into housing for 18 homeless female veterans and their families. If you come down to my neck of the woods, unfortunately, you will see folks out on the street corner. We have a panhandling problem like never before--nothing I have ever seen in my lifetime in my hometown--and it's very difficult to deal with. A lot of the homeless are veterans, and some of them are female veterans. So we've taken that Neighborhood Stabilization money and plugged it into buying an old abandoned residential property, and we're now providing housing for those homeless veterans. We broke ground last fall, and all of the construction workers, the architects, the engineers, they were there to thank us because they also needed the work.

Here's a second example. We also breathed new life into a new downtown redevelopment mixed use initiative. Years ago, the Tampa community tore down what was the worst public housing project anywhere around. It was named Central Park Village. Well, thanks to Neighborhood Stabilization, next week we are going to break ground on the first residential piece of this new community. The first residential piece will provide affordable apartments to seniors. Neighborhood Stabilization did that. We did not have the funds and our local partners did not have the funds to continue on that mixed use public- private partnership. And it gets even better, because that big mixed use project is going to create 4,000 construction jobs in an area that really needs them and 1,000 permanent jobs once the new redevelopment is finished.

Third, through our community, we have targeted those ugly, abandoned, dilapidated houses and duplexes on the street or boarded-up apartment complexes. We put people to work cleaning them up. We've sold them or rerented to a family that met eligibility standards. A renovated home can sometimes set off a chain reaction of home improvement throughout your neighborhood, and that is what we're seeing.

The alternative would be letting houses stay vacant, continuing to drag down property values in my community even further. We're putting families back into these homes. Our local nonprofit partners are returning them to the fabric of the neighborhoods rather than just having them sit there or seeing them flipped by out-of-town investors.

In addition to the meaningful tools Neighborhood Stabilization gives to local communities like mine and the thousands of jobs it has helped create, I would like you to take one step back and consider the modest investment Neighborhood Stabilization has provided--overall, $7 billion over the past few years. I can't help but compare that to the $700 billion that was provided to Wall Street through the Wall Street bailout that I did not support because that was not directing the big banks to provide any help to our local communities. Well, Neighborhood Stabilization, this very modest investment--1 percent of the Wall Street bailout funds--now is providing greater stabilization throughout our communities.

So I urge my colleagues to support my amendments and oppose H.R. 861.

I thank my colleague very much for agreeing to accept my amendments.

My point on comparing neighborhood stabilization to the Wall Street bailout was just to point out--and I know both sides of the aisle were involved in the Wall Street bailout. It was the Bush administration, but a number of Democrats worked to do that, and I'm not here to criticize that. It's just to compare the scale. There was $700 billion provided to Wall Street banks, just to compare, and 1 percent of that to communities under neighborhood stabilization.

Mr. Chair, I move to strike the last word.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

We were hired by our neighbors in our hometowns to come up to Washington and fight for jobs and help get the country back on the road to recovery. But instead, this Republican Congress is taking an extreme right turn right back into the dark ages because they are targeting a very important initiative that has provided fundamental health services to women since 1970 to say no more will women that depend on family planning in the United States of America have that lifeline any longer--that lifeline for breast cancer screenings, cervical cancer screenings, the annual Pap smear, for contraceptives. We can't go back to the dark ages--and we're not going to let you.

As often as it has been misstated on this floor tonight, none of the money for family planning goes to pay for abortions. This is their false battle cry. In effect, what they're doing is they want to cut off the lifeline for mothers and daughters, aunts, your friends, your neighbors who sometimes don't have a place to go to afford that important doctor's visit. There seems to be little if any empathy for these women from the Republican side of the aisle, as they propose no alternative for providing this care, and they don't seem to realize or, frankly, care that unintended pregnancies will rise if this program is abolished.

Cutting off these funds and eliminating this care for women will not stop abortion, which is their claim. Only family planning will stop abortion. The major consequence of wiping out title X, which really means that all-important trip to the doctor's office for a woman who doesn't have any place else to go for their breast cancer screening, their annual exam, the only consequence, major consequence, will be eliminating health care for millions of women while also increasing the bill to taxpayers. For every public dollar invested in family planning, taxpayers save $4.

So attacking reproductive health care for women may make for very interesting politics, but it doesn't prevent unintended pregnancy. It doesn't create jobs. It doesn't improve the economic situations of our hometowns. And that's what we should be debating for hours and hours tonight.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Chair, I move to strike the last word.

Madam Chair, I am committed to cutting the deficit, and I sought a seat on the Budget Committee to do so. But I rise to express deep concerns over the congressional Republicans' irresponsible fiscal scheme that will harm communities and students back home that I represent.

We need a multiyear strategy to cut the debt and the deficit, but a strategy that ensures that America retains its superiority in education, innovation, and research.

We must cut waste and close the huge tax loopholes written by lobbyists, like the ones for oil companies. But congressional Republicans do not do this.

Instead of tackling the debt and deficit in a smart and strategic way, the congressional Republicans' scheme will result in job losses, and it will make economic recovery more difficult for American families and businesses. And here are some stark examples from the community I represent back in Florida in the Tampa Bay area.

First, on education and the Pell Grant. I represent an education community, with a large public research university, a private college, and many community colleges. When the Republicans propose cutting the Pell Grant and support to students, this harms our ability to maintain our superiority in education when we are competing with countries all across the globe.

You know, over 9 million students and families rely on the Pell Grant every year in America, and we have worked very hard through the economic recovery to help those students maintain that same level of Pell Grants. So don't take us backwards. You shouldn't be taking us backwards.

Do you know what it's like for a hardworking family to pay tuition right now? Is tuition going down? Is tuition being cut? Are books being cut? No. So let's not turn our backs on our students and families at this time.

The same thing for Head Start. In Tampa and Hillsborough Counties, we have an award-winning Head Start initiative. And the evidence that Head Start gives students a boost in life is very well known. Parents have to be involved. We wish all eligible kids could get that boost. Even now, before the congressional Republican cuts, we have 2,400 families on the waiting list and 1,000 infants and toddlers on the Early Start list. The Republican cuts again take us backwards. I hear from back home that 452 families will be told that there is no room for their child.

They will also lay off 123 teachers just in my home county alone, because in the State of Florida they predict that they will have to lay off almost 2,000 teachers under your cuts.

Schools and students. The Republicans again are off base in cutting my local schools, particularly the title I schools that serve kids that need a little extra attention. We estimate that Republicans will be eliminating 20 to 30 jobs in my home district that serve students that need that achievement gap boost. You are harming the high poverty middle and high school students also in the county across the Bay that recently was able to expand beyond elementary school.

Madam Chairman, rather than close the tax loophole for the oil companies that are making multi-billion dollar profits, the Republicans instead cut my local police and sheriff's departments, like the help we get under COPS for the anti-methamphetamine initiative and for our juvenile justice initiative to try to prevent gangs from forming in the counties. The youth initiatives have received national awards from the Attorney General, and it would be a real shame if we had to turn these back.

Also, in my home county, we rely on some very robust ports in the Tampa Bay area as our economic engine. You are going to cut that support for that economic engine to dredge the canals and ports so the ships can come in, and we rely on those for jobs.

You also are going to cut the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Now, after the Gulf of Mexico suffered the economic hit under the BP oil blowout, our coastal communities were hurt badly. The tourism industry, the seafood industry and our wildlife habitat suffered significant damage.

So, coming from Florida, when you all say that you are going to turn your backs on our ability to monitor our oceans, that is very harmful, because clean oceans and clean beaches mean a healthy economy. Certainly closing the oil company tax loophole would be a wiser course of action.

We all know how harsh it has been under the Great Recession with foreclosures. It has hit us especially hard, so hard that a local expert told me yesterday that the Republican budget cuts to the magnitude being considered would greatly and immediately increase homelessness, place more than 1,000 families at risk and put seniors on the street.

Vote ``no'' on this CR.

Offered By: Ms. Castor of Florida

Amendment No. 541: Page 201, strike lines 9 through 18.

Offered By: Ms. Castor of Florida

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``and'' and all that follows through ``Act'' on line 5.

Offered By: Ms. Castor of Florida

Amendment No. 544: Page 245, strike lines 11 through 15.

Offered By: Mr. Castor of Florida

Amendment No. 382: Page 216, strike lines 4 through 6.

Offered By: Ms. Castor of Florida

Amendment No. 383: Page 263, strike lines 20 through 25.