Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the Frito-Lay, Technology Process Center in Dallas, Texas, for outstanding achievement in the field of occupational safety and health.

The tremendous efforts on behalf of the entire workforce have resulted in the center's approval to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's Volunteer Protection Programs at the Star Level. Frito-Lay, Technology Process Center has now been a VPP participant for 5 years.

Since 1982, OSHA has recognized American worksites that have exceptional records and exemplify commitment to workplace safety and health. Less than 1,000 worksites under Federal jurisdiction currently share this distinction. Sites meeting VPP's demanding requirements typically experience injury and illness rates 53 percent below the industry average.

It is my pleasure to commend the men and woman of Frito-Lay, Technology Process Center for being approved once again as a VPP participant. Their dedication to workplace safety and health deserves to be recognized.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from North Carolina (Ms. Foxx) for yielding to me.

It is a rare privilege for me to be on the floor with her tonight, and it was a privilege for me to spend the last hour listening to the names of men and women who have given their lives so that we would have the opportunity to be here tonight and to state our views and debate and pass laws that will affect this country.

But this evening I would like to commend the leadership of the Republican-led 109th Congress, which at its halfway point has been marked by major legislative achievement. The Democrats have responded to our party's ideas and vision with a lack of ideas and a lack of vision. They have continuously criticized the actions of the majority, but remain unwilling to put forward any constructive plan on Social Security, energy, or illegal immigration.

I am proud of the many initiatives already passed by House Republicans this year to strengthen this great Nation. This includes class action reform. This reform addresses the most serious cases of class action abuse by allowing large interstate class action cases to be heard in Federal court. The measure unclogs specified, very specific, overused courts and ends harassment of local businesses through forum shopping and limits the thousands and thousands of frivolous lawsuits that are being filed every day.

Another example is the READ ID Act. The READ ID Act completes the mission and recommendations of the 9/11 Commission. It closes asylum loopholes and implements driver's license reforms, strengthens deportation laws, and defends our borders. This bill is necessary to secure our borders and our homeland.

This majority has also passed the permanent repeal of the death tax. The death tax is the leading cause of dissolution for most of our small businesses in America. This unfair tax hampers economic growth. Permanently killing the death tax creates a tax policy that supplements economic growth and opportunity and gives hope to future generations. Our small farmers, our Realtors, our small businesses in America only want to pass on what they have spent generations earning to their families; yet we have a death tax now that robs them of that ability.

America needs a comprehensive energy policy. This Republican Congress has passed an energy bill that creates \1/2\ million new jobs in a wide range of industries. The initiative provides incentives for renewable energies and leadership in energy conservation. The Energy Policy Act allows for increased domestic oil and gas exploration and development. It aims to decrease America's dependence on foreign oil and therefore make our country safer and more self-reliant.

Republican Members of Congress are also currently hammering out solutions to the looming Social Security crisis, as well as negotiating a highway bill that will improve driver safety, traffic congestion, and create millions of new jobs across America.

Such progress and achievement for the well-being of this country can only be attributed to the leadership and effectiveness of congressional Republicans. I am disappointed that our opposing party continues to hinder progress and relies on its legislative obstructionism.

I am proud of what we have accomplished thus far in the 109th Congress for the American people.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to express my condolences and heartfelt sympathy to the family and friends of United States Army Private First Class Steven C. Tucker of Grapevine, Texas.

Private First Class Tucker was killed in action on Saturday, May 21, 2005, at the age of 19, in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. He graduated from Colleyville Heritage High School in May of 2004, and completed boot camp in December of the same year. Private First Class Tucker was assigned to A Company, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry, 173rd Airborne Brigade, in Vincenza, Italy.

I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to Private First Class Tucker. This brave young man made the ultimate sacrifice for the security of his country and for the defense of democracy worldwide. He was an outstanding young man; and we should all be grateful for his noble contributions to this nation and the advancement of freedom.

I am proud to call Private First Class Tucker one of our own, and again deeply sorry for his family and friends who have suffered this loss. His legacy will remain, as the men and women of our armed services continue to fight for liberty--both abroad and on our home soil.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to commend Given Kachepa, a Grapevine High School senior, for being named one of America's top ten youth volunteers by the Prudential Spirit of Community Awards. He was selected from a field of over 20,000 youth volunteers from across the country.

Given is an advocate for victims of human trafficking. An orphan at age 9 in his native Zambia, he was recruited two years later to sing in a boy's choir on an overseas tour. He was promised a salary and education, and that the money raised from the tour would be used to build schools in Zambia. None of these promises, however, were met.

For over a year and a half, Given and his fellow choir members performed six or seven times a day, sometimes with little food. After being saved by U.S. immigration authorities, Given used his own experience to help with the widespread human trafficking problem. He has educated the public through the media, and spoken about human trafficking at conferences, along with local and national law enforcement agencies.

I am proud to recognize Given for this high honor; he is well deserving of the award. The future of America is in good hands with leaders like him.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of Justice Priscilla Owen, Presidential nominee to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

Since her nomination in May of 2001, the Democrats have continuously threatened to use the filibuster to block a vote on her nomination, and she is unable to be confirmed. All judicial nominees deserve a fair up- or-down vote on the Senate floor. This judicial obstruction is unprecedented.

I personally know Justice Priscilla Owen. Her record on the Supreme Court of Texas is outstanding and she deserves the opportunity to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals. Justice Owen has had broad bipartisan support, including the support of three former Democratic judges on the Supreme Court and a bipartisan group of 15 past Presidents of the State Bar of Texas.

If the Senate employs the constitutional option, it will not be changing the rules; it will simply be restoring the precedent and a 200-year tradition. Justice Owen deserves a fair up-or-down vote, as do all of President Bush's judicial nominees.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak in support of a law which has fostered spectacular growth and vitality in my district and throughout all of north Texas. That law, which has become known as the Wright amendment, was passed in 1979 to settle for all time a controversy on how best to achieve robust competitive airline competition in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

It has worked and continues to work beyond all expectations, but the benefits it has brought can easily be undone. Given all of the turmoil in the airline industry and the limited time for Congress to get important business done, any serious effort to change the current law would be a misuse of our time and resources.

Since the issue has been in the news lately and Members have been approached with very simplistic answers on the surface, compelling arguments about the Wright amendment, I want to put some facts into the Record.

In the late 1960s, the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth, at the urgings of the Civil Aeronautics Board, agreed to end the fragmentation of air service in the region and invest in a single regional airport that could serve all of the people in the area. At the time, everyone knew a new airport would not work unless there was an absolute commitment by all parties to consolidate all the service from the various local airports in the area into the new facility, which became known as the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.

The two communities and all carriers offering interstate service from the existing airports agreed on this course of action. However, one carrier that at that time offered only interstate service from Dallas' downtown airport, Love Field, refused to do so.

This led to a long and protracted and bitter legal battle between the communities and this carrier, which ultimately resulted in a carefully negotiated compromise. This compromise encompassed into Federal law to preserve it was exactly constructed to reflect the intent of the communities as well as the desires of the interstate carrier.

Reluctantly, the civic parties agreed to allow the one carrier that had refused to move to the DFW Airport to operate out of Love Field to and from points within Texas or to its four contiguous States. That carrier agreed to the Wright amendment as a way to settle the issue for all time.

Last week, the highly respected global aviation consulting firm, Simat, Helliesen & Eichner, released an omnibus report which predicts devastating consequences to the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport if the Wright amendment were to be repealed. I will submit the report for the Record; but it predicts if the Wright amendment is repealed, DFW could lose 204 flights a day, 21 million passengers annually, and slash DFW passenger traffic back to levels seen 20 years ago.

Mr. Speaker, health in the airline industry is dependent on healthy competition between airlines. In contrast, competition between very closely located airports can be destructive. The communities of Dallas and Fort Worth understood this when they agreed to end, or restrict, commercial air traffic to their local airports. DFW was built to accommodate any and all carriers, and over the years it has attracted both network and low-cost carriers.

Just as importantly, by limiting traffic at the neighboring airports, DFW was able to compete among airports and now is the fifth largest airport. Think of it this way. Almost everyone would agree it would improve competition to have 30 airlines competing against each other, but no one would suggest it would be healthy to have 30 airports competing against each other. Just like two major shopping centers will die if located next door to each other, two airports located only 12 miles apart, as are in Dallas, Love Field and DFW will provide two weaker airports.

Let us be perfectly clear. Restriction at Meachem and Love Fields were not put in place to give DFW a jump start. No one said, We will invest billions of dollars in a huge international airport and domestic hub airport until it is successful and then we will undercut the very source of its success by reopening the airports that we closed to make it so. That does not make good business sense.

Mr. Speaker, DFW is what it is today because it is the only airport in the metroplex that passengers can use to fly anywhere in the world. Moreover, it has not achieved the success it has by being anticompetitive. On the contrary, it has always welcomed all comers. DFW currently has gates available and is seeking new airlines.

Love Field was never meant to be a competitor to DFW. In fact, DFW would probably have never been built and the tens of thousands of jobs and the billions of dollars of economic stimulus it has given Dallas- Fort Worth would never have been realized

if Love Field had remained an unrestricted airport. The best proof of that statement is evidenced by the 21 empty gates currently vacant at DFW. Despite any attractive incentives, DFW has been unable to attract new, low-cost tenants because of the discussion of repealing the Wright amendment.

Mr. Speaker, in accordance with the celebration of Small Business Week, I would like to recognize Mr. James Berry, President of Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, in Grand Prairie, Texas, for receiving the Dwight D. Eisenhower Award for Excellence. This award was given by the Small Business Administration. It honors large contractors that have excelled in utilizing small businesses as suppliers and subcontractors. Mr. Berry and the entire company deserve this high merit for their support of small businesses.

Small businesses are the backbone of the American economy. They are vital to innovation and major job providers for American workers. In 2003, 99.7 percent of all businesses in the United States were small firms.

Congratulations to Mr. Berry and the Lockheed Martin team in Grand Prairie for receiving this high distinction. I thank them for recognizing the importance of small businesses, and establishing an outstanding small business subcontracting program. I wish Mr. Berry and Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control continued success.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 504) to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 4960 West Washington Boulevard in Los Angeles, California, as the ``Ray Charles Post Office Building''.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill, H.R. 504.

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

Mr. Speaker, as a member of the Committee on Government Reform, I rise in support of H.R. 504. This legislation designates this post office in Los Angeles as the Ray Charles Post Office Building to celebrate the life of the great American entertainer.

All 53 members of the California congressional delegation have cosponsored this legislation to comply with the committee policy on post office-naming bills.

Mr. Speaker, Ray Charles Robinson was born in Albany, Georgia, in 1930. He was raised in Florida, and completely lost his sight by age 7. Amazingly, he overcame his lack of sight and began to study piano, saxophone, and clarinet at a school for the blind and deaf.

He ultimately became a traveling musician and shortened his name to Ray Charles to differentiate himself from the famous boxer of that time, Ray Robinson. During his career that spanned more than 5 decades, Ray Charles won an outstanding 12 Grammy Awards, including the best R&B recording three consecutive years from 1961 through 1963: ``Hit the Road Jack,'' ``I Can't Stop Loving You,'' and ``Busted.'' He was unquestionably one of the world's most successful musicians of the 20th century.

Mr. Speaker, it is important for all of us to understand how groundbreaking his music fusion of gospel, blues, pop, country, and jazz really was.

His ingenuity paved the way for other giants in music history, including Aretha Franklin and Elvis Presley. Ray Charles passed away in Beverly Hills, California, on June 10, 2004. This post office will serve as an important memorial to Ray Charles's legacy and influence on American popular music.

I want to thank the distinguished gentlewoman from California (Ms. Watson), my colleague on the committee, for her work on H.R. 504.

Mr. Speaker. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I have no other speakers at the moment and reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all Members to support the passage of H.R. 504.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1001) to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 301 South Heatherwilde Boulevard in Pflugerville, Texas, as the

``Sergeant Byron W. Norwood Post Office Building''.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 1001.

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

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 1001 is an important piece of legislation that names this Pflugerville, Texas, Post Office as the Sergeant Byron W. Norwood Post Office Building.

I am proud the House is considering this bill today because Sergeant Byron Norwood is, without question, an American hero.

Mr. Speaker, Byron Norwood grew up in Pflugerville, a small town outside of Austin, and enjoyed playing the trumpet in the high school jazz band and marching band. He was a star in several high school theater productions. After graduation, he joined the Marines, following in the footsteps of both of his grandfathers who served with the Marine Corps during World War II. He ultimately became a sergeant assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division in Camp Pendleton, California.

Mr. Speaker, Sergeant Norwood bravely served two tours of duty in Iraq. During his second tour he was tragically killed by a sniper in the Anbar province of Iraq on November 13 of 2004. In the trying days that followed, Byron's mother, Janet Norwood, wrote a letter to President Bush to say how dedicated her son was to his country. Mrs. Norwood said in the letter that in spite all that the family had been through, they still supported the war. Afterwards, the White House invited Mr. and Mrs. Norwood to the State of the Union speech.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. McCaul), for introducing this legislation and seeing it to the floor today.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. McCaul).

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

Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to be a cosponsor of House Resolution 1001 that honors Sergeant Byron Norwood. I urge all Members to support this legislation.

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

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 184) recognizing a National Week of Hope in commemoration of the 10-year anniversary of the terrorist bombing in Oklahoma City.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H. Res. 184.

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

Mr. Speaker, this important resolution recognizes the National Week of Hope in commemoration of the 10th-year anniversary of the terrorist bombing in Oklahoma City.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Istook), the distinguished sponsor of House Resolution 184.

Mr. Speaker, I yield as much time as he may consume to the gentleman from the State of Oklahoma (Mr. Cole), my distinguished colleague. The gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Cole) was the Oklahoma Secretary of State on April 19, 1995.

(Mr. COLE of Oklahoma asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. Speaker, how much time does our side have remaining?

Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to my distinguished colleague, the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Lucas).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 additional minute to the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Istook), the sponsor of House Resolution 184, to close.

(Mr. ISTOOK asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

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

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1072) to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 151 West End Street in Goliad, Texas, as the ``Judge Emilio Vargas Post Office Building''.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.

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

Mr. Speaker, this meaningful legislation honors Emilio Vargas, a committed social advocate in south Texas. H.R. 1072 designates the postal facility in Goliad, Texas, as the Judge Emilio Vargas Post Office Building. I am pleased to join with all Members of my home State of Texas as a cosponsor of H.R. 1072.

Judge Vargas worked at the Department of Human Services as a caseworker directly helping citizens in need for 28 years. He also served as a trustee on the Goliad Independent School District Board, and for the past 10 years he has been a justice of the peace for Goliad County, which in Texas is an elected position in which one earns the title ``judge.''

I know the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Hinojosa) feels strongly about the contributions of Judge Vargas, and I congratulate my colleague for advancing H.R. 1072 on the floor today.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, I would like to honor John M. Harpole for his 50 years of service with Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. During his tenure with Missiles and Fire Control, he has served in the areas of Database Design, Facility Operations, Information Technology, and Manufacturing. We thank John for his dedication not only to the defense industry and the company, but also to the country we serve.

Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Burgess) for introducing this amendment and for the gentleman's hard work over the last 2 years on transportation issues in Texas.

Under current law, even if $1 of Federal money is spent towards a State toll project, no transportation development credits will be accrued by the State. In other words, not only does the Federal Government punish States for investing in toll facilities, it also prevents them from using transportation development credits which would have been accumulated for the use and purchase of transit capital such as buses and transit cars.

The United States has a 50-year-old highway system put under enormous strain by our population. Combine that with the fact that there is simply not enough money to go around for highways and transit programs, and there is a large gap between our country's transportation needs and that which can be provided under current funding. I urge my colleagues to support this amendment.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to recognize Cadet Cory Zebian, a Colleyville, Texas, resident, for his appointment to Chief Petty Officer of the United States Naval Sea Cadet Corps. This honor follows years of work and dedication to this youth program, including the completion of regulation U.S. Navy courses, from Basic Military Regulations through Chief Petty Officer. CPO Zebian has shown superior qualities of leadership, patriotism, and expertise that have allowed him to achieve this accomplishment, which is awarded to less than \1/2\ of 1% of the approximately 10,000 Naval Sea Cadets. I congratulate CPO Zebian on his significant feat.