Floor Statements

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

Mr. Speaker, this resolution recognizes the 101st anniversary of the founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. This resolution also praises the NAACP for its work to secure the political, educational, social and economic equality of all persons.

The NAACP was founded on February 12, 1909, in New York City. It was the centennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth. The NAACP is the oldest and largest civil rights organization in the United States today.

In 1913, the NAACP organized opposition to racial segregation in Federal Government offices. The NAACP also played a key role in securing the rights of African Americans to serve as officers in World War I. Throughout the past century, the NAACP has worked to achieve equality of rights for all persons through nonviolence. The NAACP's mission also includes the elimination of racial hatred and racial discrimination.

After World War I, for example, the NAACP expended significant resources

in an effort to combat the lynching of African Americans throughout the United States. The NAACP centered its efforts around education and lobbying for legislation.

In later years, the NAACP's leadership was instrumental in bringing about the passage of the Civil Rights Acts of 1957, 1960 and 1964; the Voting Rights Act of 1965; and the desegregation of public schools in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954.

The NAACP continues to work on behalf of this worthy mission for the rights of all people today.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this resolution.

I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I support House Resolution 1422 to honor the Department of Justice on the occasion of its 140th anniversary.

In 1870 Congress passed the ``Act to Establish the Department of Justice.'' President Ulysses S. Grant signed the bill into law on June 22, 1870, and the Department of Justice officially began operations on July 1, 1870.

The Office of the Attorney General, created by the ``Judiciary Act of 1789,'' was in need of more attorneys after the Civil War.

The 1870 Act met this need by creating the Department of Justice to oversee federal law enforcement as well as criminal prosecutions and civil suits in which the United States has an interest. The Act also created the Office of the Solicitor General.

While the 1870 Act still remains the foundation on which the Department of Justice stands, the structure of the Department of Justice has changed over the past 140 years.

Today the Department of Justice comprises seven litigating divisions and 93 United States attorneys and thousands of assistant United States attorneys who enforce our civil and criminal laws, including tax, environmental, and immigration laws, and defend the United States from claims.

The Department also oversees a number of federal law enforcement agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Marshals Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

Among recent examples of the Department's work, we could look to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives' establishment of the Violent Crime Impact Team (VCIT) initiative in 2004. Since then, more than 14,000 violent criminals were arrested, including gang members, drug dealers, and felons in possession of firearms.

The Department is also combating gang and gun violence through programs like ``Project Safe Neighborhoods.'' Since its inception in 2001, $2 billion has been committed to ``Project Safe Neighborhoods.'' Funding has been used to hire new prosecutors, support investigators, and promote community outreach and education.

In another area of great interest, during the past decade the Department secured approximately 1,300 convictions for financial crimes.

The Department has also been successful in combating crimes against children, drug trafficking, and counterterrorism efforts.

In 2006 the Department introduced ``Project Safe Childhood'' to combat predators who use the Internet to sexually exploit our children. Along with the FBI's ``Innocent Images National Initiative,'' programs like these help break up networks of online pedophiles and rescue children who are victims of sexual exploitation.

With regard to drug trafficking, just this month the Department's ``Project Deliverance'' resulted in more than 2,200 arrests and the seizure of approximately 74 tons of drugs and $154 million. This was the result of a 22-month operation. The Drug Enforcement Administration has been instrumental in bringing to justice those organizations and principal members responsible for the manufacture and distribution of illicit drugs throughout the United States.

Finally, the Department has played a key role in a number of operations to protect Americans from terrorist threats. The passage of the Patriot Act in 2001, its reauthorization in 2005, and various other counter-terrorism tools have proven helpful toward this end.

This resolution commends the work of the men and women in the Department of Justice who pursue and have pursued the administration of justice for the people of the United States. The essence of democracy is the rule of law. The Department of Justice hopefully stands as a defender of the rule of law.

I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this resolution.

Mr. Speaker, it took President Obama 12 days to visit the gulf coast oil spill. In contrast, President Bush visited New Orleans just 4 days after Hurricane Katrina; yet the national media harshly criticized his response as being too slow.

For more than a month, the Obama administration said that BP was responsible for stopping the oil. Finally, during the President's first news conference in 10 months, he said, ``I take responsibility. It is my job to make sure that everything is done to shut this down.''

Tomorrow the President finally will address the country to discuss the oil spill. The national media should hold the Obama administration to the same standard they did the Bush administration. Anything less shows a partisan bias.

Mr. Speaker, the American people demand real change in Washington. From record deficit spending to the passage of a health care bill most Americans don't want, there is a serious disconnect between the congressional agenda and the desires of the American people.

America Speaking Out is a timely initiative designed to start an honest discussion between Americans and their representatives. Through this innovative new forum, the American people can give us their priorities and offer their ideas for a new agenda to solve the problems that confront our Nation.

There is a deficit of trust in Congress, and it is only by listening to the American people that we can earn back their trust and turn the country in the right direction.

Check out the Web site, America Speaking Out.

Mr. Speaker, investigative journalists pursued alleged scandals involving former House majority leader Tom DeLay and former White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove, even though neither was ever convicted of any wrongdoing. But today, few investigative reporters are focused on what could be a criminal attempt by the Obama administration to manipulate the Democratic Senate primaries in Pennsylvania and Colorado.

While we don't know all the facts about the administration's actions, we do know the following: It is against the law to offer a government job in exchange for dropping out of a political race. It is against the law for administration officials to interfere in the nominee process of a Senate election. And it is against the law to obstruct justice.

Rather than a swarm of investigative reporters demanding answers from the administration, we hear only the sound of crickets chirping on the White House lawn.

I thank my colleague from Texas for yielding me time.

Mr. Speaker, as Congress weighs the question of Wall Street reform, the answer the American people want us to give is clear: ``No more bailouts.'' We should give that answer by passing legislation that sends any failing financial institution to bankruptcy, not to a Federal agency that might bail it out.

The Democratic Senator who guided this legislation through the Senate agrees that bankruptcy must be our primary response to failing institutions. Bankruptcy is fair. Its rules are clear. It is administered transparently by impartial courts. It has existed for generations because of one unmistakable truth: Free enterprise without the possibility of failure is free enterprise without the possibility of success.

The Senate improved the House bill by recognizing a role for bankruptcy, but it failed to give the bankruptcy courts what they need to make that role meaningful. As a result, the legislation's escape hatch from bankruptcy, one that allows agency takeovers of firms, threatens to become the first option under the bill.

When agencies take over firms, we all know that they will bail them out. Let's finish our work. Let's close every loophole that invites a bailout.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this motion.

Madam Speaker, with the Democrats in control, millions of jobs have been lost. The main job creation has been in the Federal Government, not the private sector. The national debt has doubled and the national deficit has tripled. Taxes have gone up and will increase even more at the end of the year. And the Democrats in the House haven't even bothered to propose a Federal budget. If a budget is not approved this year, it will be the first time since the Budget Act was enacted in 1974.

One party controls the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the White House. We need a political balance in Washington, not a one-party monopoly.

Madam Speaker, today President Obama had his first full news conference in about 10 months.

That's longer than former President George W. Bush ever went between news conferences.

Here's what the Washington Examiner's chief political correspondent, Byron York, wrote recently about why the national media have tolerated President Obama's silence:

While Obama dodges questions, his spokesman stonewalls

them.

In one sense, the press, or at least some members of the

press, have only themselves to blame.

Obama treats them with contempt because he knows that when

big tests come, they've always been on his side.

There's no reason for him to think they won't be there in

the future.

Why does Obama do it? Because he can.

The national media should demand answers from the President, not give him a free pass on news conferences.

Madam Speaker, the television news networks failed to hold the Obama administration accountable for its response to the Gulf Coast oil spill crisis, according to an analysis by the Media Research Center.

Out of 157 news stories during the 4 weeks after the disaster, 148-- 95 percent--featured no criticism of the administration whatsoever.

Just nine had some scrutiny of the administration.

And just two of the stories--about 1 percent--focused on the administration's handling of the crisis.

The national media gave no such leeway to former President George W. Bush's handling of crises during his administration.

The networks should hold the Obama administration accountable, not give them a free pass.

Mr. Speaker, one day after the administration announced that President Obama would send National Guard troops to secure the border, the State Department announced that--surprise--the Guard troops would not be used to stop illegal immigration. This suggests the National Guard announcement was designed to leave Americans with a false impression that the administration was going to strengthen border security.

There appears to be a contradiction within the administration; we don't know who to believe from one day to the next. We are starting to learn on health care, on taxes, on transparency, on the stimulus, and now on immigration policy that the administration's words are seldom what they appear to be.

Mr. Speaker, President Obama's approval rating hit a new low this week according to a Rasmussen public opinion poll. Just 42 percent of Americans approve of the President's job performance. By a margin of almost 2-1, more Americans strongly disapprove of the President rather than strongly approve and fewer than half of those in the President's own party strongly approve of his job performance.

Not surprisingly, the national media have mostly ignored these results. The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, and USA Today--among many others--failed to mention the Rasmussen poll. In contrast, during former President George W. Bush's administration, the national media frequently reported polls showing any falling approval rating.

The national media should report the facts, not practice double standards.

Madam Speaker, this week, the Senate Intelligence Committee released a bipartisan report that identified the State Department's failure to revoke Abdulmutallab's visa as one of 14 security failures leading to the attempted Christmas Day terror attack.

This attack is not the first time terrorists have obtained U.S. visas. Several of the 9/11 hijackers did so as well.

After 9/11, Congress created the Visa Security Program to increase the security of the visa process at U.S. embassies and consulates.

My bill, the Secure Visas Act, mandates that the administration expand the Visa Security Program to the highest risk consular posts. And it requires that in the event a visa is revoked after it has been issued, consular, law enforcement, and terrorist screening databases are updated immediately.

Madam Speaker, The Washington Post Company is trying to sell Newsweek because the magazine is losing money, according to news reports.

In response, The Weekly Standard wrote that ``not only has Newsweek suffered from its online competition, it seems to have done everything within its power to hasten its own demise.

``During the 2008 presidential election, for example, its fawningly voluminous coverage of Barack Obama made it something of a journalistic laughingstock, and certainly affirmed every weary accusation of liberal bias in the mainstream media.''

The Standard wrote that Newsweek's recent overhaul was ``designed to create a left-wing journal of opinion.''

The American Spectator called Newsweek, ``The Canary in the Liberal Coal Mine'' and outlined the magazine's history of liberal bias.

Maybe Newsweek's biased reporting didn't cause its downfall, but it certainly didn't help.

Mr. Speaker, here are a few recent examples of the national media ignoring stories they don't like.

Number one, Attorney General Eric Holder has criticized Arizona's new immigration enforcement law and may file suit against it. However, during a Judiciary Committee hearing last week, the Attorney General admitted he had not even read the law. The national media largely ignored his admission.

Number two, the City of Los Angeles recently voted to boycott the State of Arizona because of its new immigration law. A Los Angeles Times online poll found that more than 9 out of 10 respondents opposed the city's boycott. The L.A. Times ignored their own poll results.

Number three, hundreds of scientists gathered this week at an international conference to discuss the scientific problems with the theory of human-caused global warming. The media largely ignored the conference.

The national media should report all of the facts, not just the ones that support their liberal agenda.

Madam Speaker, I want to thank my friend and colleague from Wisconsin (Mr. Petri) for yielding me time.

Madam Speaker, this resolution recognizes the University of Texas men's swimming and diving team for winning the NCAA Division I National Championship. Under the guidance of head coach Eddie Reese, the University of Texas men's swimming and diving team won their 10th NCAA national championship. Coach Reese became the first men's swimming and diving coach to win NCAA team titles in four separate decades. Special recognition is also owed to senior Dave Walters and sophomore Jimmy Feigen, who were named the 2010 Big 12 co-Swimmers of the Year and sophomore Drew Livingston, who was named the 2010 Big 12 Diver of the Year.

The University of Texas, which is located in my district, has an excellent athletics program. In fact, the University of Texas Longhorns have won more than 40 national championships, and University of Texas athletes have won 116 Olympic medals.

It is a pleasure to recognize the University of Texas men's swimming and diving team for winning another national championship. I hope my colleagues will join me in congratulating them on this outstanding achievement.