Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise this morning to draw attention to the recent bipartisan accomplishments here in the House of Representatives. These efforts include passage of legislation to keep the Internet tax- free, a highway bill that will keep more than 700,000 construction workers on the job, a series of education bills that will give students and their families the tools they need to help make postsecondary education more accessible and affordable, and legislation that will reform the Veterans Administration.

The House has also acted on an energy bill that would make it easier to ship our natural gas overseas, and put much-needed pressure on Russia, as well as a tax measure that will allow U.S. companies, large and small, to innovate, create jobs, and increase wages.

These are just a few of the more than 300 House-passed bills, including more than 40 jobs bills, that wait for action in the Senate of the United States. These bipartisan measures would benefit American families and businesses. They all deserve an up-or-down vote in the United States Senate.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to celebrate the accomplishments of Elizabeth Parker of Harding Township, New Jersey for her distinguished career in journalism and to congratulate her on receiving the esteemed Emma C. McKinney Award from the National Newspaper Association. Liz has been an important presence in the media for over 30 years, providing readers an insightful digest of news and thoughtful commentary that has helped shape the community.

Liz has spent much of her career with the Recorder Community Newspapers, a premier outlet for New Jersey news and opinion. There she rose to the position of Editor, where under her leadership the Recorder's reach soon extended to 17 weekly newspapers serving the diverse constituencies of Morris, Somerset, Hunterdon and Essex Counties. She now serves as Co-Publisher and Executive Editor of the New Jersey Hills Media Group.

Liz's leadership has been recognized nationally, most notably with her selection as

President of the National Newspaper Association in 2010. She became only the fourth woman and second New Jerseyan in its 129-year history to lead the institution representing the interests of community newspapers. She also previously served as President of the New Jersey Press Association.

Her passion for her community extends beyond the newsroom with her service on the boards for the Morris County Habitat for Humanity, Morristown Festival of Books and membership in the Rotary Club of Madison.

I congratulate Elizabeth Parker on this well-deserved honor and thank her for the many years of dedicated public service to journalism in New Jersey and indeed the Nation.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life of Mr. Doug Niece of Flemington, New Jersey, who passed away earlier this month at the age of 93. Mr. Niece was a long-time Cubmaster for Cub Scout Pack 61 in Flemington, where he served for more than 60 years and influenced the lives of more than 6,000 scouts.

Mr. Niece was a beloved figure in the Boy Scout community and is believed to have been the longest-serving Cubmaster in the country when he retired from his scouting responsibilities in 2010. During the Boy Scouts of America 100th anniversary celebration, he was honored and recognized as one of the Top 100 Scouters in service to the Nation.

Mr. Niece was professionally involved with Hunterdon County's two major newspapers, first the Republican and later the Democrat. In Flemington, he led the annual Christmas tree lighting and organized the traditional pre-dawn Christmas carolling with the Flemington Children's Choir School. He also served as a board member of the Jennie Haver Scholarship Fund, as a volunteer aide at Franklin Township School and an elder, deacon, Sunday School teacher and superintendent at Flemington Presbyterian Church.

I had the great pleasure of knowing Mr. Niece and seeing many of his great contributions to the Flemington community. I know he will be missed by all who were influenced by his dedicated public service.

Thank you very much.

Mr. Speaker, for those of us in the United States who value Israel, its people and its value--symbolic and real--these are heartbreaking times. Our world's most sacred lands are again brutalized by terror as evil tries to extinguish the Jewish state. Though we may be far in distance, our spirit, support, and resources are needed. The United States stands in solidarity with Israel and its fundamental right to defend itself.

The ongoing crisis in Israel may feel a world away to some, but the significance cannot be understated: a free people and democratic ally of our Nation faces continued war by elements of hate and intolerance similar to those who have claimed the lives of millions, forever scarred the face of the Earth, and brought this battle to our shores 13 years ago.

To know terror, look at their tactics. While Israel uses weapons to shield women and children, Hamas uses women and children to shield weapons.

When Israel offers a cease-fire, Hamas orders more rocket launches. When Israel offers compromise, Hamas calls for more bloodshed. Israel needs and deserves the support of the world community, not a lecture from media commentators. If the United States were under daily rocket assault, assuredly, the press would not question our right to keep Americans safe.

Many of us in Congress have worked together in a bipartisan fashion to support Israel. Look no further than the Iron Dome capability at the center of Israel's current defense apparatus. The Iron Dome has been the guardian of a people under siege, and it was constructed with the help of American ingenuity, American technology, and American funds.

Countless other measures have sought to assist Israel, including legislation recently passed here in the House, to disrupt to the greatest extent possible international financing capabilities of terror networks.

How can Israel negotiate with entities on a mission for its destruction? The answer is moral authority. Israel stands for peace, democracy, the rule of law, human rights, liberty, an eventual two- state solution, and peace through strength.

In this time of great moral crisis, now is not the time for neutrality. Nearly 800 people proudly stood in solidarity with Israel earlier this month at the New Jersey headquarters of the Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest as we rallied for Israel. Tonight, that same energy is here in Washington, where I join many other lawmakers in further conversation as how best the United States can assist our friend in need.

Israel must never lose its resolve, its mission, its purpose, or forget its proud history, and the United States must support our great ally as it fights to preserve its very existence.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life and public service of the Honorable Ralph Froehlich, who passed away earlier this week following more than 37 years as Sheriff of Union County, New Jersey.

Sheriff Froehlich was one of the most respected law enforcement officials in the country. His life of public service began as a young man in the U.S. Marine Corps and later as a member of the Elizabeth, New Jersey Police Department for almost 20 years where he attained the rank of Lieutenant.

First elected Sheriff in 1977, Ralph Froehlich was known for his passion to serve, exemplified by his work with children, teenagers and senior citizens. He holds the distinction of being the longest-serving County Sheriff in New Jersey state history.

During his tenure as Union County's top law enforcement officer, Sheriff Froehlich received numerous commendations for his dedication to duty, including the New Jersey PBA Valor Award and Policeman of the Year Award. Always respected by his colleagues, he served four terms as president of the New Jersey Sheriffs' Association.

Sheriff Ralph Froehlich was a beloved New Jersey public servant whose law enforcement expertise and professionalism will be deeply missed by the officers he commanded and the people he swore to protect and serve.

Mr. Chairman, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 6, the

Domestic Prosperity and Global Freedom Act, championed by my friend and colleague on the Energy and Commerce Committee, Congressman Gardner of Colorado, a true leader in this area. This Act will help expedite approval of U.S. liquefied natural gas exports to our allies.

The United States is experiencing a North American energy boom that analysts predict can produce enough natural gas to meet our domestic demands as well as that of our global allies, including Ukraine and other Eastern European nations currently at the mercy of Russian energy supplies. Expediting U.S. liquefied natural gas exports serves our national security interests as an aggressive Russian regime looks to expand power in former Soviet Union countries. This legislation helps our allies in eastern Europe and across the globe, while creating jobs here at home through private investment and economic opportunity essential to improving the American economy.

As a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, I am proud to have helped bring this important energy global security measure to the floor today, and I urge all of my colleagues to support its passage. This is in the national security interest of the United States of America.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Boy Scout Troop 368 of Berkeley Heights, New Jersey for a recent act of heroism. During a hike through Harriman State Park, in New York State, these young men came across a woman who had injured her leg.

The Scouts realized this women was in immediate need of assistance and through quick thinking, resourcefulness and training, successfully splinted her leg and attempted to relieve her of immediate pain.

The Scouts also realized that she would be unable to navigate the mountain on her own and constructed a make-shift stretcher of two sturdy sticks and a tarp. Upon its completion, they used the stretcher to deliver the woman safely to her family waiting at the foot of the mountain.

In accordance with the Boy Scout Oath, these young men meet their duty to other people: to help people in need and to lend a helping hand to make life easier for someone else.

It was not until after they performed their duties that they were informed the woman they assisted was NBC News journalist Ann Curry. Ms. Curry has proudly thanked these Scouts in the media and brought them many deserving accolades.

These young men proved themselves as Scouts and as citizens of high character and responsibility. I congratulate the Scouts of Boy Scout Troop 368 on a job well done.

Mr. Speaker, tonight, my colleagues and I rise to discuss a matter that has touched virtually every family America and is one of the great public health challenges of our time--or indeed, of any time--and that is the challenge of cancer, the diagnosis no person wants to hear and the battle no one should face alone.

From those in treatment to those working toward prevention to friends and family dealing with the terrible illness of a loved one, everyone knows someone who has been afflicted with cancer. Cancer has been the great health menace of the last century.

But now, here in the 21st century, medical advancement, innovative treatments, and the genius of many scientists and medical doctors are everyday bringing us closer to a cure.

We await the advent of new technologies and of work here in Congress to deliver the tools and resources both to public and to private industry to spur the research and collaborations that will change the health of the world.

It is my judgment that the United States is really the medical center of the entire world and that its brilliant medical doctors and scientists here in this country will lead the charge in the new century.

Clinical oncologists are on the cutting edge of that research and are responsible for many of the advances in cancer care that are improving the lives and prognoses for many cancer patients.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, a group which represents nearly 35,000 oncology professionals across the world.

When ASCO was founded in 1964, it dedicated itself to a challenging mission: a commitment to conquer cancer through research, education, prevention, and the delivery of high-quality patient care.

When ASCO was founded, cancer was widely regarded as an untreatable disease, with fewer than one-half of patients alive 5 years after diagnosis. There was an undeniable stigma associated with a cancer diagnosis that left many patients to suffer in silence, with minimal support, and worse, few effective therapies.

But because of the work of passionate advocates and tireless champions, the expertise of talented medical professionals, including those at the American Society of Clinical Oncology, today the survival rate is higher than two-thirds.

Better cancer prevention and detection, improved care coordination, and the use of palliative care have proven to improve patients' quality of life dramatically and to increase survival rates dramatically.

ASCO has put forward new technologies such as nanotechnology, medical imaging, and health information technology that are leading to entirely new ways to develop therapies. If these advances are fully realized, people with cancer will be able to receive more personalized and more effective treatment.

In my work on the Energy and Commerce Committee, and particularly on its Health Subcommittee, I am sure that the wave of the future is personalized medical care. In a coordinated capacity, the members of the committee, and particularly of the subcommittee, are working together to create that new wave of the future regarding personalized medicine.

Federal investments in cancer research have also resulted in a massive increase in the number and the quality of treatments available to cancer patients.

I have the highest confidence in Dr. Francis Collins and his team at the National Institutes of Health. I have toured NIH's magnificent facility in Bethesda, the best of its kind on the face of the Earth. I can report that some of the best doctors, the greatest intellects, and dedicated professionals are working every day to course the future of medicine and tackle this terrible disease.

We must continue our Nation's commitment to NIH to keep the United States as the global center of medical innovation.

Yesterday, Mr. Speaker, the chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, Mr. Upton of Michigan, convened a roundtable with many of the most brilliant doctors regarding issues affecting the NIH. We were privileged that Dr. Collins joined us.

But the work will not be done alone by public entities such as the Federal Government and NIH. In fact, great minds from across this Nation and around the world have brought their desire to rid the world of cancer to some of the finest companies on the forefront of this research.

I am honored to say that many of these life science leaders in the medical and biopharmaceutical research and development field call the district I serve and the State I serve, New Jersey, home. There is work on cancer solutions every day in labs I have the honor of representing.

The district I serve, Mr. Speaker, has more pharmaceutical and medical device employees than any other district in the United States. But that is not to say we are alone. There are magnificent facilities across this country. They will be described, I believe, by colleagues of mine this evening.

I know there is great interest and commitment in the House of Representatives, as demonstrated by the participation this evening of distinguished Members, including Mr. Higgins of western New York. And certainly, without a doubt, Buffalo is one of the leading centers not only in this Nation but across the globe in medical technology and medical research, and extremely high-quality institutions of medical care.

Of course, there is the work of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Our committee has broad jurisdiction over Federal agencies and policies important to health care, to medical research, and to the life sciences sectors.

I also have the honor of serving as the Republican chair of the Rare Disease Caucus, another mantle by which we discuss needs and ideas in the cancer support community. I am joined in that caucus with the Democratic chair, Congressman Crowley of the great city of New York.

One of the major endeavors of the Energy and Commerce Committee will be to pursue an initiative of Chairman Upton's that he has titled, ``The 21st Century Cures,'' an effort that aims to accelerate the pace of cures and medical breakthroughs here in the United States.

For the first time, Congress will take a comprehensive look at the full arc of accelerating cures, from the discovery of clues in basic science to streamlining the drug and device development process to unleashing the power of medicine in the treatment delivery phase.

In one of the inaugural hearings this week, the incredible advancements in cancer research were discussed, and the great opportunities presented to advance new cures and treatments for other diseases were discussed.

The committee will focus on the cycle of discovery, development, and delivery that saves lives. We, in Congress, want to work effectively and efficiently and ensure that there is no gap between 20th century science and the Washington regulatory process.

ASCO is well-positioned for the type of 21st century science the committee is working to facilitate: accelerating the pace of clinical cancer research, establishing a new approach to therapeutic development and new technologies to obtain a greater understanding of cancer biology, and the needs that Congress and the administration are willing to work together for solutions to the market.

Let me say, Mr. Speaker, that we are anxious to work with the administration, and we want to be a partner with the executive branch, making sure that we work as effectively as possible in fighting cancer.

This is, by no means, a partisan matter; and, indeed, it goes beyond being a bipartisan matter. It is really nonpartisan in nature.

Besides providing better outcomes for patients, benefits of more rigorous trial designs include the ability to design smaller and smarter clinical trials that can be conducted faster than larger trials that aim for smaller benefits for patients.

These steps represent significant new momentum toward a 21st century research system that realizes the potential of precision medicine. As we personalize medicine in this country, it is based, in no small measure, on precision medicine; and this, again, is the wave of the future.

On these critical public health issues, the public and private sector have worked together to make a difference in improving the highest quality of health care, the highest quality that the American people deserve.

Congress is contributing by giving public research the 21st century tools to compete on the global stage and empowering private innovators to solve these great complexities in American laboratories. This is how Congress should work, together, on issues that make a lasting difference.

Too often, Mr. Speaker, we are viewed as divisive, as overly partisan, as not coming together on the great issues confronting the American Nation. Let me make as clear as possible, on the fight against cancer, we are working closely together; and we are working with our partners in the nonprofit sector and our partners in the private sector.

This is a three-legged stool. One of those legs--indispensable--is the involvement of the Federal Government, particularly through NIH, but through other agencies as well and through our oversight capacity here in Congress, making sure that drugs are brought to market as quickly as possible with, of course, recognizing that paramount is the safety of those drugs brought to market.

ASCO and those of us in the Congress and leaders in the life science industries renew our commitment to the millions of patients and their families who will benefit from more timely access to innovative medical technologies.

More than 40 years ago, President Nixon declared a war on cancer, and tremendous advances have been made from that initial declaration of war; but the war has not yet been fully won, and it is our responsibility, in our generation, to make sure we do as much as possible so that that war will be won.

While we do not know the cure for all cancers, we do know that awareness is the best protection, and well-rounded care during and after treatment is the best therapy.

These burdens often fall on loved ones. I am thankful for the families and the advocates whose challenges we may never understand fully, but whose commitment to loved ones is unyielding and inspiring.

To ASCO and the other heroes of cancer care, I thank you for all that you have done and all that you will continue to do. We are here, in Congress, in a bipartisan capacity, to help give you the tools you need to succeed in the fight against cancer.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the distinguished gentleman from New York (Mr. Higgins).

I thank the gentleman.

Mr. Speaker, I now yield to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Fleischmann).

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the distinguished gentlelady from Texas.

Mr. Speaker, I think the impassioned remarks of my distinguished colleague from Texas are an indication of her tremendous advocacy on behalf of this issue, not only for her constituents, not only for all of the residents of the great State of Texas, but, indeed, for the entire American people.

Mr. Speaker, my distinguished colleague from Texas spoke movingly about breast cancer. Yesterday, I spoke to a group of advocates dedicated to the treatment of breast cancer and working to ensure that women are educated about breast reconstruction surgery and care options following cancer treatments.

These advocates, working out of love for their mothers, daughters, sisters, and wives, have championed the Breast Cancer Patient Education Act, which will take an educational approach to breast cancer treatment and allow women to have full access to their options.

Since 1998, health care plans that offer breast cancer coverage have been required to provide breast reconstruction surgery and prostheses. Surprisingly, however, Mr. Speaker, recent studies report that up to 70 percent of women eligible for breast reconstruction following cancer treatment are not fully informed of their reconstruction and care options by their general surgeon, and this is particularly true in minority communities.

Many of these advocates have been through great challenges personally, and I have heard both here in Washington and in my offices in New Jersey the stories of fear and insecurity that come with the diagnosis, as the distinguished gentlelady from Texas has indicated, and the despair of having so many questions and too few answers. I hope that at an early date the Congress will pass the Breast Cancer Patient Education Act to work to change that.

In another area of cancer that we have not mentioned this evening, I have worked with colleagues on both sides of the aisle regarding pancreatic cancer, and I know oncologists are fighting hard against this very virulent form of cancer. The survival rate for pancreatic cancer, Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, has not increased in 40 years, and the 5-year survival rate, as I understand it, is 7 percent.

It is incumbent upon those of us here in Congress to ensure that NIH and those involved in cancer research at the Federal level do as good a job as possible regarding pancreatic cancer. I acknowledge this evening all of those who are working in that area, as well. The ASCO founded 50 years ago has a great, great history over these last five decades, but much more needs to be done, and we will do it together.

I conclude this evening, Mr. Speaker, on a personal note. I have a twin brother, and we lost our mother to breast

cancer when we were 12 years old. Now, this was almost 50 years ago. Just think of the tremendous progress that has been made in the last 50 years, certainly with the leadership of the ASCO. But more progress needs to be made. And to all of us who have been affected, either personally or familially, based upon our family, regarding the issue of cancer, we stand here on the floor of the House to work together in this bipartisan capacity--and might I suggest nonpartisan capacity--to make sure that as we move forward we move forward together in what I know will be a successful fight.

We will win the war against cancer. We will win it working together in the best traditions of the American Nation. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to celebrate the dedicated public service of the Honorable Henry Y. Kuhl, a great patriot, family patriarch, public servant, businessman, and close friend, who for 35 years has served as chairman of the Hunterdon County Republican Committee. Henry will retire from his position this June, leaving a legacy that will stand the test of time in the history of New Jersey.

Henry's love of country, our State, and Hunterdon County has served as the foundation of his beliefs and his devotion to our system of government in the United States, based on faith in God, respect for the individual, self-reliance, free enterprise, and service to the larger community.

Henry's record as Republican county chairman is unparalleled. During his distinguished tenure, he has led an organization that has been overwhelmingly successful in producing winning majorities for Federal, State, county, and municipal candidates.

Henry has also been a delegate to 10 Republican National Conventions, helping shape the direction of our party under the leadership of Presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush.

I have known Henry my entire life. He is a respected mentor and ally, and our families' paths have crossed for more than a century. His late father, Paul Kuhl, and my late father, Wesley L. Lance, were lifelong friends.

Henry's devotion to public service has been matched by his devotion to his family, church, community, and business. He and his beloved late wife, Elsa, raised two fine sons, who today are raising, with their spouses, their own families.

A dedicated member of the Flemington Presbyterian Church, Henry has been involved in many charitable endeavors. He is a proud alumnus of Flemington High School and Rider University. His family's business, Kuhl Corporation, is a world leader in manufacturing egg washing and other patented equipment, based on the agricultural heritage of Hunterdon County and of the Kuhl family.

When the Hunterdon County Republican Committee reorganizes following the June primary election, Henry will assume the role of chairman emeritus and continue to advance the causes to which he has dedicated his life.

My wife, Heidi Rohrbach, joins me in thanking the Honorable Henry Y. Kuhl for his service to Hunterdon County and the State of New Jersey. I know that he will be an esteemed leader for many years to come, based on the great tradition of the American people: friend helping friend, neighbor helping neighbor, citizen helping citizen.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Mr. Kenneth Bateman, the President and Chief Executive Officer of Somerset Medical Center, who has been named Outstanding Citizen of the Year by the Somerset County, New Jersey, Business Partnership.

Ken is a mainstay of the Somerset community where his contributions to the county, its residents and the New Jersey life sciences sector have improved the lives of many. Under his leadership, the Somerset Medical Center has experienced tremendous growth, expanding and encompassing new missions and endeavors that have made the facility a premier regional medical center.

Ken and the Somerset Medical Center have invested in the community by building new state-of-the-art facilities which have made Somerset a healthier and better place to live and raise a family.

I congratulate Kenneth Bateman for his well-earned recognition.

Thank you, Chairman Ryan.

Mr. Chairman, I rise to support the Republican budget, which is a path to prosperity. It includes commonsense priorities and policies that will foster economic growth and job creation.

This is a plan to balance the budget in 10 years and begin to pay down the national debt, and this is exactly what our economy needs.

CBO says that, by reducing the deficit, our budget would promote economic growth. In stark contrast to budgets put forward by the President and by House Democrats, our budget will cut wasteful spending, rein in our national debt and, we hope, balance the budget. And the budget needs to be balanced. This would be done all without raising taxes on hardworking Americans.

It includes pro-growth policies that will harness domestic energy, restore patient-centered health care, strengthen retirement and the safety net programs that are so essential, and it will reform our Tax Code.

I thank my friend, Chairman Ryan, for putting forth a budget blueprint that addresses our Nation's long-term fiscal challenges truthfully and in a fiscally responsible manner.

Let me say that this blueprint spends $43 trillion over the next 10 years. It reduces spending by $5 trillion. Only in Washington can an increase annually of 3.5 percent be considered a cut. That is ridiculous.

At the rate we are going now, our spending would increase by 5.2 percent. We reform it to 3.5 percent annually over the next 10 years.

I applaud Chairman Ryan's hard work and courage, and look forward to an honest discussion here on the floor of the House.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Young for his superb management of this bill and for his expertise in this area.

I rise today in support of H.R. 2575, the Save American Workers Act, which would change the health care law's definition of full-time employee from 30 hours per week to the traditional 40 hours per week.

That is 8 hours a day, times 5 days in the workweek, 40 hours, the traditional

workweek, empowering hardworking middle class men and women to earn additional wages otherwise denied to them under the health care law.

Not long ago, I spoke to a constituent from Basking Ridge, New Jersey, the congressional district I have the honor of representing, whose son works at a grocery store.

This young man was told he could only work 29 hours a week. Despite the company wanting him to work more and pay him more, it could not permit employees to exceed the health care law's arbitrary definition of full-time status. This young man from Basking Ridge must work less and earn less because of the health care law.

Too many Americans are experiencing significantly reduced wages and hours worked because of the law. H.R. 2575 will protect existing jobs by removing some of the uncertainty facing employers and employees and help America's job creators put people back to work.

I urge passage of H.R. 2575.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the distinguished public service of the Honorable Brendan T. Byrne, the 47th Governor of New Jersey, who today celebrates his 90th birthday. He has lived longer than any governor in the history of our State.

Governor Byrne was born on April 1, 1924, in West Orange, Essex County, and currently lives in the Short Hills section of Millburn Township, Essex County, in the congressional district I have the honor of serving.

He graduated from West Orange High School in 1942 and served during World War II in the Army Air Corps, where he advanced to the rank of lieutenant and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and four Air Medals.

One of his fingers was frostbitten as the result of the conditions during his heroic air service over Germany late in the war.

Governor Byrne was graduated from Princeton University in 1949, majoring in public and international affairs, our first Governor to receive an undergraduate degree from Princeton since Woodrow Wilson in 1879, 70 years earlier. Governor Byrne received his law degree from Harvard University in 1951.

In the 1950s, as a young man, he served as a close aide to Governor Robert B. Meyner, who appointed him Essex County prosecutor in 1959. Governor Richard J. Hughes reappointed him prosecutor in 1964 and named him president of the State Board of Public Utilities in 1968.

Respected by both political parties, he was appointed by Republican Governor William T. Cahill to our superior court in 1970.

He was overwhelmingly elected Governor in 1973 and reelected in an uphill political campaign in 1977. During his tenure, the Pinelands Protection Act became law, and casino hotel development began in Atlantic City. Impeccably honest, he served as our Governor with great distinction. His dry wit is a joy to hear and deeply appreciated by countless New Jerseyans.

I was honored to have Governor Byrne as a professor when I was a student at the Woodrow Wilson School of Princeton University in the early 1980s and recall fondly his superb teaching skills and generosity of spirit and time as the class met weekly at Morven, the historic Governor's residence in Princeton, built by Richard Stockton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

Governor Byrne is a wonderful father and grandfather, teacher and mentor, colleague and friend. His dynamic and vivacious wife, Ruthi Zinn Byrne, is known to many New Jerseyans for her significant charitable activities. They are an integral part of the fabric of New Jersey.

On his 90th birthday, I congratulate Governor Brandon T. Byrne and wish him many years ahead of good health and happiness.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to celebrate the tricentennial of Hunterdon County, New Jersey, the county I have proudly called home my entire life and where my family has lived since 1739. The celebration this year is led by former State Senator Marcia Karrow and a hardworking committee of exemplary county residents.

The 300-year history of Hunterdon County is an excellent example of the

journey in the advancement of the English colonies in North America to the present day status of the United States of America throughout the world. To this day, Hunterdon County maintains its natural beauty and rural charm, as has been the case throughout its history.

The county is proud to be named for Robert Hunter, the distinguished royal governor of New York and New Jersey who sailed to America with 3,000 Palatinate German refugees in 1710. They, and thousands of others like them, yearned for religious freedom and a better life for themselves and their descendants. Hunterdon County was formed when it separated from Burlington County 300 years ago this month, in March of 1714.

From the first reading of the Declaration of Independence on the steps of what was then the Hunterdon County Courthouse in Trenton to General Washington's historic Delaware River crossing and decisive victory at the Battle of Trenton, Hunterdon's link to the 1776 birth of the United States is significant. I was personally inspired as a child by the tales of Captain Daniel Bray and the Hunterdon County militia who collected the boats on our western border that were used in Washington's crossing on Christmas night in that fateful year of our Nation's birth. The county boasts several sites associated with the Revolution, including the 1759 Vought House in Clinton Township, a Loyalist homestead that still exists with its architecturally distinguished serpentine ceiling.

The county is also proud of its agricultural heritage. The county seal originally included a hay wagon and now features a bountiful sheaf of wheat. Farming was the story of most county residents, from Native Americans through the earliest colonial settlers to those who lived at the beginning of the 20th century. Many barns dot the county landscape, and this heritage is celebrated annually at the Hunterdon County 4-H and Agricultural Fair.

A century and a half ago general stores and hotels, including several owned by my ancestors, were common in the towns that sprouted across the 400 square acres of the county. From Clinton in the north to Lambertville in the south, to Frenchtown in the west, to Flemington, the county seat, in the middle, they were the centers of life where Hunterdon families came to market, to socialize, and to worship.

The nature of Hunterdon has changed as the population increased from the mid-20th century forward. The large agricultural townships have become more heavily populated as farmland has been transformed to houses for new residents, who demanded improvements, including establishment of a system of regional schools and construction of the Hunterdon County Medical Center. After World War II, Hunterdon was the only county in the State still without a hospital. County leaders, including the Board of Agriculture, were responsible for the building of the medical center that opened in 1953. Since then, this health care facility has become one of the premier medical institutions in New Jersey. Public-spirited men and women created five distinguished regional high schools that would become leaders in the State in academics, athletics, and extracurricular activities.

The 300-year history of Hunterdon County has been captured in writings, photographs, and memories telling the compelling story of its sheer natural beauty, its people, and the larger community of churches, nonprofit groups, and civic organizations, with neighbor helping neighbor.

Our ancestor have striven for 300 years to make Hunterdon what it is today, a 21st century exemplar of the United States as a whole: free, self-governed, prosperous, and dedicated to the advancement of the Nation. We, the 130,000 current residents, have a responsibility to those who will come after us to preserve and improve the county we love.

Truly, Hunterdon County has always been and will always be in my heart.

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

Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.

The motion was agreed to; accordingly (at 2 o'clock and 40 minutes p.m.), under its previous order, the House adjourned until tomorrow, Friday, March 28, 2014, at 11 a.m.