Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, Cerritos College celebrates its 50 years of dedication, tradition, and influence in the 39th Congressional District and southeast Los Angeles County. It stands as an honored institution within the surrounding communities and continues to provide excellent education and training to thousands of students year after year.

A community's dream to extend the educational opportunities of local youth resulted in the birth of Cerritos College. Established in 1955, Cerritos College began with a humble 195 students, 10 teachers, and 15 subjects. Today, the College enrolls more than 22,000 students and offers over 180 areas of study.

Cerritos College's dedication to quality education has made the College an asset to both career-oriented students as well as life-long learners. From political science to business, culinary arts to computers, Cerritos College's programs are invaluable in providing the knowledge and skills needed to succeed in today's dynamic world.

Cerritos College has embraced and utilized technology in providing quality education and services to its students and faculty. The College boasts an open-access lab of 600 high-speed computers dedicated to student use, a modern teleconferencing center, online courses, and ``wiring'' of the entire campus. As a result, Cerritos College has been dubbed ``the most technologically advanced community college'' in California for teaching and learning.

Perhaps Cerritos College's greatest asset is its diversity. It is the fourth largest Latino serving community college in the nation and is home to more than 300 international students. Cerritos College's commitment to serving the community's needs has empowered local students and given them a chance to pursue their dreams and become engaged with the rest of the world.

I proudly celebrate with Cerritos College its fiftieth anniversary and look forward to working with the College and its students for many more years to come.

Madam Speaker, it is Republican ``tort reform week'' in the House of Representatives. However, I think a more appropriate name would be ``distort the truth week.''

Two bills on this week's House calendar, the Personal Responsibility in Food Consumption Act and the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act unjustly slams the courthouse doors in the face of injured plaintiffs.

And why are we voting to shut the doors of courthouses to legitimate plaintiffs? So the Republican Party can give a gift to special interests and the fast food industry and the NRA. It is time to put a stop to this charade. If the goal is to prevent frivolous lawsuits, then punish the lawyers who file them. But if the goal is to give unscrupulous food companies and gun dealers free reign to make their products more dangerous, then by all means I urge my colleagues to support both bills.

However, my goal is to protect the American people, to ensure safe business practices in food production and in the gun industries and to preserve the integrity of our judicial system. That is why I am voting ``no'' on both the Personal Responsibility in Food Consumption Act and the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act. I urge my colleagues to do the same.

Mr. Speaker, on September 22nd, the Frank C. Leal Elementary School of Cerritos was awarded the distinct honor of being named a National Blue Ribbon School of Excellence. Frank C. Leal Elementary joins 33 other public schools and seven additional private schools in the State of California who have also been named National Blue Ribbon Schools of Excellence. I commend the efforts of each and every one of these outstanding California schools.

The Blue Ribbon Schools is a national recognition program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education. The 22-year-old program encourages states to nominate public and private kindergarten through grade twelve schools that are either academically superior or demonstrate dramatic gains in student achievement.

This Blue Ribbon distinction duly recognizes the level of excellence that is achieved everyday at Frank C. Leal Elementary School of Cerritos. This school is setting a national example of what it takes to be a superior learning environment. It is absolutely essential that our schools continue to strive for excellence, if we want our students to realize their academic potential.

Frank C. Leal Elementary School is a visual and performing arts magnet school, and is a testament to the impact that an arts education can have on a student's academic achievement. I commend the hard working teachers and school administrators of Frank C. Leal Elementary School of Cerritos for their contributions and commitment to our young people. I

also would like to recognize the parents and our community for supporting the Frank C. Leal Elementary School's efforts to help every child reach their full potential.

Education has always been tied to the promise of equality and opportunity for all and the ABC Unified School District and the community of Cerritos have worked hard to give every student an equal chance to succeed. Congratulations to the Frank C. Leal Elementary School of Cerritos and the ABC Unified School District for this incredible achievement!

Mr. Speaker, today the House will vote on H.R. 3402, the Department of Justice Appropriations Authorization Act.

I rise today to thank the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Conyers) and the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Sensenbrenner) for their leadership on this bill and to urge my colleagues to support it.

H.R. 3402 contains language from my bill, H.R. 283, the Bullying and Gang Prevention For School Safety and Crime Reduction Act of 2005. By adding this important provision, schools will be able to use Federal dollars to establish gang and bullying prevention programs in their schools and to teach kids not to use e-mail, instant messaging, or cell phones to make threats and insults, a disturbing new behavior known as ``cyberbullying.''

Studies show that 31 percent of junior high and high school students in urban areas and 21 percent of all students reported that street gangs were present at their schools and more than 3.2 million children are the victims of repeated bullying every year. That is one in every six students.

Bullying and gangs can be eliminated from our schools and H.R. 3402 is a tremendous step in the right direction. I urge all of my colleagues to vote for the bill.

Mr. Speaker, yesterday I missed rollcall vote No. 440. Had I been present, I would have voted ``aye.''

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Conyers) for yielding me this time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to this unconscionable medical malpractice liability bill. This bill will do nothing to reduce the skyrocketing health care costs in this country. All it will do is deprive people who are already sick and injured of justice.

Mr. Speaker, it is undeniable that most Americans do not have access to affordable health care and that many specialists and trauma centers are closing their doors. But instead of addressing our health care crisis head on, my Republican colleagues have come up with H.R. 5.

H.R. 5 is as deplorable as it is ineffective. Trying to stabilize medical malpractice insurance rates by capping legitimate victims' damages is akin to trying to put out a forest fire with a squirt gun. I know that H.R. 5 will not magically keep medical malpractice insurance rates down and keep doctors in business because the bill is modeled after California's Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act, better known as MICRA.

My Republican colleagues love to sing the praises of MICRA. But guess what? MICRA did not work. MICRA's caps on pain and suffering damages have not reduced insurance rates for doctors in my State. MICRA was signed into law in 1975, but medical malpractice insurance rates did not stabilize until years after MICRA was passed. In fact, between 1975 and 1993, California's health care costs rose 343 percent, nearly twice the rate of inflation and 9 percent higher than the national average each year.

When California's insurance rates stabilized, it was because the State passed legislation to directly deal with the insurance problem. They passed an insurance reform bill known as Proposition 103.

It is a shame that the Republican leadership of the House is further victimizing victims instead of getting at the root of the real problem. Where is the Republican leadership on the real health care issues that Americans care about? Where is a Republican House bill to provide health care for every working family? Where is a Republican House bill to encourage more students to go into medicine and nursing and for practicing doctors to keep their doors open? Where is a Republican House bill that deals directly with medical malpractice insurance rates?

My Republican colleagues have not offered bills that will help reform our health care system. Legislation like that would have prevented the forest fire before it even began. Instead, House Republicans cap legitimate victims' damage awards. H.R. 5, without insurance and health care reform, is meaningless. H.R. 5 simply reinjures the legitimate victims of medical malpractice, and we should vote ``no'' on H.R. 5.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today because CAFTA is a raw deal for America, and opposition to this agreement is so strong that the pushers of CAFTA are resorting to lies, deceptions, and backdoor deals.

We all know that CAFTA means exporting American jobs because of access to cheap labor markets with almost nonexistent environmental and labor standards.

All week long we have heard from the supporters of this badly negotiated trade agreement that they have the votes they need to pass it. But I do not want anybody to be fooled and buy this lie. The truth is that the overwhelming majority of House Members have already indicated that they oppose this bill because it is a bad deal for American workers.

They will not even tell us when CAFTA will come to the floor for a vote. Instead, we come to see CAFTA come deceptively to the floor in the middle of the night when they think the American public is not watching.

I urge my colleagues to vote their conscience, to not accept backdoor deals, to stand their ground. Vote for what they already know is best for the people of their district. Vote to send CAFTA back to the drawing board.

I want to recognize and congratulate one of the most distinguished constituents in the 39th Congressional District, Mr. Tony Raymondo. I commend him for his invaluable contribution to his family, and to his company--Granitize Products, Inc. In fact, I also want to commend Mr. Tony Raymondo for his involvement with the community. As Granitize prepares to celebrate its 75th birthday in 2005, we want to honor Mr. Tony Raymondo for his excellent contribution and outstanding service to Granitize Products, Inc.

Mr. Tony Raymondo has been a great patriarch to his family members. Raymondo has been a devoted husband to his wife Betty, and a supportive father of two sons, and one daughter, Marty, Tony, and Lisa. Mr. Raymondo has been a role model to his children by displaying hard work and dedication to his family and to his company. His family has blossomed to include fifteen grandchildren in his immediate family. Though committed to his work, he has always put family first. This commitment has helped to create a strong immediate and extended family.

Furthermore, Mr. Raymondo has made the most of his leisure time by refining his many passions. For instance, Mr. Raymondo has a vast knowledge of making and producing his

own wine. In fact, this activity goes hand-in-hand with his other passion, cooking. Mr. Raymondo is known for his distinguished Italian cooking among his friends and family. Mr. Raymondo also enjoys working with his hands by taking part in other activities such as woodworking and photography. Thus, Mr. Raymondo has a wood shop and a photography lab within his house.

Mr. Raymondo has volunteered countless hours for school fundraisers to gather funds to purchase school utensils for schools. He is known as a very generous person that enjoys helping people. The fire and police department has also benefited from Mr. Raymondo generosity. He has volunteered his time to these two agencies.

Professionally, Mr. Raymondo broke through barriers within the Granitize Products, Inc. Mr. Raymondo began his career/profession with Granitize Products, Inc., as a cleaner in the chemical room in 1954. Having excelled as a cleaner, Mr. Raymondo moved up the ranks quickly and worked his way through every job in the company until holding the title of President and CEO, the position he holds today. Mr. Raymondo was the one responsible in venturing out into different markets other than just the automotive market.

He took the initiative thirty years ago to seek other potential markets. As a result, he found fiberglass manufacturing beneficial to society and lacking the proper wax to combat molds. Thus, he worked to create a new product to combat various types of molds that would allow manufacturers to make more products, more efficiently, and with fewer problems, and he showed them how. He created the formulas that are still used today in the TR Division of Granitize. Today Granitize and TR combine to serve and sell

Mr. Speaker, I believe that this chart really tells a great picture. We look at these blue bars. We start on one side and we see people who make the least amount of money, and we go across the way to people who are very rich and making lots of money. And the blue bars are during Clinton's time, and what they say about ``a high tide raises all boats,'' we can see that. See the blue. They all grow up.

The red represents the Bush years. The one under, the negative growth, are the poor people, the people who make the least amount of money. And the big red bar on the other end, those are the people who make the most money on an annual basis. Look at that. So that is what Bush has done. He has rewarded those who make the most money by increasing what they are making, and those households that make less money actually are losing ground.

But we do not have to look at a chart like that. We can see it every day. What is the biggest disparity that we have between those who have great jobs and those who have minimum-wage jobs? One of the major things is education, for example. Those who have a better education, they are probably, probably, going to make more money.

So what has Bush done during these years? If we look at this budget that he proposed this year, cutting moneys to community colleges, a place where people who have lost their jobs can go and get new skills, get retrained, the money is not there anymore. Places for immigrants who want to learn English at night, for example, cannot get into those classes anymore. The Republicans are trying to cut the student loan program, a way in which people, people who do not have money, are able to go and finance an education. I know because I had student loans, Pell grants. Those are the out, and scholarships that we give to people who want to go get a higher education, he managed to raise it by only $100. Think about that. Tuition going crazy at colleges and universities. Anybody who has got teenage kids and is looking at this can see the trend: $100, that is the increase that the President says is going to fix everything.

But the biggest disparity that has happened from this President is the fact that he put in a signature package called No Child Left Behind where he was going to look and measure how our kids were doing in our kindergarten through 12th-grade system, and if they were not doing well, if they were below the level where they should be, we were going to tutor them, get more people in to help them, take extra care of these kids so we can bring them up to the average where they were supposed to be. Guess what? Nine billion dollars short. In other words, he passed the program, but he forgot to fund it. And then people wonder what is wrong with education?

We are not investing in one of the most important things we have to do, and that is to get our people up, to make them scientists and mathematicians. Go to the universities. Go to the universities and look and see who is teaching our math and science classes. They are foreigners. And then take a look at who is in the class. They, too, are foreigners. And it used to be that these foreigners stayed in the United States, and they became Americans, and they helped us to make the new, new things and the new industries and the new technology, but now our very own companies are getting them and sending them back to India or China or wherever they come from, and they are competing against us.

Mr. Speaker, I want to recognize and congratulate one of the most distinguished pastors serving in the Los Angeles area, Mr. Frederick K.C. Price. Dr. Price, founder and pastor of Crenshaw Center and host of ``Ever-Increasing Ministries'', has accomplished a feat that very few have achieved in life--50 years of ministering the uncompromising Word of God. In 2005, Dr. Price will celebrate his ``Golden Anniversary'' as a minister, pastor and teacher of the Gospel.

It all began on January 3, 1932, in Santa Monica, California, when Frederick Kenneth Cercie Price, Jr. was born as the eldest of two sons to Fred and Winifred Price. He has one sister, Delores W. Jones. A product of the Los Angeles public school system, Fred Price attended McKinley Elementary School in Santa Monica, Foshay Junior High, Manual Arts and Dorsey High School in Los Angeles, and Los Angeles City College. He received an honorary diploma from the Rhema Bible Training Center in 1976 and an honorary Doctorate of Divinity Degree from Oral Roberts University in 1982; both institutions are based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He was then referred to as Dr. Frederick K.C. Price.

Dr. Price met the former Betty Ruth Scott while attending Dorsey High School. They were married in March 1953 and have four children Angela Marie Evans, Cheryl Ann Price, Stephanie Pauline Buchanan, and Frederick Kenneth Price, Jr. All of the Price children and their spouses (A. Michael Evans, Jr. and Danon Buchanon, Angel Price) work in the family ministry. Drs. Fred and Betty Price also have six grandchildren; Alan Michael and Adrian Marie Evans; Nicole Denise and Allen L. Crabbe III; and Tyler Stephen Buchanan and Justin Eric Buchanan. The marriage of Fred and Betty Price spans more than 50 years.

Dr. Price was an assistant pastor in the Baptist church from 1955 to 1957, and then pastured an AME (African Methodist Episcopal) church in Val Verde, California from 1957 to 1959. He went from there to the Presbyterian Church, then to the Christian and Missionary Alliance in 1965. In 1973, Dr. Price and 300 parishioners moved from West Washington to establish Crenshaw Christian Center (CCC) in Inglewood, CA. In 1984, CCC outgrew its Inglewood facility and purchased the former Pepperdine University Los Angeles campus. CCC is not the home of the Faith Dome, with approximately 10,000 seats, is the largest church sanctuary in the United States. Construction on the FaithDome began in 1986, finished in 1989, and the Dome was dedicated on January 21, 1990. Currently, CCC's church membership totals over 27,000.

In addition, in 1990, Dr. Price founded the Fellowship of Inner City Word of Faith Ministries (FICWFM). Members of FICWFM include pastors and ministers from all over the world. The Fellowship's mission is to provide fellowship, leadership, guidance a spiritual covering for those desiring a standard of excellence in ministry: In May 21, 2001, Dr. Price established CCC East, in Manhattan, New; the current membership is approximately 1,000. Dr. Price travels to New York every month to teach the weekly Bible Study and Sunday service.

People all over the world know of Dr. Price through the ``Ever Increasing Faith'' television, radio and tape ministry. The Ever Increasing Faith Ministries program reaches more than 15 million households each week throughout the United States, according to recent Neilson ratings. Dr. Price is the author of some 50 books on faith, healing, prosperity, and the Holy Spirit. ``How Faith Works'' is a classic book on the operation of faith and its life-changing principles. He has sold over 2.1 million books since 1976. His most recent projects include, ``Race, Religion and Racism, Volume 1: A bold Encounter with Racism in The Church''.

In September, 2000, Dr. Price was the first black Pastor to speak at Town Hall Los Angeles. In 1998, he was the recipient of two prestigious awards; the Horatio Alger Award, presented by an Alexandria, Virginia based association honoring those who exemplify inspirational success. He also received the Kelly Miller Smith Interfaith Award, presented by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, honoring those who have made the most significant contribution through religious expression affecting the nation and world, and most recently, he was presented the Living History Makers Award by Turning Point Magazine, honoring those while they walk among us leaving an indelible footprint of their deeds while making our world a better place.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today because I just cannot help feeling remorse for what has happened to the truth in America.

For more than a week, the American people have known that Karl Rove was involved in the leaking of a covert CIA agent's name to the press. He damaged our national security and put an agent at risk. This is not the work of a patriot.

Of course, Rove did not admit to his treachery. Instead, the story has come out through reporters who are getting their information from Karl Rove's attorney.

Republicans, from the President on down, continue to say that they will not comment until they know all the facts. Here is an idea: President Bush should demand that Karl Rove come clean and tell the American people everything.

While Rove continues to hide behind his attorney, a grand jury is investigating the matter. For some strange reason, Republicans claim that Rove has been vindicated. Something tells me that if Rove really believed he was innocent of wrongdoing, we would have already heard from him by now.

The silence from both Rove and the White House is deafening, while the truth continues to be obscured for political gain.

Mr. Speaker, yesterday I missed rollcall vote Nos. 363 and 364. Had I been present, I would have voted ``aye'' for both.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today with a heavy heart to honor the life and public service of Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Jerry Ortiz.

A 15-year veteran of the police department, as well as an Army veteran, husband and father, Deputy Ortiz was slain in the line of duty while valiantly working to wipe out gangs in southeast Los Angeles County.

Deputy Ortiz's tragic murder shows how the gang epidemic has gotten out of hand, and he paid the ultimate price trying to make his community safer.

Deputy Ortiz was a model law enforcement agent and was admired and respected by his colleagues.

He was awarded the Lakewood City Medal of Valor for arresting a robbery suspect, and he will be remembered as a tireless crime fighter who personified the ideals of community-based policing.

On behalf of every resident of the 39th Congressional District, I thank and honor Deputy Ortiz for dedicating his life to defending our country and making our community a safer place to live and to raise a family.

May God bless and give strength to Deputy Ortiz's wife and children as they mourn their tragic loss. Deputy Ortiz will truly be missed.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to give voice to the youth of my district. I recently had a Social Security e-town hall where young adults joined me online to discuss this important issue.

Billy, a constituent of mine from Long Beach, is currently a student at the University of Southern California. He questioned the wisdom and the solvency of the President's plan. He specifically asked me what would the worst case scenario consequences of the President's plan be.

My answer to him was simple. It is clear that Republicans have no desire to strengthen Social Security for future generations.

Instead, their only intention is to privatize this guaranteed retirement program.

Privatization is a first step on the road to the worst case scenario. Privatization proposals hurt everyone, including today's beneficiaries. But it especially hurts young workers who end up paying for the administrative costs of privatization on the front end and then end up paying for it twice with large benefit cuts on the back end. Privatization does absolutely nothing to extend the solvency of Social Security.

If we really wanted to save Social Security, let us work to ensure its solvency. Let us not dismantle guaranteed benefits, especially for young workers like Billy.

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 subject matter of my Special Order.