Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of this resolution honoring women suffragists. How fitting that the House should consider this legislation just a few days before our Nation will celebrate Mother's Day.

Our foremothers, who fought so courageously for a woman's right to vote, passed on to us a precious gift: the gift of citizenship, of having a stake in our government. Imagine it: when Susan B. Anthony started the campaign for women's suffrage, one of her acts of ``civil disobedience'' was to cast a vote in the 1872 presidential election. Voting was her crime, and she was fined for it.

This seems so unbelievable to us now since our Nation has finally lived up to some of its early ideals--ideals such as ``all persons are created equal'' and that all of us have a right to elect our representatives.

We have even had the privilege of electing the first woman Speaker of the House--Nancy Pelosi--quite a milestone, especially considering the long and difficult struggles suffragists faced in their efforts to win the right of women to vote.

I am proud to pay my deepest respects to these amazing women who fought for our right to stake a claim to our government and earn a seat at the table. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of this bill. I applaud the precedent set here, which subjects any casino projects to state laws and does not allow the tribes special gaming privileges. In considering this bill, I hope that we will be consistent in the tribes we support, especially when there is a potential for gaming. Native American communities rightly deserve to have sovereign control over their land, including the capacity to use tribal-run businesses to raise funds for the tribe. However, I oppose using lands not associated with the tribe or newly acquired lands for building casinos. My opposition stems from my own experience with legislation to federally recognize tribes. Vocal communities in my district have consistently stood up against the proliferating problem of off-reservation gaming-- and we must do more to stop the most egregious forms of reservation shopping allowed by IGRA. Thus, it's important that we proceed with caution as we move forward with tribal recognition legislation, and that we make our intents transparent.

Mr. Chairman, as Congress passes the Homeland Security Department Authorization bill, I must register my deep concerns with the recent operations of one branch of the Homeland Security Department, ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement).

I have very serious reservations with the immigration raids on local communities in my District--both the manner in which they were conducted and their lasting effects on our community. No one, especially our children, should have to live in fear. Nor should they have to live in ignorance of their basic rights in this country.

I have been working closely with local organizations and officials trying to convince ICE to mitigate its heavy-handed tactics and the ways they hurt our local immigrant communities. For instance, since ICE agents have been announcing themselves as ``police,'' local governments are still struggling to regain the trust that they had worked for years to develop in order to combat crime in their jurisdictions. The responses from ICE officials regarding their policies and procedures-- and their lack of concern for the ramifications their actions have on children and families in my community--are troubling.

As one example of the way these actions are terrorizing our communities, ICE officials held 7-year-old Kebin Reyes in jail with his father with only bread and water for about 10 hours. Allegedly, ICE officials repeatedly denied his father's requests to find alternative care for Kebin, and the child continues to suffer lasting trauma as a result of his detainment. So egregious was this detention that the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on Kebin's behalf. ICE's apathetic response to incidents such as these demonstrates their lack of concern for respecting the people in our communities as they carry out their duties.

As Congress reauthorizes Homeland Security, we must strike a careful balance between keeping America safe and respecting the human and civil rights of our local immigrant families. Protecting our borders cannot come at the expense of people's dignity.

Mr. Speaker, this is not the first time that I have come down to this well to demand that our troops come home and that we end the occupation of Iraq. In fact, I have come to the floor over 200 times. And as the first Member of Congress to call on the

President to bring our troops home and the author of the first amendment on the floor requiring the President to bring a plan to the House on how he will end this debacle that he started, you can know that I am very pleased that this vote is before us today. Finally, after 4 years here we are.

Many of the provisions in the bill were included in H.R. 508, the Bring the Troops Home and Iraq Sovereignty Restoration Act, a bill that I introduced with Representative Lee and Representative Waters. These provisions will fully fund bringing the troops home, prohibit permanent bases, give the Iraqi people sovereignty and a sense of hope for their future.

My colleagues, I urge you to support H.R. 2237. The American people are asking that we stand up for our troops, and we do that by fully funding them to bring them home. Bring them home to their families. Bring them home so that we can end this misguided occupation. By passing H.R. 2237, we will bring our troops and our military contractors out of Iraq safely.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Chairman Miller and Ranking Member McKeon for putting forth a good and necessary bill to protect our college students from the loan industry practices that actually work against, not for, those students who need the help. Every student in America who wants to go to college deserves the opportunity to do so, and we need to make it easier for them to go to school, not harder. Our students deserve all the help we can give them to ensure that they not only get a good education, but that they also don't come out of college saddled with loans or interest rates that will haunt them for years and years to come.

This bill will ensure that the student loan companies and some financial aid officers can no longer benefit from directing students to any particular loan company. What a concept. Loans should be for our children and for our students, not for those who are involved in the industry.

The Student Loan Sunshine Act ensures that students get the best possible options when deciding on a loan. A vote for this bill is a vote for our college students and for giving every child the opportunity to succeed in life, and indeed it is a vote for the future of the United States of America, because these young people are our future.

Mr. Speaker, I commend the committee. I commend this committee for the hard work in crafting bipartisan legislation because as we continue to face the challenge of identifying new threats and providing new strategies for securing our Nation, it is absolutely essential that the Homeland Security Department operate to its full potential.

The Homeland Security authorization will ensure that taxpayers' dollars are not wasted by mismanagement and will encourage the best and the brightest minds of our time to contribute to our national homeland security strategy.

Harnessing these resources is absolutely key to protecting our Nation's vital infrastructure, infrastructure like the Golden Gate Bridge in my district. And it is vital to quickly respond in providing aid and support in the event of a disaster, unlike the way in which the Department responded to Hurricane Katrina. These new authorizations will make a huge difference. These reforms must be made to keep the people safe. So by restoring accountability to the Department and strengthening the protections for its employees, we can and we will improve our ability to effectively safeguard our Nation.

I encourage all Members to vote for the Homeland Security authorization.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to commemorate the impending retirement of David Knight as the Sonoma County Director of Transportation and Public Works, and to celebrate the time he has spent as a public servant for the people of the County. Dave has been Director of the Department for over 4 years, following a 10-year tenure as Deputy Director and has been with the Department for a total of 28 years.

During Dave's time with the Department, Sonoma County has changed in many ways, and many of the improvements we have seen have been accomplished with his valuable guidance and leadership. When he first arrived at the County in 1979 as a young transportation planner, Dave was tasked with developing a new transit system. I was pleased to work with Dave to help bring sustainable and environmentally sound transportation programs and projects to our community. With Dave's help, Santa Rosa's bus fleet has evolved from one with just a few, diesel buses, to a fleet that is entirely powered by Compressed Natural Gas. It is still one of a relative few fleets in the State that are 100 percent alternatively-fueled. While the need for a cleaner environment and energy independence has been apparent to most of us for some time, few transit agencies have been as responsive in addressing these imperatives, as has Sonoma County Transit under Dave's leadership. And now, the County is beginning to use methane gas captured at a County landfill to power County cars with the hope that it may one day be a source for our buses and other fleet vehicles.

That Dave has been a forward-thinking leader in public works can be evidenced in other ways, as well. Along with Marin County officials, Dave and other Sonoma County leaders recognized the benefits of public ownership of the Northwestern Pacific Railroad right-of-way; worked years ago to get it into public hands before its cost skyrocketed, and this corridor will almost certainly now be used to operate the SMART (Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit) rail system which will relieve congestion, clean the air, and improve the quality of life of all those who must now depend on the horribly congested Highway 101.

And under Dave's stewardship, a network of intermodal facilities and park and ride lots have been built that are also enhancing transit and car-pool opportunities for the citizens of Sonoma County, and in so doing, relieving congestion on Highway 101.

That Dave is among the nation's more innovative municipal public works directors would come as no surprise to those who know him. He received a masters degree in Urban and Regional Planning and was an early advocate of sustainability, which he defines, as well as anybody I've heard, as ``making sure that what we do today doesn't reduce opportunities for people in the future.''

Sonoma County has been fortunate that David Knight has spent most of his career working closely with our Board of Supervisors in helping to fashion and implement so many municipal improvements. We will miss him, but know that along with Pat, his wife of 28 years, he will enjoy an active retirement residing in the County and continue to contribute to the civic fabric that makes Sonoma such a wonderful place to live and work . . . thanks to Dave!

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 376) recognizing annually a National Classified School Employee of the Year and honoring the valuable contributions of Classified School Employees in the United States.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H. Res. 376, the resolution now under consideration.

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

I would like to thank Chairman Miller and the committee staff for helping move this bill so quickly and the gentleman from Tennessee for being here with me today.

We often recognize teachers for their hard work, for their dedication to our children. In fact, we need to do more of this. Teachers are very important to ensuring that our children are learning.

However, there has been far too little recognition for the school support personnel, those who help schools run smoothly, the classified school employees. Teachers can't teach without support of classified school employees. This includes instructional assistants, clerical staffs, school bus drivers, food services employees, maintenance, security and others who ensure a safe and healthy school day every day for our children.

Imagine a school day without this support: without bus drivers, how would our children get to school? Without janitors, who will ensure their classrooms, cafeteria and bathrooms are clean? Without food service personnel, who will serve their food, who will order their food? Without a school nurse, where will children go if they are not feeling well or they are needing medication? Without maintenance personnel, what would happen if something broke or if the school is too hot or too cold? Without office and clerical staff, who will ensure that the proper person picks up a child? And without security personnel, who will make sure our schools are safe? These responsibilities need to be met in order for our students to be able to do what they come to school to do: learn.

What do our teachers come to school for? To teach. These and many more tasks would not be possible without these important school employees.

That is why I introduced this resolution with Chairman Miller and Representative Hare, to recognize the many contributions classified school employees make to our children's school day. Without the work of these valuable employees, schools would be unable to function.

Today, we recognize the work of the classified school employee and thank them for their hard work in helping ensure that our schools run smoothly. I urge my colleagues to join me in recognizing the efforts of our classified school employees and thanking them for all they do to make certain our children are able to learn and teachers are able to teach in a safe and healthy environment.

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

Mr. Speaker, our schoolchildren couldn't attend school and teachers couldn't teach without the efforts of these valuable school personnel.

Personnel like Al Hart, District Information Services Coordinator for Reed School District in southern Marin County. Mr. Hart was recognized this year as the Marin County classified school employee of the year. His hard work and that of other school employees in the rest of the 6th district of California, and the rest of the country should be recognized.

Classified school employees work with teachers and administrators to ensure that our schools are safe and healthy places. Their contributions are invaluable and can be recognized today and every day.

That's why I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting H. Res. 376 to thank classified school employees for their work and to recognize them for their efforts.

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

Mr. Speaker, a very disturbing report emerged from Iraq last week. According to press reports, medical students in Iraq will be denied diplomas even though they have completed all of the coursework and passed all of the required testing. This means that they would only be allowed to practice in Iraq, and no other country will accept their medical training or let them practice in the new country, even though they have met all of the requirements.

This harkens back to the Iraq we knew under Saddam Hussein's rule. Saddam refused to grant diplomas to medical students in order to keep them in the country. Who would have thought that the new Iraq government would resort to Saddam Hussein's old tricks? This is an alarming and troubling trend, and it should be reversed immediately.

While dozens of international medical relief organizations have been forced to leave Iraq because of serious security concerns, Iraqis have fewer and fewer medical professionals available to them.

A well-known organization, Doctors Without Borders, related the story of one doctor, Dr. Bassam. He is an Iraqi physician specializing in orthopedic surgery living with his family in Baghdad.

His story says: Now, security issues have top priority for the few existing financial resources, and medical needs are forced to take a back seat. This morning, dozens of people were killed in Fallujah. Yesterday, it was Baghdad. And that's not counting the wounded, who add to the long list of emergency cases packing the hospitals. Every day brings a new batch of dead and wounded. In this context, patients simply cannot receive proper treatment from an increasingly overwhelmed health care system. Some are forced to sell their car, or even their house, to get certain kinds of care in the few hospitals able to provide it.

That is the end of his story.

Mr. Speaker, instead of locking people in against their will, the Iraqi government ought to be working with the international community to make Iraq a safe and prosperous place where people want to raise their families, where they want to stay, where they want to put down roots and contribute to the local communities.

If this is going to happen, the United States must dedicate our energies to bringing our troops home and to working with the Iraqi people to stabilize their infrastructure and social programs, programs that will provide health care, education and jobs. These are the most important needs for the Iraqis.

It is time, Mr. Speaker, to bring our troops home. It is time to provide a future of hope for the Iraqi people.

Mr. Speaker, my granddaughter, Julia, is 3 years old. She goes to preschool. Even in preschool, they gang up and they bully. The parents at that preschool tell me that my Julia steps in and she stops it. She will not put up with bullying and unfairness.

It is our turn. Be as brave as a 3-year-old. Vote for H.R. 1592. Show the world that if not now, when?

Mr. Speaker, today the Associated Press reported that in the middle of the Iraq civil war, their parliament will be taking a 2- month break starting in July. While our troops are dying, while they are being wounded, while they are trying to provide security to the Iraqi people, the Iraqi leadership is planning to take 2 months off.

I hope that this does not mean that the Iraqis are giving up on providing a peaceful resolution to this conflict. If anything, the parliament should be rededicating themselves to providing security and hope to the Iraqi people, not taking a break, not letting any hope for a peaceful resolution slip through their fingers.

Our best hope for peace in the region, actually, will have to come through hard work, through negotiations, through constant attention. Every day we turn a blind eye to the real situation on the ground in Iraq, more people die, more American troops, more Iraqi civilians die. I don't know about anyone else, but this is simply unacceptable to me.

The American people have said again, and they have said again, that they want our troops out of Iraq. This administration must demand that the Iraqi leaders stay in town, stay at the table, and not go on vacation.

After all, how can we stand down if the Iraqis aren't there to stand up?

This is a very serious problem, Mr. Speaker. How can we have a partnership with the Iraqi people, as our administration has promised, a partnership that they say is working to bring peace in Iraq, if half of that partnership goes on vacation?

My position has remained the same from the very beginning: We need to fully fund the withdrawal from Iraq. We need to bring our troops and military contractors home. We need to provide real and reliable health care to our returning troops. We need to work with the international community to provide for a dependable and safe future for the Iraqi people.

The way to bring peace to Iraq is not through building walls around neighborhoods, creating walled-in villages, breaking up lives and breaking up families. The way to bring peace to Iraq is to give sovereignty to the Iraqi people and to have a surge of peaceful negotiations. The only way to bring about peace is to bring our troops home, to empower the Iraqi people to build a future based on hope and equality.

And I ask you, Mr. Speaker, if not now, when?

Madam Speaker, Workers' Memorial Day, which was observed on April 28th, is a solemn day of remembrance for the thousands of workers who have died--over 5,700 or 16 workers a day in 2005--and a day in which we pledge to do better to protect the health and safety of America's workers.

Since the passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) in 1970, conditions in the workplace have improved and thousands of lives have been saved, but with this Administration's dismal record on workers' safety, many still die and over 4 million are injured or fall ill every year.

OSHA knows how to help workers when it wants to. For example, in 1978 when OSHA's cotton dust standard was adopted, there were 40,000 workers--or 12 percent of all textile workers--12 percent of all textile workers suffered from this deadly disease.

By 2000, and because of the OSHA standard, brown lung was virtually eliminated. OSHA's 1978 standard on lead dramatically reduced lead poisoning, and the 1989 excavation standard designed to protect workers from trench collapses has reduced deaths by more than 20 percent while construction activity has increased by 20 percent. But this administration has one of the worst records of any Administration in the issuance of safety and health standards.

My subcommittee, the Workforce Protections Subcommittee, held a hearing on OSHA's record last week where the administrator of OSHA, Edwin Foulke and Eric Peoples, a worker who has lost 80 percent of his lung capacity due to his exposure to a dangerous and unregulated chemical called Diacytel [die-aci-teal] sat side by side.

Mr. Foulke said that his heart went out to Mr. Peoples and his family. But then he told us that there wasn't enough proof to promulgate an emergency standard to protect workers from Diacytel.

What more evidence does he need? Diacetyl is a butter flavoring chemical that causes a deadly lung disease, known popularly as ``Popcorn Lung.'' Workers exposed to Diacetyl work in microwave popcorn facilities and other factories where flavorings are used. Mr. Peoples worked in one of these facilities and became ill within months of starting his job. Mr. Peoples--like many of those with popcorn lung--is so sick that he is awaiting a double lung transplant. Scientists have called the effect of Diacetyl on workers' lungs ``astonishingly grotesque'' and likened it to ``inhaling acid.'' Three workers have died so far.

There has been almost no response from OSHA despite the fact that OSHA scientists have urged the Agency leadership to take broad action on Diacetyl. And sadly, failure to protect workers from Diacetyl is just the tip of the iceberg. The Agency has failed to issue even those standards that are among its priorities, and in 6 years only one significant safety and health standard issued in February 2006, and that was under court order. If OSHA were to inspect every workplace in the country just once, it would take the Agency 133 years.

A recent congressional hearing revealed that OSHA had not done a single comprehenive inspection of any American refinery in the 10 years preceding the devastating 2005 explosion at BP's Texas City refinery that killed 15 workers. But instead of hiring more inspectors OSHA only wants to increase staffing for voluntary activities with its industry partners.

Meanwhile, millions of public employees and other workers still don't even have OSHA coverage, and OSHA penalties are so low that they are just seen by business as the cost of doing business.

We need to hold this Administration's feet to the fire and that is what I intend to do. And we need to act here in Congress to make health and safety our priority and to truly honor America's workers who have died on the job.

So I hope you will join me by co-sponsoring H.R. 2049, the Protecting America's Workers Act. Senator Kennedy has introduced a companion in the Senate.

This law will bring much needed change by expanding coverage to millions of public employees not covered by OSHA and to other private sector employees who are not currently covered. It will increase penalties in the case of willful violations resulting in death or serious injury and will also protect employees who have the courage to speak out about unsafe working conditions.

And finally, it mandates that the Department of Labor investigates all cases of death or serious injuries, makes the process transparent, and gives workers and their families the right to meet with investigators.

Mr. Chairman, we must ensure that no matter where a child comes from or what his or her background is, that child has an equal opportunity to succeed in school and in life. That begins with quality early childhood education, and that is why we need to and must reauthorize Head Start.

This bill will allow 10,000 more children to benefit from the Head Start program. But many, many more children are eligible for Head Start, and those children will continue to be left behind. A real investment in our children would ensure that every single child who is eligible has access to this very successful program. Without full funding, some children continue to start elementary school far behind their peers.

Some Members, as my friend on the other side of the aisle talked about, would like to allow Head Start programs to discriminate by using taxpayer dollars to hire staff based upon their religion, which is against everything I believe that the Head Start program stands for. When we already have a shortage of qualified Head Start teachers, we must not allow qualified teachers to be turned away simply because of their religion.

Mr. Chairman, children are 25 percent of our population. They are 100 percent of our future. We must support and expand Head Start for the best possible beginning of their lives.

Mr. Chairman, we must ensure that every child who could benefit from Head Start is able to enroll in a Head Start center. One way to do that is to provide full funding; another is to provide that we have the facilities we need; and, one of the most important ways is to ensure that we have qualified teachers.

The base bill increases the requests and requirements for teacher qualification, and it supports higher salaries and requires more college degrees. Therefore, including this amendment in the Head Start bill is absolutely appropriate, because this amendment helps Head Start teachers get the degrees that we are demanding that they have. And we do this by offering loan forgiveness to those teachers, teachers who teach in the Head Start programs. Loan forgiveness will help balance out low salaries, and it will assist with teacher retention.

Head Start is about the best thing we can do for our children, because this successful program gives children from all backgrounds a level playing field when they enter elementary school.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for giving me this opportunity to talk about the importance of research into the environmental, cultural and health impacts of introducing new genetically modified plants and animals into our agriculture, horticulture and aquaculture systems.

The National Science Foundation, which supports a broad range of basic research in the biological sciences, is well equipped to perform this basic research that will help us develop more sustainable approaches to pest management, understand and manage unique environmental and health risks, and even discover ways in which modified plants could provide environmental benefits.

Mr. Chairman, this is critical research that the National Academy of Sciences has called for in a recent report. While I am not offering an amendment to this bill before us today, I do ask for your help in raising the profile of this very important issue as you proceed with the bill.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I look forward to working with you.

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 95) honoring the career and research accomplishments of Frances E. Allen, the 2006 recipient of the A.M. Turing Award, as amended.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on H. Con. Res. 95, the resolution now under consideration.

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

Madam Speaker, H. Con. Res. 95 honors a pioneer in the world of computing, Dr. Frances Allen, the first woman awarded the A.M. Turing Award by the Association for Computing Machinery, ACM. The Turing Award is widely considered to be the Nobel Prize of computing. By being the first female recipient, Dr. Allen has set the bar as a role model for women everywhere who aspire to a career in math and science.

As a scientist at IBM since the early 1960s, Dr. Allen pioneered new technologies which serve as the basis for complex theories which are widely used today throughout the computer industry. She is regarded as a pioneer in the field of optimizing compilers and has developed several programming languages that have advanced the field of computer science.

Dr. Allen also helped create one of the first automatic debugging systems, and developed the advanced code-breaking language known as Alpha, which revolutionized how computers talk to each other and make computer programmers more efficient.

As computer science was ramping up in the early 1980s, Dr. Allen founded the Parallel Translation Group, the PTRAN, to study compiling for parallel machines. Subsequently, this group was recognized as one of the top research groups in the world dealing with this issue, and as a result, Dr. Allen was the first woman to be recognized as an IBM fellow in 1989.

In addition to her outstanding scientific achievement, Dr. Allen has also been an inspirational mentor to younger researchers and a leader within the computing community.

With the Nation's information technology workforce suffering from a lack of qualified candidates, it is all the more important, Madam Speaker, that Dr. Allen be recognized as the first female recipient of the A.M. Turing Award to show what women can accomplish.

It is certainly telling that women who earn more than half of all undergraduate degrees in this country and make up more than half of the professional workforce represent only 25 percent of all high-tech workers. In fact, the percentage of women graduating with degrees in computer science has fallen from 37 percent of total graduates in 1985 to just 15 percent in 2005. With grim statistics like these, it is clear that we are going to close the gap and ensure that information technology sectors have enough workers only if we get young women into this workplace. And Dr. Allen has done just that.

As a member of the Advisory Council of the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology, her goal has been to increase the participation of women in all aspects of technology. With her accomplishments in computing, it is clear that Dr. Allen lives up to the goals she sets for others and is a role model for women in science and technology.

Madam Speaker, Dr. Frances Allen has succeeded at the highest levels of math and science. It is clear that she deserves recognition for all of the tireless work she has done to promote women's roles in computing.

I urge my colleagues to support this bill, not only in congratulating Dr. Allen on her success, but to show that this Congress supports an increased presence of women in science and technology.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, as a member of the Committee on Science and Technology, I am proud to have brought H. Con. Res. 95 to the floor today.

Dr. Allen has contributed much to the world of science and technology. She is most deserving of this honor, and we are extending to her today our congratulations.

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