Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, you do not need a valid Social Security number to get a job at America's busiest airport. Recently, Federal inspectors reported that screeners at O'Hare Airport also missed 60 percent of all bomb test kits designed to test the screeners. The Justice Department then found three dozen illegal aliens using expired airport security badges. Authorities had no idea who the real identity was of workers with direct access to civil aircraft. This is not the way to run America's busiest airport.

Later today, Representatives Roskam, Biggert, and I will introduce legislation creating Federal security zones where only badged and approved United States citizens can work next to an aircraft. Everyone at the airport Federal security zone will have a background check and have a valid, real Social Security number.

You would think the Transportation Security Agency would know who is working at American airports. Our bill would help implement that commonsense solution.

Madam Speaker, 1997 brought a presidential crisis, Slobodan Milosevic, and Princess Diana's death. It wasn't the greatest year, but it was the last time Congress managed to update the homeowners' exemption for the sale of a residence. It should not take more than five Congresses and over a decade to update the homeowner's exemption.

Since that time, the average value of an American home is up 104 percent. A $500,000 home in 1997 would now cost over $1 million. A decade later, middle-class homeowners in high-cost areas are handed a tax bill when they sell their homes because the home ownership exemption is still stuck at $250,000 for individuals and $500,000 for a couple.

What does $250,000 buy for a growing family in today's market? Less than they need.

It is time to update the exemption for homeowners so that they are not pushed into higher tax brackets because Congress failed to update the law. That is why I am introducing the Homeowners Exemption Update Act of 2007, which raises the exemption to $500,000 per individual and $1,000,000 per couple.

Local leaders in Illinois are proposing more than ten new taxes of over $1 billion. Today, this body passed a $72 billion tax increase. Taxpayers deserve relief as the economy begins to slow, not a smattering of new taxes. My legislation eases the growing burden facing American families today.

I urge my colleagues to support this legislation and stand up for homeowners across the country.

Madam Chairman, if our Constitution stands for anything, it is the ideal of individual liberty. To defend that liberty, we support democracy. But underneath both of those key values in the West, we believe in tolerance for our Federal citizens. Tolerance.

In Nazi Germany, they killed Jews and gypsies; but they also killed homosexuals. Thanks to us, the Nazis were defeated by the tolerant democracies of the West.

Our history is one of expanding tolerance. First, that all white men are equal; then all men; then all men and women. These are the civil rights achievements of the 20th century. Now it is our turn to offer protection for those of a different orientation.

From the Land of Lincoln, our country is the leader in advancing the toleration values of the West. This bill is already the law in the Land of Lincoln; but today, we go forward to make it the law for all.

Madam Speaker, three blocks from our White House, the World Bank is subsidizing the administration of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Last year the World Bank cut a $220 million check to the Government of Iran. After two U.N. sanctions, the World Bank paid another $50 million to Iran in August. According to the bank, they have another $820 million on the way. World Bank funding is paid through Iran's Bank Mali, which the U.S. Government has now found to be a conduit for terrorist financing. Over $5 million of World Bank funds are now frozen in Bank Mali's accounts.

It is hard enough for the United Nations to sanction a country, but it has now sanctioned Iran twice. That united voice of the United Nations should not be undercut by a $800 million check in funding by the World Bank to Iran.

Madam Speaker, I am honored to welcome His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, to the 10th Congressional District of Illinois. His Holiness Karekin II was a pivotal figure in rebuilding the Armenian Church in the aftermath of the Soviet period and providing spiritual leadership for 7 million Armenian Apostolic Christians around the world. He has undertaken extensive philanthropic and humanitarian work, including opening orphanages, hospitals, soup kitchens for the elderly and cultural centers for the youth of Armenia. We would like to honor His Holiness Karekin II for his dedication to the people of Armenia and thank him for visiting the 10th District of Illinois.

I hope this trip to the United States compels my colleagues to bring the Armenian Genocide resolution, H. Res. 106, to a vote before the full House of Representatives. For more than 90 years, Armenians were denied recognition for the Genocide of 1915.

We promised in 1945 to never forget the Holocaust, to never again let such atrocities be committed. But the world could forget the first genocide of the 20th Century. In fact Hitler used the world's denial of the Armenian Genocide as justification for his invasion into Poland and the ensuing ethnic cleansing of Europe's Jewry. In a speech he gave in late August of 1939, Hitler stated, ``I have placed my death-head formation in readiness . . . with orders to send to death mercilessly and without compassion, men, women, and children of Polish derivation and language . . . Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?''

As a defender of human rights, America must formally recognize the genocide Hitler once dismissed so easily. From 1915 to 1923, the Ottoman Turks systematically annihilated more than 1.5 million ethnic Armenians. There is no other way to describe this organized campaign of murder than as genocide.

I encourage my fellow Congressmen to support the Armenian Genocide resolution so that we may finally provide the Armenian community with the recognition and justice they deserve.

Mr. Speaker, today's USA Today reports on a major security failure at two of our Nation's largest airports, Chicago's O'Hare and LAX. In a simulation conducted by the Transportation Security Agency, screeners at LAX missed 75 percent of hidden explosives and bomb parts carried through the security by undercover TSA agents.

Screeners at Chicago's O'Hare missed these items 60 percent of the time. According to the report, bomb materials were packed away in toiletry kits, briefcases and CD players. Now, more than 6 years after September 11, we have to fix the security failures at major hubs like O'Hare and LAX.

Security officials should call a security summit, bringing together local leaders and the Departments of Homeland Security and Transportation to schedule intensive retraining for TSA screeners, new testing standards, and accountability for lapses in security.

Much of our safety and a great deal of our economy depends on the security of O'Hare Airport. We can do this. And a security summit to fix this glaring security problem would help.

Madam Speaker, both the U.N. Security Council and the International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, found that Iran is in breach of its obligations under the U.N. Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The IAEA reported that Iran ignored the Security Council's deadline to stop enriching uranium and expanded its nuclear program.

As Iran's Atomic Energy Organization moves towards its announced goal of operating 50,000 uranium enrichment centrifuges in Natanz, the World Bank is funding nine government projects in Iran totaling $1.355 billion--one of which operates in Isfahan, the headquarters of Iran's nuclear program.

The United States remains as the top investor in the World Bank, contributing $950 million in 2006 and $940 million in 2007. The House of Representatives approved another $950 million contribution while the Senate approved more than $1 billion. Meanwhile, the bank disbursed $220 million to Iran in fiscal year 2007, with more than $870 million remaining in the pipeline for fiscal years 2008, 2009 and 2010.

To date, the World Bank's board has taken no action to end these disbursements--which it could by demanding a policy review and then voting to stop credit transfers. Furthermore, the U.N. Security Council has given no explicit direction to the World Bank on this issue--which it could in its next resolution.

Therefore, as the World Bank prepares for its annual meetings this week in Washington, I am introducing a bipartisan resolution today calling on the bank's board of directors to end disbursements to Iran until the IAEA certifies Iran's compliance with U.N. Security Council Resolutions and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Should the board fail to act, we call on the U.N. Security Council to order the bank to suspend these disbursements.

As part of the United Nations family, the policies of the World Bank should be aligned with the policies of the U.N. Security Council. The United States and the World Bank should not subsidize Iran's economic development while its government enriches uranium in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

I want to thank my dear friends and colleagues, Congressman Steve Rothman and Congressman Rob Andrews, for joining me in introducing this bipartisan resolution.

I thank the gentleman, and I rise in celebration of this, one of the most important environmental laws in the history of our country, the Clean Water Act.

For 35 years, the Act has helped limit the discharge of pollution that poisons our water and our beaches. I think it's not enough just to commemorate groundbreaking legislation. As illness, beach closings, habitat loss, and billions of dollars in lost economic opportunity and environmental damage continue, Congress should move to strengthen the Clean Water Act.

This year sheds particular light on a gaping hole in the Clean Water Act. Just a few months ago, we learned that the State of Indiana ended a decade-long dumping ban in the Great Lakes, allowing British Petroleum to increase by 54 percent its ammonia dumping in Lake Michigan, and adding 35 percent more sludge to the lake each day. It was only due to the vigilance of citizens and environmental organizations and lawmakers around the Lake Michigan shore that we got BP to back down.

Thanks to the thousands of Illinois volunteers, BP has now agreed to maintain its current discharge levels. But shockingly, the permit that was issued by the State of Indiana was completely allowed under the current Clean Water Act. Now, Indiana is once again seeking to renew a discharge permit that failed to protect Lake Michigan.

The draft permit for United States Steel--Gary Works, already the largest polluter of Lake Michigan, will delay for 5 years compliance with Clean Water Act limits on dangerous toxic chemicals such as mercury, free cyanide, zinc, copper and ammonia.

The draft permit sets a very weak standard for mercury, oil and grease, free cyanide and other harmful pollutants. It also would allow United States Steel to follow a 10-year-old storm water pollution prevention plan.

I want to commend the Environmental Protection Agency, especially from my region, for at least delaying the issuance of this Indiana permit because I think this permit fails to protect the people that depend on Lake Michigan for their drinking water.

Current law right now will fail to protect the drinking water for nearly 30 million Americans who rely on the Great Lakes. I believe it's time to commit this Congress to upgrade our Federal protection of the Great Lakes under the Clean Water Act. We should move forward in a bipartisan way to enact a complete future ban on all dumping in the Great Lakes and bring forward a 21st century clean water act that builds on the tradition that we commemorate today.

Madam Speaker, as a cosponsor of H. Res. 624, I rise in strong support of this bipartisan resolution and urge its adoption.

For the first time in history, the State of Israel will serve as the chair of a United Nations Committee. We congratulate Mr. Ron Adam for his appointment as Chair of the U.N. Committee on Program and Coordination and wish him much success in this historic post.

While this appointment gives us hope of reform at the United Nations, other U.N. organs continue on a path of anti-Semitism with irrational vilification of the Jewish State.

In 2006, the United Nations took 135 actions against the State of Israel for alleged violations of human rights. By contrast, the U.N. took only 69 actions against Sudan--home to a genocide in Darfur--and only 23 actions against Iran, where the government is carrying out an ethnic cleansing campaign against its Baha'i minority.

In its first year of existence, the U.N. Human Rights Council passed 10 resolutions condemning Israel, while passing only one resolution condemning Sudan.

And we all remember the infamous U.N. ``Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People'' nearly 2 years ago when U.N. officials proudly displayed a map of the Middle East without the State of Israel.

For several years, I have worked with my colleagues to pressure U.N. members to end

their anti-Israel obsession. Israel's appointment to the U.N. Committee on Program and Coordination is the first fruit of our labor. But we know there is a long way to go to end anti-Semitism at the United Nations.

I want to thank my friend, Mr. Hastings, for introducing this important resolution, and Chairman Lantos and Ms. Ros-Lehtinen for their continued leadership on this issue.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 2185 to reauthorize and expand Rob Portman's landmark legislation, the Tropical Forest Conservation Act. This reauthorization will help developing countries reduce foreign debt and provide comprehensive environmental preservation programs to protect tropical forests and endangered marine habitats around the world.

Since enacted in 1998, Tropical Forest Conservation Act programs have generated a total of $136.5 million over 10 to 25 years to help conserve 50 million acres of tropical forests in Asia, the Caribbean, Central and South America. But the rate of deforestation continues to accelerate across the globe.

Similarly alarming is the rapid rate of coral reef and coastal exploitation. The burden of foreign debt falls especially hard on the smallest of nations, such as island nations in the Caribbean and Pacific. With few natural resources, these countries often resort to harvesting or otherwise exploiting coral reefs and other marine habitats to earn hard currency to service foreign debt. According to the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, 60 percent of the world's coral reefs may be destroyed by the year 2050 if the present rate of destruction continues.

The Tropical Forest and Coral Conservation Act expands the current tropical forest conservation programs to include the protection and conservation of these vital coral ecosystems. H.R. 2185 will credit qualified developing nations for each dollar spent on a comprehensive tropical forest and reef preservation or management programs. It will also reduce debt by investing locally in programs that will strengthen indigenous economies by creating long-term management policies to preserve the natural resources upon which local commerce is based. Most importantly, H.R. 2185 will make resources available for environmental stewardship that would otherwise be of the lowest priority in a developing country.

This legislation has enormous consequences for the existence of critical ecosystems, the health of our planet and the livelihoods of millions of people across the globe. I would like to thank Bill Millan from The Nature Conservancy, Lisa Handy from Conservation International, Beth Allgood from the World Wildlife Fund and Kelly Aylward from the Wildlife Conservation Society for all their efforts in helping to craft and forward this legislation. I urge my colleagues to support the Tropical Forest and Coral Conservation Act, which will help preserve the world's most precious natural resources.

Mr. Speaker, it is sad when another country turns its arms against the United States or our allies, but it is a tragedy when those arms were made by Americans.

Many of us remember when advanced F-14 Tomcat fighters were provided to the Kingdom of Iran only to see these airplanes become the backbone of the ayatollah's air force.

Newspapers indicate that the United States will now offer a large arms sales package to the Saudi Kingdom. And while much of what is proposed looks useful against Iran, patrol craft and warning radars, satellite-guided bombs pose a particular danger if used in the wrong hands.

These satellite-guided bombs, called Joint Direct Attack Munitions, or JDAMs, are particularly lethal in battle, and if misused against American forces or our allies in Israel, their effect could be not just devastating but tragic.

We should not provide such weapons without ironclad, written guarantees to the Congress that such munitions could not pose a danger to future Americans or our allies. I urge Members to sign the Kirk- Carney-Poe-Berman-Harman letter to block this sale unless guarantees are made.

Madam Speaker, for more than 90 years, Armenians were denied recognition for the genocide of 1915. We promised in 1945 to never forget the Holocaust, to remember when such atrocities are committed. But the world could well forget the first genocide of the 20th century. In fact, Hitler used the world's denial of the Armenian genocide as the justification for his invasion of Poland and the ensuing murder of Europe's Jewry.

In a speech he gave in 1939, Adolf Hitler stated, ``I have placed my death-head formation in readiness, with orders to send death mercilessly and without compassion, men, women and children of Polish derivation and language. Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?''

Unfortunately, Members of Congress, both Republicans and Democrats, are seeking to, once again, bury this to appease Turkey. We remember Turkey well, a formerly strong NATO ally; but in 2003, when the United States Army requested permission to transit this ally's territory, Turkey said no, a decision which cost the lives of American service men and women.

Former U.S. House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt, once an ardent supporter of the Armenian Genocide resolution, is now registered with the Justice Department as a foreign agent of the Turkish Government. Like many other former Members of Congress, he is lobbying against a bill that he cosponsored when he served in this body. As a defender of human rights, our country must formally recognize the genocide that Hitler so easily dismissed.

From 1915 to 1923, the Ottoman Turks systemically annihilated more than 1.5 million ethnic Armenians. There is no other way to describe this organized campaign of murder other than as genocide.

The Armenian Genocide resolution, H. Res. 106, was just approved today by a vote of 27-21 in the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. I urge Speaker Pelosi to bring this important resolution to the floor so that we may finally provide the Armenian community with the recognition that they deserve.

Madam Speaker, I rise to honor the life and memory of a constituent and one of the most beloved people in the Chicagoland area--Bill Wirtz. Last week, Mr. Wirtz passed after a battle with cancer at the age of 77.

Most knew him as the president of the Chicago Blackhawks, where he worked for the last 41 years. However, his fame in sporting circles was only surpassed by his infinite kindness and generosity. Through his direction, the Chicago Blackhawks Charities donated more than $7.5 million since 1993 to various organizations such as the Boys and Girls Clubs. He also was renowned for his compassion toward his employees, treating them like members of his family.

The crowds at his visitation and funeral demonstrated the high-regard that thousands had for Mr. Wirtz and his accomplishments.

I know I speak for the entire district when I send my deepest sympathies to his wife Alice, sons Rocky and Peter, daughters Gail, Karey and Alyson and his seven grandchildren. His memory will live on through the institutions he helped create and those whose lives he touched. It is because of this that his passion and dedication will never be forgotten.

Mr. Speaker, this resolution before us demonstrates America's commitment to human rights around the world. As the cochair of the Iran Working Group and a member of the Human Rights Caucus, I am proud to stand here as the co-author of this Kirk-Andrews resolution.

On April 9, 2007, Iranian agents arrested and imprisoned Mahmoud Salehi, the founder of the Saghez Bakery Workers Association. Mr. Salehi is a kidney patient who now sits in the Sanandaj prisons, his life in grave danger as the regime blocks his access to dialysis treatment.

July 10, plain-clothed Iranian agents severely beat and arrested Mansour Osanloo, the president of the Syndicate of Bus Drivers of the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company. Osanloo now sits in Iran's notorious Evin prison with a chronic heart condition, no access to medical or legal assistance, and no contact with his family. The Teamsters have called on Iran to immediately release both men.

In August, the International Trade Union Confederation, together with the International Transport Workers Federation, staged an international ``day of action'' to free these union leaders; and now it's our turn. Together with my good friend and the cochair of the Iran Working Group, Congressman Robert Andrews of New Jersey, we introduced this resolution, a bipartisan

resolution condemning the Government of Iran for the arrest and imprisonment of Iranian union leaders, demanding their immediate release. Today, we speak with one voice, not as Democrats or Republicans, but as Americans, to say to the Iranian people, we stand with your efforts to bring about political freedom and individual liberty in Iran.

As a board member of the National Endowment for Democracy, I am proud of the U.S. Government's commitment to international workers' rights. This resolution embodies that commitment.

I want to thank Chairman Lantos and Ranking Member Ros-Lehtinen for their cosponsorship and continued leadership on this human rights issue.

I also want to thank my friend, Congressman Rob Andrews, and the vice chairs of the Iran Working Group, Congressman Boustany and Congressman Klein, and key staff members, including Alan Makovsky, Yleem Poblete, Alan Goldsmith, Luke Ballman, Michael Hare and Mira Kogen for their hard work on this resolution.

I especially want to thank Richard Goldberg of my staff, who did the heavy lift on this piece of legislation, so heavy he might become an honorary Teamster.

Mr. Speaker, it is very important to see what is happening in Iran, that there is now an attack going on against Baha'is, there is now an attack going on against intellectuals, and there is now an attack going on against free union members. We need to speak out against all of these if we adhere to our principles of faith to the dignity of the individual as enshrined, not just in the Constitution of the United States, but in the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, of which the Government of Iran is a signatory.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Madam Speaker, today I introduced a resolution calling on Governor Rod Blagojevich to stop the state's upcoming prohibition on people from Illinois from using the federal government's E-Verify web site to confirm immigration status for job applicants. The system is used in other states to quickly verify that new employees comply with U.S. law. Earlier this week, the Department of Justice, on behalf of the Department of Homeland Security, brought suit in federal court to strike down the Blagojevich prohibition.

The E-Verify system was created as part of the ``Basic Pilot Program'' authorized by Congress in 1996 to help employers easily check immigration status for job applicants. The program was offered to the entire country in 2001 by a unanimous vote of the House. Governor Blagojevich was a member of the House in 2001 during the time of that unanimous vote.

The E-Verify system provides employers access to a web site to check on the legal or illegal status of a job applicant, usually within one day. The system approves over 91 percent of such applications. If an applicant disagrees with an E-Verify opinion, he can contest the ``Tentative Non-Confirmation'' within one week at a Social Security or Department of Homeland Security office. Federal law prohibits an employer from taking action against an employee until this dispute is resolved.

If an employee is officially ``Non-Confirmed'', the employer can still offer a job after adjusting the immigration status of the applicant or notifying the Department of Homeland Security. Over 22,000 American employers use the E-Verify system that has processed almost three million requests. More than 800 employers join this system each week.

While the federal government offered Americans the right to check on the immigration status of job applicants using the E-Verify system, this right will be denied to the people of Illinois by this new state law. Signed by the Governor in August, the Illinois law will deny all Illinois employers the right to use the federal E-Verify system after January 1. The Illinois law only allows access to E-Verify at some future date after state officials finds the system is 99 percent accurate. No other state denies the rights of its employers to use this federal program. Furthermore, the Illinois law clearly violates the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution.

I encourage all of my colleagues to join me in supporting this resolution and supporting the right of employers to verify the immigration status of prospective employees.