Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, we have won the battle against the Bridge to Nowhere.

This $320 million federally subsidized structure would have been as long as the Golden Gate Bridge, standing 80 feet higher than the Brooklyn Bridge. It would have connected the mainland to an island, population 50, with no roads or stores.

Last year, the House adopted the Kirk amendment, blocking all funding for the Bridge to Nowhere. It was a

wise move to protect taxpayers. But the Senate said, no, and temporarily saved the bridge. House leaders of this Congress surprisingly backed the Bridge to Nowhere, but our arguments have finally won. Alaska has decided to block all funding for the Bridge to Nowhere. Following the collapse of the Minneapolis bridge, we now have additional funds to fix bridges in need of repair, and maybe return some of this money that was to be wasted to the American taxpayers that earned it.

Mr. Speaker, the history of the 20th century tells us that genocidal dictators say what they will do and then do what they said. Hitler told us in his writings that he would murder Jews. And he did. Stalin said that he would liquidate the Kulaks, Russia's small farmers. And he did. Pol Pot said he would eliminate the middle class and intellectuals. And he did. Now the President of Iran said he will wipe Israel off the face of the Earth. And he will.

Now, we Americans promised in 1945, never again. Ahmadinejad says that one Jewish holocaust is not enough, that he would wish to commit a second genocide, and he would deny that that would happen because he already denies that the holocaust happened.

Now, our options with regard to Iran are poor. Option one is to leave this to the United Nations alone. But that appears to lead to the Iranians having the bomb. Option two is to let Israel's armed forces remove the threat. But that mission is dangerous and uncertain.

Thanks to Chairman Lantos and Ranking Member Ros-Lehtinen, we in Congress are developing a better and third option. Sanctions against Iran can work. This bill strengthens such sanctions. We can do more. We should bankrupt Bank Melli, a funder of terror. And we should quarantine gasoline sales to Iran. These measures could cripple Iran. Like the Yugoslav dictatorship, we can bring effective pressure to bear to achieve our objectives without military action.

The new President of France sees the growing danger and says the international community and Europe should act. The new French President is right. This bill takes us in the direction of a safer world and one in cooperation with our allies.

Madam Speaker, I rise to honor those who wear the uniform and serve their Nation in the U.S. armed services. We have more than 1.3 million active duty troops stationed throughout the world, and we owe these men and women much for their dedication and service. As a Naval Reserve intelligence officer who just returned from 2 weeks of active duty in August, I would also like to thank those who serve in our military's Reserve forces. More than 800,000 Americans serve in the seven Reserve branches, including the Army National Guard, Army Reserve, Navy Reserve, Marine Corps Reserve, Air National Guard, Air Force Reserve and Coast Guard Reserve.

Several weeks ago, I learned of one individual in my district that demonstrates the strong commitment to community and country that every Reserve enlisted person and officer has.

Tom Baier resides in Libertyville, IL, where the 53-year-old doctor has an orthopedic surgery practice. He serves as a team physician for several local youth sports teams, as well as a teacher for other doctors for arthroscopic ACL reconstruction surgery.

Dr. Baier's son Mike enlisted in the Marine Corps last spring and is currently stationed in Iraq. In part because of his son's service and his specialized surgical knowledge, Dr. Baier joined the Army Reserve's medical corps. On August 9, he was commissioned as a major and will report for training in the coming months.

Like many serving in our Reserve forces, Dr. Baier brings with him an expertise that will be an incredible asset to our military. Our men and women in the military deserve nothing but the finest medical care possible and I am grateful that we have individuals like Dr. Baier to provide that care. For all the men and women serving in the 10th Congressional District, from active duty to Reserve, as well as their families, we are honored by your sacrifices and selfless dedication to the Nation. We are a stronger country because of individuals like Dr. Baier.

Mr. Speaker, 2 weeks ago an incredible act of bravery took place in my district. Last Saturday, three high school students were stopped at a train crossing in Glenview, Illinois. At 8:30, as Glenbrook South High School senior Tom Foust and sophomores Tyler Brown and Zach Demertzis reached the intersection, they noticed an 83-year- old woman in her vehicle stopped on the tracks. It was clear the car was stuck, spinning her tires in the gravel.

At that moment, warning bells rang. The three young men rushed to the car and tried to help her move it. They didn't know how quickly the train was coming, at 79 miles an hour. When the woman did not leave, Tom reached in the vehicle and unclipped her seat belt. He pulled her out and got only 10 feet from the southbound train when it demolished the car, spraying glass and metal everywhere. The car was pushed into the northbound tracks and was immediately hit again by another train going in the opposite direction.

No one on the ground was injured. Tom, Tyler, and Zach saved this woman's life. I know I speak for the entire 10th District when I say how proud we are of the Glenview Good Guys, new heroes. Our community is very lucky to have them.

Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of this amendment, because an increase in renewable energy for our country will be an increase in American energy. Frankly, I would rather pay the Midwest than the Mideast for energy.

As someone who still serves in the military, I would like to accelerate a day in the future in which our dependence on foreign energy is less of a concern to the Pentagon. Half of our States have already led with these kinds of standards.

The Founding Fathers intended States to advance laws and standards before the national government did. They have led on this, and now it is time for our country to pitch in.

This amendment helps us to pay Americans, not foreigners; it reduces our impact on the environment; but, most importantly, it makes it less likely than the Pentagon of 2020 is worried about foreign sources of energy.

Mr. Speaker, when our foreign wiretap law was enacted in 1978, telephones were plugged into a wall, cell phones did not exist, and no one had heard of e-mail. Bin Laden was in college and Zawahiri was in medical school.

Today, these men are now responsible for the murder of 3,000 Americans. They attacked the embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and nearly sunk the USS Cole.

They talk to each other now with cell phones, satellite phones, e- mail and Internet chat. While they have changed their communications, our law has not.

As a currently serving Naval intelligence officer, I am not just a Congressman, I am also a customer of these programs. Serving on the House Foreign Operations Subcommittee, we watch foreign matters closely.

And look at the issues we will deal with just in August: A reactor shutdown in North Korea; the Hamas takeover of Gaza; Venezuelan arms purchases from Iran; a war in Iraq; a war in Afghanistan, the rise of the Taliban in Pakistan; narcotraffickers in Colombia; genocide in Darfur. That is just this month's list.

The bipartisan bill passed by over 60 votes in the Senate. It will help us learn more about dangers. It doesn't just protect the rights of Americans. It will protect the lives of Americans.

Madam Speaker, today I am proud to join my good friend, the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Larsen), in unveiling the bipartisan U.S.-China Competitiveness Agenda of 2007. This agenda includes four legislative priorities to expand America's influence in China and increase American competitiveness in the global marketplace.

As co-chairs of the bipartisan House U.S.-China Working Group, we are working in Congress to elevate the sophistication of our debate on U.S.-China issues. The U.S.-China Competitiveness Agenda provides Congress with a constructive legislative package to expand U.S. engagement with China while supporting key domestic and foreign policy objectives.

Along with two other Working Group members, Congresswoman Susan Davis (D-Calif.) and Congressman Steve Israel (D-N.Y.), we are introducing bipartisan legislation to expand America's diplomatic infrastructure in China, boost support to small- and medium-sized businesses exporting to the China market, increase funds for domestic Chinese language instruction and build new cooperative energy ties between the U.S. and China.

The U.S. has one embassy and four consulates in China, leaving more than 200 cities with a population greater than one million people with little to no American representation. Additionally, while 60 percent of U.S. exports go to the Asia-Pacific market, the U.S. contributes 100 times more dollars to Europe's Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development than to the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum.

My legislation, the U.S.-China Diplomatic Expansion Act of 2007, authorizes the construction of a new consulate in Wuhan (population eight million) and 10 smaller diplomatic posts in cities with more than a million people. The bill triples funding for public diplomacy, boosts funding for a range of language, student and teacher exchange programs, increases funding for rule of law initiatives and more than triples the U.S. contribution to Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation.

If we are serious about intellectual property rights, consumer product safety and economic competitiveness, we need a diplomatic infrastructure in China that reflects those priorities. We can't send more food inspectors to China to ensure the safety of imports if we don't have a place to put them. We can't work on issues like the theft of American patents, environmental protection, human rights and labor standards if we don't fund rule-of-law initiatives. My legislation would expand the diplomatic infrastructure to accomplish these objectives.

I am proud to co-sponsor three other bipartisan bills in the U.S.- China Competitiveness Agenda, including Mr. Larsen's U.S.-China Market Engagement and Export Promotion Act of 2007, Ms. Davis' U.S.-Chinese Language Engagement Act of 2007 and Mr. Israel's U.S.-China Energy Cooperation Act of 2007.

Mr. Larsen's bill would help states establish export promotion offices in China and create a new China Market Advocate program at U.S. Export Assistance Centers around the nation. The bill provides assistance to small businesses for China trade missions and authorizes grants for Chinese business education programs.

I strongly support the U.S.-China Market Engagement and Export Promotion Act because we need innovative programs that support our small business exports and arm them with the tools they need to succeed in China.

Roughly 200 million students are learning English in China today. By contrast, only about 50,000 primary and secondary school students study Chinese in America. Ms. Davis' bill increases Chinese cultural studies and language acquisition for elementary, high school and college-age students. Grants would be available to fund university joint venture programs, virtual cultural exchanges with Chinese schools and intensive summer language instruction programs.

We have more than just a trade deficit with China--we also have a knowledge deficit. That is why I strongly support the U.S.-Chinese Language Engagement Act. We need additional funding for domestic Chinese language programs, educational exchanges and

Chinese teacher exchanges to fix this knowledge imbalance.

Recently declared the world's top polluter, China's power consumption increased more than 15 percent in the first half of 2007 alone. Mr. Israel's bill authorizes new grants to fund U.S.-China energy and climate change education programs, along with joint research and development of carbon capture, sequestration technology, improved energy efficiency, and renewable energy sources.

In my view, China's connections to unstable energy markets like Iran, Sudan and Venezuela could set a foreign policy collision course with the United States. I strongly support the U.S.-China Energy Cooperation Act. To protect our environment and avoid future conflict, we need creative programs to boost U.S.-China energy cooperation.

I want to thank my colleagues for their hard work on this bipartisan agenda. I urge my colleagues to cosponsor all four bills and move quickly to enact this legislation into law.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to introduce the Student and Teacher Safety Act. As a former teacher, I understand that when you enter the classroom you develop a sense of feeling safe and protected from the violence of the outside world. The classroom is meant to be a place where our children's minds can be developed and nurtured. Students should be focused on pursuing their dreams, not worrying about drugs and violence in the classroom.

Columbine High School, Colorado; in my own district at Hubbard Wood School in Winnetkal; and most recently on the campus of Virginia Tech. Each of these schools and many others had their sense of safety shattered when they were subject to attack by an individual with a gun.

The Student and Teacher Safety Act will help promote a safer school environment by allowing full-time teachers the right to search a student or their property should they have reasonable suspicion that a weapon or illegal drugs have entered their classroom. The legislation simply codifies guidelines established by the U.S. Supreme Court in New Jersey v. TLO (1985), which states that reasonable searches by school officials do not require a warrant signed by a judge if the search would reveal that the student violated the law or school rules and asks school districts to develop and implement a policy on school safety.

Teachers know their students. They know when a student is acting suspicious or that there is a problem. We must trust their instincts when they believe that their classroom is at risk. We also must protect these teachers from the risk of being punished or sued for following their instinct. Students have the right to a safe learning environment and teachers have the right to a safe workplace.

The Student and Teacher Safety Act passed the 109th Congress unopposed. The nation's largest teacher union, the National Education Association, supports the bill and believes ``that a safe and effective learning climate is necessary for promoting educational excellence in public schools.'' As I have said before, if this bill helps one teacher stop one Columbine massacre, then Congress will have served the Nation well and protected its children.

Madam Speaker, today I am introducing a bill that will improve No Child Left Behind, NCLB, implementation while maintaining its important accountability provisions.

NCLB provides a crucial level of accountability for the results of study in the classroom. While this change was welcome on both sides of the aisle, this law did present some technical problems in its ground- breaking measurement and assessment of education achievement. I hare worked closely with education specialists at the North Central Education Lab as well as local education professionals as part of my Education Advisory Board to gather data on current NCLB implementation. This work resulted in a White paper detailing areas of concern to my local schools, coupled with practical solutions to these problems.

Specifically, this Education Assessment Technical Corrections Act focuses on highly-qualified teacher requirements, determinations of Annual Yearly Progress, AYP, and NCLB sanctions. My legislation maintains NCLB's important accountability provisions while improving implementation of the law in these key areas.

Every child deserves an excellent teacher. Unfortunately, several schools are experiencing difficultly meeting the highly-qualified teacher requirements in certain hard-to-staff areas. Much like rural teachers were given relief through rules, teachers in ``hard to staff'' areas should be granted relief for the higly qualified teacher provision in the form of a two year extension. However, schools must demonstrate that they are working towards full compliance in order to qualify for the extension.

Secondly, I strongly support measuring AYP for students. However, current law does not measure individual student improvement, counts students under multiple sub-groups, and creates discrepancies between NCLB and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. My legislation ensures that students are compared for consecutive years rather than two different classes for the same school year, places equal weight on each student, and clarifies Individualized Education Program status under NCLB. All these changes still maintain accountbility measures under NCLB but provide more accurate assessments.

Now that this landmark legislation has been in effect for a few years, it is important we revisit its effects. My bill takes into consideration important practical concerns of my local school boards while staying true to the goals of NCLB. I am proud that this bill reflects the advice and counsel of the North Central Education Lab, my Education Advisory Board and the National Education Association. I want to pay special thanks to Dr. Paul Kimmelman,

the chairman of our 10th Congressional district Education Advisory Board, who led much of this work.

Madam Speaker, the Education Assessment Technical Corrections Act represents a strong bipartisan consensus, backed by school management and unions, to make the job of defining success and education achievement more accurate and useful.

Madam Speaker, I am pleased to stand here today with (originals) and introduce legislation that will help protect the Great Lakes from harmful pollution that poisons our water and closes our beaches. The Great Lakes are the world's largest freshwater system and serve as a source of drinking water, food, jobs and recreation for more than forty million Americans. It is critical that we enhance our restoration efforts for this critical resource, not degrade the condition of the lakes even further.

British Petroleum (BP) will soon begin a $3.8 billion expansion of its refinery facility in Whiting, Indiana. Based on a provision in the Energy Policy Act of 2005, BP is eligible for a tax credit that will allow them half of the capital expense costs in the first year of the expansion. This expansion currently includes a large increase of pollution into the Great Lakes. The facility was recently issued a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit which will allow it to discharge an increase of 54 percent more ammonia and 35 percent more sludge into Lake Michigan per day. This will total a combined increase of more than 1,800 pounds per day of these pollutants which strangle aquatic life and contribute to the increasing number of beach closures each year.

While providing incentives to energy production and refinery expansion helps to lower gas prices and reduce our dependence on foreign oil, we must not do so at the expense of one of America's most treasured natural resources.

That is why I am introducing the Bad Polluters Act which will deny the capital expensing tax credit to any refiner whose facility's NPDES permit allows for an increase in any pollutant above its 2006 levels into the Great Lakes. This will prevent companies, such as BP, from seeking to increase pollution into our drinking water. In order to claim this important tax credit, companies will be forced to search a bit harder for a new solution to water treatment. I urge my colleagues to support this legislation and join in the fight to protect our national treasure.

Mr. Speaker, Congress should kill the pension for Members of Congress convicted of a felony. In January, I offered legislation, H.R. 14, that killed a pension on the conviction of any one of 21 public integrity felonies. Both Speaker Pelosi and Hastert voted for this reform.

But the bill we consider today leaves congressional pensions intact for violating 17 of these felonies, including income tax evasion, wire fraud, intimidation to secure contributions, and making fraudulent claims.

In January, we passed a limited reform bill that killed a pension for conviction of only four felonies. But shockingly, this bill has now been gutted.

In January we voted to kill the pension for a Member of Congress convicted of acting as a foreign agent, but this felony has now been deleted from the final package. Who deleted it? Is it okay for a Member of Congress convicted of a felony by acting as a foreign agent?

As you can see, the bill we will consider today falls far short of its potential for reform. A Member convicted of acting as a foreign agent should not receive a taxpayer pension.

I thank the gentleman.

I would say, to correct the record, this bill does include violations of 18 U.S.C. 219, acting as a foreign principal.

There are several reforms in this measure, but what is most surprising are the reforms which are not in this measure, reforms which both Speaker Pelosi and Speaker Hastert supported.

Under this legislation, a Member of Congress convicted of income tax evasion would still have a full right to his Federal pension. Under this legislation, a Member of Congress convicted of

interstate and foreign travel or transportation in the aid of racketeering enterprises is fully able to have a pension. In fact, there are other felonies, all of which we included in previous reform measures which are were dropped from this reform measure.

A Member can get a full Federal pension if they commit fraud by wire, radio, or television.

A Member can get a full pension if they are caught and convicted of influencing or injuring an officer or juror.

A Member can get a full pension for intimidation to secure political contributions, or for the promise of appointment of a candidate.

Under this legislation, a Member can get a full taxpayer pension if they make expenditures to influence voting.

In fact, previous reform legislation which Speakers Pelosi and Hastert both supported included 21 separate felonies which would kill the pension for a Member of Congress convicted of a felony. But this legislation only includes four. It only includes four.

Now, the way that this happened is instructive. There was no amendment to this legislation allowed in the House of Representatives, because an amendment adding all of these felonies would have carried the day, as it carried in the past. Of course, there was no conference on this bill either.

So, a very limited set of reforms, including only four felonies, has gone forward, and the longer list of 21 separate public integrity felonies listed by the Department of Justice has not been included as it was in previous reform measures.

I would simply say to the House that a Member of Congress convicted of income tax evasion should not get a taxpayer-funded pension. But that reform was left out.

The gentleman is the author of amendment; if he will yield. If a Member is convicted of income tax evasion under this legislation, is the pension canceled?

I would simply suggest to the House, the author should know the answer to this question.

As are 17 other felonies.

Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of this amendment. And when we had a neutral party look at this issue and the sugar program, it was the Commerce Department, and we asked the simple question, does this program cost American jobs? And the Commerce Department said 10,000 American families have lost their income because of the jobs exported overseas because of this program costing taxpayers over $1 billion a year and, really, a symbol of 19th and 20th century thinking in a 21st century economy. So I rise in strong support of this and would like to return those jobs to the United States of America.

Today, bipartisan Representatives from Illinois will meet with Bob Malone, the chairman of BP North America. Why? Because Mr. Malone and his team want to increase their dumping of ammonia and suspended solids in our drinking water, Lake Michigan.

BP hired a consultant who told them what they wanted to hear, that despite being one of the most profitable companies on Earth and spending $3 billion to upgrade their Indiana refinery, they can't find the space to prevent dumping in Lake Michigan.

This morning, the House will take up a bipartisan resolution condemning BP's plan to dump in Lake Michigan. I hope that BP will tell us today that they are reconsidering their plans. I hope they hear the voices of 2,700 Americans in my district that signed a petition against the BP dumping plan. I hope they hear the voice of 19 Republicans and Democrats that asked the EPA to pull the permit.

BP should hear the voice of the House this morning. If not, BP has to understand that our action this morning is only the opening step by action in the Congress to protect Lake Michigan.