Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, today I introduce legislation, the ``Medical Debt Relief Act of 2009,'' which would protect those hard- working Americans who play by the rules, pay or settle their medical debts, yet find their economic well-being and their credit scores adversely affected for years due to medical debt, large or small, that has gone to collection.

The ``Medical Debt Relief Act of 2009'' would prohibit all consumer credit agencies and creditors from using paid off or settled medical debt collection in assessing a consumer's creditworthiness.

Medical debt is unique. Americans don't choose when accidents happen or when illness strikes. Medical debt collection issues affect both insured and uninsured.

According to credit evaluators, medical debt collections are more likely to be in dispute, inconsistently reported, and of questionable value in predicting future payment performance because it is atypical and non-predictive.

Nevertheless, medical debt that has been completely paid off or settled can significantly damage a consumer's credit score for years. As a result, consumers can be denied credit or pay higher interest rates when buying a home or obtaining a credit card.

The issue of medical debt affects millions. In fact, according to the Commonwealth Fund, medical bill problems or accrued medical debt affects roughly 72 million working-age adults in American. For 2007, 28 million working-age American adults were contacted by a collection agency for unpaid medical bills.

Mr. Speaker, in my district, as in many districts around the country, medical debt has been a contributing factor in bankruptcies and in foreclosures. In fact, 72 million Americans today are affected by the issue of medical debt.

Another more insidious but also serious issue that arises from medical debt, and one that costs our constituents a great deal of money, is the issue of medical debt that is paid late or is settled eventually, but paid nevertheless, but has gone to collections and is reported negatively on a credit report or a score.

Twenty-eight million Americans pay their medical debt off over a period of time. Some of those accrue debt only because of a dispute with an insurance company, some of them because of the high cost of medical care and high deductibles or caps that have been exceeded in the course of the year, some because of job loss. But that negative credit score stays with them for years to come.

Madam Speaker, on the legislative day of Monday, July 27, 2009, I was unable to cast votes a number of rollcall votes. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on rollcall votes 647, 648, and 649.

Madam Speaker, this week the House Financial Services Committee is scheduled to markup legislation requiring mandatory ``say on pay'' shareholder votes on executive compensation packages and corporate golden parachutes. Today, I am introducing legislation that will make sure all investors will be able to hold the institutions that cast these votes accountable for their decisions.

The ``say on pay'' legislation introduced by House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-MA), H.R. 3269, gives shareholders an important new tool by requiring annual nonbinding shareholder votes on executive compensation and golden parachutes. This legislation is much needed given the abuses that have come to light during the financial crisis, as numerous CEOs have walked away from failing companies with multi-million dollar paydays.

The ``say on pay'' votes mandated by H.R. 3269 will be executed through the corporate proxy process where traditionally votes are cast on corporate bylaw changes, director elections, and other matters. Many of these proxy votes are not cast by individual shareholders but rather by institutional investors who own shares on behalf of individuals, such as mutual funds, pension plans and hedge funds. Unfortunately, the only institutional investors currently required to disclose how they vote their proxies, including votes on executive compensation, are mutual funds. Some other institutional investors have voluntarily decided to disclose their proxy votes, but they are not legally required to do so.

The legislation I am introducing today will require mandatory disclosure of all institutional investor proxy votes on ``say on pay'' issues and all other matters, including the elections of corporate boards. This bill will bring long overdue disclosure to the proxy voting records of hedge funds and other institutional investors.

The need for disclosure of institutional investor proxy votes is a central recommendation of the July 2009 report of the Investors' Working Group (IWG), an independent task force sponsored by the CFA Institute and the Council of Intuitional Investors. The IWG task force is chaired by former SEC Chairmen Arthur Levitt, who was appointed SEC Chairman by President Clinton, and William Donaldson Levitt, who was appointed SEC Chairman by President George W. Bush. This bipartisan report recommends that:

Institutional investors-including pension funds, hedge

funds and private equity firms--should make timely, public

disclosures about their proxy voting guidelines, proxy votes

cast, investment guidelines, and members of their governing

bodies and report annually on holdings and performance.

The IWG task force is one of many voices calling for disclosure of institutional investor proxy votes. Both the AFL-CIO and the Investment Company Institute support their disclosure:

The AFL-CIO strongly supports increased transparency in

proxy voting by all capital market participants . . .

Greater transparency around proxy voting by institutional

investors should enhance the quality of the debate concerning

how the corporate franchise is used, particularly in the

context of ``say on pay'' proposals, where the public

disclosure of advisory votes would maximize their influence

over management.

The legislation I am introducing will make sure all investors can monitor corporate proxy votes cast by institutional investors. It accomplishes this by requiring annual disclosure of proxy votes by any entity that is required to file ownership reports pursuant to Sec. 13(f) of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934. Today, Sec. 13(f) filers, who by definition invest more than $100 million in equity assets, must report their holdings quarterly. My legislation simply requires that once a year these institutions use their 13F forms to disclose their comprehensive proxy voting records.

As Congress works on legislation providing new consumer protections and tougher regulation of Wall Street, I believe we must increase transparency and disclosure throughout the capital markets. This legislation marks an important step in that direction.

Madam Speaker, today I introduce legislation, the ``Investor Advisory Committee Act of 2009,'' which would establish a permanent advisory committee within the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and give investors a greater voice in the Commission's work.

One of the most significant contributors to our economic downturn was the unraveling of major financial institutions and the lack of adequate regulatory structures to prevent abuse and excess.

Financial innovators produced a huge variety of new and complex financial instruments, but, instead of reducing risk, the markets actually magnified risks that were being taken by ordinary families and large firms alike.

Millions of Americans who worked hard and behaved responsibly saw their savings eroded by the irresponsibility of others and by the failure of their government to provide adequate oversight.

Reforms are needed to encourage sound risk management, long-term growth and value creation--not only at individual firms, but for our financial system and the economy as a whole.

A permanent Investor Advisory Committee will help advance these reforms by providing investors a greater voice within the SEC.

Mr. Speaker, as we have worked these last several months on the issue of health care, I have engaged my community in a variety of townhall meetings, forums and opportunities for them to let me know what they need out of the health care bill, to tell me their stories. I would like to share one of those with you. My constituent writes, This is not my story, but it is the story of a close friend who died last November at the age of 50. During his life, he was afflicted with diabetes and heart disease. He was self-employed and could not get health insurance because of his preexisting conditions. A few months prior to his death, he asked me to review a brochure advertising a plan to get discounts on various things, including medical services and drugs, but clearly stated it was not insurance. I told him the company was not promising anything, only a hope that discounts could be obtained. He was going to pay the $178 per month premium anyway because he couldn't get insurance or any

other kind of help. A few months later, he suddenly died.

Mr. Speaker, we have an opportunity here with H.R. 3200 to pass a bill of historic proportions to address issues such as this constituent and many Americans are facing, to have a health care plan that is affordable and accessible for all Americans, that will lower the cost of health insurance, to provide a public option that gives people a choice of doctors and plans, and puts an emphasis on prevention and wellness. I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

Madam Speaker, today I introduce legislation, the ``Provide a Return on Financial Investment for the Taxpayer Act of 2009,'' or ``PROFIT Act of 2009,'' which will maximize the American taxpayers' return on its investment in troubled financial institutions through the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) and make the payback process between Treasury and the banks transparent to the public.

During the wake of the economic crisis, American taxpayers assumed an enormous financial risk when they bailed out these institutions.

To compensate for this risk, banks that received TARP funds were required to give Treasury warrants for the future purchase of common shares, allowing American taxpayers an opportunity to profit from the possible upside of their investment.

However, the Congressional Oversight Panel (COP), in its July 10, 2009, oversight report, found that Treasury would be more likely to maximize taxpayer returns if it sold the warrants through an open, public and transparent auction instead of the current process that allowed 11 banks to repurchase their warrants at just 66 cents on the dollar.

In fact, COP found that if Treasury uses this same approach to repurchase all remaining outstanding warrants, estimated at between $8.1 billion to $12.3 billion, American taxpayers would lose out on as much as $2.7 billion.

American taxpayers took enormous risks in bailing out Wall Street and should be compensated.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the Miller gas station on its 50th anniversary. This family business has been serving the residents of my hometown in Ohio for five decades by offering the personal service and attention that is becoming rare and invaluable in an increasingly automated world.

Unlike most other gas stations in Ohio which are purely self-service, the Miller family gas station maintains a full-service pump. The Millers interact with customers on a daily basis, developing relationships that are necessary for the sense of connectedness and goodwill among members of a strong and spirited community. Residents of Upper Arlington return to the Millers' station time and again--some for many years--knowing they will receive exceptional service each time.

Eddie and Deanna Miller leased the station in 1959 and worked at the station for almost 25 years before they could own the business outright. The couple has served as an example of the American tradition of hard work and quality service, factors that have kept their business vibrant in instances of harsh economic conditions over the last fifty years. For the Millers, good service is not just a virtue of successful business, it is an enjoyable and fulfilling aspect of their work. Interaction with community members instills within their family a sense of pride in and responsibility toward the people of Upper Arlington.

This month as the family business celebrates its 50th anniversary Eddie and Deanna express confidence in their son Mike in carrying their family business forward for decades to come. I thank the Miller family and encourage them to continue their tradition of unique and valued service to the residents of Central Ohio.

Madam Speaker, on the legislative day of Monday, June 15, 2009, I was unavoidably detained and was unable to cast a vote on a number of rollcall votes. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on rollcall votes 336, 337, 338, and 339.

Mr. Speaker, to the grieving family of Stephen Tyrone Johns, I offer my deepest sympathy. You are in our thoughts and prayers.

And to the men and women in blue, especially those serving here on Capitol Hill, I offer my condolences at the loss of your brother officer and recognize the courage and devotion to duty he displayed at the cost of his life. I know that our Nation's police forces stand ready each and every day to serve and to protect.

This particular outrage is all the more heinous because of the place of the crime, our National Holocaust Memorial Museum, and because its perpetrator had a repeated history of public expressions of racism and anti-Semitism.

It is long past time for us to come together as a Nation and put an end to racism, to put an end to anti-Semitism, to put an end to homophobia, and to eliminate hate crimes; to come together and say that hatred and intolerance should not be allowed, that we should be able to end this as a community and come together in a Nation that respects each other for the true gift of the individual that each of us is.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize Stan and Gigi Wielezynski on the 65th anniversary of D-Day. Stan, a native of Normandy, France, and his wife Gigi have never forgotten the courage and sacrifice of the Americans who liberated France from Nazi occupation during World War II. They are the owners of several Columbus area restaurants named La Chatelaine. For fifteen years, in order to express their gratitude and to recognize the U.S. Allied Forces involved in the invasion on the shores of Normandy, Stan and Gigi Wielezynski have opened their doors to World War II veterans and offered them a complimentary French meal.

The Wielezynskis take great pride in this event by having their employees come to work dressed in military apparel, carrying authentic World War II helmets, and celebrating with flag-shaped cakes and music of the 1940s. Additionally, they decorate the restaurant with jeeps, parachutes, and other World War II memorabilia.

Recently, the couple received a letter from Marion Gray, an 83-year- old veteran from the 29th Infantry, stating that his one dream was to say a final goodbye to the friends he lost in Normandy. Marion had been working as a bagger at the local store to save money for his trip. However, upon receipt of the letter, the Wielezynskis generously donated an entire weeklong all-expense paid trip to Normandy for Marion and his wife Ruth.

Madam Speaker, on this 65th anniversary of D-Day, I would like to commend Stan and Gigi Wielezynski for their enormous generosity to the Grays as well as the hundreds of other World War II veterans and for their love of their adopted country.

Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 2 minutes.

I rise today in support of my amendment to raise the profile of dangerous incidents involving smoke in the cockpits of aircraft. Smoke in cockpits is a factor in an unscheduled emergency or emergency landing every single day in North America. This dangerous in-flight occurrence has already claimed over 1,230 lives.

In 2007, a top NASCAR official and his pilot were killed after their plane crashed within minutes of radioing an emergency because of smoke cascading into the cockpit. The crash also killed a mother, her 6- month-old infant and a 4-year-old next-door neighbor when the plane struck into the heart of their Florida neighborhood.

The National Transportation Safety Board has addressed the issue and considers smoke inside the cockpit and cabins to be a ``serious issue.'' The NTSB has made recommendations to the Federal Aviation Administration for decades on this very issue. The FAA does not consider smoke interfering with the pilot's vision as a ``unsafe condition,'' despite more than 70 major events in the last 4 decades and NTSB recommendations.

This amendment would gather the data that could prove the need for better equipment and save thousands of lives in the future.

Today, I look forward to voting for this important reauthorization of the FAA. I want to thank Chairman Oberstar and Chairman Costello for their excellent work on this bill, including protections and rights guaranteed to the 2 million airline passengers that fly in this country every day. The Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and the Aviation Subcommittee have taken historic steps to improve flying experiences for passengers, as well as invest in modernizing critical safety systems like air traffic control.

Once a plane has taken off and is in control of the pilot, smoke in the cockpit can be deadly. There will be nothing our safety systems on the ground or air traffic controllers in the tower could do to help.

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

Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the support, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Thank you, Chairman Moore and Chairman Frank, for your leadership on these issues.

I'm glad to join with my colleague, Mr. Kratovil, on this commonsense amendment that provides a cost-effective and simple way to verify income to address the issue of mortgage fraud.

It is well known that misrepresentation and the unverified nature of a borrower's income was a contributing factor to the mortgage crisis and the foreclosure crisis that we find ourselves in. Lenders either routinely ignored or encouraged this practice, leading to a higher risk of default, delinquency and foreclosure for borrowers and for America's families. In fact, according to the Comptroller of the Currency, nearly 50 percent of all subprime mortgages relied on stated income, no verification. And the Mortgage Asset Research Institute found that 90 percent of the borrowers reported incomes higher than those found in the IRS files. And even more disturbing, almost 60 percent of the income amounts were exaggerated by more than 50 percent.

In my district, foreclosure is a very serious issue. There were over 79,000 foreclosure filings in 2006, compared to 15,000 in 1995. One in seven of these homes was subprime lending.

A quick, reliable and confidential income verification process will improve things so much. It will catch fraudulent behavior before the lender closes on a loan or before a borrower gets involved in a loan that he or she can't afford, strengthening the integrity of the

mortgage market. And one of the things that this amendment will accomplish will help to restore integrity and confidence to the mortgage lending process, and in the case of the government-supported loans, give more support and confidence to the American taxpayer as well.

This third-party income verification can be obtained simply and quickly. And it is affordable and confidential.

Thank you so much, Congressman Driehaus. I have been listening to what you have been saying about the impact of this foreclosure crisis on Ohio, and you are absolutely right. When you talk about the impact of these large numbers of foreclosures on communities, we know that a single foreclosure can devastate neighboring homes and the surroundings.

On average, we are told that when a home enters foreclosure, its value immediately plummets, on average, $58,759. It hurts the neighborhood as well because when that lower price, that lower sales price, that lower valuation hits the books, it hurts the value of the entire neighborhood.

Every time you see a foreclosure, if it's in your neighborhood, your house or my house or our neighbors' houses are going down in value. That also has an impact on our local governments. We know that local governments are hurt as well in this economic downturn. They are finding it harder to protect neighborhoods against arson or squatting or other criminal activity.

So the foreclosure crisis hurts that family, it hurts the neighborhood, but it also hurts all of us in terms of the increase in criminal activity. Vacant and abandoned properties impose high costs on our local communities. Local jurisdictions and our school districts feel the impact of that lost tax revenue from those properties. Our cities are bearing the cost of municipal services, increased code enforcement, boarding things up, trying to find money to demolish homes and other properties that are vacant and declared to be nuisances.

All of these are problems associated with addressing the issue of vacant and abandoned properties, particularly in our city neighborhoods. But it's not just in the cities. It ripples out. It affects our entire State. It affects, in my area, the entire central Ohio community.

So we understand, as you have said so clearly, that in the last 8 years during the Bush administration, and particularly during the 6 years when the Republicans controlled Congress, there wasn't the necessary action that needed to be taken to stem the tide of foreclosures and protect the rest of us from the impact that foreclosures had on the greater economy, the effect in the financial markets because of the securitizing of mortgages, and to protect all of us from the subprime lending that was at the core of this foreclosure issue and this foreclosure problem.

Every day when I drive through my community, I find that there are more and more foreclosed homes, more and more For Sale signs and, according to a recent Associated Press analysis, my county, the largest county in my district, has the unfortunate ranking of number one nationally for neighborhoods with the largest percentage of vacant homes. This is a problem that hurts all of us.

Would the gentleman yield?

I appreciate what you are saying. And after Representative Driehaus laid out the problem of inaction and the impact that it had on our States, on our communities, and the large foreclosure crisis that has spilled over into the greater economy, what you are bringing up is that we now have a Congress that is ready to take action, take action to protect families, to protect communities, to address the issues that got us here into the sad state of affairs that we are; and the Making Homes Affordable Act, helping to stabilize our housing market, helping maybe 7 to 9 million Americans reduce their monthly mortgage payments to more affordable levels through refinancing, through workouts. And I am proud to have supported that kind of legislation, as I know you are and my colleagues. And I am happy to help people who contact my district office to find ways to learn about these programs and how they can learn whether it will help their particular situation.

I think it is great that these programs have gotten a lot of notice and a lot of publicity. But I am concerned that Representative Boccieri brought up the issue with the example of his constituent who got taken advantage of by somebody who pretends to help and is really hurting, and a whole new class of predators here springing up in Ohio--and probably in other States as well--taking advantage of somebody who went to them for help.

So I think it is really important that people, when they are working out their mortgages, work with their bank or go to an accredited housing counselor. And in central Ohio, there are five of them--there is Homes on the Hill, there is Columbus Housing Partnership, there is the Urban League, the Consumer Credit Counseling, accredited agencies that will help you.

Madam Speaker, for far too long, there has been a lack of oversight and regulation of a product that causes more than 392,000 deaths in the U.S. each year. Our constituents, I'd contend, would be shocked to know what little oversight actually exists over tobacco products--the fuel driving the leading cause of preventable death in the United States.

Today I want to tell you about a new, despicable product being sold in 3 cities around the country, including my hometown of Columbus, Ohio. Reynolds America is currently using my constituents in Columbus as guinea pigs and testing a smokeless tobacco product that looks like a mint. How is a child supposed to tell the difference between a mint that freshens your breath and one that gives you cancer?

According to an article in a suburban Columbus newspaper, many high school students are using smokeless tobacco during school hours. The American Lung Association has confirmed with school janitors that they are finding smokeless tobacco pouches in the trash--confirming that kids are using smokeless tobacco in class. These new forms of tobacco will only make it easier for children to get access to tobacco products and become lifelong addicts. They won't even have to dispose of the evidence.

What we need is for Congress to finally pass into law the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act. This legislation would finally give the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authority to regulate deadly tobacco products. Among other items in this bill, the FDA would be granted authority to regulate these appalling new smokeless, dissolvable tobacco products that are now hitting the market in Columbus.

Chairman Waxman stated the other day that he intends to move this legislation ``very, very soon.'' I thank him for his leadership and urge this chamber to do just that so we can reduce the addiction, disease, and death caused by these products.