Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to the victims and the survivors of breast cancer. This Saturday, June 7, the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation will sponsor the 14th annual Race for the Cure. Along with Members of my staff, I am entering this race in pursuit of a cure of this rampant disease.

Breast cancer is a disease that has affected the lives of many Georgians and many throughout our Nation. In fact, my wonderful wife of 30 years, Laura, is a breast cancer survivor. I know firsthand the strength and the dignity that she showed throughout this challenge.

I also know all too well the challenges that families face when confronting the harsh realities of breast cancer. But with early detection and aggressive treatment, we know that breast cancer does not mean a life sentence for women.

I am encouraged by the progress that cancer research has made and the struggle to defeat breast cancer. I realize we have a long way to go. But, Mr. Speaker, my wife and thousands of survivors like her are living proof that breast cancer is not an in insurmountable challenge.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of America's children. Since January 7, the 108th Congress has acted on a number of bold initiatives to secure the future of all children. We have successfully passed legislation to protect children from dangerous predators through the AMBER Alert legislation. We will soon vote on a conference report to improve child abuse prevention and treatment, called CAPTA; and the House recently passed my child medication safety legislation, H.R. 1170.

We have passed sensible, economic-growth legislation that increased the child tax credit from $600 to $1,000. Many have expressed concern about the fact that credit was not extended to those who pay no taxes.

I believe that Congress has done more to assist poor children and their parents with real jobs and real opportunities. Specifically, the jobs and growth bill recently signed into law removes major barriers to capital formation for individuals and small businesses, allowing these businesses to provide more jobs, more paychecks, and more economic benefits that will enrich the lives of all of the Nation's poorest children.

Mr. Speaker, I support this legislation, and I believe the 108th Congress has delivered on behalf of America's children.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express my support for the American flag. For more than 200 years, the American flag has been the symbol of our Nation's strength and unity. It has been a source of pride and inspiration for millions of citizens. It has been a prominent icon in our national history.

To the colonists, it represents the free country for which they fought. For the Jewish people in World War II, it simply symbolized survival. For African Americans, they view the flag as the promise of a time when all men will be treated equally. Now it symbolizes a new day in Iraq.

So many brave men and women sacrificed their lives to protect the principles for which it stands, a flag that embodies justice, democracy and, most of all, freedom. The American flag deserves to fly proudly throughout America.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1170) to protect children and their parents from being coerced into administering psychotropic medication in order to attend school, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 1170.

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

Today we are considering H.R. 1170, the Child Medication Safety Act, which will prevent school personnel from requiring a child to obtain a prescription for a controlled substance in order to remain in the classroom. I would first like to thank Chairman Boehner and Speaker Hastert for their support of this legislation and Subcommittee Chairman Castle for conducting an important hearing on this bipartisan bill.

In recent decades there has been a growing number of children diagnosed with attention deficit disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and then treated with medications such as Ritalin and Adderall. When a licensed medical professional properly diagnoses a child as needing these drugs, the administration of the drugs may be entirely appropriate and very beneficial. While these medications can be helpful, they also have the potential for serious harm and abuse, especially for children who do not need these medications. In many instances, school personnel freely offer diagnosis for ADD and ADHD disorders and urge parents to obtain drug treatment for the child.

Sometimes officials even attempt to force parents into choosing between medicating their child and remaining in the classroom. This is unconscionable. School personnel may have good intentions, but parents should never be required to decide between their child's education and keeping them off potentially harmful drugs. School personnel

should never presume to know the medication needs of a child. Only medical doctors have the authority to determine if a prescription for a medication is physically appropriate.

The bill before us today, the Child Medication Safety Act of 2003, is straightforward, sensible legislation that aims to remedy this problem facing parents across the Nation. It requires States to establish policies and procedures prohibiting school personnel from requiring a child to take medication in order to attend school. This bill has been carefully crafted to preserve communication between the school personnel and the parent, but it also protects parents from being coerced into placing their child on a drug in order to receive educational services. Parents would no longer be forced into making decisions about their child's health under duress from school officials.

The language as amended in committee makes some important clarifications to the bill. While the bill as introduced only included drugs listed in schedule II of the Controlled Substances Act, we learned that there are replacement drugs for Ritalin and Adderall in other schedules. For this reason and to answer concerns among the mental health community, the list of covered drugs was expanded to cover those listed in all five schedules of the Controlled Substances Act.

The bill before the House today also includes an important clarification to ensure that parents and teachers are able to have an open dialogue about any academic or behavior-related needs of the child. This legislation is intended only to prevent school personnel from requiring children to be medicated. It is not intended to stifle appropriate dialogue between parents and teachers. Teachers spend so much time with the students and observe a wide variety of situations and parents often ask their child's teachers to share their observations about their child's behavior in school. We certainly do not want to infringe on these important conversations. The Child Medication Safety Act of 2003 makes clear that appropriate conversations can still take place. This is an important change that was brought to my attention by a number of my colleagues, and I would like to particularly thank the gentleman from Rhode Island (Mr. Kennedy), the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Davis), and the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey) for their help in this area.

This bill is not antischool, antiteacher, or antimedication. This bill is pro-children and pro-parent. The Child Medication Safety Act of 2003 is essential to protecting both parents and children. I urge my colleagues to support this bill that restores power to the parents.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Wilson), a member of the committee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 6 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Murphy), a professional in the health care field.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Norwood).

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

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

I would like to thank my colleagues on the other side of the aisle for working closely with us on this bill. I appreciate the gentleman from California (Mr. George Miller), the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey), and the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Davis), in particular, for their contributions to this important legislation.

I also would like to thank the Speaker of the House, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hastert), for his support and guidance in this effort and also the leadership as we sought to bring this bill to the floor this day.

This is a straightforward, sensible bill. It just makes common sense. It is a bipartisan bill that has been worked out to ensure the appropriate and effective protection of our children. This bill protects children. It puts the power back in the hands of the parents so they can make an informed choice in the best interests of their family. It ensures that teachers and administrators are involved in the decision process, actively involved in the child's development.

In conversations with the National Association of Education, they in their review saw no problems and are supportive of this legislation.

The most important thing about this bill is it protects children and it keeps them from being inappropriately medicated. This bill is not antischool or antiteacher; it is not antimedication. There are appropriate and reasonable ways in which we should use medication in the best interests of our children. But this bill is prochild, it is prohealth, it is proparents. It ensures that America's children are protected.

Mr. Speaker, this is good legislation, it is reasonable legislation, and it is legislation that is good for America. I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 1170.

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

Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 195, I was inadvertently detained. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea.''

Mr. Speaker, America's forest ecosystems are being decimated at an alarming rate by large-scale catastrophic wildfire and massive outbreaks of disease, insect infestation, and invasive species. In the State of Georgia alone, we have a little over 800,000 acres of Federal forest. Last year, 13,000 acres of those trees were infested and destroyed by the southern pine beetle. H.R. 1904 combats these infestations and assists land managers in reducing the susceptibility of forest ecosystems to severe infestations.

Prior to consideration of this bill in the Committee on Agriculture, I consulted Dr. James Sweeney, Interim Dean of the Warnell School of Forest Resources at the University of Georgia, and I got his views on the state of our forests. He said, ``We need to do a better job of prevention, a more efficient job of control, and a bigger effort at restoration. The Healthy Forests Restoration Act is a bill that needs to be passed.''

Mr. Speaker, Dr. Sweeney is an expert in forestry. With his recommendation and that of the Georgia Forestry Commission and Georgia Forestry Association, I support this bill.

Mr. Speaker, on rollcall Nos. 192 and 193, I was not recorded due to travel delays because of attending a memorial service. If recorded, I would have voted ``yea'' on 192 and ``yea'' on 193.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor a man who crafted and delivered a strong farm bill to the farmers of the Twelfth Congressional District of Georgia.

Although I serve on the Committee on Agriculture now, I did not have the opportunity to serve on the committee under the leadership of the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Combest). I thank the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Combest) for his support for the Georgia farmers that I now represent, and for his commitment to the benefit of American agriculture.

In his 4 years as chairman of the committee, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Combest) worked to improve Federal risk-management programs and Federal farm policy. His work went beyond that of the livelihoods of farmers. He worked to improve rural infrastructure, university research, broadband access, child nutrition, conservation efforts, and even food to aid other countries.

Mr. Speaker, Larry Combest is well respected among the farmers I represent. His masterpiece, the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act, is farm policy that my producers support. The legacy of the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Combest) will be remembered and appreciated for years to come.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the contribution to the economy that the port of Savannah provides to the port city in Savanna, Georgia, in the 12th district.

Last year, the port city served more than 50 steamship lines serving more than 150 countries around the world. Exports of kale and clay, wood pulp and machinery helped send Georgia products abroad, and the port is responsible for more than 80,000 Georgia jobs, paying more than $585 million in State and local taxes. These jobs provide a total of $1.8 billion of personal income to the citizens of Savanna and the surrounding areas of Georgia.

The economic impact from my district and the State of Georgia is enormous, and we must make sure that the port remains open, efficient, and secure. I support the efforts of the Governor and the Georgia Port Authority to maintain and improve this vital commercial center. I look forward to working with all branches of government to secure the necessary resources to protect this asset and expand its influence in the community.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to announce good news. Dr. Salai Tun Than, University of Georgia graduate and a political prisoner of the Burmese government since December 2001, was released from his 7- year sentence this past Sunday. While many were instrumental in Dr. Tun Than's release, including the University of Georgia Student Government Association and the UGA chapter of Amnesty International, I would like to express my gratitude to Burmese Ambassador Linn Myaing for his assistance and willingness to meet with me to discuss Dr. Tun Than.

While I am grateful for Dr. Tun Than's release, I am concerned that his release was contingent upon conditions restricting his future political engagement, effectively denying him his freedom of speech. I hope that in the future, the Burmese Government will strive for more openness, freedom, and democracy in its political process.

Burma holds more than 1,000 prisoners like Dr. Tun Than in its prisons, many of whom have been there longer than Dr. Tun Than. This situation must change. I urge the Burmese Government not to stop with the release of Dr. Tun Than, but to release other political prisoners. Only then can democracy and individual liberty flourish in Burma.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to celebrate all the mothers in America. During the last few weeks, we have watched as our Armed Forces fought and won a war in Iraq. This weekend many of those troops will celebrate Mother's Day at home with their families, and in fact, some of those returning troops are mothers themselves.

Earlier this year while those mothers and daughters and fathers and sons bravely fought for the freedom of the people of Iraq and for the security of America, the House passed a bill to relieve some of the tax burden on our troops. Today we gave all American mothers tax relief. This is more than a bouquet of flowers. It is more than a sentimental greeting card. Tax relief for working mothers and their children may correspond with Mother's Day, but it produces dividends well beyond this Sunday.

This plan gives the economy an immediate shot in the arm by accelerating tax relief for the marriage penalty, increasing the child tax credit, and providing working mothers with more of their hard- earned dollars through an accelerated tax relief program. And just think, these mothers can use their recouped income for their needs, for the needs of their children, for the needs of their family.

Furthermore, with sizable long-term tax relief on capital, businesses will receive the investment incentives that will help create more jobs. Just think, because of the legislation this House passed today, more mothers who are without a job will find one. More mothers who own small businesses will be able to expand that business instead of closing their doors. More mothers will provide their children with a better life. On this Mother's Day, this House can tell mothers of America that we have not given them flowers, we have given them the flower shop.

Mr. Speaker, today the House will consider H.R. 1350, Improving Results for Children With Disabilities Act of 2003. This bill contains a broadly supported bipartisan provision that I have offered during full committee markup.

There is a significant problem facing children and their parents throughout the Nation. Some schools are actually requiring parents to place their child on drugs in order to attend school. This is wrong. My provision is not anti-school. It is not anti-teacher. It is not anti- medication. This provision is pro-children and pro-parents. This provision simply protects our children from unnecessary medication and it provides parents the decision-making power that they should have for their child's safety.

I urge my colleagues to support this and other sensible provisions contained in H.R. 1350.

Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong support of H.R. 1350. This is an important bill that contains much-needed improvements that address the needs of children with disabilities throughout this great Nation. I am especially grateful for the changes in this bill to help address the problem of misidentification of minority students as having a disability. I find it very troubling that we are continuing to identify three times as many African Americans as having mental retardation and twice as many African Americans as being emotionally disturbed. We must reduce these excessive figures.

This bill makes great strides in this area. I would like to point out that the bill permits local educational agencies to use funds for prereferral services for children not yet identified as needing special services. I believe that this will have a significant impact on the current overidentification of students, especially minority students, having disabilities. Finally, I am pleased that the bill allows personnel preparation programs, research and technical assistance projects to address the issue of overidentification of minority students. We must and we will solve this problem. I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

Madam Speaker, today the Subcommittee on Select Education is holding a hearing on missing and exploited and runaway youth under which revisions to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children will be considered.

This topic is particularly relevant to the people of Savannah, as there is a young girl from that area in my district who has been missing for more than 2 weeks.

Ashleigh Moore is only 12 years old. She is an African American young lady who is a little over 5 feet tall and weighs 120 pounds. She was last seen wearing a white shirt and brown pants. Her family is very worried about her, and the entire community from Savannah is making every effort to find her. I am hopeful that she will return safely home very soon.

I would urge anyone who has any information about Ashleigh to contact the Savannah police at 912-232-4141.

Madam Speaker, children are a precious resource. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children acts to reunite missing children with their families, and work with crime prevention officers to reach out to the community with child safety information and services.

My thoughts and prayers are with Ashleigh's family today.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak on a matter of great importance to my constituents in Athens, Georgia, the unlawful imprisonment of Dr. Salai Tun Than. Dr. Tun Than is a graduate of the University of Georgia and is being held as a political prisoner by the Burmese Government for making a pro-democracy speech. He is 74 years old, in poor health, and may not live through the ordeal of imprisonment. The Burmese Government is a military dictatorship. It does not respect the individual freedoms that we as Americans hold dear. Matthew Daley, the State Department chief for the Bureau of East Asia and the Pacific testified on the conditions in Burma before the House Committee on International Relations last month. He said: ``The military dictatorship in Burma severely abuses the human rights of its citizens. There is no real freedom of speech, press, assembly, association, or travel. Patterns of abuse are even worse in ethnic minority areas.''

Mr. Speaker, the situation in Burma is unacceptable. We must work to stop this regime from imprisoning political dissidents and work toward a freer nation for all Burmese citizens. I call on the Burmese Government for the immediate release of Dr. Salai Tun Than.