Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that in the engrossment of H.R. 5072, the Clerk be authorized to correct section numbers, punctuation, and cross-references, and to make such other technical and conforming changes as may be necessary to accurately reflect the actions of the House.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous material on the subject of the passing of the Honorable Art Link.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks on H.R. 5072 and to insert extraneous material thereon.

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

Madam Chairwoman, I stand in strong support of H.R. 5072, the FHA Reform Act of 2010.

This bill is the product of three hearings on FHA in the past 6 months and bipartisan work with the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity, Congresswoman Capito. In fact, this bill contains most of the provisions Congresswoman Capito included in her bill on FHA introduced earlier this year.

Moreover, I am proud to say that this bill passed out of the Financial Services Committee on a simple voice vote back in April.

The FHA Reform Act is critical, timely, and important for households across the country. The act will enable the FHA to respond to the current housing and economic crisis and continue its mission of providing homeownership opportunities to millions of Americans.

We know that now, more than ever, preserving this mission is critical. As the private market has contracted, FHA has stepped into the void and injected much-needed credit into our mortgage system. Increasingly, it is the only option available for American homebuyers with less than a 20 percent down payment.

FHA insurance has been particularly important for minority communities, low-income families, and first-time homebuyers. The bill would provide FHA with more flexibility to adjust their annual mortgage insurance premium.

As I understand it, if FHA limits the premium increase to 0.90 percent, as Commissioner Stevens has indicated, new borrowers will see their monthly payments rise by about $42 a month.

Now, while I am reluctant to support providing FHA with more flexibility, I believe that this provision is needed to keep FHA financially healthy. We have also taken steps to ensure that FHA requirements are not excessively onerous for homebuyers.

Secondly, this bill provides FHA with the authority to crack down on lenders that use fraud or misrepresentation or don't originate or underwrite loans in accordance with FHA guidelines. FHA has already taken steps to increase its lender enforcement activities, and the provisions included in this bill will empower them to rout out the bad actors while reserving the program for the lenders that follow the rules.

Thirdly, this bill empowers FHA to improve their internal controls that improve data tracking, risk management, and reporting to the public and to Congress. This includes improving monitoring of early defaults and claims, tracking mortgage information by loan servicers, providing FHA with the ability to contract out for additional credit risk analyses, requiring mortgagees to report to FHA when they stop buying loans from other mortgagees, and requiring a GAO study on FHA.

The bill also creates a new Deputy Assistant Secretary at FHA for risk management and regulatory affairs.

I believe the bill in front of us today is critical for ensuring a strong future for FHA, and I request my colleagues' support.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Chair, I would simply like to close by thanking Mrs. Capito for all of the work that she put

into this legislation and the cooperation that she gave to me and her staff to my staff.

This is a good bill. The differences have been worked out between both sides of the aisle. We worked hard to make sure that we maintained FHA, but that we keep a close watch on it; that, in fact, we give it flexibility, but at the same time ensure the continuity and the consistency of FHA that should be there to provide the guarantees for our citizens that so desperately need them.

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

I move that the Committee do now rise.

Accordingly, the Committee rose; and the Speaker pro tempore (Mr. Schiff) having assumed the chair, Mrs. Halvorson, Chair of the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union, reported that that Committee, having had under consideration the bill (H.R. 5072) to improve the financial safety and soundness of the FHA mortgage insurance program, had come to no resolution thereon.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to celebrate an exciting event that occurred this month bringing long overdue recognition to an accomplished African American: George B. Vashon. Growing up in St. Louis, I learned of Mr. Vashon's legacy as my high school was dedicated to him as he was a person who committed his life to help educate countless African Americans. While George Vashon himself never lived in St. Louis, his widow relocated to the city after his death and raised their family in Missouri. Vashon High School was named in 1927 and is one of the few monuments to a man who was a distinguished educator, lawyer, abolitionist, and poet who lived from 1824 to 1878.

Mr. Vashon's life was one full of numerous ``firsts.'' Raised in Pittsburgh by parents who

were leaders in the anti-slavery efforts there, he was the first African American to graduate from Oberlin College. He studied law under the Honorable Judge Walter Forward in Pennsylvania and applied for admission to the Pennsylvania bar in 1847 and again in 1868. Both times, he was denied admission because of his ``negro descent.'' Not to be held back, Mr. Vashon went to New York to take the bar and became the first black lawyer in that state. He later went on to be the first African American in New York to run for public office when he was a candidate under the Progressive Party for Attorney General. A close friend and associate of Frederick Douglass, Mr. Vashon penned many columns for Douglass' paper, The North Star.

George Vashon was one of the first black college professors in this country, a founder and the first black professor at Howard University and was president of Avery College in Pennsylvania. As an abolitionist, he also led many anti-slavery conventions and was central in the lobbying efforts to pass the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to the Constitution. For years he was active in helping escaped slaves find freedom on the Underground Railroad when they made their way through Pennsylvania and New York.

Despite his many contributions and achievements, Mr. Vashon encountered discrimination and barriers to achievement. Being denied entrance into legal practice in his native Pennsylvania was a deep disappointment for him and a terrible injustice. I was thrilled, however, to hear recently that after two of his descendants petitioned the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, Mr. Vashon was posthumously admitted to the bar 163 years after his first attempt. While it was long overdue, I join with the Vashon family and my fellow Vashon High School graduates in marking this important event and celebrating the life of this outstanding figure in American history.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 5017, the ``Rural Housing Preservation and Stabilization Act of 2010.''

This bill would preserve the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Housing Service (RHS) Section 502 Single Family Direct Homeownership Loans Program, which is set to expire at the end of this month.

Section 502 is USDA's main housing loan program and is designed to help low-income individuals purchase, build, repair, or renovate homes in rural areas.

Currently, Section 502 is the only federal program targeting safe and affordable homeownership opportunities to low- and very low-income rural households. The annual average income of a Section 502 direct borrower is 55 percent of area median income, or $18,500 a year.

Since its inception, Section 502 has provided loans to approximately 2.5 million families at an extremely low cost to the federal government. Unfortunately, the amount appropriated for rural housing programs has been insufficient to meet the demand. The current backlog for Section 502 direct loans includes 27,000 rural households, totaling $2.9 billion in loan applications.

H.R. 5017, will preserve the Section 502 program and establish a self-sustaining program at no cost to taxpayers. I believe Section 502 is vital for our rural communities throughout the nation and this bill is absolutely necessary to help preserve a critical program at no cost to taxpayers.

I urge my colleagues to vote for this important bill.

Thank you very, very much Congresswoman Diane Watson. Thank you for taking out this hour to remember Dr. Dorothy Height. I appreciate the fact that you not only organized this time, but you understood how important it is for all of us who knew her, who loved her, who worked with her to just stop and remember her in this very, very special way.

When I learned of her death, I immediately thought about March 24, 2004. That is when she received the great recognition from the Congress of the United States, receiving the Gold Medal, the highest civilian award that can be given to a United States citizen. I remembered that because when that ceremony took place I remember watching her and reflecting on all that she had done for this country.

I remember not only the fact that she was the one woman in the civil rights movement that was dominated by men who sat in on the discussions about the civil rights legislation, the voting rights legislation, and this was at a time when women were not welcomed at the helm of the civil rights movement, but Dorothy Height was a very special woman. And I am sure that no matter what some of the men thought, they couldn't have turned her down because of her special way of handling situations. She was a highly cultured woman, articulate, refined, and always able to help temper situations that could be explosive. So Dorothy Height had a way of not only managing herself, but managing those around her.

I heard Congresswoman Watson as I was coming in talking about the Black Family Reunions. And they stand out as part of her tremendous work. At a time when black families were being demonized, being talked about as dysfunctional, she not only showed that we are a people who care and love our families, but we came out to these great reunions in very special ways. I remember seeing young black males carrying their babies, and I remember seeing young children being held by the hand by their grandmothers. So the mothers and the fathers, the sisters and the brothers, the uncles and the aunts, everybody came out to these tremendous family reunions. And I can recall not only attending in Washington, DC, but in my hometown of Los Angeles. I was there with Dorothy Height, number one, because I respected her, I admired her; but she expected me to be there.

We were friends for many, many years, dating back to our struggles in the Carter administration, when we had created the International Women's Year. And we all convened in Houston, Texas, to create the Women's Commission that was appointed by Carter. I was there as a young woman long before I came on the national scene and helped to organize on that floor the final statements that we delivered to President Carter that created the National Women's Commission.

As a matter of fact, Dorothy Height has been at the center of every significant development on behalf of women. Not only did she work in the civil rights movement, she worked for women. And she has been there in those struggles working with the National Organization for Women, the National Women's Political Caucus, all of those organizations that sprung up when we finally began to realize that we had power and we could exercise power and influence not only in helping to advance women in this country, but advance public policy as it related to women and families.

So Dr. Dorothy Height, who sat at the foot of Mary McLeod Bethune, the greatest educator that ever involved herself in education in this country, had a great impact on Dorothy Height. And Dorothy Height was a big supporter of education. And she often told of the stories of Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune. She often shared with us the very special moments she had with her and the kind of influence that she had on her and her leadership.

So she is gone. And there are those who are asking who is going to take her place. Well, no one can really take her place. There is no other and will be no other like Dorothy Height. Of course there are many brilliant women. There are visionary women. There are articulate women. There are women who can manage at the highest levels. But you can't replicate Dorothy Height. We can hope that someone takes her place who will honor the contributions that she has made and give leadership to the National Council of Negro Women in a manner that she would be proud of, but no one can actually take her place.

I stand here this evening to say that Dorothy Height not only was special and one of a kind; I loved her. I honor the time that I was able to spend with her. I honor the birthday celebrations that I was able to go to. I honor the times that she attended all of the chapter meetings across this country and I happened to be in some city or some State where she was where I attended those chapter meetings. I honor having known her because I think it certainly gave me not only insight into what she was all about, but the inspiration that she provided for me and the lessons that I learned from her.

So this evening I simply say that we wish her journey to heaven to be the kind of journey where she will certainly rest in peace and get the rest that she so richly deserves. But we want her family to know, and all of those who perhaps didn't know her, how much she has meant not only to women and to the civil rights movement, but to this country. And we want to honor her in this very, very special way on the floor of Congress so that it will be recorded in the Congressional Record, adding to all of the other ways that she will be etched into the history of this country and this world.

Thank you, Dorothy, for having served. Thank you for having led us. Thank you for having been the kind of public servant who helped this country to be a better country.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and concur in the Senate amendments to the bill (H.R. 4573) to direct the Secretary of the Treasury to instruct the United States Executive Directors at the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, and other multilateral development institutions to use the voice, vote, and influence of the United States to cancel immediately and completely Haiti's debts to such institutions, and for other purposes.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks on this legislation and to insert extraneous material thereon.

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

I would like to thank the majority leader for bringing this bill to the floor promptly following its passage in the Senate, and I thank my colleagues on the Financial Services Committee, especially Chairman Barney Frank, Ranking Member Spencer Bachus, and Subcommittee Chairman Gregory Meeks, for their support for this bill. I also thank my senior legislative assistant, Kathleen Sengstock, and the Financial Services Committee's senior professional staff member, Daniel McGlinchey, for their work on this bill.

I first introduced this bill after the terrible earthquake that struck Haiti on January 12. I have visited Haiti twice since the earthquake, and I have seen the widespread devastation it caused. According to the U.S. Agency for International Development, that is USAID, 230,000 people were killed and 1.3 million people were displaced from their homes. There is a desperate need for clean water, food, shelter, and basic sanitation. Three million people, one-third of the country's population, were affected by the quake.

According to the U.S. Treasury Department, as of March 1, Haiti owed $828 million to multilateral development institutions. This included $447 million to the Inter-American Development Bank, $284 million to the IMF, $39 million to World Bank Group's International Development Association, and $58 million to the International Fund for Agricultural Development. In addition, Haiti owed approximately $400 million to other individual countries.

H.R. 4573, the Debt Relief for Earthquake Recovery in Haiti Act of 2010, would free Haiti from the burden of international debt. The bill directs the Secretary of the Treasury to instruct the U.S. executive directors at multilateral development institutions to use the voice, vote, and influence of the United States to seek to achieve three things: number one, the immediate and complete cancellation of all debts owed by Haiti to these institutions; second, the suspension of Haiti's debt service payments until such time as the debts are canceled; and, three, the provision of emergency, humanitarian, and reconstruction assistance to Haiti in the form of grants so that Haiti does not accumulate additional debts.

The bill also directs the Secretary of the Treasury and Secretary of State to use all appropriate diplomatic influence to secure the cancellation of all

remaining bilateral, multilateral, and private creditor debt owed by Haiti.

This bill passed the House on March 10, and the Senate passed it with an amendment on March 26. The amendment specified that Haiti should receive aid in the form of grants until February 1, 2015. After that time, multilateral development institutions may resume aid in the form of new loans. I believe 5 years is a reasonable amount of time for Haiti to be able to recover without the burden of debt service payments on new loans.

I therefore support the Senate amendments, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Moore) as much time as he may consume.

Mr. Speaker, there's been considerable progress mobilizing international support for Haiti since the introduction of this bill. Multilateral development institutions have already begun to take steps to reduce or cancel Haiti's debts. And on March 31, the United Nations hosted the International Donors Conference for Haiti where leaders of the world's nations pledged $9.9 billion in aid, including $5.3 billion for the first 2 years. I'm encouraged by this progress, and I'm inspired by the outpouring of support for Haiti from the international community.

The people of Haiti are poor, but they are physically and spiritually resilient. I know with the support of the international community they will recover from this tragedy and create a better future for their children.

Mr. Speaker and Members, in fact, Haiti is the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, and Haiti has experienced extreme devastation for many years. It was just 2008 when they were hit with four hurricanes and they had not had the opportunity to even try to recover from those hurricanes. At that time, there were many deaths, many houses were destroyed, the roads and the bridges were destroyed. And coming on the heels of that, they were confronted with this most devastating earthquake.

There are those who look at Haiti and say we don't know whether or not this nation can survive. There are those who say, you know, they had problems with governance. They have lived under dictators. They have lived under a Catholic priest who practiced liberation theology where there was a coup d'etat that ousted him, and it goes on and on and on.

But there are many of us who look at this earthquake as opportunity. Despite the severe loss and the devastation, we believe that there is now a real commitment by the world community to come to the aid of Haiti. We believe that there is a real commitment to governance in a new way. We believe that there is a real commitment not only by USAID, the State Department, and the government of our own country, but by other governments around the world to include Haiti in the redevelopment.

And so despite the devastation, I think that many of us are looking forward to the opportunity to help Haiti become the country that it can become. This is going to be a lot of hard work, but this debt relief will go a long way toward helping in that redevelopment.

With this debt relief that means that Haiti will not have to repay debt. They can invest that money in health and education and infrastructure; and despite the fact that I spent many hours working not only on this debt relief bill but working with my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, I've learned a lot working with the Jubilee Committee and with Mr. Bachus about what we can do if we cooperate. And that we have been doing.

And so we move forward to help redevelop Haiti, and I would appreciate the support and the vote of my colleagues for this debt relief legislation.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this bill.

Our health care system is broken; no one can deny it.

Every day, millions of Americans go without needed health care because they have no insurance. Some of these people work for small businesses and other employers that do not provide insurance. Some of them lost their insurance when they lost their jobs. Some of them were denied coverage by insurance companies because of a pre-existing condition. And some of them simply could not afford the escalating premiums. Even for people with health insurance, a devastating accident or illness can be very expensive. The cost of health care is the number one reason for bankruptcies in America.

So we cannot afford inaction. Today, we have a clear choice--to start to fix the broken health care system--or to do nothing.

However, this bill is not perfect. I would like to have seen included measures such as a public health insurance option like Medicare that would compete with the private insurance plans and a single national insurance exchange where people could purchase the health plan of their choice instead of separate state-based exchanges with different standards. I believe these measures would be more effective at containing costs and creating competition for the insurance industry.

I am also concerned that this bill should not be used to limit the right of women to reproductive choice. Despite the President's Executive Order, attempting to codify existing law under the so-called Hyde Amendment, it is not clear that the Senate bill does not go beyond the Hyde amendment.

Nevertheless, I have decided to support H.R. 3590, together with the improvements included in H.R. 4872, because it will make health care more affordable and more accessible for thousands of my constituents and millions of Americans. By passing this legislation today we are taking a critically important step in the right direction.

According to an analysis by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, this health care reform bill will benefit California's 35th District in the following ways:

Improve coverage for 281,000 residents with health insurance.

Extend coverage to 125,500 residents who lack insurance.

Guarantee that 21,200 residents with pre-existing conditions can obtain coverage.

Allow 58,000 young adults to obtain coverage on their parents' insurance plans.

Give tax credits and other assistance to up to 157,000 families and 15,100 small businesses to help them afford coverage.

Improve Medicare for 62,000 beneficiaries, including reducing the costs of prescription drugs and closing the donut hole.

Protect 1,100 families from bankruptcy due to unaffordable health care costs.

Provide millions of dollars in new funding for 10 community health centers.

Reduce the cost of uncompensated care for hospitals and other health care providers by $15 million annually.

Many provisions of the bill will kick in immediately. Insurance companies will no longer be able to take away a person's insurance because the person gets sick, an unfair practice known as rescission. It will immediately prevent insurance companies from denying coverage to children with pre-existing conditions, and eventually end discrimination against anyone with a pre-existing condition. It will immediately allow young people the ability to remain on their parents' insurance until age 26. It will immediately help seniors pay for prescription drugs and eventually eliminate the donut hole completely. And it will extend tax credits to small businesses so that they can provide health insurance to their employees.

Over the next few years, the bill will extend coverage to 32 million Americans, or 95 percent of the population, providing affordability credits for individuals who cannot afford to purchase health insurance on their own.

Improving our health care system is essential to setting us on the right path to healthier lives, renewed American innovation, and a stronger, more stable American economy. I urge my colleagues to support this bill and expand access to health care for families and small businesses throughout the United States of America.

First, I would like to thank the gentleman from New York (Mr. Meeks) for the time, and I appreciate all of the work that he has done on this bill.

Indeed, I would also like to thank all of the Members who support this bill, including Barney Frank, the chairman of the Financial Services Committee, who made sure we got the bill up and going and we could expedite it in a way I have never seen any other bill expedited.

I thank Spencer Bachus, the ranking member of the Financial Services Committee, whom I have worked with for over 10 years, appreciating that he understands so very thoroughly the history of Haiti and what it means to the world.

I thank Gregory Meeks, again, the chairman of the International Monetary Policy and Trade Subcommittee, whose manager's amendment added so much in the way of improvement to this bill, and the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Ros-Lehtinen), the ranking member of the Foreign Affairs Committee; Eliot Engel, chairman of the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee, and all of the other cosponsors of the bill, and especially the Congressional Black Caucus.

I would also like to thank Kathleen Sengstock, my senior legislative assistant, who worked very hard on this bill. Kathleen is an expert on debt relief and has worked for the past 10 years on debt relief for all of the poor countries of the world.

I would also like to thank Daniel McGlinchey and other professional staff persons with the Financial Services Committee.

Ladies and gentlemen, Haiti was struck by a devastating earthquake on January 12, 2010. According to the U.S. Agency for International Development, 230,000 people were killed and 1.3 million people were displaced from their homes. There is still a desperate need for clean water, food, shelter, and basic sanitation. Three million people, one- third of the country's population, were affected by the earthquake.

Today, we are very fortunate to have in this country the President of Haiti, President Preval. The CBC--that is, the Congressional Black Caucus--held a meeting with President Preval, and he thanked us all, not only the members of the Congressional Black Caucus, but all of the Members of Congress and the American people for the aid and support we have provided for Haiti. He thanked all of the American agencies for the lives that they have saved, the food that they have distributed, along with the water and the medical care and much more.

He reminded us that the rains are coming, and perhaps hurricanes, and there is still a need for emergency adequate shelter, and of course long-term housing. But today we are talking about one of the simplest but most important things we can do to help Haiti: That is to cancel its debt.

Haiti's democratic government has worked very hard in recent years to qualify for debt relief. In order to qualify, the Government of Haiti successfully developed and implemented a comprehensive poverty- reduction strategy paper under the direction of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. As a result, multilateral financial institutions provided Haiti $1.2 billion in debt relief last June. This was a critical step forward for Haiti. Nevertheless, Haiti still has a significant debt burden that will interfere with recovery and development efforts unless the remaining debts are canceled.

According to the U.S. Treasury Department, Haiti still owes $828 million to the multilateral development institutions. This includes $447 million to the Inter-American Development Bank, $284 million to the IMF, $39 million to the World Bank Group's International Development Association, and $58 million to the International Fund for Agricultural Development. In addition, Haiti owes approximately $400 million to other individual countries.

I introduced H.R. 4573, the Debt Relief for Earthquake Recovery in Haiti Act of 2010, to free Haiti from the burden of these debts. The bill directs the Secretary of the Treasury to instruct the U.S. executive directors at the multilateral development institutions to use the voice, vote, and influence of the United States to achieve several things: The immediate and complete cancellation of all debts owed by Haiti to these institutions; the suspension of Haiti's debt service payments until such time as the debts are canceled; and the provision of emergency humanitarian and reconstruction assistance to Haiti in the form of grants so that Haiti does not accumulate additional debt.

This bill also directs the Secretary of the Treasury and the Secretary of State to use all appropriate diplomatic influence to secure the cancellation of all remaining bilateral, multilateral, and private creditor debt owed by Haiti. Debt cancellation will allow the Government of Haiti to focus its meager resources on essential humanitarian relief, reconstruction, and redevelopment.

The people of Haiti are poor, but they are physically and spiritually resilient. I know that with the support of the international community they will recover from this tragedy and create a brighter future for their children.

I urge my colleagues to support the Debt Relief for Earthquake Recovery in Haiti Act of 2010.

Madam Speaker, the consumers of this country are finally getting the attention they deserve. For far too long, consumers have been ripped off by collusion and concentration of the health insurance industry. For far too long, public policymakers have turned a blind eye to the special antitrust exemption that health insurers have enjoyed, to the detriment of the American people.

We must pass this legislation, the Health Insurance Industry Fair Competition Act. This bill finally, after 65 years, amends the McCarran-Ferguson Act. Health insurers will be investigated and held accountable for price fixes, dividing up territories among themselves, sabotaging their competitors in order to gain monopoly power, and all anticompetitive practices. The Justice Department will have a mandate to prosecute this criminal activity.

And finally, the health insurance industry will have to compete. No more legally protected collusion. Let the marketplace work. No more protection for health insurance companies from the very people who have been elected to protect the best interests of the people. That's us.

The health insurance industry has gouged us long enough. They have increased premiums, higher copayments, higher deductibles. The health insurance industry, to add insult to injury, have thumbed their noses at both the consumers and legislators and left too many families at risk. In the middle of our debate about health insurance reform, health insurers are raising the premiums. They're denying lifesaving procedures. They're dropping too many of the insured who have been paying premiums for years if they deem the cost of their health care too costly. The CEOs of some of the biggest insurance companies are paying themselves unreasonably high salaries. Most of them are earning $10 million or more per year.

Ladies and gentlemen, it is time to put an end to the practices of the health insurance companies. That time is now. Let us stand up for the consumers. Let us do what the consumers elected us to do--come here and give some protection from these kinds of practices. Sixty-five years is too much, too long. The time is now. Let's get the job done. Let's pass this legislation.

I would like to thank the chairlady of the Congressional Black Caucus, Barbara Lee, for the leadership that she has provided on this issue since this disaster. But of course Barbara Lee has been involved in assistance to Haiti public policy-wise and with the other kinds of disasters that have confronted Haiti over a long period of time. And so I join with her in all of the efforts to do what we can to assist the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti.

I have spent a good part of my career trying to be of assistance public policy-wise and again when these disasters have struck Haiti. And so when the earthquake took place, we were all stunned, and we all immediately began to make inquiries of the USAID and the U.N. and the Red Cross, and all of those agencies responsible for disaster relief. And all of those inquiries and briefings having been going on every day, headed by Congresswoman Barbara Lee.

I decided at one point I had to go to Haiti. I just had to be there to talk with some of the people that I have worked with over the past, to talk with President Preval, and to see what we could do additionally to be of assistance to our agencies.

I want to just tell you that USAID is working very, very hard. The U.N., working very, very hard. And I want you to know that USAID employees were sleeping on cots inside the embassy. Many of their homes were destroyed. Still, there were six missing persons when I was there from USAID and the State Department. In addition to that, the U.N. lost 40 people, but yet they got up every day with this disaster, doing the best that they could. Are there problems? There certainly are, problems with logistics and coordination, all of that.

You have seen the images on television. You know how terrible this destruction was. The number of people, the thousands of people, up to estimates of 250,000 who have lost their lives. Well, it is worse than you even see on television. The destruction is massive. Looking at the buildings, they are just pancaked, the buildings that are in rumbles, the stone and debris that is in the street. It is absolutely heartbreaking and painful to experience.

However, we are doing everything that we can possibly do to give support. I have concentrated on debt relief for Haiti. Yesterday I introduced legislation to require the Secretary of the Treasury to use the voice, vote, and influence of the United States within the multilateral financial institutions to cancel all of Haiti's remaining debt. The bill has 30 cosponsors, including Chairwoman Barbara Lee, Donald Payne, and others.

I sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, urging him to support debt cancellation for Haiti. My letter was signed by 94 Members of Congress, including Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, and Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Member Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. Canceling Haiti's debt will free up the country's meager resources, allowing it to begin meeting its immediate and long-term needs.

Debt cancellation is critical for Haiti's future, and it is an important component of the overall aid we can provide. There is not enough time this evening to go through all that we need to share about debt relief, but this is a beginning.

I would like to thank my good friend, the chairperson of the Congressional Black Caucus and a friend of Haiti's who has been working on behalf of Haiti for many years, Barbara Lee.

I rise to support this resolution, which expresses the condolences of the House of Representatives with the people of Haiti following last week's devastating earthquake. I especially appreciate the fact that this resolution urges multilateral financial institutions to immediately suspend further debt payment from Haiti and to develop processes to cancel all of Haiti's remaining debt.

Haiti cannot begin to recover from the earthquake while continuing to make payments on debts owed to multilateral financial institutions like the IMF, the World Bank, and the Inter-American Development Bank. Even before the earthquake occurred, debt payments were a tremendous burden that interfered with the ability of Haiti's Government to meet the needs of its people.

Haiti worked very hard over the past several years to qualify for debt relief. In order to qualify, the Government of Haiti successfully developed and implemented a comprehensive Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper under the direction of the IMF and the World Bank. As a result, multilateral financial institutions provided Haiti $1.2 billion in debt relief last June. Nevertheless, Haiti still owes a total of $664 million in debt to multilateral financial institutions.

The IMF offered Haiti a new $100 million loan for earthquake recovery efforts. Unfortunately, new loans that will add to Haiti's debt burden are not what Haiti needs at this critical time. I was encouraged to learn that IMF managing director, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, expressed support for canceling all of Haiti's debt, including the new loan, and I look forward to working with him to do so.

On behalf of the Black Caucus, I am introducing legislation to require the United States Secretary of the Treasury to use the voice, vote, and influence of the United States within the multilateral financial institutions to cancel all of Haiti's remaining debt, and I hope all of my colleagues will support it. Canceling Haiti's debts will free up the country's meager resources, allowing it to begin meeting its immediate and long-term needs.

Again, I would like to thank my good friend and leader, Barbara Lee, for introducing this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I was absolutely devastated to learn of the earthquake that struck Haiti late yesterday afternoon. I fear that an earthquake of this magnitude, with its subsequent aftershocks, has dealt a serious blow to the livelihoods and lives of many Haitians and to the important economic, political and social developments that were underway in the country.

Haiti is already the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. I have traveled to Haiti many times, and I have seen the poverty and desperation of the Haitian people with my own eyes. There is widespread unemployment and underemployment, and more than two-thirds of Haitian workers do not have formal jobs. There is a high risk of infectious diseases, including diarrhea, hepatitis, typhoid fever, dengue fever and malaria. The infant mortality rate is nearly 6 percent, and almost half of the adult population cannot read and write.

Many people have worked hard over the years to assist the people of Haiti. I have worked with officials in the U.S. Government and international organizations to bring economic development to Haiti. Meanwhile, dedicated people working with charities and non- governmental organizations are on the ground in Haiti trying to end poverty and help the Haitian people build a brighter future for themselves and their children.

I have also worked very hard over several years to bring debt cancellation to Haiti, which owed over one billion dollars in debts to the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and other multilateral financial institutions. Last June, the World Bank announced that all of these debts would be completely canceled.

Yet for the people of Haiti, every step forward seems to be followed by three steps backward. In August and September of 2008, Haiti was struck by four hurricanes and tropical storms in rapid succession: Fay, Gustav, Hanna, and Ike. The loss of life and the destruction of infrastructure as a result of these storms were devastating. The storms destroyed more than 22,000 houses and damaged an additional 84,000 houses. Almost all of the agricultural land in the country was flooded, causing more than $200 million in damage to the agricultural sector alone and exacerbating hunger throughout the country. The storms also damaged or destroyed roads, bridges and other essential infrastructure.

I had hoped that this year would be a year of recovery for Haiti. Yet this earthquake appears to be far more damaging than the

storms of 2008. We do not yet know the full extent of the damage, but certainly thousands of Haitians have lost their lives, thousands of others have been injured, and many survivors have most likely lost their homes or livelihoods.

Despite the devastation that has occurred in Haiti, I am encouraged by the prompt actions of President Obama, Secretary of State Clinton, and other government officials to mobilize available resources and coordinate relief efforts. I urge the U.S. Government, the international community, nonprofit organizations and individual people to take all appropriate actions to respond to this earthquake and help the Haitian people recover from this terrible tragedy.

My heart is with the people of Haiti at this dark hour, and I commit myself to doing everything I can to help them through this terrible disaster.

Madam Chair, I rise in strong support of the manager's amendment to H.R. 4173, the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009, and the underlying bill.

This bill will finally reform and rein in Wall Street and our financial system, triggered by greed and risk that caused this country to almost collapse. This bill addresses all of the elements of that collapse by allowing the government to wind down ``too big to fail'' institutions before their failure threatens the entire global economy, regulating risky over-the-counter derivatives, and requiring credit rating agencies to avoid the conflicts of interest that cause them to inflate the value of tax and assets.

Perhaps the most important part of this bill is the creation of a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency. This new agency's role will be to spot the next subprime crisis before it starts and prevent the next predatory product from stripping consumers of their homes and their wealth.

I would especially like to thank Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank for including a provision at the request of the members of the Congressional Black Caucus to use $3 billion in Troubled Asset Relief, TARP, dollars to provide low-interest loans to unemployed homeowners that are having difficulty making their mortgage payments. We also thank Barney Frank for including another $1 billion to strengthen the Neighborhood Stabilization Program that will rehab foreclosed housing and also create jobs. This funding is needed because our current foreclosure prevention programs address the initial cause of our foreclosure crisis, subprime and predatory lending, and not the current cause, unemployment, which is at 10 percent nationally, and in minority communities 13 to 15 percent plus.

We know that these kinds of loans can work. Since 1983, Pennsylvania has run a very successful loan program--just ask Mr. Chaka Fattah--that has saved 42,700 unemployed homeowners from foreclosure.

Madam Chair, foreclosures and unemployment present a systemic risk to our economy. Therefore, I strongly urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on the manager's amendment and on H.R. 4173. This is a very important piece of legislation.

Madam Chair, I rise in strong support of the Manager's Amendment to H.R. 4173, the ``Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009'' and the underlying bill.

This bill will reform Wall Street and our financial system by ensuring that another financial collapse never happens again. The bill addresses all of the elements of that collapse by allowing the government to wind down ``too big to fail'' institutions before their failure threatens the entire global economy, regulating risky over-the- counter derivatives, and requiring credit rating agencies to avoid the conflicts of interest that caused them to inflate the value of toxic assets.

Perhaps the most important part of this bill is the creation a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency. This new agency's role will be to spot the next subprime crisis before it starts, and prevent the next predatory product from stripping consumers of their homes and their wealth.

I would especially like to thank Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank for including a provision, at the request of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), to use $3 billion in Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) dollars to provide low-interest loans to unemployed homeowners that are having difficulty making their mortgage payments.

This funding is needed because our current foreclosure prevention programs address the initial cause of our foreclosure crisis--subprime and predatory lending--and not the current cause, unemployment, which is at 10 percent nationally.

We know that these kinds of loans can work. Since 1983, Pennsylvania has run a very successful loan program that has saved 42,700 unemployed homeowners from foreclosure.

Madam Chair, foreclosures and unemployment present a systemic risk to our economy. Therefore, I strongly urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on the Manager's Amendment and on H.R. 4173.

Madam Chair, I rise in strong support of the amendment offered by the gentleman from Massachusetts. H.R. 4173 is designed to address the lack of regulation in the over-the-counter derivatives market that allowed AIG to write billions of dollars in risky credit default swaps. H.R. 4173 fixes this by subjecting over-the-counter derivatives to a comprehensive regulatory structure and requiring derivatives to be traded through clearinghouses.

However, the derivatives market is currently dominated by a handful of large institutions. And these institutions will simply buy the clearinghouses to make sure that they once again control this market. If this happens, these institutions will be in the conflicted position of ``clearing'' their own derivative deals. The result will be more AIGs. Mr. Lynch's amendment would prevent this by preventing any institution from controlling more than 20 percent of a clearinghouse.

If we don't close this loophole, the over-the-counter derivatives market will continue to be unregulated. Therefore, I strongly urge a ``yes'' vote on this amendment.