Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, today the U.S. Congress is doing its job 5 days after forcing the Treasury to resort to extraordinary measures to finance our government and 3 legislative days before an unprecedented default.

This marks the fourth time in the last 3 years that we have been pushed right to the brink of default. Everyone outside of this Chamber knows we would have and should have lifted the debt ceiling long before we arrived at this point.

I am glad to see that once again we have been able to do our most basic job, but we need to stop playing these political games with our economy, our stability, and our reputation. We should not be forced to wonder, year after year, if we are going to be able to decide to meet our obligations. We should guarantee that the only time we debate spending is during spending debates.

I would ask my colleagues to help me reform this process and install a permanent fix that would end their brinksmanship surrounding the debt limit. That is why I have introduced two bills that allow the debt limit to be raised unless a supermajority of Congress votes to block them. This would permanently shift the rule of Congress to disapproving debt ceiling increases instead of being forced to approve them.

My approach has been introduced in the other Chamber by Senators Schumer, Boxer, and Hirono. It has been endorsed by a growing chorus of economists and outside thought leaders.

Today, I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' to lift the debt limit with me today. I also ask my colleagues to join me in pursuing permanent, necessary reforms for tomorrow so we can eliminate the futile hostage-taking.

Madam Speaker, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew has been urging Congress to act before Friday's debt ceiling deadline, but here we are again with no signs of legislative progress, with rumors of a ransom that Republicans will demand before Congress will be allowed to do its job.

The Treasury Department is once again being forced to resort to extraordinary measures to continue financing the government.

These games of chicken are dangerous. They are irresponsible, they have led to turmoil in the markets, and they have cost our economy billions. We have avoided disaster in the past and I believe will avoid it this time. In any game of chicken, one side always must blink. But what happens when neither side blinks? Disaster.

I ask my colleagues to help me install a permanent fix that would end the brinksmanship surrounding the debt limit.

My H.R. 233 allows the debt limit to be raised unless a supermajority of Congress votes to block such action. This would permanently shift the role of Congress to disapproving debt ceiling increases instead of being forced to approve them.

My approach has been introduced by Senators Schumer, Boxer, and Hirono in the Senate, and has been endorsed by a growing chorus of economists and outside thought leaders.

I urge my colleagues to join me in pursuing these permanent, necessary reforms.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition to H.R. 7, an unnecessary and intrusive bill that represents a short-sighted attack on the rights of women and families, and undermines access to insurance that covers comprehensive women's health care.

H.R. 7 would diminish meaningful access to healthcare for millions of lower and middle income families by denying them tax credits if the insurance plan they choose through the Health Insurance Marketplaces includes coverage for abortion services. Removing these tax breaks for the most vulnerable members of our society is not only dangerous, it is heartless, and it will return a constitutionally-protected medical procedure to its dark back-alley days. If enacted, this change will likely lead insurers to remove coverage for abortion services from all plans offered in the marketplaces, thus denying access to this coverage for women who wish to purchase such coverage out of their own pockets. Rather than offering real solutions to the problems our nation faces, the other side of the aisle only offers a return to the fights over social issues of the past.

Republicans claim that H.R. 7 merely codifies the Hyde Amendment, a provision prohibiting the use of federal funds for most abortion services, but Title I of the bill actually includes

numerous vague provisions that may in some cases modify and expand the funding restrictions relating to abortion currently included in annual appropriations bills. Besides, the Hyde Amendment has been passed every single year for nearly forty years--we already have a law prohibiting the use of federal funds to pay for abortion, we don't need another one.

This legislation threatens women's health by denying access to comprehensive women's health care that includes abortion. That is why I vehemently oppose H.R. 7.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today as the Founder and Chairman of the Congressional Anti-Bullying Caucus to bring attention to the Be a STAR (Show Tolerance and Respect) Alliance, an anti-bullying initiative co-founded in 2011 by The Creative Coalition and WWE to encourage young people to treat each other with tolerance and respect through education and grassroots initiatives. WWE and The Creative Coalition leverage the power of The Creative Coalition's entertainment industry constituencies and WWE's global brand and platforms to help combat the bullying epidemic plaguing today's youth. This month, for the first time ever, Be a STAR awarded five grants totaling $125,000 to outstanding non- profit public charities that develop and implement anti-bullying programs.

The five grantees of the inaugural Be a STAR grant program are:

The Armory Foundation, New York, NY: The Armory Foundation, a NYC non-profit, services more than 125,000 athletes and is home to the premier indoor track and field center in the United States. The Be a STAR grant will help fund the Armory College Prep's Fair Play Program, which reaches more than 300 students in public high schools in New York City, New Jersey and Westchester. The grant will also provide training for The Armory Foundation's

staff, who will ensure that Be a STAR's lesson plans are integrated effectively into the program's workshops.

Blue Star Families, Inc., Falls Church, VA: Blue Star serves more than 10,000 military families in 70 locations around the world by supporting, connecting and empowering families through chapter-based programs. The Be a STAR grant will help fund MilKidz Clubs, which connects military kids--regardless of rank, branch of service or military installation--and provides them the resources, mentoring and opportunity to become the next wave of leaders in their communities. Approximately 1.5 million military children are enrolled in United States schools with the average military family moving about every two years. As a result, approximately 750,000 children of military families are the ``new kid'' each year in their school. In order to help these children, MilKidz will integrate Be a STAR resources into its after- school activities and incorporate Be a STAR's nine lesson plans, including Courage, Responsibility, Dignity, Friendship, Advocacy, Resiliency, Empathy, Identity and Morality into its monthly meetings.

Do Something, New York, NY: Do Something is one of the largest non- profit organizations in the United States that creates opportunities for young people to participate in causes that combat bullying, animal cruelty, homelessness and cancer. The Be a STAR grant will be used to help fund Do Something's ``Bully Text'' mobile platform. ``Bully Text'' is a digital experience where kids encounter different bullying scenarios and learn how to respond in various ways. According to Do Something's 2012 ``The Bully Report'', cyber bullying is the most pervasive type of bullying with 70 percent of students reporting frequent bullying online and 35 percent reporting bullying through texting.

East LA Boys & Girls Club (BGCELA), Los Angeles, CA: The mission of BGCELA is to enable all young people and their families to realize their full potential as productive, healthy, caring and responsible individuals through life-enhancing programs. The Be a STAR grant will support and fund parent workshops and training taught by local anti- bullying experts during National Bullying Prevention Month. Videos from the Be a STAR resource guide will be shown and discussed using the Be a STAR Student Activity Sheets and students will be taught Be a STAR's nine lesson plans.

National Voices for Equality, Education and Enlightenment (NVEEE), Fort Lauderdale, FL: NVEEE is a community-based non-profit whose mission is to prevent bullying, violence and suicide among youth, families and communities through direct service, mentoring and prevention education. The Be a STAR grant will fund the Peace Ambassadors program, which serves approximately 7,000 students in Ft. Lauderdale who will participate in tailored workshops that have integrated Be a STAR resources and training. The Peace Ambassador program is a leadership program comprised of students who serve as advocates and leaders to prevent bullying, suicide and violence in their schools and communities. Additionally, through the support of the Be a STAR grant, NVEEE will provide parents and students with information and resources from Be a STAR alliance members.

On behalf of the Congressional Anti-Bullying Caucus, I congratulate The Creative Coalition, WWE, Be a STAR, and the grant winners.

Thank you, Congressman Garamendi, for putting these evening discussions on the board here.

I want to also rise to join you and other colleagues of mine in commemorating the 50th anniversary of President Lyndon Johnson's declaration of the war on poverty, and, as you had mentioned, President Franklin Roosevelt's effort to close the income gap. The inequities that we have faced and we are still facing are growing even larger today because of the gender pay gap, because of the unpaid portions where people have to leave their work in order to take care of their children or their families. Also, to be able to address the child care issues that became very prominent in the seventies, when both parents started to work and wondered how they were going to be addressing child care.

Also, we have the caregiver support, where adult children are taking care of their parents. We are seeing that this is a necessity that has crept up on our society and our community, almost very quietly, and become an issue because of different kinds of situations our parents are facing, not only because of the physical illness but because of the mental health illness that they have faced.

So all these things play a part in drawing down the resources of middle-income families trying to take care of their own responsibilities, raising their own family, and also the responsibility of their parents who are aging.

In the area of universal pre-K education and early childhood education, both President Roosevelt and Johnson knew that education is an important tool in this war on poverty and closing the income inequity gap.

Last week, I read an article in the Lexington-Herald Leader about two schools in east Kentucky, just hours apart from each other--Anchorage and Barbourville, two communities of about 3,000 in population.

The median household income in Anchorage is more than 3.5 times larger than the median income of that of Barbourville. Yet Barbourville spends only $8,000 per student, while Anchorage spends approximately $20,000 per student. Equal size population, only a couple hours apart.

The question comes up: Why is it that this country, our communities, continue to refuse to recognize the inequities in funding in our public schools? Why is that?

The quality of education that our children receive should not be dependent on or determined by the ZIP Code in which they live or in which they were born. Each and every child should receive support according to their needs, not according to the ZIP Code in which they reside--each and every child.

In the fifties, when we realized that the States were responsible for education, we interpreted it as the States' constitutional responsibility to move forward on education, and we found that some States had a principle of separate but equal. In the fifties, we realized that that was not supportable, not constitutional, and this became an issue in our current time when we were able to bring this issue to the living rooms of our country through technology-- television. Upon this country and the States becoming more aware of what was going on, on a Federal level we moved the communities to correct this inequity, the unconstitutionality of separate but equal in our education systems and other policies in our different communities and different States.

Today, we have come to a point where we understand that equal opportunity for all children is a necessary principle, but I think, having studied education a little bit more, we should refine that principle into another principle, to wit: each and every child should receive support according to their needs, not according to the ZIP Codes or the median income of their parents.

One of the more important steps to accomplish this and achieve equity in funding for our youngsters in the preschool and early childhood education arena is to fully fund Head Start for each and every child. So we must encourage States to adopt a more equitable funding formula to ensure that each and every child receives the necessary financial and human resources required.

President Obama declared that he has an initiative that addresses universal preschool education. The Governor of California, Jerry Brown, passed a bond that said that we want more equitable funding for children in the State of California. We passed a bond that increased the funding for education to achieve more equitable funding for each and every child. It is the first step. It is the right direction, but we have miles and miles to go.

This journey for equitable funding for each and every child is a journey that we must continue and start now, in order to achieve the civil rights of each and every child in this country.

Mr. Speaker, if there were a Hippocratic oath of legislating, it would prescribe that we, above all else, should do no harm, but we have a habit of violating that foundational precept.

We have allowed unemployment insurance to 1.3 million Americans to expire, and that will not help our economy and will cost 200,000 jobs.

In 1 month we face the recurring hostage-taking ritual that has become raising the debt limit. These debt limit showdowns have a real cost to our economy.

The Government Accountability Office found that delayed action in 2011 resulted in $1.3 billion in higher borrowing costs. We can avoid that cost by enacting permanent reforms to the process like the ones employed in the recent debt limit adjustments.

I introduced last year H.R. 233, which would permanently shift the role of Congress to disapproving debt ceiling increases instead of approving them and allows the debt limit to be raised

unless a supermajority of Congress votes to block the increase.

I encourage my colleagues to join me in pursuing these permanent and necessary reforms. Avoid the replay of the hostage-taking and brinksmanship of last year, and take the steps to avoid doing any more unnecessary harm to American families.

Mr. Chairman, I rise today in support of H.R. 3309, The Innovation Act, which will help to curtail the damage done by patent trolls to the American economy and consumers.

In recent years, patent trolls have had a significant negative impact on America's economy, with organizations from all walks of life being attacked and facing costly licensing fees, settlements, and even court battles. The direct impact of this has been estimated at roughly $29 billion per year.

It is important to realize that the impact of patent trolls is falling not just on big, wealthy companies, but on America's consumers. In one notable case, a patent troll has threatened nonprofit charities in Vermont and a community choir in Nebraska, asking for $1,000 per employee simply because the organizations use scanners. And another has demanded licensing fees from more than 8,000 businesses, including coffee houses and hotels, and ultimately sued hundreds of them--all because they provide wifi to their customers.

The impact of this on the consumer is significant. The expense associated with facing a patent troll leaves small businesses with a low profit margin already with the choice of either halting use of this service to its customers, or offsetting the cost by charging for use. When these small businesses are able to go to court, the trolls lose the cases over 85 percent of the time. But in our current system, most of them can't afford to do so.

What's more, the long-term impact is even more damaging for consumers. The cost of this type of litigation has risen to more than $29 billion per year, with each suit costing an estimated average of $5-10 million. These are funds that companies can't use to create jobs or innovate. By diverting resources to fighting trolls, Silicon Valley companies have less to spend on investment in new products, expansion to new areas, and improvement of services.

The Federal Trade Commission, which is charged with protecting consumers and policing unfair and deceptive acts, recently began an investigation of patent trolls. An investigation is a good step in the right direction, but legislation like H.R. 3309 is needed to truly combat patent trolls.

As a cosponsor of the bipartisan Innovation Act, I know this bill will take important steps to curb the abusive patent litigation we see today, in which trolls send vague demand letters about overbroad patents, don't clearly identify themselves, and deliberately run up discovery costs to pressure defendants to settle.

The bill will change the rules for patent lawsuits by requiring plaintiffs to identify who is really behind the suit, what patent is being asserted, and what the infringement claim is. This will allow the targets of patent suits to know who is accusing them of infringement and what exactly they are being accused of doing.

H.R. 3309 will also require judges to shift litigation costs and fees to a non-prevailing party in cases where the party's position was not reasonably justified, unless it would cause severe economic harm to the named inventor. This will make it easier for defendants to fight unjustified patent suits and deter illegitimate claims, while protecting legitimate inventors and preserving courts' discretion to not shift costs.

The bill will also require the Judicial Conference of the United States to make rules that would shift discovery costs, while leaving the details of the rulemaking are up the Judicial Conference. The rule should require parties to pay for their own discovery requests beyond the core documents needed to advance the suit, which aims to rein in broad discovery requests in patent suits that are unnecessary, unfair, and costly, and are often designed simply to intimidate the other party into a settlement. The bill would allow the courts to maintain discretion to modify the rules for good cause.

Another aspect of the bill will allow manufacturers and suppliers to intervene and stay lawsuits against customers and end users of a product that allegedly infringe patents, if both the manufacturer and customer agree. This will protect the coffee shop or hotel, which is accused of infringing a wifi patent because it uses a particular wireless router, by allowing the maker of the allegedly infringing product to step in and take responsibility for the case.

It is important to note that this bill does not diminish or devalue patent rights in the United States. It does not attempt to eliminate valid patent litigation; rather, it is aimed at abusive behaviors in the patent litigation system and seeks to put them to a stop. Its provisions for higher pleading standards and greater transparency will save the court's time and resources by making parties do their due diligence and provide information up front, before an infringement suit is filed. Greater transparency and information are a good thing, and will make the system stronger.

H.R. 3309 had broad bipartisan support in the Judiciary Committee, where it passed by a vote of 33-5, and it deserves our support. I look forward to working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle in the House and the Senate to send a bill to the President that will bring an end to these abusive practices that are stifling American businesses and innovation.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the Child Safety Network. As the nation's largest distributor of child safety information, CSN has tirelessly fought to make our nation a safer place for children by preventing child abuse, abduction, injury, and exploitation.

Through the youth violence prevention and intervention initiatives, as well promoting the safety of all children who ride public school buses, CSN's efforts to safeguard children and educate parents are impressive and imperative. For instance, adding free extended driving training to the 2,700 school districts that currently use CSN's endorsed training courses has reduced preventable accidents by over 30 percent.

CSN has worked with schools and schools districts in CA-17, and have worked extensively with the California State PTA and the National PTA Association. Throughout the past several years, CSN has provided free child safety information, including the free CSN Safe Family CD to thousands of parents in CA-17. The Safe Family CD and the CSN website provide child safety and health information, immunization schedules for children, child product recall information, and several new child safety programs which include School Bus Safety and driver training, extending Drug Free School Zones to Bus Stops, child nutritional information, preventing child bullying, and many other issues.

As the Representative of California's 17th district, as an educator of over 30 years, a parent and a grandparent, I am grateful to the countless CSN staff and volunteers who are committed to raising safer and healthier children. Mr. Speaker, I applaud the Child Safety Network for their admirable work these last 25 years in my district, California, and our nation--and I extend my warmest wishes in their next 25 years.

Mr. Speaker, let me just be a little uplifting today.

I rise today to wish my friends and colleagues a happy Diwali. Diwali is this Sunday, November 3, and it signifies the start of the lunar new year. The festival of Diwali is a rich cultural history. It celebrates the victory of good over evil, light over darkness, and knowledge over ignorance.

Diwali is one of the biggest festivals for Hindus, celebrated with great enthusiasm and happiness. The festival is celebrated for 5 continuous days, where the third day is celebrated as the main Diwali festival or Festival of Lights. This holiday commemorates Lord Rama's return from 14 years of exile after defeating the demon King Ravan.

Different colorful varieties of fireworks are always associated with this festival. People shoot firecrackers to drive away evil spirits. On this auspicious day, people light up diyas lamps and candles all around their house. These lamps are kept on during the night and people clean their houses to welcome Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, into their homes. Lakshmi is said to bring prosperity and happiness to people in the new year.

During Diwali, all the celebrants wear new clothes and share sweets and snacks with family members and friends. They perform the ceremonial Puja in the evening and seek divine blessings from Lakshmi. The festival of Diwali is never complete without the exchange of gifts. People present Diwali gifts to all near and dear ones.

Diwali is an official holiday in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Mauritius, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Suriname, Malaysia, Singapore, and Fiji. This holiday is one of the most important holidays in Indian culture and a time for families to reunite and enjoy one another's company.

I ask my colleagues to join me in the celebration of Diwali, the Festival of Lights. Happy Diwali.

Madam Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for yielding time to me.

I rise in opposition to this resolution, but I am strongly in favor of the process that we are using to deal with the debt limit. There is a difference.

If this resolution to force an unprecedented default passes both this House and the Senate, the President can decide to sign it or not. Even if he doesn't sign it, Congress will have another opportunity to stop a debt ceiling raise.

This is a process that the Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, first suggested in 2011 and has been used in debt limit bills to avoid defaulting since. It is good enough to use right now, it has been good enough to use for 2 years, and it is good enough to help us avoid these manufactured crises on a permanent basis.

This is a process that helps us separate the true need for congressional intervention on the debt limit from those that are manufactured and motivated by politics. This is a process that works and helps us avoid unnecessary pain. We should never have a replay of the hostage-taking and brinksmanship that we recently went through to get to this point.

We know what we have to do, and we know we should not be playing games with the debt limit. That is why I offer a bill that would make this process permanent and keep this Nation fiscally solvent. Senators Boxer, Schumer, and Hirono introduced this very same bill today in the Senate.

I support this process, and I hope my colleagues will support my efforts to make it the permanent solution to the debt crisis.

I urge a ``no'' vote on the resolution, but I support this process that allows it.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to voice my concerns about provisions in the Water Resources Reform and Development Act that put communities, taxpayers and the environment at risk by undermining the National Environmental Policy Act.

NEPA reviews have been useful for identifying potentially costly problems with water projects, allowing changes to save taxpayer dollars and avoid delays. This bill contains so-called ``streamlining'' provisions based on the flawed notion that NEPA is causing project delays; but studies have shown that other factors, like insufficient funding for the Corps, are the cause of delays. The bill limits public participation in the decision-making process, which will deny the Corps the benefit of public and expert input.

I ask the chairman to work, as this bill moves forward, to ensure that the bill does not degrade the NEPA process. I also hope that the chairman will work with me to provide the Corps the authority to perform ecosystem restoration work on lands owned by other Federal agencies, which is needed to complete important projects such as the South San Francisco Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project. I tried to offer a simple amendment to the Water Resources Reform and Development Act today, but the Rules Committee did not make my amendment in order.

Currently, the Army Corps of Engineers has the authority to use construction funds to perform flood protection work on lands owned by other Federal agencies, but the Corps does not have the legal authority to use construction funds to perform ecosystem restoration work on lands owned by other Federal agencies. In 2013, we all believe that good flood protection projects must incorporate ecosystem restoration, and the Corps has the ability to do integrated projects like this everywhere else except on lands owned by another Federal agency. This poses a significant hurdle in the case of the South San Francisco Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project, which seeks to return the San Francisco Bay to its natural state and provide flood protection and wetlands restoration.

In this case, the State of California and the United States Government, through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, own the land on which the project will be performed even though most of the funding to buy the land came from the State and non-Federal interests. The Corps has told the local partners that it does not have the legal authority to perform the ecosystem restoration aspects of this work on lands owned by the Fish and Wildlife Service and that it needs Congress to provide that authority. My amendment simply sought to fix this situation by granting the Corps that authority so it could pursue this joint flood protection and ecosystem restoration project.

I ask Chairmen Shuster and Gibbs and Ranking Members Rahall and Bishop to work with me as this bill goes to conference with the Senate in order to provide the Corps with the authority it needs to carry out this project and projects for which it has already been authorized to perform feasibility studies.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor veterans from America's greatest generation and thank the Government of Japan for recognizing the sacrifices of these men. On Sunday, October 13, seven former members or widows of former members of the U.S. Army, U.S. Army Air Corps, and U.S. Marines who fought in the Pacific Theater of World War II--and who were once prisoners of war of Imperial Japan--will travel to Japan as guests of the Japanese government. Marking an act of historic reconciliation and remembrance, this is the fourth delegation of U.S. POWs to visit Japan through this program.

Their first trip to Japan was on aging freighters called ``Hellships,'' where the men were loaded into suffocating holds with little space, water, food, or sanitation. The conditions in which they were held are unimaginable. At the POW camps in the Philippines, Japan and China, they suffered unmerciful abuse aggravated by the lack of food, medical care, clothing, and appropriate housing. Each POW also became a slave laborer at the mines, factories, and docks of some of Japan's largest companies. In the end, nearly 40 percent of the American POWs held by Japan perished; compared to two percent of those in Nazi Germany's POW camps. The POWs of this delegation slaved for Mitsubishi, Nippon Express, Sumitomo, Nisshin Flour, Hitachi, Dowa Holdings, and JFE Holdings.

In September 2010, the Japanese government delivered to the first American POW delegation an official, Cabinet-approved apology for the damage and suffering these men endured. Although the Japanese government had hosted POWs from the wartime Allies of the United States since the late 1990s, the 2010 trip was the first trip to Japan for American POWs. It was also the first official apology to any prisoners of war held by Japan.

I know that the American POWs fought hard for this recognition. Dr. Lester Tenney of California, a former POW who mined coal for Mitsui, was instrumental in persuading the Government of Japan to offer the apology and initiate the trips of reconciliation. He says he is ``honored to have had the opportunity of assisting the U.S. State Department and the Japanese Embassy in arranging this year's POW Visitation Program. Like the years past, the visit will no doubt yield many memories while at the same time erase many bad experiences that left its mark on the POWs. This year, for the first time, Japan's Minister of Foreign Affairs has allowed three widows of former POWs to participate in the program and visit the sites of their husbands' Japanese prison camps located in various cities in Japan.''

I thank the POWs for their persistent pursuit of justice, and commend the U.S. State Department for helping them. I also appreciate the willingness of the Japanese government to pursue an historic and meaningful apology. It is my hope that the POW Visitation Program continues to expand, and that it will be a healing mechanism for the POWs, their families and communities.

Now, it is time for the many Japanese companies that used POWs for slave labor during World War II to follow the example of their government by offering an apology and supporting programs for lasting remembrance and reconciliation.

Mr. Speaker, I wish these men a fulfilling trip to Japan, and I hope that their trip contributes to securing the historic peace between the U.S. and our important ally Japan.

Fourth U.S. POW Delegation to Japan, October 13-21, 2013

Phillip W. Coon, 94, is a full blood Muscogee Creek who grew up in Oklahoma. After graduating from the Haskell Institute (today's Haskell Indian Nations University) in Lawrence, Kansas, he enlisted in the U.S. Army on September 29, 1941. He was assigned to the 31st Infantry Regiment and sent immediately to the Philippines Islands aboard the USAT Willard A. Holbrook arriving on October 23, 1941. At Fort McKinley he trained as a .30 caliber machine gunner (M1919 Browning). He fought on Bataan Peninsula against the invading Japanese forces and was surrendered on April 9. Forced on the infamous 65-mile Bataan Death March, he was subjected to capricious cruelty and abuse, denied water, food, rest and protection from the sun. Nearly all on the March had surrendered sick and malnourished causing thousands to die before they reached their destination of Camp O'Donnell. Coon credits his survival to God, or as he said, ``We ran out of food, ammunition and men, but we didn't run out of prayer.'' His first POW Camp was Camp O'Donnell where he worked burial detail. For the next two years, he was held at Cabanatuan, Camp Lipa-Batangas, Camp Murphy-Rizal, and Bilibid. On October 1, 1944, he was shipped via Hong Kong on the Hellship Hokusen Maru to Taiwan where he was held briefly at the Inrin Temporary POW Camp. From Taiwan he was sent to Moji, Japan, via the Hellship Melbourne Maru arriving January 23, 1945. He was then shipped north to Sendai and became a slave laborer mining cooper for Fujita Gumi Kosaka Kozan (today's Dowa Holdings Co. Ltd.) at the Sendai-#8B Kosaka POW Camp. After his liberation in September 1945, he returned to the U.S. and was discharged from service as a Corporal on June 24, 1946. He returned home to work as Union Painter doing

high-scaffold work. Helen, his wife of 67 years, died this spring. Mr. Coon lives with his son, Michael, a Vietnam vet who works with DAV Creek County Chapter #9 as a Service Officer helping veterans with their disability claims. Six members of the Muscogee Creek Nation became prisoners of Japan on the Philippines: five from Corregidor and Mr. Coon who was on Bataan. POW#Unknown

Lora Cummins, 87, is the widow of Ferron E. Cummins (1917-1990). She lives in San Antonio, Texas. Mr. Cummins grew up in New Mexico where he graduated in 1938 from Tyler Commercial College in Texas and went to work as a bookkeeper for the First National Bank in Hagerman, New Mexico (today's First American Bank). In November 1940, he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps and had his Basic Training at Brooks and Kelly Fields near San Antonio, Texas. He was assigned to the V Interceptor Command, 24th Pursuit Group, 34th Pursuit Squadron at Hamilton Field, California. In November 1941, Cummins was transferred to the Philippines Islands aboard the USS Coolidge. He arrived on November 20 and was assigned to Nichols Field. When the Japanese invaded the Philippines on December 8, he was sent to Aglaloma Point, Bataan to fight with the 71st Infantry joining men from all branches of the Armed Services. He was surrendered on April 9, 1942 and forced on the infamous 65-mile Bataan Death March on April 10, 1942 from Mariveles to Camp O'Donnell arriving on April 21, 1942. From Camp O'Donnell, he was moved to Cabanatuan, then Bilibid. At these camps he survived sunstroke, dysentery, malaria, dengue fever, wet and dry beriberi, yellow jaundice, and blindness. In August 1944, he was shipped to Moji, Japan, aboard the Hellship Noto Maru. He was taken to Hiroshima and became a slave stevedore for Hitachi Shipyard (today's Hitachi Zosen Corporation) at Mukaijima [Mukaishima] Hiroshima Sub-camp #4. A Japanese elementary school in Mukaishima today honors the memory of the men of this camp. On August 6, 1945, he felt the air warm and watched a three-mile high mushroom cloud rise above Hiroshima from the atomic bomb. He was officially liberated September 14, 1945. He returned to Lake Arthur, New Mexico where he remained in the Air Force and married the girl down the street, Lora Mae Lane. Upon retirement, he owned a laundry and vending machine business. In 1967, the family moved to San Antonio, Texas where he worked for SEARS. He and Lora had one child, Glenda, and were married 43 years. Lora was a civilian employee of the Air Force. He passed away on March 26, 1990 of a heart attack just days after returning from his second trip to the Philippines with his wife, daughter, son-in-law, and grandson, Ferron. Mr. Cummins is buried at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio, Texas. POW# 115

Robert B. Heer, 92, lives in Sequim, Washington. He grew up in Iowa and joined the U.S. Army Air Corps in June 1940 becoming a carpenter with the 30th Bombardment Squadron, 19th Bomb Group (Heavy), V Bomber Command stationed at March Field, California. He was stationed at Kirtland Field in Albuquerque, New Mexico, before being ordered to the Philippine Islands in October 1941 He arrived on October 23, 1941 aboard USAT Willard A. Holbrook and was sent to Clark Field. On December 29, 1941, the 30th Bombardment Squadron was evacuated to Mindanao and he was sent to the Del Monte Airfield. He was surrendered on May 10 and sent to Camp Casisang, about five kilometers southwest of Malaybalay, Mindanao. On September 6, 1942, the Generals and Colonels were removed from Camp Casisang and sent to Formosa (Taiwan). Heer served as an orderly to Brig. General Joseph P. Vachon, the former C.O. of the Philippine Army's 101st Division on Mindanao, with whom Bob Heer was sent to Karenko POW Camp via the freighter Suzuya Maru. At Karenko he wrote a message to his family that the Japanese broadcast to the U.S. over shortwave radio. In May 1943, he was shipped to Heito POW Camp to clear and work in sugar cane fields. He remained there nearly a year before being moved to Taihoku POW Camp #6 where he slaved at building a memorial park for Japanese soldiers and a man-made lake for the irrigation of rice fields. In early 1945, he was shipped to Japan, first to the port of Moji on Kyushu and then north to Hokkaido. There he was first a slave stevedore for the Hakodate Port Transportation Company at Hakodate 2-D POW. In late May 1945, he was moved north to become a slave laborer mining coal for Sumitomo Mining (today's Sumitomo Metal Mining Co. Ltd.) at Hakodate #2 Akihira POW Camp. He was liberated in early September 1945, when American Army records clerks arrived and told them the war was over. After liberation, Heer remembers eating well and gaining 40 pounds in Japan, making friends with post-war civilians there. ``I was giving food to the Japanese,'' he said, even eating dinner with one family who invited him in after he gave them matches and soap, which was in short supply. On April 20, 1946, Heer was honorably discharged from the Air Corps at Camp Beale (Beale A.F.B.) in California. He used the GI Bill to earn a degree in photography from the Fred Archer School of Photography in Los Angeles, California. Missing friends and the military life, he returned to active duty with the Air Force in 1950, retiring in 1966 as a Technical Sergeant. In retirement he has worked as an amateur historian of American POWs of Japan and embarked on a ``third career'' as a house husband. He has been married to Karen Harper since 1989, and has four children from two previous marriages. POW# 330

Esther Jennings, 90, is the widow of Clinton S. Jennings (1919-2004). She lives in San Francisco, California. Mr. Jennings, a California native, served in the Civilian Conservation Corps before enlisting in the U.S. Army in 1941. He was sent to the Philippine Islands the same year aboard the USS Republic (AP-33). He was stationed on Corregidor to join Battery ``K'' 59th Coast Artillery Regiment where he helped man fixed 60" Searchlights No. 1 through 8, plus a number of 60" and 30" mobile seacoast searchlights. Surrendered on May 6, 1942, he was sent to a series of POW camps on the Philippines: Bongabong, Cabanatuan, Lipa-Batanga, and Bilibid. In July 1944, he was herded along with 1,600 other American POWs aboard the Hellship Nissyo Marti to be shipped to Japan. The nightmarish two-week voyage to Moji, Japan included an attack by an American submarine wolfpack on the unmarked transport. Jennings was first held in Fukuoka-23-Keisen as slave laborer mining coal for Meiji Mining [Meiji Kogyo] Hirayama Mine (The company was dissolved in 1969, but its exploration and research division became independent as Meiji Consultant Co., Ltd. in 1965, and still exists). He was then transferred to Fukuoka #9B, located near the town of Miyata (now the city of Miyawaka), again to be a slave laborer mining coal, but for Kaijima Coal Mining Onoura Mine (the company no longer exists). After the war, he spent 25 years in the Army working in finance. He retired in 1965 and worked in public finance at the Bank of America retiring again in 1985. Jennings was a dedicated volunteer: he spent 27 years at KQED; 24 years at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; and 20 years for the San Francisco Opera Guild where he enjoyed being a supernumerary. He was a member of American Defenders of Bataan & Corregidor; American Ex-Prisoners of War; Philippine Scouts Heritage Society; American Legion; San Francisco History Association; VFW; Military Order of the Purple Heart; Past President of Golden Gate Chapter #18 of National Sojourners; Native Sons of the Golden West, Guadalupe Parlor; The Great War Society; Past Master of Masonic Lodge San Francisco #120; Scottish Rite, Shriners; President of the National Assn. of Civilian Conservation Corps Alumni; The Retired Officers Association and the Reserve Officers Association. He was married to Esther Bloom for 34 years and had three children from a prior marriage. He succumbed to cancer on October 28, 2004. Mr. Jennings is buried at Hills of Eternity, Colma, California. POW# Unknown

Erwin R. Johnson, 91, divides his time between Wynantskill, New York, outside of Albany and Lacombe, Louisiana. He grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana, and enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps in September 1940. He was assigned to the 48th Materiel Squadron, 27th Bombardment Group (Light), V Bomber Command where he was trained as a mechanic for A-20 fighter planes. He was transferred to the Philippine Islands aboard the USS President Coolidge in November 1941, arriving on November 20th and was deployed to Fort McKinley south of Manila. When Japanese forces attacked the Philippine Islands in December 1941, though not trained as an infantryman, Johnson was issued a rifle and ordered to defend against the Japanese advance. He and all American and Filipino troops on the Bataan Peninsula were surrendered on April 9, 1942. Immediately, he was forced on the infamous 65-mile Bataan Death March to Camp O'Donnell. He recalls many horrific events during the march; maybe the worst was a Japanese guard bayoneting to death a Filipino mother and her baby for trying to pass food to the starving, sick POWs. At Camp O'Donnell he volunteered for work duty building bridges and other projects. Later that year, he was transferred to Cabanatuan where he volunteered for work details outside of the Camp. He was among 500 other American POWs shipped from the tropical Philippines to the freezing Mukden, China (today's Shenyang) in October 1942 aboard Mitsubishi's Hellship Tottori Maru via Formosa and Korea to Manchukuo (Manchuria). None of the men had winter clothing. Johnson was housed at the Hoten POW Camp and became a slave laborer at MKK (Manshu Kosaku Kikai or Manchouko Kibitsu Kaishi, which some researchers believe was owned by Mitsubishi and known as Manchuria Mitsubishi Machine Tool Company, Ltd.). The camp was liberated in August 1945 by Russian and OSS forces.

Discharged in June 1946, he used the GI bill to obtain a mechanical engineering degree from Tulane University. He worked for a number of technology manufacturing companies in Southern California including North American Aviation (today's Boeing) and eventually returned to Louisiana, retiring from the Port of New Orleans in 1993. In retirement, he and his wife Margaret traveled throughout the United States and were active in a number of veterans and POW organizations. Margaret, his wife of 53 years, passed away in 2010. Together they raised five boys. In 2011, he married Ann Wilbur Lampins whose brother, Staff Sgt Charles S. Wilbur, was also a member of the U.S. Army Air Corps. He was with the 28th Materiel Squadron, 20th Air Base Group, Far East Air Force in the Philippines. He too became a prisoner of Imperial Japan and was also shipped to Mukden. He died of pneumonia soon after arrival on December 28, 1942. The Johnsons are active members of the Mukden POW Survivors group and other veterans' organizations. POW # 277

Marjean McGrew, 87, is the widow of Alfred Curtis McGrew (1922-2008). She lives in San Diego, California. Mr. McGrew grew up in Columbus, Ohio. After high school and briefly working with the Civilian Conservation Corps, he enlisted in the U.S. Army at Fort Hayes. In January 1941, his unit sailed to the Philippine Islands aboard the USS Republic (AP-33). He took Basic Training at the 92nd Garage on Corregidor and was assigned to Battery ``D'' (Denver) 60th Coast Artillery (A.A.). He was transferred to Battery ``H'' (Hartford) 60th, Coast Artillery (A.A.) at Herring Field, Middleside and was taken prisoner there on May 6, 1942, with the surrender of Corregidor and the Philippines. He was held in the following POW camps: 92nd Garage, Bilibid, Cabanatuan 2 and 1; Camp O'Donnell, Nichols Field. In August 1944, he was shipped to Moji, Japan aboard the Hellship Noto Maru. In Japan, McGrew became a slave stevedore for Nippon Express (still in operation) at Omori Tokyo Base Camp; then a slave stevedore for Nisshin Flour Milling Dispatched Camp (Tokyo 24-D) (today's Nisshin Seifun Group); and finally at Suwa Branch Camp (Tokyo 6-B) he was a slave laborer for Nippon Steel Tube & Mining Company (today's JFE Holdings). He was liberated in Yokohama on September 6, 1945. He later became an Honorary Member and friend of the U.S. Army 503rd Parachute Regiment Combat Team (RCT) who liberated Corregidor from the Japanese in 1945, and the 4th Marine Regiment who had defended it. After returning to Columbus, he met and married Marjean Herres of Bellefontaine, Ohio (the love of his life for 59 years). They moved to San Diego to be nearer the ocean and raise their two children, Vicki and Steve. He retired from Control Data Corporation after 27 years when the manufacturing division left San Diego.

In retirement, McGrew traveled back to Corregidor many times to collect photos, documents, and data from those who served on Corregidor. During his many trips back, he sat in the ruins of Corregidor thinking of the great times and the bad times as well as the many young friends he lost. As a long-time amateur historian, he assisted many families and friends in their search for information on their loved ones serving and/or captured on Corregidor. McGrew's approach to life was to use humor as a base for survival and survive he did several times in his life. For fun, he enjoyed scuba diving, golfing, table tennis, camping, and traveling with his wife around the U.S. in their R.V. Mrs. McGrew was a nurse and an avid folk dancer. He succumbed to cancer on January 27, 2008, surrounded by his loving children and his wife. Mr. McGrew is buried at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery, Point Loma, California. POW# Unknown

Marvin A. Roslansky, 91, lives with his wife Josephine in Mesa, Arizona. Mr. Roslansky grew up in Minnesota and enlisted in the Marine Corps in the spring of 1941. He was sent to Guam in September 1941. He was one of 153 Marines assigned to defend Guam, a U.S. territory administered by the U.S. Navy in the Pacific. As a member of the Insular Patrol Unit, he fought in the brief defense of the island (December 8-9, 1941) and was captured by invading Japanese forces. On January 10, 1942, the American prisoners of the Guam garrison including five nurses and a civilian mother and child were shipped to prison camps in Japan aboard the MS Argentina Maru, what was Mitsui's OSK Line's fastest ship. Arriving in Japan on January 16, 1942, he was taken to Shikoku and imprisoned at the Zentsuji POW Camp (Zentsuji was originally built to house German prisoners of the Japanese in World War I). The camp was on an island about 400 miles west of Tokyo. He spent the rest of the war there as a slave stevedore for Nippon Express (still in operation) working 12-hour days at the Sakaide Rail Yards and the Port of Takamatsu. He was liberated September 27, 1945. After the war, he lived in Racine, Wisconsin where he owned an auto parts business. Retired in 1981, he volunteered at the Clement J. Zablocki VA Medical Center in Milwaukee as well as doing veterans service work for the DAV, the American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor, and the Milwaukee Barb Wire, East Valley, and Prairieland Minnesota Chapters of AXPOW. With his first wife, Iva, he raised four daughters and three sons. He married Josephine Plourde in 2010. POW# Unknown

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the House bring up the Senate amendment to H.J. Res. 59, to open the government and go to conference on a budget so that we end this Republican government shutdown.

I want to thank the gentlelady from Hawaii. I just have to say offhandedly that this is a wonderful, candid interchange, one that needs to be heard, witnessed, and participated in because the way the rules of the House are set up, there is very little exchange between the different parties here on the floor. The rules are very rigid, and it disallows debate and interchange of ideas and discussion, a discussion that is very, very needed in this country because through this discussion that we just had, as candid and as colorful and as interactive as it was, it was informative. And, hopefully, the information that was shared between the gentleman from Texas and the gentlewoman from Hawaii and the gentlewoman from Florida was helpful and would raise some questions in the minds of individuals watching and listening to us, and perhaps asking themselves, Is this all true? Hopefully, it will drive them to check it out and see if the information that was exchanged was valid and factual. I believe they will find it is.

As our past Senator Inouye would have said, mahalo, sister.

Mr. Speaker, I come here from California. My friend, Ms. Hanabusa, comes from the islands of Hawaii. All of us here in this body came here to do things that will make our country better, to help us build a more perfect Union. We have different ideas on how we would do that; but like in the medical field, we should observe one rule before all else: do no harm. We should not be causing unnecessary suffering, inflicting unnecessary pain on our country or on our economy and those who sent us here to try to improve their lives.

Here we are on day 12 of the Republican government shutdown and less than a week from an unprecedented government default; and every day that the Republican majority does not allow a clean vote to reopen the government and give us a long-term certainty on the debt ceiling, they are violating that most important rule: do no harm.

Critical child care, nutrition support, lifesaving research, small business capital, high-tech and groundbreaking research and development, home loans, affordable housing, veterans benefits, tax support, visas and passports are all negatively affected. And the list goes on and on to touch nearly every sector of the economy, with the cost to our economy compounding every day; $50

billion is the estimated cost to the economy over a month's time.

As we get closer and closer to defaulting on our debt obligations, we are causing more and more undue harm to our economy. A failure to make payments on any part of our debt for any amount of time would cause severe disruptions in the global financial markets, downgrade the creditworthiness of the United States, and do long-term harm to the economy. If we defaulted, Social Security, Medicare, and veterans benefits could all be disrupted. Retirement accounts would be devastated, State and local governments might be forced to default, and their ripple effects would be felt all over the world.

Mr. Speaker, time is running out, and the world is watching. There is nowhere for us to hide from our obligations. Let's start the process of ending this manufactured crisis and stop inflicting unnecessary harm to our economy and to our people. Let's lift this cloud from over our economy and have the vote that Americans have been waiting for.

Let me just close, my friend, with this other personal observation. We know the phrase PTSD, and we know about its devastating effects on people. I suspect the kinds of things we are doing here--or not doing here--is causing or inflicting a massive PTSD upon our seniors, our families, and those who are trying to make ends meet. I appreciated you doing this Special Order for us.

I want to thank you, my friend, for this opportunity and this dialogue.

It is a shame that we don't have the same dialogue across the aisle, but our rules prohibit us from being able to create that dialogue and debate in front of this country. As a result, we have this moment in time where we are able to share as members of the California delegation, but also as members of this Democratic Caucus.

We are here today, on day 10, of the Republican government shutdown that has cost over $3 billion in lost economic activity so far. And because of the compounding nature of the economic effects, it is estimated that over a month's time, the economy will be drained of $50 billion.

Almost 1 million people should be working today, and they are not. When our government is forced to shut down, it hurts our economy, closes essential services for low-income families, and disrupts the lives of real people in all of our districts, regardless of where we represent. Important government services that benefit all of us are suspended.

In my district, I have heard from young people that were furloughed, the young employees of the NASA Ames facility. They are wondering how they are going to be able to make rent to stay in their homes or to make ends meet.

The investigators that were working on finding the underlying causes of the Asiana crash and coming up with ways to make air travel safer, we sent home.

I have also heard from those who are waiting to hear back on their Social Security benefits appeals. Because the appeals office is closed, they will not hear back on their cases until this shutdown is over, which means they have less means to make ends meet.

There is no reason this should be happening. All of this pain is absolutely and completely unnecessary. We do have the bipartisan votes, however, to end this shutdown today if the Speaker would allow a clean vote. That might be the most frustrating part of all of this.

Actually, it is the most frustrating part of all of this, that we have the votes here on both sides of the aisle if the Speaker allows us to vote. I am not sure what it is that he is afraid of, but if he let that go and let us vote and let the people vote, then we may be able to reflect the desires and the reflections of what people are feeling in this country.

Speaker Boehner and the Republican majority in the House refuse to do their job, and I think they really do believe they are doing their job. I pray that they see and understand that there is real human suffering and economic suffering that comes as a direct result of these irresponsible political tactics, both on the government-wide shutdown and on the debt limit.

For House Democrats, this is not a game. On the debt ceiling, the full faith and credit of the United States should never be in jeopardy. That is our position, and that is the position of economists and business leaders, and that should be the attitude of this Congress.

Warren Buffett called the debt limit a nuclear bomb. Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein said:

Economic damage associated with default or near default

will be severe and have serious consequences for the recovery

of the U.S. and global economy.

Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan said:

There is no debate that the seriousness of the U.S. not

paying its debts is the most serious thing we have.

The president of the American Bankers Association and former Republican Governor of Oklahoma, Frank Keating, said a default would cost ``hundreds of billions of dollars,'' and even the slightest impact on interest rates ``would cascade throughout the economy.''

This government shutdown and the looming threat of an unprecedented government default are doing significant harm to our economy. The only ones that can't see that are Speaker Boehner and the Tea Party Republicans.

House Democrats have started the process on forcing a vote on a clean CR to reopen the government and will soon do the same with a vote on the debt limit. Americans want a vote. A reasonable majority in Congress want this vote. Speaker Boehner can call this vote today. But since he won't, we will try to force a vote as soon as House rules allow.

Let's not go 1 more day without a functioning government. Let's stop these games, reopen the government, start the process of ending this manufactured crisis, lift this cloud from over our economy, and have the vote that Americans have been waiting for. Let us vote, Mr. Speaker.

That is true.

Mr. Takano, as you know, I represent a majority of the area that is commonly called ``Silicon Valley.'' We were doing relatively well with the shutdown; however, government contracts, entrepreneurship are going to be affected, and that trickles down throughout the system, including what we call the ``supply chains,'' where other companies throughout this country, in other parts of the State are affected also. This is almost like an arithmetic kind of extension of this impact when--I guess Warren Buffett said it best, that it is a nuclear bomb, because it just continues to spread its impact throughout our country and our economy.

It is a dampening effect. I think people are less likely to invest, even though there is a great faith in the kinds of activities we have in Silicon Valley. I think those who have the resources to make the investments, they are going to be looking at it twice before they can move forward. I think that they are very concerned about the government's behavior in terms of how we manufacture crisis around the debt limit, how we manufacture crisis about the CR or the budget. All we need is what we proposed a few months ago, and that is a good, balanced budget that would drive this country forward economically and logically.

No family functions without a good budget. What we are doing is we have created a budgetary crisis that guarantees--they have already done it--closure of the government or the dysfunction of a family. When you do that, all hell breaks loose. This is what is happening to our elders, our children, our preschools. There is not a system that has not been affected. The military, our veterans, they are all being affected. So we have to really make sure that the public understands what it is that is happening.

Yes.

I just want to close by thanking you for this opportunity. The gentleman and I are both educators. And educators know one thing: how to ask a question and come to a logical conclusion. And the logical conclusion right now is that we should have never gotten to this point. We should have never gotten to a point where we shut down this government. We should have done the right thing to make sure that the full faith and credit of our country, like our reputation, is honored. So we need to get back to that point.