Michael R. McNulty

Madam Speaker, you have seen ample demonstration of why I am such a grateful person, with all of these wonderful friends. No one could have a better friend in the world than Gary Ackerman. And I want to thank him, and Representatives Lowey, Hinchey, Crowley, Arcuri, Israel and Hall for the many kind things that they have said about me and the members of my family.

I want to thank, of course, all of the members of the New York delegation, and also my dear friend the Speaker pro tem, my buddy, Jason Altmire, for his very kind words. I shall always be grateful for having been a member of our State delegation, chaired by Charlie Rangel. I am grateful to all of my Democratic colleagues.

I am grateful to all of my Republican colleagues, especially Jimmy Walsh, who is a classmate of mine in the class of 1988, along with Nita Lowey. Jim is also retiring this year.

I am grateful to all of those with whom I have served through the years, all of the Speakers, from Jim Wright to Nancy Pelosi, and all of the Republican leaders, from Bob Michel to John Boehner. And I am grateful to all of the staff of this great institution for the wonderful work that they do for us each and every day.

I have been truly blessed in my life. Paralyzed by polio in 1949, God eventually granted me a near complete recovery. And just look at my life since then. I have been blessed with a large and loving family, many wonderful friends, and a career that I have thoroughly enjoyed for 39 years--as town supervisor, as mayor. And as one of my colleagues back home said, and it is true, there is nothing more special than being elected mayor of your hometown.

Then to go to the New York State Assembly for 6 years, and then 20 years here in the United States Congress. And Steve Israel is right, when I am walking outside and I see the dome lit up at night, I still pinch myself that I am here, Mike McNulty, an average guy, from Green Island, New York, population 2,500. When I was a young public official, I had a dream. This was it, and my dream came true.

I am especially grateful to my family, as others have pointed out, my wife of 37 years, Nancy; and our daughters, Michele, Angela, Nancy and Maria. I am especially grateful to them for the many sacrifices that they made so that I could pursue this career in public life, and all those of you who have families know what I am talking about. Thank you to our grandchildren, Teigin and Elijah, Lola, Morgyn and Daniel, for the joy they bring to us each and every day.

I send out a special message of love to Teigin tonight. She is in the hospital, and, hopefully, she will be right back in action very soon.

She was so proud to be here, standing right there in that spot at the beginning of this Congress, holding my hand when I stood up and voted to elect the first woman to serve as the

Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi. That was a very special moment for me, for the country and for Teigin. So I have special thoughts for Teigin tonight.

I am grateful to the others that you have mentioned, my mom and dad, Madelon and Jack McNulty, and all of those who went before us, all the members of my family and to Frank and Lola Lazzaro, and all the members of Nancy's great family, for their steadfast support all through the years.

As I look back on my life and I look forward to the challenges that lie ahead, I just have to acknowledge how much has been given to me. I have to acknowledge all of the lucky breaks that I have had in my life and in my career.

In thankfulness and gratitude for that, I have tried, to the best of my ability, to give back. I shall always endeavor for the rest of my life to live according to the fundamental principle that life is to give, not to take.

I thank my friend. And for anyone who is listening tonight, you have seen ample demonstration of why I am such a grateful person, all of these wonderful friends. No one could have a better friend in the world than Gary Ackerman. And I want to thank him, and Representatives Lowey, Hinchey, Crowley, Arcuri, Israel and Hall for the many kind things that they have said tonight about me and the members of my family.

I want to thank, of course, all of the members of the New York delegation, and also my dear friend the Speaker pro tem, my buddy, Jason, for his very kind words. I shall always be grateful for having been a member of our State delegation, chaired by Charlie Rangel. I am grateful to all of my Democratic colleagues.

I am grateful to all of my Republican colleagues, especially Jimmy Walsh, who is a classmate of mine in the class of 1988, along with Nita Lowey, and Jim is also retiring this year.

I am grateful to all of those with whom I have served through the years, all of the Speakers, from Jim Wright to Nancy Pelosi, and all of the Republican leaders, from Bob Michel to John Boehner. And I am grateful to all of the staff of this great institution for the wonderful work that they do for us each and every day.

I have been truly blessed in my life. Paralyzed by polio in 1949, God eventually granted me a near complete recovery. And just look at my life since then. I have been blessed with a large and loving family, many wonderful friends, and a career that I have thoroughly enjoyed for 39 years, as town supervisor, as mayor. And as one of my colleagues back home said, and it is true, there is nothing more special than being elected mayor of your hometown.

Then to go to the New York State Assembly for 6 years, and then 20 years here in the United States Congress, and Steve is right, when I am walking outside and I see the dome lit up at night, I still pinch myself that I am here, Mike McNulty, an average guy, from Green Island, New York, population 2,500. When I was a young public official, I had a dream. This was it, my dream came true.

I am especially grateful to my family, as others have pointed out, my wife of 37 years, Nancy; and our daughters, Michele, Angela, Nancy and Maria. I am especially grateful to them for the many sacrifices that they made so that I could pursue this career in public life, and all those of you who have families know what I am talking about. Thank you to our grandchildren, Teigin and Elijah, Lola, Morgyn and Daniel, for the joy they bring to us each and every day.

I send out a special message of love to Teigin tonight. She is in the hospital, and, hopefully, she will be right back in action very soon.

She was so proud to be here, standing right there in that spot at the beginning of this Congress, holding my hand when I stood up and voted to elect the first woman to serve as the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. That was a very special moment for me, for the country and for Teigin. So I have special thoughts for Teigin tonight.

I am grateful to the others that you have mentioned, my mom and dad, and all of those who went before us, all the members of my family and to Frank and Lola Lazzaro, all the members of Nancy's great family, for their steadfast support all through the years.

As I look back on my life, I look forward to the challenges that lie ahead, but up to this point, I just have to acknowledge how much has been given to me. I have to acknowledge all of the lucky breaks that I have had in my life and in my career.

In thankfulness and gratitude for that, I have tried, to the best of my ability, to give back. I shall always endeavor for the rest of my life to live according to the fundamental principle that life is to give, not to take.

I thank the gentlewoman from California for her kind comments, and also the gentleman from Texas, both of them, for their very hard work on reaching this bipartisan consensus.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the bill to extend the basic pilot program, also known as E-Verify. I wish to especially thank my friend, the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Social Security, Sam Johnson, for his longstanding service to the Nation and for his steadfast support of the effort to protect seniors, people with disabilities, and survivors. Together, we have worked since the start of this Congress to provide needed funding for the Social Security Administration to address unacceptable backlogs in disability hearings and the decline in the service to our constituents. Moreover, we must ensure that SSA is ready for the retirement of the Baby Boom generation.

SSA has struggled to meet an increasing workload despite a decade of underfunding. Congress only recently increased funding to help address the backlog of disability claims, and we are working to continue that trend. It will take sustained adequate funding for SSA to meet the challenges of reducing its backlog while keeping pace with growing workloads.

SSA plays a significant role in the E-Verify pilot program, which is rapidly growing under DHS's direction. There is broad consensus that SSA must be paid for this work. The legislation before us provides essential protections for seniors, people with disabilities, and survivors who need Social Security benefits to meet their daily expenses. It does so by ensuring that DHS and SSA enter into annual agreements that require DHS to pay SSA in full and on a timely basis for its E-Verify related expenses.

I would like to thank our colleagues on the Judiciary Committee who worked with us to include language in this bill to provide for full and timely payment to SSA for its role under the E-Verify program. This is a bipartisan bill, and I urge my colleagues to support it.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this bill to extend the ``basic pilot'' program, also known as ``E-Verify.''

I wish to thank my friend, the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Social Security Mr. Johnson, for his long-standing service to the Nation and for his steadfast support of the effort to protect seniors, people with disabilities, and survivors.

Together, we have worked since the start of this Congress to provide needed funding for the Social Security Administration to address unacceptable backlogs in disability hearings and the decline in service to our constituents. Moreover, we must ensure SSA is ready for the retirement of the Baby Boom generation.

SSA has struggled to meet an increasing workload despite a decade of underfunding. Congress only recently increased funding to help address the backlog of disability claims, and we are working to continue that trend. It will take sustained adequate funding for SSA to meet the challenge of reducing its backlog while keeping pace with growing workloads.

In light of these difficulties, we have been concerned about whether SSA has been provided the necessary resources by DHS to meet its rapidly growing workload under the E-Verify program.

I thank our colleagues on the Judiciary Committee, who worked tirelessly with us to include language in this bill to provide for full and timely payment to SSA for its role under the E-Verify program.

The Social Security Act prohibits the use of Social Security program funds for non-program related purposes. Therefore, SSA executes reimbursement agreements with other agencies whenever SSA performs work on their behalf.

SSA plays a significant role in the E-Verify pilot program. Every query made by the system is run through SSA data and systems first. Every time there is a mismatch between the information sent via E- Verify and the SSA database, employees are told to contact SSA. Many must visit SSA field offices to show necessary proof of identity or work-authorization.

For this work, DHS is required to reimburse SSA. Yet the reimbursements have not always been made in a timely way. For example, the reimbursement for FY2006 was finally agreed upon within the last few weeks. Consequently, SSA has been forced to pay for the work using scarce Social Security administrative dollars, which are meant to be used to serve Social Security program participants.

At the same time, E-Verify is growing as some States and the Administration require more employers to enroll in the system.

The legislation before us provides essential protections for seniors, people with disabilities and survivors who need Social Security benefits to meet their daily expenses. It does so by ensuring that DHS and SSA enter into annual agreements that require DHS to pay SSA, in full and on a timely basis, for its E-Verify related expenses.

It also includes an important GAO study on erroneous tentative non- confirmations by the E-Verify system that are the primary cause of SSA's expenses. I am confident that the results of this study will help Congress improve the program in the next few years before it is expanded any further.

I support this bipartisan bill and urge my colleagues to support this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, now I would like to yield to my friend the gentleman from Texas, Sam Johnson, a great American patriot and hero, for a colloquy.

The gentleman is correct. Nothing in this bill changes

current law regarding how the LAE or trust funds may be used.

Mr. Speaker, the ranking member raises an excellent point. Section 201(g) of the Social Security Act does prohibit SSA from spending its own funds on anything other than the programs it is responsible for administering.

Yes, that is right. Section 201 of the Social Security Act allows SSA to spend its trust fund and LAE moneys only to pay and administer Social Security benefits, special veterans benefits, SSI and Medicare. Verifying employment eligibility does not fall into any of those categories.

I want to close by thanking Representative Johnson for his long military service, for enduring torture for all the people of this country, and for his excellent work as an elected public official.