Floor Statements

It seems like my colleagues, as the saying goes, know the cost of everything but the value of nothing. I think the gentleman is exactly right, entitlements. That's where the money is. We all know it. And yet my colleagues have not seen fit to increase research, biomedical research that could show enormous offsets in the cost of care for people with Alzheimer's, autism, Parkinson's, epilepsy. But that's just the costs. Think about the difference in people's lives that research in helping people live more functional lives, the cost in their quality of life that could make.

But are they talking about savings in those respects? No, they're just talking about dollars and cents that seem to fit on a piece of paper, but not in a difference in people's lives. Here they're talking about a couple million dollars on a bike path. They say that that is something we shouldn't care about. I'm the Congressman from that district. I know what dollars come back home. I know the value of this bike path. It helps get people to enjoy the quality of their life.

In case people don't understand, there is a public health epidemic. It's called diabetes. It's called lack of exercise. I think we actually ought to be encouraging people to be outdoors. It is a public health issue. We will be paying for this public health problem if people don't exercise. But this gentleman seems to dismiss the cost of a bike path. The point is that once again, cost of everything, value of nothing.

So we'll hear a bunch of these amendments come on down the pike. I just ask people to keep in mind this is coming up on the silly season, election time. People will sound like they care a lot about your bottom line. But the real issue is, do they really care about the other kinds of deficits? The deficits in education.

You can only make first grade once in your life, second grade once, third grade once. And if your kid's in the classroom with 35 kids that year because we decide to save money, guess what? Too bad for your kid. They have no dress rehearsal in their life. No dress rehearsal. So if we decide to save money this year, too bad for that kid because we all of a sudden got serious about our deficit.

Forget their deficit that they're going to live with for the rest of their life in terms of human potential because that wasn't on their balance sheet, ladies and gentlemen. That GNP never factored into their timetable, into their value system. That's not the GNP they were looking at. So let's start changing the way we value what our economy is and what it is that we value when we're looking at dollars and common sense.

I thank the chairman and my ranking member for all the work they did to make this a fine veterans appropriations bill.

Ladies and gentlemen, if our soldiers were caught behind enemy lines, we would think nothing of mounting the full might of military power to go in and retrieve those members of our military. In fact, every American would wrap yellow ribbons around their trees in solidarity in order that we may set those prisoners of war free, in order that we may bring back those hostages of the Taliban, or the terrorists, or whomever may have captured them.

But ladies and gentlemen, something is going on in this country, something very tragic. Our military, our Veterans Affairs, everybody talks a good game, talks a very good game of patriotism when it comes to saying we're going to stand by our guardians of freedom, while those very guardians of freedom aren't free themselves. They may have come home in body, but they have not come home, many of them, in mind.

They are suffering from the signature wound of this war. What is that? Traumatic brain injury. What is that? Post-traumatic stress disorder. My colleagues, these veterans in essence are being held hostage. They're being held hostage all over this great country. They are in essence prisoners of war. They are prisoners of this war, prisoners of traumatic brain injury and its symptoms, its many symptoms: loss of memory, loss of cognitive ability, and the symptoms that ensue.

Many of them self-medicate. Many of them isolate. Why? Because these injuries are invisible, invisible to the naked eye, but not invisible to anybody who loves them. These are real injuries. They are injuries that can turn their lives upside down. All of the commanders in DOD say they are doing something about it. I'm not seeing it. In fact, I was briefed a year ago on some neuroscience research of an off-label drug that's used to treat bleeding in the intestines, to reduce swelling. They thought it might help reduce swelling of a concussion and the onset of swelling in the brain. Guess what? It proved to be effective, initial findings showed.

If this were the battle of AIDS, that drug would have been in the field helping our soldiers. But no, we don't have the urgency we have with AIDS. Somehow we don't have the urgency when it comes to our veterans and the signature of this war wound, TBI and PTSD, that we bring when it comes to something like AIDS. We don't set aside parochial concerns. We don't set aside partisan. We don't set aside the value of someone's proprietary research concerns.

When are we going to make our special interest the veteran? There's nothing dirty about special interests so long as we make it the right one. When are we going to agree that there is one special interest in this town that there should be no disagreement about, and that's the veteran. When are we going to say with our actions, not just our words, that the veteran is the one who counts? When are we going to say we're going to release them from terror, the terror and tyranny of their bondage, of their disability because they served us?

Ladies and gentlemen, this study showed that if you reduce the swelling in the brain you can reduce the longer-term impact.

The blood-brain barrier reduces the ability for a bruise that is absorbed by the regular body to be absorbed by the brain. This drug helped reduce the swelling. The DOD has an obligation to implement it. They are not. They should. And they ought to.

Will the gentleman yield?

I appreciate the gentleman's yielding.

I too want to join in paying tribute to the gentleman from New Jersey for this amendment and also to the chairman, Chairman Edwards, for his diligence to this mental health issue in the bill.

As I said earlier, these wounds may be invisible but they're not invisible to the members of our uniform who are suffering from them. I think it may not come as a surprise to most people that those servicemembers dying of suicide outnumber those who are killed in action. And that does not include our veterans. It wasn't until this defense bill that we just passed that we included a provision that the President of the United States would actually send a letter of condolence to the family of those who had taken their life in the field, and we all know what the pressures are on those individuals: more tours of duty, longer times away from their families, and more stress.

The fact of the matter is I think that this work that you're doing, Rush, is to be commended. I think it is also important for everyone to note that this historic health bill that we just passed will encompass 72 percent of all veterans who will get their care thanks to this Congress' work to include mental health parity in the health care reform bill that was just passed. Seventy-two percent of all vets will never see the VA for their health care but, rather, through private health insurance. And this Congress passed legislation making it illegal for them to be discriminated against based upon health status, whether it be mental, physical, and we all know that mental now is a neurological disorder.

Thanks again for your good work. Again thank you to the chairman and ranking member for their good work on this.

Mr. Speaker, one of the peculiarities of parliamentary procedure is that all discussion on the floor of the House is directed to the person who occupies the Speaker's podium. But it is on rare occasion when the significance of the individual presiding over House proceedings outweighs the proceedings themselves. This is such a time.

It is with great pride that I stand here on this historic occasion as my close friend Jim Langevin presides over the House from the Speaker's rostrum. Jim is an individual who embodies the best of the American people. He is the personification of the word ``courage.''

I have known Jim since our time together in the Rhode Island State Legislature, and I have been fortunate to witness his overcoming obstacle after obstacle throughout his life.

As a teenager, Jim made a commitment to a life of public service, seeking a career as a police officer. When a cruel twist of fate denied him the path that he envisioned, the easy road would have been to give up. But Jim would not be dissuaded. Instead, he drew on a spirit of perseverance that any lesser of us would have struggled to find.

May I ask unanimous consent to have the requisite 5 minutes that I was initially given?

I don't know who is controlling the time.

How much time do I have?

Well, there he is. Who's in charge now? All right, Jimmy. Well, I'll get my chance later. And you better be ready, because there will be no holding back then. God bless you. I am so proud to be your colleague.

Mr. Speaker, my good friend and colleague, Mr. Langevin, I rise to support H. Res. 1504, commemorating the ADA.

Mr. Speaker, you are the embodiment of what the ADA meant to accomplish. To accomplish the great mission of America, to widen the circle of opportunity for more and more Americans to participate in the American Dream. Your service in Congress exemplifies the rawest elements of the American Dream, the potential that exists when we are lifted by what we believe in ourselves rather than what we are told by others.

That spirit of possibility also represents the best of America itself. However daunting appear the challenges that loom before us, we must not forget that our Nation was built on possibility and founded on the principles of overcoming overwhelming obstacles. The true strength of our Nation is derived not only from the fact that we are the most diverse Nation in the world, but we are also the most inclusive Nation in the world.

In much of the world, minority populations continue to be persecuted and discriminated against. Yet in America, people exercise their right guaranteed under the Constitution and the 1965 Voting Rights Act to cast their ballot for Barack Obama, who received more votes from more Americans than any other previous Presidential candidate in American history.

It's nearly 50 years ago that my uncle entered the White House, and among the many challenges he issued to the American people was the Civil Rights Act. The true strength of our Nation is not derived only from the fact that that is our big challenge, but that we must keep it going forward.

He said, ``The heart of the question is whether all Americans are to be afforded equal rights and equal opportunities, whether we are going to treat our fellow Americans as we want to be treated. If, in short, he cannot enjoy the full and free life which all of us want, then who among us would be content to have the color of his skin changed,'' or, in this case, to have the physical condition that they are in changed and abide by that situation that they are living in. As he goes on, ``Who among us would be content with the counsels of patience and delay?''

With this anniversary of the ADA, perhaps it's timely to think about all the new ranks of those with disabilities, our returning veterans suffering from TBI and PTSD. I will never forget the day we passed the mental health parity bill. The most eloquent speech that I heard that day was given by none other than the man in the rostrum, Jim Langevin. He came down to the floor of the House. He said to his colleagues, All of you see my disability; I am in a wheelchair.

But for millions of Americans, the disability they face is no less paralyzing in their lives. This disability comes in the form of a neurological disorder, a brain illness. To them, they have a very real disability, but we don't treat it as such. That's why we need to pass legislation prohibiting discrimination against the mentally ill.

Jim Langevin carried the day on that mental health parity bill. I will always be grateful for that.

Today, we stand at the new frontier, as my uncle said, of the possibility of scientific breakthrough to help our veterans through their traumatic brain injury and their posttraumatic stress disorder. I say that the new challenge of the disability movement is not to stand by with the patience and delay that too many of us have witnessed when it comes to research.

Now, research can seem something esoteric, but research isn't esoteric to someone who is paralyzed in a wheelchair, who is looking forward to the day when we can regenerate the spinal cord and allow them to step out of that wheelchair. Research, to someone with Alzheimer's, for them to be able to restore their memory and restore their ability to come back to their family, that's as personal as it gets. Research that allows us to reconnect the wirings in the brain for a family who has children with autism.

Neil Armstrong, in his famous quote when he landed on the Moon--an objective that no one thought was realistic when President Kennedy made the challenge earlier that decade. They thought it was impossible. But the United States got behind that mission, and we carried the day because we are the United States.

How fitting it would be if we could apply Neil Armstrong's quote to not only putting a man on the Moon, but apply that quote, ``One small step for man; one giant leap for mankind,'' to those veterans when it comes to them being able to say, I stepped out of my wheelchair. I was able to step out of my bed. I was able to step out of my house because this country went ahead with science. Nothing is more personal.

In about 3 weeks, I am going to celebrate, in a sense, my father's life once again--the anniversary of his passing. What people don't know is that I marvel at the fact that I had an extra year with my dad that no one had expected because a neurosurgeon gave me that year. To me, that neurosurgeon and modern science gets as personal as it can get, because it gave me someone I loved for an extra year.

Ladies and gentlemen, let's harness the innovation technology that we have on behalf of our veterans. If we don't have an urgency on behalf of them to work to set them free from being prisoners of their war injuries, held hostage from their trauma of serving this country, then what are we going to get worked up for?

Ladies and gentlemen, I want to thank people like Jim Langevin who have fought the fight and been an example. Isn't it time we continue to stand by them and continue that fight? Let's pass this resolution, but let's rededicate ourselves to taking this fight not only to helping make sure people don't fall behind, but also making sure that they move forward to a brighter future, something that they can look forward to. That's what America has been all about.

Thank you, Jim. It's been an honor to serve with you. I look forward to many years ahead of your serving this great country of ours.

Madam Speaker, I regret that I was unable to participate in a series of votes on the floor of the House of Representatives today.

Had I been present to vote on rollcall No. 339, Motion on Ordering the Previous Question on the Rule for H.R. 5072--FHA Reform Act of 2010 (H. Res. 1424), I would have voted ``aye'' on the question.

Had I been present to vote on rollcall No. 340, on the Rule providing for consideration of H.R. 5072--FHA Reform Act of 2010, I would have voted ``aye'' on the question.

Had I been present to vote on rollcall No. 341, on the motion to suspend the rules and agree to H. Res. 989, expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the United States would adopt national policies and pursue international agreements to prevent ocean acidification, to study the impacts of ocean acidification, and to address the effects of ocean acidification on marine ecosystems and coastal economies, I would have voted ``aye'' on the question.

Had I been present to vote on rollcall No. 342, on the motion to suspend the rules and pass H. Res. 1178, directing the Clerk of the House of Representatives to compile the cost estimates prepared by the Congressional Budget Office which are included in reports filed by committees of the House on approved legislation and post such estimates on the official public Internet site of the Office of the Clerk, I would have voted ``aye'' on the question.

Had I been present to vote on rollcall No. 343, on the Republican Motion to Instruct Conferees on H.R. 4173--Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, I would have voted ``nay'' on the question.

Had I been present to vote on rollcall No. 344, on the motion to suspend the rules and agree to H. Res. 1330, Recognizing June 8, 2010, as World Ocean Day, I would have voted ``aye'' on the question.

Had I been present to vote on rollcall No. 345, on the motion to suspend the rules and agree to H.R. 5278, to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 405 West Second Street in Dixon, Illinois, as the ``President Ronald W. Reagan Post Office Building,'' I would have voted ``aye'' on the question.

Had I been present to vote on rollcall No. 346, on the motion to suspend the rules and agree to H.R. 5133, to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 331 1st Street in Carlstadt, New Jersey, as the ``Staff Sergeant Frank T. Carvill and Lance Corporal Michael A. Schwarz Post Office Building,'' I would have voted ``aye''' on the question.

Madam Speaker, I regret that I was unable to participate in a series of votes on the floor of the House of Representatives today.

Had I been present to vote on rollcall No. 337, on a motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill H.R. 1961, the Hoh Indian Tribe Safe Homelands Act, I would have voted ``aye'' on the question.

Had I been present to vote on rollcall No. 338, on a motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill H. Res. 518, Honoring the life of Jacques-Yves Cousteau, explorer, researcher, and pioneer in the field of marine conservation, I would have voted ``aye'' on the question.

I want to thank the gentleman from Indiana, Mr. Burton, for his work on this, acknowledging the families of those who have died really in combat, because these suicides are a result of combat.

And the greatest signature wound in this war on terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan is a wound that involves both the psyche with traumatic brain injury, with the concussions they are serving as a result of these IEDs--improvised explosive devices--and the stress and strain of constantly worrying about your life being in jeopardy, which is posttraumatic stress.

And there's nothing that is abnormal about having the stress of worrying about your life being taken, and these people have to live with it constantly nonstop because this country keeps asking them to go back and back and back and back again.

This is something that's long overdue. I thank the gentleman from Indiana. Let's study, let's serve, let's make the commitment not to forget the families left behind as a result of these terrible tragedies.

I want to thank Chairman Skelton and Mr. McKeon for their good work on this legislation, helping to provide for our soldiers, sailors, airmen, coastguardsmen, and for all of those who serve our country in this war on terrorism.

Mr. Chairman, as we approach Memorial Day, I want to thank our servicemen and -women for their service to our great country.

When they come home, the war that they fought on our behalf sometimes just begins. It begins for them personally. That is the war to try to cope, to cope with the many challenges health-wise that they have been encumbered with because of their service to our country, and they shouldn't have to worry one bit that they don't have us to back them up 100 percent. They need to know that we are there for them just as they have been for us.

That is why, in this legislation, we have the best and the latest in medicine for brain research and for neuroscience technology in order to make sure that the signature wounds in this war, traumatic brain injury and posttraumatic stress disorder, are researched properly and that they are researched at the evidence-based level by the Department of Defense.

Our soldiers deserve no less than the best when it comes to making sure that their challenges and their wounds are addressed. The Department of Defense needs to do that.

We make it a priority in this authorization bill. When we do that in this bill, we also do that for this country because, just as they did overseas, they are not only going to kick down the doors over there; they are going to kick down the doors here at home when it comes to advancing mental health and neuroscience for all Americans.

What we are learning is thanks to these great soldiers who are serving this country so proudly. God bless all of our men and women. Let them know that we stand behind them over there and when they get back here at home as well.

Mr. Chairman, I want to thank Mr. McKeon and obviously Mr. Andrews for their great stewardship of this important legislation and say the real Don't Ask, Don't Tell question that we have for our military is don't ask how many antidepressants you are on because this Nation had to call you up, not once, not twice, but three and four times.

The real Don't Ask, Don't Tell question is don't ask how many parents or how many wives are at home waiting with their children, worried about their families getting called up over and over and over again because we won't up the standing military so that we don't have to overextend these tours of duty over and over and over again, creating the largest generation of military men and women who are going to be permanently scarred because of their overextension of service of duty. That is the real Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

The Don't Ask, Don't Tell is what is the long-term cost to this country, mental health-wise, for this terrible neglect of our men and women in uniform.

I want to thank the gentleman from New Jersey, because one more thing you won't hear the answer to is that 72 percent of the health care for veterans is going to be the private insurance market, and thanks to this gentleman, Mr. Andrews, and many others, who led the way for the private insurance market covering, with no preexisting condition, no annual or lifetime caps, those 72 percent of veterans out there today are going to have their cognitive neurological disorders, the traumatic brain injury, covered, covered, covered by the private insurance system, thanks to this gentleman from New Jersey, Mr. Andrews, and his colleagues on the Democratic side.

I thank the gentlelady from Ohio, and I thank the gentleman, Mr. Petri, for his wonderful words about my Aunt Eunice. I want to acknowledge my good friend and colleague, Representative Blunt from the minority side, for his support for this bill. And I want to especially thank our majority leader, Representative Hoyer, for his leadership on this issue. It has been steadfast and long appreciated by my family and all of those in the Special Olympics family.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 5220, the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Act. This bipartisan bill seeks to reauthorize the Special Olympics Sport and Empowerment Act of 2004 and to advance the development of Best Buddies mentoring and employment programs across this country.

My aunt, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, founded the Special Olympics in 1968. She did so in order to help foster a society that would celebrate and enhance the lives of those with intellectual disabilities.

She had seen those afflicted with intellectual disabilities, including her own sister Rosemary, my Aunt Rosemary, and saw that they were being shut out from fundamental opportunities that life had to offer. She had seen that this entire segment of our population was being denied the basic right to live a fulfilling life because of the stigma, because of the misunderstandings that pervaded our society about people with cognitive disorders. In witnessing these injustices, my aunt sought nothing less than to change our society's perceptions and approach to intellectual disabilities.

Over the 40 years since the inception of Special Olympics, it has done just that. By encouraging involvement in sports, in education, in health programs, Special Olympics has given rise to an entire generation of volunteers, parents, individuals, all encouraging those with intellectual disabilities to embrace their lives and their abilities. And for those who have been involved in Special Olympics, you know that it is not the disabilities. It is the abilities. And it is not just the Special Olympians who benefit from Special Olympics. It is the volunteers. It is anybody who has witnessed a Special Olympics event.

This message of understanding and compassion has led Special Olympics to develop an international organization, and today that organization represents 3 million athletes in 44,000 events all over the country, and 170 countries now have teams for the international games.

I want to commend my cousin, Tim Shriver, who carries on his mother's legacy of being CEO of Special Olympics, and my cousin, Anthony Shriver, who runs Best Buddies.

I want to say that if I had the chance to look back on my family's legacy, and if all of my family who held public office today were all here on the floor thinking about all of the public service in public office; if my cousin Kathleen were here, who's Lieutenant Governor; my cousin Mark, who's in the General Assembly; my cousin Joe, who was here in Congress; if my father, who served in the United States Senate for nearly five decades, who's often said to be one of the greatest Senators to ever serve in this Congress; if my Uncle Bobby, who was not only a Senator but Attorney General, was here; if my uncle, President Kennedy was here, all of them would say if there was a greater legacy in my family, it was probably none other than someone who never served in public office in my family, and that was the legacy of my aunt, Eunice Shriver, when she started the Special Olympics. It's going to be the most enduring legacy that my family ever had a part of, and it's something that all of us are very proud to be part of in the Special Olympics family. Everybody can be part of the Special Olympics. I encourage everybody to go to a Special Olympics event and, in doing so, be part of the Special Olympics spirit. It's something to behold.

Let's pass the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Act.

I want to thank my colleague from Florida (Ms. Corrine Brown) and also Mr. Shuster from Pennsylvania for coauthoring this important resolution and speaking in favor of it.

The Special Olympics has been an important part of destigmatizing developmental disabilities and those suffering from intellectual challenges. No one would have imagined years ago that folks who otherwise would have been living in the shadow of our society, those with cognitive and intellectual disabilities, would now be so integrated into our society, in large measure due to the opportunity that Special Olympics gave them to participate fully in our society through sports.

Special Olympics represents so much more than competition on the field, but it does represent something so important to our society, and that's opening up opportunities for folks who need to be treated with human dignity because they're like you and me; they just have other challenges intellectually.

All of us have different challenges. These are folks who have been so stigmatized and shamed because of their intellectual challenges that they have been shut out of society, but not for the Special Olympics. They have been embraced; they have been loved by all those huggers at the end of the competition, and they have been part of so many of our most moving moments in our country's efforts to have sports be a competitive endeavor.

I want to thank my cousin, Timothy Shriver, who is the international president of Special Olympics, for the dynamic leadership that he offers this organization and for all the sacrifice he makes to carry on his mother's legacy as the first president of the Special Olympics. And now he is doing it with his own style of leadership that is equally charismatic and energetic.

I want to thank the police for embracing Special Olympics. Both of them are our heroes: the law enforcement community and our Special Olympians. What a great match. The Torch Run should be a terrific event.

I thank my colleagues for allowing me to speak.

I yield to the gentlewoman.

Before I can even remember, my Aunt Eunice made sure that I attended the nearest Special Olympics event that was happening. Wherever I traveled, even around the world, she made sure that I asked the local Presidents or Prime Ministers, if we met with government officials, if they had a program for people with developmental disabilities, intellectual challenges. Often they would say, Oh, we don't have those problems. And it shows that now China recently was the host of the International Special Olympics, and yet just years ago the abortion rate in China of babies that had intellectual disabilities was enormous. Now they're embracing people with intellectual disabilities. What a turnaround in attitude and respect for human life and dignity of the human person. That's what has been possible through Special Olympics.

Well, thank you for your leadership.

Madam Speaker, I, along with my colleagues Representative John Sullivan, Representative Mary Bono Mack, and Representative Carol Shea-Porter, rise today to congratulate the National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network at Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), Centers of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on their tenth anniversary. Ten years ago, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), one of the 27 Institutes and Centers of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) embarked upon a bold initiative by creating the National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network (CTN) to accelerate the process of transforming research findings into proven treatments for use in community practice settings. The CTN focuses directly on studies that can demonstrate the effectiveness of treatments for people whose lives are affected by drug abuse in communities and neighborhoods nationwide.

The CTN established an egalitarian, bidirectional relationship between the research scientists and the community treatment programs. The challenge, which was successfully addressed by NIDA's CTN, was to collaborate with community treatment programs to design and execute rigorous scientific studies that yield accurate and reliable information that can be transferred into the treatment practices of the drug treatment community. In 2010, there are over 240 such treatment sites, in 35 states and Puerto Rico, partnering with 16 distinguished academic research centers working together to produce important research findings.

By blending the skills of researchers and experts in treatment practice, the CTN, working with counterparts in NIDA, other Institutes of the NIH, and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), is working to accelerate the process that moves effective science-based treatment findings into our nation's drug treatment communities. The leadership of NIDA and the CTN are committed to accelerating the pace by which scientific evidence changes treatment practice.

The first cooperative agreements to carry out treatment research studies were awarded in October 1999. In just 10 short but highly productive years, the CTN enrolled more than 11,400 drug abusing patients in 25 protocols and 18 sub-studies as well as 5 secondary analyses arising from the primary protocols. These protocols have produced significant findings about medications, behavioral interventions and other important aspects of drug treatment, including methods to keep patients in treatment longer and drug-free. Clinical trials on HIV in the vulnerable drug user population, including rapid testing for HIV infection are also high priorities of the CTN.

The outgrowth of this prolific research has been remarkable. Results have been included in the publication of 96 papers in peer reviewed journals and seven Blending Conferences at which a total of 5,500 treatment providers have learned about cutting edge research findings from the CTN and other research programs supported by NIDA. The CTN work has also led to the establishment of a dissemination library that is available at no charge to the public, containing important findings and resource documents of the CTN and which has been accessed more than 35,000 times in the past 3.5 years. Additionally, research data from 21 CTN studies has been publicly posted in an effort to expedite the transfer of research results into knowledge, products and procedures to improve the public health. Most importantly, the treatment providers of the CTN and their scientific partners have become an army of change agents in their states and regions to advocate for the adoption of treatment interventions based upon proven, scientific evidence.

Madam Speaker, we congratulate the National Institute on Drug Abuse and its Clinical Trials Network on its important accomplishments over the past 10 years. Their work has lessened the suffering of many, and as Co-chairs and Vice Co-chairs of the Addiction, Treatment and Recovery Caucus, we look forward to continuing to work with NIDA and even greater achievements of the CTN the years to come.

Mr. Speaker, today is a long awaited day for the millions of tireless champions in America who have paved the way towards health care reform. It is since Teddy Roosevelt in 1912, that the people of this country have fought to provide quality, affordable health care for all Americans. Today is a long awaited day for the many tireless champions of health care reform. My father, of course, was but one of them, committed to fight for those who voices would not be heard. Today is a long awaited day for people like Martin Luther King, Jr., who stood up to remind us, ``of all forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.'' But most importantly, today is the long awaited day for each and every American who will now be treated with the dignity and respect that comes with the equality of opportunity that affordable access to quality health care provides.

It is the long awaited day for the estimated 32 million of our friends and neighbors who will now have access to health care because of this legislation. It is the long awaited day for the millions of Americans who have been discriminated against in the past, denied coverage by an insurance company because they have a pre-existing condition. It is the long awaited day for the millions who are dropped from their policy when they got sick. It is the long awaited day for the millions who face bankruptcy and financial turmoil even though they had health insurance, because they reach an annual or lifetime cap. It is the long awaited day for the small business owners who have been unable to provide their workers with health insurance or remain competitive, and who will now receive tax credits to help them afford to provide coverage for their employees.

I am pleased that the reconciliation package resolves a number of the issues that are especially important to Rhode Islanders. It increases the affordability assurances for Rhode Island families. It delays and changes the so-called ``Cadillac tax'' to more appropriately target high-end plans and minimizes the adverse effect on middle-class families, older Americans, and high-risk professions. It closes the Medicare prescription drug ``doughnut hole'' completely. It ensures our primary care physicians are paid Medicaid rates that match Medicare rates, and our hospitals are taking less cuts for the costs they incur treating the uninsured. It eliminates lifetime and annual caps for all health care plans, including grandfathered plans. And it removes special deals for states when it comes to Medicaid costs, so that Rhode Island will be fully reimbursed for the first two years to cover the costs of Medicaid expansion.

A key aspect of this legislation that is of particular importance to me is the extension of the mental health parity protections established into law last year by my legislation, the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act. Not only are these protections extended to all plans in the Exchange, but mental health and substance use benefits are a part of the essential benefits package created by this legislation. For the 67 percent of adults and 80 percent of children who need mental health care that do not receive it, this victory cannot be understated. Today our Nation takes a giant leap forward towards our transition from a ``sick care'' system to one which is preventive, collaborative, and patient-centered.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act also includes a number of other essential components which will dramatically improve the quality and access to behavioral health care. This legislation includes workforce development provisions by providing mental health and behavioral health education and training grants to assist providers specializing in and providing services to children, adolescents, and adults and loan forgiveness to child mental health professionals. This legislation also establishes a national network of a National Center for Excellence in Depression, for the treatment of depression and bipolar disorder.

I have been proud to serve the people of Rhode Island the last 16 years, helping to lead the effort in the House of Representatives to take control of our nation's health care system away from insurance companies and put it back the hands of patients and their doctors. Though I wish my father could be here in body as well as spirit, I could not be more pleased that this effort, to reform our nation's health care system, is on the cusp of complication today, during my tenure here.

I urge my colleagues to join me in providing quality, affordable health care to all Americans.

Madam Speaker, on rollcall Nos. 172--Previous Question to H. Res. 1205; 173--H. Res. 1205; 174--H.J. Res. 80; 175--H. Res. 1186; 176--H.R. 3976; 177--H.R. 4592; I was keynote Speaker at L.A.S.A. Dinner hosted by former H.E.W. Secretary Joe Califano. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yes.''

Notwithstanding this point of order, I urge passage of the underlying rule and for us to go forward with the health insurance on behalf of the 21 percent of my State's constituents under the age of 65 who are uninsured because they're either too young to qualify for Medicare or they're too middle class to qualify for Medicaid.

``No memorial, oration or eulogy could more eloquently honor his memory than the earliest possible passage of this bill for which he fought so long. His heart and his soul are in this bill.'' While the above quote could easily refer to my father, and the context could easily describe this health care debate, these words were, in fact, spoken by my father as he rose on the Senate floor to honor his brother President Kennedy during the debate on the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

The parallels between the struggle for civil rights and the fight to make quality, affordable health care accessible to all Americans are significant. It was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who said, Of all forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane. Health care is not only a civil right, it's a moral issue.

Thank you, Madam Speaker, for your political and moral leadership in helping those to secure more advanced protections and benefits, especially in the area of mental health and addiction. Thank you, President Obama for delivering on your promise of providing the politics of hope rather than the politics of fear.

Madam Speaker, as the tragic events of September 11, 2001, demonstrated, the continued existence of the Taliban and terrorists in Afghanistan poses a threat to the security of the American people. We need to be eliminating those who are organizing to strike at the American people.

That is why we can't afford to ``double-down'' on a bad policy that infringes on the ability of our troops to successfully execute their mission. Using the men and women of our armed forces to secure ground subjects them unnecessarily to risks that we should not be taking.

Several of my colleagues have stated that to end this conflict would fail to honor those who have fought and died in Afghanistan. Yet, we all acknowledge that there isn't a single American soldier who has laid down his or her life for this country that isn't a hero.

Instead, I think of families like that of Kyle Coutu. Kyle was 20 years old and had just graduated from William E. Tolman High School last June, when he was killed on February 18, 2010, in the Helmand Province during combat operations. How many more mothers like Melissa Coutu will have to bury their son or daughter? For how much longer will we ask America's youth to risk their lives for the people of Afghanistan?

Rather than put our troops in harm's way, the best way to honor them is to take care of them when they return home, ending veteran homelessness and unemployment, and fully funding veterans' health care, particularly for the treatment of mental health and PTSD.

Additionally, with limited resources, we can't afford to continue a mission in Afghanistan that doesn't move us forward. There are places around the world, like the Horn of Africa, where our commitment and resources could be put to a greater good. More importantly, every dollar spent in Afghanistan is a dollar that can't be invested here at home to invest in our children's education, rebuild our country's infrastructure, and create jobs for American workers.