Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, I am honored to recognize two important celebratory events, the bicentennial celebration of Mexican Independence from Spain (Dia de La Independencia) that was (or will be) celebrated on September 16th and the Centennial of The Mexican Revolution (La Revolucion Mexicana) which will be celebrated on November 20th.

Both Dia de La Independencia and La Revolucion Mexicana are celebrating rather significant dates this year as Mexico celebrates their 200th year of independence and 100 years since the removal of Dictator Porfirio Diaz.

My Constituents will certainly celebrate these significant dates with events too numerous to list. I would however like to highlight two special events produced by the University of Arizona, which is located in my Congressional District.

On September 24th, UAPresents a nationally recognized host of world- class performances and programs for the communities of Southern Arizona, will celebrate Da de La Independencia. This celebration of the bicentennial celebration of Mexican Independence will also celebrate the rich and diverse culture and heritage of the Southwest. Arts programs such as this promote a common understanding that bridges all cultures and boundaries, coupled with education and dialog which will foster an understanding of the diverse cultures in the Southern Arizona community and

in the world. This concert demonstrates how these ideals come together at this cultural crossroads, the great stage of Centennial Hall located on the University of Arizona's campus.

On November 10th, the University of Arizona Library Special Collections will host ``The Borderlands and the Mexican Revolution'' lecture featuring Oscar J. Martinez. Dr. Martinez, a Regents' Professor in the department of history at the University of Arizona will assess the role of the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands in the Mexican Revolution, with an emphasis on controversies, disturbances and battles that affected the destiny of Mexico and the United States.

I am pleased to acknowledge and thank President Robert Shelton of the University of Arizona for his leadership and outstanding contributions towards honoring these historic dates with events that will both educate and enlighten our community.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize the unyielding commitment of two families to caring for and improving the lives of foster care children in Arizona.

Rudy and Eva Leon have been licensed foster care parents for 45 years and were recently honored by former Governor Janet Napolitano for being the longest serving foster parents in the state of Arizona. They have spent the past 17 years serving the children of Devereux Arizona. The Leons have selflessly provided over 200 children with a safe and loving home environment.

Lonnie and Marilyn Kilgore began their service assisting foster care children in the Juvenile Court Foster Care Program of Arizona. Since that time, they have been licensed with Devereux for the past 16 years, during which they have cared for 47 children.

Foster care parents such as the Leons and the Kilgores recognize that all children deserve a home that will shelter them from the trauma and stress of their young lives. These families have made it their mission to provide these children with the opportunity to move on from their often difficult pasts and benefit from caring and supportive guardians. This foundation truly creates the groundwork for a meaningful, enriching life.

Organizations like Devereux have proven enormously successful at changing the lives of some of our state's most at-risk youth, helping them find stable homes and setting thousands of children on the right path in the face of tremendous difficulty.

I would like once more to thank Rudy and Eva Leon and Lonnie and Marilyn Kilgore for their hard work, deep commitment and determined sacrifice to the children of Arizona. Their long-standing dedication to the future of children and impact on their communities are an example of selfless dedication to us all.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor a community leader who has made a significant and long-lasting contribution to shaping Pima County, Arizona. For the last 13 years, Bruce Gungle has served as a respected member of the Pima County Planning and Zoning Commission, of which he was Chair for two years.

Originally from the north shore of Boston, Massachusetts, Bruce has had a longstanding interest in and acumen for the sciences and literature. He obtained dual Bachelors degrees in Earth Science and Creative Writing from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, where he was also a member of the track team. Bruce went on to earn a Masters of Art in Creative Writing from the University in New Hampshire before moving to Tucson in 1984.

That relocation transformed Bruce into a committed desert conservationist and activist, as well as a fervent University of Arizona Wildcat partisan (although he will always remain a Red Sox fan). Bruce earned a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing in 1990 and a Master of Science in Atmospheric Sciences in 2000, both from the University of Arizona.

Although I am honoring Bruce today for his exemplary public service as a Planning and Zoning Commissioner, a position to which I appointed him in 1997 during my tenure as a Pima County Supervisor, his public service as a hydrologist at the United States Geological Survey has also contributed significantly to federal and public knowledge about the San Pedro River, one of the last free-flowing rivers in the southwest United States. In his role at the USGS, Bruce has overseen the production of the annual ``321'' reports to Congress. These reports, which stem from Public Law 108-136, Section 321, describe the progress in achieving sustainable yield of the regional aquifer so as to protect the Upper San Pedro River and the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area in Arizona.

Bruce has been a key voice for protecting the Sonoran Desert, which has experienced historic levels of human development in Pima County over a relatively short period of time. Bruce was appointed at a time when Pima County was developing the nationally acclaimed Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan. Using this plan, Bruce consistently favored protecting delicate riparian areas, wildlife movement corridors, and other special areas from the ravages of bulldozers, asphalt and buildings.

In the face of myriad requests to amend the County's comprehensive plan, along with subsequent requests to rezone property and to make other land use changes, Bruce always dug into the mounds of paperwork to get to the core of an issue. His clear understanding of matters before the commission, and his perceptive questions from the dais, earned him the great respect of his fellow commissioners, county staff, applicants, the conservation community, and the public.

Bruce is one of those rare individuals who can maintain his principles and parlay his grasp of the issues into meaningful compromises that protect the County's unique physical assets and enable property owners to move forward on their proposed projects.

Bruce has shaped Pima County, and his absence from the Commission will be felt by all those with whom he worked. Perhaps no one will feel it more strongly than Pima County Supervisor Richard Elias, who followed me in re-appointing Bruce to his last eight years on the commission as a District Five representative. The communities of unincorporated Pima County are much richer because of the invaluable contributions of Bruce Gungle.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor and recognize Helen Mautner for her tireless dedication to improving the lives and protecting the rights of all people in Arizona and throughout the United States. For many years, Mrs. Mautner has been involved in the struggle for basic human rights and social justice. She has volunteered for and been employed by organizations that assist those unable to speak or stand up for themselves all her life.

Helen Mautner was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1930. While living in Chicago, she attended Marshall High School on the west side of the city. At the age of sixteen, she moved to California with her family and finished high school there. When Helen was growing up, her ambition was to help the slums of Chicago as an activist. This led her to become a sociology student at Los Angeles City College. She graduated from the University of California (Berkeley) and received her Bachelor's degree, then her Master's in Social Work. She taught sixth grade for several years. While employed as a school social worker in California, she was introduced to Robert Mautner. They were married from 1958 until his passing in 2004.

Helen and Robert Mautner moved to Tucson in 1965. For the next decade she immersed herself in caring for Robert and her children Erik, Chris, and Alisa, and started her impressive volunteer path to help those in need. She was a stay-at-home mom to the three kids during their elementary school years: she took pottery classes, ran the studio during school hours, met members of Tucson's politically progressive community, and expanded her awareness of how to assist marginalized populations. She volunteered for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) office in Tucson, an organization that defends individual rights guaranteed to every person in the United States. In 1973, she became the ACLU's Southern Arizona Chapter Director. She also served on, and chaired, the People with AIDS Coalition (now the Southern Arizona AIDS Foundation). She has been a member of the Tucson Police Citizens Review Board, the Arizona Superior Court Judicial Review Committee, and the City of Tucson Magistrate Selection Committee.

For years, Helen was also involved in compliance with the federal Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) desegregation order. Helen has volunteered for every cause she holds dear, and still spends a great deal of time volunteering for election campaigns for those who share her vision. Her dedication and inspiration helped her to become friends with many local and national activists and political figures. She lent her time and dedication not just to politics, but to people from many walks of life. A longtime associate and friend, Cornelius Steelink, remembered her assisting a local biker group in an anti-discrimination case in the mid 1980s and saw first-hand how her beliefs and openness shone through. He remembered her saying, ``You never know who's going to walk into this office, but you have to be ready to (help) them.'' Emojean Girard, a local activist and retired judge, recently said of her: ``We esteem her for her clear thinking and dedication to the cause of civil rights. Tiny though she may be in physical structure, she is a giant of fortitude and determination.'' In 1997, Helen retired from the University of Arizona as the Assistant Director of the Affirmative Action Office.

When not volunteering her time, she has financially supported charities ranging from Amnesty International to The Redwing Indian Schools. Helen is a regular walker on Martin Luther King Day, and has marched many times for Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers union. Her children remember times when no meat, grapes or chocolate were allowed in the home in support of the causes she held dear. They treasure the values they learned during those formative years from their parents and love Helen for everything she is and what she has always stood up for.

Helen Mautner has been a fantastic mother to her children, providing positive and loving guidance and navigating the challenges of parenthood. She and Robert saw Erik die of cancer in 1987, and she has missed him ever since. Alisa and Chris would not be the people they are today without their mother. Both are

employed in public and social service positions, and volunteer their own time to improve the lives of the less fortunate. Helen is now the proud grandmother of Zane, the son of her daughter Alisa and her husband BJ, and takes great joy in the time they spend together.

Helen has always balanced the turmoil of parenting teenagers with that of politics. She currently serves on the Board of the Children's Action Alliance, an advocacy group for children; volunteers with the Primavera Foundation for the homeless; and is on the executive council of the University of Arizona Retirees Association (UARA). Penelope Jacks, the Director of the Children's Action Alliance and a longtime friend and colleague of Helen's, reminisced about first meeting and working with Helen. ``[I] learned who were the good guys easy, because all the good guys were Helen's friends. Together we sorted through all kinds of cases, taking turns holding my new baby, chatting, and finding how much we had in common. Our lives have seen many changes since we first met, but Helen is my first and most enduring friend in Arizona.'' Helen has won numerous awards and recognition for her amazing commitment to social and civil rights causes: the YWCA's Woman on the Move Achievement Award, a place in the Women's Studies Advisory Council (WOSAC) of the University of Arizona's Department of Women's Plaza of Honor, and awards from the City of Tucson's Office of the Mayor in 1981 and 1989.

As Helen turns 80 this year, her children and friends look forward to her next step in life. She is a woman who lives life to the fullest and considers nothing impossible. She is always open to new challenges. Helen Mautner has been an asset to Tucson and the State of Arizona, working tirelessly for her causes, preferring to enjoy the fruit of her labors without seeking public recognition. For these great accomplishments and in honor of her passion and dedication to all citizens rights, and on behalf of her work for the marginalized in society, we recognize Helen Mautner today.

Madam Speaker, today I rise to recognize the AbilityOne program, which over the past several years has offered skills and jobs training to more than 42,000 Americans who are blind or have significant disabilities.

The AbilityOne Program harnesses the purchasing power of the Federal Government to buy products and services from participating community- based nonprofit agencies dedicated to training and employing individuals with disabilities. This program affords Americans with disabilities the opportunity to receive

good wages and benefits and gain greater independence and quality of life.

Employment opportunities through the AbilityOne Program have significantly contributed to bringing people who are blind or have significant disabilities into the wider working society.

It is with great pride that I also acknowledge the Beacon Group Inc., one of the many social enterprises dedicated to enriching the lives of people with disabilities.

Since its beginning in 1952, the Beacon Group has been committed to providing employment-related opportunities to people with disabilities. It provides access to real work for a segment of the community that traditionally bears an unacceptably high unemployment rate. The Beacon Group now serves over 1,600 people with disabilities annually by providing a variety of employment opportunities and educational and social rehabilitation programs, all of which help lead to more meaningful and productive lives.

Madam Speaker, it is with great pleasure that I offer my support to the AbilityOne Program and commend the dedication and commitment of the Beacon Group's President, Mr. Steven King, and his staff, for helping individuals who are blind or have significant disabilities find employment. Their work helps people live fuller lives and become more active members of society. I also commend the many AbilityOne employees who work every day to improve the lives of others and make our country a better place to live.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor an extraordinary young lady from my hometown of Tucson, AZ. Her name is Miss Kelsey Maura Waite. Kelsey is deeply committed to environmental issues and I would like to recognize her for her efforts. At the age of 16, Kelsey has already been honored with over a dozen science-related awards. She has been invited not once but twice to compete at I-SWEEEP, the International Sustainable World (Energy, Engineering & Environment) Project Olympiad. In addition, she has received honors at both the Southern Arizona Regional Science and Engineering Fair and the statewide Arizona Science and Engineering Fair.

At her young age, Kelsey is already a role model for her peers. She has won over 30 science awards in high school alone and has traveled to dozens of countries to represent us with her science projects. She has always been a successful student and in kindergarten, won a trophy at a chess tournament that was taller than she was.

In 5th grade she was inspired by a teacher named Ms. Jadgeo. Many of us had teachers that pushed us in positive ways to our full potential, and for Kelsey it was Ms. Jadgeo. She changed Kelsey's life by assigning her very first science project.

Kelsey is more than just a good student--she is also a wonderful daughter, sister, and citizen. She attends both Sonoran Science Academy and Tucson Magnet High School. It was difficult for her parents to accommodate her attending two different schools that are quite distant from each other. Kelsey took it upon herself to find a job at a local grocery store to be able to pay for her gas, and now wakes up at 5:00 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday each weekend to put in the hours she needs. She is an admirable young lady that deserves our respect and our support. We need to encourage students like Kelsey and support their education because they are the future of our country. They will be tomorrow's experts on environmental and other issues that we cannot afford to ignore.

I ask to recognize Miss Kelsey Waite for her dedication to her education, her family and her community.

Madam Chair, I want to express my support of the America COMPETES Act, and in its commitment to investing in quality math and science education. Strong investments in STEM fields are essential to the future success of our nation, both in our commitment to quality education and America's continued leadership in science throughout the world.

I particularly rise in strong support of the Davis Amendment for which I am a cosponsor; an amendment that envisions the increasingly important role that community colleges can and should play in the advancement of STEM education and STEM career training.

Community colleges are an affordable and accessible educational vehicle. They provide high quality education and career training ro a diverse population of students and serve the diverse needs of their communities.

I strongly support the plan to build partnerships and grants to community colleges to improve educational opportunities for underserved communities, and to explore and expand the role of community colleges in STEM fields.

This amendment will assist community colleges by exploring the role of two-year institutions of higher education as STEM educators, providers of the foundational elements for people on the path to STEM careers and transitioning to four-year instititions in STEM degree programs.

The amendment will further task Federal agencies with engaging underrepresented groups in STEM and in engaging community colleges on opportunities to participate in STEM related research, curriculum and infrastructure.

I thank Congressman Danny Davis for his leadership and am happy to join him on this amendment.

Madam Speaker, I rise today on behalf of the 10,000 school teachers in Southern Arizona, and for K-12 teachers across the Nation. I am honored to stand up here today, during National Teacher Appreciation Week, to recognize how tirelessly these men and women work to educate all of our children.

We have an organization in Southern Arizona that works every day to remind everyone of just how much K-12 teachers contribute to the economic and societal well-being of all of our communities. Tucson Values Teachers is not quite 2 years old, but it has made great strides in getting the word out about the value of teachers. And more than that, the organization has been working very hard to ease the economic burden so many of our teachers face in trying to raise families on salaries that are too small.

During this week, we all need to stop and think about how much more we need to do to support our K-12 teachers. More than 50% of all beginning teachers leave the profession within the first five years. Salary is one part of the problem, but the lack of support, mentoring and adequate classroom supplies and assistance are also critical factors.

It is time for our Nation to elevate the teaching profession to new levels of respect and remuneration. Teachers literally hold our future in their hands--they are the ones who, every day, stand in front of our children, working hard to instill in each one of them the knowledge, curiosity and commitment to community that they will need to become our future leaders.

Let's get behind our teachers--let's follow the lead of Tucson Values Teachers. Let's all work together toward an America that Values Teachers. When teachers are paid and revered as much as our top athletes, we will live in a nation that leads all others in innovation, creativity and achievement.

Madam Speaker, Raquel Rubio Goldsmith, honored teacher, researcher and community activist, retires after 40 years of teaching at Pima Community College and the University of Arizona in Tucson, AZ. She coordinates the Binational Migration Institute housed in the Mexican-American Research and Studies Center at the University of Arizona, where she began teaching in 1983. She retired from Pima Community College in 1999 and has received many honors for her teaching and mentoring of students and younger faculty.

Born in the border community of Douglas, AZ, she is the oldest of a family of nine children. At the age of 16, Raquel graduated from high school in Douglas and was granted a scholarship to the Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). She had no choice in 1952 but to accept, since the opportunities in higher education were extremely limited for Mexican Americans, especially those from rural communities and working class backgrounds. Her father was a railroad worker.

In Mexico City she was fortunate to live with a great aunt who was a concert pianist and introduced her to a world of artists, intellectuals, and writers. She received undergraduate and advanced degrees in law and philosophy from UNAM. Upon returning to Douglas in 1961, she met, and later married, Charles Barclay Goldsmith. Barclay was a reporter and a recent graduate of Stanford University. He joined the United States Diplomatic Corps as a cultural attache shortly thereafter and they were stationed in Merida, Mexico, and later in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Several years and two sons later, they moved to Pittsburgh, PA, where Raquel worked in a poverty program and Barclay completed a Masters in Fine Arts in directing from Carnegie Mellon University. In 1969 they moved to Tucson, where Raquel became a founding faculty member of Pima Community College. With others, she was charged with establishing the curriculum in an educational environment that followed a participatory democracy management model, from the janitor to the students to the faculty to the administration. All had a voice.

Professor Rubio Goldsmith flourished in this creative world, and she became a leader in institutionalizing diversity at all levels, instituting open-enrollment, establishing Mexican-American, African- American and Women's Studies, teaching Yaqui and Tohono O'odham histories and languages, and pioneering classes for credit in barrio community centers. She championed computer technology even before it had a widespread role in higher education. She fought tirelessly for hiring minorities at all levels, and became a master teacher and constant advocate for students. She was especially focused on older female students, and helped form an exemplary program for female bilingual aides in public education. With her support, many of those women went on to become bilingual teachers not only in Spanish but in the native languages of the borderlands.

Professor Goldsmith also established a long record of publication and centered her research on women of the borderlands. She researched the cultural impact of a community of Mexican nuns in Douglas and the importance of gardens for women in the isolation of the desert. She became a recognized specialist in women's studies, focusing on Chicana/ Mexicana women. She pioneered surveys to document human rights violations suffered by migrants (and citizens) that offered the first important empirical evidence of the impact that growing border militarization was having in border communities, and how those impacts were moving into the interior.

Recently, her research has centered on the post-1994 period that has led to a ``funnel'' effect of migrant movement that has caused so many deaths. Her cutting-edge scholarship is acknowledged by invitations to present at local, national and international forums and participate in academic, policy-making and community-based discussions. Professor Goldsmith has always made an effort to present academic research to the community by setting up presentations in neighborhood centers. At one time she conducted local radio programs on Spanish-language radio, teaching the history of Mexico and having on-air, call-in cultural discussions with the community. She believed that information should be shared with the community instead of isolated at educational institutions.

Professor Rubio Goldsmith has also devoted herself to working in promoting human rights. From her student years to the present, she has engaged in community-based activism. She worked on local issues with El Concilio Manzo in Tucson in the early 1970s and issues of immigration advocacy with them through the mid-1980s. She led the Zapatista movement in Tucson with Pueblo Por La Paz, participating in Chiapas with Zapatista convocations. She was the co-author of a play about the Zapatista uprising, ``Tres Dias/Thirteen Days'', performed by Borderlands Theater locally and the San Francisco Mime Troupe nationally. She is a member of Derechos Humanos and has been a board member of the Little Chapel of All Nations. She has been an active and tireless supporter of Raza Studies in high schools, and has served on the advisory council of the Institute of Mexicans Abroad (Instituto de los Mexicanos en el Exterior) of the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Relations.

Professor Raquel Rubio Goldsmith has been a wonderful mother to two sons, Chris and Pat. Christopher Goldsmith is a poet and has been a teacher of English for many years at Tucson High School. Patrick Goldsmith is a professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin. She has two grandchildren, who are the joy of her life, and is married to Barclay Goldsmith with whom she has shared a lifetime. Our community is very blessed for the service of Raquel Rubio Goldsmith, whose life's work continues to enrich us all.

Mr. Speaker, today I rise in full support of the legislation to reform health care before us. It is, indeed, a historic opportunity for the American people to begin the necessary process of fixing a failing and broken health care system that is costly and denies basic health care to many, to 48 million Americans in this country.

It is also a tremendous building block for the care of people in this country in the future and to begin to rein in the greed of private insurance companies that continue to raise premiums at the expense of the American people. This legislation has very good aspects in it. One of them is, finally, after 10 years of neglect by a Republican majority and administration, Indian health care is part of this legislation, and this health care brings necessary and increased resources to Indian Country.

We begin to deal with health disparities in this legislation, which we have not done in the past. I am proud to support this legislation. It is not just a step forward; it is a historic leap into bringing to the American people a necessary reality, which is health care.

Mr. Speaker, after a long battle for this Nation's health care reform, my decision to vote in favor of this bill was ultimately made, not by myself, but by the people I represent.

This bill is a beginning to the end of an abusive system:

It is a beginning to provide the people of our great Nation access the most basic health care services;

It is a beginning to stop insurance companies from reaping benefits at the cost of the sick, injured, poor and dying people in our Nation;

It is a beginning to making our health care system one that we can be proud of--

One that includes everyone regardless of their social status;

One that treats people equal regardless of their age, race or gender;

One that makes sure our children are treated properly and that our parents will be provided for in the future; and

It finally provides reauthorization of Indian Health Care.

Every day I am flooded by groups, businesses and individuals that can no longer bear the abuses from our current health care system. I want to share of few of their reasons for supporting this bill:

The National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare states:

The bill preserves and improves Medicare for current and

future beneficiaries. Because of our strong commitment to

Medicare, we support the health reform currently before

Congress. Indeed, we consider it to be vital for preserving

and protecting Medicare. On behalf of the seniors you

represent, we ask that you commit to supporting health reform

as well.

Catholic Sisters for Healthcare Reform states:

We have witnessed firsthand the impact of our national

health care crisis, particularly its impact on women,

children and people who are poor. We see the toll on families

who have delayed seeking care due to a lack of health

insurance coverage or lack of funds with which to pay high

deductibles and co-pays. We have counseled and prayed with

men, women and children who have been denied health care

coverage by insurance companies. We have witnessed early and

avoidable deaths because of delayed medical treatment.

American Nurses Association states:

We understand the cost of inaction--our patients can no

longer afford to wait. The uninsured and underinsured

continue to delay or forgo much-needed care; they continue to

arrive in the emergency rooms across the country for

conditions that could have been easily prevented with access

to primary care--we are all paying a high price for inaction.

My dear friend, Karen, from the National Breast Cancer Coalition came to me and poured her heart out on behalf of the millions of women battling cancer, this vote is for you. The National Breast Cancer Coalition states:

For women who are battling breast cancer, health care

reform will mean accessing potentially life-saving treatment

and not losing their health insurance coverage if they lose

their job. For their families, it means not being driven into

bankruptcy when the person they love has been diagnosed with

breast cancer, must contend with a recurrence of the disease,

or struggle with equally life threatening complications. For

the tens of thousands of women who will be diagnosed with

breast cancer today and in the future, enacting health care

reform will mean being able to focus their energy on battling

the disease, not fighting with their insurance company. We

cannot delay any longer.

United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce states:

As business owners, we know well the concept of opportunity

cost. The rate of premium growth has become such a burden to

our businesses that we are required to support this

compromise rather than see premiums double, or triple, once

again as they have done this decade. As organizations that

believe in free market solutions, this decision was not taken

lightly. But, the fact remains that the small business

components in this compromise bill will provide real relief--

a small business exchange that pools risk while respecting

the free market and tax credits to incentivize those

businesses that are just within reach of providing health

care to their workers.

While these groups and the American people understand this bill is the beginning of reforming our system, I can assure you it is not the end.

I will continue to fight for a public entity to be part of our system.

I will continue to fight for immigrants to be treated fairly in our Nation, and I will argue the grave economic impacts of leaving these people out of our system.

I will continue to fight for stricter control of the pharmaceutical companies to force them to negotiate prices instead of dictating them.

And above all I will not stop, I will continue to push to make our system more efficient and more equitable--this is only the beginning.

I would like to end with a quote from my dear friend that we lost during the mist of this battle, who I feel has been our guiding light.

Ted Kennedy said:

The battle to achieve Medicare for All will not be easy.

Powerful interests will strongly oppose it, because they

profit immensely from the status quo. Right wing forces will

unleash false attack ads ranting against socialized medicine

and government-run health care.

Ted--we will not give up--this is the beginning.

Madam Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 1192, I call up the bill (H.R. 1612) to amend the Public Lands Corps Act of 1993 to expand the authorization of the Secretaries of Agriculture, Commerce, and the Interior to provide service-learning opportunities on public lands, help restore the Nation's natural, cultural, historic, archaeological, recreational, and scenic resources, train a new generation of public land managers and enthusiasts, and promote the value of public service, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous material on H.R. 1612.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 1612, a bill I introduced last year to help repair and restore our Nation's public lands while employing and training thousands of young Americans and promoting the culture of public service.

In 1993, when the Public Lands Corps was established through the good work of our late colleague Bruce Vento of Minnesota, there were huge backlogs of labor-intensive work on national park lands, forests, wildlife refuges, historic sites, and Indian lands. Unfortunately, we still face those challenges and more. Years of inadequate funding have put our Federal land management agencies further behind on vital maintenance work, while infrastructure continues to crumble.

Despite the best efforts of these underfunded agencies, natural and cultural resources are being neglected, and in many places the effects of climate change are magnifying earlier problems such as fire risk, damage by insects and invasive species, coastal erosion, and fragmented habitat. The stimulus bill we passed in the first session has begun to attack the problem, but is only a start. Much remains to be done on the public lands.

My bill, H.R. 1612, will expand and reinvigorate an existing program, the Public Lands Corps, by streamlining its management, modernizing its scope, and providing new tools to help the program accomplish its mission, putting young people to work repairing our most treasured resources. Young people participating in the Public Lands Service Corps will work side by side with professional land managers to collect biological data, preserve historic documents, rebuild roads and trails, attack invasive weeds, reduce fire risk and improve watershed health, paint visitor facilities, restore damaged wetlands, help build green buildings, and welcome visitors to our parks and public lands. These and a wide variety of other jobs will be available to Corps members for a period up to 2 years. Their term of service will include the training they need do these jobs.

My bill also allows the agencies to provide housing for Corps participants, and even allows the Corps members to build housing that can be used by future Corps members. The training and experience Corps members receive while working to improve the condition of our natural and cultural resources will give them a huge advantage when they enter the working world in such professions as science, land management, the building trades, academic disciplines such as history and education.

The legislation not only takes a decisive step forward in finishing desperately needed work on our national park lands, forests, wildlife refuges, historic sites and Indian lands, but also recognizes the importance of our coastal and marine systems and our national marine sanctuaries. This expanded public service initiative will introduce people from a greater diversity of social, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds to our Nation's parks, forests, and public lands not only as possible future employees, but also as lifelong advocates and enthusiasts.

The legislation takes advantage of an opportunity to provide meaningful employment and training to young people who need it, while also improving the condition of our priceless natural and cultural resources. President Obama and Interior Secretary Salazar have made national service a priority and have graciously supported this legislation. I am also proud to have the support of preeminent conversation corps groups, as well as leading national parks advocacy groups.

I ask my colleagues to support the passage of this measure. At a time when unemployment among our youth and particularly the urban areas is at an all time high, H.R. 1612 begins to address that crisis and also to address the unmet needs of our public lands.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, part of the process that we also see today, that we're going to experience today and have been experiencing for a while, is an effort on the part of my colleagues across the aisle to erase history and to assume that everything that we're doing today is somehow misconstrued to increase the deficit and that it is a government takeover, that it's not bipartisanship; and we're at this place to take corrective steps legislatively, including this legislation, because we are working on a history, a history of deficit spending, a history of no priorities, and a history that, although people want to erase it from memory, is there, and this is the reason that we're in the situation that we are right now.

As in terms of conspiracies in terms of this legislation, the American Camp Association endorsed it. The National Trust for Historic Preservation endorsed it. The Boys and Girls Club endorsed it. Girl Scouts of Northern California endorsed it. The Wellness Coalition endorsed it. The Student Conservation Association endorsed it. The Hispanic Federation endorsed it. The Coalition of National Park Retirees endorsed it, and the National Trust for Public Lands endorsed it, and the Muddy Sneakers: The Joy of Learning Outside endorsed it. So I'm assuming that they must be also part of this vast and nefarious conspiracy that is going on. Somebody should advise them of that.

With that, let me now yield to the gentlelady from the Virgin Islands, a member of our Committee on National Resources, Dr. Christensen, for 3 minutes.

I yield the gentlelady an additional 1 minute.

I yield 3 minutes to the gentlelady from California, Ms. Barbara Lee.

I yield the gentlelady 30 additional seconds.

Let me yield 3 minutes to the gentlelady from California (Mrs. Capps).

I yield the gentlewoman 1 additional minute.

I have one additional speaker.

I yield the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee) 3 minutes.

I rise to encourage support for H.R. 1612. Part of the discussion today was to say, from my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, that it's a bad time to spend money on this program because unemployment is high and the deficit is high. I would respond that it is the perfect time for such investment.

This program is an investment in reducing unemployment among young people and in the long run will save money by preventing these maintenance problems in our public lands from getting worse. I want to talk about what is in the bill. Much of the limitations that were talked about by my good friend are not part of--some of the points that he made are not even part of the legislation. But let's talk for a second what this bill does do.

H.R. 1612 will broaden the scope of the program to include more agencies within the Department of the Interior, NOAA, within the Commerce Department; to expand the purposes of this program to make clear that a central aim is to attract participants from diverse backgrounds who are underrepresented among visitors and managers of our public lands; require establishment of coordinators with each agency eligible to participate in the program so that implementation of the program will be more uniform and efficient; authorize these Federal agencies to enter into cooperative agreements with nonprofit youth or Conservation Corps to improve these partnerships; establish criteria and methodology for training programs for all participants; modernize the scope of eligible projects to include new challenges such as climate change and insect infestation; authorize participating agencies to provide housing for participants.

That is what the program does do. It is an appropriate time, it is a necessary time, and it is an investment that will pay huge dividends for our public lands and our young people, and I urge its adoption.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that when the House adjourns today, it adjourns to meet at 1:00 p.m. tomorrow.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to claim the time in opposition to the amendment, although I am not opposed to the amendment.

Madam Speaker, this amendment would ensure that the tribes would be among the governments and groups with whom the Secretaries would contract to provide temporary housing for Corps participants.

We support this amendment and appreciate the gentleman's efforts and appreciate the correction of an oversight.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I would also urge support for the amendment and would also note that the Health Care Reform Act we are expecting to take up tomorrow includes the most sweeping changes to Indian health care in decades, long overdue.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Madam Speaker, I rise to claim time in opposition to the amendment.

Madam Speaker, under existing law, funding for Public Land Corps is capped at $12 billion annually. The bill before us, H.R. 1612, would remove this cap. The amendment offered by my colleague, Mr. Bishop, would not only leave the cap in place, but also force the program to sunset in 5 years.

Madam Speaker, as we all know, when the Republicans controlled this Congress and the White House, they presided over the largest increase in Federal spending in the history of this Nation. Amendments like this one provide important clues as to why that happened. Are we honestly worried about runaway spending on youth job, training, and education programs? Is it imperative that we clamp down on efforts to put young people to work repairing trails and visitor centers used by American families when they visit in parks and public lands? Of course not. This is the definition of being penny wise and pound foolish.

Republicans want to cap and sunset a popular, effective, bipartisan jobs program; but when they controlled the entire Federal budget, they spent like

sailors on leave. Big spending, runaway spending, all those analogies fit. This is a poor attempt to appear fiscally responsible after years and years of irresponsible free spending. This amendment is not necessary. The fact that this program is already incredibly popular, an enactment of H.R. 1612 would make it an even bigger success.

Many Members will continue pushing to put young people to work and give them the job training they so desperately seek.

Some in the minority can continue coming to the floor and nipping at the heels of these bills as we pass them. The American people will see which Members are serious about addressing unemployment and the condition of our parks and public lands, and which Members are just trying to mask that legacy of irresponsible spending.

I reserve the balance of my time.

I urge defeat of the amendment and remind that a review of this legislation is conducted every year by appropriators, and that committees of jurisdiction are not prevented in this legislation from conducting oversight of the programs. With that, let me urge defeat of the amendment.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I rise in opposition to the motion to recommit.

The current bill would expand the public lands program to a dozen agencies. By restricting the use of the money that would be appropriated for the legislation, you effectively put three-quarters of it into forest activities, thereby eliminating the opportunity to be able to engage young people in a variety and a comprehensive look at opportunities in our public lands and in our public lands agency.

The vast majority of the adults who participate in the program are Federal employees. The oversight is their responsibility in the agency. NPS rangers, forest rangers already get full background checks and full clearance. They already get full FBI checks. The minority failed to raise this issue during committees or at the Committee on Rules.

The other issue is the issue of due process. To prohibit an individual or organization from being able to seek redress in a court of law I think is not only undemocratic, but sincerely wrong.

The motion to recommit basically hamstrings the legislation, prevents it from being effective. It is a hodgepodge of items thrown in that were not before the Rules Committee and were not before the discussion on the full committee. I would urge a ``no'' vote.

Let me point out thus far that only $7.5 million has ever been appropriated for Public Land Corps, and all of that money was earmarked for forest health. Under this legislation before us today, it is our expectation that more funds will be available for all eligible projects, forest health as well as other programs.

Finally, we never hear the end of it from the other side, the need to take care of lands we own before we do anything else. This program does precisely that. The motion to recommit hamstrings the program, reduces its effectiveness, narrows the opportunity for young people in terms of where they work and what training and what education they will receive, duplicates the process by which people are checked that are going to be working with young people in this program, and prevents and neglects full redress under our laws for individuals and organizations. I think those three items have nothing to do with the legislation. They are there to hamper the legislation.

I would urge my colleagues to oppose the motion to recommit, to pass this legislation, and give full, meaningful employment opportunity for the young people that are right now suffering the most from a lack of jobs and for the young people that most need a second chance. This legislation is about opportunity. This legislation is about saving our public lands and educating our young people. The motion to recommit is about preventing that.

I would urge all my Members not to be duped into that presumption, to go forward with the bill and pass the legislation as is, and oppose the motion to recommit.

Madam Speaker, pursuant to the instructions of the House in the motion to recommit, I report the bill, H.R. 1612, back to the House with an amendment.

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

Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize a constituent from Tucson, Arizona.

David Wayne Romick joined the U.S. Army on October 20, 1963, and was discharged on June 22, 1966. When discharged, he was awarded the Army's Good Conduct Medal (AGCM), but never received the award for his honorable service during the Vietnam War.

After waiting 44 years, David contacted my Tucson District office in December of last year for help in getting this award. At my urging, the U.S. Army reviewed David's records and concluded that he was not presented with the AGCM as per his DD-214. The Army admitted its error and on Friday, March 12, 2010, I had the honor and privilege of presenting this long overdue honor to David Romick.

Madam Speaker, I want to thank Mr. Romick for his service to our country and the U.S. Army for correcting this error.