Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 109) supporting the mission and goals of 2009 National Crime Victims' Rights week to increase public awareness of the rights, needs, and concerns of victims and survivors of crime in the United States, and to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the enactment of the Victims of Crime Act of 1984.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the resolution under consideration.

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

House Res. 109 supports the goals and mission of National Crime Victims' Rights week, which is being celebrated this week, April 26 through May 2, 2009. The 2009 National Crime Victims' Rights week theme is ``25 Years of Rebuilding Lives: Celebrating the Victims of Crime Act.''

Mr. Speaker, each year for the last 25 years, the Office of Victims of Crime in the Department of Justice has observed National Crime Victims' Rights week along with individuals and communities across the country. Victims' rights and crime victims are honored with rallies, candlelight vigils, and other commemorative events.

This week in April is an important time to increase public awareness about the needs and concerns of the 25 million victims and survivors of crime each year, of which over 6 million are victims of violent crimes.

During National Crime Victims' Rights week, people are asked to take time out to acknowledge the impact that crime has on families, individuals, and communities by ensuring that resources and services are available to help crime victims rebuild their lives.

We would also like to acknowledge the 25 years of contributions that the Office of Victims of Crime has made to supporting victims of both violent and nonviolent crime. A major aspect of the office's work has been the creation and supervision of the Crime Victims Fund. This fund is paid for by criminal fines and penalties and supplemented with general tax revenue as needed. Over the last 25 years, the Crime Victims Fund has collected more than $9 billion from offender fines and penalties, which is used solely to assist crime victims. Each year these funds support direct services and financial compensation to more than 4 million victims of crime.

This week is also a time to make a commitment to providing more resources and services to crime victims who live in underserved areas such as urban and rural areas. This is also time to pay special attention to victims of crime who suffer from physical and mental disabilities in addition to child and senior citizens who may be victims of crime.

Mr. Speaker, we should be doing more to invest in crime prevention and therefore reducing the number of victims, but meanwhile this resolution gives us the opportunity to celebrate victims' rights and their dignity. We should ensure that victims are treated with the dignity and respect that they deserve, and doing that will promote a fair and just criminal justice system. For these reasons, Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this important resolution.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the chief sponsor of the legislation who, along with Mr. Poe, introduced

this important resolution, the gentleman from California (Mr. Costa).

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to a strong supporter of victims, a former law enforcement officer, the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Stupak).

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from California, the gentleman from Texas, as well as the gentleman from Michigan, for their work on behalf of victims of crime, and I urge my colleagues to support the resolution.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that a quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is not present.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 104) supporting the goals and ideals of National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the resolution under consideration.

I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, first I want to thank the gentlelady from Wisconsin (Ms. Baldwin), as well as the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe), for introducing this important resolution, and I rise in support to acknowledge the impact that sexual assault has on its victims and to promote education about and prevention of sexual assault.

This resolution highlights the immense problem of sexual assault in the United States. A person is sexually assaulted in the United States every 2\1/2\ minutes. Almost 18 million women, 1 in 6, have been victims of rape or attempted rape, and almost 3 million men, 1 in 33, have also been victims.

Sexual assault also harms the society. Medical expenses, lost productivity, treatment of psychological trauma and pain and suffering cost victims roughly $127 billion per year.

It can also lead to long-term health problems such as chronic pain and headaches and stomach problems and sexually transmitted diseases, and can leave victims with emotional issues which can lead to depression and even suicide.

Designating April to be Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month is an important step in recognizing the problem. Highlighting and focusing on this issue gives us the opportunity to educate the public and allows us to praise the survivors, as well as the volunteers and professionals who have dedicated their lives to combating sexual assault.

I urge my colleagues to support this important resolution.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I have no other requests for time, and I will reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe), as well as the chief sponsor of the resolution, the gentlelady from Wisconsin (Ms. Baldwin), for their hard work on the issue of sexual assault.

I urge my colleagues to support the resolution.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, the gentleman from Massachusetts mentioned the fact that, over the last few years, we'd gotten ourselves into the ditch. This shows the ditch that we're actually in.

In 1993, we passed a budget that dug ourselves out of a ditch and created surpluses, as far as I could see. In fact, in 2001, when we came into session, we had a surplus sufficient to put us on track to paying off the entire national debt held by the public by last year. Instead, we had a complete collapse of the budget beginning in 2001, and there is no telling where this line is going to end up. It took 8 years to get into this ditch.

During the good years when we had fiscal responsibility, not only were we on the way to paying off the national debt, but we created record numbers of jobs. We had a median income increase of about $7,000 per family, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average more than tripled. Now we have a situation where we have had the worst job performance since the Great Depression, where the median income is actually down when adjusted for inflation and where the Dow Jones Industrial Average is worse than it was when it started. It took us 8 years to get into this ditch.

We have an urgent situation. This budget will cut the deficit in half in 4 years. Now, that is not the end of it. That's not enough. Cutting the deficit in half is not enough, but for one year's work, that is certainly a good step toward getting us out of a ditch that took 8 years to get us into.

Now we have a situation where the new budget will restore PAYGO, that

is, that any new program will have to be paid for. The reason we could get it in this kind of ditch was we passed tax cuts that we hadn't paid for, and we had spending that wasn't paid for. But under this budget, any new initiative will have to be paid for, and that's going to be hard. We're talking about energy initiatives. We're talking about health care initiatives and education initiatives that will be very expensive, but none of them can go into effect unless they're paid for with other spending cuts or with tax increases. Everything will be paid for. This is in stark contrast to what happened in 2001 when we didn't pay for anything. We went right into a ditch, and we didn't create any jobs.

It is urgent that we pass this budget to get back on the track that we were on in 1993 when the budget created jobs, when the median income was up, when the economy was good, and when we were on the way to paying off the national debt, instead of the ditch we're in today where we have had, in the last 8 years, the worst job performance since the Great Depression and huge deficits as far as the eye can see. We're taking a major step in the right direction.

So, Madam Speaker, I would hope that we would adopt the budget so we could get on to the job of restoring the economy and of balancing this budget.

Thank you. I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Is it not a fact that the job performance during the 8 years of the Bush administration was the worst since the Great Depression?

Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 204, I was unavoidably detained. Had I been present, I would have voted ``aye.''

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

Madam Chair, I rise in support of the Congressional Black Caucus substitute. The Congressional Black Caucus believes that the historic investments outlined in the President's budget and the Democratic budget are excellent blueprints to continue our road towards economic recovery and return to fiscal responsibility.

The base bill and the CBC alternative adopt the economic theories which were the basis for the 1993 budget which eliminated the deficit and produced surpluses sufficient to pay off the national debt held by the public by last year when we had the surpluses. It produced record jobs and more than tripled the Dow Jones Industrial Average. And we reject the economic theory that eliminated the surpluses, replaced them with record deficits, produced the worst job performance since the Great Depression, and the Dow lower after 8 years than it started.

The CBC is fully behind the committee budget, as far as it goes. However, the CBC budget builds upon that budget.

First, the CBC budget immediately repeals the remaining Bush tax cuts that primarily affect that portion of the family's income that exceeds $250,000, rather than waiting for these tax cuts to expire at the end of 2010, as the committee budget does. Over the last 8 years, these tax cuts have cost the Federal Government trillions of dollars, while the promised benefits of trickle-down economics never materialized.

The CBC budget also immediately eliminates the phase out and repeal of what are called PEP and Pease, which deal with itemized deductions and personal exemptions.

These important tax provisions were part of the Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 1990, which was signed into law by the first President Bush.

Together, repealing these provisions of the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts will have virtually no effect on taxpayers with family incomes under $250,000, and will yield an estimated $42.2 billion in additional revenue in fiscal year 2010 alone.

In addition, the CBC budget also creates a Bush debt tax, which adds approximately one-half of 1 percent surtax on that portion of a family's income that exceeds $1 million. The CBC proposes to use the proceeds of this surtax exclusively for deficit reduction. Over a 10- year period, the Joint Committee on Taxation estimates this surtax will raise about $63 billion.

The CBC budget uses the additional revenue to increase our investments in our priorities for a more prosperous future for every American. Above the committee bill, the CBC budget provides an additional $18 billion for health care; $17 billion for education, job training, and social services; $8 billion for transportation and infrastructure; an additional $5.5 billion for administration of justice; $5 billion for international affairs; $4.7 billion for income security; and the CBC is particularly proud to add $4.5 billion for veterans' benefits and services--more than enough to fund each of our VA hospitals by more than $20 billion a year.

The CBC pays for all of these increases and still produces a 5-year budget deficit that is $67 billion lower than the base bill and saves the American people $7 billion in interest on the national debt.

The Congressional Black Caucus wants to reject the reckless budgets over the last 8 years and return to the fiscal responsibility of the 1990s, while creating jobs and addressing our national priorities.

I, therefore, urge my colleagues to support the amendment.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Chair, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlelady from the Virgin Islands (Mrs. Christensen).

I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Payne).

I yield the gentleman an additional 30 seconds.

Madam Chair, I yield 2 minutes to a member of the Budget Committee, the gentlelady from Wisconsin (Ms. Moore).

I yield an additional 30 seconds.

Madam Chair, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlelady from Maryland (Ms. Edwards).

I yield an additional 15 seconds.

Madam Chair, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Davis).

Madam Chair, I yield 1 minute to the gentlelady from Texas (Ms. Eddie Bernice Johnson).

Madam Chair, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Fattah).

(Mr. FATTAH asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

I would inquire to the gentleman from Florida if he has additional speakers?

I will yield 1 minute to the gentlelady from California (Ms. Waters).

Madam Chair, I'm prepared to close. Does the gentleman want to proceed?

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

Madam Chair, the Congressional Black Caucus budget is based on the budget of 1990-1993 that worked. It rejects the budget of 2001 that didn't. It saves money and invests in our priorities. It is a good budget. The base budget is good, but the CBC budget is better.

Madam Chair, I ask that we adopt the CBC budget, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Chair, this budget makes important investments in education. From early childhood through college, it is well known that education is the key to the success in the United States. And in today's high-tech, information-based economy, the old adage that the more you learn, the more you earn, certainly applies.

Because those with a good education will earn more, and they will be less likely to require social services and less likely to be involved in crime and less likely to be unemployed. And communities that invest in education will be more likely to attract businesses and jobs and will suffer less crime and social problems.

To address the committee budget in detail, I will now yield to the gentleman from California, the chairman of the Committee on Education and Labor, for the purposes of a statement (Mr. George Miller).

Madam Chairman, I yield to the gentleman from New York, a member of the Budget and Education Labor Committee, Mr. Bishop.

I yield to the gentlelady from Massachusetts, a hardworking member of the Budget Committee, Ms. Tsongas.

Madam Chair, I would like to now call on the gentlelady from Wisconsin, an effective member of the Budget Committee, Ms. Moore.

Madam Chairman, the budget we will vote on tomorrow will invest in education, Head Start, especially Early Head Start, Title I, nutrition programs, drop-out prevention programs, quality elementary and secondary education and after-school programs, and college awareness programs. It will have financial aid so that young people can attend college, Pell Grants, reduction in student loan interest rates, and assistance to college.

The budget will provide the necessary funding for the United States to regain our economic competitiveness by achieving a well-educated workforce that will make our neighborhood safer.

And, Madam Chair, I would like to thank the gentleman from South Carolina, the chairman of the committee, Chairman Spratt, and Chairman Miller, and President Obama for making education a priority in a fiscally responsible budget.

Thank you.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to join in the tributes of a truly great American. Dr. John Hope Franklin lived an extraordinary life. Throughout his 94 years, he was both a trailblazer in the history of black America, but at the same time he was the preeminent chronicler of that history. His groundbreaking work as an historian had influences on the academic world and the Nation as a whole.

John Hope Franklin was born on January 2, 1915, in Oklahoma, the son of a successful attorney father and a school

teacher mother. Despite being raised by two professionals, John's life was not immune from the pervasive racism of the time. His family lost everything in the Tulsa race riot of 1921 when the black section of Tulsa was burned and over 30 people murdered after a young black man was wrongfully accused of assaulting a white woman. There has been a campaign to provide reparations to the survivors of that riot. And tomorrow in the Judiciary Committee, we will be marking up a bill on this very issue that now bears the name of John Hope Franklin.

Despite the hardships of his youth, Dr. Franklin excelled in school and after graduating valedictorian of his high school class, he attended Fisk University. At Fisk, he was a student leader and was also president of the campus chapter of both his and my fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha. While at Fisk, he originally intended to study law, but at the suggestion of one of his professors, he took up history as his concentration. The suggestion took root and Dr. Franklin graduated from Fisk with a bachelor's degree in history in 1935. He then attended Harvard University where he received his master's in 1936 and Ph.D. in 1941.

Dr. Franklin was first and foremost a teacher. He began his academic career with instruction duties at Fisk, St. Augustine's College, and North Carolina Central College. In 1945, he was asked to write a book on black history, and that book was published in 1947. His signature book ``From Slavery to Freedom: A history of American Negroes.'' It has been reissued eight times, translated into five languages and still is considered the cornerstone work on black history used in colleges and universities today.

That same year, Dr. Franklin accepted a teaching position at Howard University. It was there that his work as a scholar and his interest in law intersected. Dr. Franklin provided research that Thurgood Marshall and the lawyers of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund used in the crafting of their legal arguments in the case of Brown v. Board of Education. He would later lend his scholarly weight to the civil rights movement, even marching with Martin Luther King in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1965.

Dr. Franklin was among the first black scholars in America to earn a prominent post at a predominantly white college or university. In 1956, he broke the color barrier at Brooklyn College where he was the first black man appointed to chair a history department at a predominately white institution. Dr. Franklin's accomplishment was tinged with the acknowledgment of how far race relations still needed to come in America because despite his credentials, he was denied service by banks and realtors in his quest to purchase a home near Brooklyn College. Real estate officials tried to redline him into African American-only neighborhoods. It took him nearly as long to find a home near his school as it did to write ``From Slavery to Freedom.''

Dr. Franklin continued his teaching career at other prestigious schools--Harvard, the University of Chicago--and finally settling at Duke University as the James B. Duke Professor Emeritus of History, the first African American to hold an endowed chair at that institution.

The title of his autobiography, ``Mirror to America,'' is a perfect description of his life and work. With deep knowledge of American history, Dr. Franklin was able to reflect on the root causes of many of the problems of the day. In 1997, there was national recognition of Dr. Franklin's knowledge of race when Bill Clinton tapped him to chair the President's Initiative on Race in America.

Dr. Franklin received over 100 honorary degrees, the NAACP's Spingarn Award and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Nation's highest civilian award.

On a personal note, Madam Speaker, my parents were long-time friends of Dr. Franklin. In fact, he participated in their wedding in 1942.

Madam Speaker, America has lost a truly great thinker, a preeminent scholar, a dear friend of liberty and freedom. I know we will continue to learn from his work for years to come. I thank you.

Mr. Speaker, this week the House Budget Committee will mark up the concurrent budget resolution for fiscal year 2010. Over a month ago, President Obama submitted a budget plan focusing on economic recovery, strategic investments, and most importantly, fiscal responsibility. At this critical juncture in our history, President Obama's budget addresses the mistakes of the past, makes much-needed investments in the future, and will create a better future for all Americans.

As we debate the merits of this budget resolution, we must not forget that President Obama inherited deep deficits and an economic crisis from the Bush administration. This chart shows the budget deficit over the years of the Clinton administration, and what the Bush administration did to the budget. The Bush administration left behind a $1.25 trillion deficit, a high unemployment rate, and an economy on the verge of collapse. President Obama came into office merely 2 months ago, but he has already successfully proposed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act which will create or save 3.5 million jobs.

The President's budget continues the path toward economic recovery and fiscal responsibility with many necessary investments in education. The President's budget expands access to college education by making the American Opportunity Tax Credit permanent and indexing Pell grants to keep pace with inflation and the skyrocketing cost of college education. The President also doubles funding for early Head Start and expands Head Start.

The President's budget calls for improving and expanding access to health insurance and lowering the cost of health care for every American. The President's budget includes several provisions to improve quality and efficiency in the health care system, saving the American people approximately $300 billion over the next 10 years. The President believes that the only way to rein in the cost of government for the foreseeable future is to address the costs associated with health care, and this budget does that.

The President's budget also ensures that the Nation honors and cares for our veterans when they return home by increasing funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs by $25 billion over the next 5 years. This increased funding will help the VA reduce their claims backlog and modernize and improve VA hospitals and facilities. These investments in the VA will help address the large influx of new veterans into the VA system from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

So, Mr. Speaker, perhaps the most telling feature of the President's budget is that it is an honest measure of where we are and of where we are going. The Bush administration used phantom budget tactics to keep the costs of many expensive measures out of the budget. Unlike budgets submitted in the past few years, the Obama budget honestly includes the cost of our military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and other items that we know we must pay for and have paid for every year such as the Medicare Doctor's Payment Fix and the Alternative Minimum Tax. President Obama's budget takes the necessary steps to put the budget back on a fiscally sustainable path once the economy recovers. The budget proposes to cut the deficit in half by 2013. Additionally, the President's budget proposes to restore the fiscally responsible pay-as- you-go rules, which were critical in turning the budget around in the 1990s.

Many may claim that the President's budget will cause deficits, but those who advocate the problems with the President's budget fail to remind themselves that the policies that they, in fact, are advocating are the policies that got us in the ditch we are in today. What they forget is that this Nation had to endure 8 years of failed economic policies, which produced one of the worst recessions in 70 years, the worst job growth since the Great Depression, an increase in the number of Americans living in poverty, and an increase in the number of Americans living without health insurance.

Furthermore, the Bush administration degraded the Federal budget's condition from healthy to weak, converting a 10-year $5.5 trillion surplus to more than a $3 trillion deficit--a swing of more than $9 trillion over 8 years and an average of over $1 trillion a year.

Mr. Speaker, these policies have failed. It is time to turn to the policies that work. The President's budget does just that. As a member of the House Budget Committee, we look forward to Wednesday's markup to ensure that the congressional budget resolution reflects the priorities of the President's budget.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor and pay tribute to the Urban League of Greater Richmond, which has served the communities of Richmond, Chesterfield, Henrico, Petersburg, Colonials Heights and Chester, Virginia for 95 years.

One of the oldest of 102 affiliates of the National Urban League, the Urban League of Greater Richmond has enabled many African-Americans and other minorities in the Commonwealth of Virginia to secure economic self-reliance, parity, power, and civil rights.

The Urban League of Greater Richmond has always been committed to assisting those it serves in their professional and personal lives, and to promoting lifelong learning and educational achievement at all levels of education. The Urban League of Greater Richmond provides vital services to the Richmond community. These services include providing access to housing counseling, employment services, a full computer center, credit services, and health services in partnership with the MCV/VCU Hospital Quality Care Unit program.

On Friday, March 20, 2009, the Urban League of Greater Richmond will celebrate its 95th anniversary with music legend Chuck Brown. This event will not only celebrate and honor 95 years of service to the Richmond community, but it will also raise money for college scholarships for underserved students.

I have had the opportunity to work alongside the Urban League of Greater Richmond to better the Richmond community for many years. Whether it's civil rights, crime policy, or welfare reform, the Urban League has always been out there leading the charge and making sure the urban agenda and those issues important to minority communities are a part of the local, state and national conversation.

While today I honor their first 95 years of service of the Urban League of Greater Richmond, I look forward to many, many more years of dedicated service, commitment and passion for the welfare of the people of Greater Richmond. I commend their many volunteers, their hard working staff, their board of directors and their President and CEO Thomas Victory, and I thank the Urban League of Greater Richmond for 95 years of outstanding leadership on issues that directly affect our urban community.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to introduce the ``Every Student Counts Act,'' legislation that will prioritize graduation of all of our Nation's high school students. My friend, Senator Tom Harkin, the Senator from Iowa, is also introducing this legislation in the Senate.

Madam Speaker, as you know in 2001, The No Child Left Behind Act passed with broad bipartisan support. The purpose of No Child Left Behind was to ensure that every student in America would receive a quality education. However, over the past eight years, NCLB has not lived up to its promises. Certain aspects of the law are difficult to implement and are not bringing about the results we thought it would. One of the major shortcomings of NCLB is its failure to hold schools accountable for dropouts. Although we believed we addressed this issue in the original NCLB legislation, this portion of the law has not been implemented as we had hoped. Instead, under current law, the only meaningful accountability standard for high schools is students' scores on standardized tests, with virtually no concern given to how many students graduate or drop out of school. Unfortunately, this myopic accountability standard has created an incentive for high schools to push out students who are struggling academically, so that their test scores are not counted in the assessments. Furthermore, the current accountability system also has allowed States to report graduation rates inconsistently and in misleading ways. Finally, NCLB does not require the disaggregation of graduation rates by subgroup, leading to incomplete data on how our schools are doing with one subgroup compared to others.

What is clear is the fact that the current high school accountability system is failing both our students and our Nation. Each year, about 1.23 million secondary school students, approximately one-third of all secondary school students, fail to graduate with their peers. In addition, nearly 2,000 secondary schools--roughly 12 percent of all secondary schools in the United States--produce about half of the Nation's secondary school dropouts. In these schools, the number of seniors is routinely 60 percent or less than the number of freshmen three years earlier. And almost half of the Nation's African-American students and nearly 40 percent of Latino students attend these so called ``dropout factories,'' while only 11 percent of white students do.

In Virginia last year, nearly 30,000 students did not graduate from high school with their peers. But the numbers are worse for minorities--only about 50 percent of African American students and 60 percent of Hispanic students graduate on time with a regular diploma, compared to 75 percent of whites.

These numbers are just the tip of the iceberg. Research shows that the lifetime earnings difference between a high school dropout and a high school graduate is about $260,000. This loss in potential earnings of a dropout can cause serious hardships throughout their lifetime. We cannot sit back and allow this problem to escalate, or our inaction will create a generation of lower and stagnant earnings and a poorer quality of life. We must reverse this trend and hold schools accountable for graduation rates and dropouts, so all students are graduating with a high school diploma and improving their outcomes in life.

Additionally, reducing dropouts improves America's position in both the global economy and workforce. Attaining a high school diploma is the first step in becoming a member of the educated workforce. Having unprepared workers sets us back considerably, diminishing our role as a global leader in the economy. The major competitive advantage America has in the global economy is an educated workforce. Yet, with an estimated 3.5 million Americans ages 16 to 25 who do not have a high school diploma and are not enrolled in school, we are slowly losing this advantage. Because of the need for well-educated workers to keep our country competitive, we can't allow--or afford--our Nation's high school students to dropout and not reach their full potential.

Until recently, federal policy did not place nearly enough importance on graduating the Nation's high school students. The regulations released by the Department of Education in October 2008 did much to correct the lack of attention to graduation rates in the federal accountability system: they require a uniform graduation rate calculation and improvement in graduation rates over time. Though these regulations are a laudable step in the right direction, they do not go far enough in setting consistent, high graduation rate goals and aggressive, attainable graduation rate growth targets. Without clear guidance and meaningful accountability, most secondary schools can continue to achieve Adequate Yearly Progress, AYP, by making negligible annual improvement in graduation rates and can do so with a consistent, or even growing, graduation gap.

The Every Student Counts Act will bring meaningful accountability to America's high schools by requiring a consistent and accurate calculation of graduation rates across all fifty states to ensure comparability and transparency. The legislation builds on the National Governors Association's Graduation Rate Compact, which was signed by all 50 of the Nation's governors in 2005. Under the Every Student Counts Act, graduation rates and test scores are treated equally in AYP determinations. Moreover, the Every Student Counts Act would require high schools to have aggressive, attainable and uniform annual growth requirements as part of AYP. This will ensure consistent increases to graduation rates for all students by meeting annual, research-based benchmarks with the long-term goal of reaching a 90 percent graduation rate. The bill would also require the disaggregation of graduation data by subgroup to make certain that schools are held accountable for increasing the graduation rate for all of our students and require that school improvement activities focus on closing any achievement gaps.

Recognizing that some small numbers of students take longer than four years to graduate, the bill will give credit to schools, school districts and states for graduating these students while maintaining the primacy of graduating the great preponderance of all students in four years. The Every Student Counts Act will provide incentives for schools, districts and states to create programs to serve students

who have already dropped out and are over-age or under credited. Some credit has to be given to those who get a GED and also those who take more than one or two years and maybe even three years longer than others to graduate. If no credit is given, the school system has no incentive to continue these important programs.

In order to truly ensure that all children have access to a quality education, it is imperative that we take steps to immediately end America's dropout crisis. We must ensure not only that graduation rates increase, but that earning a high school diploma is a meaningful accomplishment. We must use the indicators of student achievement and graduation to know which high schools are doing their job. Those who are must be recognized and supported. Those that are not must be rehabilitated with targeted interventions, whole school reform, or replacement strategies to ensure the standard of accountability with graduation rates and standardized tests are met.

Making sure accountability with graduation rates and standardized testing are met, Virginia's education leaders and the Virginia State Board of Education recently became the first state to give equal consideration to dropout rates and standardized tests when judging AYP. The new standard in Virginia will take effect with the start of the 2011-2012 school years. It also sets an 85 percent graduation rate, well above the dreadful benchmark of 61 percent set for Virginia under the No Child Left Behind Act.

It is my hope that with the Every Student Counts Act, we can make greater strides nationally toward graduating more of America's students and preparing them to succeed in college, the workplace and in life. So, I ask my colleagues to join me in passing this bill and seeing to it that it is quickly enacted into law to ensure, at a minimum, every child becomes a high school graduate.

Thank you. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlelady from Ohio for organizing this Special Order. The budget is an extremely important part of our work, and I thank you for allowing us the opportunity to discuss what is going on with the budget.

Before we can discuss the budget going forward, we have to understand where we are and the mess that we are in. Sometimes you need charts to adequately describe exactly what the situation is.

This is a chart from 1989 showing the budget deficit. Starting in 1993, we went up to surplus. Unfortunately, in 2001, we had a complete collapse of the budget. 2008, the deficit will be about here. A little over $400 billion. 2009, it will literally be off the chart. So, this is what we are dealing with.

In 1993, we made the tough choices and eliminated the deficit, went into surplus, and had enough in the beginning of 2001, enough of a surplus to pay Social Security for 75 years without reducing any benefits or to pay off the entire debt held by the public by last year. We were in good shape financially in 2001, but we made the wrong choices. And the rest is history.

The deterioration in the budget from the $5.5 trillion surplus to the probably $3 trillion, maybe $4 trillion deficit, was a swing of almost $9 trillion. Almost $1 trillion a year deterioration in the budget.

This chart shows where the public debt has exploded. In 2001, we were headed by the budget projections to paying off not only the debt held by the public, but all of the debt; putting the money back in the trust funds and everything else. Instead, the debt has totally exploded.

Now, one of the problems with the debt is that more and more of it is coming from foreign countries. Primarily, Saudi Arabia, Japan, and China. And that has foreign policy implications. You can't negotiate a good trade deal when the next thing out of your mouth is, Can I borrow some money? When you're borrowing money from Saudi Arabia, obviously that has implications on our ability to negotiate gasoline and oil prices.

The debt held in foreign countries was headed towards zero. It has, again, exploded. Now we have over $2 trillion of our debt held in foreign countries.

Now, we got in this mess because we had unaffordable tax cuts, primarily for the wealthy. People get mad when you say ``primarily for the wealthy,'' but it was done, presumably, to create jobs.

This chart shows how, in the last 8 years, in terms of job growth, we have experienced the worst job growth since the Great Depression. Herbert Hoover is the only President on this chart who's done worse than the last 8 years.

There's very poor economic activity, as measured by the Dow Jones Industrial Average. This chart shows the Dow Jones Industrial Average from Hoover, Franklin, Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton. The worst since Herbert Hoover in terms of Dow performance in the last 8 years.

Now, some people have said that all those tax cuts actually increased revenues. Well, that is not exactly true. Since 1960, this chart, just to break down the color code, a green bar is a year in which we achieved record revenues in individual income tax. Record revenues. A red bar is one where a record was not achieved.

You will notice since 1960, tax cuts, tax increases, recessions, depression; everything since good years, bad years, since 1960, there were only 2 years in which we did not achieve a record. So, to say that we had additional revenues wouldn't be saying much, because we always have revenues.

But it's even worse than that because in 2001 we did not achieve a record. 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005. We went 5 consecutive years, something that has not happened since they started taking records in the 1930s, did you go more than 2 years without achieving a record. You have had world wars and everything else. The record: 5 years without a record.

So, the cuts in taxes did not increase revenues. It actually decreased revenues. And, as I said, they get mad when you say the taxes were cut for the rich.

This chart shows for people under $20,000--from $20,000 to $50,000; $50,000 to $75,000; $75,000 to $100,000; $100,000 to $200,000; $200,000 to $1 million; over $1 million, how much you got out of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts. You notice that if you made over $1 million, you did well. And if you made under $20,000, or even under $50,000, you hardly need ink to draw the bar.

There's one particular tax that, in the Obama budget, will be repealed. Put back the way was. It's about a $20 billion tax cut every year. And this is how it's distributed. If you make over $1 million, you get about $17,000. $200,000 to $1 million, you get several hundred dollars. $100,000 to $200,000; on average, you will get you will get about $1 a month. Under $100,000; on average, you will get not a dime.

Now, one of the things that is extremely important and why it is crucial that we get this budget under control, and that is I referred to Social Security. This is a Social Security cash flow chart, showing the blue bars are bringing in now more than we are paying out. In 2017, we will start paying out more than we are bringing in.

This is $200 billion deficit, a $600 billion deficit. By 2040, we will be approaching $1 trillion, paying out more Social Security than we are bringing in. If we had the $5.5 trillion, you needed about $4 trillion in the bank today, drawing interest. We could pay Social Security for 75 years without reducing benefits.

Unfortunately, we are going broke, and this is one of the reasons we have to get our budget under control quickly, because otherwise we will get into a deficit situation in Social Security that we will never get out of.

One of the things that we have to do is make sure that the expenditures and tax revenues get back under control. Federal revenues traditionally, in the past, have been less than the expenditures. We have been spending more than we are bringing in. That is deficit spending.

By the mid 1990s, we actually reduced spending and increased revenues, to the point where we had that healthy surplus that was set to go as far as the eye

could see. Unfortunately, in 2001, we passed tax cuts that we could not afford, collapsing revenues and, in fact, even increased as a percentage of GDP, increased spending, creating this deficit. We have to get back under control where the revenues are more than the expenditures.

This year, we are out of control because we have had the stimulus package, we have had the bailouts, and everything. But this is just a 1-year spike. And we need to get the budget back under control. And we can do that. Under the Obama budgets, we will be back into more traditional levels of deficits.

But, when we get down here, that should not be the end. That is just the first step. We are going to have to continue bringing spending down and revenues up so that we will have our surplus so that we will be able to afford Social Security.

The President's budget, the first thing it does is reinstates what is called PAYGO. One of the reasons that we could maintain fiscal responsibility in the 1990s is we had a process called PAYGO. Pay as you go. If you offer a spending program, you have to pay for it. You have to raise the taxes to pay for it or cut some spending somewhere else. If you want to cut some taxes, you have to cut some spending or raise some other taxes. Everything do you, have you to pay for it. And if you don't pay for it, you can't pass it.

Unfortunately, in 2001, PAYGO expired, and the tax cuts were passed without paying for it. Increased spending took place without paying for it. And we got into the ditch that we are in. We now are back under PAYGO, where we are going to have to pay for what we do.

One of the things that the Obama budget does, it presents an honest budget. There are many things in the last few budgets that were just kind of left out. We knew every year we'd been continuing some tax cuts year after year. We knew each year we'd put those back in. Those weren't in the budget as introduced.

The war spending. We know we are at war. There was zero for the war in Iraq and Afghanistan in the budgets as introduced. We knew we were going to spend money on those wars. In fact, there were about $250 billion worth of known expenditures that we knew we were going to spend that were left out of the budgets. The Obama budget includes everything that everybody knows that we are going to spend.

So with PAYGO and fiscal responsibility, we are going to at least reduce the deficit 50 percent in the first term of President Obama; and after we get there, we will continue to make progress.

The President's budget makes significant investments in energy, getting us from dependence on foreign oil and creating millions of jobs in energy, creating clean energy jobs. His budget brings down the skyrocketing costs of health care, and makes focused investments in education, one of the things on energy, alternative forms of energy and conservation and significant research investments.

In health care, we need to make investments in cost control to make sure that we can control health care. The Social Security chart and the Medicare chart are very similar. The Medicare chart is actually even worse because of the accelerating health care costs. We need to get those costs under control, because if we don't get Medicare under control, health care generally will consume the entire budget. We need to make sure that we are investing in access to make sure that those who have insurance can keep it, because as the costs go up, people are losing their health insurance.

He is making significant investments in education, making sure that tax credits for education expenses are increased and Pell Grants are increased so more and more people can go to college. And we want to make sure that we invest in elementary and secondary education, particularly early childhood education.

The budget makes a unique investment in nurse home visits. These have been shown to significantly reduce a lot of problems, one of which is child abuse, which is highly correlated with future crime by these nurse visits. The nurse visits have been studied. I serve on the Judiciary Committee, and they have found that those who have had the advantage of the nurse visits were one-third as likely to be arrested 18 years later as those who did not have the visits; education is much better off; child abuse is down. So those visits will be a very important investment in our future.

And, finally, the President's budgets continues large increases in veterans health care. We had significant increases 2 years ago and last year, and we will continue those increases so our veterans get the health care that they certainly have earned and deserve.

We need to make some tough choices. The President says one of the most difficult choices are making expenditures today that save money in the future. Nobody wants to spend the money today if the savings won't occur for 5 or 10 years.

One of the bills that I have introduced is the Youth Promise Act that makes investments in young people to keep them out of trouble. We are spending more money per person in incarceration. We have got more people locked up today per hundred thousand population than anywhere on Earth. We could significantly reduce the need for that correlation if we made investments up front, getting young people on the right track and keeping them on the right track. The Youth Promise Act does that. It has an interesting aspect to it. When you save money, the localities that come up with their local plans will try to identify where they are saving money, and those agencies should kick in to keep the program running.

The State of Pennsylvania did the collaborative approach that is anticipated in the Youth Promise Act, and they funded a number of programs for a total cost of approximately $60 million, $60 million, and they calculate they save over the next few years over $300 million, because they made those investments and reduced crime significantly. Nobody wants to make the first investment; so the Youth Promise Act will make those investments and, hopefully, the localities will continue the programs, saving significant money in the future.

But we have to make the tough choices. And if we don't make those tough choices, if we don't get the budget under control, we are going to be spending entirely too much money on interest in the national debt, we will jeopardize Social Security and Medicare. But with the leadership of President Obama, the Congressional Black Caucus is committed to addressing our priorities in a fiscally responsible way. Social Security, Medicare, and our future depend on it.

Again, I want to thank the gentlelady from Ohio for her leadership and giving us the opportunity to talk about the budget today.

Madam Speaker, I rise today, along with the gentleman from Delaware, Mr. Castle, to introduce the ``Youth Prison Reduction through Mentoring, Intervention, Support and Education Act'', or ``Youth PROMISE Act,'' a bill we believe will greatly reduce crime and its associated costs and losses. Companion legislation to this bill is also being filed today in the Senate by Senator Casey of Pennsylvania, and Senator Snowe of Maine.

The Youth PROMISE Act implements the best policy recommendations from crime policy makers, researchers, practitioners, analysts, and law enforcement officials from across the political spectrum concerning evidence- and research-based strategies to reduce gang violence and crime. Under the Youth PROMISE Act, communities facing the greatest youth gang and crime challenges will be able to enact a comprehensive response to prevention and intervention of youth violence through a coordinated response that includes the active involvement of representatives from law enforcement, court services, schools, social services, health and mental health providers, foster care providers, Boys and Girls Clubs and other community-based service organizations, including faith-based organizations. These key players will form a council to develop a comprehensive plan for implementing evidence-based prevention and intervention strategies. These strategies will be targeted at young people who are involved, or at risk of becoming involved, in gangs or the juvenile or criminal justice system to redirect them toward productive and law-abiding alternatives. The Youth PROMISE Act will also enhance state and local law enforcement efforts regarding youth and gang violence.

Title I: Federal Coordination of Local and Tribal Juvenile Justice Information and Efforts. Sec. 101 creates a PROMISE Advisory Panel. This Panel will assist the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention in selecting PROMISE community grantees. The Panel will also develop standards for the evaluation of juvenile delinquency and criminal street gang activity prevention and intervention approaches carried out under the PROMISE Act. Sec. 102 provides for specific data collection in each designated geographic area to assess the needs and existing resources for juvenile delinquency and criminal street gang activity prevention and intervention. This data will then facilitate the strategic geographic allocation of resources provided under the Act to areas of greatest need for assistance.

Title II: PROMISE Grants. Sec. 201 establishes grants to enable local and tribal communities, via PROMISE Coordinating Councils, PCCs, Sec. 202, to conduct an objective assessment, Sec. 203, regarding juvenile delinquency and criminal street gang activity and resource needs and strengths in the community. Based upon the assessment, the PCCs then will develop plans that include a broad array of evidence-based prevention and intervention programs. These programs will be responsive to the needs and strengths of the community, account for the community's cultural and linguistic needs, and utilize approaches that have been proven to be effective in reducing involvement in or continuing involvement in delinquent conduct or criminal street gang activity. The PCCs can then apply for federal funds, on the basis of greatest need, to implement their PROMISE plans, Sec. 211-213. Title II also provides for national evaluation of PROMISE programs and activities, Sec. 222, based on performance standards developed by the PROMISE Advisory Panel.

Title III: PROMISE Research Center. Sec. 301 establishes a National Research Center for Proven Juvenile Justice Practices. This Center will collect and disseminate information to PROMISE Coordinating Councils and the public on current research and other information about evidence-based and promising practices related to juvenile delinquency and criminal street gang activity and intervention. Sec. 302 provides for regional academic research partners to assist PCCs in developing their assessments and plans.

Title IV: Youth-Oriented Policing Services. Sec. 402 provides, within the office of Community Oriented Policing Services, for the hiring and training of Youth Oriented Policing, YOPS, officers to address juvenile delinquency and criminal street gang activity in coordination with PCCs and other local youth services organizations. Sec. 403 also establishes a Center for Youth Oriented Policing, which will be responsible for identification, development and dissemination of information related to strategic policing practices and technologies to law enforcement agencies related to youth.

Title V: Enhancing Federal Support of Local Law Enforcement-- Mynisha's Law. Mynisha's Law provides appropriate federal coordination and collaboration by requiring the placement of an interagency task force--consisting of representatives from the Departments of Justice, Labor, Education, HUD and HHS--to prevent and address gang activity in specific designated high intensity gang areas. The interagency task force would be responsible for identifying and coordinating access to federal gang prevention resources, such as afterschool programs, Job Corp programs, and low income affordable housing.

Sec. 511 authorizes the COPS Office to make grants to local and tribal governments with a PROMISE Council to develop community-based programs that provide crime prevention, research, and intervention services designed for gang members and at-risk youth. Sec. 522 authorizes the Attorney General, in consultation with the Secretary of Health and Human Services to award grants to partnerships between a state mental health authority and one or more local public or private entities to prevent or alleviate the effects of youth violence in urban communities with a high or increasing incidence of such violence by providing violence-prevention education, mentoring, counseling, and mental health services to children and adolescents. Priority is given to grant applicants that agree to use the grant in communities that lack the resources to address youth violence.

Title VI: Precaution Act. To coordinate the volumes of data and research on crime prevention and intervention, this Title creates a national commission on crime prevention and intervention strategies to identify those programs that are most ready for replication around the country, and to provide guidance in a direct and accessible format to state and local law enforcement on how to implement those strategies. The commission also would identify those promising areas of crime prevention and intervention programming that would benefit from further research and development, and would report to federal, state, and local law enforcement on the outcomes of a grant program administered by the National Institute of Justice to pilot programs in these areas and test their effectiveness. The use of this information would ensure that the criminal justice community is investing its limited resources in the most cost-effective way possible.

Title VII: Additional Improvements to Juvenile Justice. Sec. 701 provides additional improvements to current laws affecting juvenile delinquency and criminal street gang activity, including support for youth victim and witness protection programs. Sec. 702 provides for an expansion of the Mentoring Initiatives program for system-involved youth. And Sec. 703 calls for a study on adolescent development and the effectiveness of juvenile sentences in the Federal system.

During my more than 30 years of public service, I have learned that when it comes to crime policy, we have a choice--we can reduce crime or we can play politics. For far too

long, Congress has chosen to play politics by enacting so-called ``tough on crime'' slogans such as ``three strikes and you're out'' , ``mandatory minimum sentencing'', ``life without parole'', ``abolish parole'' or ``you do the adult crime, you do the adult time''. My personal favorite is ``no cable TV.'' You can imagine the cable guy disconnecting the cable and then waiting for the crime rate to drop. As appealing as these policies may sound, their impacts range from a negligible reduction in crime to an increase in crime.

However, over the past two decades, we continued to enact slogan- based sentencing policies. As a result, the United States now has the highest average incarceration rate of any nation in the world. At over 700 persons incarcerated for every 100,000 in the population, the U.S. far exceeds the world average incarceration rate of about 100 per 100,000. Russia is the next closest in rate of incarceration with about 600 per 100,000 citizens. Every other major incarcerator is much below that. Among countries most comparable to the U.S., Great Britain is 146 per 100,000, Australia is 126, Canada is 107, Germany is 95, France is 85, and Japan is 62. India, the world's largest Democracy, is 36 per 100,000 and China, the world's largest country by population, is 118 per 100,000. Since 1970, the number of individuals incarcerated in the U.S. has risen from approximately 300,000 to over 2 million.

All this increase in incarceration does not come for free. Since 1982, the cost of incarceration in this country has risen from $9 billion annually to over $65 billion a year.

And the U.S. has some of the world's most severe punishments for crime, including for juveniles. Of the more than 2400 juveniles now serving sentences of life without parole, all are in the U.S. Some were given their sentence as first-time offenders under circumstances such as being a passenger in a car from which there was a drive-by shooting.

The impact of all this focus on tough law enforcement approaches falls disproportionately on minorities, particularly Blacks and Hispanics. While the average incarceration rate in the United States is 7 times the international average, for Blacks the average rate is over 2200 per 100,000, and the rate in some jurisdictions exceeds 4,000 per 100,000 Blacks, a rate 40 times the international average. For Black boys being born today, the Sentencing Project estimates that one in every three will end up incarcerated in their lifetime without an appropriate intervention. These children are on what the Children's Defense Fund has described as a ``cradle-to-prison pipeline.''

Despite all of our concentration on being tough on crime, the problem persists and reports suggest that it is growing in some jurisdictions. While nothing in the Youth PROMISE Act eliminates any of the current tough on crime laws, and while it is understood that law enforcement will still continue to enforce those laws, research and analysis, as well as common sense, tells us that no matter how tough we are on the people we prosecute today, unless we are addressing the underlying reasons for their developing into serious criminals, nothing will change. The next wave of offenders will simply replace the ones we take out and the crimes continue. So, just continuing to be ``tough'' will have little long term impact on crime.

There is now overwhelming evidence to show that it is entirely feasible to move children from a cradle to prison pipeline to a cradle to college, or jobs, pipeline. All the credible research and evidence shows that a continuum of evidenced-based prevention and intervention programs for youth identified as being at risk of involvement in delinquent behavior, and those already involved, will greatly reduce crime and save much more than they cost when compared to the avoided law enforcement and social welfare expenditures. There are programs for teen pregnancy prevention, pre-natal care, new parent training, nurse home visits, Head Start, quality education, after-school programs, Summer recreation and jobs, guaranteed college scholarships, and job- training that have been scientifically proven to cost-effectively reduce crime. And the research reveals that these programs are most effective when provided in the context of a coordinated, collaborative local strategy involving law enforcement, social services and other local public and private entities working with children identified as at risk of involvement in the criminal justice system. This is what the Youth PROMISE Act provides for.

Aside from reducing crime and providing better results in the lives of our youth, many of these programs funded under the Youth PROMISE Act will save more money than they cost. The state of Pennsylvania implemented in 100 communities across the state a process very similar to the one provided for in the Youth PROMISE Act. The state found that it saved, on average, $5 for every $1 spent during the study period.

The bill is supported by 69 original co-sponsors. A coalition of over 200 national, state and local organizations, listed below, supported the Youth PROMISE Act last Congress, and we expect that list to continue to grow this Congress. We know how to reduce crime and we know that we can do it in a way that saves much more money that it costs. Our children, victims of crime, taxpayers and our economy can no longer afford for us to delay adoption of the Youth PROMISE Act. So, I ask my colleagues to join me in passing and this bill and seeing to it that it is quickly enacted into law.

Organizations Supporting the Youth PROMISE Act

National Organizations

Alliance for Children and Families

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)

American Correctional Association

American Council of Chief Defenders

American Federation of School Administrators, AFL-CIO

American Federation of Teachers (AFT)

American Jewish Congress

American Psychological Association

Asian American Justice Center

ASPIRA, Inc.

Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law

Campaign for Youth Justice

Catholic Charities USA

Center for Children's Law and Policy

Child Welfare League of America

Children's Defense Fund

Citizens United for the Rehabilitation of Errants (CURE),

International

Coalition for Juvenile Justice

Coalition on Human Needs

Correctional Education Association

Council for Educators of At-Risk and Delinquent Youth

Council for Opportunity in Education

Council of Juvenile Correctional Administrators (CJCA)

Covenant House International Headquarters

Federal CURE

Fight Crime: Invest in Kids

Girls Inc.

Human Rights Watch

Immigrant Justice Network

Institute for Community Peace

International Community Corrections Association

Justice Policy Institute

Juvenile Justice Trainers Association

Legal Action Center

Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service

Mennonite Central Committee Washington Office

Mental Health America

Mexican American Legal Defense & Educational Fund (MALDEF)

National Advocacy Center of the Sisters of the Good

Shepherd

National African-American Drug Policy Coalition, Inc.

National Alliance to End Homelessness

National Alliance for Faith and Justice

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

(NAACP)

National Association of Blacks in Criminal Justice

National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers

National Association of Juvenile Correctional Agencies

National Association of Secondary School Principals

National Black Caucus of Local Elected Officials (NBC-LEO)

National Black Police Association

National Center for Youth Law

National Consortium of TASC (Treatment Accountability for

Safer Communities) Programs

National Council for Community Behavioral Health

National Council of La Raza

National Council on Crime and Delinquency

National Council on Educating Black Children

National Council for Urban (Gang) Peace, Justice and

Empowerment

National Education Association

National Federation of Families for Children's Mental

Health

National Head Start Association

National Hire Network

National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild

National Juvenile Defender Center

National Juvenile Detention Association

National Juvenile Justice Network

National Network for Youth

National Organization of Concerned Black Men, Inc.

National Partnership for Juvenile Services

National Parent Teacher Association (PTA)

National Trust for the Development of African-American Men

National Urban League

National Women's Law Center

Penal Reform International

Presbyterian Church (USA), Washington Office

Prison Legal News

Prisons Foundation

Southeast Asia Resource Action Center

Southern Poverty Law Center

The Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, Public Policy

Section

The Rebecca Project for Human Rights

The School Social Work Association of America

The Sentencing Project

Therapeutic Communities of America (TCA)

Time Dollar Youth Court

TimeBanks USA

Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations

United Church of Christ, Justice and Witness Ministries

United Methodist Church, General Board of Church and

Society

United Neighborhood Centers of America

VOICES for America's Children

W. Haywood Burns Institute

Washington Office on Latin America

World Vision

Youth Law Center

Youth Matter America

State Organizations

ACLU of Illinois (IL)

ACLU of North Carolina (NC)

ACLU of Ohio (OH)

Action for Children North Carolina (NC)

Advocates for Children and Youth (MD)

Alabama Youth Justice Coalition

Alston Wilkes Society (SC)

Archdiocese of Los Angeles, Office of Restorative Justice

(CA)

Asian Law Caucus (CA)

ATTIC Correctional Services, Inc. (WI)

Barrios Unidos--Santa Cruz Chapter (CA)

Barrios Unidos--Virginia Chapter (VA)

CASA of Maryland, Inc. (MD)

Center for Community Alternatives (NY)

Central American Legal Assistance (NY)

Chicago Area Project (IL)

Children's Action Alliance (AZ)

Children's Campaign, Inc. (FL)

Citizens for Juvenile Justice (MA)

Columbia Heights Shaw Family Collaborative (DC)

Connecticut Juvenile Justice Alliance (CT)

Contra Costa County Public Defender's Office (CA)

Correctional Association of New York (NY)

Council for Children's Rights (NC)

DC Alliance of Youth Advocates (DC)

DC NAACP Youth Council (DC)

Delaware Center for Justice (DE)

Equal Justice Initiative (AL)

Facilitating Leadership in Youth (FLY) (DC)

Faith Communities for Families and Children (CA)

Families & Allies of Virginia's Youth (VA)

Families & Friends of La.'s Incarcerated Children (LA)

Families Moving Forward (CT)

Florida Public Defender Association, Inc. (FL)

Florida Public Defender, Fourth Judicial Circuit (FL)

Florida Families for Fair Sentences (FL)

Franklin County Public Defender (OH)

Fusion Partnerships, Inc. (MD)

Hispanic Urban Minority Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Outreach

Program (OH)

Homies Unidos (CA)

H.O.P.E., Inc (KS)

Identity, Inc. (MD)

John Howard Association of Illinois (IL)

JustChildren (VA)

Justice for DC Youth (DC)

Juvenile Justice Center of Suffolk University Law School

(NY)

Juvenile Justice Coalition (OH)

Juvenile Justice Initiative of Illinois (IL)

Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana (LA)

Kansas CURE (KS)

L.A. Youth Justice Coalition (CA)

Latin American Youth Center (DC)

Leaders in Community Alternatives, Inc. (CA)

Life Pieces to Masterpieces, Inc. (DC)

Law Office of Anthony J. Keber (MA)

Maryland Juvenile Justice Coalition (MD)

Maryland Office of the Public Defender (MD)

Mental Health Association in Pennsylvania (PA)

Michigan Council on Crime and Delinquency (MI)

Mid-Atlantic Juvenile Defender Center, Juvenile Law and

Policy Clinic, University of Richmond School of Law (VA)

Midwest Juvenile Defender Center (IL)

Minnesota Juvenile Justice Coalition (MN)

Mississippi CURE (MS)

Mississippi Youth Justice Project (MS)

New Hampshire Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NH)

New Jersey Association on Correction (NJ)

New Mexico Council on Crime and Delinquency (NM)

New Mexico Criminal Defense Lawyers Association (NM)

Pacific Juvenile Defender Center (CA)

Parents Who Care Coalition (SD)

Parents, Youth, Children and Family Training Institute (AL)

Partnership for Safety and Justice (OR)

Puerto Rico Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (PR)

Public Justice Center (MD)

PTA of Illinois (IL)

Southern Juvenile Defender Center (AL)

Texas Criminal Justice Coalition (TX)

The Fortune Society (NY)

The Law Offices of Public Defender Bennett H. Brummer

(Miami-Dade Public Defender's Office) (FL)

The Pendulum Foundation (CO)

The Poor People's Alliance, Connecticut Chapter (CT)

The S.T.O.P. Family Investment Center at Oakmont North (VA)

Southern Poverty Law Center (AL)

Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth (TN)

UNC Juvenile Justice Clinic, University of North Carolina

at Chapel Hill School of Law (NC)

United Church of Christ, Justice and Witness Ministries

(OH)

Virginia Coalition for Juvenile Justice (VA)

Virginia Commonwealth University School of Education (VA)

Virginia Commonwealth University Center for School-

Community Collaboration (VA) Virginia C.U.R.E. (VA)

VOICES for Alabama's Children (AL)

VOICES for Children in Nebraska (NE)

VOICES for Ohio's Children (OH)

Washington Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (WA)

Washington Defender Association (WA)

Washington Defender Association's Immigration Project (WA)

Youth Advocate Programs, Inc. (PA)

Youth Advocacy Project of the Committee for Public Counsel

Services (MA)

Young America Works Public Charter School (DC)

Elected Officials and Academics

Donna M. Bishop, Northeastern University (MA)

Susan J. Carstens, Psy.D., L.P. Juvenile Specialist,

Crystal Police Dept. (MN)

The Honorable Toni Harp, Connecticut State Senator

The Honorable Alice L. Bordsen, North Carolina State

Representatives

Jolanta Juszkiewicz, Ph.D., American University (D.C.)

The Honorable Kelvin Roldan, Connecticut State

Representative

Tony Roshan Samara, George Mason University (VA)

Earle Williams, Psy.D. Hampton University, (VA)

Aaron Kupchik, Ph.D., University of Delaware

Madam Speaker, I rise today to congratulate the Pittsburgh Steelers on their historic sixth Super Bowl victory. In a game that was exciting down to the last minute, the Steelers defeated the Arizona Cardinals 27-23 in Super Bowl XLIII on Sunday, February 1, 2009.

Now, I want to deliver a special note of congratulations to the head coach of the team, Mike Tomlin. Coach Tomlin is a native of the Third Congressional District of Virginia. He's a product of the Newport News public schools, graduating from Denbigh High School in 1990. Mike was a 3-year starter at the College of William and Mary football team, and graduated from the college in 1994.

Mike's dedication to coaching at the professional level places him in the pantheon of great coaches that the Steelers have had over the last 53 years, including Chuck Noll and Bill Cowher.

But what many people do not know about Coach Tomlin is that his dedication to coaching comes from the impact that coaches and other role models have had in his life. His biggest role model was his stepfather, who came into his life at the age of six and, according to Tomlin, taught him what it was to be a man. In describing the impact his father had on him, Mike said, and I quote, ``I had big dreams when I was a child. But without my dad, those dreams might not have come true. He brought stability to my life. He made my world a safe place in which to think, to learn, and yes, to dream. I would not be coaching the Steelers in the Super Bowl today if it weren't for the man who walked into my life when I was a young boy and became my dad.''

Mike has never forgotten the impact his father had on him and has dedicated himself to be that kind of role model, both to his immediate family, and in the community.

And now, Madam Speaker, I include the following article entitled ``Coach Makes a Difference for Many on the Peninsula; Those who know him say Mike Tomlin relishes his status as a role model'' for the Record to highlight the work that Mike has done in his hometown community. It was published in the Daily Press on February 1.

I'd like to once again congratulate Coach Tomlin and the entire Pittsburgh Steelers team on their historic victory.

Coach Makes a Difference for Many on Peninsula--Those Who Know Him Say

Mike Tomlin Relishes His Status as a Role Model

(By Dave Fairbank)

Larry Orie watched Mike Tomlin grow up. Saw him play youth

sports. Attended his football games at Denbigh High and later

at William and Mary.

A close friend of Tomlin's parents since high school, Orie

followed Tomlin's coaching career when he reached the

National Football League. He attended games and visited

Tomlin at professional coaching stops in Tampa, Minnesota and

now as head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

``What I find about him is he's the same all the time,''

said Orie, a retired Newport News fire chief. ``He's

constant. He wants to give back to the community. He's a role

model, even for older folks like me. * * * He definitely

wants to be a role model for the community, especially for

where he came from.''

That's why Orie, in his capacity as vice president for

membership of the 100 Black Men of the Virginia Peninsula,

recommended that the organization recognize Tomlin during its

annual gala in April.

``Larry said, `This is a great guy,' '' chapter President

Everett Browning said. ``He's not just a football coach. This

is a person we want our kids to know about and model their

lives after.''

Tomlin--who will attempt to become the youngest head coach

to win a Super Bowl today, when the Steelers face the Arizona

Cardinals--was the first sports figure selected as Role Model

of the Year in the 16 years of the local chapter of 100 Black

Men, the national organization dedicated to improving the

lives and opportunities of young blacks.

The group usually honors business, political and community

leaders, all of whom have longer resumes than the 36-year-old

Tomlin. In the past, it has recognized such figures as former

Gov. Doug Wilder, U.S. Rep. Robert C. ``Bobby'' Scott Jr. and

Hampton University President William Harvey.

After spending time around Tomlin on that April day,

Browning was convinced that the group had chosen wisely. What

sold Browning wasn't Tomlin's demeanor and message

the night of the affair but an appearance that morning.

Tomlin spoke to more than 100 high school and middle school

students at the Downing-Gross Cultural Arts Center in

downtown Newport News, where Browning said the coach was

sincere, humble and inspirational.

``He said, `Twenty years ago, I was you guys, sitting down

in the audience,' '' Browning remembered. ``A high school

student, listening to people trying to tell me about life and

the things you need to do to be successful. Let me tell you,

what people are telling you is the truth.''

Browning said of Tomlin, ``He said he lived his life by the

code of being a hard worker, of being true to one's self and

realizing if you want to get ahead, you have to make

sacrifices. I was just elated to hear him say those things to

the students.''

Tomlin doesn't need a black-tie gala or a proclamation in

his honor to return to the Peninsula, either.

He took a couple of days' vacation time this past summer

and drove from Pittsburgh to attend the Peninsula All-Star

Football Camp, the annual affair staged by Hampton native and

NFL Players Association communications director Carl Francis.

``I was shocked, but I wasn't shocked,'' Francis said, ``if

you know what I mean.''

Tomlin didn't simply put in an appearance and stand in the

shade, sipping Gatorade. He was on the field at Christopher

Newport University, bouncing around, working up a sweat,

coaching kids and chattering endlessly.

``You could see he was excited to be around kids and talk

football,'' said Bethel High coach Jeff Nelson, who also

worked the camp. ``Sometimes you see a head coach of a big-

time program or an NFL team in a setting like that, and you

get the feeling that they're above everybody. With him, he

was like one of the kids, running around and coaching. Kids

feed off that.''

Francis said, ``I am tremendously grateful to Mike for what

he's done for me and our camp. His humility and generosity

are genuine. He's a caring person. There is no armor on

Mike.''

Francis' football camp is part of his work with the Hampton

Roads Youth Foundation. He remembered that almost two years

ago, he had a conversation with Tomlin--shortly after Tomlin

became Steelers head coach--about the camp and about lining

up speakers for the foundation's annual pre-camp banquet.

``I was using him as a sounding board,'' Francis said. ``I

didn't ask him to do anything, and he said, `Carl, why don't

I just do it?'

``I was like, `Mike, look, you're a new head coach. You've

got a million things on your plate. He said, `No, no, no.

Let's get it done. Just tell me when and where, and I'll be

there.' ''

Tomlin makes an impression, whether it's speaking to kids

in a community center or in the NFL, where he has led the

Steelers to the playoffs in both his years as a head coach.

``I think he's very important,'' Francis said.

``I don't know that our area really understands the

magnitude of what he's doing and how he's perceived.

``If you listen to people around the National Football

League, all the way up to the commissioner's office, they'll

tell you that he's made a tremendous impact around the

league. His maturity and his ability to communicate with

people is remarkable.''

Tomlin, a father of three, has expanded his charitable work

to the Pittsburgh area.

He has participated in charity events there and is a member

of the group All Pro Dad, an organization with deep NFL ties

that helps men become better fathers.

``Most of the kids looking up to athletes think that

there's a possibility that they can get there,'' Orie said,

``but there's a lot more that don't get there than do. But

having Mike as another alternative--it's just like Mr. Obama

being the president now--a kid can look up and say, `I can do

that.'

``He's a good role model because everyone that aspires to

be an athlete is not going to be one, and he's an example

that you don't have to be one to have a good life and have an

impact on people.''

Mr. Speaker, I am delighted to recognize the NAACP on its 100th anniversary. The NAACP holds a very special meaning to me because I have been a long-time active member of the group. I have had the honor of being Virginia's first individual Golden Heritage Life Member and Virginia's first Diamond Life Member, the organization's highest individual membership level. In addition, I have had the honor of serving as president of the Newport News, Virginia branch of the NAACP.

The NAACP is an organization that has made a difference from the very beginning. In 1909, 60 prominent Americans, including Ida B. Wells- Barnett and W.E.B. Du Bois, met on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln to discuss racial violence and social justice. Out of that meeting, the NAACP was born with the goal of securing rights, liberties and protections for all Americans as guaranteed by the Constitution.

Since its inception, the NAACP has worked tirelessly to continuing looking for ways to improve the democratic process and by seeking the enactment and the enforcement of Federal, State and local laws that secure civil rights. The NAACP furthers its mission by making the public aware of adverse effects of racial discrimination and by seeking its elimination. The NAACP also seeks to educate the public about their constitutional rights, and it goes to court to enforce those rights when necessary.

The NAACP has a long and impressive history of activism. It has contributed greatly to shaping America as we know it today. One of its first legislative initiatives was anti-lynching legislation in the early 1990s. In the 1940s, the NAACP was influential in President Roosevelt's decision to issue an executive order prohibiting discrimination in contracts with the Department of Defense. The NAACP was very instrumental in President Truman's decision to issue an executive order ending all discrimination in the military. In 1946, the NAACP won the Morgan v. Virginia case where the Supreme Court banned States from having segregated facilities on buses and trains that crossed State borders. In 1948, the NAACP pressured President Truman into signing an executive order banning all discrimination in the Armed Forces. In 1954, the NAACP won its landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education, declaring separate but equal unconstitutional.

The NAACP is what the late Bishop Stephen Gill Spotswood, the former national board chairman, has called ``the oldest, largest, most effective, most consulted, most militant, most feared, and most loved of all civil rights organizations in the world.'' Bishop Spotswood's statement remains true today.

Even in the 21st century, the NAACP continues to be a strong advocate for fairness and equality. Recently, the NAACP was deeply involved in protesting the Jena 6 controversy where the efforts of the NAACP and others provided justice for the students in

that case. The NAACP continues their work on eliminating racial injustice. It continues to act as a watchdog to protect the civil rights of all people, and it educates the public about civil rights so that future generations will know that tolerance and equality are the norm rather than the exception.

Mr. Speaker, I congratulate the NAACP and its people on 100 years of service to our great country, and I wish them another successful century of service.

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 748) to establish and operate a National Center for Campus Public Safety.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous materials on the bill under consideration.

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

Madam Speaker, over the past few years we have seen a number of tragic incidents of violence at colleges and universities, including the disastrous events at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University. Therefore, we have introduced the Center to Advance, Monitor and Preserve University Security Safety Act of 2009, or the CAMPUS Safety Act of 2009.

This bill will help schools to more effectively prevent such incidents, and to more effectively respond if such events do occur. It creates a National Center of Campus Public Safety, a program to be administered through the Department of Justice.

The center will train campus safety agencies, promote research in improving campus safety, and be a clearinghouse for campus safety information. The director of the center will have authority to award grants to institutions of higher learning to help them meet their enhanced public safety goals.

I would like to thank the gentleman from Texas, the ranking member of the subcommittee, Mr. Gohmert, for his support of this important bipartisan measure.

I urge colleagues to support the bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I would inquire if the gentleman has other speakers.

I reserve my time.

Madam Speaker, I am prepared to close if the gentleman has concluded and will yield back.

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

I would like to thank the other side for their support of the underlying bill and for their comments that give rise to the challenge we may have in actually funding the legislation.

Sixteen years ago, we had a Democratic majority, and we passed a budget and an economic plan. It passed without a single Republican vote--not one in the House, not one in the Senate. It was signed by President Clinton. In 8 years, we eliminated the debt.

As a matter of fact, at the end of the 8 years, when Chairman Greenspan was testifying before Congress, the questions he was asked were questions like: What will happen when we pay off the national debt? What will happen to the bond market? What will happen to interest rates when we pay off the national debt?

It was anticipated that year that we were to clear up all of the debt held by the public. The median income went up about $7,000. Tens of millions of jobs were created. The Dow Jones industrial average more than tripled. Then in 2001, the Republican plan was adopted--the Republicans who have been lecturing on for the last few minutes about the economy.

As a direct result of their plan, we had the worst job performance since the Great Depression. The Dow Jones Industrial Average did not triple. It went down. The median income actually went down. We did not pay off the national debt. We almost doubled the national debt. We are now in a situation where we have to dig ourselves out of that mess. Everyone regrets the necessity of having to have a huge stimulus plan to get us out of the mess, but that is what we have had to do. We would like to listen to the other side and to their ideas, but unfortunately, as a result of recent history, we know where those ideas will put us. So we have a stimulus plan. Hopefully, it will get us out of the mess we are in so that we will have the funds to fund the CAMPUS Safety Act of 2009.

I would hope that the House would support the bill and would support the authorization. Then the next job we will do will be to actually fund it in order to get us out of the economic mess that we are in.

I yield back the balance of my time.