Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, I rise today to commend the twelve recipient winners on receiving the 2010 Camden County Freedom Medal. I commend them on being honored for their commitment to their profession and their work on behalf of the community.

The Freedom Medal is awarded to extraordinary citizens of Camden County who have unselfishly contributed their time and effort to better their community and continue Martin Luther King, Jr.'s dream of bringing people together. Brief descriptions of these twelve recipient winners are below.

Dr. Mumtaz H. Bodla played a vital role in organizing fundraisers for several natural disaster relief projects. Dr. Bodla has also contributed to the food and clothing drive for the homeless in Camden County. His tireless dedication and time working for all of these causes has not only benefited them but certainly his own community is enriched by his presence and all of his hard work.

Mr. Kevin Jackson is a member of the M.E.N. (Men Empowering Nations) Board and serves as its Treasurer and invaluable mentor. He shares his extensive education, rich employment and entrepreneurial experience with the young men in positive ways. Mr. Jackson epitomizes Dr. King's beliefs and passes that onto the young men in the community.

Ms. Madeline Shilling was one of the earliest members of the Hi-Nella Fire Company's Ladies Auxiliary, for which she served as President. She has always been active with the skits the members of the Fire Company and Auxiliary put on for their Socials. As a dedicated volunteer over the years, Ms. Schilling has impacted and benefited her community.

Ms. Marilyn Torres is a community activist who has served in a myriad of capacities throughout the city of Camden. She served as Acting President/Chairperson of the Camden County Human Relations Commission, and was later elected to the position of Chairperson due to her esteemed leadership. Ms. Torres is dedicated to improving the quality of life in her community.

Mr. Timothy Chatten serves as the Section Chief of the Juvenile Unit of the Camden County Prosecutor's Office. He has volunteered his services countless times in Biloxi, Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina. His remodeling, reconstruction, and handy work skills has helped dozens of families recovering from the disaster. His faithful commitment and personal sacrifice to these people has not gone unnoticed.

Ms. Marian Stoy has served as Hi-Nella Fire Hall Girl Scout leader, a member on the PTA local school board, and as an officer of the Hi-Nella Fire Company Ladies Auxiliary. The auxiliary, during her term, donated over ninety-six thousand dollars to the local Fire Company. Over this period of time, she was instrumental in instilling positive morals and values to hundreds of young girls.

Rev. Charles E. Giddins Sr. is the Senior Pastor of Victory Temple Community Church of God In Christ in Camden New Jersey. He has taught courses from Moody's Bible Institute and the American Bible College and also has held school bible study for city youth. Rev. Giddins established a Day Care program so that young mothers could go to work knowing that their children were safe. Rev. Giddins continues to serve and better his community as he answers the call of God.

Mr. Qasim Hussain has provided leadership as a member of The Pakistan-American Society of South Jersey. He has spent countless hours volunteering for several international natural disaster relief missions, while helping his own community with the yearly Christmas collection of food, clothing and toys for the homeless of Camden City. Mr. Hussain is not only a shining example for this community, but he has truly touched many lives by his dedication and generosity.

Ms. Christine Parry is the Chairperson for the Human Concerns Ministries at St. Andrew the Apostle Church in Gibbsboro. Ms. Parry volunteers the majority of her time to the Christian Cupboard, Prison Ministry, Nursing Home Companion Ministry and Local Outreach Ministry. Many lives and families have been assisted and touched by these various ministries and by Ms. Parry's unselfish service to the community.

Ms. Jennifer Storer is a lifelong resident of Camden County who unselfishly contributes to her community as a member of the Black Horse Pike Board of Education. She is a major force on the Policy and Planning Committee and the Facilities, Security and Transportation Committee as well. She also won the Renaissance Achievement Award for her leadership and service. Her dedication and service to the community, especially the youth, will continue to impact the community.

Mr. William and Mrs. Patricia McCargo have distinguished themselves as advocates for the rights of the underserved and the promotion of the equity and fairness as President and Corresponding Secretary of the Cherry Hill African American Civic Association. They are exemplary models of the vision and dreams of Dr. King. As Cherry Hill natives and graduates of Cherry Hill High School West, they know the meaning of qualitative education.

Madam Speaker, the work of these twelve individuals is truly praiseworthy. I congratulate the 2010 Camden County Freedom Medal

winners on their accomplishment and I thank them for their commitment to their community.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the extraordinary contributions of Gregory B. Roberts. On February 1, 2010, Mr. Roberts retired as President of L-3 Communication Systems-East after an amazing forty three-year career in the Aerospace and Defense industry. L-3 Communication Systems-East is located in my district and I have had the privilege to have known and worked with Mr. Roberts during the past 14 years.

Mr. Roberts is a graduate of the University of Virginia where he received a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering. He also received a master's degree in electrical engineering from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn.

Mr. Roberts has held leadership roles in some of our most distinguished defense companies, including L-3 Communications, General Electric Aerospace--Reentry Systems, Martin Marietta, and later Lockheed Martin.

Mr. Roberts' provided the leadership that led to the development of numerous innovative and high technology solutions for U.S. government customers including secure communications technologies, maritime communications solutions, space-based communications, channel processing equipment, and re-entry and fusing systems for Minuteman and Peacekeeper missiles.

Those who know Mr. Roberts, know that throughout his career he has mentored our top scientists and engineers, and in doing so, has provided the country with our next generation of leadership talent.

Madam Speaker, Mr. Roberts has a proud record of service to our country and I am proud to call him my friend. I congratulate Greg Roberts for all his accomplishments and wish him the best in his retirement.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the extraordinary contributions that the Gloucester County NAACP has made in our community. Today, I stand to celebrate the NAACP's centennial along with the Gloucester County chapter's 18th year in creating change and being an influential voice in America's conscience.

The honorees at December's Annual Freedom Fund Awards Banquet, Chazz Witherspoon, Benjamin T. Griffith, Dr. Sandra M. Butts, Angela Nolan- Cooper, Seth Williams, Dr. Angela M. Jones, Frank Brown, Councilwoman Crystal Evans, Gwendolyn DeVera, Dr. Willie and Mrs. Emily Carter, Loretta Winters, Tiffany Grandison, and LaTonya Nelson, are a testament to the strength of the South Jersey community and the Gloucester County NAACP. These men and women come from all walks of life. They are boxers and bankers, police officers and politicians, anesthesiologists and attorneys. Despite their varied backgrounds, they have much in common. All should be commended for dedicating their time and energy to service of their community.

The Gloucester County chapter of the NAACP was established in 1991. In its first 18 years, the Gloucester County NAACP has been influential in providing scholarships for minority students, coordinating voter registration drives, and encouraging students to reach their full potential.

In celebrating the centennial of the NAACP, we must recognize the important role that the NAACP has played both on a national and local level to ensure the political, educational, social and economic equality of all Americans.

Madam Speaker, the Gloucester County NAACP has made invaluable contributions to the South Jersey region. I congratulate the Gloucester County NAACP on achieving its 18th anniversary, and look forward to its continued successes in the future.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the life and memory of Rebecca H. Capuzzi, of Philadelphia who passed away on December 20, 2009 at Jefferson Hospital after a brief illness.

Born on April 22, 1922 in Philadelphia, she was the daughter of the late David Hoffman and Mary (Singerman) Hoffman. Mrs. Capuzzi is survived by her two daughters, Donna and Judy, her son-in-law, Bernard, and her treasured grandson, Brandon. She was the devoted wife of the late John Capuzzi, a well known art restorer in Philadelphia. Mrs. Capuzzi's appreciation for the arts was evident to all those lucky enough to know her. She encouraged her beloved grandson, Brandon, to learn about the importance of the arts and often brought him to cultural institutions and performances. She will be interred at West Laurel Hill Cemetery, Mausoleum of Peace, with her husband.

Madam Speaker, Rebecca Capuzzi's commitment to her family should not go unrecognized. I express my deepest condolences to her family for their loss and pay tribute to the memory of this astounding individual.

Madam Speaker, the Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act offers the Iranian regime a clear choice; either Iran can discontinue its nuclear weapons program or the Iranian economy will be severely disrupted by these tough new economic sanctions. As we have seen over recent months, the Iranian regime has proven to be openly and appallingly despotic. After falsifying election results, the Iranian leadership crushed the political opposition with brutal violence which was broadcast to every corner of the world. We have seen what this regime is capable of, and these tyrannical leaders cannot be trusted with nuclear weapons. Now, as this brutal regime comes ever closer to the development of a nuclear weapon the international community, acting through the United Nations Security Council, must use sanctions to pressure Iran to stop their nuclear program. This is in the self- interest of all the permanent members of the Security Council. The stability of the entire region would be threatened if Iran were to develop a nuclear weapon as other leaders would certainly decide that a nuclear Iran on their doorstep would necessitate a nuclear program of their own. Iran has been given until the end of this year by President Obama to negotiate in good faith. The clock is ticking down, and when we reach midnight on December 31st, billions around the world will celebrate the dawning of a new year. For the brutal Iranian regime, it will mean that their window of opportunity has slammed shut. They will have sealed their fate. Either they will have joined the nations of the world to create a more peaceful 21st century, or they will be facing the political and economic consequences of their own actions.

I thank my friend for yielding.

A tired old tradition is being carried out on the House floor today. When it comes time to extend the national debt ceiling, the Members in the minority get up and express outrage, and enough Members in the majority get up and show responsibility and vote to do what needs to be done to pay the Nation's bills.

Madam Speaker, I know a lot of people watching this are scratching their heads and saying, how did we get to such a terrible predicament? Whose fault is it? And I think they're tired of hearing whose fault it is because, frankly, when the other side is in the majority, we say it's their fault; when they're in the minority, they say it's our fault.

I think a history lesson is in order. In 2001, as Mr. Tanner said, we were looking at a projected $5 trillion surplus over the decade that we're now closing out. We're going to take in $5 trillion more than we spent. There were three things that happened in that decade that injured that prospect. The first was horrific, unavoidable, and the fault of no one in this room; it was the terrorist attack on the country on September 11, 2001, which had and still has negative economic consequences as well as security consequences for the country.

The second thing that happened, in my view, is that two disastrous choices were made. The first was to launch two wars by borrowing the money to pay for those wars in Iraq and in Afghanistan. We certainly can disagree--and we have around here a lot--as to whether or not those wars were or were not in the national interest, but I think we should have understood that it was absolutely not in the national interest to defy historic tradition and finance those wars by borrowing money, unlike more responsible predecessors of ours had done in other times.

The second disastrous decision was a tax cut, a huge majority of which benefited the wealthiest 5 or 10 percent of people in this country. That created a mountain of debt that shifted us from a projected $5 trillion surplus to a projected deficit instead.

Then followed the financial meltdown of the fall of 2008. The Treasury Secretary told us in no uncertain terms that he felt that we were perhaps a few days away from the collapse of the global economy. So to this floor came a $700 billion bailout bill for the banking industry, and a lot of Members on both sides voted for it. I think it was the right vote because I do think it staved off that calamity from happening, and that added to the national debt. And yes, there were decisions made since the new administration came in to do the stimulus bill in a way that was not paid for.

And I know there is disagreement over whether that was the right thing to do. I think it was absolutely the right thing to do because it stimulated between 600,000 and 1.6 million jobs thus far being saved or created.

Let me say this to you: irrespective of how you recount the history as to how we got here, here we are. And to deal with this problem it seems to me there are three inescapable things we have to do. The first is to get entitlement spending under control. Frankly, our side believes the health care reform bill does exactly that, and the Congressional Budget Office would concur--nearly $500 billion in entitlement

reductions over a 10-year period. Second, you have to get revenue back on track. Our budget calls for a repeal of the tax reductions for those that are in the top 5 percent or so of the country. I think that is the responsible thing to do. No one on the other side voted for that. And finally, we have to stop spending $300 or $400 billion a year to buy oil from other parts of the world. We had legislation here that would put us on that path and build American jobs. Almost no one--single digits--on the other side voted for that.

So this is the day when the minority expresses outrage. There ought to be some other days when the minority expresses some ideas, some plans on how to fix the problem.

Vote ``yes.''

Madam Speaker, I thank the ranking member and the chairman for their guidance.

I rise in strong support of the legislation.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Society Hill Playhouse in Philadelphia. Under the leadership of Deen and Jay Kogan, who founded the theater in 1959, the Society Hill Playhouse has become a home for important works by contemporary American and European playwrights.

The Kogans met while students at Temple University and married soon after graduation. Deen carried a lifelong passion for the theater, and Jay, a former World War II prisoner of war, was soon bitten by the theater bug. After a year working in theaters in Milan and Zurich, the Kogans set out to create their vision of a theater community in Philadelphia.

Over the last 50 years, the Society Hill Playhouse has delighted Philadelphia audiences with productions including Nunsense, Lafferty's Wake, and Menopause: The Musical. In addition to its contributions to the Philadelphia theater community, the Society Hill Playhouse created the Philadelphia Youth Theater, which for 25 years opened its doors to allow Philadelphia youth to have access to the arts and develop their skills.

The Society Hill Playhouse prides itself on its appeal to ``people who don't like theater . . . or who think they don't.'' As Philadelphia's original public theater, the Society Hill Playhouse has made a lasting contribution to the design of new theaters throughout the Delaware Valley. Rarely does a theater extend beyond a location and become an integral member of the arts community, but the Playhouse has done exactly that. The Society Hill Playhouse brought a new generation into the theater, while producing hits and entertaining crowds for 50 years.

Madam Speaker, the Society Hill Playhouse has made immeasurable cultural contributions to the Philadelphia area. I congratulate Deen Kogan and her late husband Jay on accomplishing their vision of a premiere arts institution in Philadelphia, and wish the Society Hill Playhouse many more years of success.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself 3 minutes.

Madam Speaker, the people of the country and Members of the House deserve a vigorous debate. They also deserve an accurate record. And I think the time has come to begin to clarify and correct some of the series of assertions that have been made here that are simply not correct.

There was an assertion made from the minority side a few minutes ago that no one knows what will happen to those who are on TRICARE or veterans health benefits. The gentleman may not know, but we do. Nothing will change for a person under TRICARE or veterans benefits if they do not wish to have it changed.

There was a statement made on the other side that the bill will ``cover illegal aliens.'' That is incorrect. There is no subsidy and there is no coverage for an undocumented person.

There have been numerous statements made on the other side that there will be massive tax increases on the American people. Here is the fact: the fact is that there is a surtax in this bill that helps to pay for coverage of uninsured people and for better quality care. It affects the top .3 percent of households in this country. If you're an individual and you make more than $500,000 a year adjusted gross income, if you're a couple and you make more than $1 million a year adjusted gross income, it affects you.

The statement has been made repeatedly the bill will add to the deficit. That's not the truth. That's not what the Congressional Budget Office says. They say the contrary. They say that the net effect of this bill is it will reduce the deficit in the first 10 years by in excess of $100 billion and that in the second 10 years, the bill will reduce the deficit by somewhere in the neighborhood of one-quarter of 1 percent of GDP.

The statement has been repeatedly made that it is a crime not to have health insurance. Here's the accurate statement: because there is a penalty imposed on individuals who don't meet the individual mandate, and, by the way, that individual mandate has within it very generous subsidies and it has a hardship exemption, but it has been said it is a crime not to have health care. That is not accurate. It is a crime to willfully and intentionally evade taxation, just as it is with every other tax.

It has been said this is a government takeover of health care. That is false. This is a consumer takeover of health care. And those who would be apologists for the insurance industry don't like that. The American people do and will.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I'm pleased at this time to yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Fudge), who's one of the authors of the small business provisions in the bill.

Madam Speaker, nurses make a great contribution to our health care system, and a gentlewoman who is a nurse has made a great contribution to this bill. I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. McCarthy).

Madam Speaker, at this time I would like to yield to a gentleman who authored a very key provision about saving money through medical records technology, the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Wu) for 1\1/ 2\ minutes.

Madam Speaker, at this time it is my honor to yield 4 minutes to a person who has spent a distinguished career in this House fighting for this day, who is one of the principal authors of this bill, the leader of our committee, the chairman of the Committee on Education and Labor, the gentleman from California (Mr. George Miller).

I yield the gentleman an additional 1 minute.

Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield to a Member who understands the immorality of 47 million uninsured. The gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Kildee) is recognized for 1 minute.

Madam Speaker, when people were about to be deprived the freedom to choose a public option, the Progressive Caucus stood up. The leader of the Progressive Caucus that led that effort will now be our next speaker.

The gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey) is recognized for 2 minutes.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself 30 seconds before the next introduction.

There is a credibility issue here. The minority says the bill doesn't have enough prevention, but the American Cancer Society supports the bill. The minority says it destroys the doctor-patient relationship, but the American Medical Association supports the bill. The minority says it's bad for America's seniors and for Medicare, but the AARP supports the bill. I think there is a credibility issue, and it doesn't work for the minority.

At this time, I would be happy to yield 1\1/4\ minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Sestak).

Madam Speaker, before I yield to my next speaker, I yield myself 30 seconds.

With all due respect, what is an absolute disaster are the repeated misrepresentations of certain things that are in this bill, and we just heard one. No one is forced to join the public option. No one. It is not in the bill; and I would, frankly, invite the minority to show us where it is.

Secondly, Members of Congress are positioned exactly the way everyone else is with the public option. When and if the time comes that the Federal Government is a participating employer in the exchange, we can either choose the public option or not. The House deserves an accurate record.

I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to a woman who stood for fiscal soundness not only here in Washington but in New Hampshire for her State budget, the gentlewoman from New Hampshire, Carol Shea-Porter.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself 15 seconds.

The gentlewoman just quoted an unnamed phantom Obama administration adviser. Christina Romer, the CEA chairperson for the Obama administration, says this bill will increase the GDP between 1-2 percent and will add several million jobs.

I am pleased to yield 1\1/2\ minutes to a strong voice for working families in this country, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hare).

Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield 1\1/2\ minutes to a member who fought tirelessly for equality in Medicare reimbursement for the State of Iowa, the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Loebsack).

Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to a gentlewoman who authored a provision to expand small business opportunities for affordable health insurance, the gentlewoman from Nevada (Ms. Titus).

Madam Speaker, a number of great and visionary men have stood at the podium where you stand now as Speaker of the House. Many of them tried to achieve significant health care reform; each of them failed. A lot of strong visionary men failed, so we will succeed with a strong, visionary woman.

It is my privilege to yield 1 minute to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi.

Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman who made sure that the ban on discrimination based on preexisting conditions will take effect as soon as this bill does, the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Courtney).

Mr. Speaker, our next speaker fought hard to make sure the vast majority of entrepreneurs in small businesses were exempt from any taxes under this bill. I am pleased to yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Polis).

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 1 minute to a gentleman who has led the fight to help small businesses in this bill, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Bishop).

Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to how much time each side has left?

Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to yield 1 minute to the newest member of our committee, who has made a tremendous contribution to this bill already, the gentlelady from California (Ms. Chu).

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey, my neighbor and friend, Mr. Holt.

I am honored to yield 1 minute to a gentleman who has done an extraordinarily effective job of representing his constituents, the gentleman from the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (Mr. Sablan).

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Clarke), one of the leading voices for senior citizens, resulting in the AARP endorsing our bill.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 3 minutes.

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

I would like to thank my friends on both sides of the aisle. This has been a stressful time for Americans, and today may have been a very stressful day for Americans.

This might have been the day that someone thought they were going to get a job but found out that they won't get the job because they had breast cancer 5 years ago and can't get health insurance because of their preexisting condition. It has not been their day.

Or it might be the day that a senior citizen decides that they don't have the money this week to renew their prescription because they're in the doughnut hole under Medicare. So they're going to pay their rent instead of their prescription bill, and they're going to get very sick. It's just not their day.

Or it might be the day that someone is lying awake in bed, churning about the fact that their child seems a little sicker than usual. But if they take them to the doctor, they might get sent to the hospital, and they can't pay the hospital bill because they have no health insurance, and it might mean bankruptcy or foreclosure or losing their home. It's just not their day.

If we pass this bill and it gets to the President's desk, a new day will come to this country, because no person with a preexisting condition will ever suffer discrimination again; because effective next year, eventually no senior will run out of drug coverage at any time during the year because they work for it and they deserve it. The new day will come to that uninsured person because no hardworking American will ever go without health insurance in this country.

You know, the special interests and the lobbyists and the health insurance industry, they have all had their day. They have been around here for a very long time. And I hate to disappoint them, but today is not their day. It is the day for uninsured Americans. It is the day for hardworking Americans. This is the day when we will begin the change, and every American will get the health care they so richly deserve.

Stand up for those who cannot be heard, and vote ``yes'' for this bill.

Mr. Speaker, when you can't win an argument on the facts, you resort to emotion. The minority can't win the argument with insured people because they preserve the right of insurance companies to discriminate on the basis of preexisting conditions.

They can't win the argument with senior citizens because they ignore the doughnut hole that they created in 2003 in the Medicare part D.

And they don't ignore the uninsured. I will give them some credit for that. There are going to be 50 million uninsured in 2010. They do change that. Their plan would make it 55 million uninsured 10 years from now.

So they are standing on a motion, and we hear a Member say this: ``We cannot stand idly by now, as the Nation is urged to embark on an ill- conceived adventure in government medicine, the end of which no one can see, and from which the patient is certain to be the ultimate sufferer.''

But the Member wasn't a current Member, and the time wasn't now, and the issue wasn't this bill. The Member was Durward Hall, the time was 1965, and the issue was Medicare.

They were wrong then, they are wrong now, and their substitute is wrong. You should vote no.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the life and memory of Victor J. Herlinsky, Sr., of Mahwah, NJ who passed away on August 14th after a long struggle with Parkinson's disease.

Mr. Herlinsky was born in Ukraine to parents Adam and Augusta on July 10th, 1927 and lived in Germany and Brazil before immigrating to the United States in 1956. Embodying the American dream of self-made success, Mr. Herlinsky was one of the founding partners of the 4-H Brothers trailer-body manufacturing and repair company in Wallington,

Mr. Speaker, if you listen to America's senior citizens and ask them what they want with respect to Medicare, I think this is what you hear. Seniors want to continue to have their benefits left alone and be able to choose the doctor and hospital they want. Under our plan, they do.

Seniors want to pay less for their prescription drugs which are rising at a rapid pace. Under our plan, they will.

Seniors want to be sure that their doctors will continue to provide quality care for them because they trust and rely on those doctors so much. Under our bill, doctors will get more of what they richly and fairly deserve. They will get paid what they deserve.

Now, the other side has engaged in a scare campaign to scare America's seniors. I think what most scares America's seniors is the irresponsibility of proposing nothing about America's health care crisis. That is what the minority offers.

We offer a better way, a brighter way, and a safer way for America's seniors.

I thank my friend for yielding.

Mr. Speaker and Members of the House, the House has an opportunity today to do something in a very fair and correct way and that is very important.

I do want the record to reflect the degree of inclusion that Chairman Gordon and the members of his committee have put forth in this bill.

By my count, there were 29 suggestions made by the minority which are included in this underlying legislation. One was made at the subcommittee level and was accepted, and three were made at the full committee level and were accepted. The gentlewoman from Arizona has a manager's amendment which will be considered by the House later today. My understanding is it includes 25 suggestions from the minority. The minority had some input, so the idea that this is a one-sided discussion, I think, is simply not accurate. More importantly, the discussion takes us in a direction that our country very badly needs to go.

My friend from Tennessee just talked about the importance of paying down the national debt, and he sure is right. There is a best way to pay down the national debt, in my view, and two of the best ways are included in this bill. The first is to stop spending hundreds of billions of dollars a year overseas to buy energy from countries that are not terribly friendly to us. The second way is to put Americans to work. So, instead of consuming public resources in the welfare, Medicaid or food stamp systems, they're paying more taxes because they're making more money, and they're contributing to the Treasury in that way.

This bill puts us on a path that leads to those two directions. It is a road map. It suggests ways that innovative strategies can be used to increase the amount of energy that we derive from the sun.

Now, my friend from New Mexico could have talked about how solar energy is prominent in his State because they do have a lot of sunshine there. I'm from New Jersey. We have a fair degree of sunshine but certainly not to the degree that they have in New Mexico. However, New Jersey is now second in the Nation in the number of kilowatt hours that we produce from solar energy. So our State is living proof of the fact that you do not have to be in a warmer, sunny-all-the-time climate in order to achieve progress in this way. Those are the kinds of strategies that we will see investigated and encouraged as a result of this bill.

You know, this is a matter of energy, environment and security. The energy aspects are obvious. The more energy we derive from the sun, the less we buy from the Middle East and the less vulnerable we are. Second, it's a matter of the environment. The emission of greenhouse gases is a serious and growing problem in our ecosystem, and this bill would reduce the amount of greenhouse gases that we emit into the environment.

Finally, it's a matter of national security. Many of the problems that vex us today in the international situation are precisely because we put ourselves in a position of disadvantage by buying so much necessary energy from overseas, often

from countries who do not share our human rights or international agenda.

This has been a very fair and open process. It's a very wise and forward-looking bill, and I would encourage Members of both the majority and minority to support this rule and to support the underlying bill later this afternoon.

Well, it's been 126 days and the minority party's not given us their plan for health care. What they have given America's seniors is a lot of misrepresentations on Medicare. This bill does not cut Medicare benefits for seniors. It cuts corporate welfare for insurance companies. There is a program called Medicare Advantage, and it's an advantage for the insurance industry because it works like this: for every $100 that we spend on regular Medicare to take care of seniors, insurance companies get $114. They keep most of that $14, if not all of it, and do not use it to help seniors. We're getting rid of that and I think that makes sense.

This bill will work in favor of seniors on Medicare because when you go to the doctor for preventive care if you're a senior on Medicare, no more copay, no more out of your pocket. Medicare pays it all. The cost of your prescription drugs will drop, and Medicare benefits will be strengthened. The life of the Medicare trust fund will be extended by 5 years.

So after 126 days, you'd think they'd come up with something, but what they've come up with is more misrepresentation.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the extraordinary contributions that Judge Bruce W. Kauffman has made to the legal community in his five decades of service.

A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Yale Law School, Judge Kauffman began his service to the legal community as a law clerk to the Honorable Vincent S. Haneman of the Superior Court of New Jersey, and thereafter joined the law firm of Dilworth Paxson, where he represented some of the nation's most high-profile clients and rose to become chairman of the firm.

In 1980, Judge Kauffman was appointed to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, where he served with distinction for two years. In 1997, President Bill Clinton nominated Judge Kauffman to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. During his tenure, the Judge returned to his alma mater and served as an Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania. Judge Kauffman served on the District Court until his retirement from the Federal bench in July of 2009.

Those who know the Judge know that his service is not finished, and that he is undertaking a new commitment to serve as Cochairman of the Executive Committee at Elliott Greenleaf, where he will be instrumental in providing counsel to clients and mentoring attorneys, as he has done for so many others throughout his career.

Mr. Speaker, there is not a word in this bill that silences a religious voice or a voice of conscience because of the hate crimes legislation. What there is in this bill is a very important choice that my friend, Mr. Taylor, just talked about a minute ago. A few years ago, we discovered to our horror that when vehicles drove over roadside bombs, the floors of the vehicles were not capable of stopping the explosion from killing the troops inside. That problem has manifested itself again in Afghanistan on rugged terrain. This bill funds 5,000 vehicles that will protect the lives of the young Americans who travel that rough terrain.

The choice is not about House procedure or civil rights arguments. The choice is yes or no. For those 5,000 vehicles, for those troops who travel that rough terrain, yes or no. The right vote is ``yes.'' The way to honor our commitment is ``yes.'' I would urge both Republicans and Democrats to vote ``yes.''