Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor and celebrate the 100th anniversary of Our Lady of the Assumption Church. The church celebrated its anniversary on Saturday, November 2, 2002, which Bayonne Mayor Joseph V. Doria, Jr., proclaimed as Our Lady of the Assumption Centennial Day.

In the early 1900s, a group of Italian-speaking immigrants decided that the Bayonne community needed a national parish that would truly serve the needs of the people. They petitioned the Bishop of Newark to establish a parish that would use the Italian language at mass and other services, allowing for both native and non-native English speakers to benefit from the service. The parish was officially established in June of 1902, and Monsignor Michael Mercolino delivered the first mass in a small store on 21st Street on June 3, 1902. Monsignor Mercolino's participation with the Church did not end there; he dedicated and devoted his time to the parish until 1945.

Our Lady of the Assumption has grown over the past century from that first group of Italian immigrants to a multicultural congregation that celebrates mass and other services in three languages: English, Spanish, and Italian. Three church buildings have also been established: the first in 1902, the second in 1911, and the third in 1976. The City of Bayonne is a better place thanks to the inclusive and generous ways of the ever-growing Our Lady of Assumption Church.

Today, I ask my colleagues to join me in honoring Our Lady of the Assumption Church Centennial Day, a profound and monumental day in the history of the City of Bayonne.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished gentleman for not only yielding time, but offering this most important motion that I believe that all of us who say we want to defend the homeland should be on this floor supporting when the time comes.

Tonight the President of the United States will come before the Congress and the Nation. He will talk about the state of the Union. He will say that our economy is headed in the right direction. We believe it is headed in the wrong direction, but more importantly, in some respect, he will talk about the challenges we face abroad.

But we have two wars, Mr. President. One is the one that you seek to have us engaged in Iraq. There you are sending the greatest talent that America has to offer. You are sending an incredible amount of equipment. You are sending billions of dollars.

Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore

Mr. Speaker, the other war is here at home, and in that war, America has been left virtually defenseless, virtually defenseless. Instead of putting the best resources, the greatest opportunity to those people who I witnessed from my congressional district which sits on the west bank of the Hudson for which the World Trade Center was, in fact, a part of the normal landscape, those who responded on that fateful day of September 11 was not the Federal Government, was not the Defense Department, was not the Federal emergency management.

No, it was police officers and firefighters and emergency management and hospitals and public health systems, and to them, we have taken many pictures, but we have done absolutely nothing about providing one red cent so that they can be prepared, God forbid, for the next attack.

Who did the CIA say was America's greatest threat? It was al Qaeda and bin Laden, the greatest threat to terrorism on domestic soil, and yet all of our focus is elsewhere, and yet the President takes picture with individuals, with our police officers, with our firefighters, and no wonder, when they have not received one red cent, they say, Mr. President, you have merely been using firefighters and their families for one big photo opportunity. The Virginia Professional Firefighters Association and others, the president of the International Association of Firefighters says, Mr. President, you are either with us or against us. You cannot have it both ways. Do not lionize our fallen brothers in one breath and then eliminate funding for our members to fight terrorism and stay safe.

There is a war here at home, and we have not prepared nor have we funded for it. I know that as I have traveled the country when I chaired the task force for House Democrats on homeland security, I can tell my colleagues that what I heard from first responders is that the plans we have on the shelf have nothing to do with chemical or biological weaponry, has nothing to do with the potential nuclear activity. We are not planning for it. We have not prepared for it, and we do not even have the equipment to deal with it.

It is time for us not to listen to the counsel of patience and delay and wait for the next attack to be prepared. It is time for us to act now. Vote for the gentleman's motion to recommit so that we can give the first responders in this country the possibility of responding to the Nation's security and the next possible attack. God forbid, we do not do this now. We have waited already too long.

Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Democratic Caucus, I call up a privileged resolution (H. Res. 35) electing Members, Delegates, and Resident Commissioners to standing committees of the House of Representatives, and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Democratic Caucus, I call up a privileged resolution (H. Res. 36) electing a named Member to standing committees of the House of Representatives, and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. Clerk, as chairman of the Democratic Caucus, I am directed by the unanimous vote of that caucus to present for election to the Office of the Speaker of the House of Representatives for the 108th Congress an incredibly talented Member of the Democratic Caucus and, for the first time in history, the name of a woman, the name of the Honorable Nancy Pelosi, a representative-elect from the State of California.

Mr. Speaker, as chairman of the Democratic Caucus, I have been directed to report to the House that Democratic Members have selected as minority leader the gentlewoman from California, the Honorable Nancy Pelosi.

Mr. Speaker, as chairman of the Democratic Caucus, I have been directed to report to the House that the Democratic Members have elected as minority whip the gentleman from Maryland, Mr. Hoyer.

Mr. Speaker, I have an amendment to the resolution; but before offering the amendment, I request that there be a division of the question on the resolution so that we may have a separate vote on the chaplain.

Mr. Speaker, I offer an amendment to the remainder of the resolution offered by the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Pryce).