Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I missed two recorded votes on December 9. I would like to indicate at this point how I would have voted had I been present for those votes.

On Roll Call No. 552, on Motion to Recommit the California Emergency Drought Relief Act 2014, I would have voted ``aye.''

On Roll Call No. 553, passage of the California Emergency Drought Relief Act 2014, I would have voted ``nay.''

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the 55th Electronic Combat Group, the Compass Call mission, and its 25th anniversary of combat operations in defense of our great nation. Compass Call is a United States Air Force mission that uses modified C- 130s to fly above contested airspace, jamming

enemy command and control communications. By targeting enemy navigation, radar and data systems, Compass Call helps save lives on the ground and in the air.

This Saturday, current and past members of the Compass Call mission will be taking part in a reunion in Tucson, Arizona, my home district. Since Operation Just Cause ended the military dictatorship of Manuel Noriega in Panama, Compass Call has been flying in every major conflict over the past 25 years.

Spanning the last eleven years, Compass Call has provided exceptional electronic warfare protection for the United States and allied forces in Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. To date, the mission has amassed 37,000 combat hours and there is a high likelihood that at this moment, there is an EC-130H flying overhead providing coverage for our troops.

I am proud that Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson is home to Compass Call. No state is as fiercely loyal to our service members as Arizona.

It is our honor to celebrate with the 55th Electronic Combat Group as they reunite this weekend.

It is no wonder that the group has been awarded the Air Force's 2014 Electronic Combat Annual Award Program Unit of the Year and the Air Force's Association of Old Crows Outstanding Electronic Combat Unit of the Year.

What these men and women do behind the scenes may not get much attention but it is what wins wars.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in recognition and celebration of the El Rio Community Health Center of Tucson, Arizona,

which is celebrating the opening of its new Congress Health Center.

The El Rio Community Health Center is one of the largest non-profit community health centers in the United States. Founded in 1970 by Tucsonans committed to bringing accessible and affordable health care to all, the El Rio Community Health Center serves over 900 people each day, more than three-fourths of whom live at or below the federal poverty level.

El Rio's brand new, 54,000 square foot facility makes state-of-the- art healthcare accessible to all residents of southeastern Arizona's largest city. The new facility will help El Rio serve an additional six thousand patients each year, as well as creating numerous new health care jobs and helping our local economy thrive.

I congratulate the El Rio Community Health Center and support its continued efforts to make sure all people are able to access the health services they need.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in recognition and celebration of QuakeWrap, a growing business in Tucson, Arizona that is improving the safety of infrastructure around the globe. On October 1, 2014, they will be honored by the District Export Council of Arizona for their success in exporting.

QuakeWrap is to be recognized and celebrated for its job creation and sales here in the United States and in multiple international markets, including Australia, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria and Vietnam, as well as its work with the United Nations. Both private and public sector customers are utilizing its patented carbon fiber technology to repair, modernize and secure vital infrastructure for public safety and commerce, such as bridges, pipelines, buildings and piers. Among their diverse portfolio of projects, they have repaired the tunnel system under the University of Arizona, done retrofit work on Alcatraz Island in the San Francisco Bay, provided seismic retrofit for the VA Medical Center in Albuquerque, provided blast protection for the new UN building in Beirut, Lebanon and begun an extensive infrastructure pile project in Nigeria.

QuakeWrap is an example of a small U.S. business that has grown by being a leader in state-of-the-art technology and by embracing exporting as key to their growth strategy. Even in the face of great economic recession, QuakeWrap increased its revenues and created jobs in our community. QuakeWrap has also made strategic and effective utilization of key export resources at both the federal and state levels, including the U.S. Commercial Service and its Arizona Export Assistance Center in Arizona, the Arizona Commerce Authority, and the U.S. Small Business Administration--demonstrating the impactful collaboration that can indeed exist between the private and public sectors.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in recognition and celebration of Access Tucson, an independent, nonprofit, membership-based organization that is celebrating 30 years of serving the people of Tucson, Arizona. I also want to commend Executive Director Lisa Horner for her many years of service to this community.

Access Tucson provides the training and facilities for Tucsonans to communicate with their community through electronic media. Access Tucson producers provide the ideas, information and diversity to create the most visible part of Access Tucson's operations: the programming.

Public access television is the only forum in which individual citizens have the opportunity to express their opinions and perspectives to the community through cable television. Access Tucson provides an important venue for exercising one of our First Amendment rights: the right to free speech. Public access television makes the use of electronic media possible for many groups that are under- represented or not heard or seen in conventional broadcast television.

Access Tucson provides programming with an important social benefit-- such as programs that assist refugees learn how various Tucson services operate and how they can become fully integrated into our community. Access Tucson also provides media training and media literacy to many individuals, including people living with a disability.

I congratulate Access Tucson on its 30th anniversary and look forward to enjoying its service to our community for at least another 30 years.

Thank you, Congresswoman, and thank you for bringing us together this evening on this important topic.

I represent 85,000 veterans in my district, one of the largest communities of veterans in the country. My father was a veteran of World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. He would be appalled if he were alive today to see what has been happening at the Veterans Affairs Department in our State and in other parts of the country. I am really proud that this Congress has taken action to address those concerns to give the Secretary the authority he needs to address those concerns.

Mr. Speaker, nearly a decade and a half of brutal conflict overseas has taken its toll on our men and women who serve in the Armed Forces. I was in Afghanistan about 3 months ago, and I saw the conditions under which our military operates. The stress is immense. Everywhere you go there is a threat. Extended deployments and multiple deployments have taken their toll on people we have sent to protect our country and to fight the battles we asked them to fight.

It is estimated that perhaps as many as 500,000 veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan will return home, when all is said and done, with serious wounds, the wounds that are signature wounds of these conflicts: posttraumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury.

Military service creates a culture that demands that our soldiers are tough, and the culture can also prevent many of our servicemembers from seeking the help they need. As a result, they are left to face the ghosts of war alone.

The suicide rate among our country's brave servicemen and -women and veterans is at a frightening level. Some estimates have shown that as many as 22 veterans take their own lives every day.

We must combat military and veteran suicide with the same conviction that we take on the enemy of war because it is killing our men and women in and out of uniform. We must wage a well-funded, well-planned campaign to fight this heartbreaking epidemic.

I have been pushing for better access to health care for our veterans since I came to Congress almost 2\1/2\ years ago.

One of the first bills I introduced was the Veterans Health Access Act to ensure that veterans could get the mental health care that they needed in communities without having to endure long commutes and even longer wait times at VA facilities.

Government dysfunction cannot be the enemy of our servicemen and veterans. We must do more to cut the red tape that has kept our veterans from top quality mental health care. I am pleased that the VA bill that we passed allows the VA to contract out for services close to where the veteran lives. This is essential, particularly for treatment of mental health issues.

Mr. Speaker, we must do more for those who have borne the brunt of war. We must come together--Congress, the administration, the health care community, mental health experts--to build upon a plan that will help our veterans who have served this Nation so courageously and yet may still be suffering.

Again, I want to thank the gentlewoman from Arizona for bringing this to the House floor this evening. I stand ready to work with her and all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to do what we can for our veterans, not only in Arizona, but nationwide.

Mr. Speaker, I missed one recorded vote on September 8. I would like to indicate at this point how I would have voted had I been present for that vote.

On rollcall No. 482, to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 1335 Jefferson Road in Rochester, New York, as the ``Specialist Theodore Matthew Glende Post Office,'' I would have voted ``aye.''

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the Tucson Arizona Boys Chorus, which will be celebrating its 75th anniversary this year.

Established in 1939, the Tucson Arizona Boys Chorus was formed by Eduardo Caso, a teacher and singer in Arizona recovering from tuberculosis. The choir quickly rose to prominence, starring in early national radio and television broadcasts, and even performing at the 1950 Chicago World's Fair.

The Chorus continued to grow, aggressively traveling to all corners of the globe, a mission that continues to this day. They have performed in over 25 different countries, visiting every continent except Antarctica. From Tucson to the former Soviet Union, from the Vatican to Super Bowl XXX, this extraordinary institution has continuously embodied those qualities that make southern Arizona such a treasure.

Vital to the Chorus' mission is the development of its members through concentrated character growth. These young men learn core values such as leadership, responsibility, sincerity, integrity, reliability and honor.

Under the direction of Dr. Julian Ackerley, the Tucson Arizona Boys Chorus shares the values and traditions of southern Arizona with the world. I congratulate the Tucson Arizona Boys Chorus on 75 years of excellence and wish them the best for the next 75 years to come.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the Military Affairs Committee of the Tucson Metro Chamber for 85 years of outstanding service to the communities of Southern Arizona. No other state is as friendly to the military as Arizona and the Tucson Metro Chamber is at the forefront in support of our military installations, service members, military families and veterans.

With the military generating nearly two billion dollars in economic activity in Tucson, the Military Affairs Committee plays a critical role, acting as a conduit for Southern Arizona businesses to access, partner and work with Tucson's strong defense industry. The Committee also engages in a number of community projects, such as Toys for Tots and Operation Zulu, a program that raises funds in the business community to send holiday gifts to local deployed service members.

The Military Affairs Committee has helped advocate for Davis-Monthan since 1929, when it was the nation's first municipal aviation field. Today with the MAC's help, Tucson and its surrounding military installations look to the future, ready to support our men and women in uniform for another 85 years, through to the end of the 21st Century.

I am proud to recognize the Military Affairs Committee on the occasion of its 85th year of community support and all that it has done for the men and women stationed in Southern Arizona, their families, and our city that we know and love.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud and honored to rise today in support of the Veterans' Access to Care Through Choice, Accountability, and Transparency Act of 2014 and to commend Representative Miller and Representative Michaud for their leadership in getting this bill to us and this conference committee report to us today.

As the son of a veteran of World War II, Korea, and Vietnam, I say it is long overdue that Congress took action to provide the quality of care that our veterans have earned. I am here today to fight for veterans in southern Arizona, of which I represent 85,000, and veterans all across this Nation.

I have been pushing for better access to health care for our veterans since I came to Congress a little over 2 years ago. This has become even more urgent given the tragedy, the disgraceful behavior that we have uncovered in Phoenix and potentially across veterans centers in our Nation. To play games with our veterans to get bonuses is despicable, and this bill, I hope, will move us in a direction of correcting those terrible actions.

One of the first bills I introduced was the veterans' access to health care bill to ensure that veterans could get health care they need in their communities, and this bill, I am glad to say, includes that provision. I commend the leader, the chairman, and the ranking member for their work, and I urge all my colleagues to vote ``yes'' for this important bill for our veterans.

Mr. Speaker, I have a motion at the desk.

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

I rise today in strong support of the Veterans' Access to Care through Choice, Accountability, and Transparency Act of 2014, which was passed by the Senate 93-7 on June 11 of this year.

This critical piece of legislation is one that must be implemented immediately to provide solutions to the many problems that have been discovered at the Department of Veterans Affairs and to provide the necessary care and assistance that our veterans deserve. We must move immediately on an agreement with the Senate and not further delay the long overdue care that our veterans need and have earned.

The most expeditious way to do this would be to move forward with the Senate bill, one, as I said, that was supported by 93 Senators-- Republican, Democrat, and Independent alike. I know that my colleagues in the House and Senate are committed to serving our veterans. Services for our veterans, I am pleased to say, is an issue of great importance and is one that continuously receives strong bipartisan support in both Chambers.

I want to applaud Chairman Miller and the Veterans' Affairs Committee and Ranking Member Michaud for their hard work in bringing to light the many problems and the terrible corruption that we have discovered in the VA, and for working to improve the care for our veterans.

I am here to fight for the veterans and the military families in my district and for those across the country. Mr. Speaker, this is a deeply personal issue with me. My father was a veteran of World War II. He joined the Army Air Corps, and probably lied about his age so he could go serve his country.

He served in World War II. He went on to serve in Korea and Vietnam, and when he left the Air Force, he extensively used the services of the veterans administration.

Were he alive today, I know he would be enraged by what has been discovered about the neglect, misconduct, and manipulation of the VA waiting lists, so that top executives could receive financial rewards and bonuses.

The 85,000 veterans I work for in southern Arizona--and countless more nationwide--deserve better from us and from the Department of Veterans Affairs than they have been getting.

I have been pressing for better access to health care for our veterans since I first came to Congress in 2012. One of the first bills I introduced was the Veterans Health Access Act, to ensure that veterans could get the health care they needed in their communities, without long commutes and even longer wait times, and I am pleased that the House and Senate are now working to address this issue.

We must improve the quality and timeliness of care to our veterans, and that is why, today, Mr. Speaker, I stand before you to call on my colleagues in the House and the Senate to support the Senate bill that increases access to care and takes many more steps to improve services and support for our veterans and their families.

Included in the Senate-passed bill is the expansion of the Marine Gunnery Sergeant John David Fry Scholarship, so that surviving spouses may have a chance to further their education and take care of their families.

The Marine Gunnery Sergeant John David Fry Scholarship is a current education benefit for the surviving children of our fallen military servicemembers. It has sent many sons and daughters of fallen heroes to college and given them the opportunity to get the American Dream.

However, it is important that we also offer this benefit to the spouses who are left widowed and must singlehandedly care for their families. This scholarship could provide many spouses an opportunity to get the education they need and the jobs that will help them succeed and support their family.

This scholarship was originally created in memory of John David Fry, who was a leader of marines from Lorena, Texas. Gunnery Sergeant Fry, a member of the explosive ordnance disposal community, demonstrated true service to his country and to his fellow marines in Iraq.

With only 1 week left on his tour in 2006, he injured his hand and was given the option to return home early with a Bronze Star. Fry declined the offer and volunteered to go on one last patrol, to defuse bombs for his fellow servicemembers.

Sadly, Gunnery Sergeant Fry was killed that day by an improvised explosive device in Anbar province, Iraq, leaving behind his wife and three small children.

Mr. Speaker, this type of courage and sacrifice has been witnessed countless times in the past 13 years by our men and women in uniform. For example, just recently, on May 12, a soldier from my district with 29 years of military service succumbed to the wounds he received in Afghanistan.

Command Sergeant Major Martin R. Barreras of Tucson was the enlisted leader of his infantry battalion in Harat province and was on his sixth deployment to Afghanistan.

While on patrol with his soldiers, Gunny--as his family likes to call him and remember him--was fatally wounded by small-arms fire while leading his troops into battle.

This was not the only time this respected leader saw combat. In 2003, Sergeant Major Barreras helped rescue former prisoner of war Jessica Lynch from an Iraqi hospital. At the time, he was the enlisted leader of the Army battalion that conducted the mission.

He personally handed Lynch to another soldier to transfer her to the helicopter that evacuated her from the area and to safety. According to reports, he then fended off multiple attacks to retrieve all nine bodies of the other U.S. soldiers missing in action.

Everyone in our country owes all of our fallen heroes, such as Gunnery Sergeant Fry and Command Sergeant Major Barreras, a debt of gratitude for their service and their courage, but we must also remember the silent courage of spouses of our servicemembers who must cope with the rigors of military life and who must live with only the memory of their fallen husband or wife.

These unsung heroes are the ones who maintain the homefront for our deployed men and women in uniform. They are the ones who maintain the

morale of our troops. They are the ones who unite with other military families to develop a support network for those spouses and children while their loved ones are in harm's way.

They are the ones who live with constant worry of their servicemember's safety, and they are the ones who must bear the burden in the absence of their husband or wife.

Our military spouses play a pivotal role in our Nation, and it is one that we must never forget. This is a good way to honor that service, by providing a scholarship in memory not just of Gunnery Sergeant Fry and Command Sergeant Barreras, but all of the servicemembers who died for our country and have left behind a loving family.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support this motion to instruct, to support the expansion, with no limitations, of the Gunnery Sergeant John David Fry Scholarship.

I further urge swift passage to pass the Veterans' Access to Care through Choice, Accountability, and Transparency Act of 2014 in its entirety. We must act now to enact this legislation and get our veterans the care that they deserve.

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

Mr. Speaker, could you advise me on how much time remains?

Mr. Speaker, I want to introduce a series of Members who would like to speak to this issue, but before I do, I would just say this: I have been here now a little bit more than 2 years, and I have learned a few things.

One of those things I have learned is that, when you have the public's attention and when you have this Chamber's attention and when you have the Senate's attention on an issue of importance like this, you act, and you do as much as you can to not only take care of the corruption, the systemic problems within the VA, but other issues that have been pending for a long time. To that end, I hope that we will, in fact, recede to the Senate version of the legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to my colleague from Arizona (Mrs. Kirkpatrick), ranking member on the Oversight Subcommittee of the Veterans' Affairs Committee, who has been a strong fighter for our veterans her entire time in Congress.

Mr. Speaker, next I would like to yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Nevada, Congresswoman Dina Titus, a member of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, who has introduced legislation here in the House, H.R. 3441, the Spouses of Heroes Education Act, which would expand this scholarship.

As a university professor at UNLV for more than 30 years, Congresswoman Titus understands the importance of education and has been a strong leader in education issues both in Nevada and here in Washington, as a former member of the Education and Labor Committee.

Mr. Speaker, next I would like to yield 3 minutes to my colleague from Arizona, Congresswoman Kyrsten Sinema. If you know Congresswoman Sinema, you know that when she gets her dander up, she fights like hell for whatever the issue is, and that has certainly been true in the fight that she has waged on behalf of our veterans.

As you know, the first evidence of corruption and misdeeds was discovered in Arizona at the VA in Phoenix, and from the very beginning, Congresswoman Sinema has been on that issue. So I am very proud and pleased to yield to her to speak on this bill.

I have no further requests for time, but I do have some closing remarks.

Mr. Speaker, could I ask for the balance of time remaining.

Mr. Speaker, let me just close with these thoughts.

I came here, as you well know, following the resignation of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, for whom I worked, when she was a Member. Her commitment to veterans was complete and deep. I am pleased to have picked up that mission and have tried to move forward with it in every way possible.

I also came here in the spirit of bipartisanship, looking for partners on both sides of the aisle to move important legislation for our country, and I am very pleased to say that I have found bipartisanship in full measure in the manner with which we have worked together to ensure that our veterans are properly served. Now I call on my colleagues, the conferees, to move quickly to bring our two bills together, to strike now while the opportunity presents.

Back home, when I meet with veterans, they say, What are you waiting for? We need you to act, and act now.

I urge our colleagues to adopt the motion to instruct so that we can get this job done expeditiously and in full measure.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to clause 7(c) of rule XXII, I hereby give notice of my intention to offer a motion to instruct conferees on H.R. 3230, a conference report on the Veterans' Access to Care through Choice, Accountability, and Transparency Act of 2014.

The form of the motion is as follows:

Mr. Barber moves that the managers on the part of the House

at the conference on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses

on the House amendment to the Senate amendment to the bill

H.R. 3230 (an Act to improve the access of veterans to

medical services from the Department of Veterans Affairs, and

for other purposes) be instructed to--

(1) recede from disagreement with section 701 of the Senate

amendment (relating to the expansion of the Marine Gunnery

Sergeant John David Fry Scholarship); and

(2) recede from the House amendment and concur in the

Senate amendment in all other instances.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Maggie Molloy, who is retiring after 40 years as executive director of the Tucson-based Head Start Child-Parent Centers, Inc.

Maggie began her career in early childhood as an intern at Arizona State University in its early childhood center. In 1972, while working on her master's degree in early childhood education and family development, she responded to an opening for a teacher position at Child Development Centers, a Tucson-based nonprofit and delegate agency for Head Start programs in Tucson.

Maggie started as education director of the program, when I served as executive director. In 1974, when I transitioned to a new position, Maggie was named executive director--a position she has held for the past four decades.

Under her leadership, Child-Parent Centers has become the largest provider of Head Start services in Southern Arizona, growing to 43 locations spread across five Arizona counties. The agency has a sweeping vision: Strong communities filled with successful families and children. That includes a commitment to ensure that all eligible families--including the children of migrant/seasonal workers and children with disabilities--receive the education, nutrition and family support services Head Start provides.

Maggie has provided dynamic leadership for an agency that now has more than 500 employees. She leads a volunteer-based board of directors that incorporates members from the community with backgrounds in fiscal management, early childhood education and legal practices and procedures.

I am proud to recognize Maggie Molloy--a visionary leader, an enthusiastic and passionate advocate and change agent for thousands of Southern Arizona children and their families.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Richard White, regional Chief Executive Officer of the American Red Cross, Southern Arizona Chapter upon his retirement after 14 years of service.

Richard came to the local chapter of the Red Cross in 2000 after nine years with the United Way of Tucson and immediately made an impact on the success of the entire organization. When the tragic events of September 11, 2001 happened in New York City, Richard provided his expertise in communications and emergency management. He also was instrumental in improving the financial standing of the local chapter of the Red Cross.

The local Red Cross chapter serves 23,000 square miles in five Arizona counties--Pima, Cochise, Santa Cruz, Graham and Greenlee. It also serves three Native American reservations--Tohono O'odham, San Carlos Apache and Pascua Yaqui nations. The chapter responds to a local emergency nearly every 46 hours; serves more than 700 displaced people, most of them children, and their pets annually; trains more than 24,000 people annually in lifesaving skills; and assists nearly 1,000 refugees each year.

Under Richard's leadership, the local chapter also has successfully organized itself to be a significant resource for the many armed forces and veterans in my district and across Southern Arizona by providing crisis intervention, referral and direct assistance programs. Recently, the Veterans Administration awarded the Southern Arizona Chapter a $1 million Supportive Services for Veteran Families grant to provide benefits to very low-income veteran families living in--or transitioning to--permanent housing. The range of services offered under the grant include financial assistance on behalf of veterans for rent payments, utility payments, security deposits and moving costs, as well as other services in the community.

In 2010, when the Southern Arizona Chapter moved into its new offices, Richard took the initiative to go ``green'' by incorporating solar power and was the first American Red Cross chapter nationally to do so. They currently generate approximately 80 percent of their energy needs from a 40 KW solar array, saving approximately $160,000 in operating costs annually.

We will miss Richard's commitment and dedication, but know he has helped form a Red Cross chapter that is ready and able to respond to any emergency or community need.

Mr. Speaker, I missed one recorded vote on June 24. I would like the Record to indicate at this point how I would have voted had I been present for that vote.

On rollcall No. 349, passage of the Customer Protection and End User Relief Act to reauthorize and improve the operations of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), I would have voted ``aye.''

Personal Explanation