Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor Neighborhood Housing Services, NHS, of Richland County for the 25 years of service this agency has provided to its communities. As America's first Rural NHS, Richland County has partnered with numerous entities in the areas of housing, insurance, and construction, allowing this agency to offer comprehensive services and assistance to area residents.

NHS of Richland County is able to revitalize communities and address current needs. Recent initiatives have addressed the mortgage crisis and the August 2007 flood in western Wisconsin. With interest rates rising and property values decreasing, many hardworking families have had an increasingly difficult time making their mortgage payments, thus now more than ever it is especially important that our local communities have the necessary resources to provide affordable housing for those who need it most.

NHS of Richland County responded to this need and in 2007 when in spite of this downturn in the housing market they assisted 81 households with loans and maintained a near zero percent foreclosure rate. NHS also created the Responsible Homeownership, R-HOME, initiative. This project is a comprehensive mortgage loan program created to better serve the needs of consumers with little or no credit history. In addition to the above endeavors, when the flood of August 2007 hit, NHS was part of local flood recovery effort in providing critical assistance to families.

Foreclosure prevention, homeownership seminars, flood recovery assistance and establishing renewable energy systems are just a few of the programs contributing to the success of Richland County's Neighborhood Housing Services. Since 1983, NHS of Richland County has responded and assisted over 3,000 households by building 39 affordable, energy-efficient homes, repairing more than 40 homes in the tornado stricken town of Viola, Wisconsin and constructing a 25-unit apartment complex for low-income seniors.

I applaud Neighborhood Housing Services of Richland County for providing invaluable support for homeowners in western Wisconsin, being a leader to housing services around the country and most importantly, upholding their motto of ``Neighbors Helping Neighbors.''

Madam Chairman, I rise today in support of the Ensuring Continued Access to Student Loans Act of 2008, a bill to continue the promise Congress made in 1965 to provide all Americans, regardless of culture or socioeconomic status, greater opportunities to further their education. This bill recognizes the shared benefits to both individual Americans and to the country as a whole of ensuring future generations have the tools necessary to be successful in a vastly competitive 21st century workforce.

The opportunity for children to attend institutions of higher education is essential in preparing our future leaders. While the number of students with the academic knowledge, talent, and desire to attend and succeed in college has substantially increased over time, the necessary financial assistance has regrettably not kept pace. We must reverse this trend and uphold the Federal Government's commitment to America's schools and to all of our children.

The recent instability in financial markets has hurt more than just homeowners, and many individuals and their families are finding it difficult to secure student loans to attend college. The ensuring Continued Access to Student Loans Act assists future and current students by increasing unsubsidized loan limits for undergraduate and graduate students, giving parent borrowers more time before they begin paying off their Federal Plus loans and encouraging Federal financial institutions' participation in ensuring continued student loan access.

As a former member of the Education and Labor Committee, a representative of 12 institutions of higher education located in the Third Congressional District of Wisconsin, and a father of 2 school- aged boys, I recognize the importance of increased access to post- secondary education and ensuring that everyone who wishes to attend college can afford to do so. The ensuring Continued Access to Student Loans Act is a step in the right direction, and I encourage my colleagues to join me in supporting this important piece of legislation.

Mr. Chairman, I rise today in strong support of the amendment by my colleagues, Mr. Altmire and Mr. Carney, which will offer some needed comfort to those of us in the sportsmen's community who seek to protect what access remains to cherished hunting and fishing opportunities on public lands. With the adoption of this amendment, I would urge all of my colleagues on the Congressional Sportsmen's Caucus to vote for the underlying bill as well.

Without a doubt, the 26 million acres that constitute the National Landscape Conservation system's more than 850 individual units represent some of the very best hunting and fishing opportunities available today. These lands harbor bighorn sheep, elk, pronghorn, mule and white-tailed deer, caribou, salmon, chinook, sockeye, steelhead, redband trout, and so many more game and non-game species, not to mention spectacular landscapes unparalelled in the rest of the bureau of land management. These are the very best places the BLM has to offer, and they are very deserving of the additional recognition and institutional support H.R. 2016 will provide.

Opponents of H.R. 2016, the National Landscape Conservation System Act, have claimed that it will create a new Federal bureaucracy that will usurp private land rights, divert Federal dollars, and dilute public access. None of these claims is true. By simply codifying in law a designation that has existed through administrative action for the last eight years, H.R. 2016 will change nothing in how the BLM or Department of the Interior manages these lands. What it will do is raise the profile of these national treasures both within the department and with the public so that they are known by all as the gems of the BLM's stewardship mandate rather than mere afterthoughts subject to executive fiat.

While the underlying bill already contains a savings clause stating that all existing laws and regulations governing these lands will continue to be exercised and enforced as before, the Altmire-Carney Amendment very simply adds an explicit reminder that hunting and fishing will continue to go hand in hand with conservation. as sportsmen and women provide the primary source of funds for state and local conservation budgets, It is appropriate that hunting and fishing rights be retained in the National Landscape Conservation system.

As co-chair of the Congressional Sportsmen's Caucus and a member of the Natural Resources Committee, I wish to thank my friend and subcommittee chair Raul Grijalva for introducing this bill, chairman Rahall for his invaluable support, and Representatives Altmire and Carney for offering this important amendment. I urge my colleagues to support this amendment and the underlying measure.

I thank my friend from Pennsylvania for yielding me this time.

Mr. Speaker, we need a farm bill, and we need it soon. Planting season is

starting throughout the country, but I would hope that at the end of the process we get a good farm bill rather than a bad farm bill, one that recognizes current market prices and the conditions that farmers are experiencing out there. It was a little more bold on reform, especially under those title I commodity programs.

The President has made it clear that he won't find a farm bill acceptable that does call for an increase in taxes in order to pay for it. I and others who have been a part of a reform effort, especially with the commodity subsidy programs, believe that we are capable of producing a farm bill that maintains an important safety net for family farmers, but also protects the important priorities that are also a part of the farm bill.

It's based on the philosophy of let's help family farmers when they need it, let's not when they don't. Clearly with commodity prices at or near record highs in the marketplace today, part of it driven by the biofuels portion in this country, a large part of it due to the increased global demand, many of us are suspecting that these prices are going to continue. That's been great for the rural economy, and it's been great for farm income.

But let us also take this opportunity then of starting to move forward on some commonsense reasonable reforms of these commodity programs, while still maintaining a safety net in the farm bill, but without jeopardizing the conservation title or nutrition or specialty crops, rural economic development programs and renewable fuel investment.

I would hope that my colleagues support this motion to instruct. I think it's the right thing to do. I think at the end of the day, if we are going to have a bipartisan bill that the President feels comfortable in doing, one of the goals that we have to strive for is a bill that does not call for an increase in taxes in light of record high market prices.

I commend the gentleman for offering this motion and encourage support on the vote.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to call attention to the essential role nurses play in providing quality health care across the country. Every day people with a variety of needs are served by legions of caring, qualified, and professional nurses. They are integral to our Nation's health care delivery system.

Every one can remember an experience when someone they know needed health care and a nurse was the first person by their side providing care and comfort. We all know someone who works in the field of nursing and the commitment they make to their profession, despite extraordinary challenges everyday.

More than 100 representatives of the nursing field are present in our Nation's capitol this week to give a voice to their professional needs and experiences. Nurses care for our children and serve more of our constituents then we will ever meet. Nurses deserve our time, our attention, and our respect for their views.

An adequate supply of nurses is essential to ensuring that all people receive quality care and that our Nation's public health infrastructure has the professonals necessary to respond to all natural and manmade disasters. The Department of Health and Human Services projects that the current 10 percent vacancy rate in the registered nursing professions will grow to 36 percent by 2020, representing more then 1 million unfilled jobs.

Additional congressional leadership, ongoing support, and federal funding is necessary to ensure that the Nation has an adequate supply of nurses to care for the patients of today and tomorrow.

Madam Chairman, I want to thank and commend my good friend Mrs. McCarthy from New York for the wonderful leadership that she has shown in the reauthorization of this important legislation.

I agree with my good friend and colleague from Connecticut that this is one of the more important pieces of legislation that we will be dealing with in this session of Congress, and I commend the efforts of everyone on the committee for the bipartisan support that's been shown on behalf of this bill.

Madam Chairman, this legislation will provide a vital increase in funding for a variety of domestic volunteer service programs, including AmeriCorps, Volunteers in Service to America, and Learn and Serve America. Expanding these important community-based programs is essential so that residents in the neediest places receive the assistance that they need and deserve.

I'm very proud that my home State of Wisconsin has more than 35 AmeriCorps programs. Jump Start for Young Children is just one of several programs that help prepare young children from low-income families to succeed and go on in school. Just this past year, this program benefited from the service of 3,500 corps members and volunteers from over 70 colleges. Together, these individuals were able to assist more than 13,000 preschoolers in over 20 of our States in this country. I'd like to applaud the hard work and selfless efforts of these individuals who have not only rebuilt houses in communities but also lives.

I'm especially proud that three of my congressional staff members are former AmeriCorps volunteers: Karrie Jackelen, Brad Smith, and David De Gennaro. The contributions of these participants is truly admirable given the enormous difference they've made in so many lives.

Mr. Chairman, there is a yearning for community involvement and community service across this country, and it's especially acute with the youth, the children of our Nation.

It was unfortunate that the current President sent this Nation to war without asking for any type of contribution or significant sacrifice from the average American. Except for our troops and their families who have borne the brunt of this sacrifice and burden, there's very little asked of the American people.

This legislation, which was the vision of President Clinton and his administration, tries to correct that deficiency. It's a good, bipartisan bill. I encourage my colleagues to pass the GIVE Act today.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in honor of National School Breakfast Week and in support of a resolution that recognizes how providing breakfast in schools through the National School Breakfast Program has a positive impact on classroom performance.

It is often stated that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and yet a great number of children begin their school day without access to a nutritious breakfast. As a former member of the House Education and Labor Committee and the father of two young boys, I understand the vital link between a healthy diet and successful performance in school. We must ensure that schools have the resources necessary to provide each student the nourishment necessary to get them through their day.

With over 8.1 million students participating in the school breakfast program, schools recognize the benefits of making sure that all children have a healthy breakfast to start their day; however, there are still many students not at the table and their academic progress may be suffering. It has been shown that school breakfast programs have led to a drastic reduction in school tardiness and provide students with the vital nutrients they need for remaining attentive in class and processing the information. They receive. We can simultaneously improve the physical well-being of our students while also improving their performance in the classroom.

The National School Breakfast Program provides students with the healthy start to the day that they need to succeed. I ask my fellow Members to join me in offering their full support of this resolution. Together we can ensure that our commitment to the physical health of our students matches our commitment to their academic progress.

Mr. Chairman, I thank my good friend and colleague from California for yielding me time.

Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong support of the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act before us today. As a former member of the Education and Workforce Committee, I am proud of the bipartisan work that the committee has done on this legislation. In fact, it is one of the most important pieces of legislation we will be considering all year, because we are talking about access and affordability for more for students to be able to go and develop the skills they need to be competitive in the global marketplace.

I also want to especially thank a number of individuals who helped include in this reauthorization the Realtime Writers Act, which is vitally important. In the 1996 Telecom Act, we mandated that every television station had to have closed captioning for the hearing- impaired community. The problem is we are not producing enough students with those real-time captioning skills in order to meet that mandate.

Furthermore, virtually every courthouse throughout America is experiencing vast shortages of official court reporters, who are the guardians of our public record, and yet we are not producing the students in order to meet that pent-up demand and pursue that noble and important career.

I want to thank Representative Andrews, who was helpful in steering this and making it a part of the Higher Education Act. Mr. Regula was a cosponsor of the original legislation with me. Senator Harkin has been the leader and champion on the Senate side to promote this bill. And I thank them for their support as well as the terrific work of the National Court Reporters Association in educating our colleagues.

I also want to commend Representatives Hare and Loebsack for the amendment that they offered and got adopted in this legislation that would provide competitive grants for rural leadership training skills for superintendents and principals throughout the country.

As those on the committee are well aware, we are facing a demographic challenge, with over 50 percent of the superintendents and principals about to retire in this country in the next 5 years. Not only is quality teaching in the classroom important, but also the quality of leadership in schools and school districts around the country is vitally important as to how well those schools are going to perform for our students.

So, again, I commend the committee for the work product that they have before us today, the bipartisan work that they have been able to do, and I encourage my colleagues to support this reauthorization.

Madam Speaker, on January 16, 2008, I erroneously voted in favor of an amendment offered by Representative Joe Wilson (SC) to H.R. 2768 (roll No. 8), the Supplemental Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response (S-MINER) Act. Please let the record show that I intended to vote against this amendment.

Madam Speaker, this is truly a sad day for the institution of Congress in this administration when we have a minority number of Members in both the House and the Senate that are more interested in protecting a handful of hedge fund managers' ability to move millions of dollars offshore without paying their fair share of taxes and in order to protect the financial security of our children and grandchildren by paying for this AMT relief bill.

Make no mistake, everyone is in agreement that we want to stop the AMT from affecting 20-plus million Americans next year. The difference is our party wants to pay for it; they don't.

We have had the fastest and largest accumulation of national debt under Republican rule in the last 6 years, and they're saying that's not enough.

We are almost completely dependent on borrowing money from China to finance our deficit, and they're saying that's not enough.

The fastest growing area of spending in the Federal budget is interest payments on the national debt, and they're saying that's not enough. Let's pile on some more and let's leave this mortgage, this legacy of debt for our children to handle. I think that is a disgrace.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to John Wiley, upon his retirement as chancellor of the University of Wisconsin- Madison. John is a dedicated public servant who has earned the respect and admiration of the professors, staff, and students under his supervision. Passionate, genuine, and sincere are just a few of the words used to describe Chancellor Wiley's commitment to the university and greater Madison community.

As a graduate student, former faculty member, provost, vice chancellor, and current

chancellor of UW-Madison, Dr. Wiley has been an active member of the campus community for over 30 years. In this time, John has significantly improved the academic profile of the university. His list of accomplishments is quite extensive. Especially noteworthy has been his leadership in the areas of science, engineering, business, and medicine, maintaining the university's reputation as a world-renowned research and teaching institution.

In addition to his responsibilities as chancellor, Dr. Wiley also chairs the Council of Higher Education Accreditation Board and is a member of the National Security Higher Education Advisor Committee. John also actively participates in the greater Madison community, serving on several local and community boards, including UW Hospital and Clinics Authority, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, and the Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce.

Although Chancellor Wiley is retiring from his current position, he will remain a visible and important part of the UW-Madison campus. His advocacy, dedication, and leadership will leave a lasting legacy on the entire community, and the area will continue to benefit from all that he has done. On behalf of UW students, staff, and the entire State of Wisconsin, I would like to thank John for his many years of tireless service and for making students his top priority. I wish John a long and very happy retirement.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to Frederic Frick, upon his resignation as superintendent of Holmen School District. Fred is a dedicated public servant who has earned the respect and admiration of the teachers, staff, and over 3,000 students under his supervision. His work will be greatly missed.

In his 18 years as superintendent, Fred has made significant improvements in a rapidly expanding community. To accommodate the several new families moving into the area and to ensure each child had access to a quality education, Fred was responsible for the construction of a new elementary school, high school, and district administrative office. In addition, Fred successfully tended to the daily needs of his students, teachers, and parents and in 1998 was named Superintendent of the Year by the Wisconsin Association of School District Administrators.

Although Fred is retiring from his current position, he will remain a visible presence in the lives of students and teachers in the Holmen community. His advocacy, dedication, and leadership will leave a lasting legacy, and the area will continue to benefit from all that he has accomplished. On behalf of the students and staff, I would like to thank Fred for his many years of tireless service and for making students his top priority. I wish Fred a long and very happy retirement.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Massachusetts for yielding.

And to my good friend from Missouri with whom I serve on the Ways and Means Committee, I would hope that as this process moves forward, we can get together and have an honest discussion of what needs to be offset, what should be extended, and how we are going to provide tax relief to 23 million Americans who would otherwise get caught up in the creeping alternative minimum tax.

And that's why today I rise in support of the rule and the underlying bill, and I commend the chairman of the

Ways and Means Committee, Mr. Rangel, for helping us bring forward a bill that is not only fiscally sound but morally responsible.

There are some elements of common agreement. We all here agree that we want to stop the AMT from hitting 23 million more Americans, 56,000 in my congressional district alone in Wisconsin. The big difference is we pay for it; they don't. We did, as we promised the American people we would do when we became the majority this year, reinstitute pay-as- you-go budgeting rules, something that was in place in the 1990s that gave us 4 years of budget surpluses. We are paying down the national debt rather than adding to it.

But with the expiration of pay-as-you-go budgeting, we've had the fastest and largest accumulation of national debt in our Nation's history under their watch, under their economic plan: Over 3 trillion new dollars added to the national debt, and by the time this President leaves office, it will be 4 trillion. We went over 9 trillion in accumulated debt this week for the first time in our Nation's history, and there are consequences.

Let's make no mistake about this debate today. This bill will be paid for. The question is, is this generation going to have the moral responsibility to pay for it, or are we going to stick it to our children and grandchildren with more deficit financing? They are borrow and spend; we are pay-as-you-go.

And I don't know how many of my colleagues noticed this week, but the dollar went into a free fall. And the main reason that the dollar went into a free fall is because there was a rumor on the market that the Chinese are going to start unloading their high dollar reserves and start buying euros. And the only tools we could possibly have to counter that was in hoping another Chinese official would step up and say, no, that's not true, it's just a rumor. Fortunately, they did; otherwise the Federal Reserve would have to tighten the money supply to prop up the dollar, and we know the consequences to economic activity if that happens.

This is the economic dilemma that they have put us in by saddling us with huge debt. And they can talk all they want about percentage of GDP, but as long as more deficit is being accumulated, China will remain the number one purchaser of our debt today. And that is wrong for the future economic growth of our Nation, and it's especially wrong for our children.

So the question is, do we adhere to pay-as-you-go budgeting? We can have an honest discussion of what appropriate offsets should be in order to pay for the tax relief for 23 million families. But what shouldn't be on the table and what shouldn't be debated today is more deficit financing, which is the easiest thing to do. I'll be curious to see what type of substitute they want to offer, what their plan is, because it has got to be under pay-as-you-go budgeting. And we will see if there are some areas of common agreement with that. But what shouldn't be debated and what shouldn't be open for consideration is pay-as-you-go budgeting so we don't leave a legacy of debt to our children and grandchildren.

I encourage my colleagues to support the rule and the underlying bill.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 3996, the Temporary Tax Relief Act of 2007. As a member of the Ways and Means Committee, I am proud to have helped craft this very important tax bill that will give much needed relief to millions of American taxpayers.

Unfortunately, over the last several years we have seen tax bills pushed through Congress and signed by the President under the guise of ``relief' for the middle class and the poorest in the country. I think many in this chamber have now come to recognize that many of these measures presented as tax relief for the middle class were in fact more tax breaks for the richest in society. Today we finally have before us a bill that will give real relief to millions of taxpayers, many of whom are hard-working middle-class families.

Specifically, H.R. 3996 provides for a 1-year patch for the Alternative Minimum Tax, AMT. The AMT was developed in the 1970s to ensure that America's wealthiest could not take advantage of the tax code in a way that would allow them to avoid paying taxes altogether. The AMT was not indexed for inflation, however, and without this legislation it will reach into the pocketbooks of middle-class families it was never intended to hit. In my district alone, the AMT could affect 50,000 additional western Wisconsin families this year, many of whom have no idea they face a tax increase. Without this legislation, it is estimated that the AMT will hit an additional 437,000 taxpayers in Wisconsin and 23 million nationally. It is hard for me to think of something more important than protecting 23 million Americans from a tax that was never intended for them.

Additionally, this bill extends several popular expiring tax provisions. In particular, the bill will provide property tax relief for 30 million Americans, help for more than 12 million children through an expanded child tax credit, tax relief for more than 11 million families through state and local sales tax deduction, help for more than 4.5 million families to cover the cost of education through the tuition deduction, and relief for more than 3.5 million teachers who will be reimbursed for out-of-pocket expenses for their classrooms.

Finally, and most importantly, this bill is fully offset and complies with pay-go rules that the Democratic majority restored at the beginning of this Congress. The tax benefits provided are fully paid for by closing loopholes and eliminating narrowly-targeted tax breaks for

corporations. These changes establish fairness in the tax code and show that we can provide tax relief without sending the debt on to our children. After 6 years of fiscal recklessness--deficit-financed tax cuts for the wealthy and out-of-control government spending--this bill sets a precedent of fiscally responsible tax reform.

Again, Mr. Speaker, I am happy to support this sensible and fair tax bill before us today. Protecting millions of taxpayers from being caught by the AMT is of the utmost importance. I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 3996.

Madam Speaker, I was detained in my district and was unable to have my vote recorded on the House floor on Monday, November 5, 2007, for H.R. 3222 (roll No. 1034), H.R. 513 (roll No. 1035), and H. Res. 744 (roll No. 1036). Had I been present, I would have voted in favor of these measures.