Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 72, had I been present, I would have voted ``yea.''

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to invite my colleagues to join the Harlingen Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in saluting the extraordinary life and service of Colonel William ``Bill'' Card. Colonel Card is a modern day ``Renaissance man''. He has been a citizen, soldier, educator, entrepreneur, community leader, and mayor, and is an example of what is best in America.

Bill Card was born into a military family where dedication to service and country were deeply ingrained. At the age of 17, he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps and was sworn in by his father, Brigadier General Horace W. Card. While still in college, he was called to duty aboard the USS Pennsylvania berthed at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. It was on Sunday, December 7, 1941 that Bill was first tested in battle as he manned the guns to defend his ship against enemy aircraft. In 1942, Bill was commissioned as a second lieutenant and by 1944 was a captain and took part in the campaign of Saipan Island.

After the war, Bill continued to serve in the Marines as an artillery instructor. When the Korean War broke out, Captain Card took part in the landing at Inchon and the liberation of Seoul. By 1954, Bill was a Lieutenant Colonel and served as Battalion Commander, Training and Test Regiment at Quantico, Virginia. In 1962, he was deployed to Cuba during the missile crisis and was subsequently promoted to full colonel.

In 1968, Colonel Card came to Harlingen, Texas as director of Development of the Marine Military Academy. As an instructor, he was always willing to share his knowledge and the values of integrity, honor, courage, dedication and perseverance with the young cadets. Upon his retirement from the Marine Corps, he began a new career as a businessman and community leader in Harlingen.

Bill Card jumped right in to community affairs. He served as the Mayor of Harlingen from 1987 to 1998. He has served as the President of the Rio Grande Valley Chamber of Commerce, the Harlingen Rotary Club, the United Fund, and the Lower Rio Grande Valley Development Council. He has been an officer in numerous organizations including the Easter Seal Chapter of Cameron County, the American Heart Association, the Lower Rio Grande Valley YWCA, the Muscular Dystrophy Association, the Marine Military Academy and the Harlingen Community Care Emergency Foundation. He currently serves on the Rio Grande Valley Health Services District Board, a new entity seeking to resolve the border region's indigent health care crisis. This list goes on and on.

He has deservedly received numerous awards including Citizen of the Year of the Rio Grande Council of the Boy Scouts, the 1973 ``Boss of the Year'' by the National Secretaries Association and the 1980 ``Banker of the Year'' for Small Business Administration Region VI. He even received the ``Road Hand Award'' from the Texas Department of Transportation for proving his ability and stamina in toiling long, strenuous hours for Texas roads. He has also never forgotten his first love, the Marines, and spearheaded the capital campaign that raised $14 million for new barracks, classrooms, student services and athletic facilities for the Marine Military Academy.

Bill Card never does anything half-heartedly. The discipline and focus he learned in the Marines has been carried with him in civilian life. The people of Harlingen and the Rio Grande Valley are deeply indebted to him for his commitment to improving life for every resident. As a result of his leadership, Harlingen completed a new air terminal at Valley International Airport. The city has a new public library, a new public museum and an expanded municipal auditorium. His vision of thinking of the Rio Grande Valley as one economic entity has brought economic growth and increased cooperation to the whole region.

Despite accomplishing enough for two lifetimes, Bill and his wife Garrison have found the time to raise four beautiful children and are the proud grandparents of six grandchildren. I am very proud to call him my friend. I urge my colleagues to join me in commending Colonel Card and expressing our gratitude for his distinguished service to South Texas and to this great Nation.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor a friend, a university professor, a renowned expert and the dean of the school of politics in south Texas, Dr. Jose Hinojosa. For a generation, Dr. Hinojosa has been the compass for anyone who hoped to navigate a political career in south Texas. Successful politicians, mayors, county judges, State senators and representatives and, yes, Members of this body, myself included, are all proud alumni of the Dr. Hinojosa school of public service.

Dr. Hinojosa, after 26 years of service, has decided to retire. As a political science professor at the University of Texas Pan American, he is nationally recognized for his knowledge and expertise in the regional politics of south Texas. For Dr. Hinojosa, political science is not merely an academic exercise. It is about empowering the community he so dearly loves, the Mexican American community. To that end, Dr. Hinojosa established the School of Public Administration at the University of Texas Pan American. He knew that electing Hispanic leaders was only step one of the empowerment process. He helped build the intellectual infrastructure and knowledge base to make newly minted public officials successful in the art of governing.

Dr. Hinojosa is a native of Jim Wells County and the son of the late Mr. and Mrs. Teodulo Hinojosa of Palito Blanco, a lovely community in central Texas, which is adorned with bluebonnets and many other wildflowers during the spring time. He earned his bachelor's and master's degrees from Texas A&I University, Kingsville, which is now Texas A&M University at Kingsville. He received his doctorate in government and international studies from the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.

Over the course of his career, Dr. Hinojosa has taught at many prestigious institutions, including the University of Texas Pan American, the University of Texas at Austin, Ohio State University, and Notre Dame. He has been called to the service of Governors and Presidents. He served on the National Advisory Council for Ethnic Heritage Studies during President Carter's administration and on the Job Injury and Interagency Council Advisory Committee under Texas Governor Mark White.

However, his greatest contributions have been felt in his home, south Texas. Dr. Hinojosa is an outstanding teacher, whether to students enrolled in a political science course or to candidates for public office. His enthusiasm for public service and for the democratic process is infectious and he has inspired thousands of people, young and not so young, to participate in our democracy. His voice, even after a bout with throat cancer costing him the use of his vocal cords, has always been a call to action. From the difficult days of segregation after World War II to today, Dr. Hinojosa has maintained an unshakeable faith in the people of south Texas. One only has to visit the Rio Grande Valley to see the progress that Dr. Hinojosa has fostered and cultivated since the first Hispanic county judge was elected in Hidalgo County in 1970. Today, the Lower Rio Grande Valley is one of the four fastest growing and most dynamic regions in the country.

Mr. Speaker, Dr. Hinojosa has decided to retire. He will be sorely missed in the halls of college campuses and the halls of government; but I know that his wife, his children, and grandchildren have great plans for him.

Dr. Hinojosa has taught us well, and the number of Hispanics seeking to win Federal elected positions will continue to skyrocket thanks to him.

In conclusion, I ask all Members of Congress to join me in commending Dr. Jose Hinojosa for his exceptional career and contributions to the great State of Texas and our Nation.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate my good friend and constituent Joe LaMantia, Jr., for being named the 2004 Border Texan of the Year. This is an honor given only to those whose record of service in south Texas is a model for all Americans. The award is given in conjunction with Hidalgo County's annual Border Fest, a heritage and cultural festival that celebrates the uniqueness and diversity of south Texas.

I can think of no one more deserving of this award than Joe LaMantia, Jr. Joe is a first-generation American with deep roots in South Texas. Following in his father's footsteps, Joe began his successful agricultural career in south Texas in Carrizo Springs. His agriculture operation consisted of pecan orchards, vegetables, and a cow-calf operation, plus a vegetable and fruit farm operation in Mexico and Chile. In 1965, he moved his family to the Rio Grande Valley to continue their agricultural business.

Due to the unpredictability of agriculture, the LaMantias made a transition into the beer distribution business as wholesalers of Anheuser-Busch products. That was the beginning of the LaMantia family- owned and operated business of L&F Distributors. The company began in 1977 in McAllen, Texas, with 11 employees. I witnessed a fast learning curve by the LaMantias. Today, L&F Distributors has grown to employ over 600 individuals in 22 counties in the great State of Texas.

Despite the demands of a growing and successful business, Joe has dedicated himself to improving the quality of life in his community. In 1974, Joe was appointed by Governor Dolph Brisco to the board of the Texas Department of Corrections. He was reappointed in 1983 by Governor Mark White, and served as the vice chair for over 10 years.

During his tenure, Joe saw firsthand the problems facing the Texas border region, specifically poverty, crime and high unemployment. He recognized that education was the key to improving these challenges faced by the community. A champion of educational opportunity, Joe established one of the first scholarships for women athletes at the University of Texas Pan American, the Ann LaMantia Anheuser-Busch Outstanding Woman Athlete Scholarship.

The scholarship was named in honor of his wife of 30 years, Ann LaMantia, who passed away in 1983. Ann LaMantia served on the board of regents at Pan American University and, like her husband, was committed to higher education for the students of south Texas.

Since her passing, the LaMantias have continued to be dedicated to providing college scholarship opportunities for local students. Under Joe's leadership, L&F Distributors formed a partnership with the Hispanic Scholarship Fund in 1994 and in 8 years has raised over $5 million and awarded over 2,600 scholarships to students in south Texas. In 2002, L&F Distributors was recognized by the national organization as the largest contributing Anheuser Busch distributor to the HSF.

That same year, the LaMantias created a local educational nonprofit organization, the South Texas Academic Rising Scholars (STARS) Foundation, which provides scholarship awards to students in south Texas to attend the college of their choice. Joe serves as the founder and chairman of the board of directors, and in less than 17 months STARS has managed to raise over $2

million for south Texas students and has become the premier scholarship foundation in south Texas.

Mr. Speaker, this successful scholarship program has doubled the number of students who can have access to higher education. Joe, Jr. and his wife, Derrelene, have seven children and 26 grandchildren and consider their close-knit family their greatest asset. Joe is one of the hardest working entrepreneurs in south Texas. He is honest and a man of integrity, and I am proud to call him my friend. He truly deserves to be the Border Texan of the Year.

I urge my colleagues to join me in commending Joe LaMantia, Jr. for his tireless efforts on behalf of children and in congratulating him on receiving this prestigious award.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today on behalf of the teachers in the State of Texas in strong opposition to this legislation.

H.R. 743 turns a 1-day loophole, which was a minor inconvenience, into a 5-year career deterrent. My office is flooded with letters from justifiably concerned teachers that do not want to be forced out of the classroom even one day earlier than when they are ready.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to know if the supporters of this bill are aware of the teaching shortage crippling our education system. Clearly they are not or they would not support the legislation before us today. They would not force teachers in Texas and Georgia to choose between retirement benefits and a career educating our children. If my colleagues were aware of these critical shortages, they would have surely stripped this provision from the legislation when they had an opportunity to do so almost a year ago. If they were aware of the growing teacher-student ratios in public schools, they would definitely honor our teachers with the retirement benefits they deserve by repealing the WEP and GPO. It could easily be done by passing H.R. 594. This bill, with 285 bipartisan cosponsors, would end this inequity not only for Texas teachers but for government employees throughout the country.

In 2002, 376,000 public servants had their Social Security spousal benefits affected by the GPO. Forty percent of these were widows and widowers, and 73 percent were women. These are hardworking people who are relying on full spousal benefits to live comfortably in their retirement. Many learn of the GPO when it is too late to change their retirement plans.

Yesterday, my office had the pleasure of speaking with Mrs. Carolyn Martin, a school librarian at Gregory-Portland High School in the coastal bend of Texas. Mrs. Martin was understandably concerned about her own future, but much more focused on the future of a teacher at her school who recently lost her husband over the holidays. This teacher has two children in college and, if H.R. 743 passes, will not be able to collect her widow's benefits under Social Security if she wants to stay in the classroom.

Mrs. Martin characterized the issue best. She said, ``Social Security is the difference between a minimal standard of living and a dog-food diet in retirement.'' She was outraged, as am I, and again I quote, that ``millionaires can collect Social Security in this country but not Texas teachers.''

Mr. Speaker, I implore my colleagues to consider the consequences of this vote today. Vote against H.R. 743.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life of Maryln Lee McAdam, a friend and advocate and a national leader. Quietly, behind the scenes, seeking no recognition or glory for herself, Maryln fought day in and day out for educational opportunities for all of America's young people, especially for the children of migrant and seasonal farm workers. Her guidance and counsel were invaluable to many of us.

The Hispanic community and the education community have had no greater friend than Maryln McAdam. Maryln led a truly remarkable life. She approached life with the unshakable belief that any obstacle could be overcome.

As a young girl, she was struck with polio. Although she spent most of her life in a wheelchair, no one who knew Maryln would describe her as confined to that chair. She was amazing.

Maryln graduated in the top of her class in high school, in college and also in graduate school. Although her academic field of expertise was chemistry, she was drawn to a different specialty, political science.

As with her academic pursuits, Maryln excelled. She joined Paul Simon's campaign team for his successful run for the House of Representatives and then served on his legislative staff. She then moved to Congressman Bill Ford's team on the House postsecondary education subcommittee.

Everywhere she went she made her mark. No one understood and loved politics and people as well as Maryln.

After she left the Hill, Maryln established her own business. She continued her work in postsecondary education and was one of the most respected experts on Federal higher education policy.

But Maryln was so much more than that. She dedicated her resources, her energy and expertise to ensuring that the most disadvantaged children in America, the children of migrant and seasonal farm workers, had a voice in Washington, D.C.

She single-handedly made sure that every Washington policymaker in Congress and in the White House understood and appreciated the value of Federal programs for migrant children, programs such as the High School Equivalency Program and the College Assistance Migrant Program, the Migrant Education Program and the Migrant Vocational Rehabilitation Program.

As an advocate for migrant children, Maryln became an important voice for education in the Hispanic community. For many years she served as co-chair of the Hispanic Education Coalition. More importantly, she served as a mentor to all of us who are involved in improving education for Hispanic Americans.

Maryln was truly generous. She, like a good steward, gave freely of her time, her money and her knowledge to all of us who shared her commitment to young people.

During my first term of Congress, Maryln's counsel and wisdom helped me as a freshman legislator deliver for the Hispanic community during the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act. Hispanic-serving institutions across the country owe her a debt of gratitude.

Maryln was direct and honest. She could be trusted implicitly. When one asked for her analysis, assessment or advice, they got a straight answer, always polite, always diplomatic, not always what they wanted to hear but to the point and spin free. We could certainly use more of that in our Nation's capital.

A few weeks ago, we lost Maryln Lee McAdam. She has left us with a legacy of service, dedication and a love for her country and the democratic process.

In conclusion, I want to say that she was a leader and a patriot in the truest sense of these words. It was my privilege to know her and work with her; and I will miss her counsel, her enthusiasm and her friendship. I hope that we will carry on with the same integrity, tenacity and optimism that she demonstrated each and every day of her life so that all our young people are able to realize the American dream. May she rest in peace.

Mr. Speaker, I regret that I was unavoidably detained. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yes'' on rollcall No. 12.

Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of the amendment.

Mr. Chairman, I wonder if the gentleman who just spoke from the State of Ohio knows that an estimated 57,000 residents in his State are likely to exhaust their State unemployment insurance compensation, leaving them and their families without a paycheck or benefits.

Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong support of the Miller amendment. Before Christmas 2003, this Congress adjourned without providing any relief for the more than 2 million workers whose unemployment benefits have or will soon expire.

In my home State of Texas, during the next 6 months, over 125,000 workers will lose these critical benefits and have no means by which to support their families. The number of unemployed Texans expected to exhaust their regular benefits without being able to receive further assistance will be the second highest on record for the months of January through June 2004.

These workers do not want government handouts. They simply want a job. But since there are 2.4 million fewer jobs to be had because of the failed economic policies of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, the least we can do is provide these workers some financial assistance to tide them over until the promised job growth occurs.

American workers deserve the security of knowing that these important unemployment benefits will be available to them and their families through the rest of this year. I urge my colleagues to do the right thing and support the Miller amendment.

Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 12, H. Res. 507, had I been present, I would have voted ``yea.''

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the conference report to accompany the Fair and Accurate Transactions Act of 2003. And I congratulate the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Oxley) and the ranking member, the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Frank), the subcommittee chairman, the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Bachus), and the ranking member, the gentleman from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), and all the committee staff for the wonderful work they did in completing this conference report.

This conference report will strengthen the provisions of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. I am proud to have been an original co-sponsor of this legislation, to have supported it in committee, and to have voted in favor of it on the House floor.

Let me take this opportunity to thank the conferees for including in the financial literacy provision of the legislation language that will allow the financial literacy commission the bill creates to take any action to develop and promote financial literacy and educational materials in languages other than English. This will apply to the hot line, Web site, and educational materials the commission produces or recommends.

It is imperative that financial literacy materials be created and disseminated in languages other than English to recognize the diversity of our great Nation. I especially want to thank the ranking member, the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Frank), for his assistance with this language and Jaime Lizarraga of his staff.

Rest assured that the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the Hispanic community appreciate your efforts and the language you inserted into the conference report.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the conference report to accompany The Fair and Accurate Transactions Act of 2003. I congratulate Chairman Oxley and Ranking Member Frank, Subcommittee Chairman Bachus and Ranking Member Sanders and all the House and Senate conferees on completing this conference report.

This conference report will strengthen the provisions of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. I am proud to have been an original cosponsor of this legislation, to have supported it in Committee and to have voted in favor of it on the House floor.

I want to read at this time a portion of a letter Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan sent to me dated February 28, 2003. Chairman Greenspan was responding to a question I submitted to him in writing asking what would happen to the U.S. economy if the exceptions to the Fair Credit Reporting Act were allowed to expire after January 1, 2004. In his letter, Chairman Greenspan warned that: ``Limits on the flow of information among financial market participants, or increased costs resulting form restrictions that differ based on geography, may lead to an increase in the price or a reduction in the availability of credit, as well as a reduction in the optimal sharing of risk and reward.''

I am very pleased that this conference report heeded Chairman Greenspan's warning, and I believe that its passage will help our struggling economy to improve.

Let me take this opportunity to thank the conferees for including in the financial literacy provision of the legislation language that will allow the Financial Literacy Commission the bill creates to ``take any action to develop and promote financial literacy and education materials in languages other than English.'' This will apply to the hotline, website, and educational materials the Commission produces or recommends. It is imperative that financial literacy materials be created and disseminated in languages other than English to recognize the diversity of our great nation.

I especially want to thank Ranking Member Frank for his assistance with this language and Jaime Lizarraga of his staff. Rest assured that the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the Hispanic community appreciate your efforts and the language you inserted into the conference report.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Kanjorski) for yielding me time.

Mr. Speaker, I commend the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Oxley) and the ranking member, the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Frank) for their leadership in moving this issue forward. I also acknowledge and credit the good work of the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Baker) and the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Kanjorski).

I rise in support of H.R. 2420, the Mutual Fund Integrity and Fee Transparency Act of 2003. I agreed to cosponsor this legislation which emphasizes integrity and values in the securities industry. I will vote for this bill today. However, I want the House and Senate to continue to modify its content because the mutual fund issues at hand continue to evolve.

Congress needs to ensure that the final bill sent to President Bush for his signature reflects appropriate solutions to real problems so that mutual funds shareholders will benefit from it. At present we are caught in the middle of regulatory one-upsmanship which is creating an interesting situation for Congress. Although some people in the mutual funds industry certainly make themselves easy targets, press accounts of the problem have helped inflame the situation, as have the very public battles between two regulators responsible for oversight of the mutual funds industry.

Mutual funds such as Putnam have violated certain laws and regulations. However, in just 6 weeks that same fund is in the process of cleaning house, has settled with the Securities and Exchange Commission, put strict compliance measures in place as part of that settlement, and is now run by a man some consider to be one of the most ethical men in the financial services industry.

At the end of the day, the overall mutual funds industry restitution may be $50 to $100 per affected share holder. We need to remember that the majority of mutual funds shareholders are not affected by the recent developments in this market and the guilty parties are rightfully being fined and punished under existing laws, not laws that have yet to be passed. Market forces are at work.

Mr. Speaker, the public perception of good funds versus bad funds will shape success for the mutual funds companies. Although I have cosponsored this legislation, and will vote for it today, I want to stress how important it is that we proceed very carefully with this legislation and any legislation that changes the regulation of the mutual funds industry.

Mr. Speaker I rise today to acknowledge the importance of breast cancer awareness. This year in the U.S. alone, more than 200,000 women and men will be diagnosed with breast cancer, and over 40,000 will die from this devastating disease. Every 3 minutes a woman is diagnosed with breast cancer, and every 13 minutes a women dies from this disease.

We know that early detection of breast cancer saves lives. Mammography screening remains the best tool available to detect breast cancer at its earliest, most treatable stages. The death rate from breast cancer among women in the U.S. has been decreasing by about 2 percent annually during the past decade, suggesting that public awareness, early detection, and improved therapies are having an impact on the disease. In the past 20 years, the percentage of women in the U.S. receiving mammograms has grown from 13 percent to 60 percent--a significant difference. But we still have a long way to go. Mortality rates in some minority populations have not declined at the same rate as it has in other populations, and we must ensure that all Americans, regardless of race or ethnicity, have access to quality breast health and breast cancer care.

We must continue to fund the programs that enable progress in winning the war on breast cancer, prioritize increased NIH funding, move the reauthorization of the Mammography Quality Standards Act through conference intact, and take action on the 10+ pieces of legislation that have been introduced during the 108th Congress to better the lives of breast cancer victims and survivors, fund research and promote awareness. The 72 people that will be diagnosed with breast cancer today are counting on us.

Mr. Speaker, I regret that I was unavoidably detained. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yes'' on rollcall Nos. 576, 577, 578 and 579.

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

Madam Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to H.R. 2359, the Basic Pilot Extension Act of 2003. While proponents of this bill claim it is a simple extension of the basic pilot program for employment eligibility verification, this bill actually comes dangerously close to threatening the privacy of U.S. citizens and noncitizens alike.

H.R. 2359 would permit any government agency to use the basic pilot confirmation system to check the immigration or citizenship status of U.S. citizens and immigrants who come within their purview. This would include those who seek drivers' licenses, it would include professional licenses, or any person who is subject to an inquiry of a Federal, State, or local government agency.

My own home State of Texas is one of the sites for the current pilot program. Although the program was set

up with the best of intentions, a recent independent study conducted for the U.S. Department of Justice concluded that the basic pilot program is not ready for larger scale implementation at this time. The study identified problems such as inaccurate and outdated immigration databases. It brought out the civil rights violations by employers and insufficient privacy protections.

Although the program is not supposed to be used as a prescreening mechanism before employment is offered, many employers are basing hiring decisions on these checks. As a result, eligible workers are being denied employment opportunities because an outdated database says they are not eligible to work. The study concluded that these problems could become insurmountable if the program were to be expanded dramatically in scope.

Despite the findings of this study, this bill would expand a flawed program to every State of the Union. I can only conclude that this legislation is a veiled attempt to put in place the mechanism for eventual adoption of a controversial national identification program. The expansion of the pilot program would effectively create a single database, with no privacy protections, that would make it much easier for the government to track its own citizens.

Madam Speaker, it leads me to believe that such a vast invasion of a citizen's privacy must be carefully examined and debated by Congress. However, this broad expansion of government power has been attached to a seemingly benign program extension circumventing any committee hearings or subcommittee markup.

We all agree that we need to find ways to ensure employers hire workers that are legally authorized to work in the United States; however, the Basic Pilot Extension Act does nothing to take us closer to this goal. Instead, this legislation expands a currently imperfect program and creates a new and controversial identification database that could threaten the privacy of all U.S. citizens and immigrants. I urge my colleagues to oppose H.R. 2359.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Madam Speaker, the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Sensenbrenner) just said that this bill does not create a new database, and I disagree with the gentleman. I disagree with the gentleman, and for the first time since I have been in Congress do I agree with the organizations called Americans for Tax Reform and the American Conservative Union.

In their report to H.R. 2359, they say that the Basic Pilot Extension Act of 2003, that the undersigned organizations write to ask Members to vote

against H.R. 2359 because this bill puts in place the mechanism for eventual adoption of a national identification system.

They say, perhaps more importantly, section 3 of this proposed bill establishes the precursor of a national identification system by amalgamating data of citizens and immigrants into what is effectively a single database that would be used for multiple purposes.

It is quite interesting if it is not going to do what the gentleman says, why they do not just put it through the regular process and let the committees debate it and discuss it and vote on it in committee instead of attaching it to another bill. All of this to say that it is alarming to see what is being done here by a group that is circumventing the process that has worked here for years and years in the House of Representatives.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Berman), ranking member of the Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I agree with much of what the gentleman from California pointed out.

I want to summarize my comments and say that this bill provides for the extension and expansion of a program to verify if employees are legally authorized to work in the U.S. But we have Representatives on both sides of the aisle who oppose this bill because it expands this current pilot program to all 50 States, when today the pilot program is currently covering only six States. That includes California, Texas, Florida, New York, Illinois, and Nebraska. They are the ones who have these pilot programs. This legislation would allow all the States then to have access to what is existent right now in the database.

Again, I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on H.R. 2359.

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

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

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of in support of H.R. 3076, the Graduate Opportunities in Higher Education Act. I would like to commend our subcommittee chairman, the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Hoekstra); the chairman of the full committee, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Boehner); and our ranking member, the gentleman from California (Mr. George Miller) for the way they have managed this process, enabling us to bring this bipartisan measure to the House floor today.

This bill reauthorizes Title VII of the Higher Education Act. Although it only represents a small percentage of the Federal investment in higher education, it is a critical investment. This education legislation reaffirms the Federal interest in promoting access to advanced and professional degrees, as well as assisting colleges and universities in meeting the needs of the growing number of students with disabilities who aspire to earn college degrees.

This legislation make important improvements to our graduate education programs. If we are to reach our goal of ensuring that there is a highly-qualified teacher in every classroom, we must address our teacher preparation pipeline in its entirety.

In No Child Left Behind we addressed the need for professional development and mentoring for teachers already in our schools. In the Ready to Teach Act, we worked on improving the preparation of new teachers. And now, in the Graduate Opportunities in Higher Education Act, we are going to address faculty shortages in our colleges of education, especially in the fields of math, science, special education, and teaching of limited English proficiency students to ensure that our teacher colleges have the well-prepared faculty to prepare new teachers and conduct the scientifically-based research that will be used to inform instruction in classrooms across the whole country.

This is an important addition to the Higher Education Act, and I thank the chairman for working with us to include it in this bill.

I am also pleased that this bill reauthorizes and makes improvements to the Thurgood Marshall Legal Educational Opportunity Program, demonstration projects to ensure that students with disabilities receive a quality higher education and the funds for the improvement of postsecondary education.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to commend the staff on both sides of the aisle on a job well-done in preparing this legislation. In particular, I would like to recognize the work of Alison Ream for the majority, and I would like to recognize Mr. Ricardo Martinez for this side of the aisle.

Again, thank the chairman for working to bring forward a bill that we can all support.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. Speaker, I would like to also express my appreciation for the way in which the gentleman conducted the hearing that we had here in Washington, wherein you brought in experts to show us the great demand that there is for programs and for classes and the shortage that we have of faculty, prepared faculty, in the colleges and universities. And the gentleman responded so quickly to be able to bring that then to our subcommittee, pass it unanimously, and now bring it to the House floor. So this will make all those deans, who came all the way to Washington to testify before us, extremely happy, as it makes me, and I am sure that many of those in higher education are going to be elated that this finally has passed.