Floor Statements

Offered By: Mr. Garrett of New Jersey

Amendment No. 16: Page 10, line 17, insert before the

semicolon the following: ``, including the prosecution in

their home countries of such individuals in connection with

such acts''.

Mr. Speaker, I am a proud cosponsor of to day's resolution which calls for the United Nations to take action to uphold one of its most important conventions--the Convention of Genocide. With the violence of the Holocaust just a few years behind them, the members of the United Nations in 1948 established a convention to prevent such atrocities from ever happening again.

There is much talk at the UN about preventing war and genocide but unfortunately there is little action. The Iranian President has called for a UN member nation to be ``wiped off the map.'' Do we have any doubt that the UN would sanction the Israeli Prime Minister if the positions were reversed?

The Iranian president and the Ayatollahs' supreme wish is the destruction of Israel and all her people. They have not tried to mask this goal--they doubt the holocaust of the past and make plans for a holocaust of the future.

Ahmadinejad has even gone as far as speculating that the collateral damage of attacking Israel with nuclear weapons would be worth the cost to the Muslim world. For a regime that is developing nuclear capabilities, these are truly dangerous words. In the 1930's fascist dictators made bold claims of impending violence and we ignored them to our own peril.

The world should not ignore these words of aggression. Today, we call on UN member nations to call out Ahmadinejad, to condemn these statements, and to work together to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

Offered By: Mr. Garrett of New Jersey

Amendment No. 8: At the end of the bill, before the short

title, insert the following new section:

Sec. 503. None of the funds made available in this Act may

be used to send or otherwise pay for the attendance of more

than 50 employees from a Federal department or agency at any

single conference occurring outside the United States.

Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.

Mr. Chairman, first of all, I wish to rise to say that I appreciate the work of both the Chair and ranking member with regard to their work on behalf of veterans of this country.

The amendment that is before us is an amendment to seek increase in funds for the State veterans homes. It does so in the amount of $10 million. There are 126 facilities, veterans homes, across the 50 States and Puerto Rico. These are State veterans homes and they care for nearly 30,000 of our Nation's heroes. The number of veterans that are going to be requiring care is large and is going to continue to grow through the year 2020. And the conflict today is leading to more veterans that will need special care throughout the rest of their lives.

As many of our veterans move into these extended care facilities, we must continue here in this House to ensure that the facilities are both safe and comfortable for the residents. As you may know, there is an extensive list of backlogged projects just waiting for the funds, many of them in the area of critical health and safety needs. Of the $500 million of projects waiting for Federal funds, nearly half are classified as priority one.

We must also see that these facilities are able to provide for high quality of life as well for those individuals who have made great sacrifices in the past years for our Nation. These are homes, as I said before, for our heroes. They are not simply institutions that we are funding. If we are not able to fund the priority one projects that I am worried about, these homes will be inadequate and we will not be honoring our veterans.

The staff at these homes work hard to honor our veterans and work with them to provide that they have, for the remaining years of their lives, a comfortable environment. I have had the opportunity to spend some time in these veterans home, particularly the Paramus Veterans Home in my district in Bergen County, and I particularly had the chance to visit with the people who live there and the staff and their friends and relatives who come along. In addition to that, there are local veterans service organizations that have worked hard to secure State matching funds for these essential projects as well at this facility, just as their counterparts are doing the same sort of thing all across this country in their homes as well.

Finally, I would like to point this out, that our colleagues in the Senate Appropriations Committee just this week approved $250 million for this account. So including my amendment here would still mean that we are falling short of where the Senate is by around $75 million; so I therefore believe that this $10 million is well called for.

While this backlog is much greater than what this amendment can provide, I wanted to call attention to this difficulty these homes currently are facing and have been facing for some period of time, and I hope that we can work together now to find a way to honor these vets and make sure that they receive the best care and the best quality of life in their remaining days.

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

Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield?

As you know, this is not an issue that is new. I actually brought this up and talked about this back early in the year in the Budget Committee, and we had a discussion on it at that time.

Just a question to you: That account you are referencing where we are drawing the money from has grown as well, has it not?

Two questions. And the second question is there are other aspects of that account other than just that provision that you are referencing; so does it necessarily mean, in your opinion, that if we do withdraw some funds from the fairly large account that it will have a detrimental effect on the area that you are specifying, one which I agree with?

Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the gentleman's comments. And we are on the same page as far as both aspects that we wish the Department to deal with.

On this amendment, I think your comment was ``just not this year.'' And obviously as a Member who has been here 4 years now fighting, as you have also, probably before me, but myself here on this floor fighting for these

veterans homes, fighting literally for the ones back in my districts as well for the veterans there and seeing just the smallest improvements in just a certain number of the safety areas. And there are other area safety areas that would seem to me to need improvements in and health areas as well, and we just can't get the funds.

And the quality of life even goes beyond those issues as far as what these gentlemen need in these homes.

So I bring this amendment to the floor today for that reason, firstly. And secondly, also from a pragmatic point of view that this will go to the Senate and, as I did make the reference, that the Senate has already marked it up even significantly higher than what the gentleman has already done.

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

Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.

Madam Speaker, I rise to commend two organizations that contribute so much to make the small community of Oradell, New Jersey, such a fine place to live, work, and raise a family. Through their commitment to their neighbors, the volunteers and staff at both Bergen SWAN and the Oradell Public Library raise the quality of life in Oradell to a level bar none.

Bergen SWAN, led by its Co-Directors Lori Charkey and Mark Becker, were instrumental in preserving open space and beautifying this quiet little suburb on the outskirts of New York City. Working to coordinate grant money from a variety of sources, Bergen SWAN closed a $1.2 million land transaction preserving Hague Park. Land that likely would have been subdivided and developed is now enjoyed by all as beautiful parkland.

The Oradell Public Library is a centerpiece of community life in Oradell. Working together, a variety of citizen groups and individual residents raised funds and developed plans to renovate the library. The Steering Committee, led by James and Louise Lessersohn, raised $500,000 in contributions and gifts, mostly in the form of $100-500 donations. The library is now updated for the 21st century. And, I commend the Lessersohns; Diane DiGiovanni, president of the board of trustees; Kate McGivern, president of the Library Foundation; and Sally Isaacs, president of Friends of the Library for their commitment to their community.

Mr. Speaker, as we come today, it marks the one-quarter mark into the 110th Congress under now the new leadership of the Democrat leadership.

And what has this leadership wrought for the American public? During this time, firstly, the largest tax increase on the American family in U.S. history; secondly, a breaking of the rules, a breaking of the rules and the promises of transparency and openness that they made to the American public and that the GOP, the Republicans, began to initiate in the last Congress; and finally, we learned last night from this new majority, they bring to us slush funds, slush funds under the direction of one man on the other side done at the late end of night to control billions of dollars.

The Homeland Security bill that we were debating last night and will be debating today is too important to trivialize in this manner. It is too important to the American public, and it is too important to my constituents in the 5th Congressional District of New Jersey who live in the shadows of the World Trade Center.

Mr. Speaker, this past November election, the American public has spoken. They say they want openness, they want transparency. We demand it of this House.

Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word.

Mr. Chairman, we come here this afternoon on the eve of one-quarter of the way through the 110th Congress, and we have to ask ourselves, what now that the Democrats are in control of this House have they wrought? Three things: The largest tax increase in America's history on America's families; secondly, a breaking of the rules and/or their promises; and finally, what we learned last night, slush funds in very important appropriations bills.

If you were listening to this discussion last night, some of our friends on the other side of the aisle, in essence, justified their actions here today with this legislation by looking back to a couple of incidents in the past, back in the 1990s or what have you, and said, well, if it was done in the past, we're going to continue this tradition in the future.

I think the gentleman from Minnesota raised the point before quite accurately. Did they not hear the message that the voters of this country sent in the November election? I can tell you, we heard that message loud and clear.

The American public is tired of politics as usual. The American public is tired of the games in Washington. The American public is tired of changing the rules as you go along just to get your end.

We heard that message, and that is why we came to the floor last night and today. We are not politicizing this. We are just trying to protect the American public on important issues such as homeland security. At the end of the day, we heard. On the other side of the aisle, we thought the other side of the aisle did.

On these three points, tax increases. I have the opportunity and honor of serving on the Budget Committee, and I quite honestly was amazed, after all the hearings that we heard at the beginning of the year about the fiscal constraints we should be living under and the problems that we have, and yet we saw the budget that they presented us at the time of a $392 million tax increase in their original budget would affect everybody with tax increases.

Increase in the marginal rate of $182 billion; reduction in the child tax credit of $27 billion; increase in the marriage penalty of $13 billion; increase in the death tax, $91 billion; increase in the capital gains and dividend tax, $32 billion; other tax increases, $47 billion, all huge numbers. But if you break it right down to the individual family, you know what it comes out to be? Well, the New York Times answered that question.

They said the average family of four living in my area in the State of New Jersey, would see their taxes go up by around $50 or $100 or more. That's what the other side gave us when they gave us the largest tax increase in U.S. history.

Breaking of the record, breaking of promises, breaking of the rules. Well, if you follow what we do here on the floor, you will recall that it was just about a month ago when the other side of the aisle was trying to change the rules of the House that had been put in place as far back as 1820 to allow the minority to have the opportunity to offer motions to recommit and the like in the manner in which we have done in the past, as I say, for over 200 years. We fortunately were able to thwart those moves. We hopefully will be able to thwart their moves now as they try to break the rules again when it comes to transparencies and earmarks and the like.

And finally, when it comes to the third point, slush funds, slush funds? Can you imagine that we're still talking about in this day and age Members from the other side of the aisle creating an appropriation process where there are slush funds, where one Member is going to decide where literally billions and billions of American taxpayers' dollars go?

These are not just my comments as far as the criticism of the other side of the aisle. Let's take a look at what outside individuals and the media are commenting on this.

Public Citizen's Craig Holman said, speaking of what the Democrats are doing, ``It violates the whole spirit of the reform itself. We really did expect that earmark requests were going to be an open book so that all of America could sit there and take a look at who is requesting what earmark.''

Over on CNN, not a conservative network by any means, CNN's John Roberts said, ``The question people are asking today is, 'What happened to the Democrats' promise to shed light on the earmarks?' Because this plan as announced seems to do the opposite.''

Brianna Keilar, also from CNN, ``Democrats now are on the defense with Republicans . . . But advocacy

groups say'' their actions ``still violate the spirit of what Democrats said they would do when they came into power in January.''

Mr. Chairman, we are not trivializing this. If anything, the other side of the aisle is trivializing a very important piece of legislation, Homeland Security, an issue that is extremely important to my district, inasmuch as we live in the shadows of the Twin Towers.

Let's hear what the American public says and return civility and the rule of law to the House of Representatives.

I thank the gentlelady, and I'll consume just a portion of the time.

First off, to the gentleman from the other side of the aisle asking what truth is, and he went through a litany of truths, I ask, are his truths the same truths as America's truths when it comes to what is occurring here?

And as the gentleman behind me from Michigan, who is often quoting lyrics of music from Jesus Christ Superstar, are truths not unchanging law? And in this case, I would suggest that they are. Your laws are constantly being changed, or I should say your rules are constantly being broken that you implement and that you promise. So your truths are simply truths based upon laws that have been rules that you decide in November you're going to promise and then later on break.

As I've said each time that I come to this floor, what has this Congress under the Democrat leadership brought us? The largest tax increase in U.S. history; a breaking of the rules, so that now we see that they can change their definition of truths; and as we learned last night, surpluses, or rather, hidden fees and funds within these accounts as well.

But the point that I wanted to make at this point is to a point that the chairman raised last night, and that is to the difficulty of actually trying to address these earmarks. He said that they would rely upon the staff of his committee to effectuate this.

While I think we all take our hats off and commend the work of his committee. The staffers for the Appropriations Committee are probably some of the best and the brightest that this House has. These Members of the Appropriations Committee are also the same Members who appropriate their own salaries, for that matter. That committee is charged with the responsibility of bringing these facts not only to the House, but to the American public as well.

If the truth is that they are unable to perform their job, perhaps they can look outside this Chamber for assistance. I have a letter here of an organization, a good government organization, that made such an offer. Tim Phillips from Americans for Prosperity indicated to Chairman Obey just a week ago, realizing what he had heard as well from Chairman Obey that he is having difficulty, as he said, the extra time ``to evaluate the 36,000-plus earmark requests that have been submitted to the Appropriations Committee this year.''

The chairman says, I think we have a hell of a lot more ability than the individual working alone to do it, referencing the staff.

Well, Mr. Phillips, of American Prosperity came up with, I think, an appropriate manner or way to address these problems, if his committee and his staff and himself are not able to get this job done on time as the American public wants him to. May I read from the letter which says, ``I think that the thousands, the millions of individual taxpayers, working together, could greatly aid you in completing your earmark request evaluation before you resort to sticking earmarks into unamendable final legislation behind the closed doors of a conference committee. That's why, on behalf of thousands of Americans for Prosperity members from coast to coast, I'm writing to offer our help to you and your staff in evaluating this year's earmark request.''

You know, it's interesting. The chairman said last night that it would take literally weeks, if not months, to get the job done if they were to start right now. I think we have to ask the question, why are we even considering them starting right now? Why haven't they started weeks ago on this matter?

Let me get back to the letter. ``As you know, Internet technology has made research faster and easier than at any previous time in history.'' This is the crux of the argument. ``By releasing your 36,000 earmark requests to Americans for Prosperity, our allies and other taxpayer groups, and to concerned citizens around the country, we will be able to unleash taxpayers across the country in a cooperative effort to determine which Members of Congress may have financial conflicts attached to their earmark requests, which local projects may be unworthy of Federal funding and which may be of value to the taxpayer.''

He thanks him for the consideration, the members of Americans for Prosperity, millions of taxpayers who stand ready to help to evaluate those 36,000 earmark requests because, after all, it

is those millions of American taxpayers, they're the ones, at the end of the day, who are going to be responsible for paying for those requests.

The least that we can do in this House is, if the chairman and his committee and his side of the aisle cannot get the job done, the least we can do is turn over that responsibility and seek the assistance of the American taxpayer.

Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.

Madam Speaker, today, the township of Washington and borough of Westwood Police Departments will hold a D.A.R.E. graduation ceremony. Nearly 200 students are participating in this important program that gives young people the support they need to say no to drugs, underage drinking, and gang violence. Drug Abuse Resistance Education, or D.A.R.E., began as a small program in Los Angeles in 1983. Today, it is implemented in more than 75 percent of our Nation's school districts and in more than 43 other nations. It uses positive peer pressure to help children defeat the negative cultural influences that bombard them daily. I am proud of the young boys and girls who participated in this program in these communities, and I would like to recognize them all for taking this step toward positive citizenship:

Michaella Bermudez, Michael Bonhard, Sabrina Di Costanzo,

Maureen Drivick, Amber Hermanns, Mariel Hohmann, Gabriella

Khalil, Tyler Kocher, Xhenette Koci, Gina Lagomarsino, Connor

McCarron, John Meluso, William Mitchell, Kathryn Neary, Sara

Nestrowitz, Andrew Paterson, Matthew Rivera, Steven Shanley,

Gregory Smith, Vincent Soccodato, Amanda Sonntag, Tie

Stutzer, Dana Tannariello, Nile Tracy, Erin Wholey, Abigail

Blumkin, Kirstyn Brendlen, Craig Carmilani, Ryan DeLoughry,

Tristan DiMaria, Chiara Ferrari Wong, Justin Hrbek, Ethan

Isaac, Caner Kardesoglu, Rebecca Koch, Patrick Korkuch,

Bridget Kramer, Kylie Kuizema, Tess LaSala, Ryan Liggio,

Matthew Macchione, Adrian Mena, Alycia Monaco, Corinne Myers,

Scott Oberhelman, Justine Park, Samantha Roth, Jason Solomon,

Raechel Sontag, Michelle Stewart, Roney Amir, Yessica

Barrantes, Evan Botternan, Manuel Bravo, Maxwell Brungardt,

Morgan Hans, Sabrina Herzing, Erin Hunter, Larysa Iwaskiw,

Harrison Johnson, Marilyn Johnson, Jennifer Kang, Minseok

Kim, Susana Londono Vasco, Marcela Ortiz, Alesia Passaro,

Alison Pimpinella, Larry Pirone, Catherine Saunders, Jessica

Sheldon, Michael Wiegman, Lee Wilson, Tyler Yurkin, Armando

Amador, Paul Antonick, Michael Best, Kathy Bilias, Paris

Birkner, Slater Brown, Melissa Bui, Hana Butler, Alyssa Foss,

James Giordano, Meghan Harrington, Ryan Mansfield, Ryan

McKinley, Emilie McLaughlin, Chelsea Moriarty, Kailee Oakes,

Gabriela Paredes, Ankira Patel, Sandy Restrepo, Troy

Ribitzki, Maria Rosca, Alex Ruiz, Nicole Scordo, Cynthia

Smith, Elias Bermudez, Erin Bianchi, Alyssa Blundo, Frank

Cofone, Ryan Dahm, Raven Donahue, Ashley Driscoll, Lisa

Firriolo, Rachel Fischer, Travis Gallo, Kristen Greenstein,

Ryan Liddy, Karine Liu, David Londono Vasco, Allison Maskin,

Zachary Miros, Michael Miuccio, Megan Robinson, Tierney

Rosen, Jason Sangastiano, Travis Segarra, Alexandra Serpikov,

Sam Zitomer, Vanessa Beulel, Maria Campos, Joseph Corra, Nina

D' Ambrosio, Amy Dadamo, Jennifer Dunn, Brandon Eo, Andrew

Ferreira, Keith Haas, Mechele Hudspeth, Jennifer Keri,

Matthew Kornhauser, Vikas Lohana, Kiyoshi Lopez, Samantha

Malnick, Robert Marino, Kyle Marshall, Christian Merkle,

Taylor Meyers, Rachel Mosca, Denee Oliver, Ashley Puk, Robert

Schroeder, Cassandra Trovini, Faviola Vivar, Jake Campanella,

Andrew Cirillo, Robert Ciringione, Christopher DeTitta, Elise

Fedele, Renee Gioe, Olivia Guerriero, Darian Henry, Samuel

Hutchinson, Brittany Kanabar, Colin Keating, Aracelis

Lombardi, Michael LoSardo, Scott Loverich, Adina Millman,

Kahna Miyoshi, Kayla Navarro, Kumal Nekiwala, Emiri Nezu,

Brendan O'Sullivan, Jessica Potestivo, Paige Rios, Phillip

Sabbagh, Joseph Sabbers, Samuel Bernhardt, Zachary Charkonis,

Natasha Collova, Alex Contreras, Elliott Cortes, Hope Di

Pasquale, Jessica Easterbrook, Victoria Geimke, Emily

Griffin, Michael Haas, Samantha Lewis, Quinton Long, Lauren

Marsiglia, Luke Mazzarini, Nicholas Napoli, Jaime Pallatta,

Chelsea Pate, John Rivera, Jacqueline Romeo, Joseph Scotto,

Michael Spezial, Janell Spigner, Ryan Stapleton, Andrew Toto.

Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word.

Mr. Chairman, I rise to address the Chamber and also to commend the gentleman for his excellent amendment.

As the gentleman knows, I come from, hail from the great State of New Jersey where we are all too well aware of why we are here on the floor tonight discussing the issue of homeland security. My district is in the shadows of the Twin Towers.

I commend the gentleman for his opening comments when he stated that we need a balance between response, recovery and prevention. I would suggest, if we're going to strike that balance, that we might want to tip that balance a little bit to the way of prevention.

While as glad as my constituents are, immediately in the aftermath of 9/11, of how tremendous the response was from people, not only from New York City, New Jersey, my State, the entire tristate area, but America in general to what happened on 9/11. That was the response.

And as great as it was, the recovery after 9/11, and putting people's lives back in order as well, the thing that most New Yorkers and all Americans would agree on is if we could have prevented 9/11 to occur in the first place, how much better that would have been.

Now, we just had another incident in the State of New Jersey as well, I'm sure the gentleman knows, down in the southern part of the State with regard to several terrorists, this time homegrown terrorists trying to get into a U.S. military establishment and shoot up that establishment. In that case we did not have to look at that balance with regard to response or recovery because our government did such a phenomenal job in the area of prevention.

And what does the gentleman's, his amendment do today? He addresses that point of prevention, trying to prevent another 9/11, trying to prevent another incident that could have occurred in the State of New Jersey and the loss of life there.

And what does the amendment do? It tries to restore the $10 million cut that would have occurred should this amendment not occur.

Now, the other side of the aisle, on this amendment and a previous amendment, and I presume for the rest of this evening as well, they will be coming to the floor defending the bureaucracy. They will be coming to the floor defending the bureaucrats. They will be coming to the floor defending the status quo.

I would suggest that we do not want to defend the status quo. We want to improve the situation.

The gentleman's amendment will do that by putting the resources where they should be, in intelligence, which is prevention so that we should never have such an incident in this country again.

I commend the gentleman and encourage my colleagues from both sides of the aisle to support this amendment when it later comes to the floor for a vote.

Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the gentleman's yielding.

And I just want to reiterate a point that you made at the end, and that is to take a brief look at history to see where our intelligence apparatus, if you will, has been in this country.

I was going to step up to the floor a little earlier on a previous amendment when one of our colleagues from the other side of the aisle began to give a history as to the budget process and the deficits and the like, and I was going to say at that time, we really shouldn't be looking back on some of these issues. But I think you raised a point that we need to look back to, and it brings us to the point of 9/11 and why we got there in the first place. And that was, we went through a time, following the collapse of the ``evil empire,'' as Ronald Reagan called it, the Soviet Union, the breakup of the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc, the end of the so-called Cold War. And there were Members from the other side of the aisle in this House and the other House, but specifically in this House who said, we do not need an intelligence apparatus in this country anymore.

I remember one of my colleagues from the other side of the aisle said that we can even get rid of the CIA because we no longer need such an apparatus in a world free of the Soviet Union and the like. That was impetus during a previous administration, back during the Clinton administration.

The dollars of investments were not made during that period of time, and what was wrought because of that? What became because of that? Well, not just 9/11, which we are all familiar with. Something that people are less familiar with or already forget was the first bombing of the World Trade Center, when at that time the towers did not come down, collapsing upon the neighbors and the people in the area; but you may recall that bombing in the cellars and the trucks.

What it led to also was bombing of U.S. interests around the world as well. In each instance it was because of a lack of dollars and investment in apparatus, invested in our intelligence community, in the CIA and other apparatus, National Security Agency and the like. Because of that those things came about.

So the gentleman is absolutely correct in this case of looking back to see where we did not make the investments in the past and where our colleagues on the other side of the aisle would say continue that wrong philosophy of not investing in intelligence but instead just looking to the recovery and the response.

We believe that we must be looking to the prevention, as the author of this amendment said at the very outset, that we must look to the prevention, and that has come about through the investment of our intelligence.

So I just want to reiterate that point that the gentleman raised. Look back to history. Look at which party led us to the problems that we have today and what we need to do about it today. Look back at history.

Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word.

Mr. Chairman, the 110th Congress now under Democrat leadership, we're 6 months into this Congress now. If you think about it, that's one- quarter of the way toward the completion of this term. The American public at home should be thinking, what has this new Democrat leadership wrought in many different areas?

What has it wrought? The largest tax increase in U.S. history, the breaking of promises during the campaign of openness, the repealing of transparency that the previous majority had instituted, repealing of the openness in the area of earmarks and budget process reform.

And now on top of that, on top of the largest tax increase in history, on top of the repealing of transparency and openness, slush funds, slush funds in the very appropriations bills that the majority campaigned on that they would bring a new air of relief to this House.

The other side has said they were trying to slow down the process, that the amendments that we make are not about the bills. Well, Mr. Chairman, this bill is a homeland security bill, and as long as I have breath, I will come to this floor and speak about trying to improve homeland security in the legislation that passes this House.

I represent a district that was tremendously impacted by 9/11. I do not go to a county in my district where I do not meet victims of 9/11 or family members or people who did business with or are related with victims of 9/11.

While the rest of the world and the rest of this country may see 9/11 as something that is going by year after year and less and less part of their lives, mine is a district that remembers it every day. Mine is a district that remembers it every year still on its anniversary.

So, homeland security legislation, and amendments such as this one which work to try to improve that legislation, are incredibly important to me. And more important than that, it is incredibly important to my district.

This piece of legislation that's before us deals with the financial aspect of homeland security. Quite candidly, this is not just a matter of dollars and cents when we talk about dollars and what we spend here in Washington. What we spend here impacts upon the Federal budget, but more important than that, it impacts upon the family budget.

What the average family in Bergen County, Sussex County, Passaic County, Warren County have to do every day in their lives in order to get by is impacted by what we do on this floor and what we will do on this amendment later on tonight on how much we spend. It may be vast numbers here in Washington, but it is dollars and cents back at home.

I have the honor to serve on the Budget Committee, and on that committee for the 4-plus years that I've been here, I felt there was one thing that both sides of the aisle generally agreed to, I thought, and that was that we have a problem in this country with regard to our deficit. The difference, however, is on how to resolve that issue.

The one side, as we see now in control, sees that problem and continues to exacerbate it by spending more, more than the President asked for, more than this side of the aisle would suggest is needed, more than the American public would think that we should be spending on the American Federal budget.

We had looked to the other side after this last election to give us relief and give us reform, and what did they give us instead? The largest tax increase in history and significant spending on top of that. I guess the two really go hand in hand. If you are going to enlarge budgets without end, well, you're going to have to look back to the American public and ask them to dig ever deeper into their pockets, into their wallets and send it here to Washington. You're going to have to ask the American public to send their hard-earned tax dollars to Washington to spend on bureaucrats in offices and other such matters as opposed to allowing the American public to keep it for themselves, for their health care need, for their children's education, for their food and their housing.

Mr. Chairman, I commend the gentlewoman for her amendment, even though the amount that she's looking to reduce in the scheme of things is merely a de minimis amount as we look at it here in Washington.

But let me tell you when we get home and we are able to tell them that we were able to start the process of returning the dollars back to you, the American taxpayer, and still provide the significant and essential homeland security that is vastly important to the people in my district, they will say to this side of the aisle and to the other side of the aisle as well that they agree with us; job well done.

Amendment Offered by Mr. McHenry to Amendment No. 33 Offered by Ms.

Foxx

Madam Speaker, I rise today to commend two outstanding seniors at Eastside High School in Paterson, Andrea Watkins and Deniss Quintanilla-Ceron. These young people are this year's recipients of the Nathan LeBron Scholarship Fund for their commitment to their education and to their futures.

Eastside High School may sound familiar--it is the school featured in the 1989 movie, Lean On Me. Many of the young men and women who attend that school face a wide variety of challenges and must overcome much to achieve their goals for a brighter future. The LeBron scholarship is one way that the community can demonstrate its support for their endeavors. Both Andrea and Deniss possess the brilliance of spirit that will turn this small show of support into an extraordinary future.

The scholarship is given in partnership with the Michelle Mitzvah Group of Beth Haverim. Both are named for people who exemplify perseverance and love of life. Nathan LeBron was a cancer survivor. Michelle was a young girl he met before she succumbed to leukemia. Nathan came from a troubled home, but with the love and support of Michelle's father, Marc Appelbaum, he went on to graduate college, earn a masters at Harvard, and head the IT operations at the Baseball Hall of Fame. The Mitzvah group seeks out opportunities to make the community a better place, with particular emphasis on brightening the lives who really need it--much as Marc Appelbaum did for Nathan LeBron in his youth.

I commend the men and women who work with this scholarship fund and who make the social action mission of the Michelle Mitzvah Group come to life. And, I commend Andrea and Deniss for their accomplishments. There is little doubt that they, in turn, will do tremendous things to brighten the lives of others as well.

Mr. Speaker, today we honor an ally who is standing with us in the Global War on Terrorism. An ally who knows what it is like to fight for peace and freedom, South Korea. Just over 50 years ago, Korea was the most violent spot on the planet as the North Korean government, backed by the Soviets and Chinese, swooped in to destroy the fledgling democracy in the south.

I am a proud cosponsor of this resolution which recognizes the significant contributions that the South Korean military has made in Afghanistan and in Iraq. Our South Korean allies maintain the third largest contingent of personnel in Iraq, where they are helping each day to rebuild that nation and spread the freedom they too earned with blood, sweat, and grit.

While as many as 3,600 personnel have at some time served, currently 2,300 work in the country to provide medical services, build and repair roads, power lines, schools, and other public works.

The Republic of Korea has contributed both men and money to rebuilding Iraq because they know how difficult it is to rise from the ashes of war. Since the end of the Korean War, the people of South Korea have built one of the world's most modern and dynamic economies.

We hope that the Iraqi and Afghani people can look to the South Korean model to develop into a peaceful and prosperous nation. We thank the Republic of Korea and the Korean people for their sacrifice and their stand for freedom.

Madam Speaker, today, the Paramus Police Department will hold its D.A.R.E. graduation ceremony with the students of West Brook Middle School. More than 150 students are participating in this important program that gives young people the support they need to say no to drugs, underage drinking, and gang violence.

Drug Abuse Resistance Education, or D.A.R.E., began as a small program in Los Angeles in 1983. Today, it is implemented in more than 75 percent of our Nation's school districts and in more than 43 other nations. It uses positive peer pressure to help children defeat the negative cultural influences that bombard them daily.

I am proud of the young boys and girls who participated in this program at West Brook Middle School, and I would like to recognize them all for taking this step toward positive citizenship:

Breanne Babin, Nicole Becker, Tamar Beylerian, Isabella Blanco-Rivas, Nicholas Bushman, Julia Castronovo, Deborah Daoud, Arnold De Masi, Anthony Gallo, Tiffany Hsiung, Alisha Jadhav, Stephen McGuire, Lauren Mihalik, Christina Muller, Hayley Niland, Aisling O'Connor, Justin Ordonez, Jacqueline Paizis, Kevin Perusse, Kimberly Portes, Nicholas Ruso, Zacky Sungkar, Daniel Toppo, Maxwell Wagner, Matthew Warren, Nadia Admani, Christopher Akdemir, Emily Aranda, Varun Bhatt, Miranda Campbell, Gabriel Cepeda, Divya Dasani, Nadine Haddad, Connor Hagen, Noel Hodgins, Brittany Hovan, Kwon-Sung Jung, Kathleen McGee, Leah Paterno-Olivari, Michael Piquero, Brian Polsky, Diego Ramirez, Michael Rullis, Akari Saito, Amitoj Sawhney, Nicole Sicari, Victoria Stabile, Nicole Tomic, Mimi Tsang, Alok Vaidya, Shefalee Vohra, Brandon Birdsall, Diana Blanco, Nicholas Bucci, Ryan Bucci, Steven Carrescia, Justin Cochran, Mark Cristaldi, Rebekah Daniel, Joseph Dobrowolski, Aleah Dotson, David Elhananov, Zinath Froogh, Michelle Kim, Emil Lopez, Carla Nilo, Yusuke Oshimizu, Daniel Paolazzi, Rachel Rigolosi, Eric Rosenzweig, Erika Soto, Athanasios Stepas, Michael Thompson, Gregory Vaks, Zachary Yabroudy, Priyanka Abraham, Jafar Ali, Alexandra Arrighi, Matthew Askling, Nicole Cagar, Alex Castro, Jesse Christie, Tyler Deas, Nicholas Delgiorno, Ariana Dellosa, Nina Fiorilla, Dean Fujita, Oscar Gonzales, James Hallihan, Nikolaos Haralambakis, Max Hopkins, Zalaikha Javed, Sofia Koutsoumbis, Matthew Lahanas, Lindsey Lucas, Kayla Mees, Janki Patel, Zachary Reuveni, Ryan Rivera, Liridona Shala, Pratyusha Valiveti, Matthew Alpher, Jason Back, Parita Bhanderi, Thomas Bores, Brooke Bukowski, Randy Casallas, Harold Choo, Matthew DeMatteo, Julia Deutlmoser, Jana Devaney, Margaret Doyle, Joseph Faris, Laura Heckelmann, Daniel Heidt, Yurina Iijima, Farah Kiki, Michelle Kim, Elyse Krupinski, Maya Peterson, Victoria Petruzzella, Victoria Poplaski, Justine Rizzitello, Adam Ron, Daniel Schauer, Emad Tirmizi, Kevin Tirpanciyan, Lakhini Vyas, George Ayob, Jr., Shannon Barile, Tiffany Buchen, Francis Ciambrone, Alexandra Cooney, Julia Cuomo, Alyssa De Clemente, Julia Dellosa, Erika Dipasquale, Jessica Goldman, Jessica Hazuda, Nicole Huaman, Sundesh Kodali, Kimberly La Vecchia, Matthew Lemash, Brian Monticello, Timothy Moran, Deanna Napoli, Shivam Raikundalia, Raquel Riggitano, Jacob Roth, Nicholas Salemme, Karan Shah, Zainab Shahsamand, Donovan Spivey, Carly Turton, Shawn Abraham, Joseph Akdemir, Asha Babu, Rachel Buchbinder, Allison Chang, Daniel Chen, John Chinchar, Inderpreet Dhaliwal, Lindsay Diamond, John Diaz, Sky Digirolamo, Stephanie Edelstein, Julia Gerogiannis, Michael Kim, Gina Kisley, Joseph Lee, Daisy Lee, Grace Lim, Annika Nungra, Alyssa Nungra, John Piccinich, Abraar Quraishi, Alexa Salinardi, Alexander Shater, Courtney Smallze, Rebecca Song, Ashlin Twardzik, Parth Vaidya.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to commend the students of Don Bosco Prep High School in Ramsey, New Jersey, who recently won first place in Information and Communication in the 2006- 2007 Internet Science and Technology Fair. The Class of 2008 students, James Cahayla-Wynne, Walter Hickey, Alexander Hieronymi, Robert Hoffmann, and John Kelly III developed an Integrated Navigation System called ``On Target.''

As the students themselves have described it on their website, www.ph3k.com: ``We resolve to design a multipurpose beacon, using GPS (Global Positioning Systems) technology, that can relay both its position and additional information about the surrounding environment, to existing data centers. These data centers will then synthesize and organize this raw data and forward it to the troops in the field who need it.''

These very bright students were aided in their quest by very supportive family, teachers, school administrators, and community leaders--Mrs. Bernadette Kozak, LTC Steven Fleming of the U.S. Military Academy, Fr. Lou Konopelski, and Mr. Paul O'Connor. As the George Bernard Shaw quote on the Don Bosco website states, ``Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.'' Clearly, the faculty and staff at this school breathe life into those words each day.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to Christine Ward-Diaz, a science and math teacher at East Brook Middle School in Paramus, New Jersey, and winner of a Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching this year.

As the Paramus Superintendent Janice Dime has noted, Ms. Ward-Diaz ``makes science learning come alive in her classroom.'' I had the pleasure of visiting with Ms. Ward-Diaz last year with the EPA Administrator, Stephen Johnson, to discuss energy conservation. Her teaching style clearly invigorates her classroom and challenges her students. The children were well-informed and excited to absorb as much knowledge as they could from their teacher.

Christine Ward-Diaz holds a bachelor's degree in elementary education from the University of Scranton and a masters in environmental studies from my alma mater, Montclair State University. Her superior teaching methods have long been recognized by her peers, earning her East Brook's Teacher of the Year in 2004-05. The Presidential Award is the federal government's highest honor for teaching excellence.

This statement in the Congressional Record will ensure her well- deserved place in official history. But, more importantly, the generations of students she inspires are a legacy in which we will all always share. I commend Christine Ward-Diaz for her dedication to her students and her community.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to commend twelve-year-old Vincent Giacalone of Emerson, NJ, whose artistic submission to the UPS Store Design Dale's New Ride contest took the top prize.

The contest was sponsored by UPS to raise awareness and funds for the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves' Toys for Tots program, which distributes toys to needy children across the nation each year. Since its beginning in 1947, when Major Bill Hendricks led a group of Marine Reservists in Los Angeles to collect and distribute 5,000 toys to needy children to brighten up their Christmas, Toys for Tots has grown to be a program almost synonymous with the holidays. Over its 59-Christmas-history, Toys for Tots has distributed 370 million toys to more than 173 million needy children.

Vincent's prize-winning artwork will emblazon NASCAR's Dale Jarrett's #44 Camry at an October 28th race in Atlanta. This date marks the kick- off of the fundraising campaign for the Toys for Tots Foundation in 2007. Since its inception 16 years ago, the Foundation has supplemented the Marine Corps' local toy collections with more than 70.2 million toys valued at more than $387 million and has provided valuable promotion and support materials.

I commend young Vincent Giacalone for being a part of a program that helps so many children his own age share in the spirit and joy of the holidays each year.