Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to be one of the sponsors of this bill. I thank the gentleman from New Jersey.

I want to thank my colleague, Chris Gibson from New York. Here we are again. Just a month ago, my colleague Mr. Gibson and I were working across the aisle to lower energy prices in the Hudson Valley, and here we are working again on an issue of tremendous importance to our region. I support the Tick-Borne Disease Research Accountability and Transparency Act, along with so many others, and I want to acknowledge Mr. Gibson's leadership on this issue.

I am proud we are working across the aisle, because Lyme disease is an epidemic in the Hudson Valley, and it is hurting our kids, our friends, and our families. It is happening everywhere--on our playgrounds, in our backyards, at parks, picnics, and on trails in the woods. It is the invisible, silent disease that so many find themselves developing--and far too many find out too late. It is now one of the most common and fastest growing infectious diseases in our country. Every year, there are hundreds of thousands of cases nationwide, with 96 percent of those cases in only 13 States.

In New York, thousands of my neighbors in the Hudson Valley are suffering from Lyme disease every day. Four counties in the Hudson Valley, including Dutchess and Putnam Counties, have reported the highest rates of Lyme disease in the entire country. I hear about it everywhere I go.

A man named Alex from Washingtonville told me he has been suffering from Lyme disease for over 35 years. I spoke with a man who has a tree- cutting business in Garrison, New York. He said he has got about 12 guys working for him. I said, How many have got Lyme disease? He said, Every single one. All of my guys have Lyme disease, he said.

A member of my own staff spent a month this summer injecting himself with heavy-duty antibiotics through a catheter that was put into his heart. A member of my own staff had to sit on a couch every day and inject antibiotics into his heart because of this disease. Thank God he caught it in time and will make a full recovery.

I met a woman at an event in Poughkeepsie who came up to me with a cane. She couldn't be more than 30 years old. She was with her husband. She said:

Our whole lives have been ruined by this disease. My

husband and I were just starting our life together. We were

going to have a family. We had big plans, and now all we do

is deal with this chronic Lyme disease that I have, and I

can't get better.

There is a woman named Valerie from Westchester County who wrote to me and says:

No one listens. I hope you will listen.

Well, we are listening today, Valerie, and I urge my colleagues to listen and pass this critical bill.

This bipartisan legislation makes a landmark investment in Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses so that our friends and families in the Hudson Valley no longer have to suffer in silence. When folks are suffering, I guarantee you they aren't thinking, Mr. Speaker, about partisan politics.

There is no Republican or Democratic Lyme disease, and Americans expect us to work together. That is why I am proud we are doing so today. We can stand up. We can stand shoulder-to-shoulder and say the health of our communities is too important to wait. For neighbors like Alex, Valerie, the others I mentioned, and for so many others I have never met, I want you to know we are listening.

I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 4701 because our constituents deserve a government that is working for them and that steps up to the plate when they need it most.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 2807, the Conservation Easement Incentive Act. This important legislation would make the current tax deduction for the contribution of conservation easements permanent, affording landowners the stability and certainty needed to complete the long term planning necessary for either continued agricultural production or conservation work. Since being signed into law in 2006, the enhanced tax incentive for conservation easements has boosted donations of conservation easements by a third--to a total of over a million acres a year.

The Hudson Valley is a national treasure that must be preserved, and we owe it to our children and grandchildren to protect the places New Yorkers cherish and depend on. In the Hudson Valley, a landowner in my district is struggling to preserve his thirty five acre homestead, which he has lived on for over 40 years. The land dates back to the original family farmsteads and orchards that have dotted the Hudson Valley for generations. Many of those farmsteads have since been sold to developers, but not his. The parcel of land he is fighting to protect and preserve is not only precious in its heritage and conservation value, but in its current use as a trail, which connects several larger land preserves in the region. While he would like to donate a conservation easement and receive the much needed tax deduction, there is considerable financial pressure on him to sell the land to developers. If that happens--the land is lost. And as my friend and President of the Westchester Land Trust, Lori Ensinger, put it-- when the land is lost, it's lost for good.

We must balance economic development with protecting the land for preservation and outdoor recreation. Rather than being forced to sell to developers, conservation easement tax incentives allow farmers and landowners the choice to maintain working lands for agriculture or to protect more land for wildlife protection and outdoor recreation. In the Hudson Valley conservation easements have a tremendously positive impact, boosting regional economies while protecting some of America's most important natural sites for future generations.

While we have been successful in protecting thousands of acres over the last ten years all across the Hudson Valley, our work is not done. Passing the Conservation Easement Incentive Act is about more than just environmental preservation it is about regional economies, businesses and jobs. Without the conservation easement tax incentives, landowners may be forced to divide or sell their property to developers; losing the land, its heritage and economic benefits for good.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to mark the 40th anniversary of Turkey's invasion of Cyprus and to call for a reunited and independent Cyprus. The Turkish invasion in 1974 affected hundreds of thousands of Greek Cypriots and its impact continues to be felt today as Cyprus is still one of the most highly militarized areas in the world. Furthermore Greek Cypriots are still being denied human rights. They have been denied their right to return to their homes, their properties have been sold or confiscated, and their right to religious freedom has been restricted.

The United States has strongly encouraged continuing formal negotiations between the leaders of the Greek Cypriot and Turkish communities. It is important that we continue to support Cyprus as it is an ally and strategic partner in combatting terrorism. Cyprus has also helped in the promotion of security and stability in the eastern Mediterranean. On the 40th anniversary of the invasion of Cyprus, the United States is reminded that we should strive to end this injustice and continue to support the long overdue reunification and independence of Cyprus.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume, and rise in strong support of H.R. 2283, the Human Trafficking Prioritization Act.

First, let me thank my friend and colleague, Representative Chris Smith, for introducing this important piece of legislation which elevates the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking to the status of a bureau within the State Department.

Put simply, as we have heard this evening, human trafficking is modern day slavery. It represents a brutal violation of individual freedom and human dignity. Unfortunately, this practice is all too common around the world and in our own neighborhoods. But, fortunately, the United States is committed to responding to this crime here at home and around the world. Since this Congress passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act in 2000, leaders on both sides of the aisle have

rallied around this issue. Indeed, three administrations have made this effort a priority. Our coordination across government through the President's Interagency Task Force on Human Trafficking has never been stronger.

Mr. Speaker, today we can take another step forward by making the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons a full bureau within the State Department. This office is already doing critical work. Its annual Trafficking in Persons Report has become the global gold standard in assessing how well governments around the world are meeting this important challenge.

Elevating the trafficking office to a State Department bureau would send a strong message to the world that combating modern day slavery remains a top priority to the United States. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this important legislation.

I reserve the balance of my time.

General Leave

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the gentleman from North Carolina. I listened with great interest to his words earlier. I would like to thank him and acknowledge him for his leadership on this issue. It is so great to see him reaching across the aisle to do so, and I want to acknowledge his leadership on this issue.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to my colleague from New Mexico (Mr. Ben Ray Lujan).

I yield an additional 2 minutes to the gentleman from New Mexico.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the gentleman from New Mexico for his eloquent and passionate remarks, a concern so many of us share.

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

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

I rise in strong support of my bill, H.R. 4449, the Human Trafficking Prevention Act.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to also thank my colleague, Mr. Meadows, for his leadership on this bill. I would like to thank the Democratic whip--my friend, the gentleman from Maryland, Steny Hoyer--and his staff for the work they dedicated to this piece of legislation and to my own staff.

Worldwide, less than 1 percent of an estimated 27 million victims of human trafficking have been reported, and in the past year, only about 44,000 survivors have been identified.

Millions--literally millions of children, women, and men are trafficked each year and forced into modern-day slavery as part of the world's most evil and fastest growing industry. It may seem like it only happens on the other side of the world, but it is happening here in quiet neighborhoods across our country.

Some of those survivors are from neighborhoods I represent in the Hudson Valley of New York. In New Windsor and Newburgh, for nearly 4 years, one man would troll the streets, coercing at least 10 women to work for him as sex workers in local motels.

Last year, law enforcement authorities uncovered an international sex trafficking ring operating brothels in Yonkers, Poughkeepsie, and Newburgh, where women were brutalized and forced to have sex 10, 20, 30 times a day.

It is a hard truth, but it is a truth nonetheless. This disgusting, this horrifying practice of modern-day slavery happens here, right here in our own neighborhoods, in our own backyards, in our own country.

Even with the assistance of law enforcement and dedicated organizations like My Sister's Place in Westchester and Safe Homes of Orange County, groups which help survivors rebuild their lives, New York continues to be one of the top hubs of human trafficking where sex trafficking, child labor, child sex trafficking, and indentured servitude happen all too frequently.

In another community in Hudson Valley about an hour away from New York City, a man tricked teenage girls to travel to the United States on tourist visas from countries like Brazil, Hungary, and France. He instructed these women to lie to both Immigration and State Department officials in order to gain access to our country.

It is precisely this kind of situation that my legislation seeks to stop. We must ensure that our men and women on the front lines of our borders have the resources and training they need in order to identify and stop human trafficking at its source before these women and children and men become victims.

As part of our goal to end human trafficking, we can make sure that our foreign service officers and other government personnel have the tools and training they need to spot, to identify these victims and stop this trafficking across international borders.

In the past, the State Department estimated that between 14,500 and 17,000 foreign nationals were trafficked into the United States every single year. Although the Federal Government has a zero tolerance policy on human trafficking, our foreign service officers, who often have face-to-face contact with these victims when they are obtaining U.S. visas, currently undergo minimal training to define, identify, and recognize the indicators of human trafficking or smuggling.

My legislation would expand new minimum training procedures for foreign service officers and other government personnel in order to identify and stop human trafficking at its source and take action before people are trafficked across international borders before it becomes too late, when they are already in the United States and already victimized.

Since we know criminals will do just about anything to adapt and to avoid being caught, this legislation also requires annual updates on key problems, threats, methods, and warning signs of trafficking.

I want to thank my colleagues across the aisle because, by working across the aisle, we have a new opportunity to come together to combat this absolutely monstrous practice of trafficking in children, women, and men.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support my legislation, H.R. 4449, the Human Trafficking Prevention Act, and I yield back the balance of my time.

I would like to thank the chairman and the ranking member for working with me on this issue.

Mr. Chairman, in January, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, known as FERC, approved a proposal by the New York Independent System Operator to create a new capacity zone in the Hudson Valley. The committee report accompanying the fiscal year 2015 Energy and Water Appropriations bill acknowledges that zones like this one may result in increases in consumer energy costs.

In the case of the Hudson Valley, this new zone would impose an unprecedented $230 million increase in energy costs for our region in just the first year and nearly $500 million in increased costs over a 3-year period. Initial estimates suggest that customers throughout the Hudson Valley could see their utility bills go up by 3 to 10 percent.

Not only did FERC approve this new zone, but they have completely disregarded ratepayers and local officials in this decision. They have consistently ignored local stakeholders' warnings that this zone will arbitrarily hurt families and businesses.

Moreover, they have failed to demonstrate that the zone would even achieve the result that they are seeking. FERC has also failed to take into account a wide range of ongoing investments that will facilitate the movement of energy in New York State and which may reduce or eliminate the need for such high-capacity payments.

Would the chairman and the ranking member agree that it is the intent of the report language to ensure that FERC reexamines and reforms the way they conduct this type of decisionmaking, so that the proceedings ensure the Commissioners hear and consider the concerns of local ratepayers?

I want to thank the chairman and the ranking member.

Would you also be committed to continuing to work with me during fiscal year 2015 to ensure that FERC makes reforms to ensure that the views of residents, local and State officials, regulators, and business leaders are taken into account when FERC makes these major decisions?

Madam Chair, I have an amendment at the desk.

Madam Chair, many of my colleagues may be familiar with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, also known as FERC. But I imagine few of my colleagues have experienced an agency with the accountability that we have experienced in the Hudson Valley recently, or have seen how a few unelected bureaucrats can wreak havoc, literally, on our utility bills and those of our struggling neighbors without regard for basic facts, like how those people use energy or how those bills will be paid or whether people can even afford to pay these bills after the worst winter and the highest energy costs we have seen in a generation. This egregious bureaucratic overreach has to stop.

In January, FERC approved a plan to create what is called a new capacity zone in the Hudson Valley. Now, this new zone would arbitrarily impose an unprecedented $230 million increase in energy costs in my region for just the first year alone, and nearly $500 million in increased costs over the first 3 years. This is absolutely outrageous and unnecessary.

No one elected anyone in the FERC, and they are accountable to no one. But their decisions affect all of us and, in this case, affect the struggling ratepayers of the Hudson Valley.

Initial estimates suggest that customers throughout the Hudson Valley could see their utility bills go up by as much as 10 percent. This, again, after the worst winter and highest energy costs in a generation.

Every single day, I am hearing from my neighbors about how awful this decision is and their fears of how they will pay for their energy. I heard from Russ in Putnam Valley, who told me that, as a senior on a fixed income, this is an increase that he simply can't afford. He is expected to pay $120 more over the next year, and he doesn't have it.

And it is not just families that will be hit. Schools, like those in Carmel,

are scrambling to find ways to cut budgets that are already stretched thin. And our large employers, like IBM, estimate that this FERC decision could cost just IBM up to $10 million over the next year.

Now, you might think that any agency with that kind of destructive power might be accountable to someone, but apparently you would be wrong.

Last week, I received a letter from Dutchess County Executive Marcus Molinaro stating that, in the 20 years that he has been in elected office, ``I have never interacted with a less accessible, less accountable government entity, seemingly impervious to legislative and public scrutiny.'' I couldn't agree more, and we have that agreement across party lines and across levels of government.

The new capacity zone is an unnecessary and destructive step designed to fix a problem that we can fix in so many other ways, and we have to rein in these unaccountable Washington bureaucrats.

So my amendment is simple. It would specifically prohibit funds from going towards allowing the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to enforce the decision that created the new capacity zone. Because a runaway agency like this needs a serious wake-up call, and this amendment will let FERC know that they are accountable to folks like Russ and the people in Carmel and the seniors in my district and to this Congress.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Chair, I thank the chairman for his assistance with the colloquy earlier. I respect his remarks.

Let me just point out that this amendment relates to a specific FERC docket. So by definition, it can affect nothing other than this specific decision that I have referred to.

I yield for such time as he may wish to consume to the gentleman from New York, Chris Gibson, my colleague from across the aisle who also represents the Hudson Valley.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Offered By: Mr. Sean Patrick Maloney of New York

Amendment No. 26: At the end of the bill (before the short

title) insert the following:

Mr. Speaker, I, too, rise today to honor the service and pay tribute to Gregg David Wenzel, a National Clandestine Service officer of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Gregg graduated from Monroe-Woodbury High School in my district and from SUNY Binghamton. He then went on to graduate from the University of Miami School of Law in the mid-nineties.

Choosing a life of public service, he worked as a public defender in Miami before taking a job with the Florida Bar Association. After the tragic events of September 11, 2001, Gregg joined the CIA. He was a member of the first post-9/11 class.

Serving in his very first assignment abroad in 2002, at the age of only 33, he lost his life in service to our country in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on July 9, 2003. The CIA honored Gregg and his service by placing a star on their memorial wall at the CIA headquarters, but it was not until later in 2009 that the full story of his service could be shared publicly.

Gregg Wenzel represents an entire generation who bravely served their country by answering the call to service following the attacks of September 11. He sought a career at the Agency for two reasons: to serve his country and to ``live for a greater purpose than himself.'' That is a legacy and expression of service that we can all learn from.

Recognized as a leader by CIA Director Leon Panetta and known for his sense of humor and desire to make a difference, Gregg served on the front lines of our intelligence operation abroad and ultimately sacrificed his life in defense of the freedoms we all too frequently take for granted.

Our country owes a debt of gratitude to Gregg and his family, including his mother, Gladys; his father, Mitchell; and his sisters, Maura, Rachel, and Heather.

With passage of H.R. 2112, a post office in Monroe, New York, will be named in his honor. For generations to come, his hometown will be reminded of his service and sacrifice, and my neighbors will continue to be inspired by this man's deep devotion to his country.

Although no one can ever fully repay his family for their tragic loss, I hope this bill will come as some small comfort and tribute to his memory.

Mr. Speaker, with honor and respect for the life of Gregg David Wenzel, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 2112.

Mr. Speaker, it is with great honor that I welcome Rabbi Eytan Hammerman of Temple Beth Shalom to the House of Representatives and thank him for serving as today's guest chaplain.

Rabbi Hammerman leads the congregation at Temple Beth Shalom and is passionate about serving his neighbors in Mahopac, New York.

A distinguished scholar, Rabbi Hammerman holds a B.A. and a master's degree from the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City and a degree in political science from Columbia University. Before he joined Temple Beth Shalom in 2010, he served small and large congregations in Baltimore, Maryland; White Plains, New York; and northern New Jersey, in addition to serving as director of the Jewish Youth Philanthropy Institute here in Washington, D.C.

Rabbi Hammerman has served the Mahopac community since he was ordained in 2010, and his leadership has united people all throughout the community--no matter what their beliefs or what their background.

Not only a religious leader, he has long been a political advocate for justice and equality, and especially for a reduction in the horrible plague of gun violence we see in our country.

He is joined here today by his wife, Rebecca, and his three beautiful daughters, Ary, Rena, and Ilana, as well as his mother- and father-in- law, Marjorie and Dr. Steven Hoffman.

Not only a religious leader, he is also my friend, and I am proud to call him my friend. I hope you will join me in welcoming Rabbi Hammerman.

Mr. Speaker, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt once said:

All my life, I have dreamed of going back to my home on the Hudson River. It was the center of the world.

He was referring to his habit of, late at night, of remembering being a child, before he was stricken with polo, before he was President, before he was burdened with the awesome responsibilities of his office during a time of war.

Being a child in the Hudson River meant sledding down a hill behind Hyde Park and feeling totally free. And he remembered that, as a President, to forget the burdens of his office and to remember the miracle and dream of his youth. Those of us who are blessed to represent the Hudson Valley understand that the Hudson Valley writes its beauty on our personalities and on our very souls. It inscribes us with its timeless beauty. And as it flows on endlessly by, we are reminded of the fleeting nature of our service and of our very lives.

A group of artists, including Thomas Cole, Asher Brown Durand, Jasper Francis Cropsey, and Frederic Edwin Church, somehow by hiking, sketching, and experiencing the Hudson River Valley found a way to translate what it means to those of us who live, work, and raise our families there into these permanent, lasting images. And our own modern-day genius, Greg Wyatt, has found a way to capture them. So we pause here tonight to honor that.

Drawing inspiration from our natural environment, these artists began painting scenes and now sculpting images. From across New York and our country, Asher Brown Durand, one of the original founders of the school, has one of the most beautiful pieces anyone will ever create of Beacon, New York. It is called ``Beacon Hills on the Hudson River.'' It was painted across the river in Newburgh in 1852. Today, my office in Newburgh looks out at that same image, at that same beauty.

Frederic Church was one of the first to capture Niagara Falls back in 1857. Within 2 weeks of its debut, his piece had lured 100,000 visitors to pay 25 cents apiece to view it.

Not only did the Hudson River School influence the modern-day environmental conservation movement, but these paintings actually inspired the establishment of our National Park System in the early part of the 20th century, which was, of course, formed by President Teddy Roosevelt. Teddy Roosevelt couldn't have spoken more true words when he said:

There are no words that can tell the hidden spirit of the

wilderness, that can reveal its mystery, its melancholy, and

its charm.

But, again, our painters from the Hudson Valley found that hidden spirit

and that charm that Franklin and Teddy Roosevelt both remembered.

Dating back 100 years, my neighbors in the Hudson Valley take great pride in our natural resources and protecting and conserving this unique home for us and for our children and for generations to come.

I want to take just a minute to recognize my predecessor and our former colleague, Congressman Maurice Hinchey, and his family who have joined us here tonight. When you follow Maurice Hinchey in the Congress, you have some very big shoes to fill. And I have heard a lot about Congressman Hinchey and his service, and I always enjoy the stories because it sets for me an example of what I want to do in this body.

After Congressman Hinchey sacrificed for his country as a Navy sailor, as my own father did, he became a respected State lawmaker, and he proudly served here for two decades. My neighbors in the Hudson Valley know that he worked tirelessly for them, for economic justice and equal opportunity, because he believed that this government should work for everyone, including someone like him who grew up in a working class family and spent some time working in a factory, because our country, as Congressman Hinchey understood, is better off when leadership like his supports ordinary Americans, people like him who served in our military, our veterans, our working and middle class families who struggle to put food on the table and pay the bills but who can also appreciate the beauty of the environment and the timeless wonder of places like the Hudson Valley.

Congressman Hinchey played a critical role in the modern environmental movement even before it was widely recognized as important. Back in 1996 when I was working for President Clinton, Congressman Hinchey was authoring legislation that the President signed into law that established the Hudson Valley National Heritage Area. Because of Mr. Hinchey's leadership, the Hudson Valley National Heritage Area currently links over 100 individual sites, from Saratoga to Westchester, while showcasing the Hudson Valley's unique role in American history and development.

I want to commend Barnabas McHenry who is with us here today who has dedicated so much of his life to that same mission. Because of their leadership, my children and my grandchildren will see and be able to treasure the Hudson Valley's unique and incredible scenic, historic, agricultural, and natural wonders.

Congressman Hinchey always made sure that we remember the rich contributions of the Hudson River School of painters. Congressman Hinchey knows, like many of us do, that there is no place in the country that compares to the Hudson Valley, and those of us lucky enough to live there are not surprised that it was the birthplace of America's first and greatest school of art.

In closing, let me just say that not long ago, a friend of mine came over to my home, which is across from West Point and Cold Spring, and actually looks down the Hudson River towards Garrison and south towards the Bear Mountain Bridge. I walked him up to the property, and the sun was going down. A short while later after he left, he sent a note and he said:

Sean, I once saw a sunset like that in a Frederic Church

painting, and I thought he made it up. But when I saw it with

my own eyes at your house, I understood for the first time

what inspired these great geniuses to try to capture the

wonder and beauty that is the Hudson River Valley for all

time.

We honor their success in doing so tonight, and we honor those who continue that legacy who join us here tonight. Thank you on behalf of a grateful Hudson Valley and a grateful Nation.

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

Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore

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

In its current form, I am.

Mr. Speaker, this is the final amendment to the bill. If adopted, it won't kill the bill. If adopted, the bill will proceed to final passage immediately, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I agree with many of those on the other side on much of the underlying bill. Let's open our public lands to recreational hunting, fishing, and shooting. Let's make it easier to maintain public shooting ranges. No argument from me. But we can and should make this bill better, and my amendment will do just that.

Preserving our public lands and common spaces also means investing in the critical infrastructure that allows us to bring our families there safely. That is why the bipartisan SAFE Bridges Act should be in this bill to ensure that our Nation's highways and bridges are safe.

But the biggest omission in this bill is the failure to protect our citizens from toxic spills that would threaten our water supplies.

A few weeks ago, we all woke up to learn that 300,000 people in West Virginia couldn't drink their water. A mother trying to put her child in the bathtub couldn't turn on the faucet. A father mixing baby formula for an infant couldn't trust what came out of the tap.

For more than a week, families couldn't do things that each of us do every day. Hundreds were hospitalized. Because businesses had to lock their doors, even people making the meager Federal minimum wage of $7.25 couldn't go to work. Businesses were shut down, and they couldn't provide for their families.

Schools shut down. Anxious and worried residents by the thousands lined up every day for National Guard troops to supply them with safe water.

This happened right here in America, and not in some foreign country. It happened for a reason. It happened because one greedy operator thought it made sense not to inspect and maintain a storage tank with thousands of gallons of a toxic chemical right next to the water supply.

You can't tell me that the free market took care of that problem. Tell that to the hundreds of thousands of West Virginians who can't drink their water.

Mr. Speaker, my amendment ensures companies making chemicals with the potential to contaminate water supplies are simply required to report the hazards of these chemicals. It is pretty simple.

In my neck of the woods, the New York City watershed delivers approximately 1.4 billion gallons of water to my district, supplying it to millions of people every day. If this spill on the Elk River had happened on the Hudson River, we would be talking about a different problem in the order of magnitude that would affect millions and millions of people.

Have we lost so much faith in ourselves acting together that we can't protect the American people from this kind of toxic spill? If this House isn't doing this and if we aren't protecting a mom or dad trying to give baby formula to their child, what are we doing here?

Again, I join many of you in supporting the underlying emphasis of this bill. Let's get government out of the way for our hunters, anglers, and sportsmen. A dad should be able to share that first marksmanship experience with his son or daughter, like my dad did with me and my brothers.

To preserve these freedoms, government needs to get out of the way at times, but surely it must also protect us at times from those who would destroy these treasures for profit.

It was Teddy Roosevelt, after all, who said:

Here is your country. Cherish these natural wonders,

cherish the natural resources, cherish the history and

romance as a sacred heritage, for your children and your

children's children. Do not let selfish men or greedy

interests skin your country of its beauty, its riches or its

romance.

If we really want to protect the national beauty of our country, it starts with protecting something as fundamental as our water.

Mr. Speaker, if we don't do this, we are doing nothing, and if those on the other side will not use that gavel in this House to protect the American people, then some of us on this side would like to borrow it for a while--because we will.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. Speaker, I have learned a lot in my first year in Congress, but I could serve here a lifetime and never understand how some Members could be so callous and so shortsighted that they are ready to cut off a lifeline for millions of Americans, including 137,000 New Yorkers.

These New Yorkers are hardworking people, like Stephen from Sugar Loaf, who wrote to me because he needs unemployment insurance to stay in his house; like Brenda in Fishkill, where she and her husband are both enrolled in retraining courses right now trying to get work and need this insurance just to make ends meet; like Johnine in Warwick, who lost her job to outsourcing, but still has to take care of her daughter; like Carol in Dutchess County, who may not be able to take care of her disabled husband without this assistance; like Ingrid from Highland Falls, who fought for her country in war and now has to worry about putting food on the table for her children.

We must renew unemployment insurance for people like these now because every week that goes by, there are 5,000 more people like Stephen and Brenda and Johnine and Carol and Ingrid. These aren't statistics. They are hardworking Americans, and they need this Congress to act, and act now.

Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of my colleague's amendment requiring the EPA to stay focused on the National Priorities List.

There are nine Superfund sites where I am from in the Hudson Valley of New York. Toxic sites once declared uninhabitable are now engines of economic development, and I want to credit the good folks at the EPA, including my friend Judith Enck, who leads Region 2, but one Hudson Valley community with poison in its water has waited over 10 years for a solution.

The EPA began cleanup at the site in Hopewell Junction in 2003 and officially added Hopewell to the Superfund National Priorities List in 2005. Hopewell Junction isn't some abandoned wasteland, and it isn't an empty brownfield. It is a community full of children and families who need our help and who need our help now. Hopewell could be a neighborhood anywhere, a neighborhood in which families shouldn't have to choose between clean water and their children's health, between selling their houses or staying in a place where they grew up and loved but is now contaminated. My neighbors, like Debra Hall, have put blood, sweat and tears into this effort for 10 years to try to clean up Hopewell--10 years telling anyone who would listen that Hopewell must be a priority because they can't wait.

It is outrageous, and they deserve better from their government. I support this amendment to keep our priorities straight, and I urge my colleagues to do the same.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor a great American and dear friend; a pioneering businessman, and dedicated philanthropist; a devoted father and loving husband, Peter Benjamin Lewis.

Peter Lewis was born during the Great Depression in Cleveland, Ohio, on November 11, 1933. The son of Joseph Lewis and the former Helen Rosenfeld, Peter was the oldest of four children. He graduated in 1955 from Princeton University where he met his future wife, Toby Devan. They married soon after he graduated and raised three extraordinary children: Jonathan, Ivy and Adam.

By age 12, Peter Lewis was working at his father's small insurance business. It would become his life's passion. Through decades of hard work--risking, learning, growing--Peter turned his father's 100- employee firm into one of the nation's largest auto insurance companies, the Progressive Corporation. Under Peter's visionary leadership, Progressive became one of the greatest companies in American history, today employing more than 28,000 people.

As a legendary philanthropist to numerous organizations, and as a generous benefactor of great architecture and the arts, Mr. Lewis leaves behind a notable mark in so many different communities across the country. He has generously donated more than $220 million to Princeton University, where he served as a trustee. He also held honorary degrees from Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Institute of Art.

Mr. Lewis is survived by his wife, Janet Rosel Lewis, of Cleveland, Ohio; his brother and sister-in-law, Daniel and Jan Lewis and son Jonathan D. Lewis, of Coconut Grove, Florida; his daughter, Ivy Lewis, of Princeton, New Jersey; his son and daughter-in-law, Adam and Melony Lewis, of Aspen, Colorado; his friend and former wife, Toby Devan Lewis, of Cleveland, Ohio; and five grandchildren.

Mr. Speaker, please join me and Mr. Lewis' family in remembering and celebrating the remarkable life, lasting achievements, and indelible spirit of Peter B. Lewis.