Floor Statements

I thank the chairman for yielding.

I grew up in my congressional district of Las Vegas. By any standard of measure, it has been a boomtown; record increases in population, almost no unemployment, record home ownership.

What a difference an economic meltdown can make. Nevada's economy, fueled by construction and tourism, has suffered beyond all imagination in this financial crisis. Las Vegas has the highest mortgage foreclosure rate in

the Nation, drastic drops in home values, and thousands of construction workers are without work. Casino workers, the backbone of our economy, laid off. The number of visitors flying to Las Vegas dropped 8 percent this past year, the largest drop in 25 years. My State needs help, and we need it now.

This bill will create or save millions of jobs over the next 2 years. In my district, thousands of construction workers will be put back to work improving roads and highways, building renewable energy facilities, improving aging school buildings and other infrastructure. The bill will also provide for extended unemployment benefits for the over 9 percent of my workforce out of work.

The bill will also provide extended unemployment benefits for the 9 percent of the workforce out of work and provide needed money for medicaid to provide health care to the neediest among us.

Ninety-five percent of our fellow citizens will get a tax cut.

Nevada and our country need the jobs and other support provided by this bill. I urge my colleagues to vote for H.R. 1.

Madam Speaker, as co-chair of the Congressional Stop DUI Caucus, I rise today in tribute to one of the Nation's top traffic safety officials, who has passed away suddenly.

Kevin E. Quinlan was the Chief of the Safety Advocacy Division of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). Mr. Quinlan was with the Safety Board for nearly 20 years, serving as the Alcohol and Drug Program Coordinator and Chief of the Safety Recommendations Division. He was instrumental in promoting State action on Safety Board recommendations to reduce fatalities, injuries, and crashes in all modes of transportation. Mr. Quinlan authored five major studies for the Board. Prior to his work with the NTSB, Mr. Quinlan served in the U.S. Army for 29 years, receiving the Legion of Merit and Meritorious Service Medal. He has an undergraduate degree from Boston University and graduate degrees from William and Mary, the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, and the U.S. Air Force Air War College.

Mr. Quinlan loved to travel and was skiing in Vermont when he suffered a fatal heart attack. He was well-respected and admired by everyone in the traffic safety community. He was a mentor to countless traffic safety advocates and an inspiration to the thousands of people who lost loved ones to the preventable crime of drunk driving. One of his greatest passions was the fight to stop drunk driving. His expert testimony led to the passage of many effective countermeasures across this Nation. His work has saved countless lives and I ask that my colleagues join me in honoring him today.

I thank the gentleman for yielding.

I rise in support of this long-overdue legislation. Coming from a State with one of the highest percentages of uninsured children, it is essential to reauthorize SCHIP to extend the program to cover more low- income uninsured children.

In 2007, more than 40,000 youngsters benefited from the Nevada Check Up program. This bill will enable Nevada to continue coverage for these children and to reach out to a portion of the 70,000 children currently eligible who remain uninsured. This bill also includes funding to improve outreach to eligible populations. Increased funding and the focus on outreach and enrollment will help extend coverage to thousands of additional Nevada children and an additional 4 million kids nationwide.

I urge my colleagues to support this bill. I look forward to having a President in the White House that is anxious to sign it.

Thank you very much, Congressman Weiner. And let me return the compliment, Congresswoman Maloney; we appreciate so much your strong and vocal support for issues that I consider to be fundamental to the survival of democracy throughout the world, so thank you very much.

Mr. Weiner, coming from you that I haven't lost my edge is the ultimate compliment for me after 10 years in Washington, so I thank you very much for that.

About three Augusts ago, a little over that, 3\1/2\ years ago, I was part of a congressional delegation that was on the border between the Gaza and Israel as the Israeli military was removing the last Israeli settlers from the Gaza. As you can imagine, Congressman, it was a very painful thing to watch, seeing families being torn apart, taken away from the lands that they had settled, where nothing had existed before they created their settlements, being taken from their neighbors and the villages that they created, truly oases in the desert, was hurtful. But I understood why the Israelis did it. They unilaterally withdrew from the Gaza with the hope that turning that land back to the Palestinians would have the desired effect of bringing peace to that area.

Rather than the peace that the Israelis had hoped for, the Palestinians, particularly when Hamas took over, became not an area where one would build schools and homes and infrastructure and demonstrate to the world that the Palestinian people were able to create a state of their own, rather than demonstrating to the world that they were capable of self-governance, quite the opposite became the very harsh reality. And what you saw, instead of schools being built and neighborhoods flourishing and businesses being built and infrastructure, hospitals, basic services for the Palestinian people, what happened instead was that the Gaza became a launch pad for a reign of terror upon the Israeli people that lived on the other side of the border.

Rather than reaching out to the Israeli people in an attempt to forge a peaceful relationship between the two peoples, the Gaza has become a hellhole. It's become a hellhole for the Palestinian people, and it is a hellhole for the people of Israel because they

are continually barraged by rockets well within the Israeli border.

How many rockets are we talking about? You demonstrated it with your graph. We're talking 2 rockets, 10 rockets, a misfiring? We're talking about 7,000 rockets in the course of a few years. Who can exist, what peoples, what Nation would tolerate that type of continuous assault on their innocent population? There is not one country on the planet that would not respond. And yet with all the panic and the fear and the damage, the psychological damage, and the physical injuries and damage and the death that these rockets have caused, the Israeli people did not, did not, attack back. But at some point any government worth its weight in salt must defend its people, and that is exactly what Israel has done.

Let me share a story with you, Mr. Weiner. A few years ago, I was talking to one of the Middle East ambassadors. And I said to him, Is there no way for you and your government to intervene and tell Hamas, ask Hamas, demand Hamas to stop launching Qassam rockets against the Israeli people?

And his response to me incredibly, when he shrugged his shoulders, it was, Well, the Qassam rockets are very inaccurate.

And I responded to the ambassador, They may be inaccurate unless one falls on your head, and then it's very accurate. It's deadly accurate.

But he shrugged and he said, Well, it's no big deal.

Well, it's a big deal if you're an Israeli and your child was just killed in their school by a Qassam rocket being launched by Hamas from the Gaza. This simply must stop.

But I went further, and I once spoke with the Egyptian ambassador. And I said to him, Mr. Ambassador, is there no way for you and the Egyptian Government to find those tunnels and blow them up so that the flow of arms being supplied mostly by Iran will stop, will cease the flow so that Hamas will not have a ready supply of rockets to be using against the Israeli people?

And again I got another shrug: We don't know where they are. We can't identify them.

I said, The Israelis gave you a list. They know exactly where the tunnels are. You can't blow up those tunnels and prevent the death of innocent Israeli children?

I got no response.

Where was the outrage of the United Nations? Where was the outrage of the people throughout the world that are rioting now in their countries when Israeli children were being killed by Hamas' continuing barrage of rockets? Not a one that I can remember. Not one that I've seen on TV. Not one speech in the United Nations. Not one moment of outrage. It was Israeli children that were being killed and a very patient Israeli Government trying to use every diplomatic tool at their disposal before they had to go in. They did not want to do this. They would not have unilaterally left the Gaza to go back in. It is not something the Israeli Government wanted to do.

When Hamas refused to renew the truce in the middle of December at a time that we're celebrating religious holidays throughout the world, I knew that we were in for an increase in the carnage being rained on Israel, and I'm sorry to say I was right. The Israelis, like any other sovereign nation, have a right to defend their people and protect the people of their country. Israel should not be held to a higher standard, although they hold themselves often enough to a far higher standard.

The Israelis have made two requests of Hamas. These are the two requests: They want an end to the rocket attacks. I don't think that's an unreasonable request. And they want an end to the tunnels, blow up those tunnels to prevent the rearming of a terrorist organization that has a vice grip on the Palestinian people in the Gaza. Which one of those two demands is inappropriate? Which one is unreasonable? I would submit to you, Mr. Weiner, neither one.

And for those that are talking about Israel's disproportionate response to 7,000 rockets, to death, to injury, to damage, how about holding the Palestinians to any standard, any measurable civilized standard, and put pressure on Hamas to stop launching those rockets into Israel? And after all of the last 2 weeks, after the pain on both sides, after the horror being perpetrated by Hamas on both the Israelis and their own people, Hamas is still launching rockets into Israel.

Well, let me say if they might be listening today, this evening as we speak, we can end this thing. We can bring peace. There can be a long- lasting truce if Hamas stops the rocket attacks and if the tunnels are eliminated. And that is what this body, the United Nations, and everyone throughout the planet, throughout this world, ought to be demanding of Hamas.

The human tragedy in the Gaza, the suffering of the Palestinian people, let us put it squarely where it belongs: not on the State of Israel, not on the Israeli people. It rests squarely on the shoulders of the Palestinian leadership. If the Palestinian leadership wanted a Palestinian State, they would have had one years ago. What Hamas is doing is not for the creation of a Palestinian State. It is for the destruction of the State of Israel. And it pains me to say this, Mr. Weiner, but if Israel ceased to exist tomorrow, the plight of the Palestinians would be no better than it is today. The suffering of the Palestinians would not magically go away. It is the Palestinian leadership, the leadership in Hamas, that has caused so much pain and suffering for the Palestinian people.

It would be my heartfelt hope with the beginning of a new year and the beginning of a new administration in this country that we can truly bring peace to the Middle East. It's something that I grew up fighting for and caring about. But this cannot stop until the Israelis are secure in their tiny country and free from a constant barrage of rockets and terrorist attacks by a terrorist organization on their border.

And I thank you so much for giving me these few minutes to share my thoughts with you. You are truly an amazing leader, not only in Congress and representing your own district and State so well, but you make me very proud to be associated with you on these issues and so many more. And I thank you for all of that.

As you know, we have attempted on numerous occasions to take the military aid, the $2 billion in military aid that we give the Egyptians every year, and take some of that away so that it would be humanitarian aid for the Egyptian people because I can't help but wonder what are the Egyptians doing with $2 billion worth of arms every single year?

It's in Egypt's best interest. Absolutely right.

Western educated.

Ophthalmologist.

I want to thank the Congressman again for allowing me to participate.

I thank the gentleman from California for yielding.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in strong support for this resolution and for Israel's right to defend itself. No nation could be expected to stand idly by as its citizens are bombarded by missiles launched 20, 30, 40 times a day by a terrorist organization on its orders.

These daily attacks have caused death and inflicted enormous physical and emotional damage on the people of Israel. Their government, the Israeli government, has shown extraordinary restraint in not retaliating until now.

For those of my colleagues who expressed concern or outrage for Israel's actions, where was their concern and outrage when Israeli children were killed by indiscriminate Hamas rockets? Where is their outrage when Israel asked Egypt to close the tunnels to stem the flow of weapons coming from Egypt to the Gaza? Where is their outrage then?

Hamas is all too happy to fire their missiles from schools and mosques and houses, putting their own families at risk in order to maximize civilian casualties. Their own leaders cynically embrace a culture of death, not only for Israel, but their own people.

I urge support for this resolution. We should be standing by the only democracy in the Middle East, Israel.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support for this bill. There is no doubt about Iran's intentions any longer: they are determined to do everything they can to harm the U.S. and annihilate our ally, Israel. They are well on their way to developing a nuclear weapon and they will not hesitate to use it against innocent civilian populations throughout the Middle East. They have armed terrorists in the past, they have built up their conventional weapons, and now they are doing everything they can to obtain the ultimate weapon.

A nuclear armed Iran is a threat to everyone, everywhere and no one can afford any longer to sit back and wait for our allies to do the ``dirty work'' for us and disarm Iran. We, too, must act.

The time is long past due for us to pass these sanctions against that regime and stop their nuclear ambitions before they wipe our allies off the map.

I thank the gentleman for yielding and for his leadership on these important issues.

Madam Speaker, I rise in support of this bill to provide incentives for clean, renewable domestic energy production, to improve our energy security, and to extend provisions that provide vital tax relief to parents, teachers, college students, small businesses and millions of other middle class Americans.

The energy provisions in this bill will allow my home State of Nevada to become an even stronger leader in the field of renewable energy. In a State that has a renewable energy standard and sunshine almost every day of the year, our entrepreneurs are anxious to secure the 8 years of solar energy tax credits contained in this bill, while our public utilities will finally be able to claim that credit as well.

Instead of capping solar tax credits at $2,000 for residential property owners, this bill will allow home owners to recoup 30 percent of their solar energy installation costs as a tax credit.

Solar is just one renewable energy source in this bill. There's also tax credits for wind, geothermal and biomass. The time is long past due for these important tax credits to be extended.

This legislation also renews a number of expired individual and business tax credits, and will ensure that the residents of Nevada and other States that do not pay a State income tax are treated fairly and allowed to deduct State and local sales taxes instead.

It's also important to note that the tax relief in this bill is fully paid for and will not add a single dollar to the national debt. Now, that's good fiscal policy.

I urge support for this bill, and I urge the Senate and the President to do their part to enact this important legislation.

I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Madam Speaker, I rise in support of the AMT Relief Act. While I strongly believe the alternative minimum tax should be eliminated, this bill will provide a necessary, temporary solution to protect the more than 25 million Americans who would otherwise be hit by the AMT this year.

If this legislation is not enacted, more than 138,000 Nevada taxpayers will see their tax bill increased by the AMT. This includes more than 32,000 hardworking Las Vegas families who were never intended to be affected by this tax.

I am also pleased that the bill contains language to help those who face gargantuan alternative minimum tax liabilities on stock option income that they never actually received. I have several constituents in my district affected by this so-called ISO AMT, including one citizen who received a $1.2 million tax bill on a $30,000 stock option gain. This provision will help make these individuals whole.

With the current economic downturn, the rising cost of food and gas, increased unemployment and people losing their homes due to mortgage foreclosure, the last thing Las Vegas needs is a tax increase on thousands of middle class families.

I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.

Madam Speaker, I am grateful for the opportunity to be part of this important legislation which expands mental health services for PTSD and substance use disorders, among other initiatives, for the brave men and women who have selflessly served our nation.

Nationally, one in five veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan suffers from PTSD. Twenty-three percent of members of the Armed Forces on active duty acknowledge a significant problem with alcohol use. It is vital that our veterans receive the help they need to deal with these conditions.

The effects of substance abuse are wide ranging, including significantly increased risk of suicide, exacerbation of mental and physical health disorders, breakdown of family support, and increased risk of unemployment and homelessness. Veterans suffering from mental health issues are at an increased risk for developing a substance abuse disorder.

A constituent of mine, Lance Corporal Justin Bailey, was a 1998 graduate of Las Vegas High School. Upon returning from a tour of duty in Iraq, he was diagnosed with PTSD, and was discharged from the Marines in 2004. He developed a substance abuse disorder and checked himself into a VA facility in West Los Angeles. After being given 5 medications on a self-medication policy, Justin overdosed and died on January 26, 2007.

Justin's parents were treated with indifference and apathy at the West LA facility. They were even handed Justin's belongings in a trash bag. Last August, 8 months after Justin's death, the Baileys returned to Los Angeles to meet with the Chief of Staff at the West LA VA Hospital. They came away from the meeting feeling the Chief of Staff had been completely unprepared and seemed out of touch with the needs of veterans. He even went so far as to state his staff does not know how to treat veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan because they are young and the staff is not tough enough on the younger veterans--giving them anything they ask for.

I introduced the House companion bill to S. 2162--the Mental Health Improvements Act, H.R. 4053--because it is imperative that we provide adequate mental health services for those who have sacrificed for this great nation and those who continue to serve. I am so thankful that the House is considering S. 2162 today.

Passage of this bill will help to ensure that we have the mental health resources and substance abuse treatment programs needed to care for our veterans.

The assessments of residential mental health facilities required by the bill will help tell us how well the VA is performing and what we can do to improve these services, including expanding availability at VA hospitals.

The availability of treatment for PTSD, including substance use disorder counseling, literally saves lives--so this must remain a top priority. A review of the services provided to our veterans is needed to ensure that what happened to Justin does not happen to anyone else.

I am grateful that this bill also contains the final authorization for the new Las Vegas VA Medical Complex that is so desperately needed in Southern Nevada. The complex will feature a 90-bed inpatient hospital, 120-bed nursing home for veterans, and an outpatient clinic. The complex will be over 900,000 square feet and is scheduled to open by mid-2011.

I want to thank both the Chairmen and Ranking Members of the House and Senate Veterans' Affairs Committees for working together to come to a

compromise on a bill that contains many vital initiatives for our veterans. I whole-heartedly support S. 2162 and I urge my colleagues to

do the same.

I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I thank the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Ros-Lehtinen) for her strong leadership on this issue.

I will not speak long, Mr. Speaker, because this issue could not be more simple to understand.

I rise today as a proud cosponsor of this bill and as co-chairman of the Congressional Taiwan Caucus.

Mr. Speaker, this administration talks about spreading democracy and expanding liberty. In the case of Taiwan, we don't need to topple a dictator in order to show our support for one of the world's most embattled democracies, we simply need to help them protect themselves. And yet we cannot get this administration to tell us if they in fact will deliver the arms that they have already promised to Taiwan. Will they allow Taiwan to acquire the weapons they need, or will this administration continue to curry favor with the Chinese and refuse to help our democratic ally in its time of need?

We have written letters, Members of this body have made statements, and now we're passing a law just to get simple answers from the President of the United States. We cannot and should not wait any longer. Taiwan and its democratic citizens ought not have to wait any longer. Let us deliver the arms that we have promised to the Taiwan people.

I urge support for this bill.

I thank the gentleman for yielding.

When I was a freshman Member of Congress about 10 years ago, a very senior Member, Tom Lantos, came to me and asked if I would be willing to be a member of the Human Rights Caucus. I, of course, would not hesitate for a moment if Tom Lantos asked me to in fact participate. It was, and has been, among one of the most rewarding experiences I have had in Congress, and I cannot think of a more fitting tribute to an absolutely extraordinary man and dear friend, Tom Lantos, than to create this Human Rights Commission in his name, and I support this resolution wholeheartedly.

But when I think of Tom Lantos, I also think of the last resolution that Congress took up a few moments ago marking the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht, The Night of Broken Glass. In many ways Kristallnacht marked the turning point in the history of European Jewry.

Tragically, too few nations, including our own, dared to speak out or even thought to speak out against this horrific pogrom. As a result, the Nazis concluded that the world would stand by and do nothing as they committed atrocities that the world had never seen before. Indeed, after Kristallnacht, they intensified their genocidal operations, ultimately leading to the gas chambers and the Final Solution.

Sadly, the Nazis were proven right, that the world would stand by and watch a feeble response that has been repeated far too often since that horrific night in 1938.

Madam Speaker, the grim anniversary of Kristallnacht reminds us that evil must be confronted forcefully and early, or else these unspeakable acts will be repeated again and again.

I think, given the fact that we will be creating a Human Rights Commission in Tom Lantos' name, that perhaps because of this bold move on the part of Congress, that a Kristallnacht could never and should never be able to happen again. I support both resolutions.

I thank the gentleman for yielding and for his leadership on this issue. Madam Speaker, I rise as a strong cosponsor of this legislation.

While the Holocaust may have ended over 60 years ago, its effects are still very much felt today, and it is essential that we do not allow the victims of those horrific crimes to continue to be victimized by the circumstances that surround this issue today.

Many survivors of the Holocaust have still not received proper restitution for their looted property, and the time is long past due to say ``enough.'' And let us take action on behalf of these survivors and the victims of the Holocaust.

I would like to share with my colleagues a story of a constituent of mine, Dina Babbitt, who I have been working with for the last 10 years to get her property back, her rightful property back. Dina was a 20- year-old young lady when she and her mother were interned in Auschwitz. Now Dina had a talent. Dina was an artist. Even at the age of 20 her talent was obvious.

Joseph Mengele saw her work on one of the walls of the children's barracks where she had drawn a picture of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to cheer up the children that were in the children's barracks in Auschwitz. He singled her out, and what he started doing is, he would point out people that were interned at Auschwitz, the prisoners

that were interned, and he would direct her to draw their pictures. And she would draw the picture. He didn't want to take a photograph because he couldn't get the color of the skin right, and she would draw the picture. After she drew the picture he would kill the inmate. Now Dina says she learned to draw very slowly at that time.

She was liberated, and she and her mother fled Auschwitz. She eventually came to the United States of America where she worked at Disney Studios for well over 30 years of her life.

She received a telephone call 25 years ago from the Polish Government. They said they had found artwork that they believe she had created and would she come to Poland to authenticate it. She became so thrilled that she could have something to give to her children and her grandchildren so that they would have a piece of her.

She is convinced, and I believe this, too, that the artwork is the only thing that saved her and her mother. She was a Czechoslovakian Jew; 3,600 Czechoslovakian Jews were interned in Auschwitz, only 22 survived. Dina and her mother were two of the 22 Czechoslovakian Jews that survived their time in Auschwitz.

She went to Poland. She authenticated that those are my pictures, and they refused to give them to her. To this day, the Polish Government has not negotiated with Dina Babbitt one bit so she could get one or two or three of her pictures. There are seven that currently exist.

I thank the gentleman very much.

I tell you this with all the passion that I could muster, that this woman should be able to get her property, her rightful property. This isn't even a purchase that she made that has been stolen from her. This came from her own hands, and I think it is time. That is why I so strongly support this resolution that people like Dina Babbitt, it is time, the time is long since past for Dina Babbitt and so many others to receive their just compensation.

I urge support for this resolution. I look forward to the time that the Polish government and the Lithuanian government actually take positive steps to restore the treasure and the possessions of these people who have suffered so much.

I thank the gentleman for yielding and for his strong and very important leadership on this issue.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of this important resolution stating our position on the Durban Conference. Seven years ago, we watched in disgust as a conference on racism, a very important issue which demands the world's attention, was diverted into a hate fest against Israel and Jews everywhere where participants and outside groups attempted to paint Israel as an ``apartheid state'' guilty of ``crimes against humanity.'' This kind of inflammatory speech does nothing to help the Palestinians. And it certainly does nothing to help those who are truly oppressed by racist regimes.

We now hear of new attempts to hijack the review conference to be held next year. The Organization of Islamic Conference says they want to highlight ``new forms of racism'' such as blasphemy against Islam while continuing to focus on spewing anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist hatred. We must stop these cynical attempts to divert attention away from the human rights abuses in places like Iran and Saudi Arabia and put the spotlight squarely where it belongs, on real forms of racism, slavery and xenophobia, which is what this conference is supposed to be about and which it should be about.

I urge support for this resolution.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that I may hereafter be considered as the first sponsor of H.R. 643, a bill originally introduced by Representative Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Ohio, for the purposes of adding cosponsors and requesting reprints pursuant to clause 7 of rule XII.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 6893, the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act.

The provisions of this bill will increase the tools available to states to help children in foster care have stable placements and easier transitions into adult life.

This legislation allows states to continue foster care assistance for kids up the age of 21, authorizes federal assistance to relatives assuming legal guardianship of children for whom they have cared as foster parents, and extends and improves the Adoption Incentives Program, among other things.

While much more remains to be done to ensure the safety and well being of our nation's foster children, I support this legislation as a common sense and much needed first step in the right direction, and I hope that Nevada and other states will take advantage of the new tools made available to them.

I urge my colleagues to support this legislation time.