Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I want to particularly thank the gentlelady for yielding. We have a bit of a time crunch, and I appreciate her graciousness.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank Chairman Buyer, Ranking Member Evans and acting Ranking Member Filner for moving forward on this bill. This legislation will provide our veterans with a number of important benefits, and I am absolutely delighted to be able to be here and speak in favor of it.

I want to particularly mention a provision in this legislation that will permit Native American tribal organizations to apply for VA State cemetery grants. This will allow tribes such as the Paiutes in Nevada to build or expand cemeteries on their reservations so that Native American veterans can be laid to rest near their families in veterans cemeteries.

In addition, with this bill, veterans will have the choice as to whether to have attorney representation in the VA claims process. While some veterans may choose to hire a lawyer, veteran service organizations will continue to maintain their traditional role in the VA claims process.

I am pleased that this legislation includes a number of safeguards. For example, veterans will only be able to hire an attorney after they actually disagree with the VA decision. This provision is from similar legislation that Lane Evans and I introduced earlier. This legislation is about giving veterans a choice. Now our Nation's heroes will simply have the option of hiring an attorney if they choose to.

I am delighted that this bill includes four lease authorizations on leases that will soon expire in Las Vegas, and perhaps most important and most sought after is a $406 million authorization for a new VA medical center in Las Vegas on which we broke ground this past October. This complex will include a hospital, an outpatient clinic and a nursing home. My veterans desperately need this facility as Las Vegas has the fastest growing veterans population in the United States, but does not have a VA medical center or hospital or clinic.

This authorization is crucial, crucial, to veterans in Southern Nevada. I am pleased that we have been able to reach an agreement on these provisions during a time of war and when we are seeing new veterans returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan. We must provide our veterans with the benefits and care they deserve, they have earned, and that they are entitled to.

I fully support this legislation, and I urge its support.

I yield to the gentleman from Indiana.

Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, while I don't want to turn Congress into a mutual admiration society, let me thank the chairman for helping make this compromise a reality. I know that he must have been working very late into the night last night. This is important stuff. We both know it. We all know it. I am very glad we were able to bring this to the floor. Thank you very much for your sensitivity to my veterans needs. I don't think Las Vegas will soon forget your visit to our fair city.

Mr. Speaker, once again, I thank Congresswoman Brown.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to ask you and all of my colleagues to pause for a moment to listen to a story about an everyday American who died before we could thank him for his selfless service to others.

Police homicide detective Greg Brashear, is like so many who walk among us each day. They quietly protect and defend us and are rarely noticed or thanked before they are gone.

Detective Greg Brashear was such a man. Just months ago, he lost his life. But his legacy lives. His story continues to touch others as it is spread by those who only learned of it while he lay in a hospital fighting for his life.

Baltimore, Maryland Police Department Homicide Detective Greg Brashear had a full life of his own. Last January, off-duty and en route to a celebration with a loved one, he stopped on the side of a highway to help a woman with a flat tire.

He was struck by another car while aiding a woman he'd never met. Detective Brashear spent the next 7 months hospitalized in intensive care trying to recover and return to those he loved.

He never left the hospital. But while he was there . . . his name, and the kind of selfless man he was, became known to hundreds and thousands more, as his struggle began to touch more lives each day, moving beyond the hospital walls--even beyond state lines.

Greg had not followed his father and brother into their family's law practice in Texas. He chose the less compensated and lower profile path of fighting for those who could not defend themselves when he became a detective in the Violent Crime Child Abuse Section of Houston's Police Department.

He moved to the Baltimore Police force saying he wanted to continue to ``do something that mattered; to help people by keeping the world safer'', which is what he did for the last 26 years until the day he noticed one more person in need of his help--someone stopped on the side of the highway hoping someone would notice her despair.

And that's why we stop what we're doing right now and reflect on Detective Greg Brashear. Because he and thousands of other Americans like him, notice every day the people around them who are wounded or helpless. They do not turn their backs on them. And they do not ask for pats on their own backs.

Today, may we give back to Detective Brashear what he did not ask for or get in life: his country's recognition of his service, of his humility, and his invaluable role in our society. We give him our deepest thanks.

I ask you to join me in offering that same recognition to all the ``Greg Brashears'' who daily walk unheralded among us. We do not know your names, but we know you are there.

If no one has thanked you, if no one has noticed the depth of your personal commitment or sacrifice--consider it noticed today. And consider that our thanks to you, and to Greg, will never be enough for all you have done.

Madam Speaker, we have a problem. Without immediate congressional action, there are seniors in our country who will not receive medical care from their doctor next year. Payments to physicians who provide health care services to Medicare patients will be cut by over 5 percent as of January 1, 2007. If Congress fails to act before we adjourn this year, this cut will automatically go into effect. The result will be reduced access to care for Medicare patients across our Nation. Older Americans should not have to worry that their doctors will be forced to stop treating them because Congress did not act.

At a time when physician costs are skyrocketing, we cannot expect our doctors to lose money when they treat Medicare patients. There is still time to act, but the clock is ticking, and seniors are looking to Congress for leadership on this important issue.

The 109th Congress will soon end. It would be an outrage and a dereliction of duty if the Republican Congress, in its final days, does not fix this serious problem to avert a potential health care crisis for millions of our fellow Americans.

I urge that we pass a Medicare reimbursement fix before we leave this week.

Mr. Speaker, I would also like to add my thanks to Chairman Buyer, Ranking Member Evans, and of course Acting Ranking Member Filner for moving forward on this bill.

This legislation would extend a number of important provisions that would otherwise expire. I want to particularly mention a provision in this legislation which extends through December 31, 2007, the Department of Veterans Affairs' authority to provide a grave marker or headstone when a veteran is buried in a marked grave. Veterans who served our Nation honorably should not lose their eligibility for recognition in death merely because the grave in which they are buried has a nonmilitary marker.

I have a long record of interest in improving the burial benefits provided to our Nation's veterans, and this provision is certainly a step in the right direction. I join Chairman Miller in introducing legislation to extend this authorization. Although the VA and Members on both sides of the aisle support making the authorization permanent, the committee was not able to fund the cost of permanent authorization. I hope that we will be able to do so in the next Congress.

I am pleased that the bill includes the provision championed by our retiring ranking member, Lane Evans, whom Mr. Filner spoke so glowingly of, which authorizes specialized VA facilities for research and treatment of Parkinson's disease. This issue is particularly important to all of us because it is of particular importance to Mr. Evans.

Passage of these provisions will honor his long congressional service to our Nation's veterans. It is a lasting legacy to Mr. Evans and for those who suffer from the effects of Parkinson's disease.

Veterans in my Las Vegas district benefit from the affiliation that Las Vegas VA facilities have with the Southwestern PADRECC, which provides treatment for Parkinson's disease and is located at the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center.

This legislation also includes authorization for four clinics in Las Vegas which have leases that will soon expire. While I am pleased to see these leases renewed, and nobody knows better than Mr. Filner the needs of our veterans in the Las Vegas area that I represent, this bill was to contain a $406 million authorization for a new VA medical center in Las Vegas on which we broke ground in October. My veterans desperately need this facility. Las Vegas has the fastest growing veterans population in the United States but does not have a VA medical center or a hospital.

At a time of war and when we are seeing new veterans returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan, there is simply no excuse for failing to reach an agreement on important veterans issues. I hope and I am cautiously optimistic that we will be able to pass a VA construction bill before we adjourn later this week.

With that, I would like to thank Chairman Buyer again and the acting ranking member, Mr. Filner, for their extraordinary work on behalf of our veterans and urge passage of this legislation.

Madam Speaker, before I begin my remarks, I also would like to thank Chairman Buyer, Ranking Member Evans, who we will miss very much, and Acting Ranking Member Filner for moving forward on this bill.

I am supporting this legislation, but I feel that I need to make note of the fact that several of the provisions important to our veterans and their families have already expired. This should not have been allowed to happen.

In addition, there are other provisions that will expire before the end of the year. I want to particularly mention a provision in this legislation which extends through December 31, 2007, the Department of Veterans Affairs authority to provide a grave marker or headstone when a veteran is buried in a marked grave.

Veterans who served our country honorably should not lose their eligibility for recognition in death merely because the grave in which they are buried has a nonmilitary marker. I have a long record of interest in providing the burial benefits provided to our Nation's veterans, and this provision is truly a step in the right direction. We ought to make it permanent.

I joined Chairman Miller in introducing legislation to extend this authorization. Although the VA and Members on both sides of the aisle supported making the authorization permanent, the committee was not able to fund the cost of a permanent authorization. I hope that we will be able to do so in the next Congress.

Eligibility for a headstone or a marker should not depend on whether a VA marker is provided before or after the placement of a private marker. As I stated, I am supporting this legislation, but I must make note that there are a number of other matters which should be acted on. I am especially disappointed that lease authorization for four clinics in Las Vegas on leases that will soon expire is not included, and it is going to have to be in order to provide health care to the veterans that live in southern Nevada.

Las Vegas' veterans are forced to rely on a string of clinics as the community awaits a new VA medical complex to be completed. It is at least 3 years out from being completed, even though we did break ground in October, which is a step in the right direction.

I have got 80-year-old veterans standing in 110-degree temperature going from clinic to clinic in order to get their health care needs met. That is why we are getting a full-service VA medical complex. But the fact is we need four leases approved by the end of the year. I hope we are going to do that before we recess for the year.

As I stated, Madam Speaker, I do support this legislation. I urge all of my colleagues to support it.

Madam Speaker, will the gentleman yield?

Well, I want to thank you, Chairman Buyer, thank you for coming to Las Vegas and feeling my pain by the end of the day and appreciating how seriously impacted my veterans are.

I can assure you that I will do everything I can to urge the other body to move in an expeditious way, because you are quite right, we cannot let these leases expire. Thank you very much for your support.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my very dear friend, the outstanding congressman from Florida (Mr. Hastings) for yielding me this time.

On Wednesday morning I came to the floor of the House to protest the fact that the Republican leadership was holding up the Department of Defense bill because they wanted to attach a ban on Internet gaming. It was more important to the Republican leadership to keep people from playing poker on their computers in their homes than passing a defense bill that would help protect our troops serving this Nation in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the rest of the world. So the last bill that we pass before we adjourn on the vital and important issue of port security contains the ban on Internet gaming.

What does a ban on Internet gaming have to do with port security? Absolutely nothing.

This section was added to the bill in an attempt to fire up the far- right anti-gaming element of the Republican Party in time for this year's election. They could not sneak it into the defense bill, so they put it into the port security bill.

What does banning Internet gaming have to do with port security? I cannot think of a single thing.

To ensure that this provision stayed in, they actually prevented the conferees from meeting and offering amendments. That is taking partisanship to a new low even in this Congress where partisanship is the rule rather than the exception.

If we must resign ourselves to adding extraneous provisions to conference reports, why don't we add something meaningful that could actually help people? How about stopping the cut in Medicare physicians' reimbursement so that the doctors can continue to treat older Americans? How about something like that that can do millions of Americans some good? But that wouldn't please the far-right ultraconservative anti-gaming types in the Republican Party as much as preventing individuals from wagering on the Internet in the comfort of their own homes.

Mr. Speaker, I will vote for this bill because it addresses important national security issues. But I hope that the American people, those that are listening to us debate tonight, are aware of the partisan games that are being played with this bill by the Republican leadership in this Congress.

I support all of the strenuous objections you have, Mr. Hastings, to this piece of legislation that is important, could have been good, should have been better, and isn't.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the ranking member of Homeland Security, Mr. Thompson, for allowing me to speak for a minute.

I have a question to ask. I was listening to Mr. Dingell when he spoke eloquently about his disappointment that this bill did not address security when it comes to mass transit, railroads, bus stations, and Amtrak. And when Mr. King got up to respond, he said the reason it doesn't contain any security for mass transit, railroads, bus stations, and Amtrak is because this is a port security bill. And he said it again. This is a port security bill. And he repeated it a third time. This is a port security bill.

So can he please explain to me if this is a port security bill, that we can't put protections and security for our buses and Amtrak and mass transit and railroads, how it is that we managed to put a ban on Internet gaming?

I yield to the gentleman from New York.

Before I yield again, I know you may not control the rules of the Senate, but how about the House? Do you have any say here?

Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, could you please explain the nexus to me between port security to keep this country safer and a ban on Internet gaming? Give me a break.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank Chairman Buyer, Ranking Member Evans, and our Subcommittee Chairman Miller, as well as Senator Craig and Senator Akaka on the Senate side, for moving forward on this bill. Passage of this legislation will assure most of the men and women currently receiving benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) receive a well-deserved increase in benefits as of January 1, 2007.

We should never allow the compensation received by veterans, disabled in service to the Nation to erode in value as the cost of living rises. S. 2562, the Veterans' Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act of 2006, will help our service-disabled veterans and their survivors maintain the purchasing power of their benefits in 2007 by providing for an increase in benefits.

This bill will help most, but not all, VA beneficiaries maintain the value of their benefits. Once again, I am disappointed that the bill does not include funding to allow our widows, widowers and their children to receive a cost-of-living adjustment for their supplemental transitional benefits as provided in the House passed bill. As a result, the value of the $250 transitional benefit paid to surviving spouses with minor children for their first 2 years of eligibility will erode in value in 2006.

Mr. Speaker, if we can find millions to maintain the tax cuts provided to our wealthiest citizens, surely we can find an additional five or ten dollars a month to maintain the transitional benefit paid to our surviving spouses with children at its current purchasing power. Our Gold Star Wives, husbands whose wives have perished in our current conflict and their children deserve better.

No amount of money can adequately compensate our veterans for the loss of their health, or families for the loss of a loved one. It is important that the benefits, which our Nation provides to partially compensate for such losses, do not lose their value over time.

In 2005, over 29,000 veterans in Nevada received disability compensation or pension payments from VA and thousands of Nevada family members and survivors receive VA cash benefits.

The action we are taking here today will help the Nevada veterans and families who depend on these VA benefits.

I understand the urgency of passing this COLA so that veterans and their dependents will receive a timely increase in VA benefits. I hope that before this Congress recesses for the year, the increase in DIC benefits and other provisions passed by the House and Senate can be enacted into law. Those who have served this Nation, deserve no less.

S. 2562 will receive my full support and it deserves the support of all Members of this House.

The Senate bill was ordered to be read a third time, was read the third time, and passed, and a motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

Madam Speaker, Congress is waiting for the Republican leadership to bring the Department of Defense authorization bill to the floor for a vote.

So what's holding it up? Believe it or not, the Republican leadership wants to add a provision to the defense bill.

To help the troops? No.

To add to their salaries? No.

To help us buy equipment for them so they will have state of the art equipment? No.

It's a provision to ban Internet gaming. And if you guessed that, you are absolutely right. A ban on Internet gaming in the defense bill. How ridiculous is that? At a time when we have brave American men and women fighting and dying in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Republican leadership is more worried about Americans playing poker on-line than in protecting our troops in the field.

The Republicans talk about patriotism and supporting our fighting men and women, but when it comes to voting for our Nation's Defense Department, they are more interested in banning Internet gaming than they are in providing what our troops need in the field of battle.

This is a disgrace. Americans should be outraged and we should demand that

we pass this Department of Defense authorization without any other additions that have nothing to do with defending our brave men and women.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend Mr. Lantos for yielding to me.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this legislation. Each day brings something new from Iran, a new boast, a new rant, a new threat. Yet we have made little progress in convincing our allies that the Iranian regime means business, and that business is funding and supplying terrorist organizations like Hezbollah, wiping Israel off the face of the map and denying the Holocaust.

We must not allow them to acquire the means to carry out their ambitions. It would be difficult to overstate the danger Iran represents. Unchecked Iranian nuclear proliferation, combined with increasing support for international terrorism, poses a grave threat to United States forces in the Middle East, moderate Islamic Arab countries in the region, the State of Israel. And a nuclear Iran poses just as much of a threat to Europe as it does to the countries in the Middle East.

Incomprehensibly, many of our allies seem oblivious to these dangers. Their strategy of negotiations, incentives, and concessions are not working. Stronger measures are necessary. This bill will ramp up the pressure on Iran to give up its nuclear ambitions and cooperate with the international community.

Iran is a radical fundamentalist country headed by a President who I believe is as dangerous to the world community in the 21st century as Hitler was in the 20th century. Every time this man opens his mouth, he proves it. We must deny Iran the technology and financial resources that will enable this regime to carry out its threats.

I urge support of this bill.

Mr. Speaker, at the end of this week the Republican leadership is sending us home. They are going to spend the next 4 weeks trying to convince the American people that we have actually accomplished something this year. It is going to be a tough sell.

This is the most do-nothing Congress in American history. Back in 1948, President Harry Truman dubbed the Congress of that year the ``do- nothing Congress'' after it met for only 101 days. At the end of this week, this Congress will have only met for a total of 79 days. That is 22 days less than the do-nothing Congress of 1948. This is the do-less- than-nothing Congress.

And over those 79 days, House Republicans have not passed one piece of meaningful legislation into law. They have been putting on a lot of shows over the last few weeks trying to convince the American people they are actually accomplishing something. Don't believe them.

Here is the record. We are days away from a new fiscal year, Congress has not yet passed a budget. Republicans have been saying all year that immigration and border security are their top priority, but we leave this week without a law on either issue. It is no wonder the American people are fed up with Congress. It is time for a change.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Michigan for being so gracious with this legislation that is so important to my constituents.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of this legislation. My primary interest in this bill, although all of it is very laudatory, is title IV, which incorporates the language of legislation I introduced earlier this year, the Ed Fountain Park Expansion Act.

This language, which, as has been previously mentioned, has already been approved by the Senate and would transfer a vacant 8-acre parcel of land from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to the city of Las Vegas for the expansion of the Ed Fountain Park. The city of Las Vegas intends to build a new community center on the site to complement the existing recreational elements of the park, which include lighted soccer fields, outdoor basketball courts, an artificial turf football field, a bicycle track, and picnic areas.

The Fish and Wildlife Service has no further use for this property, which had previously housed the headquarters of the Desert National Wildlife Refuge at a time when this location was on the outskirts of Las Vegas. Due to the phenomenal growth we have experienced in southern Nevada, the site is very much now in the middle of town, and I cannot think of a better use for it than expanding a popular and valuable community resource.

Again, I would like to thank Chairman Gilchrest and Ranking Member Pallone from the Fisheries Subcommittee for their assistance in moving this issue forward. I urge all the Members to support the underlying bill, and again thank the chairman and the ranking member for their extraordinary support.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

I rise in strong support of this remarkably good piece of legislation, and I would like to thank both Mr. Brown and Mr. Michaud, in particular the chairman Mr. Buyer and our ranking member Mr. Filner, for bringing us to this point with this legislation.

I had the great pleasure of hosting both Mr. Filner and Mr. Buyer in Las Vegas so they could see for themselves firsthand what the needs of my veterans were. The day that Mr. Buyer was touring our shared VA hospital facility, the hospital facility was on divert, and unfortunately every other hospital in the Las Vegas area was also on divert. It is a very common occurrence in the fastest growing community in the United States, and that is why this is such an important piece of legislation.

I represent the Las Vegas area of the State of Nevada. It is the fastest growing community in the United States. But I also have the fastest growing veterans population in the United States, and no health care facilities in which to treat these 200,000-plus veterans that call southern Nevada home.

After the CARES study, it was determined that Las Vegas was indeed entitled to an entire medical complex, and I am very happy to say that this piece of legislation authorizes a medical complex that is comprised of three buildings, an 80-bed VA hospital, full-service VA hospital, a full-service outpatient clinic to take care of the needs of our veterans, and a 120-bed long-term facility which is so desperately needed in the southern Nevada area.

It will be located on 147 acres in north Las Vegas on the corner of the 215 and Pecos Road. This land has already been transferred to the VA, so we don't have to worry about the land. This land has already been blessed by the Southern Nevada Paiute Tribe in a remarkable ceremony. We have already been allocated $259 million, and the VA Secretary in his testimony in front of our committee has stated on numerous occasions that the balance of the amount to finish this VA medical complex will be contained in the 2008 budget. I am absolutely delighted to be able to go back to the veterans in southern Nevada and let them know that my colleagues in the United States Congress recognized their needs and are answering the call and providing the needs for our veterans.

I am looking forward to the groundbreaking that will be taking place in October. I am waiting for the VA Secretary to let us know when this groundbreaking will take place. We will do vertical construction at the beginning of next year, and hopefully this complex will be completed for our veterans in 2010.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the gentleman from New York, Mr. Eliot Engel, not only for yielding but for being a leader on this issue and so many others.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 2730, the United States-Israel Energy Cooperation Act. We need only glance at today's headlines about conflict in the Middle East and soaring oil prices to know why this legislation is so important to the future of the United States and Israel, so important to the future of the entire world.

This bill will provide the resources to enable top scientists, academic institutions, and entrepreneurs in the field of renewable energy to develop breakthrough technologies both in the United States and in Israel. These two allies, through this legislation, are making a major commitment to break our addiction to oil through the development of abundant, secure, clean, and renewable sources of energy. I believe the United States-Israel Energy Cooperation Act will be recognized in the coming years as a major step towards energy independence and it will serve as a model for international cooperation we so desperately need if the world is to move beyond our dangerous dependence on oil.

Mr. Chairman, I would like to thank Mr. Lantos and Mr. Royce for engaging in this colloquy with me.

I fully appreciate the importance and significance of this historic piece of legislation. However, I rise today to discuss two amendments that were adopted by the committee.

I am sure that you are all aware that for over 20 years Nevada has fought to keep nuclear waste out of Yucca Mountain. This is a most compelling issue for the people of the State of Nevada. I am very pleased that the committee agreed with my arguments that, before we enter into any agreement to support a proliferation of nuclear power, we should know where the nuclear waste is going to be stored.

Nevada certainly doesn't want to store the nuclear waste that is generated in our own country, much less the nuclear waste that is generated in other countries, and that includes India.

I am pleased that an amendment that I sponsored ensuring that spent fuel

from India's civilian nuclear reactors cannot be transferred to the United States without congressional oversight, that was passed by the committee. Another amendment that requires the President to issue an annual report describing the disposal of nuclear waste from India's civilian nuclear program was also approved by the committee.

I believe these are critical provisions that the final bill simply must contain. Both of these provisions passed without objection during the committee markup of this legislation. I would ask the chairman whether he can assure me that he will work to maintain these provisions in the final bill as the legislative process goes forward.

I yield to the distinguished subcommittee chairman.

I thank the chairman.

I yield to the ranking member of the committee.