Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise to congratulate President Obama, his national security team and the members of our armed forces for the recent operation that led to the capture and killing of Al Qaeda's leader, Osama Bin Laden. The operation was conducted in an extremely professional manner and I am pleased that, nearly a decade after the tragedy of September 11, justice has finally been served.

While the fight against terrorism will continue and our military forces remain in harm's way, for a moment, Americans can proudly mark the demise of this symbol of hatred who died with the blood of thousands on his hands. This is a tremendous victory for America and a promise kept to the families of the 9-11 victims. I congratulate everyone involved in this important, historic mission.

Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 297 had I been present I would have voted ``aye.'' I was unfortunately detained and unable to vote.

I rise today to reject Republican calls for an investigation into the decision to end Yucca Mountain. Let me save this Republican Congress a lot of time and a lot of money. President Obama put a stop to Yucca Mountain because it is too dangerous a site to store radioactive nuclear waste. This is a political stunt with one goal--turning my home State of Nevada into a nuclear garbage dump. Those pushing this review are lying about the dump safety. They know Yucca Mountain is smack in the middle of an earthquake zone. There's volcanic activity. There's groundwater issues.

Have we learned nothing about what is happening now in Japan? We ought to be demanding that the nuclear power plants act now to secure nuclear waste in dry-cask storage. Dry-cask storage will increase public safety now. Investigating Yucca Mountain will only increase the danger and waste money. Shame on the nuclear industry and its allies for being more interested in protecting their profits than in protecting public safety.

That is why, even in the face of one of the world's worst nuclear disasters unfolding now in Japan, the nuclear industry and its ``nuked- up'' buddies in the United States Congress are playing partisan games with nuclear waste.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to call my colleagues' attention to the continued exclusion of the Republic of China (Taiwan) from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

As we have witnessed far too often, Taiwan is vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, having the natural environment of a subtropical island. In 2009, Taiwan was devastated by Typhoon Morakot. In just two days, a total of 2,500 mm of rain fell in Central and Southern Taiwan, the heaviest rain in over 50 years. Floods and landslides caused severe loss of life and property. Extreme weather events such as these, coupled with rising sea levels caused by global warming, are endangering Taiwan's environment and survival.

The fact that Taiwan is unable to use the resources of the UNFCCC seriously cripples Taiwan's efforts to meet the challenges posed by global warming and climate change. For the welfare of Taiwan's 23 million residents, it urgently needs to be included in the disaster early warning system, to have access to real-time information and to be part of climate change adaptation mechanisms.

This unjust exclusion not only hurts Taiwan, but it also hurts the global community, since Taiwan has a great deal to contribute to global environmental efforts. For nearly four decades, Taiwan has been developing a robust legal framework for environmental protection, beginning with the Water Pollution Control Act in 1974 and most recently in June 2009, with a law advancing the development of renewable energy. Taiwan's Environmental Protection Agency has implemented measures to reduce greenhouse gas emission and has invited international agencies every year since 1993 to verify the volumes of Taiwan's production, import and export of ozone-depleting substances. Taiwan is also at the forefront of developing solar power, alternative fuels, and wind power, reducing vehicular emissions, improving air quality and managing solid waste.

Taiwan needs to be included in the UNFCCC and the world needs to include Taiwan. I urge my colleagues to support Taiwan's inclusion in the UNFCCC and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express my sympathy for the people of Japan as they battle a nuclear disaster that threatens lives and their environment, and I rise to reject calls for more wasteful spending, $100 billion more of wasteful spending, on the Yucca Mountain project in response to Japan's nuclear tragedy.

Dumping radioactive waste on top of an earthquake fault located inside a volcanic zone 90 miles outside of Las Vegas will only increase the danger to Americans from radioactive waste produced at nuclear power plants. Nuclear industry plans call for decades of waste shipments to be unleashed on communities across the United States that are unprepared to deal with the death and destruction that this radioactive garbage can cause.

Whether it's a tragic accident involving a train or a truck carrying nuclear waste or a deliberate 9/11 style terrorist attack on even one shipment, the risk to human lives and the potential for billions of dollars in economic damage is staggering.

Let us stop pushing Yucca Mountain and start focusing on securing waste at existing plant sites, stored in hardened bunkers engineered to keep this material isolated from our fellow citizens. With what we are witnessing in Japan, these pro-dump forces should put concern for safeguarding lives above concerns about profits.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to call attention to the horrific murders that took place in Israel this past weekend. Late Friday night during the Jewish Sabbath, Palestinian terrorists murdered five members of a family, including two young children and an infant, by stabbing them to death in their beds while they slept in their village in the northern West Bank.

This grisly murder, that young children can be killed along with their parents for merely living in a place they are not wanted. The world community must stand together in rejecting such violence and state unequivocally that negotiations are the only acceptable way forward to resolve this conflict.

We must also reject the notion that the West Bank must be rid of all Israelis--Juden free, where have we heard that before?--before peace can be had in the Middle East. Palestinian leaders have perpetuated this dangerous myth while Israelis, by contrast, have embraced their Arab neighbors as complete and equal citizens since 1948.

Mr. Speaker, the Palestinians must not be allowed to cleanse the West Bank of all Jewish life before they will accept a peace agreement with Israel. The world community must call on them to condemn these horrific attacks and immediately return to the negotiating table, which they have avoided for far too long.

Mr. Speaker, I have been in Congress now for 12 years. The very first speech I made on the floor of the House was why nuclear waste should not be stored at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. I cannot believe 12 years from when I first made that speech, I am back in the well of the House talking about why Nevada should not be

the site for the nuclear repository for this country.

President Obama defunded the Yucca Mountain project, and let me tell you why he took this very bold step: because 77 percent of the people of the State of Nevada do not want nuclear waste stored at Yucca Mountain. There are groundwater issues, seismic activity, volcanic activity, and it is 90 miles from the major population center of Las Vegas.

It is dangerous. There are no current EPA standards. And why is that? No current EPA radiation standards, because there is no way to set radiation standards for material that has a radioactive half shelf life of 300,000 years. But the Republican budget that has just been submitted resurrects Yucca Mountain and starts the process of dumping another $100 billion into a hole in the Nevada desert where there will never, ever be any nuclear waste stored.

At the same time that the majority is calling for spending more money to dump nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, they are also pushing for devastating cuts that will end the loan guarantees for a new solar power plant in the State of Nevada near the community of Tonopah. The result will be the loss of 600 jobs at a time when the Silver State has double-digit unemployment. Almost 15 percent of the people who live in Nevada have no job, and they are going to take away 600 more by this very foolish act. Construction of this new solar plant will not only provide hundreds of paychecks to Nevada workers, it will also supply enough clean and renewable energy to power 75,000 homes in the State of Nevada. Without these loan guarantees that are now on the Republican chopping block, this solar project's bright future is looking mighty, mighty dim.

Tapping renewable energy sources, like the wind and solar and geothermal, all in great abundance in the State of Nevada, is where the future of this Nation and certainly Nevada's energy needs are.

Do we want to continue to rely on the Saudis and the Venezuelans and the Libyans for our energy needs to be met? I don't think so. Renewable is the way to go.

This Nation and Nevada's future is in clean energy, not in nuclear waste stored at Yucca Mountain, yet the Republicans want to cut funding for solar and other renewable resources that can be harnessed to provide clean energy and jobs for our local workers. And they are pushing these cuts while calling for $100 billion to be dumped down a hole in the middle of the Nevada desert, as I said, 90 miles from a major population center.

I reject these efforts to restore the funding to Yucca Mountain. It is more wasteful spending at a time when they are talking about fixing the deficit. This is no way to do it by adding an extra $100 billion. And I will make this pledge to you now: There will be no nuclear waste shipped to Yucca Mountain because it will be shipped over my dead body. I will lay across those railroad tracks and stop that train from depositing nuclear waste in my great State.

I oppose the cuts as much as I oppose the funding of Yucca Mountain. I oppose the cuts in the solar energy loan guarantee program that will cut 600 jobs from the State of Nevada and prevent us from moving forward for a bright, renewable energy future.

Mr. Chair, I rise in strong opposition to the Pence Amendment.

Rep. Pence's amendment would prohibit Planned Parenthood from receiving any federal funds, including Medicaid reimbursement for family planning services, funding for HIV testing and counseling, funding for programs to prevent infertility, breast and cervical cancer screening funds, and funding to provide evidenced-based sex education, including information about abstinence. This amendment would have a devastating impact on communities like Las Vegas.

In my district, Planned Parenthood's Flamingo Health Center is an essential community provider and one of only three Title X facilities in Clark County. In FY 2010, 27 percent of their clients were at or below 100 percent of Federal Poverty Level (FPL) and an additional 39 percent were between 100 percent and 250 percent of FPL. Planned Parenthood provides access for many low-income women to basic and preventive healthcare, often serving as a primary care provider. In FY2010, Planned Parenthood provided basic healthcare services to more than 18,000 Nevadans.

Rep. Pence's amendment will result in 1.4 million Medicaid patients-- predominately women--losing access to their health care provider. This attack on Medicaid patients' access to their local provider occurs at the same time that the Medicaid program desperately needs more doctors and nurses to participate in the program. Existing access issues will only become exacerbated as a result of the Medicaid expansion to 133 percent of the Federal Poverty Level under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA).

Federal law already requires health care providers to demonstrate that federal funds are not used for abortion care, so this amendment is a clear attempt to cut funding for cancer screenings and contraception for low-income women at Planned Parenthood health centers. Rep. Pence's amendment has one goal--to undermine women's access to basic, preventive healthcare and the women's health providers they rely on in their communities. I oppose this amendment and efforts to deprive women access to essential healthcare services.

Mr. Chair, I rise in the strongest possible opposition to the Bishop amendment. As is the case with many of the cuts in this bill, and with many of the amendments offered, the goal seems to be to cut just for the sake of cutting. COPS funding? Cut it. Title Ten services for low-income women? Cut it. Head Start? Cut it. The list goes on and on.

I support efforts to reduce the deficit, and in that effort I have voted for some of the amendments offered this week. But the Bishop amendment goes too far, and in fact will have a devastating impact on Southern Nevada and many other communities across the nation that will cost us far more in the long run.

As an example, defunding the entire National Landscape Conservation System will require shutting down the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, the stunningly beautiful natural wonder just outside of Las Vegas. More than one million local families and tourists visit this unique national treasure each year, taking advantage of the 13- mile scenic drive, visitor center, hiking trails, rock climbing, horseback riding, mountain biking and other recreational activities, and bringing valuable tourist revenue to our community as we work to recover from the economic downturn. Funding from the National Landscape Conservation System allows BLM to maintain the roads, trails and visitor center that make Red Rock accessible and that enable people of all ages and abilities to enjoy its beauty year-round. Passage of this amendment would eliminate this essential funding and force the shutdown of this jewel in the Nevada desert.

I strongly encourage the defeat of this short-sighted amendment.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak in support of the American commercial spaceflight industry.

Investing in private industry is an effective way to cut federal spending while spurring meaningful job growth and innovation. This is why I am a strong advocate for developing the commercial spaceflight program proposed by President Obama. The President's plan will help lower NASA launch costs by shifting this role to competitive private businesses, while fostering American economic competitiveness and leadership in cutting-edge research and technology. This plan will also end our reliance on Russia to transport NASA astronauts to the International Space Station by utilizing the technology and services of private companies on American soil.

Bigelow Aerospace has been a model of American entrepreneurship and innovation. This company has developed its own spacecraft and created hundreds of much-needed jobs in the Las Vegas Valley. If we follow President Obama's common-sense plan of winding down NASA's Constellation Program and transferring the launch program to private industry, Bigelow Aerospace and many other cutting-edge spaceflight companies will create countless more jobs in the vital science and engineering industry.

The American people have told us emphatically that our top priorities must be jobs and the economy, and leveraging commercial spaceflight capabilities addresses both of these goals. I encourage my colleagues to join me in supporting fiscally responsible, job-creating investments in the commercial spaceflight industry.

Mr. Speaker, today I urge my colleagues to join me in recognizing the 70th anniversary of Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada.

In 1941, Bishop Thomas K. Gorman acknowledged the need for a social service organization that would benefit Nevada. He assigned Father Thomas F. Collins as the first diocesan director of the Catholic Welfare Program.

Through boundless efforts and dedication, Father Collins organized programs for the homeless and needy, family programs, adoption services, and provided services to the United Service Organization,

Mr. Speaker, today I urge my colleagues to join me in recognizing the 60th anniversary of the Nevada Test Site on January 27, 2011, and the contributions of the thousands of men and women who served there throughout the Cold War. I deeply appreciate their dedication to their work and their unwavering patriotism. These test site workers are outstanding Americans and I thank them for being outstanding members of the southern Nevada community.

In 1950, President Harry Truman approved the recommendations of the Atomic Energy Commission and the Department of Defense to establish a continental site for atomic bomb experiments. After consideration of possible sites throughout the United States, it was decided that the 5000 square mile Las Vegas Bombing and Gunnery Range would be used for America's atomic weapons development program.

Shortly after midnight on January 27, 1951, personnel from the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory delivered a ``nuclear capsule'' to a heavily guarded Air Force B-50D sitting on a taxi strip at Kirtland Air Force Base outside Albuquerque. The B-50D lifted off from the runway and headed west through the darkness toward Frenchman Flat, a remote desert valley located on the new Nevada Test Site, sixty-five miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Shortly after 3:00 a.m., the go-ahead was issued for the test, code named Able. At 5:45 a.m., the device exploded as planned at a height of 1,060 feet The Atomic Energy Commission swiftly moved to turn the Nevada Test site into a permanent proving ground for nuclear weapons.

For over four decades, the Nevada Test Site served as the nation's principal proving ground for nuclear weapons. Almost 90 percent of the 1,052 tests since 1945 were conducted at the Nevada Test Site. During the 1950s, atmospheric testing provided for some spectacular visual performances, but also sent radioactive clouds beyond the test site boundaries and over inhabited areas. Concern regarding radioactive fallout spurred international test ban negotiations that culminated in the Limited Test Ban Treaty of 1963. The test ban treaty banned atmospheric testing, replacing it with underground testing.

The Nevada Test Site played a major role in winning the Cold War. Nuclear weapons capabilities and their testing shaped the manner in which the Cold War was fought. Many have argued that it was the determining factor in keeping the struggle from becoming an all-out hot war.

The Nevada Test Site resembles an actual battleground. Hundreds of saucer-like craters, formed by the subsidence of the ground above an underground test shot, pock the test site, creating an almost moon-like landscape. Although massive amounts of high-level radioactivity were locked into the earth in the contained blasts, plutonium and other radioactive substances are still detectable above ground. This is the legacy of Cold War combat.

As the Representative for Nevada's First Congressional District, it is my great honor to recognize the 60th anniversary of the Nevada Test Site and commend all the men and women who contributed to the security of our Nation through their expertise, service, sacrifice and duty to country.

I thank the chairman for yielding.

Madam Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to this legislative stunt to repeal health care reform, and I'm going to tell you why.

There are 600,000 of my fellow Nevadans who have no health insurance. This doesn't mean that they don't get sick. It means that they wait until they're very sick and then they go to the emergency rooms to get care. Every hospital in southern Nevada is operating in the red. Why is that? Because the cost of providing health care to the uninsured in emergency rooms is astronomical.

But there's more. If we repeal this bill, we will be eliminating the preexisting condition ban. If you have a preexisting condition, which at least 129,000 people in my congressional district have, you will not be able to get any insurance at all.

If we repeal this bill, all of those 20-somethings who are living at home and because of the economy they can't find a job, they're not going to be able to stay on their parents' health care plan. That's 26,000 people in my congressional district, including my two children.

The health care reform bill eliminates lifetime caps. Ask Jazelle Scott, age 8, or Michael Braun, age 5. They both have juvenile diabetes and they both have already exceeded their lifetime caps. Better yet, why don't you ask their mothers how they're going to be able to afford the lifesaving medication for their children if this bill is repealed.

And what should we tell our seniors, the millions that fall into the doughnut hole that this law starts to close? We changed our minds? And who's going to ask the 8,900 seniors in my district who received the $250 check last year to help with the high cost of their medications to return the check? I'm not going to do that. Or the discount that they're going to be receiving this year on prescription medication, it's not going to be available? I'm not going to do that to them. And are we going to take away the preventative health care benefits that will help 90,000 seniors in my congressional district alone? I won't do that.

And what about the 16,000 small businesses who will now be eligible for health care tax credits? We're saying small businesses don't want that? I know at least one. Thousands more have contacted my office. Ron Nolson has a small family business. He also wants to be able to provide health care insurance for his employees.

Finally, for those who are truly concerned about the deficit, the CBO, the nonpartisan arm of Congress, explicitly stated that repeal will cost $260 billion over 10 years. It appears that those who shout the loudest about the deficit want to add to it.

Let's fix what needs fixing, and let's not repeal this lifesaving, life-enhancing legislation. And we need to do the doctors fix, too.

I thank the gentleman.

Madam Speaker, I don't think there are enough words to express my feelings at this time, and I am sure the words that I have will never be adequate to truly share my grief with my colleagues and with our country.

As with all of the Members of Congress, my thoughts and prayers are with those who lost loved ones in the aftermath of this senseless act of violence. My heart is hurting for those who were injured--some catastrophically, some still fighting for their lives.

I love Gabby Giffords. I don't think there is a better example of a true public servant than this remarkable woman the country has gotten to know over the last few days. She is kind and caring and dedicated, and the very fact that she was doing her Congress on Your Corner just 4 days from the time she was sworn in for another term gives you some idea of how dedicated she was to her job.

While I watched in horror, like most of the country, and was riveted to my television set this weekend, I also couldn't help but marvel at those who rose above personal fear, who had the presence of mind and who, in spite of their own personal safety, tackled the perpetrator of this heinous crime; at the young intern who possibly saved Gabby's life by his medical attention to her; and at those who attended the wounded and comforted the bystanders. These are the true heroes in our country--the medical personnel, the hospital administrators and staff.

The entire citizenry of Tucson has given us hope for our Nation as they have risen to this occasion and have demonstrated to the rest of us how good we are in times of trial.

I've gone through many stages of grief in the last few days. First, I was heartsick at the news. Then I was angry. And now I'm resolved.

I am going to do my own ``Congress on the Corner'' in honor of Gabby this coming Friday because nobody, no lone gunman, nobody can stop the democratic process and stop us from doing our job of interacting with our constituents.

On behalf of myself and my family and the people that I represent from southern Nevada, I send our collective condolences to those people that have lost loved ones in Tucson. And our thoughts and prayers to the survivors. We wish them all Godspeed. God bless them, and God bless this great Nation.

Mr. Chairman, I rise in favor of this bill. The people in the State of Nevada are having a very tough time right now. We have the highest unemployment rate in the country and the highest mortgage foreclosure rate. The people in my district are particularly hard hit. One in five people that I represent have no jobs. The unemployment benefit extension in this piece of legislation is critical to the very survival of so many of the families that I represent.

Everybody thinks of my district of Las Vegas and North Las Vegas as a very glitzy, shiny, wonderful town, and it is all of those things. But it's a working class town, and most people don't fully appreciate that. I represent construction workers and electricians and plumbers, Keno runners and cocktail waitresses and waiters and waitresses and valets and porters. All of these people are middle-income wage earners, and the middle-income tax extension is going to be a tremendous help to these families.

The child care tax credit, so many of the people that I represent in Las Vegas are single mothers who are working. The bane of every single mother, and I know this, is good child care at an affordable price. The child care tax credit makes a difference whether these women can go to work or not.

If you add in the alternative minimum tax, 33,000 of the people I represent will be slammed by that if we don't extend it.

Marriage penalty tax, earned income tax, these are all very important to the middle-income wage earners that call Las Vegas and Nevada home.

One of the most important things is the tax extenders that are included in this. Nevada is one of eight States that does not have a State income tax. If you're a State income tax State, you can deduct your State income tax from your Federal income tax. Nevada doesn't have one, so we, a few years ago, along with Brian Baird and a few others, were able to get an extension for sales tax and being able to deduct the sales tax.