Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, I rise to offer my condolences to the Turkish people and the Turkish government for the horrific terrorist attacks in Istanbul on November 15 and 20.

As al Qaeda has proved again and again, they intend to fight this 21st Century's first global war against civilians and non-combatants. As we have proved again and again, we will fight this war wherever it flares up. And we will win, because we have the fortitude to do the right thing.

Turkey is one of our strongest allies in the fight on global terrorism--and has repeatedly stood by our side in NATO matters (as a NATO ally) and in the war on terror, in understated ways. I have a number of friends and people we know there, that I met on numerous House Armed Services Committee trips to visit NATO allies.

All South Texans condemn the cowardly and senseless killing of innocent people in Turkey, one of the finest examples of a democracy in practice, and one of the few Muslim nations to practice democracy.

We have shared principles of democracy, freedom, tolerance and the pursuit of peace--and today we stand with our Turkish friends. Those who opposed democracy will eventually learn that to kill democracy is to kill all those who love democracy. Al Qaeda doesn't have enough bombs to kill all those who love democratic principals around the world.

My family and I are praying for the families and victims injured and perished in this atrocity.

The United States Congress hereby offers our judgment that this attack was cowardly, and we stand with our Turkish friends in this hour of great loss.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me time.

Mr. Speaker, this bill requires a plan for in-patient services for veterans in south Texas by January 31, 2004, either through VA or through contracts with private hospitals.

Of course, I would like to thank my good friend, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Hobson), for his help in finding more health services for our veterans; and also my good friend, the gentleman from New Jersey (Chairman Smith); the gentleman from Illinois (Chairman Simmons), my good friend; the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Evans); and, of course, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Rodriguez), who intervened at a critical point to ensure south Texas was kept in this bill.

In my district I have four military installations. Through the years, we know what happens when a veteran gets ready to retire. What he does is he moves close to a military installation. Well, in this case the hospital that we had was shut down several years ago. But now under this bill and with this contract that they are talking about, opening up for in-patient care, it gives hope to the veterans who live in the area.

Mr. Speaker, we have veterans from the Second World War and the Korean War. Some of them are bed-ridden, and it takes 6 to 7 hours for them to go to the nearest VA hospital, which happens to be in San Antonio. I think that part of the healing process is the idea of being close to your family. But when you are removed from your family and have to travel and take that patient away from his family to a point that is 200 to 300 miles away, it does not work.

They deserve no less than this. The Lord knows that these VA patients and veterans have waited for a long, long time.

I am glad that this bill is also honoring my good friend that I got to know for a long time, Bob Stump from Arizona. I am glad that we are honoring his memory.

Please, I ask my friends to vote for this bill.

Mr. Speaker, Congress created Medicare in 1965 to make healthcare affordable and available for all senior citizens. My colleagues and I have fought to maintain this original intent.

Today, the leaders in Congress are pushing dangerous legislation-- called Medicare reform--on South Texas seniors that fails to include an adequate prescription drug benefit while privatizing Medicare, killing the program at the end of the decade.

This prescription drug ``coverage'' is not what seniors expect or deserve. When seniors have more than $2,200 in drugs costs, they will hit a gap, where Medicare will no longer cover the costs of their prescriptions until they reach $5,000.

When this happens, these seniors will be forced to pay 100% out of their own pockets while still paying monthly premiums. Meanwhile, their HMOs will select their doctors and their pharmacies.

Over 185 organizations with an interest in seniors' issues are wholly opposed to this bill. While one of the largest senior organizations has lent support to this bill (The American Association of Retired Persons, AARP), it is the only one to do so . . . it is the only one that provides insurance to seniors at a profit of $635 million . . . and the only one poised to take advantage of billions of dollars in the bill to entice private insurers to cover seniors.

The bill effectively ends drug reimportation by allowing the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to decide what prescriptions could be reimported. The HHS Secretary has already said he would allow none.

If this is not the answer, what is? I stand on my record, voting 8 times for a complete Medicare Rx drug plan . . . voting 6 times and co- sponsoring 6 bills supporting higher reimbursements to doctors and hospitals . . . voting 6 times not to kill Medicare . . . and voting 8 times and co-sponsoring 3 bills to improve rural healthcare.

Nothing in this bill makes prescription drugs cheaper. Other Federal programs, such as the Veteran's Administration, get cheap drugs negotiating directly with the big drug companies. The plan will keep the government from negotiating for lower drug prices for Medicare beneficiaries.

This plan protects the profits of drug manufactures instead of providing real savings to seniors. Rising drug prices are unaddressed in this bill, a victory for the drug industry for preventing any attempts to lower drug prices.

Meanwhile, the value of some seniors' property will be used to determine their level of coverage--including jewelry, cars, and other property of value for which they worked their entire lives.

In South Texas, for the short term anyway, the bill (which would not take effect until 2006) would help only about 30% of low-income seniors. Effectively, that means this bill will not help over two- thirds of our most needly seniors.

When I think about the seniors that bill will affect, I think of the ladies who took care of me as I grew up of Robstown, Texas. Life for them revolves around family and children, paying the bills and finding health care in their senior years.

These are the people affected by the bill, which ends Medicare as we know it, privatizing the entire progrm by the end of the decade. It is thousands of South Texans like these who have raised voices in opposition to this bill. I stand with them.

Medicare has been a trust between the government and those who do the hard work in our society, our senior citizens. Too many seniors depend on Medicare for their healthcare needs, and I will not support a bill that destroys that trust.

Mr. Speaker, due to inclement weather and travel delays from my district, I was unable to vote during the following rollcall votes. Had I been present, I would have voted as indicated below.

Rollcall No. 624: ``yes''; rollcall No. 625: ``yes''; rollcall No. 626: ``yes''; rollcall No. 627 ``yes.''

Mr. Speaker, due to official business in my district, I was unable to vote during the following rollcall votes. Had I been present, I would have voted as indicated below.

Rollcall No. 620, ``yes''; rollcall No. 621, ``yes''; rollcall No. 622, ``yes''; and rollcall No. 623, ``yes.''

Mr. Speaker, due to business in my district, I was unable to vote during the following rollcall votes. Had I been present, I would have voted as indicated below.

Rollcall No. 612, ``yes''; rollcall No. 613, ``yes''; rollcall No. 614, ``yes''; rollcall No. 615, ``yes''; rollcall No. 616. ``yes''; rollcall No. 617. ``yes''; rollcall No. 618, ``no''' rollcall No. 619, ``yes.''

Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Duncan Hunter and Ranking Democrat Ike Skelton for their leadership on this important bill.

Our young men and women in uniform are performing magnificently right now in Iraq in a difficult and developing mission. They are also performing magnificently in Afghanistan, and elsewhere around the world where the global war on terror takes us. It falls to the Congress to make sure our troops have what they need to prosecute this war on all fronts. Certainly all of Congress agrees that our soldiers in the field deserve to get all they need, no matter what.

The central feature of today's bill is a huge step forward on the issue of concurrent receipt. Finally, we are acknowledging the inherent unfairness of having long-time service members chose between retiree pay and disability. We didn't get nearly what we wanted, nor what these military retirees deserve . . . but we made significant progress on advancing the cause of expanding the phase-in of concurrent receipt.

This bill provides much needed support for our military including: a pay raise of 4.15 percent for uniformed services, further reducing out- of-pocket expenses for servicemembers, increasing allowances for family separation and danger pay, and modestly increasing the force structure of the Army and active Reserves and National Guard.

DOD did not get all the power it wanted when it comes to contracting out civilian jobs, but I am very uncertain about what lies ahead for civilian workers. We made some progress in the negotiations, but the strong language in the House bill put quite a pall over the future of a viable civilian service. We have a very tough road ahead. And, I maintain the Secretary is just wrong on this one--a strong civilian workforce performs the core functions of the military better, and cheaper, in-house.

Today's package, and our passage of it speaks, we hope, to the needs of our military and offers them the concrete understanding that this Congress considers our military men and women our ultimate responsibility.

As we move forward, I will be working to do more to ensure our military retirees eventually get a full concurrent receipt.

I will keep a very close eye on the plans and activities of the Department of Defense as they proceed with their plans for civil service workers. I want to ensure that our civil service workers remain the viable, strong workforce our national security demands.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to an extraordinary educator and patriot, Arnold Saavedra. The product of a strong family, he was raised with his three siblings to understand the importance of education.

His parents taught their children that teachers have a mighty impact on the lives of the students they teach. His father taught in a one- room schoolhouse in Duval County. The lessons of his family were not lost on any of the children; each one became a teacher, on a mission to make the lives of children better through education.

One day when he was in the 7th grade, Mr. Saavedra glanced out the classroom window and saw the football coach out in the field with the players. At that moment, he knew he wanted to be a coach and teacher.

He taught and coached at a number of Corpus Christi Independent School District schools from 1973 through this year. In July 2003, he moved to the Adult Learning Center as the Lead Administrator to apply lessons in learning to adults.

In those years when he taught classes and coached young athletes on fields of play, he taught the same lesson he'd learned in his parents' home . . . the key to success in life begins with an education. For 30 years he has shared those lessons with the young people of Corpus Christi. His legacy is in the success of his students.

While at Texas A&I College, Mr. Saavedra met and married his college sweetheart, Ida Ortega Saavedra, and she has been his most constant source of support. They have two children, Tricia Dunlap and Arnold Andrew Saavedra, and a granddaughter, Sage Elizabeth Dunlap.

Mr. Saavedra will retire on November 25, 2003, after more than 30 years with the Corpus Christi Independent School District. I ask my colleagues to join me in commending him for his life's work.

Mr. Speaker, due to official business, I was unable to vote during the following rollcall votes. Had I been present, I would have voted as indicated below:

Rollcall No. 576, ``yes;'' rollcall No. 577, ``yes;'' rollcall No. 578, ``yes;'' and rollcall No. 579, ``yes.''

Mr. Speaker, the bill we pass today is indeed the least we could possibly do for the young men and women who have carried our battle to the enemy in the global war in which we are engaged. We should be ashamed that the Congress is only now providing enhanced civil and economic protections for military personnel on active duty.

At a time when we are asking our military to carry an incredibly heavy burden, the Congress is deeply concerned about making life as easy as possible for our servicemembers and their families, and this bill is the way to begin.

While our troops are on duty overseas and elsewhere, separated from their families and--in the case of Guard and Reserve troops called up-- struggling on less salary than they make in the civilian world, we are hopeful this legislation will help those military families better cope with economic challenges.

This bill would increase the death gratuity payable to the families of deceased members of the Armed Forces and to exclude such gratuity from gross income. The intent is to assist surviving family of active duty service members with immediate expenses following notification of the death of a loved one.

This bill would double the death gratuity from $6,000 to $12,000 and apply it retroactively to all deaths after September 10, 2001. The bill would also exempt from taxation the full $12,000 payment. Currently, only $3,000 of the current payment of $6,000 is exempt from taxation.

Given our experience here in South Texas in helping families who have lost loved ones, I can tell you that this Congress can do much more financially to ease their suffering, but I'm pleased that at least we are no longer taxing their death benefits.

Mr. Speaker, let me begin by thanking members of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs, the subcommittee, the ranking member and the chairman, and especially the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith), and the ranking member, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Evans), and my colleague, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Rodriguez). I also want to thank my good friend, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Hobson), who has been a champion for our veterans and their interests, both in Ohio and south Texas and the rest of the Nation.

Finding a way to get inpatient health care services for our veterans in south Texas has been a long journey, and it is a labor of love for all involved. We first began this journey 21 years ago.

We know the debt we owe our veterans today. The soldiers we send forth in today's war on terrorism are tomorrow's veterans. As liberty must be defended, the population of veterans in the United States and south Texas will continue to grow.

I have worked with the Department of Veterans Affairs for a long time to bring improved services to the long-ignored population of veterans living in the tip of Texas. The VA has responded with their approach through the CARES program. It is long overdue for the VA to look seriously at the long-term needs and service delivery for the population they serve. Can my colleagues imagine, those who served the military from the Second World War, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War, they have to travel all the way to San Antonio, a journey of about anywhere from 2\1/2\ to 7 hours. Some of them are bedridden. There is no ambulance service. We are working on that. But thanks to the support that the VA has given me and the other Members who have needs in their districts, we really thank them for all the help that they have given us.

There are presently no inpatient services in this market, other than a limited contract in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, and limited access to specialty care patients. Patients must now travel a long, long journey. Opportunities exist to reduce this gap by working with DOD in Corpus Christi, as well as the University of Texas Regional Health Care Academic Center in Harlingen. Two submarkets were identified: Coastal Bend, Corpus Christi and surrounding area, and Rio Grande Valley, including Brownsville, Harlingen and surrounding areas, because transportation between these areas is difficult, involving secondary roads which take considerable travel time. It was an area that we had no interstate highways, no freeways until the last 10, 12 years. So to travel to get to the facility was long and hard.

So I want to thank again the subcommittee and the full committee for addressing this need and for working with us. Again, I thank my good friend, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Hobson), so much for the help he gave me on this bill.

Mr. Speaker, during a time of global conflict, it is especially important moment to recognize and thank our true friends and allies around the world. Joining us in our commitment to freedom, democracy, human rights and economic opportunity, Taiwan has been a steadfast friend to the United States for over 50 years.

This is a difficult and threatening time among the world of nations. Taiwan is an important cornerstone in securing a free, stable and prosperous Asia.

Immediately after September 11, 2001, Taiwan became one of the first countries to come to our aid in the campaign against terrorism. President Chen, Shui-bian lost no time in condemning this brutal act and its perpetrators. Since then, Taiwan has reaffirmed its commitment to us in many forms, including intelligence gathering, increased airport security, and laws that keep laundered money out of the hands of terrorists. Taiwan has also provided generous assistance for the rebuilding of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Recently, both Houses of Congress have passed by large margins, legislation that supports our friendship and commitments to Taiwan and endorses its desire for a wider international role, specifically in the World Health Organization and the United Nations.

Let us continue, through words and deeds, our heartfelt support for this special friend on its 92nd National Day celebration.

I offer our friends in Taiwan my own personal best wishes, and I offer good wishes to Taiwan on behalf of Texas.

Mr. Speaker, the Center for Civic Education of Los Angeles, California, is a leader in promoting civic education in the United States, and promoting democracy throughout the world. They regularly contribute to civic understanding in the United States through a presence in each Congressional District.

Their excellence in teaching citizens to appreciate and participate in their government took an international approach seven years ago through annual ``Leaders Seminars'' in the Center's Civitas Exchange Program. I am proud that the 2003 Civitas Exchange Program Leaders Seminar was co-hosted by the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) of our friend and neighbor, Mexico.

IFE is an autonomous agency of the Mexican federal government responsible for organizing federal elections and promoting civic education. From September 25-30, 2003 the Center held the seventh annual Leaders Seminar of its Civitas Exchange Program in Mexico City, Mexico, providing an international forum on civic responsibility in maintaining democratic principals in government.

IFE and the Center for Civic Education have forged a partnership to adapt Project Citizen, a civic education program for middle school students, for use throughout the Mexican school system. At the Leaders Seminar, Mexican students who have studied democratic practices and principles (through the work of IFE and the Center) analyzed national and community problems for more than 150 delegates from some 34 countries and 30 states of the United States.

A remarkable number of entities cooperate to make the Civitas Exchange Program a leading cooperative project of civic education organizations in the United States and emerging and established democracies throughout the world. The Civitas Exchange Program is administered by the Center for Civic Education and funded by the U.S. Department of Education under the Education for Democracy Act approved by the United States Congress. International assistance comes from the U.S. Department of State and the Agency for International Development (AID).

The Center for Civic Education centers their mission on Thomas Jefferson's philosophy on the safekeeping of democracy: ``I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of society but the people themselves.''

For all the work the Center for Civic Education does--domestically and internationally--to better prepare our children to participate in the democratic life of our nation, I ask my colleagues to join me in commending this organization for their work to make this country--and the world in which we live--a better place for the generations that will follow us.

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

(Mr. ORTIZ asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. Speaker, I join my colleague from Maryland (Mr. Bartlett) in support of this resolution and urge my colleagues to support it as well.

Fort Detrick is one of the most important lines of defense should we ever be attacked with a chemical or biological weapon. Since 1969, it has been our Nation's lead laboratory for the medical aspects of biological warfare defense.

The September 11 attacks used civilian airplanes as weapons of mass destruction; but it raises the specter of a terrorist attack that would use a chemical, biological, or nuclear weapon against us. I hope such an attack never occurs; but if it does, the men and women of Fort Detrick are devoted to improving the ways to quickly detect the use of chemical or biological weapons, halt the spread of chemical and biological agents as quickly as possible, and treat the victims of the attack.

But the mission of Fort Detrick goes beyond just protecting against chemical or biological attack. Fort Detrick has played a leading role in protecting our Nation and other nations against all types of infectious diseases. They helped identify the West Nile Virus several summers ago, and they created a vaccine in the 1980s that probably saved the lives of thousands of Argentinians from an agricultural virus. Fort Detrick has been a world leader in research of microbiology, biochemistry, botany, and other scientific disciplines that are necessary to understanding how to detect and treat lethal viruses.

Fort Detrick also serves as home to one of the two campuses of the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health. This NIH campus is internationally recognized for its contribution to cancer and AIDS research.

The mission of Fort Detrick goes beyond research as well. Since 1974, all medical logistical support of global military operations is planned and managed by Fort Detrick. This is an extremely important mission as our troops are flung worldwide in the global war on terrorism. And as my good friend, the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Bartlett), mentioned, the Army's 1108th Signal Brigade at Fort Detrick provides strategic communications support to the White House and the joint chiefs.

This is just a symbol of the accomplishments and missions of Fort Detrick, not an inventory of what they do. They do a great job.

Mr. Speaker, I commend and congratulate my good friend, the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Bartlett), for bringing this resolution to the floor.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the motion by the gentleman from Texas, to permanently raise the hazard pay for all members of the U.S. military and family separation pay for those they left behind.

As a former soldier, as a member of the House Armed Services Committee, as an American, as a human being . . . I am appalled at the insensitivity of the administration in not adequately providing hazard pay for our soldiers at a time when our mission in Iraq is not yet accomplished. Nor, more importantly, is our mission in the larger war on terror.

I very much understand the dynamic that led us to this place--this nation simply cannot afford the cost to our Nation to wage a worldwide war, and raise taxes on our children through tax cuts now. Our economic policy has become folly in the 21st Century.

But that is a topic for another debate--today my colleague from Texas, Mr. Edwards, offers a very important matter for the House to consider. Today conferees are meeting on the Defense Authorization bill and I join my colleague from Texas in urging the conferees to permanently increase hazard pay for our military personnel fighting our wars overseas--and to permanently increase family separation pay.

The administration should be ashamed. This Congress should be ashamed, too, if we do not support the motion by my Texas colleague and follow this issue to the end of the process. For if we only instruct our conferees, yet do not actually change the policy, we will not have done the job.

Mr. Speaker, any member of this chamber would be hard-pressed to find anyone in this nation who disagreed with the prospect of increasing the pay of our soldiers currently dodging bullets in Iraq--and always in danger in Afghanistan and elsewhere. We would also be hard-pressed to find anybody who disagreed with the prospect of offering a supplement to the families of military personnel, who are making do on less salary and are all alone in raising their children and conducting the business of the household--while their loved one is fighting a war we sent them to fight.

We all knew a war would be expensive. The cost of a war is high in the blood of Americans, in the loss to the family income of Reserve and Guard troops called to service, and most directly, in the actual expense of building and maintaining equipment and prosecuting the war.

We send young people to war from this branch of government. Let us not abandon them on combat pay. Let us not abandon their families as they live their lives as best they can without their loved ones, and without the salary their loved one brings to the family if they are in the Guard or Reserve.