Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, in Washington this week, there are thousands and thousands of African American women who are members of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. That was the first Greek letter African American sorority in this country. It's been a sorority that's been intertwined with all of the activities of this society. In the last 100 years through women's suffrage and the civil right's movement, there have been active members.

Service and scholarship are the bywords of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. Their members have included Coretta Scott King and Rosa Parks, and honorary members have included Eleanor Roosevelt, and announced yesterday, Michelle Obama.

The Alpha Kappa Alpha women are doing good works in this country, and I appreciate their including me. I will be joining them at a luncheon today. And I congratulate them on 100 years of service started at Howard University here in Washington, D.C.

Mr. Speaker, we've heard on both sides today arguments about the energy crisis. The fact is these arguments are why Congress is held in such low esteem. There are just a couple of things that can be done immediately to help people with the price at the pump, and the major thing that can be done is releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. That's been a proven success with President Bush I, President Clinton, and even this President Bush, and yet he refuses.

Why does he refuse? Because it would hurt the profits of the oil companies. And who gave us this President and this Vice President? The oil companies. This is government of the oil companies, by the oil companies, and for the oil companies. And the people of my district are tired of paying this high price.

Twenty years drilling, you might as well think about your child being born today and planning to see them have a car that gets 80 miles to the gallon in 20 years because that's when the oil that might be pumped today in the Outer Shelf would come to be. Immediate relief is releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

Mr. President, I urge you to have compassion for the Americans who can't afford this price of oil.

Madam Speaker, I rise to note that I would have voted in favor of H.R. 3981, the Preserve America and Save America's Treasures Act (Rollcall No. 471). I was unable to be present during the vote for this bill because my flight from Memphis to Washington was delayed due to an air traffic control constraint.

Madam Speaker, I rise to note that I was unable to arrive on the House floor in time to vote because my flight from Memphis was significantly delayed due to bad weather. Had I been able to vote, I would have voted in favor of the three measures voted on by the House this evening: (1) H. Res. 1242, honoring the life, musical accomplishments, and contributions of Louis Jordan on the 100th Anniversary of his birth; (2) H. Con. Res. 372, supporting the goals and ideals of Black Music Month and to honor the outstanding contributions that African American singers and musicians have made to the United States; and (3) H. Res. 1051, congratulating James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, for 100 years of service and leadership to the United States.

Madam Speaker, millions of Americans all over the United States are struggling to put food on the table and gas in their cars. Imagine at the same time that these prices spike you lose your job and that your

unemployment benefits run out simply because there are not enough jobs to go around. This has happened to 1.6 million Americans. They need our help.

Last week, Congress overwhelmingly passed legislation to immediately extend unemployment insurance for an additional 13 weeks. Today, that bill will be included in the emergency supplemental. This important legislation deserves strong bipartisan support.

With 325,000 jobs lost already this year and 3.8 million workers out of a job, it is imperative we take action now. We must continue to look for immediate solutions to our economic troubles. Extending unemployment insurance is one of the most cost-effective and fast- acting ways to stimulate the economy because the money is spent quickly.

Madam Speaker, President Bush and his allies in Congress should drop their opposition to this bill so we can help millions of Americans who are struggling with this recession economy.

Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure today to welcome a group from my hometown, Olivet Baptist Church, hosted by their pastor, Kenneth Whalum, Jr.

Pastor Whalum's father, Pastor Kenneth Whalum, Sr., passed away last year, and this House named the post office on South Third Street, the main post office in Memphis, in his memory.

He was a city councilman, an outstanding community leader, a clergyman of renown, and my friend. He has three sons--two musicians, one of whom is Kirk Whalum, as many of you know from his saxophone playing--and then his son, Pastor Kenneth Whalum, Jr., who serves on the Memphis City School Board and who is a political and ecumenical leader in the City of Memphis as well.

I welcome Olivet Baptist Church to the House of Representatives, and I give praise to them for helping me get here.

Madam Speaker, I think the whole country shared in mourning the loss of Tim Russert as if he was part of our family. We had seen him on television for so many years, and he would come into our homes on Sunday mornings.

And he was so much like so many people in America in that he was passionate about politics, passionate about government, passionate about sports, and passionate about being an American. He loved his Buffalo Bills, Buffalo Sabers, he loved baseball and he loved horse racing. He loved politics, and he had two great mentors in Senator Patrick Moynihan and in Governor Mario Cuomo, two of the great people in political life to ever have the opportunity to work for.

And he was a success story, climbing from the ranks of a government official in the media and perfecting that trade and going to the heights of his profession. He was diligent in doing his research and in quizzing everybody, I think, in an even-handed manner that you really didn't know exactly where Tim Russert was coming from. I had the pleasure of meeting him at a Vanity Fair dinner, which I was invited to last year, and we were at a small table. At the time, I didn't know his wife worked for Vanity Fair. I thought Tim Russert was just there because he was Tim Russert, and that was a good enough reason for him to be there. And he was nice as he could be, just a regular guy, and we had a delightful conversation.

He loved his father. And the book about his dad, Russ, has been well spoken about. But I think what's amazing is I have a very good friend in Memphis named Ted Donaldson. And Ted had written a letter to Tim Russert to be included in the book. And Ted's not a bashful guy at all, and Ted came up to Tim Russert at a function, I think it was in New York, and he said, ``Hi, I'm Ted Donaldson, I'm from Memphis and I wrote you about my dad.'' And he said, ``Yup, page 45.'' He knew exactly the page in the book that it was. He knew his book. He appreciated the people who remembered their fathers and wrote and shared with him. And that book will go on forever remembering the relationship of fathers and sons. I'm sure his son Luke has a great tribute, what he lived and what he remembers from his father and will have a great life. I mourn with him and I'm sorry that he lost his father.

Madam Speaker, I rise to note that I would have voted in favor of both the Motion to Refer H. Res. 1258 to the Committee on the Judiciary (Roll. No. 401) and H. Res. 1235 (Roll No. 402). I was obligated to leave the House floor before the close of votes in order to speak with several important witnesses and supporters just prior to a committee hearing that was scheduled to commence immediately after that series of votes.

Mr. Speaker, this morning's Memphis ComercialAppeal had distressing news for our city. Delta Airlines had canceled part of its contract with Pinnacle Airlines, an airline that had 1,000 jobs in our community. The stock price fell 25 percent, and the newspaper reported that stockholders are concerned about the continued existence of the business.

If the merger takes place and Delta and Northwest merge, it is entirely possible that Delta will cancel the remaining portion of Pinnacle's business with Northwest Airlink, where they serve many customers through Northwest Airlines. That would be devastating to the Memphis economy and possibly cost us thousands of jobs.

I am very concerned, and plan to call Delta Airlines to find out why this contract was cancelled, what possibly could happen, how this merger would affect those 1,000 people, and if possibly re-regulation of the airlines is in order to make sure that abrupt changes in contracts that might cause irreparable harm and immediate damage can't take place if they threaten an industry and an employer in my district such as Pinnacle Airlines.

Mr. Speaker, I am concerned about the future of this large business in my community, and plan to look into it for the benefit of the employers and my overall business community.

Thank you, Madam Speaker.

It is indeed an honor to join with the previous speakers and you, Madam Speaker, to speak on this subject that you and Chairman Conyers and others have brought to this fight.

It has been a long fight. Chairman Conyers and Mr. Dingell and Mr. Dingell's father I think have had sponsorship of issues such as this since the 1940s, 60-some-odd years of efforts and introduction of legislation and debate and discussion, but no bill yet. But we've come a long way. We've come a long way since the 1940s.

Madam Speaker talked about the individuals who suffer from cancer and should not have lost their lives because we didn't have adequate research. I have penned a letter to the Speaker and to Chairman Obey, who I know are concerned about this issue, asking that we increase NIH funding in the President's 2009 budget for research on cancer, diabetes, heart disease, AIDS, Parkinson's, and Alzheimer's disease so that we double the amount that we had in the budget as requested by Congress.

In the President's fiscal year 2009 budget, the request for research at the National Institute of Health for cancer, diabetes, heart disease, HIV/AIDS, Alzheimer's, and Parkinson's, this could be doubled, and only a day or so's worth of money that we use for our war efforts would have to be transferred to make this available.

You know, I think about what the Speaker was talking about, the loss of lives, and I had to think about Senator Kennedy. Not that one life is greater than another life. But Senator Kennedy is a colleague who has been in this hall and is fighting cancer. We hope he will have a successful fight. But when we see him struck with cancer, and others-- and we know there are people dying every day of cancer--it just seems to me that it's a shame that we don't put more and more money into saving lives and we don't use the great wealth of this Nation, the intelligence of this Nation, the great scientific powers of this country to invest in medical research in saving lives rather than weapons of mass destruction often brought to us by people who benefit from them and have brought the military industrial complex that President Eisenhower warned us about, even President Nixon had concerns about; and that helped take us from 9/11 into an escalating budget expense of military weapons that caused this country's budget to be spent so much

and its great talent and abilities in a scientific way to be used on weapons of mass destruction and other arms of the military industrial complex rather than science and research to save lives and save humanity.

Who knows which person, which young person or older person, could do something to save other people's lives let alone give love and hope to families?

And so with national health care insurance, we could cover people, we could save lives because if we had insurance for the people, you could scope out illnesses earlier whether you're wealthy or poor. You would have the same opportunity to have preventative care, early treatment, and diagnosis of illnesses that can cause loss of life. And that early detection can save lives.

Right now if you're poor, you don't have the opportunity to have that early detection and your life is taken. And that's an inequity that this country should not allow to continue and shouldn't have permitted for all of these years.

There are so many accomplishments that we have seen in this country, particularly in this year. We've seen our Nation become a more perfect union in so many ways. But the fundamental right to health care is one that we have not recognized yet and we must.

We're all here because of the grace of God, and it seems like we should all have the--at our access and at our disposal what God's creatures have been able to discover, refine, produce, in the way of medical care to keep people alive. That just seems like a minimum thing.

And this country is the only great industrialized country on the face of the earth without some national health care policy. It seems like in this area, we are not the first in the Nation, in the world, but we're last in the world. And that's terrible.

There are doctors that serve in this body, and they're to be admired for giving their time. And I'm sure--I have many friends who are doctors who give a lot of charity care. But it shouldn't have to be doctors providing charity care to treat people that otherwise wouldn't be treated. It should be something that we all give. And I think that that's the real social need in this country. And when people talk about values and social consciousness and really religious thought and caring about others, it really begins with caring about people's health and sacrificing maybe some of our own resources to have a government system that can help others with their health care.

So I'm pleased, Madam Speaker, to speak as I have. You have inspired me with your remarks, the letters you read; and I'm just pleased that Chairman Conyers has this issue before us.

Madam Speaker, I enter the following for the Record.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi,

H-232, U.S. Capitol,

Washington, DC.

Chairman David Obey,

Committee on Appropriations, H-218, U.S. Capitol, Washington,

This past week has seen the end of the Democratic primary. I think it will end on Saturday. Mr. Speaker, I have been proud to be a Democrat and witness this historic election. When our country was founded, African Americans were slaves, and even after slavery ended in 1865, Jim Crow laws and others passed by this Congress and States didn't allow African Americans full privileges until about the 1960s. Women weren't allowed to vote in this country until an amendment was passed in 1920, passed by my State of Tennessee, the final State, the Perfect 36.

To see a great candidate who happens to be an African American and a great candidate who's a woman wage a tremendous campaign for the Democratic nomination shows how far this country has come toward truly forming a more perfect union. I am more proud than ever to be a Democrat, to be a Member of this House of Representatives.

As I look back on the anniversary of the assassination of Senator Robert Kennedy, I know that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans and we will see it move to victory in November, and a new generation of thought.

Madam Speaker, today, I, along with Congressman Darrell Issa, introduced a bill that would address the phenomenon of ``libel tourism,'' which occurs when plaintiffs seek judgments from foreign courts against American authors and publishers for making allegedly defamatory statements, often to get around first amendment-based constraints on American defamation law. This phenomenon threatens to undermine our Nation's core free speech principles. U.S. law places a higher burden on certain defamation plaintiffs and with respect to certain types of allegedly defamatory speech in order to safeguard first amendment-protected speech. Other countries, including those that generally share our legal tradition, provide no such protection, and American authors and publishers should not be forced to restrict their speech to comport with more limited foreign standards.

Our legislation will codify the principle that, while U.S. courts will normally enforce the judgments of foreign courts, they should not do so when foreign judgments undermine our Constitution. Specifically, our bill prohibits U.S. courts from recognizing or enforcing foreign defamation judgments that do not comport with the first amendment. This is a straightforward solution that is designed to discourage foreign defamation plaintiffs from filing suit against American authors and publishers in foreign courts and instead encourage them to tile suit in the United States.

I would like to thank the Association of American Publishers and the Media Law Resource Center for their valuable feedback during the drafting of this bill and for their support for this legislation. I urge my colleagues to become cosponsors of this bill.

Mr. Speaker, in the next day or two, this House will consider funding the war in Iraq and also we will be thinking and have been thinking about our colleague in the Senate and the father of one of our Members, Senator Ted Kennedy. We will think about Hamilton Jordan, who passed away also.

Senator Kennedy suffers from a brain tumor. Hamilton Jordan suffered from cancer. When you think about how many dollars we have spent on that war effort and what those dollars could do to cure diseases of people here on Earth, I would submit, Mr. Speaker, we need to put more money into curing disease, finding treatments and cures,

rather than funding weapons of mass destruction.

The Bible says something about beating your swords into plowshares. I would submit that if we have the ability to seek finite spots on the Earth from the air to find targets for our weapons, we should turn those scientists' efforts toward finding ways to look inside our bodies and find cures for diseases.

Mr. Speaker, I am submitting a letter to the Speaker and to the chairman of the Finance Committee to do just that.

Congress of the United States,

House of Representatives,

Washington, DC May 15, 2008.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi,

U.S. Capitol, Washington, DC.

Chairman David Obey,

Committee on Appropriations, U.S. Capitol, Washington, DC.

Dear Speaker Pelosi and Chairman Obey: I am writing to

request that NIH funding in the President's FY09 budget for

the research of cancer, diabetes, heart disease, AIDS,

Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease be doubled in the

final FY09 budget set forth by Congress.

The following are the estimates included in the President's

FY09 Budget request for research at the National Institutes

of Health (NIH):

Cancer: $5.654B.

Diabetes: $1.033B.

Heart Disease: $2.111B.

Global Fund to fight HIV/AIDS, Malaria, and Tuberculosis

under National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases:

$300M.

Alzheimer's Disease: $644M.

Parkinson's Disease: $186M.

These debilitating diseases affect millions of people each

year across the globe. Families are torn apart, emotionally

and financially, by the effects of their contraction.

Congress has a serious responsibility to provide adequate

funding for research that could not only find promising

treatments, but permanent cures.

I cannot imagine a more pressing issue than ensuring the

healthy future of those we are here to represent. The

disparity between the amounts of funding requested for the

war in Iraq and that requested to treat deadly diseases is

incomprehensible. The successful findings of research

programs made possible through increased funding will not

only aid people in the United States, but the rest of the

world, as well. It is my hope that, by taking full advantage

of the scientific resources we have here at home, we can

better our relationships with research teams across the globe

to reach our common goals: finding a cure and establishing

peace.

As always, I remain,

Most Sincerely,

Steve Cohen,

Member of Congress.

Mr. Speaker, last Thursday I was absent from this Chamber. Had I been here, I would have voted for Mr. Frank's bill and Ms. Waters' bill which dealt with the foreclosure crisis and the neighborhoods that have been affected thereby.

It was a difficult decision for me not to be here for I haven't missed a day in my 2 years that I've been in the Congress, but a very dear friend of mine, Thomas Boggs, passed away, and I was asked to be a pallbearer at his funeral, which I was honored to do.

Thomas Boggs was one of the finest people that I've had the pleasure of knowing, nearly 35 years. He was a leading citizen in Memphis, Tennessee, giving much to the community and charitable works to people, regardless of income, status or race. No matter where they came from, Thomas reached out to try to be good to them.

He was very helpful with the Memphis Food Bank, with the Memphis Zoo, with raising money for the church health center that gives health care to people in need.

And his death was met with a lot of notice, notice that's not normally reserved for an individual: above-the-fold first page of the Memphis Commercial Appeal, a lead editorial, and a cartoon.

He was a wonderful human being. He has a great family. He was a good father, and he had many great friends. Even though we're Congresspeople, we need to remember we're citizens and humans and remember our friends on their last day.

Madam Speaker, I rise to explain both my leave of absence from the House of Representatives on May 8, 2008, and how I intended to vote with respect to the legislation that was before the House on that day. I was unable to be in Washington on May 8 because I was serving as a pallbearer at the funeral of Thomas Boggs--a close friend of mine for over 30 years and an outstanding citizen of Memphis, Tennessee--at the request of his widow.

While Thomas made a name for himself by rising from humble roots to become a highly successful restaurateur in Memphis, his mark on the city goes much deeper. He used his success in business to contribute generously, both in terms of his money and his time, to causes that have enriched Memphis. His contributions to the community have benefited all Memphians, and his death leaves Memphis in grief. As a reflection of how much esteem the Memphis community held him in, the Memphis Commercial-Appeal ran a front-page, above-the-fold article concerning his death, an almost unprecedented tribute.

I agonized over whether I should remain in Washington to vote on the bills that the House was to consider on the day of Thomas' funeral. I take my responsibilities as a Member of Congress very seriously, particularly with respect to voting on legislation. In the end, I decided that I needed to join the rest of the Memphis community as our dear friend was eulogized and honored for one last time.

Had I been able to be in Washington on May 8, I would have voted for final passage of H.R. 5818, the ``Neighborhood Stabilization Act of 2008,'' as amended. This legislation requires the Department of Housing and Urban Development to provide loans and grants to States, metropolitan cities, and urban counties to carry out housing stimulus activities. Such activities include the purchase of or financing the purchase of foreclosed homes for resale as housing, rental of such homes, or rehabilitation of such homes. These measures are designed to ensure that neighborhoods do not deteriorate as a result of a high foreclosure rate caused by predatory lending. In short, this bill will help to mitigate some of the negative effects of the foreclosure crisis.

I also would have voted in favor of agreeing to the Senate amendment, with House amendments, to H.R. 3221, the ``Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008.'' This bill helps homeowners

who are in danger of losing their homes to refinance into lower-cost, government-insured mortgages they can afford to repay. It also expands affordable mortgage opportunities for families who might otherwise turn to subprime mortgages to buy a home. The bill, as amended by the House, will also expand tax benefits for homeowners and first-time home buyers. This bill, when combined with H.R. 5818, presents a comprehensive package for addressing the predatory lending and foreclosure crises that our country faces.

In addition to the housing-related bills, I also would have voted in favor of H.R. 4279, the ``Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act of 2008'' (PRO-IP Act.) I am an original cosponsor of this bill and spoke in favor of its passage when it was being debated on the House floor a few days before the vote. As I noted then, this legislation makes important improvements to intellectual property law to help protect against counterfeiting and piracy, including enhanced penalties for intellectual property crimes, additional resources for law enforcement efforts at every level of government, and the creation of a new organizational framework at the Federal level to better combat international piracy and counterfeiting. This bill enjoys widespread support, and everyone from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to the Teamsters supports it. I am glad that it passed with strong bipartisan support.

Finally, I note that I would have voted against the Flake and Cantor Motions to Instruct Conferees on H.R. 2419, the ``Farm, Nutrition, and Bioenergy Act.''