Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, here is today's energy Facts versus Fiction, Volume II.

According to Gal Luft of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, at $137 per barrel of oil, OPEC could potentially buy the Bank of America within 5 weeks of production revenues; Apple Computer within 12 days; General Motors within 5 days, and it would take 2.5 years for OPEC to buy a 20 percent blocking vote in every S&P 500 company.

Fact: The administration's budget slashes $467 million from energy efficiency and renewable energy accounts. The House Appropriations Committee added $1.2 billion. It is a much better investment, Madam Speaker, to add $1.2 billion than to give away the Bank of America, Apple Computer and General Motors to the Saudis.

We need an energy policy that invests in American ingenuity, not Saudi Arabia oil profits.

Madam Speaker, I rise to commemorate a sad occasion in my district: Suffolk Life Newspaper will publish its last edition this week. David Willmott published the first edition of what would become Suffolk Life on August 17, 1961.

His paper, which started out serving a small community in Suffolk County, eventually became the largest weekly paper east of the Mississippi. For more than 40 years, Dave Willmott covered the local issues that didn't receive attention elsewhere. He had a style all his own--with political views that I often disagreed with. But he took on the issues others wouldn't touch and he and his staff took great pride in the service they provided to our community with the newspaper. They held those of us who serve in public office to a high standard with rigorous questionnaires and biting weekly columns.

Suffolk Life will shut its doors, but the impact of Dave Willmott's enterprise will live on long after the paper is gone.

Madam Speaker, Suffolk Life will be missed but not forgotten. I'm proud to honor this Long Island institution on the House floor.

I thank my friend from West Virginia.

Mr. Speaker, if I were a football coach and I had been calling a play for 7 years and I actually lost yardage, I'd change the play.

Our friends on the other side, Mr. Speaker, they don't want to change the play. They want to keep the same plays that have been losing yards and money for the American people for the past 7 years.

In the spring of 2001, Vice President Cheney had this meeting with the oil and gas industry to create a new energy policy for America. Then, the cost of a barrel of oil was $23. Now the cost of a barrel of oil is $139. The policy did not work.

Then, the average price of gasoline was $1.46 a gallon. Today, the average price of a gallon of gasoline on Long Island is $4.31 a gallon. It tripled.

The policy didn't work. In all that time, oil and gas companies could have drilled on the properties which they have leases to. They didn't do it.

I will not yield. I only have a little bit of time.

They did not do it. Now what we're saying is we have got to try something new because what was tried before, didn't work. We need a change in policy. So what we are saying to the oil companies is use it or lose it. Drill what you have the right to drill, explore where you have the right to explore, and if you're not willing to do that, we will find somebody who can.

It's time to put the sound bites aside and give real relief to the American people. The fact of the matter is that the policies that have been tried, have failed. I am not saying that anybody has committed wrongdoing, I am just saying that they have pursued the wrong policies.

The right policy is to put the American people's pocketbooks ahead of the oil company profits. Use it or lose it. That's what we are doing today.

Mr. Speaker, this morning I inaugurate energy facts versus energy fiction. Today's fact:

In the spring of 2001, Vice President Cheney met with oil industry executives to develop a national energy policy. Then, before their policy was enacted the average price of a barrel of

oil was about $23. This morning, the price of a barrel of oil is almost $138. The policy did not work.

Then, before their policy was enacted, the average price of a gallon of gas was about $1.46. This morning, at the Commack Mobil station in my district, the price of a gallon of regular gas is almost $4.29, almost tripled. The policy did not work.

I am not saying that anybody is committing wrongdoing. I am just saying that people have pursued policies that have not worked.

Today we will try again to get to the President's desk Congressman Bart Stupak's anti-price gouging bill. Today we present another solution, a different idea, a better way to bring down gas prices. I urge my colleagues to support it on a bipartisan basis, I urge the other body to support it, get it to the President's desk, and let's start protecting pocketbooks rather than oil company profits.

Mr. Chairman, this amendment is very simple. Essentially, it suggests a small step DOD can take to make itself more energy efficient. The amendment requires the Secretary of Defense to conduct a study reviewing DOD's policies concerning the sale and disposal of used motor vehicle lubricating oil. The report will include an evaluation of the feasibility of implementing policies to require closed loop recycling of used oil as a means of reducing total indirect energy usage and greenhouse gas emissions.

And to the extent that the report finds that closed loop recycling can reduce total indirect energy usage and decrease greenhouse gas emissions without significant increase in overall cost to DOD, it asks the Secretary to implement closed loop recycling of used oil when feasible.

Re-refining, or recycling, allows used oil that would otherwise be burned or dumped to be refined again and used for its originally intended purpose, just as when it was virgin oil. According to the American Petroleum Institute, re-refining used lubricating oil takes from 50 to 85 percent less energy than refining crude oil. Re-refined oil meets industry standards for use in vehicles. And according to a July 2006 report by the Department of Energy, ``transforming all used oil that is currently combusted into lube oil products could save 63 million gallons of fuel oil equivalent per year.''

Through closed loop recycling, DOD would buy re-refined oil for use in its vehicles, sell their used oil back to re-refiners to be recycled, and then continue the cycle.

I should also note that nothing in this amendment changes or affects the Solid Waste Disposal Act or any other Federal or State environmental law, or the obligation of any person to comply with that law.

This amendment is a win-win. By recycling used motor oil, DOD decreases its reliance on our adversaries to keep its vehicles running. DOD conserves energy by extending the life of a nonrenewable resource. And greenhouse gas emissions are decreased.

DOD already uses some re-refined oil and it even has a closed loop re-refined oil program. Expanding these programs is one small way the military can reduce its overall reliance on foreign oil. As the largest single consumer of energy in the United States, it is a step that I believe DOD should consider taking.

Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. Chairman, this amendment solves a critical deficiency in our warfighting and our peacekeeping capabilities by strengthening the Arab language capabilities in the Department of Defense and Department of State. There are literally hundreds of Iraqis in the United States who supported our military units as translators in Iraq. They risked their lives, they risked their families' lives. They went on patrol in very dangerous areas, told our servicemembers what the enemy was saying, what was being said.

Then they came here to escape persecution, and when they got here, they wanted to continue providing those critical linguistic abilities and they were told there was no place for them to work. Many of them today are working in Safeways and working in Home Depots and working in restaurants, instead of providing the linguistic capabilities that we desperately need in the military theater.

Study after study after study, including the Quadrennial Defense Review, points to the critical deficiency we have in understanding the cultures and languages that we are fighting in. Our Nation now has hundreds of people who grew up in those cultures, speak those languages, pass background checks, risk their lives, and what do we do, even though we need their skills? We let them bag groceries at a Safeway. It doesn't make any sense.

This amendment would help solve that problem by instructing DOD and the Department of State to create a temporary program that would offer employment as translators, interpreters, or culture awareness instructors in Iraq, who meet certain rigid criteria. One, they must be here legally. Two, they must have worked for at least the last 12 months as translators in Iraq since 2003 for our troops or for another U.S. Government agency.

This amendment is endorsed by the Episcopal Church, Veterans for Common Sense, the International Rescue Committee, Church World Service, which works very hard on it, and many additional groups.

I would like to read into the Record, Mr. Chairman, a statement by Major Andrew Morton, U.S. Army Active Service, a former Director of Strategic Communications for Multinational Forces in Iraq, where he says, ``Representative's Israel's proposed amendment is a critically needed program to assist these many Iraqis who have put themselves and their families in harm's way to assist our joint operations in Iraq.''

This is a very important amendment in helping those who were protecting us, and I urge its passage.

I reserve the balance of my time.

I thank the gentleman. I would assure him that this in no way mandates a program. It asks the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of State to create one, but it is totally at their discretion and provides ultimate flexibility for them.

Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentleman from Vermont (Mr. Welch).

Mr. Chairman, I would just point out to my good friend from Virginia that these translators did risk their lives to help our troops in Iraq. If they stayed in Iraq, they would in all likelihood be killed. The reason they come here is to escape assassination.

With that, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Skelton), the distinguished chairman of the committee.

Mr. Chairman, I would like to rise in support of language I included in the Coast Guard Reauthorization Act.

I have consistently fought for boating safety for the last three years in memory of my constituent Brianna Lieneck who died in August of 2005. Her parents came to me after losing their daughter. They have made it their mission to fight for boating safety and to make the water safer for others.

Their daughter Brianna an 11-year-old girl from my district who was tragically taken from us three years ago during a boating accident on the Great South Bay. The accident occurred on August 17, 2005 when a boat collided with their own. The operator of the other boat was reckless and there was poor visibility from the lack of lighting on the water that late at night.

While we can't bring back Brianna I have made it a priority to fight or mandatory boater education. And I want to commend Brianna's parents for taking this horrible tragedy and using it to fuel such a worthy cause.

This year the Coast Guard Reauthorization Act will include language mandating that the Coast Guard find the best and most feasible ways to establish mandatory boater education for all states and report back to Congress within 6 months. This is an important first step in boating safety because education directly translates to safer waters. The Coast Guard estimates that 70 percent of reported fatalities occur when a boat operator has not received boating safety instruction.

So many careless accidents can be avoided by taking one simple course and being more informed on the water.

Boating accidents claimed 710 lives in 2006 and caused 3,474 injuries. Of that, 14 deaths and 100 injuries occurred in New York State in 2006. There were a total of 152 boating accidents in the state of New York.

There has been no significant decrease in the number of boating deaths since 1996 and the number increased between 2003 and 2006. This is unacceptable. If one simple course will decrease the number of deaths and injuries on the water, it is so important that we do everything in our power to require mandatory boater education.

You must take a driving test before you are able to operate a car. You should, at the very least, be required to take an education course to operate a boat.

And we owe it to the memory of Brianna and other victims in the Nation to do all we can to prevent future fatalities on the water.

I would like to thank Chairman Oberstar and Ranking Member Mica for allowing this language to be included in the bill.

I thank the distinguished gentleman, my very good friend from North Carolina, who has always been a tenacious advocate for the needs of the military and military families at Fort Bragg. I don't reside in North Carolina, but I do know from our friendship and our many conversations that no one fights harder and more effectively to represent the interests of those who are at Fort Bragg, including many of my constituents, who are there now waiting to deploy to Afghanistan.

I am very proud to stand here as a sponsor of this bill to honor New York's 69th Infantry Regiment, known as the Fighting 69th, once fought as part of the Irish Brigade.

I also want to acknowledge my cosponsor, Congressman Peter King, the gentleman from New York, one of the earliest Republican sponsors of this measure which I have drafted.

Soon we will celebrate St. Patrick's day. That is a day when we will commemorate the enduring contributions of Irish Americans to the founding and development of this Nation.

In fact, if you read a book by Tom Cahill called ``How the Irish Saved Civilization,'' you would know that not only have the Irish made an enduring contribution to the founding and development of our country, but that their contribution transcends our country. When the world was a dark place, when the Roman Empire fell, when barbarians ruled, they tore down libraries, they destroyed all literature.

But it was the Irish who built monasteries. It was the Irish who brought scribes in who literally copied all of the great works of civilization. They preserved it. They handed it down from one generation to the next so that we would have it today.

In fact, it was Irish who did save civilization and similarly, it is the Fighting Irish, the 69th Infantry, that has saved America time after time after time and always answered their country's call.

Tonight, we put aside whatever political differences many of us have had in the past with respect to whether we should go to war in Iraq or not have gone to war in Iraq. That's not what this is about. Because, together, every Member of this House, Democrats and Republicans, support those who are fighting for our country and have answered the country's call.

We support men and women when they are in battle. We support them when they come home. I have always said thank God we live in a country that gives us the right to agree with the decision to go to war, the right to disagree with that decision, the right to remain silent. But no one has any right at all to forget the contributions that servicemembers make when they are called into duty. That is what this resolution is about.

Tonight there are a group of men who are in my friend from North Carolina's district who are at Fort Bragg. They are waiting to deploy to Afghanistan with the Fighting 69th. They are continuing the proudest traditions of being deployed to some of the most dangerous places around the world.

In the French campaigns of World War I, the island-hopping battles of World War II, in Iraq. That has been the history of the Fighting 69th since 1851.

In fact, it is safe to say that it was the 69th that saved the Union during the Civil War. And I would say, with apologies to my friend from North Carolina, the fact of the matter is that those of us on the north side of the Mason-Dixon Line recognize the fact that had it not been for the Fighting 69th, that we might have lost. Why is that? Because in 1861 there was a rumor that the British were going to assist and aid the Confederacy because the British needed cotton and textiles. Had they done that, that would have tilted the balance. That would have ended the cause for those of us north of the Mason-Dixon Line.

But you know what? President Lincoln did something very, very smart. Knowing that we could not afford for that to happen, he rallied the Irish boys. He went into New York City, and he mobilized many brand-new Irish American citizens in New York City and asked them to fight for freedom and to fight for the Union. And they fought. They fought at Malvern Hill in Virginia, not very far away from here. They fought against the dreaded and omnipotent Louisiana Tigers. And they won that battle. It was one of the first battles that the Union won. We were getting beaten in many of the early battles. And when Robert E. Lee asked his staff, Who beat us? Who did we just fight? His staff said, General, it was the 69th New York, to which Robert E. Lee, said, Ah, the Fighting 69th. And that is how they got their name, and they have carried that tradition with them ever since, through four wars and a fight to come in Afghanistan, 19 campaigns, six medals of honor.

On 9/11, many of them went to the Lexington Avenue Armory. I was there just a few weeks ago. And then they went to Ground Zero. One lost his life, Firefighter Gerard Batpees, a first lieutenant in the 69th. And then they went to Iraq, men like Chris Daniels from Centerport, Lou Delapizi from Bay Shore, and Col. Charles T. Crosby, the commander of the 69th in New York City.

Mr. Speaker, I want to wrap up by telling my colleagues that a few weeks ago I visited with men of the Fighting 69th at the Bay Shore Armory on Long Island, and we had some good old New York pizza together, and I plan to visit with them in Afghanistan this July.

Many of us marched in St. Patrick's Day parades last week. Many of us will march again in St. Patrick's Day parades this weekend. And as we do, I hope we will remember the marches of the Fighting 69th, on Malvern Hill, in France, on Okinawa, where Private Ruiz won a Congressional Medal of Honor for single handedly destroying a Japanese pillbox. Private Ruiz, not exactly an Irish name, but the courage was Irish. On Route Irish in Baghdad, in Kabul and Jalalabad within weeks, that is where they marched and will continue to march. When they visit Afghanistan, they will be on some high mountains and in some very rainy and windy places, and I know we will think of them and apply to them this Irish blessing:

``May you always have walls for the wind,

a roof for the rain,

tea beside the fire,

laughter to cheer you on,

those you love near you,

and all your heart may desire.''

Mr. Speaker, may they come home soon to a country safer and sounder because of their courage.

I want to again thank the gentleman from North Carolina for his leadership. I also want to thank Major John Mark Pierre, an Army Fellow assigned to my office. He understood how important this bill was to me and his assistance was invaluable. I want to also thank Chairman Skelton and Ranking Member Hunter for allowing this resolution to come to this floor.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the anniversary of the Old First Presbyterian church in Huntington Village, NY. This year the church celebrates its 350th anniversary. Old First Presbyterian has not only survived wars, economic downfalls, racial and religious tensions, but has become a beacon of hope and light for its parishioners. It is a symbol of perseverance to the entire community.

After being overtaken and dismantled by the British during the Revolutionary War, the constituents of Huntington Village joined together to rebuild the church as it stands today. The large bell encased in the front hall of this building was at one time taken captive by the British. Now it is proudly displayed in a glass case with the slogan ``A Town Endures'' engraved upon it.

As society has evolved, so has the Old First Presbyterian Church. It now offers a vast range of services for children and adults. Many parishioners have been members since birth and have taken advantage of all that this church offers to this community. Old First Presbyterian remains the largest Presbyterian church on Long Island with a following of 680 members.

In closing, Madam Speaker, I would like to express my admiration of a community that has worked so diligently ensuring that a true piece of history remains functioning to this day. Old First Presbyterian serves as a reminder of our Nation's rich history and a source of inspiration to its members.

Mr. Speaker, this week the House will vote to reinvest taxpayer subsidies from the most profitable oil companies in the world to the American people in the form of lower gas prices, lower home heating oil costs, and new jobs in clean, renewable technologies.

For 6 years under Republican management, we attempted a strategy to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and to lower gas prices. The strategy was to provide $14 billion in industry subsidies to the largest oil companies in the world, the most profitable oil companies in the world. So $14 billion to them, and at the same time the Bush administration submitted budgets to this Congress that actually reduced funding for renewable energies, for energy efficiency, for weatherization, for solar, for hydrogen, for other renewable technologies.

And so what was the result? The result was this: Gas prices doubled; home heating oil prices tripled; oil company profits quadrupled, but the average American was now faced with an additional $1,500 in gas prices. And at the same time as oil company profits went up and as pocketbooks got lower and lower, the wallets of the American people lost more and more value, we actually increased our dependence on foreign oil. This year we are actually importing 1.6 million barrels of oil a day more than we were before the energy policy that the prior Congress passed and that the President signed.

So we're actually more dependent on foreign oil, and the American people are less well off. Oil companies did very, very well. But we did nothing to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and the American people lost $1,500 in the process.

Well, we're going to change that. We have the opportunity to change that this week. We're going to pass, I hope on a bipartisan basis, a new approach, a new strategy, a fundamental change in energy policy. And we're going to redirect those subsidies from oil companies to the pocketbooks of the American people. We're going to create as many as 3 million jobs in renewable technologies. We're going to invest those subsidies in the creation of new green jobs in solar and hydrogen and wind and geothermal. We're going to create those new jobs and regain our manufacturing capacity and capabilities.

Mr. Speaker, it troubles me that here we are, the country that defeated the most monumental threat of the 20th century in Nazi Germany and Japan, and we're now behind Germany and Japan in solar technologies. Of the top 10 wind companies on Earth, only one is American. Iceland, Denmark, now making great strides in geothermal and wind. We're not. Seven out of every 10 cars in Brazil are fuel flexible. We're not.

We can regain our capacities. We can regain our skills, we can regain our competitive edge in the world. We can regain our manufacturing strength in the world by leapfrogging ahead of them in renewable technologies. To do that, we've got to make investments in the American people, not the bottom line profits of oil companies.

When we gave those oil companies the opportunity to make those investments in the American people, what did they do? They made those investments in the oil companies' CEOs. One cashed out with about $60 million.

We believe that it's time to make those investments in the American people, in American jobs, in renewable energy. And by doing so, we can reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

We have created a paradigm, Mr. Speaker, where, with a $9 trillion debt, we are borrowing money from China to fund our defense budgets to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to fuel our military to protect us from China and the Persian Gulf. It makes no sense.

This week, we have the opportunity to take a giant leap for common sense: reinvest in the American people, reinvest in American jobs, reinvest in our defense, reinvest in our competitive edge, reinvest in our human capital, reduce our dependence on foreign oil. And that's precisely what we will do by passing this bill.

Madam, Speaker. I rise today to congratulate the brave men and women from the Deer Park, Lindenhurst, North Babylon, West Babylon and Wyandanch Fire Departments. There is no question as to why the firefighters belonging to the FDNY are considered New York's bravest. The exemplary behavior and actions of these fine individuals represent just that, bravery.

When a fire broke out at Our Lady of Miraculous Medal Church in Wyandanch fire fighters' from not only this town, but surrounding towns, joined together. They used their resources and managed to put out a fire that was large enough to severely damage the church rectory, food pantry and community outreach center. They managed to achieve this with no fatalities or injuries.

Our Lady of Miraculous Medal Church has provided outreach services for over 30 years. While it saddens me that an individual would intentionally start a fire at a place that has provided such charity, I feel a sense of ease at knowing that the brave fire fighters worked so quickly to counter these acts.

In closing, Madam Speaker, I want to commend the emergency responders for their bravery and a job well done. I would also like to express my deep gratitude to these men and women for their services not only on December 30th but on every day that they go out and risk their lives for others.

Madam Speaker, in the closing days of this session, we are going to debate our key priorities, whether we should invest more in researching illness and disease or whether we should cut funding.

I hope we will learn the lessons about the right priorities from a group of high school students in my congressional district at Northport High School. Two of their teachers, Mr. Pendergast and Mr. Deutsch, were afflicted by ALS, Lou Gehrig's disease. ALS strips people of their ability to speak, to swallow, to walk, and in many cases to breathe independently.

Now, these students could have ignored their plight. These students could have said we have other priorities. These students could have said it's not my problem, not our problem. Here's what they did: They raised over $400,000 on their own for ALS research and advocacy. They didn't just turn away from this problem; they became part of the solution. On January 16 they are going to gather at their Midwinter Night's Dream and raise even more money.

These students have become our teachers. I hope that we will learn their lessons about investing in the right priorities, about caring and showing compassion for those who need help. They have taught us a critical lesson, and I hope that we will listen carefully to the students of Northport High School.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor Amanda Marinoff and Janelle Schlossberger. These young women from Plainview-Old Bethpage John F. Kennedy High School in my district won the top team prize in the prestigious Siemens national math, science and technology competition. They will split a $100,000 scholarship. The contest attracts some of the Nation's most talented high school students. More than 1,600 projects were submitted this year.

Marinoff and Schlossberger are enrolled in Plainview-Old Bethpage John F. Kennedy High School's advanced research science program. With the guidance of their teacher Mary Lou O'Donnell, they conducted research designed to find new methods of treating tuberculosis. They created a molecule that helps block the reproduction of the bacteria of drug-resistant tuberculosis. Marinoff and Schlossberger came up with the idea after Marinoff's semester working at a cancer research lab at Stony Brook University.

I want to applaud the accomplishments of these young women. I offer my congratulations on their success and commend them on their dedication to the study of the medicine.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the Ketewamoke Chapter of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution. The National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution was organized on August 9, 1890 in Washington, DC. Seventeen years later, on December 2, 1907, in the Town of Huntington, Long Island, the Ketewamoke Chapter, NSDAR was organized with 19 charter members. The name Ketewamoke is the Native American name for the region around Huntington known as ``the place having the best beach or shore.'' The Chapter was incorporated in 1913. Today they have 88 members.

The threefold purpose of the Society as a whole is the same now as it was when the Society was organized in 1890 and chartered by an Act of Congress in 1895: ``To perpetuate the memory and spirit of the men and women who achieved American independence; to promote, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge; to cherish, maintain and extend the institutions of American freedom, to foster true patriotism and love of country.'' The Ketewamoke Chapter continues to include these three objectives (historical, educational and patriotic) in its monthly programs.

One of the first accomplishments of the Ketewamoke Chapter was to restore the Village Green and mark the spot with a bronze tablet on a boulder, in 1915. inscribed, ``Huntington Village Green.'' This ``Town Spot'' was the location of Huntington's earliest form of government where, beginning from its settlement in 1653, a small group of men continued to meet and vote over the years.

Also in 1915, the Ketewamoke Chapter outfitted the original Women's Ward in Huntington Hospital with 8 beds. A bronze plaque marking this event still hangs in the old Huntington Hospital building. During World War II, when the National Society bought $210,000,000 worth of war bonds, more than $100,000 of these bonds were purchased by members of the Ketewamoke Chapter. Since then, the Chapter has placed mill stones from local mills at the ``Town Spot'' and on the grounds of the Chapter House, thus preserving local history. It has cleaned up and marked the graves of many of the local American Revolutionary soldiers. They continue to honor these patriots by placing flags on their grave sites every Memorial Day and by the Annual Wreath Laying Ceremony at Huntington's Old Burial Ground.

Currently, the Chapter works to promote patriotism through community projects. They encourage local students to appreciate American history through our annual American History Essay Contest for grades 5 through 8. They encourage students to be good citizens by awarding annual Good Citizenship medals to students of 15 local schools. These students must fulfill the qualities of honor, service, leadership and patriotism. They support other local community services through our individual volunteer efforts in hospitals, literacy programs, and veteran and senior citizen projects. They give financial support to many National and State DAR projects such as the two DAR schools in the Appalachian region and the education of Native American youths through scholarships and the support of the Bacone College and the Chemawa Indian School. We present ROTC medals to qualifying cadets in local secondary schools.

They are uniquely fortunate to be one of only a few Chapters in New York State which owns an historic Chapter House with a fine collection of period artifacts. It is their privilege and responsibility to preserve and to maintain this Chapter House which dates back to 1837.

We take great pride in being members of the Ketewamoke Chapter, NSDAR, which is the oldest established DAR Chapter on Long Island. We take pride in honoring the memory of our patriot ancestors and in honoring all American patriots, past and present.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to give James Klurfeld four domes as he departs as the editorial page editor of Newsday and becomes a journalism professor at Stony Brook University. As a Member of this House for 7 years, Madam Speaker, I have often found myself in frightening circumstances. I have participated in corkscrew landings in Baghdad; I have been whisked in high-security motorcades through Islamabad; I have discussed energy policy with President Bush. But nothing, Madam Speaker, is more jarring, more intimidating, more perilous than an interview with Jim Klurfeld or waking up on the morning that Newsday publishes its infamous ``Dome Ratings'' of the Long Island Congressional Delegation.

Let me share with my colleagues an example of Jim Klurfeld's high standards. When I originally ran for this House in 2000, I coveted Newsday's endorsement. For days I prepared for the endorsement interview. In fact, I hadn't had as much ``fun'' since preparing for my SAT exams in eleventh grade. Finally, I sat down with Jim and his editorial board. One hour and the loss of three pounds of perspiration later, I left. As my campaign manager and I walked through the Newsday parking lot, I asked him: ``How do you think it went?'' His response: ``We should have told Mr. Klurfeld that you're running for Congress, not President.''

In fact, Madam Speaker, Jim Klurfeld's expectations were always high, his questions always probing, his depth great. He is a politician's worst nightmare: unspinnable and always a step ahead.

His departure from Newsday won't exactly let the Members of the Long Island Delegation sleep better at night. We will still stay awake in fear of those notorious domes and dreading those endorsements.

Nor will his departure change the basic premise of the relationship I have with him. I never mind disagreeing with Jim Klurfeld. I just hope never to disappoint him.

I know many of my colleagues in Congress who have known and read Jim Klurfeld wish him well as a journalism professor. He will indeed forge a new generation of excellence in journalism, just as his father set a standard of excellence that Jim put on the pages of Newsday for so many years.