Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor the memory of Alphalonia P. ``Peaches'' Gwyn of Winston Salem, North Carolina.

We rely on a great number of people, in addition to the members of our staff, to do our jobs as members of Congress. The people we work with twice a week to help us get to and from our districts become part of the extended network of support that helps us fulfill our duties.

One of those people was Peaches Gwyn. A dedicated employee of US Airways, Peaches always had a smile and a friendly voice at US Airways' Capitol Desk. Peaches was tireless, making sure that members of Congress were able to get back to their districts and serve their constituents. She handled herself with grace and aplomb on the phone with staff members under pressure to get their bosses on the first flight possible.

I have heard of the help she offered through my schedulers over the years who were sorry to learn that she recently succumbed to cancer. Her coworkers told us that Peaches fought cancer every step of the way, never giving up. She wanted to keep busy and go back to work, but eventually lost her battle.

My thoughts and prayers are with those at US Airways who loved her and learned from her. May the Gwyn and Perkins families be comforted by peaceful memories and may they find strength in Peaches' spirit which lives on through everyone she touched.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the accomplishment of Meredith Kiesel, a 7th grader from Northport, NY, who won first place in the World Hunger Essay Contest. Ms. Kiesel understands our country's need for a plan to eliminate hunger and food insecurity.

Should Food Be a Basic Human Right?

(By Meredith Kiesel)

I think that food should be a basic human right. In our

society we have human rights. Some of these rights include

freedom of speech, education, the right to vote, to think

freely, and to practice and believe in any religion. These

rights make our country great and strong. Food is used to

give us energy, and to keep us focused on what we are doing.

When a person misses a meal they become very tired and

hungry.

Every person who has food can contribute to local food

pantries and to food drives. If every person contributed,

many people would have food. If a local grocery store donated

extra food to a food drive or a shelter it would help people

who cannot afford food. People who cannot get a job suffer

because they do not have money to buy food. If food was a

human right these people could get food to support themselves

and their families.

Many people who cannot afford food do not have enough

energy to do ordinary things. Kids who do not have enough

food in their bodies cannot study and learn and cannot do

sports or activities that are in their school. They cannot do

it because they do not have enough energy. Even with eight

hours they will not have the energy without food. If food was

a human right they could go out for sports teams or play in

their local neighborhood parks and study and become

successful.

Food is very important for our bodies and minds. It helps

us to think and do regular activities. Without proper

nutrients our bodies cannot function properly. These are very

important reasons as to why food is very important. The whole

world should have food as a basic human right. It would help

make the world a happier and healthier place to live.

Mr. Chairman, I am disappointed that I must rise today in opposition to H.R. 4437, the Border Protection, Antiterrorism and Illegal Immigration Control Act. I am enormously concerned with our Nation's lack of border security and the dysfunctional nature of our current immigration system. Our Nation's immigration laws are disrespected both by those who cross our borders illegally and by the businesses that hire those illegal immigrants. Unfortunately, the legislation we are considering today does little to realistically solve these problems. I'm saddened to say that it is based not on policy, but on politics.

I support important amendments to this bill that will help secure our borders and cut down on illegal immigration. For instance, I support the amendment offered by Representative Hunter of California requiring the construction of reinforced fencing, along with lights, cameras and sensors, along high priority areas of the U.S.-Mexican border. Additionally, I support the amendment offered by Representative Norwood of Georgia that authorizes and empowers local law enforcement officials to help enforce immigration laws.

However, this legislation addresses only half the problem our Nation currently faces. Nearly 11 million undocumented immigrants currently live within our borders. That's 11 million people living in the shadows whom we know next to nothing about. This legislation criminalizes these 11 million people, pushing them further into the shadows, and does not consider the impact this will have on our legal system. For instance, this bill does not address the number of pro-bono, taxpayer funded attorneys these immigrants will need to fight their criminal charges in court nor does it address the hundreds of new prisons that would need to be built in order to house 11 million new criminal aliens.

Ultimately, I support a comprehensive immigration policy that is good for families, national security and the economy. Comprehensive immigration legislation introduced by Senator John McCain of Arizona would substantially secure our Nation's borders. Beyond that, it would fine those immigrants already here illegally and punish employers that hire illegal immigrants. However, it would also give the 11 million undocumented immigrants in our country, along with others who are not yet in the U.S. but who hope to one day live and work here legally, a chance to earn legal status. After paying a fine, proving they have been employed in the United States and undergoing a background check, immigrants living here illegally prior to the enactment of the bill would be eligible to apply for a new, non-immigrant visa, and after six years given an option to apply for permanent residency. Additionally, an essential worker visa category, with market-based caps, would be established for new immigrants. These immigrants would be given the option to apply for permanent citizenship after four years.

The McCain bill punishes illegal immigrants for breaking the law but also acknowledges that we cannot act as though we have solved our immigration problem by ignoring the 11 million illegal immigrants already living in our country. As my votes on the Hunter and Norwood amendments prove, I support strong enforcement of our immigration laws and measures to make our borders more secure. But I believe that the only way to fix our broken immigration system is to ensure that, beyond enforcement, we take a realistic approach and acknowledge the immigrants currently living within our borders and those that will likely wish to come in the future.

Mr. Speaker, I did not become involved in the issue of TRIA because of my seat on the House Financial Services Committee. I became involved in it because my district is located approximately 50 miles from Ground Zero, because I represent over 100 families whose lives and livelihood were completely upended as a result of the attacks on our Nation on 9/11.

Mr. Speaker, I am going to support this extension, but I join with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle in supporting it with some measure of disappointment. Our committee, under bipartisan leadership, reported a strong, comprehensive TRIA extension that included group life and covered domestic terrorism, had a public-private commission to ensure long-term alternatives to TRIA. None of that was included in the final product that we are going to vote on today.

I have two major concerns that I will share with my colleagues, Mr. Speaker. One is the public-private commission on long-term solutions. The 9/11 families very much wanted to participate in a commission that would develop new policies, new alternatives to TRIA. Not only was their voice left out of this bill, but the commission itself was left out of this bill.

Instead, we are going to have a bureaucratic report produced by a Presidential working group. I am sure it will be a good-faith effort, but surely those families deserve to be heard.

Surely those families have a tragic expertise in how lives can be destroyed and how livelihoods can be lost. And I am very disappointed that they have been excluded, that their voices have been silenced.

And the second concern that I have, Mr. Speaker, is that group life was not included in this product despite the best efforts on both sides of the aisle. It seems to me common sense and certainly compassion that if we are going to insure bricks and steel and glass and mortar, then surely we should insure the lives of people who work inside the bricks and the steel and the glass and the mortar, that surely their lives are just as valuable as property. So it is with a measure of profound disappointment that group life was excluded from this final product.

This is, in fact, an imperfect bill, and certainly it is drastically less perfect than the language that was reported on a bipartisan basis from the House Financial Services Committee. But we ought not let an imperfect bill stop an adequate bill. And so because this is a good start and because we do have an opportunity to still get this right, I will support this extension and urge all of our colleagues to continue to work together to pass something that makes the most sense for our Nation and its economy.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time.

Madam Speaker, I want to thank the gentlewoman for introducing this resolution. I actually share her view and understand her frustration when any government attempts to ban secular symbols like Santa Claus or Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer or Christmas lights. I do not believe that any community should ban those secular symbols as long as they do not choose one set of symbols over the other; as long as they are inclusive of all symbols.

My difficulty with this resolution is that it excludes some symbols and includes only certain symbols. So I would ask the gentlewoman, in the spirit of diversity, and of the many faiths that we celebrate in this body and throughout America, I would ask her not to withdraw the resolution, but allow this resolution to attract a very significant number of votes, maybe a unanimous vote, simply by adding the words ``Kwanzaa,'' ``Ramadan,'' and ``Chanukah'' to her resolution. Do not exclude certain symbols. Be inclusive of all.

The gentleman just stated prior to the gentleman from New York that he would support a resolution that includes the holidays of different faiths. So I would take the gentleman up on that offer.

So, Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman and ask her if she would change this resolution, change this language, include Chanukah, include Kwanzaa, include Ramadan, include holidays of all faiths so that this resolution can reflect the best of America, which is a place of justice for all.

Mr. Speaker, on Monday, the distinguished members of the 9/11 Commission released a scathing report card on the lack of progress the administration has made in implementing their 41 recommendations for improving the security of our Nation.

The grades handed down would disturb any parent. On nearly half of the recommendations, our government received a D, an F, or an incomplete grade for failing to take the steps necessary to ensure that we never face another tragedy like September 11.

It is unacceptable that while people across the world can talk with each other effortlessly, now over 4 years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, our Nation's first responders are still, still without the interoperable radios they need to communicate in crisis.

It is unacceptable that after we carefully screened passengers who fly on aircraft in this Nation, we seat them on planes loaded with cargo that is rarely ever screened.

Mr. Speaker, these and other loopholes must be closed immediately. The administration has failed the American people on these loopholes. We must work together to bring up these dangerous grades.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 1721, legislation to reauthorize the BEACH Act. I thank Mr. Bishop for his vital leadership on this important measure. I also want to thank Chairman Young, Mr. Duncan, and Ranking Member Oberstar for their efforts to bring the BEACH Act to the floor today.

Mr. Speaker, America's beaches are our national treasures. They are an important part of our heritage. They are environmental assets and economic assets. We want to keep them that way, and that is exactly what this measure will do.

This vital legislation provides State and local governments with grant money to monitor pathogen levels off their shores, and to notify the public when those pathogens levels are above acceptable levels. Pathogens, we all know, can cause illness when people are exposed to them through swimming or consuming fish from contaminated water.

It is absolutely essential that we continue to fund these programs so that States and localities have the resources that they need to protect recreational users from dangerous levels of bacteria, viruses or parasites off their shores. When people go to the beach, including the 981 square miles of coastal waters in New York, it should be pleasant and it should be safe. That is why this bill is so vitally important. I urge my colleagues to support the reauthorization of the BEACH Act to ensure that we protect Americans from potentially toxic coastal water.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in very strong support of the reauthorization of the Long Island Sound Restoration Act. I want to begin by thanking Chairman Young and Ranking Member Oberstar for their efforts to bring this legislation to the floor today. I want to in particular thank my cochair of the Long Island Sound Taskforce, Mr. Simmons, and Mr. Bishop for their leadership on this important legislation and their ongoing efforts to put politics aside and advance the cause of environmental and economic preservation of the Long Island Sound.

This is, as the gentleman from Connecticut said, a classic example that there is no Republican or Democratic way to protect a body of water. This is something that we need to develop consensus on and this bill does just that. This bill is bipartisan, and it is bicoastal at the same time. I am hoping that when we come back next year we can continue that spirit of bipartisanship and advance the Long Island Sound stewardship program which Mr. Bishop, Mr. Simmons, and I have been working on; and I am confident that the same sense of consensus will prevail.

As we have heard, Mr. Speaker, the Long Island Sound is one of America's great natural wonders. It sustains the diversity of birds, wildlife, marine organisms and serves as a recreational magnet and economic generator to the tens of millions of American who live within 50 miles of its shores. The Long Island Sound is an important part of America's heritage. Nathan Hale slipped across the Long Island Sound, arrived in Huntingtown. It played a critical part in the American Revolution. It is important to our economy. It is important to our national identity. It is important to our environment.

For thousands of years, the sound has been a productive and a central resource for the human inhabitants occupying its shores. Three New York counties, 24 Connecticut towns border the sound. That puts pressure on this environmental asset in terms of surface run off from some of the most densely populated areas in the country. Over 100 sewage treatment plants discharge a combined one billion gallons of waste into the sound each day.

Thankfully, in 2000 the Long Island Sound Restoration Act authorized the Federal Government to spend $40 million annually over 5 years to clean the sound. Now we need to continue that important effort.

There is still a lot of work to be done. We have made some progress, but not enough. Nitrogen levels have decreased since 2000, but the sound continues to suffer from significant nitrogen pollution, and high nitrogen levels in the sound lead to decreased levels of dissolved oxygen in the water, a condition called hypoxia, which kills marine life and destroys the delicate ecosystem of the sound.

This reauthorization gives us an opportunity to continue the important work of respecting and preserving the Long Island Sound, not only as a critical environmental asset for the United States of America but also as an important economic generator.

Once again I want to thank the gentleman from New York (Mr. Bishop), the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Simmons), my cochair of the Long Island Sound; the ranking member and chairman for bringing us to this point today and urge support for this bill.

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

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Chairman Oxley and Ranking Member Frank for their hard work in getting this important legislation to the floor. This is an example of the kind of bipartisan cooperation that we have in the Financial Services Committee.

Mr. Speaker, just over a year and a half ago, the committee held its first hearing in the 108th Congress on the extension of terrorism risk insurance. At that time, I announced I would be working with the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Capuano) on a TRIA reauthorization bill, and at the same time, I said that, in my view, this was the most important issue facing our committee. It was then; it still is now.

After 9/11, the businesses in my district and throughout the New York metropolitan area saw firsthand the result of a lack of availability of terrorism insurance. New development was held up. Existing businesses were left to choose between unmanageable risk and astronomical insurance premiums. Certain high profile industries and buildings faced both at once. The passage of TRIA changed that by stabilizing the insurance market and allowing all businesses an affordable option for terrorism coverage.

Unfortunately, we are now staring at the sunset of that program, and although strides have been made, the private sector is not yet able to independently price and make available terrorism insurance.

Passage of this bipartisan bill is a critical step toward ensuring the continued stability of our national economy, and of particular importance to me is the inclusion of group life. As I have said often in the past, if we are going to provide a Federal backstop for the insurance of buildings, for bricks and mortars and steel and glass, we should also provide for the people who are residing and working within those buildings.

We have 2 weeks left in this session, and a great many differences between the two bills that need to be worked out. I am positive that we will come to an agreement that will enable us to keep this program available uninterrupted.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to conclude by making one final point. An attack on this country is not an attack on a building. It is not an attack on the insurance industry. It is not an attack on a bunch of companies. It is an attack on our country, and the Federal Government has an obligation to help defend against the economic consequences of that attack, which is what TRIA's extension does.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to acknowledge the many accomplishments of Anita Boeri, whose lifetime of service to her family and country is cause for celebration and honor this Veterans' Day.

Anita Boeri was born on July 6, 1912 to Louise and Rinaldo Boeri in the Italian enclave of East Harlem, NYC. After graduating from Erasmus Hall High School, Ms. Boeri attended Pratt Institute--the School of Home Economics in Brooklyn, NY--obtaining a degree as a dietician. She also completed courses at the School of Business in Brooklyn.

After the outbreak of World War II, when the U.S. Marine Corps called for female volunteers, Anita Boeri applied and was accepted to the ``Free a Marine to Fight'' program as enlisted personnel on September 22, 1943. Her active duty began on November 30, 1943 with a trip to Camp LeJeune, New River, NC for basic training boot camp. In January of 1944, Ms. Boeri was a member of the first contingent of the Women's Reserve Battalion to arrive on Parris Island, South Carolina. After a week of orientation, she was assigned clerical duties in the office of the Commanding General.

Anita Boeri was promoted to the rank of Sergeant and through her hard work and dedication, became a confidential clerk to Major General Clayton B. Vogel, Commanding General, Parris Island. Ms. Boeri was honorably discharged from the Marine Corps Women's Reserve on November 26, 1945.

Following her career of service to her country, Anita Boeri spent the next 35 years of her life caring for her family. She cared for her ailing father and mother as well as her uncle who lived in the apartment above her.

In 1998, Anita Boeri moved to Atria Senior Living in Huntington Station, NY. There she joined the community with enthusiasm, volunteering for various duties in the gift shop and keeping in touch with Atria residents who were hospitalized.

Mr. Speaker, this weekend it will be my great honor to present Ms. Boeri with two medals to recognize her achievements--the World War II Victory Medal and the American Campaign Medal. As Veterans' Day approaches, all Americans can look to the achievements of Anita Boeri as a model of commitment and service.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the goals and ideals of Jewish Social Action Month.

This first annual Jewish Social Action Month, which is being held in conjunction with the Jewish month of Heshvan, November 3-December 1, 2005, was conceived by Kol Dor, an international group of next- generation young leaders. It is as a result of their vision of encouraging community service and social action that this important initiative is being undertaken around the world.

This month and these days have been selected since they follow Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the holiest days in the Jewish year. Heshvan follows a time when all Members of the Jewish faith face ourselves, look inward, and cleanse ourselves of all our misdeeds. Then, it is during Heshvan that we look forward to the promise of the New Year.

There is no better way to begin our New Year than by launching into a month-long serious effort to commit to social action. This commitment being made today is not a one-year-only event. Every year during the Jewish month of Heshvan, Jews around the world will renew our commitment to making this world a better place.

Minister Michael Melchior and Member of Knesset Colette Avital deserve special recognition for their early and strong support for this concept. My Jewish colleagues and Jewish people in many other countries are also launching similar plans in their respective countries from Brazil to Britain.

Additionally, I would also like to make special mention of Kol Dor and the co-chairs of Jewish Social Action Month: Adina Danzig, Executive Director of the Stanford Hillel; Rabbi Gidon Sylvester, assistant to Deputy Minister Michael Melchior; and Yosef I. Abramowitz, CEO of Jewish Family & Life.

I commend the people working to make this goal a reality and urge my colleagues and people of all faiths to participate in community service and commit themselves to the principle of Tikkun Olam, to repairing the world.

Mr. Speaker, all too seldom we are blessed with a person of extraordinary talent, vision and blinding commitment to social justice who devotes his entire life--selflessly and completely--to the public interest, and to spreading the values of his nation all across the planet. Penn Kemble, who died October 15th after a fierce year long struggle with brain cancer, was that rare kind of American.

Penn devoted his life to ideas. He fought with passion for what he believed, and he sometimes fought alone. He was a college socialist who battled against the Stalinists who led the Soviet Union; a hardliner on defense and foreign policy issues who came to become a leader in the fight to negotiate an end to the war in Vietnam. He was a Scoop Jackson Democrat, a Hubert Humphrey Democrat, a Bill Clinton Democrat--always a Democrat working within our Party to make it more committed to social and economic justice and more committed to a strong and realistic national security policy. Some talked change--Penn caused it: a civil rights leader who put his life on the line fighting for racial equality, but confident enough in himself and his values to lead the fight against racial quotas; an internationalist who was not afraid to confront and challenge what he perceived to be dangerous isolationism within his Party. Through the difficult decades of the 1970s and 1980s, some chose to cut and run when they did not have their way. Penn Kemble chose to stay and fight. No one fought harder and with more conviction.

And nothing exemplified his commitment to values, to ideas and to the strength of the American experience more than his work as Deputy Director and Acting Director of the United States Information Agency, where he created and executed the brilliant and unique international CIVITAS program to promote civil society and civic education around the world. Like so many things that Penn developed, he created CIVITAS to break out of the worn mold of traditional West-to-East assistance in democracy building by replacing it with an innovative participatory network to develop civil society and free markets in emerging democracies through civic education and grass roots civic participation. CIVITAS was thinking ``outside the box.'' It was, in the words of one of its Russian participants, ``a unique possibility to see the full context of what we can do to support democracy, in concrete terms, now and in the future.'' CIVITAS is an international dialogue, not a monologue by the U.S.

Penn's vision can best be summarized in his own words. In Prague, in 1995, Penn Kemble said that ``today there is an emerging recognition that what we usually think of as the civic realm and the economic realm are interlinked, and that when one is strong the other is generally strong, and that when one is weak or broken the other is in danger, too . . . One thing we surely have neglected is education. Education is the principal means for transmitting and strengthening the values and understandings--the subjective element, the culture--on which the institutions of all societies rest. Perhaps democratic society more than any other depends on the quality of its education.''

At USIA Penn Kemble saw that our embassies and public diplomacy posts abroad would work with local NGOs to foster civic education as a transformative element to grow democracy from the grass roots. He understood that a truly international movement for civic education could take an issue and give it life, a place on the international agenda of the community of democratic nations--whether it was human rights, sensible environment polices, or equal protection, treatment and opportunity for women in modern society. He internationalized national issues. He was nobly committed to the globalization of social democracy.

Participants in the most recent gathering of the CIVITAS consortium in Amman, Jordan in June 2005, were struck with the realization that the group that Penn Kemble first convened in Prague 10 years before was still at it, plugging away in the trenches to build support for teaching democracy in schools and building a culture of democracy from the bottom up.

Robert F. Kennedy once said that ``the future does not belong to those who are content with today, apathetic toward common problems and their fellow man alike, timid and fearful in the face of new ideas and bold projects. Rather it will belong to those who can blend vision, reason and courage in a personal commitment to the ideals and great enterprises of American Society.''

That future--the future of the universal dream of social justice that should be the dream of all people everywhere--belongs to Penn Kemble. The very definition of CIVITAS is Penn's legacy: ``the concepts and values of citizenship that impart shared responsibility, common purpose and a sense of community among citizens.'' He will be missed, but the power of his ideas makes him immortal. Time, justice and the forces of history are on Penn's side.

Madam Chairman, what we are debating here is what is affordable, how much is enough. Middle-class families know the answer. If you are in the middle class, you are too rich to be eligible for Federal programs, but too poor to be able to keep up with the cost of living.

The language that the gentleman from California (Mr. Gary G. Miller), the gentleman from California (Mr. Sherman), and I worked into this bill is a commonsense, bipartisan compromise that keeps up with that middle-class squeeze that makes the American Dream of homeownership possible. With all due respect to the gentleman, this amendment makes the American Dream of homeownership even harder. We should defeat this amendment.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to celebrate the accomplishments of Jo Ann Mittenberg, who was recognized in September by the U.S. Department of Education as the American Star of Teaching honoree from New York State. This exceptional honor goes annually to one exemplary teacher from each state.

Ms. Mittenberg has taught math for over 27 years and has been a teacher in the Farmingdale Union Free School district for over 14 years. Her colleagues describe her as a ``gifted, caring, tireless, dedicated person with a superb mathematical background and extraordinary teaching skills.''

Over the years, Ms. Mittenberg has taught Sequential I, II and III Mathematics, Grade 8 Math, Grade 8 Remedial Math, Regents Competency Math, Pre-Calculus Syracuse University Calculus Program and C.W. Post SCALE Calculus for college credit. Additionally, she has taught computer programming, computer literacy, SAT preparation, and GED preparation courses. One of Ms. Mittenberg's most impressive successes in the classroom has been helping ninth graders with disabilities pass state Regents exams with a 90 percent success rate.

Ms. Mittenberg's dedication to providing Long Island students with a strong math education doesn't end in the classroom. She works hard to ensure that her colleagues are

trained in the most innovative teaching techniques. As a certified Texas Instruments T-Fast (Technology for All Students) instructor, Ms. Mittenberg trains other teachers to use the newest, most advanced calculators. Over the years, she has taught almost 200 hours of in- service and professional development workshops.

I am proud to have nominated Ms. Mittenberg for this prestigious and well-deserved honor. We have heard time and again the importance of math and science in the classroom. Long Islanders can be proud that teachers like Jo Ann Mittenberg are teaching their children skills they need to be successful in tomorrow's world.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to offer my sincere congratulations to the Sayville Fire Department in celebration of their 100th Anniversary.

The Sayville Fire Department was formed in 1905 with the merger of three independent fire companies. Two of those original companies, the Sayville Hook & Ladder Company No 1, formed in 1878 and the Resolute Hose Company No 1, formed in 1891 are still active today.

The first firehouse, built in 1878, still stands and is used today as a private home. The present Fire Headquarters for the Department was built in 1938 and enlarged in 1994. If you were to visit the Sayville Fire Headquarters, you'd find original hook & ladder trucks and hose reels from the 1800s on display.

Today, the Sayville Fire Department proudly protects 16,000 people living in an area of 4.5 square miles. It operates out of two stations and protects a primarily residential area. Approximately 120 firefighters volunteer their time for the department.

While there have been many developments since 1905, the mission still remains the same. The brave men and women of the Sayville Fire Department are proudly serving their community by saving lives and protecting property.