Floor Statements

Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time, and I rise in support of this bill.

This bill contains important provisions for our troops, including a well-deserved pay raise and additional force protection equipment. I would like to thank my colleague from San Diego, the distinguished chairman of the committee, for resisting calls from the Defense Department to grant further relief from important environmental laws.

Despite the great provisions in this legislation, some serious questions remain, and I will address one.

If you ask the Defense Department today to tell you the number of contractor personnel serving in Iraq, you will get a shrug. That represents a fundamental area of concern. The events in Fallujah and the images of Abu Ghraib remind us of the role that contractor personnel play and how their actions can affect the military mission.

We must come to terms with contractor participation and performance on the battlefield. The questions that must be answered include: Why are so many contractors being used in Iraq and other places? Does anyone really know how many are present? Who is responsible for ensuring contractors are properly trained and qualified? And to whom are the various contractors accountable? Are they providing security for the military, or is it the other way around?

This bill authorizes an additional $25 billion for operations in fiscal year 2005, a figure that should have been included in the President's budget request. So before this Congress approves additional funding, we must come to terms with money being spent on contractor personnel.

Mr. Chairman, lives are at stake.

Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.

The Chairman pro tempore. The Clerk will designate the amendment.

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

Mr. Chairman, this amendment allows military personnel and their family members serving overseas to use their own funds to obtain safe, legal abortion service in overseas U.S. military hospitals.

As a former military spouse who lived overseas, I understand what this amendment means for the more than 100,000 women who presently reside on overseas military bases.

Current law leaves our servicewomen with two grim options. They can go home after they receive authorization and find space on a military transport or they can seek an abortion in an unsafe, unsanitary foreign hospital. Any way you look at it, both options force them to gamble their health.

These women, who have already sacrificed so much, must also forfeit their privacy, their health and the very liberties they are fighting to protect. I believe, Mr. Chairman, that they deserve better.

So let me clarify a few points about this amendment. No Federal funds would be used. This amendment affects only U.S. military facilities overseas and it does not violate host country laws. It does not compel any doctor who opposes abortion on principle to perform one. It will, however, open up reproductive services at bases in countries where abortion is legal.

I hope Members will support our servicewomen by supporting the Davis- Sanchez-Harmon amendment.

Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Loretta Sanchez), who has championed this issue for many years.

Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Tauscher).

Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee).

Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Kirk).

Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey).

Mr. Chairman, I yield for a unanimous consent request to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Hastings)

(Mr. HASTINGS of Florida asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Maloney).

Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Inslee).

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

Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong condemnation of the atrocious behavior of a few, who have denigrated the values of all our armed forces.

I salute the overwhelming majority of Americans who have treated prisoners with respect; their actions have gone unheralded.

Sadly, this dreadful behavior has cast a cloak of mistrust on all our brave men and women and could result in more lives being lost.

Mr. Speaker, we can't ignore the role that contractors and other government agencies have played and their complicity in these crimes.

Their actions, as well as our policies, contributed to a terrible atmosphere.

That's why I am disappointed this body failed to add a clause regarding U.S. civilian contractors personnel and other U.S. civilians.

We must shed light on their role and hold everyone accountable.

The Attorney General and Secretary Rumsfeld should publicly commit to cooperate to apply swift and firm justice.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of House Resolution 598 honoring teachers in military-impacted schools.

Mr. Speaker, this is Teachers' Week, honoring all teachers, but we especially thank those who work in our communities that have large numbers of military families.

San Diego is the proud home of the largest number of Marine and Naval personnel and their families in the country. And we are all very well aware of the sacrifices of these families, including members of the Reserves and the National Guard are making as their loved ones have deployed to Iraq. Many have had their tours extended or have just returned to Iraq for a second tour. To give these members of our armed services peace of mind, it is important that they can count on their children having a stable and caring school environment.

Every one of us can surely recall how difficult it is to concentrate on our work when our lives are disrupted. For children, the anxiety of a parent leaving for the battlefield for an indeterminate amount of time is especially traumatic. Having a loving teacher who understands that a child may be tense or anxious or unable to concentrate because he has just said good-bye to a parent is important, not only to that child, but also to the parents.

Nearly 40 percent of the students in Coronado, one of the communities in my district, are related to the military, with many living in housing on base. So we know that every day, teachers and administrators in the district are seriously impacted by the fact that we have many, many people serving overseas today, and they are there with loving hugs and caring for the children. Sometimes, as it has been stated here today, we undermine their efforts. Mr. Speaker, I think it is important for us not to do that, because we need to salute their efforts so that teachers, the administration, and staff in this district and every other district in the country that receives Federal Impact Aid, we say a special thank you today.

Mr. Speaker, during the first session of this Congress, the Subcommittee on Benefits of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs held a hearing concerning the Department of Veterans Affairs

(VA) fiduciary program. When a veteran has difficulty managing his own finances, the VA appoints a guardian or a ``fiduciary'' to oversee his benefits. During the hearing, I was surprised to learn that there is no mechanism in place to provide replacement of benefits for VA beneficiaries whose benefits have been misused by a VA recognized fiduciary.

Unfortunately, some of our veterans have lost out on their VA benefits because of fiduciary misuse. According to an investigation by the Inspector General, one woman embezzled over $60,000 in VA payments from 1997 to 2001 from a disabled veteran under her care. In another case, a fiduciary defrauded his uncle out of nearly $55,000 in VA payments.

A good number of our veterans must live on limited budgets and rely primarily on their VA payments. When they lose even a portion of their benefits, the impact on the quality of their lives can be significant.

I was also surprised to learn that Congress has not improved on the safeguards for veterans who depend on fiduciaries in over 25 years. It is time we do something to prevent fraud against our veterans and to provide remedies when benefits are misused.

Today, I am introducing legislation, the ``Veterans Fiduciary Act of 2004,'' which would provide veterans and their families new protections and new avenues to recoup their losses. This bill would require the replacement of benefits in cases when the VA has been negligent in failing to investigate or monitor a fiduciary and in certain other circumstances. It will also require the VA to conduct background checks before recognizing a fiduciary and will give the VA new mechanisms to deter misuse, including civil monetary fines.

Again, I strongly believe we should be doing more to protect the VA benefits our veterans rely upon. I am proud to introduce legislation to give our most vulnerable veterans the protection they deserve.

Mr. Chairman, I request unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks.

Mr. Chairman, I am here today because I am deeply concerned about the devastating impact House Concurrent Resolution 393 could have on my community of San Diego.

As many of you know, my home state of California is in the midst of its own budget crisis.

To cope with our oversized deficit, the Governor and State Legislature have had to make significant cuts to many of our most vital programs and services.

And as our State struggles to rebuild its economy, I am concerned that we are not taking the right steps here, in Congress, to provide States like California with the resources they need to maintain even the most basic day-to-day functions that our citizens have come to depend upon.

And when I look at the cuts this budget resolution makes to education, housing, the environment, veterans health care, homeland security, local law enforcement, and Social Security--I am concerned that this legislation fails to reflect the needs and priorities of San Diego's families and businesses.

To illustrate this point, I would like to talk about a few key areas that have been left behind by this resolution.

For example, this budget resolution deeply undercuts funding for homeland security, State and local law enforcement, and the community- based COPS Program.

People often forget just how much we rely on our local law enforcement personnel to defend our homeland security.

Short-changing police at the State and local level ultimately weakens our ability to defend our cities, ports, and borders.

With the terrorist bombing in Madrid just a few weeks ago, we are reminded of the need to expand our policing efforts to protect vulnerable targets like mass transportation.

Yet there are simply not enough law enforcement personnel in my district to patrol this critical infrastructure, and without adequate funding, it will remain that way.

San Diego is home to a busy international airport, a major port, Navy installations, Marine bases, and is adjacent to the busiest border crossing in the country.

We cannot afford these massive cuts in State and local law enforcement and homeland security.

Like so many other localities, our dedicated policemen and women want to help. But their hands are tied.

Mr. Chairman, the other issue I want to talk about today is just how destructive cuts to the section 8 program could be for San Diego.

My family and I have lived in San Diego for more than 30 years, and I will be the first to tell you how wonderful it is to call such a beautiful community home.

Unfortunately, with an average median home cost of more than $468,000, it has become unbearably difficult for many hopeful homebuyers to live in our great city.

And it is not just home prices that are increasingly out of range for the average citizen.

The average apartment rent in San Diego is over $1 thousand, and families need to earn more than $22 per hour to afford to rent a two- bedroom apartment.

Our waiting list for section 8 vouchers averages about 25 thousand individuals, many of whom have been on the list for 6 or 7 years before finally receiving a voucher.

I hear all too often stories of individuals or families struggling to make ends meet, yet are still unable to afford San Diego's housing or even rental costs.

I know of a retired minister in his seventies with a serious heart condition, who is constantly faced with the choice of filling his heart medication prescription or paying his rent.

There are residents in my district, who have been displaced and-- unable to afford rent anywhere else--have been forced to live in motels or even in their own cars.

A San Diego paramedic with a wife and small children struggled to get by until they finally qualified to live in an affordable housing development funded by our local Housing Commission.

But just imagine--this man was saving lives in our own community and yet he was unable to afford to live there!

Mr. Chairman, it is just not right for our first responders and police officers to be priced out of the very community they put their lives on the line to protect each day.

Section 8 is a vital, successful program, and my community simply cannot afford to withstand the cuts proposed in this measure.

We should be doing more--not less--to help hard-working Americans find safe, affordable places to live, and I ask my colleagues to consider the critical shortfalls included in this budget when we vote on this resolution.

Mr. Chairman, I participated in a number of homeland security simulations with the National Defense University, and I learned that one of the most significant issues in homeland security is the

importance of the local response. This local response falls squarely on the shoulders of our first responders, which is why I am concerned that this budget fails to provide them with the support that they need.

By cutting homeland security funding below the President's request, this budget provides no remedy to address the President's cuts in first responder spending.

People often forget how much we rely on our local first responders to protect our homeland security. Although we have adopted new systems, new technologies, and meaningful homeland security, it requires dedicated people to work the front lines. I believe that we can play a much stronger role in supporting our first responders. In fact, we have played that role in the past by providing them with the funding and the resources they need. Is now really the time, Mr. Chairman, to cut back?

Mr. Chairman, I rise against the Republican budget because it jeopardizes Even Start for children and families.

Mr. Speaker, I am honored to join my colleague from Nebraska, Tom Osborne, in support of House Resolution 491, which recognizes the critical role of mentors in our children's lives.

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, ``It is one of the most beautiful compensations of this life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.''

I can think of no better way to summarize the true reward of mentoring than by recognizing the inherent truth in this statement.

The mentoring partnership is unique, because it is one of the few relationships where both sides stand to benefit immensely.

Both individuals bring their own--and oftentimes, very different--set of life experiences to the table, and this has the pleasantly surprising effect of forcing us outside of our own comfort zones.

It is easy for us to relate to those with whom we share obvious similarities, but venturing outside of that comfort zone gives us the opportunity to view the world from an entirely different perspective.

While it may seem too difficult, or uncomfortable at first, you will find that you are a richer person for it in the end.

My experiences as the executive director of the Aaron Price Fellows Program have also taught me a great deal about the rewards of mentoring.

Being a mentor is not about rescuing someone--but it is about helping young people to discover their own hidden strengths and talents.

In today's world, children need more than a sense of right and wrong. They need knowledge, and they need someone they can trust to provide it to them. The risk factors that face teenagers today are not only dangerous--they are prevalent.

If we fail our responsibility to educate young people on the choices they face, then we fail to prepare them to make the right decisions. And the decisions they make will impact them for the rest of their lives--for better or for worse.

In these situations, the most important information they can receive will come not from a textbook, but from the wisdom and experience of someone who cares; someone who has taken the time to invest in that young person's life and to share the lessons life has to offer. It is here that we have the greatest potential to make a difference.

Believe it or not, the relationship built on trust and mutual respect can be the one that finally opens the door to knowledge. It leads the way to a stronger sense of self and an ability to confront life's challenges wisely. To put it in the simplest of terms--mentoring matters.

No matter what side of the mentoring relationship you find yourself on, the rewards will last a lifetime.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks expressing my opposition to this bill, which fails to provide women with the affordable and reliable Medicare prescription drug coverage that they desperately need.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to talk about older women and their need for a real prescription drug benefit. The legislation we have before us represents a hollow substitute for a bona fide Medicare prescription drug benefit.

Every week, I hear from seniors overwhelmed with the cost of prescription drugs. Many find themselves juggling their expenses--often putting off paying some bills--in order to buy their medication. These seniors, our parents and grandparents, who have worked their whole lives and contributed to making our nation great never imagined they would spend their retirement struggling to make ends meet. Congress must act and provide seniors with a prescription drug benefit.

Our seniors--especially older women who, literally, are the face of Medicare--are counting on Congress to provide a real solution to the rising cost of prescription drugs. However, this debate has moved beyond providing prescription drugs to seriously undermine Medicare.

The Medicare conference report before us disportionately harms older women in the following ways: Women account for the majority of people who are on both Medicare and Medicaid. However, this proposal prohibits Medicaid from continuing to provide the poorest and sickest women with drugs that certain Medicare drug plans may not cover.

Older and sicker beneficiaries, often women, have not joined HMOs and tend to rely on the traditional Medicare program. This conference report is harmful to older and sicker women because its ``premium support'' provisions would undermine the traditional Medicare program and cause costs in that program to rise.

Nearly eight in ten women on Medicare use prescription drugs regularly. This legislation is harmful to women because it prohibits the government from negotiating price controls on drugs, leading to higher drug costs for both seniors.

Where is the benefit for women who are living on a fixed income and cannot afford to pay out-of-pocket during the coverage gap?

Where is the benefit for the women who, because they were stay-at- home mothers and did not earn a pension, cannot afford the prescription drugs they desperately need?

For my constituents, this legislation is not good enough. I cannot support this legislation when I know we can do better. We are doing more than providing prescription drugs, we are legislating the future of Medicare.

Mr. Speaker, I support providing our seniors with prescription drug benefits under Medicare. It is one of the

most important efforts we have undertaken this session, and, I believe, one of the most attainable. This is why I rise, with regret, to oppose this Medicare Conference Report. The legislation before us fails our seniors and places them at the mercy of private plans and insurance companies.

There are some good items in this legislation. For example, the increased funding for hospitals and hard-working physicians is greatly needed in our communities. Unfortunately, the overall bill does not accomplish what our seniors need.

When I reviewed this legislation, I needed to answer the following questions: ``What are the benefits for our seniors?'' and ``What do the changes mean in the long run?''

In the very limited amount of time I had to review this legislation, I have concluded that, in reality, this Medicare bill will hurt seniors by making health care less reliable and more costly.

We needed a prescription drug bill. We received, instead, legislation that has been called a ``Medicare monstrosity.'' It mandates huge changes to Medicare, but evades the underlying issue of providing seniors with a comprehensive prescription drug benefit.

This legislation ends Medicare's guarantees to seniors. It gives billions for managed care, for tax shelters, and for many other special interests unrelated to prescription drugs. It significantly worsens current levels of coverage for millions of Medicare beneficiaries with increased Part B premiums and threats of disappearing employer benefits.

Are all of these changes worth a weak drug benefit that will disappoint millions of seniors? No.

Mr. Speaker, our seniors deserve better!

At townhall meetings and in thousands of letters, phone calls and emails, seniors have told me that they want a prescription drug benefit that is affordable, comprehensive, and guaranteed, and they would like the coverage provided in the current Medicare system. The bill before us meets none of these standards.

Instead this bill will make our seniors anxious--anxious about substantial cost increases; anxious about having to switch doctors; and anxious about losing he security that Medicare has provided for almost 40 years.

The Conference Report before us is a missed opportunity. I hope Congress does the right thing by going back to the drawing board, and giving seniors a reliable and affordable prescription drug benefit. We can do better or our seniors--and we must!

Join me in defeating this bill and working to pass legislation that truly addresses our seniors' needs.

Mr. Speaker, I join my colleagues in support of the principle of open conference committee meetings that are bipartisan as well as bicameral, as required in H.R. 1904. It is past time that this body return to the basic principles of democracy in its own practices.

Yesterday, I had the privilege of leading the entire bipartisan House delegation from California and many members from other states in honoring those firefighters and other public servants who worked so heroically to fight the devastating wildfires which we have just experienced in Southern California. That was the time to focus solely on the celebration of human courage and sacrifice.

Today, it is time to come together to find the best possible legislation that will finally focus on how to protect our urban environments from wildfires--whether they are frequent seasonal fires or the massive, historically destructive fire we suffered last week.

First, it is important for everyone to be clear that the Cedar fire in San Diego County was initially and primarily fueled by the chaparral which covers the mesas and foothills of Southern California. Later, it also moved into our national forest lands, where many of the trees had been affected by the beetle infestation.

As I toured the Cedar Fire area in San Diego by helicopter, it was stunning to realize the speed with which the firestorm driven by the Santa Ana winds overtook hundreds of thousands of acres of our open lands, much of which are public not private lands.

This fire was not about environmental laws preventing logging that would have prevented this fire. It was not about lack of roads that hindered fighting the fires.

It was about the failure to prevent the build-up of fuel by using authorized funding for removal of hazardous material which is adjacent to urban areas and the failure of the federal government to supply funds to deal with the pest infestations in these forests, as the Governor requested last spring and FEMA declined to do.

While it may or may not be possible to find the best legislation and also meet the deadline included in this bill, there are several basic principles that must be in the final conference bill. Many of them are found in the bill just passed by the Senate.

First, we must prioritize the protection for urban areas.

Second, there must be significant money authorized for this purpose. While there may be authorization in other bills for ``such sums'' as may be necessary to address hazardous fuel reduction, we in Congress have inadequately appropriated these funds because they are not specified.

Instead, the funds which have been allocated for treatment and prevention have been required to fight the fires that result from inadequate protection. Real funding must be clearly identified and available to begin the needed protection. It must not be based solely on the sale of logged trees because so much of our land needing fuel reduction is covered with chaparral, which has no logging value. We must also be sure that this legislation will continue to protect old growth timber.

I believe that the members of the committees going to conference can and will be able to fashion a conference report that can be a model for returning this Congress to open, bipartisan, bicameral conferences that reach appropriate, compromise legislation. I look forward to this result.

Mr. Speaker, with the support of my colleagues, Representative Jim Greenwood, Representative Greg Walden, Representative Henry Waxman and Representative Sweeney, I rise today to introduce a resolution calling on Health and Human Services Secretary Thompson to remove dietary supplements containing ephedrine alkaloids from the marketplace.

Medical literature indicates that there is a connection between ephedra use and heart attacks, strokes, seizures and death. The American Medical Association has long held that the risks associated with ephedra far outweigh any possible benefits and that the weight of the available clinical evidence supports the removal of dietary supplement products containing ephedra from the market.

In addition, the FDA has received at least 16,500 reports regarding adverse experiences associated with ephedra use and 155 deaths have been conclusively linked to ephedra.

But, after you wade through the reports and understand the statistics, what it comes down to is that individuals are being hurt by what they don't know. Consumers don't know that dietary supplements on store shelves have not been tested for safety. They don't know that the ephedrine/caffeine combination that Baltimore Orioles pitcher Steve Bechler used last spring was taken off of the shelves by the FDA as an over the counter drug, but it continues to be available as a dietary supplement.

I have heard from doctors whose busy days are made more difficult by patients taking dietary supplements. One doctor in San Diego wrote:

Ephedra reports have been going on for years. I think it is

the responsibility of the FDA to do something about this

since the public cannot respond to new information regarding

serious side effects reported in medical journals. My

patients ask me why these products are on the market and why

they are not regulated by the FDA?

Why are these products on the market? Many people would like to know the answer to this question. With the support of my congressional colleagues, I hope we can soon resolve this issue.

I would like to tell you about another person. ``Margaret,'' as I will call her to preserve her privacy, is a 24-year-old woman in California who walks with the assistance of a cane. Two years ago, she suffered a serious stroke that left her on life support and without much hope of survival. But Margaret overcame the odds.

Her long road to recovery included surgeries and countless physical therapy sessions, helping her progress from a wheelchair to a cane. How could someone as young as Margaret suffer such a life-threatening event? According to her doctor, a reaction between her prescribed medication and some over-the-counter diet pills containing ephedra caused her stroke.

I hope the FDA will use its present authority to safeguard our loved ones from the risks of unregulated and untested dietary supplements. Our families depend on it.

Mr. Speaker, throughout our history, the freedom we enjoy has faced serious threats time and time again. But because our courageous military personnel were willing to go into battle and risk all they had, our independence and our liberties have remained strongly intact for over 200 years.

It is crucial that we take time to pay tribute to those responsible for our freedoms and I am proud to stand on the House floor today--as Veterans Day draws close--to recognize America's 25 million living veterans and their fallen brothers and sisters.

In Congress, I am honored to serve over 61,000 military veterans from California's 53rd Congressional District. It is truly a privilege to represent so many of America's greatest heroes and to spend so much time working on their behalf.

As I meet with my veterans, I am always amazed with their stories and to learn about their heroics on the battlefield.

Just last month, I heard from a constituent, who as a young man, enlisted in the Army in 1941 and was immediately sent to the South Pacific to fight the Japanese in World War II.

His name is Chief Warrant Officer Michael Campbell, and now 86 years old, he lives in San Diego with his wife, Priscilla. Mr. Campbell's experiences illustrate what millions of our veterans had to endure when they were sent to war.

The Army deployed him to a region where the fighting was extremely intense and the Japanese inflicted severe casualties on our soldiers and took many as prisoners.

Warrant Officer Campbell fought courageously as both a rifleman and a machine gunner in the Philippines, but in 1942, his unit was captured and he too was taken as a Prisoner of War.

This brave young soldier spent the next three years in the harshest conditions you can imagine. He was transferred to several different internment camps and was forced to perform slave labor in a steel mill building supplies for the Japanese Army along side hundreds of other allied soldiers.

By the time the war had come to an end and he was liberated, Warrant Officer Campbell felt lucky to have his life. Hundreds of his brothers who were taken prisoner starved to death or died from other causes.

It took several weeks of medical care in a San Francisco military hospital before Mr. Campbell could recover from what he had experienced.

However--despite what he had endured--this courageous young man quickly reenlisted in the Army and dedicated another 30 years to his Nation. He said he did this because he loved the military and loved serving his country.

It is this kind of amazing resolve that has defeated our enemies and has kept the United States strong. I am pleased for the opportunity to thank Warrant Officer Campbell and his fellow veterans for dedicating their lives to protect our freedoms and our liberties.

Now that we are about to observe another Veterans Day, I ask my colleagues to seriously consider what we owe to them. Are we repaying the debt?

Mr./Madam Speaker, I strongly believe we could improve our treatment of our greatest heroes.

Just recently, we have had the opportunity to increase funding for Veterans' Affairs health care. Unfortunately, though veterans nationwide expressed their strong support, we failed to provide VA health care with the increase it needs. We all know in this body that the health care system veterans rely upon will go under funded in 2004 because we did not act properly.

We currently have another opportunity before us, Mr./Madam Speaker, to end what has come to be known as the Disabled Veterans Tax. I remain hopeful that during the 108th Congress, we can pass strong concurrent receipt legislation and provide the veterans who have made the most unimaginable sacrifices with both the disability and retirement payments they earned and deserve.

I am afraid that any proposal that provides concurrent payments to only a small portion of veterans is not good enough. I ask my colleagues to speak directly to their veterans about this issue and let them decide what kind of legislation will be fair for their brothers and sisters.

Finally, Mr./Madam Speaker, I would just like to take a moment to reiterate my dedication to our Nation's retired military personnel. We can never take for granted the sacrifices our brave men and women in uniform have made on our behalf.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Shays) and the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Davis) for managing House Resolution 425, and I also want to thank and let the gentleman from California (Mr. Hunter), my colleague from San Diego, know how much I honor working with him on this, as well, as we honor brave firefighters with this resolution.

We all sympathize with our colleague, the gentleman from California (Mr. Hunter), for he was one of the victims of this devastating fire. He exemplifies the thousands of families whose homes were leveled. He celebrates the resilience of families whom we heard over and over again say, We will rebuild.

I am proud to welcome every member of the California congressional delegation as cosponsors of this bill, as well as Members from around the country, including those States which sent firefighters to help.

As I had an opportunity to visit the burned-out communities, streets, and neighborhoods of San Diego City and County, I was struck by the velocity of this fire storm. In the community of Scripps Ranch, the eucalyptus trees did not burn. The fire moved so quickly that the trees did not ignite, yet almost every home on several streets on the ground turned to ash.

As I toured in a helicopter, I was overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of the 280,000 acres in San Diego that burned and the capriciousness of the fire that leveled 2,232 residences while, in some places, neighboring houses remained standing.

Yet, the mission of the firefighters was clear: saving lives first and then property. That is what they did; that is what they always do. They were joined by law enforcement, who handled the evacuation of tens of thousands of families.

This bill is just a small way to say thank you, thank you to people whose

bravery, whose courage and perseverance went so far beyond the ordinary.

Many of my colleagues have read the individual events and acts of heroism. I know I join with the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey) in honoring the firefighter from her district, Steven Rucker, who volunteered to go to San Diego along with thousands of firefighters from throughout the State and the country and gave the ultimate sacrifice of his life. We remember also his colleagues who remain seriously burned from the fire that swiftly overran their position.

In addition, we have read of numerous, just numerous unnamed firefighters who performed way beyond their own safety. Responding to a 911 call, firefighters, choking from the smoke, entered a home to find an elderly woman. When they pulled her to safety, she told them that her husband was still inside the house. It took three attempts to enter the burning home to find him. He was trying to move in his walker toward safety. And then they brought him out and worked to get the couple air-lifted to a hospital.

We learned of firefighters overcome with frustration and sadness in the early-morning darkness when the fast-moving blazes prevented them from reaching secluded homes to warn the residents and to try to help them escape. Four of the residents of one community died. There were 22 fire-related deaths in Southern California, and we join in expressing our condolences to their families for their losses.

The stories, I say to my colleagues, are legion, and all San Diegans hold great appreciation for the dedication of the Julian firefighters who, with so much determination, saved the historic mining town that is home to all of our fantasies of the world's best apple pies. So dedicated were they that many of them lost their own homes on the neighboring hillsides while protecting the village. I talked to a firefighter who saved many homes, only to learn that his own home was taken by the firestorm.

The simultaneous fires throughout Southern California put extreme stress, not only on the resources that we are all committed to share in mutual response, but in overwhelming all of those resources. The coordination of so many agencies and equipment was indeed a critical, critical effort.

We thank, in particular, the firefighters from Northern California, the central valley, and neighboring States. I saw fire trucks lined up not only from Novato and Milpitas, but also from Fresno and Sacramento, from Arizona and Nevada, all different colors of firefighting equipment. It was impressive, and we knew of their efforts.

We are proud of our servicemen and women who are at the ready to offer their support and to supply backup resources to meet this implacable foe.

There is another whole story of neighbors helping neighbors, strangers helping the tens of thousands of evacuees, and the dominant spirit of victims who have committed their will to rebuild.

There will be many, many days to contemplate the lessons from this tragedy and many will be focusing on lessons learned. San Diego has learned much about the preparation, coordination, and effort needed to be prepared to respond to seasonal fires, as well as homeland security threats. We will have much to offer, I believe, our country in that search for answers.

But today, we have one very simple message: from the bottom of our hearts, we thank each and every one of you, the firefighters.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 1720, legislation to provide funding for a project crucial to the veterans' community in the San Diego region.

The Veterans' Affairs Medical Center in La Jolla, California serves one of the largest veterans communities in the nation. Nearly 240,000 retired military personnel in the San Diego area receive treatment from at the La Jolla hospital and nearby VA medical facilities.

I can't stress enough how important it is to ensure these facilities can provide veterans with the treatment they need even at times of disaster.

Just this week, the dedicated medical staff at area VA medical facilities worked hard to care for our veterans--despite the poor air quality and other dangers caused by the horrible wildfires burning in Southern California. It is crucial that they have the resources to continue their important work during such difficult times.

H.R. 1720 will help the VA prepare in case another type of disaster strikes. This legislation provides 50 million dollars to make necessary seismic corrections to the La Jolla VA medical center.

Mr. Speaker, this project will help ensure that both our veterans and the medical staff will be safe if a large earthquake strikes. And it will ensure that the hospital can continue treating our veterans in the aftermath.

I encourage my colleagues to join me in supporting this legislation on behalf of our veterans' community and dedicated VA medical personnel in San Diego.