Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, the people of Pennsylvania join me in offering their sympathies and prayers to Nancy Reagan and all the members of the Reagan family. But more so, we offer our gratitude for sharing this great man.

In his memory, I humbly offer these words: While flags fly low we gather here to offer words of praise. With tributes to our leader gone, reflect, remember, pray. Our Nation's forests, oceans, plains, majestic mountain skies where some saw only clouds above, he saw hopes spirit rise.

While enemies in shadows crept where evil's hatred stood, some brooded and in weakness slept. He saw strength in our good. America, your song shall soar over this Nation blessed, though some will turn to doubt and fear, his hope shall never rest. The sun shall set and darkness fall, yet stars their beacons give. Do not ye grieve that he is gone, rejoice that he has lived.

Mr. Chairman, on rollcall No. 202 I was unavoidably detained. Had I been present, I would have voted ``aye.''

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Government Reform be permitted to file a supplemental report to accompany H.R. 2432, the Paperwork and Regulatory Improvement Act.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 3740) to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 223 South Main Street in Roxboro, North Carolina, as the ``Oscar Scott Woody Post Office Building''.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 3740.

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

Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the Committee on Government Reform, the House committee that has oversight responsibilities to the U.S. Postal Service, I am pleased to rise in support of H.R. 3740. This post office designation act honors Oscar Scott Woody, one of the postal service's little known heroes.

This legislation has been co-sponsored by the entire North Carolina congressional delegation.

Mr. Speaker, Oscar Scott Woody was among the 1,522 victims of the Titanic sinking in the early morning hours of April 15, 1912. Woody was a clerk of the U.S. Post Office Department, who lived in Clifton Springs, Virginia. He worked 15 years as a railroad mail clerk before joining the Postal Sea Service in 1910. Two years later, Woody was selected as one of five postal clerks to serve aboard the grand Titanic during its heavily anticipated maiden voyage.

While his invitation aboard the Titanic's ill-fated journey was professional in nature, he found time to celebrate his 44th birthday with his postal clerk colleagues on the night of April 14, 1912. That night, when the ship infamously crashed into an iceberg in the North Atlantic Ocean, Woody fled his party to salvage as much of the ship's mail as he could. Survivors of the Titanic's sinking reportedly last saw him desperately bagging up the mail in the ship's flooding post office.

Mr. Speaker, Oscar Scott Woody was born April 15, 1868 in Roxboro, North Carolina. I support this measure that names a post office after him in his hometown.

I want to recognize my esteemed colleague from North Carolina (Mr. Miller) for his work on H.R. 3740.

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

Mr. Speaker, I urge passage of H.R. 3740, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 4176) to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 122 West Elwood Avenue in Raeford, North Carolina, as the ``Bobby Marshall Gentry Post Office Building''.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks on H.R. 4176, the bill under consideration.

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

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 4176 designates the U.S. Postal Service facility located at 122 West Elwood Avenue in Raeford, North Carolina, as the ``Bobby Marshall Gentry Post Office Building.'' Like H.R. 3740, this bill enjoys the cosponsorship of the entire North Carolina congressional delegation.

Mr. Speaker, I want to commend my distinguished colleague and friend from North Carolina (Mr. Hayes) for introducing H.R. 4176.

Mr. Speaker, I yield as much time as he may consume to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Hayes).

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

I want to again acknowledge my colleague, the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Hayes), for his work on H.R. 4176 and the work of the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Davis), and I urge all of the Members to support its passage.

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

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, earlier this afternoon, like so many Americans and citizens of the world, I watched the news with disgust as they announced the beheading of Pennsylvanian Nick Berg, a young man, 26 years old, who was working in Iraq as a civilian. Somehow, Abu Musab Zarqawi and other al Qaeda decided it was time to show us, once again, their version of justice which, to we Americans, is more of what we call murder.

Repeatedly, the stations talked about this and then cut back and forth to hearings taking place here on Capitol Hill to review the hearings about the Abu Ghraib prison and the terrible behavior of several soldiers there.

I was struck by the idea that while the actions of the soldiers in the prison were reprehensible and that they should face court-martial, I am also wondering where is the outrage about the murder of an American citizen? Where was the outrage also about the four contractors who were killed, their bodies mutilated, drawn and quartered and hung and burned? Where was the outrage about the terrorists living in Iraq and showing us the way that they see the world: innocent citizens who had no trial, because no trial could be held, because they committed no crime.

But it continues to give us a flavor of what we are up against when we note how terrorists view Americans and view Western culture and the world. Whether or not we are in Iraq, whether or not we are in Afghanistan, they will continue to perpetrate their war to kill us; not because they want land, not because they are seeking economic gains, but simply because they feel they are on a mission to kill anyone who is Western, who is from America, who is Christian or Jewish, and they will not stop until they have killed us or we have killed them.

But let us not forget who Abu Musab Zarqawi is. He is not just someone who appeared on television today.

World history tells us that in 1999, Zarqawi planned a terrorist attack for the millennial celebration in Jordan. The Radisson Hotel in Aman and other American, Israeli, and Christian cites were targeted. The plot was discovered before it was carried out, and Zarqawi escaped before he could be indicted.

In 2000, Zarqawi went to Afghanistan where he oversaw a terrorist training

camp. He also specialized in chemical and biological weapons.

In 2001 Zarqawi was sentenced to 15 years for his terrorist plots in Jordan. However, since he escaped before he was arrested, he has not served any of his term.

In October 2001, after the Taliban lost control of Afghanistan, Zarqawi fled to Iran with a wounded leg. While he was there, Zarqawi dispatched two Palestinians and a Jordanian who entered Turkey, and then they were supposed to go to Israel to conduct bombing attacks.

In February of 2002, the three terrorists who were sent by Zarqawi were caught in Turkey.

Then in May of 2002, Zarqawi traveled to Iraq; yes, Iraq. He had his leg amputated and had a prosthetic limb to replace it.

From May through July of 2002, Zarqawi spent time recovering in Baghdad and, at the same time, several extremists also came to Baghdad and established a base of operations.

In the late summer of 2002, Zarqawi traveled to Lebanon to meet with leaders of Hezbollah, another terrorist group.

And then in October of 2002, Lawrence Foley, a United States official with the Agency For International Development was assassinated, and after some arrests were made of the actual shooters in December of 2002, Zarqawi was linked to the plot by providing the murder weapons.

In early 2003, Zarqawi returned to the Ansar al-Islam camp in northern Iraq. Other terrorists who have trained in this particular camp have plotted chemical attacks with various toxins in Britain, France, Georgia, and Chechnya.

In January 2003, several terrorists were arrested in Britain for planning to put the toxin ricin in the military food supply. These terrorists were linked to Zarqawi. He continues on with his murderous ways.

It is important to note that as this history tells us that indeed this terrorist was plotting in Iraq, this terrorist was working in Iraq to train other terrorists. But where is the outrage? Where is the outrage among us?

Instead, we talk on and on, snipe back and forth, point fingers, call each side names on both sides of the aisle, trying to score political points instead of trying to achieve peace; looking at polling numbers, and not working on policy.

It is time that we lay these things to rest and look at the outrage and look at the ties that bind us and say, this is why we are fighting terrorism. It is to stop the murders, and it is to ask ourselves where is the outrage of their behavior.

Mr. Speaker, when I years ago worked as a psychologist at one of the hospitals in Pittsburgh, I was examining a newborn baby. As part of examining this baby, I looked to see how this baby responded to sounds and sights. Your average newborn baby when you have a light or something in the baby's eyes will turn toward it. If you hold the baby in front of you and the baby looks you in the eye, you can turn your head and that baby's eyes will turn with you.

There was one particular child that I remember holding and looking at. Every time I tried to get the baby's eyes to look at me, this infant would turn away and get distressed. Yet if I held an object or something before the baby, the baby would look. I made a note of that somewhere in my own charts. It was interesting that a few years later when this same child entered my office at age 3, the parents noted that this child did not seem to have emotional reactions to people, did not seem to respond to playing the same way other children do, did not seem to use words the same way. It was almost as if he could neither love nor be loved. This child was an autistic child whom we identified early on as having some of those symptoms.

Autism is a biologically based, neurodevelopmental disease that causes severe impairments in their language, in their social interactions, as if there was this wall around them that they can neither love nor be loved. These are not children who are mentally retarded. Although some children may have other developmental delays, there are other children with autism who are very bright and high functioning. These are children who really tear at the hearts of families because they have so many troubles with them. In fact, it is impossible to really describe the tremendous burden that families have in raising an autistic child. They seem unreachable. They cannot interact with their parents. They cannot interact with their siblings in a loving way. The pain these families feel is indescribable. The enormous strain that these special children place on families cannot be quantified with numbers. The emotional chasm between the child and parents and loved ones oftentimes leads to unusually high divorce rates at a whole other level.

Sadly, existing treatments are expensive and less than optimally effective. There are behavioral treatments that help some children, but these treatments are far from a cure. I remember when I started practicing, we would learn patterns and strategies to work with autistic children only to find a few years later someone else said, that does not work, it was just another person's theory.

But there is hope. Thanks to new medical technology such as the decoding of the human genome, cures are achievable for children born with autism today. New biomedical treatments, such as secretin and immunotherapy, are providing hope that autistic children will not be condemned to live out their lives in emotional isolation. But these treatments can only be developed if biomedical research is funded, if behavioral research is funded, if social research to help the families is funded, if language therapy is funded.

Currently, autism research is providing remarkable advances, but there is still a great deal to be done and cures to be found. But for children like those I described, we are far from a cure. We need to learn, to teach, to help these children and help these families be able to speak the language of the heart that every parent would love to have with their child. As I said, we are far from a cure because we are so far, so far from knowing a cause.

Mr. Speaker, the Iraq Oil-for-Food Program was established in 1996 to ensure adequate food, medicine, and supplies were available for the Iraqi people despite U.N.-imposed sanctions. It was meant to keep food on the table of the oppressed, not money in the hands of the oppressors. We are now finding out the program was filled with corruption and the Iraqi people were not in fact the beneficiaries.

The very leader that kept them in utter poverty was using the program to line his own pockets and enrich his friends. This corruption was made possible by U.N.-member countries and senior U.N. officials.

Saddam Hussein stole $10 billion; and, in exchange for their help, several members of the U.N. Security Council secretly received billions of barrels of Iraqi crude at cut-rate prices. These nations publicly supported the goals of the Oil-for-Food Program while privately undermining it.

For the United Nations to allow this to go on for 7 years is unconscionable. The U.N. was responsible for overseeing a program designed to provide aid to Iraqi citizens; and, instead, on the U.N.'s watch, the program strengthened the Hussein regime.

Now some are calling for increased reliance on the United Nations to determine our foreign policy? I do not think so.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Weller). Today we will vote on permanently ending what is perhaps one of the most unfair taxes in the U.S. Tax Code: the tax on marriage.

The marriage penalty rose from a 1960s change in tax law to relieve what was perceived as an unfair burden on single taxpayers. At that time, a special deduction was also created to relieve the effects of the marriage penalty. However, during the 1986 Tax Act when Congress reduced all tax rates, a special allowance was repealed for single filers; but the marriage penalty has remained and has existed ever since, with only temporary respite.

Today we must end it, permanently. Paying more in income taxes because one is married makes as much sense as paying more for a loaf of bread simply because they chose to be someone's wife or husband.

The Tax Code should not discriminate between people who are single and people who are married. When couples say ``I do,'' I do not think they were referring to the IRS. Half of all marriages in this Nation end in divorce, and less than half of all children spend their childhood years in a two-parent family. We need to be supportive of families in America, not punish them.

We must ensure the Tax Code treats single and dual earners equally. It is simply wrong for anyone to pay more in taxes simply because they exchange marriage vows.

I urge my colleagues to end this unfair taxation.

Mr. Speaker, April is Child Abuse Prevention Month. It is an important time to focus on how we can deal with this painful and preventable scourge on America's children.

It is estimated that a staggering 896,000 children were neglected or abused in the United States in 2002, approximately 12 out of every 1,000 children. In 2001, there were 1,300 deaths from neglect or abuse, but some estimate that half the deaths from neglect go unrecorded. And although cases of abuse have dropped slightly since the 1990s, the number has remained alarmingly steady in recent years. Most times the abuse is from a parent, and there is abuse at all income levels.

The effects go far beyond the immediate and obvious impact. There are long-term consequences that include developmental delays, learning disorders, aggressive behavior and depression. Now, these consequences do not just affect the individual, but they effect society as a whole. Survivors are at a greater risk later in life to abuse their own children.

State, Federal, and local governments, human service agencies, schools, faith-based groups and health care facilities have a stake in helping to prevent child abuse. These groups can all work together with combined resources to improve protective factors such as parenting skills and attitudes.

At the same time by working together they can reduce risk factors such as parent depression, caregiver stress and children's behavior problems. These risk factors are critically important because they can precipitate the rage that leads to abuse.

It is well worth noting that this is not just a problem of poverty, but all walks of life. This is not the family in the other part of town. This is our neighbors next door, down the street, or around the corner. This is not someone else's problem. This is all of our problem.

Now, there have been positive accomplishments by those who work at the Federal level, notably passage of the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, but we cannot solve the problems of child abuse by laws alone. And there is an alarming lack of coordination among the Federal agencies that are already in place to prevent and treat victims of abuse. When one considers the fact that there are 33 offices, agencies and bureaus in the Federal Government that deal with child abuse, added to the fact that there are a staggering 46 separate streams of funding, it is a wonder that anything gets accomplished.

The old cliche, the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing, may well fit here.

The Federal Government cannot single-handedly stop child abuse, but it can provide valuable tools to assist those working to save our families and our children. Right now, however, the system is splintered, disjointed and sometimes ineffective.

Next month the Committee on Government Reform will hold important hearings on cleaning up the Federal Government's approach to preventing and treating child abuse; but with a steady 900,000 cases per year, despite the millions and millions and millions spent by the Federal, State and local government, it is clear the current approach is failing.

We must streamline these agencies and funding streams. We cannot just preach a proactive approach to stopping child abuse. We must also set the example. The most direct way to end child abuse is to stop it before it starts. Prevention and early intervention is the key.

Community-based programs have shown positive improvements by utilizing a proactive approach that includes improving parenting skills and attitudes, as well as reducing risk factors such as parental depression, caregiver drug use, caregiver stress, and children's behavior problems. President Bush's fiscal year budget proposal shows a commitment to helping our children by doubling funding for two critical funding programs, money that provides funds to States.

It is also imperative that we streamline the Federal system and ensure that money being spent is utilized effectively in programs that work.

We owe our children nothing less than the right to feel safe in their own homes with their own parents. It is a duty that is a responsibility and a moral obligation that we all share. We must do our part here in Washington.

I call upon all Americans to take an active role, to open their hearts to America's hurting children. I call upon all Members of Congress to recognize that of all the things we do, of all the things we do, stopping the pain, stopping the rage against our innocent children could indeed be the most courageous and noblest task of all.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that when the House adjourns on Wednesday, April 21, 2004, it adjourn to meet at 9 a.m. on Thursday, April 22, 2004, for the purpose of receiving in this Chamber former Members of Congress.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that it may be in order on Thursday, April 22, 2004, for the Speaker to declare a recess, subject to the call of the Chair, for the purpose of receiving in this Chamber former Members of Congress.

Mr. Speaker, on behalf of a grateful nation, we honor a man today who lost his life serving our country. Bob Zangas of Level Green, Pennsylvania first went to Iraq as a marine and returned later as a civilian to help rebuild that country.

His job was in public affairs, helping Iraqi journalists and media spread good news about their country. But his work transcended this simple description. He was also a teacher. One of his proudest moments was teaching Iraqi women his craft so they could open women's centers around the country. He was fully aware that he was one of the few western men who had the opportunity to interact with Iraqi women as they began to enjoy the freedom of pursuing careers of their own.

Bob was moved by his time in Iraq. He described a land that ``is in desperate need of everything, where he felt he, ``was pouring a cup of water out into a dry desert''--but believing some day it would make flowers grow. He lived on a hope that he made a difference and he most certainly did. He believed that our mission in Iraq was right and just. He saw firsthand the gratitude of the Iraqi people, and their gratitude to the Americans who were there to help.

Bob Zangas was proud to represent his country and dedicated to helping his fellow man. Americans and Iraqis alike mourn his passing, but celebrate his accomplishments. His wife Brenda described him as, ``a true, patriotic American, humanitarian and Marine and foremost a father and husband.'' His brother described him as an ``American's American'' and talked of his ``supreme sacrifice in selfless service.'' Bob Zangas closed one of his last letters with the challenge to, ``hang on to your dreams.'' That is just what he did--to the very end. It is a dream of compassion, a dream of freedom, and for that the whole world is grateful. Thank you Lt. Col. Bob Zangas. Thanks to you we shall hold on to our dreams.

Mr. Speaker, on behalf of a grateful Nation, we honor a man today who recently lost his life while serving our country.

Bob Zangas of Level Green, Pennsylvania, first went to Iraq as a Marine and later returned as a civilian to help rebuild that country. He described a land that ``is in desperate need of everything,'' where he felt he ``was pouring a cup of water out into a dry desert,'' but believing some day it would make flowers grow.

He lived on a hope that he made a difference, and he did. Americans and Iraqis alike mourn his passing, but celebrate his accomplishments. His wife, Brenda, described him as a true patriotic American, humanitarian, and Marine, and, foremost, a father and husband.

He closed one of his last letters with a challenge to ``hang on to your dreams,'' and that is just what he did to the very end. It is a dream of compassion. It is a dream of freedom. And for that, the whole world is grateful.

Thank you, Lieutenant Colonel Bob Zangas. We shall hold on to our dreams.

Mr. Speaker, 1 year ago the Iraqi people lived under the rule of a man who massacred and tortured his own people by the hundreds of thousands, who supported terrorists groups, and who was a human weapon of mass destruction.

Today 25 million Iraqis have been liberated and an example has been made of Saddam Hussein. Today America is a safer place. Today the world is a safer place because of the actions of our military.

Since September 11, thousands of Guard and reservists have been activated to fight the war on terror and 40 percent of the current force in Iraq is composed of these soldiers. And despite what some critics continue to say, Guard and Reserve service is just as honorable as regular military service. They have left their families and their jobs to serve their Nation. They too have seen the horrors of Saddam Hussein's regime and the gratitude of the Iraqi people as they work hand in hand to rebuild their country.

Today I thank all who serve. I give a special nod to our guardsmen, for when I see them, I do not see half a soldier, but I see twice a patriot.