Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I proudly rise today in support of H.R. 3200, the Servicemembers' Group Life Insurance Enhancement Act of 2005.

As our brave men and women continue to put their lives on the line for our Nation, we owe each of them the peace of mind they were promised, and to make it easier for their families with the knowledge that they will be cared for in a catastrophe.

Active duty personnel fulfill a critical mission in our fighting forces, and they should feel comfortable knowing that their loved ones will be provided for in the event of debilitating injury or death. I am pleased that we are expanding current benefits to adequately care for military families.

The Servicemembers' Group Life Insurance Act was passed to provide peace of mind for active duty personnel. However, since the creation of life insurance for those in the armed forces, benefits have not kept up with need, and it is now appropriate that we increase the maximum payments to families from $250,000 to $400,000.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased that we are working to correct this problem by offering this bill, and by expanding benefits to our active duty forces and providing a safety net for military families who suffer the unthinkable loss of a loved one.

Mr. Speaker, this coming Saturday marks the ninth anniversary of an American tragedy, the loss of 230 souls aboard TWA Flight 800. Bound for Paris, France, flight 800 fell from the sky just south of Moriches, Long Island, only minutes after its departure from JFK International Airport. Many of us recall exactly where we were on that evening of July 17, 1996, an indelible memory of when we felt the tremendous shock, fright, and sadness upon learning all aboard Flight 800 had perished.

But from great sorrow and hope new beginnings can rise. The overwhelming outpouring of support and good will after Flight 800 spoke volumes of America's compassion, resolve, and greatness.

On this solemn occasion, we extend our thoughts and prayers to the families of the passengers aboard Flight 800. We will always remember the profound loss that each of them continues to live with in the long years since that terrible night 9 years ago.

Mr. Speaker, may God bless every one of them.

Madam Speaker, I rise to oppose this bill which would give a pass to employers who do not meet workplace safety conditions. We could have taken this opportunity to help hardworking Americans feel a little safer in the workplace, or we could have made today's priority giving some relief to middle-class families who are struggling to keep up with record-breaking gas prices, tuition increases, and health care costs.

Instead, this administration has once again chosen in favor of the corporate sector and the special interests. Their reward in this bill comes at the expense of hardworking employees who depend on OSHA to keep an eye on their working conditions. But when former executives win appointments to regulate the same industries in which they used to work, sound science and smart public policy usually tack a back seat to political favoritism and ideology. This bill creates a new loophole around the 15-day deadline for contesting OSHA citations. It is yet one more corporate handout that could have been better spent on job training, reversing the tide of outsourcing, or raising the minimum wage.

Meanwhile, hard-working Americans are increasingly faced with workplace conditions in which critically important safeguards are watered down, emerging problems are ignored, and enforcement is scaled back.

If OSHA already has the authority to review missed deadlines on a case-by-case basis, why would we need a bill that changes this process in a one-sided way that could further disadvantage workers, encourage litigation, and undermine health and safety protections?

Madam Speaker, I believe the Senate got it right last year when it declined to consider this or any of the other three proposed rollbacks of OSHA's responsibility to hard-working Americans.

I encourage my colleagues to vote against all four of these bills.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize a fallen hero from my district who gave his life for our Nation. Lieutenant Michael P. Murphy, a U.S. Navy SEAL, age 29, was killed in action last week when he and three other SEALS were ambushed by terrorists during a reconnaissance mission in Afghanistan.

Lieutenant Murphy was from Patchogue, a town on Long Island which will never forget the ultimate sacrifice of one of its favorite sons. A common thread ran through Lieutenant Murphy's life, his selfless and steadfast dedication to others.

Growing up as a life guard, he watched out for local residents in the town of Brookhaven. After he graduated from Penn State, he chose his country first. He turned down acceptance to two law schools to pursue his dream of defending this country as a highly trained member of the special forces.

But Lieutenant Murphy's dedication would not have stopped there. He planned on joining the FBI's counterterrorist unit after he left the Navy. Lieutenant Murphy died doing what he loved, as he once described military service to his father.

It is fitting that he be awarded the Silver Star posthumously for his valor and sacrifice. Mr. Speaker, our thoughts and prayers remain with Lieutenant Murphy's family and his fiance. We owe him a debt of gratitude that can never be repaid.

Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time.

Mr. Chairman, I rise today in strong support of providing sufficient funding for Amtrak so as to preserve Amtrak's incomparable service. It is a vital engine of America's economy, particularly for those of us living on the northeast corridor. As an Amtrak rider myself, I strongly support preserving this safe, reliable, and cost-effective way for America's commuters and families to travel throughout the country. This bill would deny them that option, an approach that flies in the face of common sense and even the President's stated goals of growing the economy.

The events of September 11, 2001, proved America relies on rail, and Amtrak in particular. As planes sat grounded everywhere, goods, services, and people continued to move, thanks in large part to Amtrak. This bill says that when it comes to passenger rail, we have not learned enough from that day. Abandoning Amtrak would discard a system that we have never fully funded or given the chance to operate at full capacity. We rank a lowly 25th on the list of countries that provide commuter rail funds, behind countries like Estonia, Belgium, and Slovenia. Amtrak deserves better than that.

We move 850,000 commuters a day on Amtrak, and they rely on it to get to and from work. Therefore, I urge all of my colleagues to preserve Amtrak as an affordable option for America's families well into the future.

Mr. Speaker, due to a personal conflict on Monday, June 27, I was not present in the chamber to cast my vote on rollcalls 322 and 323.

Please indicate in the appropriate place in the Record that had I been present, I would have voted ``aye'' on both measures.

Mr. Speaker, the Labor-HHS appropriations bill we will continue debating later today is a stunning example of the impact that this Congress's misplaced priorities can have on what most consider to be a basic human right, access to a quality education.

With this bill we have made a conscious choice. While we give away tax cuts worth $140,000 dollars a year to millionaires, families earning $30,000 a year will not be able to afford sending their children to college. It is an unconscionable choice that defies our values.

The bill turns its back on priorities like No Child Left Behind and IDEA, which have been cut by $40 billion and $4 billion respectively, as well as College Work Study and Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants, which are frozen for the second year in a row.

Before I was elected to Congress, I spent 30 years as a college administrator. I came to understand just how difficult it is for students and their families to afford college.

Every day I worked with them to scrape up the money, grants, scholarships, whatever we could find to help them realize part of the American Dream, the opportunity to earn a college education.

Mr. Speaker, with this bill we have made a conscious choice to provide more comfort for the comfortable at the expense of those who are trying to make a better life for themselves. Our students deserve better.

Mr. Chairman, today I rise to express my deep concerns about how this bill falls $1.6 billion short in funding our Nation's most critically important domestic priorities--particularly education. This bill is a stunning example of the impact that this Congress's misplaced priorities can have on what most consider to be a basic human right--access to a quality education.

We have made a conscious choice: While we give away tax cuts worth $140,000 to millionaires, families earning $25,000 to $30,000 a year won't be able to afford sending their children to college this year. It's an unconscionable choice that defies our priorities and our values of standing up for middle class Americans.

Before I was elected to Congress, I spent 30 years as a college administrator. In that time, I came to fully understand how difficult it is for students and their families to afford college. Every day, I worked with parents and their children--scraping up money, grants, scholarships, whatever we could find--to help them realize part of the American dream--the opportunity to earn a college education.

But for the fourth straight year, Congress has short-changed students by cutting billions of dollars from the authorized level under law-- $13.2 billion short of what is authorized for FY 06 and over $40 billion short since its enactment in 2001.

Another public law we have abandoned is the IDEA Improvement Act, which has been underfunded by nearly $4 billion since its enactment. For our Nation's 7 million disabled children, IDEA Part B grants alone fall short of the President's budget request by over $500 million.

At a time when some of the Nation's poorest school districts are fighting to stay open, this bill cuts Title I funding for the neediest of our elementary and secondary schools by $500 million below the President's request.

While in the past year alone, tuition has increased an average of 10.5 percent at 4-year public universities, this bill provides only a modest $50 increase in the maximum Pell grant--a full $1,000 short of what the President promised in 2001.

And, ironically, at a time when this Administration and Republican Congress talk about morality and family values in public affairs, this bill cuts local public TV and radio funds for childrens' shows like Sesame Street and Reading Rainbow.

My specific concerns about the higher education shortfalls stem from my belief that a quality education is integral to the success of Americans and the nation as a whole. As an increasing number of students graduate from high school and pursue postsecondary education and training, we must make the necessary investment to deliver accessible, affordable and excellent education to all Americans.

Each year, millions of hardworking American students and their families struggle to cover the cost of attending college, even after exhausting all of the options available to them such as scholarships, student loans, Pell grants, and college work-study.

The typical low-income student falls $3,800 short of college costs even after their family contribution, student loans, grants, and work have been accounted for.

Today, an affluent student in the bottom percentile of their class is more likely to go to college than an economically disadvantaged student at the top of their class.

With college enrollment expected to expand by 14 percent, to more than 15 million students over the next decade, now is the time that Congress must invest its resources towards helping students gain access to college.

But under this bill, the percentage of college costs covered by the Pell Grant would drop to a new low of 32 percent. This is compared to thirty years ago when the Pell Grants paid for 72 percent of the cost for a 4-year public college.

The lack of a significant increase in the Pell Grant comes at a time when changes to the tax allowance formula used to calculate the Department of Education's ``Expected Family Contribution'' eliminated Pell Grant awards for over 90,000 students, and reduced scholarships for an additional 1.3 million students.

For the second year in a row, this bill also freezes funding for Supplemental Education Opportunity Grants (SEOG) and College Work Study. This is the second year in a row that SEOG and Work-Study have received flat funding.

With this bill, we have made a conscious choice--to provide more comfort for the comfortable at the expense of those who are trying to make a better life for themselves.

Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of this resolution recognizing the families of the members of the U.S. Armed Forces and supporting the designation of National Military Families Week.

I commend the gentleman from Arkansas for introducing this important tribute to the families of our brave men and women in Iraq, Afghanistan and along the front lines of the global war on terrorism. American families with sons and daughters deployed overseas deserve our recognition for the support and comfort they provide every day.

Nearly 40 percent of service men and women who are currently deployed or away from their permanent duty stations have left famlies with children, and there are over 3,000,000 family members and dependents of those serving on active duty and in the reserves. These families share unique challenges as they endure unpredictable recalls, extended tours of duty, and deployments that can be as frustrating and painful as recovering from the traumas of war and the readjustment to life back home.

By passing this resolution today, military families will know that America understands and appreciates the critically important link between the support they provide and the readiness of our troops. Having honored our fallen this past Memorial Day, we extend our appreciation to the active duty and reserve personnel, as well as their families, who continue making sacrifices to help our troops honor their commitments to the Armed Forces and to our Nation.

Madam Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to support this resolution and look forward to working toward providing military families the assistance they deserve for their many contributions and dedication to our troops.

Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding time and I thank him for his leadership on this important issue.

Mr. Chairman, I am proud to rise as a cosponsor of the Sanders- Stupak-Bishop amendment which will restrict funding in the appropriations bill from being used to add more oil to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Today, our Nation faces exorbitant energy costs, and taxpayers continue to suffer sticker shock at the gas pumps.

As a front page article in today's Wall Street Journal reported, we have seen a recent decrease in the cost of oil, but compared to 1 year ago, gas prices on average are still 6 cents higher per gallon, diesel fuel is up $1.75, and jet fuel is up nearly 50 percent. Congress can and must do more to help stabilize the price of fuel.

The energy bill recently passed by the House failed to address these cost increases. In fact, some reports state that the cost of fuel may actually increase between 5 and 8 cents per gallon due to provisions in that legislation. That may not sound like a lot, but for a middle-class family, already struggling to keep up with rising tuition, health care costs and saving for retirement, this increase in gas prices will add up very quickly.

Today's Journal also reports that other experts estimate that the cost of oil may spike again to as high as $60 per barrel. I offered an amendment to the energy bill that would have prevented that increase, although it was not incorporated into the House-passed bill.

Mr. Chairman, as we approach one of the most heavily trafficked holiday weekends of the year, let us act now to do something positive for American families. By restricting funds used to store petroleum in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and in consideration of other market factors, we can realize a drop in the cost of oil of between $6 and $11 a barrel.

In 2001, President Bush ordered the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to be filled to a capacity of 700 million barrels. The Reserve currently holds 692 million barrels, nearly 99 percent of the President's goal. Thus, I believe now is the time to temporarily suspend funding for the Reserve and offer the American people a break at the pumps.

Mr. Chairman, I urge my colleagues to support the Sanders-Stupak- Bishop amendment.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H. Res. 243, a bill recognizing the Coast guard, the Coast Guard Auxiliary, and the National Safe Boating Council for their efforts to promote National Safe Boating Week.

In my district on Eastern Long Island, water safety is of paramount concern to residents, vacationers, and the tourism industry--one of the most important contributing elements of the local economy, which includes pleasure and commercial boating.

I commend the men and women of the Coast Guard, the Coast Guard Auxiliary and the National Safe Boating Council for their steadfast dedication to protecting boaters throughout the country. As we approach Memorial Day, kicking off the summer, we recognize National Safe Boating Week to encourage American boaters to be safe on the water and to promote the use of personal flotation devices (PFDs).

It is important to highlight the progress made to safeguard boating enthusiasts in recent years, particularly with more than 13 million watercraft registered in the U.S., a number that continues to skyrocket. Even with the ever-increasing number of people enjoying the water, there are fewer fatalities on the sea. This is in no small part due to the diligence of

hard-working groups like the National Safe Boating Council and the selfless, intrepid men and women of the Coast Guard.

As vacationers throughout the country head for the coasts, it is our responsibility to encourage caution. I echo the National Safe Boating Council's important message urging all Americans to be safe on the water while they enjoy their family vacations this summer.

Mr. Speaker, I proudly rise today as a cosponsor and in support of H.R. 2046, the Servicemembers' Health Insurance Protection Act of 2005.

As our brave men and women continue to put their lives on the line for our Nation, we owe each of them the health care coverage they were promised and make it easier for their families to manage the transition to active duty and back to civilian life.

Reservists, who fulfill a critical mission in supplementing our fighting forces, should be treated equally and feel as safe as their active duty counterparts in that their employer provided insurance will still be available upon termination of federal benefits. But for too many reservists, this is not the case.

The Servicemembers' Civil Relief Act was passed, in part, to guarantee reinstatement of employer-provided health care following separation from active duty. However, an unintended consequence of that law allowed insurance companies to unfairly single out reservists by inflating their premiums once they returned to civilian life.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased that we are working to correct this problem by offering this bill as a remedy by protecting our brave reservists from inflated insurance premiums and giving them a helping hand as they return to civilian life.

Mr. Chairman, I want to thank the gentlewoman from California for her leadership on this issue and for yielding me this time, and I want to thank the chairman for accepting our amendment.

I have a statement that I will submit for the Record.

Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Solis), for yielding and introducing this amendment, which I'm proud to cosponsor.

Mr. Chairman, how do you make a bad idea worse? If you're EPA, offer families $970 to videotape their children reacting to bug sprays, carpet cleaners, and other household pesticides.

Then, invite the American Chemistry Council as a partner in this study, knowing that in exchange for $2 million paid toward the study, it wants looser regulations for the pesticide industry, which in turn wants to use humans instead of animals so it can justify relaxed exposure limits.

EPA's study is as poorly conceived as its acronym: CHEERS--which stands for the Children's Health Environmental Exposure Research Study. It's a trifecta of unethical, immoral, and unscientific research.

It violates the post World War II ``Nuremburg Code,'' which outlawed medical testing, including pesticide testing on people.

It advances private rather than medical interests, putting industry ahead of public health.

And despite EPA's own Science Advisory Board and Scientific Advisory Panels recommendening strict safeguards for human testing, EPA failed to adopt them.

Mr. Chairman, we all want to understand how common chemicals like those found under the kitchen sink can hurt children, the elderly and the most vulnerable to poisoning. But the way to collect that information should not involve hurting the very people we want to protect.

The government should not be asking families to turn their babies into lab rats. We should be protecting children, not exposing them to pesticides.

Although we passed this amendment by unanimous consent two years ago, EPA resurrected the study when the fiscal year expired in October.

We need to pass the Solis-Bishop amendment to ensure EPA's research is based on sound science with the highest ethical standards.

Our amendment is supported by a broad coalition of environmental advocates, including the Alliance for Human Research Protection in my home state of New York.

I strongly encourage my colleagues to support this amendment, again thank the gentlewoman from California for her excellent work.

Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong support of H.R. 1544, The Faster and Smarter Funding for First Responders Act.

As yesterday's scare in this Capitol and across Washington, DC reminded us, we need to make sure that our early warning system and first response capability are highly efficient functions of our national security preparedness.

First responders are the backbone of our national security. I am privileged to represent New York's finest firefighters, medical technicians, hospital employees, and other first responders I'm proud to call good friends.

We owe them all the resources they require to carry out the many dangerous and critically important missions to secure our borders and prepare this Nation for emergencies.

I applaud the Homeland Security Committee for producing a bipartisan bill that refines our first responder grant process to make sure funding we authorize is delivered quickly and efficiently to the brave men and women we call upon to protect us from the daily threats we face.

After we pass this bill, I look forward to working with my colleagues toward restoring funding in the homeland security budget and addressing other shortfalls limiting the ability of first responders do their jobs.

Mr. Chairman, we must guarantee that our home town heroes are properly funded and completely equipped and prepared to protect this Nation. I encourage my colleagues to support this bill in order to help this Nation's courageous and outstanding first responders achieve this mission.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to an outstanding young woman, Marla Ruzicka, who was tragically killed in Iraq on Saturday, April 16, 2005, when a suicide bomber attacked a convoy of U.S. security contractors passing her vehicle on the road to Baghdad airport. Marla was traveling on the road to visit an Iraqi child injured by a bomb, part of her daily work with the humanitarian organization she founded--The Campaign for Innocent Victims of Conflict (CIVIC). Marla, who was only 28 years old, worked tirelessly and fearlessly on behalf of civilian victims of war in some of the most dangerous parts of the world, accomplishing more in the area of human rights during her short life than most people do in a lifetime.

It is Marla Ruzicka's affiliation with Southampton College, an institution which I served as Provost for many years, that has made her tragic death very personal to me. Marla earned her undergraduate degree through Southampton College's Friends World Program, an academic program that stresses the careful consideration of world problems, and encourages a life of committed action in the world community. Many of my colleagues on the faculty and staff can recall Marla's passionate commitment to making a difference in the world, and were moved by her enthusiasm for helping those in need. To those of us who knew of Marla, it was no surprise that she gave up her life to serve the needs of others.

Marla's concern for the victims of world injustice began early in life. A Northern California native, Marla began her work as a human rights activist for the San Francisco office of Global Exchange at the young age of 15. It was at this time that Marla first demonstrated her desire to educate others about global injustice by organizing discussions for her high school classmates about such issues as the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba. During her undergraduate education, Marla traveled to the Middle East, Cuba, Zimbabwe, and Nicaragua where she witnessed firsthand the suffering of those who lived there. After earning her degree, she continued her work with Global Exchange and traveled to Afghanistan after Operation Enduring Freedom, where she recorded the military campaign's effects on Afghan civilians and used the information to garner assistance for the families harmed by the conflict.

In 2003, Marla organized her efforts in assisting the victims of war by founding an organization she named CIVIC--The Campaign for Innocent Victims of Conflict. Marla's assigned mission for CIVIC was both to achieve an accurate accounting of civilian casualties caused by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and to secure assistance for their families. In pursuing this mission, she spent weeks at a time

traveling the dangerous roads of Afghanistan and Iraq to personally interview the injured and their families, document their experiences, and work with U.S. military officials to earn them compensation. In organizing a group of 150 Iraqi volunteers who went to hospitals and into towns, Marla helped produce the first comprehensive list of people killed or injured in Iraq by U.S. weapons.

Marla also achieved a great deal of success in recruiting the efforts of military personnel, humanitarian organizations, and the U.S. Congress for her cause. Through her boundless energy and determination, she lobbied the Senate and helped win the insertion of language in an appropriations bill that provided $2.5 million to help victims in Afghanistan; this money has now grown to $7.5 million. She also succeeded in securing a $10 million appropriation for Iraqi victims, which is used to rebuild homes and schools, provide medical assistance, and make loans. While in the Middle East, Marla networked with military commanders, realizing they often had the freedom and resources to assist victims quickly.

In her interactions with Congress, the U.S. military, and others in positions of authority, Marla persuasively argued that achieving an accurate accounting for the loss of life in Iraq and Afghanistan would not only make the recompense of wartime civilian casualties easier, but would also assist U.S. led reconstruction efforts. Through it all, Marla's sunny disposition and ability to make friends easily proved invaluable in recruiting the assistance of journalists, U.N. officials, non-governmental organization staff, and the U.S. military in documenting the plight of civilians and providing relief to war-torn families.

Marla's contributions to the most vulnerable of citizens did not come without making a great deal of personal sacrifice, however. CIVIC operated on a shoe-string budget of about $100,000 a year, which often left Marla depending on friends and family to secure enough money for airline tickets and living expenses. When returning to the U.S. from overseas, Marla would often stay with friends, sleeping on their sofas, to continue her work when returning to the United States. Her ability to succeed in the most difficult of circumstances is a testament to her natural ability and drive, and serves as an inspiration to many.

Mr. Speaker, few people possess the undying commitment to selflessly and courageously pursue justice on behalf of the less fortunate as did Marla Ruzicka. During her lifetime, Marla viewed it as her personal obligation to fight for the less fortunate in this world and, under the most difficult of circumstances, demanded and achieved justice for so many victims of war and conflict. Her relentless dedication and optimism won over the hearts of the most influential people, making it possible to relieve the suffering of those most in need. Her actions were nothing short of heroic, and should serve as an inspiration to us all. I ask those in this distinguished body to join me in offering my condolences to Marla's parents, Clifford and Nancy Ruzicka. They should be commended on their daughter's extraordinary commitment to improving the world one life at a time.