Tom Lantos

Mr. Chairman, I rise today in support of the Lantos-Watt amendment to the Higher Education Reauthorization, H.R. 4137. This amendment clarifies that all graduate degree granting institutions are eligible as lead grantees under the Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need (GAANN) program in Title VII of the HEA.

Mr. Chairman, as a former professor at San Francisco State University, I know the caliber of student in their graduate programs. And with our proximity to Silicon Valley, many of the leading biotech companies have an embarrassment of riches to select from. Before the Department of Education undermined congressional intent, limiting participation of master's degree granting institutions, SFSU was routinely competing and winning GAANN fellowships.

Congress created the GAANN program to provide these fellowships for graduates with superior ability and financial needs studying in areas of national need. Under the original HEA statute and GAANN program regulations, graduate degree granting institutions including those terminating in a master's degree are eligible to participate as lead institutions in the GAANN program. Contrary to Congressional intent and the GAANN statute--which refers to graduate, not doctoral institutions--the Department limited participation as a lead entity in GAANN to doctoral granting institutions only. This action eliminated three master's degree granting programs at San Francisco State University, along with Florida A&M and North Carolina A&T from participation in the GAANN program. Until this action, SFSU had GAANN grants in biology and chemistry.

Mr. Chairman, in the President's FY09 budget released a few days ago the GAANN program was tabbed for an increase in funding to stem the long-term decline in the number of fellowships awarded under the program. The President recognized how effective these grants are and provided support for 747 fellowships, including 529 new fellows.

Mr. Chairman, GAANN is a competitive program. This provision would not open the program to new entrants. It would merely restore the ability of master's degree granting programs to compete with those granting PhDs. I proudly support the Lantos-Watt amendment and thank Mr. Watt for working with me to give all universities an opportunity to compete.

Madam Speaker, at a watershed moment in global diplomacy last week, our distinguished former Vice President, Al Gore, stepped in to fill an enormous U.S. vacuum in leadership. At the world summit on global warming in Bali, Indonesia, this new Nobel laureate once again took on the necessary role of the nation's conscience in the effort to save our planet from a looming climate catastrophe. With a candid and clear-eyed address, Vice President Gore provided a powerful bridge of hope to world leaders who were struggling to make real progress in setting a roadmap toward a treaty designed to stave off the most devastating impacts of global warming.

In his speech, Vice President Gore courageously confronted the ``inconvenient truth'' that right now, at this moment in history; the principal obstruction to progress in the global effort to confront the Earth's greatest existential threat is the United States of America. He urged the assembled delegates in Bali to overcome their anger and frustration at this obstacle, vowing that ``over the next two years, the United States is going to be in a place it is not now.'' The Vice President also offered a solution, suggesting that rather than trying to move the Bush Administration, the climate summit simply should circumvent it by leaving ``a large open space'' in the document to be filled in when U.S. leadership is finally restored.

Inspired by the Vice President's address, the U.N. delegates finally and resolutely rebuffed the administration's effort to block consensus on a ``Bali Roadmap'' by reaching a consensus that commits all nations to negotiate a new, scientifically valid deal to fighting global warming by 2009. The resolve to face down the White House was best perhaps best articulated by the delegate from Papua New Guinea--who, addressing the U.S. delegation in the final diplomatic showdown, declared, ``If you cannot lead, leave it to the rest of us. Please get out of the way.''

Madam Speaker, our distinguished former congressional colleague, Al Gore, has provided our Nation and our global community with great leadership. At a time when our own Administration has let us down, Vice President Gore has reminded the world that, in his words, ``political will is a renewable resource.''

I commend the text of the Vice President's historic address to my colleagues. To date, this landmark in the global climate discussion has not been published in its entirety anywhere, but I am honored now to place a verbatim transcript of it in the Congressional Record. Al Gore's words should inspire all of us to work to fill in the ``large open space'' that our current administration has left in the place where U.S. leadership normally resides.

Speech at the United Nations Climate Change Conference, Bali,

Indonesia, December 13, 2007

(By Al Gore)

I am not an official of the United States, and I am not

bound by the diplomatic niceties. So, I am going to speak an

inconvenient truth. My own country, the United States, is

principally responsible for obstructing progress here in

Bali. We all know that.

We all know that. But, my country is not the only one that

can take steps to ensure that we move forward from Bali with

progress, and with hope. Those of you who applauded when I

spoke openly about the diplomatic truth here have a choice to

make. You can do one of two things here. You can feel anger

and frustration and direct it at the United States of

America, or you can make a second choice. You can decide to

move forward and do all of the difficult work that needs to

be done and save a large open blank space in your document

and put a footnote by it. And when you look at the footnote,

write the description of the footnote. This document is

incomplete, but we are going to move forward anyway on the

hope--and I am going to describe for you why I think you can

also have the realistic expectation--that that blank will be

filled in.

This is the beginning of a process designed to culminate in

Copenhagen two years from now. Over the next two years, the

United States is going to be somewhere it is not now. You

must anticipate that. Targets must be a part of the treaty

that is adopted in Copenhagen. And the treaty, by the way,

should not only be adopted in 2009: I urge you in this

mandate to move the target for full implementation of this

treaty to a point two years sooner than presently

contemplated. Let's have it take effect fully in 2010, and

not 2012. We can't afford to wait another five years in order

to replace the provisions of the Kyoto Protocol.

So we must leave here with a strong mandate. This is not

the time for business as usual. Somehow we have to summon,

and each of you must summon a sense of urgency here in Bali.

These are not political problems, they are moral imperatives.

But our capacity to strip away the disguise and see them for

what they really are and then find the basis to act together

to successfully address them is what is missing.

The greatest opportunity inherent in this climate crisis is

not only to quickly deploy the new technologies that will

facilitate sustainable development, to create the new jobs

and to lift standards of living. The greatest opportunity is

that in rising to meet the climate crisis, we in our

generation will find the moral authority and capacity for

long term vision to get our act together in this world and

take on these other crises, not political problems, and solve

them. We are one people, on one planet. We have one future,

one destiny. We must pursue it together, and we can.

The great Spanish poet from Sevilla Antonio Machado wrote,

``Path walker, there is no path. You must make the path as

you walk.''

There is no path from Bali to Copenhagen unless you make

it. It's impossible given the positions of the powerful

countries, including my own, and the instructions from which

they are not going to depart. But you can make a new path.

You can make a path that goes around that blank spot. And you

can go forward.

There are two paths you can choose. They lead to two

different futures. Not too long from now, when our children

assess what you did here in Bali, what we in our generation

did here in this world. As they look backward, at 2007, they

will ask one of two questions. I don't know which one they

will ask, I know which one I prefer they ask, but trust me,

they will ask one of these two questions.

They'll look back and either they will ask, ``What were you

thinking? Didn't you hear the IPCC four times unanimously

warning the world to act? Didn't you see the glaciers

melting? Didn't you see the North Polar ice cap disappearing?

Didn't you see the deserts growing and the droughts deepening

and the crops drying up? Didn't you see the sea level rising,

didn't you see the floods, didn't you pay attention to what

was going on? Didn't you care? What were you thinking?''

Or they will ask a second question, one that I much prefer

them ask. I want them to look back on this time and ask,

``How did you find the moral courage to successfully address

a crisis that some many have said was impossible to address?

How were you able to start the process that unleashed the

moral imagination of humankind to see ourselves as a single

global civilization?'' And when they ask that question, I

want you to tell them that you saw it as a privilege to be

alive at a moment when a relatively small group of people

could control the destiny of all generations to come. Instead

of shaking our heads at the difficulty of this task and

saying, ``Woe is us, this is impossible, how can we do

this?'' We're so mad at the ones that are making it harder;

we ought to feel a sense of joy that we have work that is

worth doing, that is so important to the future of all

humankind. We ought to feel a sense of exhilaration that we

are the people alive at a moment in history when we can make

all the difference. That's who you are. You have everything

you need. We have everything we need, save perhaps political

will. but political will is a renewable resource.

Thank you very much.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to share news about a remarkable organization serving many of the constituents in my home district. The Veterans Memorial Senior Center in Redwood City recently celebrated its recognition as the first--and only--accredited senior center in San Mateo County, the third in California and just the 148th of the 15,000 senior centers in the United States. The senior center's accreditation status is bestowed by the National Institute of Senior Centers (NISC), a unit of the National Council on the Aging.

Accreditation is the official recognition that a senior center is meeting its mission in a nationally accepted professional fashion. It is based on compliance with nine standards of senior center operations developed by NISC. Accreditation is unique to the senior center field and demonstrates outstanding leadership and commitment to high quality programs and services to older adults.

Madam Speaker, the Veterans Memorial Senior Center is to be commended for its vision, collaborative relationships, volunteer programs, outreach programs, wide range of health and fitness programs, plus support services. Its mission is to provide inclusive programs that enhance the body, mind and spirit focusing on health and wellness through a variety of social events, expressive arts, nutrition, fitness, educational, and recreational classes; plus social services support. And it does this very well.

On December 1, 2007, the Center celebrated its 25th Anniversary with a gala event featuring a theme of ``Honoring Our Legacy and Looking Into Our Future.'' I rise today to recognize them on achieving this milestone, and to thank them on behalf of a grateful nation for all the good they do.

Madam Speaker, on behalf of my constituents and the House, I thank the Veterans Memorial Senior Center on Madison Avenue in Redwood City for its 25 years of service and note the exemplary work that Linda M. Griffith, its director, has done to achieve this prestigious accreditation.