Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, before us tonight is yet another Democrat plan, a plan for failure. I guess it's really not quite so much a plan as just a schedule for failure.

It seems ironic to me that when there is actually success, the Democrats are having a hard time seeing the success. And that's, perhaps, because the success that is going on in Iraq is not a big government, Washington, D.C. beltway kind of success. It's not the Parliament in Baghdad where the success is going on. No, it's a uniquely American and a special success. It's the success that bubbles from the hearts of the very people that are involved, from the local communities, from the streets, and particularly from the sheiks. It's the kind of thing that happened in America where local communities stood up against the biggest military power in the world and defended our declaration in the same way these sheiks now are paying a tremendous price. One, Sheik Meshin al-Jamari, he was encouraged to come back from his safe haven in Jordan. He came back to take up responsibility for his tribal area just to the east of Fallujah. And what was the cost when he turned on al Qaeda? First, his daughter was killed, then his brother shot, and then his family rounded up inside a house in Karma, and the house imploded upon their heads. And yet, that sheik is standing firm because he does have a vision for the possibility that there will one day be an Iraq where people can be free.

Our General Allen was asked by some of the Iraqis in his tribe, they said, When the British left, they left us a big skyscraper. When America leaves Iraq, will you leave a skyscraper? And General Allen said, No. We'll leave the ideas that leave you a free people. And one day there will be Iraqis who come to us and they will say, Hey, GI Joe, we believe it too. We believe that there is a God that gives inalienable rights to all people, the right to life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and we will also stand with you because you have that hope.

It is my hope that the Americans and the Democrats will rediscover why we have always gone to war in America, because we do believe in our battle cry from years ago that there is a God that gives basic rights to all people and that we must have the courage to stand behind those things. I hope that the Congress will vote to reject a plan of defeat.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to congratulate Westchester Elementary in the Kirkwood School District and Conway Elementary in the Ladue School District of St. Louis, Missouri. These two schools were recently awarded the prestigious title of No Child Left Behind Blue Ribbon Schools.

As many of my colleagues know, the No Child Left Behind-Blue Ribbon Schools Program honors public and private K-12 schools that are either academically superior in their states or that demonstrate dramatic gains in student achievement.

In 2007, only 5 Missouri schools and 287 nationwide have earned the high honor of Blue Ribbon Schools.

It is the efforts and demand for excellence exemplified by Westchester and Conway Elementary that will pave the way for the successful futures of our Nation's children.

I applaud the dedication of teachers and staff at Westchester and Conway. I sincerely hope their high standards of teaching are emulated by other schools in Missouri.

I am pleased to be able to honor Westchester and Conway Elementary today. They are remarkable examples of the great teachers we have in Missouri and I ask my colleagues to join me in wishing them the best in their future endeavors as educators in Missouri.

Madam Speaker, I was unable to participate in the following votes. Had I been present, I would have voted as follows: November 5, 2007: rollcall vote No. 1034, on motion to close portions of the Conference on the FY2008 Department of Defense Appropriations, I would have voted ``aye''; rollcall vote No. 1035, on motion to suspend the rules and pass, as amended, H.R. 513--National Heroes Credit Protection Act, I would have voted ``aye''; rollcall vote No. 1036, on motion to suspend the rules and agree, H. Res. 744--Recognizing the contributions of Native American veterans and calling upon the President to issue a proclamation urging the people of the United States to observe a day in honor of Native American veterans, I would have voted ``aye.''

Madam Speaker, it's been 144 days since the House passed the Veterans Affairs appropriations bill. This is a bill which does research on prosthetic kinds of devices. It helps to rebuild veterans facilities. It helps to treat things like traumatic stress disorder. That's the purpose for the money that has been waiting now since we passed it 144 days ago.

Unfortunately, that bill has been held up in order to connect it with other legislation ladened with pork on the HHS bill.

Now, it's been many years since I was a combat engineer in the Army, but my son is freshly back from Fallujah, and to hold our veterans hostage in order to try to slide greasy pork through Washington is the wrong thing for the Democrats to be doing.

They need to allow the bill to stand on its own base, let the people take a vote, and respect the veterans that we want to respect.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize Mr. Robert A. Reynolds, Jr., an exceptional leader from my district in St. Louis, Missouri. Since 2000, Bob has served as President and CEO of Graybar Electric Co., Inc, a Fortune 500 company employing nearly 8,000 men and women at more than 250 distribution centers in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and Puerto Rico.

Prior to his election as Chairman of the Board at Graybar in 2001, Bob served in various capacities at the company. He joined Graybar in 1972 as an office salesman, was transferred to the Philadelphia unit as a sales representative in 1977 and was later appointed manager of the national consumer products accounts at corporate headquarters in 1979. After serving as a branch manager in New York and Connecticut, he was appointed district manager in Seattle. Bob eventually became Vice President of Communications Markets and Vice President of Communication and Data Business before he was named Senior Vice President of Electrical Business in 2000. During his tenure as President and CEO, Graybar was on the Fortune America's Most Admired Companies list for six consecutive years.

Bob's leadership over the years has proven invaluable not only to Graybar, but to the community as a whole. He currently serves on the boards of the National Association of Electrical Distributors, the Boy Scouts of Greater Saint Louis, the United Way of Greater Saint Louis, the Saint Louis Club, the Log Cabin Club, Civic Progress of Saint Louis, and the Saint Louis Regional Commerce and Growth Association. He is the former Chairman of the Board at the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors (NAW) and now serves as Past Chairman of the Board.

I am pleased to be able to honor Robert A. Reynolds, Jr. today. He is a remarkable example of the great leadership we have in Missouri and I know all of my colleagues join me in wishing he and his family the very best as he finishes his service at NAW.

Madam Speaker, today is Halloween. The Democrats are doing a good job celebrating it. They are handing out entitlements like Halloween candy. The question is how are we going to pay for it. Well, they have approved $431 billion in new taxes this year, but for Halloween they have got something that is really scary: the mother of all tax increases, the biggest tax increase in the history of our country, $3.5 trillion.

The question becomes on Halloween, with fuel prices going up, with the cost of health care going up, with the cost of housing going up, how can we face something as scary as the mother of all tax increases.

Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.

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

Mr. Chairman, I rise today to offer this amendment to the Small Business Contracting Program Improvements Act. As many involved in the Federal contracting world know, the 8(a) program currently serves small businesses owned by citizens who are socially and economically disadvantaged.

Since the 1960s, the 8(a) program has remained the primary vehicle through which minority-owned businesses enter the Federal marketplace. There is no doubt that since its inception the 8(a) has helped many minority-owned businesses grow their firms, enabling them to become real players in the Federal contracting world. In fact, over the course of the program, nearly 20,000 companies have received almost $100 billion in Federal contracts.

During committee markup of this bill, I expressed my reservations to Chairwoman Velazquez regarding certain provisions in the bill that exclude the equity in a business. I'm concerned that this provision undermines the argument concerning the competitive capacity of the business owners. I will explain.

Many owners reinvest their earnings into their businesses, thus increasing the value of the business. If the 8(a) program is a business development program targeted toward socially and economically disadvantaged firms, why should the business owner with a valuable asset be permitted in the program and benefit from its existence? I would argue that the scarce resources available to assist these business owners be devoted to those business owners that are truly economically disadvantaged.

My amendment is a straightforward amendment that I hope will address some of these concerns. Essentially, the amendment would ask the administrator of the Small Business Administration to conduct a study to determine what changes would be required to provide greater Federal contracting assistance to participants in the 8(a) program that have less equity in their business concerns than other participants in the program.

I appreciate Chairwoman Velazquez's willingness to work with me on this important issue, and I believe that adoption of my amendment is one step towards ensuring that minority-owned small businesses who truly need assistance can continue to benefit from the opportunities provided to them by the 8(a) program.

I would urge my colleagues to assist and support this amendment.

In closing, my point on this is the following: As a business is small and most in need of the 8(a) program, we want to make sure that they can get as many of these programs as possible, and that will build their business up. As the business then prospers and grows through the years, they will continue to get these different 8(a) kinds of contracts, which give them essentially a 10 percent advantage.

But as the business becomes bigger and stronger, what I'm interested in doing is creating a sliding scale so that those valuable contracts will be guaranteed to go to the most needy businesses, and as a business gets stronger and stronger, the number or the percentage of those contracts will tend to diminish as they become stronger and more able to survive on their own.

I think that's a concept that has been understood and to some degree approved within the committee. The question is how do we mechanically work that out, and the purpose of this amendment is to give ourselves a little time to actually figure out mathematically how do you make sure that those contracts go to the most needy, and as

people become less needy, that they have less and less dependence on.

I very much appreciate the chairwoman's willingness to work with us on this, and hopefully we can figure out mechanically some way to do that that everybody could agree to.

Mr. Chairman, I yield back my time.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize the Crider Health Center, located in St. Charles, Missouri. Recently, the Department of Health & Human Services announced that Crider Health Center's application to become a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) was approved.

For the past 27 years, the Crider Health Center has provided mental health treatment and services for underinsured and uninsured adults, children and families affected by persistent mental illness and serious emotional disorders. Since its inception, the Center has notably expanded its service programs to

meet the rapidly changing expectations in the area of mental health service delivery. Such dedication has enabled Crider to serve over 35,000 residents a year in a four-county area who are in desperate need of such services.

Previously, the Crider Health Center faced consistent challenges in obtaining medical and oral health care services for their patients. In fact, the nearest federally qualified health centers for persons living in this four-county area were in St. Louis, Potosi and Columbia, Missouri. Such distances created a considerable challenge in terms of access for low-income residents in Crider's service area.

Crider Health Center's new FQHC status will allow Crider to integrate its current mental health care services with primary and oral health care services. This integration not only allows Crider to better serve its consumers but aid in further addressing the health care disparities in the St. Louis region.

I congratulate the Crider Health Center's recent FQHC designation. The Crider Health Center is an exemplary example of the leadership we have in Missouri and I am pleased to honor them in their continued endeavor to provide for the needs of the people in the St. Louis region.

Mr. Speaker, last week on ABC's news program, Charlie Gibson announced the news in Iraq. He said, ``The news is, there isn't any news.'' That's right. Across all of Iraq, there were no fatalities, shootings and bombs going off. As the media has started to recognize that we have turned the corner and are winning the war in Iraq, this pressing question, once again, comes before the House, and that is, what are the Democrats going to do with the bill that we have already passed and that the Senate has already passed to provide money for our veterans?

Eighteen million dollars every day is being wasted for the last 130 days because we won't bring this veterans funding bill back for final approval. It has the votes. What are we waiting for, post-traumatic stress syndrome? Veterans hospitals? Veterans clinics? We have to ask the Democrat leadership why a 130-day wait.

It's time for us to fund our veterans.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize Mr. Ron Levy, an exceptional leader from my district in St. Louis, Missouri. Since 1999, Ron has served as President and CEO of SSM Health Care-St. Louis. Prior to that, Ron served with SSM Health Care for 30 years, beginning as a resident at St. Mary's Hospital in Madison, Wisconsin in 1976. During his tenure, Ron has served in various capacities at SSM which have included: President of St. Clare Hospital and Health Services in Baraboo, Wisconsin; President of SSM St. Mary's Health Center in Richmond Heights, Missouri, and President of SSM Physicians Organization in St. Louis, Missouri.

Ron's leadership over the years has been invaluable not only to the SSM health care system, but to the community as a whole. In 2005, Ron served as chair of the Missouri Hospital Association. Ron has served as a member of the St. Louis Regional Health Commission, and since its inception has worked tirelessly to ensure access and coverage for healthcare services for the medically uninsured and underinsured in the greater St. Louis region.

I am pleased to be able to honor Ron Levy today. He is a shining example of the great leadership we have in Missouri and I know all of my colleagues join me in wishing him the very best as he begins the next chapter in his life and career.

One of the problems of being as competent and technical as you are is there are some of us, people like me from Missouri, as an engineer, like to try to put things in plain simple terms.

The first thing I would like to ask, because you are the expert, but I have a little bit of a sense of what's going on here, and first of all the problem is that we are trying to collect intelligence on terrorists that are trying to kill our citizens. Is that what we are dealing with?

I want to keep it simple. So we are dealing with collecting intelligence on these terrorists.

We have a format that was put into law years ago, as I understand it, that when a signal is transmitted into the air that we can tap into that and listen for terrorist talk; is that correct?

But now in the last number of years, the way that transmissions are made is different. We are going now through these fiber-optic cables and through these tremendous switching networks; is that correct?

Now, does the current law allow us to do the same thing on those as we do on a transmitted signal?

Now we are getting to the problem. The problem is that the government is getting in the way and the Democrats are getting in the way of us collecting intelligence to protect our constituents.

Now, the lady from Tennessee, you talked about some common sense, and the common sense of the matter is some of us remember September 11, and these people are not nice people; right?

But if the gentleman would yield, what I understand the Democrat solution is saying, that you can't do that. That as soon as Osama bin Laden lights up his computer, we don't know where he is calling to, and, therefore, we have got to get some judge to give us permission to tap into.

So my understanding, with the bottom line, with the bill that has been proposed, we would lose about 60 percent or more of our intelligence leads that we are collecting through electronic surveillance needs; is that correct?

Sixty percent of our intelligence-gathering capability is going to be hobbled?

Yet in the State of Missouri we don't call that common sense.

Now, there was one procedure that the Republicans were allowed to do, and that's called the recommit; is that correct? We couldn't make any amendments. We couldn't discuss it.

And so on the motion to recommit, we did the best thing we

could to try to fix this problem, which was going to basically muzzle 60 percent of our intelligence-gathering capability. And that, I guess, you could look at it as an amendment on the motion to recommit. It was merely a sentence or two. And that sentence said something to the effect that nothing in this bill will prevent us from trying to capture bin Laden or prevent us from gathering information on al Qaeda, and they're attacking this country, something to that effect.

It was in such a hurry that we didn't have time for any amendments.

Will the gentleman yield?

Well, I appreciate the good work that attorneys do, Mr. Speaker, and I particularly like different attorney jokes. And this one particular joke is the only one I have heard that isn't funny, and that is, how many attorneys does it take to collect intelligence on our enemies? And the answer, exactly as the lady said, should be zero. There should be no doubt about this.

Now, you have talked about somewhat subtle or finer points of law, but the bottom line is there is an agency that is charged with following the law and protecting our citizens. Now, the opinion of that agency on this point is what is critical, isn't it? Because if they believe they can't do the collection, then there is going to be 60 percent or more of intelligence gathering that is going to be hobbled. They are not going to have that capability. And their belief is that what you are saying is true because you quoted them; is that right?

Will the gentleman yield?

I believe that what you have described is pretty much what we worked out last summer. Just going back to last summer when this problem reared its ugly head, we were approaching September 11. The Democrats had been unwilling to deal with it. We had been going back and forth and back and forth. And as I recall, we basically told the other party we are not leaving for summer break until you get this thing fixed because our Nation is exposed. We are not collecting the information that we need and we have to deal with that. So at the last minute, we passed a 6-month, if you will, patch that takes us to February; is that correct?

So until February we are able to do this collection at this point, but we have to deal with this problem.

Now, the gentlewoman from New Mexico made reference to September 11, and I think each of us have our own memories. But mine was being at the site in New York City and seeing that wall along the side of a city block, four-by-eight sheets of plywood. Covering over the wall was a piece of that kind of slick, greasy plastic that's waterproof, and it had little dots of mist because it was a misty day. And underneath it were pictures. Some black and white, some in color, a picture of a guy with his dog, a husband and wife. And as I looked at those pictures, it reminded me of the many times in the

morning where eyes had met gently saying good-bye for the day, a gentle brush of the hair that would be no more, that ended in violent, fiery tragedy and death. And for us to hobble our Intelligence Committee and knock out 60 percent of their intelligence gathering is un-American, it is something that we will not tolerate in this Chamber, and until we get it right, I will never be quiet on this subject. And I know the gentleman feels as strongly as I do.

If I could just interrupt for a minute, I don't think any of us want to impugn anybody's motives. Our objective here is and the reason we were sent here by our constituents is to solve problems, which you have outlined is a reasonable balance between the privacy rights of Americans and the necessity of the government to do what it is number one tasked to do, which is to protect our citizens. But when we get that balance wrong and the director of the people that have to collect that intelligence say that we have got to have judges, you are going to knock out more than half of our intelligence-gathering capability, then it says we need to get back to the drawing board and get this thing done the right way.

I certainly appreciate your attention to the details to looking at the language. And I certainly hope that our Democrat colleagues will allow enough debate and discussion to solve the problem.

Mr. Speaker, coming from the Second Congressional District, my memory is just long enough to recall some actual personal encounters with Bob Young. Bob was almost a caricature of politics in North County, St. Louis. Bob was a guy who was a pipefitter, he was a war hero, he was in the Third Army under Patton, came back, got into politics.

He served 20 years in the Missouri legislature, house and senate, and then came down here for about 10 years or so and was very plain spoken. He wasn't noted for sugar-coating things, but he had a wonderful sense of humor, fiercely loyal to labor unions, but reasonably conservative in a lot of other regards, left a family that was involved in politics as well.

But somebody who had a real cheerful twinkle in his eye, a good sense of humor and somebody I know that the St. Louis area will long remember as a good leader and a good man. So we are sorry for his passing. On the other hand, we are thankful for the richness of his life.

I rise to call attention to a tragedy of our own making. In May of this year, a U.S. soldier, Alex Jimenez, along with several of his friends, were captured by al Qaeda. As our intelligence officers wanted to tap into wires to try to find his whereabouts, they were hobbled and had to wait 10 hours for lawyers to get through the FISA Court to allow them to get the critical information they needed. That information lost, this soldier and his compatriots have never been found, although the bodies of one or two have been found.

The Democrats want to expand this FISA process now to our warfighting capabilities and hobble our soldiers to have to wait for hours and hours for lawyers to approve gathering information.

Back when I was in the State of Missouri, we had jokes between farmers and lawyers. They were kind of funny. But this is not a funny joke. How many lawyers does it take to rescue a hostage? The answer should be zero.

Now, the Democrats want to undermine our relationship with Turkey which will cripple our military's efforts.

If the Democrats want to pull our troops out of Iraq then have the courage to defund the war.

Otherwise, stop handicapping our military with bureaucratic red tape that will undermine their mission. The lives of our military personnel are on the line.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in recognition of the Middendorf-Kredell Branch Library in O'Fallon, Missouri, recipient of the 2007 Federal Depository Library of the Year Award.

The Federal Depository Library Program was established by Congress to ensure that the American public has access to its Government's information by disseminating information from all three branches of the Government to over 1,240 libraries nationwide. The depository libraries are responsible for collecting, maintaining and assisting users with no-fee access to the information in an impartial environment with professional assistance.

It is the high level of professionalism demonstrated from staff and the enthusiasm to disseminate information in a user friendly fashion that has rendered the Middendorf-Kredell Branch Library the distinguished title of Federal Depository Library of the Year.

Middendorf-Kredell Branch Library utilizes creativity and innovation in developing various programs. They were one of the first Federal depository libraries to move to an online environment in September 1995 by creating a Government information web site. A standout feature of the web site includes ``Uncle Sam for Kids,'' one of the first of its kind in the Nation to help kids obtain Federal information for school assignments.

We are so thankful for Middendorf-Krendell Branch Library's leadership in creating programs that are emulated throughout the country and are appreciative for the great work

they are doing in Missouri. Congratulations on an outstanding achievement.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize and honor one of my constituents, Mrs. Jane Bridges Ferrenbach Evens. Jane has been selected as the 2007-2008 Freedoms Foundation--Missouri (St. Louis) Chapter ``Spirit of '76--Patriot.'' The Freedoms Foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to teaching young people the principles upon which our Nation was founded. They work to convey the close link between the rights and the responsibilities of citizens in society.

Jane has been an active member of the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge since 1972, organizing and promoting the chapter with enthusiasm. She served as the National Chair of Development for the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution for the last 6 years and is currently acting Senior Advisor to the Development Department. Jane has also volunteered her time and energy to numerous other organizations, including the St. Louis Repertory Theatre, Youth Emergency Service, Hosea House, Girls Club of St. Louis, Kirkwood Rotary Club, to name just a few.

A native of Webster Groves, Missouri, Jane is married to Robert D. Evens. She has two successful daughters, both working in the medical field, and two grandchildren.

As one who has a deep and abiding love for American history and the Patriots, who have gone before us, I want to thank Jane for her commitment to preserving our history and congratulate her for being selected 2007-2008 ``Spirit of '76--Patriot.''