Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, on rollcall No. 817, I was unavoidably absent. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay.'' On rollcall No. 818, I would have voted ``yea.'' On rollcall No. 819, I would have voted ``yea.'' On rollcall No. 820, I would have voted ``yea.'' On rollcall No. 821, I would have voted ``yea.'' On rollcall No. 822, I would have voted ``yea.'' On rollcall No. 823, I would have voted ``yea.''

Madam Speaker, on rollcall No. 779, I was unavoidably absent. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay.''

On rollcall No. 780, I would have voted ``yea.'' On rollcall No. 781, I would have voted ``nay.'' On rollcall No. 782, I would have voted ``yea.'' On rollcall No. 783, I would have voted ``nay.'' On rollcall No. 784, I would have voted ``yea.'' On rollcall No. 785, I would have voted ``yea.'' On rollcall No. 786, I would have voted ``nay.'' On rollcall No. 787, I would have voted ``yea.'' On rollcall No. 788, I would have voted ``yea.'' On rollcall No. 789, I would have voted ``yea.'' On rollcall No. 790, I would have voted ``yea.''

Madam Speaker, on rollcall No. 791, I was unavoidably absent. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea.''

On rollcall No. 792, I would have voted ``yea.''

On rollcall No. 793, I would have voted ``yea.''

On rollcall No. 794, I would have voted ``yea.''

On rollcall No. 795, I would have voted ``nay.''

On rollcall No. 796, I would have voted ``yea.''

On rollcall No. 797, I would have voted ``yea.''

On rollcall No. 798, I would have voted ``nay.''

On rollcall No. 799, I would have voted ``yea.''

On rollcall No. 800, I would have voted ``yea.''

On rollcall No. 801, I would have voted ``nay.''

On rollcall No. 802, I would have voted ``yea.''

On rollcall No. 803, I would have voted ``nay.''

On rollcall No. 804, I would have voted ``nay.''

On rollcall No. 805, I would have voted ``nay.''

On rollcall No. 806, I would have voted ``nay.''

On rollcall No. 807, I would have voted ``nay.''

On rollcall No. 808, I would have voted ``nay.''

On rollcall No. 809, I would have voted ``nay.''

On rollcall No. 810, I would have voted ``nay.''

On rollcall No. 811, I would have voted ``nay.''

On rollcall No. 812, I would have voted ``nay.''

On rollcall No. 813, I would have voted ``nay.''

On rollcall No. 814, I would have voted ``nay.''

On rollcall No. 815, I would have voted ``yea.''

On rollcall No. 816, I would have voted ``yea.''

Madam Speaker, On rollcall No. 763, I was unavoidably absent. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea.'' On rollcall No. 764, I would have voted ``yea.'' On rollcall No. 765, I would have voted ``yea.'' On rollcall No. 766, I would have voted ``nay.'' On rollcall No. 767, I would have voted ``yea.'' On rollcall No. 768, I would have voted ``yea.'' On rollcall No. 769, I would have voted ``yea.'' On rollcall No. 770, I would have voted ``nay.'' On rollcall No. 771, I would have voted ``yea.'' On rollcall No. 772, I would have voted ``yea.'' On rollcall No. 773, I would have voted ``yea.'' On rollcall No. 774, I would have voted ``yea.'' On rollcall No. 775, I would have voted ``present.'' On rollcall No. 776, I would have voted ``nay.'' On rollcall No. 777, I would have voted ``yea.'' On rollcall No. 778, I would have voted ``yea.''

Madam Speaker, on rollcall No. 758, I was unavoidably absent; had I been present, I would have voted ``aye''; On rollcall No. 759, I would have voted ``aye''; On rollcall No. 760, I would have voted ``aye''; On rollcall No. 761, I would have voted ``aye''; On rollcall No. 762, I would have voted ``aye.''

Madam Speaker, on rollcall No. 748, I was unavoidably absent. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea''; on rollcall No. 749, I would have voted ``yea''; on rollcall No. 750, I would have voted ``nay''; on rollcall No. 751, I would have voted ``nay''; on rollcall No. 752, I would have voted ``yea''; on rollcall No. 753, I would have voted ``nay''; on rollcall No. 754, I would have voted ``yea''; on rollcall No. 755, I would have voted ``nay''; on rollcall No. 756, I would have voted ``yea''; on rollcall No. 757, I would have voted ``yea.''

Madam Speaker, on rollcall No. 734, I was unavoidably absent. Had I been present, I would have voted ``no.'' On rollcall No. 735, I would have voted ``no.'' On rollcall No. 736, I would have voted ``no.'' On rollcall No. 737, I would have voted ``no.'' On rollcall No. 738, I would have voted ``aye.'' On rollcall No. 739, I would have voted ``no.'' On rollcall No. 740, I would have voted ``no.'' On rollcall No. 741, I would have voted ``no.'' On rollcall No. 742, I would have voted ``no.'' On rollcall No. 743, I would have voted ``no.'' On rollcall No. 744, I would have voted ``aye.'' On rollcall No. 745, I would have voted ``no.'' On rollcall No. 746, I would have voted ``aye.'' On rollcall No. 747, I would have voted ``aye.''

Madam Speaker, on rollcall No. 716, I was unavoidably absent. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea.''

On rollcall No. 717, I would have voted ``yea.''

On rollcall No. 718, I would have voted ``yea.''

On rollcall No. 719, I would have voted ``yea.''

On rollcall No. 720, I would have voted ``no.''

On rollcall No. 721, I would have voted ``no.''

On rollcall No. 722, I would have voted ``no.''

On rollcall No. 723, I would have voted ``aye.''

On rollcall No. 724, I would have voted ``no.''

On rollcall No. 725, I would have voted ``aye.''

On rollcall No. 726, I would have voted ``no.''

On rollcall No. 727, I would have voted ``no.''

On rollcall No. 728, I would have voted ``aye.''

On rollcall No. 729, I would have voted ``no.''

On rollcall No. 730, I would have voted ``aye.''

On rollcall No. 731, I would have voted ``aye.''

On rollcall No. 732, I would have voted ``aye.''

On rollcall No. 733, I would have voted ``aye.''

Madam Speaker, On rollcall No. 691, I was taking a leave of absence. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay.'' On rollcall No. 692, I was taking a leave of absence. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay.'' On rollcall No. 693, I was taking a leave of absence. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay.'' On rollcall No. 694, I was taking a leave of absence. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay.'' On rollcall No. 695, I was taking a leave of absence. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay.''

On rollcall No. 696, I was taking a leave of absence. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay.'' On rollcall No. 697, I was taking a leave of absence. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay.'' On rollcall No. 698, I was taking a leave of absence. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay.'' On rollcall No. 699, I was taking a leave of absence. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay.'' On rollcall No. 700, I was taking a leave of absence. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay.''

On rollcall No. 701, I was taking a leave of absence. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay.'' On rollcall No. 702, I was taking a leave of absence. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay.'' On rollcall No. 703, I was taking a leave of absence. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea.'' On rollcall No. 704, I was taking a leave of absence. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay.'' On rollcall No. 705, I was taking a leave of absence. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay.''

On rollcall No. 706, I was taking a leave of absence. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay.'' On rollcall No. 707, I was taking a leave of absence. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay.'' On rollcall No. 708, I was taking a leave of absence. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay.'' On rollcall No. 709, I was taking a leave of absence. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay.'' On rollcall No. 710, I was taking a leave of absence. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay.''

On rollcall No. 711 I was taking a leave of abence. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay.'' On rollcall No. 712, I was taking a leave of absence. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay.'' On rollcall No. 713 I was taking a leave of absence. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea.'' On rollcall No. 714, I was taking a leave of absence. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay.'' On rollcall No. 715, I was taking a leave of absence. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea.''

Madam Speaker, on rollcall No. 687, I was on a leave of absence. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea''.

On rollcall No. 688, I was on a leave of absence. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea''.

On rollcall No. 689, I was on a leave of absence. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea''.

On rollcall No. 690, I was on a leave of absence. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea''.

Mr. Speaker, early in the morning on Saturday, July 7, I awoke to an unusual sound; it was the sound of a police helicopter circling over the community in which I reside. Typically, when you hear a police helicopter you know that something has gone wrong in the community. They are usually searching for a suspect in a crime.

Today, I stand before this body and before you, Mr. Speaker, with a heavy heart. The reason behind that circling was the injuring, critical injuring of an officer, a police officer. And it is with a heavy heart that I stand before you today to honor the life and contribution of a fallen hero, a great American patriot, New York Police Officer Russel Timoshenko. Last weekend, he was tragically shot in the face and the neck and succumbed to those fatal gunshots this weekend.

Officer Timoshenko was born in Belarus and immigrated to the United States in the early 1990s, when he was only 7 years old.

Upon his graduation from Tottenville High School in Staten Island, New York, Russel attended City College and majored in economics while playing on the lacrosse team. I understand, like myself, he loved to dance.

Prior to completing his studies, he decided to become a New York City police officer. During his short career on the force, Officer Timoshenko made 15 arrests. And although Officer Timoshenko had only been on the force for 1\1/2\ years, his commitment to protect and serve the least and the greatest in our community embodied the true sentiment of a public servant, and he was highly regarded among his colleagues.

Officer Timoshenko and his partner, Officer Herman Yan, were both shot during a routine traffic stop in Brooklyn in the early morning of Saturday, July 7. Officer Yan survived because of his bulletproof vest, and I pray for his continued speedy recovery. Unfortunately, Officer Timoshenko was shot in the head, and the two bullets that struck him cut across his spinal cord just beneath his brain. Officer Timoshenko did not survive his wounds.

Officer Timoshenko's untimely death was a direct result of the proliferation of illegal guns in my community. His life was taken in service to our city and in pursuit of his oath to protect and serve. And, in so doing, there are three less illegal handguns on the streets of New York.

I stand with the New York City Police Chief, Commissioner Kelly, Mayor Bloomberg, and Governor Spitzer in the fight against illegal gun trafficking into our city, and also in aggressively working to make our neighborhoods safe to live, work, and play.

To the parents and family of Officer Timoshenko, please accept our thanks for sharing him with us. Thank you for allowing us the opportunity to share the life of such a fine human being. And on behalf of New York's 11th Congressional District, I offer my sincerest condolences, and pray that God will grant the family comfort and peace at this time.

Mr. Speaker, it is with great pleasure that I rise today to give my enthusiastic support to the College Cost Reduction Act of 2007, H.R. 2669. I want to thank Chairman Miller for his leadership in this matter.

In the advent of the 21st century, the question we must ask ourselves is, what have we done to ensure the success of our Nation, the development of our civil society? Education has been and will always be the portal for our advancement.

The cost of attending college has increased by 40 percent over the past 5 years. As a result, students are graduating with more debt than ever and postponing enrollment or avoiding college all together because they just can't afford it. This legislation is a much-needed sigh of relief for traditional college students, working families and adult learners in my home district in Brooklyn, New York, and across this Nation.

The College Cost Reduction Act cuts interest rates in half on subsidized student loans over the next 5 years, increases the amount of Federal loans available to students, and so I ask your enthusiastic support for this groundbreaking legislation.

Mr. Speaker, on rollcall 613, the final passage of the College Cost Reduction Act, a bill I am proud to have been helpful in crafting, I was unavoidably detained. If I had been present, I would have proudly voted ``aye.''

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that, in the engrossment of the bill, H.R. 2669, the Clerk be authorized to correct section numbers, punctuation, citations, and cross references and to make such other technical and conforming changes as may be appropriate to reflect the actions of the House.

Mr. Chairman, I want to thank the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Price) for the time and for the opportunity to discuss an important issue to me.

With every passing day, I hear more talk about how to prevent illegal immigration. We're discussing it at this very moment. Many proposals to deal with undocumented immigrants involve punishing them through deportation or what has been termed as ``touchback,'' which requires immigrants to expel themselves and pay a heavy, extremely punitive fine.

However, we could best reduce the number of undocumented immigrants by improving and reforming our own government bureaucracy. While many Members of this body believe that every undocumented immigrant walked across the southern border, the fact is that 40 percent of them enter our country legally, and many of them have only broken the law after falling through the cracks of a vast bureaucracy.

Back home in Brooklyn, New York, an area that boasts immigrants from every corner of the world, I have personally talked to countless people who were frustrated because they had no intention of breaking the law, but simply became tied up in an overly complicated and backlogged system as their applications were delayed until their visas expired and suddenly they were here illegally.

I'm further concerned with the proposed fee increases at CIS to process applications. All of the people who emigrate here from other countries have come looking for a better life. Many of these people work hard at jobs that pay so little that most Americans do not want to take them.

We cannot expect these individuals to pay astronomical fees that they cannot afford, as this effectively creates another barrier to citizenship for many immigrants who only want to make an honest living, and leaves those who cannot pay in undocumented limbo. We in Congress must ensure that CIS has the funding it requires to be efficient and effective without resorting to taking money from those who cannot afford the extremely punitive costs.

As the debate on immigration reform progresses, it is vital that we address these issues and ensure that CIS will be able to help everyone who desires to play by, and be in compliance with, the rules. It is simply not right that many people have been deemed criminals simply because our government is ill-equipped to process these applications or because we have made it totally unaffordable.

I thank the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Price) for his efforts at improving the legal immigration process, and I look forward to working together to bring about improvements and reforms to an immigration system that is reflective of the 21st century United States.

Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pride and pleasure today to rise to inform the House, on this Friday, May 18, Haitians throughout the diaspora celebrated Haitian Flag Day.

Since the creation of the Haitian flag on May 18, 1803, the day has been observed as Haitian Flag Day to Haitian Americans throughout the diaspora. This day has become a source of pride synonymous with unity and a symbol of freedom and individual liberty for Haitian people.

Later this week, I will introduce legislation to commemorate this historic and celebrative event. The 18th of May, Haitian Flag Day, is the most celebrated holiday in Haiti.

Just to put this day in context for most Americans, there are some historical facts that I would like to share with you.

When Napoleon Bonaparte envisioned a great French empire in the New World, he had hoped to use the Mississippi Valley as a food and trade center to supply the island of Hispaniola. First, he had to restore French control of Hispaniola, where Haitian slaves under Toussaint L'Ouverture had seized power. Napoleon soon realized that Hispaniola must be abandoned. Accordingly, in April of 1803, he offered to sell Louisiana to the United States.

President Thomas Jefferson had already sent James Monroe and Robert R. Livingston to Paris to negotiate the purchase of a tract of land in the lower Mississippi, or at least guarantee of free navigation of the river. Surprised and delighted by the French offer of the whole territory, they immediately negotiated the treaty.

At one stroke, the United States would double in its size, an enormous tract of land would be open to settlement, and the free navigation of the Mississippi would be assured.

Although the Constitution did not specifically empower the Federal Government to acquire new territory by treaty, Jefferson concluded that the practical benefits to the Nation far outweighed the possible violation of the Constitution. The Senate concurred with this decision and voted ratification October 20, 1803, this all precipitated by the revolution of freed slaves on the island of Haiti.

The Spanish, who had never given up a physical possession of Louisiana to the French, did so in a ceremony at New Orleans on November 30, 1803. And in a second ceremony December 20, 1803, the French turned Louisiana over to the United States.

I would like to also honor those brave Haitians who fought for American independence at the siege of Savannah, Georgia, in 1779: The Chasseurs-Volontaires de Saint-Domingue, a regiment of soldiers who formed one-tenth of the allied army before Savannah in the fall of 1779. This unit was comprised of over 500 free men of color from the island of Haiti and was the largest unit of men of African descent to fight in the American revolution.

The battle of Savannah, on October 9, 1779, reminds us that significant foreign resources of men, money and material contributed to the eventual success of the cause of American independence.

The presence of the Chasseurs-Volontaires de Saint Domingue was made up of free men who volunteered for this expedition is startling to most people and surprising to most historians.

Men of African heritage were to be found on most battlefields of the revolution in large numbers. A subsequent unit of Haitians was part of the French and Spanish campaign against Pensacola, where they faced some of the same regiments of British troops that their comrades faced in Savannah.

Haiti, much smaller in population than the United States, was attacked by armies as large as those sent against America by Britain. The Haitian victory over the legions of Napoleon was achieved with much less foreign assistance than the United States enjoyed.

It is these types of historical events put in the context of our Nation today that we celebrate with the Haitian Americans in diaspora, their accomplishments and achievements in the growth and development of our Nation.

Many key figures in the Haitian War of Independence gained military experience and political insights through their participation in Savannah, most notably Henri Christophe, a youth at the time, but, in his adult years, a general of Haitian armies and King of his nation for 14 years.

There is little appreciation in the United States for the events that led to the formation of the Haitian nation. Influenced by both the events of the American Revolution and the rhetoric of the French Revolution, the people of Haiti began a struggle for self-government and liberty.

The first nation in the Western Hemisphere to form a government led by people of African descent, it was also the first nation to renounce slavery.

The Haitian national flag is indisputably a symbol of general pride whose origin is tightly linked to a history of struggle for freedom.

As you all already know, the Haitian flag was first presented in 1802 when Haiti was fighting against the French for independence and it was realized that both armies fought under the same flag.

After the modification of the flag in 1807, the phrase ``L'UNION FAIT LA FORCE'', meaning that through unity we find strength, was re- adopted.

The Haitian constitution of 1987 describes the new flag as: Two (2) equal-sized horizontal bands: a blue one on top and a red one underneath; The coat of arms of the Republic shall be placed in the center on a white square; The coat of arms of the Republic will be a Palm tree surmounted by the liberty cap and under the palms a trophy with the legend: In Union there is Strength;

This weekend, I joined with hundreds of my Haitian constituents as we celebrated Haitian Flag Day together. For as long as I can remember, Haitians have gathered in my district of Brooklyn, NY to recognize this historic day.

I ask my colleagues to please join me in recognizing the world's oldest black republic and the second-oldest republic in the Western Hemisphere celebrate the ideals of unity, strength and freedom embedded in the Haitian Flag by becoming a co-sponsor of the Haitian Flag Day resolution.