speaker of the house of representatives to the order of the house of january fourth two thousand and seven the chair will now recognize members from this submitted by the majority and minority leaders for morning hour debate the chair will alternate recognition between the parties with each party limited to thirty minutes and each member other than the majority and minority leaders and the minority whip limited to five minutes the chair recognizes the gentleman from florida mr stearns for five minutes as you know speaker the immigration problem has been a topic of contentious debate for years now with few results the influx both legal and illegal immigrants from mexico to north numbers at a minimum about five hundred thousand people a year it is clear that the majority of these immigrants are coming to our country for the better wages to provide for their families and this is the heart of the problem the mexican until then about and speaker we will continue to face massive immigration from the south while we are painfully aware of the problems illegal immigration is causing in our societies consider what is doing to mexico in the long run the massive immigration is draining many villages across mexico of their important labor pool families are separated while the husbands and fathers choose to cross our borders to get better lives for themselves and for their families mexico is slow reforming their economic policies in part perhaps because of the influx of money from this remittances from the united states that enables them to continue their unhealthy policies let me explain the money sent in the form of remittances amounts to about twenty three billion dollars in two thousand and six according to the bank in mexico the country's central bank that amount is up almost seven fold in a dozen years as that number has grown the fee for your mending fees and money has dropped from an average about nine point two percent in one thousand nine hundred eighty nine to just about three percent this year according to bank com or a mexican bank sending money back to mexico has become cheaper partly because the amounts had become bigger it was about two hundred ninety dollars an average of eight years ago and now it's up to over three hundred fifty dollars more importantly according to the bank of mexico over ninety percent of these remittances are now sent by electronic wire transfer compared with only fifty percent in five in rural poor communities in mexico even a three percent transfer transaction fee is a huge chunk cut out of a remittance check that is why the banks of mexico and america's federal reserve  running a program call direct oh mexico or fed act international mexican service to cut the cost further for these folks in this program people receive an overnight transfer from an american bank account to a mexican one the two central banks act as a middleman taking a cut of about sixty seven cents no matter what the size of the transaction according to a little bit mcquery of the federal reserve banks and typically charge two dollars and fifty cents to five dollars to transfer about three hundred fifty dollars into total this new program cuts a cost of remittances by at least half in america two hundred banks are now signed up for their service compared with just six that signed up when it was initiated in two thousand and four so far the program is just beginning handling about twenty seven thousand transactions among however another point of serious concern is that about twenty six thousand  which are social security payments paid made by the american government to beneficiaries in mexico one kink in the program was that most of mexicans poor were often the unintended recipients of the funds do not have bank accounts to pay them into so to ensure that these funds can still get to mexico they develop another program run by ben saffy a mexican government bank that allows people in america to open bank accounts for their relatives in mexico their relatives can then use these accounts to withdraw all the money deposited through the riminton program by the speaker another question is do the legal and illegal immigrants themselves have account to send money from cystic indicate as many as seventy percent do according to a recent report by the banks in mexico this is largely because hundreds of american banks eager for deposits will happily open accounts for people carrying only a mexican consul or a den card rather than requiring official united states government identification this allows people without officially sanctioned rights to be in this country to send money out of it as a result the mexican bank has seen rapid growth with three point four million accounts now open a can compared to just eight hundred fifty thousand in the year two thousand and one if this trend continues madam speaker it will enable the mexican government to continue to operate as it is today the economy will continue to stagnate immigration will continue to bleed across our border and the mexico government be caught in a downward spiral for generations to come the gentleman's time has expire the chair recognizes the gentleman from utah to bishop for five minutes without objection so order madam speaker it is with great pleasure to honor that i stand on her lieutenant general kevin j sullivan upon his promotion to the air force deputy chief of staff for installation and logistics kevin sullivan was born in bridgeport connecticut grew up in an air force family he married the former june young also from connecticut and he is an alumnus of the university of connecticut so he in junior husky fans through and through gen sullivan or entered the air force and was commissioned through the air force r t c program his first assignment took him in hundred seventy five to england air force base in louisiana as a weapons loading officer he has since had assignments in the philippines north dakota nebraska here in washington alabama germany utah ohio florida and most recently the returning gage meant to heal air force base as the commander of the ogden air logistics center general sullivan is the longest serving commander in the history of the ogden a l c and he has led with the perp application of financial human and material resources during his tenure despite living in the itinerant life that is part and parcel of the air force and despite his us as a as affection and his affinity to his alma mater we consider kevin and june to be true utahns and we look forward to their future visits official and not so official general sullivan please accept my heartfelt thanks for your outstanding leadership and stewardship of hill air force base during the past four years and my very best wishes upon your important to assignment you exemplify the tradition of integrity first service before self and in recess until two p m today