hall of the capitol visitor center be known as a master passion hall the bill was introduced by representative zach wamp of tennessee a on august second two thousand and seven at nearly five hundred eighty thousand square feet the capitol visitor center is the largest project undertaken by the office of the architect of the capitol in the capital's two hundred twelve year old history it is one of the most important projects since the extensions to the capitol and the dumb are built more than one hundred forty years ago as an extension of the capital the capitol visitor center will welcome visitors to the seat of american government within the capitol visitor center of the great hall is a large twenty thousand square foot room where visitors will gather as a enter the capitol this prominent gathering space will serve as the gateway for the public's experience of the capital an american democracy the capitol visitor center will provide visitors to the capital the opportunity to learn about more fully understand the constitution the congress and the history of the capital including the contribution of slaves who helped build the capitol and the country it will help deepen the understanding of all who this is about our nation's long struggle with slavery and its ultimate abolition it is fitting and appropriate to recognize the seminal moment of the a mancipation proclamation in american history we should recognize the sacrifice and contribution of the many slaves who helped build the capitol mr speaker with that i reserve the balance of my time gentleman reserves this t here i i am pleased to offer three minutes to the gentleman from illinois how many know what time three minutes down has recognized i think the gentleman yielding let me express my great appreciation to the chairman and to the ranking member of this committee today we've come to this temple of democracy on this momentous occasion to write a new chapter in the unfolding story of human freedom the event of a mancipation marks one of the most if not the most significant event in american history emancipation was more than an act it was a process emancipation was not a date but a period of mancipation was not an event but the fulfillment of providence that the arc of history may be long but it bends towards justice and human freedom when the american city war erupted both north and south defended their causes as morally just legally right and constitutionally sound northerners and southerners saw themselves as the true americans following in the tradition in the footsteps of the founding fathers north and south use the constitution as their source of moral and legal authority for conducting a war against each other both sides saw themselves as standing in the tradition of the american revolution each side contended that it was fighting for freedom and liberty those certain facts contradicted the beliefs of both the south said it was fighting to preserve the freedom while owning slaves the north said it was fighting for liberty while not initially fighting to gra liberty to the slaves president abraham lincoln's address to the sanitary fair in baltimore on april eighteenth eight hundred sixty four summed up the quandary he said we all declare for liberty but in using the same word we do not mean the same thing with some the word liberty may mean for each man to do if he pleases with himself and the product of his labor while with others the same word may mean for some men to do as they please while other men with other men and the product of other men's labor here are two not only different but incompatible things called by the same name liberty and it follows that each of these things is by their respective parties called by two different and incompatible names liberty and tyranny today women lesbians gays bisexuals and transgendered americans african americans latinos native americans and students see in the word liberty one thing today for the titans of industry it still means quite another for the dispossessed it means for each person to do with himself as they please for the titans it means for them to do as they please with other men and the product of other men's labor anywhere in the world as lincoln said and it follows that each of these things by their respective parties called by two different incompatible names liberty and tyranny that is why the efforts to name the great hall of liberty hall will settle for some but still not subtle for others the fundamental question of human freedom for millions of americans to pass through emancipation hall and not liberty hall is an important acknowledgement about the process for painting human freedom in the american historical context mr chairman mr speaker it is most appropriate that the distinguished gentleman from tennessee mr  this amendment in conjunction with the gentleman from illinois to help establish a marker in the capital of the united states about the significant role that these americans these africans played in the process not only in constructing the temple of our democracy but in strengthening america madam chair it is probably most appropriate that the emancipation hall designation be established during this thanksgiving period as the first thanksgiving established by proclamation by president abraham lincoln was during the american civil war when president lincoln on october third eight hundred sixty three looked out over a nation torn by war ravaged by internet i seen intro family and interfamily struggle and concluded that because of the extraordinary efforts of the north and the self men and women who thought their causes were just that we needed a national day of thanks and so on october the third eight hundred sixty three president abraham lincoln affixed to a national proclamation a national day of thanks to say thank you for now until eternity for all of the blessings that episode upon our nation thanksgiving has a lot less to do mr speaker with pilgrim of it i've spent many many many hours walking people through this capital and talking about the extraordinary history of this place about seventeen hundred times i've taken groups to the capitol over the last thirteen years some of the stories that i've learned about as a share them just since chills up and down my spine to think that there were four thousand union troops during the civil war stationed on capitol hill four thousand troops were here at the capitol during the civil war and when you go up inside of the dome the magnificent dome which around the world is the beacon of freedom the symbol of hope recognizable everywhere in this world you go up inside of it and you ask what the little hooks are hanging in there and they'll tell you that's where they hung the lanterns when union soldiers would work side by side with slaves to build  of the civil war that's fact few people know because as ms norton said the story was never told it was never our cause the incredible commitment and the irony of the people fighting for the slaves freedom were working side by side during the civil war to build this temple of freedom all the history books point out that that's one great engrave omission in the capital history again amos guinness once told me that the power to convene is greater than the power to legislate and we convene here in the capitol people from all over the world for good causes the force base of the rotunda which is the most prominent room in the capitol is about seventy five hundred square feet as ms norton said the floor space of this new hall which has been called the great hall is almost three times that size it's a magnificent space designed to bring all of the visitors there to convene them before they enter this temple of freedom i want to and i want to answer the question why not the great hall because it's been referred to as the great  but the great hall for over one hundred years is the four year the great hall at the library of congress in the jefferson building it's one of the most ornate spaces in the united states of america i think it's the most beautiful room in washington c and it is called the great hall the librarian of congress told us as soon as i became the ranking member of the legislative branch preparation subcommittee in january that this was a conflict because the c d c construction adds a tunnel between the great hall and the great hall own two sides of a tunnel it's going to be two great halls are you kidding me how do we do that that's confusing that's problematic that diminishes the name and the history for over century of the great hall of the library of congress which everyone in this city presidents vice presidents speakers of the house know is the great hall so you can't call this the great hall so what shall it be called emancipation brings us all together at a time in this country where we need things to bring us together this is a way to honor this incredible process that led to an event that liberated all people in this country under our constitution not just some and it was abraham lincoln who was the great emancipator so our party's come together today and i asked the house to join us in this most important naming it is important what you name things it's important what we name each other it's important what we call things it's important what we call things each other words matter emancipation liberates us today the thought of a mancipation hall the largest and most prominent room in this five hundred eighty thousand square foot addition to the capitol come together house of representatives come together united states senate let us send the message to all who come to this temple of freedom that emancipation live zone and was such an important moment in the learning process of this experiment in freedom and democracy known as the american republic let us come together emancipation hall it does have a great ring to it it's a it sounds beautiful and it sounds like it's high time that such a hall were so named and it does sound like an appropriate hall  as i go back though and think through the comments in the speeches of those who were able to to get rid of this abomination in this country you think about the reasoning they had some of said that if there is no universal standard of right and wrong if there is no force in the universe beyond ourselves that is unwavering as to right and wrong then people can treat others the way they wish it were each god in our own way then we can treat each other as we wish but i believe as those who fought so hard to eliminate slavery that there is a universal standard of right and wrong and that is the god that's referenced in god we trust but as we look throughout the congressional district center we find the mets patient holiday a great addition but there ought to be a basis some reference so people know why the emancipation was so important and yet as i understand it the term creator we are endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights that's nowhere in the hall that's been eliminated there's no reference to lord the constitution is dated in the year of our lord one thing thousand seven hundred eighty seven there's no we we find out a couple of weeks ago that laos dayo that's on the capstone of the washington monument meaning praise be to god has been obliterated and changed from the display so that people don't know what's up there and the capstone itself the monument replicas tarm where people can't see it we are categorically removing guide and the references to creator to god the lord from all of these things and lincoln in his address has repeatedly over demanding an end to this abomination that god will judge america harshly if we don't eliminate it lincoln said after he became president what much happened during those two years he was in the house except for those great summons from that dear man adams so i hope that not only can we move forward with naming the great hall a more appropriate emancipation hall and think that's wonderful but i think that we ought to restore to the plans god who made it all possible thank forward this certainly is a very fitting honor and i ask all of my colleagues for resound ing yes vote to this son that we move forward i also want to thank our the chairman of the  bill to reach this point i'd like to read from the recently released report of the task force on slavery on the use of slaves in the capital the issue of slavery in particular was an embarrassing subject that did not sit well with squeamish writers early histories of the capital were focused on architecture architects and superintendents and not on the workman who actually implemented the plans in order orders this situation has changed dramatically in in more recent accounts which reflect a new respect for all who played a role in the capital's history including lower class laborers and slaves this is the result of a more inclusive view of history by modern scholars and a relatively new interest and multicultural subjects the report also says and here again i'm quoting it is not possible to examine the documents of the national archives related to the capital's early construction without being impressed by the sheer number of references to quote negro hi according to the records the financial records of the district of columbia hundreds of local residents of the district of columbia receive payments for the work  the slaves they owned here remember the capitol of the united states retained slavery until just before the end of the civil war but we should not forget that while it is well enough to acknowledge that slaves were instrumental in building this building there is no building from the nineteenth century that was constructed in this town no public building no public no building of any note that was not built in part through the labor of slaves this was true throughout the united states fana hall in boston the so called cradle of liberty was built by slave labor the homes of george washington thomas jefferson and james madison were constructed with the help of slaves they they will never be commemorated what emancipation hall will do is to make americans want to know more about how much of our country was built on the backs of slave labor who have never been recognized and emancipation hall is the place to do  it because the visitor's center itself is going to be a giant temple for education about our country about our capital and about what is happening in this building so when people this is the capital and come through this emancipation hall there will surely be a marker indicating why the entrance the great entrance travel down the history of our country which is going to be recorded there in so many ways and they will be educated about much that is happening in our country and for most americans this will be the first time they have been educated about slaves and their contribution to the united states of america and you'll back the balance of my time gentle lady your back  questionnaire with the house suspend the rules and pass a chart thirty three thirteen those in favor say aye those opposed say no in the opinion of the chair two thirds being in the affirmative mrs rules are suspended the bill is passed and without objection the motion to reconsider is laid on the table mr speaker i request the announcement for the proceedings on this motion will be postpone under the act to our friends in micronesia this bill also approves agreements made pursuant to the act which determines how disaster relief will be handled for the federated states of micronesia and the republic of the marshall islands in addition  from the united states but we rents for excess military u s military naval vessels while access to our own needs these refurbished vessels can serve significant and deeply appreciated roles in the navies of the recipient as my colleagues well know turkey is one of our most valued nato members and is one of the united states was closest allies it is a key conduit to turkey serves as one of the most important conduits for the transit of supplies to our in iraq the transfer of these vessels to guided missile frigates and to minesweepers well again reinforce our close relationship with his ten ball and our common commitments to each other security needs the swing  has been a staunch u s ally in the global war on terror it makes an outsized contribution to global security contributing troops to military operations in afghanistan and iraq and a leading provincial reconstruction team in afghanistan the two minesweeper vessels in this bill will allow then in years to clear leftover sea mines from the two world wars in the baltic sea and supports this when his commitment to nato is mine countermeasures forces north mission taiwan is a thriving and energetic democracy our two nations share a complex web of economic political and strategic ties that only deepens over time taiwan is a bulwark of democracy in the asia pacific region and we must do all we can to further strengthen our political security and economic ties this bill authorizes the sale of two minesweepers to taiwan i urge my colleagues to support this bill and i reserve the balance of my those islands as trust territories until they became independent sovereign nations and then one thousand nine hundred eighty and one nine hundred ninety s our relations with those countries are governed by compacts of free association which guarantees certain forms of u s assistance and cooperation in exchange for defense rights and obligations that are unique in the world those specific those pacific nations remain stalwart friends of the united states and dependable partners in the united nations general assembly some of their citizens continues serve with great distinction and personal sacrifice in the united states armed forces including iraq and afghanistan the hundred eight updates and minor changes to that act as well as to the pullout compact most most importantly it is approved to disaster assistance agreements required by section one hundred five of the act which were subsequently negotiated between the parties and presented to congress i want to thank the author the gentle lady from the u s virgin islands mr christensen for for vibing us this opportunity to reaffirm our friendship with the republic of the marshall islands requested by the department of defense and introduced by the gentleman from california great chairman tom lantos according to the secretary of the navy authorities to transfer surplus vessels as an important aspect of our ship disposition strategy it enables the navy to manage its inventory while strengthening the ties with our allies by transferring the ships that enhance their defense capabilities this doth arise at this transfer of defense articles and three will be transferred to the foreign military cells under section twenty one of the arms export control act importantly the legislation also requires that any expense incurred by the united states and connection with a transfer authorized by this bill shope be charged to the recipient likewise it states that too to the maximum extent feasible repair and refurbishment of these vessels shall take place in us ship yards i our support of this legislation and reserve the balance of my time thank you mr speaker appreciate it gentlemen reserves the time gentleman from a small mr speaker's my pleasure to your old ten minutes to the distinguished lady from the virgin islands is recognized for ten minutes thank you thank you for your generosity with time i'm sure i'm not going to use anywhere near that much but mrs speaker i rise in support of h r twenty seven zero five the compact the free association amendments administration i want to take this opportunity to thank my colleagues on the committee on foreign affairs for their attention to this legislation especially i'd like to thank the chairman of the subcommittee on asia the pacific and global environment salim of anger and the subcommittees ranking member mr manzullo i'd also like to thank chairman lantos and ranking member ross levitt in for their leadership in moving this legislation forward i urge my colleagues to support the passage of may consume only one of the first to compliment my good friend the gentleman from florida on the other side of the aisle for part of our management of this proposed legislation and i want to know for the record how important and hiroshima which eventually ended the the war against japanese military forces it was also micronesia that we initiated it conducted some sixty seven nuclear devices that were exploded in the islands and are taken sometimes we don't seem to give a sense of appreciation to the fact that the whole marshall archipelago the marshall islands were totally exposed to nuclear radiation as a result of our nuclear testing program some sixty seven nuclear bombs including the first hydrogen bomb that was exploded in the marshall islands one thousand times more powerful than the bombs exploded in august sok in hiroshima and i' mr speaker that our government has not made a definite commitment to help to meet the medical needs of the several hundred of the marshallese people who were exposed to nuclear radiation to this day we still have not done enough to help the marshallese people in this regard we have also not helped the marshallese people to compensate the prop properly for the loss of their property and what we when we conducted these tests in micronesia and i just want to note that for the record speaker and i hope that in the coming months that alleged appropriate legislation will be introduced to address these very serious issues i think we owe it to the marshallese people our government surely should be grateful for the sacrifices that the marshallese people have had to make as a result of conducting our nuclear testing program in this area of the world and with that mr speaker again i thank my good friend from from florida and i you back my bet the balance of my time germany was back at the time the questionnaires with the and without objection the motion to reconsider is laid on the table in strong support of this resolution and i you myself such time as i may consume shall not recognize this speaker i want to first thank my colleague can do friend the general lady from california ms linda sanchez and also the chairman of very very critical mr speaker we cannot support mexico enough during one of the worst natural disasters in their history a series of storms have brought torrential rainfall to southern mexico especially in the state of the basque oh and chiapas causing the clinton rivers to overflow their banks the homes of an estimated half a million people have been damaged or destroyed and at least that many more people have been affected by  transportation corridors mr speaker mexican president felipe calderon has called it one of the worst natural disasters in the history of our country not only because of the size of the area affected but because of the number of people affected the governor of the state of tabasco andrea's got near stated that one hundred percent of the state's crops were lost and that eighty percent of the state of tabasco is underwater over a million to pass kins half the state's part collation have been directly affected w s half a million losing their homes and even more losing all of their material possessions the capital of tabasco villahermosa has been particularly devastated being compared to new orleans after hurricane katrina would need some kind of government aid to get back on their feet the flood waters descend could lead to outbreaks of disease like malaria dengue fever and cholera misspeaking we must commend president calderon who has led mexico's rapid response to its worst flooding in recent history and us personally played a major role in a very in a catastrophe the level of katrina amid heavy rains president caldern ordered in thousands of soldiers marines pilots and federal police on twenty ninth of october two days before the most damaging flood hit when the river banks finally burst in and dated some seventy percent of the city a villain or most are on october thirty first there were more than sixty helicopters ready to carry out nonstop risky and relief missions president deming kalar on and have his cabinet were on the ground giving televised updates on everything from how to use satellite phones in shelters to the dropping points of millions of bottles of water the president's reaction is most impressive and i take this opportunity here in the house for to applaud this leader's efforts mr speaker this resolution expressions these the empathy of the united states house of representatives during this time and pledges our continued assistance we applaud the prompt humanitarian response of the mexican government international organizations and we need bodies we must continue to support these efforts as long as they are necessary in this resolution it is resolved that the house of representatives urge the u s government to immediately make available all possible assistance to mexican authorities and reaffirms its commitment to provide relief aid to the i stand to join my calling my good friend from the american samoa to today to express my sincere sympathy and support for those who have suffered as a result of the recent torrential storms in southern mexico the damage has been devastating as report there is many one as one million people have been affected by the flooding with the homes of an estimated five hundred thousand people being destroyed or damaged the government the state of tabasco has stated one hundred percent of the state's crops have been lost and eighty percent of his state is underwater what a shame sadly with more than three hundred thousand people reported trapped inside their homes on rooftops and additional downpour predicted it is still too early to quantify the total destruction wrought by these unrelenting rains just over two months ago mexico was ravaged by the hurricane by hurricanes dean and henrietta now that now what president calderon has characterized and i quote as one of the worst natural disasters in the history unquote of mexico has fall i'm all by the perseverance of our friends in mexico and commend the courage they continue to demonstrate in their efforts to overcome the damage of these storms furthermore i admire the contributions made by the relief organizations and private citizens from around the world to assist in the aftermath my prayers are with the families and friends of those harm by the perils of this storm and i reserve the balance of my time thank you mr speaker gentleman reserves the time the gentleman from m committee on foreign affairs congressman lantos and the distinguished ranking member member ileana ross lane and for supporting this important resolution that i am offering today the us has had its share of natural disasters recently from hurricanes katrina and r in two thousand and five to this year southern california wildfires some of which are still burning as i speak as we have learned it's difficult even for the united states one of the wealthiest nations in the world to adequately care for our victims and rebuild our communities once we've experienced one of these natural disasters in both of those disasters our neighbor was there to help us with the merchants the relief units and firefighters now mexico faces the challenge of a devastating natural disaster within its own borders this resolution recognizes the plight of our mexican neighbors and expresses our desire and commitment to support mexico during one of the worst natural disasters in its history a disaster which the country's president has described as one of the worst not only because of the size of the area affected but because of the number of people affected as many americans already know a series of storms brought torrential rainfall to southern mexico especially the states  tabasco and chop us causing various rivers to overflow their banks at least half a million people's homes have been damaged or destroyed and perhaps double that number are without utilities or cut off from transportation routes in the state of tabasco as was already mentioned one hundred percent of the agricultural crops have been lost and eighty percent of the state is under water eighty percent of the state it's incredible truly this is a disaster of epic proportions in this agricultural area even those who were able to see a state during the storm will face many challenges in the weeks ahead having lost their crops which for many are their sole source of income surviving and keeping their families fed an intact will be difficult in addition to picking up the pieces of their lives after losing their homes and crops and everything that they own the flood survivors face increased threats from diseases like malaria dengue fever and cholera as a good neighbor it's imperative that we do all that we can to help mexico ensure that the flood victims can indeed get back on their feet it is the least we can do for a neighbor who did what it could to help us in our times of need when we experience natural disasters i also want to take a moment to also commend and comment on mexican president felipe calderon for leading his country's rapid response to this devastation and for the work that he did before the rain an even greater catastrophe catastrophe the president's swift reaction of voided even greater disaster and i applaud his efforts they really were impressive this resolution today expresses the sympathy of the u s house of representatives during this time and pledges our continued assistance we want to acknowledge the prompt humanitarian response that has come from many quarters not just the mexican government the international organization and re we must continue to support these efforts as long as they are necessary i urge my colleagues not only to support this resolution but to work together to ensure that its goals are realized i urge us to continue to work in a bipartisan manner  es humanitarian crisis we must not just speak of our good intentions we must act on them we must immediately make assistance available to mexican authorities so that mexico can continue to provide relief aid to the victims as the effects of the flooding continue to unfold i strongly encourage my colleagues to support this resolution and with that i yield back the balance of my time general eighty miles back a time gentleman from florida i yield back to balance my time as a gentleman yield back your time gentleman from america so small misspeak or i commend the gentle lady for her most eloquent remarks before the for this house and again i want to urge my colleagues to support as a resolution and you back to balance of my time the gentleman yield back  time the question is will the house suspend the rules and agree to house resolution eight twelve as amended those in favor say aye those opposed say no in the opinion of the chair two thirds being in there for many the rules are suspended the the chairs prior announcement for the proceedings on this motion will be postpone museum of the history of polish jews it warsaw poland pursuant to the rule the gentleman from the americans and muscular beggar and gentleman from florida mister rockets each will control twenty minutes the chair recognizes the gentleman from bill and you myself such time as i may consume and i first of all i would like to commend and thank my good friend of my colleague a gentleman from new jersey mr smith for his sponsorship of this important legislation and i also want to thank  the chairman of the house foreign affairs committee distinguished gentleman from california mr lantos and the gentle lady from florida our senior ranking member of the formed fares committee for their support of this legislation this bill that was introduced by my good friend the gentleman from new jersey a bill seeks to preserve the cultural heritage of polish jewish population that speak of the history of the jewish people and poland dates back over millennia when the country initially provided one of europe's most tolerant homes for the jewish people and housed one of the world's most vibrant jewish communities there's tolerance waned for the seventeenth century onwards as incidents of political and personal anti semitism began to increase however when poland regain its independence in the early twentieth century the jewish population remains one of the largest in the world indeed in one thousand nine hundred eighty nine over three million the jewish people lived in poland comprising the largest jewish population of any country in europe the speak of this situation changed radically when the nazis occupied poland as over ninety percent of polish jewish population was brutally killed or murdered tortured during the holocaust now the few survived around two hundred thousand people most emigrated from poland many came to the united states while others fled to israel and south america mr speaker estimates of poland's jewish population range from three thousand to fifteen thousand out of a total population of over thirty eight million this dramatically reduced postwar jewish population has led to some claim falsely that there were no jews in poland given the long history of poland's jews combined with the tragic decline in their population during the holocaust it is singularly important that steps are taken to preserve and protect their cultural heritage the speaker indeed the nearly nine million americans who claim who claim polish lineage will benefit from visible reminders of their forbearers the speaker over almost over ten years now a team of international experts has worked  a museum of the history of the polish jews for this very purpose this museum aims to preserve the history and culture of jewish people in poland over the last one thousand years beginning with their eleven century immigration from western europe to escape persecution is in the vibrant community between the world wars they speak of the city of warsaw and the polish government have been active supporters and contributors to this project hundred seven the city donated the land near the warsaw ghetto uprising memorial which to construct this new museum this area is located in warsaw is former jewish quarter which previously houses  community of about four hundred thousand the jewish people but speaker in two thousand and five two years ago the city and the government donated forty million ladies karni worth around fourteen point five million dollars for the museum's construction in the year two thousand and five again two years ago a finnish architectural firm was selected to design the project in june of this year polish authorities the ground at the site construction is it is expected to take two years and maybe the museum to open by the year two thousand and ten this bill authorizes us funding to assist in the development of the permanent collection of the museum this money will ensure the protection of artifacts documenting the heritage of the jewish polish people and many of their descendants who currently live in the united states museum organizers have already asked the people of poland to donate memorabilia to project to project to the project collecting photographs documents and other remaining items one such object includes a penknife provided by a woman whose father a forced labor in a nazi arms factory painted from a fellow prisoner who had speaker i reserve the balance of my time there is a time that chairman receive a message that the speaker and message from the president of the united states with the speaker matter i am directed by the president of the united states deliver to the house of representatives jersey my good friend representative chris met this bill would authorize funding to assist in the development of the permanent collection of the museum of the history of polish jews as we all know a knowledge of history is tremendously important both to understand our heritage and to our efforts to ensure that mistakes made in the past are avoided now and in the future the jewish people i have a long and rich history and calling and fact at the beginning of all war to poland had the largest jewish population in europe tragically almost all the population in poland was murdered in the holocaust the polish government has donated land has also agreed to provide millions of dollars for the construction of the museum i ask my colleagues to support this bill which would go on to assist in the development of the museum's collection the tremendously rich thousand year history of the polish the jewish people and poland should not be forgotten mr speaker i ordered my colleagues to pass this bill and i reserve the balance of my time gentleman reserves this time gentleman from america samoa i'm a speaker i reserve the balance of my time two poland had the largest jewish population in europe over fifty percent of world jewry has family ties to this pre war community tragically as a result of the holocaust a once thriving community was virtually destroyed in one thousand nine hundred six a group of people developed the idea for a museum dedicated to the culture art and history of poland's jews as one of the founders of the museum told me when i visited  warsaw a couple of years ago we often learn how jews died but rarely how they lived diffusing him on the history of polish jews will change this indeed it will commemorate the three and remember the three million polish j died during the holocaust and during world war two but also it will celebrate the rich one thousand years of polish jewish life the interactive museum allow visitors to view the long history of jews in poland in context examining their lives through nine thematic galleries that illustrate their culture their accomplishments and the challenges they faced the museum will measure one hundred forty thousand square feet and incorporate state of the art multimedia installations as showcase eames collection an archive of over sixty thousand computer files of images collected from around the world the nine galleries that houses museums or exhibition provide forty three thousand square feet of space that will be equipped  latest technology to showcase a variety of multimedia displays these exhibitions are being developed by a team of scholars historians and museum experts from poland israel and the united states  serving the public will be the fifty four hundred square foot state of the art education center that includes a resource center for visitors multimedia displays and web based kiosks will share the museum's database of sixty thousand documents and objects with visitors who will also have access to a reading room as well as the library today mr speaker as we know the spite the efforts of many good people anti semitism is a dangerous and a growing force in europe and elsewhere in the world by looking at the life of a polish jury and also documenting the events of the holocaust museum and this living educational center will make a major contribution in combating anti semitism a better understanding of the great contributions that polish jews have made to their communities will help fight off the ignorance and the lies that bring about this big astri there's no better time for a living monument against anti semitism the now and no better place than in the heart of europe the place where the nazis put so many jews to death in one thousand nine hundred seven the city of warsaw donated land adjacent to the warsaw ghetto uprising monument for the construction of this museum in june of zero seven authorities broke ground for its construction it is now slated for opening in two thousand and ten but there still is a significant deficit in funding it is one of the first institutions imposed european poland to be built through a partnership of public and private support the government of poland and the city of warsaw have each designated some fifteen million dollars for the museum and a number of private corporation tha individuals from israel the united kingdom sweden the netherlands and elsewhere of course that includes the united states have also agreed to contribute just yesterday the government of germany signed an agreement to donate over seven million dollars to the effort all of these donors and all they want to do wherever they are they want to do what they can to preserve the memory and to combat anti semitism as you can imagine it's a costly and difficult project to assemble artifacts and memorabilia from polish jury not only did the nazis practically destroy the jewish communities they also decimated most of the city of warsaw our contribution of five million dollars we more than just a symbol of american commitment to these principles although that is important  more than a reminder that of the historical ties that bind many descendants of polish jews in the united states and elsewhere the polish jury although that too is a worthy goal this country fusion will be an important aid and making this time gentleman from america i'm all mr speaker i so do want to compliment the command my good friend from new jersey for the most eloquent statement whenever he speaks i listen not only as a great advocate and  champion of human rights around the world but i cannot think of a more appropriate piece of legislation where his mark is major the fact that the persecutions that took place among the jewish people during world war two again i thank the gentleman from new jersey for his efforts and they did this for the resolution of this piece of legislation before the floor for consideration i do not have any more additional speakers mr speaker and i don't know if my good friend has any more speakers i r requested all those in favor of taking the salt but the asian asian will rise and remain standing until counted the sufficient number having risen the asian age are ordered pursuant to clause eight of rule twenty the chairs prior announcement for the proceedings on this motion will be postpone terrorist bombing in afghanistan and expressing condolences to the people of apt and afghanistan and the members and the police that are pursuant to that rule the gentleman from america from all that's relevant and gentleman from florida good friend the gentleman from north carolina mr price and i also want to thank the chairman of our foreign affairs committee mr lantos and our ranking member miss ross leighton from florida for their support and leadership in bringing this legislation to the f bespeak last week the united states was reminded once again than amongst the weekly sacrifices of americans in iraq the continuing concern of iran and the recent developments in pakistan that still exists in the geographic center of the middle east and south asia a country that faces a growing insurgency that directly threatens its stability in the national security interests of the united states and its allies on november sixth a suicide bomber targeted a delegation of members of the afghanistan national assembly or the well as he jirga killing at least fifty afghans including schoolchildren ordinary citizens and half a dozen elected members as speaker i rise today to strongly condemn this attack and  echo again our unified commitment to the stabilization and development of afghanistan this house shares a special bond with the well as he jirga which participates in a partnership in our house democracy assistance commission and it is indeed a tragedy to see our fellow legislate tours or parliament terror and to be murdered in such a way a few months ago this house passed in an overwhelming bipartisan basis the afghanistan freedom supported security act of two thousand and seven this act we affirmed our long term commitment to the security and development of afghanistan by reauthorizing a comprehensive package of assistance to a country in dire need of the international community support the speaker of there's any lesson to be taken from the track tragic events like these it is that now is the time to act poppy cultivation is up multifocal suicide attacks have increased dramatically in the past year and afghanistan still suffers as being one of the poorest countries in the world and that regard i urge my colleagues in the senate or the other body to take up in afghanistan reauthorization bill this early as possible so that we may help that country drive out the forces of extremism and intolerance and bring the forces of moderation and progress with them speaker i reserve the balance of my time gentleman reserves the time gentleman from florida thank you mr speaker and your myself as much time as i may consume the general record i arise in support of the bipartisan resolution before condemning the cowardly suicide bombings and boggle on afghanistan recently which killed at least six members of the afghan parliament and dozens of innocent men  women and children callous others were wounded those who oppose the emergence of free democratic and stable afghanistan mistakenly believe that through such a for us as they can deter the afghan people from realizing  of the afghan afghan people to not revert back to the days of the attack tarion rule by the taliban and its radical allies last month the committee met with the speaker of the afghan parliament here in washington and we discussed the challenges the challengers and common goals we all face and share for afghanistan i'm call for that he and his colleagues both men and women democratically elected by the people will carry on despite the loss said and i quote it is the work of the enemies of peace and security in afghanistan unquote this brutal attack is a solemn reminder that afghanistan continues to be subjected to a campaign of unrelenting violence by the taleban his be as a law me and other terrorist organizations the security climate has the potential to further compromise reconstruction and believe and relief efforts by the united states allies and the international community in particular the poppy cultivation and opium production which directly supports local warlords and sustains them finances insurgents militias and terrorist organizations behind these attacks continues to increase at a staggering rate in response this critical resolution demonstrates a continued commitment from the united states and the international community to support the people of afghanistan and their time of ne i want to thank message of solidarity to the people of afghanistan the house democracy assistance commission which i chair at present and which our colleague mr dreier chaired in the previous congress has worked in partnership with the the afghan parliament to quibble under the house of representatives for the last two years in the course of that partnership we've had the opportunity to travel to afghanistan and to meet with a range of afghan leaders including dozens of members of the  georgia we've been profoundly impressed by the courage and commitment of the afghan people who are striving against long odds to radically transform their society their nation has been at war under attack for nearly all of the last thirty years and yet they have faced down those who would deny them their personal and political freedoms and if continued on course to build a democratic and secure nation no have demonstrated this dedication more than the members of the well less jarka afghan voters have selected individuals representing every aspect of the afghan culture islamic scholars western businessmen former communists progressive women and everything in between for this remarkable assembly they have approached their differences in a truly democratic fashion settling disputes through debate rather than violence as their speaker name likes to say they now settle their differences by holding up voting cards instead of guns and now they stand together conservatives and progressives men and women  a better afghanistan as speaker one week ago today the afghan about chrissie suffered its deadliest terrorist attack since the fall of the brutal taliban regime over fifty afghan citizens including schoolchildren tribal elders and other bystanders were killed and over one hundred more were injured the main target of the attack of the attack was a delegation of members of the well s and jirga a delegation that strongly represented the new democratic spirit i have just described the eighteen members of the delegation represented diverse ethnic groups and religious affiliations they included men and women and covered the full political spectrum it was a delegation traveling to baghlan province to reach out to the conceptualist that the members have sworn to serve after the bombing six while left the jirga members lay d many more were injured some of the members killed and injured were members that our house democracy assistance commission met with only last fall we offer our deepest sympathies to the families and friends of these members who died in service to their country but i rise to say to those behind these attacks that despite your cowardly actions afghanistan's democracy remains strong and our support for afghanistan remains unwavering the resolution before us condemns this horrific attack and expresses our deep condolences to the afghan people who have sacrificed so much for the cause of a free and democratic nation it also upon our nation and the international community to redouble our efforts in support of afghanistan to turn back the forces within that country and beyond that are capable of the barbarism we witnessed last week  adequately outlined the circumstances around which this attack took place on november sixth but if there is one message that has come forward from the tragedy of a week ago it is that if there is any doubt whatsoever that our enemies in afghanistan are seeking to undermine democracy liberalization and the cause of peace for the afghan people one needs look no further than what took place on november sixth this was a very sophisticated attack that took place and it's won by those who clearly do want to undermine everything that we as american take for granted and for which the afghan people aspire my dear friend and colleague mr price has correctly pointed to the fact that just last year we had the opportunity as members of the house democracy assistance commission to meet with our counterparts members of the well s c jirga who have in many ways modeled their parliament their house of representatives after ours now i know that we're not always the best model for everything we are in fact a model to which many around the world including the afghan people and members of the afghan parliament aspire and that's why as mr price correctly said if anyone believes that this attack that took place on november sixth would in any way in any way diminish the commitment of the united states congress and our twenty member bipartisan house democracy assistance commission to our assistance to the afghan people and to the future of peace stability democracy and political and economic liberalization in afghanistan they are wrong in fact mr speaker the tragedy of one week ago on november six in my mind stands to reaffirm and strengthen the commitment of the house democracy is to systems commission now mr price went through and talked about maiming the six parliamentarians who tragically were killed and as was pointed out fifty people killed and many many people wounded i think it's important to note that cited mustafa kazemi was in fact a very bright forty five year old leader who has through his career been responsible for bringing together a wide range of very a very diverse interest within afghanistan as mr price pointed to the diversity that exists within the we'll se jirga it's important to note that kazemi was in fact if not the paramount leader one of the top leaders in bringing these very diverse groups together now this delegation was in the bhagwan province doing their work as we as members of the house of representatives do our work when we have delegations going to visit and work on different projects this is the economics commission and as mr price had said we had seen mr kazemi is the head of the economics minister in the past and these were members of the lessee jirga parliamentarians just as we are working on the project of trying to bring about greater reform and success to the people of afghanistan and to have them attacked in such a way is something that will in fact go down in history now my friend from north carolina said that this was the worst attack take place since the taleban has come to power well mr speaker just today the british broadcasting corporation reported that the attack of number six was in fact the single worst attack and loss of life the largest loss of life in the history of afghanistan never before has such a large number of people been killed in an attack such as this and so that's why this i'm very pleased that mr price asked me to join with him working on this resolution that's why we stand together democrats and republicans reaffirming our commitment to the future of afghanistan we know that it was september eleventh of two thousand and one and the attacks that emerged from some bin laden and the taleban support for that effort and al ada that led to the work that we have done in afghanistan and so mr speaker we  remain committed our resolve is in fact strengthened by this tragedy and i urge my colleagues to join in support of this resolution i thank my friend for yielding german years back a time gentleman from america samoa mr speaker i deeply appreciate the remarks of my good friend and colleague from california and also the author of this legislation to truly i echo his sentiments this is a bipartisan proposed legislation and i urge my colleagues to support this bill and if  i ask for the asian nations resolution is agreed to and without objection the motion to reconsider is laid on the table in the asian age i request that all those in favor of taking this vote by the age in a well rise and remain standing until counted is sufficient for having risen the asian age are ordered pursuant to clause eight of rule twenty the chairs prior announcement for the proceedings on this motion will be postponed what purpose jonathan george arise mr speaker i move to suspend the rules and pass the bill h r thirty seven zero three which will allow an exemption from the one dollar coin dispensing capability a requirement for certain vending machines a current report titled bill h r thirty seven a three a bill two and then section fifty one twelve he won a title thirty one united states code to allow an exception from the one dollar coin dispensing capability requirement for certain vending machines for so went to the rule the gentleman from georgia mr scott and the gentleman from georgia mr price each will control twenty minutes the chair recognizes the development from georgia mrs bigger i ask mr speaker this is a very timely and important piece of legislation because as you may recall the president of dollar coins act of two thousand and five requires retailers including vending machines that are located on federal property to both except and disburse one dollar coin and by january of two thousand and eight and we're talking about seven weeks from now that brings about the urgency in the time  matter this requirement additionally applies to transit systems military bases and those that take federal subsidies now while most vending machines mr speaker already programmed and able to accept one dollar coins there are very few who are programmed to dispense one dollar coins so that is why this less than legislation is needed to exempt those vending machines from dispensing requirements that do not have a reason to dispense the dollar coins in the first place so that in effect mr speaker if we do not pass this bill we will have un intend that lee affected hinderance of the circulation of the coins by compelling them to be stored in vending machines that will never dispense them this legislation targets machines that have only one dollar in currency in exchange so you can see there will never be a need for the machines to dispense one dollar coins we believe that these presidential coins one dollar coins are very important they should be circulated the public should circulate them but certainly by having them stored in a vending machine which they will never be dispensed is certainly not the way to do that and we need to make sure we do have the machines dispense and that is why we need this bill and i ask that the house urgently pass this support of this legislation this legislation is simple and direct and as my colleague stated is necessary it's basically a technical correction for the presidential one dollar coin act that was enacted in december of two thousand and five that bill sought to use the mechanism of a regularly changed design on the one dollar coin to draw that coin into circulation and it had specific language directing that retail operations on federal property including vending machines accept and dispense one dollar coins makes sense since the coin is official form of the us exchange and not to handle the coin would be inappropriate but certain vending machines such as soda machines only accept change and banknotes of no greater value than one dollar logically there would be no reason for these coins to dispense a dollar coin to convert them to do so and to stock them with a stack of quine's that never would be dispensed clearly would be unnecessary and not intended by the original bill  worse as my friend from georgia mentioned oftentimes that that cost for doing so would fall on our servicemen and women so there really is no point to this change that was mandated and we can easily fix that today but just bigger the language of this soley those one dollar vending machines from the requirement to dispense dollar coins i urge all members to support this i commend my colleague from georgia for bringing this to the house floor and i reserve the balance of my  colleague from georgia with his excellent statement mr speaker i have no other speakers and i urge immediate passage of this bill and transmittal to the senate and from georgia thank mr baker i once again commend my colleague from house resolution three thirty five resolution expressing the sense of the house of representatives that the president should declare lung cancer republican priority and should implement a comprehensive interagency program to reduce the lung cancer mortality rate by to strongly command of the lung cancer alliance and other organizations that have supported this resolution i'm so pleased we could pass this resolution during lung cancer awareness month house resolution three three five calls on the president to declare lung cancer a public health parity and encourages a greater investment in lung cancer research this could not come at a more important time we have the newly released to to sticks which show that while overall cancer mortality rates are dropping more quickly than ever lung cancer mortality rates in women are actually increasing as our nation is committed to working toward the goal of eliminating all cancer deaths by tw specifics for lung cancer are extremely disappointing mr speaker lung cancer is the number one cancer killer of both men and women yet we are perhaps making the least amount of progress in effectively treating it we simply must put greater investment into prevention and early diagnosis of lung cancer this is the only way to improve outcomes one of the most effective ways to reduce lung cancer incidence is of course smoking cessation i'm proud of the remarkable achievements of our nation which is made to encourage smokers to quit and better yet to teach people never to begin it all disappointingly some of america's leading women's magazines don't share that goal as many of you have heard and seen they continue running ads for cigarettes like camel number nine which are clearly targeted at young women after years of steady chs decline smoking rates have remained stagnant from two thousand to two thousand and six launching an aggressive marketing campaign targets young people targeting young people is a terrible step backward in our national efforts to reduce smoking i hope this resolution today will reinforce our commitment to smoking cessation but one of the lesser known facts of lung cancer is that eight percent of men and as vanishing twenty percent of women with lung cancer have never smoked i'm very aware of this fact through my own personal experience as my daughter became one of the statistics i think the nation as a whole began more growing more aware with of more visible cases such as dana reed it often takes a pro high profile to propel us into action and i sincerely hope that the growing awareness in action over the past two years will continue to improve our understanding and our ability to confront lung cancer with a greater investment into integrated multi disciplinary research organized around lung cancer we do have a chance of reducing death let us use the opportunity of passing this resolution to reaffirm our shared commitment to combating lung cancer death truly making it a public health priority for our nation colleague mrs caps and i also want to thank chairman dingell and ranking member barton and others that have been have had a real hand in moving this legislation forward i certainly rise today in support of this resolution a resolution recognizing the impact of lung cancer in the recent recommendations of the lung cancer progress review group of the national cancer institute this group process has a comprehensive collaborative integrated approach to control and eliminate lung cancer the group was tasked with making recommendations strategizing and reporting on progress made in an effort to control and eliminate lung cancer the group was able to identify scientific priorities and needs and set forth national agenda for research on lung cancer this progress review group made the recommendation to foster the creation of scientifically integrated malta institutional research consortia organized around the problem of lung cancer rather than around specific research disciplines recommendations speaks to the ongoing work at the end i h as well as in the private sector for crosscutting research and as a congress it is our responsibility to an these researchers to best pursue answers this report clarifies the benefits of broad science putting disease research into silos so that as so many authorizing bills often do is not always helpful to the greater goal let's take these recommendations to pursue a multilevel multi disciple unary re science in an effort to find a cure for lung cancer or thousands of other diseases that afflict the world reducing the mortality rate of lung cancer is an objective to which we all can subscribe it is our responsibility to make sure that scientists have the tools and the access necessary to pursue a cure so many of us here have been was someone at the bedside that is suffering from this awful disease one of the worst it is a great step forward that we can pass this legislation to see the research come about the funding with it so that someday in fact we will have a cure to and to press forward with the research on lung cancer and i do this in the name of my daughter and dana reeve than other people whose lives have not been saved but who could be promoting others to be encouraged is laid on the table without objection the title is amended the resolution house resolution seven sixty resolution supporting the goals and ideals of children's health month pursuant to the rule of the gentlewoman from california as caps and the gentleman from michigan  kathy castor of florida and a record of washington for introducing this important resolution a school nurse myself for two thousand more twenty or more years i can't emphasize enough the importance of reaffirming a stronger commitment to provide better access to health care for children we absolutely must take greater steps in providing preventive care promoting healthy habits finding cures to chronic conditions that are becoming more prevalent in our nation's children perhaps one of the greatest eps we can take is to finally reauthorize the children's health insurance program as this resolution notes one of the greatest contributors to healthy out unhealthy outcomes in our children is a lack of access to care our children's health insurance program would provide health care access to an additional four million children who are eligible but not now covered this bill was supported by two hundred sixty five house members sixty four senators i hope we will soon see this bill signed into law though we know there are other steps we must also take this is the primary one there are steps in addition to this resolution to this  legislation that we can take when one in five children in the united states are overweight five million children are affected by asthma and fifty million children suffer from allergies we know we must take steps to improve healthy environment as well as healthy habits with this resolution we applaud the efforts of the many families communities health care professionals and other others in our communities and officials as well who are taking the steps already and we encourage in this resolution that states be proactive in promoting healthy living habits to children so that they can lead healthy lives as adults most importantly perhaps this resolution reminds us of what our priorities in this congress should be undoubtedly our children should be number one i commend this resolution for reaffirming that and i reserve the balance of my time yes the chair recognizes the gentleman from michigan mistrusting well thank you mr speaker and i would seven sixty a resolution supporting the goals and ideals of children's health month the overarching goal of designating not tobar each year as children's health month is to draw attention to the need to provide access to health care insurance preventative care see cures for diseases and chronic conditions and promote healthy living habits for all of america's children there had been much discussion recently both on the floor and in the media about children's health care the objective obviously is to cover the health needs of children is of paramount paramount concern particularly with low income children children's health month should remind us of that important message i stand in support and ask that my colleagues support the resolution as well and at this point i mr speaker and i'd like to thank my good friend and colleague miscasts in california for yielding the time and thank her for her ongoing efforts and advocacy on behalf of the health of america's children and all americans all across this country mr speaker i rise today in support of house resolution seven sixty supporting the goals and ideals ideals the children's health month as co chair of the congressional children's health care caucus i am pleased to offer this resolution along with my colleague from the other side of the aisle mr reichert of washington who is the co chair of the caucus this has been an important year for work on children's health issues as grandparents and parents and teachers and doctors and nurses and all community members understand our work on behalf of children's health is constant not withstanding the fact that we're going to recognize a certain month here today are working on behalf of children's health in so many collaborative ways and we want to encourage more we are encouraging families in schools to focus on healthy living habits and healthy nutrition for children are working to combat childhood obesity and promote exercise and physical activity we are continuing our concerted efforts to keep our children and teens from smoking we are working to educate families and raise medical awareness about critical childhood illnesses such as asthma and diabetes and so many across this country are working to help parents and other families sign their kids up for medicaid and the children's health insurance program and those activities must continue but our concerns are not limited only to the physical health of our children but also to their mental health and their behavioral health i know just today that two new studies were released relating to early childhood behavior we've got to remain at the cutting edge and we've got to continue to encourage our talented researchers in my home state of florida ms capps state of california and all across the country to continue their work in addition all too often our children are victims of abuse and neglect and do not receive the special care required to meet their healthcare needs and their mental healthcare needs here in the congress we are working to ensure that these disparities are limited in that our children receive all the support that they need we would like our neighbors back home to know that we care about their families and the wellbeing of their children and we will continue to draw attention to these issues and work hard to mend these problems mr speaker today as we acknowledge children's health month and the importance of its meaning we remind our neighbors and this body of the special attention needed for children tell we salute the parents pediatricians nurses and all community members that work every day to care for our kids for their physical and mental wellbeing we commend those institutions that have honored the goals of the special month and we acknowledge the importance of supporting america's children by reinforcing our sincere dedication to providing access to health care for our kids ensuring preventative care seeking cures for depilatory bla tating diseases and chronic conditions and promoting healthy lifestyles for america's children i'm pleased to announce to yield back the balance of my time thank you mr speaker request for time and in closing would like to urge adoption of this resolution which goes to the heart of the major priority that we have in this congress which is to support our children's health this is for the sake of our children of course that's also on behalf of their families the most important people in their lives on behalf of our communities and really in truth it's about our future because after all our children are our future and healthy  future is that much better for all of us so now at this point i would yield back the balance of my time the gentlewoman has closed the question as well the house suspend the rules and agreed to house resolution seven sixty as amended those in favor say aye those opposed in the opinion of the chair two thirds being in the affirmative the rules are suspended and the resolution is agreed to without objection to the motion to reconsider is that and therefore laid on the table the gentleman from maryland is recognized good afternoon mr speaker i move that the house suspend the rules and agree to the resolution h con resolution one twenty two as amended the clerk will report the title of the concurrent resolution house concurrent resolution one twenty two concurrent resolution supporting the calls and mission america recycles day pursuant to the rule the gentleman from maryland mr when and the gentleman from  extraneous material on the resolution under consideration without objection speaker gentlemen air open on his resolution thank time as i may consume today i rise in strong support of aids conrad as one twenty two to support the goal and mission of america recycles day a strong commitment to recycling is needed in this country recycling says energy consumption and reduce our dependence on foreign oil prevent pollution supply valuable raw materials and create most importantly create more jobs i think this is an excellent resolution and i urge my connecticut five minutes the chair recognizes gentleman from connecticut mr shays thank you very much mr speaker i think i'm strapped in for yielding me time i write in support of h conrad one twenty two introduced by j inslee of washington state in a resolution supporting the goal and mission of american recycle recycle stay nov fifteenth two thousand and seven marks the tenth anniversary of this nationally recognized day dedicated to encouraging americans to recycle and buy recycled products this bill expresses support for this day of recognition encourages all of us to participate in promoting the social environmental and economic benefits of recycling and buying recycled content products american recycle day informs me and some of americans about the importance of daily recycling and asks us to commit ourselves to increasing our recycling habits at home and that work across the country the national recycling coalition organizes community awareness and education campaigns about the benefits of recycling and volunteers work with communities and schools to organize recycling awareness events in conjunction with their local municipalities recycling is one of the easiest ways anyone can work to improve the world we live in on a daily basis recycling says energy and reduces greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming the e p a estimates recycling a ton of mixed recyclables avoids admissions equivalent to two point eight tons of carbon dioxide today there are more than ten thousand curve sized resizing programs in the united states which serve approximately half of the population these programs are also good for a condom me recycling is a two hundred thirty six billion a year industry and more than fifty six thousand recycling and reuse enterprises and play one point one million workers i believe we should increase our recycle in for ourselves and future generations because we simply will not have a world to live in if we continue our neglectful always recycling and buying recycle products creates demand for recycled products decreasing waste protecting our natural resources and helping our environment and economy american recycle stay asked that we pledge ourselves to recycling and buy and recycle products and i strongly urge support of this resolution and the recognition that this is not just a resolution about nothing it is about something very important it's about getting us as human beings to think about wasting less and economizing and helping to save our planet in the process i yield back the balance of my time and thank you can the gentleman yells back his time the chair when i'll recognize the gentleman from maryland mr when you for speaker i rise to support passage of h con one twenty two a resolution to support america's recycled day the only nationally recognized day dedicated to recycling i want to think that your chairman now in forgiveness for my co sponsor shays has been a leader on so many environmental issues on working on this issue you know the the economic ramifications of recycling are well known it creates one point one million jobs it has the annual sales of two hundred thirty six billion dollars gross sales and has thirty seven billion dollars in annual pay rolls but i want to focus my comments for the moment about why recycling is so much even more important than it was originally we know it has been the most successful environmental initiative in the country's history it allows people to take individual action to preserve the environment but now that global warming is upon us the wisdom prudence and genius recycling is even more apparent when one million square miles of the arctic melt in the size of six californias this summer the need for recycling has become even more apparent because recycling substantially reduces carbon dioxide emissions when it's associated with raw material extraction with product manufacture with emissions from landfills or burning carbon based waste when we conserve material we don't waste energy and we don't put global warming gases into the atmosphere in fact the environmental protection agency estimates that recycling a ton of mixed recyclables saves two point eight tons of carbon dioxide from going into the atmosphere if we simply increased our recycling efforts from the current thirty percent level to thirty five percent we would reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by amount equal to the average emissions from four point six million households there is real savings still available to us we also have a problem a growing problem with electronic material waste we only have one percent of the hundred thirty million phones currently owned by consumers are recycled we're going to do something about that i can report in seattle and america recycles day dell microsoft and in techno it will raise awareness for recycling it electronics at safeco field home of the seattle mariners here in capitol hill the office of greening is help promote the house america's recycled days for passage of this bill certainly support these ongoing efforts we need to build on them it's time for record congress to recognize  important day urge my colleagues to support this bill and find something to recycle and recycle  is an important vironment a concept that predates by decades the first earth day and talk of global climate change in fact according to the national recycling coalition before the one nine hundred twenty s seventy percent of u s cities r programs to recycle certain materials and during world war two sixty years ago american industry reuse and recycle twenty five percent of the way system today were recycling reusing about thirty three percent of our nation's waste moreover the need for serious recycling takes on an added dimension when one considers the state of america's landfilled capacity according to the e p a since one thousand nine hundred eighty the total annual generation of municipal solid waste of  known otherwise known as regular household trash has increased by more than sixty percent to its zero five level of nearly two hundred forty six million tons every year and further according to a over the last fifteen years nine percent last or about nine million tons of household garbage is going to our nation's landfill that means that the increased recycling efforts must step in to bridge the gap you know many folks may think that promoting recycling is confined just to picking up a newspaper printed on recycled papers or buying a soft drink or beer in a recycled bottle our domestic recycling industry is even more sophisticated and diverse than those perceptions i've seen it firsthand in in my district in fact domestic paper recycling helps create everything from cereal boxes kellogg's in michigan to furniture recycled plastic soda bottles yield fibers to produce t shirts recycled carpet forms a basic feel for ski jackets recycling is not just a good environmental practice it's also a great way to help grow our economy so mr speaker this resolution is simply not just a remind of the virtue of good stewardship it's also a charge to every one of us that taking time to recycle does indeed make a difference for the world and i would urge that my colleagues support this resolution encouraging every american to participate in promoting the social environmental and economic benefits of recycling and buying recycled content products and i reserve the balance of my time the chairman alan recognized gentleman from maryland mr wynn mr speaker i don't believe i have any further speakers and we do have the right to close  back down to my time all right the gentleman from michigan yields back the balance of his time the gentleman from maryland is recognized close thank you mr speaker out in closing i would only say that that i think we have before us a very important a very  practical and a very creative bill encouraging all americans to participate in recycling this is a wonderful bipartisan opportunity for all of us do something good for the environment and i urge the adoption of the resolution and the yield back the balance of my time the gentleman from maryland has closed the question and before the house as well we suspend the rules to agree to house concurrent resolution one to two as amended those in favor say aye those opposed in the opinion of the chair two thirds being the affirmative the rules are suspended the concurrent resolution is agreed to without objection the motion is to reconsider it is therefore laid on the table from michigan is corrupt and each will control twenty minutes of the debate the chair now recognizes the gentleman from maryland as to when mr speaker i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under consideration without objection gentleman from maryland will will as recognized thank you mr speaker you must such myself such time as i may consume  in strong support of h r fifteen thirty four the mercury export band act of two thousand and seven the bill will place an export ban on elemental mercury beginning in the year twenty ten prevent federal agencies from selling distributing or transferring elemental mercury except for its transfer between federal agencies to facilitate storage and it will create a long term storage option for private sources of elemental mercury at a facility to be designated by the secretary of energy the location of the designated facility where the elemental mercury hazardous materials for their hard work and developing this bipartisan legislation which has attained indorsement from the environmental community the mining industry the chemical industry as well as the state's mercury is a potent of a toxin that is harmful even  low expose levels it disrupts biological processes critical for brain development in developing fetuses and young children mercury emissions can be transported over long distances and remain airborne for more than a year these emissions deposit into water bodies where they are transformed into toxic methylmercury that accumulates in fish and subsequently humans who eat mercury contaminated fish forty eight states including mt state of maryland have issued fish advisories warning residents to limit consumption american contaminated fish currently excess elemental mercury is export from developing countries to developing countries where it is used in artesia ill and small scale gold mining mainly in africa asia and latin america this rudimentary mining process releases most of the mercury into the environment creating thousands of polluted sites and exposing miners a nearby residents the toxic fumes that can cause neurological damage data from the e p a and other research groups indicates that sixty over seventy percent of all american deposits in the united states comes from global sources united states has an excess supply of elemental mercury that will only increase in future years as the demand for mercury containing products continues to decline twenty ten they're expected to be only four chloralkali plants using mercury cell technology in the united states the decommissioning of these plants would result in an estimated surplus of twelve hundred to fifteen hundred metric tons of elemental mercury the department of defense in the department of energy combined are storing close to six thousand metric tons of elemental mercury and i'm not selling it on the open market because of the e p a s concerns about the impact of mercury releases on human health and the environment this legislation is necessary because the elemental mercury that we export overseas returns to our country in the atmosphere as toxic pollution contaminating our air soil water and fish demonstrating the fact that pollution knows no borders mr dingell mr barton obviously mr wynn for helping to manage this bill of this afternoon you know this this bill culminates in an agreement that took many weeks of talks between a majority minority members and their staffs want to thank all of the stakeholders that were involved in those discussions significant improvements clearly were made as that legislation moved through our committee energy and commerce to it so as it winds its way to the floor this afternoon the bill tackled a serious concern that elemental mercury pollution in other countries will eventually convert to methyl mercury pollution in the united states methyl mercury is the most potent form of mercury poisoning and a serious very serious neurotoxin and obviously as mr wynn indicated this bans the export of such mercury elemental mercury in the year two thousand and ten this legislation directs the department of energy which has experience storing elemental mercury to set up a domestic storage option the legislation does not preclude any private storage solutions from occurring private injuries entities wishing to take advantage of the deal we sponsor storage option must pay the department of energy for that privilege but in return they are indemnified against any environmental damage that is cause once deal we takes possession of the that mercury the bill only covers that e t a monitor the global implications of a u s export ban on elemental mercury e p a is also required to report back to the congress on any negative consequences caused by that export ban the legislation permits e p a to grant targeted temporary waivers for individual shipments of elemental mercury to other countries and i would note that groups that are supporting this bill include the american chemistry council the national mining association the chlorine institute the environmental council of the states and the n r d c the natural resources defense council again a complement all those members and staff that work so hard to make this truly a bipartisan bill i'd like to think that we can pass this with the unanimous support this afternoon i reserve the balance of my time chair when i recognize the gentleman from maryland mr when mr speaker at this time it gives me great pleasure to recognize and yield to the gentleman from maine who was the sponsor of this legislation has done a wonderful job in  moving this bill forward and working on a bipartisan basis the distinguished gentleman mr allen me chair recognized gentleman from maine thank you i thank the gentleman for yielding and thank him for his outstanding work on this piece of legislation mr speaker i rise in support of my legislation h r fifteen thirty four the mercury export ban act i want to thank not just mr wynn but mr dingell mr shimkus mr burton all of those who work so hard on this particular legislation it is a well established fact that mercury is a powerful neuro toxin harmful it even low exposure levels mercury is harmful whether it is inhaled ingested or absorption of the skin once exposed to water elementary elemental emerge curious transform to methyl mercury which is highly toxic and which has a tendency to bio accumulate in both fish and the humans who eat the fish very young children with developing nervous systems are particularly at risk in addition pregnant mothers who are exposed to mercury pollution can transmit mercury to their unborn children increasing the chances of miscarriage and birth defects mercury can also be found in high concentrations in mother's breast milk my bill seeks to combat a large source of mercury pollution worldwide namely the export of elemental mercury from the united states to developing countries this mercury is used largely for artie's and all mining exposure occurs when miners handle the mercury it enters the water when miners pan for gold and it enters the air through the smelting process which made it emits mercury vapor according to the un environmental program approximately fifteen million people worldwide including four point five million women and one million children engage in r t s n l mining with mercury explorer exposing them to the poisons that mercury produces some of this mercury is exploited from the united states that should be unacceptable to us as a nation further the export of mercury for artie's and all mining harms americans who are exposed to the global air transport of mercury pollution or through the consumption of mercury contaminated fish scientists have f s estimated that up to a third of us mercury air pollution has traveled to the us from asia where mercury pollution is extensive including for mercury mining much of the fish that we eat including tuna is imported from off the coast of asian and south american countries where the use of mercury in artie's and all mining is widespread the departments of defense and energy have agreed however that ban is not in the law which is why my bill prohibits the federal government from exporting mercury in addition private companies may still export this poisonous and hazardous material which is why my legislation is necessary together with my friend mr shimkus at the full committee markup i offered an amendment to create a long term mercury storage repository this amendment was the result of a stakeholder process over the last several months to develop a consensus product stakeholders included n r d c the environmental council of the states the american chemistry council the chlorine institute and the national mining association all of whom have endorsed this this amendment m r speaker i would ask unanimous consent to place in the record a letter from these groups in support of this legislation the bill requires the o e to designate a facility to accept mercury from private sector sources particularly the chloralkali industry in the murray the mining industry when the export ban in the underlying bill takes effect on january one two thousand and ten the bill does not require that all excess mercury be transferred to d l we rather it gives the private sector the option of placing mercury into storage it d o a if there is a more practical or cost effective private sector solution the affected industries are more than welcome to pursue that option deal we will be allowed to charge a fee to recoup the government's cost of storing this waste as c e o has shown anaximander this bill will have no effect on the taxpayers all applicable and appropriate environmental laws apply with respect to this facility the legislation will allow the chloralkali industry to place in the safe storage the roughly fifty one hundred tons of mercury still to be used at aging plants it will also allow the mining industry to store the approximately fifty to one hundred tons of mercury generates annually as a byproduct of air filtration systems the process used to develop this legislation can be a model on a bipartisan basis we sat down together we worked out our differences and brought interested in affected the majority staff as well as dave mccarthy and jerry corey from the minority staff jim bradley from my staff and mozilla and mr shimko staff for their hard work as well as the speaker this is good legislation and i urge all members to support its passage and  want to do is raz to raise some concerns because i think this is a case where clearly these motives of this legislation are meritorious worthy but at the commerce committee when this bill was reported out some concerns were raised and i want to reraise those concerns on the floor of the house today but i think everything has been said is accurate but i think the likely place that this markers are going to come is to my district oakridge tennessee everybody with india we and the n s a the national nuclear security administration expects this mercury to come to the was twelve national security complex we're in the middle of modernization sweeping modernization new facilities the calls we are the fort knox for highly enriched uranium for our country and we've basically received a mandate from the congress to more properly secure this material we've got a new design basis threat we have new security challenges this is about a forty two million dollars price tag on your stand there are ways to pay for it but it's going to go somewhere and when you push on one side of the balloon out pops the other we just want to raise the concern because probably no place in america wants to be the place that this mercury comes to you've raised the concerns about mercury we can safely stored and we do we got an excellent record and reputation but we want to make sure that this is done properly and i'm not going to speak in opposition to the legislation because i think that the merits of the legislation are justified but i'm raising these concerns because we we need to address this the administration has issued a sad statement of administration policy today against this bill so we need to solve some of these problems as we go forward with that applaud your efforts the work that you've done raises concerns because we're probably going to end up with this stuff and i thank you for your work and with that i'm not going to object i'm just going to raise these concerns and yield back thank you the gentleman will chair when i recognize gentleman from maryland mr wynn thank you to speak out to you myself about it a minute just to acknowledge the concerns that have been expressed we are certainly sensitive to them the belittlement is recognized i'm sorry mr speaker i don't know who is recognized as i was i was saying speaker i only want to indicate that we are sensitive to the concerns have been raised but i do want to clarify that the bill does not specify any particular location and deal we certainly would be in a position to take into consideration any concerns with regard to where the mercury is ultimately stuart but the point is we do need to make sure that we do not continue exploiting mark which then comes back to our own shores i have no for this because i don't believe i would conclude by saying that i'd like to thank mr allen again for his leadership thank our committee chairman mr dingell as well as our ranking member mr barton i'd like to thank mr upton for his canned words in support of this bipartisan legislation like you recognize the contribution of mr shape shimkus in working with us and also the role of the stakeholders in bringing together a bipartisan bill  my time is well gentleman from michigan yields back his time as well the question before the house as well we suspend the rules on to pass h r one five three four as amended those in favor respond by saying i those opposed the opinion of the chair two thirds being in the affirmative the rules are suspended the bill is passed and without objection the motion to reconsider is laid on the table without objection the title is amended promote and enhance public safety by facilitating the rapid deployment of ip enabled nine eleven and the nine eleven services encouraged encouraging the nation's transition to a national id enable emergency network and improve nine eleven and nine eleven access to those with disabilities pursuant to the rule the gentleman from massachusetts mr markey and the gentleman from is from michigan the structure and will each control twenty minutes the chair now recognizes the gentleman from massachusetts as a more mr speaker and i yield myself as much time as i make soon this is speaker h r thirty four zero three introduced by representative bart gordon is designed to ensure that a consumer nine eleven in an emergency from an internet phone using so called voice over internet protocol or voip service can do so with a degree of confidence matching that of traditional phone services and wireless service the bill seeks to achieve this goal through two key provisions the first provision extends liability protections to boy service providers the federal communications commission lacks authority to grant liability protection to void service providers and therefore congress must take action to achieve this policy objective this is similar to action this subcommittee took in one thousand nine hundred ninety when such liability protection was accorded to wireless providers the second key provision in the bill establishes the right of boy providers to access the parts of the nine eleven infrastructure they need in order to complete nine eleven calls falk consumers this is an important provision because while the f c c has acted to require void providers to meet enhanced nine one one service obligations the commission does not order that such void providers or did not order that such void providers had a legal right to the components of the nine one one impress structure they would need to put fill their enough one one obligations under the commission's own rules i want to com representative gordon boy his excellent work and leadership on this bill we have endeavored over the last several months to work on a bipartisan basis through several issues and the bill we bring to the house floor this afternoon reflects the results of time the chair now recognizes the gentleman from michigan mr upton thank you mr speaker and i would ask that i feel this much time as i may consume governments recognize and i would ask unanimous consent to put a statement in the record from ranking member barton in support of this legislation without objection and i also want to take particular time to think mr markey and my good friend mr dingell as well as  gordon the bill's sponsor as well as mr shimkus and mrs eshoo for their really outstanding leadership on this issue and this is a good bill all of us here know stories many of us can relate personally to stories using  nine one one this goes a little bit further when we talk about a nine one one there was a recent news story that highlighted the importance of this service a mother in washington state was playing with her two year old daughter all alone a one night when suddenly a migraine hit or she collapsed she took a few painkillers she felt dizzy collapse of the floor and yet the two year old daughter alaina watching her mom collapse walked over to the coffee table picked up the phone and dial nine one one while she's on the phone she heard her mom she all she said was mommy out those two were alone were able anough to send the paramedics to their home inside they found the mom on the floor and her daughter in the other room getting a blanket who was for mom was shivering thankfully she was released the very next day but without that technology who knows how the situation or many others like it would end up our nine one one system continues to evolve we've made a lot of progress on enhanced nine one one deployment but even i know no one can provide the actual phone number and the location of a caller which can be essential in reaching people who need the help especially if they're having trouble communicating the f c c help move the ball forward in june of zero five by requiring that voip providers offer nine one one services to their customers and while technologically it is more complicated for boy providers to provide the service it certainly is of equal importance we've all heard the horror stories in the past of people trying unsuccessfully to use nine one one from their home or mobile phones hopeful that with the leaves taken so far along with this legislation all consumers regardless of the phone service or their location will be better served in an emergency this bill h r thirty four zero three nine one one modernization of public safety act of zero seven is certainly a significant public safety bill i would urge my colleagues to vote for it and again i want to thank the bipartisan cooperation that we've seen every step along the way that only in this body but in the senate as well and i reserve the balance of my time the chair now recognize gentleman from massachusetts mr markey thank you the speaker very much i would once again like to commend the bill legislation and with that misspeak or i will yield back the balance of my time gentleman from michigan i yield back i have no further speakers and i am back down to my time in the opinion of the chair the two thirds being in the affirmative the rules are suspended the bill is passed and without objection the motion to reconsider is laid on the table without objection the title is amend gentleman from massachusetts is recognized so i didn't get recognized to request r thirty nine nineteen a bill to provide for a comprehensive nation line inventory of the existing broadband services and for other purposes pursuant to the rule the gentleman from massachusetts mr markey and the gentleman from michigan mr upton each will control twenty minutes the chair now recognizes the gentleman from massachusetts mr markey a thank you mr speaker and i yield myself as much time as i may consume i rise to suspend the rules and pass the broadband census of america act of two thousand and seven because mr speaker the overarching telecommunications policy goal of the united states is achieving ubiquitously of ailill competitive high speed affordable broadband service to all americans such broadband service capability is indispensable to various aspects of the united states economy including public safety education entrepreneurial investment innovation job creation health care delivery and energy efficiency the ability of the united states to promote and achieve a competitive high speed broadband infrastructure will also be a key factor in determining our nation's success in the fiercely competitive global economy international competitors to the united states are achieving progress in broadband deployment and adoption many countries have broadband service capabilities superior to the united states in terms of choice speed and price by the united states offering broadband service capability at ever higher transmission speeds could spur a new growth in investment and cutting edge efficacious services and technologies that utilize higher bandwidth functionality this bill represents an indispensable first step in developing an overarching blueprint for broadband policy we in the united states in brief the broadband senses act of america act tass the federal communications commission was collecting data from providers of broadband service capability throughout the country and was developing a series of tiers of categorizing the speeds of such services the data collected will be disclosed to the public in an annual report that will include one the actual number of residential and business subscribers within each five digit zip code with a list of the broadband technologies present in egypt code and to actual number of residential and business subscribers correlated to each broadband speed here identified by the f c c on a state wide basis this bill also  broadband mapping effort as well as community august is a nation and initiatives for unserved and under served areas to increase knowledge of where what type and what speed of broadband service may be available the bill requires the national telecommunications information agency to develop a national broadband availability map which will include the availability of broadband service capability at the nine digit zip code double census track level functional equivalent this is a very consumer friendly mapping function and demand side identification initiative that consumer groups the high tech community and the telecommunications industry all support this map will be interactive and search e by consumers and at the providers discretion will also indicate the type of technology in speed of service offered in that area the legislation also includes authorizations for grants to local planning entities and communities around the country these grants are designed to increase broadband availability and usage in local communities through so called demand side identification and other initiatives better gauge how the country is performing compared to international competitors the bill also requires the f c c to conduct a comparison of the extent of broadband service capability abroad and seventy five foreign communities with a quibble and american communities this legislation received the detailed attention that this legislation has on a bipartisan basis and for that i want to thank mr upton i also want to thank the ranking member of the full committee mr barton for his work on this legislation and of course on our side mr dingell and i worked with the minority towards achieving this kill this legislation and with the thanks of miss an angle  myself we once again want to point out how cooperative all of our working relationships were on this legislation it also has the support of consumer groups the communications workers of them of america to connect kentucky quest and organizations representing the high tech industry the cable industry the telephone industry and the wireless industry i want to again thank mr upton to mr barton for their cooperation in working through the differences on this legislation and to thank mr dingell for his excellent work on this legislation i urge members of the house to support this bill at this point i would like to reserve the balance my time the chair will now recognize gentleman from michigan instruct well thank you mr speaker and i would yield myself as much time as i may consume someone watching this debate here the nice words you have between the two of us said they are for sure very genuine we had many hand holding scenes in meetings over the last number of months and i am a co sponsor of h r thirty nine one thousand nine hundred think the gentleman from massachusetts for allowing our thoughtful and constructive input into this process because clearly i think we ended up with a good piece of legislation and i commend the gentleman's patience on our side as we were able to work out a consensus that in fact is brought us to the floor this afternoon and i lost so want to think chairman ingle and mr barton for working with all of us to ensure that the bill was able to move forward in a bipartisan way and mr whitfield what i remembered our first hearing on this he talked about  connect kentucky and the positive impact that it had there he obviously added some some good things as well to this legislation and i would urge all of my colleagues to support the legislation as it moves through this process i view the thrust of this legislation as an effort to get a better idea of the u s broadband penetration not as a window to encrease regulation of the already competitive broadband marketplace we were quite fortunate to learn from the successful statewide broadband mapping plan in kentucky called connect kentucky and it isn't often that we have the advantage of looking at a successful model such as this one which could implement in a bipartisan way again the on a national level what we're able to do in this legislation h r thirty nine one thousand nine connect kentucky demonstrated perfectly how a public private partnership can work with industry in a non regulatory manner that benefits not only consumers but also provides a catalyst to greater broadband investment and i would urge my colleagues to support this legislation and i reserve the balance of my time chair now recognizes a gentleman from massachusetts mr mark yield two minutes to the gentleman from ohio myspace who has spent a considerable amount of time working on this legislation the gentleman from ohio in the spaces recognized thank you mr speaker thank you mr chairman and strengthening member for your work on this legislation important for america and especially important for rural america we live in rural america understand that there are special challenges we face whether it be in health care delivery or education economic infrastructure this bill will help bridge the gap that exists between rural america in urban and suburban america by providing a comprehensive mapping plan we will enable access to these issues that are so vital and many of us think about broadband in terms of economic development and the importance that it brings to economic infrastructure certainly that's a big part of what access to high speed internet is all about but it's more than that it affects quality of life in many ways we have heard about distance learning and the effect that it has on the educational process we've heard about telemedicine and the ability to deliver high quality health care certainly it effects our ability of our first responders to coordinate efforts in the event of disasters or emergencies this is a good bill for r wishing to be allocated time and i yield back down to my time chair now recognizes the gentleman from massachusetts mr markey and i thank you ms speaker and i as well have no additional requests for a speaking time so i would like to thank the staff who worked on this bill pimp out early amy levine david bogle neil freed courtney rinehart thank you michael it and i would like to thank maureen flood from from my staff for her excellent work on this legislation and to correct an oversight from the last piece of legislation i would like members may have five legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on a chap forty thirty four zero three as amended and h r thirty nine nineteen has amended this is speaker without objection  thank you very much mr speaker so with that i again highly recommend this piece of legislation to the members it is something that will give us the broadband overview that our country needs we have been falling over the last six years in our international rankings it's time for us to find out exactly where we are because it will help us to put together the policies that will make us number one looking over our shoulders at number two and three in the world with that mr speaker i yield back the balance of my time the gentleman from massachusetts says closed the question is will the house suspend rolls and pass h r three nine one nine as amended those in favor say aye those opposed in the opinion of the chair two thirds being in the affirmative the rules are suspended the bill is passed and without objection the motion to reconsider is laid on the table pass the bill h r three four six one as amended the clerk will report the title of the bill h r thirty four sixty one a bill to establish a public awareness campaign regarding internet safety pursuant to the rule gentleman from north carolina mr butterfield and the gentleman from michigan mr upton each will control twenty minutes the chair now recognizes the gentleman from north carolina mr butterfield thank you m myself such time as i may consume mr speaker h r three four six one the safeguarding america's families by in hansing and reorganizing new and efficient technologies act of two thousand and seven or the safer net act as we refer to it was introduced by a congresswoman melissa being from illinois the bill mr speaker has forty one co sponsors and it was reported out of the energy and commerce committee with  bipartisan support just two weeks ago i believe it was on october thirtieth as a member of the subcommittee on commerce trade and consumer protection i want to thank the general lady for her ongoing and tireless efforts to protect from the lurking dangers on the internet earlier this year the distinguished general eminem is being introduced h r four five five which was a resolution supporting the goals of national internet safety month which passed this house on june the twelfth as such the bill on the floor today is a quality legislative extension of her previous work on internet safety h r three four six one the safer net act directs the federal trade commission to carry out a nationwide public awareness campaign about internet safety and directs the commission to annually report to congress on its activity to promote internet safety the bill as amended authorizes five million dollars for one year to carry out this public awareness campaign currently mr speaker the federal trade commission is engaged  numerous activities to promote awareness and online safety habits the commission has established a toll free number which serves as a help line where consumers can file their complaints moreover the f set up a very special website w w w dot on guard online dot gov that is all one word w w w dot on guard online dot gov to provide tips to consumers in protecting themselves and their children from internet fraud lastly the federal trade commission is engaged in a public awareness campaign to pernelle promote internet safety through a child friendly mascot named doing the turtle much the same way that smokey the bear successfully promoted the prevention of forest fires many years ago the office responsible for managing these initiatives is the division of consumer and business education congresswoman beings bill will aid the f t c in its laudable efforts to protect children from inappropriate cont and from the predators that would do them harm mr speaker the internet is one of the most significant technological developments in the history of humankind and my friend mr markey who spoke just moments before me made that point profound way the way people obtain information and communicate with each each has been completely revolutionized in a manner unthinkable just twenty years ago however with this great revolution comes a price our children are now more vulnerable to this to the despicable creatures that would prey on them by exploiting the powers of the internet it is therefore imperative that we in congress do everything we can to fulfill our duties to promote healthy and safe environments for our children the safer net act is is a quality step in the right direction i urge my colleagues to vote yes on this legislation and pass the bill with that mr speaker note that congresswoman being could not be here with us today on the floor she is extremely busy and moving in another direction today but i asked that her statement i ask unanimous consent that her statement be allowed to be entered into the record without objection with that said mr speaker i'm going to retain in the balance of my time  i remember two weeks ago when we move this to our committee was a very important piece of legislation and mrs being as the author of this senate mary bono on our side to help immensely in getting it through the subcommittee we all rise in support of h r thirty four sixty one safeguarding america's families by enhanced in reckitt reorganizing new and efficient technologies act of zero seven this bill directs the f t c the federal trade commission to carry out a nationwide public awareness campaign about internet safety provides a one year authorization of five million dollars to carry out that campaign and directs the f t c to report annually to the congress on its activities to promote internet internet safety i look forward to those reports  the ranking member of the telecommunications and internet subcommittee the f t c as has been very active in the area in its current computer security education campaign is built around an innovative multimedia website on guard online dot gov on guard online dot gov with special tips and features for children and teens and their parents h r thirty four sixty one expands these underway more over the bill defines internet safety to include threats to juveniles including cyber predators and material that is inappropriate for minors criminal activity beyond the f t c has authority in scope and to fifield that directive the actually more than once a week and often when i speak to an elementary school i'll ask those third or fourth graders how many of you have seen something inappropriate on the internet didn't used to be used to be my question you should be how many of you have a computer home now everyone has practically everyone has a computer at home but now when i ask that question have you seen something inappropriate every hand goes up it in mind mr speaker i hosted an event in our district two mondays ago on internet safety and our intermediate school district in marion county was attended by say hundreds of people we had votes at night so i couldn't be there but it is a concern parents have to know what's going on and that's why this new website on guard online dot gov is very important so that the word can get out because the internet is a double edged sword yes it helps our lives in so many different ways but we have to look out for the nightmare that can come into that home from someone who we would not want in as a decent parent so this is good legislation it's going to it's going to have a positive impact there's a reason that it passed by a unanim among republicans and democrats hope that the senate can move along quickly will be willing to give them a kick if they don't do that i don't have any other speakers every question time and a half if not i reserve the balance of i yield back my time now recognized gentleman from north carolina mr butterfield thank you very much mr speaker i don't have any for the speakers on this side i'm ready to to close this out and to to you back my time before doing so i again w thank miss being for this legislation and thank mr upton for for his advocacy and his passion for this issue these legislators worked very hard to to bring this issue to the forefront and they have done a magnificent job and in doing this today with that said mr speaker i'm going to yield back the balance of my time the gentleman from north carolina mr butterfield as close to the question before the house is will we suspend the roles and pass h r three four six one as amended those in favor of respond by saying i those opposed in the opinion of the chair two thirds being in the affirmative the rules are suspended the bill is passed and without objection the motion to reconsider is laid on the table seventy think h r thirty thirteen a bill to provide appropriate protection to attorney client privilege communications and attorney work product pursuant to the rule the gentleman from virginia mr scott and the gentleman from m virginia from virginia mr good lot each will control twenty minutes the chair now recognizes the gentleman from virginia mr scott misspeak or as good as says that all members have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks in the green clude explain these materials on the bill under consideration without objection speak are you myself such time as i may consume the secret i introduced h r thirty thirteen the time attorney client privilege protection act of two thousand  july third twelfth of this year at the time i was joined by a to original bipartisan call it sponsors including the chairman to the judiciary committee mr conyers ranking member of the full committee mr smith crime subcommittee moment to personally thank each of them for their support the purpose of h r thirty thirteen is fairly simple and straightforward it's designed to prevent a practice that has regrettably become too common in many federal government's re investigations into corporate wrongdoing i'm specifically referring to the government's use of what are called coercive waivers to gain access to privileged communications that otherwise would remain private and protected under the constitutional doctrine of attorney client privilege course of waivers of corporate attorney client privilege has not always been the practice among federal prosecutors formally a company could produce evidence evidence of its cooperation with prosecutors by providing insight into relevant corporate information as well as by providing general access to the company's workplace and its employees unfortunately since that time memorandum memorandum by the chip apartment of justice suggests the change the policy has changed to one which now exposes corporations to an increased risk of prosecution if they claim this constitutionally protected privilege by the first such memorandums was it was  corporation with criminal activity and specifically allowed prosecutors in gauging the extent of the corporation's cooperation to consider the corporations willing just to waive attorney client privilege and work product privileges this memorandum was superseded in one thousand nine hundred min two thousand and three by a memorandum by the thomson memorandum this memorandum contained the same language regarding the waiver of attorney client privilege and work product privileges and also addressed the adverse weight that might be given to a corporation's participation in a joint defense agreement with his officers or employees and its agreement to pay legal fees today the current department policies relating to corporate attorney client privilege and work the memorandum issued in december of last year now while this new memorandum does state that the waiver requests should be d exception rather than the rule it contribute continues to threaten the investigations and prosecutions of corporate malfeasance we look at the victims of enron's collapse the nearly ten thousand individuals who lost their jobs and pensions their plans for the future and know how vital it is for federal prosecutors to have the tools necessary to prosecute these crimes and hold accountable wrongdoing wrongdoers who profit at the expense of ordinary working men and women however i also believe that facilitating and even encouraging such investigations should not come expense of vital constitutionally protected rights h r thirty thirteen therefore prohibits the demanding of constitutionally protected materials as a necessary condition over seaven favorable consideration in decisions relating to prosecution and sentencing this bill is supported by the diverse groups such as the american bar association the chamber of commerce the american civil liberties union and the heritage foundation but that said mr mr mr speaker i'd like to once again thank the bipartisan members of the committee will join me in supporting this measure and i reserve the balance of my time for what purpose gentleman from virginia rise to claim th bars federal prosecutors from requiring corporations and individuals to waive their attorney client privilege as a condition of cooperation or for avoiding criminal charges h r thirty thirteen would not prohibit a corporation from voluntarily waiving the attorney client privilege this bill is designed to remedy overreaching by federal prosecutors it protects the attorney client privilege which is deeply rooted in our jurisprudence and the legal profession the attorney client privilege encourages frank and open communication between clients and their attorneys so that clients can receive effective advice and counsel in the corporate context as we saw in the case of arthur andersen the life of a corporation can turn on a prosecutor's discretionary decision to charge a corporation that decision can have profound consequences on our economy the employees and the community and it should not turn on whether or not a company waives its attorney client privilege cooperation in the criminal justice system is an important engine of truth however a prosecutor should not require privilege waivers as a routine matter i reserve the balance of my time gentleman from virginia mr scott is recognized seeing no for the speaker seeing no further speakers on our side i would yield back the balance of my time gentleman yield back the balance of his time the gentleman from us from virginia mr scott the speaker out i ask unanimous consent enter into the record a letter from the american bar association outlining their support for this legislation without objection and mr chairman i would hope that the house would adopt the bill back to balance my time the gentleman has closed the question is will the house suspend the rules and pass h r three zero one three as amended those in favor say aye those opposed and the opinion that the chair two thirds being in the affirmative the rules are suspended and the bill is passed without objection the motion to reconsider is laid on the table the gentleman from michigan mr conyers and the gentleman from virginia mr goodlatte each will control mr gohmert from texas for what purpose this gentleman from texas rise to speak or i would ask consent that all members have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under consideration without objection in addition i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days  which to revise and extend their remarks and they clued extraneous material on h r three four six one without objection and now i feel myself as much time as i may consume that of an all but hon bill members of the house as the prison population has grown over the past two decades so has the number of prisoners completing their sentencing and returning to the general population more than a half a million some six hundred fifty thousand men and women are leaving the federal and state prisons each year the vast majority leave prison committed to abiding by the law and becoming productive members of society they often encounter the same pressures the same environment the same temptations that they faced before prison and with insufficient resources to assist them in dealing with those pressures and temptations sometimes despite their best intentions at the time of release too many of them commit new crimes and end back in prison more than two thirds of them are arrested for new crimes within three years of their release this exacts terrible call cost in financial terms as well as in human terms now congress has been very active over the years in stenton seeing our criminal laws and our investigative and prosecutorial tools against crime the bipartisan legislation we're considering today aptly named the second chance act complements those efforts by helping acts of vendors the tools they need to stay out of trouble it's a very commonsense piece of legislation and it recognizes that too many x offenders like the education job skills and stable living arrangements the substance abuse treatment and health services that they need to successfully reintegrate into our society many of finding a job and some you have trouble holding a job many move straight from their presence so to a homeless shelter many entered prison with alcohol and drug habits and the pull remains hard to resist once they remembered and in our society many are physically or mentally disabled some have chronic disease others need psychological treatment many left spouses and young children they hine when they entered prison while these family relationships can be  tremendous value in helping an ex offender build a stable life outside prison it can be very difficult to rekindle these ties after a long and painful absence the second chance act will help provide these men and women with the education training counseling and other support needed to help them obtain and hold steady jobs to kick their drug and alcohol habits if they have one address medical and mental needs rebuild their families and deal with the many other challenges that they face in their efforts to successfully rejoin society these kinds of programs have been tested on a smaller scale to be sure where they have already made a measurable difference in reducing receptive as in the second chance act builds on these efforts in a measured but significant way to reduce recidivism increase public safety and help sex offenders lead productive and law abiding lives we have the support of current and former chairman and ranking members of the judiciary committee and the crime subcommittee chaired by bobby scott virginia as well as a wide range of national state and local law enforcement and rehabilitate it to organizations i ask unanimous consent to insert in the record  a new section by section analysis reflecting some of the revisions to the bill reported in response to suggestions by members of the committee on the judicia myself such time as i may use and i'm sure glad my friend chairman of judiciary and i saw time for people to revise and extend their remarks  because they're going to needed this this thing keeps changing i mean i reviewed this bill last week spent a long time going line by line only to find that yesterday there's still an new version and today i was provided a ninety eight page bill i can't tell you the pages of the issues that i'm most concerned about because the virus in keeps changing now this bill includes three hundred thirty controversial it keeps changing because people can't figure out what's the best thing to do and i would submit that there's a good reason for that the bill that this seeks to renew and programs that are  to be renewed are wants we don't have information on how successful they were and that was the original purpose of this bill back when it expired in two thousand and five we still did not have the information on what worked and what didn't i can tell you from my days as a judge some anecdotal evidence it looked like fight based programs did a better job of dramatically reducing we said wisdom and one case i was shown results from prison in texas where it dropped from down to about eight percent from over eighty percent because of site based program and mentoring but now this new version i haven't even been through and had time to go through but but the one that i saw and reviewed on friday it included re entry programs allowing payment for housing and health care i know our military members who are leaving after less than twenty years in the this with honorable discharges would i would love to can have that kind of help entering there's some provisions that allow for too much administration in my opinion eleven percent at one point fifteen percent in another that's not going to help people that's going to to build a bigger bureaucracy dismissing all charges if someone completes a drug rehab under another provision i think it's outrageous you're going to remove the hammer that would allow you to keep people in line it's one thing to say we're going to remove you and not have you go to prison and said send you to drug rehab and then if you get through there before you have a chance to go out and do cocaine again we're going to drop all charges so we've got no hammer over your head i don't know if it's in the final bill it was in there last i saw on friday there's a provision that allows payments through the department of labor for support you know their their their military members and i went to another funeral saturday a gentleman was not killed in iraq he was killed during surgery but i know that his family would love to have the kind of support that is being provided in here for felons we also have a provision in here we're going to pay people through these grants to teach in my how they can go about getting the most welfare before they leave prison and go out on their own there's also a provision that moves inmates to home detention without approval of the judge who send it's the end of a jewel in this bill elderly for purposes of moving to home detention is defined as sixty five i guess apparently under this bill without any underlying evidence and research to support it we've arbitrarily pick sixty five is deciding that's when people are harmless but i know from my own experience around this chamber there are people in congress that are sixty five or over that are certainly not harmless in any event i think that's a little bit too young to classify people as harmless there's provision that assistance would be provided by the united states probation system and it shall be done and you know that i don't know i can't find from the bill what kind of assistance that will be but i think we've all got the saying go i think one of the worst atrocities has been in the in the justices ms min our lack of of rehabilitating and educating and preparing people to go out into the world and gum productive citizens and finally reach the god given potential that every one of them has i couldn't agree more with the proposition and i know that's the heart of my colleagues across the aisle but we don't have the information on which programs are successful and which all art i want to work together on a program i've kind of been cut out of this process but the national s on prisoner re entering is coming up in los angeles nov twenty seventh and twenty eight but we're going to rush this through on a suspension bail for three hundred thirty million dollars without even having a chance to to really review the most recent document that's been yes i would be glad to yield and if you can show that we've gotten a recent version for the record my name is stephanie tubbs jones on the congresswoman from cleveland ohio taking something so important and rushing it in here without having the proper him put in the proper information the national institute of justice has got their biggest study program in its history ongoing and we don't have the results and yet my colleagues want to rush in and throughout three hundred thirty million dollars at a process that is unproven and i've tried and i just don't think that's the way to go this is not we've got honest people involved in the process but the process itself here has not been honest and with that would reserve the balance of my time gentleman from michigan mr c recognized missed mr speaker you know my self as much time as i may consume well here we are the day after veteran's day we come back in understand as much as i can explain to him about the reservations that he's raised thus far and i want him to to know this is not a partisan bill at all and that the changes that have been made to the bill were made before friday when you examine that so if you were examining this measure on friday you've got that's the last that was on she wrote because we have been incensed them so please understand that first of all this is a bipartisan bill we had the hearings we had a markup in which you participated rather actively and we had a record vote we went to the rules committee everything everything is working  i think very smoothly according to the chairman of the subcommittee on crime bobby scott and the author of this bill for three congresses congressm danny davis of illinois please know that we've been working on this bill you're right it's been through a lot of changes the changes started before you graced us with your presence in the judiciary committee as a very important member of it we've been working on this all the time we think it's an improved state and i would just like you to know that we have two hundred and twelve organizations and because we're on a rather fast schedule here this afternoon i won't bother them with you but none of them are political they're all community organizations they're all organizations concerned with the reentry of people who have served their time and they're not coming out and we're trying to d gohmert with this huge problem of people returning from their term in prison and they come out and and sometimes in my state i hate to say this they i don't even have a bus ticket or a suit of new clothing to get to where they're supposed to be going many of them don't know where they're going and it's that this location that creates so many of them returning back one of the one of the most distressing things i ever heard when i was visiting one of these places is that the guard tells the exit ing prison prisoner former prisoners serve the term i'll see you when you get back i mean nothing tells the story more than i know there's nothing for you out in society you're not chained for anything you're not fit for anything there are no jobs for you so you're going to go back into your old ways and we're going to get you back in our classes again what we're trying to do judge ago is to change that and i know in your court you seen your share of this kind of process  even in texas so i urge you to join with us in china to be as constructive as you normally are to help make everybody understand that we're trying to to make rehabilitation means something besides just a phrase used in the criminal justice system and with that  or was there no bail now by reason of bail files a day i beg your pardon was there now by version of the second chance act filed today oh absolutely yes it was the thank you your welcome i reserve the back some a gentleman from texas of recognized yes may i inquire how much time i've got the gentleman from texas has thirteen minutes  issues and when i think about the gentle lady and saying that my comments were outrageous everything that i've said is documented everything i've said comes from reading through this bill and as well as my own experience from days being a judge i wholeheartedly agree we should do a better job of rehabilitating and educating and in fact i just get concerned when we get so anxious to do i to do something good that we end up throwing money at a problem just so we can say we worked on it something had to be done but it was the national institute of justice award to r t i international nonprofit research organization to evaluate the pro programs funded by the research organization in d c is the collaborator on the project i'm really looking forward to get that information and i'm wondering why we throw more money at a situation before we get the information that tells me how and tells us how it will be most effective and when my good friend and i do think the world and the chairman talks about comedy and good will we'll that's what i would love to have but when we have such trouble getting copies of the latest versions and then the chairman says gee i had the latest version on friday i was notified by the committee staff that there was a new version as of yesterday and a new and then the new version was filed today and so i didn't have everything friday and that's been one of the problems here this is too important of an issue to just be throwing good money after bad and i'd also point out that in the interest of comedy and goodwill there's the bills that follow this thirty eight forty five protect our children act of two thousand and seven i'd indicated before that sounded like something i'd want to be part of and helping with but we never did get a final version that that we could say yes i want to co sponsor that keeping the internet devoid of sexual predators act of two thousand and seven sounds like another good bill but we haven't seen and talking to judiciary staff that and the effect of child pornography prosecution act this forty one thirty four that follows that we're still trying to get updated versions of those things so that doesn't sound to me like comedy and goodwill when we're struggling over here to even get copies we don't know what requests had been granted there were things that were questioned by the department of justice in the interest of justice please get these provisions put in this bill and we don't know what was put in and what wasn't that to me does not indicate comedy and goodwill it creates all kinds of and i just wonder if you are aware that four of your changes in particular have been accepted and incorporated into the measure that is before us now and i'm not i'm not sure which fo minutes or so before i came up to speak talking to judiciary staff who are been unless they're changing their story now have not been able to get the latest information on this bill and well they've got it on this bill we've got the final copy and i had a chance to review it since it's been filed today and we were out most of us were doing what we should have been doing yesterday paying tribute to veterans all over our district but these subsequent bills these are still a ballooning out of control we must continue to enforce our criminal laws but we cannot ignore the fact that most of the people who are released from incarceration are lockley to return the second chance act will support presenters who are to be released around the country this year will be rearrested again and likely will return to present this cycle is overwhelming our criminal system is overwhelming our presence and is costing more than ninety billion dollars every year fifty billion is for a federal institution of concerned i'm in agreement that stiff se serve a good purpose criminals must know if they violate the law they will be punished but when we see growing growing numbers of acts of penders returning to our prisons something in the system is not working something must just figure if flawed the second chance act is in north of the castle of state governments the national sheriffs association the american bar association and countless religious organizations from around the nation for some time many of you have heard me express alarm and concern about the dangers of prison overcrowding it is a waiting to explode and my district get back there's a president county jail that's just bursting at the same as mr chairman we can begin to diffuse this bomb today by passing the second chance act and supporting programs that reduce recidivism that much has been said about the cost and i will stipulate saying i'm a friend from texas it is costly but if the second chance act proves to be effective i believe it's realistic for us to conclude that it will result in saving taxpayers money because to house president folks as all of you know it is a costly chair of this committee on crime in the house judiciary bobby scott for two minutes gentleman from virginia mr scott is recognized thank you mr speaker i rise in support of the second chance act and would like to commend the gentleman from illinois mr davis and gentleman for you thomas the cannon for their continued leadership on this bill and i also want to acknowledge the dedication and tireless efforts of many members of the divided diverse coalition of national state and local federal state jails and prisons a tenfold increase since one thousand nine hundred eighty and that a present cost of sixty five billion dollars as a result of this focus on incarceration the united states leads the world in per capita incarceration rates over seven hundred per one hundred thousand population while most of the world locked up about fifty to two hundred per hundred thousand the united states is first in the world at over seven hundred per hundred thousand and as a result more than six hundred fifty thousand people the release from state and federal prisons to communities nationwide along with nine million people leave leaving local jails unfortunately the department of justice is bureau of justice statistics estimates that two thirds of the offenders leaving state and federal prisons are rearrested in three years if we are to reduce the number of inmates returning to prison we need to provide our ex offenders with the education training and training necessary for them to obtain and hold steady jobs they also need drug treatment medical and mental health services to decrease the chances that they will come back to prison the second chance act will provide these investments and every study shows that it will not only reduce crime but also save money in the process that's it with the speakers very infrequent that we have the opportunity to reduce crime and save money i hope we'll take that opportunity today and pass this bill you know back the balance of my time organizations supporting the bill and op talked to many of them over the course of our discussions on the second chance act great noble wonderful organizations and i couldn't find  but one out of numerous ones i've talked to that actually read the bill they all have the same goals they all want to see adequate education and rehabilitation cutting down recidivism we all want to see that i want to see that i think we we have got to do that as a civilized society and there are many that support this goal but again many haven't seen it in as far as i've checked with the staff if we really want to help the situation doesn't it make sense to get the information on the biggest one of the biggest funded programs in i'd say he's ever had so we put the money where it works and take it away from where it didn't work and miss baker in responding to the chairman's comment i'd have to say i noticed in reviewing the bill on friday it is a better bill than it was in my opinion but we've still got a little ways to go and that's why i just think this is a a bill in its present form as it continued to morph that should not be on the suspension bill but should come up under a regular rule where we have a chance to work on with the other issues but my friend you can me well i only have limited time but i would reserve balance my time and so you've had the time on my question to you is how much i'm glad you find that we're making progress that's very encouraging how much time do you think we would need to arrive at a point where your observations about the bill and the needed improvement and our see the information that's being prepared to come forth on november twenty seventh and twenty eight the newest information that is being brought to bear all these groups coming together and i would then by december we ought to be able to have something that's what i well i'm going to recognize in the distinguished trip of the majority here the gentleman from south carolina jim clyburn and maybe within his comments he can help speaker and if we're ever going to make progress in addressing the crime that is crippling our community this we cannot give up on any human being because it is not enough to say that we are just going to lock up every offender and throw away the key sets narrowmindedness does nothing to prevent our vulnerable youth from being and definitely a trap in our nation's corrections system in order to stop crime mr speaker we have to eliminate the criminal mindset and we hit up to a minute eliminate this mindset by offering alternatives for the offenders in their lives of crime we do this by enrolling their many programs that provide them with an education and help them find employment and remind them constantly of the consequences of anti social behavior i'm happy to say that the second chance act does all of this it reaches out to offenders by increasing their access to vote will cation education it also goes a long wait and yep and many of our juvenile offenders understand the dangers associated with crack and providing them with counseling services many of the individuals current it cost a reddit in this country are young nonviolent first time offenders who made stupid mistakes they asked kids should not be denied the opportunity to reposition their pads in a most able and law abiding direction  five minutes i'll be happy to proceed and i'd like to recognize now the author of this bill danny davis of chicago illinois and we said it started  three congresses ago but then a davis started many years before three congresses ago and i'm proud to yield to him now two minutes the gentleman from chicago illinois mr davis is recognized for two minutes  commitment to pass in this landmark legislation i also extend my appreciation to senator patrick leahy and the judiciary committee in the senate for their hard work cooperation insensitivity i also want to commend representative chris coleman of utah are there was the chief republican sponsor on this legislation i want to think congressman bobby scott and representative howard coble and all of the co sponsors who signed on i want to express appreciation to former congressman rob portman who was very instrumental in move in this legislation to this point i want to think carolyn cheeks kilpatrick and all of the members of the congressional black caucus all of the organizations who have worked unceasingly to try and bring us to this point i want to think what we call the working group under the leadership of jean and i don't know about them not read in this that they've been reading it time and time again as a matter of fact they know it backwards forwards crossways that ways every way that you could possibly kno think the members of all staff who've worked extremely hard i would think especially the members of my committed by the recommitted bag in chicago dennis deer and george williams and  romero who helped orchestrate all of the activity dr caleb gilchrist in my office here helen helen helen mitchell bernard moore i also want to think mr chairman this bill when it was first introduced and i want to thank him for his interest and i yield back the balance of my time gentleman from texas mr continued recognized thank you continue to  gentleman reserves the balance of his time the gentleman from michigan former jurist and prosecutor herself stephanie tubbs jones for one minute the gentleman from ohio and recognized thank you mr chairman i won't do all the thank you that mr davis has already done i want to say to you judge if i offended you i apologize but you know as well as i do that it's so important for us after program for x offenders in the time that i was a judge and prosecutor it was those young people that we held that we gave a second chance to that we said to them are right you have made a mistake let's make a difference in your life i can tell you how many times i've walked down the street judge gomer and young people have walked up to me and said judge you gave me a break and i'm thank you josh you gave me an opportunity and more than goals young people need an opportunity they need a second chance this is a program we can't study anymore we study there all kinds of studies have shown that community reentry works there's all kind of programs that say diversion work and there are a lot of young people out here who don't have a mother a father that's a judge or prosecutor or congresswoman or state representative to call and say i'm a good person they need us to say in the world that young people all the older people whatever their age will been involved in the criminal justice system pay down do you they need a chance and we want to give them a second chance you know last week we're talking about reading the bible the week of the bible and how important was the fall of god's word what more important god said when you come visit me when i was six when i was in jail second chance can do that and judge all i'm saying to you now do you mean to offend you but if i did i want you to know your comment that if fuel the fire make it hard for us to do a second  thank you mr chairman and thank you mr speaker i rise today in strong support of the second chance act according to the two thousand and one census wisconsin had the highest incarceration rate for african american males in the country and i can tell you that this legislation represents a second chance for these convicted felons you know getting the the becoming a felon is akin to the civic death penalty x offenders are often lacking a high school diploma lacking vocational skills their drug and alcohol depended their it's a strength from families they're homeless but this legislation not only is a second chance for those felons but it's a second chance for our communities those communities are states that are tethered to these billion dollar budgets for incarcerat particularly african american men and can't use those billions of dollars for more constructive productive purposes like job creation and job training educational vocational training and strengthening our families and communities please support this second chance act i yield back from texas continued to reserve continue to reserve well you can't reserve anymore i'm the closing speaker just calling me or my comments outrageous was somewhat offensive but as an old judge i was used to that in fact i've been called all kinds of names and yes even two days ago when i was buying some potting soil back home i had a guy come up to me with his father and said if it were not from a he would never strike in his life those are not uncommon comments and what it came from was being fair but also having tough love because as those who have been involved in dealing with people who have been addicted to drugs or alcohol it does take tough love and you do want to help them get out of the cycle rather than becoming an enabler and that is my number one concern is that we do not want to be  and when we talk about scripture absolutely there are all kinds of verses that that applied to us for those that believe the teachings of jesus is god do they are entirely appropriate those are directed individuals if you get over roman saying that's directed to the government and where it says if you do evil you need to be afraid because god does not give the government the sword in vain that is part of the role of government if you do evil then there are consequences but it's a worthy goal to want to try to stop the cycle of recidivism we all i think want that no i don't think i know we all want that saying go but i'm very concerned that we may be enabling by throwing money at a problem one of the saddest words in the lines i ever heard came at a hearing when the wealthiest people in my home county they had the court room packed so that they were hoping that i would put her on probation yet again and they knew she did it too many times and it was going to happen under me and it didn't and it turns out she had a huge trust fund every month she never had to work she never had to study and she had spent all her money on drugs and the last thing she said before a sinister was i wish somebody had tell me now before today in man that she is now got now she is she her mother when i was walking neighborhoods i went up to her door and her mother said come in and sit down she said you know my husband and i just hated you at one point but you saved our daughter's lives sometimes it's the tough love things that turn things around we want the same goal i don't want to throw good money after bad and renew programs that shouldn't they and i hope that if this fails on suspension we can get the new data that's going to be forthcoming and work toward the sango with additional more helpful information with that and mr speaker i yield for closing the balance of our time to eleanor holmes norton who's been not just a trial lawyer but has been before the supreme court  n numerous occasions to close the debate on our side gentleman is recognized for one minute i thank the gentleman for his important work on this bill is kind comments twenty five hundred x felons return to the district of columbia every year there are a microcosm of who's coming home to every community in this country there's a special benefit and a special burden that has to be spoken of on this bill twelve percent of our population is african american forty percent of those in in federal prison are african americans most of these are nonviolent drug offenders it's the sentencing guidelines and mandatory minimums that have done this  disparities have been recently relaxed justices beginning with justice rehnquist i've spoken to the injustices they are now coming home there and federal prison let's not make it any worse than it was by condemning them disproportionately under the crack cocaine guidelines we owe it to their communities to help them return and become good citizens that's all this bill aims to do i thank the gentleman for all of his work on this bill and particularly the sponsor m pronouncement for the proceedings on this motion will be postpone before i move to suspend the rules and pass h r thirty eight forty five as amended to quickly put the title of the bill h r thirty eight forty five a bill to establish a special counsel for child exploitation prevention and interdiction was the office within the office of the deputy attorney general to improve the internet crimes against children task force to increase resources for regional computer parental collab and to make other improvements to increase the ability of law enforcement agencies to investigate and days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under consideration without objection thanking the speaker and i have myself such time as i may consume with the secret just last week we learned that police arrested a senior executive at the national children's museum right here in washington d c for distributing child pornography over the internet this headline floored me but it is a good example of a problem that has gotten completely out of control the internet has  billion dollar market for child pornography tragically the demand for this criminal market can only be supplied by graphic new images and these images can only be supplied through the sexual assault of more children arrive today to urge my colleagues to support h r thirty eight forty five to protect our children act of two thousand and seven this bill addresses an issue that is central to the goals and vision of speaker nancy pelosi and the new direction in congress and one that should be at the top of everyone's agenda for the protection of our children  children deserve a future that is healthy prosperous safe and bright but our children are vulnerable when they are on line if this bill becomes law we have the potential to save many thousands of children from sexual abuse and exploitation i want to start by  thanking my friend and colleague joe barton of texas for working with me on this bipartisan legislation and for his counsel his very good counsel as the lead republican sponsor of the bill in the last congress congressman barton then the chairman of the energy and commerce committee conducted a series of hearings on this topic not only did these those hearings expose the dearth of federal resources devoted to investigating and prosecuting child exploitation crimes but they also brought together an extraordinary group of parents who formed an organization called the surviving parents coalition in june of this year i had the opportunity to visit with this very special group of parents when i sat down with mark lunsford erin runnion ed smart marc klass maricopa cabbage and other founders of the surviving parent coalition i was not prepared for what they had to tell me they shared with me their own horrific stories of how their children were abducted by sexual predators as we all know some of these children will never come home as the mother of three young children myself their stories broke my heart and as a member of congress i felt compelled to act what surprised me most about these brave parents was their message about child pornography and child exploitation what they said was this if you want to prevent predators from hurting other children like our the way to do that is to go back through the internet and get them as we learned last month with the apprehension of a child predator in las vegas nevada for the first time we have the technology and the evidence not only to find these predator predators we have the technology to rescue them to rescue their victims as well well our two thousand and five justice department study found that eighty percent of child pornography possessors have images and videos of children being sexually penetrated another twenty one percent possess images of bondage sadistic abuse and torture the children depicted in these photos are very young eighty three percent of child pornography possessors have images of children younger than twelve and another nineteen percent possess images of infants and toddlers there are even web sites that provide live pay per view rate of very young children let me be clear this is not about obscenity or pornography these images are crime scene photos created by a thriving industry that uses children as sexual commodities i want to thank chairman john conyers for holding a hearing on internet predators in october at that hearing special agent flint waters of the wyoming state police a highly respected child exploitation investigator testified that right now there are nearly five hundred thousand identified individuals in the united states trafficking child pornography on the internet has half a million people right here in the united states and law enforcement knows who they are and they know where they are but what shocked me the most and what compelled me to get involved in this issue is that due to a lack of resources law enforcement is investigating less than two percent of these known five hundred thousand individuals less than two percent what was even more shocking is that it is estimated that if we were to investigate these cases we could actually rescued child victims nearly thirty percent of the time it is clear that our current efforts are not working we need a national campaign with everyone joining the fight that means the full weight of law enforcement the national center for missing and exploited children congress the executive branch parents and victims advocates advocacy groups and internet and internet service providers elise across a cabbage whose testimony at the october judiciary hearing moved us all is a living living breathing reminder of the lives that we can face alicia is not just a victim she is a survivor alicia told us how over a period of months she was groomed by a forty year old predator pretending to be a teenage girl when i wish or who was thirteen years old at the time agreed to meet her cyber friends in real life he kidnapped her from her suburban pittsburgh driveway and held her captive in his virginia dungeon where he performed unspeakable sexual acts upon her day after day and broadcast it over the internet just one alicia told us she had given up all hope she was finally rescued i agents the f b i found her because a virginia internet crimes against children task force or i can have the technology to lift the digital fingerprints of this perpetrator of crime and to discover the location where he held her captive captive change the floor the protect our children act will help provide the safety net we so desperately need by creating statutory authorities that is highly successful aipac task forces which support state and local law enforcement agencies it will supplement this local effort with hundreds of new federal agents who will be slowly dedicated to crimes against children it will also provide desperately needed forensic crime and computer labs so agents can uncover troves of electronic evidence locate these perpetrators and bring them to justice finally the bill will create a special counsel within the department of justice who will be responsible for planning and coordinating our child exploitation prosecution efforts across the federal agencies as the october judiciary committee hearing a representative from the i told us to thing mr speaker that boggles my mind first he told us that the number of agents being exclusively assigned to these cases is actually shrinking and second that they are giving millions of dollars that congress has appropriated combat child pornography to programs that have nothing to do with child protection should we be shrinking critical staffing power and diverting badly needed funds at its time and we are investigating less than two percent of known traffickers of chapa not graphy we can do better and we must do better mr speaker the time has come to reorder priorities at the department of justice and the protect our children act will do just that our mandate here is clear we must prevent predators from hurting our children again i want to thank ranking member barton for his leadership his concern and his compassion for our children and their safety not just on this issue but on the pool safety done that we work together and the hundred one thousand one hundred tenth congress and i actually appreciate his leadership and effort on on on this bill and many others this is speaker this is what congress can do when we come together in a bipartisan fashion and maybe it's our children that can do that the catalyst for the change that we need in america and i reserve the balance of my time on the from virginia the speaker i yield myself such time as i may consume speaker unfortunately the majority has decided to promote politics rather than fully protecting our nation's children in this last minute rush to bring bills to the floor the majority has selected five bills addressing the problem of sex offenders on the internet and internet safety for children these bills were never considered by the judiciary committee never subject to legislative hearings and never brought through the markup process in addition the majority failed to address concerns that the national center for missing  exploited children and the justice department expressed to ignore the concerns of these major stakeholders is no way to legislate when it comes to the safety of our children why did the majority avoid the judiciary committee process for one they knew the amendments we would offer at the committee would gain bipartisan support again avoiding amendments that both parties would support is no way to protect our children even on the substance the majority's bills ignore the needs of law enforcement at a full committee oversight hearing on october seventeenth two thousand and seven the majority heard from law enforcement and the justice department about the civic tools needed to protect children the testimony at the hearing  underscored the need to give law enforcement flexible tools necessary to protect children and apprehend sex offenders instead of working to produce a strong bill that responds to law enforcement requests the majority has bypassed the normal committee process and brought an incomplete bill to the floor last congress we passed landmark child protection legislation the adam walsh act of two thousand and six which combined new tools new authorities additional programs and important requirements on the registration and notification requirements for sex offenders this legislation was developed through bipartisan cooperation subject a full judiciary committee markup extensive testimony on legislative proposals and consultation with the n c m e c and the justice department in stark contrast the majority has failed to meet these basic requirements in developing new child protection legislation h r thirty eight forty five is replete with problems for example the bill creates a super bureaucratic special counsel in the justice department and charges that counsel with coordinating all child protection efforts across the federal government the special prosecutor duplicate existing offices within the department of justice with the expertise to prosecute child crimes cases and administer the cac grant program the innumerable responsibilities of this new special prosecutor require expertise across so many issues prosecution policy and granted ministration just to name a few that no one person can fulfill this role the bill in fact acknowledges this by directing the creation of  entirely new office within the office of the deputy attorney general creating yet another layer of bureaucracy in washington this eats up precious resources rather than sending them to our neighborhoods and communities moreover the bill places approval for all i see ac grants with the new special prosecutor a role traditionally held by the office of justice programs why we don't know we have been presented no evidence to suggest that the department's performance  administering grants to existing i c a c task forces is somehow flawed it is sad to see that our children's safety is being sacrificed for the benefits of a quick press it while the bill has some good provisions much bring that the discussion but as has been by my good friend in the last that's not indicate that he is opposed to the substance of this measure and that his remarks were generated around the process the procedure because i'm sure he was he worked on the adam walsh bill and here to me  is another important step forward on that and so we look forward to his continued support now with reference to a process that's a little bit more sensitive issue because you know me i don't like to bring up things that some partisan but you guys of boys did more process in the judiciary committee than we ever have in the one hundred tenth congress so i got a long record of it but we don't want to get off the chock here this this isn't about process but i've got some not complimentary statistics about the way we've operated in the past and i've had good relationships with all the republican almost seems like forever chairman of judiciary committee that have preceded us for this last twelve years but what our floor manager debbie wasserman schultz is talking about now is something for which there can be no disagreement we've got to get these internet sex predators out of business and that's what this measure does it does it well i don't know how much more benefited anybody would be if we have gone any different directions we're under little duress no we've got measures on top of measures and the scheduling is getting horrific but i commend a gentle lady and the members of the committee on both sides of the aisle that have worked with there in pursuance of this legislation to get it to the floor today and i thank you chairman from virginia mr speaker i yield myself thirty seconds to bridge respond briefly to the distinguished chairman with for whom i have great respect and when bills do go through the process of the judiciary committee the chairman has been most fair to us on our side of the aisle and the previous chairman mr sensenbrenner our side of the aisle was also very dedicated to fulfilling that process in fact that indeed  what what took place with regard to the adam walsh legislation which was moved through the process of the committee only wish the same thing had been done here it would have enabled us to have produced a much much better piece of legislation that would more effectively protect our children at this time it is my pleasure to recognize the distinguished ranking member of the energy and commerce committee the gentleman from texas mr barton for such time as i may consume so much right now as i thank the  distinguished gentleman from virginia the former chairman of the ag committee when the senior members of the judiciary committee i want to in a somewhat milder vein share the concerns that mr goodlatte shared about the process when i agreed to be the principal republican sponsor of this legislation i ask and was told that there would be a committee markup in the judiciary committee and that there would be a minutes made in order so i was a little bit surprised last week to find that this was going to be on the suspension calendar and expressed that surprise to mrs wasserman schultz and her staff having said that there have been bipartisan discussions negotiations there have been changes made in the bill is originally introduced it is a good bill and i am proud to be the senior republican sponsor  this bill needs to be passed i will agree with mr goodlatte that it's not a perfect bill and i will agree that had there been a committee markup or a subcommittee markup and a bipartisan markup amendment process some of the issues that would have been addressed little bit differently i'll agree with that but having said that let's look at what's positive in the bill and let's compare the bill to current law there are over three million images of child pornography on the internet internet right now three million and in the last congress is chairman of the energy and commerce committee under my direct request as chairman of the over vicious malicious virus viral disease that has the potential to destroy our children and in some point time we have to do something and this bill the protect bill this before us this afternoon is a good first start we found out in our hearings last year that the various state and federal agencies didn't have enough resources we found out that they didn't coordinate and so this bill before us as my good friend mr goodlatte has pointed out it does set up a noose special council office in the justice department and normally that would probably not be a good thing to do but in this case given the lack of coordination under current law at a minimum i think it's acceptable and i personally think that it's commendable we give additional reef resources not one witness in our hearings last year said that there were sufficient financial resources the bill before us authorizes over the course of the next eight years over one billion additional dollars to to fight this infestation of child pornography it sets up an additional four hundred million dollars to increase funding over the next eight years for the federal law enforcement agencies the f b i innocent images unit immigrations and customs enforcement the united states postal service these are the federal agencies that are at the forefront in investigating the internet child pornography the bill also authorizes increased funding for new forensic computer labs tori's one of the things that we found out is that there just wasn't enough palauan foresman laboratory capability in terms of forensics to track down the information that was being provided by the agents in the field this bill ritter recommends and authorizes an additional seven million dollars each year for two thousand and eight to two thousand and fifteen for new national forensic computer laboratories we also found out that the as i pointed out that that the some of these task forces that have been set up and are well intentioned simply didn't have the resources that they needed so the bill before us authorizes over six hundred million dollars within over the next eight years on a stagger basis for these internet crimes against children or task forces that is a huge improvement over the current situation and i don't think any member of congress is going to oppose that this bill provides additional funding for federal and state law enforcement greater coordination of the overall united states law enforcement effort at both the state federal and local level it establishes the special counsel office  already talked about and i want to comment on that it i agree with what mr goodlatte said that the current task force is in the current system in terms of allocating resources is doing an acceptable job so the special counsel will coordinate with them the special counsel will have the ability to to sign off but it doesn't have the ability to unilaterally decide where these funds are these additional funds are going to go for the very reasons that mr good said in his statement a few minutes ago the bill before us brings additional resources that are vitally needed to the fight against the scourge of child pornography on the internet almost all of us have children or grandchildren and when you go on the internet today and you tap in snow white w w w w w snow white dot com you may well get a pornographic child pornography side now that's a nice that's unacceptable it's unacceptable to every member on both sides of the house and both sides of our other body are free and on the other side of this capitol this bill before us may not be a perfect bill but it is time to act it is a good start anything can be improved again i respect the process questions that have been raised i have some of the same questions about some issues under the committee that but in this case it really is time to protect our children it really is time to move forward in if we have a roll call vote i hope every member of the house of representatives vote yes on the protect act because it is a huge step forward  element of this legislation because right now you have no less than eight different entities and agencies that have something to do with the grants and the coordination and the prosecution and the pursuit of child exploitation crimes and a child pornography it is imperative that we have a single go to entity a single leadership position in the department of justice to ensure that there is someone who is responsible to congress for the accountability for the coordination to make sure that that it is elevated to the highest level of priority at the department of justice where clearly right now it is not and i again want to thank my my colleague mr barton for for working with us on this legislation this is an issue that transcends transcends party it is an issue that transcends process when you have five hundred thousand known individuals out there pursuing our children online internet predators any of who  any of our children could fall fall victims and any of our children could fall victim just by a click of the computer mr speaker i can tell you i have a four year old who goes online with the most basic of web sites and you know you just you just never know and we need to make sure that we have a massive effort to coordinate and put resources into going after child exploitation and child predators and i don't believe i have any other speakers on my side identifiers and for other purposes pursuant to the rules the gentleman from michigan mr conyers and a gentleman from virginia mr goodlatte each will control twenty minutes chair recognized the gentleman from michigan mr speaker i ask unanimous consent that all members have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under consideration without objection and i you myself as much time as i may consume  members of the house h r seven one nine the kids act just as the problems of convicted sex offenders infiltrating the internet to contact and prey on minors you've heard about this problem before and the measure that has just passed the house we're all familiar with the problem there's not a parent who's not concerned that through the internet a sex offender may attempt to contact the child for criminal vicious sex purposes the kids act addresses this problem in three ways it authorizes funding for the federal probation and pretrial office to enhance the agency's ability to monitor the computer use by convicted federal sex offenders in particular it authorizes funding to evaluate and purchase internet filtering and monitoring systems to better enable probation officers to monitor the computer use of sex offenders this is very important this should help ensure that if an offender violates the terms of release as to internet use the violation will be discovered so the offenders release can be promptly revo the next thing we do here is modify our codified the current practice of some sentencing judges by specifically authorizing a court to require as a condition of probation that a convicted sex offender cooperate with the is still a sion of internet filtering and monitoring systems and finally the builder rex the sentencing commission to consider increased penalties for sex crimes committed over the internet where the defendant lied about his age or concealed his identity as a sex offender this measure before us now adds a new criminal provision to reach those who set up virtual money systems to facilitate the chaff aching of child pornography over the internet there's no simple way of keeping the internet out of the hands of those who would use it for these and others senate just are purposes nonetheless the kids and goes a long way toward addressing the problem of internet sex nation by in the hansing supervision of convicted sex offenders and increasing penalties for these crimes i can't imagine anyone in this house on either side of the sex offenders were on commercial social networking sites in response to press attention the social networking sites remove the sex offenders from the sites h r seven one thousand ad introduced included an important provision requiring that sex offenders update their registration information to include their electronic mail addresses instant messaging addresses and other similar internet identifiers used by the sex offender in addition h thousand include a mechanism to permit social networking sites to check sex offender registries to prevent sex offenders from accessing the social networking site finally h r seven one thousand nine included on introduction a new criminal prohibition on misrepresentation of age by a person designed to lure children into sexual activity unfortunately h r seven one thousand has been stripped of all of these important provisions it's my hope that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle will work with us to address these important provisions in the future the gap in our laws must be filled so that children on social networking sites do not have to fear sex predators joining their circle of so called friends i wish to commend my colleagues for including in this legislation a critical provision to prohibit the financial to cilla taishan of child pornography originally proposed by our ranking member lamar smith at the beginning of the year this criminal penalty is vitally important for prosecuting an emerging tool used by child pornographers to prey on children anonymously virtual money systems unlike credit card companies which require merchants and customers to provide personal information such as name address and social security number virtual money is essentially anonymous subscribers provide pictish is personal information or no personal information and no credit card or so security numbers required making them virtually untraceable the key to combating the commercial child pornography industry is to cut it off at its source money virtual money is now the payment method of choice it is imperative that our law enforcement tools keep pace with changing technologies h r seven one thousand dollars so includes a technical correction to the adam walsh act to expand the eligibility for participation in child safety in a child safety grant program and i want to particularly thank congressman forbes the ranking member of the crime subcommittee for introducing legislation that would have accomplished this technical correction i commend my colleague from north dakota mr pomeroy for his dedication to protecting children and for working with us on this legislation and i urge my colleagues to support the bill and i reserve the balance of my time jim from michigan mr speaker i you know myself as much time as i may consume first of all i want to say the gentleman from virginia mr goodlatte for the hard work that he's put in on this measure and we're you know appreciate the cooperation that we've had in the course of this and of course we yield to no one in recognizing him as the congress's foremost expert on the internet and thus he has been involved in this kind of legislation for quite a few years  earlier versions of this bill required registration of on online identifiers of sex offenders and the gentleman knows a sex offender can change is use rname and ip address in about two seconds so we didn't feel that was particularly helpful we thought monitoring sex offenders before they ever got on the internet was a better way to go and we're glad that we've been able to reach some closure with him on that subject now on the criminal provisions  i want to tactfully suggest that we've got a better way here in this bill and i think most of the lawyers and those who follow this issue will agree with us there's no point in overburdening prosecutors what we've done with reference to criminal provisions is that that the practice of grooming where sex predators lie about their age on the internet to entice minors into sexual activity and obviously is horrific and widespread but the other approach would have required prosecutors to prove a new and separate offense in order to get a higher sentence for offenses involving rheumy we didn't think that would be the better way to proceed under them and under the minority rip approach a prosecutor would had to prove all the elements of this new crime beyond a reasonable doubt this i think unnecessary and probably a very high burden to reach given that there are existing criminal laws against enticement that cover grooming activity and so the approach we've finally settled on  directs the sentencing commission today to provide tougher sentences for predatory behavior that involves grooming and you don't get the chairman of this committee talking about tougher sentencing on very many things around here this is one that i can support without qualification so what we've done is deal with the serious problem of  grooming and get to the same place as other pro choice that have been suggested to us in what we believe from a criminal justice point of view is far more efficient and with the new provisions that would fight financial facilitation of child pornography we think we've got a bill and we think mr pomeroy for helping us get begin by acknowledging the work paul gilmore put into this legislation he and i were the original co sponsors he was a colleague with whom i worked on a variety of initiatives trying to keep our children safe against th who would prey upon them through the internet we miss paul but his efforts and his work continues with this legislation i agree with the words of the chairman in the facet of this bill relating to grooming that item that would bring them longer present time when convicted is a positive clarification of this bill probably better than the original bill is a feature of the bill that was left out and quite disappointed that it works going to need to continue on this one and that is helping these internet sites keep sexual predators off in the first place we have a number of provisions in our code dealing with what's required of high risk sexual predators and i believe it would be appropriate to have a voluntary registry where their names would be required to be on file and social networking sites could keep them off of their site i want to specially commend the efforts of my space on the most popular sites out there for the extraordinary efforts they've gone to to identify hydrous sex predators and keep them off the site twenty nine thousand are blocked from participating online space to maine because of their efforts and i think the federal government to do more to help them that's that whets work in progress a lot of bills that come to the floor aren't perfect at least at this  legislative process so this is an aspect of this bill i want to continue to work on their couple of other things that i think are very useful and that is these funding the authorization of funds to step up the author the supervision of the internet activities of high risk sexual predators as well as the portion that criminalizes financial facilitation of child pornography if there's a banker making a buck by basically facilitating the credit card transactions on child pornography over the internet that is not an acceptable business practice it is so not acceptable we're criminalizing it and i hope they get that message loud and clear we worked a lot with the judiciary committee on this bill i think the chairman's comments higher sentences are something that he's often wanted to put in the code i think that he's been fair minded in this and i look forward to continuing to work with him as we get this legislation to where it needs to be thank you it's a positive bill urged members to vote for it yield back all time has been you know the back question is will the house suspend the rules and pass h r seven you're right i moved to suspend the rule and passed the bill h r four one two zero the quickly put the title of the bill h r forty one twenty eight bill to a man title eighteen united states code to provide for more effective members have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill into consideration you myself as much time as i may consume members o the committee h r four one two zero the effective child pornography prosecution act jess's and chew the unfortunate and in my view wrongly decided decision by the tenth circuit court of appeals in the case of united states versus schaefer now while the defendant was found to be in the possession of child pornography the court nevertheless reversed his conviction because it concluded that the statute required and the government had failed to prove that the contraband had actually crossed state lines this statute in question makes it illegal to possess child pornography quote incomers in quotation the court held that this phrase incomers meant that congress intended that the contraband had to actually cross state lines had the statute instead is the phrase in or are affecting interstate commerce the court held the conviction would have been uphill as that phrase is well understood as reflecting congress intent to use the full reach of it constitutional commerce clause power h r four one two zero makes clear that the congress intends that the prohibitions against child pornography reach the full extent of it constitutional authority and as hearings in the judiciary committee this year demonstrated the child pornography business is no respecter of national or international borders even conduct that may appear to be wholly localise in its manifestation can nevertheless have an unmistakable effect an interstate commerce so let there be no mistake that congress intends to use myself such time as i may consume the speaker i rise in support of h r forty one twenty the effective child pornography prosecution act of two thousand and seven this bill responds to a recent decision by the tenth circuit united  appeals in united states versus shaper in which the court ruled that the transmission of child pornography on the internet did not satisfy the interstate requirement in child pornography laws the proposed legislative fix will allow the government to satisfy the interstate requirement by proving the on a reasonable doubt that the material moved in or affected in interstate or foreign commerce i'm sorry he said again that the material moved in or affected interstate or foreign commerce which would expand the jurisdiction of or prosecute these crimes when the internet is used this is the broadest assertion of interstate commerce power that the congress can make consistent with the constitution unfortunately this bill and the majority's package of bills does not include a needed modification to existing law which would require a two year mandatory minimum for possession of child pornography at an october seventeenth two thousand and seven full committee hearing on the subject the justice department witness outlined why such a measure was needed deputy assistant attorney general lawrence rothenberg explained that child pornography fueled the victimization of children and led to sexual assaults against children he also noted that federal judges were routinely giving out lenient sentences to child pornographers below levels established by the federal sentencing guidelines while the fix proposed today in h forty one twenty is a good step forward it is a limited step in comparison to other measures that are needed including a mandatory minimum for child pornography crimes i reserve the balance of my time shell of michigan and i think  points perhaps some small items that only a person with his experience with with one to bring to the attention of the members of the house the author of this  kansas our distinguished colleague to whom i i'm proud to you know as much time as you may consume gentleman is recognized thank you mr chairman and mr speaker the department of justice estimate last year that one of child children one in five children between the ages of ten and seventeen had received a sexual solicitation or approach while they were using the internet with so many threats out there congress must provide a unified message that we as a society together will stand strong for internet safety what we'll do today is good it's very good we will pass five pieces of legislation that will help keep our children safe and i'm so proud that my legislation h r forty one twenty the effective child pornography prosecution act of two thousand and seven is going to be part of that message in september of this year a man that i am sorry to say was from kansas william schaefer was found guilty of both knowingly receiving and knowingly possessing child pornography the head quote been transported in interstate commerce by means including by computer sadly the tenth circuit court of appeals overturn the decision and that offender was acquitted the court ruled that just because images are obtained on the internet doesn't mean that they were necessarily transmitted across state lines the court essentially then ask congress to clarify its intent that the internet is in fact interstate commerce and we will do that with the passage of the effective child pornography prosecution act of two thousand and seven this legislation closes the judicial loophole that allowed a guilty man fan who heard our children and was allowed to go free as concerned citizens as parents and of members of congress mr speaker we must do all that we can to keep our children safe that means we must make a commitment to being tough on crime and to make sure those who violate the law are fully prosecuted to ensure that the law is so clear that it deters such heinous crimes from ever happening again mr chairman i yield back thank you jim from virginia yield myself thirty seconds to thank the chairman of the judiciary committee for his gracious comments regarding my involvement on issues related to the internet particularly as it relates to fighting child pornography but also to point out that a mandatory minimum sentence of two years for these child pornographers is not a small thing what is a small thing are the sentences that many judges unfortunately are imposing upon child pornographers much much less than two years and a mandatory minimum sentence would go a long way towards curing this problem and keeping more of these prog refers off of the internet and i couldn't agree with the gentleman more i think the chairman and now it's my pleasure to yield for such time as she may consume the gentlewoman from illinois ms bigger who has been a leading advocate on this issue and a strong supporter of this legislation and was recognized i think the gentleman for yielding and thank you mr speaker i rise today to extra takes express my strong support for h r forty one twenty the effective child pornography prosecution act i'm very pleased to be the lead republican co sponsor and i thank the gentle lady from from kansas for all of her hard work but i'm proud to be part of this import bill which will close an unacceptable loophole in the federal criminal code as my colleagues have already pointed out the u s court of appeals for the tenth circuit handed down a decision this year which freed a defendant who had been convicted of receiving and possessing child pornography the case of us v schaefer was not overturned for lack of evidence but rather because the prosecution failed to prove that images downloaded from the internet moved across state line interstate commerce the judges who decided this case pointed out that the use of the phrase in congress in congress instead of affecting congress in the last signal congress's intent to limit federal jurisdiction in the prosecution of child pornographers as co chair of the missing and exploited children's caucus i can assure you mr speaker nothing could be further from the truth we in congress know the horrible consequences that result from the sexual exploitation of children used to create these images we also take very seriously our duty to do everything in our power to protect children punish predators and deter future acts of abuse that is why the bill we are considering today deserves or still full support it will close the loophole in current law by replacing the phrase in congress with the phrase affecting timers in the child pornography statute it clarifies the intent of congress and will ensure that predators that use the internet to transmit child pornography end up behind bars where they belong i would like to take this opportunity to again thank the general a from kansas my good friend nancy boyda for introducing this legislation i'd also like to thank the national center for missing and exploited children for their assistance and counsel in drafting the bill mr speaker is a mother of four and grandmother of seven i know there is nothing more important than safeguarding our children from predators we must allow those who sexually exploit children to avoid prosecution because of a technicality i urge all my colleagues to support h r forty one twenty and miss recognize you and i thank my steam colleague from illinois for your help i know the fathers in this room are just as concerned as the mothers but as we mothers stick together and stand up to keep our children safe this this bill will go a remarks including extraneous material on the bill now under consideration section and you know myself as much time as i may consume members of the house there are many ways to address criminal behavior on the internet as collected by the measures that we've already passed this afternoon without question it is critical that enter next sex offenders be identified arrested prosecuted and punished as the law provides nevertheless internet safety must begin with prevention especially with our children they must be taught how to use the internet safely and how to avoid internet behavior that puts them at risk and so for one three four authorizes that the department of justice minister grants for the purpose of teaching our children internet safety this is an excellent measure that deserves our support and i commend the chairman of our fifth committee and judiciary then the sanchez of california for her leadership on this very critical issue and i reserve the balance of my time gentleman from virginia mr speaker i yield myself such time as i may consume and i rise in support of h r forty one thirty four which directs the attorney general to provide grants to i safe incorporated for internet safety education programs i say provide a number of internet safety programs with federal government agencies including the justice department and the federal trade commission crime prevention is an important component in providing safe communities internet safety programs help to raise the aware of internet users children and parents to the dangers on the internet h r forty one thirty four authorizes five million dollars to i sa incorporated to promote internet safety i save is a worthy program and i support the legislation and i reserve the balance of my time jonah from michigan mr speaker i'm pleased to recognize the chairman of our subcommitte forty one thirty four the internet crime prevention education program act this bill will authorize funding for the i see a program for five years and create a new grant competition to provide funds for like minded internet safety and crime prevention programs this new grant program will support and enhance the efforts of schools law enforcement agencies and parents to give children the skills they need to avoid potential criminal activity on the internet by bringing this bill to the floor today the leadership of the house on both sides of the aisle has demonstrated that it recognizes our children are in danger from cyberbullying identity theft cyber stalking and harassment and other potential cyber crime these are very real threats and they demand real action and i'm proud that we're united in the safford although adults even those with children don't always realize it children face the myriad of online dangers whenever they use chat rooms instant messages and email they could come across predators financial scams or inappropriate content when they go online to do things as innocent as research for school assignments the internet is a powerful tool for progress that is transforming the way our society obtains and shares information but unfortunately the internet also carries risks when misused as an avenue for predators bullies and thieves last year one in five children receive a sexual solicitation over in appropriately approach to via the internet unfortunately numerous children have already become victims of unspeakable physical harm or have suffered irreparable mental injuries from online predators sexual predators are not the only danger facing youth online as bizarre as it may seem to those of us old enough that we didn't have these technologies when we were in school bullies are using their cell phones and the internet to torment their peers this literally means that kids can be bullied any hour of the day or night and even within their own home and because it is not face to face cyber bullying can be much crueler and present a whole new set of dangers cyber bullying can have serious consequences and inflict lasting wounds on young people studies have found that bullying can negatively impact the academic performance self esteem and mental and physical health of children whenever i discuss bullying i always inevitably hear one person ask what's wrong with a little bullying it makes you stronger it builds character builds character really it's important to realize that students who are bullied are more likely to be depressed and commit suicide so many of the horrifying school shootings in recent years have been linked to bullying that it can no longer be viewed as a simple rite of passage bullying and harassment must be treated as a violent and damaging behaviors that they are this bill the internet crime prevention and education program act is just one part of a package of bills that i have introduced to keep our kids safe by tackling bullying and harassment i see it is the perfect example of an organization that shares a school i saved incorporated as a nonprofit foundation dedicated to protecting the online experience of youth by incorporating classroom curriculum with community outreach to make the internet a safer place the i say program is free for schools school districts law enforcement communities and parents in large part because of the congressional funding it has received on a bipartisan basis since two thousand and two i see it has provided over three million children in fifty states with the tools to protect themselves on the internet after participating in the i say program ninety one percent of students say that they will make better choices about where they go on the internet eighty seven percent say they will be more careful about sharing personal information in chat rooms and seventy five percent say they are less likely to meet someone from the internet in person long forstmann which deserves praise for pursuing cyber criminals need the help of programs like i say the national center for missing and exploited children the national crime prevention council web wife kids net smarts and teenage will to help reduce online crimes through prevention when used the right way the internet can be a valuable educational resource and allow for extended social networks it is our responsibility to ensure that children are able to enjoy all of the benefits of the internet armed with the knowledge of how to stay safe there forged my college to support h r forty one thirty four literature i moved to suspend the rules and passage or forty one thirty six as amended for going for the title of the bill h r forty one thirty six a bill to a man title eighteen of the united states code to clear her father stood by the child pornography laws and for four one three six the enhancing the effective prosecution of child pornography addresses to gaps in the criminal statutes that punish those who trade and profit from and create the market for child pornography first the bill provides that those who landed proceeds from the business of child pornography may be charged with money laundering this is obviously common sense a provision supported by the department of justice and then it clarifies the definition of possession in the child pornography laws so that knowingly accessing child pornography on the internet with the intent to view it constitutes possession even if the user does not download or otherwise save the images some defend defendants have claimed that they did not intend to possess the images even when they clearly intended to view them and some courts have said the reach of the statute is unclear in this regard and this measure moves removes any ambiguity from the law we're we're grateful to chris carney our colleague from pennsylvania who who has  prosecution of child pornography act of two thousand and seven this bill adds child pornography offenses as money laundering predicates and clarify the existing law to prohibit knowingly accessing child pornography with the intent to view it child pornography is a multibillion dollar worldwide industry it is despicable in its scope and it is vicious in its victimization of children money is what fuels this horrific crime the majority's proposal in h r forty one thirty six takes a limited step to prohibit money laundering offenses as part of a child pornography scheme but much more is needed legislation proposed by our ranking member lamar smith and m of the judiciary committee contains a host of proposals to increase penalties for child predators and pornographers and provide law enforcement tools for combating these heinous crimes in a virtual universe unfortunately the majority chose to ignore the improvements proposed by many republican members however h r forty one thirty six doesn't act representative marilyn musgrave of of colorado's proposal in h r thirty one forty eight which was introduced on july twenty fourth two thousand and seven the child pornography elimination act i commend ms musgrave for her legislative efforts this closes a loophole in the law that child pornographers use to avoid possession of child pornography by not downloading the material this provision will prohibit accessing such material with the intent to view it and will not require an offender to actually download the material this provision is a good one and we support it i reserve the balance of my time  speaker we are happy to get the supporting concurrence of the gentleman from virginia on this measure and i now turn to its author chris kearney pennsylvania and i will give him as much time as h consume gemma's recognized thank you they can just figure i'm proud here today to stand with my colleagues to consider a number of child safety bills on the floor and i specially want to thank the house judiciary committee and to chairman conyers for and his staff for their help as a proud father of five i know how important the safety and well being is for children of course for our nation that's why i've introduced the enhancing the effective prosecution of child pornography act of two thousand and seven this legislation will our department of justice to more effectively prosecute people who produce child pornography or knowingly accessed child pornography repeatedly with the intent to view it we are trying to dry up the source of demand for child pornographers this legislation addresses a component of the problem that has been difficult for prosecutors to combat the repeated consumer we need to stop child pornography at the source and we need to stifle the demand this is not about playing gotcha games with anyone accidentally stumbling across the mistyped web address rather this is going after those who repeatedly seek out child pornography and those who continue to produce it no one disagrees that we need to the speaker i have no additional speakers and urged my colleagues to support this legislation and i thank the chairman of the committee for his hard work on all of these a series of bills and hope to have the opportunity to continue to work with them to perhaps make some germany at the age of fifteen sean is saying more and achieve more than many high school students dream of and she's done it all while maintaining her status as an honor student alongside her friends at valley shot has traveled the world winning title after title this past july she won five medals at the two thousand and seven pan american games in rio de janeiro winning the two thousand and seven vsa championships in san jose california made her the united states champion engine and gymnastics on september the ninth shaun became the world all around champion taking home three gold medals at the world artistic gymnastics championships instead of germany holler shows are exciting and full of grace one of the most inspiring things about her championship is that sean is shaping history having joined a elite group of women jim jim has sean is one of only four american women to win the forty year old can competition sean has impressed many around the globe and has made islands incredibly proud she  reminding us how important hard work and dedication are in honor of shawn to comments governor chet culver declared october the seventeenth shawn johnson day in iowa and we're extremely proud to join my fellow iowans and congratulating shawn and thanking her for making history in the great state of iowa shawn's positive attitude and strong desire to achieve have taken her to amazing places now i suspect she's not quite finished promising to be ready for the beijing olympics she told a reporter that she would quote put in one hundred times more effort and hopefully come back with another gold and of quote again congratulations on and good luck with the future competitions you make re proud you make our congressional district proud you make your school in west timor in proud you make our state of our we're proud when you make our country proud we wish you continued success today i rise nerds passage of h r six forty six eighty four congratulating shawn johnson on her recent national championship in women's artistic gymnastics just this year sean has won the all round competition at the pan american games the american cup the national championship and the world championships she has appeared on a b c world news tonight the ellen de generous show and at the gala for pink with a twist a group that fights cancers among woman she's been honored with the show and shawn johnson day in iowa and with the long genes prize for elegance and as a b c s person of the week all of this for a fifteen year old four foot eight eighty eight pounds high school sophomore who sometimes finds time to walk dogs at shelters and serves as a ball girl for her team's football team she never bothered to crawl according to her mother terr johnson at nine months old she simply arose and began to walk at age three her mother and rolled her in gymnastics class just to channel her energy her mom said and i think it's important to point out that it was her mom who drove  was working my former top gymnast from china chalo had come to the united states to study english at the university of iowa although her first coach said that she had more raw spryte than gymnastic ability coached challe saw her potential a media play and worked hard to nurture nurture that talent this means long and busy days for charm after school she heads to the gym for i four hour workout then home to do school work actually maintains a four zero average unlike traditional gym the artistic gym this tim that thinks traditionally has not been a sport where fifteen year olds excel it combines the disciplines of gymnastics and ballet and few athletes as youngish on have been able to master all of it but through hard work discipline and the bill bella tate and the two glitz of a good coach she has already made her mark as one of the world's greatest gym this with pan am national and world titles behind her shawn now points towards two thousand and eight in the summer olympics to be held in beijing i think it be cool not only for me but for him she says and i think it be a proud moment for both of us what i what i want to say to my colleagues is this is a special young woman and one that i know everyone in iowa has a lot of pride in but everybody in the united states reported from the oversight committee on top of the twenty third two thousand and seven by voice vote speaker mr john johnson at the age of fifteen won three gold medals at the world artistic gymnastics championship in style got germany he became the fourth united states woman ever to win a world all around title with her come from behind victory in the women's all around finals of the two thousand and seven world championships she joined she won the all around title at the two thousand and seven and am games along with the u s women's gymnastics team receiving gold medals for the uneven bars and balance beam events she also won the civil medal for the plo exercise event at the two thousand and seven visa championships she won her first senior u s all around title the last speaker i commend my colleague represented boswell on congratulating the outstanding moran i thank my good friend and distinguished colleague from illinois for yielding me the time and i have the great honor to offer this resolution on behalf of all of my colleagues in the wash metropolitan area they council of governments of the washington metropolitan area began fifty years ago and nineteen fifty seven and in the showing fifty years that has become the premier group for collaboration on transportation air and water quality regional growth emergency response and any number of other domestic issues that are important to its individual jurisdictions we will be honoring the council of governments thursday night and their fiftieth anniversary gala and all of our washington area colleagues including mrs norton congressman van hollen congressman hoyer congressman wynn congressman davis and wealth will all participate as they have been participating since they've been elected in the council of governments since its first meeting during the eisenhower administration where there were seven charter member governments it has grown to include twenty one local problems and because of the council of governments this is one of the finest regions in the country in which to live but it wasn't always that way fifty years ago it had half of its current population it had no metro system and no interstate highway system magine just fifty years ago but the visionary leaders of this area got together and  working with the metropolitan washington council of governments have made enormous strides in creating a region that is the that is proud to be the capital of the free world and those who cog was responsible for the d c air pollution act it was a model that was created by the council of government signed by president johnson the fire chiefs of the area got together and put together a of governments on september eleventh two thousand and one and pulling together all of the emergency responders was tremendous and deserves great credit as well  regional incident communication coordination system is a model in the country now those twenty one local governments have over two hundred fifty members we have one of the highest quality of life and  as in the country and the nation's strongest economy and as we plan for an additional one point six million people and one point two million more jobs over the next twenty five years cog will continue to address those challenges when we look forward to the next fifty years cog predicts that by the year two thousand and fifty seven the average home in metropolitan washington will cost more than fourteen million dollars that's going to be that means a lot of pay increases for all of the federal workers i guess including the members themselves but we are going to be part of a mega regions stretching from baltimore to richmond the way in which we use energy is going to be a key determinant in the terms and terms of the region's prosperity there will be enormous changes that take place but whatever changes take place we know that the council of governments is going to be there as a meeting place as a forum as a facilitated to address all of the challenges that confront us and so after fifty years of tremendous achievement we do want to recognize this organization and i very much appreciate the committee for giving us the op on a day to do so i think i've used to my time and i don't think there's much controversy so i will  conclude my remarks at this point thank you california thank you speaker i yield myself such time as i may consume i want to join with the gentleman from virginia my friend for in enthusiastically supporting this legislation after fifty years of this kind of a council of government working it deserves the recognition it will receive here on the house floor today i certainly believe that mr moran has done a very very good job of outlining the fifty maryland virginia had to reinvent themselves all of this could not have been done without the kind of cooperation that this consul produced i think it's certainly unique to have the district of columbia in two states five counties two cities  and dozens of maryland counties all working together these jurisdictions cooperating i think that's a legacy that has only half finished its work i think out a bipartisan basis we all recognize improvements in the quality of living here the transportation infrastructure that makes it possible for us to get to work by road or by rail so i look forward to this organization continuing for another fifty thread eight zero eight commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the regional plan and that is taking place in the washington district of columbia area it has been instrumental in making th the indicated one of the most desirable areas of the country in which to live i commend them for their effort to salute him for his introduction of this resin resolution and reserve the balance of my time resolution is greed to win without objection a motion reconsider is laid upon the table put title conference report for a company h r thirty seventy four an act making appropriations for the department of transportation and housing and urban development and related agencies for the fiscal year ending september thirtieth two thousand introduced by representative jack kingston on september fourth two thousand and seven was reported from the oversight committee on up to over twenty third by a voice vote this measure has the support of the entire congressional delegation the speaker mr johnson the flowers was born december twenty second one hundred thirty one in liberty county georgia he served in the united states army for two years before attendant mercer university in mercer law school in macon georgia he was indeed an outstanding citizen and i want to commend representative kingston for moving to recognize this country fusion by name in this post facility in his honor and i reserve the balance of our time just california i think the speaker it's my pleasure to yield such time as you may concern to the gentleman from georgia mr kingston the author of the bill shall write not i think the gentleman from california the gentle gentleman from illinois mr davis for us help in the committee and the members of congress for their support of this said flowers john sidney flowers was a good friend of mine he was a friend of many people as it serves in office for so many years in the state of georgia his wife and then as a friend k and k is daughter k and darcy have been friends over the years and just one of the great families that does so much for a community in the make a community what it sidney was actually the solicitor general for for liberty county for over thirty two years this is with the home of fort stewart in hinesville georgia a military town where there's lots of turnover and you need people who kind of know the history of a community and that was said flowers he did so much for so many there are many times when people said that they would be eating with said flowers eating lunch a group of soldiers would come in who maybe were new and down maybe not there's thousands of soldiers who are stationed at fort stewart and sydney would quietly walk over to the cashier pick up the tab for the soldiers pay for their lunch and then ask the cashier not to tell them who paid for it that was the kind of guy he was finney was actually elected as a republican and many people know that thirty years ago actually thirty five years ago in the state of georgia there was almost a nonexistent republican party and to be elected as a republican you had to be a pretty good guy probably somebody who could get elected in either party and somebody who was light and had support from both parties and yet in all cases fit flower was respected by everybody former democrat state representative a democrat mayor and also a republican at one time but he did a lot of has been a friend of mine he has a letter about sidney flowers that i'm going to submit for the record as well as one from s actually described as one of those reader digest type somebody who's memorable and inspirational to a community i i am going to submit a number of things for the record on send me flowers so that we can move on with some other issues but i just want to thank this community for recognize and somebody of his caliber because i had the privilege of knowing him but i can say this out of quickly everybody in the chamber would have liked him because he was somebody that you could count on and deal with and one of those great community leaders back on that we all have in our own districts with that i yield back the balance of my time and i want to submit these letters and a couple other comments about report titled the bill h r thirty five fifty nine a bill to designate a facility of the united states postal service located at one sixty seven thirty one santa ana avenue in find hannah california as the pediatrician he was in post office from california for supporting this legislation on a bipartisan the watson died at the age of died on august fifth at the age of eighty three my bill h h r thirty five to make a positive difference in her hometown a positive role model and was an inspiration to all that she came in contact with and she led by example in over forty five years of life and fun tana she served as an elected city council member clerk historical society officer woman's club president chamber of commerce member and organized many events such as parade and festivals in fountain a b was also recognized for outstanding achievement and loved by all her community for contributions to the funtown a community through her life she is she over twenty two prestigious community awards including the f the chamber of commerce outstanding volunteer ward the community spirit award the california legislature women of the year award in fact be was also love of the community that she'd give so much as an a that she was given the title of miss fun tan or busy bee in the city fun town on her efforts of touch the lives of the neighbors and city of fun tana and her impact on the community will create a lasting legacy for general since you come as a volunteer as a public servant  of our community be proved yourself and the excellent tory example of an american she was an excellent example of the meaning of volunteerism and the quality of life and fun ten is better because she cared and gave so much of herself knowing that it would be a better place for others although now guns she will continue to serve an inspiration to us all it is with great honor that i asked the members of congress to designate the post office in california forty third congressional district as the b beatrice watson post office or as my call it supports this legislation again i thank my colleagues on both side of the aisle the fifty three members from california who signed on i yield back the balance of my time chelsea california i think the speaker i join with my colleague fellow colleague from california in support of h r thirty five sixty nine a bill to name the post office in santa ana and santa ana ave in fun t sponsors in order to bring a bill that means that a very diverse nation very diverse state the most diverse in the nation has to come together on these post office namings this is an example when we did be dedicated her life to the community and in every sense was in fact a true californian although in fact like myself she was born in ohio and came to california at age twenty she originally moved to san bernardino where she attended the descent bernardino community college she then worked for the telephone company as an administrator for pacific bell only years later did she arrive in fun tana nevertheless her dedicate and allowed her to become truly a pillar of the community a city council woman and to serve in various capacities for the rest of her life through through both are fifty s and seventy fifth anniversary it is not lightly that we consider naming post offices after people who were not in the postal community i join with my colleague today in the california delegation unanimously urging passage of this bill and i yield back the balance of my time joe many  members may have five legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks subjection the speaker would you myself such time as i might consume once again we have a member of the armed services who gave the true all they've done on this bill that speaker i rise today in support of this resolution honoring the member memory of the united states marine corps corporal seaven patrick gale of round rock texas january of two thousand and two stephen gill places college education on hold to enlist in the united states marine corps the events of september eleventh moved steven to take up arms to defend his country on july the twenty first two thousand and five he paid the ultimate sacrifice while deployed in iraq doing that duty of defending his country stephen gill was born on november the third one nine hundred eighty to bill and rose gill of used in texas after moving to round rock my hometown and one nine hundred ninety three steven attended westwood high school he was the active member of king of kings becoming a youth minister in the lutheran church as it did for so many a many americans the tragic events of september eleventh changed the course of stephen's life upon completion of norfolk virginia on july the twenty first two thousand and five stephen was serving as a reconnaissance man with echo company third reconnaissance battalion regimental combat team eight second marine division in saigon iraq when he was killed in action stephen served one tour in iraq and was awarded a purple heart combat action ribbon selected marine corps reserve we can enjoy the freedoms that we have today in this great nation is my honor as his congressman and a resident round rock texas to honor the sacrifice of stephenville for his country here today and to honor his family who gave us their son as congress returns to work after honoring our nation's war heroes i'm proud to offer this small tribute to one of those heroes from texas putting forth the title of concurrent resolution senate can current resolution forty five concurrent resolution commending the end block courage award foundation for its work in aiding children and families affected by child  football players fashion and football players while there were against the child abuse and i would reserve the balance of our time speaker i rise today to urge passage of as conrad as forty five because there is in fact nothing nothing more despicable than those who prey upon children whether that is physical psychological or sexual for this crime destroys lives harms family and also families and all too often is perpetrated with a cruelty that is unreported and i support the work of this foundation and its recognition that the national football league players can off the field make a real contribution to making america a better safer place whether it's john elway or joe montana or any of the other past recipients of the sward they have in fact worked long and hard not for millions of dollars or thousands of dollars but for the good of the young people who are a future in this country mr speaker i am pleased to offer how some current resolution to eleven pronouncing that congress support the goals and ideals of world diabetes day let me thank represented muzzle who was prime co sponsor of this legislation and other members for co sponsoring this bipartisan resolution the global health awareness campaign established in laureate and called discover of insulin and now it is an official united nations recognize day world diabetes day aims to warton a diabetes advocacies worldwide in almost every country of the world the incidence of diabetes is on the rise diabetes is the fourth leading cause of global deaths by disease in the united states it is the sixth leading cause of death including accidents but of deaths by disease it climbs to number five anomic burden both developed and developing countries due to a dramatic increase in the prevalence of diabetes was analyzed in a new report from the economist intelligence unit diabetes currently affects two hundred  forty six million people worldwide and is expected to affect three hundred and eighty million people by two thousand and twenty five in two thousand and seven the five countries with the largest number of people with diabetes are india china united states russia and germany worse each year three point eight million deaths are attributed to diabetes and even greater numbers die from complications renel failure vascular loss soberly every ten seconds two people develop diabetes and a person dies from diabetes related causes on december twentieth two thousand and six the general assembly of the united nations passed landmark resolution sixty one two to five recognizing diabetes as a chronic debilitating and costly disease this is the first year therefore that the world diabetes day has risen to such prominence and it is fitting that here in the united states congress we supported this day madam speaker we're all diabetes day has annually focused on a particular aspect or complications of diabetes the heart the eyes the kidneys and feet i'm especially pleased that this year the world diabetes days the focus is on the rising awareness of diabetes in children and adolescents who face unique jack lynch's when diagnosed with diabetes the campaign aimed to firmly establish the message that no child should die from diabetes as a senior member of the committee on education and labor and foreign affairs as a delegate to the united nations says two thousand and three of two thousand and five i see this year dressed in u n blue t shirts representing two hundred forty six million people in the world with diabetes stood up tomorrow in lagos nigeria there will be a walk starting at marilyn and then bring in lagos state university where there will be young people asking folks to have their blood sugar level checked in australia on november the eleventh to the twentieth there are children senate activities from a switch off turn on to play pledge that will once again highlight this and so as i conclude while commemorating world diabetes day of course i can look no further than my own congressional district of new jersey to find shining examples of the dedication to diabetes in the area of education and same barnabas hospital north beth israel are all leaders and we hope that everyone will join in this i urge my colleagues to vote awareness to world diabetes day as my colleague said two hundred twenty five thousand people per year die in the united states alone from diabetes but i believe that as we as we recognize this day we have to recognize that diabetes doesn't just kill diabetes to debilitate it causes blindness it takes away all or part of limbs it slows people down in their day to day ability to enjoy life one of the great inventors of time invented the insulin pump which allowed people to not have to periodic lee stopped to take medicine but it didn't change debilitating effect that artificially given insulin causes we do not have a cure for diabetes today we need to continue working toward that as many of our pharmaceutical companies are so bringing awareness to this is just the first step in making sure that the united states europe and the other developed nations work hard to find awareness about diabetes and all of its complications come in mr payne for his introduction of this resolution and you'll back the balance of our time time when ilda the question is will the house suspend the rules and agree to house concurrent resolution to eleven thousand federal say i suppose no if you knew the chair two thirds being the affirmative the rules are suspended in the center resolution is agreed to and without objection a motion to reconsider is laid upon the table rise today in recognition of the one hundred fiftieth anniversary of san jose state university san jose state university was established in eight hundred fifty seven as men's evening normal school for the sole purpose of training teachers as california's population grew as california's population has grown san jose state has grown into the largest university in the region with an enrollment of more than thirty thousand students the school has also expanded its programs to offer one hundred thirty four bachelor's or master's degrees san jose state is an extremely diverse school with an enrollment of twenty three percent of its students being eight in fifteen percent of its students being hispanic and five percent of its students being african american this diversity has also led san jose state to rank tenth in the nation in total number of graduating minorities this just peaker i'm glad to see another outstanding educational institution continuing to serve all those who wish to advance their education i would like to thank and congratulate my colleague mr hondo for bringing this resolution to the attention of the five honoring san jose state university for its one hundred fifty years of commitment to public higher education i would like to thank my good friend mr honda for introducing the resolution and certainly my good friend from new york for managing the bill on the floor tonight and recognize the important role san jose state university plays in educating the citizens of california and many other states and nations san jose state university was founded as a california state normal school by the california legislature on may fourth eighteen fifty seven and is the oldest public university in california the california state normal school was itself derived from the min's evening normal school which is also known as a san francisco normal school led by principal george w min's the san francisco normal school trained elementary teachers as part of that city's high school system from eighteen fifty seven to the professional development and personal growth silicon valley firms are constantly seeking san jose state university students for internships summer work programs and research and development for a century and a half san jose state university faculty and staff has prepared students for roles as leaders  highly productive professionals and citizens in society there is no bed her way of understanding san jose state university's economic impact than simply visiting any silicon valley workplace whether it's a tech company government office a hospital or classroom many of the people you meet have tied ties to san jose state university in fact san jose state university assent nearly three hundred thousand graduates into the workforce since it was founded in eighty seven and i'm honored to stand here today in support of this resolution would say to my fellow colleagues i'd like you to support and congratulate san jose state university don w casting all  faculty and staff as well san jose state university students and alumni i wish them consistent continued success success and i asked my colleagues to support this resolution i reserve the balance of my time mr speaker john from new york mr speaker i yield three minutes to been mentioned it is the the silicon valley university more than three hundred thousand graduates of san is a state have gone into silicon valley and it is the largest source of engineering talent  computer science and business graduates for silicon valley seems a state is ranked eighth among the top ten colleges and universities offering bachelor's and master's degrees in the western region with its one hundred thirty four programs it's also known for its innovative partnerships including a first ever i think in the country partnership with the city of san jose to have a joint university city public library a joint venture with the national hispanic university  degrees and most recently a joint venture with a historically black college in mississippi for joint issuance of ph d s in engineering i am proud to represent say as a state we had to decide who would introduce this resolution and although the city the university is in the sixteenth district the author my friend congress and my conduct is an alumni of the university and so we deferred to him to take the lead on this introduction i want to thank him for doing so this is an important event for those of us in silicon valley and especially the six new districts and i yield back you know from new york and yes mr speaker i require of my colleague mr bishop as to whether or not he has your solution house joint resolution sixty two joint resolution to honor the achievements and contributions of native americans to the united states and for other purposes pursuant to the rule the gentleman from new york mr bishop from the gentleman from new york for their many contributions to the united states my bill h a h j resolution sixty two encourage all americans to recognize the friday after thanksgiving as native american heritage day and i state the friday after thanksgiving as native american heritage day i want to thank chairman george miller ranking member dunn young representative dale kildee ruben any hosa for their continued support for this bill since my time in california the legislature i have been a strong advocate to help preserve the legacy of native americans it's important we recognize their contributions to all aspects of our society from our government to our language to history my billing courages i state my bill encourage public elementary and secondary schools to enhance students understanding of native americans to understand native americans to enhance and we need more classroom instruction to focus on the history cultural and achievement in traditions of native americans native americans and their ancestors a played a critical role in the establishment of the freest country in the world they have fought for with valor and have died in every american war dating back to the revolutionary war to the current wars we in congress must encourage greater awareness of the civic roles i have played in our national history and i state in our national history arge my call to support this legislation and i'm honored that native sixty two to honor the achievements and contributions of native americans to the united states and for other purposes the strength of our nation comes from its people and as the early inhabitants of this great land the native peoples of north america played a unique role in shaping our nation's history and culture native americans are the descendants of the indigenous native people who were the original inhabitants and governors of the lands that now constitute the united states of america it was their tribal governments that developed the fundamental principles of freedom of speech and separate of separation of powers there are a model for those that form the foundation of the united states constitution the founding fathers based the provision of the constitution on the unique system of democracy of the six nations of the iroquois confederacy the iroquois divided powers amongst the branches of government and provided for a system of checks and balances native americans have made a distinct and significant contribution to the united states and of the rest of the world in many fields including agriculture medicine music language art amongst other things a native americans have distinguished themselves of my friend mr bach as noted as inventors as entrepreneurs as spiritual leaders and scholars amongst a few their unique spiritual artistic and literary contributions together with their vibrant customs and celebrations and live in an unlit and rich our land today as we move into the two twenty first century native americans will play a vital role in maintaining our nation strength and prosperity almost half of america's native american tribal leaders have served in the united states armed four of us following in the footsteps of their forebears who distinguished themselves during the world wars and the conflicts in korea vietnam and the persian gulf native americans should be recognized for the contributions they have made to the fabric of our american society this wreck condition will afford an opportunity for all americans to demonstrate their respect and admiration of native americans for their important contributions to the political the cultural and the economic life of the united states the designation of native american heritage day will encourage public elementary and secondary schools in the united states to enhance americans by providing curricula and classroom instruction focusing on the achievements in the contributions of native americans to the nation and the designation of the friday following thanksgiving of each year as native american heritage day will underscore the government to government relationship between the united states of america and native american governments on this day we should call on all americans to learn more about the history and the heritage of the native peoples of this great land such actions reaffirm our appreciation and most certainly our respect for their traditions in the way of life and can help to preserve an important part of our culture for generations yet to come mr speaker i two two two two two thirds being in the affirmative the rules of suspension the judgment solution is agreed to without objection motion to reconsider is laid upon the table gentleman from new york this is speaker i move that the house suspend the rules and pass h r four one five three as amended the clerk only put the title of the bill h r forty one fifty three a bill to make certain technical corrections and transition amendments the college cost reduction and access act pursuant to the rule the gentleman from five legislative days during which members may insert material relevant to h r forty one fifty three interaction thank you mr speaker i yield myself such time as i may consume h r forty one fifty three the college cost reduction and access act technical amendments makes a number of technical changes to the college cost reduction and access act in order to ensure that the department of education and other relevant stakeholders reflecting gresham ill intent when implementing the law mr speaker during this congress we have made significant commitments to our nation's students  families by putting resources in the hands of those who need them most the college cost reduction and access act as passed and signed by the president does more to help americans pay for college than any effort since the g i bill had no new cost to taxpayers specifically the legislation provided a landmark investment of twenty billion dollars in additional funding for pell grants reductions in the interest rate on student loans and the creation of programs to help students manage debt as well as encourage individuals to pursue public service providing this critical funding is a large part of our efforts to increase access and affordability to higher education our work on reforming and strengthening higher education is not finished for this congress i look forward to working with chairman miller and the rest of the education and labor committee of the higher edge of higher education act which we are set to mark up in committee tomorrow the technical amendments contained in this bill include ensuring that the mandatory pell funding is available for the full award year which is  current fiscal year and the following fiscal year to match the availability of discretionary pell funding clarifies the definition of untaxed income and benefits to ensure that it does not include those items in the calculation that were removed from the list under the college cost reduction act clarifies it students who or in foster care any time after age thirteen are independent for purposes of calculating eligibility for federal student aid clarifies that married borrower's income base repayment payments shall be determined solely on the individual borrowers loan information and the individual's income without considering spouse's income or any loan that they may have if the married borrower files taxes separately ensures that members of the national guard who are serving full time are considered active duty for purposes of student loan deferment benefits conforms language in the teach grant program to ensure appropriate implementation and moves the funds provided to h b c use and m s i has to title three of the higher education act mr speaker swift passage of h r forty one fifty three will ensure that students and families will fully benefit from the program's funding and intent provided in the college cost reduction and access act i urge my colleagues to support this provision and i reserve the balance of my time gentleman from new york from florida thank you mr speaker  speaker as the former chairman of the higher education subcommittee and now the ranking member i rise in support of h r forty one fifty three a bill which provides for technical changes to the college cost reduction and access act of two thousand and seven i was honored to be with president bush on no on september twenty seventh two thousand and seven at the white house when he signed this important legislation into law joining me at that time was chairman george miller of the education committee and budget chairman john spratt it was a special time to be there as the only republican in congress at that time seeing this historic legislation signed into law it has been referred to by my colleagues as the most important piece of higher education legislation since the g i bill in one thousand nine hundred forty four that legislation dramatically increased  and cut student loan interest rates in half for example pell grant funding went from four thousand three hundred ten dollars up to five thousand four hundred dollars over a period of years and the student loan interest rate for undergraduates was cut from six point eight percent to three point four percent well what are we doing here today as a follow up to that important legislation today we are making some necessary technical clarifications and corrections to ensure that the act is implemented just as congress intended for example this piece of the technical legislation will clarify that members of the armed force forces reserves are eligible for student loan deferments when they return home after serving abroad this legislation will also ensure that students whose loan applications were submitted prior to the law's effective date are not unnecessarily subjected to higher rates or deprived of important student loan benefits this package of technical corrections will improve our financial aid programs by clarifying the intent of the recently enacted college cost reduction and access act i urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to join us today in supporting affordable access to quality education founded in eighteen fifty seven it is the oldest public institution of higher education on the west coast from its beginnings as a normal school to train teachers for the developing frontier of the campus has matured i nto a comprehensive university offering back she has a master's degree in one hundred thirty four programs including sixty my bachelor's degree with eighty one concentrations and sixty five master's degree with twenty nine concentrations in the western region some of the state is ran among the top ten colleges and universities offering bachelor's their masses degrees sounds a status part of the union california state university system the nation's largest public university system not worthy  of celebration is the fact their son is a state is the largest public four year university in silicon valley with over thirty two thousand students and four thousand faculty and staff members the university awards more than forty two hundred bachelor's degrees and twenty four hundred master's degrees each academic year since its founding the university has set nearly thirty three hundred thousand graduates into the workforce these graduates continue to make significant contributions to the region's rich economy and culture manson other dedicated its occasional leaders to address the shortage of qualified teachers for the new state of california in eight hundred sixty two the school became california state normal school action state legislature although initial romans were low the first alumni of socialist formed in eight hundred seventy three the determination of california lease to support teacher training was evident when a fire destroys drama school building in eight hundred eighty in one nine hundred twenty the control of the speaker i just want to close by recognizing the current president w a casting for all the work he's doing to make some of these the university one of the great great higher education is to is united states mel in itself with the not just by the university and also speaker i don't have any more speakers at the well i will continue to reserve at this time we have no additional speakers on our ok well mr speaker i will argue my colleagues about yes on h r forty one fifty three and you'll back the balance of my time chairman he was back in from new york affirmative the rules are suspended and the bill is passed and without objection the motion to reconsider is laid upon the table john with new york it's a speaker i move that the house suspend the rules and pa put the title of the resolution house resolution seven zero nine resolution recognizing and honoring the fiftieth anniversary of the dedication of the sam rayburn library and museum on october ninth two thousand and seven and for other purposes yield myself such time as i may consume mr speaker i rise in strong support of a thread seven o nine a resolution to recognize and honor the fiftieth anniversary of the dedication of the sam rayburn library and museum on october ninth two thousand and seven sam rayburn is a legend to many of us in this house having served as the speaker of the house for a record seventeen and a half years born samuel teleserye rayburn he served the people of texas as an elected official for fifty five consecutive years same raeburn spent forty eight years here as a member of congress from the fourth district of texas and also served in the texas house of representatives he was perhaps destined to become the speaker of the house because he certainly had the experience for prior to coming here he was during speaker rayburn's time of service to this great nation he presided over the inaction of the marshall plan expansion of social security and passage of the first peaches pieces of major civil rights legislation since reconstruction throughout the house campus we have an array of  memorial to the speaker the largest house office building which houses members and committee offices is the rayburn house office building built in one thousand nine hundred fifty five his likeness stands in the entrance to that building and there is also the rayburn room which has hosted many negotiations and meetings across from the house floor texas so has honored its native son with the sam rayburn library and museum located in speaker rayburn's hometown of bonum texas it recently had its fiftieth anniversary and is celebrating the completion of phase one of the museum's restoration program this restoration program will help protect a valuable collection stored at the library this anniversary year has been a busy one for the sam rayburn library and museum in january it hosted the annual celebration of speaker rayburn's birthday and has featured three new exhibits the same rayburn foundation also honors high school seniors from the speaker's home of bottom and found in town speaker rayburn despite his busy congressional schedule was actively involved in every step of his library's planning construction and dedication of the library and museum was his way of paying tribute to the people of phantom county this resolution also honors the supporters and contributors who have helped make this library such a success am pleased to join my colleagues in supporting this resolution and i urge its passage i reserve the balance of my time challenge those general of new york anniversary of the dedication of the sam rayburn library and museum on october ninth two thousand and seven and for such other purposes congressman samuel rayburn was born on january sixth eight hundred eighty two in a rural area of roane county tennessee his interest in government coincided with his family's move to texas and has been suggested that his curiosity intensified to the great golden age of texas politics as he worked his family's cotton fields congress ra imagine himself making numerous political speeches and engaging in debates with current political leaders later in his life congressman rayburn recall that it was during one of these flights of imagination that he decided he would pursue a career in law and politics by nine hundred thirty seven congressman rayburn was elected majority leader of the seventy fifth congress and in one hundred forty was selected to replace the deceased william bankhead as speaker of the house a position he held for a record number seventeen and a half years during the eightieth than a third congresses the two periods a republican majorities in the house of representatives he served as mine minority leader during his time in congress congressman rayburn served with eight different presidents and helped the past several pieces the key legislation he served as speaker of the house throughout the world war two and was instrumental in garnering support to fund the manhattan project known by most as mr democrat mr raeburn was permanent chair of the national democratic convention in one thousand nine hundred eighty eight nine hundred fifty two and one hundred fifty six and was named honorary chairman in one nine hundred sixty throughout his political career the congressman was known for his ability to balance his strong democratic partisanship with his unwavering sense of dedication to meeting the needs of the american people throughout working in bipartisan ways with republicans despite the status he was able to achieve in washington as speaker he was still known as informal and a down home kind of guy who returned to his home and bottom as soon as congress adjourned for the session went home congressman rayburn would meet with his constituents concerning their needs maintaining that his obligation was to the people and it wasn't finished congressman rayburn accomplished much of his life time by fulfillment of his dream to become a politician and he is a source of pride for all those over northeast texas sam rayburn passed away in bottom cherished fan in county texas thousands of mourners from schoolchildren to national special spiled silently passed his bronze coffin in tribute to a service and dedication the texas department of public safety estimated t fifteen thousand people filled the streets on the day of rayburn's funeral president john kennedy former presidents dwight eisenhower and harry truman in future president lyndon johnson attended the funeral services the entire texas congressional delegation and one hundred five members of congress attended the services many of them came to the library today the sam rayburn library and museum exhibits photographs and original letters political artifacts and personal memorabilia relating to important events in the life and times of congressman ray are choosing a river in addition to research library the museum centerpiece is a replica of the formal office of the speaker of the house of representatives and i thank the gentleman who sits behind me and who all which i'll yield in just a moment mr hall for introducing this resolution and i ask my colleagues support and i reserve the balance of my time soon from the will i continue to reserve i thank you very much and i of course rise in support of h red seven zero nine and recognize an anon ring the fiftieth anniversary of the dedication of the sam rayburn laboratory and museum sam rayburn sam talley farrow rayburn was born in roane county tennessee in genoa january sixth eighteen eighty two the eighth of eleven children and moved west with his family to forty acre cotton farm in fannin candy in texas near the little community of flag springs texas and eight hundred eighty seven minute tennesseeans like sam rayburn sam houston were great leaders and builders of the state of texas from the number beginnings mr sam as he became known rose to become one of texas in the united states greatest statesman he held elective office for fifty five consecutive years begin in one nine hundred six with his election to the texas half he was elected twenty four times to the us ha representative representing texas fourth district and spent seventeen of those years as speaker of the house a position that put him third in line for the united states presidency at the time of his death in one nine hundred sixty one rayburn forty eight consecutive years in the us has set a congressional record for continuous service sam rayburn was selected to replace the deceased william bankhead the speaker of the hassle position he held for a record number seventeen and a half years he also served as minority leader during the a d f and eighty third congresses and two periods of republican majorities in the house of representatives rayburn served with eight different presidents and helped to pass several pieces of key legislation throughout his career one the selective service act in one nine hundred forty one he cast the deciding vote to pass that act the civil rights act in one nine hundred fifty seven and one nine hundred sixty establishment of nasa the national defen education act in one nine hundred fifty eight the hospital survey and construction act in one nine hundred fifty eight dolphins the speaker lacked great formal powers when he first took office but rayburn quickly expanded the power and influence of the office rayburn relied heavily on his personal prestige persuasive skills and personal friendship built up over decades in the house his leadership style user resulted in congenial relations between not only the northern and southern wings of the democratic party but also between raeburn and the republic the leadership of the has rayburn's actions during his long tenure as speaker increased the power of the house of representatives in its relations with the senate and with the executive branch following his election  speaker rayburn wanted to build a library to have his books his personal papers and memoirs he also wanted the facility to be a reservoir center of political history available to the people offending kennedy and his congressional district with the advice of secretary treasurer john snyder raeburn requested a judge ha cunningham a good friend of rayburn's and a great man from bottom texas arranged to have a charitable trust established for the purposes of receiving and managing funds donated to assist in building the library the speaker also contacted buster cole a young lawyer from bonum to assist in the process of setting up the trust and earlier ten thousand dollar award from colliers magazine serves as a financial base for the foundation sam rayburn representatives of the sam rayburn foundation and hundreds of admirers gathered to break ground for the laboratory and a similar of one nine hundred fifty five elaborate construction was completed in july nine hundred fifty seven in the sam rayburn elaborate officially open to the public october ninth one nine hundred fifty seven in a ceremony that garnered national attention and media coverage businesses were closed for the day and downtown bottomless bottom was decorated with banners and bunting many distinguished political leaders attended the dedication including president harry s truman and his wife best truman secretary of treasury robert anderson congressman hale boggs of louisiana congressman richard bolling of missouri governor of arizona mcfarlane former governor and current congressman earl c clements of kentucky and the majority of the congressional delegations from texas in oklahoma among them lyndon b johnson jim wright karl albert and tom steed there were approximately eleven television and radio stations own hand report all activities in honor of the fiftieth anniversary of the dedication of the library and the recognition and in recognition of the completion of phase one of the museum restoration program the sam rayburn laboratory and museum hosted an open house and reception on tuesday october the ninth an exhibit featuring historic images of the dedication as well as adams pertaining to the recent renovation project where own display the open house and reception honors speaker rayburn and recognize the many supporters and contributor to help and the recent renovation project the renovation included a new road an improved drainage system for the bill in a more efficient heating and cooling system upgraded accessibility of the museum and a thorough cleaning and receiving of the business exterior these improvements will not only preserve the historic structure but also provide added protection for the valuable collections in artifacts has in the sam rayburn library and i'm pleased to offer this resolution today honoring the sam rayburn elaborate museum and i urge my colleagues support and recognition of this great facility that chronicles an important year in the history of our nation i'm also proud to represent mr raeburn fourth district of texas my mother attended mayo college of commerce texas with mr raeburn he was a great friend my friend and my family's friend he truly was one of the can and this resolution will go into the congressional record adding the house today debating some thirty five measures under expedited procedures called suspension of the rules members will vote on four of them in the series of votes right now the house voting on