July 25, 2012 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE H5209 

the passengers and an individual in his 

home. Out of that devastation, there 

was a spirit that actually united this 

Congress in enacting flight safety and 

pilot training rules that would have 

prevented the crash. The families never 

gave up and are eagerly awaiting the 

final implementation of those potentially life-saving rules. 

Sounds like a happy ending, doesn’t 

it? And yet this week, because the 

House Rules Committee refused to 

allow my amendment to protect those 

specific rules, we are at risk of losing 

all those hard-fought, bipartisan safety 

reforms. 

With the so-called ‘‘Regulatory 

Freeze Act,’’ these reforms would simply die. Some who voted for them in 

the past now call them job killing. I 

call them people saving. 

Listen, I know we need to end overburdensome regulations on small business and farmers—I get it. But there’s 

a commonsense way to do it. But to 

freeze all government regulations—all 

of them—regardless of the health and 

safety of our citizens is over the top 

even for this town. This only proves 

that Washington is broken and we need 

to fix it. This country deserves a better 

Congress. 

f 

MOUNTAIN HOME BOMB SQUAD 

GLOBAL WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONSHIP 

(Mr. CRAWFORD asked and was 

given permission to address the House 

for 1 minute.) 

Mr. CRAWFORD. Madam Speaker, I 

rise today to recognize the Mountain 

Home AAA 11-year-old baseball team 

for winning the Global World Series 

Championship earlier this year. 

During the 4-day, 24-team tournament, the Mountain Home Bomb 

Squad suffered a first round loss, but 

went on to win six straight games. In 

the championship game, they defeated 

the Missouri Wildcats 10–1. This championship is a great source of pride for 

the entire Mountain Home, Arkansas, 

community. 

I’d like to commend the team manager, Dr. Eric Arp, and Coaches Tony 

Dibble and George Sitkowski for their 

leadership on the 11-and-under Global 

World Series Championship. Additionally, I would like to recognize players 

Garrett Steelman, Austin Mize, Clayton McManness, Luke Dibble, Sam Arp, 

Bradley Ludwig, Austin Helms, Luke 

Jackson, Jordan Anderson, Will 

Sitkowski and Luke Kruse for their 

leadership as well. 

Now that the Bomb Squad has 

brought a Global World Series trophy 

home to Mountain Home, I have no 

doubt that the players will set new, 

even higher goals to achieve. 

Congratulations once again to the 

Mountain Home Bomb Squad and the 

entire Mountain Home community for 

their Global World Series victory. 

b 1210 

PROTECT THE RIGHT TO VOTE 

(Ms. CHU asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 

minute.) 

Ms. CHU. Few things are as sacred as 

the right to vote. Generations have 

fought, bled, and died so that you and 

I can have a voice in our democracy. 

This is why we must guard against 

measures that take this away, like the 

Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which 

prohibited all Chinese immigrants 

from becoming naturalized citizens so 

that they would not be able to vote. It 

lasted 60 years, until 1943, preventing 

people who’d lived in this country for 

decades from exercising their voices. 

Laws like this, poll taxes, or literacy 

tests, should be a thing of the past in 

America. Every U.S. citizen, no matter 

what their background, should have access to the polls. But today, State governments across the country are enacting laws making it much harder for as 

many as 5 million Americans to vote, 

requiring, for instance, photo IDs for 

grandmothers who voted for years but 

no longer drive. 

When barely half of Americans vote, 

we should not be erecting more barriers to democracy. We should be removing obstacles. We must protect the 

right to vote. 

f 

WHY FOCUS ON RED TAPE? 

(Mr. HULTGREN asked and was 

given permission to address the House 

for 1 minute.) 

Mr. HULTGREN. Madam Speaker, on 

Monday I hosted a jobs fair in the western suburbs of Chicago with several of 

my colleagues. Over 1,500 jobseekers 

showed up. 

I’ve visited with more than 100 northern Illinois business owners since I entered Congress. In each factory tour 

and office visit I ask: What would it 

take for you to create one more job, 

just to hire one more person? The answer is always the same: Cut red tape. 

The reality is 60 to 80 percent of all 

new jobs come from small businesses. 

Red tape throws an unfair burden on 

small businesses and paralyzes job creators. It has led to the least number of 

business start-ups in decades. 

There’s a reason we focus so much on 

rolling back red tape here in the House. 

It’s jobs. 

f 

GROUP A STREP INFECTIONS 

(Mrs. MCCARTHY of New York asked 

and was given permission to address 

the House for 1 minute.) 

Mrs. MCCARTHY of New York. 

Madam Speaker, I rise today to raise 

awareness of group A strep infection. A 

series of tragic events within my district have brought this pressing health 

situation to my attention. One of my 

constituents, Stephen Sweetman, a 

dedicated fireman, contacted my office 

after the deaths of his mother and his 

2-year-old son. 

Sean died just days after originally 

presenting with invasive strep A symptoms last February. After flying to 

New York for Sean’s wake, Mr. 

Sweetman’s mother died of group A 

strep infection just 14 days after her 

grandson. Both were originally 

misdiagnosed with a stomach bug. 

While medical diagnosis presents 

enormous challenges, especially for 

rare diseases, I am deeply concerned 

with the medical misidentifications 

which led to these terrible deaths. Recently, several of my colleagues and I 

sent a letter to the Appropriations 

Committee asking that we focus on 

this issue. 

I hope that we can come together to 

raise awareness for group A strep infections. 

f 

OBAMACARE COSTS—CBO 

CONFIRMS 

(Mr. STEARNS asked and was given 

permission to address the House for 1 

minute and to revise and extend his remarks.) 

Mr. STEARNS. Madam Speaker, the 

Congressional Budget Office came out 

with its report yesterday, their latest 

analysis of the President’s health bill, 

and what it confirms is there are flaws 

in the law. 

CBO reports that this $1.6 trillion 

program will cost individuals and businesses $5 billion more than was initially estimated. CBO says that the 

health premiums that they already 

predicted would increase by $2,100 now 

will increase even more. CBO estimates 

that 11 million people who currently 

have employer-based coverage will simply lose their health plan. 

The President said we could keep our 

coverage, but under the law, employers 

are dropping coverage, and premiums 

are simply increasing, which drives up 

the cost of health care for everyone. 

And remember, historically, the CBO 

greatly underestimates their analyses. 

We need to repeal this law and replace it with commonsense solutions 

that simply increase competition in 

the marketplace and places the consumer, not the government, in charge 

of health care. 

f 

GRANT AFFECTED STEEL WORKERS ELIGIBILITY FOR COMPENSATION 

(Mr. HIGGINS asked and was given 

permission to address the House for 1 

minute.) 

Mr. HIGGINS. Madam Speaker, an 

alarming number of former employees 

at Bethlehem Steel in western New 

York are now suffering from cancer 

and other diseases due to radiation exposure as a result of having unknowingly worked with and around uranium 

during the Cold War. 

After a multiyear fight, and thanks 

to the determination of workers and 

their families, those who were employed at the site from 1949 to 1952 are 

eligible for $150,000 in compensation for 


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