August 1, 2012 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE H5537 

Mr. BACA. Madam Speaker, this 

Monday, Colton Joint Unified School 

District held a dedication ceremony for 

the new Joe Baca Middle School in 

Bloomington, California. Next week, 

800 students from the surrounding communities in Bloomington and Rialto 

will begin to attend classes there. 

I am truly humbled to receive this 

distinguished honor, and I thank the 

Colton Joint Unified School District. I 

want to especially recognize Superintendent Jerry Almendarez; all of the 

school board members of the Colton 

Joint Unified School District; Ignacio 

Gomez, whose beautiful artwork will be 

displayed at the school; and Congressman GARY MILLER for his bipartisan 

support. 

Growing up the youngest of 15 children in a poor household, I never would 

imagine that one day I would have a 

school named in my honor. I never 

thought I would live to see this day. 

Again, I want to thank everyone involved and give a special thank you to 

my family for their continued love and 

support. 

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LET PEOPLE VOTE ALREADY 

(Mrs. DAVIS of California asked and 

was given permission to address the 

House for 1 minute.) 

Mrs. DAVIS of California. Madam 

Speaker, our democracy flourishes 

when every citizen who wants to, 

votes—but just once. And luckily, 

there’s just not much evidence that 

anyone’s voting more than once. Look 

at Pennsylvania, where one of the Nation’s strictest voter ID laws is on 

trial. The State can offer zero evidence 

that fraud has been committed. They 

can offer zero evidence that future 

fraud is likely. 

So why would we require a voter ID 

when we know one in 10 voters doesn’t 

have ID? Why would we close early voting sites or deny voters an absentee 

ballot when they can’t make it to the 

polls on election day? 

Madam Speaker, the number of people hurt by barriers to voting is clearly 

higher than the number of illegal votes 

these methods purport to stop. So let’s 

quit fooling ourselves and let people 

vote already. 

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WOMEN’S HEALTH 

(Ms. BONAMICI asked and was given 

permission to address the House for 1 

minute.) 

Ms. BONAMICI. Madam Speaker, this 

is an important day for women across 

this great country. Starting today, all 

new health insurance plans will include 

coverage for important preventive 

health care for women. Many have 

looked forward to this date since the 

passage of the Affordable Care Act, and 

I’m thrilled that it’s finally here. 

Starting today, women across the 

country will have access to essential 

preventive health care without copayments or deductibles. Women who were 

effectively barred from these services 

because of the cost will now be able to 

receive annual visits, testing for diseases like HPV and HIV, breast feeding 

support and education, domestic violence counseling, and contraceptives. 

This is an important step in lowering 

our country’s health care costs and 

making sure that women have sufficient access to preventive health care. 

In my home State of Oregon, there 

are more than 633,000—and 47 million 

across the country—who are going to 

benefit from this change. These are 

women who had unintended pregnancies because they couldn’t access 

contraceptives. These are women who 

avoided going to the doctor because 

they didn’t have the money, only to 

end up in the emergency room. And 

these are women whose pregnancies 

were endangered because of lack of prenatal care. Today this changes. Now all 

women can take control of their 

health. 

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SEQUESTRATION 

(Mr. CONNOLLY of Virginia asked 

and was given permission to address 

the House for 1 minute.) 

Mr. CONNOLLY of Virginia. Madam 

Speaker, sequestration—that’s the bogeyman Republicans created last year 

when they refused, for the first time in 

American history, to allow a clean debt 

ceiling vote. So they formed a supercommittee which they doomed to failure when they refused to consider a 

balanced approach that included revenue and spending cuts. And now they 

decry the impending $1.2 trillion cuts 

they fashioned and voted for as a crisis 

for national defense. This gives 

chutzpah a bad name. 

If Senators MCCAIN, GRAHAM, and 

AYOTTE want to resolve this crisis in 

their town hall meetings—that they 

helped create—join me in calling our 

House Republican leadership to cancel 

the 5-week August recess and solve this 

solvable problem. 

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AMERICA NEEDS A FARM BILL 

(Mr. WELCH asked and was given 

permission to address the House for 1 

minute and to revise and extend his remarks.) 

Mr. WELCH. Madam Speaker, America needs a farm bill. America needs a 

farm bill. Our ranchers, our agricultural conservation districts, our dairy 

farmers, our commodity farmers need 

and deserve a farm bill. It was passed 

by the Senate. It was passed by the 

House Agriculture Committee in a 

strong bipartisan vote. But for the first 

time, literally the first time in the history of this country, a farm bill passed 

by the Agriculture Committee is not 

being allowed to come to the floor. 

There’s no excuse for that. 

Is it a hard job? Yes. But is that an 

excuse for Congress to duck its responsibility? No. Are there contentious 

issues? Yes. 

Some on the other side want to cut 

commodity programs. Give them a 

shot. Let them bring an amendment. 

My colleague, ROSA DELAURO, thinks 

we ought to restore all funding for nutrition. I agree. Give her a shot. 

Congress must do its job. It must 

bring a farm bill to the floor for a vote 

so that each and every one of us is held 

to account to our constituents. 

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WOMEN’S PREVENTIVE HEALTH 

(Ms. DELAURO asked and was given 

permission to address the House for 1 

minute and to revise and extend her remarks.) 

Ms. DELAURO. Madam Speaker, 26 

years ago, I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. I was lucky. I had excellent 

doctors. They detected the cancer by 

chance in stage I. If my cancer had not 

been caught early, I might not be 

speaking to you today. Many women 

are not so lucky because they have 

never had access to preventive health 

care. 

That is why I am so pleased to see 

that today, thanks to the Affordable 

Care Act, more lifesaving preventive 

services will begin to be covered for 

women all over the country. Last year, 

54 million Americans with private 

health insurance gained access to preventive services without cost sharing, 

including over 700,000 in my State of 

Connecticut. 

Starting today, 47 million American 

women, including over 600,000 Connecticut women, will now have access 

to well-women visits, screenings for 

gestational diabetes, HPV and HIV, 

contraception, and counseling and support for STIs, breast feeding, and for 

domestic violence. 

A report in 2009 found that more than 

half of American women delayed or 

avoided necessary care because they 

could not afford it. This is why we 

passed the Affordable Care Act. 

Let’s help Americans get quality 

care. Let’s save lives. 

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MIDDLE CLASS TAX CUTS 

(Ms. MCCOLLUM asked and was 

given permission to address the House 

for 1 minute.) 

Ms. MCCOLLUM. Madam Speaker, 

House Democrats and President Obama 

are fighting for families by working to 

extend middle class tax cuts that will 

benefit 98 percent of Americans. Our 

plan will put $2,200 in the pockets of an 

average family next year. That’s 

money that can be spent by your family on your family’s needs. That money 

will help Minnesota businesses grow 

and hire employees in St. Paul, Roseville, and Oakdale. 

But House Republicans refuse to extend tax cuts for the middle class unless millionaires and billionaires get an 

extra tax cut. It’s wrong to borrow $50 

billion from China so millionaires and 

billionaires can get an extra tax cut of 

$160,000. 

The Bush tax cuts for the superwealthy built a mountain of debt and 


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