September 20, 2012 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE H6163 

Mr. HIGGINS. Mr. Speaker, this 

week, The Washington Post reported 

that unless America doubles its spending on port infrastructure, we are on 

track for export losses of $270 billion by 

2020 because our ports do not have sufficient capacity. That translates into a 

$697 billion drop in the American economy and a loss of 738,000 jobs. 

But ports are not the only area where 

our anemic infrastructure investment 

has become a drag on the American 

economy. We will lose hundreds of billions of dollars of growth over the next 

5 years because of our inability to 

move goods and people efficiently. 

Congress just passed a bill to spend 

$52 billion on roads and bridges in this 

country, all we can afford according to 

some Members of Congress. But somehow we found money to spend $150 billion rebuilding the roads and bridges of 

Iraq and Afghanistan. 

I have introduced a bill, a 5-year, $1.2 

trillion investment in roads and 

bridges, ports, and transit airports because it’s time to do nation-building 

right here at home. 

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NEW MEXICO 

(Mr. PEARCE asked and was given 

permission to address the House for 1 

minute.) 

Mr. PEARCE. Mr. Speaker, New Mexico is celebrating its centennial this 

year, 100 years as a State. It’s not one 

of the oldest States, but it’s one of the 

richest in diversity, history, and cooperation, home to 19 individual pueblos, two Apache Indian tribes, numerous Navajo chapters. 

The Spanish came north out of Mexico in the 16th century looking for the 

seven cities of gold. We’re still looking 

for those today. We did find black gold 

under the east side of the State and in 

the northwest corner. 

New Mexico is home to an agriculture industry that is second to 

none. It shows the earliest existence of 

humans there. Clovis Man is named for 

a town in the east side of New Mexico 

where they were discovered. 

Santa Fe is the oldest capital in 

America, formed in 1610. 

But that’s not where the richness of 

New Mexico is. It is in our traditions, 

traditions of hard work, traditions of 

faith, family, freedom, and service to 

others. Those are the values I learned 

when my parents came to New Mexico. 

They went broke in Texas, came to 

New Mexico, and built a family there. 

That’s the richness of New Mexico. 

Mr. Speaker, I commend New Mexico 

on its 100 years. 

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CAMP ASHRAF AND CAMP 

LIBERTY 

(Mr. SIRES asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 

minute.) 

Mr. SIRES. Mr. Speaker, last month 

I joined 78 bipartisan Members of Congress in asking Secretary of State Clinton to ensure that Iraq meets its obligations and protects the 3,400 Iranian 

dissidents living in Camp Ashraf and 

Camp Liberty. 

Residents of Camp Liberty are members of the MEK. 

In recent days, another 680 Ashraf 

residents have been relocated to Camp 

Liberty under a resettlement plan 

backed by the United States. It is important that we support these residents 

as they seek to liquidate tens of millions of dollars of their assets left behind at Camp Ashraf. 

A major problem of the relocation 

plan is that as long as the MEK remains on the U.S. list of foreign terrorist organizations, its members at 

Liberty will not be able to find countries which accept them. 

The Department of State is currently 

under court order to make its decision 

on the MEK case by October 1, 2012. It 

is my hope that the Department of 

State removes the MEK from the foreign terrorist organization list immediately, as it is the legal, moral, and 

humane thing to do. 

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SWIPE FEES 

(Mr. WELCH asked and was given 

permission to address the House for 1 

minute and to revise and extend his remarks.) 

Mr. WELCH. Mr. Speaker, 1 year ago, 

Congress took action finally to reform 

out-of-control debit card swipe fees 

charged to our small businesses and 

customers every time they swipe a 

debit card. For years, the card companies and big banks have essentially 

been ripping folks off, overcharging 

them on swipe fees. With no one watching just because they could, they were 

charging the highest fees in the world, 

running up billions of dollars in profits 

but all at the expense of small businesses and consumers. That’s just too 

much. There is no justification for this. 

A year ago, Congress finally took action on the debit cards. That’s good for 

our economy and fair to our small merchants. But we need to do more. 

Abuses continue in credit card swipe 

fees. The credit card companies and the 

big banks should step back and have a 

business model where they charge a 

fair price for an important service but 

not rip off their customers. 

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b 1220 

GUN CONTROL 

(Mr. BISHOP of New York asked and 

was given permission to address the 

House for 1 minute.) 

Mr. BISHOP of New York. Mr. Speaker, I rise to commemorate the tragic 

passing of Neil Godleski, nephew of my 

friend and constituent, Suzanne Murphy of Southampton, New York. 

Neil was a rising senior at Catholic 

University. He was fatally shot on August 22, 2010, while riding his bicycle 

home from a restaurant where he 

worked as a waiter. He was 31 years old 

and had returned to college with plans 

to pursue a career in science. His assailant was a 16-year-old boy who shot 

him six times with a .38 caliber handgun and then robbed him. 

Suzanne’s family has been wrenched 

with grief over the sudden end of this 

young man’s life. While no vigil or memorial could ever begin to take away 

the pain of this loss, Suzanne has found 

a way to channel her grief and focus 

her energy. She has become an advocate for gun control. 

When roughly 100,000 Americans are 

killed or wounded each year, reasonable people can agree that we can 

achieve evenhanded policies that protect Americans from senseless gun violence that do not infringe on any 

American’s right to possess a firearm. 

Mr. Speaker, I applaud Suzanne’s efforts to reach out and bring awareness 

to the problem of gun safety. We must 

not let her nephew become just another 

chilling statistic in the battle to make 

our community safer, leaving another 

family struggling to get past the pain 

and the loss. 

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DO-NOTHING HOUSE REPUBLICANS 

(Mr. CARNAHAN asked and was 

given permission to address the House 

for 1 minute.) 

Mr. CARNAHAN. Mr. Speaker, President Harry Truman of Missouri famously labeled the Republican Congress of 1948 the ‘‘Do-Nothing Congress.’’ But to call this Congress the 

do-nothing Congress would be an insult 

to the 1948 Congress that was 10 times 

more productive than this Congress. 

With the House recessing on the 21st, 

this is the earliest Congress has left to 

campaign in an election year in 52 

years. The GOP-led 112th Congress has 

achieved the lowest approval rating 

ever—nearly 9 out of 10 Americans say 

they disapprove of this Congress. 

Maybe we should feel lucky that Congress hasn’t been here, because when 

they have been here, they voted to end 

Medicare as we know it and give tax 

breaks to millionaires over the middle 

class. They have left town without 

passing middle class tax cuts, the farm 

bill, the Violence Against Women Act, 

and responsible debt reduction. And 

they have voted for corporations that 

ship jobs overseas instead of passing 

the American Jobs Act. 

Let’s stop calling this the do-nothing 

Congress. This is worse than the ‘‘DoNothing Congress.’’ 

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DYSFUNCTIONAL HOUSE OF 

REPRESENTATIVES 

(Mr. MORAN asked and was given 

permission to address the House for 1 

minute.) 

Mr. MORAN. Mr. Speaker, I want to 

talk about the number 47, not as in the 

percentage of Americans, the soldiers 

and students and elderly and working 

poor, many of whom are paying more 

in total taxes than Mr. Romney is paying on his tens of millions of dollars in 

annual income but who, nevertheless, 


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