January 13, 2009 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE H185 

Last month, over 49,000 fans attended 

the 75th Annual Brut Sun Bowl to 

watch the Oregon State Beavers defeat 

the Pittsburgh Panthers to become 

this year’s Sun Bowl champion. 

The television network, CBS, has 

been broadcasting the Sun Bowl since 

1968, making it the longest continuous 

broadcast of a post-season football 

game. The crowd itself of this year’s 

Sun Bowl game also has made history, 

not so much by the attendance, but for 

being the largest crowd, according to 

the Guinness Book of Record, to dance 

to the Village People’s 1978 disco anthem, ‘‘YMCA.’’ Here you have a picture of part of the crowd that captures 

some of the energy and excitement of 

the 75th Sun Bowl on that day. 

To commemorate the 75th anniversary, the Sun Bowl Association added 

two more names to its ‘‘Legends of the 

Sun Bowl’’ list. The ‘‘Legends of the 

Sun Bowl’’ include coaches, players, 

broadcasters, and longtime volunteers 

of the Sun Bowl. This year’s recipients 

were Priest Holmes, a 1994 player for 

the University of Texas, and Craig Silver, a CBS sports commentator from 

1983 to 2005. Among other notable 

‘‘Legends of the Sun Bowl’’ are the late 

Pat Tillman, Thurman Thomas, Pat 

Summerall, and Tony Dorsett, seen 

here in this final picture showing Tony 

Dorsett in action in the Sun Bowl Stadium. 

b 1930 

Along with my remarks, I would like 

to submit a copy of the names of the 

previous legends of the Sun Bowl for 

inclusion in the RECORD. 

LEGENDS OF THE SUN BOWL

2008—Priest Holmes—Player, Texas (1994), 

Craig Silver—CBS Sports (1983–2005) 

2007—Cornelius Bennett—Player, Alabama 

(1983 & 1986), Don James—Coach, Washington 

(1979 & 1986) 

2006—Tony Franklin—Player, Texas A&M 

(1977), Grant Teaff—Coach, Baylor (1992) 

2005—Terry Donahue—Coach, UCLA (1991); 

CBS Sports (1995), Verne Lundquist—CBS 

Sports (1988, 1992, 2000–05) 

2004—Pat Tillman (Posthumously)—Player, Arizona State (1997), Alex Van Pelt— 

Player, Pittsburgh (1989) 

2003—Ken Heineman—Player, El Paso AllStars (1935), 

2002—Thurman Thomas—Player, Oklahoma State (1987) 

2001—John H. Folmer—Administrator, 

Barry Switzer—Coach, Oklahoma (1981) 

2000—Vince Dooley—Coach, Georgia (1964, 

1969 & 1985), Derrick Thomas (Posthumously)—Player, Alabama (1986 & 1988) 

1999—Hayden Fry—Coach, SMU (1963) and 

Iowa (1995 & 1997), Jimmy Rogers, Jr.—Administrator 

1998—Jesse Whittenton—UTEP (1954 & 1955) 

1997—Tom Brookshier—CBS Sports (1973, 

1977–1981), Pat Summerall—CBS Sports (1971, 

1977–80) 

1996—Tony Dorsett—Player, Pittsburgh 

(1975), 

1995—Johnny Majors—Coach, Iowa State 

(1971), Pittsburgh (1975) and Tennessee (1984) 

1994—Harrison Kohl—Administrator, Bill 

Stevens—Player, UTEP (1965 & 1967), Charley 

Johnson—Player, New Mexico State (1959 & 

1960) 

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to highlight 

this very special event in El Paso, one 

that is very important and very much 

a part of the city’s history and folklore. The Sun Bowl is a wonderful opportunity to showcase the natural geographic beauty and the friendly atmosphere that make our community very 

special. The success of the Sun Bowl is 

a testament to the hard work of the 

Sun Bowl Association as well as the 

numerous community partners and 

sponsors, and I look forward to many 

more successful years of this wonderful 

tradition. 

I want to congratulate all the Sun 

Bowl Association members and our 

great community for putting on a 

great show every year. 

f 

NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION FOR 

UNCLE SAM 

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a 

previous order of the House, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. POE) is recognized for 5 minutes. 

Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, this 

time of year, we all hear about New 

Year’s resolutions. Some of us make 

them, some of us make them and break 

them, and some of us don’t even make 

them. But maybe Uncle Sam needs to 

make a few New Year’s resolutions as 

we go into 2009. I have six suggestions 

for Uncle Sam. 

The first thing Uncle Sam needs to 

do is get on a diet and trim down the 

excess spending and government waste. 

The government, us, we spend money 

on everything. There’s a philosophy 

here in Washington, D.C. that the government is the solution to every problem from the time a person’s born to 

the time they die and the government 

should control all the money and decide how that money should be spent. 

There’s another philosophy that I believe in that government may be the 

problem and that problems are best 

solved by individuals. But in any event, 

we cannot continue to spend and waste 

the taxpayer money on so many different programs. Uncle Sam needs to 

go on a diet. 

The second thing we need to do is 

practice what we preach and not be so 

hypocritical. Recently we had the Big 

Three auto boys down here in Washington D.C., and we raked them over 

the coals because they make so much 

money. We criticized the UAW because 

they make about $74 an hour. But yet 

we get our automatic pay increase and 

we can’t even get a vote on the House 

floor to rescind that pay increase. 

Somewhat hypocritical, Mr. Speaker. 

Uncle Sam needs to practice what it 

preaches. 

The third thing that we need that do 

is quit spending somebody else’s 

money. You see, the money that we 

spend, Congress, it’s not our money. It 

belongs to the good folks who sent us 

up here. We’ve all seen the big motor 

homes going down the freeways that 

have a bumper sticker on the back that 

says ‘‘We are spending our children’s 

inheritance.’’ We kind of think that’s 

funny, but that’s what we’re doing. 

And for the inauguration, Mr. Speaker, 

I suggest that we get a big sign and put 

it out here on the Capitol grounds that 

says ‘‘Uncle Sam is spending your children and grandchildren’s inheritance’’ 

because that’s what we’re doing. We’re 

spending money that we do not have. 

And it’s the philosophy that government knows better how to spend the 

taxpayers’ money than the taxpayer. 

And I think that’s wrong. We ought to 

quit spending somebody else’s money 

because we certainly don’t have the 

money and our kids, our grandkids, 

and our great grandkids now are going 

to have to pay for the things that we 

do. Uncle Sam needs to quit spending 

somebody else’s money. 

We need to quit rewarding the fat 

cats and those who live on government 

handouts. And that covers a lot of 

folks that they are up here trying to 

get money from the Federal Government. All the different special interest 

groups, all the Wall Street fat cats, all 

those people who live off the government and want something from the 

government but don’t give much to society. The people punished, those are 

most Americans, the middle class. The 

middle class always has to pay, and 

they continue to pay. And it’s unfortunate because they pay all the bills 

while those special interest groups are 

up here, and they’ll be up here next 

week and the week after with their 

hand out wanting somebody else’s 

money, wanting Uncle Sam to redistribute the wealth that belongs to the 

middle class to someone else. And 

that’s just basically wrong. 

We talk about stimulating the economy. We need stimulate the economy, 

but we cannot stimulate the economy 

by spending more money. That doesn’t 

make sense. We need to spend less 

money. And one thing we can do, Congress has the power to do, is let those 

middle class people who pay taxes, who 

foot the bill for all of this that we do, 

give everybody that pays taxes a tax 

break and let them decide how to stimulate the economy instead of us and 

Uncle Sam trying to make that decision. 

We need to reduce our debt. We hear 

about debt. It’s a trillion dollars, give 

or take a few billion. How much is a 

trillion dollars? It’s a one with twelve 

zeros behind it. That’s how much a trillion is. I can’t even write that down. 

It’s a massive amount of money. But, 

you know, Uncle Sam, we live in a 

credit card government. We just borrow the money. That’s the society that 

we live in, and the government does 

the same thing. We just borrow the 

money, probably from the Chinese, pay 

interest to the Chinese, let them own 

our country rather than the American 

taxpayer. We need to certainly reduce 

our debt. We cannot continue to spend, 

borrow, tax our way into prosperity. It 

just won’t work. 

And lastly, number six, we need to do 

what most Americans do when they 

budget. We have to have a budget. Most 

Americans figure out, well, I’m going 


wwoods2 on PRODPC68 with HOUSE
H186 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE January 13, 2009 

to get this amount of money, cutting 

out the taxes, and then I can spend it 

on this. We do just the opposite. We decide how to spend money, oh, and then 

we’ll just get the money. We’ll tax it or 

go into debt. Uncle Sam needs to budget like other Americans. 

These are some considerations and 

some New Year’s resolutions for Uncle 

Sam. I hope we impose a few of those. 

I think it’s time we stop the credit 

card government. 

And that’s just the way it is. 

f 

IN RECOGNITION OF SENATOR 

MITCH MCCONNELL’S YEARS OF 

SERVICE IN SENATE 

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a 

previous order of the House, the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. CHANDLER) 

is recognized for 5 minutes. 

Mr. CHANDLER. Mr. Speaker, I rise 

today in recognition of the now longest-serving Kentucky Senator in the 

history of the United States Senate. 

This is truly a historic milestone for 

both the Commonwealth of Kentucky 

and Senator MITCH MCCONNELL. 

Recently, Senator MCCONNELL celebrated 25 years in the United States 

Senate, surpassing the great Senator 

Wendell Ford’s previous record. By no 

means is this a small accomplishment, 

as our State has been the home to such 

noted Members of the Senate as Henry 

Clay, John J. Crittenden, Alben Barkley, and John Sherman Cooper, just 

to name a few. 

The Senator did not become the influential man that he is today without 

hard work, dedication, and determination. He started his career as an intern 

on Capitol Hill, moved to legislative 

assistant, eventually deputy assistant 

attorney general under President Ford, 

to County Judge-Executive in Jefferson 

County, the largest county in our 

State, all before being elected by the 

people of Kentucky to serve in the 

United States Senate in 1984. 

He led his classmates as student body 

president in college and then went on 

to be the president of the Student Bar 

Association in law school. He has garnered the respect of his peers for years; 

so it comes as no surprise that he has 

risen to be the leader of his party in 

the Senate, an accomplishment only 

one other Kentuckyan in history has 

ever achieved. 

Parties aside, Senator MCCONNELL

has fought for what he believes in with 

the same dedication and fervor as he 

did when fighting polio in his early 

childhood. He can point to a number of 

achievements, such as aiding struggling Kentucky tobacco farmers by orchestrating the tobacco buyout and 

providing significant aid to Kentucky’s 

colleges and universities. His influence 

also extends outside the Congress and 

the Commonwealth with his work on 

the Appropriations, Agriculture, and 

Rules Committees, opposing dictators 

in Myanmar and fighting for human 

rights in Egypt and Cambodia among 

others. Like Senator Wendell Ford, 

Senator MCCONNELL won his first 

statewide election by a small margin, 

but since that time he has become a 

mainstay in Kentucky. 

Senator MCCONNELL and I are both 

students of history, and regardless of 

political differences, and we have a few 

of those, I believe it’s important to recognize his truly outstanding achievements. 

Mr. Speaker, today I ask the House 

to join me in recognizing the accomplishments of the distinguished gentleman from Kentucky, Senator MITCH

MCCONNELL. 

f 

STATEMENT ON A PRESIDENTIAL 

COMMUTATION FOR FORMER U.S. 

BORDER PATROL AGENTS 

RAMOS AND COMPEAN 

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a 

previous order of the House, the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. 

JONES) is recognized for 5 minutes. 

Mr. JONES. Mr. Speaker, before 

President Bush leaves office next week, 

he has the power to correct a terrible 

injustice. 

Over the past 2 years, Members of 

Congress have written to the President, as a group and individually, asking him to commute the sentences of 

imprisoned U.S. Border Patrol Agents 

Ramos and Compean. 

It is well known that these border 

agents were convicted and sentenced to 

11 and 12 years in prison for shooting 

and wounding a Mexican drug smuggler 

who brought $1 million worth of marijuana across the U.S. border in 2005. 

This Saturday, January 17 of 2009, will 

mark the beginning of the agents’ 3rd 

year in Federal prison. 

On November 24, 2008, President Bush 

granted 14 pardons and two 

commutations. Clemency was granted 

to individuals convicted of crimes such 

as drug conspiracy, tax evasion, poisoning bald eagles, dumping hazardous 

waste, bank embezzlement, and theft of 

government property. 

On December 22, 2008, the President 

issued 19 additional pardons and one 

commutation. Unfortunately, Mr. 

Speaker, Ramos and Compean have not 

made the list. 

With the help of Lou Dobbs and 

countless other news outlets, Americans across this Nation have learned of 

the unjust prosecution of these two 

men who were doing their job to protect our border. Since the agents’ convictions, the White House has received 

thousands of phone calls from outraged 

citizens and letters sent by Members of 

Congress on both sides of the political 

aisle. 

On November 20 of 2008, I joined Congressman BILL DELAHUNT, DANA ROHRABACHER, and others in a letter to pardon Attorney Ronald Rogers, which 

outlined the reasons for our request. 

And most recently on December 11, 

2008, I wrote the President that he 

commute the agents’ sentences before 

they have to spend another Christmas 

in Federal prison, and, Mr. Speaker, I 

submit the letter for the RECORD. 

CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES, 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 

Washington, DC, December 11, 2008. 

Hon. GEORGE W. BUSH, 

The White House, 

Washington, DC. 

DEAR MR. PRESIDENT: I am writing to express my deep disappointment that the 14 

pardons and two commutations you granted 

on November 24, 2008, did not include 

commutations for imprisoned U.S. Border 

Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose 

Alonso Compean. Instead, clemency was 

granted to those convicted of crimes such as 

drug conspiracy, tax evasion, poisoning bald 

eagles, dumping hazardous waste, bank embezzlement and theft of government property. 

Mr. President, this week I opened a Christmas card which pictured two beautiful families with three children each. I was deeply 

saddened when I realized these were photos 

of the Ramos and Compean families—who 

will face another Christmas with husbands 

and fathers locked away in federal prison if 

you fail to intervene on their behalf. Knowing that it has become customary during the 

final days of a president’s term to grant pardons and commutations in criminal cases, I 

urge you to take the time to personally review the prosecution of agents Ramos and 

Compean. I am confident the facts of their 

case will lead you to the same conclusion 

countless American citizens have already 

reached: there are no individuals more worthy of presidential commutations than 

agents Ramos and Compean. The facts of the 

case will show—as Judge E. Grady Jolly 

stated on December 3, 2007, during the 

agents’ appeal—‘‘the government overreacted here * * * for some reason, this one 

got out of hand.’’ By attempting to apprehend an illegal alien drug smuggler, agents 

Ramos and Compean were enforcing our 

laws—not breaking them. Simply put, the indictments against these men were unjustified. 

As countless Americans and many in Congress have brought to your attention over 

the past two years, agents Ramos and 

Compean were convicted and sentenced to 11 

and 12 years respectively for shooting and 

wounding a Mexican drug smuggler who 

brought 743 pounds of marijuana across the 

U.S. border in 2005. Both men entered prison 

on January 17, 2007, and have served nearly 

two years of their sentences. Since the 

agents’ convictions, your office has received 

thousands of phone calls from concerned 

citizens and numerous letters from members 

of Congress on both sides of the aisle. Most 

recently, on November 13, 2008, I wrote a letter urging you to commute the agents’ sentences to time served. On November 20, 2008, 

I also joined Congressmen Bill Delahunt, 

Dana Rohrabacher and others in a letter to 

Pardon Attorney Ronald Rodgers which outlined the rationale for this request. 

Many disturbing details of the Ramos and 

Compean case have garnered national attention and raised serious concerns over the 

lack of fairness in the proceedings against 

these two men—including the prosecution’s 

efforts to seek out and offer immunity to a 

habitual Mexican drug smuggler, a sealed indictment of the smuggler’s subsequent drug 

offenses and insufficient proof of whether or 

not the smuggler was unarmed, as he 

claimed at trial. All of these factors strongly 

call into question whether justice was 

served. 

Among the most serious matters warranting your consideration is the U.S. Attorney’s decision to charge Ramos and Compean 

with violations of 18 U.S.C. §924(c)—which 

pertains to the use of a firearm during and in 

relation to the commission of a crime of violence and carries a mandatory 10–year sentence. Any failure by the agents to report 


wwoods2 on PRODPC68 with HOUSE