E78 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — Extensions of Remarks January 13, 2009 

HONORING THE LIFE AND SERVICE 

OF CANDELARIA TAITANO RIOS 

HON. MADELEINE Z. BORDALLO OF GUAM

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Tuesday, January 13, 2009 

Ms. BORDALLO. Madam Speaker, I rise 

today to honor the life and service of 

Candelaria Taitano Rios, a community leader 

on Guam. Known to her friends and family as 

‘‘Candy’’ or ‘‘Lala,’’ she passed away on January 5, 2009. I commend her for her lifetime of 

achievements and her service to our community. 

Candy was born on February 22, 1932, to 

John and Rosario Taitano in the village of 

Haga ̊tn ̃a, Guam. Candy was married to the 

late Joseph Leon Guerrero Rios and they had 

five children, the late Joleen Rios, Joseph 

Rios Jr., Rose Rios, John Rios, and Helen 

Rios. She attended George Washington High 

School in Mangilao, Guam and graduated in 

1951. She continued her education by earning 

an Associate’s and Bachelor’s Degree from 

the College of Guam before earning her Master’s degree in Elementary Administration and 

Supervision from the University of Guam in 

1971. 

While Candy pursued her college degrees, 

she taught in Guam’s public schools from 

1951 to 1976. She was appointed as Assistant 

Principal at Piti Elementary School and as 

Principal at C.L. Taitano Elementary School in 

Sinajana. In 1986, Candy retired from Government of Guam service as the Deputy Director 

of the Government of Guam Retirement Fund. 

After her retirement, Candy remained involved in many community projects and the 

non-profit sector. As a charter member of the 

Retired Educators Association, she advocated 

for issues important to retirees on Guam and 

promoted the advancement of quality education for Guam’s students. She was also a 

member of the Retirement Employee’s Association, the Vocational Education Advisory 

Council, and the Guam Elementary Administrators Association, for which she also served 

as Vice President. 

Candy Rios was active in community affairs 

and was a leader in the Democratic Party of 

Guam. She served in many positions in the 

party and was an effective grass roots activist 

and organizer. Many sought her advice and 

endorsement, and through her volunteer work, 

she had a significant impact in the electoral 

successes of the Democratic Party. 

Candy Rios was a lifelong educator and 

community leader. I extend my heartfelt condolences to her children, Joseph, Rose, John, 

Helen, her family, and her friends as we 

mourn her loss and celebrate her lifetime of 

achievements. 

f 

COMMEMORATING NATIONAL 

FOLIC ACID AWARENESS WEEK 

HON. PETE SESSIONS OF TEXAS

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Tuesday, January 13, 2009 

Mr. SESSIONS. Madam Speaker, I rise 

today to recognize the observance of America’s annual National Folic Acid Awareness 

Week, which began on January 5, 2009. 

It is my hope that this awareness week 

gives the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 

further awareness to reduce the prevalence of 

preventable serious birth defects in women of 

childbearing age across all segments of our 

population. Enriched cereals and grain products are fortified with the B-vitamin folic acid, 

but only one-third of U.S. women of childbearing age consume the scientifically recommended daily amount. Folic acid, a B-vitamin, is particularly critical for proper cell 

growth and has been scientifically proven to 

prevent birth defects of the brain and spine, 

called Neural Tube Defects (NTD). 

Women especially need folic acid, even if 

not planning to become pregnant since 50 

percent of all pregnancies are unplanned. 

Consuming the recommended amount of folic 

acid each day before pregnancy can reduce 

the risk of a birth defect of the brain and spine 

by seventy percent. The prevalence rates of 

NTDs has declined by 27 percent since the 

U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s mandatory addition of folic acid to enriched grain 

products in 1998. Even with this improvement 

in the reduction in the Neutral Tube Disorders 

of Spina Bifida and Anencephaly birth defect 

births, there still are 3,000 babies born each 

year with serious birth defects, and an estimated 5,000 that die from a serious birth defect. 

Since 1998, over 100 peer-reviewed scientific studies have been published and been 

reviewed by a distinguished group of leading 

birth defect scientists and researchers. These 

individuals concluded that more folic acid to 

already fortified enriched grain products, and 

folic acid to corn-based products, is important 

to our country’s public health and should be 

examined by the DFA. In 2006, the Congressional Spina Bifida Caucus petitioned the FDA 

for review and the FDA refused the request, 

saying there was not enough science to merit 

the agency’s review. 

A recent Center for Disease Control (CDC) 

study, published in December of 2008, the 

agency found that only 21 percent of Hispanic 

women of childbearing age are consuming the 

recommended amount of folic acid to effectively prevent serious birth defect births, compared with 40 percent of Caucasian women. 

Hispanic babies are 1.5 to 2 times more likely 

than other children in the U.S. to be born with 

a neural tube defect (NTD). The CDC reports 

that Hispanics across the United States consume the least amount of folic acid, and have 

the least knowledge about the role that folic 

acid plays in preventing a serious birth defect 

birth among all racial or ethnic groups in our 

country. This leads to an important goal of National Folic Acid Awareness Week, education. 

Birth defect prevention education is alarmingly 

low, so public education is essential. Surveys 

since 1998 have found that only 24 percent of 

women know that folic acid helps prevent birth 

defects. Of those who do know, only 40 percent know how much should be taken every 

day. Over ten years, public education efforts 

on the parts of the CDC, various birth defect 

prevention groups, and State and federal prevention awareness programs have been a 

great start in informing women of the necessity of folic acid during childbearing years, but 

we still have our work cut out for us. 

I would like to recognize the National Folic 

Acid Awareness Week and increase public 

awareness of the need for all women of childbearing age to get the recommended amount 

of folic acid each day. A continued effort on all 

fronts is necessary, I encourage the FDA to 

look at the research and consider adding more 

folic acid to enriched grain products and cornbased products. 

I will be reintroducing a resolution calling for 

this action and I ask my colleagues to join me 

in this education effort. 

f 

PERSONAL EXPLANATION 

HON. SAM GRAVES OF MISSOURI

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Tuesday, January 13, 2009 

Mr. GRAVES. Madam Speaker, I would like 

to state for the record my position on the following votes I missed due to personal reasons. 

On Wednesday, January 7, 2009, and Friday, January 9, 2009, I missed rollcall votes 5, 

6, 7, 8, 9 and 10. Had I been present, I would 

have voted ‘‘aye’’ on rollcall votes 5, 6, 7 and 

10 and ‘‘nay’’ on rollcall votes 8 and 9. 

f 

IN MEMORY OF FATHER RICHARD 

JOHN NEUHAUS 

HON. FRANK R. WOLF OF VIRGINIA

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Tuesday, January 13, 2009 

Mr. WOLF. Madam Speaker, I rise today in 

memory of Father Richard John Neuhaus who 

passed away on January 7, 2009. Father 

Neuhaus was a man of great intellect and a 

prolific writer who defined the terms of the 

modern debate regarding the role of religion in 

public life. His work inspired a countless number of individuals and his legacy which is 

grounded in his deep faith in God will live on 

for years to come. The following piece which 

appeared in the January 19 edition of Newsweek is a fitting tribute to the life and work of 

Father Neuhaus. 

[From Newsweek, Jan. 19, 2009] 

RICHARD JOHN NEUHAUS, 1936–2009—AN

HONORABLE CHRISTIAN SOLDIER

(By George Weigel) 

Father Richard John Neuhaus’s work will 

be remembered and debated for decades. As a 

Lutheran pastor, he was one of the first 

civil-rights activists to identify the pro-life 

cause with the moral truths for which he and 

others had marched in Selma; he set the 

terms of the contemporary American 

church-state debate and added a new phrase 

to our public vocabulary with his 1984 bestseller, ‘‘The Naked Public Square.’’ As a 

Catholic priest, he helped define new patterns of theological dialogue between Catholics and evangelicals, and between Christians 

and Jews. The journal he launched in the 

early 1990s, First Things, quickly became, 

under his leadership and inspiration, the 

most important vehicle for exploring the 

tangled web of religion and society in the 

English-speaking world. All of this suggests 

that Richard Neuhaus was, arguably, the 

most consequential public theologian in 

America since the days of Reinhold Niebuhr 

and John Courtney Murray, S.J. 

He was also a marvelous human being, 

with the convictions of a true Christian disciple and the heart of a spiritually insightful 

pastor. In the retrospect of the death of my 

closest professional friend on Jan. 8, his living room—in which we prayed, argued, 


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