Date: 2008-06-20
Speaker: LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Florida

At this time I would like to thank my good friend. the gentleman from California . for the time and yield myself such time as I. may consume. Madam Speaker. when families send their children to private residential treatment facilities. they expect their children to receive proper treatment for their emotional and behavioral problems. Unfortunately. some of these treatment facilities have not provided the treatment these children need. Instead. we have heard reports of abuse. neglect and even death. The Government Accountability Office recently looked into these reports of child abuse. While researching the reports. the GAO found that the current patchwork of Federal legislation and oversight addressing youth wellbeing have led to a substantial disparity in protecting the wellbeing and civil rights of some of the Nations most vulnerable youth. The safety and wellbeing of these vulnerable children is of great importance. and we must do all we can to stop child abuse and neglect at residential treatment facilitiesFor that reason I am pleased that the underlying legislation. the Stop Child Abuse in Residential Programs for Teens Act. seeks to help remedy the issues addressed in the GAO report. The legislation seeks to ensure effective regqlation. monitoring and enforcement of residential treatment programs by the States. with the Federal Government playing an oversight role. I would like to commend Chairman MILLER and Ranking Member McKEON for working to bridge their differences on thislegislation. I think they should be commended for coming up with a compromise acceptable to both sides of the aisle. Unfortunately. unlike the Education and Labor Committee. compromise and bipartisanship are concepts that do not make it past the door of the majority in the Rules Committee. because the majority there has blocked all Republican amendments. The majority might call this a -structured rule. but for members on the minority side of the aisle. this might as well be the 55th closed rule in this Congress. Not only does this rule completely undermine the spirit of bipartisanship that Chairman MILLER and Ranking Member McKEON worked so hard to achieve. it also stands in stark contrast to how the new majority promised they would run the House of Representatives. Before the new majority took over control of the House. they laid out their promises for a more civil. more open. more transparent House in a document they entitled "The New Direction for America." The document provides clear guidelines for how legislation should move through the House. One of the promises made in the document is. and I quote. "Bills should generally come to the floor under a procedure that allows open. full and fair debate consisting of a full amendment process that grants the minority the right to offer its alternative. including a substitute. Yet here we are today with a process that completely shuts out the minority from offering any amendments. Obvi�ously the majority left their campaign promises on the campaign trail. I would ask all of my colleagues to vote against this unfair rule which completely contradicts the majoritys rhetoric about running the most open. honest. and transparent Congress in history. Madam Speaker. at this time I would like to address a separate issue. Last week we received the desperate plea of a father in Cuba. The fathers name. Pedro Andres Ferrera. concerns his 21yearold son. Yuselin Ferrera. who at this time. as we speak. is being tortured in the psychiatric hospital in Sagua la Grande. Cuba. the San Luis psychiatric hospital. His crimea bracelet like the one I am wearing. that has the word "change" in it. This young man. 21 years old. supports freedom and democracy. For that crime. at this moment. he is in the San Luis psychiatric hospital in Sagua la Grande. Cuba. being tortured.* His fathers plea. which is really extraordinary. describes continuous interrogations that the young man is being subjected to. with theobjective of changing his way of thinking So that he will renounce..give up his probative democracy beliefs. His father. in his desperation. said that he makes responsible for the consequences that may ensue to his son the Cuban dictatorship and. specifically. its state security apparatus. I. at this time. join with Pedro Andires Ferrera. the father of that young man. 21yearold Yuselin Ferrera. to also make responsible publicly the jailers. socalled doctors. torturers of the young man. Yuselin Ferrera. Let them not think even for one instant that we will forget this crime. Let them not think even for one moment that this crime against humanity will be subject to any sort of statute of limitations. There will be justice for criminals such as those socalled doctors in the psychiatric -hospital torturing that 21yearold man simply for supporting a peaceful campaign of change within the totalitarian state of Cuba. I ask my friend. my dear friend. also a strong supporter of freedom wherever there is injustice anywhere in the world. DENNIS CARDOZA. to join me ina bipartisan spirit also denouncing those torturers and putting them on notice that we will not forget their crimes against that young man. At this time. Madam Speaker. and returning to the subject of the legislation. I see that Chairman MILLER is here. and I thank him again. along with Ranking Member McKEON. for their important work and especially in making possible this bipartisan legislation that is.coming to the floor today. the underlying legislation that we bring to the floor today. I reserve the balance of my time.