[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 125 (Thursday, September 11, 2003)]
[House]
[Pages H8200-H8201]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           FIGHTING TERRORISM

  (Mr. ENGEL asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I, like many of my colleagues here this 
morning, rise to talk about September 11 and what it means to all of us 
as Americans, what it means to me as a New Yorker in particular, and 
the fact that these brave people that lost their lives, more than 3,000 
of them, our lives will never again be the same. America lost its 
innocence that day, and we have been thinking ever since about how we 
can best respond to ensure that we can

[[Page H8201]]

prevent these ugly acts of terrorism against our country.
  Mr. Speaker, terrorism is everyone's enemy and a civilized world 
needs to ban together to fight terrorism. Here in America, we have had 
September 11; but 6,000 miles away, the brave people of Israel every 
day have to cope with ongoing acts of terror. The other day two 
horrific suicide bombings killed nearly 20 people, and 2 weeks ago, 
when I was in Israel, a bus bombing killed 22 people, including 5 
Americans, 3 of my constituents.
  When I go back to New York every week and look at the New York 
skyline and do not see the World Trade Center, I feel our city is not 
yet whole and something is missing. It has been 2 years since September 
11, 2001, but I feel like I have aged 20 years since then. In my office 
is a two-page spread from the New York Times. It has pictures of the 
300-plus firefighters who died that day in New York. Most of the 
pictures are of young men who are the same age as my daughter. One of 
them is the picture of a friend's son, Christian Regenhard.
  When I look at the faces of these brave people, I have often thought 
what can I, as a Congressman, do to ensure this never happens again, 
and I think we need to make sure that the funding is there so our first 
responders can respond, and we need to make sure that the brave people 
who protect us have all the resources they need. We need to also make 
sure that the people who lost their lives that day are never forgotten. 
In a few minutes, the gentleman from New York (Mr. King) and I are 
going to talk about the True American Heroes Act of 2003.
  The bill posthumously awards Congressional Gold Medals to government 
workers and others who responded to the attacks on the World Trade 
Center and the Pentagon and who perished, and to people aboard United 
Airlines Flight 93. We owe it to ourselves and our families and our 
countrymen to ensure this never happens again.

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