[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 137 (Tuesday, October 25, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H9074-H9075]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
RED RIBBON WEEK
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Sodrel). Under a previous order of the
House, the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Souder) is recognized for 5
minutes.
Mr. SOUDER. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleagues in the entire House
today for adopting H. Res. 485, supporting the goals of Red Ribbon
Week. Red Ribbon Week, which is this week, helps bring together local
communities for anti-drug abuse education and other prevention efforts.
I would like to thank all the members who cosponsored this resolution,
and Chairman Joe Barton of the Energy and Commerce Committee, and
Chairman Nathan Deal of the Health Subcommittee for their assistance in
bringing it before the whole House. Regrettably, as this resolution was
added to the schedule only last night, I was in my Congressional
district and was unable to be on the House floor today to express my
support for my own bill.
However, I am very pleased that we were able to pass Red Ribbon Week.
Twenty years ago, in March 1985, Special Agent Enrique Camarena of the
Drug Enforcement Agency, DEA, was kidnapped, tortured and murdered by
drug dealers in Mexico. Red Ribbon Week began as a local commemorative
effort Agent Camarena's hometown of Calexico, California. Congressman
Duncan Hunter and Camarena's high school friend, Henry Lozano, created
the Camarena Club to preserve the agent's legacy. The National Family
Partnership later formalized Red Ribbon Week as a national campaign, an
8-day event proclaimed by the U.S. Congress and chaired by then
President and Mrs. Ronald Reagan.
Red Ribbon Week is dedicated to helping preserve Agent Camarena's
memory and further the cause for which he gave his life, the fight
against the violence of drug crime and the misery of addiction. By
gathering together in special events and wearing a red ribbon during
the last week in October, Americans from all walks of life demonstrate
their opposition to drugs. Such events include organizing drug
prevention events and schools distributing educational materials to
young people about the dangers of drug abuse and other activities
designed to promote healthy choices. Approximately 80 million people
participate in Red Ribbon events each year.
I would also like to use this opportunity to urge that our leadership
soon act on anti-methamphetamine legislation, legislation with broad
bipartisan support. I hope that after this legislation is passed, it is
then applied to the Commerce, State, Justice appropriations bill and
any other appropriate appropriations bill that we have not yet passed,
rather than languishing with a few hundred bills over in the other
body. We need results, not just more posturing, not just talk, actual
money and actual policy in the fight against methamphetamines.
I hope the appropriations conference committees do not undo the will
of the House, as we added methamphetamine funding in a number of
appropriations bills, including adding $25 million to the national ad
campaign specifically designed for methamphetamine prevention, not a
reallocation of other committee money. We had an offset, it was money
specifically in the ad campaign for anti-methamphetamine advertising.
Also, that this $25 million not be diverted to other types, on
marijuana and other issues, it is for methamphetamine advertising. It
is very important, it was bipartisan and it was overwhelming. We need
to do these things. We have not had a lot of bipartisanship in this
House, but in this battle against methamphetamines, we have that.
The same on steroids. I have been a long-suffering White Sox fan for
over 50 years at this point in my life. I am thrilled they are in the
World Series. This is a time that we should move the ONDCP, the so-
called drug czar bill through, which has been held up because even
though it passed unanimously through the committee, which
[[Page H9075]]
was not an easy process, we have a very divided Government Reform and
Oversight Committee, but we were unanimous on trying to address the
problems of steroids.
Rafael Palmeiro thumbed his nose at this Congress, as did Mark
McGwire, and then the reaction of the Baltimore Orioles when he
actually went to testify, they said he was not welcomed back in their
locker room because he named other players. If there is any doubt in
our minds that Major League Baseball will never solve the problem of
performance-enhancing drugs, it is that scene in the Baltimore locker
room.
If their club mentality is to punish the players who finger the
dealers, who punish the trainers who identify and cooperate with law
enforcement, it will never be fixed internally. We can sit here and
twiddle our thumbs and be bullied by different organizations that do
not want this, but it is time during Red Ribbon Week for us to stand up
and say we are going to do something in a bipartisan way on
methamphetamine. We are doing to do something on steroids, and we will
bring these bills to the floor and we will find out how to make them
law.
That is how we can recognize Agent Camarena, a DEA agent who was shot
by law enforcement officials on the other side of the border, one of
the most tragic events that led to this whole national campaign. What
we can do here in Congress, in addition to speaking out in our
district, working with events, as I am going to be at South Side High
School in Fort Wayne this Saturday. They are going to have a poster
contest and a basketball event to try to get kids in other programs and
keep them off the streets.
We need to do that as Members of Congress, but we are legislators.
What we need to do is pass the bills that the House has already spoken
out on regarding methamphetamines, pass the bills that have unanimous
backing on steroids and stop holding it up, getting it done, even if a
few powerful people want to stop it. What better time to do it when the
White Sox finally win the World Series, and we take a strong stand on
baseball.
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