[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 99 (Tuesday, July 25, 2006)]
[House]
[Pages H5694-H5696]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               RETURNED AMERICANS PROTECTION ACT OF 2006

  Mr. HERGER. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the 
bill (H.R. 5865) to amend section 1113 of the Social Security Act to 
temporarily increase funding for the program of temporary assistance 
for United States citizens returned from foreign countries, and for 
other purposes.
  The Clerk read as follows:

                               H.R. 5865

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``Returned Americans 
     Protection Act of 2006''.

     SEC. 2. TEMPORARY INCREASE IN FUNDING FOR THE PROGRAM OF 
                   TEMPORARY ASSISTANCE FOR UNITED STATES CITIZENS 
                   RETURNED FROM FOREIGN COUNTRIES.

       Section 1113(d) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 
     1313(d)) is amended by striking ``2003'' and inserting 
     ``2006''.

     SEC. 3. REPORT BY THE INSPECTOR GENERAL.

       Not later than March 1, 2007, the Inspector General of the 
     Department of Health and Human Services, shall submit to the 
     Committee on Ways and Means of the House of Representatives 
     and the Committee on Finance of the Senate a written report 
     describing how funds made available to carry out section 1113 
     of the Social Security Act have been used to provide 
     assistance to United States citizens returned to the United 
     States on or after July 20, 2006, and before the most recent 
     date covered by the report, after evacuation from Lebanon, 
     including a breakdown of program costs incurred with regard 
     to repatriating individuals from Lebanon, including for (1) 
     direct assistance to individuals (such as costs of domestic 
     travel and short-term lodging), and (2) administrative costs 
     (such as for caseworkers, security, and related expenses).

     SEC. 4. CONTINUATION OF REPATRIATION PROGRAM THROUGH FISCAL 
                   YEAR 2007.

       Section 1113 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1313) is 
     amended by adding at the end the following:
       ``(f) The authorities provided by this section shall expire 
     on September 30, 2007.''.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Herger) and the gentleman from Washington (Mr. 
McDermott) each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from California.


                             General Leave

  Mr. HERGER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may 
have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and 
include extraneous material on the subject of the bill under 
consideration.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from California?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. HERGER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the Returned Americans Protection 
Act, H.R. 5865. This legislation will help our Nation to continue to 
assist U.S. citizens fleeing the violence in Lebanon as they return 
home to the United States.
  In recent days, thousands of Americans have fled the violence in 
Lebanon. Thousands already have landed in the United States, and 
thousands more will be arriving in the coming days. In all, as many as 
15,000 U.S. citizens may be returning.
  State workers are prepared to assist them, helping join them with 
family or friends, and even make arrangements for their connecting 
travel. If the arriving citizen has no other resources, provision will 
be made for a loan or, in exceptional circumstances, a grant to cover 
their continued travel expenses or temporary lodging costs, all of 
which costs money, including to reimburse States for caseworkers to 
offer this assistance.
  In a program that is limited by a current $1 million cap on annual 
spending, experiencing this large influx of needy, especially at this 
time in the fiscal year, is a challenge. As the Secretary of Health and 
Human Services said in a letter to Speaker Hastert dated just 
yesterday, ``We need your assistance in lifting this cap as soon as 
possible.''
  Mr. Speaker, the legislation before us, H.R. 5865, provides that 
assistance. It temporarily lifts the program's current $1 million 
funding cap, allowing for continued assistance for Americans returning 
from Lebanon. It also improves oversight over this little known program 
by making two additional steps.
  First, it requires the HHS Inspector General to review program 
spending on those repatriated from Lebanon. The report will break down 
administrative costs versus costs for travel and lodging. That way, 
Congress will have more information about what this program actually 
does.
  The second thing this legislation does to improve oversight is to 
sunset the current repatriation program at the end of fiscal year 2007, 
more than 13 months from now. This will provide Congress sufficient 
time to review the program and decide where improvements are needed.

                              {time}  1045

  This change also is estimated by the Congressional Budget Office as 
saving $4 million, fully offsetting the cost of the additional 
assistance to those evacuating Lebanon. So we will cover short-term 
needs and get better data that we will use to improve this program for 
the long run. That is a win-win for everyone.
  Mr. Speaker, this is a good bill which pays for additional services 
by improved oversight. We should approve it. I call on the U.S. Senate 
to do the same as soon as possible.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  Mr. Speaker, one of the good things the Federal Government does is 
provide a lifeline to American citizens who suddenly find themselves in 
grave danger. That is exactly what has happened to 25,000 American 
citizens in Beirut who had signed in at the embassy when the Middle 
East crisis erupted.
  There were plenty of pictures on the evening news of Americans 
desperately trying to flee the conflict. Many were able to escape on 
chartered flights. When they arrive back in the United States, a 
government employee will meet them at the airport and ask whether they 
need any assistance, including help in securing and paying for 
connecting flights, temporary lodging, food, or medical assistance.
  Many don't need much help, but some do. And an important, but little 
known, program of the Social Security Act enables us to help Americans 
who escape the conflict with their lives and little else.
  This is government at its best: helping our citizens in a time of 
crisis, responding quickly and effectively to meet the needs of our 
people. We are doing more than watching a crisis unfold on television. 
We are actually helping American citizens. And the Republicans, for 
some strange reason, want to kill this program. So much for the common 
good.
  Now, this program has worked effectively for a mere $1 million a year 
in funding. But the crisis in Lebanon has drained the fund, and the 
administration has requested a temporary increase to $6 million.
  That is all it will take to make sure that Americans have a lifeline 
to reach our own citizens. But the Republicans

[[Page H5695]]

intend to cut the lifeline. They will support an increase of $6 million 
to help Americans trying to flee a war, but only if the House kills the 
program.
  Americans remain trapped in the middle of a war zone, and the 
Republicans cannot bring themselves to help without extracting a pound 
of flesh from ordinary Americans. They want to kill a $1 million 
program. This is with trillions of dollars in debt out there. And they 
claim they are cutting the trillion-dollar deficit. They want to cut a 
lifeline to ordinary American citizens, because rich people won't need 
the help and the rest of the American people don't matter.
  We saw that same response in Hurricane Katrina, and we are seeing it 
here today. The philosophy of the Republicans that we should not 
prepare for a disaster is what made those awful pictures on television 
about Katrina; and they create the same thing here today, deliberately, 
when they are using the program, they are saying, it is like the house 
is on fire, yes, we should give some gas to the fire truck, but after 
the fire is over, sell the truck, we don't need it any more, we'll 
never need it again.
  Anybody who knows about what is going on in the world can imagine 
that we may need this program again. Americans are fleeing a war-torn 
nation, and it is perfectly all right for the Republicans with the 
notion that they are on their own. They intend to terminate the program 
at the end of it.
  They terminated their concerns for Americans a long time ago. They 
are telling us the only way to save the program this year is to kill it 
next year. Exactly what American value are they addressing by cutting a 
lifeline to Americans trying to flee a war? Democrats are outraged by 
this Republican hostility to our own people.
  With my colleagues Sandy Levin and Ben Cardin, I introduced 
legislation yesterday that would simply provide a temporary increase in 
the repatriation program cap so that we can continue to help Americans 
leave Lebanon.
  Now, there is no reason I can think of why that shouldn't be done. 
But it is just too easy for our friends on the other side of the aisle. 
They want to pretend they are fighting government spending. This is a 
million dollars, folks. That is not a rounding error. That is not 
drippings. That is practically nothing compared to what they have done 
in tax cuts for the rich.
  Of course that zeal applies to the $5 million, but it doesn't apply 
to the $18.4 billion they gave to Halliburton, $5 billion of which 
nobody has any idea where it went. No oversight in this House on an 
issue like that. But on this, this $1 million, we can't have that 
program.
  And we know we are going to need it. Now, the next time the problem 
happens, the program won't be there. We will have to come into the 
House in emergency session and create this program to help Americans 
get out of someplace that has become a war zone.
  This sums up the values of the Republican leadership. Big bucks for 
the big donors and not even pennies for everyone else. We can do better 
than that in this House. I think the Senate will send us a better bill.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. HERGER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, H.R. 5865, the Returned Americans Protection Act, 
provides emergency funding for the HHS repatriation program so it can 
assist U.S. citizens evacuating Lebanon after they return to the U.S.
  That is exactly what HHS asked Congress to do in letters sent just 
yesterday to the Speaker and Senate majority leader. Instead of 
increasing the deficit, this legislation is fully paid for. It pays for 
this emergency assistance through increased program oversight, 
including by sunsetting the program after 2007.
  It is totally appropriate for Congress to set a sunset date to ensure 
future program oversight. The 1996 welfare reform law did the same 
thing. It replaced the former AFDC program with the new TANF block 
grant program and only authorized the new program through fiscal year 
2002.
  The Child and Family Services Program Act of 2006, which the House 
agreed to just this morning, in bipartisan fashion, also does the same 
thing. It limits the authorization of the child welfare services 
program through only 2011, or for the next 5 years, instead of 
permanently, as under current law.
  This was done and agreed to in bipartisan fashion by this House to 
ensure Congress reviews this program as it reviews the related 
Promoting Safe and Stable Families program, which also would authorize 
it through 2011.
  Mr. Speaker, again I urge Members to join me in passing this 
legislation today. H.R. 5865 will ensure that those arriving in America 
from the strife and turmoil in Lebanon will continue to have service 
available to help them as they make their way home.
  It also ensures Congress time and opportunity to review the 
repatriation program and consider ways to improve it to even better 
meet the needs of displaced Americans in the future.
  In closing, I would like to thank the dedicated staff at the U.S. 
Department of Health and Human Services, State workers supported by 
this program, and especially the many volunteers who have pitched in to 
help Americans returning home from Lebanon in recent days.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  Mr. Speaker, it is sort of amusing to me that one minute Mr. Herger 
and I can be working together, and the next minute we have little 
differences.
  The Secretary of Health and Human Services, Mr. Leavitt, sent a 
letter up yesterday asking for this increase in financing. Nowhere in 
his letter does he say we ought to terminate it. They have a funding 
mechanism by which they think they have the money.
  I am very seldom with the President, but sometimes I am when he is 
right. In this case I think we ought to keep the program. I really 
think that it is unusual that the theory gets out on the floor here 
that in order to have oversight over a program you have to kill it.
  You don't have to have the body. I mean, it isn't like an autopsy. 
Sometimes you can do oversight on a living program, a program that is 
actually going on. Now maybe we need to kill the Halliburton program 
and just kill the whole $18 billion, then we can do oversight. But I 
think it would be much more reasonable to do oversight on a program 
that is going on.
  I can't imagine how much abuse you could really have in a million 
dollars, in this sort of situation, given the kind of abuse that we 
have simply paid no attention to in the Halliburton situation.
  So while I think that we can agree that we need some more money in 
this program, I don't think we want to just put ourselves in the 
situation of coming back one year from now and putting this program 
back in.
  It may not be called the same thing. We will change the name. But the 
effectiveness of putting it in the law was that people anticipated that 
there would be situations like this before.
  We have had situations in Rwanda, we have had situations in the 
Middle East, we have had situations in the Mediterranean, we have had 
all kinds of places where Americans get caught in a cross-fire and we 
have to extricate them, and we make available some money to take care 
of Americans.
  That is why this is a good idea and shouldn't be ended simply as a 
way of saying we are controlling a national budget deficit of $5 
trillion, or whatever it is. This is $1 million, guys. Come on.
  Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Speaker, as sponsor of this bill, I support 
continuing to help the thousands of Americans fleeing the hostilities 
in Lebanon and returning to the safe confines of the United States.
  As of Sunday, July 23, 20 flights had rescued 3,890 U.S. citizens 
from Beirut and the surrounding area. Of those rescued Americans, 
hundreds received aid from the Health and Human Services, HHS, 
repatriation program after they arrived in the U.S., including 25 
unaccompanied minors and 21 special needs cases--of which 12 were 
medical cases.
  However, under current law, there is a $1 million spending cap on 
this program, which is close to being reached. Without legislative 
action, the repatriation program will no longer be able to provide aid 
to Americans in need. There may be 10,000 more U.S. citizens 
repatriating from Lebanon in the coming days who might require 
assistance through this program.

[[Page H5696]]

  To make this aid available to other Americans as they arrive from 
Lebanon, this bill temporarily lifts the $1 million annual spending cap 
on the current HHS repatriation program. The Congressional Budget 
Office predicts this will allow about $4 million in additional spending 
for the thousands of Americans evacuating Lebanon.
  Additionally, today's action, while increasing aid, also increases 
program integrity and oversight. The bill requires that the HHS 
Inspector General report to Congress on how the money in the program is 
being spent and it requires congressional action for the continuation 
of this program beyond fiscal year 2007. Therefore, even with the one-
time increase in the spending cap, CBO estimates that this bill will be 
cost neutral over the next 5 years and will achieve savings over 10 
years.
  Mr. Speaker, this bill is good policy that ensures the continuation 
of aid for Americans in need, while providing the opportunity to 
improve upon this program. It is timely and because of the ongoing 
situation in the Middle East, it is important that we act quickly.
  I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this legislation today 
and am hopeful that the Senate will consider this bill in short order 
so we can send it to the President for his signature.
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Herger) that the House suspend the rules 
and pass the bill, H.R. 5865.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds having voted in favor 
thereof) the rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

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