[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 195 (Wednesday, December 19, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H16863-H16864]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF SENATE AMENDMENT TO HOUSE AMENDMENT TO 
    SENATE AMENDMENT TO H.R. 2764, THE DEPARTMENT OF STATE, FOREIGN 
OPERATIONS AND RELATED PROGRAMS APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2008 (CONSOLIDATED 
   APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2008) AND FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.J. RES. 72, 
          FURTHER CONTINUING APPROPRIATIONS, FISCAL YEAR 2008

  Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentlewoman 
from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee).
  (Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas asked and was given permission to revise 
and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. I thank the distinguished gentleman from 
Massachusetts.
  As I stand here, I am looking at the lights in this Chamber and I 
must say to my colleagues that they are very bright. Symbolically, 
then, as we stand here on the floor of the House, we should be 
transparent, the lights should be on, and we should tell the truth. And 
so it is important for me to just hold up a summary of the works of the 
Democrats who worked without ceasing to reestablish priorities so that 
the maligned omnibus bill that my good friends on the other side of the 
aisle are talking about all the bad things, really, they are not 
shedding the light on the truth. Let me share with you simply what we 
have tried to do in the midst of opposition and obstructionism.
  I wish the administration would have collaborated with us, but we 
fought hard. And so out of this work comes increased medical research, 
$607 million for Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease and diabetes, 
which hits the 18th Congressional District in insurmountable numbers.
  Health care of $1 billion above the President's request that will 
focus resources in St. Joseph's Hospital and Doctors Hospital and 
potentially community health clinics that have worked on, like the 
Martin Luther King Community Health Clinic which needs additional 
dollars because of the increasing numbers of health problems in my 
congressional district. In K-12, my congressional district has the 
highest percentage of those students on title I in the State of Texas, 
and we have been able to increase that by $767 million.
  In addition, I went to the University of Houston to talk to those 
students who were standing in throngs asking about college aid, and I 
made a promise to them that we would not abandon their opportunity for 
their future and their desires and their dreams. And so this bill gives 
$1.7 billion above the

[[Page H16864]]

President's request for Pell Grants and other student aid programs.
  There is a surge in crime wherever you go. The violence in Omaha in 
the mall; the violence dealing with the church and mission school out 
west. We now have 20 extra million dollars for Cops on the Beat.
  And then, of course, the tragedy of falling bridges, an inventory in 
my own district that suggested the falling bridges. We have increased 
dollars for that.
  I am very glad that there is moneys in here for the Texas Southern 
University lab for domestic violence in the City of Houston, but I am 
disappointed, Madam Speaker, because we have fallen on the job. And 
because most of America wants our troops home, now we have money for 
Iraq in this bill.
  We have a crisis. I sat in a hearing today to listen to a woman 
violated, abused, sexually violated in Iraq. No control. Recklessness 
going on. I went down the hall to another hearing, and members or 
representatives of the Iraqi Parliament said, how dare the United 
Nations cast a vote for more troops to be in Iraq without consulting 
with this new democratic government.
  We need to bring the troops home. Our troops deserve honor. I have 
authored a bill, the Military Success Act of 2007, that says the troops 
have done everything they have been asked to do. Give them their honor, 
give them their awards, have a proclamation celebrating their heroism. 
But the troops need to come home. And this bill does not need to be 
filled with Iraqi money, because the American people, over 60 percent, 
have said, we are done, we are finished. We have committed the greatest 
sacrifice, our children, our husbands, our wives, our grandmothers, our 
grandfathers, our family members. We have said that we have done 
everything that we have been asked to do by the 2002 resolution, of 
which I voted against. It is now finished. It is over. The troops need 
to come home.
  So, Madam Speaker, I think it is important that we acknowledge this 
bill and the work that we have tried to do. But, sadly, this bill needs 
to fall because of the Iraq dollars.
  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Doggett).
  Mr. DOGGETT. Yesterday's Senate vote for another blank check to 
President Bush for the Iraq war was as wrongheaded as the Senate's 
original 2002 blessing for that invasion, despite the strong opposition 
of most House Democrats.
  Of course the Iraq surge has worked. Not the surge in Iraq. That 
surge has failed miserably, failed to achieve any of the political 
objectives, the benchmarks that the President set himself. No. The only 
surge that has worked is the propaganda surge here in Washington. 
Hemorrhaging more dollars and more blood into the sands of Iraq is not 
a formula for achieving success.
  The taxpayers' price for Iraq is $3 billion every week of every month 
of the year. Take all the money that is used to research and seek a 
cure for cancer at the National Institute for Cancer, that is how much 
money we spend in Iraq in 2 weeks. But whether deaths are up or deaths 
are down, ``the Administration's consistent response is the troops 
cannot come home.''
  We need to learn from the courage displayed by our troops. My 
colleagues in this House need to learn from that courage and vote to 
limit any more funding in this war to a fully funded, safe, 
redeployment from Iraq that begins today.
  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. I continue to reserve the balance 
of my time.
  Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I withdraw the resolution.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The resolution is withdrawn.

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