[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 192 (Wednesday, December 14, 2011)]
[House]
[Pages H8905-H8906]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                TRICIA MILLER, 2012 TEACHER OF THE YEAR

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania (Mr. Thompson) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, first today, I rise today 
to congratulate Tricia Miller of Centre County on receiving the 2012 
Pennsylvania Teacher of the Year award. An English teacher from the 
Penns Valley Area School District since 1994, Tricia is the first 
Centre County educator to receive the award in its 54-year history. In 
addition to teaching English, in 2009 Trish became the Penns Valley 
literacy coach for grades 7 through 12, where she has introduced new 
instructional strategies in the classroom.
  Many variables go into a great education, but it's having great 
teachers that matter most. Tricia Miller is the type of teacher that 
goes above and beyond. She is tirelessly committed to high achievement 
and the success of her students, which she has demonstrated year after 
year.
  Tricia Miller is deserving of this award and recognition. We thank 
her for her commitment to the teaching profession and are proud that 
she will go to represent the State in the National Teacher of the Year 
competition. Congratulations, Teacher Tricia Miller.

                              {time}  1020


                   House Passes Extension Legislation

  Mr. Speaker, I also would like to take time this morning to address 
and celebrate a piece of legislation that we passed out of the House of 
Representatives last evening, largely, almost solely with just 
Republican support, but a bill that deserved bipartisan support because 
it's great for the entire Nation.
  This is a bill that addresses many of the extension bills that were 
lingering and will soon expire at the end of the year. In particular, 
there are three parts I just want to touch on briefly this morning that 
are incredibly important for the citizens of this Nation, and I think 
also parts that are transformational. And it's rare that we see a 
transformational piece of legislation out of this body.
  First of all, the tax cuts. Tax cuts for all Americans. This is a tax 
cut that was actually paid for, not one that added to the national debt 
or certainly one that threatened in any way the integrity of the Social 
Security fund. I am very proud to be able to support this bill and to 
do it in a proper way, to pay for and allow the citizens of this 
country to keep money in their own pockets. Certainly they are better 
prepared to make decisions on how money is spent.
  Secondly, the changes in the extension of the unemployment 
compensation. We have taken steps to move unemployment towards a 
workforce development program as opposed to just an entitlement 
program. Unemployment is important and should be used to return people 
to work, and the provisions of the bill that were approved yesterday do 
just that. It allows States to do drug screening. We've put a lot of 
money into retraining people for jobs when they are on unemployment or 
through the Workforce Investment Act only to find that there is a 
percentage that aren't eligible to work because they can't pass a drug 
test. This provision gives people a reason to clean their lives up. It 
takes it from 99 to 59 weeks, which is an appropriate move.
  One of the last provisions, which I think is maybe one of the most 
important: If you are an individual and need unemployment compensation, 
and you don't have a high school degree or a

[[Page H8906]]

GED, it requires you to enroll in a qualified GED program. Education is 
the key to success in this country.
  Finally, as a part of this bill that I was proud to support, it 
provides 2 years of preventing an over 27 percent cut to the Medicare 
part B Medicare reimbursement rates for both hospitals and physicians.
  As a former health care provider, manager within rural hospitals, I 
know how devastating those cuts would be, and I was very proud that not 
only did we address that, we did it with more certainty than has ever 
been done in the past since 1997, when we did that for a 2-year period.
  Mr. Speaker, I am very appreciative of my colleagues for supporting 
this bill and passing it out of the House. And I would ask, Mr. 
Speaker, that the Senate give it the same full due diligence in quickly 
moving it out of that side of Congress so that the American people can 
benefit from all of the provisions within that extension package.

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